Starting up again

[emsgoof 1]

So I've reinstalled SC4 after many years away. I've patched / updated it as required, and installed the NAM and SPAM mods.

I started a very poor city design, and it's nothing like what I wanted.

So, how do people keep the development types under control? I had a zone that I wanted to be just farm and small res/comm, but it went out of control and started asking for high tech industrial. I had a dirty / manufacturing zone but nobody is using it now. I wanted to eventually build towards midrise and highrise buildings, but my demand was out of control (maxed R1 and R2, and HT industry).

Any suggestions?

[jacksunny 741]

One word: taxes. Change up your taxes to benefit the zone types you want to grow. For example, if you want farms and not the other industries, lower your farm taxes and raise the taxes of the other industries (probably dirty and manufacturing more as they tend to grow in high taxes anyway).

[SLagonia 68]

I agree with Jack - Taxes are a good way of tempering or stimulating demand for certain sectors. Remember that you will have very high demand for everything at the beginning of a region - You may want to begin with small towns and then move into farming and big cities - Farms in SC4 tend to be very industrial affairs, not quaint little communities. They will react to increased demand from the surrounding cities, not be a community unto themselves.

[dietercl 5]

maybe as important as taxes is your education. providing full education across the board is a no go when you want realism. when you have elementary/highschool/college.... i mean the works. you will end up with super smart sims across all wealth classe which in turn maximizes demand for i-ht, co$$ and co$$$. try not to overdo your education. let some sims be stupid.this way you will keep he lower wealth levels of commercial and industrial.

[Munchiez 74]

The demand sometimes varies, Taxes are a big factor in showing what you do and don't want.

[Ltw 401]

I've got a very good way to build high-rise commercial buildings. It's not realistic to think that your high-rise commercial buildings will come immediately and that you could build huge area's filled with those high-rise buildings. It takes time. So the key is patience, begin with small area's. To make sure that there will actually come high-rise buildings you could build a subway-system (which could be expensive), building roads and avenue's is also a good way but I would recommend to invest in roads and public transport. Another good way to get the C$$$ buildings is to build plaza's. A location nearby your residential area's is also a good way to get those buildings.

Further on, I don't know how your population looks like but it is also good to get more people with a medium and a high income. You could achieve this by building a lot of parks, education, safety and transport are also important to get more sims with higher incomes.