Capitalism 2 and Capitalism Lab Forum

Greetings. I was considering to buy this game after having seen a video of it and having played an older version.


What it looked like was this:
A city starts with nothing but housing and a few governmental buildings.
Then me and other companies build tons of shops, apartments, factories etc.
Those seemed to magically always have enough qualified workers and willing occupants without there being a rise in population on a comparable scale.
I ended up being a multi billionaire as a newb even on a higher difficulty setting, which is what I already disliked about games like Skylines or SS. No need for optimization.

What I was wondering is to what degree supply and demand are modeled before I do so because in the version I played there was little information about that. Has the gamechanged much in recent years ( other than the things pointed out in the DLC descriptions, which I already read ) in terms of being challenging and having a realistic way of modelling growth, population, demand etc. which seemed to either not be present or not linked to what was actually going on.

Starting situation is a bit different. Cities have pre-built government, housing and sometimes commercial buildings. That's correct.
But behind them there is a working economy. Commercial buildings are populated by small citywide business offices that provides citizens with initial supply of goods. Also this small business provides initial rivalry, export profits and employment for population.

In general the model is the same as it was in Cap2 17 years ago. The same predefined demand matrix and the same predefined necessity index.

I ended up being a multi billionaire as a newb even on a higher difficulty setting, which is what I already disliked about games like Skylines or SS. No need for optimization.

I also found Capitalism 2's AI a bit weak. But Capitalism Lab's AI is much more aggressive and harder to beat.

I doubt it. Cap Lab is wider or broader, don't know which word is correct. It takes more time to beat or buy all the competitors. But otherwise it is totally the same. Base AI model is just taken from Cap2

There seemed to be a lot of different settings that could work to increase difficulty in a non-obnoxious way so I think perhaps I could make it interessting if I get into them a bit.

What I found more lacking/missing ( and the reason I post here before buying ) in the version I saw ( 2015 or so ) is the actual modelling and linking of stuff. Things did not seem to scale or adjust due to what the companies
were doing. So there was no relevant population growth and no gigantic unemployment changes or even changes in the housing supply/demand over 30+ years in a city. At the same time 3 dozen new apartments with around 70% occupancy and
40+ factories as well as a bunch of shops and research facilities were built in the city, which had no factories and perhaps a dozen apartments to start with. Granted the housing part may be explained by the small houses but the rest...
It is one thing to have some things only present in an abstract way but there seemed to be just plain random numbers displayed.

If those things are just plain missing in the current version and the only place of competition is to plant as many factories and shops with as high a tech/traffic rating as possible that would just not be very interesting to me.

Well, I think that generally the game is almost the same as it was 20 years ago. Build factories and become filthy rich.
Subsidiary DLC added a way to manage your acquired rivals and probably become filthfy rich with more predictable results.
City Management DLC added a new aspect to the game. You can become filthy fich and/or manage cities so that they will make you even richer. (and you can buy all the city's property)
Digital Age DLC added new unique software and internet companies markets. As a result you can become filthy rich in a different manner. Now to own everything you only have to create 10 internet and 20 software companies (plus some research) and just buy all AI rivals who will build all the factories for you. Less micromanagement, more money!

And there are scenarios! Both Cap2 campaigns and a new one.

So there was no relevant population growth and no gigantic unemployment changes or even changes in the housing supply/demand over 30+ years in a city.

With the City Economic Simulation DLC, the population growth and changes in the unemployment rate is a lot more dynamic, especially when you play the game in the Survival mode. Your investment in the city for setting up new businesses will create employment and thus have a direct impact on its economy.

Zephy3r wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2018 5:59 pm There seemed to be a lot of different settings that could work to increase difficulty The bathmate review and results articles! in a non-obnoxious way so I think perhaps I could make it interessting if I get into them a bit.

How responsive this all this? Can you see the effects of the changes immediately?

You will be able to see the effects in a short time span.

You could pay attention to the graphs on the city report for the detailed changes:
http://www.capitalismlab.com/ces-dlc/ul ... imulation/