I know I'm the only one who thinks this but...

[KnowitallSim 1]

...I think SimCity 4 is a bit too tedious, difficult and complex.

I've had the game for 4 years (5 in February) yet I've NEVER made a succesful city.

There are so many options and so much stuff, it's just very frustrating.

Anyone else feel this way?

[simsider 4]

it's called cheats like [you dont deserve it]( gives you all reward buildings power fire police medical and schools) also just ask for help on the chat they can help.

[Silur 3,308]

Originally posted by: KnowitallSim ...I think SimCity 4 is a bit too tedious, difficult and complex.

I've had the game for 4 years (5 in February) yet I've NEVER made a succesful city.

There are so many options and so much stuff, it's just very frustrating.

Anyone else feel this way?quote>

 

Hi, KnowitallSim ...

I think You can play Tetris or SimCity #1 ....

You must some study and work for a successful cities - this site, named SImtropolis, real place for this ...

[vilbe 6]

i'm not going to deny that the learning curve was a bit steep, even for those of us that have played previous installments of the series. yes it is quite the complex game, but when you get the hang of it the results are all the more satisfying...

what is your definition of a sucessful city?

[Silur 3,308]

Originally posted by: vilbe i'm not going to deny that the learning curve was a bit steep, even for those of us that have played previous installments of the series. yes it is quite the complex game, but when you get the hang of it the results are all the more satisfying...quote>

 

I'm with You ...

And there is no any problems play SC4 with Simtropolis, and SC4Devotion, and Pegasus, and Sim City Plaza. and more and more ....   

[Rymac91 15]

I'll agree that SC4 is quite complex to play without mods or cheats, but it's not impossible, but you need to follow a somewhat simplified path in order to get success in all your cities, and even then I can't guarantee that. But once you figure out budgeting and what you actually need in a starting city, you shouldn't have too many problems.

[GingerBlokey 30]

I cheated from Day One. So Im not going to pretend I worked hard to learn how to play, because I didn't.

This was 4 years ago so I was 12, looking back it must have been quite hard for 12-year-old me. Which is funny.

[Mogwai1313 2]

I never found SC4 to be that hard but I have played every version before it so maybe that helped. I also don't use cheats or mods that mess with the economics of the game too much. I use NAM but that is because the game is virtually broken without it when you get into bigger cities. The key to playing without cheats and being successful lays in being patient and not overreaching your budget early in the game. I have also found that you need to balance play time between the cities in your region as to keep all growth on par with neighboring cities, that helps a lot.

[Callbat 8]

Don't become impatient, when I got the game I never cheated and it toook me about a year to make my first functional, good looking city...but I guess it must've been easier for me since I had SC3K before SC4..hehe. But then when I first came on here and went on my first downloading frenzy I started cheating and building cities for mostly eycandy (like in my sig).

But my advice is..learn the game first like I did, then go on a cheating frenzy, to learn the game there are a lot of great resources here on simtropolis...go read! I'm sure he results will ve very pleasing!

[dadyrghluv 8]

but if u compare SC3 to SC4, it's like night and day. they don't play the same at all. much of what u knew in SC3 had changed when SC4 was released. thats what made it hard for me. i have yet to make a succeful city either, w/o cheats of some sort. but i am coming closer, especially with the CAM.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

This game is all about patients. You do not have to create a successful city in one day. I bought SC4 deluxe when it first came out and I made my first successful city about a year ago. The thing is not to panic in the beginning stages of development. As sims populate the cities, conditions fluctuate so you have to think ahead and do some planning. It's not that this game is too complex, it's just not for everybody. And those of us who like it and got the hang of it want more options. Think of those who have hobbies like building models or artists such as myself . It takes love for the craft and a lot of patients. But when our craft is made too simple, and all the meat is taken out, it is no longer fun at all.

[ggaleazz 1]

I actually found SC4 to be much easier than SC3.  I had a hard time getting my early cities started in SC3 before going bankrupt.

In SC4 there was a bit of a learning curve no doubt (especially at higher population levels) but I found the beginning entry into new cities much easier.  I think the 2 games shifted the key financial management pressures.  In SC3 you really had to manage the early game while in SC4 you need to manage the mid to late game.

