Bankruptcy in Large City

[yayaya1 22]

My medium cities are great, but not the large ones. 

[Cefien 361]

Not enough info for us to help you. Please be a little more specific.It's like you just said, "hei, i have a big cities in my regions but they bankrupt. Can anybody tell me why?"   Huh..

But, if i had to explain, then all i have to say is play in balance, and manage your city well. Don't just zone and zone without paying attention to the demand, and do not build civic buildings recklessly, cause they will absorb your money each month greatly if you don't manage the funding well. There are lots of tutorial on how to play Simcity here and even out there in the Google world. All you have to do is search using the key word "tutorial".

This thread will prove useful for you in developing your city. https://www.simtropolis.com/omnibus/_/simcity-4/reference/demand-desirability-and-abandonment-r31

[Turjan 1,048]

As Sims only complain when your civics buildings are underfunded but not when you demolish them, the second option is always a way out. The same is true for some of the expensive utilities, like a recycling center. Also, there are conditions that make some buildings obsolete. A well-funded education system makes the prison superfluous. for example. You can also go overboard with parks, and don't forget the landmark costs, in case you tend to plop those left and right when the funds are high.

[yayaya1 22]

Well, I allways build highways for less traffic and almost never build landmarks. I actually like to zone high density everything. Anyway I can still do these things without my budget going red?

[bgn 4]

Maybe the highways and high-density zoning everywhere are what's driving you to bankruptcy.   Those things are expensive.

[jason leo 485]

Also look at two other things :

1. Your city's tax setting.

2. The amount of the maintenance cost for all civic buildings in your city.

 

If you make the tax become very cheap but you also maximize all civic buildings cost in your city, most likely, bankruptcy will be happened.

I suggest you to save as much as possible money, because your money is limited and the costs are quite expensive. Don't use highways when you just start a new city, use roads and avenues instead, and try to minimize expenses for education and health buildings, reduce the cost until it is right above the capacity used, and don't wasting your power and water, make power and water plants that produce power and water at the right amount of power and water needed by your city and choose the plant which will cost you the minimum amount of money. For the tax, taxing them between 7.5%-9.0% is enough, make it lower may cause the demand become higher, but it may reduce your income to a dangerous stage, while make it higher may cause your income to increase, but will discouraging newcomers to move to your city and reducing the demand.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

There are no "instant cities".  Zoning only high density is suicide when you are starting a city.  Highways are things that appear later when the traffic volume justifies them (hardly ever in these tiny spaces).  You are probably thinking you can have all $$$ but this is total fantasy.  Balance counts in everything, including population.

[Turjan 1,048]

One thing that bankrupted me on my first attempt was that I listened to the advisers. I built the large water pump when the adviser told me that it's now the solution to all my water problems. That thing costs 3,000 upkeep per month and my city had a total income of about 1,500 at that time, and this was meant to pay for everything. So, don't do everything the advisers tell you. Use your own judgment.

[Pasta-power 7]

One thing that bankrupted me on my first attempt was that I listened to the advisers. I built the large water pump when the adviser told me that it's now the solution to all my water problems. That thing costs 3,000 upkeep per month and my city had a total income of about 1,500 at that time, and this was meant to pay for everything. So, don't do everything the advisers tell you. Use your own judgment.

 

That is because it is a reward building, whenever Neil Fairbanks has a green news message with the words "Monthly cost: #", "Cost to build: #", "Accept", and "deny" then that means it is a reward building, It is completely optional weather you build it or not, but they help your city in different ways.

[Turjan 1,048]

One thing that bankrupted me on my first attempt was that I listened to the advisers. I built the large water pump when the adviser told me that it's now the solution to all my water problems. That thing costs 3,000 upkeep per month and my city had a total income of about 1,500 at that time, and this was meant to pay for everything. So, don't do everything the advisers tell you. Use your own judgment.

 

That is because it is a reward building, whenever Neil Fairbanks has a green news message with the words "Monthly cost: #", "Cost to build: #", "Accept", and "deny" then that means it is a reward building, It is completely optional weather you build it or not, but they help your city in different ways.

 

I know that it's a reward building. However, this one comes much too early to be useful in any way or form, while most others appear when you are a bit closer to actually needing them. Your city has to become quite big for this pump to become affordable.

[Jim14409 448]

 

One thing that bankrupted me on my first attempt was that I listened to the advisers. I built the large water pump when the adviser told me that it's now the solution to all my water problems. That thing costs 3,000 upkeep per month and my city had a total income of about 1,500 at that time, and this was meant to pay for everything. So, don't do everything the advisers tell you. Use your own judgment.

 

That is because it is a reward building, whenever Neil Fairbanks has a green news message with the words "Monthly cost: #", "Cost to build: #", "Accept", and "deny" then that means it is a reward building, It is completely optional weather you build it or not, but they help your city in different ways.

 

I know that it's a reward building. However, this one comes much too early to be useful in any way or form, while most others appear when you are a bit closer to actually needing them. Your city has to become quite big for this pump to become affordable.

 

I agree with Turjan. Also the large schools are offered before they are really needed. I never set my educational and medical budgets through the Budget Panel. Instead, Click the Data View and then Education and it will highlight each educational facility in your city. I check the budget in each one and many times can save thousands of dollars. Next do the same with Health. If you are still in the red you can consider temporarily reducing or eliminating ambulances and school buses.

Hope this helps.

[Bdub01 201]

You can also cut the 'city beautification' by a third or even a half. Much lower than that your parks look shaggy and unkempt! Of course make gambling legal then when offered the casino take it. If things are really bad you can cut police and fire funding if you don't mind them complaining every five seconds.

One piece of advice I haven't seen yet is to cut your water and energy to a little above what you need, like the schools and healthcare. Then watch your city and when you see a no energy or no water icon increase them as needed. At the very worst build a landfill and buy garbage from surrounding cities

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The main thing is to start small, get in the black and work to stay there.  All the while, you should continue to maintain the rule of thumb of 2 Sims per job.  If you do a save and exit, then click once on the city the opening dialogue box will show you the counts you need to quickly calculate whether you need more jobs or more Sims.

 

Balance is the key.  The game is determinedly programmed to have RCI all together in one city.  It is easy to start with a small farming village and grow it to a huge metropolis, but it takes time and patience. 

 

Once you break the "all in together, girls" rule, you have to be careful to avoid the Sisyphus rule where you are rolling rocks uphill forever.  If you decide to play regionally, try and keep the era in each city the same.  This helps to keep things in balance.  You really don't want things to get out of whack.

 

For city services, look at the dashboard.  Red is bad, and red arrows descending means you should examine the display for that service.  You can see these before you get bothered by the advisors.

 

The advisors have hidden agendas of self-aggrandizement, so beware of any advice, but heed warnings (red borders).

[yayaya1 22]

Well, In my medium city, I always have highways and high density in my best cities, but sometimes high density does help. It does raise revenue. Maybe I can stop the highway but I'm not sure about high density. Are you sure? If I start at medium density or low, won't high wealth demand be wasted?

How patient must I be anyway?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

How about a week or two at two hours of play a day.  You'll find that R$$$ residentials get build at all residential densities.  If the lot is right and the demands need to be met, you will get an R$$$ residential building.  Could be anything from a low density mansion to a high rise condominium.

 

Zoning for high density early in the game will probably get you some interesting high-rise tenements for R$.

[yayaya1 22]

It makes so much more sense to me now. Thanks! If I don't succeed in my city in two weeks, I will probably com back to this forum page for more answers and strategies.