Input on new city plan.

[Eric77lv 6]

Recently I have decided that I should build a brand new city, and possibly make my first city journal about it. This also will be my first city outside of a Maxis region. So far I have planned it with a new region (Planned city position in red) (Polaris Bay):

I also have planned out some of the planned zones. (Stadium area is also planned area for possible future events like a Simlympic site)

I could use some suggestions on how to make the city successful. Transit is always something that goes wrong, most likely because I put the subway in too early. Also anything about growth and tourism. Anyways, if I could get some input of what I should do or possibly fix I would appreciate it.

  Edited November 10, 2011 by Eric77lv  

[memedoug85 36]

Whenever i get an idea to start a new region i come across problems when i expand too quickly... Make sure you start with low density and coverage with fire and school... These ideas seem like hours of gameplay away... Spread everything out so if you do need to put a big stadium in later you will easily fit it in

[jakehh 52]

If i was to been building on this region, i would have chosen the port like tile next to the one you chose. but i like the way you've planned your city.

[Rady 94]

First, this looks promising. A very nice region that provides plains, coastal areas and also some hilli areas. I's a good idea to at least have some idea how to organize your city in terms of what goes where.

But first of all, i think you should define "successful". What is more important to you: that the city can live on it's own? Or that the city is perfectly desigend?

In case of the first ("city management"), you need to start out carefully. Zone low density only in the beginning. Don't put in public services too early. You don't need water, police, health in the first. A small fire covereage will do. Add public service only as you see your city grow. Water is only needed if you want to upgrade the zoning to medium density. That way you will maybe have to wait a long time until you can build a harbor or resort area, 'cause everything needs to be funded from the cities income. Over all, in this case much more (detailed, long-term) planing will be necessary in advance to zoning, building transportation, and so on.

In case of the second ("city creation"), you might make use of the "Extra Cheats Plugin" that (beside other marvellous functions) gives you the possibility of adding funds to your city as you need them. Of course planning what to do should be part of the process, but it doesn't hurt that much do demolish an alley and some buildings in order to get a highway in place there if you don't have to look on your balance sheet.

I tend to be the latter.

However, when growing my city, I tend to let them grow naturally. So there's a basic plan of zoning, but the final outcome often is somewhat different. This is especially true for transport networks. It's nice to draw a line and decide a highway has to go here, but it's worthless if your Sims won't make any use of it. So in my experience upgrading and expanding the transport network is always connected to massive demolition work. Troughout my first cities I always hesitated to destroy this or that building and instead tried to fumble in the new or upgraded network. What should I say. I failed regularly. Once you overcome the hesitation to demolish buildings, you will succeed in transport management. Sims will tell you where they want to go. Period. No way around this fact.

A second hint that I would want to give you is "take your time". If you want to have a real beautiful city rich of stunning details (have a looke at these stupendous MD's out there ..) you cannot simply zone out, drag roads, plant trees, whatch the buildings grow, and start over the same process. I did that in the beginning, because of course I wanted to have a huge city. However, it looks .. well .. uhmm ...

Nowadays, I take care about every tile. A plaza here. A park there. Some walkways connectiong the streets. It helped me much to just open my eyes when driving around (IRL, not UDI ) and look at how a city or village or landscape is "organized". All these little details. That way you get a whole bunch of ideas for your city. So as a matter of fact, it might well be that adding some 10 x 10 tile part to my city takes me half an hour of gameplay to finish it.

Of course this means to first go and download tons of stuff from the STEX/LEX. But I think (never tried, tbh) that even with the vanilla version of SC4 Rushhour you can create good-looking cities if you just dont rush it.

So, my first thoughts on creating a "successful" city. Ah, and don't forget to spend some time within the Omnibus section of this site, there are a lot of helpful tutorials and tips to help you make your way.

Looking forward to your MD ahh .. it's called City Journal here - sry!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Your region is neat, but I would terraform the bay's inlet further inland into a river that might well extend into the next tile. You can carefully use the canyon tool with every decreasing size and power until it just peters out or you can switch to the shallow canyon tool for the later parts. This will allow you to divide your port into two sections, one on each side of the river.

You can then make one side more industrial than the other, and put your major port there, while having a more domestic scene on the other bank with water recreationals, etc.

Some have said take it slow. That is completely correct. I have a similar situation right now with my new port set up and I've been working at it for over a week. I am retired and spend a lot of time doing this. Current stats are:

R 54889

C 15721

I 7988

$ 670,116

City age 84 Sim years

Current operating rate Rhino.

