Clever Zooning

[Sainty 0]

Hello Sim-players, I found this community just a week ago and have been reading here since. I find this forum confusing, many times i have trouble to find back to a topic that i was reading a day ago, so answer to my question might be already answered somewhere under all the subforums but since I'm a hopless searcher, I just had to make my own topic about it.

I dont know, but most of my towns dont grow over 200 000 people, and i feel its terrible. I've read somewhere that some of you have cities over 1 miljon so I'm guessing that i'm doing something wrong.

Most of the tips that come from you say that its all about clever zoning and transport. I thought that i found a clever zoning strategy by doing a chess board zoning kind of thing and adding one subtrain-station and one bus stop to each building.

The thing is that my cities all look the same!

I was thinking that today I'm gonna get one of the biggest titels in the Los Angeles to grow big time. My region is 1,3 miljon so I think that i'm ready for it. BUT I would like you to give me some visual advice in how to zoom thise residential and commercial areas, and of course, the transportation system.

Here are some screen shots of how I have been doing untill now.

What I dont understand is why my sims are using cars even tho they got subtrain and bus just by their house and work office. The commute time is still long even thos they are just working 2-4 blocks away. The subtrain stations arent full nor are they bus stations. I'm using the network plugin already but it doesnt seem to help.

I've added 2 screen shots to show you how i zone my city.

[____----____ 37]

something i did once (imagine downtown bigger i lost the completed pics)

[Jetsurf2002 0]

face it. Sims love their cars. And so do alot of Americans, which is why you have to plan your highways and other roadways correctly, or you will be having rush hour all hours of the day. I'm still having troubles trying to build a city with a million sims too. It's hard, what you have to do is try different ways to make your city, or you'll never know what works.

[+Guest]

I suggest you go and look at the Journals for help and maybe find a few threads.

     This game wasn't designed with Public Transportation in mind not matter how well you lay it out.If they can't jump in there car and get to work in 5 minutes your going to have problems.Goodluck and let us know how you make out.

[Constantina 5]

Smart strategies there. I made a city with more than a million Sims, and no car usage, because of heavy modding. Very complex, but when complete, it pays of a million or even a trillion. No, hang on, even a quadrillion! (1,000 trillion).

As for the Sims, get used to a car-less city: Constantina is very radical with transportation.

[____----____ 37]

Originally posted by: Constantina Smart strategies there. I made a city with more than a million Sims, and no car usage, because of heavy modding. Very complex, but when complete, it pays of a million or even a trillion. No, hang on, even a quadrillion! (1,000 trillion).

As for the Sims, get used to a car-less city: Constantina is very radical with transportation.quote>

 

where to even begin

you are the Greek modding queen

[Neddiggis 1]

Sainty,

Your public transport is over kill.  Imagine being on a bus that stops every 200 meters.  It would take forever to get anywhere.

Have 1 bus stop every 20 or so tiles, and for your downtown stagger them through the grid like to.

B R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R B

R                         R                         R

R                         R                         R

R                         R                         R

R                         R                         R

R                         R                         R

R R R R R R R R R B R R R R R R R R R

R                         R                         R

R                         R                         R

R                         R                         R

R                         R                         R

R                         R                         R

B R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R B

Where the B is the bus stop and the R is the road.  This way you get a close stop for every sim, but a good distance between the stops.

Also look for the road top stops on the STEX as they don't take up any room.  There are bus and subway

[antipat 0]

If you want it to look real, and not all square like (like me), you just zone as the demand calls for it. Also, don't plan you transportation system out, but plan for expansion. Know first were you want your downtown to be at the begining (you goal is for the whole city to look like that, but you have to start somewhere). Don't build your C on a mian avenue that heads into your city. In the future, if you expect that that avenue will need to become a highway, you will have to destory all of the C on it, and lose valuable job. Instead, have side streets that come off the avenue with the C on them. That way, if you must make that avenue a highway, you will only lose the C that is adjacent to the highway, not all of it.

I am also a fan of this technique. O = One Road E = Empty space B = Bus Stop R = Road S= Subway stop

OEEO

OEEO

OEBO

ORRO

OESO

OEEO

OEEO

It can handle traffic, doesn't waste room on the sides with bus stops and sub stops, the middle can be parks which help with demand, and it can be easily upgraded to a highway without destroying buildings along side of it. I have it 4 wide because a highway is 2 wide and that leaves you room for a road for the buildings.

[_MostlyHarmless 17]

Actually, having a bus stop every 200 meters, or every city block (.1 mile), is pretty realistic. While there may not be bus stops that often, the bus does stop that often, at least where I live. Maybe somone can upload a bus stop sign that can be placed on top of the road. Yes, it does stop that often, and yes it does take forever to get anywhere.

