I need some beginner help please :)

[Protokohl 0]

Hey Everyone,

 

So I load up Simcity 4 I installed the SPAM mod and couple of bug fixers and download a map to play. I want to create an agricultural centre for the region first so I plop down some housing, farms and commercial. I put in a couple of wind turbines and a water tower. Then I have a fire so I plop a Fire Station and the advisor start screaming at me that I don't have enough funding and this and that. I also put down a Cop shop and a clinic and more advisors start screaming I am not giving police enough funding (its nearly at max and the ring covers my whole area??). My commercial also refuses to grow 15 mins of top speed and the commercial sits there not doing anything??? I really need some help what am I doing wrong? Why is my commercial not building? And why is my costs $800 and my income $192?

 

Thanks,

[KevinPaul06 57]

Don't listen to the advisor. And don't build fire, police station, clinic and water station until you have enough funding. Just keep zoning your residential and agricultural. And do you have NAM? If already have NAM, you shouldn't install the traffic simulator of SPAM.

[Protokohl 0]

Alright thanks for that and I don't have NAM. I found that mod too difficult to use

[simcity1999 34]

No, NAM is very simple. If you don't want anything complex, install only the traffic simulator. And yeah, these advisors sucks. I only listen to them when they offer some (not all) rewards. and few problems (most of the problems they tell are false).

[TekindusT 3,809]

Alright thanks for that and I don't have NAM. I found that mod too difficult to use

A gentle learning curve that will lead you to enjoy the game MUCH more. 1000% recommended.

[memedoug85 36]

Create neighbour connections by road and rail... Expand farms quickly but expand everything else slowly... You don't need any services until you can afford them... "Prettying" the place up is great for when this gets boring...

 

That's just me though. Everyone plays differently ;-)

 

 

Get NAM

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Learn to be cruel to your Sims. Everything you do should be dictated by the budget - more precisely, by the income vs. costs ratio. One-time costs are nothing in this game, running costs are everything. Have you seen a tiny farming hamlet with its own police station, fire department, and clinic? Me neither. Don't be shy to implement that in game.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

This game has a rather stiff learning curve and most people fall for the idea of running on Easy with Cheetah speed.  You are doing yourself a disfavour by rushing the issue.

 

By all means, get the NAM, and do a custom install omitting things you are not ready to understand.  You do need the traffic fixes it contains.  If you have the SPAM traffic controller, you must lose it, as it conflicts with NAM's latest and best traffic controller.

 

Here is a scenario you can try:

 

1. Open a new tile with no populated neighbours.  Turtle mode, hard difficulty.
2. Place two orthogonal streets of length about 20 grids each
3. Place one or two wind turbines at the cross, and a water tower.
4. Along the legs of your streets, zone eight or ten low density commercial 2 x 1 lots (you have to zone this manually).
5. Wait until these start to develop.  Make sure all properties are watered.
6. Zone a complement of 2 x 1 residential low density, also well watered (you get better buildings with water).
7. Wait for these to build.
8. Check your budget.  If you are not in a profit situation, zone more residential.
9. Once you get in the black one of your goals is to stay there.
10. Move outwards from your little village and zone four 10 x 10 farms.  Make sure you have concession lines (streets) between and around the farms.
11. Along the concession lines zone 1 x 1 low density residential, and hold down shift while doing it to prevent the game from creating intermediate streets.
12. Sit tight until things build, and check for profit again.  If you are in the red, zone more residential.
13. When things are looking good, you could zone some 8 x 8 medium density industrial.  Don't forget to water them.  Start with one pod, let it build, and add another up to a limit of around four.

 

And you are well started.  Zone more low density 2 x 1 C and R carefully staying profitable.  Eventually you can branch out into higher densities, paying attention to your demand graph.  Do not over-zone, and stay profitable.  Add streets and roads as seem necessary.

 

The point here is to take your time.  Don't try to rush into a huge urban scene off the top.  And remember that if you want to zone higher density, you can do it on existing lots.  They will not be destroyed if you overlay them with the same type.  As things develop consider zoning some new C and R lots at 2 x 2, 1 x 2.  If you want a mansion ($$$) zone low density 4 x 4.  Keep your $$$ to no more than 15% of the total population.  Best control for this is zoning.

[infamousjbe 592]

Hey Everyone,

 

So I load up Simcity 4 I installed the SPAM mod and couple of bug fixers and download a map to play. I want to create an agricultural centre for the region first so I plop down some housing, farms and commercial. I put in a couple of wind turbines and a water tower. Then I have a fire so I plop a Fire Station and the advisor start screaming at me that I don't have enough funding and this and that. I also put down a Cop shop and a clinic and more advisors start screaming I am not giving police enough funding (its nearly at max and the ring covers my whole area??). My commercial also refuses to grow 15 mins of top speed and the commercial sits there not doing anything??? I really need some help what am I doing wrong? Why is my commercial not building? And why is my costs $800 and my income $192?

