Is the demand for farms and dirty industry never ending?

[yoge123 1]

I have three questions. And on the last question, can you give me some tips on how to prosper in this game?

 

1. When will the demand drop for farms and dirty industry?

 

2. Are farms and dirty industry needed for the region to grow big?

 

3. I am struggling trying to grow my city, how many neighbor cities do I need to bring demand up for R and C?

[Prophet42 1,500]

As your region grows in population, Farm and Dirty Industry will drop off.  Farm demand will drop to zero when a city reaches around 60,000 sims.  Dirty Industry demand will drop off as your population becomes more educated.  Farms are not absolutely necessary, but make a nice addition.  Dirty Industry is kind of necessary as a stepping stone while your population becomes more educated.  To bring demand up, you should have as many neighbors as possible.  The more connections you have, the more cap relief you will have and your demand will increase.

[Bdub01 201]

I really can't add anything more to what Prophet42 put! Though DI will decrease as your education goes up, however I think it's good to keep at least one city rather uneducated and have at least some DI. Not all sims can make six figure salaries!!! I also like to have farming communities on the small tiles, just for general principle. And finally the more neighbor cities the better. Try to think of the entire region as one big city and each city tile as suburbs !

[yoge123 1]

Would freight train stations be good for farms?

[Turjan 1,048]

They work fine with farms. As always, be aware that they will only get used if the road + train connection to the edge of the tile is faster than any road connection.

[cogeo 960]

My two cents here (Prophet42 and Bdub01 answered almost it all).

 

1. Demand for farms will drop to zero when the population of your city reaches 30,000; this may increase with the aid of cap-raising rewards (eg another 30,000 with the Census Repository Vault). Demand for dirty industry will start dropping as your EQ starts rising, If you have a lot of I-D development, it may even get negative, or strongly negative. The same happens with I-M too, only this will occur later, at a yet higher EQ). I-D may be abandoned, or redeveloped to I-M, as your EQ rises (i-HT is much harder to get, it needs high EQ and good desirability, like R and C). You can avoid this if you supply your city (and neighbor cities) with a fresh load of R workers (newcommers have a very low EQ), so you should satisfy (exhaust) all R demand. And don't snub C demand, even CS$ (it's "better" than I-D as it doesn't pollute, doesn't need much power, is easier to commute to, and can finally be upgraded to other C types).

 

2. Farms and industry are not technically "needed" even for a start-up city or region. I have been able to grow cities in a region with no industry or farms at all (only commercial and civics) - take a look However, industry and farms are the only development type for which you have demand early on, and without these you won't have any substantial population base (which you will have to educate, to create CO$$ and CO$$$ demand), so growth will be slow, but it's still doable (you will have to satisfy ALL R and C demand).

 

3. Neighbour cities help a little, but don't expect any significant demand boost from that. Actually as few as 2 or cities are enough. R and C demand are created by jobs. I jobs create demand on their own, as do CO$$ and CO$$$ (but you need a highly educated workforce for this), while CS$/CS$$/CS$$$ demand is created by the population (regarding your sims mostly as customers, rather than workers), and do provide some additional jobs too (and last, but not least, pay very high taxes).

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I have only to add that centrally located farms make great land banks.  You can eat up their land with other zoning at need saving only the actual farm plot.  When you want to eat that, just dezone it, then zone as you like.

 

What this means is that your farming town can grow, farms and all, into a fully urbanized area.

[yoge123 1]

Do all cities need a university and college? I have a small tile city and am looking to make it $$R/C and $$$R/C. Will they go to neighbor city for university?

[Bdub01 201]

Do all cities need a university and college? I have a small tile city and am looking to make it $$R/C and $$$R/C. Will they go to neighbor city for university?

My understanding is that they stay in the same city for education. They only go elsewhere to work. Also I tend to keep a city or two undereducated.

[Bazkur 34]

Just a note, if you don't want to lose your farms because of the demands of the city, check out SPAM mod.  Works great.

[yoge123 1]

Is there a difference between mono rail and elevated rail? And which one would be best for a down town area?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Monorail is a different version of light rail designed for fast intercity work.  It doesn't connect to any other network.  Elevated rail is best for urban work because it can transition to subway, and with some mods GLR.  All of these are the same light rail network.

[yoge123 1]

Thanks all for your help. Another question. I connect my cities with roads and avenues but the sims always like to clog up the nearest road.

Is there a certain strategies to connect cities? Like, should only use avenues and high ways for traveling from city to city?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I hope you have the NAM.  The best strategy for connections is to start with only one between each city and put toll gates on them.  Great income.  If you start with a road, you should leave room for it to become a highway at need. 

 

Unless I am doing a close urban situation, I don't use multiple connections unless things get too hot on the one.  Then I often add either monorail or heavy rail.  You can have a lot of fun playing model railroad.

[yoge123 1]

I hope you have the NAM.  The best strategy for connections is to start with only one between each city and put toll gates on them.  Great income.  If you start with a road, you should leave room for it to become a highway at need. 

 

Unless I am doing a close urban situation, I don't use multiple connections unless things get too hot on the one.  Then I often add either monorail or heavy rail.  You can have a lot of fun playing model railroad.

Yes I have the NAM. What do you mean by start with only one? One what? Road, ave, highway? I don't use the NAM highway, I just use the avenues to make them 6 or 8 lanes, and the single tile avenues come in handy.

