This is gonna take a while...

[Shadow86 0]

So my strange commuting problem was solved by Simulator Z, allowing me to resume the building of the city of Stromburg.

Altenwald: largely complete, mostly light residential, slightly HT industrial district. Might increase density eventually.

Brunswell: medium/dense D/M industrial sector, providing jobs to Altenwald and Konradshagen. Expanding rapidly to meet demand.

Konradshagen: under slow construction (can't expand much without having to run back to Brunswell to create jobs). Will be one of the primary areas of Stromburg, a mostly medium, slightly dense residential/commercial (perhaps with some HT industry) sector with a few landmarks.

However, I've come to face another, much more general problem: it's gonna take me a LONG time to finish the city (=region), even if the territory isn't as big as others I've seen with very developed metropolitan areas.

So I'm coming here seeking tips: I've read a couple of tutorials (well, mainly Making Money the Easy Way) and many sections of the SC4 Deluxe Prima guide. They don't cover a couple of areas well:

- How long has it taken you guys to develop most of a region, with skyscrapers in several places?

- How do you plan ahead? Laying all the roads, avenues, etc. upon starting a new sector seems to be quite expensive, maintenance-wise.

- Any tips to make development faster, real (not game) time-wise?

[Mikeaut1 261]

I have often asked the same question, especially when drooling over some of the great city journals with expansive regions. There are a few journals out there that I have to say are incredible; they have huge regions, many large cities, airports, suburbs, and rural land. The amount of detail put into these regions too are mind-blowing.

Regions with several large cities, big transit network, and attention to detail require time and patience. I don't think there is a true way to go about creating a huge multi-metro area region and doing it overnight. The more detail you put in, the more time it will take.

I think the quickest way to create a region though is to lay down the transportation network first. I am working on a region right now that's pretty big and geographically diverse (mountains, rivers, shores, plains). For the big valley area in my region, I have already developed the transportation network (highways, trains, etc...). I brainstorm the network first and then develop the metro area on top of that (starting with downtown first, then to midrise, suburbs).

So: time, patience, and good brainstorming will help you quicken the development of a region. But you don't want to zone just for the hell of it so you can expand, especially if you want to showcase it as a CJ. Pay attention to detail and make your region unique! 

[mayor_brando 8]

Yeah, it takes alot of patience to get a large city. I have a city that has several skyscrapers, and that took me about a month, and I'm only getting started.

I love to plan ahead, I always terraform what's going to be my main city, then terraform the surrounding cities. After that, I start a negihbor city to help my main city grow faster, and then go into my main city, where I lay down highways and some avenues. After those are layed out, I zone, and then let the city grow, until I have to expand, then I zone some more, adding more avenues, roads, MT where needed. It is expense, but I sorta cheat and get $10,000 from an ordinance I downloaded here, so I don't need to worry about money.

Development goes faster once you have a large population, at least in my experience. Make sure you have the population and the demand, and development will go faster.

[Shadow86 0]

Hmm. I guess that from the design perspective, laying out most of the transportation network before beginning the zoning process would be best. My only concern, as I stated earlier, is maintenance costs, which can get out of hand and hamper growth, particularly in large maps like Konradshagen's.

Development does seem the go faster as population grows, but it also means certain demands are harder to fulfill. For instance, I had to zone a whole third of Brunswell with medium and dense industry to quench barely half of the ID demand. That brings me to my next question: how much industrial zoning should I have in the region, compared to commercial areas? Do they equally provide jobs to the residential sectors or does one hold an advantage over the other?

As for cheating, well, I've no problem maintaining a (small-ish) profit, but all the building gradually depletes my budget. That $10k ordnance might come in handy if used reasonably. That is, using it for a few months every now and then to recover money, and not to keep a profit. However, don't know what my conscience thinks of it.

And finally, one more question: are demand caps city-wide or region-wide? For example, does a Convention Center built in X city raise the commercial cap in Y town, Y being adjacent to X?

[CTMandR 9]

I have to be 3rd to agree that making a large region really takes time, as most of mine I have been working on for well over 5 months. There isn't really a good way to make development go faster unless you have a super demand mod, or lots of money. Also, Mikeaut 1 made a good point with the transportation network, since thats what I start on first. Highways, railways, Transit networks, and even some Ave's and roads is what I start out with. For me, maintenance never seems to be too big of a problem when starting out cities, since I develop enough to bring in good taxes.

[zurrabear 20]

I think you have to take a LOT of time to create great cities and a great region. Unless you have a complete vision for the region mapped out in advance, if you hurry you'll just end up making a bunch of cookie cutter grid cities.

I say why be in a hurry? Creating the cities is the play. I like just admiring too of course, but it's the journey , not the destination, that appeals to me most.

[John Kirby 1]

Well like everyone else said, building up a region can take quite a lot of time. When I usually start on a new region, I terraform then build a few small towns in the corner just to build up the demand. Eventually I will destroy those cities and replace them with suburbs or whatever. But when you put a lot of detail into your towns it can take a TON of time, so just be patient and eventually you can end up with an amazing city!

[Cob92 360]

Most of the jobs in my regions come from commerce rather than industry. In the last census of my previous region, about 73% of all jobs in the region were in commercial businesses. I don't really plan ahead much; I have a general idea of what the city will look like down the road, but it's really a lot of random, on the spot decisions as I build outward from the city center (and no, I don't plop skyscrapers, I just redevelop the land in downtown until they grow). If you can amass a large cash reserve, you can speed up development by building everything at once instead of having to build in chunks and wait for revenue before continuing. If you want, you can always use the Moolah cheat to give yourself the money, thus meaning all you have to do is lay transportation and zones, and wait for EQ and health to rise so that the city can get wealthier.