Starting up a minimal city

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

There are many new members who come here when they should be reading the Omnibus, so I thought I would add this as a starter.  I use this method on any size tile without any neighbour connections:

1. Put the game in Rhino mode.
2. In the lower left corner (as near a possible) plop in a wind power plant.
3. Press the Z key to activate I-Ag zoning
4. Click and hold your mouse next to the power plant.  This creates a default farm lot.
5. Press Alt+R for street placement
6. Draw streets on both sides of your farm lot.
7. Now generate five more farms in the same way drawing steets around them.  You should now have some intersections.
8. Pick a main intersection and press the R key.
9. Convert the steet from the intersection to the edge of the board into a neighbour conection to Sim Nation.  Accept the connection.
10. By now, some of your farms have developed.  Switch the mayor's view to My Sims and turn off the UDI options.  You don't need UDI stuff interfering with you just now.   Now return to mayor view.
11. Press the Q key to zone low density residential.
12. Create four or five 1 x 2 residential lots on each farm (on the fields, not on the farm buildings) on each farm after it develops.  These are your farm workers.
13. Press the A key for low density commercial
14. At the intersection where your road is, place two or three 1 x 2 comm lots directly on the farm land.  If this is not possible because there are buildings in the way, do it close by.
15. Switch to the budget view on the graphs and charts.
16. Sit back and enjoy the animation.  Your farming village should settle down and maybe iterate some better houses.
17. When all has quieted down, press CTRL+S to do an in-game save.  This is your first checkpoint.  You can return and load this until you do your next save.  If you mess up, you have a profitable place to start from without going through all this again.  Do saves when you are in the black (income bigger than expenses) whenever you end a phase of development.

From here on, develop slowly but surely into a big city.  The next thing to consider is probably a fire station and then an elementary school.  As your Sims get smarter, your industrial demand should climb along with your residential demand.  You can have subdivisions in the country side away from the farms.  Just continue your road into the unzoned area.

Here is an image to give you the idea.  This image can be zoomed for better viewing.

When you put in some industrial, you need to provide municipal water.  Your water plants need to be away from both the farms and the industrial to avoid water pollution.  Air pollution can be handled by adding parks and trees.  The graveyard reward should go near your industial area.  It is NIMBY,  but it absorbs air pollution.

Have fun.

[John_gibbs 0]

wow iv benn lokking for this

[DioAngel 1]

wow I have to try this idea! *thumbs up*

[Camaron 1]

Nice work N_O_Body, this will be useful for many.

[SC4BOY 21]

Nice little pointers N_O! Just the kind of thing a lot of ST visitors are looking for !!

[jay_allen1978 0]

Good Luck Simmers

[smart_zhao 0]

wow, I've tried this idea. very nice!

[YukiEiriKun 29]

Whooa! Kewl! I have to use this, every time I have tried to make a small town, it ends up as a huge city. :-/  I'm too megalomaniac to leave anything to be this small. x)

[derek_5656565 0]

wow this is some great tips thanks for the help

[Steve8888Sim 0]

I just joined simtropolis and already I get very usful information. Thank you very much. I can't wait to try it.

[luigiguy 1]

good idea

[luigiguy 1]

good idea

[luigiguy 1]

good idea

[qufu 0]

works every time!

thanks for the useful tip

[qufu 0]

works every time!

thanks for the useful tip

[qufu 0]

works every time!

thanks for the useful tip

[Bones1 96]

Useful post, but I thought I'd correct a couple of minor errors...

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

1. Put the game in Rhino mode.
2. In the lower left corner (as near a possible) plop in a wind power plant.
3. Press the Z key to activate I-Ag zoning
4. Click and hold your mouse next to the power plant.  This creates a default farm lot.
5. Press Alt+R for street placement
6. Draw streets on both sides of your farm lot.
7. Now generate five more farms in the same way drawing steets around them.  You should now have some intersections.
8. Pick a main intersection and press the R key.
9. Convert the steet from the intersection to the edge of the board into a neighbour conection to Sim Nation.  Accept the connection.
10. By now, some of your farms have developed.  Switch the mayor's view to My Sims and turn off the UDI options.  You don't need UDI stuff interfering with you just now.   Now return to mayor view.
11. Press the Q key to zone low density residential.
12. Create four or five 1 x 2 residential lots on each farm (on the fields, not on the farm buildings) on each farm after it develops.  These are your farm workers.
13. Press the A key for low density commercial
14. At the intersection where your road is, place two or three 1 x 2 comm lots directly on the farm land.  If this is not possible because there are buildings in the way, do it close by.

quote>

For the #12 and #14 points, I don't think you should rezone over the farmland, without first using the dezone key to unzone the farm tiles you plan to change to residential or commercial. There's a bug in the game with rezoning if you don't dezone first. The game "remembers" the original zone, and this can make for weird commute paths.

