SC4 Newbie here!

[Kazan 0]

Ok, so I longed for the age old days of playing Sim City (last I played was SC2k!) so I acquired a copy of SC4.. my how things have changed (it's also nice not to have the cheat codes memorized - never could resist the impulse to cheat in SC2k once i had them memorized)

anyway . I'm just learning how to use SC4 - anyone have a really excellent guide - i'm using the Fairview region and I have two of the large city areas filled with small cities (with lots of agriculture zone) but i'm just not getting demand for higher comercial of industry - just low density everything.  I'm running positive monthly balances and I have good education, health and fire in all of them.  Any tips?

oh yeah... and anyone have a nice compilation pack of essential downloads on here - buildings, plugins, etc

[sim1234 62]

Welcome to Simtropolis Kazan! I hope you have a great time here!

If you are looking for tutorials, take a look in the Omnibus which has a lot of tutorials and guides, it can be found here.

For plugins, it's a matter of opinion on what's essential but I would download the NAM (Network Add On Mod) which adds many more transport options to your game. It can be found here for the PC or here for the Mac.

I would also download one of cycledogg's terrain mods for much more realistic terrain in game, they can be found here and also one of Pegasus's great water mods which can be found here.

For advice on official updates and what files to download from the Official Sim City 4 website and more information, take a look at Greyveil's great "Getting Up And Running" Thread which can be found here.

I would also search for buildings by SimGoober, barbyw, Ill Tonkso, Dusktrooper. There are lots of other great plugin makers on the website too.

Hope this helps.

[Kazan 0]

ok it helped some - but i'm still looking for a tutorial on how to get my city to grow and have demand for more than agriculture, low density housing, and normal industry with almost no comercial

[Constantina 5]

Welcome to Simtropolis 5.0. Enjoy the site!

If you need more help, post a private message to me.

[hamsterTK 93]

Hey. welcome to ST. if you like to cheat or experiment...

Super demand mod

makes demand for everything tend to max out. Lets you build a huge city really quickly. Beware though, it makes really big cities behave rather oddly...that is unless you are wanting to simulate a bubble economy....

Radical Simoleon Mod

gives you more money than you know what do with.

Abandonment/Dilapidation Mod

This mod will prevent an abandoned/dilapidated building from turning black/run down for a max of about 180 years. since sometimes buildings come back and thats a long time, chances are you'll never see another abandoned building again.

Bridge Height Mod

This one is either useful or a pain in the butt. it lets you make bridges level.

[Linda 0]

Have you added water to your city? Agricultrue doesn't care if it's watered or not, but other forms of industry do.

Do you have any connections to neighbors? A lack of neighbor connections also impedes industry. If you don't have any roads/rail drawn off the edge of the sceen, draw some.

Build out with the low density first, (Exept Industry, where you need Medium); demand for higher density doesn't really pick up until the population reaches a certain point. (BTW, what is your current population?

Is your demand for residential high? If so, you may need to add more residential zones before more industry or commercial will develop-- very high residential demand can keep industry and commercial out, because there aren't enough workers for whatever jobs already exist in the city.

Hope some of that at least was helpful.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Welcome to Simtropolis.  Everyone has given you very good advice, but if you feel you need some elementary coaching try running the Tutorials found in the Timbuktu region.

Unlike previous versions, this one want to build a city starting in a farming area, and growing slowly from there.  Have fun.

[Kazan 0]

i'm having a problem with unemployment in my biggest city - they build large residential buildsing, and once in a while comercial and industrial demand spike, but then they just fall right back below zero

i have a sea port, airport, just got the advanced research center, I have positive cash flow, good schools (including a private) the university, population ~60k

is thins something i'm going to have to work on suburbs to fix?

[Kazan 0]

arg... it crashed while saving and I lost my last hour or two worth of work on that city

well i'll just start over clean

[KyNYC 16]

Welcome. I'm sure you can find a lot of surprising ideas to enhance your cities. Have fun!