Songs of Syx

Disclaimer: I love this game and I will change the review to positive if Jake stops ruining the game with difficulty. I'm going to keep playing this game, but I'm not going to buy it for friends, or tell friends to buy it until the game doesn't require custom difficulty or mods to make having a large city doable on your first run without being tortured. Came for Sid Meier's Civilization/Anbennar scaled down to the population level, and instead found municipal bureaucracy simulator. I really love this game, and I've been playing it obsessively for a month, but it is bitterly disappointing in many aspects, and it's so sad to see so many people with sub 50 hours heaping praise onto it because of a Sseth video while there's so much wrong with it. The game gives you two playstyles: -Utopian city state builder (presented as the default) which is absurdly difficult, requires huge amounts of experience, and hours of minmaxing and city planning. -Police state and conquest, arrest your citizens who turn to a life of crime because their closest well isn't made from marble, and conquer your neighbours who constantly spread agitprop fliers in your city. I had considerable fun in the first 20 hours of each Utopian city state builder run, and then it becomes a massive slog when your Forest Elves and Pigmen develop chronic depression over a sore lack of marble roads and rennaissance architecture in their hamlet of 2.5k people. There are already many lengthy critiques to the same affect, so I won't go too much further, but I love this game, and I hate that when recommending it, I also have to recommend mods so the game can be something more than being a constant happiness whack-a-mole. The dev needs to stop trying to ruin his own game with difficulty, because people aren't coming to this game to play an unachievable happiness treadmill, people expect city building and conquest, not extreme autism levels of precise service and amenities zoning and individual pop satisfaction minmaxing. Learn from Tynan ruining Rimworld's balance to the point that nobody plays vanilla Riwmorld. If you clutch your pearls every time minmaxers beat the game with ease and react by making it harder, you'll just ruin it for everyone else. A historical medieval village of two thousand people is SMALL. They should not be rioting over a lack of jewelry, gladiator rings, and brothels. It's ridiculous that plebeians have burgeiosie standards. The amount of entropy for what is a small medieval village is also ludicrous. Everything you build requiring service and upkeep is very tedious. It makes a lot of sense, and was immersive at first when it meant having 4 janitors in my village, taking a bit of wood here and there. It's absurd when you need 50 janitors who ask for 5k value worth of luxury goods every day to just service the expensive amenities your little plebs beg you for, oh, and ♥♥♥♥ you, because you had to import those goods, you don't get to import them on a one time basis for construction, nope, it's a lifetime subscription for that run now, and importing them for maintenance will stealthily inflate the price of that good, permanently, while passively exporting your excess goods to be able to afford imports will deflate the value of your exports. I thought the difficulty of this game would be the tedium of managing more and more area, planning, logistics, expanding resource extraction and industry, and slowly unlocking more techs. That would've been fun, but the difficulty is servicing endless entropy, getting exponential expectations and diminishing returns. It's ridiculous my Amevia village of 2.5k can export tens of thousands of eggs, clay, pottery, fish, meat, gems, and by the end, only the price of gems hasn't crashed into the floor, and I still don't have enough to buy the stone, marble, clothes, metal, tools, and weapons they wouldn't be able to make themselves. As for the conquest side, it's fun. Again, there are already many criticisms, but I actually enjoy it. The only anxiety free run I've had was simply building a big army and police force and roflstomping all enemies and dissent. It was pretty easy and not as fun as trying to build a big and pretty city, which the dev seems to want to anally **** you for trying to attempt, but it actually felt pretty well balanced unlike the other playstyle.

