Seperate cities help

[Amandine 0]

I am having some trouble with planning my cities. Your answers or links to similar topics will be appreciated.

Well...I'm trying to find out best way to make my region. I would like to make some cities just for industry, some only for agriculture, and the rest with residence and commercial.

Is it a good way to make region like this? 

Logically  speaking sims will need to work in these agriculture or industry cities. How do they go there?

Few highways are enough?

If I make train, still to make stops?

In this case it will be not so realistic, cause there will be no single residence house, so if stops just near agriculture fields, will it be productive?

I am totally lost. Waiting for your help.

[callagrafx 3]

hey Amandine...welcome.

Your best bet is to read some of these articles in the Omnibus...they should give you a clearer understanding of the game and all it's nuances. Hope this helps

[callagrafx 3]

Sorry, forgot to post the link....bad hair day!!!

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/categories.cfm?catid=146&entercat=y

[Amandine 0]

thanks a lot for the link! If my english level was better, I guess I'll be able to understand everything in omnibus and won't ask so many questions. Well, that's why I actually created a topic, some "live" advices also useful.

[dussin23 1]

Well, if you use rail to connect your cities, then the people will need to have a way to get where they're going after they get off the train. Bus stops are probably the best idea at the beginning.

What I prefer to do is have all types of zoning in every city. Sometimes I bias cities quite a bit; that is, one is largely residential, another highly commercial, etc. But all my cities usually have all types of zoning. Occassionally I'll have a suburban or exurban environments without industry, but they usually had some at the beginning because it's so expensive to support residents. Once the city gets going I can usually demolish the industrial sectors and let nature reclaim them, generally leaving high-tech buildings if they've developed.

[callagrafx 3]

some tips:
keep landfill away from residential...always good to have a city just for landfill

farms only build if there is no industry...keep the two separate

Beware of commute times...keep an eye on traffic levels.

Don't be tempted to start in the centre...use the terrain features to increase desirability (people like living near water on up a hill).

Hope some of these are useful

[Amandine 0]

Thanks a lot guys, it's getting more clear now. I wanted in fact to make something realistic, according to regions of France, let's say in big square made for big cities, so I built a lot of agricluture and just little town with cute church in the middle, little bit commercial as well as resurants, post and bank, little school, police station and fire. But in this case all these sims will go to work in agriculture there. But it will be not enough sims for so many jobs anyway. In this case neighboor big city near will be useful? Some sims from big city will go to farms in suburbs?

Of course i prefer to make little bit of everything in suburbs, and in centre of the region only residential and downtown. But if agriculture will be only in suburbs of the map, sims will go to work there from the middle of the region if 1 or 2 cities seperate them? will they spend all day in highway or in train just to go to take care of grapes or potatoes? Or i should just put residential near farms, so it will be region of farmers?

[Sam 163]

I like to put some low density housing and a tiny bit of commercial among the farms. (Like making small villages). This way the sims live close to the farms where they work.

I usually work from the outer edges of a region into the centre ie zone farms and villages around the edges first, then later make the suburbs further in and last of all, make the big skyscrapers in the centre. It looks more realistic that way.

I also try to keep the sims fairly close to where they work ie no more than one city border to cross. Buses are a good option in small cities to increase the distance your sims will travel to get to work. I also find trains useful, and use them a lot in rural and industrial areas particularly, and to connect these areas to residential. In fact, most of my intercity connections would be rail to start with. Highways are good once your city gets quite big, or for industry.

[dussin23 1]

I usually make my highways and avenues first, filling things in from there. The theory is that I have a plan and stick with it. I've been thinking about doing it your way, though. It's probably more realistic to start with rail lines and a road or two, building from there. Obviously some things will have to be knocked down as the city develops, but that's life. I'd probably end up with more organic cities that way.

Amandine, I usually have trouble getting sims to travel to another city just to work at farms. I'd take Sam's advice and mix in some residential areas when you zone for agriculture.

[Amandine 0]

Originally posted by: dussin23

Amandine, I usually have trouble getting sims to travel to another city just to work at farms. I'd take Sam's advice and mix in some residential areas when you zone for agriculture.quote>

 

That's true, I would like also just to mix some residential with agriculture, but i want to make it maximum realistic. If I use map of paris, it's quite obvious that I am not gonna put agriculture in downtown district near Eiffel Tower. So i'm thinking more like to make agriculture around, near the border of the region, and to keep downtown only with residential and commercial. But in this case technically speaking it will be enough farms? If there are farms not in every city. Products from districts with farmers will be exported to downtown for example, or it will be still demanding agriculuture like crazy; which I am not supposed to have in a middle of the map?

[callagrafx 3]

Bonjour Amandine

Like Sam, what I do is create small and medium cities around large ones that are specifically agricultural, with big expanses of farmland around small low density areas of res and tiny ares of commercial (low density)...then I increase taxes to industry to full 20% which totally kills demand. Nice little rural villages linked to city via road (and rail) without pollution. This way, the people who live in the village work the farms, no need for cityfolk to venture out....

[soldyne 111]

I have found that specialized cities works best for me. In my CJ, Newtopia Valley, I show a region which starts out as pure agricultural and then I slowly move industry in. I have a city which is just for ID (nearly a full medium city tile) and its workforce is fuled by a completely R$ city to the north. I also have a completely large city tile covered with low density suburbs. I have plans in the works for an IHT city fuled by surrounding suburbs and eventually I will grow an urban downtown.

click on the link in my sig and see if it does not give you a few ideas.

hope that helps.