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EVENTOWN - ideas for tile laying of city welcomed

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Thu, 11/18/2004 - 21:17
GeminiWeb
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Joined: 07/31/2008

G'day, <>

I've strated to flesh out a new game I'm tentatively calling EVENTOWN (tenuous link to my other game 'High Council of Evensford'.

Anyway, the basic premise is people are 'middleman', buying contracts with developers to build Eventown (through auctions), having them built (placing tiles) and collecting rent from the properties. Properties have a rent value and a VP value, so there is a trade-off there. (For example, high density residential offers higher rent but less VPs than low density residential). There is also a mechanic for adjusting rent prices according to demand in the residential/commercial/industrial sectors.

What I am a bit stuck with is the tile laying to make the city. My original idea was that tile laying would be restricted so that roads all matched up and that the residential/commercial/industrial zone would be restricted according to neighbouring tiles (e.g. each outgoing road has a zoning arrow, indicating allowed zoning ... the new property would have to match one of the zoning arrows pointing into its space).

This is all very nice, but I don't see why its of much interest in the game. In particular, a person will only have limited number of developments (i.e. tiles) so the idea of restricting options on the board for other people which benefit you is fairly limited (although it probably would affect later auctions). As such, it feels more like laying down a city because you get the warm fuzzy feeling of seeing the city grow.

I have, however, included a couple of reasons why positioning of tiles is important though...

1. inner city properties provide higher rents
2. inner city properties can be upgraded with other tiles
(to apartments blocks/mega-malls/office blocks
according to existing zoning)
- inner cities off both top VPs and top rent
- bordering identical upgrades form the same player earn bonus VPs

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Bill

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Fri, 11/19/2004 - 01:19
#1
sedjtroll
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Joined: 07/21/2008
EVENTOWN - ideas for tile laying of city welcomed

I REALLY like the idea of the Zoning arrows. By laying a tile with a Zoning arrow, you restrict the types of iles that are laid adjacent to it. There could be some tiles that are allowed to be built in any zone, some in several zones, and some in only 1 zone.

Playing a Zone specific tile where there isn't already a zoning arrow could either be disallowed, or count as zoning the space for that type of tile. Placing a road with a zoning arrow next to it could either be disallowed, or could mean the area got re-zoned and the old tile gets removed.

There's a lot of places you could go with that, mechanically. I say think about what you could do with respect to this mechanic, you've already got the 'zoning' theme down, and then you can add on the scoring based on what tiles are where in relation to other tiles or whatever.

Good luck!

- Seth

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Fri, 11/19/2004 - 07:59
#2
jwarrend
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Joined: 08/03/2008
EVENTOWN - ideas for tile laying of city welcomed

Bill,

Sounds like you have some good ideas already. I'd look at "Big City" if I were you, it's effectively a tile-laying game but buildings are placed onto a pre-established grid. I strong recommend something like this -- adding the complexity of needing to line up roads sounds like it will diminish from the sources of tension you're trying to have the game evoke.

UNLESS you're interested in making a game about unusual city layouts. I lived in Boston, Mass. for the last 6 years, and the roads there are crazy -- the city was laid out for horse traffic, and the roads meander, bend, and turn every which way, making navigation very difficult (in contrast to, say, NYC where you can look straight down three miles of a street; with the skyscrapers lining the street, it's quite eerie. But I digress). If you were going to do a "wacky layout" city, I'd certainly avoid square tiles; maybe hex tiles or even pentagon tiles would be interesting.

Other than that, sounds like you have some interesting thoughts. Good luck moving ahead!

-J

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Sun, 11/21/2004 - 18:06
#3
GeminiWeb
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Joined: 07/31/2008
EVENTOWN - ideas for tile laying of city welcomed

sedjtroll wrote:

Quote:
I REALLY like the idea of the Zoning arrows.

Quote:
Playing a Zone specific tile where there isn't already a zoning arrow could either be disallowed, or count as zoning the space for that type of tile. Placing a road with a zoning arrow next to it could either be disallowed, or could mean the area got re-zoned and the old tile gets removed.

Thanks! The current idea was evolved slightly.

All tiles will be city blocks (the roads are the grids between the tiles) with 3 outgoing zoning arrows and 1 incoming zoning arrow. When placing down a tile, you have to match your incoming arrow to the outgoing arrow of another tile.

jwarrend wrote:

Quote:
I'd look at "Big City" if I were you, it's effectively a tile-laying game but buildings are placed onto a pre-established grid.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll go have a look down at BoardGame Geek.

Quote:
I strong recommend something like this -- adding the complexity of needing to line up roads sounds like it will diminish from the sources of tension you're trying to have the game evoke.

I think you might be right. I was originally trying to restrain the way tiles can be placed and though roads might be a good way to do it. I'm now thinking of my slightly revised zoning arrows (see above), as well as using a concept of controlling 'neighbourhoods' (adjacent areas of identical zoning).

Quote:
UNLESS you're interested in making a game about unusual city layouts.

Interesting idea, but not what I was thinking for this game though ...

Thanks to all those who've commented. I think I might try to get into into sufficient shape to put it up to GDW early next year ... with a bit of luck ...

- Bill

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