A number of questions

[xoham 2]

Could someone point me to some videos or pictures of well made regions that did not involve cheats, and was played on at least medium level difficulty?  The youtube stuff I find is pretty much cheats and easy with mods that are probably distorting demand.

 

Are there any mods to help you display things like which ring of coverage is for which school type?  Or even finding your schools on the map when surrounded by taller buildings?

 

It seems to me the biggest money maker is commercial anything, followed by mid to low density housing, follwed by industry.  My high tech industry barely pays for itself since I use only clean energy and it needs so much of it.  I built a small town of only high tech and it makes nearly nothing.  Is that your experience too?

 

Thanks.

[Markus J 242]

I normally wouldn't link to my own stuff... but this project I'm working on seems to do what you're asking.

It's going to be a bit of reading if you're up for it. Along the way I'm providing requested information, giving guidance, or answering questions.

Also, to find your schools use the data views for education, that should light them up and make it easy to find.

[Ltw 401]

When you search on youtube with the keywords "Simcity 4 no cheats" you get some cities which weren't made with cheats.

I don't know whether there is a mod which shows the ring coverage for schools but that doesn't really say that much. Ring coverage is the distance the schoolbusses of that school will travel, that doesn't say that much about the quality of your education. That is dependable on the capacity of the school. The standard data view in Simcity 4 about education is much more detailed. In there you could see in which neighborhoods education is bad and in which neighborhoods your education is good and depending on that you could place schools within certain neighborhoods.

A key to a profitable city is to give the residents nothing until you can afford it, in the beginning your education, health and safety will be bad but there will still be people coming because you offer jobs and housing. At a certain moment you earn a lot of money and then you can spend some on education etc. I always try to make a lot of money first and when I have enough I want to spend it looking at my income. I always try to spend that much so that my income and my monthly expense are about equal (mostly because I like the idea of a government which spends what we pay them ). How much you consider as enough is up to you, if you have the goal to build a city with millions you will need a lot of money, when you want to build a small town you can spend much sooner.

[cogeo 960]

Imo the biggest moneymakers are low- and mid-rise R$$ and R$$$. CS$$ and CS$$$ pay a lot of taxes as well. CO$$ and CO$$$ appear to pay really low taxes (at least in my cities' growth stage and current state), but you need them because they are the demand "drivers" (you can't base a city on CS development alone, they aren't the "primary" employers). Hirise R$ pay ridiculously low taxes (for the people they accommodate), and with the helth and education expenses they need your budget can easily turn red. Insduatrial pays some taxes too, but with the pollution they produce, the power they consume and the space they need I'm not sure about their net contribution.

[arismartin 0]

I have SimCity4 Deluxe with NAM. The education seem to have an behavior some different the other services. For example: I built a little town far away to the city, connected by means of rail. The rail station in the city it is near of the school… and the educational grade of the buildings of the town is high… nevertheless that are far away. May be compute more the access time that the distance or, may be, the funds and the correct capacity of the educational system it’ s the very important. For my, while the school (or the system) have capacity and funds, no problems… seem. Is someone have more information, tell it us.

[xoham 2]

Imo the biggest moneymakers are low- and mid-rise R$$ and R$$$. CS$$ and CS$$$ pay a lot of taxes as well. CO$$ and CO$$$ appear to pay really low taxes (at least in my cities' growth stage and current state), but you need them because they are the demand "drivers" (you can't base a city on CS development alone, they aren't the "primary" employers). Hirise R$ pay ridiculously low taxes (for the people they accommodate), and with the helth and education expenses they need your budget can easily turn red. Insduatrial pays some taxes too, but with the pollution they produce, the power they consume and the space they need I'm not sure about their net contribution.

This is basically how I see it.

So my goal is a city with clean power (wind and solar until nuclear (not very clean) and fusion), full health support, full education, very little pollution and the low crime that mostly comes automatically from that.

And I've done it. The trouble is, I have demand railed to 6000 for I-HT, and Cs$$ and Cs$$$ while oscillating a little on R$$$ and Co$$$ and Co$$. I'd like to get some skyscrapers, but I'm not clear on what's needed. Guidance in that direction would be helpful.

My current plan is to maybe make some side towns to absorb the huge amount of I-HT and Cs demand in hopes of getting the other two numbers to climb. Been pretty slow going so far.

[xoham 2]

It didn't work.

Any ideas on how to increase R$$$ and Co$$$? Assume I've got the airport and all gifts available deployed. Should I just keep expanding residential with lots of education and health?

Thanks.

[Fatherted 129]

After a while that demand dies. Live with it.

It didn't work.