The key in SC4 is to go slow, and use farms at the begninning to spur residential demand.  As long  as you keep your sims stupid they will continue to work at the farms and dirty industry.  Then once you are ready you can begin to give them health care and education and police and fire to stimulate the more grandiose parts of the game

[Bluebeard 0]

Patients and more patients it will happen.Remember this isn't the Sims your playing watching a computer person go to the bathroom over and over.

[dogma555 187]

I cheated for my main city that i work on but I tried a few cities without it. I find it quite fun this way, but still quite quarky.. I believe the point is that you actually have to go through history, meaning you start out with agriculture and a few houses, expand, start industrializing, and then commercial services become available, and when populations and conditions are right, those big commercial buildings will start appearing on their own.

[KnowitallSim 1]

Originally posted by: dadyrghluv but if u compare SC3 to SC4, it's like night and day. they don't play the same at all. much of what u knew in SC3 had changed when SC4 was released. thats what made it hard for me. i have yet to make a succeful city either, w/o cheats of some sort. but i am coming closer, especially with the CAM.quote>

Yeah....SC3K was one of my first games I ever played, and by the time SC4 came out I had SCK3U and I played it like every day.

I found it really hard to adjust

5 year learning curve....lol.

[mntoes 271]

I agree with you, I have found it hard since day 1. The biggest city I have ever reached is 217k. There is something that won't let me cheat though, must be too honest !. One day I WILL get a stage 8 building lol. I just plod on , but I enjoy the Bating side more.

[dadyrghluv 8]

my learning curve will continue to grow as the years pass.

personally i am burnt out of playing the game now, sick of wasting my time building a city to learn that somewhere i messed up in developing it, and planning it out. so i probably wont play it again. after 5+ years, who can blame me.

[Mogwai1313 2]

This thread has got me intrigued. I never realized so many people thought this was a hard game. Sure, Maxis always said it had been made too difficult for beginners but I never realized there were this many people within the community that had difficulty playing without cheats. The only thing I found annoying was tunnels and subways but that was more of a graphical thing than a game mechanic thing.

Not bragging, but it doesn't take me much work to get a city above 1 million people; now I just want to know what I am doing that other people aren't.

This is a good thread, keep it up! Those of you that find the game hard, what parts give you difficulty?

[owenluby 1]

I don't think I've ever made a perfect city... I just experiment till i get bored. That's the reason I play the game, to find out new things about it and make them functional. It all depends on what you like about the game. If you love big mega-tropolises with seas of skyscrapers, then the game will function to your taste because that was the way it was made. If you prefer a more realistic approach, then you'll have a hard time dealing with the game engine. One easy solution: CHEATS!

Hope that helped.

[BurroDiablo 222]

I never made a successful citywithout cheats either (and I guess a cheating city  can only be successful if its aetheticly pleasing, lol), they always looked like dumps because you just try and rush to the skyscrapers, all essence of city planning just goes out the window... thats why I love to cheat in SC4

[mntoes 271]

Mogwai1313 - I guess it's the fact that you think you are doing the right thing for growth then all of a sudden you can't work out why the population takes a sudden dive? That always happens to me.

[SimRabbit 48]

KnowitallSim: you might want to try Simcity Societies, it ain't that complicated, even my dog can make good city.

[KnowitallSim 1]

Originally posted by: Mogwai1313 This thread has got me intrigued. I never realized so many people thought this was a hard game. Sure, Maxis always said it had been made too difficult for beginners but I never realized there were this many people within the community that had difficulty playing without cheats. The only thing I found annoying was tunnels and subways but that was more of a graphical thing than a game mechanic thing.

Not bragging, but it doesn't take me much work to get a city above 1 million people; now I just want to know what I am doing that other people aren't.

This is a good thread, keep it up! Those of you that find the game hard, what parts give you difficulty?quote>

One of the biggest problems for me is money management, it seems I'm always losing money.

Another problem is the sudden population dive/sudden abandonment issue.

I also hate when everything "seems" to be going well, then suddenly it all collapses and BAM, you're broke, but you need more school capacity, and your water pipes are exploding, and UGH.

Finally, transportation is such a hassle to handle....

