What difficulty settings do you play?

[TeddyAbbie 2]

I'm starting to enjoy the 'hard' level, it's a challenge (:

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Hard.  It's the only way.  When the game was originally released there was only one level.  The Rush Hour pack added easy and medium because of the cry babies.

[JJogurt 18]

Hard. Simply because it forces you to watch your budget.

Playing on easy is almost like using infinite money cheat. It takes important part of the game away.

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

Everyone's entitled to their own choice.

I originally played on easy for the added cash and city growth boost. This was well before other sources of finance -- such as 'moolah'. With cash no longer an issue, I began to realise it's more fun to play with a patient mindset. Rushing to fill a city tile soon becomes monotonous. That's why I now stick just to hard difficulty.

There's also the added bonus of reduced advisor messages. After 10+ years, these aren't much help! (were they ever?)

[Terring 6,473]

I have . With this mod, I have 100,000,000 simoleons in my pocket in the easy difficulty, so I can low the taxes to 0% and raise the salaries to the Heaven without worrying about money. As a supporter of a resource-based economy, I have no reason to be busy with outdated stuff like taxes and money. I want Simcity to be my canvas. I want to be free and create anything I want. I want myself to be the ruler of the city, not the money.

 

So yeah, I'm the only guy who plays in easy mode. Hate me!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

So?  You play the way you like and I play the way I like.  There is no standard and things are very open ended.

[Prophet42 1,500]

I have always played on hard.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

I always set my cities to easy and with the Moolah money cheat (usually set it to 10 million). I make up my own difficulty rules, mostly on aesthetic fronts. These can be more limiting than what the game allows you to do. If you are building a realistic RHW network, you just need to have a large money resource if your design in your head is not possible to make with the RHW, or when slopes are an issue (playing with slope mods makes the game a lot harder... but the result looks so much better!).

In brief, I set the following rules for my cities:

- Whenever possible, use the largest and smoothest curve radius. My cities are ruled by smooth curves and the RHWs are ruled by FARHW ramps and stretches.

- Whenever reasonably possible, prevent sudden slope changes or repeating up-down-up-down slopes. Make the roads less bumpy.

- Whenever it's reasonably possible, prevent at-grade heavy railway crossings

- Only use a limited amount of skyscrapers in your city. Most development must be medium or low density.

- The use of Maxis Airports and Seaports is due to their unrealistically small size strictly forbidden.

- Don't use auto-grid when zoning. Make up your own street patterns. This will make your street pattern a lot less dull and more creative

- Power and water cheats are strictly forbidden. (I do use trash cheats, since I "collect" trash in my main cities).

- Old School Maxis highway is strictly forbidden. Interchanges are big things that take up space, sometimes valueable space. You have to be creative with that. This also makes all of my interchanges unique.

- Limit the number of complex infrastructure structures like tunnels and bridges. In Real Life they are hard to construct and cost a lot of money.

- Whenever you can, prevent weaving on motorways.

- An offramp of the next exit may be no closer than 500m from the onramp of the previous interchange.

- Make the city profitable. Despite using money cheats to start up, I try to finish my city with a break even budget or even with a profit at the balance. I may give it a large budget to start up, in the end the city must sustain itself.

See? Quite some challenge in here

In the end, I end up with a city like this: http://www.majhost.com/gallery/mrtnrln/NORO/Es/noro_es_ellismere_mosaic.jpg

Best,

Maarten

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

I have been playing at easy, but that's because I just started in Aug this year, so I am still exploring the game's features and developing a repertoire of techniques. I hope to step up to hard when I've figured out what I want to do.

 

However... There are some obstacles in the game that cost me simoleons. F'rinstance: I must pay to place water and shoreline for above-sea-level lakes, things that rightly should be part of the map before I even start.

 

I also find myself wishing that I could "plan" (commit space for) major RR and RHW projects without actually building them. That way, I could reserve necessary right-of-way and test-fit needed puzzle pieces without paying for actual construction until later. Real-world planners buy "engineering studies" and lock down highway right-of-way, so why can't I?

 

With ghost pieces in place, I'd be happy to play at hard difficulty. Unfortunately, I can't do that, so I build out RRs and then freeways before I ever zone even my first village. That limitation alone will probably keep me at easy difficulty even though my temperament is more suited for hard.

 

PS: Yes, I have already requested "ghost" versions of any and all networks that one might project without fully paying. I got zero replies (maybe it's an impossible idea, but I'd be willing to do some of the work if somebody knew how to go about it).

[SockoJr53 51]

Hard.  It's the only way.  When the game was originally released there was only one level.  The Rush Hour pack added easy and medium because of the cry babies.

