I am clearly unable to uphold a big city...

[Snapp3r 2]

Hi everyone! I am completely hopeless at upholding a big-ish town... Can anyone give me some tips?

BTW, I am using a couple of lots I downloaded off the website in it.

I might be able to get a screenshot later.

[masochist 111]

Well...how big is your town currently?  Just wondering...

If your town is already big, then most of the work is done.  Getting there is the hard part...keeping it there is just a matter of upkeep.  You know...make sure all your utilities are up-to-date and not old, make sure to upgrade your traffic network if need be, and such.  Also, start looking in to building bigger and better things...for example, if there's a reward you haven't placed, try placing it.  If you don't have a big airport or seaport yet, build one of those.  Stuff like that.

If you're looking to grow, then it takes a bit more planning.  Zone less industry in favor of more commerce, and zone more residential once your Sims demand it.  Start venturing out into neighboring cities (or more neighboring cities if you already have spread out) and build there, as well...they'll help feed your city with workers or supply your city with jobs (depending on what you zone there) (actually, you could do that to just help you keep your town big).

These are just general tips and stuff...don't have to follow all or even any of them.  But I hope I've helped!  Just post up the stats to your city (maybe a screenshot or three, as well) and it might be easier to help you out...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The main thing is to take your time, stay profitable, and don't force it.  Avoid running in Cheetah mode except for very specific goals.  Stay in Rhino, and if things get ahead of you, pause the game.

You need to stay profitable.  Your income, once it exceeds the expenses for the first time, must always be greater than your expenses if you want your treasury to get bigger.  Without §§, you really can't do much.

Don't overdo municipal services.  Keep tabs on, and a cap on School and Health budgets.  You shouldn't have more capacity in these areas than just enough to cover the numbers using the service. 

You can also control your power and water demands, but you have to react to these fairly quickly, so beef them up a little over current requirements.

Watch your pollution stats carefully.  Plant lots of trees and parks to keep it down.  If you have water pollution, try to find the funds for a water purification plant.

The easiest way to ramp up your income is add more Sims by zoning residential.

Watch your tax rates.  Nine percent is pretty neutral, and you can control what happens in the game by adjusting these a few tenths of a point at a time.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

[Cob92 360]

Keeping the city big just requires that you maintain it. If you're out to make more money, try zoning some high density res for a quick boost. Expand into the neighbor cities to boost your economy. Large cities are pretty self-sustaining and only require you to fix utility buildings when they break down.

[DanWalker8 3]

One thing that seems to help me develope a large city is to develope a number of neighboring cities to a reasonable size first. A stable industrial base provides jobs as well as a tax resource that is rather abusable. If you need money you can always tax them. Keep the industrial far from the residential to prevent pollution woes, and use mass transit to get your sims quickly to that area (also produces $). Good luck, and most of all keep having fun playing SC

[rodent1989 9]

I agree with danwalker8, separating industry from residential and commercial is really the key to a good city.  Pollution destroys land values as does the traffic from the trucks.  I'd love to see some screens and hear some specifics if you get the time.

[Snapp3r 2]

This may seem like an obvious question to some, but how do you get a screenshot of your city? I know about the printscreen button but I don't know how to turn it into .jpg format?

Edit:Also, in answer to masochist's question, it isn't very big. Only a pop. of about 20,000.

Edit 2:Just out of interest, I only have 3 or 4 $$ industry buildings. I keep away from pollutive things.

[jabezscratch 159]

20,000 isn't a big town per se. Big is a relative term in Simcity that will mean different things to different people. For my part, I don't consider a city "big" until it hits at least six figures in population and even then I think of 300,000+ more as big. Many players have regions w/ at least one city in excess of one million citizens. I've seen a city w/ 8 million (that was more of an experiment than an attempt at building a realistic city, I believe).

In any event, I find that jobs drive growth, not population. In other words, population flows from jobs IMHO. It is critical to keep civic resources (like hospitals and schools) under control. Use the in-game graphs and stats to help you build and maintain your growth.

[jabezscratch 159]

Also, although I don't espouse "cheating," you may want to employ a cheat or two to get you over the hump, if you're really getting frustrated and you need a crutch to help you along. Like maybe a little "weakness pays"

Also, it's not cheating but giving yourself an edge if you plop, say, a CS$$ or CO$$ building w/ a lot of jobs -- that should give your economy a boost and perhaps get your city growing. If you don't have the money to plop the building, you can save up or take out a loan.

[Snapp3r 2]

Hi everyone! Thanks for the tips. I've just managed to get my city pop. to 30,000 and i've managed to sort out my city. I had to use "weakness pays" a couple of times, but i've managed to get through! Thank you again to everyone who came up with a tip! I'll keep them in mind.