A highly challenging and educational game. It emphasizes more of the system building rather than simply building buildings. In this game, you get to manage the export / import of various merchandize, underdeveloped village development, tourism, and still much more.
This game, however, appears to be rather lacking in profitable basic source of income. Don't do basic logging or mining (except gold) for your source of income; It won't work. I tried to support my corporation with only exporting logs or iron ores. It's really a laughable income, with the labor cost much outweighing the income.
For the most basic source of income, you can try building ore mines (which is then set to "internal use"), and build a steel mill. Then, adjust the labor in both the steel mill and the ore mines, so there wouldn't be any waste of iron ores in the steel mill (not enough worker to convert incoming ores into steel), or not enough ores to convert into steel (thus reducing the steel mill's potential output). Avoid using mine double if you can; I find building 2 mines with 5 workers each give less pollution than 1 mine with 5 workers set to mine double (feel free to drill double for oil rigs, however).
Another lucrative business in the game is tourism. However, this needs constant
management as resorts and attractions would degrade over time, and it may need a lot of space, since you will need ferry ports and airports as tourists' gateway to your island.
For the major industries, I find their output to be rather disappointing. Mfg plants and heavy industry plant fails to cover up for their running cost. The only profitable industry appears to be the Hi-tech factory, set to Quality Furniture (which only takes wood and wood waste to produce). Most other industries need plastic (which is produced from oil, which can be exported for cash) and steel (which is our basic source of income at the moment). Simply put, the industries can suddenly severely eat up the materials which had been used for sources of income, causing major deficit in our financial condition. Once our budget is on the red (basically negative), you can say it's game over, since almost all actions in the game needs money, even only a small amount. This means, you wouldn’t be able to switch industry productions to make more profitable goods for export, or deconstructing it to save on maintenance.
Overall, I still find this game to be the best of the old Sims series. The challenge it pose, however, may be too frustrating at first. But once you get the hang of it, you'll learn to enjoy it.
