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CHEAT: see [12.2]
6 Building Successful Shopping Centers
See [3] for the time chart. You need to know this by heart.
TIP: Note which types of business has a minimum width of 1, and which ones have minimum width of 2. This helps you plan the size of each business, which affects the stocking levels and building costs. See "Fact File 2" in your manual for full list of retail shops.
TIP: Note that many shops, esp. later, can be built-higher, to fit more stock, instead of more footprint. If you are building a high volume low price store like newspaper, you may need to build up in order to squeeze more stores on the same block.
NOTE: Restocking happens at 0600 or by construction (if after 0600). Therefore, do NOT construct stores just before midnight, or you'll lose a LOT of the stock due to 'spoilage'. Instead, build day retail just after midnight (between 0000 and 0900), and build night retail before 1800.
It is hard to use the "special restock" card if you get it.
Basically, it's best to use it on a store that has ran out of stock, but there is still significant amount of the retail period remaining. Also, the price should be high on the item.
For example, let's say your newsstand is already out of paper, and your jewelry store is also out of jewelry. The day is only 11AM, and you have a special restock card.
Assuming both stores are equal capacity, it would probably be better to restock the jewelry store, as that has better margins overall.
TIP: Check ALL of your business before 6AM every day on stock level, prices, and so on. Lower prices and/or stock level if necessary to sell things out.
TIP: Keep day and night retail on separate blocks. Citizens who shop on the block will tend to browse the rest of the block, so you want to put the maximum number of shops on the same block.
TIP: Refurbish existing stores when they no longer serve the right clientele or provided the wrong commodities. Remember, only the same footprint type can be done.
TIP: Rule of thumb: keep selling price AT LEAST twice the cost, higher for lower cost items. Also see [10.5] for more pricing tips.
TIP: If you can't maintain the profit margin or make the store profitable, TEAR IT DOWN. You don't want the store to drain your cash.
TIP: The default prices are NOT always right. In case of tools, clothing (esp. in mid or high quality buildings), electrical, travel, and such, the default prices may be much too high to let you sell out, unless you are building a VERY small store.
TIP: Some stores NEED to be small, while others need to be
BIG. Know the difference, study the manual.
TIP: Build stores higher whenever possible, so you can fit more stores on the same block.
7 Apartments
TIP: Most scenarios have multiple apartments already on the map. So usually, you don't need to build any unless you see a district with NO apartments and have extra cash around ready to invest.
NOTE: you can only survey blocks with an apartment on it, and only after people have moved in.
TIP: You can see the apartments flashing on the city map if you click on the survey button on the toolbar.
TIP: Build shopping center around the BIGGEST apartments, as it's easier to anticipate the "needs" of residents there (less margin of error).
TIP: In certain scenarios, you may need to build your own apartments to give the citizens places to live.
TIP: Build your apartments first, if you need to, to attract more citizens. The larger the apartment, the more people will be enticed to shop on the same block (or nearby).
8 Utility Companies and Railroads
TIP: Own all four utilities to get a LOT of money. If you have a long game ahead with lots of cash, buying out the utilities can almost guarantee you a win. If you go for one, you may as well go for them all (if you have enough cash reserves).
TIP: Owning the railroads are less lucrative, but can generate near $1000 per day per railroad. Of course, you'll need to grab most/all railroads to get all that money.
TIP: If you own all railroads AND all utilities, you will get a HUGE profit at the beginning of the day. They generate an incredible amount of dollars.
9 Game Objectives
9.1 SALES TARGET
Make certain number of sales before anybody else.
TIP: Start in the cheap districts, and build those high- volume stores like newspaper and so on. You can make a LOT of sales like newspapers and such. You probably won't make too much money, but you'll sure make lots of sales.
TIP: Stay out of the high-rent districts. You can't afford the expensive buildings there.
TIP: Build at least one or two stores daily, as you need to keep expanding. Make smaller stores and make sure they sell out. Build 1, 2, or 4-unit stores.
TIP: Build both daily and nightly business to fit the demands. Frequently one gets fixated on building only day retail. Night retail has higher profit margins.
TIP: Lower prices to make sure you sell out (or get close to selling out) all the stock in each and every store.
9.2 EMPIRE VALUE
Get Empire value up to a specific value before anybody else, or by a specific date.
TIP: Grow in medium-value districts, 3-star and so on. Cheap districts have almost same amount of overhead so you make less money. Expensive districts cost too much so you grow slower.
TIP: The strategy will differ slightly depending on how much time you have. If the time is short, don't bother auctioning anything, just build, build, and build, while force auction on someone else (esp if two or more build on the same block). You don't need to buy it, you just need to freeze the block for quarter of a day. If you have more time, then buy up the blocks with the best stores, force monopoly, and buy out the enemy stores at below market to boost your empire value.
TIP: Keep building new stores every day. Use up more land to get more value.
NOTE: Don't overspend too much. If you overspend and can't make back the money, you lose due to bankruptcy.
