General tips | Basics Urban Empire Guide
Last update: 10 February 2017
The following list includes useful hints for those that want to succeed in Urban Empire.
General
1. It’s best to start the first scenario with a tutorial. This will help you learn the game mechanics and you won’t miss any important details.
2. Carefully examine every element of the interface and the available options. Game developers did not add so many indicators and sources of information for no reason.
3. Take your time to read descriptions of storyline events and try to make neutral decisions. You can do otherwise if you want to achieve political or ‘remarkable city’ victory.
4. Newspaper headlines provide a lot of information on political determinant and social tendencies. Make sure to read their content.
5. Characteristics of the protagonist do not affect your overall success but one should try to keep a positive image.
Politics
1. Try not to involve too much into politics, unless you want to achieve the political victory.
2. Be careful when affecting the voting results. If one of the sides is receiving the majority of votes, you won’t be able to change the overall result. Sometimes it’s better to leave things as they are.
3. Political parties that were blackmailed by you, will remain hostile for a long time.
4. If you don’t use the ‘wield influence option’ for a long time, relationships with parties in the City Council will return to their standard values.
5. Be smart when it comes to prestige points – don’t hesitate to use them when needed. Keep in mind that only they can overrule decisions, so make sure to save some for a rainy day.
Science
1. Different types of research are not connected. Once you choose your path, you can research new technologies freely, even if that leads to achieving discoveries of Era IV when you are still in Era II.
2. Investigate benefits that come from a completed research. Icons by the technology symbol may help you make up your mind. It’s important to plan new discoveries according to your citizens’ needs.
3. Before you finish your work, you will have a chance to decide how you much you want to use the technology. The wider the application of your invention, the bigger the income for the budget of the city.
4. The science potential can be increased by building new science facilities. In the end, you will be able to raise a university and upgrade it.
5. Each technology comes with a price (science potential points). The bigger the value of the factor, the faster will be your progress.
Economy
1. At the beginning of the game, the city will develop at a high pace. Use this to your advantage and gather as many citizens as possible in the first years of the scenario.
2. Be careful when changing taxes. Keep in mind that you can increase your income by increasing the number of tax-payers or investors.
3. Once you commission a large investment (building a neighbourhood or infrastructure development) halt with any other major expenses for a couple of months.
4. Try to keep your citizens happy, as this directly affects the dynamics of development, and support of your decisions.
5. During the first years of your campaign make sure to increase the salary for the major. This way, you will generate a lot of your own resources, which will eventually allow you to skip some administrative activities and will make you partially independent of the City Council.