I just had a randomly spawned idea by reading this thread. Since I don't have time to make it, maybe sharing it will inspire someone.

I read the post about godzilla attacking the city. This would be an awesome concept to build a city-building game around.

The whole theme would be you are building a city in a world where giant monster attacks are a naturally occurring thing. It would be basic SimCity except you can build defensive structures and some basic military outposts or units. The military outposts/defensive points would be fairly expensive, so you'd have to have a smoothly running city to be able to afford enough to defend the city.

You could go off on a tangent with various monster-attack related structures. Shelters would prevent deaths when the monster is rampaging. Sirens to sound alerts of incoming attacks, which will let shelters fill faster. Refuge centers for when homes inevitably get smashed to pieces.

Your growing city would have a built-in conflict. Your recent expansions need to be defended. The larger your city, the larger the rampaging monsters or more frequent. You could even link pollution to the type or number of monsters - as it seems to be a common theme with giant monsters.

And following the similar SimCity theme - you wouldn't directly control anything. You just designate the build area. If you've got an fighter base, they just attack the closest monster. If you've got a tank base, they'll pathfind to the closest monster via the roads you built.

If someone made this game, I'd kickstart it. Even if (or maybe especially if) the graphics were original Sim-City quality.

This does actually sound awesome. It's like some kind of Tower defense meets simcity...

The whole theme would be you are building a city in a world where giant monster attacks are a naturally occurring thing. It would be basic SimCity except you can build defensive structures and some basic military outposts or units. The military outposts/defensive points would be fairly expensive, so you'd have to have a smoothly running city to be able to afford enough to defend the city.

Wow, yeah, I like this idea. :)

I'd quite like a city builder where you were a zerg overmind and the city was all biological, with grown and crossbred buildings...

Wow, these are some awesome ideas. Almost making me want to scrap my initial plan, and build one of these. But alas, I'm targeting a smaller game. Perhaps later though.

This does actually sound awesome. It's like some kind of Tower defense meets simcity...

For the last 25 years I've always said the killer game app will be "SIMCity with tanks".

someone did a paper on 8 types of gameplay. i think i heard about it on extra credits. but i dont have a link. all i remember is the paper used some term for "zoning out" that the extra credits guys replaced with "abnegation". but that list of 8 types of gameplay (which included construction as one of the eight types) would probably help in your analysis.

For the last 25 years I've always said the killer game app will be "SIMCity with tanks".

i think casesar 2 by impressions came closest to this with a separate battlefield map similar to total war, as well as combats in your city (why do they always go for the aquaducts?!?!?) <g>.

and yes, somebody PLEASE make SIMCity with tanks! i've wanted to play that for 25 years now. but with Caveman, SIMSpace, AIRSHIPS!, and the latest ideas (FPS bulldozers vs dinosaurs - "You got the Backhoe!" <g>. or FPS Mechs vs dinos), i'll probably never get around to it myself.

I tend to drift towards city builders that blend general design with system building and problem solving.

Lately I've really been into traffic simulation and transit design with systems that focus on relatively realistic cities, but I did really enjoy what I considered "Tool-chain" games when I was younger, such as Caesar III, and more recently the Anno series.

I'm really enjoying most parts of Cities: Skylines, but the traffic design tools leave a little to be desired. (Weird random 'snap' placement and curves at times, lack of pre-planning that leads to frustrating budget issues.)

But what I really want is a good solid and realistic colony game. Outpost 1 revamped kind of thing. There have been a number of 'colony' games that I've seen lately, but they're all horribly shallow and short tool-chain builders.

Just two pennies that have probably already been mentioned: transport and discovery (unlocking new buildings, etc). The first is fairly obvious and the second applies to many games, but still. Freedom to run your city how you like is great as well. The player shouldn't be pressured into one direction or another.

I love the Pharaoh game way more than sim city. I like running a personal economy. By personal I mean seeing people actually harvest raw materials, bring them to a building to process, have them moved to market/storage yard and see people consume them. When I can see and control this entire chain and design paths and where to build things (I prefer more rigid building and paths vs looser) I get a lot of satisfaction.

One of my dream games is where this is 100% community driven in a massive online game. I'd also like players to vote on leaders (other players) who have a little more control over certain mechanics of the game (taxes, what/where to build public things, etc).

I am working on a similar game project! However it will be much more than just a city building game - the city building is just a part of it! :)