City Economic Simulation DLC — Tips and FAQ

The City Economic Simulation DLC puts you on both sides of the table: running a corporation and, through your political party, running the city it operates in. This page collects the thresholds, the cause-and-effect chains and the questions that come up most often, with each answer linking to the page that covers the feature in full.

In this guide:

• Requirements at a glance
• Getting started
• Politics: party, election, mayor
• Running the city
• The city economy
• Quality of life and taxes
• Turning influence into business advantage
• FAQ

Requirements at a glance

Almost everything the DLC adds is gated behind one thing: having a member of your political party in the mayor’s office.

Getting started

Expect a smaller city and a deeper one

The population scale is roughly one tenth of the base game — cities of around 500,000 — because the simulation models individual citizens in far more detail. Supply and demand across retail, manufacturing, farming and natural resources have been recalibrated to match, so do not judge a market by base-game instincts. See Ultra-realistic City Economic Simulation.

The settings that change difficulty most

Three options on the DLC’s page of the new game settings do more than the rest:

• Global Competitiveness Rating Increases — global ratings climb over time, so the bar for exporting keeps rising. This is the main long-game difficulty dial.
• Public Expenses Index — how expensive public facilities are to run, and therefore how hard it is to govern without deficits.
• Apartment and Commercial Capacity Modifiers — lowering either means more buildings are needed for the same population, which makes real estate more profitable.

Also worth knowing: with Randomize Global Competitiveness Ratings off, every industry starts at a flat 30.

Survival Mode is a different game

Enable it from the DLC menu and you build a nation from nothing. Most products start locked and must be reinvented — only the Food and Beverage mega class and products your company has expertise in are available. A “competing nation” population counter runs at the top of the screen for pressure, and AI companies are capped at 20, because few firms would invest in a nation this early. Developed City at the Beginning decides whether you start with a working city or an empty map. See Survival Mode.

Six scenarios ship with the DLC

Metropolitan Transformation, Economic Revival, Investing in Education, Towards a Better Quality of Life, Welfare Vision and Profit with Purpose. Enable the DLC, then Scenario screen → the City Economic Simulation DLC button at the top. See New Scenarios.

Politics: party, election, mayor

Form the party before you need it

The Political Party screen in the Information Center is where you form your own party, and it is a prerequisite for both the mayor’s office and for founding a city — the game needs a party member to install as mayor. Fund it by donating personally or on behalf of your company. See Political Parties.

Campaign budget buys support

The Run for Mayor button appears as early as a year before the incumbent’s term ends. Once your candidate is standing, the Election screen lists every candidate with their support rating and lets you set a monthly campaign budget — a higher budget raises your candidate’s support. Start early rather than in the final months; the budget is monthly, so time is what converts money into votes.

Founding a city makes you mayor for 30 years

Open the Nation Map from the bottom bar (it replaces the world map in this DLC), pick a region with no city, and acquire the development rights by donating to the new city’s treasury. Your party member becomes mayor and holds the office for 30 years — no campaigning required. It is the most reliable route into Government mode. See Build a New City.

Running the city

Balance the budget with the operation slider, not demolition

Inheriting a city with more public buildings than its revenue supports is common. Every government building has a slider for its level of operation: scale it down to cut running costs, or set it to 0% to suspend the building entirely so it incurs no monthly expense. You do not need to demolish anything. See Government Mode.

Turn on the automation before the city grows

From the Cities screen, Mayor page, four switches remove most of the micro-management: Auto Adjust Operation Levels of Civic Buildings (sets levels from demand), Auto Manage Media Firms, Auto Manage Apartments and Auto Manage Commercial Buildings (both take a rent preference you set). Enabling these early is the difference between governing a city and clicking through one.

Zoning is a tool for your own developments too

The Land-use Planning Tool zones plots as mixed residential-commercial, residential, commercial, industrial or agricultural, and can mark plots Not For Sale. Two details worth knowing: agricultural land is significantly cheaper than other zones, and there is a control to apply a land purpose to the entire city at once. Cities that existed at the start of the game come with a pre-existing mixed zone; cities you found yourself, and the starting city in Survival Mode, have no zones at all until you set them.

