Drawing Board II: Building Speed

This article originally appeared on The Next Generation blog at Simtropolis.com

Continuing on with some feature speculation, here's a short, simple one that impacts the gameplay in a fairly significant way: building speed. But first, let me repeat my important disclaimer about this series of posts:

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

This series of posts are not to be read as "official" ideas for the Metropolis Project, they are simply my personal thoughts about what some cool game features might be. The final feature set for the game will be decided by the community and the development team contracted to build the game, and may not include any of these things.

Although it's not a very noticable game feature, the speed at which things are built has a large impact on the way the game plays. A fast or even instant building speed makes for a much more arcade-style experience: you see a problem, you construct something to address it; build a new subdivision, and new taxpayers start filling up your coffers in short order. A slow or reality-based building speed, on the other hand, makes for a longer and slower game (naturally) but it also makes the gameplay more strategic. A player can't simply wait until they run out of power to build that new plant if it takes two years to construct; they have to think ahead and try to anticipate future growth and future needs. Or, when improving infrastructure, they need to consider the effects of the diverted traffic flow on their economy in the interim.

Most players probably fall somewhere in between on the spectrum from instant to realistic, and the solution here is nothing revolutionary or even technically complex: a simple slider to adjust how fast things are built. While it doesn't seem like a very groundbreaking feature, a small addition like this can have a disproportionate effect on the game's ability to conform to various playing styles.