Build and Conquer Troubleshooting: City Growth & Placement

Where should you start when something stops working?

Start at the point of failure. Is a placement preview blocked, a completed building not doing what you expected, or an upgrade still locked? Those are different questions. Save your current layout and take a screenshot of the relevant tooltip before making large changes.

The checks below are a diagnosis method. They are not a list of confirmed bugs, and they do not claim that every building uses the same rules.

Why can you not place a building?

Check these items in order:

1. The selected structure. Make sure its name matches the guide or plan you are following.
2. The stated unlock. Read the full city level and housing conditions, not just the first number.
3. Available resources. Compare the cost of one copy with your current balance.
4. Placement restrictions. Inspect road distance, occupied space, and any other condition shown in the preview.
5. The required support. Read the building’s water, power, or input requirements where listed.

For a larger batch, the budget tool makes it easier to check more than one resource. It cannot validate a physical placement: the game preview remains the authority on that.

Why did more housing fail to unlock the next level?

Confirm that the new buildings are completed. Then read which population count the gate asks for. A requirement about residents in houses cannot automatically be satisfied by adding apartments, even if your total rises.

The city level guide shows a recorded tooltip with this distinction. Use the housing reference to compare what a capacity card tells you with the count you actually need.

How do you investigate a production bottleneck?

Follow the problem backward. Inspect the building whose output is missing, then the inputs and operating conditions listed for it. Compare that requirement with the resource you have available. If an upstream step is short, adding another downstream building may simply duplicate the bottleneck.

Our production chain guide gives a small worksheet for keeping the cause visible. Record one limiting condition, change that condition, and wait long enough to observe the next production or income cycle before judging the result.

When is a bug report more useful than another rebuild?

If the visible requirements appear satisfied but the same action still fails, gather a reproducible example:

• The building name and relevant city level.
• The exact warning text or placement tooltip.
• A screenshot of the visible resource and population counters.
• What you changed and what happened afterward.
• Whether the behavior remains after reconnecting to the experience.

Use the developer community for game support. Never give another player your password or session cookie to diagnose a city. This hub cannot access or repair game accounts.

What should you avoid while diagnosing a problem?

Avoid changing the road layout, housing mix, production, and utilities all at once. If the problem disappears, you will not know what fixed it. Keep the previous working state recognizable and test the smallest plausible change first.

After a patch, revisit the Beta checklist before following an older solution.

Where should you go next?

• Resource Shortages: Trace Missing Inputs
• Power: Supply, Demand & Substation Checks
• City Level 2: Population & House Requirements