On Thursday night James Higgins, Greens for Ginninderra, took up the daunting RiotACT Sim Challenge, despite having busted his mousing wrist this week falling off a bicycle.
Fortunately his pint-drinking wrist was still in good working order and he powered through a frenetic three hours and ten years of game time.
At the end of it he’d achieved the biggest city we’ve seen so far with a population of 38,516.
But it came at a cost with a lowish 6 bars of mayor rating. To the horror of his fellow Greens in attendance the onward rush for development carried an environmental toll. We’ve seen worse environment scores, but we’ve seen better.
Having said that tree planting and careful placement of water infrastructure (Greens prefer water towers over pumps for reasons passing immediate understanding) meant his sprawling residential precincts were largely unaffected.
Budget management was a sight to behold with massive early spending brought into line just as his starting cash was running out, to run balanced budgets with no need for borrowing. The overall effect was like a plane coming out of a steep dive ten feet above the deck, but moving close to the speed of sound.
A meteor strike was handled well with the craters converted into tourist attractions.
James scored high marks for traffic management (a big bus network), health and education. Safety and land value however were poor, but improving.
[Any other candidates with the bravery and vision to join our elite group of participants so far should contact us.]
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