Some help for an Ultra Newbie! :)

[Turjan 1,048]

Yup, the NAM custom installer works just like that. Just make sure always to use the custom installer.

[Magneto 316]

Correct: No need for uninstalling. Just rerun installer.

 

An important sidenote when using datpacker: for some mods it's better not to be datpacked. In my case I don't datpack CAM and NAM, I also don't datpack plugins that should be loaded as last (the folder names of these plugins start with z_ ). If you're using the extracheatsdll you shouldn't datpack that either, if you do that it stops working.

 

 

I often read people advising not to datpack NAM, CAM or this or that. But I see no reason not to do it; my NAM folder is always datpacked and working like a charm. Same goes for those sensitive plugins that have to load last, as long as they're in the correct order before datpacking the merged dat will respect it.

But I agree for the extracheats.dll, that one has to be left alone.

[Turjan 1,048]

I often read people advising not to datpack NAM, CAM or this or that. But I see no reason not to do it; my NAM folder is always datpacked and working like a charm.

 

True. If you keep your setup with the Datpacker organized, exchanging elements in a datpacked file is just one click and one copy procedure away.

[Ltw 401]

Correct: No need for uninstalling. Just rerun installer.

 

An important sidenote when using datpacker: for some mods it's better not to be datpacked. In my case I don't datpack CAM and NAM, I also don't datpack plugins that should be loaded as last (the folder names of these plugins start with z_ ). If you're using the extracheatsdll you shouldn't datpack that either, if you do that it stops working.

 

 

I often read people advising not to datpack NAM, CAM or this or that. But I see no reason not to do it; my NAM folder is always datpacked and working like a charm. Same goes for those sensitive plugins that have to load last, as long as they're in the correct order before datpacking the merged dat will respect it.

But I agree for the extracheats.dll, that one has to be left alone.

 

I datpacked everything before as well, but I've had some problems with it. Especially with loading certain components of the NAM. Since then I've decided to leave some mods the way they are. I don't know the cause of these problems for sure but it works fine now so I don't really mind.

[mattias333 3]

Many thanks guys, ill give that a crack this evening inbetween being a perfect valentine to the missus (petrol station flowers and a card should do it).

 

Apologies is some of my questions seem rather obvious or newbie-ish but you guys have been far more help than any google search ive done has.

 

Not a major issue while im still learning but i've spent quite a while admiring the beautiful cities you guys have created on here as well as those on https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=841.300 & http://yoshisplayground.tumblr.com/page/13 . Question is, while im still learning from what I can tell everything seems to auto generate for what ever density you measure out. You have no control over what styled building generates. Obviously that doesn't concern me right now but I assume far far far in the future hopefully ill be trying to build such amazing cities as the ones you have all created and I wondered if you have more control over what styled building generates in a plot. Surely cant be luck they all turn out looking so amazing! Alot of respect for you all and what you've achieved!

 

Only issues im suffering in my learning process is trying to keep my money in more than my money out which I haven't failed at yet & sorting road congestion problems. Im assuming its better to forward plan, as re-modeling the streets after buildings are generated proves difficult at times without destruction work required.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Yes, it is that simple.  The NAM Team is one of the best sets of programming people I have ever encountered.  They are definitely professional grade, which cannot be said for the current Maxis Studio, nor the recent past one.

[Ltw 401]

Many thanks guys, ill give that a crack this evening inbetween being a perfect valentine to the missus (petrol station flowers and a card should do it).

 

Apologies is some of my questions seem rather obvious or newbie-ish but you guys have been far more help than any google search ive done has.

 

Not a major issue while im still learning but i've spent quite a while admiring the beautiful cities you guys have created on here as well as those on https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=841.300 & http://yoshisplayground.tumblr.com/page/13 . Question is, while im still learning from what I can tell everything seems to auto generate for what ever density you measure out. You have no control over what styled building generates. Obviously that doesn't concern me right now but I assume far far far in the future hopefully ill be trying to build such amazing cities as the ones you have all created and I wondered if you have more control over what styled building generates in a plot. Surely cant be luck they all turn out looking so amazing! Alot of respect for you all and what you've achieved!

