Stuck at 150K

[DarkSoul 3]

I spent all day yesterday working on a city, and after getting so far it doesn't seem like I can get any more people in my city.

I'm losing about $6000/month at this point and have education funding cut as much as I can without them bitching. I've got a bunch of commercial with some industrial and lots of residential.

How can I get bigger? there is no more room on my map, I'm working on subways and the city to the "left" of mine is all industry, and the city to the right is all commercial but I still can't seem to manage this city.

My cities are always terrible....they're just basic plain cities with nothing outstanding

[Fatherted 129]

Have you zoned high density? Do you have nam etc. Help us help you help us help you

[Superbacon 380]

A screenshot or two would be helpful. And a pic of your budget would also help. If you're losing $6k/mo then you definitely have unnecessary expenses.

It sounds to me though your city is mostly light density. It would help to zone in higher density starting with medium. Don't want too much of a population burst.

[DarkSoul 3]

My city is all high density zones, I was at 200k, but its now down to 175K.

Yes I have NAM installed, but nothing else as "extreme" as that, just some lots and buildings otherwise. I have radical ordanance installed but I'm not actually using any of it at the moment.

I'll get a screen or two of my city in a bit, I'm just headed out to get the wife from work

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Is this an all residential tile? If so, you need to really find some income. Try dropping toll booths on all your neighbour connections.

Also, what are your taxes?

[DarkSoul 3]

Hopefully these will help you guys help me

[Fatherted 129]

Can you please upload those pics on an external website so I can zoom? I can't see any of those figures.

[DarkSoul 3]

they're on photobucket and like 1600x900px......

try these links

https://s885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/GRNDPNDR/?action=view&current=Zones.png

https://s885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/GRNDPNDR/?action=view&current=Taxes.png

https://s885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/GRNDPNDR/?action=view&current=City.png

https://s885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/GRNDPNDR/?action=view&current=Budget1.png

[His Divine Hand 244]

Your tax rate for residential is too high for starters. Cool fact, when Dirty industry is taxed at 20%, They won't abandon. Squeeze them a bit more to make up some of the loss from lowing res taxes to 9-7%

[jdbknpchi 14]

well just icase that idustrial area is reallyclose too the commerical and some are close res,is a pollution a problem in your city that will cause you too have abandoned commerical and res! all i have too say is to cover up the idustrial with commerical and res,or raise taxes ive had taxes 13% before but they complain some but not much it seems that the more you pay for the edcation/power,water etc thet don't seem too mind!

ps,in the night picture there are dark buildings that can mean there not getting what they need or water pollution can be a problem and trash if you have any water pollutin is great too build a water qtreatment plant!, if its trash make sure you have landfills,or mods that get rid of it and traffic can cause problems just trying too help hope your city gets better,and sorry for some of my words are misspelled

[DarkSoul 3]

I boosted dirty industry to 20% and reduced HT IND. to 0% for now, and I don't have any pollution or garbage problems aside from minor traffic pollution, but I am at the moment fighting a water problem as it seems a lot of my pumps have reached end of life.

Basically I'm spending a lot of time being thrown around the map by my utilities advisor telling me every 5 mins that a power plant is getting old ( i used wind power plants spread throughout the city, and a few geothermal plants)

My demand for dirty industry is bottomed out and my HT industry demand is through the roof.

[cogeo 960]

His Divine Hand is right! Set I-D taxes high - you don't want more I-D growth anyway, do you? It takes up all that space and creates relatively few jobs, consumes a a lot of power (so yet more power plants), produces a lot of garbage (so yet more expenses). pollutes (so you will need more water treatment plants) and finally, as EQ increases your sims will no longer want to work there. All other taxes should instead be gradualy set to their (8.9% for a city of that size). This will increase R and C demand, (which you will have to satisfy all) - even CS$ is preferable to I-D; take a look to see how to get high-density CS$ development.

The "problem" of is well known. And your wealth-mix looks good too: many R$$$ residents, a lot of CS$$$ taxes etc. I'm afraid there is no something you can do to increase your tax revenues significantly.Maybe try to counter further R$ development (esp hirises) and get more R$$ and R$$$ instead (this is not something I usually suggest, but you are having a budget problem as of now). It would also be a good not to zone for more (or higher-density) industry anymore. Set taxes to the neutral level, run the city for some six months or so (until the tax adjustment takes effect) and re-evaluate your city development strategy, taking into account the new demand balance.