Any ideas on how to increase R$$$ and Co$$$? Assume I've got the airport and all gifts available deployed. Should I just keep expanding residential with lots of education and health?

Thanks.

[Ltw 401]

After a while that demand dies. Live with it.

It didn't work.

Any ideas on how to increase R$$$ and Co$$$? Assume I've got the airport and all gifts available deployed. Should I just keep expanding residential with lots of education and health?

Thanks.

There are certain desirability factors for each zoning type, if you can afford to spend that much that all those desirability factors are maximum the demand won't drop that easy. The desirability factors for commercial services are low pollution, low crime and low garbage. A proximity to high traffic (so in order to get that demand high is to build a lot of roads, avenues and mass transit in the area). A high proximity to residents of the same wealth is also important (you could try to zone certain commercial areas close to high wealth residential zones, if you have demand for it in the first place). At last a proximity of commercial YIMBY buildings is important, these are landmarks like for example the Bank of America or the Bank of China. For commercial offices the desirability factors are almost the same but instead of a proximity of residents with a similar wealth it is important that there are other commercial offices of a similar wealth close.

If you manage to keep these desirability factors high (even if that means that you have to spend a lot of money on public transit etc. even though it doesn't seem like you need it), it should be no problem to keep your commercial demand positive.

[arismartin 0]

- Sure you that water pollution is zero, if necessary add depuration water.

- Sure you de air pollution is drop. If necessary, dezone industrial I-D zone (or rises the taxes I-D to 12%).

- The traffic is better if the roads are unidirectional and avenues are intercalates.

- External connections and airport are essentials for health commerce.

- All the services are fine; fire, water, power, health, education (college, private school, bibliotheca…).

- Lower the taxes Cs- $$$, Co- $$ and Co-$$$ around 6.5%.

- In ordinances, check the “Increase demand-Commercial Office”.

- Perhaps help to check the “Act clear air… “ and others.

Normally, the demand far above the residents should be increased. Me, with a city of 324,000 sims, I have to my disposition 435.000 jobs. The city is steady and there is founds around 8.000.000 simoleons. Of course that R-$$ and R- $$$ should be the adequate.

  Edited July 29, 2012 by arismartin  

[xoham 2]

Is it possible to share saved games? I'd be happy to try yours or have someone fix mine.

Does someone have pictures of ideal city layouts or youtube videos? The ones I've found are useless.

Thanks.

[cogeo 960]

It didn't work.

Any ideas on how to increase R$$$ and Co$$$? Assume I've got the airport and all gifts available deployed. Should I just keep expanding residential with lots of education and health?

I think I have replied this in your "What increases CO$$$ demand" thread. Remember, try to satisfy all kinds of R and C demand and attract as many people as possible; then you have to educate them and wait until EQ, and therefore CO demand start rising again. But this takes time. Cities in my no-industry region grow some 50% in 5 game-years. And what do you mean by "It didn't work"? You don't have demand, or instead you have demand but not development? Show us your demand graphs to take a look.

After a while that demand dies. Live with it.

By "dies" you mean that it somehow inexplicably disappears (or gets reduced), or instead it is reduced as new development takes place? The latter (converting demand to additional development) is called "satisfying" it and it's very normal. For example, if you have positive CO$$$ demand you can zone some more C and expect to get CO$$$ development (or instead plop a plaza and upgrade existing CO$$$ buildings to taller ones, or CO$$/CS$/CS$$ to CO$$$). But this will reduce (or nullify) CO$$$ demand. You need to attract more workforce (and educate it) to make it rise again.

  Edited July 29, 2012 by cogeo  

[xoham 2]

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It didn&#39;t work.

Any ideas on how to increase R$$$ and Co$$$? Assume I&#39;ve got the airport and all gifts available deployed. Should I just keep expanding residential with lots of education and health?

I think I have replied this in your &quot;What increases CO$$$ demand&quot; thread. Remember, try to satisfy all kinds of R and C demand and attract as many people as possible; then you have to educate them and wait until EQ, and therefore CO demand start rising again. But this takes time. Cities in my no-industry region grow some 50% in 5 game-years. And what do you mean by &quot;It didn&#39;t work&quot;? You don&#39;t have demand, or instead you have demand but not development? Show us your demand graphs to take a look.

After a while that demand dies. Live with it.

By &quot;dies&quot; you mean that it somehow inexplicably disappears (or gets reduced), or instead it is reduced as new development takes place? The latter (converting demand to additional development) is called &quot;satisfying&quot; it and it&#39;s very normal. For example, if you have positive CO$$$ demand you can zone some more C and expect to get CO$$$ development (or instead plop a plaza and upgrade existing CO$$$ buildings to taller ones, or CO$$/CS$/CS$$ to CO$$$). But this will reduce (or nullify) CO$$$ demand. You need to attract more workforce (and educate it) to make it rise again.

