Great Works

[iamgoodatsimcity 0]

What do the great works actully do? I know that the solar produces power but how much?

How much tourisim does the international airport give?

How much freight can it take?

How much Tourisim does the Space Center give?

How much Education does the Space Center give?

How much workers does the Arcology give?

How many desks are given by the Arcology?

How much education is given by the Arcology?

 

There's my questions

Thanks

[tnobles 38]

I think it depends on how many cities are connected to it. Not sure about the amount but, with a city over 300K, no power plants were required for me. The Arcology gives you workers, shoppers and students. Not sure about the others.

[Griffon 19]

The Solar Farm provides 3,000 power.

 

The International Airport gave me 3,000 freight and 600 tourists (mix of medium and high wealth) in one city, but both those amounts change and don't know it's based on, probably workers provided to the airport.

 

The Space Center gives $100,000 to every city every time it launches and you only get tourists from it when it launches (I think that's once every 2 or 3  in game days) and it provides the highest amount of tech level over your entire city in every city connected to it.

 

The Arcology gives different amount of people to your cities depending on the level it is at and the level increases the longer it's supplied with power.  At the highest level I got over 1,000,000 total people living in it, but that caused MAJOR traffic problems to my city, because every person has their own car and refuses to use any other transportation.  The Arcology might have changed in the recent patches since the last time I built it was before patch 3.

 

As far as their usefulness goes, I'd rate them (in order) as: Solar Farm, Space Station, then International Airport.  I didn't include the Arcology because I think it's useless since it causes more problems than solutions (traffic).

 

Any of them requiring workers (all of them buy the Arcology) requires 300 and the Space Center and International Airport requires 300MW of power.

 

They all have their own missions that appear randomly.  Solar Farm catches on fire, but your fire trucks go to the rescue on their own.  Space Center's computers catches a virus and you have to give them new ones every now and then.  I think the International Airport have a security breach or something like that and you have to send police, but I could be wrong on that one.  I can't remember what the Arcology mission is.

 

Hope that helps.

[Xenocity 343]

Read this link.

http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Great_Works

 

Solar farms generate 3,000MWs for each city in the region.

This is more power than a fully expanded Nuclear Power Plant and much cheaper.

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

So great works only help cities with a connection to them then, not cities on the other side of a large map?  Am I right in guessing it's just road connections, not rail or water?

 

I've been holding off on great works - you don't really start to send stuff to them until your city is full, and then it's just a lot of sitting around as resources get shipped out.slowly, and there's not much to do as you ship out the resources and you have less money coming in.

[Griffon 19]

So great works only help cities with a connection to them then, not cities on the other side of a large map?  Am I right in guessing it's just road connections, not rail or water?

 

I've been holding off on great works - you don't really start to send stuff to them until your city is full, and then it's just a lot of sitting around as resources get shipped out.slowly, and there's not much to do as you ship out the resources and you have less money coming in.

Yes road connections only, train doesn't even count (this is one reason the Arcology causes so much traffic). I usually wait till I have $10,000,000 because I lose so much money from sending the goods to the great works site instead of selling them.  Not to mention if I have to import any I'm not making myself and that costs a lot of money.

 

And yes it can take hours depending on how many trucks you have in your city (they use your trucks not global trucks to transport the resources), the resources in your city doesn't get delivered efficiently as previously, and your trucks often get stuck in traffic delivering the resources.

 

I usually build a great works before starting my second city in the region that can connect to the great works site so that city can benefit from the great works while the city is being built.  My first city is usually a high tech or mining or oil city and my second is usually a tourist city because it's hard to have a tourist city if it's the first city in the region (not impossible though).

 

When I build it I have the game on cheetah speed viewing the Great Works site.  I don't like how the bubble appears over the site so there is a trick to remove it.  While viewing the great works click off the region map then hover your mouse over the great works and the great works bubble on the map disappears, but you can still see the resources being delivered and it gives you a better view of the great works.  If you just click the X on that bubble the bottom great works advisor screen goes away too.

[Robproc 4]

I honestly find the great works rather silly. I haven't taken the time to build them all, mainly because what is the point? you just make a single building in a fixed spot that is nothing unique or special and really only creates problems and complications in your cities. Honestly I feel like the GW are just a pathetic attempt at adding some type of multiplayer aspect to the game.

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

Yeah, the great works are an artifact of the original intention of the game - multiplayer, all working together.  They take too much trouble and time working single player, multiplayer games don't tend to last long enough to make them, and when they are made your city is full and there's no reason to keep playing.

 

Ooooh- not that EA says they're working on this, but if building a great work expanded everyone's city border a half-kilometer or so, too - that would be a nice perk.