[Bdub01 201]

Just start off with one connection. I prefer a highway myself. Then as I get more of a population I add a rail line. It seems better to try to corral the sims to one road crossing as opposed to having a bunch of them just sort of willy nilly. I also add the exit ramps close to the edges of the tile and I like to use one-way roads to direct the traffic. There doesn't seem to be as many traffic jams when I do so.

[yoge123 1]

Hmm ok cool. I will use the sc4 grey highway. How big does the population get when that highway starts getting clogged?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

"Only one" whatever kind of connection you want.  I thought I was quite clear.  Generally I find a road connection does it for the start, and later this can be upgraded with some work.  Or you can add a different travel medium.

[yoge123 1]

But isn't it un realistic to have many roads as dead ends and not connecting to your neighbor cities? Or do you start connecting those roads once you get the population in that city you desire? And once you connect those roads, avenues etc, does that first high way connection still keep that same traffic as when you had it when it was the only connection or does it get less used?

[Magneto 316]

Yes it probably is, but it's good advice not to make too many connections, or you might have a nasty problem called "the eternal commuter loop" (google is your friend - many articles about this).

Avoid connections especially in corners, create them only when absolutely needed.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

But isn't it unrealistic to have many roads as dead ends and not connecting to your neighbour cities? Or do you start connecting those roads once you get the population in that city you desire? And once you connect those roads, avenues etc, does that first high way connection still keep that same traffic as when you had it when it was the only connection or does it get less used?

It really depends on what you are doing.  If you are building two or more tiles as a single city, then you have an argument for a street by street connection.  However, there is also a penalty on commute between tiles and it may make the commute seem long.  This means that the border really is there and nothing you do will erase that.

 

Generally, I isolate my neighbour connections so that I can upgrade them at need, but everyone to his own design.

[Pinstar 13]

Going back to the topic of ID... I find that keeping a section of ID is handy even after a city starts to mature. Whenever you zone brand new residentials, they will always start out with a very low EQ...even if you have a supurb education system. IT will take them a few years to catch up with the rest of the city. In the mean time, those uneducated workers will be looking for uneducated jobs... and having a bank of ID will keep them happy and employed without causing CS$ to build everywhere. It also keeps ID demand fulfilled, so that that burst of new uneducated workers doesn't suddenly cause ID to start growing in your I-M and I-HT sections. I like to build them next to my dirty utilities since that area is going to be a polluted hell-hole anyway.

[Camlon 50]

Going back to the topic of ID... I find that keeping a section of ID is handy even after a city starts to mature. Whenever you zone brand new residentials, they will always start out with a very low EQ...even if you have a supurb education system. IT will take them a few years to catch up with the rest of the city. In the mean time, those uneducated workers will be looking for uneducated jobs... and having a bank of ID will keep them happy and employed without causing CS$ to build everywhere. It also keeps ID demand fulfilled, so that that burst of new uneducated workers doesn't suddenly cause ID to start growing in your I-M and I-HT sections. I like to build them next to my dirty utilities since that area is going to be a polluted hell-hole anyway.

I think the easiest way is this. Build up your city to low residential demand, and place all the dirty and manufacturing industry in a neighbor. When the sims are getting more uneducated then both of them will drop negative and you will get demand from hi-tech. Hence, when you build industry then only high-tech show up.

 

Much better than trying to tax them away, but end up with unemployment because you are suppressing demand. 

[Adjiebrotot 94]

how about using demand mod? but yeah, using demand mod radically will make your city's building look all same...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

IMHO demand mods suck.  They are for people who want to mess with the game.

[.anonyman 28]

The Industrial Revolution Mod by TWrecks is a great way to control what type of industry will grow because if you zone medium-density, only dirty or manuf. will grow, and if you zone high-density, only high-tech or manuf. will grow. So you won't get polluting factories in your park-strewn, downtown IH areas, and your uneducated sims and newcomers will have steady jobs in dirty industry.

[yoge123 1]

The Industrial Revolution Mod by TWrecks is a great way to control what type of industry will grow because if you zone medium-density, only dirty or manuf. will grow, and if you zone high-density, only high-tech or manuf. will grow. So you won't get polluting factories in your park-strewn, downtown IH areas, and your uneducated sims and newcomers will have steady jobs in dirty industry.

Hey, I searched that mod but there are like 7 different versions. Can you link the one you use? I like that idea, it will be helpful.

[Turjan 1,048]

Hey, I searched that mod but there are like 7 different versions. Can you link the one you use? I like that idea, it will be helpful.

 

Well, you are supposed to use all versions together . The base mod, handily called "Base Pack", can be found

 

Caution: You have to start a new region to use this mod. It replaces all existing industry lots, so it will mess up your game if you use it in your existing regions, unless you dezone all your industry before installation (which will probably mess up your game, anyway). Of course, you can try in paused mode.

[yoge123 1]

Hey, I searched that mod but there are like 7 different versions. Can you link the one you use? I like that idea, it will be helpful.

 

Well, you are supposed to use all versions together . The base mod, handily called "Base Pack", can be found

 

Caution: You have to start a new region to use this mod. It replaces all existing industry lots, so it will mess up your game if you use it in your existing regions, unless you dezone all your industry before installation (which will probably mess up your game, anyway). Of course, you can try in paused mode.

Thanks, but thats to many downloads. I will just do it the normal way.

[Turjan 1,048]

hanks, but thats to many downloads. I will just do it the normal way.

 

Sure, it's your game.However, keep in mind that the base pack alone contains 250 lots, and compared to that, the number of dependencies and additional downloads is minute.