确实有一番风味儿，但是不推荐在当前版本购买。 这游戏到了两千人口之后就无聊了，永远填不满的人力缺口、因为食物腐烂机制和固定收获时间导致食物永远不够吃、劳动力永远缺失、疾病一直持续。逆天至极的劣化机制和食品摊机制导致你需要耗费大量人力在生产以外的地方。即使科技拉满，所需的食物需求依旧会占据城镇接近一半的土地，整个游戏应该改名叫《饥荒》。 这游戏跟边缘世界比起来最大的问题就是幸福度是惩罚式的而不是奖励式的机制，边缘世界的心情可以说是鼓励玩家发展，比如你把食物从简单食物换成奢侈食物，那么小人会额外加心情，但这个游戏却类似于：假如你不给他们吃奢侈食物，他们就会扣心情。 这种惩罚式的心情机制会伴随整个游戏进程，比如你会因为只有一级水井而在水井这一项吃一个-50%的心情惩罚，但是这个玩意儿要升级到最后才能补到100%；比如小人只有吃四倍食物才会填满他在食物上的心情需求，而这是一个漫长的过程，所以心情惩罚会伴随整个游戏过程。心情惩罚又会让小人离开，所以我们有永远提升不上去的幸福度，永远储存不够的食物，永远在迁徙的居民和永远在可持续崩溃的殖民地。 Rimworld之类的殖民地模拟是度过前期之后生活越来越稳中向好、大家的日子越来越稳定，这游戏是度过前期之后大家的日子越来越糟，越发展越落后。同样是殖民地模拟，在食物方面，Rimworld里边小人不饿死就会满意，而吃到奢侈食物是提升心情的额外惊喜。也就是说，Rimworld的小人更懂得感恩“发展”，玩家更有动力继续玩下去，而希克斯之歌的小人不给四倍食物就填不满心情条，只会无休止地抱怨“你为什么不给我最好的，我要闹了！”，挫败感极强。 心情不好就会导致居民逃离，更糟糕的是：居民逃走的时候会留下儿童，导致殖民地后期可能四分之一甚至三分之一的人都是不事生产、光吃饭的儿童，然后因为生产力下跌导致生活水平进一步下降，加剧这种崩溃。如果你想禁止他们生孩子——对不起，也扣心情。 在殖民地恶性循环的情况下，根本就没有办法让更多人进一步脱产成为士兵，导致作为特色的外交和战争机制完全成了摆设。 人越多，就需要更多生产力提供他们需要的商品，导致需要更多的人口，进而需要更多的生产力，整个一恶性循环，生产力永远不会过剩，只会缺。 科研机制更是逆天，直接把大量劳动力拖死在三种科研机构里，还需要黏土、皮革之类的资源。每一个建筑同劳动力的情况下，一个科研机构需要的黏土能供给十几个甚至更多陶器工坊，简直匪夷所思；皮革的产出需要畜牧场，而畜牧场更是个占地大户，如果想要能供给科研机构需要的皮革，那你需要大得难以想象的畜牧场。更糟糕的是，科技和科研机构绑定，如果没有了科研机构，科技还会掉下去。也就是说：如果发生了什么事情导致科研机构缺人，科技会倒退、提供的buff会消失，进而导致生产力崩坏，大家一起原地爆炸。 种族设计上也特别抽象，逆天木精灵喜欢吃肉吃蛋导致整个城镇一大半都是畜牧场——我见过各种作品的精灵，还是头一次见放牧精灵，而且喜欢吃设定上蜥蜴人驯化的蜥蜴产的蛋，而蜥蜴人反倒是喜欢吃蔬菜——精灵吃蛋这太奇怪了。 而且建筑物的人口分配也没法操控，小人会自动从满员的建筑下去，给缺人的建筑补位，让每一个建筑大概都处在差不多的劳动力比例上。但实际上有些建筑是绝对不能缺人的，比如畜牧场、果园和科研机构，哪怕缺一个人都会导致工作者无法照顾每一个牲畜和果树，导致某些牲畜和果树死掉或者科技倒退，造成粮食减产；而牲畜和果树又需要好些时间才会长大、在那之前它们几乎不生产粮食。 游戏中的突发事件，比如瘟疫和斗殴会造成大量减员，进而导致生产力崩坏，然后开始恶性循环，最后让殖民地崩溃。说到瘟疫，游戏里住院的小人固定在一定比例上，就算没有瘟疫也会有一些人得病，导致他们脱产，还需要医生照顾。 退休机制是另一个抽象东西，养老院需要发展科技之后，在很后边才能点，而退休之后的人不事生产还需要吃饭，本来就缺的劳动力更加稀缺。如果你不让他们退休，就会掉大量幸福度，后期掉幸福度很大一个原因就是不让退休。这就更离谱了，怎么这些小人还没有我到我自己的法定退休年龄，怎么一个个都要退休了？退休之后大家一起饿死吗？完全就是一群只能同甘不能共苦的刁民。 制作组搭了一个好的框架，但是具体的数值和设计一坨大粪，评价为除非开最低难度，不然不适合玩。这以后可能会是个好的作品，但现在很明显还不够格。 ———————————— 我不知道评论区那个繁体字的是港澳台哪里的人，一国两制是一国两质吗？素质这么低的？我看每一个差评都有你在直接骂人，你是制作组调教好的性奴隶？一点有用的没说，我都懒得骂你，玩个逼游戏给你玩出优越感了。 顺便，有许多好评也是在喷完之后给的好评，有一些说的也和我是一样的问题，建议你也去挨个评论狗叫。 然后回到正题，我觉得我有五十个赞，还有人送礼，那就是我说的至少能戳中一部分国人玩家的心，那我觉得我也可以继续更新我的评论。 回答一下其他两个人的评论。 首先是律法，我们就来到了占地面积的问题：律法的科技也需要你去解锁，岗哨之类的建筑辐射范围有限，那么我们就要在已经建好的城区进行大拆迁来为岗哨之类的建筑提供位置，还需要脱产士兵上岗。实际上这游戏的装饰品和岗哨之类的有相同的毛病：没研究的时候用不上，研究的时候需要停产停工，进行城市拆迁来为它们腾出位置——我觉得不太可能有人在没法解锁建筑的时候就提前详细地规划好并腾出装饰品和这些岗哨的位置吧？ 至于我为什么不开分城、交易或者打仗？除了脱产士兵养不起以外，还有一件事是我最先玩的庄园模式，这模式的介绍就鼓励玩家自己发展自己的，所以我也没去搞扩张或者外交。至于贸易，我开了十多个存档，抛开各种前期尝试导致坏掉的存档以外，大概有六个存档发展到了两千人以上。均发现邻居也只能卖给我最多两百多个水果，可以说毛用没有。 我说食物不够，实际上我的殖民地在试了几个档之后已经不会饿死了，但这游戏的幸福度有一个比较重要的影响数值是“仓库中存储食物的数量”。食物储存对幸福的影响非常大，我发现是1天的时候就不会有逃亡，是0天的时候就有人会跑，弄满的时候忠诚度就奇高。发评论的时候我最新的档人口正在接近六千，你们猜在开满四倍饮食的情况下需要消耗多少食物？想弄满食物幸福度又需要储存多少食物？需要几个仓库和多少搬运工？又需要占多大地的食物产地？ 占地面积非常影响一个城市的发展，这也就是为什么我会开黏土供给研究。如果不开黏土，我就需要建更多的研究站才能达到开黏土的研究进度，这样会占更多的地。而玩过这游戏的都知道：各种设施有自己的辐射范围，所以如果你扩建新城区，就要连带着把一整套娱乐、医疗、仓储、维护、分配、装饰、法律之类的建筑都复制一份，这些也会消耗劳动力和各种物资。所以我宁可弄一百多人去挖黏土，也没有选择扩建更多研究站增大城市占地面积。 同时，随着占地面积的扩大，资源点和新城区的距离会越来越远。比如采石场在地图最西边，而新的东城区离采石场就有很远距离，维护站之类需要石头的建筑就需要有人大老远搬东西过去，会对城市发展产生影响，也会降低这些建筑的效率，除非你在仓库征召更多搬运工。 