Observations about commutes and transport patterns

[Icoxo 0]

Okay this is not a rehash of the commute problem even though I started the city over and still got the problem eventually, but I noticed a few patterns

1). one of the most disturbing is that many buildings that declare long commutes doesn't say long as first. I had a building that said it had a short commute, then went to long and declared joblessness, same with other buildings, it's as if long commutes are contagious and leapfrogs around the city. Eventually meaning long commutes to those who literally walk to work.

2). I found that use of the monorail and the highways through town deteriorates as time wore on. It used to be that many people were using the monorail and the highway, but as time wore on it went to so only few people used it. I also tried to do a direct subway link to the industrial area to the people with no jobs but they wouldn't use it. It seems sims take routes that take longer over time

These 2 observations are giving me serious trouble and makes enjoyable play virtually impossible, if these can't be fixed then I just can't play Simcity 4 to its full potential. Its rediculous how the simulation does this even with a mod that's supposed to do perfect pathfinding and 10x commute and speed. Worst case I may have to can Simcity 4 for good and maybe try to look into citylife. And I have Rush hour and update 1. I have heard of taxing the rich but my city is not overrun with mansions, and I also have heard of people who did wierd things and the no jobs zots disappeared even though sims don't use it, if this is the case then the simulation is basically very impractical and unusable, unrealistic, and broken.

[josefmayor 8]

Well after all it is a Simulation, not life. When this came out they didn't take into consideration a lot of this stuff.

I am disgusted with it too. my highways are never used and they are in the most efficient spots, however my sims constatly use the conjested avenues and roads.

[Icoxo 0]

I was successful in making daughter cities the first time I played simcity 4, I set aside a region square for industry and the rest is simply residential and commercial. I had the population going over 40,000 people when I got bored and quit playing. I'm trying that technique again, since this is an Island city the industry (on my third try) hasits own island and it only has industry and is connected to a daughter city by highway and monorail. In the daughter city I still find most have medium commute times and the only no job zots that ever appeared were over mansions (the population is also over 6,000, which on my second try was when jobless problems started). So if it works, I can go freely making my mega metropolis (the region is 140 by 140 miles though I have a 2.8 Ghz computer with a GFX 5200)

So it seems the bulk of the problems was with trying to start out putting residential, commercial, and industrial on the same region tile.

I have known for some time the simulation is a little quirky. But anyone here who is stringent on realism could convince them to let them beta test the next Simcity.