When to upgrade zoning

[svachon 3]

How do I know when to zone for $R or $$R or $$$R?
I understand that RCI Demand has nothing to do with these zone densities.  
  
Also, how do I know when to upgrade from $R to a higher density say $$$R?  I usually start out with a mix of $R and $$R.  I'm now at 64,000 Sims and am working on other cities in the region.  Do you do upgrade after it reaches a certain size?

[MsProll21 0]

Everyone has their own way of city building so I'll give my recommendations:

I use a demand mod so my $ & dirt industry is surpressed. Before that though, I rezone to $$ when my population reaches 5k. Your city won't utilize any $$$ Commercial or High Tech until you have a population of 25k or more, so since yours is 64k definitely rezone to high res and HT. Of course have a sufficient number of education and health buildings.

Hope this helps! Good luck to you!

[MINIggy03 227]

It's all how you want the aesthetics to look in your cities. I lay out mine with tons of low density suburban sprawl on the outer rims, medium density as it gets closer to the urban centers, and heavy at the centers.

It's your choice to upgrade or not

[Faded Glory 13]

A good bet is when the advisor pops up, telling you to upgrade your zones. lol. Typically, when I have around 35,000, I start upgrading to medium density.

[heitomat 156]

Originally posted by: svachon   

how do I know when to upgrade from $R to a higher density say $$$R?  I usually start out with a mix of $R and $$R.  I'm now at 64,000 Sims and am working on other cities in the region.  Do you do upgrade after it reaches a certain size?quote>

MsProll21, MINIggy03 and Faded Glory all have good views on when to upgrade the zone density. I reckon that's what you were wondering about, at least in your second question, and hope you've gotten some answers.

How do I know when to zone for $R or $$R or $$$R?quote>

The "$" refers to the lot wealth. The player's control of wealth development is limited, as the construction of the higher wealth lots depends on several different factors, e.g. regional demand and low pollution. That said, you can't "zone for R$$$", but you can arrange for such lots to develop. Note that a high wealth commercial building doesn't necessarily have to be a skyskraper, and opposite: A low wealth residential may be a monstrous condo. Accordingly: Zoning for high density commercial in your downtown may give you high wealth highrises, but only if the mentioned factors are satisfied.

I'm sorry if I'm only pointing out what's obvious, but I wasn't sure if I understood your question correctly. I thought would be better to try helping rather than not trying at all.. 

[MsProll21 0]

For some reason whenever I rezone to med and high density my population growth slows.......

Now during the times when I stick to low density, my cities thrive, however I get the housing projects, large dirt industry, etc. which is mainly the reason why I use the demand mod. Nice, suburban towns looks nice though.

I think that I get impatient at the speed in which growth takes place. By the ten year mark I usually see a slow-down, why, I don't know.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Originally posted by: MsProll21

For some reason whenever I rezone to med and high density my population growth slows.......

Now during the times when I stick to low density, my cities thrive, however I get the housing projects, large dirt industry, etc. which is mainly the reason why I use the demand mod. Nice, suburban towns looks nice though.

I think that I get impatient at the speed in which growth takes place. By the ten year mark I usually see a slow-down, why, I don't know.

quote>

MsProll, even though this is a very flexible option, it sounds like you are trying to grow your cities too quickly.

Here's my philosophy: starvation.  I have a city of 220,000 respectable sims, and I filled the entire map before I even put any medium density.  It is now almost 500 years old.  If you get all of the low density possible before upzoning, it really helps growth.  A 5,000 pop. city probably isn't ready for medium density, so that's probably why growth seems to slow down.  Even though this is Simtropolis and the manual is way outdated , I believe Maxis had the right idea when they said to fill the whole map before rezoning.

I send my sincerest apologies to svachon for getting off-topic.  My recommendations are to wait at least until 10,000 before putting in Commercial med. density.  This prepares jobs for your soon-to-come flood of population.  After a few thousand more, start rezoning (little by little) into medium density.  Water should come at about the same time (depending on your goal for your city.  Each city should be unique, and feel free to try out all sorts of radical styles on different cities).

