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OpenCity tutorial - Step 3: status bar

This tutorial step describes the OpenCity main status bar. If you don't know what a toolcircle or a zone planning is, please read the step 1 - the toolcircle tutorial first then the step 2 - the zone powering tutorial. If you are someone who plays games, whether it's Texas Holdem or games on consoles then you will know how handy it can be to have a tutorial. This will hopefully make a big difference to your game play and help to ensure you play as well as you can.

The main status bar

The game main status bar displays your city's essential information. Depending on the zone planning of your city, the content of the Image 3-1 may be different.

The OpenCity main status bar

Image 3-1 : Main status bar

From left to right, you have the residential, commercial, industrial and power levels respectively. Next to them, you have the play/pause button and the last tool button. The next 3 rectangular boxes are the money box, the population box, and the date box. The last square image is a mini map of your city.

The RCIP bars

Image 3-2 : RCIP bars

In the Image 3-2, the first 3 vertical bars give you a quick view of your city's zone planning. Those 3 vertical bars are relative to each other. It's best to keep them at the same level.

The last pink bar is the city power level. As you build more and more structures in your city, this bar will be lowered more and more because of the overall powering demand. When it reachs 0, your power plants won't be able to supply the whole city anymore. It means that you may need to build another power plant.

Money, money, and money

The money box

Image 3-3 : Money box

People often talks about money. It's everywhere, and even in OpenCity where it has the "acon" unit. In the Image 3-3, you have 10608 acons. You need money for the infrastructure building operations, you also need money for the maintenance operations. So it's good to have a lot of acons in OpenCity.

A lot of things in OpenCity costs money. And the only way you earn money is the income from taxes. The income is calculated at the end of each month. The monthly incomes are then aggregated to calculate the annual income. At the end of each year, the annual income is credited to your city's budget. So watch the date box.

It's wise to save the money from the beginning of the game. As you progress, you will earn more acons that you can spend later in game.

The population box

The oczen number

Image 3-4 : Oczens

The size of your city is determined by the number of persons living and working in your city. Your income also depends on the population level of your city. In OpenCity, the inhabitants are called "oczen" (pronounce as "oxygen"). The oczen term comes from the contraction of "OpenCity" and "citizen".

In the Image 3-4, the city has 134 oczens. The bigger the number is, the better your city is.

The date box

The date box

Image 3-5 : Date

In OpenCity, you start at year 1. And at the end of each year, your bank account is credited with the amount of the past year income.

The date displayed as in Image 3-5 may seem to increment slowly. But don't be hasty otherwise you will bankrupt quickly and you will need to restart a new city from scratch.

Now, you've learned how to run your city and build the basic infrastructures. In the step 4, you will learn more about the main menu in OpenCity. It's important not to click on the wrong button when you want to save your hard work.

If you've forgotten the first steps, you can also return back to the step 1 - the toolcircle tutorial or the the step 2 - the zone powering tutorial.

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