Various Questions

[Tuneman 0]

Firstly, how large should my blocks be, I am interested in making hi-rises and whatnot, and should make the blocks to be able to fit hi-rises from the beginning of the game?

I was wondering if there were any "dirty cities" and whatnot that I can download, because my main lot doens't have any neighbors, so I wanted to be able to start from scratch without having to put in any dirty industry or power plants.

Thanks.

[tungston 19]

4x4, 4x6, and 6x6 will all be large enough for most residential, and commercial stages through 8.

I don't know of any premade cities. There is a region that Greyveil posted with prelaid transits, that would save some time.

[Tuneman 0]

So any larger and its bad? cause I used to do 8x12, and it seemed ok, its just that I had really long commutes.

[Barbarossa 51]

Unless you are using custom lots/buildings, 8x12 won't produce skyscrapers. My experience has been 4x4 is prime. Any larger, and you might get only shopping centers or low-level apartment complexes, with irregular results (patchy development).

Barbarossa

[Tuneman 0]

OK sweet, and also should I plan out how I want my highway/mass transit system should work before I start, or can I wait till I build my city a lot, and then buldoze what I want to fit the transit system?

Also for my dirty city, how large should i build this before I focus on my main (large tile) city? Should use another city that has 500 water pumps and then just import my water? Also will only need to create a road to connect to the dirty city and then my demand for dirty industry will go down immediatley?

Should I use 4x4 or 6x6 right from the beginning, or make larger sqares at the beginning, and then change in later? Cause I see pictures like this ( )

and it looks like they use pretty huge blocks, like 12x12

[xxbydesign 1]

The beauty of Sim City is that no one can tell you how to do it. Its completely up to you. Some of us liek to lay out transit first, and fill in the blanks. I like to build a city from scratch, and then add in the denser transit options later, for a more complex decision making process whereby I have to decide what stays and what goes. Its all up to how you want your city to grow and look.

When trying to figure out when you're too big or too small, use your Demand Indicators at all costs. The RCI demand is a good bet on know what the city needs. If your I demand is in the tanks, chances are you don't need any more dirty industry. Click on the Tri-colored bar graph in the mayor mode to see an expanded graph showing demand for specific wealths. THis should help you greatly.

Again, do whatever you feel like doing. heck, they dont even have to be square! Just remember to start small and build out before you try to build up; you need a very stable and broad population base before you're going to see real major skyscraper development.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Any size you like, bearing in mind that for mass transit stations, Sims won't use them if the total walk in the trip for mass transit is longer than 8 squares or so total.  I put stations in the middle of the blocks for this.

[Tuneman 0]

Ok thanks for the answer guys, last question, when you are zoning a piece of land and you hit 'alt' and drag it does one thing, and when you do 'ctrl' drag, it does another. The zoned land ends up looking a little different before it is built; with one its a solid color block, with another it is seperated by lines, like normal. What difference does it make?

[tungston 19]

Smaller lots won't develop on the larger solid block, where larger lots will combine the smaller blocks. I think it's the Alt [?] that keeps the street from auto when doing long zones.

[Zeth 23]

I seem to remember an article by someone who tested the issue and concluded that 6x6 is very clearly the most effective grid setup... anyone else remember this?

[tungston 19]

Originally posted by: Zeth I seem to remember an article by someone who tested the issue and concluded that 6x6 is very clearly the most effective grid setup... anyone else remember this?quote>

 

I am familiar with it, I am not sure my friend "frndofyaweh" ever actually proved that 6x6 is the best.  I think his point was more about the grid than the zone size.  You can make some good lot sizes, but it also has some limits.

I am working on a region now with a variation of his idea of a 6x6 grid with avenues.  I have yet to get the population as high as my city with variable sized zones, and different type transits.  

Actually the last I saw he had started another experiment with something other than avenues for the grid.

[Tuneman 0]

I just really hate building a city up and then having to demolsih certain great buildings/setups in order to make for a highway I'm not even sure people would use.

[mattb 0]

why do the ships from my seaport and cruise liner terminal always crash at one place which ive made deeper a hell of a lot deeper its in the middle of open water and the cruise ship always arrives there later that the cargo ship the realy anoying thing is its nowere near the border

[Barbarossa 51]

Originally posted by: mattb why do the ships from my seaport and cruise liner terminal always crash at one place which ive made deeper a hell of a lot deeper its in the middle of open water and the cruise ship always arrives there later that the cargo ship the realy anoying thing is its nowere near the borderquote>

Shouldn't this be moved to its own thread?  It doesn't really apply to the original question(s).

Barbarossa

Agreed.  This is called thread hijacking.  The question is irrelevant to the conversation.  Please start a new topic.  N_O_Body

[Tuneman 0]

Where can I download empty custom regions?

Also when I try importing power, I can agree to buying it on the city deals menu, however, even after I make a connection, I still can't get power to my zones. whats happening?

[tungston 19]

Get your maps at STEX.

You need to make sure you have a connection for all the neighborhood deals.