TIP: Empire value is NOT directly related to cash. Empire value has more to do with the stores, the land they use, and how much revenue they generate. It's better to make smaller stores that are profitable than to make big discount stores.
SPECIAL TACTIC: "final day crunch" -- build up a large cash reserve by the final day. Look for a group of blocks (preferably 3-star or below) with a LOT of opponents' businesses. Just before the final day starts, force that one of those blocks into auction. The idea is the auction starts
JUST AFTER midnight, so you don't go into the red just yet.
BUY THE ENTIRE neighborhood at ANY COST. You MUST achieve monopoly. Once you achieved monopoly, go HEAVILY into debt (remember, you have 10000 credit) and BUY OUT ALL of the stores on those blocks. Your empire value will skyrocket, even if you're heavily in debt, due to all these "hostile takeovers", as you paid LESS than market value for them.
This should be enough to win unless you never kept up with the rest.
9.3 VOTING FOR MAYOR
Each citizen votes each "day" for each player that best enhanced his/her life at 1800 hours. There's two days before the voting starts. The first player to collect multiple wins (rosettes) win as mayor.
TIP: Satisfy the needs of the citizens. Build stores that satisfy as many "needs" by the polls as possible. Check the polls constantly and build more stores nearby. This is similar to sales target, except you need to keep this day to day.
TIP: As voting is at 6PM, it's the DAY RETAIL that will earn you more sympathy points. However, you still can't ignore night retail as it's more profitable.
TIP: Build near the BIGGEST apartments first. You're going for quantity, not quality.
TIP: Build in the cheap districts, so you can build MORE stores.
TIP: Build a lot of small stores instead of few big stores, to satisfy more needs.
TIP: Lower prices to make more sales. More sales, more votes.
NOTE: Don't lower prices too much that you're not making a profit. You need money to keep growing and maintain your margin. The target is at least $1000 profit daily, so you can build one or more new stores every day.
9.4 LAST MAN STANDING
Similar to "Voting for Mayor", except the lowest scoring person is kicked out, until only one remains.
TIP: Same tips apply, except you don't need to be the very top all the time.
NOTE: the loser forfeits his or her properties to the city.
9.5 FIRST TO DAILY PROFIT X
Make more profit than any one else, and reach the target, on a daily basis.
TIP: Build medium-sized businesses. You can't afford to keep all that stock around to spoil, yet if you go too small you don't make enough money.
TIP: Build businesses with higher profit margins. Jewelry
CHEAT: see [12.2]
6 Building Successful Shopping Centers
See [3] for the time chart. You need to know this by heart.
TIP: Note which types of business has a minimum width of 1, and which ones have minimum width of 2. This helps you plan the size of each business, which affects the stocking levels and building costs. See "Fact File 2" in your manual for full list of retail shops.
TIP: Note that many shops, esp. later, can be built-higher, to fit more stock, instead of more footprint. If you are building a high volume low price store like newspaper, you may need to build up in order to squeeze more stores on the same block.
NOTE: Restocking happens at 0600 or by construction (if after 0600). Therefore, do NOT construct stores just before midnight, or you'll lose a LOT of the stock due to 'spoilage'. Instead, build day retail just after midnight (between 0000 and 0900), and build night retail before 1800.
It is hard to use the "special restock" card if you get it.
Basically, it's best to use it on a store that has ran out of stock, but there is still significant amount of the retail period remaining. Also, the price should be high on the item.
For example, let's say your newsstand is already out of paper, and your jewelry store is also out of jewelry. The day is only 11AM, and you have a special restock card.
Assuming both stores are equal capacity, it would probably be better to restock the jewelry store, as that has better margins overall.
TIP: Check ALL of your business before 6AM every day on stock level, prices, and so on. Lower prices and/or stock level if necessary to sell things out.
TIP: Keep day and night retail on separate blocks. Citizens who shop on the block will tend to browse the rest of the block, so you want to put the maximum number of shops on the same block.
TIP: Refurbish existing stores when they no longer serve the right clientele or provided the wrong commodities. Remember, only the same footprint type can be done.
TIP: Rule of thumb: keep selling price AT LEAST twice the cost, higher for lower cost items. Also see [10.5] for more pricing tips.
TIP: If you can't maintain the profit margin or make the store profitable, TEAR IT DOWN. You don't want the store to drain your cash.
TIP: The default prices are NOT always right. In case of tools, clothing (esp. in mid or high quality buildings), electrical, travel, and such, the default prices may be much too high to let you sell out, unless you are building a VERY small store.
TIP: Some stores NEED to be small, while others need to be
BIG. Know the difference, study the manual.
TIP: Build stores higher whenever possible, so you can fit more stores on the same block.
7 Apartments
TIP: Most scenarios have multiple apartments already on the map. So usually, you don't need to build any unless you see a district with NO apartments and have extra cash around ready to invest.
NOTE: you can only survey blocks with an apartment on it, and only after people have moved in.
TIP: You can see the apartments flashing on the city map if you click on the survey button on the toolbar.
