Money Issues

[KidsGameHunter 0]

I need help. I cannot get a city passed 75,000 without going bankrupt. Those exucutive people want this and want that and if you don't suit them they won't settle in your city. The game is new. This means that there are no guides or anything. Maybe someone can explain more about this to me. Also, pollution is a big problem. What are "parks?" Decorations? It's hard to include them all the time.

Also, another thing I don't like is the fact that either people haven't found a cheat yet, or there are no cheats at all. CheatHappens has a trainer, but even though I like cheats, I'm not paying 20 bucks a month for a little trainer thingy. So, for now, I'll just stand in wonder how people get to 2,000,000 people, and I can't pass the 100,000 mark.

Can someone explain some more about this to me?

Also, another thing:  What's the fastest way to get a city from 0 to 100,000? Please respond.

[Omniassiah 3]

Seriously ignore them for as long as you can. its the best thing in the world to do at the beginning. In fact overall you don't place any services till people start to move out because of it.

[gadge75 0]

My first city grew to 1mil, then went flop because of the elites/execs crying for more. What I found was that turning on expert mode was a bad idea. Once I started adding high density jobs and factories I needed more and more elites and execs as well as more resources for my industry. (Trading was also borked at the time so I ran out of water and manufacturing goods real quick). What I found was that at first I would see we needed homes, so to tossed out 6 blocks (of 6 zones each) of said residence (figuring i'd "think ahead" so homes were available). Then i'd do the same with some form of industry when they were crying for jobs. It wasn't balanced and kept see-sawing back and forth until it crushed itself. The same began to happen when I added med and high density industry. It all fed of some other resource I wasn't producing enough of.

Anyway, I began fresh, left expert mode off, and went slow. I didn't throw down 3 blocks of offices when unemployment was high, nor did I throw down 6 blocks of residences to attract more tenants at once. One block at a time until jobs/houses were satisfied, and then left them alone until they were called for again. My new city now rakes in about 10k per tick and has a population of 50k with $4mil in the bank. If I need heavy industry, I add 1 square (not a full block of 6) light or medium. This works well, at least until I start to have air pollution concerns. At which point I will turn to the market. Taking my time has also allowed me to focus on my traffic to keep goods flowing. Better flow = happier people = more profit from the businesses.

Biggest thing to take from this, don't add higher density areas of industry until your city is large enough to accommodate the crybaby elites and until you have enough manufacturing/heavy industry/utilities to supply those higher density zones. And traffic control is a must to keep folks streaming in.

Hope this is a decent start and helps out some. And I hope more tips get added from some more experienced city builders.

[TheJackalope 0]

Didn't play beta I'm at 4.1 million in my city. Acre on Prospero if you want to check it out. Friend me, tag is Jackalope and ill check your city out tommorow.

What will destroy you in this game very quickly is building something as soon as you unlock it. Don't. Keep pollution far away from your elites. I don't use heavy industry or manufacturing in my city but my waste and power plants are half the map away from my elites and execs. UQ and Q are used as buffers. When you unlock landmarks that give an environmental boost put them down and build your elites around them. Also go overboard on avenues to keep traffic down. Eventually you will get landmarks that raise satisfaction of elites and execs and this will help a great deal. My elite satisfaction is actually higher than any other right now.

The best early industry is tourist hotels followed by farms since unlike oil and water they do not cost money and also don't pollute. They get much better prices than offices as well. Just build a road through your tourist area and spam them. Then sell the export for cash. Same goes with farms. Survive until you get the unlocks that give the massive production bonuses and your golden.

[rhenry 1]

Originally posted by: TexDave81

Didn't play beta I'm at 4.1 million in my city. Acre on Prospero if you want to check it out. Friend me, tag is Jackalope and ill check your city out tommorow.

What will destroy you in this game very quickly is building something as soon as you unlock it. Don't. Keep pollution far away from your elites. I don't use heavy industry or manufacturing in my city but my waste and power plants are half the map away from my elites and execs. UQ and Q are used as buffers. When you unlock landmarks that give an environmental boost put them down and build your elites around them. Also go overboard on avenues to keep traffic down. Eventually you will get landmarks that raise satisfaction of elites and execs and this will help a great deal. My elite satisfaction is actually higher than any other right now.

The best early industry is tourist hotels followed by farms since unlike oil and water they do not cost money and also don't pollute. They get much better prices than offices as well. Just build a road through your tourist area and spam them. Then sell the export for cash. Same goes with farms. Survive until you get the unlocks that give the massive production bonuses and your golden.quote>

you seem like you would know this. How the heck do you get to where you can place holiday hotels? I get them but I cannot put them anywhere. What color highlight am I looking for? I get dark purple to light purple and green when I try to put one down and I am being told I can only place where the proper highlight is at. What do I need to do to get that highlight? My city starts asking for more tourism but I can't get any.

[Androv 6]

Holiday hotels are only available on certain maps (usually with lots of mountains). They can be placed in areas that are green on the map when you click the holiday hotel zone icon. Also note that holiday hotels have a negative impact on future holiday hotel placement - that is, if you more than a couple close together the area will become unsuitable for holiday hotels. This doesn't seem to effect the hotels already in place, but does mean you can't place more in the area.

[edman2012 33]

u guys just need to get more used to the game and slow down how fast you grow your cities

[Palpatine001 57]

The posts with the help are rite

My advice follows the same lines with a little bit of difference taking into account some r/l urban planning

Unlike SC4 where you could get away with dropping huge amounts of a certain zone and let it grow over 20 years - you can't in XL

Start slow and low one bit at a time

So start with a nice small block of residential and some jobs

Watch the tickers and advisors for information on what is needed

then when placing ur next round of zoning - NICE AND SMALL

Going too large too fast means you lose grips on what is going on around you, especially when most of us have only played with the game for a week and those game enough to do PO try and get on top of trading with the wider world

Once you/we have mastered the game then maybe we can be a tad more bold and go large faster

But for now

Slow and steady wins the race

[JanYpe 17]