Need Help

[Helepolis989 0]

Hello, i am still trying to learn this game after so many years. I am having some problems in my new game. Mainly, everyone seems to want more and more. I build 5 hospitals, that isnt enough even though the capacity for most are fine. Just seems like everytime i get my head above water in income, i have to buy a new school, hospital, and police station and am now -500 a month again. I am not sure how to make them happy.

My other problem is jobs. I have my main city, and i have two side cities, i have the side cities with just commerical and industry. Mainly industry cause i want my starter city with less pollution. However no matter how many jobs i build on the side cities, my people are still jobless in the main one.

This is my three cities. middle one is my main city.

Outside of the water problem which is easily fixed, this is my job problem

my income

I just need some guidance and direction on what i should do. If you guys need more pictures or a certain thing, say so. I am low on money because of being -100 every month due to having to build a hospital or school every half a year to make people happy.

Also, is there any patches out there for the game, or is there only 1.0?

Thank you

[Ltw 401]

The first add-on you will need is NAM. You can download it here on Simtropolis and on sc4devotion.com.

The second important thing is that the maxis-hospitals aren't efficient. I prefer this one instead. It has a higher capacity and covers the entire map. If you place one of it all your problems are solved. I haven't had any trouble with the maxis high capacity schools so I can't give you any advice about that. An advice I can give you about schools and hospitals is that you will have to give them budget for how much the need. If the capacity of your hospital is 20.000 and you have 12.000 patients you can lower the capacity to 14.000 or 13.000 for example. You will see that the capacity in some parts of the city is too low and in other parts of the city too high.

I could also give you some advice about your problem with jobs. I think it has something to do with commute times. A map of your city-layout and your roads/public transport will help.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Stop running on Cheetah mode! This is the reason you are being harassed so much. Take it down a notch to Rhino, when you will have time to enjoy the animation, and catch your breath. This game is not a race, but a leisure time activity. I often run in Turtle, and only run faster when something is needed soon.

You need to have time to micromanage your schools, and health services. You can use the education and health displays to see where you need them, and whether you have overfunded the bus/ambulances. Keep the radii tight. Don't allow health services more funding than about 10% of your population, and if you need bigger hospitals, there are several on the STEX. Schools have to be watched occasiionally for enrollment run out. I demolish schools that have enrollments of less than 10. You need to watch your population by age display and graphs.

Running on high-speed doesn't give you time to diagnose and correct problems, especially at the beginning.

I don't adjust funding for police or fire. This will just get you a case of keystone cops and klutzy firemen.

If you are having demand troubles, try adjusting your taxes. Down for increase, up for decrease. I adjust mine by a tenth of a point or so at a time. If you want to prevent something altogether, like I-D, set the tax rate to 20%.

Watch your pollution levels. Water pollution can shut down your water supply, so you may need a water purification plant. The only standard thing in the game for air pollution is parks, cemeteries and trees. There are anti-air pollution things on the STEX, but these are usually very costly, and should be.

Keeping Sims happy is often environmental. Parks, playgrounds, etc help a lot. I usually add a soccer field when I lay down a high-school, and a large public school gets a ball diamond. When you get a university, save a space for a minor stadium.

Use your ordinances.

You can avoid police stations for quite a while by setting the Neighborhood Watch ordinance

And so it goes, but the most important thing is:

"Slow down, you're goin' to fast..

"Y' gotta make this moment last.

"Kickin' down the cobble stones,

"Life I love you, feelin' groovy"

Feelin' Groovy sung by Pete Seeger.

[Helepolis989 0]

Well i tend to pause quit a bit. I run on Cheetah cause i hate waiting for buildings to be built. I also thought you were calling me a cheater. I was like uhhh im not cheating. I will download those couple mods and buildings. I will do all of those things if it helps. I actually have a free golf course to be built so i may do that.. and here is the traffic.

[jacksunny 741]

Your traffic appears to be good for the most part. In the section where the no job zots are appearing, you might want to upgrade some of those streets to roads. The congestion could be causing long commute times.

