Profitable High-Tech

[SeeSpotSplat 0]

Is it possible to have high tech industry be profitable on its own? I can subsidize it with profits made from residential and commercial, but after adding what it costs in power and water it ends up costing more money than its worth (Without using the dirtiest power plants)

My question then is how do I make it more profitable?

Ive tried making a small size map full of it and got about $200 a month max (though I couldn't sustain it for some reason) using clean gas power and water towers, with the demand at 0 and taxes at 12%. The demand came from several 70,000 population cities around it with no HTI.

Any good tips?

Thanks!

[Huaojozu 0]

I dont really know.. but in many of my cities where I just have a small area of HT industry I usually make around 3000$ from them with taxes at 9.

[jerry101 1]

for starters, don't use water towers as your water source. they're terribly inefficient.

Taxes at 12% will kill demand, and prevent your zones from going full.

The natural gas power plants do pollute quite a bit (though less so than coal and oil), so you need to boost your property values. Make sure you have quite a few flower gardens spread about. They will boost up your property values, causing more tax dollars to flow in.

[EB12345 0]

triple post, *****, yes, NEVER use water towers. Why you would need to raise taes past their starting levels is beyond me, I have a city in wich I have lowered taxes for CO$$$ R$$$ and I-HT to 0%, and I'm still making a profit of over $12,000 a month. Anyway, my main industrial city has 30,000 high tech industry jobs with 6 gas power plants and 3 water pumps. I'm making about $5,000 a month profit.

[Cougar2004 127]

My experience with I-HT is that it can be profitable when set up away from dirty polluting industry, has highly educated sims nearby without other options for work, has high land value usually due to parks/trees, and buys power and water from a neighbor connection. I usually dont put much police on it because crime is generally low anytime you have concentrated highly educated sims. I think I always toss in a small fire station out of habbit. I don't recall needing many ordinances, but i know that a few ordinances can kill High Tech (as seen on my Ordinances forum post). I usually find reducing taxes on them causes success. But beware of raising, even a little bit, because it kills I-HT demand even a raise of 0.1%, and anything over 12% and its game over, they leave.

I'm still trying to perfect a transit system that allows High Tech to occupy a small city all on its own without any residential, but so far, my High Tech flurioushes best when residential is in the same city (after dealing with all the problems with getting them educated and traveling well). But I did learn that if i give my sims a choice, for example Commercial, they often go there instead of my High Tech, so beware of that.

Good luck!

[toroca 160]

I've never liked segregating different development types in different cities. I think it looks weird, and it's more trouble than its worth.

If you're past the point where ID and IM make up the bulk of your industry, you can simply put IHT in amongst the rest. Pollution from IHT buildings is so low that even R$$$ sims have no problem living next door. And desirability factors for IHT and residential are very similar; parks, low pollution, etc. All of my cities have IHT intermixed with the rest and no ID or IM anywhere in the region.

[ruennsheng 0]

What about taxes? I always give 0.1% taxes for IHT and 20% for ID and IM...