 

Only issues im suffering in my learning process is trying to keep my money in more than my money out which I haven't failed at yet & sorting road congestion problems. Im assuming its better to forward plan, as re-modeling the streets after buildings are generated proves difficult at times without destruction work required.

 

It's all a matter of patience, micro-managing and custom content. If I look at the cities I've built when I just got NAM and the cities I'm making right now there is a huge difference between. I've also been building on a slower phase than before, just so that I can put a lot of effort and time in individual projects.

 

If you have problems with money you could use the the cheat moolah allows you to set your treasury on any desired value. Another way without the use of moolah is to build on a slow phase. I don't know how you build your cities, but it is quite common that people zone the whole tile in front, this could lead to problems because you need more infrastructure, schools, hospitals etc. I don't zone that much in the beginning, and when my existing zones reach the desired density I zone a bit more and I repeat this until I get a big city. It's also recommended not to invest in services (schools, hospitals, firedepartment, police etc.) until your city reaches a certain size and your income/expenses ratio is good enough to spend on services. You could also adjust capacities of schools/hospitals in the taxes-window, this saves a lot of money.

 

I forward plan as well, but I think about how I want to zone the city tile in the future. I don't actually zone everything before because of the undesired effects this has on the demand. I do keep some space free for future infrastructure/services. I just don't build them because it is too expensive in the beginning.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

A word about the misnamed 'extra cheats.dll'. 

 

It is simply a switch than enables most if not all of the built-in developer debug tools.  It should probably be called the 'command extension.dll'.  The cheats documented in the manuals should have really been called 'command tools' because you can't cheat in a single-player game.  'cheat' is just a convenient name for some item that is not apparent in the normal game play, but the code is there or you couldn't use it.

[z1 566]

I often read people advising not to datpack NAM, CAM or this or that. But I see no reason not to do it; my NAM folder is always datpacked and working like a charm.

 

It's OK to DatPack the NAM folder (although not z___NAM); however, as experiments have shown no noticeable gain from doing so, and many people like to change their NAM configurations periodically, it's just easier for them not to DatPack it.  The same goes for RTMT.

 

As far as the CAM goes, however, the a_CAM folder must be the first folder in your Plugins for CAM to work properly, which is why the CAM should not be DatPacked.

[mattias333 3]

Well finally had a chance to knuckle down and have a really good bash at simcity 4.

 

Followed your advice abut re-running the installer for NAM again removing a few things and your all 100% correct.

 

Removing just a few things you mentioned brought it back up to full speed.

 

Bit of a newbie question I highly suspect but seeing as thats all i've done in this thread its likely the best place to ask. Been following the 'let's play' videos on youtube as I previously mentioned and i've built up a few zones and really made some money.Following the guide i've created a fairly small farming & agr region of about 12,500 people & well over a million in the bank thanx to big monthly turn over. Also ive got my first large tile region which hovers between 86-96,000 people and once again over a million in the coffers. Ive also got a 3rd tile above my main tile ive started mainly for exporting garbage but ive only really started working on that.

 

Question is i've halted work on my garbage city made up of a few landfills after agreeing a deal with my main city to take a large portion of there waste.Checked back in with the main city and noticed a fair few medium density businesses had been abandoned due to lack of demand, despite it saying there is a demand for that sort of business and people who should in theory be looking for that kind of work being located fair near that area and over the other side of town. Confusing, then I looked over my main residental area and a fair few of the lovely looking $$ & $$$ apartments had the no job sign over them or had already been abandoned stating commute time as very long. It confused the heck out of me as the statue job they need is literally a few tiles away from there home yet they commute nearly the whole length of the map (and in some cased off the map into my farming region) for work. I know its hard without seeing my exact map layout and stats but any obvious answers to solving this. Hate seeing businesses or lovely looking apartments getting abandoned. Ive tried setting up a better road network but into 2050+ now and hasnt made much difference.