同样，食物需求也会需要更多土地。以蒂拉皮（木精灵）人为例，他们喜欢果子、肉和蛋，房间需求需要家具、皮革、牲畜、木头之类的。这就意味着我得造果树、造产皮革的牧牛场以及下蛋的蜥蜴场；如果需要供给衣服，那么还要造棉花田或者牧羊场，这些畜牧场需要非常非常非常多的土地，导致整个城市大概只有四分之一的土地是各种加工厂，其余的全是畜牧场和农田。而随着人口增加、需要的粮食增加，我们就需要更多的这些东西，然后就要更大的占地面积，导致城市两端的运输更加麻烦。 如果你觉得“不该去追求食物仓储带来的幸福度”，那这就回到我最开始所说的，这游戏的幸福度是”惩罚机制“而不是“鼓励机制”。如果这是一个达不到的进度条，你弄它干嘛，恶心玩家吗？这就是我说的设计上有问题。 你们也只提到了外交、贸易和法律之类的事情，但我上边说了这游戏“最大问题是幸福度是惩罚式的机制”，显得小人比同类游戏的小人更加刁民，会给玩家更大的挫败感，这才是核心问题，食物、科研、占地之类的只不过是这个幸福度机制的延伸罢了。 反正这个好评差评是推不推荐，反正我不会把它推荐给我的朋友。事实上我在刚玩的时候已经推荐了几个朋友，但他们的反馈是比我的体验还要糟糕，那我只能说我非常不推荐看到这个评论的国人去购买。

[h1]传说中十年如一日打磨的匠心精品[/h1] 传闻《希克斯之歌》是制作者单枪匹马耗时十来年打磨才制作完成的，如果这消息是真的，那这倒算的上是真正的“独立游戏”了！同时也不得不佩服制作者，这种十年如一日的“匠心精神”是真的不多见了。 [h1][quote=] [table] [tr] [th] 欢迎关注 [b][u][i]U_U鉴赏家培养计划[/i][/u][/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [th] 关注U_U鉴赏家，开启精彩游戏之旅。 [/th] [/tr] [/table] [/quote][/h1] [h1]用像素风才能更好的万人同屏[/h1] 如同大伙心里所想，《希克斯之歌》没有3A大作那样的精致建模，也没有什么宏大的剧情，毕竟是单人制作嘛！这世上终归不会有那么多喜欢吹牛逼的游戏制作者的（没错，说的就是那个拿着《龙道》和《鹰道》这种垃圾都不如的垃圾说是3A大作的某制作者）。但《希克斯之歌》这款融合了城建、模拟经营和战略战争的像素风沙盒游戏，却是凭借高度自洽的模拟社会生态、万人级同屏演算、蝴蝶效应式的硬核机制，硬生生杀出一条血路。 《希克斯之歌》采用低体素像素画风，从某个角度来说，也可以说是画面惨不忍睹，但其实这种简陋的画面是在为游戏性能让步。轻量化的画面架构让游戏能够流畅支撑起万人人口的城市运营和大规模的军团会战，也能让我们更自由的进行全局缩放视角切换，既能俯瞰整片随机生成的奇幻大陆，也能细致观察单个居民的日常行为。 [h1]自由的多种族奇幻大陆[/h1] 《希克斯之歌》的世界是一个混杂的多种族奇幻大陆，至于都有什么种族就不必在意了，反正除了人类之外，其他的种族都是奇奇怪怪的原创种族，但不同的种族有着不一样的特质这点倒是给我们发展帝国提供了多样的选择。游戏没有强制的主线剧情，整片大陆随机生成，完全交给我们自由探索，从零开始建造强大的帝国。 [h1]略微硬核的模拟经营[/h1] 游戏刚开局我们都是一无所有，只能从一片荒地、少量流民开启开荒之路。反正一开始就是常规的伐木、采矿、农耕、建筑等等操作。如果仅是这样的话，《希克斯之歌》倒是没啥值得让人赞叹的！厉害的是游戏提供了数十种细分资源，从基础的粮食、木材、矿石，到加工后的工具、布匹、器械，再到贸易特产、战备物资，形成层层递进的供应链，任何微小的运营疏漏都会引发连锁反应。 [h1]“假装”是活人的NPC们[/h1] 而且，游戏里每一个居民都有自己的状态、需求、职业与情绪系统。他们会根据环境变化选择劳作、休息、繁衍、迁徙，也会因为饥荒、严寒、压迫、居住环境恶劣产生负面情绪。这些情况在城镇扩大规模后还会展现的更加明显，什么贫富差距、人口繁衍、疾病传播、移民融合等现实社会问题会逐一显现，极大提升游戏的管理难度。 [h1]大规模战斗也是重头戏[/h1] 在城镇发展到一定程度，有了一定的经济储备后，就我们可以开始研发军备、组建军队为开疆拓土做准备！地图上各种中立势力、异族城邦和敌对帝国统统是我们的敌人！最有意思的是游戏支持万人规模的大规模军团同屏作战，虽然没有绚丽的技能特效，但各种兵种克制、阵型战术、后勤管理什么的还是相当有刺激的！这些个设计让战争不再是简单的数值对抗，粮草、兵员、地形、士气等等，都会是决定战局走向的因素。 [h1]满满的各种机制[/h1] 除此之外，游戏还包含完整的贸易、外交、律法体系。我们可以和周边势力通商、同盟、签订条约，也可以通过制定税率、律法、福利政策等，来调控国内民生和经济，用自己的治国模式来管理整个帝国。 [h1]匠心之作！真心不错的！[/h1] 整体而言，《希克斯之歌》不适合在乎画面的小伙伴，但如果能错过画面这个问题，它就可以满足你对模拟经营建设策略战略游戏的所有想法！在快餐化游戏泛滥的当下，《希克斯之歌》这款用匠心打磨十来年的像素风游戏，用最朴素的形式，承载了最厚重的策略深度，算是独立游戏里相当难得的精品游戏了。

[h1]《希克斯之歌》：十二年的坚守与独游的挽歌[/h1] 　　《希克斯之歌》大概是那种打眼一看就让玩家不太能提起兴趣的作品，粗糙的画面、繁冗的文本、拉胯的UI，从市场标准几乎可以被判定为“工业垃圾”。然而就是这样一款其貌不扬、看似拉胯的作品，在我了解它的故事后却愈发动容。 [h1][quote=] [table] [tr] [th] 欢迎关注 [b][u][i]U_U鉴赏家培养计划[/i][/u][/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [th] 关注U_U鉴赏家，开启精彩游戏之旅。 [/th] [/tr] [/table] [/quote][/h1] 　　作者Jake从14年就开始打磨这款作品，如今已经过去了十二年之久——要知道，那个时候甚至《环世界》还没上线呢。好在最后的销售成绩还算不错，经过多年积累，本作已经拥有近W评价，整体好评率高达94%，离「好评如潮」就差临门一脚。而这点差值，估计就是在“硬核”上，毕竟即便是跟环世界比起来，它的难度都显得尤其高了。 　　虽然不少朋友都是把本作当成是《环世界》代餐玩的，但其实细节上还是有不少差异，私以为本作的体验更加接近传统「大战略」游戏，只不过界面的确跟环有点相似。在玩法上，玩家总体还是在进行资源管理，需要维系住一个国家的发展，从零到一、从无到有逐渐建设领地。4X游戏该有的本作都有，所以相比较沙盒属性，我更倾向于将本作归类为4X作品。 　　既然是4X游戏，那么大战略这块肯定少不了，而这也正是本作的魅力所在。