If you really want a city to become a whopper (more than a few hundred thousand) wait as long as you can to rezone medium and high density (I only have a little high density in my 220,000 city).

Hope that helps both of you.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Oh yes, and about what heitomat said:

It is very important that you understand the difference between density and wealth. The game manual explains it (why do you think games come with manuals?). Not saying you don't read or understand, but it took me a while to get those straight too.

In short, wealth is quality of living and amount of money. Low wealth: cheapo living quarters. That's why high wealth buildings look so much fancier. All 3 wealths grow on any zone, but high wealth will only grow with water.

Density is (to put it simply) how tall the buildings are. In reality, it means how tightly packed together your sims are on a horizontal scale, but the easiest way to remember it is how tall the buildings are. The higher the density, the taller the buildings. And hopefully you read my above comment concerning population recommendations.

And last thing, please remember that every person has their own building style. When I first started playing, I wanted to know what a 'normal city' was like too. In reality, there is no such thing--like I said, each city is unique. So be creative!

Good luck.

[CLR95 11]

I build two styles of cities. Since I use demand modds, in some cities (the ones that I want to get really big, really quick) I start out with high density. But in other cities (the realistic ones) I start with low density, and upgrade at about 45,000.

It just depends on what style of city you want....(and how much time you want to spend....)

[Sszecret 19]

I agree with what all the others said and I think another thing you should pay attention to is the way you zone your city. If you just want to have a big population, you  zone firstly low density , then mabye at 10 to 16 000 you begin to zone medium density , but not all the residential area, just a small part at a time. You'll stil need the low density zones. When you reach , lets say...70 or 71 000, you can put your first high denisty zones. Of course, it depends on how big the town map is ( small , medium or large). I succesfully reached 230 000 on a medium sized town map.

So, lets recap :

First lay out low density residential, comercial and medium industrial ( or low if you want agriculture)

At 10 to 16 000 residents you should lay out your first small part of medium residential and comercial. And extend the industrial zones.

At 70-71 000 you should put your first high density zones ( especially residential) and comercial , and put the game on the fastest speed. Then after a while put the game back on normal speed and begin laying high density ind. ( remember, high desity ind. requiers healthy and educated sims, so be sure to put hospitals and schools)

Plan the town's transportation sytem so that it will not give you a headache later on.

If you follow my instructions and of those above me, and if you'll have patience, you'll achieve what you want.

(Sorry for my poor enghish . I hope you'll understand what I meant )

[Jt1996 3]

As CLR95 said before their are two different styles. I used to play in in only high density and could cram 500,000 resedents and 250,000 comertial all in a medium tile. but now i have a region with only low in it (so far).

[Jezus53 18]

Another thing to take into consideration is the demand and population of the region. If you have a few cities, or even one city with a good amount of people (say 50k?) and a lot of demand (say about 1k?) then you can build medium and even high density buildings. You have to remember that what happens in the region (except for pollution) affects the rest of the cities. So if you have a lot of demand for industry in one city, then when you build a city next to it, that city will have the same amount of demand for industry as the already developed city.

Also, MsProll, HT industry and dirty industry are not determined by the zone types, just like commerce and residential. The only difference is that there are only two types of zones (since the first one is agriculture). The second one is for low density industry (small buildings) and the third on is for the higher density ones (larger 5x5 industries). Just keep that in mind, it can save you a lot of money since higher level zones cost a lot more.

[Kusajika Yachiru 9]

Well for my citites, I start with Medium dense right from the start. Mostly because of the type of city I'm making (NY style) and spread out with medium across about 5 other city titles and in the center I zoned dense on the island. Low dense will be one of the last things I zone actually. So there is no real 'right time' personally but if I was to say there was right time that would be when you have the money to support the zoning and transportation needs. Because the more sims you got in a area the more traffic and problems will happen.