Benevolent Dictatorship

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I have always killed school and ambulance funding as a matter of course since I read in the forum that they had little effect.  This week, I tried an experiment in my current city of giving "necessary" funding to clinics and schools.  My city was always in the red, and no matter what I did, I was always something like 1500 simoleons in the hole.  To keep this alive for a good test, I used the moolah command to give my city 20,000,000 simoleons to play with.

If this had been a normal hard-level game, I would have been bankrupt on day 1 or 2.  As it was, I kept this city alive, and it is still alive and finally in the black.  How did I get in the black?  I cancelled all school bus and ambulance funding, and the result is a small, but growing profit.

If you have bus transit in your city, however meager, don't fund school busing.  It is a waste of funds and will keep you in the poor house.  The same goes for ambulances.  The people who programmed this simulation understood that if anything is free, it will be abused.  So don't fund free clinics, either.  Any ordinance that gives the Sims something and doesn't get something back is a socialist trap.  You will soon run out of simoleons.  The Sim-greed factor is completely and well programmed into the game.  Just stick in a MySim and watch how it behaves.  Wants a local school, local health system, can't get to work through the traffic, etc.  All canned responses to make you cough up your hard-earned tax simoleons.  Foo.

[joshriddle 29]

That is why I barely put any moolah to busing and ambulances for civic services. I keep good enough care of my transit network, and people can walk or take their car or the bus to school can't they?

[§haÅ--Ñ€ §hÅŽo 370]

Why'd you call it Benevolent Dictatorship?

[Jorganza 0]

Anyways, in my experience, I have never run into the red when I give the schools and hospitals adequate funding. As long as you, the mayor, make wise and prudent decisions, you shouldn't ever run into the red. That means putting off building certain buildings (like a ton of parks, rewards and yes, schools and hospitals!) until you have a sizable population that can support this extra expenses. Also, you can't give 100% funding to these buildings in the beginning: the funding for the schools and hospitals needs to adjust to the demands of the city. So a school shouldn't have a capacity for 600 students if only 200 students are enrolled.

And the funding for schools (I'm not sure for hospitals) pay off in a big way. The smarter the sims, the higher the commercial and industry demands grow. I had a city with very low commercial demand, and because of this, there were a lot of unemployment. After I built some schools, libraries and museums in the city, not only did the sims IQ rose, the amount of commercial demand rose also, allowing everyone to have a job.

But really, I won't be surprised if this turns to a whole different topic.

[Mr. B 3]

In some interest of realism, it makes sense to fund ambulance service since private conveyance isn't an option for a lot of patients. I'm going to try de-funding school buses though, see what happens.

[Rymac91 15]

Isn't the whole point of the ambulance and bus funds to change the radius of influence the school or hospital creates? Will a city still have proper coverage without these fundings?

I don't concern myself with these things anymore because of the use of mods to build things how I intend as opposed to working with how the game wants me to maintain a budget.

[SteveMSim 275]

I found that in densely built cities, you don't really need to fund the ambulances or school buses. They have a minimum radius of influence and they will get overcrowded, no matter how small their boundaries are. You have to build your schools and hospitals closer in high-density cities, anyway.

[paulmc 391]

I didn

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: Sirron Kcuhc

Why'd you call it Benevolent Dictatorship?quote>

Because I refrain from doing anything really malevolent, like denying water.

[nbr1rbl 0]

I almost never pay for anything for towns that does not end up leading to making more money than it costs, unless its something I want to place purely for looks......most of the city ordinances I find redundant.........Free clinics for the poor, bah, screw the poor thats why i payed all this money for a hospital so get your cheap free wanting self over there instead.......pro reading campain, bah!, why would i build all these pretty libraries and then pay you to go use them???......they should just be happy i bothered to pay for them in the first place.