Read the map, not just the reports

Two minimap modes come with the DLC. Population and Pollution shows density in dark brown and pollution in orange and red — red is pollution in populated areas, which is the kind that costs you Quality of Life, orange is pollution where nobody lives. Population and Public Services shows which parts of the city can actually reach a selected hospital, school or sports facility — the fastest way to see whether a new civic building will help anyone. See New Minimap Modes.

Find the CBD before you buy commercial land

Distance to the Central Business District is one of the key factors in a commercial building’s overall rating. Switch the minimap to Land Value mode and the CBD is the red dot. It is not fixed — a district that accumulates commercial buildings and land value can become the new CBD — and in a city you have just founded there is no CBD at all until commercial buildings exist.

The city economy

The boom-and-bust chain, in order

This is the loop the whole DLC turns on, and knowing the order lets you see a recession coming:

Your expansion raises the Investment component of GDP → GDP growth accelerates → new firms create jobs and unemployment falls → a tight labour market forces wages up → higher wages raise consumer spending → inflation rises → unchecked, the central bank hikes interest rates aggressively → the economy is dragged into recession. GDP is the sum of consumption, investment, government spending and net exports; imports happen when companies buy from suppliers in another city, exports when they sell to business clients in another city.

Competitiveness is what turns a city into an exporter

A city’s competitiveness rating per industry decides how many people that industry employs locally. Below the global rating the city imports, above it the city exports — and strong exports improve employment significantly. Four ways to raise it:

• Concentration of companies doing R&D or production in that industry locally.
• R&D units — the share of citizens with university degrees affects how fast this works.
• Manufacturing and Farm Livestock Processing units — the share with high school degrees affects the rate.
• University research sponsored by the city, and landmarks with the industry-competitiveness bonus.

There is a second, quieter payoff: when a city’s rating in an industry is above zero, every product made there in that industry gets a City Quality Bonus to production quality, shown on the manufacturing unit. Locating factories in a strong city makes better products. See City Competitiveness Ratings and University Research.

Research pays back slowly — start it early

University research does nothing visible until the city’s competitiveness passes the global average, and that can take months or years. The effect becomes obvious only when many product classes are far above global. Treat it as infrastructure, not a lever to pull when a market gets tight. If the Digital Age DLC is also enabled, university research in technology fields raises both the skill and the supply of talents in that field.

Landmarks are a goal reward, and the bonus is yours to choose

City goals unlock landmarks; you place one in Government mode and then select its bonus effect — including increasing competitiveness in an industry you name. Let the game run a few days and the effect shows up in the city’s Industries report. Click any landmark to see what bonus it carries. See Landmarks.

Judge the nation, not just the city

The Nation Report aggregates every city you run and ranks you on the World Ranking — GDP Growth and GDP Per Capita charts. Your Nation Score is calculated from population and quality of life, and the report tracks your current score against your best. See Nation Report.

Quality of life and taxes

Quality of Life is what makes people move in

Population growth needs low unemployment, high quality of living and enough new apartments. The index is built from housing and community facilities, jobs and income, education, health, social security, safety, food availability at retail, product availability at retail, environment (that is pollution) and sports — each with its own weight, shown in the Weight column. Two are worth singling out: Social Security is the average unemployment benefit rate over the past three years, so cutting it is felt slowly and restoring it is felt slowly too; Jobs and Income depends on the wage level, the unemployment rate and the individual income tax rate.

Each tax has a different cost

• Consumer tax — charged on spending. Set too high, consumer spending declines and the business sector suffers with it.
• Individual income tax — hits consumer spending and drops the Jobs and Income component of Quality of Life. It costs you twice.
• Corporate profit tax — high brings revenue, low attracts business investment. This is the one to aim at competitors (see below).
• Unemployment benefits pay rate — an expense that buys Social Security in the Quality of Life index.

There is also an annual limit on immigrants: a city without enough jobs or public capacity for new arrivals will want it tightened.

General Stores exist for small markets

Low setup cost, low running cost, and they stock a wide range of products — the right way to enter a city whose population cannot support a full retail operation, and a cheap way to test a market before committing. See General Store.