 

Thanks,

First off, do what was said and don't really mind the adviser so much, as you should be minding all the graphs instead.

 

There is noting wrong with placing civics early, you just have micro manage the budget to keep yourself in the black.

 

However, it's futile to place fire stations prior to your first fire, and any police stations till you start seeing the red (more serious) crimes start popping up. And even then, depending on the education of the city, you might not really need one for a quite a long time. I usually don't place a police station until my crimes are hitting 5-6 on the graph.

 

As far as your C goes (hopefully 99% low density Cs$ only), you might not have enough Sims just yet to support as much C as you've placed already. Pay close mind to the break down of the RCI graph and not just the initial UI graph. You want to know exactly which type of R/C/I is needed, not just any R or C or I..    

[Protokohl 0]

Thanks everyone for all that. Another question is there a way to see how many people are unemployed? I have looked at the jobs/pop graph and from that i just add the two job number eg 300 and 1200 and then compared to my pop amount eg 4000 is that the correct thing to do? Thanks once more everyone for all the help

 

EDIT: Also can some give me a glossary on the terms used eg I-H, Co etc I get a little confused thanks

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

You'll know when your sims are unemployed.  A big No Job zot will appear over the affected buildings.

 

As for our SimCity lingo, your best bet is to become familiar with the game manual.  Most abbreviations are explained in there.  It's available online as a pdf if you don't have a physical copy.  Just search for SimCity 4 Manual.

[Protokohl 0]

Alright I'll find a manual and see if I have any q's left at the end . Thanks

[Protokohl 0]

Alright I read the manual and I am wondering how to increase density? I didn't see it in the manual, thanks

[infamousjbe 592]

Alright I read the manual and I am wondering how to increase density? I didn't see it in the manual, thanks

When you select which type you want (R/C/I), you'll be presented with various options. The top selection will be the low density, the middle selection is medium density, and the third is high density. However, Industrial is actually Agriculture/Medium/High.

[Protokohl 0]

But does density grow over time or do I have to replace the zoning every so often?

[Turjan 1,048]

It's manual. You can zone a higher density of the same type over a lower density without any negative effect (except of course agriculture). It's expensive, though, so don't do everything at once if you don't swim in money.

[Protokohl 0]

Ok thanks

[T Wrecks 10,209]

What's more important, use density to control how your city grows. Many people spam high-density commercial zones all over their cities and then wonder why they never get skyscrapers...

[Protokohl 0]

Ok I don't get that isn't high density skyscapers?

[memedoug85 36]

I really started enjoying the game more when I worked out the keyboard shortcuts.

 

QWE is residential

ASD is commercial

ZXC is industrial

V is dezone

 

And all the rest...

[dlsni 156]

Ok I don't get that isn't high density skyscapers?

He's saying that people start off zoning high density, while instead you should zone low density and gradually upgrade certain buildings to medium and high density when you get the demand and population for it.

[Ltw 401]

NAM is definitely a pro. Nice about the NAM is that you can make it as difficult as you want, there are a lot of options but you don't have to do everything. You can even install the NAM only without all the extra options. Another pro is that the simulation is better with NAM installed, this could be positive for your skyscrapers.

 

I always zone some commercial and industrial zones. In the beginning there usually is a higher demand for industrial jobs, later on the commercial demand will increase and then I zone mid/high density zones. An important sidenote is that the population should be high enough, otherwise you won't get any skyscrapers. When there are enough skyscrapers developed I choose to demolish my industrial zones or not, this depends on whether I think it is undesirable or not. With Simcity it is very important to build slowly and be patient, otherwise you probably won't get what you want.

 

You could also plop skyscrapers, I do that in my CBD because I get more control on the development this way. Skyscrapers with jobs have the same rules as growable skyscrapers, if you want to avoid a drop in demand this should be just with caution.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

If you zone ALL high density, any given demand will be distributed all over these high-density zones. Since these zones can grow anything up to the tallest skyscraper, they will have plenty of headroom. This way, a demand of 5,000 jobs may very well be dealt with by replacing 500 small and medium-sized buildings with buildings that are only slightly taller.

 

However, if you have zoned much low and medium density, these zones may eventually max out (biggest possible building has already grown). If you then accumulate a demand of 5,000 jobs and zone one high-density plot in an attractive area, you "channel" all the demand into this one spot - which will hopefully result in a nice fat skyscraper.