As to keeping my city in the black with what social things i will bother to pay for, i have found as a general rule of thumb that If i only place them when my profit margin is large enough to pay for them fully funded(even though the funding will end up being lowered to whats actually needed) that i almost never end up suddenly finding myself bleeding cash. Which is to say if they are constantly whining about schools I do the math and if a maxed elementary school costs 500 or so a month and my profit is only 350 then they dont get one yet. Which i guess is kind of a messed up thing to do with my poor sims, but giving into their every whim is a quick way to go straight to the poor house.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You've got that right.  The Sims are just an extension of the Advisors, whose private agendas are designed to bankrupt you.

To see the advisors in their proper selves press CTRL+X type in dollyllama and press return.  The enchantment that makes them look like people is lifted.

[joshriddle 29]

Originally posted by: A Nonny Moose

You've got that right.  The Sims are just an extension of the Advisors, whose private agendas are designed to bankrupt you.

quote>

That made me giggle a little, but it is true.

They as well as advisors call me the best mayor ever and attack me for taking ten bucks from their monthly income at their workplaces.

That is why I keep plenty of tricks up my sleeve to handling them should they get roudy.

[nbr1rbl 0]

Originally posted by: A Nonny Moose

You've got that right.  The Sims are just an extension of the Advisors, whose private agendas are designed to bankrupt you.

quote>

Hahahahaha, I couldnt agree more.....it's basically gotten to the point that i tend to ignore them almost constantly. I am almost postive the Health Advisor wants my job, why else would he cry about funding at Hospital X when there is still room for 150 people in it????

The only Advisor I generally listen to is the Budget Advisor as they tell me how easy i make thier job by bringing in tons of money every month, mostly by choosing to behave like a Aristocrat and only funding things that end up paying for themselves.......For the rest of them "Let them eat cake!"

[SteveMSim 275]

I stopped listening to my advisors a long time ago. I view them as a nuisance and play the game in the way the city earns money without seriously affecting the sims. I found that EQ will not suffer much if a school that's located in a high-density neighborhood goes on strike because of overcrowding even though you have the school funding maxed out and the bus funding on nothing. You just move on with the game.

[jdenm8 362]

You lot have TROUBLE funding your cities? You gotta be kidding right? I remember one of the tute things from I think SC3k was "Don't pay for stuff until you get sick of your citizens whining about it".

I remember getting one of my Sims complaining about traffic noise once... She doesn't live in my city any more. I just zoned more Commercial where her housing estate was.

Also, I've never altered the Ambulance / School Bus funding. I've noticed a direct connection between that radius circle and their health/education (It gets very red, very quickly). I think it's more "If it's not free, don't use it" or, "If I can't get to it free, don't use it."

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: nbr1rbl

..For the rest of them "Let them eat cake!"

quote>

A very regal attitude.  Actually she said "Let them eat brioches".  If you aren't fluent in French, it loses something in the translation.  Poor Marie Antoinette was most throughly out of touch, as were all of the aristos before they met with la vendôme.  Fortunately for us, the Sims don't have a Place de la Concorde, nor a Bastille to storm.  But don't call any of your MySims Mme. Defarge.

When Napoleon (who was a colonel in the army at the time) overlooked the storming of the Bastille he said "A little grape would clear off this rabble."

[nbr1rbl 0]

Glad someone caught the reference Moose, no i dont speak a word of French, and Its probably a good thing the sims cant storm my house. While in real life Governing like that is an all bad idea, I have found in SC4 it works wonders.

Jdenm8- No i don't have any trouble funding my cities, for the most part(a couple have failed spectacularly), Just tossing around ideas of not paying for things unless they pay for themselves, And I did that to one of my sims also....complained, complained, complained...finally when i annoyed enough i chased him around the whole city with a bulldozer, cost me 3200 residents before he took the hint and moved out, but I thought it was hilarious. Glad I'm not the only one who punishes their more annoying citizens.

[Dizastrow 4]

This is all very interesting info.  Thanks for sharing everyone.  Experimenting time!