 

Any help hugely appreciated as always guys.

[Ltw 401]

Well finally had a chance to knuckle down and have a really good bash at simcity 4.

 

Followed your advice abut re-running the installer for NAM again removing a few things and your all 100% correct.

 

Removing just a few things you mentioned brought it back up to full speed.

 

Bit of a newbie question I highly suspect but seeing as thats all i've done in this thread its likely the best place to ask. Been following the 'let's play' videos on youtube as I previously mentioned and i've built up a few zones and really made some money.Following the guide i've created a fairly small farming & agr region of about 12,500 people & well over a million in the bank thanx to big monthly turn over. Also ive got my first large tile region which hovers between 86-96,000 people and once again over a million in the coffers. Ive also got a 3rd tile above my main tile ive started mainly for exporting garbage but ive only really started working on that.

 

Question is i've halted work on my garbage city made up of a few landfills after agreeing a deal with my main city to take a large portion of there waste.Checked back in with the main city and noticed a fair few medium density businesses had been abandoned due to lack of demand, despite it saying there is a demand for that sort of business and people who should in theory be looking for that kind of work being located fair near that area and over the other side of town. Confusing, then I looked over my main residental area and a fair few of the lovely looking $$ & $$$ apartments had the no job sign over them or had already been abandoned stating commute time as very long. It confused the heck out of me as the statue job they need is literally a few tiles away from there home yet they commute nearly the whole length of the map (and in some cased off the map into my farming region) for work. I know its hard without seeing my exact map layout and stats but any obvious answers to solving this. Hate seeing businesses or lovely looking apartments getting abandoned. Ive tried setting up a better road network but into 2050+ now and hasnt made much difference.

 

Any help hugely appreciated as always guys.

 

The fact that commute time is long is most likely because the people living in the R$$ and R$$$ apartments can't find fitting jobs, this way those people are looking for jobs they can't find which leads to long commute times. I can't say it for sure but I'm guessing that the demand for CO$$$ in your RCI-graph is high. You could zone a bit on high density, the demand should take care of the rest. If there is an CO$$$-building that provides for example 2000 jobs, those jobs aren't all high wealth, there are also a lot of medium wealth and low wealth jobs in this same company. It could be possible that this leads to a new change in demand which leads to a higher demand for R$$ and R$. The demand for jobs and the residential demand are always changing in relation to each other. Thus it could be the case that you've got to build residential zones later in order to avoid the commercial buildings getting abandoned. But I think it is wise to wait with this and keep the demand high, this way all the space that is left in your existing zones will be used up to its full potential.

[mattias333 3]

Thanx for your response. Basically get the gist of what you mean. Pretty much done what you suggest already. Really confusing me. I assume abandoned buildings require demolition? They dont get taken over again? Just worries me as dont want to issue to get worse. Seems as quick as I sort either a few of the businesses out or a few of the apartments with no jobs, a few more pop up. Puzzling me.

[Ltw 401]

Thanx for your response. Basically get the gist of what you mean. Pretty much done what you suggest already. Really confusing me. I assume abandoned buildings require demolition? They dont get taken over again? Just worries me as dont want to issue to get worse. Seems as quick as I sort either a few of the businesses out or a few of the apartments with no jobs, a few more pop up. Puzzling me.

 

If you demolish abandoned buildings new buildings that are needed would be developed on the same place. This is an easy way to solve your problem. However, you could also just build what those people need. Residential and commercial/industrial demand are linked to each other. This is the case because employers are looking for employees (thus commercial offices are looking for residents to work there). Meanwhile employees are looking for a job (thus residents are looking for commercial offices). If R$$$ is abandoned this means that residents are looking for commercial offices but the commercial offices aren't there. If you develop commercial zones (personally I prefer high density in such cases) these commercial offices will be developed to satisfy the demand. If the buildings are of a higher growth stage I prefer to deal with the problem this way because this doesn't affect the housing in my city that much.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

If you have the 'extra cheats dll' loaded you can get full stats on any building by using the query operator (/).  Hold down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT and move your query operator over a building for the stats.  There are all kinds of neat things in that debugging switch.