[Xenocity 343]

Yeah, the great works are an artifact of the original intention of the game - multiplayer, all working together.  They take too much trouble and time working single player, multiplayer games don't tend to last long enough to make them, and when they are made your city is full and there's no reason to keep playing.

 

Ooooh- not that EA says they're working on this, but if building a great work expanded everyone's city border a half-kilometer or so, too - that would be a nice perk.

I beg to differ.

 

The Solar Farm and International Airport are the good ones

Solar Farm:

• provides 3,000MWs of energy at -300/hr to  your cities.
• If you build a powerplant of comparable output, it will bankrupt you with 20k+/hr costs.

 

The International Airport:

• Provides you with more tourists than the municipal airport
• Ships more freight out than municipal airport
• only costs 300/hr to operate which is cheaper than municipal

The regional arcos (the launching arcos were available as a preorder in the expansion pack) do provide a boost to commerical and industry, though they strain your utilities to a breaking point.

 

The Space center does provide for lots of tourists and you also get paid for each satellite sent into orbit.

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

I didn't say there weren't benefits, just too late in the game to really mess with.

[Griffon 19]

@Xenocity, @Rufus Honker IV

 

I kinda agree with both of you.  Great works are helpful but after you build them you're stuck thinking, "okay...what now?"

 

That is why I said to build one then start a new city so your new city can benefit off it (if you have to, claim it before someone else takes it).

 

I often do this with tourism cities.  I never like starting a tourism city if it's the first city in the region so I build another city first and build the great works with that city and then start my tourism city.

[iamgoodatsimcity 0]

Everyone, thanks for your answers and stuff. I'm currently playing a 7 city 1 Gw region, and we can't figure out what to build as a GW.

Hopefully we'll make the right choice now.

[Griffon 19]

Everyone, thanks for your answers and stuff.  I'm currently playing a 7 city 1 Gw region, and we can't figure out what to build as a GW.

Hopefully we'll make the right choice now.

Please tell us what you choose after listening to all of us.  I'm curious (if no one else is) to know what you ended up choosing and why you choose it if you don't mind.

[iamgoodatsimcity 0]

 

 

My region is still researching and unlocking great works. We'll probaly start thinking once all of them are unlocked.

[SockoJr53 51]

 

Everyone, thanks for your answers and stuff.  I'm currently playing a 7 city 1 Gw region, and we can't figure out what to build as a GW.

Hopefully we'll make the right choice now.

Please tell us what you choose after listening to all of us.  I'm curious (if no one else is) to know what you ended up choosing and why you choose it if you don't mind.

 

I assume you are on the Reflection Atoll map? That's the 7 cities, one GW site map right? Let me know how the GW syncs for all the cities. That was my favorite region and I actually had 2 of them, but I could never get all the cities to "see" the GW. (I choose Intl Airport, I thought that made the most sense for a secluded island chain) I'm curious if the latest update made the syncing better as promised.

[Griffon 19]

I assume you are on the Reflection Atoll map? That's the 7 cities, one GW site map right? Let me know how the GW syncs for all the cities. That was my favorite region and I actually had 2 of them, but I could never get all the cities to "see" the GW. (I choose Intl Airport, I thought that made the most sense for a secluded island chain) I'm curious if the latest update made the syncing better as promised.

The new map Desolation has 7 cities connected with one great works, also the other desert map has 14 cities with two great works and 7 cities on each side, but my guess is it's either the Reflection Atoll or Desolation.  Btw Desolation is my new favorite map now.  I haven't played the nuclear explosion city on it yet but the rest of the cities are challenging and fairly smooth at the same time.  I try to save the epicenter city for when I get the ground scrubber tech, but someone always claims it before then (and I never play sandbox mode).

[r00n83 12]

 try to save the epicenter city for when I get the ground scrubber tech, but someone always claims it before then (and I never play sandbox mode).

 

You can make your region private.

[SockoJr53 51]

So is it safe to say the 4:1 ratio of cities to GW sites is no longer the limitation? Since there are now 2 more maps that have a 7:1 ratio?

[iamgoodatsimcity 0]

Wont be building Great works for some time

Meltdown at nuclear plant even with 3 and a half 'hats' of education.

Spent all my money on expanding health services.

[Indian007 25]

If you ask me, the game still sucks. Not able to build highways, one way roads, elevated rail, subway, bigger maps, terraform. Really what have they done to this game to make it any better, or even try to make it an actual city simulation game. They have done nothing really, only to be adding new expansion packs with one of them being some type of  modern metropolis. Stupid EA has not yet given us a city simulation game that actually works. Are you kidding me, what is that stupid cities of tomorrow crap. Give me a city simulation game first, please, then you can sell me your expansion garbage.