It also appears that there is commercial on the right side of the river. I assume some of the Sims commute over the river because one of the bridges has high congestion. It should be expanded as well. This will cost a lot though, so you might want to consider putting in a ferry to ease the traffic until you can afford it.

[Helepolis989 0]

Well most of my streets are one way streets. I alternated them going one way every other street. So i knew i wouldnt have them all going one way. I have three bridges, which i thought would help, and three subway tunnels. I guess i can do a ferry, although i have never tried it before. How well do bus's do?

Edit, also trying to download that hospital, i dont see a download link on that page though.

  Edited August 22, 2011 by Helepolis989  

[jacksunny 741]

How well do bus's do?

They work quite well actually.

You have a subway system? How many people are using it? If it isn't being utilized well, you might want to destroy it and replace it with a bus system.

There are 2 options when it comes to making a bus system:

1. Place bus stops every 6-10 tiles in all major areas. The closer they are, the less distance the Sims will have to walk.

2. Place only 1 or 2 in residential areas and place lots in industrial and commercial. Then put a parking garage by the residential area bus stops. This ill encourage the Sims to park and ride.

[Ltw 401]

Well most of my streets are one way streets. I alternated them going one way every other street. So i knew i wouldnt have them all going one way. I have three bridges, which i thought would help, and three subway tunnels. I guess i can do a ferry, although i have never tried it before. How well do bus's do?

Edit, also trying to download that hospital, i dont see a download link on that page though.

You might want to look how much your subway is used. Subways cost a lot and if they aren't used efficiently you could safe a lot of money. Busses do work but if they are used a lot it would lead to congestion.

You have to register to sc4devotion if you want to download lots etc. from that site.

[Helepolis989 0]

Well the subways in my inner city are over capacity, however across the river is only around 400 people.

[jacksunny 741]

You might want to keep the subways then. Where exactly are they located?

[Helepolis989 0]

I added on later today, havent been able to build on to my subways. Am i making them to far inbetween?

[Ltw 401]

I added on later today, havent been able to build on to my subways. Am i making them to far inbetween?

That all depends on your density. Based on your population I would say no. When your city grows you could consider to build more subway lines but I wouldn't do that at the moment. You could replace the lines with 400 passengers with an EL-line. EL is much cheaper than the subway so that should help with your finances.

You could make a new line to that part of the city which doesn't have a subway. I don't know what zones you have there but if the zones are having a high density you could make subway. If the zones have a low or middle density I would prefer EL.

An important fact is that closing lines which aren't used much is a negative effect of your whole subway-system. There are less locations to travel to, so the residents would rather take the car. Every decision in closing lines should be considered carefully.

EDIT: I see that the space where there is no subway isn't zoned yet. If you are planning on zoning this it is the best to think about choosing the EL or subway before you zone and develop it. This all depends on what density your zones will be.

  Edited August 22, 2011 by Ltw  

[jacksunny 741]

Another option would be to use GLR.

[Ltw 401]

Another option would be to use GLR.

That's indeed a good option. It doesn't take up any space since you can build them in avenue's and roads. You should download some stations though, these aren't standard in NAM.

[Helepolis989 0]

Im sorry but i dont know what GLR and EL is. And my population is about 98,000 people. I do have a separate question. What is the first station for the police do? Looks like a toll booth or something.

Also, what do you mean by "closing lines"

  Edited August 22, 2011 by Helepolis989  

[Ltw 401]

Im sorry but i dont know what GLR and EL is. And my population is about 98,000 people. I do have a separate question. What is the first station for the police do? Looks like a toll booth or something.

Also, what do you mean by "closing lines"

EL is a Elevated Line. This is standard in Simcity Rush Hour (or Deluxe).

GLR is Ground Light Rail. These are the puzzle pieces which are standard in NAM. (Network Addon Mod, which is highly recommended).

The first police station is a station which you can place if you have already a police station (small, big or the one with the helipad). This isn't a police station with police-cars etc. It could be used to cover everything your police-station can't cover. It doesn't cost a lot of money.