[mattias333 3]

Oh yes I recall you mentioning that previously in relation to another subject! Ill look into that the other night. The word cheat usually scares me off but I read your opinion on what it should be called. Ill have a look into it.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

In this game the word 'cheat' really has no meaning.  You can only cheat in a competitive situation.  Call them features.

[mattias333 3]

Just a quick query Noony.....

 

I remember you first mentioning to me to download NAM etc...as it fixes the traffic bug within the game. Does just simply downloading and installing nam sort this fix or do you have to do anything additionally to fix the traffic bug. Just thinking out loud but noticed with NAM its installed the 'Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool' as well. At a glance that looks very confusing and likely something I should steer away from as a super $%&^!. Just wondered what it was etc....or if its something I do desperately need....or even could be causing my issue in the game currently.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

The NAM traffic controller is a general fix to the game.  The TSCT program allows you to tune it.  As a default, it produces a traffic controller for the simulator that is slightly better and bug free as opposed to the default one from Maxis which is seriously broken.

 

Lately the NAM Team has produced that very neat installer that allows serious customization, but the TSCT is required for further customization of the Traffic Controller if you so desire.  I recently used it to solve a traffic problem in my largest city.

 

Another new feature of the NAM installer is the traffic controller compiler.  If you don't use all the elements of the NAM, it recompiles the controller to remove the entries for the parts you don't use with the result that you get a smaller, faster controller.  The default if you don't use the custom installation is to give you the whole shebang which can slow up your game in some areas.  Remember that the controller is a script file that is interpreted by the game, and interpreters are notoriously slow.

[mattias333 3]

yeah, so ill leave it well alone lol! Thanks though. All to complex with me at this infant stage using the game.

 

also though Noony you mentioned being able to bring up additional stats and info on any building if the 'extra cheats dll' is within the correct directory. 

 

Ive downloaded and placed correctly as instructed and ctrl + x and right clicking in the text box brings up the list of options etc like it should. So its installed fine on the game. It was your instructions though that confused me a little when you said Hold down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT and move '?' over a building for the stats. it only brings up the usual stats for me. Am I missing something obvious?

Think i've got it. Ignore me....just simply right clicked lol!

(not that I understand it all lol)

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Well, it is not '?' but '/' to enable the query operator which must be activated first.  The depress the magic trio of keys hold them down  and move your operator over the lot.  This is an example:

 

[mattias333 3]

How odd, just using the question mark and right clicking does the same thing on my edition. Obviously understand those figures is a different ball game all together lol!

 

Still struggling to solve my no jobs in residental area's due to long commutes/businesses going out of business concerns.

 

Looking at the RCI outlook image the green 'R' bar is exceptionally high an when looking closer at the breakdown the Demand is exceptionally high for low wealth & medium wealth residental. The blue bar is marginally in the negative although when you look closer at the in depth breakdown there is a slight (ever so slight) demand for medium wealth commercial & office. The Yellow bar is massively in the negative but when you look at the breakdown pretty much all dirty industry is in the major negative which is fine by me as im not looking for anymore, BUT the high tech yellow bar is right near the max mark despite on the outlook of the RCI graph the yellow bar being rock bottom. I've just gone over 105,000 people in my main city. Got a fair few high tech ind developed but reluctant to build more yet as a fair few plots in perfect spots have not developed yet. Really puzzled how to solve the issue. When querying the buildings that say they have no job there all mostly $$$ wealth with a few $$ wealth. I've looked where there traveling for work and a majority are not traveling that far with only a few travelling out of the city to work which I assume is what causes the Long commute reading.

 

I bet there is something stupidly obvious Im missing which you guys will spot immediately. There is only about 7 apartment buildings with the no job icon above them but they seem to get abandoned and then a few more get the icon in there place which worries me its a problem that isn't going away and only getting worse with every 200-300 person building going under.

