I’m itching to play something like Cities Skylines, but also something that isn’t just about growing and growing, rather building within certain (spatial?) limitations and/or solving problems or something. I hope this isn’t a contradiction, but I’d also like if it had a bit more focus on individual buildings and livability rather than optimizing car traffic, if that makes any sense. I guess i’m looking for something that is a bit more than just a city sculpting sandbox, but less than a full blown metropolis-society-simulator.
It’s not strictly a city-builder, but the PS2’s Dark Cloud involved building cities to accommodate all of the inhabitants’ requirements. Each city was like a puzzle, where you had to arrange things in a particular way (with some degree of freedom) to avoid conflicts.
Then there’s action-RPG combat and dungeons that might not be your style. But it’s a really great game. One of these days I really ought to play the sequel.