[Helepolis989 0]

So should i try and connect all of the subway systems with each other. Or should i keep it like it is, where they connect at the stations eventually. I would assume even if there is 2 extra stops people would ride the subway across the map. But maybe not?

[jacksunny 741]

The more stops there are, the more people will ride.

You could also put parking garages by the subway stations to encourage the Sims to park n' ride.

[Helepolis989 0]

No thats not what i meant, do i have to try and connect as many as possible. or is the way i have it work ._._._._. or .___________.

[Ltw 401]

How many subway-stations you want depends on the density of your zones. If you have a lot of high-rise buildings I would say that you could place a station every two blocks, if you don't have a lot of high-rise buildings every 4 blocks is better (the sims are willing to walk two blocks, not more). More stations will cause that more people use the subway, they cost a lot of money though. Building subway-stations is something which should be considered carefully.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

First, I never call anyone a cheater. I use "little conveniences" in my cities all the time.

If you want to run in Cheetah mode and pause, it kind of defeats the continuity of the game. I only do that when I want something really fast, and not all the time. I get overwhelmed by that mode, and just turn it down. Pausing is like running a biology experiment then dousing everything with formaldehyde to stop the music for inspection of results. But the simulation should keep going, however slowly. I only pause when I am doing something with puzzle pieces and not often then, but I do save frequently using the in-game save (CTRL+s).

The best way to get a good city is to remember where cities come from. Start with a village and maybe a few farms. The farms are great land banks that can be taken over by zoning on top of them as needed. Just take it deliberately, and stay profitable then you can't fail.

Just as a metter of interest, why do you show your sound controls panel in all your initial shots?

[Helepolis989 0]

Never said you called me a cheater, said i thought you did when you said cheetah, cause i thought you were using it as slang lol. I am not sure how to use farms effeciently, cause i always end up just building over them in 30 minutes anyways. i do think i am gonna save up some money to atleast extend my subways, maybe not a lot of them, but 2-4 of them on my side with none.

And my sound tab, i use fraps, and the button to take a screenshot is F10, which in turn makes the sound tab show up, so it was put in my first few pictures before i just started using print screen.

[jacksunny 741]

If you are going to be building farms, you should download the SPAM.

[Helepolis989 0]

wow, awesome played for 30 minutes, built up my subways, added some schools. was literally clicking the button to save, crashed. lost all that work.

[Helepolis989 0]

Here is what i have done, Most of my jobs are now covered, Am having some trouble with water, Tried to do a water treatment plant, not sure how well it helps. Have to work on my environment cause its terrible, but im not sure how to do this.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Two more things. Pick up the extra cheats .dll (see thread at the top of this list). You can then use the moolah command to reset your treasury to anything up to 9 Billion simoleons.

Stick with the water treatment plant. With moolah, you can lay down as many as it takes. In once city, I had three.

[Helepolis989 0]

I really dont want to cheat though. Just seems boring, no point in working on a city if i am just gonna cheat and get money so i can buy whatever i want.

Edit

Also two more questions. How do i help the environment, is it just parks. Cause it seems like parks dont help alot. And is it possible to slowly weed out the Industry and put commercial plots in its place so i cant only have CO and Houses so i dont have to worry about pollution?

  Edited August 23, 2011 by Helepolis989  

[Ltw 401]

I really dont want to cheat though. Just seems boring, no point in working on a city if i am just gonna cheat and get money so i can buy whatever i want.

Edit

Also two more questions. How do i help the environment, is it just parks. Cause it seems like parks dont help alot. And is it possible to slowly weed out the Industry and put commercial plots in its place so i cant only have CO and Houses so i dont have to worry about pollution?

This lot is awesome.

[Yarahi 1,816]

The Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant is a lot more effective than the Maxis standard if you have problems with water pollution

[Helepolis989 0]

Im sorry but i have registered to SC4 Devotion, and i still dont see a download link to the Mercy Hospital, or this Air purifier. I see the page, comments, pictures. nothing to click on to download though