Big city fast

[simmaster595 1]

I am am constantly whatching showcases on citiies peoplle built in an hour or so. How do people do it?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Mostly by running in Cheetah mode having first done the layout and zoning on pause.  Not much fun, IMHO.

[MandelSoft 2,775]

They must use grid layouts, since these layouts are easy to construct quickly and to zone. If you use another road pattern, it takes much, much longer.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

A grid layout will certainly help, along with placing essential services prior to zoning (power, water, garbage, fire, police, health & education).

 

Water is a very important factor that's sometimes overlooked. The higher levels of development will need water to develop. I'd recommend laying pipes over the whole city area, ensuring all zones can develop properly. Some zone types have a "water supply cap".

Without it, the following developer types are limited to:

• R$: Stage 3
• R$$: Stage 3
• R$$$: No development
• CS$: Stage 3
• CS$$: Stage 3
• CS$$$: No development
• CO$$: Stage 3
• CO$$$: No development
• IA: Stage 3
• ID: Stage 1
• IM: Stage 1
• IHT: No development

 

Some players may also use a demand mod such as XX Turbo. This one is isn't as radical as some other variations, so maintains some level of realism. It also has the option of being compatible with the CAM. Demand mods will greatly speed up development, making higher staged buildings appear much earlier. In order to trigger larger development, remember to upgrade zones to medium and then high density. It also helps to have multiple neighbour connections to satisfy the caps, aiming to build a strong commercial population.

 

This video illustrates a variation of the process:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkRCCmlhr0U

[michaeldcannaday 42]

if I put my game in cheetah mode for longer than a couple seconds at a time, the game crashes on my pc  

[The Pennsylvania Turnpike 252]

Not very fun to do. I prefer to take my time. If i rush, there are changes i want to make to my city later but i cant due to me not planning ahead.

[Bdub01 201]

I liken SC4 to "Slow and steady wins the race." I've seen those videos that show how to build a mega city in an hour but... What's the point? Now that I have a new puter and newly installed game I play on turtle and up close to really see what I'm working on.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

^ Me too, except that as population grows, I get a little impatient and step it up to rhino because of the general lag.

[z1 566]

if I put my game in cheetah mode for longer than a couple seconds at a time, the game crashes on my pc

 

Do you have "-CPUCount:1" in your SC4 shortcut's command line?

[michaeldcannaday 42]

thanks so much!!!  I had that property code on my laptop that crashed a couple months ago and when I switched everything to my older desktop, I had forgotten to put that code on there. Thanks so much for the reminder!!