History VideoGame / CityBuildingSeries

** ''VideoGame/ZeusMasterOfOlympus'' (2000) and its expansion pack ''VideoGame/PoseidonMasterOfAtlantis'' (2001), set in UsefulNotes/AncientGreece and {{Atlantis}} respectively, change the mood from relatively realistic and historically accurate-ish to myth-centric with a dash of humor. It gives monsters, gods walking (or destroying) your city and some of the more famous heroes of Myth/ClassicalMythology a much more prominent role than in earlier games.

* ApatheticCitizens: Averted. You can right-click on your citizens and they will complain about everything from a lack of employment to a lack of workers, inadequate healthcare or worship services. Even if there are only 10 workers needed in a city of 7000. Very unhappy homes also spawn muggers, vandals or looters.
** On the other hand, if you manage your city well, your citizens will give you unending praise.

* CommandAndConquerEconomy

* DifficultyLevels: Most game offer difficulties from Very Easy to Very Hard, which changes various in-game modifiers, such as good consumption rates.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Most of the tropes of the series were standardized by ''Caesar III''. I and II have their own quirks, such as being far less battle-focused (if such a thing is possible), having separate city and province maps, no trading mechanics and the "loot and scoot" strategy (where you pour your city treasury into your personal chest right before you get promoted, leaving yourself rich and the city badly in debt).
** The games got more accesible as the series progressed and they also got just less ''frustrating'', as lots of quality-of-life features were added later that are lacking in earlier entries. Most notably: the all-important Roadblock. Prior to ''Pharaoh'' the games lacked a roadblock the player could drop on a road to tell walkers to stay within a given area. As a result, an efficient road and supply network could turn out pretty darn weird as good players tried to avoid crossroads at all costs, often resulting in one lonesome meandering road snaking around the entire city. Hope nobody's in a hurry to get anywhere. By ''Emperor'' players had access not only to roadblocks, but could toggle certain gates to allow some walkers to pass and not others.
* EarthquakesCauseFissures: Introduced in '''Caesar III'''. Earthquakes are represented by a fissure in the ground that starts in a random spot and then webs around. Any building on the path of those fissures is instantly destroyed, and, far worse, they ''stay'' on the map, making that area impassable until a road is built over them. No buildings can be placed there, ''ever''. Short for [[NotTheIntendedUse bombarding the area with fireballs]] from a cheat console in ''Zeus'' and then removing the resulting "rubble", there is just no way to remove the fissures.

* GlobalCurrency: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in most games, as you simply build one city in a large empire, but the Greek city states all accepting drachmae is a bit of a stretch... then the expansion pack has the Atlanteans use the same currency, as well.
** The drachmae example is partly justified (or even an aversion of global currency), as they were made of silver, and city states with silver ore deposits would mint their own money. With intrinsic value it could be accepted anywhere, and only the lack of exchange rates or variations in weight and purity needs to be handwaved.

* ObsoleteOccupation: Once a city's economy is up and running, a lot of jobs become pointless as they're only meant to keep the unemployment statistic down rather than massively increase production (which in turn would require huge amounts of storage space), as trade is restricted to a certain amount of goods per year. It's actually a much easier problem to deal with than the feedback loop of a CriticalStaffingShortage (lack of workers means fewer services, meaning housing devolves, meaning fewer workers, meaning...).
** In {{VideoGame/Pharaoh}}, construction guilds (stonecarvers, bricklayers, carpenters, etc.) disappear from the build list once all monument work is complete. Fortunately, work camps are always available since they also provide floodplain farm workers and can be used to provide lots of jobs in a relatively small space.
** VideoGame/ZeusMasterOfOlympus lets you choose when to muster troops, towers, and ships or demobilize them. This reduces unemployment even if there's no enemy to fight.

* RealTimeWithPause: Up until Zeus, it wasn't possible to lay down buildings while in pause mode.
** As a workaround, it was possible to adjust the game's speed to a crawl before complex builds.

* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: Except the monuments.
** The greek temples take a long time to make, even if you already have everything needed to build them.

* VideoGameTutorial: Every game offers some form of tutorial.
** ForcedTutorial: In ''Pharaoh'', the tutorial is spread over the first fifth or so of the campaign, as new concepts keep getting introduced. While single scenarios and sub-parts of the grand campaign can be played on their own once they've been unlocked, playing the grand campaign forces you to learn how water is distributed over and over again.
* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: Your citizens require food (in most games more variety means better houses and happier citizens), basic commodities (whether pottery, linen, olive oil or tea) and luxury goods (exotic furs, incense, wine, silk...). For the grander construction projects you may need wood, stone, marble... and everything needs to be paid for, whether in debens or drachmae or food.