游戏有非常复杂的事件系统，整体环环相扣、某处细小决策的失误可能就会导致全局崩盘，这也是它比较接近《环世界》的地方——但归根结底，它不像环那样需要对小人进行精细化管理，毕竟玩家的决策对象是整个国家，所处的战略视角也要更加宏大。 　　总之，《希克斯之歌》就是像寻常4X游戏一样，让玩家收集资源、建设城镇、管理居民，进行各种复杂的事件决策，最后不断发展、拓张自己的领地。 　　而在战术部分，碍于像素风格的限制，游戏没法做出宏大的视效场面，但实际效果还是颇为震撼的——如果你没有见识过什么叫“电子斗蛐蛐”，那来本作应该能够体验一番。数万大军一字排开，如雷霆冲锋过阵，然后像割麦子般互相倾泻倒下，虽然模型材质拉胯，不妨碍靠量取胜嘛！ 　　当然，游戏的难度也是颇为硬核的，不仅在于系统的复杂、UI交互的混乱、引导的缺失，更是源于数值本身的高难度；反正就是玩起来不太带劲，只推荐类型爱好者以及资深4X糕手尝试，如果你就是喜欢这种一玩一整天的决策上头感，那么还是推荐试试的。相比较游戏质量本身，我还是更钦佩作者十年如一日的为爱奉献。即便我不喜欢，也希望业界能多一些这样的追梦者。

Difficult is an understatement, you need to manage so many things at once and more often than not are going to end up redoing half of the city you just built to add in a bakery or lavatory but my god is it enjoyably painful, the devs have clearly put heart and soul into this, im gonna break down the good and bad (in my personal opinion). [h1] THE GOOD: [/h1] Graphics are reminiscent of older strategy games, think total war medieval 1, command and conquer, age of empires and it just scratches that itch for the good old days of gaming. immense levels of satisfaction when things end up going right, like i said at the start the game is difficult, it will take time to learn and the tutorial only teaches you the basics, the rest you have to figure out yourself. the amount of detail and effort you need to put in to your city is quite realistic, you have to manage the food production and balance it out with how much crop your growing, too little and your people will starve, too much and it will rot away in storage before you get to use it, is there enough toilets and places for your people to wash themselves, is there enough hearths to keep them warm, is it going to be logistically sound for the placement of your warehouse to where things are coming in from to be stored. are the work sites within reach of the houses or will i need to make yet another estate close by to fulfil the best production possible, there are mods that literally break down just info on all this stuff to assist you but i find it more fun trying to get it right through trail and error/ the building in this game is detailed you need services within reach of populous areas to make everything run smoothly the combat is interesting, I dont believe they have fleshed it out enough yet but it is still rather enjoyable apart from one main thing that i will get into later, spears and cavalry seem to be the most efficient in combat where as archers seem to fall off, i wont go to much into detail as half the fun is trialing this stuff yourself. [h1]THE BAD[/h1] The main issue with the game is the learning curve, thats what i believe will put people off playing, with a more in detail tutorial i believe this would assist players in finding it easier to play, although the community is surprisingly good at offering help with things. DISEASES.... at some point you are gonna have an epidemic on your hands, they are difficult to work with and again there isnt really much information