My city relies heavily on PEGs CDK3, OWW2, and Goldiva's water lots. These require careful forming of the shore lines in areas where you intend to put things. It is important to become adroit with the Mayor mode civil engineering tools, especially the leveler. There is a leveling lot available from PEG, but you still have to work a little to get things the way you want them.

This city has two Container Ports, by the way. One at each end. It also has mostly ground rail, and I have just started putting in bus lines.

[Eric77lv 6]

Replies:@Rady: Successful as in the city can run on its own and have few problems.

@A Nonny Moose: I was thinking of making the inlet deeper, as right now it's pretty shallow.

I also have a few more questions, should the airport be within the city tile, or within another? In other regions the airport was in the harbor of the city or in another city tile, but connected with HSR and/or subway. Speaking of subway, when should this be put in place? In other cities it was placed far too early, when the city only had 20,000 residents. This meant that the city was using a subway designed for around 20,000, but the city had more than 10x that, at around 260,000. I attempted to rebuild this subway (Mentioned in another thread), but this failed. Also used of the hills seen in the region picture. I planned to have hills on a lower elevation become a wealthy neighbourhood. On a different topic, I should start off slowly, so would the implementation of phases work? It would be something like this:

Phase 1: The areas that were blank in the city plan would be low density residential, the planned downtown area would be low density commercial, and would become high density in the future.

Phase 2: Somewhere around lets say 30,000 (Maybe, depending on congestion) a small bus system would be built

Phase 3: Expansion of the bus system, and plans for the subway system would be drawn up around 100,000?

Phase 4: Expansion of the commercial district, and construction of airport begins.

Phase 5: Resorts, tourists structures to be built, subway expanded

So far that was a rough plan of phases, so this not final and may even be not used at all. Appreciate all of the replies so far.

  Edited November 11, 2011 by Eric77lv  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Replies:@Rady: Successful as in the city can run on its own and have few problems.

@A Nonny Moose: I was thinking of making the inlet deeper, as right now it's pretty shallow.

I also have a few more questions, should the airport be within the city tile, or within another?

Since the airport can only service one tile, I'd suggest putting it in when it is requested and certainly not before. Put it as far away from the residential area as possible as it only has commercial effects.

[Eric77lv 6]

Replies:@Rady: Successful as in the city can run on its own and have few problems.

@A Nonny Moose: I was thinking of making the inlet deeper, as right now it's pretty shallow.

I also have a few more questions, should the airport be within the city tile, or within another?

Since the airport can only service one tile, I'd suggest putting it in when it is requested and certainly not before. Put it as far away from the residential area as possible as it only has commercial effects.

Yeah, that was always something that hurt my cities, the airport was built just as the city was being built.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Replies:@Rady: Successful as in the city can run on its own and have few problems.

@A Nonny Moose: I was thinking of making the inlet deeper, as right now it's pretty shallow.

I also have a few more questions, should the airport be within the city tile, or within another?

Since the airport can only service one tile, I'd suggest putting it in when it is requested and certainly not before. Put it as far away from the residential area as possible as it only has commercial effects.

Yeah, that was always something that hurt my cities, the airport was built just as the city was being built.

And open the transportation budget and control its funding with the slider to be just above usage.

[Eric77lv 6]

So how should I start the city, I know it is far too early to begin building the plan right now. I was thinking of just zoning low density residential and low density commercial where the Downtown/CBD would be. Pretty much get the city started, but I won't be zoning in areas that are highlighted in the final plan. As for transit, should I just place a road where the highway should be? I was thinking over time it would become the planned highway.

  Edited November 17, 2011 by Eric77lv  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

So how should I start the city, I know it is far too early to begin building the plan right now. I was thinking of just zoning low density residential and low density commercial where the Downtown/CBD would be. Pretty much get the city started, but I won't be zoning in areas that are highlighted in the final plan. As for transit, should I just place a road where the highway should be? I was thinking over time it would become the planned highway.

Now, highways are generally not things you want in town, but between city tiles. They are expensive. If you want to reserve space for one, lay down an avenue (AVE-4 in NWM terms). You may or may not ever want to change this into a highway depending on how things develop. Consider toll gates.

You can start a city by placing farms where you expect your CBD to eventually be, and when the time comes you can slowly consume them with other zoning. I recommend the SPAM if you want some variety and amusement out of your farms. Pay close attention to SPAM addons. The SPAM controller is not compatible with the NAM which is why it is a separate download.

Big cities from agricultural areas grow, eventually. Think about having a village in the middle of all this, and doing urban renewal as things move on. This is the natural progression.

[Eric77lv 6]

Alright everyone, looks like construction on the city will begin Friday or Saturday, and the city journal should be up by the following weekend. I just need a name for the city though.