first time?

[jdbknpchi 14]

Ok this is very sad but this is the very very first time in 2 years since ive had simcity 4 ive decied too build a region but ive never done it before soo i would love some help too make awesome cities and great transit i will be back on tuesday ,USA est! about 10am-5pm thankyou !!! i just wanna make ccool cities like alot of you on simtropolis because you guys post pictures of awesome ,amazing! cities i wanna build stuff like that to! thankyou for doing such a wonderful job! aswell,last thing i promise lol but i need you guys too help me with some city names,and areas and how doo i get growble stuff on the ocean thankyou soo much you guys rock!

[The Avatar 1,088]

The pictures you see posted on ST most likely contain a lot of custom content, and possibly a block Maxis content mod. Most people consider vanilla (no mods) SC4 boring, so they add some "sprinkles" of mods, including terrain mods, NAM (and its optional components), custom buildings (BATs, lots), and custom flora. Some people also edit their photos with a photo-editor.

Before you download mods, though, make sure you have Rush Hour/Deluxe and it is fully updated.

For city names, check out topic.

It isn't possible to have growable buildings on the ocean. You can plop boats, ships, and barriers, but you cannot grow anything. Automata boats and ships will appear automatically in cities with a marina/ferry terminal in the city, though, if I'm correct. (?) I think the amount depends on the ferry traffic, however.

  Edited July 2, 2012 by MamaLuigi945  

[JayStimson 211]

Start with the tutorials. Check the Omnibus.

Experiment. Read some of the Mayor Diaries and look at some of the "Show us your ... " threads in the forums.

Experiment some more. Nothing like learning by doing. Have fun.

[Yarahi 1,816]

For tips on building region-wide, check this thread on devotion.. It has some really good advice. My favorite is; think of your region as one big city tile, not several small ones

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Building a region is not a great deal different from building a city. Consider the whole map as a large regional municipality, and start making little towns and villages in each tile until you have something in each tile in the region. Then pick the ones you want to be central points and grow them. It is important to grow things relatively evenly, and to keep a purpose in mind that integrates the whole region.

Here is an example. This is not the default region but one from the STEX. Please note that, while each of these started small, some of them have grown into larger cities. In particular two or three of the port cities have become central points.

I've been working on this region for quite some time, actually since the beginning of March 2012. This is the current state.

[chimeran 208]

One thing you want to keep in mind is your transit system. For me personally I try to envision how the the region will look with a highway system which in turn affects how you put the highway system into a city tile. If you find a map that you like, save the screenshot and print it up and then take a pen/marker/etc and draw out how you want the city tiles to be connected through a highway system. Most of the screenshots usually show the borders for the city tiles which will help. Nothing is more frustrating than to build a city and have to bulldoze buildings to make room for a highway or other means of transportation. It's more tragic when it's a reward and it's in the way of where you want to go.

Unless you intend to use cheat codes, plan ahead. Lay out your railroads so that they connect to all four neighboring tiles. You don't need more than one per neighbor. Then start to lay down some roads, not streets because if you want to grow a large city you will need main arteries for traffic and it's better to have them in place than having to upgrade streets. You don't have to connect to neighboring tiles right away. I usually just have enough rail or road pointed in the direction of the neighboring tile and when it's time to expand i'll lay out more road and if it's close enough to the edge, i'll connect because they do cost money unless you use the traffic controller mod to reduce the cost of maintaining your transportation.

One last note, get all your transportation mods first so that way when you build your transit system you won't have to bulldoze too much because you will have all the stations/bus stops and different roads/rails already at your disposal.