Developing Stage 8 Skyscrapers

[Robsters 0]

Simcity 4 certaintly more interesting with how the zoning worked, probably why it got a reputation at the time of being to hard for new players, for old time simcity fans like ourselves adds a nice new dimension to the old format, SC2000 & 3000 got boring once figured out how to create big booming cities.

One thing I haven't quite figured out is how each city affects the neighbouring city, how do you create high commerical demand in 1 city from the other? do you just zone purely industrial and residential only?

city i showed above was all just res and com to begin with with hightech industrial later on, I am guessing demand worked as was plenty of industry within the region already?

[Darkwings 5]

I'm not sure if this is still on topic, anyway:

Each city has its own buildings. For any type of demand that is not satisfied locally, connected neighbors will try to cover for that city.

If you build a lot of Industry but only a bit of R, a neighbor city will most probably send a flock of workers (if they are available, of course).

The I city will see an R demand. The R city will satisfy that demand. And probably generate C demand. That C demand can be satisfied locally, or in any connected neighbor.

Etc.

This means that if you want a particular type of city, you can't focus on that alone, you need to also shape other connected cities in the region in order to avoid 'conflicts' of demand.

Example: ID asks for R$. If you want to avoid R$ in a city, even if the ID is in another city, as long as they are both connected to SimNation, the R$ demand will be shared.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Interesting thoughts. You can't avoid R$. Every uneducated Sim is an R$, and you need them. They are the copy machine operators, mail cart pushers, etc.

[Darkwings 5]

That is a given, and to clarify a bit what I meant I should word it like this : how to avoid a lot of R$ demand.

You could actually force most R$ out with 20% taxes ('importing' them from a neighbor to cover the jobs) but there's no advantage in that.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You don't have to respond to demands as if they really were more than pious wishes. I just consider them to be a set of zoning hints with building permits attached. Those demand bars are for type of occupancy not wealth level. The labels on the graph are somewhat misleading.

For example, in the ordinary game without a 'no mansions' mod, you will find your R$ zoning holding some $$$ Sim mansions. Generally, I zone high-density lots at 2 x 2 in blocks of six lots, three per side near my ID, and I get high-rise tenements for $ Sims who walk to work, not having a car.

You might want to mull over what those demand bars really mean. Low density does not necessarily mean poor, and high density does not necessarily mean rich.

Lately, because I've picked up some lots from the STEX that need it, I find myself zoning 2 x 1 lots with eight lots between intersections and the blocks only 2 grids deep. This requires some patience because you can only zone one side at a time or the game goes nuts and rezones this into 1 x 2 or 2 x 2. You can get some very nice packed neighbourhoods this way.

[Ro-Bo 183]

Wait a minute...do you mean the graph that goes between -6000 to 6000 that labelled R-$, R-$$, R-$$$ is not for residential demands based on wealth?

  Edited July 8, 2012 by Ro-Bo  

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

No. Property zoning is not based on wealth. Those bars are zoning demands for single occupancy, medium occupancy (MURBS), and high-density occupancy. Misleading, ain't it?

[Jared001 2]

Hi guys,

I am hoping one of you can help me with this problem. It is related to the questions previously posted regarding stage 8 bldgs.

I am also one of those people who cannot seem to be able to achieve the stage 8 commercial bldg lots. I had had a look through the threads and the recurring theme is to have Co$$$ very high. Unfortunately for me however, is that my Co$$$ and my R$$$ for the city I want my Stage 8s to be in is at rock bottom. I have managed to get all my surrounding territories to have a very high R$$$ plus Co$$$. So my question is, whether surrounding demand for different RCI categories affect a city's RCI chart. I have even tried to transplant the city into a blank region to see if RCI demand would change, but no luck.

Also have some pictures attached for one the more knowledgable folks to have a look at.

Region View

North East Corner

North West Corner

South East Corner

South West Corner

RCI Demand

Education Level

Commute Time

Jobs And Population spread

My tax is on the higher end with low wealth (8.6), medium wealth (8.6), high wealth (9.2) for both residential and commercial. I have tried lowering $$$ taxes down to as little as 0.1 but it has almost no effect ond RCI demand either. Really dissapointing that my downtown areas look like a little "flat".

I am also not sure if "mods" affect RCI demand, but none were used in any of my maps except for the "moneytalks" cheat.

  Edited July 26, 2012 by Jared001  

[Ion_Cannon 677]

To answer your first question, yes surrounding cities affect demand, but you need to go into them, play them for 6 months/1yr then save+exit to region for the demand to be passed on. Having high R$$$ and CO$$$ in all surrounding cites would signify that regional demand is there, so if you complete the above step for every surrounding city and then enter your city with low demand, the situation should improve. I would also keep all taxes at the same level unless you are trying to repress a certain wealth type, as taxes can have some strange effects on demand. You may need to run the game for 10+ game years to see effects though.

[Jared001 2]

I've actually tried that. If you have a look at my region, the city in the north was built specifically with only residential buildings. It is fully watered, powered and my education level is actually at 196ish (so almost 200) plus the majority of my population there is R$$$, Yet, it seems as though none of those people seem to be coming over to work. Perhaps would they possibly travel through my main city on to another city to work?

