R$ dont want to move in

[pavel1269 0]

I am just a novice, so I might just be doing some detail wrong. I always try to make cities self-sufficient.

My third city is usually aimed at Cx/IHT. So I have there full coverage of elementary and high schools. City college and university. I do not build libraries and museums thought (Whats income for doing so?). But the problem is, that R$$$ skyscrapers are appearing, but are left unoccupied and then dilaptated. They always complain about commute time or no jobs. Problem is that I read somewhere here that I must have the R$, but they just wont appear. Always some R$$$ building appear over them. I have as much IHT/CO/CS as my demand allow me. Demand for R$ and R$$ is at maximum and R$$$ is none or a little above zero and they still are moving in. How to solve this?

[SC4BOY 21]

Higher levels of wealth in residences must be surpressed via higher taxes. The problem is that the game always "upgrades" building wealth when given the opportuniteis. You can get some help by making larger R$ buildings historical, but tax suppression is the only way SC4 realistically offers

[scifanata 1]

I agree with SC4BOY, all the way. If you're not worried about R$$$, if it helps, you don't need the top-level education to receive R$ so you can, in a matter of fact, demolish a few sites and save some income. But I know that's a cheap way

[pavel1269 0]

Well, maybe cheap way, but a right one. I gave to my R$$$ 11% tax rate and now, they move in at "ok" rate. The issue now is, that some R$ skyscrapers come in and filled elementary schools (R$$/$$$ are not going to these?) and hospitals, which ruined my budget. So I have to plane my city to have only R$ zones and only R$$$ zones. R$ wont have high schools and hospitals (but just with elementary school, they reach EQ 160, why then high school? )

[EmperorNero 0]

If I understand it correctly, you can only either completely prohibit high wealth with taxes or all lots transform into high wealth.

Recently I had high-ish taxes on high and medium wealth and only low wealth people lived in my town, then I lowered taxes by only 0.2 percentage points at a time and at some point the demand hit the threshold where demand went from -6000 to 6000 and everybody transformed into medium wealth. And that was only due to a 0.2 percentage lowering in taxes.

It seems there is no way to to only get some high and medium people with taxes. It's all or nothing.

In the same way I wish there was a way to only have service in some areas and office in others.

[EmperorNero 0]

Originally posted by: pavel1269but just with elementary school, they reach EQ 160, why then high school? quote>

I think elementary schools work if people are young, i.e. they just moved in. If your population is older elementary schools won't do any good on them.

[SC4BOY 21]

Yes, schools do aim at the "target" age.. For that reason you can "nibble" at education without a problem.. you can place a school at minimus "bus" radius and then as those sims get smarter and older you can expand the coverage and "sneak up on" the education problem on a limited budget if you are patient

Hospitals on the other hand have a fill rate (% of population) based on health factors such as pollution, recreation, etc so they do will have lower usage (as a %) as you improve the city, but they can't be used like I mention above with the schools. As they fill and health may become an issue you may have to go to larger haspitals or more hospitals with overlapping coverage.

[EmperorNero 0]

If I want my city to remain some low and medium income population, do I have to restrict water access to some areas?

Since they otherwise all become high wealth. And with taxes I can just keep the rich out entirely or not at all.

P.S. SC4BOY, you are always very helpful, thanks a lot.

[SC4BOY 21]

Well you can use water. I never do and put water over the whole populated map almost the first thing. Water only works at the lowest density levels and simply doesn't work later on. Taxes will not drive out rich .. You find a level that they will tolerate but not enjoy Since the game drives to rich so strongly, they won't leave as long as conditions are even reasonable.. if you decide you want more, lower rates for a few months and they will swarm in..(I call this "wealth gating") then raise it again when they get where you want them. The problem is controlling what they take over while they are moving in.. That is where I sometimes resort to "historical" settings. I find if you drive to $ and $$ the $$$ takes care of itself

[EmperorNero 0]

Yeah, the wealth gating thing seems to work. Though it's a little more effort than I want it to be.

I contemplated putting landfills in areas that I want to remain poor, but I don't like the seagull sound and it doesn't feel very metropolitan.

What I do lately is zone 1x2 residential, with a space between rows so zones don't grow together. High wealth residents don't grow on such small lots.

[SC4BOY 21]

you can also alternate zone type.. ie dense, medium as the game won't merge two different types

[EmperorNero 0]

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

you can also alternate zone type.. ie dense, medium as the game won't merge two different typesquote>

Hmmm.. good to know. but I don't want big buildings inbetween small ones.

What I figured out now is to keep high wealth residents out with taxes completely and then I plop some high wealth buildings with RH Plop Modd.

I do the same with offices and dirty industry.

[Shlarin 0]

The best solution I found is to tax the $$ and $$$ residents.. don't raise taxes so high they won't move in but high enough they'll generate the money to continue to provide services for the majority R $ population.

[local_authority01 3]

Once the demand in your city is strong for meadium and high wealth sims they start to takeover and move in where ever they can.  You can ebb their flow through high taxes but, in my experiances, it is almost impossible to have a mixed residential city.  When demand for higher R wealth is there they will eventually come even in places that you have specialy made undesirable for them by not providing services.

The LessAbandonment mod by bones1 might help you be able to keep mixed R wealth cities because it raises the desirability requirements that R$$ and R$$$ sims need to takeover. 

[JewelsMax 0]

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

Yes, schools do aim at the "target" age.. For that reason you can "nibble" at education without a problem.. you can place a school at minimus "bus" radius and then as those sims get smarter and older you can expand the coverage and "sneak up on" the education problem on a limited budget if you are patient

Hospitals on the other hand have a fill rate (% of population) based on health factors such as pollution, recreation, etc so they do will have lower usage (as a %) as you improve the city, but they can't be used like I mention above with the schools. As they fill and health may become an issue you may have to go to larger haspitals or more hospitals with overlapping coverage.quote>

Funny. I do the exact opposite.  I make the bus and ambluance radius very large and the funding for the facility very small in the beginning, then as the need grows I end up increasing the funding for the facility and eventually decreasing the radius as the usage often exceeds the capacity even when it's fully funded.

Originally posted by: EmperorNero

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

you can also alternate zone type.. ie dense, medium as the game won't merge two different typesquote>

Hmmm.. good to know. but I don't want big buildings inbetween small ones.

What I figured out now is to keep high wealth residents out with taxes completely and then I plop some high wealth buildings with RH Plop Modd.

I do the same with offices and dirty industry.

quote>

You could alternate putting commercial or industrial next to the residential for a similar result.

[newcrusader92 0]

One thing you may want to check is the size of the residential lots. I've found in one of my cities that R$$$ Sims started moving in earlier than I expected because I had residential lots of 2x2, 3x3, 3x4, etc. I intended those lots to be R$ apartments, but large R$$$ single family homes were built on those lots very quickly. (Fortunately, there were commerical jobs available for the new R$$$ residents, but those were hard for me to keep in town.) If you create 1x1, 1x2, and maybe 1x3, the chances are greater (from my experience) that R$ homes will be built. Once in a while I will see a few R$$ homes, but I have never seen R$$$ homes on such small lots.

By the way, I'm not running any demand mods on my cities, in case anyone wonders.