How To Create Large Cities

[simcitystar1167 0]

I'm pretty new with SimCity. I have Rush Hour and I being playing a bit, but I really want to know how you can create really successful cities with amazing skylines and everythng. Everytime I try to make a city big, the population never grows, I run out of money, my traffic is too congested, or there aren't enough jobs.

Any tips to making cities big and prosperous. I feel intimidated by some of the ones in the CJs...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, and you can expect your city to have a population of 100,000 an age of 50 - 60 Sim years, good education, no pollution, etc. before you get any fancy commercial skyscrapers.  It just takes playing time.

Do not run in Cheetah mode.  Do not zone great swaths on your tile.  That way lies bankruptcy.

Start with a few tiles.  I-Ag is good since it doesn't require any expensive services just a wind generator for power.  Make about six default sized farms with streets between.  Put some 1 x 1 low density residential right on the farm land (not the farm buildings, of course) along the streets.  You'll need about four or five per farm to get your farm workers.

Pick a good spot and dump in a freight rail station along a street, then run some tracks from the station off the edge of your tile to make your export sink.  Put it in Rhino, sit back and enjoy the animation.

For some entertainment, have a good look through the Omnibus.  It is full of nice tutorials and articles on how to fly this game.

[ThePieSpy 0]

Well i'm not a expert at the game, but setting up your transportation network early saves you the hassal of doing it later, i try to have a highway and a grid system of avenues and build off that. Also suburb-like feeder cities increase demand for jobs, and can help your city grow.

[Amorette 0]

I build my cities the way ThePieSpy does too by laying a transportation network first (though not necessarily very grid like), but when you first start a city, it means you have to be pretty good at making money quickly already because the network you have laid could already be draining you a few hundred simoleons a month, so laying that network might not be a good idea if you are not quite used to balancing your budget yet...