September 1, 2012 at 4:56 pm
It's been 6 months since our last release. I wish I can say that time was used for Synekism benefit. It hasn't. However, last few weeks have been spent on Synekism and it felt pretty good. Today comes Synekism 0.5 which is most certainly not a major release but does introduce some of the changes I wanted to make in the longer term.
The first major change is the pricing structure in Synekism. You no longer pay (as much) for zoning. Instead, you actually get some money when someone develops on your zones. The logic here is that you are actually selling the city's land to private owners. In turn, if you want to dezone or simply clear some land you need to buy the land back so it will cost significantly more to do so. In addition, land costs are directly related to land value which, for lack of support, is just local population density for now. The higher the density, the higher the land costs.
A somewhat negative side effect of this change is that government lots, which you now own, will cost you money to develop. You don't have to buy the land since it's already yours but you have to pay the construction costs. The problem is that you don't have full control when and how big each government building will build so your budget will somewhat randomly drop. Hopefully the cash you get from "selling" the land will counter this extra unpredictable cost.
I've also done minor updates to Synekism's looks. The buildings are now darker in colour at their bases than the roofs giving the fake effect of shadows. Unoccupied lots are translucent until they develop. And building colour brightness now depends on height which makes cities appear more randomly coloured than before.
So that's it. Hopefully the infusion of stress and motivation for work which this release drove into me will last. Next release is slated for January 1st, 2013. I no longer feel comfortable making any promises, especially now that I'm basically working by myself on this. I'll just stick with progress reports each month.
As a reference:
0.5 Info: http://wiki.synekism.com/wiki/Release_0.5
Forum Thread: https://groups.google.com/d/topic/synekism/MyHLTAP9fqs
Economy Info: http://wiki.synekism.com/wiki/Economy
As requested by some:
Development Environment Info: http://wiki.synekism.com/wiki/Development_Environment