City-building Game Catch All

My hope is it's in the Grim Dawn world, so not a Banished clone since it'll have more ... weird.

Also, are Banished clones bad? I see a number of comments in various places indicating that people think they are bad. Banished was great, I want more games like it. And since I have no idea if/when we will ever get a Banished 2: More Banisheder I like the idea of people making more games like Banished.

tboon wrote:

Also, are Banished clones bad? I see a number of comments in various places indicating that people think they are bad. Banished was great, I want more games like it. And since I have no idea if/when we will ever get a Banished 2: More Banisheder I like the idea of people making more games like Banished.

I warily purchased Life is Feudal: Forest Village, with the hope that it would scratch the Banished itch, as I was also a big fan. So far, I've been pleasantly surprised. There's a strong Banished vibe, but several new mechanics, buildings, etc. The first person feature is a nice touch as well.

I think this could have legs if they continue to give it some love for a while.

I feel like "Banished clone" is an over-used frame, given that any game set in a vaguely European setting from around 1000-1500 would look like Banished.

tboon wrote:

Also, are Banished clones bad? I see a number of comments in various places indicating that people think they are bad.

Not in and of itself, no. I'm happy to play a new game that's similar to Banished but different enough in gameplay tweaks and appearance to be something truly unique and not just something that feels like a Banished mod. So far, I haven't seen a game that fits that criteria ... that's actually finished, i.e. not Early Access.

I needed something fairly chill to play today as I started having a bout of vertigo this morning. I felt weird getting out of bed and when I was walking to the bathroom my body kept wanting to veer right.Then when I sat up from putting on my socks the room decided it wanted to start spinning. I took an anti nausea pill that I had from last time and did the epily maneuver right away and got things to stop spinning - so hopefully I nipped it in the bud.

In any case, this made me tired and not wanting to try and learn anything new or play stuff with a lot of movement on the screen (I learned that last one after trying to play some Horizon Zero Dawn). So I fired up Aven Colony.

I like the pace of the game. There usually isn’t a lot of down time, but I don’t usually feel that rushed. So far there have been moments of challenge, but it hasn’t been very challenging. I only finished the 4th campaign - where you need to build around the lake. I like how commute time matters. It’s nice to look at.

I still don’t like how they feel like they need to give the player tons of baby step objectives. Just tell me the main objective and let me have at it. It you want have a couple intermediate steps where the player can get some rewards. Too much hand holding so far.

Still, I like the game enough. No regrets of buying it.

Man, that sounds nasty. City builders are always the perfect remedy when you need some relax/chill time.

Aven Colony keeps getting mentioned, and by the sounds of it, I need to take a more serious look into it. Seems like it would be right up my alley. The next sale on it somewhere might do it for me.

Interesting looking 'City' builder Frostpunk is out next month.

Well, that's one hell of a name.

Been following that one! Looks really interesting.

That video has zero gameplay. This one shows a couple glimpses:

And it's from the devs that made This War Of Mine, so I'm cautiously optimistic. To the wishlist!

They also did the Anomaly games, so they're experienced devs.

Are there any city-builders with a Civ like approach of taking you through the ages as your city grows?

No*, thank gawd. I've always hated spearmen who can kill tanks.

*Pretty sure the answer is no.

Not in many, many years. The only one I can think of is Rise of Nations, but it was more akin to an Age of Empires style RTS, than a city builder.

MeatMan wrote:

And it's from the devs that made This War Of Mine

Interested.

Some of the Impressions citybuilders took you through different eras. But they still stay within their general setting. Maybe the Anno games?

There's a real lack of city builders between the fall of the Western Roman empire and the beginning of the 20th century. Where's my 18th century Paris sim? 17th century Venice? 15th century Florence? 10th century Baghdad? 7th century Constantinople? 12th century Kyoto? 7th century Tikal?

Even 19th century American frontier town are underrepresented.

Yeah, you'd think a John Wayne Western game would present the ideal situation to make a city builder, though it might be a bit too limited in available buildings and whatnot.

Then again, you've got trains, horses, hunting, banks, mining, native populations to exploit, religion, fun houses, opium, outlaws and so on. There's a lot of interesting things going on in frontier towns. Might work best as a Anno-style game instead of my preferred SimCity-style, but one would think there's a lot of interesting territory to cover and fact and fiction to exploit.

There's Depraved which is a wild West town builder, and I think the upcoming Anno game is at in 1800s.

Not ideal, but at least it's something..

omni wrote:

There's Depraved which is a wild West town builder, and I think the upcoming Anno game is at in 1800s.

Not ideal, but at least it's something..

I know about 1849 (gold rush city builder) and Banished (which has a vaguely late 1600s American frontier town vibe). I didn't know about Depraved.

Though I'm upset Impressions never did a Mayan city builder.

On a similar but slightly different note, I'd like to see a city builder (state builder?) that had a much larger map scale, a bit like Railroad Tycoon, where it's too impractical to fill the map and it's about balancing different communities across the map.

And Depraved is now on my wishlist.

With what we've learned in the last two years or so about Mesoamerican cities, any Mayan city builder game would be wildly outdated. Maybe it'll happen soon, now that we know that the Maya cities were the densest populated areas on Earth at the time...

So I really loved Banished, has there been a city builder that has released since that catches a similar mood? May seem like a weird question, just curious if there is anything similar out there...

I remember when Life is Feudal: Forest Village came out I thought it looked quite like Banished, but prettier. That was in Early Access though and I haven't really checked in it since then.

troubleshot wrote:

So I really loved Banished, has there been a city builder that has released since that catches a similar mood? May seem like a weird question, just curious if there is anything similar out there...

Have you looked at Kingdoms & Castles? It doesn't have the extensive mod library Banished has, and it's definitely a different aesthetic, but gameplay-wise it scratches the Banished itch for me.

Thanks, ill dig around on both of those.

Anyone know of any Chinese/Japanese themed city builders other than Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom? Kind of surprised that setting hasn't been explored (exploited?) more.

kergguz wrote:

I remember when Life is Feudal: Forest Village came out I thought it looked quite like Banished, but prettier.

Some kind GWJer bought it for me during the Xmas sale of 2016. It's essentially a Banished clone; it's way too similar in almost every way. Just look at screenshots, and you'll notice that the UI is practically identical to Banished, just a slightly different color.

Also worth noting that the Steam overall reviews are 66% positive, and the recent reviews are only 47% positive.

FWIW, I was a huge fan of Banished, and I found LIF:FV a lot of fun. It is, indeed, VERY similar to banished, but it does have some unique features in how it plays. First person possession of the villagers is a lot more fun than I expected.

If you can find it on sale, I say give it a try.

Enjoying Kingdoms & Castles. It feels like the premium city builder minus any crystal guzzling IAP timer crap that doesn't exist on mobile!