Need some advices

[sit007 0]

hi all (this is my first post on this forum )

i've read many faqs and many threats on the forum, but i still can't manage to have a damn good city :-/

This is my city.

In red you can see the mono rail

It's connected on the left to an 100% industrial city

These are the zones (Industrial is exclusively high)

I've made 6x7 square-long zones, with, every time, a bus station and a subway station in one corner.

In the center of every 'big zone' (5x5) there is an adapted school, clinic, police and fire dept.

Finally (!) this is the subway network

Is it well done ? too many connections ? The 'perpendicular' connections are OK ?

I thought is was the good way to deal with mass transit but i still get a 45+ commute time and the citizens are quitting the commercial and residential zones, leaving the buildings empty.

How cand i make my city grow, (more R$$$, C$$$,...) without making another city in the region ?

I know these are pretty newbie's questions, but i want to have a big city with loads of $$$ and a 1min commute

Thanx for your futures answers

PS: i have SimCity 4 Deluxe without any mod

[DOXXP29 5]

Welcome, Sit007! Many people use a subway system with a lot less connections, but personally, I have found that the grid system usually works pretty well. However, there gets to a point where you can have too many connections and too many miles of tube, and that may be one of the problems you're encountering. Instead of a tunnel under every street, maybe try every other street. Also, bus stops, especially the on-street ones (U can download them from the STEX) if they are strategically placed can augment the subway and other MT to cut down on commute time. (Just remember if you place them in front of a one-tile wide residential house, you'll get a no road zot. Commercial and industrial aren't affected). Your city layout looks pretty good. You may want to try upgrading the streets to roads, the roads to avenues, etc. Also, be aware that the more stoplights you have, the slower traffic flows. Another reason to go with MT. And keep in mind that using multiple forms of transportation is always good...bus to a subway station, for example. I see you have the subways connecting to he adjacent city. Are the stops in the other city located near the jobs? Be aware Sims are notoriously LAZY and won't walk backwards, even if it's only one tile, so placement can be everything. Again, put bus stops by the subway stations and at the jobs in your industrial city. Monorail is very good, but for whatever reason, Sims don't seem to want to use it as much as the other forms of MT. I have no idea why, and I've not been able to figure out a good way around this phenomenon. All in all, 45 minutes isn't really that bad. Usually I don't have problems until it starts getting well over an hour.

As far as making your city grow, check the tutorials for a lot of good hints and advice. Always remember that the residential and the commercial/industrial interact as far as demand for each other, so it's a balancing act to keep the jobs and the employees feeding each other's demand.

Hope you could make some kind of sense out of this. Keep us posted and let us know how you're coming along. Good luck! : )

[sit007 0]

a big big thank for your answer.

I'll see what i can do with all these advices.

If anyone has others good advices, it's always welcome of course

thx again

good citying

[sit007 0]

i've tried some of these stuffs, and it's a bit better. But i still have some little questions

- Why are there so many crimes in my airport, even after i've put 6 kiosks, 1 little police and 2 deluxe Polices around it ?

- How to decrease the air pollution (i've put many trees, and i have no I$)

- How to raise the R$$$ and C$$$ if i haven't any room left on the city map ?

- There are still red zones of schools and clinics even when schools and clinics are pretty well adapted :/

PS: My mayor rating is about 90-100 and my rating bars are almost all at the maximum.

Thx again Simtropolis

[DOXXP29 5]

For the airport crime, it's the way the game works. Something about the way it covers so many tiles and the way the simulator interprets the data. You can surround the airport with large police stations and you STILL won't get rid of it. My advice is just forget it and live with it, cuz there's not much you can do.

As far as pollution, there's a download on the STEX "RAH Wat-air" (I think that's how it's spelled). Download this and plop it and your pollution levels will drop drastiaclly.

For the R$$$, C$$$, the best way to get them is to educate the hell out of the city, and the R$$s will move up to R$$$s. BUT...in actuality, since there are only so many C$$$ jobs available (even in C$$$ buildings, the $$$ jobs are only like 15%), you don't really WANT too many R$$$. Since the bulk of the jobs are R$$ in almost any city, these are what you want to concentrate on. You'll find after playing it for awhile that R$$$s are generally a major pain.

If you still have red zones for schools and clinics (you should always use hospitals, btw. Clinics are notoriously bad as far as being cost-effective), try a "city-wide school". You won't need nearly as many and they'll provide better coverage for you.