I'm not positive the bug exists for going from farm field to residential or commercial, but it definitely exists for going from residential to commercial and vici versa. I think it's safest to dezone, just to be sure.

Anyway, minor point, but if you do it too much it can have a major impact on your cities.

When you put in some industrial, you need to provide municipal water.  Your water plants need to be away from both the farms and the industrial to avoid water pollution.  Air pollution can be handled by adding parks and trees.  The graveyard reward should go near your industial area.  It is NIMBY,  but it absorbs air pollution.

quote>

 

Actually, the graveyard is a YIMBY reward. It has a positive effect on both the mayor rating and residential desirability near it. It's best to place it near residential areas for the greatest positive effect. I guess sims aren't afraid of zombies.

[Bones1 96]

Useful post, but I thought I'd correct a couple of minor errors...

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

1. Put the game in Rhino mode.
2. In the lower left corner (as near a possible) plop in a wind power plant.
3. Press the Z key to activate I-Ag zoning
4. Click and hold your mouse next to the power plant.  This creates a default farm lot.
5. Press Alt+R for street placement
6. Draw streets on both sides of your farm lot.
7. Now generate five more farms in the same way drawing steets around them.  You should now have some intersections.
8. Pick a main intersection and press the R key.
9. Convert the steet from the intersection to the edge of the board into a neighbour conection to Sim Nation.  Accept the connection.
10. By now, some of your farms have developed.  Switch the mayor's view to My Sims and turn off the UDI options.  You don't need UDI stuff interfering with you just now.   Now return to mayor view.
11. Press the Q key to zone low density residential.
12. Create four or five 1 x 2 residential lots on each farm (on the fields, not on the farm buildings) on each farm after it develops.  These are your farm workers.
13. Press the A key for low density commercial
14. At the intersection where your road is, place two or three 1 x 2 comm lots directly on the farm land.  If this is not possible because there are buildings in the way, do it close by.

quote>

For the #12 and #14 points, I don't think you should rezone over the farmland, without first using the dezone key to unzone the farm tiles you plan to change to residential or commercial. There's a bug in the game with rezoning if you don't dezone first. The game "remembers" the original zone, and this can make for weird commute paths.

I'm not positive the bug exists for going from farm field to residential or commercial, but it definitely exists for going from residential to commercial and vici versa. I think it's safest to dezone, just to be sure.

Anyway, minor point, but if you do it too much it can have a major impact on your cities.

When you put in some industrial, you need to provide municipal water.  Your water plants need to be away from both the farms and the industrial to avoid water pollution.  Air pollution can be handled by adding parks and trees.  The graveyard reward should go near your industial area.  It is NIMBY,  but it absorbs air pollution.

quote>

 

Actually, the graveyard is a YIMBY reward. It has a positive effect on both the mayor rating and residential desirability near it. It's best to place it near residential areas for the greatest positive effect. I guess sims aren't afraid of zombies.

[Bones1 96]

Useful post, but I thought I'd correct a couple of minor errors...

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

1. Put the game in Rhino mode.
2. In the lower left corner (as near a possible) plop in a wind power plant.
3. Press the Z key to activate I-Ag zoning
4. Click and hold your mouse next to the power plant.  This creates a default farm lot.
5. Press Alt+R for street placement
6. Draw streets on both sides of your farm lot.
7. Now generate five more farms in the same way drawing steets around them.  You should now have some intersections.
8. Pick a main intersection and press the R key.
9. Convert the steet from the intersection to the edge of the board into a neighbour conection to Sim Nation.  Accept the connection.
10. By now, some of your farms have developed.  Switch the mayor's view to My Sims and turn off the UDI options.  You don't need UDI stuff interfering with you just now.   Now return to mayor view.
11. Press the Q key to zone low density residential.
12. Create four or five 1 x 2 residential lots on each farm (on the fields, not on the farm buildings) on each farm after it develops.  These are your farm workers.
13. Press the A key for low density commercial
14. At the intersection where your road is, place two or three 1 x 2 comm lots directly on the farm land.  If this is not possible because there are buildings in the way, do it close by.

quote>

For the #12 and #14 points, I don't think you should rezone over the farmland, without first using the dezone key to unzone the farm tiles you plan to change to residential or commercial. There's a bug in the game with rezoning if you don't dezone first. The game "remembers" the original zone, and this can make for weird commute paths.

