Fed up with game...

[derek_w_reynolds 0]

Is anybody else having these same issues and simply giving up playing SimCity?

I've created a half dozen solid cities so far - with a population of only 140,000.....I have police stations EVERYWHERE, with the screen showing about 4 dozen cars all over the place.....5 criminals moving around..jails practically empty....loads of crime prevention attachments to my police precincts....schools everywhere including colleges and a university....still I'm constantly being told that "night fall is approaching..." and that my police force can't handle the crime wave. 

 

Fire is the same - I've got fire stations everywhere....traffic is fine....but fire service is always slow.

 

My monthly budget is -26,000 because having all the above...along with parks, hospitals, etc.....the only thing keeping me afloat is my high tech and trading. 

 

But now - as it always happens....my city can't keep up with the crime....yet my population has dropped to about 107,000 and the map shows maybe 5 criminals around at most.  ??????  Can't raise taxes, budget keeps going deeper in the red.....eventually, nothing more to do - city falls apart. 

 

In a city of 100,000 people.....with that many fire and police...that many schools...that many hospitals and clinics....and mass transit that should handle a city of a million people.....the city just can't succeed. 

 

It's at this point in time that I usually go ahead and crank up my taxes to max, sell off everything I have in electronics to make millions of dollars all so I can transfer all that cash to a new city that I start....and then walk away from this mess.  Thing is, even though I transfer 3 million dollars to my new city - and I accept a budget in the red so I can have loads of fire and police.....still.....CRIME WAVES....FIRES OUT OF CONTROL..... 

 

Am I doing something ridiculously wrong or is anybody else have these problems? 

Between this nonsense - and the fact that I've lost a bunch of cities to "your city is not processing properly..." and losing everything - paying for this game has just been a waste of time and  money with only frustration!

 

D

[endorken 13]

Well, most of the advisor messages you can safely disregard. You can have one fire a day and the advisor will be making it seem like the sky is falling. Night's approaching and all that other stuff is just there for verisimilitude.

 

 

What's the actual problem with your city? Post some screen shots of F2 and F3 and your zoning and whatever data layers you think will be helpful. The game is a royal mess -- but a city of 150K should not be causing you problems.

[bz2king 3]

Gotta love all the threads like this one, sorry if this is rude, but the reality is, you are 1 of many, MANY players, all of which are probably having the same issues. The truth of the matter is, you quitting wont affect the game whatsoever....granted if enough people stop, then sure, but that will never happen

[TuPhat 27]

Just confirming what Skorcha said.   At some point I turn off all the thought / speech bubbles and ignore all the adviser messages.   A wise man once said 'Luke - Trust your instincts'.   He was right!

 

Start off by ignoring the advisers and paying attention to the data layers.  They are the key to understanding what is going on in your city.   Pull up the police data layer and watch what's happening.   More than likely you have too many police cars racing around following each other, but probably catching all the criminals.  If so, start cutting down on the police cars and just make sure in the end you have 0 crimes committed per day.   Same concepts with fire and health. 

 

If your fire/health/police service is slow, more than likely your vehicles are being stuck in traffic and cannot respond to the incident in time.  Again, watch the data layers and follow the vehicles.    If you don't see any vehicles responding, could be that you have been bitten by the bug where if you demolish a service building or roads with service vehicles on them, they may disappear forever.   There isn't anything you can do about that except to make sure in the future that you shut off any building and let the vehicles comes home before dozing them.

 

Let us know if you have any more questions or problems.

[AlexMBrennan 11]

The truth of the matter is, you quitting wont affect the game

So what? If you have already "wasted" $60 on the game then you might just as well stop wasting even more of your time playing a game you don't enjoy.

[Districtopia 23]

I find that cities get much tougher to manage once you get to around 100,000 people. True of real life cities too I'm sure. It would be so much easier if the city tiles were bigger. I keep running out of places to put city services like sewage and powerplants. It's frustrating but I still like the game and have had fun playing it.

[Zpike 79]

Police and fire are easy to control unless you have traffic issues.  Traffic issues are caused either by city balance or poor road design.