As for the expenses, it's obvious that your biggest expenses are by far Utilities and Health & Education. So about utilities:

- Check your power plants. If you have some old ones tear then down and replace them (the lower maintenace cost will soon pay for the extra capital cost). Set their funding to 100% and sell the excess production (so that you have a usage of 75-80%, otherwise they wear fast). Don't build new power plants, instead import power if you need it.

- About garbage, landfills are very epxensive to run ($3.3/ton), so I would suggest sending them somewhere else, preferably another city. Recycling centres are basically a joke ($20/ton), so don't use them at all.

- About water, mmm I don't know, only I hope you don't have capacity to spare, neither pumps shut down due to pollution.

As for health & education, play with the sliders, and maybe reduce bus/ambulance funding, if possible.

But first and foremost, get rid of much of your industry. And about the declining population, did you check for demand caps?

[Markus J 242]

If my eyes aren't mistaken I see lots of 'No Job Zots' above darkened buildings. More jobs need to be provided, that either means improving the desirability factors in that city for those jobs in demand to grow, or grow more in the cities next door.

Seems there also just are not enough jobs to support all of his towers, he clearly has the demand but it's a domino effect. One high rise is built cause of the demand, then abandons cause of lack of jobs, then another tower grows (wash, lather, and repeat).

That's the only other advice I could see that hasn't already been offered.

[DarkSoul 3]

how much actual industry should a city have?? I'm aiming for HT industry myself, and would love to have a high tech city.

The no jobs is having a lot to do with water problems, like I said I'm fighting a losing battle here and I think I'm going to have to "pause" it and re-structure all my water pumps.

I've been looking on the STEX for a water plant of some sort that will not cost me $3000/month and will suit my needs.

ionic towers are costly but I have a few of those for water/power needs.

I'm also trying to figure out how to edit the files so I can modify water pumps myself and possibly boost ouput slightly, or reduce cost a bit.

So, Should I re-zone some of that industrial to commercial instead?

Ideally I am aiming for a high-tech, fairly high wealth city. I don't want bums cluttering up my streets lol.

Just for the record I only made the tiles beside my city residential and commercial for the purposes of testing. I was trying to relieve my cities woes a bit, but commute times caused abandoned buildings..... which I am now correcting with mass transit (subways mostly) but I ran into my water problem and loss of money before I could complete that task.

Is there an easy way to see specific buildings??? Like is there some way I could turn off all buildings except power plants or water pumps etc so I can actually SEE where my stuff is??

Those water pumps are small amongst those giant towers and this is one of my biggest annoyances.

  Edited August 8, 2012 by DarkSoul  

[Markus J 242]

Well maybe if I speak from my personal experience it shall help you.

My city has a positive income of $79,000 roughly. It's expenditures are $75,000 roughly.

My profit margin is about $4,000 monthly (where I like it, I don't like huge surpluses then I feel I'm neglecting services). Everything is at max funding, and taxes haven't been touched. It's been 9.0 for everything (might lower it some actually).

How did I accomplish this? My city has everything for one. Seriously, it has everything (well not farms). Whatever was in demand I grew, I honestly got by pretty well just by paying close attention to my RCI chart, and nagging ad-visors (though not bad when on Hard). No obviously my high wealth are not right next door to my industrial. that's where planning and proving desirability comes in. You make more money (for the most part) by having lower buildings, and a small cluster of skyscrapers (like real metro area) than towers everywhere you can put one.

Now services, I provide as much as is needed. By that, I mean schools and hospitals are where residents are, not where industrial and commercial are (get some hospitals and schools off this website too if you haven't). Basically provide as much coverage and little overlap as possible to maximize you money. Water, only have enough pumps so that your usage is around 90% - 95%, otherwise you have excess water that is being wasted, and that's money wasted. Same for power. Trash, as mentioned landfills are expensive, and in your urban environment it kills the area (seriously in all aspects), you're better of using a waste incinerator, or exporting your trash if possible. At least an incinerator can give some power.

Give what is needed, nothing more. Always watch your RCI and your desirability factors. If you have questions or want to see graphs and data views, I got some on my City Journal and more are coming.

[Fatherted 129]

Try my "Scaled back stats desalination plant". (WARNING: You will need a small amount of water in your city. It also works as a water pollution remover, and refines 100% of the water it creates. It also takes 400 years to start dying, and 600 to die. Try the original when your water demands get high as well, to save space and money. Find it under my username link, MY CONTENT, ST/Ex.

how much actual industry should a city have?? I'm aiming for HT industry myself, and would love to have a high tech city.