If your mayor rating is high and the bars are also, then you're doing pretty good! Try the tweaks and see if it helps. Also note, if you reduce the pollution and commute times, the R$$$s WILL come!

[tchaos713 5]

Also, in SC4, it is very difficult (close to impossible) to build a single city without any support cities in the region. You will almost certainly not see very much C$$$ and sustaining any sort of R$$$ population will be very difficult. As you have already noticed, one runs out of space very quickly.

As for the pollution... the RAH Wat-air is a possible solution, but then you're stuck with it... and I believe that it could be considered cheating. Rather, try to reduce the amount of surface traffic by expanding mass transit options (or try coercing your sims into using the existing options).

Also, you will always have some red areas when you zone fresh sections... these are brand new sims moving into your city and the wonderful education and health systems you've built haven't had time to work on them yet.

Cheers.

[sit007 0]

well well well

First i'd like to thank you both for the answers. I was very helpful.

I've made another city connected to the old one. And guess what ?

I've now almost 300,000 sims

Could it still grow a bit ? what is the most people we can have on a medium-size map ? (without cheating of course)

Here's a snapshot

And thanx again

I will make another city soon, next to it, but a more beautiful one, like you simtropolis guys

[HenriqueBR 0]

- How to decrease the air pollution (i've put many trees, and i have no I$)

Well my friend, try to get rid of dirty and manufacturing industries. if your poor sims still need to work on them, build them in the neighboor city and put rails and subways to help sims reach there.

enable all city ordinances ralated to pollution:

-clean air

-no tires burn,

-automobile emisson reduction;

-clean air standarts;

- How to raise the R$$$ and C$$$ if i haven't any room left on the city map ?

Easy. You need high tech industries and well educated sims, then just starting raising low and medium level services taxes and , if you need, delete some low and medium oficce and business buildings to give high wealth commercial buildings some room.

- There are still red zones of schools and clinics even when schools and clinics are pretty well adapted :/

Its a matter that takes generations to solve. When one sim born, it takes years and years to graduate, and to have a good health. You may see something like this: A new zone is set, then those sims will be red both to education and health, and will start ocuping elementary schools slots, while the parents will work in his correspondent  comercial/industrial welth level.

After a lot of years, elementary school population will drop considerably, and high school will raise, because those sims finish their studies in the elementary one. I made some giant cities, i divided the entire map in 9 pieces.

i had about 4 pieces just with residential, dense of course, zones. and one LARGE high school for each. when that happened, and the young kids became old kids and went to the high school, the LARGE high school couldn't suport all of them. i need one addicional high school to acomodade all my students. cool

AFTER they finish the high school, the education zone indicators may be turn to green. but you maybe have to wait for them to finish the college.

[DOXXP29 5]

Damn, Sit, that's cool! You can get more Sims...I have a medium tile with a river running thru it and I have something like 650,000 people, though it IS pretty tight. (I have some mods, but no major "cheats")

Henrique's advice is the basic tried and true method, so stick with it and it WILL work! It may seem like forever, but his advice is the way to go. Just remember, rich Sims AREN'T what you want as the majority of your population unless you have the jobs REGIONALLY to support them. Even so, they're a real pain, and you do need R$$s and some R$s to keep the city running. A corporation isn't ALL bosses and CEOs...there are janitors, cafeteria workers and middle management types to go along with the general workers, which tend to be R$$ in both C$$ and C$$$ buildings. R$$$s only occupy 15% of the jobs in C$$$ buildings, unless you have a mod to change that. Keep on rockin', Sit! You'll have half a million in no time! ; )

[HenriqueBR 0]

Originally posted by: HenriqueBR - How to decrease the air pollution (i've put many trees, and i have no I$)

Easy. You need high tech industries and well educated sims, then just starting raising low and medium level services taxes and , if you need, delete some low and medium oficce and business buildings to give high wealth commercial buildings some room.

quote>

 

correction: I wrote LOW AND MEDIUM OFFICES,  but the correct is TO RAISE TAXES AND OR/DELETE ONLY LOW OFFICES. YOU NEED THE MEDIUM WEALTH ONES.

[jackel.22 3]

by looking at your pictures i dont think you have the 'network addon mod' (normally caled NAM)

it is in the mods and downloads section. It greatly improves your transit systems and how your sims find their way to work. i would really advise on getting it. I would say nearly 90% of people use NAM now.

try it and you will see why.