Recently I decided to start over and build a Megalopolis again. I managed to accomplish this feat using Map No. 61 again, but even with every space filled, I was not able to reach a population of 600,000 (even though I was able to do it previously). That's when I decided to take advantage of the Freedom map, which you gain access to after completing the 6 (original) scenarios. The map contains absolutely no water so you can make the most out of the land available to you, but there is one catch: you don't get any presents. Presents go a long way in increasing the land value of your city, and without them you have to do your best with parks.

I didn't have too much trouble building a Megalopolis, although it did take a significant amount of time. I left plenty of space for industrial zones, as they are the only zone type that grows later on in the game. Residential zones on the outskirts tend to turn into slums, and commercial zones only grow so much before quitting on you. Of course, industrial zones also tend to produce a lot of crime so you have to place a significant number of police stations around them.

I still had a fair bit of green space once I reached the Megalopolis status, but I had to fill in most of the space I left for the additional industrial zones. I also left a fair bit of green space in between residential zones as they tend to develop best this way, but to reach a population of 600,000 you have to start filling in that space as well. Unfortunately, this also tends to turn some of the residential zones into slums.

Once you build a Megalopolis, there tend be a lot more plane crashes. It's a minor annoyance, but even minor annoyances can turn into bigger irritations when it happens frequently enough. When your city reaches a certain size, you can't avoid planes hitting (usually) residential zones. It would be a frightening world indeed if planes came down on houses as frequently as they do in SimCity. Nevertheless, as far as disasters go, it's probably the easiest to deal with.

Other than that, there weren't too many challenges in reaching 600,000 people, and I still have some space left to develop if I so desire. Technically population: 600,000 is the ultimate goal in the game, and I'm pretty sure there aren't any rewards left after that. I might develop the rest of the space anyway, just to see how far I can get.

In conclusion, I'm pretty much tired of SimCity now, and don't think I will be revisiting it for awhile. I forgot to mention this earlier, but I played through practiced mode and finished all the scenarios again, and had trouble with Detroit and Las Vegas again (:P). I hope you enjoyed this series.

Related Articles:

• SimCity - Building a Megalopolis

This article was written by David Andrew Wiebe, web designer, graphic designer, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, songwriter, guitar instructor, and music expert. Interested in winning a free CD? Click here for more info! Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Recommendations? Email me.

Published on August 5, 2008