CivCity: Rome

just as good as it always was, everyone for years has struggled with the "lazy workers bug" making it unplayable.. BUT... if you start the game up, change graphics to the lowest, exit, restart and change the graphics back it fixes the problem. a little annoying but only takes a second, hope this helps others because it took a while to find it and seems noone has the solution up 9/10 for an old classic

Aside from a few bugs and some irritating gameplay quirks, the blend of Caesar III style city building with light Civilization inspired systems works fairly well. The core loop of constructing and managing a Roman city is satisfying, and there’s a strong sense of atmosphere as your settlement grows from a small outpost into a bustling, class driven city. The addition of a level editor also gives it some extra longevity, letting you create and experiment with your own scenarios. However the game does feel pretty derivative at times. A lot of what’s here will feel very familiar if you’ve played other Roman city builders, and many of the missions start to blend together since you’re often repeating similar objectives with only slight variations. The Civilization style elements, like the tech tree, are a nice idea on paper but end up feeling fairly shallow and don’t add as much depth as I would have liked. There are also some technical annoyances that hold it back. The interface can feel clunky, and the visuals even for its time aren’t particularly impressive. Bugs and small issues, like awkward building interactions or pathfinding hiccups, can occasionally break the flow of the game. CivCity Rome is a decent but flawed city builder. It’s enjoyable if you’re into the classic Roman simulation style and don’t mind some repetition.

I used to love this game and come back to it every few years, but for some reason there is now a bug that renders the game pretty much unplayable. Very reliably, an entire category of workers will refuse to work - they will go to their shop/work site, sometimes even collect matierals for their shop, then got to sleep and never wake up or work. Apparently the only way to resolve this is to uninstall and reinstall the game, but every time I re-launch it again the bug returns. It's impossible to progress with the lazy workers bug, and since the game is older and I've found discussion threads from a decade ago complaining about it, I have to assume the devs have no interest in making the game playable again. I never encountered this bug when playing this game on a disc or through steam in the past, so I don't know why it happens now, but it's extremely disappointing.

Don't buy, not even on sale. They have a game breaking bug where your workers refuse to work that still hasn't been fixed. I intermittently have gotten the game to work using the proposed fixes found online but none are long lasting. Waste of money.

[h1]I Have FIXED the Widescreen Resolution Bug![/h1] NOTE: There are two configuration files: one is [u]C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\CivCity Rome\CivCityRome.configuration.xml[/u] and the other is [u]%userprofile%\Documents\CivCity Rome\CivCityRome.GraphicsSettings.xml[/u]. you do NOT want to edit the former one under program files; in that one, it explicitly mentions that [code] [i]<!-- width/height/colourdepth don't work yet! -->[/i] <graphics width="2560" height="1440" colourdepth="32" detail="1.0"> [/code] You need to edit the [u]<resolution>[/u] tag in [u]%userprofile%\Documents\CivCity Rome\CivCityRome.GraphicsSettings.xml[/u]. [b]However, there are a few catches:[/b] [h2]Steps:[/h2] [olist] [*]Launch the game normally. Make sure that the settings dialogue is showing (i.e., make sure [u]<settingsDialog enabled="true"/>[/u] is true and not set to false). [*][b]IMPORTANT:[/b] In the settings dialogue, inside the "General" tab, set the resolution to "1600x1200x32 60Hz" (the highest on top of the list). [*]Optionally, tweak the other settings (e.g., antialiasing, graphics preset, etc.) to the quality you want, and then close the settings dialogue. [*]Close the settings dialogue and open [u]%userprofile%\Documents\CivCity Rome\CivCityRome.GraphicsSettings.xml[/u]. [*]Now, set [u]<settingsDialog enabled="false"/>[/u] to "false" (not "true"). [*]Finally, adjust the width, height, and refresh rate to the values you desire, e.g., for 2560x1440@165fps, [u]<resolution width="2560" height="1440" format="X8R8G8B8" refreshRate="165"/>[/u]. [*]Launch the game. It should now be in the correct resolution and FPS. [/olist] [h3]Why?[/h3] The reason we initially had to set [u]<settingsDialog>[/u] to true is that the game will REFUSE to honor any resolution other than 1024x768 so long as you do not change the default resolution the first time you launched its setting dialogue. I think it stores the resolution in some place other than your documents, perhaps in the registry or in its game data. Once you set it to 1600x1200, you are able to modify the [u]<resolution>[/u] values and have it actually take effect. However, each time you launch the settings dialogue, it'll overwrite your previous settings. So, after you do the 1600x1200 trick the first time, you want to prevent the game from deleting your custom-set resolution afterward; thus, you set [u]<settingsDialog>[/u] to false. I have no idea why the devs made this work in such a convoluted way. It took me a while (and a measure of luck) to accidentally figure this out through trial-and-error. BE AWARE that there is an annoying "lazy worker" bug whereby various workers of your industry will suddenly refuse to do any work and will only sleep or loiter around. It appears that unhiding the settings dialogue and then toggling the graphics quality to low/high will fix that (at least temporarily). Unlike what the other guide says, setting the game to launch under Win 7/8 compatibility will cause it to crash on launch; it does not fix the issue.

Has game breaking bugs which are still not fixed. Other than that good classic City Builder

once you log out, the next time you play none of the buildings or the citizens work, so wasted game play

I used to love this game when it originally came out but as people mentioned before on modern systems (Win 10 and 11) it just dosent work anymore so avoid buying. The main problem is the workers, yes some actually do their jobs but lets look at the Fire Watch people. In the 2nd mission of the main campaign you will get a lot of fires but even if you put Fire Watchers out ...thats all they do...just watch and let the fire just burn them down...they don't bother putting out the fires at all. It costs money as well to replace what has been destroyed and you will soon end up with no cash. Its a shame as I was enjoying this until that happened...so yes avoid it.

This has to be the buggiest game I have ever played. Workers won't work, and then I get steam not found when trying to run it. Avoid this game like the plague

Nostalgia game from childhood that still mostly holds up. The lazy workers bug was a little annoying to deal with, but fixing it is fairly easy, just had to delete and redownload a couple files every 1-2 days. Definitely feels like an outdated game with how quickly city happiness can plummet and how unbalanced some resources/goods output is. But I love seeing all the tiny people running around doing their jobs and buying things for their homes. And watching the Colosseum fights, of course. It's still a decently complex city builder that's just challenging enough to feel satisfying.