If that is the case, I'm not sure why desirability of my main city is so low. I have better health care, education, police protection, fire protection; Even my pollution level is better than my outlying cities. Does age of a city have an impact? Main city is about 1000 years older than the others.

[Ion_Cannon 677]

If the CO$$$ demand is high in the adjacent tiles, that should filter through into the surrounding cities but if that isn't happening it's probably due to taxes. I know you said lowering it had no effect, but I don't think you waited long enough. Taxes work in wierd ways, sims almost seem to get used to certain tax levels. For example city A/B are next to each other. City A has taxes at 5%, and City B at 7% - both have high demand in everything. However if I then raise the tax rate in city A to 7%, demand tanks entirely, if I leave it for a long long time demand will eventually recover.

[LightSkinnedPisces 71]

On 6/25/2012 at 7:16 AM, colco2121 said:

Yeah, I never got those kind of buildings much. Just keep trying and maybe use some ploppable HK and NDEX buildings in the meantime. They are highly recommended by me!

Best,

colco2121

too many replies to respond to so i'll just start from the top, what are HK and NDEX buildings? also you need 43,000 CO jobs I heard for them to appear? also how do you even know what stage your buildings are anyway?

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

7 hours ago, LightSkinnedPisces said:

what are HK and NDEX buildings?

I think those were modding projects years ago. I think HK means "Hong Kong".

[xxdita 1,097]

HKABT & NDEX are BAT teams that made a  lot of skyscrapers for the game. Their works are available on the STEX, with a lot of their buildings also used in new lots for CAM on the LEX. 

[twalsh102 1,601]

@LightSkinnedPisces, answer to second question first:  I would recommend getting your hands on a digital copy of the Prima Offiicial Strategy Guide for SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition available for free download at https://archive.org/details/SimCity_4_Rush_Hour_Prima_Official_eGuide.  The Growth Stage charts are found starting on page 112.

10 hours ago, LightSkinnedPisces said:

also you need 43,000 CO jobs I heard for them to appear?

Not quite:  Growth Stages are based on the regional potential for each developer type.  So Stage 8 (for R, CO, and CS - vanilla game) is reached when your Region has the potential for providing 43,859 Commercial jobs or places for the same number of Residents.  Note that the Growth Stage charts for CAM (if you are using it) are significantly different.

[LightSkinnedPisces 71]

How would u know u even have stage 8 tho?  I have some big buildings but not sure what stage they are. Where's the list of buildings? Link? 

[xxdita 1,097]

In-game, there is currently no way to know this, that I'm aware of. 

 You would need to know what files you have installed. What stage a building will grow at should be mentioned in the item's description on its download page, or in the ReadMe file accompanying it. 

Filenames may help, if the creator deemed to use the stage growth in their naming practices. Not a sure bet there though. 

PIMX is likely the best way to know exactly what stages the lots in your plugins are, as you can sort through lots of all types and stages quite easily. 

 

[xxdita 1,097]

6 minutes ago, xxdita said:

In-game, there is currently no way to know this, that I'm aware of. 

 You would need to know what files you have installed. What stage a building will grow at should be mentioned in the item's description on its download page, or in the ReadMe file accompanying it. 

Filenames may help, if the creator deemed to use the stage growth in their naming practices. Not a sure bet there though. 

PIMX is likely the best way to know exactly what stages the lots in your plugins are, as you can sort through lots of all types and stages quite easily. 

 

Let me amend this statement. I'm totally sure that there does exist a simple mathematical formula involving lot size and total building capacity to determine what stage a lot should grow at. And if anyone has a handy link to the original Maxis values for this, I'd appreciate seeing it. 

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

@LightSkinnedPisces

Seeing as this topic is about Stage 8 buildings as with the other one, I've moved us over to here to keep the discussion contained.

It's all good with bumping older threads like these, but otherwise parallel running topics on the same subject might get a little confusing to keep up with. That's what us staff are here for though to keep things neat and tidy, so no worries whatsoever.

In addition to the link @twalsh102 posted above for the Prima Guide (and Page 112 for the Stage Limits table), these might be a couple of useful references.

As follows:

• SC4 Buildings Index:  A reference of all Maxis RCI buildings, with Growth Stage categorisation.
• SC4 Buildings List:  A table summary with the addition of lot size variation info.  (Note: Should this ever go offline, see my post here for an attached copy.)

 

[LightSkinnedPisces 71]

3 hours ago, xxdita said:

In-game, there is currently no way to know this, that I'm aware of. 

 You would need to know what files you have installed. What stage a building will grow at should be mentioned in the item's description on its download page, or in the ReadMe file accompanying it. 

Filenames may help, if the creator deemed to use the stage growth in their naming practices. Not a sure bet there though. 

PIMX is likely the best way to know exactly what stages the lots in your plugins are, as you can sort through lots of all types and stages quite easily. 

 

Yea cuz I didn't install any buildings or anything,  only had NAM and a couple civic building plugins but got some big buildings that hold 4 or 5k sims n a commercial one that offers like 6k jobs so basically just played w/o any mods so I could learn game better

[xxdita 1,097]

OK, then the link above for Buildings List should help. Maybe download the pdf, so you have it to look over for now. 

And definitely download the Prima Guide. I still use it as a valuable reference.