V5: Chapter 13

…

Honestly, I don’t see the appeal of city-simulation games.

Zone this, make public services, set taxes, make ordinances, set up public transport, get a city able to support universities, maintain wonders… and then use the terrain editor to drown everyone in septic waste for the giggles.

May as well just make a sand castle and knock it down after making some fanfiction about it.

Now, I’m not saying that city-simulation games don’t have appeal.

I, personally, don’t see the point of making something, finishing it, and then wrecking it.

If I make something, then I want that something to help me win.

If I’m turning a planet infested by aliens into a factory, that factory has to do something that’ll win me the game.

If I’m going to settle dozens of islands across multiple different maps and coordinate trade convoys of resources of each one while managing the population, I want all of that to help me make a military fleet that can destroy my rivals.

If I’m setting up a civilization that’ll stand the test of time, I want to use the civilization to roll over my enemies with tanks while they’re using pikes.

Yeah, essentially, I need to know that the time I give means something substantial.

Not just a twenty minute match in a closing ring with other people competing for shit that’ll reset in a few months or shiny skins.

Not just making a city for the sake of making a city.

I want to make something that I’m proud of and happy with… and then use it to bludgeon my opponents while they can’t stop me.

I want a perfect journey and perfect ending.

I want to win easily, but also earn that win against strong opponents.

I want to be completely satisfied with all the time I invested, never hate a single second I spend, until I look at the victory screen with a smile.

In short, without a semblance of a doubt, I’m selfish as hell.

Thankfully, in this world and with what I know, that’s an asset rather than a vice that I need to correct.

To get what I want, I need to make the correct decisions.

Not the right decisions.

The correct decisions.

There’s a massive difference.

…

The hyper-authoritarian police state starts NOOOOOOWWWWWWW.

Yep, not going to mince words.

Democracy, free-speech, and elected officials aren’t going to be a thing in the society that I’m making. Choosing that path on the current level of fuckery, with the tidal wave of shit coming my way, would be an elaborate suicide. In the history of the entire game, only one man has documented an entire playthrough of ironman mode as a budding democracy with all crises activated, and he only won due to sheer luck by getting the correct set of Ancient Wonders to randomly spawn.

He only managed to eke out a win, too.

And, not going to lie, I’m not even close to his level.

Therefore, it’s time to go full surveillance state complete with secret police, dehumanization of all our foes, and state-controlled media. All education given will be state-approved. All literature will go through the state before publishing. If your business is amazing, it’s going to be nationalized for the good of the nation, while you get a measly cut of profits and a pension for winning the minor game of capitalism that I allow.

Yep.

That’s where all the new income I’m getting is going, as well as the necessary buildings to support the costs of it all, naturally.

“The new observer towers and their policing stations have been built and begun operating today. Nothing but good news on their deployment, my liege.” Ayah informed me, as I looked out the balcony onto the city below. Amidst the sprawling city filled with districts for homes, industry, and commerce, there were now cylindrical towers evenly spaced out from one another. Made of the pure-white substance that composed the Citadels, they were like map pins embedded from on high by a giant upon the city. “The Iterants report that they are surveilling the whole city with utmost ease and coordinating with their fellows stationed on site.”

“Good. Very good.” I made sure to use the guilty Iterants. Their desire for acceptance worked well with my need for a secret police. They could change shape, hide in the crowds, didn’t need to sleep, and were strong and fast. I had squads of them working the streets, guided by watchers in the observation room at the bottom of the Citadel. “How goes the record-keeping effort?”

“Five percent of all people in this city are now having their daily habits and schedules studied. We expect to be done with creating a thorough record for each individual in this city within the year.” Data gathering was made a lot easier by the upgrade to the fourth stage of Citadels. The replication machines in the Citadels were now producing basic communication devices which could store and transfer data within the range of the four Citadels under my control. As if that wasn’t a good enough way to keep them all to us, the simple tablets were tracked by the Citadel’s systems, and they transferred all that they took into me. Not only that, but I could track each one of them in real-time. Naturally, I wanted one in every citizen’s pocket, and they paid for the privilege, because being able to text and keep notes perfectly is magic people gladly paid for. “Many are adopting the tablets being produced by the Citadel very well.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

If only the tablets could compute.

I’d honestly kill for a spreadsheet program, but being able to text and record and communicate throughout my territories was enough.

But the new surveillance towers still had other costs that I needed to address.

In-game, they provided increased security against espionage, provided more defense during sieges, and decreased the happiness of the citizenry. If happiness is low enough, then events attributed to structures or districts you built, as well as policies you implement, come into play. If your people are unhappy, those structures might need to be repaired, districts need to be rebuilt, or policies just get rescinded even though you paid the influence needed to push it through. The developers liked the idea of cascading failure states, especially since most strategies that people liked in the early days of the game had them ignoring population unhappiness and doing nothing for their people.

So, they implemented civil unrest, civil disturbances, riots, and then civil wars, to make those strategies high risk with high rewards only if you balanced things correctly.

Basically, you can’t win the game if you treat your people like complete dogshit.

So, implementing all these security measures required a couple of things to keep me on the positive side in ‘happiness’ income.

“Alright, how are the national food banks and the new district being treated?” I worked with the Followers of the Smiling Tyrant and upgraded their district to Level 3, since I could afford it now with 4 Citadels under my control. Their district was quite different from the rest of my city. Lights courtesy of their mages coursed over their land in a multi-colored spectrum. Hot air balloons floated from building top to building top. That was just what I could see from my office. On the ground, you’d see people walking on thin ropes between every building, entrances to buildings on the fifth floor, and hundreds of tall, bright tents used by performers. At the heart of it was their temple to their Smiling Tyrant, where they trained, taught, and proselytized about their deity to all who would listen. That usually involved good times with lots of music and food, so people liked them. “Any problems?”