The no jobs is having a lot to do with water problems, like I said I'm fighting a losing battle here and I think I'm going to have to "pause" it and re-structure all my water pumps.

I've been looking on the STEX for a water plant of some sort that will not cost me $3000/month and will suit my needs.

ionic towers are costly but I have a few of those for water/power needs.

I'm also trying to figure out how to edit the files so I can modify water pumps myself and possibly boost ouput slightly, or reduce cost a bit.

So, Should I re-zone some of that industrial to commercial instead?

Ideally I am aiming for a high-tech, fairly high wealth city. I don't want bums cluttering up my streets lol.

Just for the record I only made the tiles beside my city residential and commercial for the purposes of testing. I was trying to relieve my cities woes a bit, but commute times caused abandoned buildings..... which I am now correcting with mass transit (subways mostly) but I ran into my water problem and loss of money before I could complete that task.

Is there an easy way to see specific buildings??? Like is there some way I could turn off all buildings except power plants or water pumps etc so I can actually SEE where my stuff is??

Those water pumps are small amongst those giant towers and this is one of my biggest annoyances.

Also use the data view to find buildings (they highlight green on the game and blue/yellow on the data).

Try my "Scaled back stats desalination plant". (WARNING: You will need a small amount of water in your city. It also works as a water pollution remover, and refines 100% of the water it creates. It also takes 400 years to start dying, and 600 to die. Try the original when your water demands get high as well, to save space and money. Find it under my username link, MY CONTENT, ST/Ex.

how much actual industry should a city have?? I'm aiming for HT industry myself, and would love to have a high tech city.

The no jobs is having a lot to do with water problems, like I said I'm fighting a losing battle here and I think I'm going to have to "pause" it and re-structure all my water pumps.

I've been looking on the STEX for a water plant of some sort that will not cost me $3000/month and will suit my needs.

ionic towers are costly but I have a few of those for water/power needs.

I'm also trying to figure out how to edit the files so I can modify water pumps myself and possibly boost ouput slightly, or reduce cost a bit.

So, Should I re-zone some of that industrial to commercial instead?

Ideally I am aiming for a high-tech, fairly high wealth city. I don't want bums cluttering up my streets lol.

Just for the record I only made the tiles beside my city residential and commercial for the purposes of testing. I was trying to relieve my cities woes a bit, but commute times caused abandoned buildings..... which I am now correcting with mass transit (subways mostly) but I ran into my water problem and loss of money before I could complete that task.

Is there an easy way to see specific buildings??? Like is there some way I could turn off all buildings except power plants or water pumps etc so I can actually SEE where my stuff is??

Those water pumps are small amongst those giant towers and this is one of my biggest annoyances.

[DarkSoul 3]

Well at this point I'm considering starting over just to correct some of the mistakes I've made.

I did some checking and all my water pumps (22) cost me $7000/mth. but 2 large water pumps would cost less and suit my needs for water, but to go back and replace them all with 2 large pumps would be quite a task and doesn't fix some of the other problems.

[husher 18]

What you can do is hit the STEX for:

The black hole water dept, just one unit will give you city wide coverage and is very cheap(i haven't used the default water treatment plant since i got this) their is also a good size pumping station too.i generally don't need pumps with this but some times the game gets antsy and demands one or two standard size ones

Black hole waste management; its great, all the trash goes down the hole; no need for landfill, again it's cheap and very useful(just have a air filter near by as it does give off a small amount of pollution

There's a 'wind tree power plant' that is far superior to the old fashioned wind turbine, it's cheap and easy to use, i usaly have anything from 3 to 6 per city and no real power problems and no pollution from them.

It might pay to get some better high capacity schools as well, the education complex and the large high school (look for the one with the soccer field attached) set them at 1teacher/10 pupils and don't spend more than you absalutely need on school buses .

Stick to medium density housing, high density commercial and industry, but don't put too much space for industry, get some sky farms to give you some extra money and jobs and the sim treasury will help alliviate the defecit, it gives $5000 per month, i wouldn't build a city with out one!

I learned the hard way too, since i started using this stuff, i've had very few problems and now my populations only fluctuate by 1 or 2k per 20 years. Good luck!

[DarkSoul 3]

I kind of want to avoid things that are outright "overpowered"

for instance: My city has a pop. of 361,000 (The real city....London) and has a giant resivoir (resivoir park) and 3 or 4 pumping stations through out the city.