By "it didn't work" I mean that I went to my one of my neighboring cities and chopped down some offices and replaced them with I-HT in hopes that it would drive some Co to my desired city.

My EQ for my medium city is 190+ and my large one is probably 180. Does it need to be more?

Here's my census data for the large one; I have improved the EQ since taking it. Maybe that will help:

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7991/simcity4census.png

  Edited July 29, 2012 by xoham  

[Markus J 242]

- Sure you de air pollution is drop. If necessary, dezone industrial I-D zone (or rises the taxes I-D to 12%).

- The traffic is better if the roads are unidirectional and avenues are intercalates <-What's this?.

- External connections and airport are essentials for health commerce.

Low pollution? De zone ID? Traffic works better with unidirectional roads (I'm guessing you mean one way roads)?

The last one, you are right one, neighbor connections are essential! However; airports are not.

My Downtown Los Angeles challenges these statements, with having plenty of pollution (like the real one), and plenty of one way roads.

But no air port, and tons of commercial growth.

Ah... pollution...

  Edited July 30, 2012 by Markus J  

[xoham 2]

Well at least your pollution is not near the Co area.

- Sure you de air pollution is drop. If necessary, dezone industrial I-D zone (or rises the taxes I-D to 12%).

- The traffic is better if the roads are unidirectional and avenues are intercalates <-What's this?.

- External connections and airport are essentials for health commerce.

Low pollution? De zone ID? Traffic works better with unidirectional roads (I'm guessing you mean one way roads)?

The last one, you are right one, neighbor connections are essential! However; airports are not.

My Downtown Los Angeles challenges these statements, with having plenty of pollution (like the real one), and plenty of one way roads.

But no air port, and tons of commercial growth.

Your L.A. has pollution alright, but not on your commercial area. However, my cities have very low pollution because I have taxed all the dirty industry away. I have 6k demand for I-HT now. It takes a large area to satisfy all that demand. I did as an experiment, however, Co demand did not improve so since it is mostly a money hole, I didn't save it.

[Markus J 242]

True, if it was RED I most likely would be able to have a nice commercial district. However, even in the red sprawl and low commercial has grown. And all the car pollution shows as 'medium' on all my buildings in that area.

Basically, the point is if you plan right you don't need to remove industrial. Because it's a good source for low wealth jobs, or new cities built next door that will commute in.

[arismartin 0]

Well. Indeed someone said: “I lived in worse places…”

First, if the airport is a neighbour connection and neighbour connections are important, it’s evident that airport is, some way, important… How much? That depends on the circumstances, but help. Now, if the other parameters they are not correct, perhaps be irrelevant. If a lot of connections they are established, it is possible that its influence be low.

The industrial zones are very important at the beginning, but they occupy a lot of space and pollute a lot the air and the water. All this can be reduced when Hi-Tech industries appear, but the necessary services (fire stations, police, depuration stations, etc.) and your cost, and the cost of corrective measures, normally they do not compensate the incomes, but each which does what wants... and the industry certainly is a part of the game. The best way for one healthy city (for that is the Major) is eliminating the industry or, since to start, building it, far away, at neighbourhood. Establish there the services of power and water and to trade. If there are residents R-$, commercial zone low density resold the problem.

I have given some counsel for the one that has problems, to which go him well, them does not need...

Yes... unidirectional it's "one way"...

  Edited July 30, 2012 by arismartin  

[Markus J 242]

Every connection you make offers demand cap, until it's a bare minimal number for each. So you are correct that that airport becomes less important based on which neighbor connections you make, and the amount of them.

Also we do vary greatly on our playing style, as yours sounds like it in visions to ideal clean healthy city, while mine favors a more realistic city. It is true even real cities gradually get away from their old polluting jobs, but no big city is without them. It is to be noted that cities that sudden had a large loss of those jobs now suffer for it (Buffalo, Detroit, Flint, Cleveland, so on...) I couldn't imagine any of these cities being "healthy" by eliminating industry or push it out far away. Now, it is true as your region grows, feeding of each city it's branched off it is possible that only your core city will need the dirty industrial, while the other cities may only demand factory and high tech. And it is also true that cities do gradually remove old industrial, but not out right entirely. Financially it's an impossible proposal that would take years to do, destroying the buildings/changing what they're used for, rebuilding new ones, losing thousands of jobs...

I know my head is stuck in realistic land, which is also next to Kirby Land ironically enough... but bottom line, each their own playing style. For the 'game' aspect, either approach will work.