Co-Supporting Cities

[MayorMcZack 0]

So I've tried and tried the basic tip of make a residential city in one section and an industrial on it's border and let the industrial city be the jobs for the residential city so it's free of pollution, and I get development, even a pretty good bit, but my finances are almost always in the red... What am I doing wrong so that the city full of industry isn't making any money?

[Cob92 360]

Industrial zones just have a very low level of tax revenue compared to how much it costs to provide them with utilities. Even successful industrial cities often only break even; they are not profitable.

[Rury 37]

Yes industrial cities make less revenue from taxes, however you don't need as many services as residential ones. All you need are fire stations, water, power, and garbage disposal. No need for police stations or any other services. Remember to reduce the funding on power plants to meet the demands when you can, and you should eventually be breaking even once your city hits a certain size.

  Edited April 7, 2011 by Rury  

[MayorMcZack 0]

Ah... it's not all that uncommon to have them break even as well, so I guess I'm doing okay. Some I also will stick in some low density residential. Figure poor people have to live somewhere eh?

But I did think police presence & parks were required to get High Tech industry... no?

[Jazzmaster 716]

Ah... it's not all that uncommon to have them break even as well, so I guess I'm doing okay. Some I also will stick in some low density residential. Figure poor people have to live somewhere eh?

But I did think police presence & parks were required to get High Tech industry... no?

True, but you also need to water the areas you would like to be I-HT. Most importantly is that you need to educate your Sims, as only the smart Sims (engineers, chemists, etc.) will work in those industries.

[mykalberta 0]

I have found that Industrial cities make ok money. Try putting power stations and garbage dumps in them to make money off city deals.

I have Windows 7 so I cant have the massive 1 - cities you see in the CJs so I have to rely on City Deals to create massive citys and regions.

Also remember you dont need water, police etc in Dirty industrial zones.

I try to keep dirty out of my main cities by changing the taxation to 15% and dropping it to 6-7 for the Industrial cities.

[Rury 37]

Ah... it's not all that uncommon to have them break even as well, so I guess I'm doing okay. Some I also will stick in some low density residential. Figure poor people have to live somewhere eh?

But I did think police presence & parks were required to get High Tech industry... no?

If there is 0 sims living in the city, then no crime will ever happen (even if sims commute from other cities to work there). So in an industrial only city, police wouldn't do anything but increase land value which is not necessarily needed for high tech. As Yoshiisland said, if you want high tech, the most important factor is how educated your sims are. If your sims are educated you can have a completely high tech city without parks / police, given there is low pollution (which high tech doesn't emit much pollution).

  Edited April 8, 2011 by Rury  

[EyeofMobius 27]

Well the tips for industrial are good but when I was fractioning cities out to each other I made more money selling water from the R city than the I city made from power and garbage combined. Tolls are also huge economic boons if your networks are layed out right.

[MayorMcZack 0]

I have found that Industrial cities make ok money. Try putting power stations and garbage dumps in them to make money off city deals.

I have Windows 7 so I cant have the massive 1 - cities you see in the CJs so I have to rely on City Deals to create massive citys and regions.

Also remember you dont need water, police etc in Dirty industrial zones.

I try to keep dirty out of my main cities by changing the taxation to 15% and dropping it to 6-7 for the Industrial cities.

Could you clarify acouple things... what are the CJs? And what's the issue with windows 7... because I'm thinking of upgrading soon...

[mykalberta 0]

I have found that Industrial cities make ok money. Try putting power stations and garbage dumps in them to make money off city deals.

I have Windows 7 so I cant have the massive 1 - cities you see in the CJs so I have to rely on City Deals to create massive citys and regions.

Also remember you dont need water, police etc in Dirty industrial zones.

I try to keep dirty out of my main cities by changing the taxation to 15% and dropping it to 6-7 for the Industrial cities.

Could you clarify acouple things... what are the CJs? And what's the issue with windows 7... because I'm thinking of upgrading soon...

CJ - City Journals in the forums.

From what I have read you cannot create custom maps (instead of a mix of random Large/Medium/Small city you can have X number of Large citys) using the the Mapping tool in the STEX for Windows 7 - only works with XP.

I love this game, had this game been out when it was in High School I would have went to Unit to be a City Planner instead of CompEng.

  Edited April 14, 2011 by mykalberta  

[astronelson 339]

From what I have read you cannot create custom maps (instead of a mix of random Large/Medium/Small city you can have X number of Large citys) using the the Mapping tool in the STEX for Windows 7 - only works with XP.

I have the SC4Terraformer (also on the STEX), and that works fine on Windows 7. You can create custom maps with that. I'm not sure about the SC4Mapper, having never used it, but I would suppose running it in compatibility mode for Windows XP would help.

If it said "Only works on Windows XP", that may be because 7 wasn't out then.

[Vern 29]

This game is very much playable with Windows 7. I have the 64 bit and the only problem has been with SC4 Mapper. So, I use Terraformer instead. Not a showstopper since it will allow you to do the same - mostly create/import custom maps into the game. I did have an issue with SC4 Startup Manager but was able to fix that easily.

EDIT: In fact, I use to run this in full mode but now run it windowed mode. Something that seemed slower in XP for me.

  Edited April 14, 2011 by Vern  

[Cob92 360]

I have found that Industrial cities make ok money. Try putting power stations and garbage dumps in them to make money off city deals.

I have Windows 7 so I cant have the massive 1 - cities you see in the CJs so I have to rely on City Deals to create massive citys and regions.

Also remember you dont need water, police etc in Dirty industrial zones.

I try to keep dirty out of my main cities by changing the taxation to 15% and dropping it to 6-7 for the Industrial cities.

Could you clarify acouple things... what are the CJs? And what's the issue with windows 7... because I'm thinking of upgrading soon...

CJ - City Journals in the forums.

From what I have read you cannot create custom maps (instead of a mix of random Large/Medium/Small city you can have X number of Large citys) using the the Mapping tool in the STEX for Windows 7 - only works with XP.

I love this game, had this game been out when it was in High School I would have went to Unit to be a City Planner instead of CompEng.

Everything works on Windows 7. You can place the exact positions of the Small/Medium/Large cities in your region using Paint, and you can use SC4Terraformer to edit the terrain.

[mykalberta 0]

I have found that Industrial cities make ok money. Try putting power stations and garbage dumps in them to make money off city deals.

I have Windows 7 so I cant have the massive 1 - cities you see in the CJs so I have to rely on City Deals to create massive citys and regions.

Also remember you dont need water, police etc in Dirty industrial zones.

I try to keep dirty out of my main cities by changing the taxation to 15% and dropping it to 6-7 for the Industrial cities.

Could you clarify acouple things... what are the CJs? And what's the issue with windows 7... because I'm thinking of upgrading soon...

CJ - City Journals in the forums.

From what I have read you cannot create custom maps (instead of a mix of random Large/Medium/Small city you can have X number of Large citys) using the the Mapping tool in the STEX for Windows 7 - only works with XP.

I love this game, had this game been out when it was in High School I would have went to Unit to be a City Planner instead of CompEng.

Everything works on Windows 7. You can place the exact positions of the Small/Medium/Large cities in your region using Paint, and you can use SC4Terraformer to edit the terrain.

I am going to have to try that, i have w6x64r8gbs - i thought the mapper/terraformer didnt work on Windows 7.