Dilapidation and Unemployment

[ididntdidit 0]

This isn't an answer it's a question sorry. What's an easy way to stop dilapidation and unemployment without the use of any cheats or modifiers because the dilapidation mod isn't working for me haha. And would any of you consider plopping in a commercial building as any form of cheating?

[JakeMD 107]

For the dilipadation mod.. Make sure you only have one of the .dat files in your plugins folder. Unemployment is difficult, but make sure you have plenty of networks, lots of different ways for your sims to get to their jobs.

And would any of you consider plopping in a commercial building as any form of cheating? quote>

Its definitely not cheating.. Thats why stuff like this was made, to compensate for Maxis' faults and lack of lots of buildings.

[ididntdidit 0]

Well I do only have one of the .dat files in my plugins. Is plopping a commercial building or residential building a way you vets get big buildings fast?

[Livin in Sim 83]

Hi, ididntdidit,

For plopping commercial buildings, it helps with supplying jobs if you make sure to check what kind of building you're plopping, i.e., commercial service low-wealth, commercial office medium wealth, etc., how many jobs they actually provide, and that you have the corresponding demand.  You can look at the detail of your demand graph to see what you need.  For example, if you have a high demand bar for commercial office high-wealth on the graph, and you plop a medium-wealth commercial services building with 1200 jobs, it won't help that much, and may cause negative demand if the CS$$ bar was low to begin with.  To bring that demand back, you would have to zone residential and manage your services to create it.  The same is true for plopping industrial and farming lots.

Plopped residential lots can't be connected to the transit system, so they have no commuters, and will get no job zots and eventually experience dilapidation.  Sometimes they don't dilapidate if they are plopped on top of a lot that has grown, but there are still no commuters.

I think it's best to let at least half of your commerce and industry grow, using the "make historical" button and zoning correct lot sizes, bulldozing, etc., to get the buildings you want, patience required.  I have a hunch it's less compensation for the game engine, and allows it to run in a more balanced manner.  This is just a notion I get when I'm playing, but who knows what is really going on in the bowels of SC4? 

Have fun.

--Liv

[ididntdidit 0]

Well in the bowels of SimCity there's definitely something cooking. I'm just trying to find out what the pros do to get big buildings fast

[Livin in Sim 83]

Yep, that is one of the main challenges of the game.  This thread might interest you, have you seen it?

[duack 14]

I find that usually its medium and high wealth residential and commercial buildings that tend to dilapatate a lot. This is especially annoying when a whole bunch of wealthy sims move into your city, can't find a job, then abandon their homes and then more high wealth buildings are buit and abandoned until you have a ghetto.

To combat this, i usually use taxes to limit how many medium and high wealth citizens I have in my cities and also to control at what time they move in. This way, you can ensure there's always jobs available for the new residents.

Iv'e also made a discovery when playing in my style of regional mode. If you put a lot of commercial and no industrial in one city, eventually demand for industry will rise and demand for commercial will literally come to a grinding halt. To balance this out, you have to place industry either in that city or in another one. the beauty part is, even if you place the industry ten city tiles away from a particular city, it will still affect its demand so long as you have road access to it. This also applies to different kinds of commercial and industrial eg, commercial services vs commercial office vs high-tech industry vs dirty vs manufacturing vs agriculture. It also applies to different wealth levels for example, if a region population is large lets say, 200,000 you will need more low-wealth than high-wealth sims in the region, even if education is high. So what I do, is I assign certain parts of my cities to become eithewr nice or poor areas and control my taxes so I can have the realistic appearance of strictyl highwealth, middle wealth or low wealth areas. Yeah Im a bit of a realism freak =]

[ididntdidit 0]

Originally posted by: Livin in Sim Yep, that is one of the main challenges of the game.  This thread might interest you, have you seen it?quote>

The thread is okay but it's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for dilapidation advice. But the advice about the taxes is cool. I don't usually enjoy messing with the tax rates. So do the pros plop buildings to hurry big buildings to appear?

[Livin in Sim 83]

I think that most players plop some commercial skyscrapers, and sure , I've done it to get variety.  I've even seen at least one city journal where a whole city was plopped but I don't think it was functional.  Buildings will dilapidate due to lack of demand if that isn't present.  So if you want to have a successful city within game parameters, it must be done with a great deal of thought and an eye on demand because skyscrapers usually contain large numbers of jobs and can make demand plummet.  The Census Repository Facility has much more detailed info about demand than the default graph.  If you are asking if plopping large buildings can make other large buildings grow, no, they won't make buildings of the same type grow.  In fact, they can prevent it due to lack of demand.  But, say for instance you plopped a commercial skyscraper, lets say a CO$$.  Next, you rezoned a residential sector for high density.  If your population was high enough, you might see the existing medium density grow a high density residential lot (Woo hoo!  ) if residential demand was high enough.  There are many factors that would influence what would grow, such as taxes, traffic/availability of transit, desirability, etc, etc.  It isn't a simple formula. As I said, therein lies the challenge of the game.  Most of us probably wouldn't like this game as much if it could be solved easily.    It can be played in a top-notch manner with some practice.  I hope this answered your question, please let me know if it raises other questions.  If anyone else has additions or corrections, please chime in.

Have fun.

--Liv

PS-Here's a thread about this subject to which I refer quite often.

[ididntdidit 0]

Eh kinda. I mean I know the nature of things so I know plop a commercial, get residential (demand). I just want to know what professionals do to get bigger buildings, is it plopping big/average buildings when the time is right, patience, well connected cities? I guess I'll have to figure it out on my own

[Livin in Sim 83]

Yes,  it's all of the things you mentioned.  Don't give up, just keep playing and reading what you can on this and other forums.  BTW, I did add a link to my previous post.

[ididntdidit 0]

Oh I see it you edited it in I'll check it out

[Boycey08 0]

i see the make historical mentioned, but im clueless to what this actually does

could anybody fill me in please?

[Livin in Sim 83]

Hi, Boycey08,

If you query a lot, you will see the Make Historical check box.  Checking this prevents the lot from upgrading.  All SC4 lots are prone to upgrade, sometimes to high wealth, and even when there aren't enough $$$ jobs to support the occupants, resulting in No Job Zots and eventual dilapidation.  A fair amount of low wealth Sim residents are always needed to work in the low paying jobs of even medium and high wealth commercial lots.  This is also true for medium wealth residents.  So making lots historical can be used to your advantage to keep this balance.  It can also be used to keep a building that you like and have been trying to get to grow.

Enjoy the game.

--Liv

[Boycey08 0]

thanks for explaining that to me livin, i would've responded sooner but i forgot which topic i asked the question in