Smart City Plan Manual, Tips and Tricks



About the game
How the game works
Tips and Tricks on how to Play
Optimizing Traffic
Reporting bugs
Using mods
Creating mods


About the game

"Smart City Plan" is a modern city builder game: Plan zones, roads, public transport like trains, trams, buses, subways and even the hypertube. Set taxes and policies and implement smart city technologies.

Start by creating a few roads and specify zones where your citizens can start building their homes, shops and companies. Once everything runs fine, your can start expanding your city. Extend it by providing public transport for your citizens and implement policies. Ensure everything is taken care for: Pollution, noise, crime, waste, water, energy and so on. Your assistant will help you by guiding your through the process of doing all this easily.

The game is running in real-time, but can be accelerated and paused at any time. Manage policies, track financial data, analyze problems in your city. Expand the city when you have figured out how everything works and manage the public transport system, and build new infrastructure buildings, stations, rails, hypertube tracks, bridges, or even space ports.


How the game works

The game runs in realtime, but you can stop, accelerate or let the game time run in realtime again, using the buttons on the top right:


But the most important part is the mail reader. If you have mail, a blue number is flashing next to it. Click it to open the mail reader. There, you will get important information about the current state, and what to do next.



If you start reading the mails you get in there, and start doing what your assistants are telling you there, you will quickly master the game easily.




Tips and Tricks on how to Play

Here are some tips on how to play:






Optimizing Traffic

If you have problems with to much traffic, try this:

Always have enough roads. Building more roads and alternative routes between parts of your city will usually help.

When designing your street network, try to avoid mutliple intersections right after another. This will quickly cause traffic jams. See for example here:



This is an standard intersection. Traffic flows nicely across here.
But now see this, if you add more than one intersection right after another one, this will quickly cause jams, so try to prevent this:



Even worse, more than two intersections behind each other:


Don't do this. This will stop the nice traffic flow and cause jams quickly.
In order to easily solve traffic jams in the inner city, you can build traffic calming zones. Cars are forced to drive there slowly, and cars will try to avoid this by using different routes.



Reporting bugs


If you want to help to improve the game, you can also help by reporting bugs you discover. If you have a game with a bug or something strange happening, you can also send us the savegame. For getting to the savegame, in Windows, right-click the Windows start button, and select 'Run'. There, type
%localappdata%
and press ENTER. You should find a folder named "Smart City Plan" and under that, a folder named "savegames". You can send the game in question to game@ambieragames.com


Using mods


The game includes the possibility to extend it, and download extensions and plugins (called mods) for it easily. This way, you can for example download new buildings and use them in your city. To download mods, do this:



Go to the main menu in the game, click "Settings" and then click "Mods" -> "Download". There, you can select any mod to download and install. You can filter the displayed list of mods by typing any text in the edit field above.
If the mod you installed contains new buildings, you will find the buildings in the 'mod' selection in the building palette when running a game.





Creating mods


You can create mods for the game, and extend it with new buildings, new graphics and even scripts, if you like. Do it like this:



Submitting your mod to the public

If you want your mod to be played by other people and be visible in the mod browser on the "download" tab, do it like this:

Mods replacing existing graphics

You can also create mods which replace graphics from the existing game, not only add new buildings to it. For this, create a mod with a mod.json file looking like this: 
{
    "file":             "new water pump",
    "description":      "new graphics for the water pump",
    "version":          "1.0",
	"replacedGraphics":
		[
			{
				"replace": "pump_1x1",
				"with": "newpump.png"
			}
		]    
}

