Guide
Walk-in venues and the music festival
Four of Blockline's buildings have doors you can walk through. Inside, you stop being the mayor for a moment and run the place yourself.
What makes a venue different
Most buildings in Blockline are set-and-forget: place them, fund their department, and they work. The four walk-in venues are different. Each is a one-per-city, four-tile site that does something for the whole city, and how well it does it depends on decisions you make inside.
To walk in, select the finished building on the map and choose Enter on its info card. The map gives way to the building's interior and its own themed computer, separate from the Mayor's Computer, with the venue's controls and a pair of mini-games. The Enter button stays greyed out while the site is still under construction.
| Venue | Unlocked by | Cost | Upkeep a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Police HQ | A skyline of our own | $4,200 | $12 |
| City Hospital | A skyline of our own | $5,200 | $14 |
| City Prison | A skyline of our own | $5,200 | $22 |
| Music venue | Opportunity for everyone | $9,500 | $28 |
| Festival grounds | Connected to the world | $14,000 | $20 |
If you would rather not run a venue day to day, hire a manager for it in the Staff app (see construction and maintenance). They take the same decisions you would, once a day, and step aside for a while whenever you overrule them.
Police HQ
The Police HQ polices nothing by itself. It coordinates your police stations: linked stations reach up to 3 tiles further and police up to 30% more residents, and its detectives and community officers take crime off the city directly. Build stations first; the HQ multiplies what is already there.
Running it
You have 10 squads to assign across 4 desks: patrol, investigations, training and community, at most 8 on any one. A new HQ starts with 4 on patrol, 2 on investigations, 2 on training and 2 on community.
- Patrol squads drive the range and capacity boost to your stations. Too many on patrol (more than 5) wears down public trust.
- Investigations squads work open cases. Solved cases take crime off the city and send convicts to the prison.
- Training raises the HQ's performance and lets it coordinate more stations.
- Community officers build trust. High trust lowers crime; low trust adds to it.
You also pick a priority district. Stations inside it reach further and cases there move faster; stations elsewhere lose a little reach. The HQ needs power to work properly and internet to work at its best.
Mini-games
Dispatch Drill puts you in the control room: 3 units, 8 calls and 50 seconds on a city grid. The first run each day is the official one and lifts the HQ's performance for a few days. Evidence Board lets you crack an open case yourself by matching clues to suspects; a wrong charge sets the case back and costs trust, a right one earns it.
City Hospital
The City Hospital is a teaching hospital that coordinates your hospitals and clinics the way the Police HQ coordinates stations: linked ones reach up to 3 tiles further and care for up to 30% more residents. Its own wards also cover 2,200 residents. A well-run hospital lifts happiness and productivity, adds a little to the city's skills, softens disaster casualties and helps contain outbreaks of disease.
Running it
You have 12 teams for 6 departments: emergency, wards, surgery, maternity, outreach and residency, at most 6 in each. A new hospital starts with 4 on emergency, 3 on wards, 2 on surgery, 1 on maternity, 1 on outreach and 1 on residency.
The core tension is today against tomorrow. The four clinical departments treat today's patients and keep queues down. Outreach builds prevention, which cuts future ward demand and helps contain outbreaks; residency trains doctors, which raises performance and lets the hospital coordinate more facilities. Patient numbers rise with pollution, traffic, industry and crime, and peak in winter.
Outbreaks become possible once the city passes 1,500 residents and spread district by district. You can aim a public-health campaign at one district, which strengthens containment there at a small cost everywhere else.
Mini-games
Triage gives you 10 patients in 60 seconds to prioritise and send to the right department. Containment Map appears only during an outbreak: you place vaccinations round by round to stop it spreading, and a good result boosts containment for a few days.
City Prison
The City Prison holds up to 48 inmates comfortably, fed by the courts from the Police HQ's solved cases and the city's crime. Holding people takes some crime off the streets; reforming them takes off more, and those who settle on release fill jobs. Crowding, unrest and escapes do the opposite, and nobody wants to live next door (parks nearby help).
Running it
You set the regime by assigning 10 staff teams across security, education, workshops, counselling and kitchen, at most 6 on any one. A new prison starts with 3 on security, 2 on education, 2 on workshops, 2 on counselling and 1 on kitchen.
- Security lowers the risk of escapes, but heavy security raises tension.
- Education, workshops and counselling run the programmes that cut reoffending. Workshops also earn a little from prison industries.
- The kitchen matters more than it looks: poor food is one of the biggest sources of tension.
Tension builds with overcrowding and understaffing and eases with counselling and decent food. Very high tension can tip into a lockdown, and an escape means a manhunt that adds crime until the escapee is recaptured.
Mini-games
The Parole Board hears up to 3 cases a day from inmates who have served at least 50% of their sentence. You grant, deny or defer, judging from their assessed risk, behaviour, programmes and statement; the true risk of reoffending is hidden, so the board is a judgement call. Cell Shuffle asks you to pair inmates into cells so they get along, which takes tension off when it goes well.
Music Venue
The music venue is a live music hall for 480. Good shows build buzz, which lifts city happiness by up to 3, raises land value in the quarter around it and brings trade to shops within 6 tiles on show nights. Famous acts draw visitors from outside the city. Each night's takings go to the treasury.
Running it
- Auditions. Bands from 16 genres apply; you can hear up to 3 a day, rate their musicianship and stage presence, and sign the good ones. Your ratings train your ear: the better you judge, the more precisely you can scout later applicants.
- Roster. Up to 8 signed bands. A band left without a show for too long walks away, and acts much more famous than your venue's reputation won't sign.
- Bookings. Book a headliner and an optional support act up to 14 days ahead, and set the ticket price between $4 and $40. Weekend crowds are bigger. Cancelling at short notice costs reputation.
- Security and soundproofing. Security costs $0, $15 and $35 a day by level and keeps crowd trouble down; soundproofing stops loud nights from bothering the homes next door.
A band takes its fee or 80% of the door, whichever is more, so a packed room at a fair price is what makes money. A truly great night in a full room becomes a legendary show and a big jump in reputation; a no-show or an empty room costs it.
The annual music festival
The festival grounds are not a walk-in venue: you run the festival from the Festival app on the Mayor's Computer. The site is a 10×10 field with the Main Stage, Meadow Stage and Dance Tent, a campsite and room for 6,000 pass holders, and it needs a street along its fence.
- Date. Pick when it runs and for how long, up to 3 days, at least 30 days ahead. The weather depends on the season, and a storm can cancel a day.
- Acts. Offer acts a slot and a fee. They accept, counter or decline; lowballing raises their next ask, and short notice costs extra. Bands from your Music Venue's roster play for less.
- Passes and production. Set the pass price ($5 to $150) and choose production, security and medical levels. Shuttles cut car traffic, and weather insurance covers the refunds if a storm stops a day.
Bigger names sell more passes but cost more, and the festival's own reputation decides which acts will even listen. On live days the city gets visitors, trade and happiness, with an afterglow that lasts for days; the stages are loud for homes nearby. The profit, or loss, goes to the treasury. The festival has no manager post, so it is always yours to run.
Tip. Open the Police HQ and the City Hospital before the prison: the prison's intake comes from solved cases, and both multiply buildings you already have.
All five sites need the city to have reached the charters listed above; see charters and research.