in game about how to curb them, wells, hearths lavatorys and physicians are the best defence agaisnt this but as your population grows it becomes unrealistic logically to build the required amount of each to curb an epedmic. combat, when you finnaly start facing large armies, it becomes more of a you can only defend as if one unit reaches your throne, it dosnt matter if you start fighting that unit, they will capture your throne, i have seen this be commented on by a fair few members of the community and i havnt personally had this happen as the highest amount i have fought so far was 91 soldiers. stuttering, as expected with a game that simulates so much at once, you will have stuttering at some point in your playthrough, im only encountering it currently when the game saves, and my pc is ok i guess, not top specs but definitly not botttom. deffinetly recommend this game if you are into games like rimworld but wanted more size and depth to the game but found dwarf fortress too much, this game is somwehat inbetween . take your time and learn as you go, failure is a chance to learn more about the mechanics of the game

I want to love it. I do. I've got 900+ hours in Rimworld and the community can't stop raving about this. I'm sure underneath this abysmal and obtuse UIX experience is a great game if you're willing to work hard for it. I am not. Trying to execute a simple trade for bread with a neighbouring realm was one of the most unintuitive and frustrating experiences I've had in a long time. Hopefully things improve for 1.0

It's been a long time that I was that impressed by a game, so a big thank you to the developer who seems to be a fun and very engaged guy. For me it's like a mix of Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld but much more accessible and fun to play. I especially like that the game changes from managing a few characters to a strategy game. It does a very good job to combine multiple games in one. And it runs perfectly on Linux :)

Throughout the years I have come back to this game many times. Some versions were better, some worse, but they all had a few things in common. My biggest gripe has always been what I call the happiness treadmill. As your population grows so does its demand for different amenities and luxuries. In the current version the balancing is so tight that, after a certain point you find yourself cramming benches into every corner of your city just to squeeze a few 0,0001 of a point of happiness out of your citizens. Production chains, research, laws, healthcareall of these systems require constant upkeep just to maintain the status quo, leaving you with an incredibly small margin in whihch to actually grow your city The game also starts to break down under the weight of its own systems. Take the labor intensive production chains for example. My 485 worker laboratory required an influx of 6,000 clay per