It just seems like the entire game is made 50 times more complex then SC3KU, it was this extreme difficulty and complexity that resulted in EA making that horrific and apparently extremely easy SimCity Societies. If SC4 had been a normal difficulty like the past SimCity games (probably would have sold a lot better without the extremely complexness), we would probably have SC5 annnounced.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

When I got SC4 it was the first Simcity game I had ever had.  As an old computer guy, even I found it hard, although I have taught classes in computer simulation.  This one has many more variables than any class room exercise ever devised, with the result that it is a little overwhelming at first.

I suppose that is why the game starts running in Turtle mode.  If you've never played a simulation like this, it takes quite a while to get to where you feel confident enough about it.  It tool me six months of being quite persistent, with lots of promotions to the Senate.  This is all with Vanilla, and without ST.

I finally got bored with the standard stuff, and terraformed my own region called Muddle Earth.  Over the next year an a half I got the region over two million population with each city profitable.  The main city, Ohwhatawettness, was half water, but had a population of 650,000 and a treasury of several million.  It seems that, in Vanilla, once a city reaches a certain point, if you don't do anything destructive, it gets the bit in its teeth and just makes money.

Last year, I looked at what i was doing, and decided to simplify.  I archived all my regions, deleted all my plugins, and started over.  By now I had Rush Hour.  So I downloaded things I knew I had to have, the Opera House fix, all the Maxis made content from that site, and the NAM.  I opened a new Sandbox region and tested everything to be sure I was OK.

I changed my playing style to a more rural/suburban kind of layout.  On a large tile, for example, I tend to have four or five communities connected by transportation hubs.  Sometimes there is a central business district, and sometimes not.  I often have a city with no industrial or very little.  I start each community as a farm crossroad, making sure I stay profitable all the way.

I have been playing from about six months after the game was released.  People have said that patience is needed.  That is very true.  If you try the SC3KU technique of laying everything out on pause then running at the highest speed, you will probably get promoted to the Senate very quickly.

There are several schemes for getting going, including the Maxis tutorial cities in Timbuktu.  Most of these schemes are in the Omnibus, which is worth spending a couple of days with, at least.

[dadyrghluv 8]

Originally posted by: mntoes Mogwai1313 - I guess it's the fact that you think you are doing the right thing for growth then all of a sudden you can't work out why the population takes a sudden dive? That always happens to me.quote>

 

that is my problem exaclty. i never had a hard time with getting money, but what mntoes said is exaclty it. i never found out why this happens, and can never seem to fix it either.

[Death54 3]

I've made the huge mistake of zoning everything out in high density, providing every service and then leting it off pause, only to discover that the transportation network is faulty or more importantly, the zoning isn't balenced out. My sugestion:zone low density, have plenty of industry and MIX UP THE ZONES. You may think that residential hates being near industry, but that's completely false. Low wealth residents will move in res zones near industry. The horde of low wealth sims will spur com, r$$ and ind demand. More low wealth areas get created, adding more demand. Then in a seperate area of the city, you can have you r$$ and r$$$ development, which can be mixed with some commercial development.

Important tip: The whole key of the game is balence, unless you want to cheat.

[smstevenms 7]

It all comes down to time & patients! You have to be focused and really have the time to devote your thoughts in the game.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Originally posted by: dadyrghluv

Originally posted by: mntoes Mogwai1313 - I guess it's the fact that you think you are doing the right thing for growth then all of a sudden you can't work out why the population takes a sudden dive? That always happens to me.quote>

 

that is my problem exaclty. i never had a hard time with getting money, but what mntoes said is exaclty it. i never found out why this happens, and can never seem to fix it either.quote>

A sudden dive in your population may be due to the original inhabitants dying out.  Sims age and die in the ordinary way.  Take a look at your population by age graph occasionally.  You have to have enough residential of the right class to encourage more R$ to move in and raise kids.  The whole thing is cyclic.

[outriderdriver 4]

Yup, you just really have to love the game and work on it like its your own art. I also cheat, I dont hide it but for some of us, were in it for the gameplay and networking. Not the realism in book keeping. Is that what its called? money matters w/e. I have billions in my treasury now.

[mntoes 271]

N_O_Body

I guess this might be my problem. The next question of course is apart from looking at the graph how do we acheive the right residential? On the subject of residential, is it really ok to put residents next to dirty industry? I never do this. Don't I have to worry about all the polution?

Thanks for the sugestions BTW.