I'm not positive the bug exists for going from farm field to residential or commercial, but it definitely exists for going from residential to commercial and vici versa. I think it's safest to dezone, just to be sure.

Anyway, minor point, but if you do it too much it can have a major impact on your cities.

When you put in some industrial, you need to provide municipal water.  Your water plants need to be away from both the farms and the industrial to avoid water pollution.  Air pollution can be handled by adding parks and trees.  The graveyard reward should go near your industial area.  It is NIMBY,  but it absorbs air pollution.

quote>

 

Actually, the graveyard is a YIMBY reward. It has a positive effect on both the mayor rating and residential desirability near it. It's best to place it near residential areas for the greatest positive effect. I guess sims aren't afraid of zombies.

[FlyingFreeze2 0]

Pretty Interesting Approuch

[sinjin 0]

Wonderful tip

[Sticks1977 0]

Great 'tutorial' for us people new to Sim City. I have been creating my Residential and Industrial areas separate with roads separating them. Will give this idea a go when I arrive home. Hopefully I won't run out of $$...

[BigDog79 0]

You people are too easily pleased, all he said to do is build a couple of farms and some houses......WOW is a bit overboard!!!

[jacqulina 162]

very interesting thankyou

[Angrymidget134 0]

thats a good idea i will have to try that.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Originally posted by: BigDog79 You people are too easily pleased, all he said to do is build a couple of farms and some houses......WOW is a bit overboard!!!quote>

Well, it is nothing special, but many people don't seem to be able to get off the ground.  This is the simplest way to get going in the right frame of mind.

I don't think its a wow, either, but it works for both SC4 and RH.

[S_C_mbody 0]

I have created many successful cities, but I have never started one in htis way. Nice work N_O_body.

[leoleo 0]

Do any your cities actually make money? All my cities are losing money. I can gt them to make like a thousand or two and that's it. The money should be pouring in. Why isn't it?

Here are just some other random thoughts.

I wish there was a game called Sim Stadium.

Or a game called Sim World. It'd be a combination of Sim City and Civilization, and perhaps other games. I'd like to see this game be more detailed where I could say what kind of commercial is being built (office, retail, restaurant,malls) and actually be able to design the layout of the mall whether it's a strip mall or a big shopping mall or whatever. And for residential, it'd be cool to choose how many floors in each condo you want, and choose the prices of them...and all the money goes back into the mayor's pocket. Then there's Industrial which doesn't really appeal to me, but it'd be cool to have some say over that as well. There should also be more stadiums and arenas available. Not just a MLB stadium, and minor league football/soccer stadium. Where's the hockey/football arena? Large complex tennis courts like NYC has. Major league soccer stadiums would be cool too. There's so much more. Oh and the ability to design th elayout of the airport would be really cool. The game should be more interactive. This game has improved SO MUCH over the years, but there's still so much that can be done. All th esports games are improving greatly, so they should be able to do the same for this.

[Bones1 96]

N_O_Body's method should get you a city that makes money. Yeah, it won't be much, but you can't expect to make much money with a small city.

It's easy to get a city that can net you $20k or more each month. However, it has to be fairly big. 100,000 sims should be able to do it. Just stay in the black as you slowly build your city, and don't spend more on education, health, and utilities than you have to.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

leoleo:  You need to remember that this thread is for beginners.  In no way have I envisioned people running this on a tile large enough to create that kind of income.  Ohwhatawetness, my very first large city, now has over 650,000 Sims and is making about 20K per month with a treasury over 40,000,000§.

However, you should know that this didn't happen over niight.  It took about two years of real time, on and off, and the city is over 500 Sim-years old.  It has now reached the stagnation ponit, where just keeping it pooping along at current specs is a major job.  I don't play it very often.