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Hello Fellow Simmers, I've been playing Cities: Skylines for a while now. I feel like the game could be dramatically improved if the economics of sim life was expanded on. This could potentially provide a whole new level of realism and even offer insights into real world economies if programmed correctly. At present it feels like the economy is not really 'modelled' but rather an approximation for how a simple economy is assumed to behave. In reality this makes the game fairly predictable and dull (imo). To countenance these issues a few additions to the game would have to be made: - Each sim person would have a bank account. New sims could simply be spawned with, say 100 credits, on their arrival in the city. A more complex approach but realistic approach would be for sims to take on a loan when they build or expand a house which they then have to pay back with interest. They would then earn money from work and spend money when they buy goods and services. - Each business would likewise have an associated bank account which is used to pay workers, buy materials, receive funds for goods/ services. - Every in game transaction would consequently have a simultaneous economic transaction. For example, when goods/ raw materials are delivered, sims attend work, sims use public transport etc, a financial exchange would take place between the two parties with the net sum of each transaction being zero. For example, a sim might pay one credit to ride on the bus and the bus company would receive one credit for providing this service. The economic simulation would essentially work in tandem to the current game as it is with everyone's bank balances updated in realtime. As it stands the economy would not really have any effect on the workings of the game, it would simply tick along in the background and provide an indication of profitability/ turnover of businesses, affluence of sims in different areas etc. In order to tie the economy to the workings of the game there would have to be a mechanism for price levels of goods and services to change over time. This would in turn effect the profitability of businesses and the wealth of citizens so that dynamic economic processes can be observed. A way to alter price levels would be to use a simple supply/ demand ratio for goods and services available at different locations. For example, if there are fewer passengers waiting for a bus service then the price of a ticket would be reduced accordingly. Say 10 passengers are waiting for a 15 seater bus then the standard price, and corresponding financial exchange, would be reduced by two thirds. Likewise if 30 passengers were waiting for the same 15 seater bus then the price per passenger would be doubled. Further, the more affluent passengers would use the service first whilst less affluent ones would have to wait for the next bus (hopefully when the price becomes cheaper!) The same system could work with all transactions. The supply of raw materials to factories would vary depending on the abundances of timber/ farm produce with the demand dependent on the number of factories within a certain distance/ transport costs. The supply of goods to commerce and demand from consumers effecting the price of commodities. The number of educated workers and the availability of jobs will effect wages. Even the supply and demand of electricity, water, schooling could follow this model. All of this would make a stock exchange available where the current price and history of all commodities can be viewed. The game would now take on a whole new dimension where some civilians will become wealthy and others become impoverished. Businesses might go bankrupt if supply chains become clogged with traffic and prices rise too quickly. This would then lead to unemployment and a shortage of demand from consumers. There could also be runaway inflation if prices and wages escalate simultaneously leading to inequality across the city. A whole new set of user controls could be assigned so that the economy can be fine tuned. This might include variable income taxes for high earners/ low earners, interest rate levels, expansion of the money supply (quantitive easing), subsidies for certain industries, pollution taxes on road transport etc. The potential for this game as an economic simulator could be far greater than it currently is as a simple city simulator. Just need some good programmers out there to rework it ...