 

City balance:  Make sure you have no unemployed workers going to other cities for work.  On the flip side, make sure you have a minimum of open jobs being filled by other cities workers.  If you have to many workers, rezone failing residential buildings to commercial.  If you have to many jobs, rezone failing commercial to residential.  Always make sure to wait a bit between rezoning events to watch how your city balances.  Slow easy steps until you have balance.

 

Poor road design:  Well, there are a ton of threads on road design.  You can also go out to YouTube and find multiple videos on road design.

 

Ooops.. Forgot about the tie between education and crime.  VVVVV (See the post below) VVVVVV

[morriswalters 16]

The developers had education up their yahoos.  Get your education up.  Repeat that to yourself.  Sims will ride the bus and streetcars, recycle, and generally not set fires and commit crimes if they are educated.  In a non specialized city of, give or take a disaster or three, about 250,000 I have few problems.  Trash costs me more than anything else.  I have a hospital solely for the wellness center which helps remove  germs(facepalm), and the large firehouse for the fire marshal(helps prevent fires)and the haz-mat unit.  Otherwise small works.

[Zpike 79]

I find that cities get much tougher to manage once you get to around 100,000 people. True of real life cities too I'm sure. It would be so much easier if the city tiles were bigger. I keep running out of places to put city services like sewage and powerplants. It's frustrating but I still like the game and have had fun playing it.

 

When you start your city find the down wind corner and place your power plant there with one sewage outflow.  Leave enough room around it for an additional power plant if you plan on a large city, and also leave room for a sewage treatment plant and a water pumping facility.  You should make sure to leave room for the expansion nodes for both of those buildings.

 

That's it.  By the time you need more services than the single sewage outflow handles you will have enough money for the treatment plant and the water pump.  The sewage treatment plant will refill the water table in the area and the water pumping facility will have unlimited water.

 

Easy squeezy.

[Districtopia 23]

I find that cities get much tougher to manage once you get to around 100,000 people. True of real life cities too I'm sure. It would be so much easier if the city tiles were bigger. I keep running out of places to put city services like sewage and powerplants. It's frustrating but I still like the game and have had fun playing it.

 

When you start your city find the down wind corner and place your power plant there with one sewage outflow.  Leave enough room around it for an additional power plant if you plan on a large city, and also leave room for a sewage treatment plant and a water pumping facility.  You should make sure to leave room for the expansion nodes for both of those buildings.

 

That's it.  By the time you need more services than the single sewage outflow handles you will have enough money for the treatment plant and the water pump.  The sewage treatment plant will refill the water table in the area and the water pumping facility will have unlimited water.

 

Easy squeezy.

 

Thanks. Will try it out. I'm working on a city now that I thought I left ample room for services when I started it but I'm maxing out on space for them in the area I provided (part of the problem is I'm a big fan of the solar power plants and they take up a considerable amount of room).

[mekane 5]

 

I find that cities get much tougher to manage once you get to around 100,000 people. True of real life cities too I'm sure. It would be so much easier if the city tiles were bigger. I keep running out of places to put city services like sewage and powerplants. It's frustrating but I still like the game and have had fun playing it.

 

When you start your city find the down wind corner and place your power plant there with one sewage outflow.  Leave enough room around it for an additional power plant if you plan on a large city, and also leave room for a sewage treatment plant and a water pumping facility.  You should make sure to leave room for the expansion nodes for both of those buildings.

 

That's it.  By the time you need more services than the single sewage outflow handles you will have enough money for the treatment plant and the water pump.  The sewage treatment plant will refill the water table in the area and the water pumping facility will have unlimited water.

 

Easy squeezy.

 

Thanks. Will try it out. I'm working on a city now that I thought I left ample room for services when I started it but I'm maxing out on space for them in the area I provided (part of the problem is I'm a big fan of the solar power plants and they take up a considerable amount of room).

 

yeah i use a nuclear power plant.  the only service that seems to take up a lot of room is having 2 recycling centers, but it kind of make sense since those provide so much money for you.

[oldbrokenlink 43]

all these things were done basically on purpose to make the game fun for casual audience