This replaces the graphics of the water pump with a new image in newpump.png. Images which can be replaced are these: 
sand, sand_stone_small, sand_stone_big, sand_cactus, mud, grass, grass_bright, grass_stone, 
grass_tree, grass_tree2, grass_tree3, asphalt_tram, burned, asphalt, asphalt_street_lr,
 asphalt_street_tb, asphalt_street_x, asphalt_street_trn_1, asphalt_street_trn_2,
 asphalt_street_trn_3, asphalt_street_trn_4, asphalt_street_jnc_1, 
 asphalt_street_jnc_2, asphalt_street_jnc_3, asphalt_street_jnc_4,
 bridge_street_begin1, bridge_street_begin2, bridge_street_begin3, bridge_street_begin4,
 bridge_rail_begin1, bridge_rail_begin2, bridge_rail_begin3, bridge_rail_begin4, 
 bridge_tram_begin1, bridge_tram_begin2, bridge_tram_begin3, bridge_tram_begin4, 
 zone_1, zone_2, zone_4, zone_5, zone_6, zone_7, zone_3, rail_lr, rail_tb, rail_x, 
 rail_trn_1, rail_trn_2, rail_trn_3, rail_trn_4, rail_jnc_1, rail_jnc_2, rail_jnc_3,
 rail_jnc_4, rail_lr_asphalt, rail_tb_asphalt, rail_crossing_1, rail_crossing_2, 
 tram_lr, tram_tb, tram_x, tram_trn_1, tram_trn_2, tram_trn_3, tram_trn_4, tram_jnc_1,
 tram_jnc_2, tram_jnc_3, tram_jnc_4, asphalt, asphalt, asphalt, asphalt, asphalt, 
 asphalt, asphalt, asphalt, asphalt, asphalt, asphalt, subrail_lr, subrail_tb, subrail_x,
 subrail_trn_1, subrail_trn_2, subrail_trn_3, subrail_trn_4, subrail_jnc_1, subrail_jnc_2,
 subrail_jnc_3, subrail_jnc_4, pipe_lr, pipe_tb, pipe_x, pipe_trn_1, pipe_trn_2, pipe_trn_3,
 pipe_trn_4, pipe_jnc_1, pipe_jnc_2, pipe_jnc_3, pipe_jnc_4, power_lr, power_tb, power_x,
 power_trn_1, power_trn_2, power_trn_3, power_trn_4, power_jnc_1, power_jnc_2, power_jnc_3,
 power_jnc_4, powerplant_wind, powerplant_solar, powerplant_solarthermal, powerplant_coal,
 powerplant_nuclear, powerplant_fusion, water, water_start, water_start_2, water_start_3,
 water_start_4, water_edge_1, water_edge_2, water_edge_3, water_edge_4, water_corner_1,
 water_corner_2, water_corner_3, water_corner_4, debug_size_tile, debug_size_tile2,
 asphalt, cursor, cursorbad, badtilemark, buildoverlay, buildoverlayradius, marker, 
 train_station_t1, train_station_t2, train_station_t3, train_station_t4, train_station_t4,
 train_station_t5, train_station_t6, train_station_t7, train_station_t5, train_station_a1,
 train_station_a2, train_station_b1, train_station_b2, police_small, police_big, fire_small,
 fire_big, hospital_small, hospital_big, hyper_station_1a, hyper_station_1b, subway, 
 tram_station1, tram_station2, bus_station1, bus_station2, bus_stationb1, bus_stationb2,
 launch_pad, airport, car_factory, chem_factory, coal_mine, pump_1x1, pump_2x2,
 pump_drain_1, pump_drain_2, pump_drain_3, pump_drain_4, watertreatment_3x3, school_1,
 school_2, school_3, library, park2x2, park3x3, church1, church2, stadion, stadion2,
 cinema, building_1x1_l1_h1, building_1x1_l1_h2, building_1x1_l2_h1, building_1x1_l2_h2,
 building_1x1_l2_h3, building_2x2_l1_h1, building_2x2_l1_h2, building_2x2_l1_h3,
 building_2x2_l2_h1, building_2x2_l2_h2, building_2x2_l2_h3, building_2x2_l2_h4,
 building_2x2_l2_h5, building_2x2_l2_h6, building_2x2_l2_h7, building_2x2_l2_h8,
 building_3x3_l3_h1, building_3x3_l3_h2, building_3x3_l3_h3, building_3x3_l3_h4,
 building_3x3_l3_h5, building_3x3_l3_h6, building_3x3_l3_h7, building_3x3_t1_h1,