Turning influence into business advantage

Once your party holds a mayor’s office, the city’s powers are available to your company. The documented tactics:

• Sponsor university research in industries where your company has a large interest.
• Build civic buildings around your own real estate — community facilities raise the quality of life rating of your apartment buildings, which raises occupancy, rents and property values.
• Raise corporate profit tax where competitors are concentrated; lower it where you are.
• Relocate competitors’ firms to the outskirts, freeing prime downtown plots for your own retail — the city pays the compensation. See Forced Firm Relocation.
• Privatize government media firms and apartment buildings by putting them up for sale, then acquire them.

See Use Your Political Influence to Your Advantage.

Influence Score, and the chart worth aiming at

The score has three parts: your Wealth & Business Score, your current political influence — in every city where you or a party member is mayor, derived from the city’s population, GDP per capita and the mayor’s approval rating — and past political influence, the accumulated total at half weight. As party leader you also collect 50% of each party member’s influence, so putting members into several mayoralties compounds. A high enough score puts you on the 100 Most Influential People chart. See Influence Score.

FAQ

I enabled the DLC but there is no Government mode icon. Why?

Government mode appears only once a member of your political party is actually mayor of a city. Form a party, then either win an election or found a new city — founding one installs your party member as mayor for 30 years.

Why is my city government running a deficit I cannot close?

Use the operation-level slider on individual government buildings rather than looking for a demolish button. Scaling a building down cuts its running cost; 0% suspends it entirely and it costs nothing per month.

Why is my city importing everything?

Its competitiveness rating in those industries is below the global rating. Raise it with local R&D and manufacturing, sponsored university research, or a landmark with the competitiveness bonus — and expect it to take months of game time.

I sponsored university research and nothing happened.

Nothing will, until the city’s competitiveness passes the global average. Only then does export begin, and the impact grows as more product classes clear that bar.

Why did my population stop growing?

Growth needs low unemployment, a high quality of living and enough apartments. Check the Housing Supply and Demand Index — a negative value means demand exceeds supply — and look at which Quality of Life components are dragging.

Where do I see whether my city is polluted?

Switch the minimap to Population and Pollution mode. Red marks pollution in populated areas — the kind that hurts the Environment component of Quality of Life. Orange is pollution where few or no people live.

My new hospital does not seem to help. What am I missing?

Use the Population and Public Services minimap mode and select the hospital: it shows exactly which parts of the city can reach it. A civic building that covers empty land does nothing for Quality of Life.

Why is there no red dot for the CBD on my new city’s map?

The Central Business District is not established until the city has commercial buildings. It also moves — a district with a higher concentration of commercial buildings and higher land value can become the new CBD.

Can I relocate a competitor’s factory?

Yes, when your party holds the mayoralty — that is the Forced Firm Relocation feature, and the city pays compensation. Natural resource firms are the exception and cannot be relocated.

Which tax should I raise when I need revenue?

Corporate profit tax does the least damage to your citizens and can be aimed: raise it in cities where competitors are concentrated. Individual income tax is the most expensive politically, because it reduces consumer spending and drops the Jobs and Income part of Quality of Life.

How do I get a landmark?

Landmarks are unlocked by city goals. Press G to open the Goal report and see whether your current goal unlocks one; build it in Government mode from the Build menu, then choose its bonus effect.

Do I have to campaign to become mayor?

Not if you found the city. Acquiring the development rights to an undeveloped region makes your party member mayor for 30 years. Otherwise, stand a candidate in the year before the incumbent’s term ends and fund the monthly campaign budget.

What is the “competing nation” counter in Survival Mode?

An imagined rival nation whose population is displayed for comparison. It exists to give you something to measure your growth against.

Why can’t I make most products in Survival Mode?

They start locked and must be reinvented. Only the Food and Beverage mega class and products your company already has expertise in are available at the start.

Does the DLC interact with the other DLCs?

Yes — with the Digital Age DLC enabled, sponsored university research in a technology field raises both the skill level and the supply of talents in that field.

Read more

City management and government: Government Mode · Build a New City · City Competitiveness Ratings · New Scenarios

Macroeconomics and politics: Ultra-realistic City Economic Simulation · Political Parties · Political Influence · Landmarks

Nation, survival and influence: Survival Mode · Nation Report · Forced Firm Relocation · Influence Score

Options and goals: City Goals

Education, retail and city tools: University Research · General Store · New Minimap Modes

Don’t have the DLC yet? See what the City Economic Simulation DLC adds.