 

Same for businesses. Everytime I check over a few more smaller businesses buildings have gone out of business (do they not give a warning like with residental homes?). Apologies for posting no screen shot but so short of time at home im barely getting a chance to play the game and try sort it myself lol. Trying to think of any other helpful info you may need. Taxes are fairly standard around 9.0% apart from dirty which is taxed a tiny bit more as im not looking for that here and want it else where in another city. I know a newbie mistake I made (just like the Lets play help videos guy did) was confusing the different wealth sims with the low/med/high density. They dont always tie up etc. My heads spinning ha! Any help appreciated as always. Sorry for all the questions guys.

[Ltw 401]

How odd, just using the question mark and right clicking does the same thing on my edition. Obviously understand those figures is a different ball game all together lol!

 

Still struggling to solve my no jobs in residental area's due to long commutes/businesses going out of business concerns.

 

Looking at the RCI outlook image the green 'R' bar is exceptionally high an when looking closer at the breakdown the Demand is exceptionally high for low wealth & medium wealth residental. The blue bar is marginally in the negative although when you look closer at the in depth breakdown there is a slight (ever so slight) demand for medium wealth commercial & office. The Yellow bar is massively in the negative but when you look at the breakdown pretty much all dirty industry is in the major negative which is fine by me as im not looking for anymore, BUT the high tech yellow bar is right near the max mark despite on the outlook of the RCI graph the yellow bar being rock bottom. I've just gone over 105,000 people in my main city. Got a fair few high tech ind developed but reluctant to build more yet as a fair few plots in perfect spots have not developed yet. Really puzzled how to solve the issue. When querying the buildings that say they have no job there all mostly $$$ wealth with a few $$ wealth. I've looked where there traveling for work and a majority are not traveling that far with only a few travelling out of the city to work which I assume is what causes the Long commute reading.

 

I bet there is something stupidly obvious Im missing which you guys will spot immediately. There is only about 7 apartment buildings with the no job icon above them but they seem to get abandoned and then a few more get the icon in there place which worries me its a problem that isn't going away and only getting worse with every 200-300 person building going under.

 

Same for businesses. Everytime I check over a few more smaller businesses buildings have gone out of business (do they not give a warning like with residental homes?). Apologies for posting no screen shot but so short of time at home im barely getting a chance to play the game and try sort it myself lol. Trying to think of any other helpful info you may need. Taxes are fairly standard around 9.0% apart from dirty which is taxed a tiny bit more as im not looking for that here and want it else where in another city. I know a newbie mistake I made (just like the Lets play help videos guy did) was confusing the different wealth sims with the low/med/high density. They dont always tie up etc. My heads spinning ha! Any help appreciated as always. Sorry for all the questions guys.

 

How many low wealth residents do you have in your city? Most of the people in your city should be low wealth, building cities for high wealth and medium wealth only would be undesirable. In order to get a good contribution of jobs/residents and avoid unemployment poor people is very important. You could try to zone an area for R$ and zone a bit of space for new commercial zones. It could be that you have too many jobs for the number of residents, the number of jobs is probably unfitting for your population as well. You can zone R$ by not supplying basic services in that particular zone, this way the desirability will be low for R$$ and R$$$.

 

I don't know how your city is positioned in your region but working on a standalone city with no neighboring cities is quite difficult. If you've only worked with this city you could build another city next to it. I personally prefer building cities that supply jobs as well as residents but if you prefer to build cities with one function (jobs or residents) that's possible as well.

[mattias333 3]

thanx for the reply. Ive been following the 'let's play' guide on youtube. Ive currently got a AG style city on a small region next to my main city thats got the issue. Over that region is a landfill-esq region.

 

On average I always seem to have 6-7 $$$ & $$ apartment buildings get the no job icon at a time. They then go abandoned and a different apartment replaces it nearby with a no job icon it appears. Some sims are traveling a heck of a distance so I assume thats the reason they abandon as they are literally getting out of town, only highway and then going straight out the city totally to my AGR based city next door oddly. Tried zoning com & offices near there homes with easy access but no luck.

