Region mechanics?

[Glitcher 5]

I'm a little confused about how Sims are able to commute to different cities. Granted, the concept is sound: All they have to do is live in one city and travel to work in another. In theory, it's a smooth as buttered milk. In practice, it's as confounding as.... uh.... somebody supply a metaphor?

The source of my confusion arises from the fact that the cities don't interact in real time. Only one city can develop at a time while the rest remain frozen. So when new residents set up home in one city and I see them piddle away to a connected city, how is that possible if no new industrial or commercial sectors have been developped there? More confusing still, I sometimes see residents commute via inter-city roads that stop at a dead-end in the connected city! The same applies for ferries, whose routes extend far out into the open ocean where there are no cities at all! How is that even logical? I can't fully exploit the game mechanics if I don't know how commutes are handled through cities.

Secondly, how is regional demand handled? I presume that the RCI meter reflects demand for all cities. Well, imagine that 'City A' has high residential taxes and low industrial taxes; and 'City B' has low residential taxes and high industrial taxes. Now imagine I only develop residential areas in City A, and only industrial areas in City B. The RCI meter will remain fairly positive because of the low ind./resi. taxes in each city, but nothing will develop in the areas because of the high local taxes. How can I begin to make sense of the RCI meter this way, unless I'm not drawing the proper conclusions here? Someone please help!

Oh, and while I'm here: When starting a new region, should I jump from city to city frequently for development, or stick with one city for a prolonged time. How long?


PS. My first post. Wheeee! *lights little Glitcher candle*

[dadyrghluv 8]

well i can answer the last question, when demand starts to dip in the low/or negetives, switch cities and add jobs to other city tiles. city A is ur "bedroom community" and city B is ur "workhorse". city A demand dips into negetive or very low territory, switch to city B and add some industrial/commercial jobs till it dips into the low or negetive demand and then switch back to city A to see residential demand rises onces again. do this about oh i'd say about 40k times until u have a city that is either full or to your liking and then expand another city tile to make it city C and so on and on. 

BTW: welcome to simtropolis,  happy building

[DOXXP29 5]

Welcome to Simtropolis, Glitcher! Dadyrhgluv is right and is the way I usually go about it or, to be more consistent, you can switch back and forth throughout. Either way, what you're doing is allowing the newly opened city to "catch up" with what's happening in the region. Keep switching around the region and you'll find things may flow a little better. For transportation connections, I agree, a lot of it doesn't make sense. Sometimes, it doesn't seem to matter if it's a dead end, or even if it's a developed city. Other times, it will get nit-picky such as having an avenue with no way to turn around if there isn't a road connection. enerally, I find train, subway, road and freeway connections to be pretty straightforward. Avenue and monorail seem to be more quirky.

[Mclehr 0]

     How to explain, err...well City A - Residential, City B - Industrial.  If in City A you have no industry at all, i suggest you leave all taxes at 9.0.  This is the most accurate way to view ur demand. But its not always that easy, as City A grows and then decides to put in some IHT, you will have to tax ID and IM to 20.0% to prevent their growth in the area you zone for IHT. Now your demand for industry will go negative, but thats a result of the taxes, you will still need to provide dirty industry if you have a large amount of R$/R$$.  Just like in real life, the trash has got to be picked up and some1 has got to do it.  Now you have to use common sense, since ure RCI ind for I is usesless to you, watch for when your R indicator goes close to 0. 

     Back to city B, if  you are going to make this all ind. I suggest you dont have any residents in this city, and then leave all your taxes at 9.0. I read alot of posts in these forums where peops. suggest to taxes R$ up and down, well thats just silly. If you dont want something, Don't zone for it. Realisticly why fight an uphill battle, polution will be horrible, and if no residents no mayor rating so who cares?....just provide good transportation. Since City B will have an accurate RCI indicator play it out till R demand get high. Then switch back for the "never-ending cycle. BTW, I'm a realism freak, I run all my cities off the same amount of time, usually 5 years each unless an emergency arises. Sometimes it can take up to 3 sim months for the RCI indicator to "Sync" up from what you've done in other cities.

    

[S_C_mbody 0]

Things happen in simcity like all the cities are being played at once, even though they're not. The game knows what it needs to know about the sourounding cities. Things will change in your other cities when you play them. It's really not complecated. I just think your looking at it in a complecated way.

Edit: My 300th Post

Regards,

Zane

[abbas786_ali 0]

I dont know where to post these questions but I thought this will be the place. 

How do you create those straight shores made of concrete. Some of the cities have those type of shorelines. Not sand but roads (I think So). If it is a mode of some kind, can some one please tell its name so I can download it. 

When you create a Bat file for a building, how do you fix the cost and its requirements. That sort of thing.

Thank You.

[The_sanderson 6]

I try a experiment.I create 2 citys,and one road conecting in a forest terrain.The trucks go to the forest terrain.I go to the forest terrain...And where the trucks.Why in simcity4 the trucks do not make the complete route? Exists one mod to correct this?

[warfreak 0]

neighbor connections work. I have three cities, full of dirty and manufacturing industry but if the connections don't work, won't the cities be abandoned? Quite the opposite and i make a large profit from the city itself. Large to a budget of 16k revenue and 8k expense with 5k going to waste to power and the rest of transport and fire coverage

[Facelessman 5]

Originally posted by: The_sanderson I try a experiment.I create 2 citys,and one road conecting in a forest terrain.The trucks go to the forest terrain.I go to the forest terrain...And where the trucks.Why in simcity4 the trucks do not make the complete route? Exists one mod to correct this?quote>

Frieght trucks show you how you're industries' goods leave the city.  After that, the game doesn't care where they go - their only destination is the edge of the city they came from.  It would be too complicated and cause a lot of gameplay slowdown for the game to figure out where each truck takes it's cargo.