Agreed, after learning to play on SC4 Vanilla, I didn't see the point of moving to "Easy" when RH came out, I was used to starting with 100,000. Also, on easy the advisers are a lot more annoying.

[APSMS 1,892]

<snip>

After discovering the moolah cheat, I've been playing more and more cities on hard and medium, since I've found that easy cities seem to develop too fast, though once I make sure I have all of my demand mods (CAM, region counter, etc) properly installed, I may end up having to go beck to medium. For whatever reason, it seems like my cities have been making inordinate amounts of money; nice for CJs and aesthetic building styles, but not so fun when I'm feeling up for a challenge. I think it might be something with double-counted population, giving me more taxes than necessary, but I could be wrong.

[Cob92 360]

Been playing on Hard for the past decade, and I find even that to be too easy sometimes. 

[Kuewr665 40]

Easy mode, and I have advisor popups turned off. I find there to be demand problems even on easy.

[jaredh 195]

I play SimCity to build cities...not have them build themselves.  As such, I am always on easy with many millions of simoleons to start, taxes at zero, all services maxed.

 

I don't have the time to micro manage all that stuff, and I certainly don't have the time to leave it running on cheetah for an hour to generate enough cash to build what I want to when I want to.  I spent enough of my life doing that in the original and 2K.

 

I *never* use RHW.  it's a time sink of the highest order, and the biggest space waster in the entire game short of a few dumb lots.  I never build an airport in a region unless I am building a very very big one that encompasses the majority of a tile....there are plenty of one tile lots that make the airport caps go away.  I rarely build any rail beyond what is needed for freight...everything is always subway.  Doesn't waste space and carries a high capacity.

 

Everybody approaches this simulation differently.  I always thought the guys who never built roads in the original game were nuts....but the cities they could build were really quite efficient.

[AcronShinra 60]

Hard with 500,000 simo-$ as starting money; best of both worlds.

[Bdub01 201]

It's been awhile since I have played but hopefully that's going to change soon.  If I just want to have fun and build up big, I go on easy, however if I want a bit of a challenge I play on hard.  I have rarely played on the moderate setting.

[The Pennsylvania Turnpike 252]

I play Simcity 4 on two computers. My Windows XP Desktop has no mods what so ever. My Windows 7 laptop has a boatload of mods. With mods i play on easy as i try to focus more on creating a realistic region and i end up using the money tree anyway . However on my desktop, i play on Hard with no mods, It is quite a challenge.

[infamousjbe 592]

As someone who's virtually grown up with a controller in his hands (Atari2600 FTW!), I play this and ever other game on Hard.

 

Games have become too easy for me on anything other than the most difficult settings. 

 

Now some game do have a Hardcore mode after beating it on Hard, those tend to give me a run for my money.

[Fatherted 129]

Easy. I play SC4 for sandbox.

[NielsC007 499]

Infinite money, but I have created my own rules.

[William Gates 84]

Hard. Also, the only user-made addon I use is the NAM, with only the traffic simulator enabled with capacity on 'medium' (I don't use any of the pieces). Unfortunately, I can't seem to let myself use other user-made addons because it feels too much like cheating. It took me forever to get myself to even use the NAM, but the game is a whole lot funner with it enabled to be honest.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ Friend, you can't cheat in a game with no competitors.  I hope you at least got all the mods that are actually fixes beside the NAM.  If not, search the STEX with the keyword 'fix'.

 

I have a small, by this board's standards, suite of custom content less than 1 GB even with the NAM loaded.

[Mcnamara 1]

I have . With this mod, I have 100,000,000 simoleons in my pocket in the easy difficulty, so I can low the taxes to 0% and raise the salaries to the Heaven without worrying about money. As a supporter of a resource-based economy, I have no reason to be busy with outdated stuff like taxes and money. I want Simcity to be my canvas. I want to be free and create anything I want. I want myself to be the ruler of the city, not the money.

 

So yeah, I'm the only guy who plays in easy mode. Hate me!

Hey I found this post very interesting so I started using the Simoleon RH... I'm scared! The income is off the hook! I thought I would only receive a lot of money at first but the income is 10-20 times more than before. What exactly does this mod do? Thanks in advance hehe

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The STEX page says what it does.  If you are running in easy mode, try a step up to hard on your next city.

[Sims21 2]

Medium, keeping things at a balance.  Also if taking out a loan, take out what I can afford, like in reality.

[KevinPaul06 57]

I always play on easy mode. The reason is I don't want to have a challenge. I play because I want to create a big beautiful city. And since all my cities are recreation of real cities, I think if would be hard to recreate while in hard mode.