Give me a target!

[Forrester 0]

With all of the patches, upgrades, and options out there, I'm not sure what kind of goals to set for myself. I'm not looking to specifically make an awesome-looking city or a city that resembles some real-world location (as it seems more than half of the folks here are -- and more power to them) and/or start with a huge pile of $$ and drop & plop everything in the region at once (as everyone else seems to want to do) -- I kind of want to play it as a strategery game.

Thing is, with all of those patches/upgrades/options, it's difficult for me to determine what's good and what's not. I started SC4 with *zero* patches other than the original Maxis patch, and had the goal to create a large (2x2) city, "Hippieville" (https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=36&threadid=112890) where I would cram as many folks in there, with the following ground rules:

1) Use every ordinance (except for curfew)

2) All educational levels 160+

3) Life span 90+

4) All solar/hydrogen power

5) Recycling plant for every 25k population

6) As much mass transit use as possible

I was doing okay, and then I found the NAM patch, which pretty much changed everything. And so I tried again, and was doing ever better, and then I found the CAM patches, which pretty much changed everything again -- the population skyrocketed and I'm running a huge surplus. (BTW, using Simulator Z, medium, and CAM-wise, using 5% R$$ in C$ and I$, but with a slow walking speed).

(Interestingly, with CAM, I hardly have any poor people in Hippieville at all these days -- which makes sense, of course, who likes poor people?)

Problem is . . . I have no idea whether I'm doing well, poorly, or whatever . . . maybe I'm doing well, maybe an stupid, just like myself chimp that had been dropped on its head as a child could be doing as well, or better.

So can someone give me some guidelines about what kind of populations I might shoot for, region-wise (New York, in this case) or city-wise? How tough is it to get to the various levels of progression for the Res/Com/Ind buildings? What are some interesting challenges that I might set for myself here? (Given Hippieville has almost no poor people -- yay regressive tax rate -- I think my next goal is to create a small city that has no schools whatsoever, no IT, only dirty/manufacturing, and see how many folks I can cram in there.)

Thanks much for any input you can give me . . .

[Faded Glory 13]

As for the actual question itself, I not sure about certain landmarks and such, but its almost impossible for me to create large "nice" cities. Personally, I'm glad you've picked ways to work toward. It helps when you have an "end" in sight.

[SC4BOY 21]

Eliminate the "poor people".. by that I assume you mean R$ residents... at your own peril. You must maintain roughly 40% R$ in even the best cities if you expect the cities to work properly without "commute time" or "no job" problems.

[Forrester 0]

Originally posted by: SC4BOY

Eliminate the "poor people".. by that I assume you mean R$ residents... at your own peril. You must maintain roughly 40% R$ in even the best cities if you expect the cities to work properly without "commute time" or "no job" problems.quote>

That doesn't seem to be true. Hippieville (2x2) on CAM currently has 525,000 residents, fast commute times (a lot of subway use), is running a surplus even with full funding of all ordinances/hydrogen power . . .

And <5% R$ population. I think it's actually something like 3%. I discourage 'em -- tax rate for the richies is less than 6.5%, and it's 9.5% for the R$.

Post-NAM (Simulator Z, Medium) and pre-CAM, the situation was similar, but with fewer people, obviously (~300k). There's still room to build/grow, it definitely hasn't peaked.

Not sure how I'm doing so well with almost zero poor people, but it's working.

Of course, maybe 500,000 for a 2x2 is considered small, and you guys jam in three or four million. I dunno -- again, lack of goalposts here is tough. (Also, I really need to build up more cities in the region.)

(I should add -- no cheats or anything goin' on, only other mod I have is the Opera House fix.)

[Korot 6]

I assume that Hippieville isn't the only city in the region? If it is, then I suggest increasing the R$ population, if it isn't, then the R$ demand will be extrapolated to the other cities, and thus R$ will grow in those cities. Unless of course you discourage them in those cities, in which case it might go wrong eventually, but it also can have no effect, due to the game not actually counting commuters. And I'll better stop there before things get to complicated.

As to having 500.000 residents in a 2x2, or medium, tile: My largest city is on a 4x4, or large, tile and has less than 500.000 residents, so I consider it a lot, and many others with me. On the other hand, there is a guy who has been able to cram 8.000.000 residents in a medium city tile, so I guess it is just relative.

Regards,

Korot

[Forrester 0]

Hippieville is just about the only city in the region -- there's one other (actually, the old one is Hippieville, the super-thriving one with no poor people is New Hippieville). I kind of like the idea of keeping the poor people in their own cities, just like God intended.

(That is, of course, a joke.) 

I keep hearing that I need to build up my other cities, but would find it dull to build them all the same general way . . . as I said in the other thread, I want to make one city be *only* poor folks, no education whatsoever, but am not sure what to do with the other regions.

Other ideas are to make one tile (that is 80% seawater) be *solely* R$$$ as much as possible, figure they can commute in to Hippieville.

And I want to see if I can make a city where the only transportation used to get to and from work is mass transit -- or, at least, <50% of transit is using roads. Seems like it's possible in NAM. I do remember that's how I built cities in the original SimCity . . . all rails = no road pollution. Wondering if that's still possible.

Need some other ideas for gimmicky cities, though. Boring to have them all look like New Hippieville! 

[SimLex 0]

I've tried to make a city that was mostly R$ and heavy industry - no luck. I always get R$$ creeping in after about 10 years (even when they're a block from the oil power plant).

So, tackle that. You'd renewed my interest in figuring it out.

Another goal... using only ferries to get workers to islands of industrial - or just a whole island nation with a large population and at least 2 successful commercial highrise centers.