Zones not filling up

[rulingsword 0]

I'm new to simtropolis (as a poster, anyway) but I've had the game since its release and have had varying successes in my off and on enjoyment of it.  I've constantly hit these possibly related problems and I wonder if there may be bugs involved.  I have installed the most recent NAM and no other plugins.

1) I will often reach a point where my residential zones will not develop, despite  high demand, ample cap busters, and amenities and services all provided for.  I speed up to cheetah and will have years pass without them developing.  It seems they will begin to develop if I do one of two things:  a) I center the area in view and it eventually begins to build.  I've sometimes zoned an area, worked on something else in the city, come back in a few years and the area won't have developed but begins to develop after I stare at it, puzzled, long enough.  b)  I've recently found that if I seed the zones with trees, they'll quickly begin to develop.  Similarly, if I build anything nearby (as benign as a bus stop), it seems to trigger the rapid development you'd expect with the high RCI's.  

Once again, I assure you I have provided, all the city services, and utilities needed.  Also, the lots are not sized at all unreasonably.

2) I'll sometimes get the no-road access zot despite there certainly being a road.  I am borderline obsessive-compulsive.  I shape every block and I still get these zots on lots directly facing a road with multiple access to major roads.  Sometimes they'll eventually dissappear or I treat them like in situation 1) above and they'll develop.  But once in a while, they'll reappear and then the houses get abandoned.  I had this issue with an entire neighborhood.  First I thought they weren't getting enough jobs but it affected a cross-section of wealth in that neighborhood and all sorts of jobs were a short commute away.  

3) Despite high demand, when I zone for medium or high density,  I'll still get single houses.  I zoned an entire small sized city with medium density and I will get about a third of the residential of the city with 10 story apartments but the rest will be typical low density housing.  The biggest annoyance actually comes from R$$$ who take up 9 squares to house six people but I will get single-home R$ lots as well.  This becomes a huge problem when I want my city to grow, run out of room and constantly get whole blocks dedicated to lawns.  I'd even be okay with a slum village as long as it's high density housing; I'd rather get the population density which I can improve with education and health care.  Again, demand remains high across all wealth levels, and I've buttressed these small cities with one or two neighboring low-density medium sized cities that feed RCI but the cities often quickly taper off at about 15k population and I'm at a lost since there's no more room to zone.  

Strangely, my medium size suburbia has a population of over 40k.  It may be four times the area but is almost exclusively made of low-density single family lots.  My region population is approaching 90k.   

This is constantly the wall I reach.  Population growth just seems to slow down on me and I grow tired and leave the game to be missed several months later.  I hope you can help me.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Hmm, I often have this problem too - it appears to be a problem with the game itself - particularly since it can only be fixed by adding in extra stuff. There's a point in the development of a city where residential growth just... stops, even though there is more than ample demand for it.

1) Common problem with the game - especially on large tiles. You may have to keep on seeding the plots with god-mode trees but there's a certain limit to that. Sometimes restarting the city (exiting and saving, then coming back into the same time) will fix the problem temporarily. But it sometimes doesn't work.

2) The game looks for possible routes out of the plot, but sometimes it doesn't find the optimum route out in time - so bam, no-car zots. But never mind, they should (I say should, because if they stay there, there's a bigger problem) go away within a few minutes (or months of game time).

3) It links back to problem #1, unfortunately. The game may find that the number of jobs is not suitable for the number of residential buildings that you're expecting, and so, will only do so many. But there are two thresholds that must be met for medium and high density: medium density only begins developing when you reach 1,500, and high density begins developing when you reach 26,000.

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about problem 1, since that's a big problem with the game.

[ididntdidit 0]

First of all Welcome To Simtropolis!!! Enjoy your browsing of the forums!!!

Now onto business...

1) While you may have a high RCI you may need to check desirability and nearby jobs. But the basic problem with the original Maxis transportation formula is pathfinding, they [the sims] don't seem to find the best way to get to their jobs so try zoning either industry and/or commercial near that neighborhood and that may help your residential development

2) Like you I am borderline OCD but I like to call it CDO because the letters are in alphabetical order... like it should be! Haha. But with that problem I suggest you check for zoning tutorials on the Omnibus you can find the link next to the modds and downloads link at the top of the screen.

3) When zoning for medium and/or high density you need to make sure that water is very generous for the area that you want to have bigger buildings. Always be sure that there are enough jobs that will support the sims that will eventually move in. Also be sure that your city is well connected with surrounding developed cities.

Hope I helped! At least a little

[ididntdidit 0]

Ah shadow_assassin you beat me by 8 minutes haha well you have two good posts to help you out

[Darth Apple 54]

I have noticed that in big cities , new areas take longer to grow , maybe because there are so many places to go , so new areas don't grow like mad anymore , my only suggestion in big cities - when you get to this point , build up existing areas before making new ones.but I never ever had any problems with 40k cities , and 40k is quite low for that kind of problem. ohh... and build more jobs too , if you can(if its a major suburb of a big-job-city , you may not have much demand.)stuff like industry , and build your bus stops(I ALWAYS do so , there's no reason not to)make sure you have built some parks, and keep pollution low(and thats important) and keep in mind that no medium/high density area will develop without water.

hope this - also helps.

[ididntdidit 0]

The point of when stuff stops growing is called the peanut butter point what I usually do to try to create an even undesirability across the map and then remove it. The way I do this is by using a lot from the stex (the name I cannot remember right now) but it puts maximum pollution and radiation across the whole city map and once everyone moves out destroy the lot wait for the pollution and radiation to clear and your city is revitalized!