Is industry really needed?

[Hybr1d 20]

I just started a city and made a section of residential and commercial and haven't zone any industry. It seems to be taking awhile for my residential and commercial to be developing. So, i'm wondering if dirty industry and manufacturing industry stimulates both residential and commerce?

[Red1530 1]

I think industry is needed because it will serve as the backbone of your employment base.

[Hybr1d 20]

Is ID and IM needed at first when you first start a region? Then when you get your sims educated in the region can you eliminate ID and IM?

[Loney 22]

You don't really need industry, but it does provide a major boost to residential, and indirectly to commericial. Try placing I-D and I-M in non-commercial/residential cities so the pollution doesn't hit the commercial and residential sectors hard. Eventually, when the demand for I-H pops up, zone some industrial zones in the residential/commercial cities and place a massive tax hike for I-D and I-M so only I-H grows.

There is a bug that causes I-H to be unable to employ high wealth residents while still promoting the growth of R$$$. There is a mod that fixes the issue here: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=22771

[MsProll21 0]

Originally posted by: Loney

You don't really need industry, but it does provide a major boost to residential, and indirectly to commericial. Try placing I-D and I-M in non-commercial/residential cities so the pollution doesn't hit the commercial and residential sectors hard. Eventually, when the demand for I-H pops up, zone some industrial zones in the residential/commercial cities and place a massive tax hike for I-D and I-M so only I-H grows.

quote>

This is what I do

[Spinmaster 75]

Originally posted by: Hybr1d

Is ID and IM needed at first when you first start a region? Then when you get your sims educated in the region can you eliminate ID and IM?quote>

Simply put: yes.

Strictly: no, but it'll be very very vvvvvvveeeeerrrrrrryyyyy slow-going early on. Uneducated sims - which is all you start out with in a new region - don't demand very many commercial jobs. And without other jobs, you won't get many sims at first. So you have to wait until that first small batch is educated enough to demand a little more commercial, which in turn will demand a few more residents, which you then have to educate before they add much to the commercial demand, and round and round ya go.

But why would you want to do this anyway? If I answered your thread title based on "real world" vs. SC4, the answer would be "industry is absolutely needed!!!!!!!" Now, if you're concerned about the low number of jobs offered by most industry in the game, and thus how much space industry ends up consuming - which is a very common gripe (putting aside the debate about whether or not it's realistic) - there are a few industry jobs multipliers on STEX (2x, 3x, 4x, and I think there's even a 16x... serious overkill IMO, but to each their own).

[cogeo 960]

If you don't zone industrial, as you start your first city in the region, the only employment opportunities for your sims will be civic jobs (police, education etc), but their number is limited, and cost a lot of money to operate, and CS$ whose demand will soon be satisfied and turn negative. That is you will have only few jobs. Even if CS$ development occurs en-masse early on, there's going to be oversupply and finally more and more CS$ lots will be getting abandoned, and your pop will be decreasing, until it balances at a very low level.

BUT: It might be interesting to test if utilising the regional play feature, makes growth without industry possible (and sustainable), maybe it does!!!

[High_Riser 0]

You always increase the taxes for I-D because their desirability will be higher than all the others, and will develop first.

[errantry 0]

It depends. When you start with your first city in your region, you pretty much have to zone IR or ID, since all your sims are low wealth and poorly educated, so their primary job demand is IR or ID (there is some C$ demand but not enough to support thousands of jobs). As your city becomes more educated, you can zone your IR/ID out since their demand will fall and demand for other jobs will increase. However, on new cities that connect to a city with good development, your sims can travel to the developed city for jobs, while their EQ goes up in the mean time for IHT and CO demands to increase.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

When You are starting a new region, to get things going , lower all of your commercial tax rates to around 1% , this will stimulate Commercial Demand.

[Legosim 14]

I use industry when my sims need jobs but commercial isnt in demand. Also makes a diverse working city

[SimCity4IE 202]

Industry is needed as when you first start a city, education is low and commercial isn't needed.

[DCMetro34 576]

I guess if you get commercial up and rolling, you will be able to do just commercial for a long time. Eventually, you will need industry, though.

[Bones1 96]

You don't need industry in a "city", of course, that can be placed in a neighbor city. But, you do need industry somewhere in your region, or it is very difficult to grow your population. You can grow a region very slowly without any industry, but it's difficult, and will eventually stop growth. Bottom line: you need industry.