Simcity Societies?

[memedoug85 36]

Can anyone give me advice about how to get a good city established? I've done the tutorial and know the basics but just can't get anything to stick. Thanks

[baertooth 330]

I make sure there is 1 to 1 in jobs and residents.  I try to have around twice that in venue spots but you should have at least a few good venues so they can visit more than one if they can.

Distance matters.  If a sim has to spend too much time traveling, they might miss their chance to go to a venue at the end of the day and not get that necessay happiness bonus.

You also don't need roads or power.  The sims will walk to where they have to go and if you hover over the buildings in the building list, notice how it affects your power meter.  Some buildings don't consume power.

Make sure you have money in the bank and don't spend till zero building.  You need money as a buffer so start slow until you have a good income coming in.

Look at the building cards too.  Like how much a business makes in a week versus how many people they employ.  Using those buildings more than the poor buildings will help income until you get the hang of it.

Use beautifying decorations as "town centers", such as the town center and build your venue items around them.  Use the income affecting buildings such as the elder council to boost incomes from businesses.

Use your hot-keys for fire and police.  It can save a lot of headaches.  (can't remember how to set them atm, but it should be in the manual)

If you turn the elevation variation and the altitude slider to the left and the smoothness filter to the right during map generation, you'll end up with maps that are flatter and better to build on.  You can also adjust those setting of those sliders to give you more control by going to

\Data\XMLDb\Game\Random Map\RandomMap.xml

and changing the stats that apply to 2-99.  I don't use 1 or 100 because it has made my game unstable using it.

[memedoug85 36]

Thanks heaps for that baertooth, thats exactly the sort of reply I was looking for. If anyone else has some good suggestions for different types of cities I would appreciate it.

[memedoug85 36]

[baertooth 330]

http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16005

This is a town called Fable Falls and is one of the best cities I've seen yet made with Societies.  Check out the pics and you'll get a good taste what you can eventually do.

Looking at your city here's my advice.  You can place your powerplants anywhere on the map and since they don't employ people, you don't need road access to them either.  That means you don't have to have your windmills right in town like that.

Once you start getting into tougher modes, you'll really want to take advantage of buildings that beautify or increase income of neighboring buildings.  There are some decorations that beautify and there are some buildings that increase income.  You should start thinking about making areas for venues and areas for businesses built up around those influencing buildings for maximum effect.

You also have a lot more road than you need.  I'm not sure what mode you're playing but in some there is a mantainance cost and unnecessary costs can kill your budget.  Make stuff count when you place it.

Nice little town tho.  I like how you got a school area going with the sports fields nearby.  Lots of trees too which I like.

[memedoug85 36]

I don't know if I actually like this game but I've liked all the other Simcity games and thought I'd give this one a go. I checked out the link and it looks amazing but Societies lacks imagination. There's only a certain amount of things you can do... Hmm...

[JamesDwho 13]

Also to make sure your city is constantly successful have heaps of prosperity, creativity, productivity,etc. So if some house gets damaged and your Sims go rogue on a building you can keep all the requirements for everything else. Try to plan the layout well so traffic flow is good keep big buildings together because if you spread them out more cars will be going to different areas. I hope this helps