starting

[mikel321 0]

I don't know how to start my city

[Cobraroll 138]

I'd suggest looking at the Omnibus on site:

Then, you look at the stickied threads at the top of this forum, and download the NAM. This is the "bread and butter" of customized SimCity, and most of us think that the game is a nightmare to play without it.

Here is one of the basic articles. I know there used to be a much longer one, with pictures and everything, but this should do. One of the best tips is: Don't rush things. Your sims might complain a little, but wait a while before you place all the public services. A high school wouldn't be necessary before you have about 10,000 inhabitants. A college doesn't have to be placed before you reach 30,000. Fire station and police coverage isn't critical, there would have to be a lot of crimes before it affects your city, and fires are relatively rare. As long as you have one central fire station, you can just send fire trucks to the fire manually.

Also, do not zone high density before your city has become somewhat of a metropolis. It takes a lot of patience to even get a single skyscraper, and if you "overzone" (build too much high density), skyscrapers won't grow even with a regional population in the high millions. As a rule of thumb, tall commercial buildings won't appear until your region has about 150,000 inhabitants, the demand for commercial zones is high, and there is no room to expand on already placed zones (for instance, the game will replace existing flea markets with medium-size commercial buildings instead of building an entirely new skyscraper).

Another tip, make sure that all residental areas are dead ends. Neither you nor your sims would want lots of traffic through the residental areas. Residental areas generate traffic, so you shouldn't have too many zones connected by the same roads. For medium density, you could have about 20-30 squares of zoning connected by streets, and a single road leading out of the area on to an avenue, which would take the sims to their workplace. Generally, use streets and roads for isolated "clusters" of buildings, and connect them with avenues. Sims will always take the shortest route to their target, and if that shortest route is a winding street through the suburbs, they will all forget about the shiny new highway going around it.

Good luck! Have a look around the forums if you're stuck. This site contains loads of information, and with a little willingness to look up old threads, you'll be an expert in no time. Have fun!

[Danny091283 1]

Are there mods that make sims to get the fastest road in place off the shortest one?

I got the same problem that i don't know how to start and to make a realistic city.

[Cobraroll 138]

^I don't know all the details or the inner workings or anything, but the NAM (Network Add-on Mod, make sure to get the most recent version) should help fixing that problem. In addition to some clever planning, your sims will go exactly where you want them.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I don't know how to start my city

Welcome to Simtropolis

Well, it depends on which region you choose from the defaults. First you should run the Tutorials on Timbuktu region. However, after that you should pick a region and start. The toughest region of the defaults is Fairview, and it has some real challenging terrain. I think you should keep that one for later.

Pick a region that has not too many rugged terrain features, and pick a fairly attractive city tile. Then think about where cities come from.

Most cities start at a river mouth or at some place advantageous for agriculture. The way to get going is to know that only power is required for first level lots (short cut keys Q, A, Z). Pick a spot and lay down a wind turbine power plant, then run a pair of streets that cross beside it. Select the Z key (Agriculture) and click-and-hold about six default sized I-Ag zones separated by streets. Then, over top of the farm land next to your power plant, lay out a couple of dozen residential 1 x 2 lots (Q key) at the cross streets, then add two or three 1 x 2 commercial properties (A key) to make a small village.

This should go profitable in about six Sim-months or less. If it doesn't add more residential.

Once you get in the black, pay attention to amenities. You will probably want to add a water tower (away from the farms) and power it. You can drag power towers to it (L key) if necessary. Then lay some piping to water your houses and farm buildings (I key).

After that, consider putting in a fire station. With these adds you may very well find yourself in the red. Add more residential until you get back in the black.

When this is running satisfactorily, consider going out of town and placing some second level industrial (X key). These need both power and water, and you may have to add facilities to satisfy the demands, and more residential and commercial to keep the industry's generated demands satisfied.

In any case, keep an eye on your public opinion panel and act accordingly. Use the map displays to see where things need to be and keep an eye on your Jobs and Population graph. You need a ratio of about 2 Sims : 1 Job to keep everyone happy. Look at your Desirability display to see where things can be put. Drop in a few parks, playgrounds and plazas to keep the Sims happy as well as break some of the demand caps that are built into the program.

Have fun and remember this is a leisure time activity. Don't be in a rush to run the program in overdrive. Stick to lower speeds and enjoy the animation, it is pretty good and you will need time to think about all this while it runs.

Play the game as is for a while. If you got the game from an on-line source there is nothing needed further.

If you loaded it off disks then there are two patches you need. You should go to http://www.ea.com/simcity-4-deluxe to pick up the proper EP1 patch to fix the bugs discovered after release.

When you decide you want to use custom content from the exchange (STEX) here or other sites, you will also need the update4BAT which can be found at https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php. Open this site and scroll to the bottom of the page. In the left hand frame you will see an EA support button. Press it, accept the agreement, and go to the BAT page. On this page you will find the needed update. You do not immediately need the BAT (Building Architect Tool) nor the Lot Editor. Just get the update.

When you have applied these patches correctly you can check by using Windows Explorer to navigate to:

C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe

(Note: with some installations this path may not be the same. It isn't called Windows Explorer for nothing.)

Hover your mouse over this file and it will display the version. For disk systems this should be 1,1,640,0 if you have correctly applied the patches. It will be 1,1,641,0 if you got the game on-line showing that the game is fully up to date.

Don't be in a rush to add custom content. This can turn into an exercise in madness if you dump a large selection of plugins into your game because not all plugins work together. Each one should be placed in your plugins with any others you have individually and tested in the game using a sandbox region. Create a sandbox region by simply opening the game and pressing the region selector. In that selector is a button to create a new region. Just name it Sandbox, and allow the default region to be created. Use these cities as your testbed.

To get you started on custom content, I suggest you locate and download the Network Addon Mod, most current version. This comes with an installer, and when you run it, it will place a large document in your plugins along with several mods for the game. This is a very large item, like a free expansion pack. Spend a day reading the document and testing the features in your sandbox.

I hope this is helpful to you. This game can be intimidating for new players, but you will find it is quite addictive. Enjoy.