 building_3x3_t1_h2, building_3x3_t1_h3, building_3x3_t1_h4, building_3x3_t1_h5, 
 building_2x2_l1_h4, building_2x2_l1_h5, building_3x3_x1, building_3x3_x2, 
 building_3x3_x3, building_3x3_x4, building_2x2_x5, building_3x3_x6, building_2x2_x7,
 building_2x2_x8, building_3x3_x11, building_2x2_x12, building_2x2_x13, building_2x2_x14,
 building_2x2_x15, building_3x3_x19, building_1x1_l3_h8, building_1x1_l3_h9,
 building_1x1_l3_h10, building_1x1_l3_h11, building_2x2_l3_h2, building_1x1_l2_h3b,
 building_1x1_l2_h2b, ind_1x1_l1_h1, ind_1x1_l1_h2, ind_1x1_l1_h3, ind_1x1_l2_h1,
 ind_1x1_l2_h2, ind_1x1_l2_h3, ind_2x2_l1_h1, ind_2x2_l1_h2, ind_2x2_l1_h3, ind_2x2_l2_h1,
 ind_2x2_l2_h2, ind_2x2_l2_h3, ind_2x2_l2_h4, ind_3x3_l1_h1, ind_3x3_l1_h2, ind_3x3_l2_h1,
 ind_3x3_l2_h2, ind_3x3_l2_h3, com_1x1_l1_h1, com_1x1_l1_h2, com_1x1_l1_h3, com_1x1_l1_h4,
 com_1x1_l1_h5, com_2x2_l1_h1, com_2x2_l1_h5, com_2x2_l1_h3, com_3x3_l1_h1, com_3x3_l1_h2,
 com_3x3_l1_h3, com_1x1_l1_h6, com_1x1_l1_h7, com_2x2_l1_h4, com_2x2_l1_h2, farm_2x2_h1, 
 farm_2x2_h2, farm_3x3_h1, farm_1x1_h1, farm_1x1_h2, farm_1x1_h3, farm_1x1_h4, free_area_item_1,
 free_area_item_2, free_area_item_3, free_area_item_4, free_area_item_5, free_area_item_6, 
 free_area_item_7, free_area_item_8, free_area_item_9, upclhouse_1, upclhouse_2, upclhouse_3,
 upclhouse_4, building_3x3_l3_h1_green, building_3x3_l3_h4_green, building_3x3_t1_h1_green,
 building_3x3_t1_h3_green, building_3x3_t1_h4_green, building_2x2_x12_green, 
 building_2x2_x13_green, building_3x3_l3_h2_green, building_3x3_t1_h2_green, 
 building_3x3_x2_green, building_3x3_x11_green, watertreatment_5x5.

You can of course also still include new buildings additionally in there as well, in a "buildings" section. For an example mod doing this, take a look at the "Desert" mod.



Mods with scripts

You can also add some game logic in your mod by supplying a script. Scripts are done using JavaScript, and defined in the mod.json file like this: 
{
   "file":             "my script mod",
   "description":      "a mod for testing scripts",
   "version":          "1.0",
   "script":           "script.js"
}

So your mod also needs to have a script file included, in this case named "script.js". Put this code into there, just for trying it out: 
new function()
{
	this.LastTimeRan = 0;	// last time this mod ran
																				
	this.run = function()    // <- called about ~30 times per second by the game
	{
		var now = game_get_time();
		if (now - this.LastTimeRan < 120) // only run every 120 minutes in game time
			return;

		this.LastTimeRan = now;

		game_send_mail('Population: ' + game_get_city().Population, 'hourly report');
	};
}

This code will send a mail every two game hours to the player, with the current population amount of the city. Not very useful, but good as example code.
It works like this: You need to define a function object, which has a method named 'run'. This is being called every game logic step. In there, you can do your game logic and access and manipulate the game.

Here is a list of most basic functions which are available to you:
For a detailed description of the mod API, see the official Smart City Plan mod API documentation.

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