Wealth Levels?

[thatmonkeysim 8]

Again... like most... I havent played City Life so I wouldnt know this...

But should CU have Wealth Levels and how should they go about implementing them into the game to make it realistic and easy to use?

[rctshack 182]

yes.

[Poetic 0]

Of course they need to have wealth levels - SC4, to me, wouldn't be the same without it. Having a single wealth level (i.e. middle class) isn't only unrealistic - it's simply boring. I like having ghettos vs. 90210-style neighborhoods. I think City Life was right about class alienation, the upper class usually won't mingle with the lower class. In SC4 there were so many times I had huge mansions pop up in run-down neighborhoods that I wouldn't personally walk in! It was very discouraging. So yes, wealth levels are a must and I think upper class needs to not want to live by lower class, but I certainly don't think there needs to be riots or any of that extreme stuff that's found in City Life over classes, that was pretty ridiculous.

[Androv 6]

I liked wealth levels but I didn't like my poor City Life people living in tin shacks. And I didn't like the rich elite coming by and torching their shacks when they decided to move in next door to the gold-topped mansions.

But I did like the spread of 'cultures' instead of just R$, R$$ and R$$$. I probably preferred the R$ in SC4 to the have-nots in City Life just because their buildings were more western and not tin shacks. In a way the 'neighbourhoods' which developed in City Life worked well because their had their own 'aura' of "This is a Suit Neighbourhood" which scared off all of the Fringe class. This gave each neighbourhood a distinct feel. The only problem was on the edge of each neighbourhood, were the different cultures clashed. I think all of the simulated people in City Life were arsonists. You had to build a 'buffer' zone - either an empty plot of land between culture types, or use the workplaces (which were immune to fire) as a buffer, or simply have cultures which tolerated one another next to each other.

I do think that having 6 pre-fab homes pop up next to a Victorian Mansion is a bit unrealistic, unless that Victorian Mansion is the only one in the town and the person who owns it runs the factory where everyone else works.