New City Tips

[JayD14 0]

 Hey I just started playing Sims City 4. I'm having a really hard time understanding it, every time I start to build a city. The residential area looks crappy. I want to make it look like the residential areas off of the YouTube video. I'm also having trouble managing my budget and taxes. I want to have an awesome city but I can't can someone please help.

[SlashFan2000 1]

I have the same problem and I have been playing for a while. I suggest just keep playing and get used to how the game works. Also check the Omnibus section of this site. Lot of good tutorials too if want to search them. That's what I have done and I am getting better. 

And welcome. You will find a lot of great things here and friendly, helpful people.

[JayD14 0]

Thank you so much for your help !

[kolnikov inc 1]

..the world of custom content will take you far beyond 'crappy' vanilla residences...and money woes.....its your world/city/country...let your imagination make it what it wants to be....or whatever i dont know..

[thefunktopus 1]

Billionaires park!!

[Cyrilix 0]

The thing about Simcity is that there's a tendency to provide every type of service with perfect coverage everywhere with maximum funding. That will get you in the red really quickly. The key is both timing and figuring out what services you need to provide where, and how to efficiently distribute everything. Currently, I'm working on a complex rail project of my own, trying to figure out how to optimize pure rail traffic from residential to commercial/industrial centers, to other cities and back. It's can be a very difficult affair and I don't know how many pages of transit networks I've prototyped or drawn. But anyhow, the first thing to worry about is what I outlined above: services -- when and where.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Instead of leaping into city construction right away, try an approach that looks at how cities come into being.  Start with a few farms, put it in second gear and enjoy the show as you make a profit.  Profit is the most important thing, to me at least.  You can't sustain this game if you are in the red.  You can lose, but you can never win.  But you can get into a tend to be winning situation and go from there.  Here's what I mean:

You can see from this that there are houses on the farms proper and a couple of commercial buildings, to boot.  This is not enough to show a profit, but if you add two more farms and add some more housing for the workers, it will.

Note that one of the roads goes over the border to provide a product sink.  The power source, which is pretty much out of the picture, is a wind generator.  This will carry you quite a while.

Now, you have to watch out for the "advisors" each of which has his own agenda of self-agrandisement.  This is part of the game and it shows what a frustrating job Mayor can be when some people are unhappy.  You have to ignore these guys unless the message is in red and even then take it with a grain of salt.  They tend to want to overdevelop and put you in the red.

From the thumbnail you may have noticed that this a part of a much bigger place, but the principle of minimal development for profit remains the same.  This city is on a large tile in the middle of Fairview and has a lot going for it, including being in the black.  However, I started it like this, and just expanded when it made sense to do so.  The next step for my farming village is to add a sub-division or two of level 2 houses, connect them to my water plant and maybe my high-capacity power plant to increase urbanization. 

FYI, the urbanized section currently looks like this:

And so you can see that "Things aren't always what they seem, Skim milk masquerades as cream" W.S. Gilbert.

Take it slow and easy, and develop your towns with thought, and without expecting to plop a finished city down in a trice.

[Dizastrow 4]

Patience is the key.  You have to be patient to play Simcity.  Start out slow and slowly work in services, parks, rail, etc.  One thing I have learned is, dont build something until it is absolutely necessary or your sims scream for it.  Overbuilding from the start will bankrupt you quickly.