“The Smiling Tyrants report that the people have received them well, and that they are ready to begin plying their trade across the land. They have offered us much as thanks, as you predicted, and I have accepted.” They were good as domestic protectors and the happiness they gave was a bonus, but they shined bright as entertainers that could get anywhere. Once they became part of the nation’s culture, they could deploy assassins, seduce enemy leaders, or do sabotage. It’ll take time for all that to be in play, but they’ll supplement the Iterants in the future. “The Food Banks required more time for people to understand, but they are now in full swing, and are greatly enjoyed.”

In-game, Food Banks didn’t exist, but I knew from studying history that there’s fewer ways for a government to show that it cares than providing the basics for the people. Of course, there was the issue in the future that people might take it for granted, but in the near future we were all going to get hit with non-stop life-altering events, so I was sure that the food banks were going to be appreciated in the future too.

Anyway, I was subsidizing a lot of the agricultural sector to produce massive surpluses. With the use of seeds made by the Citadels, and the fact I was more than happy to produce nigh-unbreakable farming equipment from the Citadels, they were already producing tons and tons of food. We easily reached the point where supply massively outstripped demand, even though we were just coming out of a famine. Thus, I had to subsidize the farmers to keep producing ludicrous amounts, because the market would dictate that they should cut down.

The Food Banks turned that surplus into ‘free’ food for my population after the markets got what they needed and the quotas for the food stores were met. Though I was shipping thousands of tons of food around the continent and filling up chilled underground complexes with barrels of preserved and pickled fruits and vegetables as well as loads of grain, the Food Banks were still needed. If I didn’t have them, I’d have to throw out and destroy food.

In-game, if you had excess food, your population grew more quickly, but the numbers were showing that wasn’t happening. Population was slowly growing, but nowhere close to the numbers in-game cities had by late game. We were set to get to a million in a decade, but in-game we should be at three or even four, especially for the build that I was going with, which was extracting resources from all my other regions and funneling everything to support my starting one.

The data and trends we had were good, but we just didn’t have the time.

So, I was going with another tactic.

Make my future estimated population have the same output as the population that I wanted.

That started with food, then health, followed by education, and then lots of heavy industry.

“Good. I want people hale, healthy, and working hard. We need everyone working hard.” Shifts were ten hours long. Sometimes twelve. I hired the elderly to watch after children for now, but schools were going to be built soon. Ones with dormitories so that parents could rest at their homes and not deal with their kids. Food was being subsidized so people could just buy food instead of cooking. I was shaping the whole of society towards industry. Until I saw piston-driven fighters and bombers being churned out by the dozen every month, I wasn’t going to be satisfied. “How are our acquisitions of luxuries going?”

“The Merchants are buckling. They know that we have all the leverage. It will only be a matter of time before they concede, or they do something drastic. Our alliance with the Wardens is bearing fruit, too. All the returning flights are filled with jewelry, art, clothing, and other such things.” And, my people were the retailers for the luxuries my people were spending their hard-earned money on. The theatres were running stories that I stole form my own world. The restaurants churning out the healthy, cheap meals were owned by me. There were some small businesses, but like I said, at a certain point I came in the buy them out and give them a nice pension and retirement. Money from trade via weapons, food, and culture flowed into the coffers, paying salaries, and those salaries went back to me through sales and taxes. “We are growing at a steady rate. We will be able to support the army of Conquerors that we will need to hold the line.”

“Good.” I’m the commander and chief of a military junta, the head of what’s practically a mega-corporation, and finally the big brother with my extensive surveillance network. Essentially, I turned what not to do as a leader into a checklist. Anyone with two brain cells can track the money and find that all the money is going to what I decide is right for the nation. Honestly, it’s a surprise that no one’s going against me. The people should be ridiculously unhappy and I should be working against rivals for my position, yet nothing was happening. It’s honestly making me paranoid. “Good.”

I looked over at the city below, teeming with people, and felt bad.

I wish I could take the right actions, make this place into a fully-fledged democratic state, which’ll usher in an age of peace and prosperity across the planet. I wouldn’t just win. I’d get the best ending possible, while also fairly elected by people keeping me in check. Instead of war, I’d love to leverage my influence and power, and just force peace and alliances on everyone else, instead of having to put them down.

The path is there, the possibility existed, and yet I couldn’t take it.

Doing so would be the same as killing everyone else with my own hands.

“Jack, is something wrong?”

“Just wondering if I’m doing the right thing. Having troubles, y’know?” My light-hearted response threw Ayah off my trail, and after a deep breath, I went back to work. “How’s the progress going regarding the Wardens?”

Ayah stilled at that, and I knew I threw her off the trail of me being from another reality altogether.

“We have found several radicals that are against the current teachings espoused by Khalai and his people. Soon, we can fund a holy schism that will cripple them and drive them towards us.”

Yeah.

While I’m telling everyone it’s the Academy at fault for what happened to the Conquerors, I’m going to do the same to Khalai, so that I can take everything that he had.

Everyone will think the Academy set it up, while I ride in, put the rebels down, and bring the Wardens into the fold.

Once more, I nodded at Ayah.

“Good. Get to it. We’ll bring them in, next.”

Sorry, Khalai, but I can’t have you finish your Wonder, and I’d rather not wipe out your people.

You need to go, just like the Deliverer did, and I’ll put Sirena or someone I can control in your place.