We also don't have ANY power plants here.... I think we get it from Niagara Falls.

We have one landfill ( that I know of) and one recycling center of sorts.

I want to keep SOME realism, but I'm not trying to emulate real life.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You are paying far to much for water and power. Since your plants are outdated, you could replace all your power plants and water sources with one or two each of these:

Plop cost 10,000

Plop cost 100,000

Both are cheap to operate.

Also consider setting both ambulance and school bus funding to zero for a while.

[jdbknpchi 14]

well just advise you might wanna start with a geoplant at first and 2 pumps ! and the map is showing not enough jobs and lots of no job zots and if buildings are getting abandon and there no people and if you know after awhile there not comeing back delete them and add more commerical! you should make a another idustril map and fill in idustrila with commerical and res medwealth,and comrical highwealrh it works for me and make a freight train to get the idustrial boost to your city it works for my cities i had cities runed like that with 1.5m on a med tile map it takes time! soo dont rush right too high stuff hope i help you

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

well just advise you might wanna start with a geoplant at first and 2 pumps ! and the map is showing not enough jobs and lots of no job zots and if buildings are getting abandon and there no people and if you know after awhile there not comeing back delete them and add more commerical! you should make a another idustril map and fill in idustrila with commerical and res medwealth,and comrical highwealrh it works for me and make a freight train to get the idustrial boost to your city it works for my cities i had cities runed like that with 1.5m on a med tile map it takes time! soo dont rush right too high stuff hope i help you

Hmmm. A stream of consciousness post. I have trouble reading and understanding such a dense agglutination of text. Perhaps you could clarify it for me.

What does wanna mean?

What is a geoplant?

What kind of pumps?

I give up. This editor has a spelling checker and the poster didn't care enough to even use it. I suggest you might want to open this post up and re-edit it with spelling fixes and some white space added so that we can see where the sentences are.

"Elements of Style" by Strunk and White is a thin paperback that can be purchased from many booksellers. I suggest you might want to give it a read.

Posting on any web site is creating a picture of yourself. Here I see someone who just doesn't care enough to write something intelligible. You really don't want the reputation to follow you do you?

[jdbknpchi 14]

well sorry i was rushing too get something else done plus i just started simtropolis not even 1 year ago well im sorry!

wanna mean want/want too kk

aka im only 14 i shorting things like this for exsample

heya ima on the way too yo house unlock the door 4 meh! thats how teens talks! lol

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Teen trash talk shouldn't be put in writing. Writing has a way of being permanent. If you make it to 18 you must be writing better or you'll never get into any college.

You may not care how people think of you now, but as a retired teacher and employer, I can tell you I would not take an application from your written like that post. Perhaps they don't teach grammar and syntax where you go to school?

[DarkSoul 3]

well sorry i was rushing too get something else done plus i just started simtropolis not even 1 year ago well im sorry!

wanna mean want/want too kk

aka im only 14 i shorting things like this for exsample

heya ima on the way too yo house unlock the door 4 meh! thats how teens talks! lol

and that's why teens aren't respected. I have no idea what you just said in this post but I suggest you take a serious lesson in grammar and english, because your not even "shorting" things properly.

I found your first post somewhat helpful, albeit hard to read but this was just utter trash and doesn't make a lot of sense at all.....so if by "shorting" things you mean to make them unintelligible and incomprehensible then you have fully succedded.

[bourneid 13]

I see you have an airport, but no seaport.... isnt that a demand cap releiver. That should help give a boost to your IM and IH as well as Comercial services and such.

[jdbknpchi 14]

well sorry i was not expecting someone too make drama over it gosh!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You aren't the only one. I just happened to reach my limit of damn fool quota when I opened your post. Sorry if you were embarrassed, but really think how you look to the community.

[DarkSoul 3]

I see you have an airport, but no seaport.... isnt that a demand cap releiver. That should help give a boost to your IM and IH as well as Comercial services and such.

I'm not allowed. The requirement is 20% of your map has to be water.

I haven't done much with the city, I've been trying to learn how to modify a building but it isn't going well, I just wanted to change some stats of the large water pump......but it isn't complying with me lol.

[bourneid 13]

Check out the STEX... I know there was just a custom seaport lot put up a few days by (i think) jtMyers that fits in with some of the other seaport eyecandy lots... and can be placed at anytime and multiple times