Look at that guy ! He started playing OpenCity without reading this guide. In order to prevent such keyboard damages, I decided to write this page with my gaming experience. In addition, there are some informations hacked directly from my boss' personal computer.
Don't worry, if you have any question the OpenCity support team will be happy to assist you at FreeNode.
In OpenCity, you can open the "toolcircle" anytime you need by clicking on the RMB (Right Mouse Button). Click RMB again to close the toolcircle. Let's learn some key bindings now. You can obtain a more complete list from the README file which comes with the distribution.
'g': Toggle grid on/off 'n': "BlaNk" tool (do nothing) 'r': Zone Residential tool 'c': Zone Commercial tool 'i': Zone Industrial tool 'p': Lay Paths tool 'l': Lay electric Lines tool 'e': Build a coal power plant 'ctrl': cancel the zoning tool action 'u'/'d': raise / lower cells tool up/down/left/right: translate the map pageup/pagedown: rotate the map insert/delete: zoom in/out 'alt': multiply the effects of the buttons above by 10 'escape': open the main menu
There are 3 types of principal zones in OpenCity: Residential, Commercial and Industrial zones. Each type of them depends on each other to "level up". Besides they also need electricity and some paths nearby.
Open the "toolcircle" with the RMB (Right Mouse Button). Start by drawing a '+' sign with the path tool (or touch 'p'). Then zone some RCIs in each section. In the last section, select the coal power plant and build one (touch 'e'). It will cost you 2000@ (or 2000 acons). Don't forget to connect the power plant to a RCI area with some electric lines. Now wait for 1 or 2 months ! If everything was correctly done, each RCI square will "level up" and you'll see buildings pop up. Here is an example:
One day, I succesfully hacked my boss' penguin box and extracted from an OpenOffice document this table. Unfortunately, since I couldn't get more informations about it before he came back, I don't manage to figure out what it means. Anyway, I hope that it can help someone.