TIP: Build shopping center around the BIGGEST apartments, as it's easier to anticipate the "needs" of residents there (less margin of error).
TIP: In certain scenarios, you may need to build your own apartments to give the citizens places to live.
TIP: Build your apartments first, if you need to, to attract more citizens. The larger the apartment, the more people will be enticed to shop on the same block (or nearby).
8 Utility Companies and Railroads
TIP: Own all four utilities to get a LOT of money. If you have a long game ahead with lots of cash, buying out the utilities can almost guarantee you a win. If you go for one, you may as well go for them all (if you have enough cash reserves).
TIP: Owning the railroads are less lucrative, but can generate near $1000 per day per railroad. Of course, you'll need to grab most/all railroads to get all that money.
TIP: If you own all railroads AND all utilities, you will get a HUGE profit at the beginning of the day. They generate an incredible amount of dollars.
9 Game Objectives
9.1 SALES TARGET
Make certain number of sales before anybody else.
TIP: Start in the cheap districts, and build those high- volume stores like newspaper and so on. You can make a LOT of sales like newspapers and such. You probably won't make too much money, but you'll sure make lots of sales.
TIP: Stay out of the high-rent districts. You can't afford the expensive buildings there.
TIP: Build at least one or two stores daily, as you need to keep expanding. Make smaller stores and make sure they sell out. Build 1, 2, or 4-unit stores.
TIP: Build both daily and nightly business to fit the demands. Frequently one gets fixated on building only day retail. Night retail has higher profit margins.
TIP: Lower prices to make sure you sell out (or get close to selling out) all the stock in each and every store.
9.2 EMPIRE VALUE
Get Empire value up to a specific value before anybody else, or by a specific date.
TIP: Grow in medium-value districts, 3-star and so on. Cheap districts have almost same amount of overhead so you make less money. Expensive districts cost too much so you grow slower.
TIP: The strategy will differ slightly depending on how much time you have. If the time is short, don't bother auctioning anything, just build, build, and build, while force auction on someone else (esp if two or more build on the same block). You don't need to buy it, you just need to freeze the block for quarter of a day. If you have more time, then buy up the blocks with the best stores, force monopoly, and buy out the enemy stores at below market to boost your empire value.
TIP: Keep building new stores every day. Use up more land to get more value.
NOTE: Don't overspend too much. If you overspend and can't make back the money, you lose due to bankruptcy.
TIP: Empire value is NOT directly related to cash. Empire value has more to do with the stores, the land they use, and how much revenue they generate. It's better to make smaller stores that are profitable than to make big discount stores.
SPECIAL TACTIC: "final day crunch" -- build up a large cash reserve by the final day. Look for a group of blocks (preferably 3-star or below) with a LOT of opponents' businesses. Just before the final day starts, force that one of those blocks into auction. The idea is the auction starts
JUST AFTER midnight, so you don't go into the red just yet.
BUY THE ENTIRE neighborhood at ANY COST. You MUST achieve monopoly. Once you achieved monopoly, go HEAVILY into debt (remember, you have 10000 credit) and BUY OUT ALL of the stores on those blocks. Your empire value will skyrocket, even if you're heavily in debt, due to all these "hostile takeovers", as you paid LESS than market value for them.
This should be enough to win unless you never kept up with the rest.
9.3 VOTING FOR MAYOR
Each citizen votes each "day" for each player that best enhanced his/her life at 1800 hours. There's two days before the voting starts. The first player to collect multiple wins (rosettes) win as mayor.
TIP: Satisfy the needs of the citizens. Build stores that satisfy as many "needs" by the polls as possible. Check the polls constantly and build more stores nearby. This is similar to sales target, except you need to keep this day to day.
TIP: As voting is at 6PM, it's the DAY RETAIL that will earn you more sympathy points. However, you still can't ignore night retail as it's more profitable.
TIP: Build near the BIGGEST apartments first. You're going for quantity, not quality.
TIP: Build in the cheap districts, so you can build MORE stores.
TIP: Build a lot of small stores instead of few big stores, to satisfy more needs.
TIP: Lower prices to make more sales. More sales, more votes.
NOTE: Don't lower prices too much that you're not making a profit. You need money to keep growing and maintain your margin. The target is at least $1000 profit daily, so you can build one or more new stores every day.
9.4 LAST MAN STANDING
Similar to "Voting for Mayor", except the lowest scoring person is kicked out, until only one remains.
TIP: Same tips apply, except you don't need to be the very top all the time.
NOTE: the loser forfeits his or her properties to the city.
9.5 FIRST TO DAILY PROFIT X
Make more profit than any one else, and reach the target, on a daily basis.
TIP: Build medium-sized businesses. You can't afford to keep all that stock around to spoil, yet if you go too small you don't make enough money.
TIP: Build businesses with higher profit margins. Jewelry
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Other files from this game:
- Monopoly Tycoon document by System on 14/03/2006, 06:30
Access all levels - Monopoly Tycoon trainer by System on 14/03/2006, 06:30
Money trainer - Monopoly Tycoon FAQ by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50