City problems. . .

[~~Tito~~ 0]

Hey guys, I am lucky to have stumbled accross this site. I have allways had city bulding problems. I have looked at many guides on youtube and on here, but none seem to help me understand the bigger picture. My cities allways flop, cap at a certian population, have industries I don't want, come out too small, have traffic problems, or stop developing completely. Money is a problem aswell. I have NAM, SAM, and this money pack lot. I don't want to use the money cheat so I don't.

When I try to make an organized city with a big avenue and commercial and suburbs, it never pulls through. . .I don't really understand the "flip flop" management system or "leap frog" system. I try to make a good industral region then make a city but then they end up job less. . .

I love Sim City, but this is frustration me. . .there are many more problems that I have other than the few I listed.

Basically I need personal pointers and advice that can make Sim City enjoyable again , it still is but you get the point.

Screen shots of my 3rd attempt to make a city. Its not very good, I wanted to start like that then have a big mountian town. . . .

[Sszecret 19]

Well, you could try to build slowly and carefully. I mean, zone for industrial and a bit of residential, and so on, a little piece of land and then, when the city stabilises, you can add civics and other things. I had the same problems at the begining, but you can avoid these problems as you get more experienced. Here's a good

on You Tube .You should watch 1st and 2nd episodes for your problems and episode 3 for urban beautification, All about parks. I hope I helped you.

[~~Tito~~ 0]

I've seen that and it helped me, but I cant plan things out XD. I've seen like 7 similar videos too, but I need help understanding it all too. LOL, I need basic pointers. . .even though I have played the series since Sim City 3000. . ..

[Sam 163]

I had this exact problem when I started playing and was about to give the game up before I found this site.

Your citizens are getting too rich too fast. The solution? Tax 'em.

You need to build a firm foundation before you can let your citizens get wealthy and educated, otherwise you get wealthy educated citizens before you have anywhere for them to work. Basically you need a lot of poor sims, a few middle class later on, and only a very few wealthy sims. You are trying to go about it the opposite way, but this stops your cities dead, especially if you are a beginner.

So. First decide if you want your towns to be based on farms or industry. You can't mix both, it doesn't work too well when you are a beginner.

Then, zone your work district (start with one small one, if you are using farms your farming zone above is a little big but fairly close to good, but you will need a lot less if you are using other industry). Put the farming or industry close to a border, with one intercity road connection. Industry (and farms are industry too) is dependent on getting their freight to a city border by as short a route as possible.

About 10 to 15 tiles away put a small zone of low density residential around a small hub consisting of a small fire station and a small clinic, a windmill and a water tower. Leave a bit of room on that block for a small school a bit later. Allow about two small blocks of residential in all directions around your hub. Make sure there is at least one road going from your residential to your industry or farming area. Blocks are usually best to be 4 or 6 tiles wide, and 6 to 10 tiles long.

Set your taxes to about 7% for R$, about 9 or 10% for R$$ and about 10 or 11% for R$$$

You don't need commercial yet, your city is not ready for it. But when you do add it, you will line your road connecting the industry to the residential with commercial.

If your city has enough funds, lay water pipes for at least your residential. I suggest having the industry on a separate water circuit later, with an independent pump well away from the polluting industrial area. But that could wait for a bit.

Check your clinic, you should be able to turn the funding down very low, as initially it won't be getting many patients. Keep an eye on it though and increase the funding as they get more patients. You can do the same with power plants, but windmills will reach capacity very quickly anyway. You don't need to place a different type power station (eg coal) until you have placed seven windmills (before this, wind power is more economical).

Save your city and run it on slow.

Put the Mayor's residence, church and grave in your city when you are awarded them. Make sure they are affecting as much of the residential area as possible (ie try not to build them on an edge). When you can see the mayor's house affecting its neighbours (the desirability is more green), or when you have enough cash, re-zone the residential surrounding the mayor's house medium (about one block on all sides).

With this basic layout, you should be able to get your city to between 20,000 and 40,000 within five city years, without having to expand your zones.

If you are making a farm based city, don't place a school, even later. If your sims get too educated they will not work the farms anymore. If your city is industrial, you won't need education for a few years, until your zones are established and your city is starting to grow medium density buildings.

You don't need buses, trains or other mass transport yet. You want your sims to be almost all R$.

[~~Tito~~ 0]

That made it pretty clear for me actually! , So what I want to do now is start from scratch so I can have the city the way I want. LOL, its kind of messed up that maxis decided that farmers where stupid lol.

Once I do that what kind of road layout do you recommend because the ones I do end up with traffic jams and Sims saying the commute is too long. . . .

[Sam 163]

Low wealth sims complain less. Its mainly the rich that complain about commute. That's partly why you've got problems, even though your city is pretty small.

But your first few cities will probably be practice anyway. Initially you just want to get the idea of how to start a successful city when you want, then your later cities can be made more specialised from the start, once you know what works for you and what doesn't.

[~~Tito~~ 0]

Hmmm, so basically, no schools, and all the fancy stuff untill the city actually grows?

What speed should I have the game on most of the time? Regular, fast, or cheetah?

[Sszecret 19]

Oh, and another suggestion: Build what the RCI bars tell you to. For example, if dirty industry is highest, buid that. In time, other bars will be higher and you will have the oportunity to zone something else, depending on RCI indicator. A city is built slowly. That's my advice. BE PATIENT.

[Sszecret 19]

@ sam : Should'n you add the water tower after ...i don't know..20, 000 sims? when you ran out of building space and have to go up, and to get higher buildings, you need water. And if you add a water tower to the city and you don't know how to manage a city very well ( it happens to anyone, beginers or advanced players) it can suck a lot of your money, and you will get bankrupt quick.

Am I right?

[Sszecret 19]

@ Tito : Well, the speed should be normal, but if you want to see the results faster ( eg you put your first large clinic and you want to see if it is enough for the surounding neghbourhood or for the health levels to rise, you can - and should - use fast or ceetah)

[Sam 163]

Originally posted by: Sszecret

@ sam : Should'n you add the water tower after ...i don't know..20, 000 sims? when you ran out of building space and have to go up, and to get higher buildings, you need water. And if you add a water tower to the city and you don't know how to manage a city very well ( it happens to anyone, beginers or advanced players) it can suck a lot of your money, and you will get bankrupt quick.

Am I right?quote>

My cities go up pretty quick, so I gave up waiting to put the water in later, now it goes in at the start and I get a much smoother population increase. Certain stages won't grow until water is present (including much of the custom content I like) and it also reduces your cities flammability.

Besides, at the start I can easily see where all the pipes are meant to go. That gets harder later.

My cities make heaps of money so its more cost effective to put water in early for my cities to get faster industrial development.

[~~Tito~~ 0]

Wow, this advice really helped a lot!

Is there any mods to run the game in window'ed mode?

[~~Tito~~ 0]

Also, what ever happened to the ports or the docks?

[Sam 163]

Originally posted by: ~~Tito~~

Wow, this advice really helped a lot!

Is there any mods to run the game in window'ed mode?quote>

just add -w to the command line of your shortcut.

If you are using widescreen or something you may need something like:

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CustomResolution:enabled -r1600x900x32 -w

The ports are in there. Under seaports. You may need to earn them as a reward, I can't remember as I tend to use custom stuff. They will be too expensive to build at the start of the game though.