[Shooshie 0]

Originally posted by: Sainty Hello Sim-players, I found this community just a week ago and have been reading here since. I find this forum confusing, many times i have trouble to find back to a topic that i was reading a day ago, so answer to my question might be already answered somewhere under all the subforums but since I'm a hopless searcher, I just had to make my own topic about it.

I dont know, but most of my towns dont grow over 200 000 people, and i feel its terrible. I've read somewhere that some of you have cities over 1 miljon so I'm guessing that i'm doing something wrong.

Most of the tips that come from you say that its all about clever zoning and transport. I thought that i found a clever zoning strategy by doing a chess board zoning kind of thing and adding one subtrain-station and one bus stop to each building.

The thing is that my cities all look the same!

I was thinking that today I'm gonna get one of the biggest titels in the Los Angeles to grow big time. My region is 1,3 miljon so I think that i'm ready for it. BUT I would like you to give me some visual advice in how to zoom thise residential and commercial areas, and of course, the transportation system.

Here are some screen shots of how I have been doing untill now.

What I dont understand is why my sims are using cars even tho they got subtrain and bus just by their house and work office. The commute time is still long even thos they are just working 2-4 blocks away. The subtrain stations arent full nor are they bus stations. I'm using the network plugin already but it doesnt seem to help.

I've added 2 screen shots to show you how i zone my city.

quote>

Hi Sainty,

I recently rediscovered the Simtropolis site and forums myself, due to an injury that's had me limited in mobility for a while. I've been enjoying the downtime by playing SimCity4/RushHour. Naturally, I've been enjoying the community aspects of it, too, so here we are.

I think one reason your sims find their commute time to be so long is that your industrial zoning is so far away. Even if I have a lot of commerical demand, the foundation of my Sims' employment seems to hover around the vicinity of industrial zoning. In theory, mining and industry are the foundations of economy, whereas office and services just bounce around wealth that's already been created. So, keep industry, office, services, and retail all within reasonable commutes. Parks just add to the desirability. Mass transit sometimes doesn't work easily, but I've got cities where rail stations regularly report actual traffic of 500 to 1000 riders, though it changes frequently. I just try to make sure there are options for commuters to get off where they work.

Building cities of over a million population in any Sim City version has been a matter of patience and planning. Not planning the exact, cookie-cutter zoning before there is any demand for it, but planning education strategies and real-world growth algorithms. The object is to start light and grow dense. That takes a long, long time. When you get to the point where your land values have maxxed out, and you start rezoning for density, your population begins to multiply by leaps and bounds.

Some things that help make this happen: Education, education, education, recreation, and education. It takes time to get budgets up to levels where you can afford the education. You can't rush it. Once your Sims have reached the maximum education, your industry is mostly going to be hi-tech. Education and contentment (back to the convenient zoning) will lead to higher land values. Higher land values are ripe for rezoning into more density--but be sure to add density to your employment zones, too--both commercial and industrial.

The amazing thing about Sim City is that it can sustain this kind of strategic game play for months. You can constantly improve a city. There are always routes that need cleaning up, zones that need redesigning, funding to increase, services to provide, infrastructure to replace. And the numbers tell the tale: as you get beyond populations of 600,000 or 800,000 and start approaching a million, you will know how you got there.

One comment: lots of real-life cities have taken the formulaic approach to zoning, and they appear with cookie-cutter sameness all over the country, if not the world. Some of the grid formulas I've seen in the playing of SC at various forums remind me of those cities. In the Dallas area, Frisco comes to mind. in Phoenix, Scottsdale or Fountain Hills comes to mind. Orange County, California, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, Nevada... in each of these places you will find neighborhoods that appear to be tiled right out of Sim City, as if the planners think they have people exactly figured out. I always wonder if those places will be self-sustaining in 30 years, or massive slums.

The places that seem to be the strongest are the ones that grow organically based on need and planning just far enough ahead to take care of that need, but always willing to tear things up and address those needs even on a large scale. I see it in my own neighborhood, where old houses are being bulldozed and MacMansions are going up in their place. Some change is painful, but it's leading to revitalization and continued self-sustenance.

Which reinforces the idea of taking it slowly, growing organically, and being very patient. That's what seems to work best for me.

Shooshie

[smstevenms 7]

aleking, wild setup. Your Sims had no-prob. getting to work? It looks like there's alot of residential in the rear of center that would not want to live there due to commute time. Anyway that's what I experience, I usually try to place lowC sparsely placed throughout the R sectors so some have jobs close and group my $$C, $$$C in the area I'm putting the city. This doesn't work as great as I like till I put plenty up PT, of course many  of the mods make a great deal of difference in the flow of growth and frustration.

[smstevenms 7]

I have found that just adding as needed you get more of a random look, and less issues with commute times and traffic. Only having issues with keeping the subway from getting congestion. Not all over but certain areas, even after placing more stations and bus stops. I've tried to lay more track but the traffic builds right back up!!