I'm stuck!

[PhillyPhenom 0]

Hey everyone! I've been checking out these boards for a while and it's helped me out a lot.

Now though I'm to the point where I can make a lot of money with a city, but I always hit a wall around a certain point in the game and my cities stop developing.

First, let me establish a few points a bout a majority of my cities:

- Education is a big priority. I make sure I have enough elementary schools, libraries, high schools, private schools, and in some cities a university.

- Police and Fire coverage is good.

- Everything is watered/powered.

- Plenty of parks and recreation spots (marinas, etc.)

The one city I will use as an example is my most successful one to this point: Santa Maria

This city houses about half of my region's total population (200,000 or so in the city, 400,000 overall) and it has a stock market, an airport, a convention center, and a minor and major league stadium among other things. I am making a good amount of money with it, and I have some smaller skyscrapers, but I've hit a wall and the city will not develop anymore. I'm sure something is holding me back but I'm not sure what.

This screen shows you the RCI demand box...R$$$ keeps jumping from low to high erratically but everything else is generally consistent...

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/6559/sm1od8.jpg

I just don't know what to do next. I've gone through the ordinances...the only real problem that gets complained about is traffic but I have tons of bus stops and an effective subway system so I'm not sure what else I can do.

Any ideas on where I can go from here? I have neighbors on 3 of 4 sides, and I was hoping to build a large CBD on the other side of this city but the way this one has just stopped developing I'm not sure anything like that would work.

Thanks for the help in advance! ANy questions just let me know and I can tell you whatever you need to know about the city.

[memedoug85 36]

You might need to put some Low Res in a neighbouring city...

[PhillyPhenom 0]

What's funny is I tried to do that in a next door town, but all that housing eventually jump up for R$$$ too. Is this a scenario where I'll just have to raise taxes for medium and high class sims in that town?

Then again I'm not entirely sure that will work, because 2 blocks away I have a large city of low class sims but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

[Richard Sun 0]

Mabye you have reached your stage caps. Just keep expanding on low res.

In order to zone low res without getting $$$ sims to move in, zone all your low res zones in 1x1. there is no lot that is $$$ res and is 1x1.

[radenskloof 0]

What I do is (one of) two things:

a) lower taxes on R$, as sometimes you will find with all the increased education, parks, etc, the land value really goes up... and R$ can't afford to 'rent' there. The demand to go $$ and $$$ is strong - it is so "desirable"

b) zone high density, and when you get R$ tower blocks being built, make them "historical' and they wont convert into R$$ and $$$. If a R$$ or $$$ gets built, you can always hit demolish, and historical the next R$ to build. 

Even with a dense area of R$, you can still make it pretty with parks and grass... it wont upgrade as long as it is marked historical.

Add some bus stops/mass transit in these areas, as they love to use MT.

R$ aren't the prettiest, but they are essential to a healthy Sim economy!

Have fun!

[PhillyPhenom 0]

Thanks for the tips everyone!

How man R$ sims are essential to a healthy economy? The reason I ask is, if I'm going for an all out big city with skyscrapers and everything on a lot with not a ton of space, wouldn't it be more efficient to just have all the R$ in a separate map?

This was actually something I tried at one point...a city of mostly R$, a bit of R$$ and R$$$, a ton of C$$, and a big of high tech industry. All that ended up happening was big parts of the town would be abandoned because of a long commute, despite me placing a ton of bus stops there.

I guess what I'd be asking then is what's the most efficient way to place R$ sims...cramming them into a big city, or building them their own town?

[PhantomSoul 3]

Don't forget that if you want R$ development, especially in dense urban areas, you probably shouldn't make the neighborhood conditions too ideal. If your schools, police, fire, medical, parks, etc. are too ideal, it will create an overwhelming demand for R$$ and R$$$, which the poor R$ cannot keep up with. Further, after moving in and completely saturating your town, the R$$ and R$$$ sims will realize that there are no R$ sims anywhere around to serve them and will leave searching for better pastures, thus leaving your neighborhood abandoned.

So in the end, maybe ideal living/commuting conditions aren't appropriate in all parts of town, but maybe just "good enough" based on what kind of sims you want to attract... How's that for a good helping of irony?

[NetPCDoc 1]

Hello PhillyPhenom,

For your big commercial city - I would recommend mostly R$ (putting most - if not all of - the R$$ and R$$$ in their own sub-urban cities). I would also recommend placing one or more Industrial Parks (a.k.a. cities) just next door to this commercial city.

For High Density R$ - try a 2 wide by 4 deep lot (re-zone if your sims re-parcel this into a different size). While you may have a custom lot for higher wealth residential sims - there are no EA/Maxis lots of this size for higher wealth sims.

Desired wealth mix is R$$$ x 10 = R$$, R$$ x 10 = R$; this is after translation into work-force (approx. 40/60 percent of Residential population). Note - your wealthier sims will provide some employment for lower wealth sims (butlers, maids, babysitters, etc).

Please enjoy the game,

-NetPCDoc

No detail is too small to be micromanaged.