day, while my mines were producing a net 12,000 clay per day. You would think that would be more than enough. So where did the other 6,000 go? The problem wasn't a lack of workers the research, or maybe the logistics. The clay mine simply could not produce more because the game would not allow its workers to use more than two inbuilt storages. I had all the logistics set up to move the clay out quickly enough and I had more than enough production capacity on paper yet the game simply refused to let the mine produce at the rate I needed. This is where the game buckles under its own restrictions and that was only one example, and the problem becomes increasingly apparent the further you go down the pop chain. At a certain point I found myself playing not because I was having fun,but because I didn't want the game to "win" against me. I was pushing forward the population and keep the threadmill going once again just to prove that I could beat this game, and I hated every minute of it. All of this is compounded by the games enormous learning curve. There is a huge amount of information you need to understand just to figure out what is required to keep the happiness treadmill running. The UI doesnt make this any easier either. Then there is all the fluff that you eventually stop caring about or never did, such as citizen interactions, citizen flavor text etc because you are too busy desperately trying to keep the underlying systems from collapsing. The race wars are another strange example. If you have a multiracial city and dont separate your citizens housing by at least 58 tiles, they can start fighting each other. This cannot be prevented through law upkeep because for whatever to me unknown reason, the game treats these incidents as "brawls" rather than what they really are:murders. It feels like yet another system designed around an arbitrary restriction rather than something that actually enhances the gameplay??? And then there are the huge battles shown in the promotional material. Dont expect those to become a major part of your game. By the time you have a large enough population and economy to support a serious army, the happiness treadmill has you balancing on a tightrope just to keep your society functioning. Maintaining that army becomes yet another burden competing for the same limited resources you already invest in heallthcare, law upkeep, material upkeep, maintenance upkeep, the happines threadmill. And another thousand examples. All in all this is a convoluted game with a steep learning curve that just buckles under the developers apparent fetish for arbitrary difficulty spikes. There is a genuinely interesting city builder buried somewhere underneath all of these systemss but the further you progress the more the game seems determined to punish you for doing exactly what it asks you to do: grow. Just dont play the game like its supposed to be played.