 

Like you mention my green R demand is high so maybe more low wealth could help with the stores going out of business but it says there going out of business due to lack in demand. Confused as anything. Wish the in game advisors could be more help when an icon appears like the ones im getting over apartments. Especially to new players. Or maybe they could have included tutorials of how to deal with similar situations that they have purposely built and then you'll know how to fix them. The games got so many possible outcomes its near impossible for anyone to advise of help without physically playing the save themselves in most cases. Ill keep playing around hoping it will sort itself this evening. Fingers crossed!

[mattias333 3]

I've just stumbled across an anchient post via a google search from a menber called Toroca back in 2008 that has sparked a few brainwaves in my head.

 

the article is here: and his comment is a fair way down the page in answer to what appears a similar question to my own sims with no job icon problem.

 

I'll copy and paste his answer here. Obviously im not a vet like you guys so just want to insure what he's saying is technically correct and not an old wives tale etc.

 

" realize this thread has been quiet for over a week, but the likely problem has yet to be mentioned here.

Since the problem seems to be primarily with R$$$ sims, it is most likely that there were too many of them. Without modding certain specific parts of the game, R$$$ sims move into cities in far greater numbers than the available jobs can support. Newer players often mistakenly assume that all jobs in Co$$$ buildings are for R$$$ sims, and the same for IHT. But Co$$$ buildings only supply 15% of their jobs to R$$$ sims, and Co$$ and IHT only have 10% R$$$ jobs. So if you have a building that contains 2000 R$$$ sims, and we assume that roughly half of them are looking for work (which is typical for SC4), you need 1000 R$$$ level jobs. This would require 10,000 total IHT or Co$$ jobs, since only 10% per building are for R$$$ sims. The other 9000 are intended for R$ and R$$ sims. With Co$$$, it would require a total of about 6700 jobs to get the needed 1000 R$$$ ones. Again, the other 5700 would go to R$ and R$$ sims. Since the unmodded simulator allows far too many R$$$ sims to move in, their job supply is usually severely lacking. The abandoment problem arises for most players when R$$$ sims reach the point where they make up more than 20-25% of the total population, regardless of total city size.

Careful management of the R$$$ population through high taxes makes it possible to avoid ever seeing an abandoned or distressed R$$$ building. I allow just enough of them in to take up the available high wealth jobs, and then I raise their taxes to the point where R$$$ demand goes either neutral or even slightly negative."

 

 

 

Like I previously mentioned my Green 'R' demand is very high. I'll try re-word the above answer in simple simon terms (or should I say Simple Mattias the newbie terms lol!)

 

Its my $$$ and a few $$ sims who are abandoning there homes due to no job (suspected due to long distance to find a job). Obviously like real life for every High wealth resident (R$$$) they need plenty of low wealth residents (R$) working bellow them in office or commercial jobs etc.... Just because ive zoned plenty of high density com or office near there homes, it does not mean they will all find work there etc....need plenty of R$ to help those jobs grow etc.

 

I know this likely isn't the answer to all my prayers etc...but its one penny that hadn't dropped in my head atleast im my thinking is on the correct wave length.

 

<apologies for long posts. Hopefully not boring everyone>

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

This is such a long thread.  Are you using the NAM traffic controller?  A lot of problems with commute are solved using it.

 

It is important to not zone too many high-density lots when the population is under 100,000.  You need to control the silly low density mansions that crop up on 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 lots in the early game as well.  You don't need these millionaires before you can employ them.  In any case, you should keep the number of R$$$ down.  I don't tax them, but I don't zone to allow them either.  It is amazing what hand-zoning 2 x 1 low density lots can do for you.  Even back to back, these can at most be combined into a 2 x 2 lot, and the game is reluctant to do that.

 

When starting out, don't zone those obscene 1 x 2 lots.  Think about what that is in feet or metres.  Most lots these days are much smaller than that.  You can't zone 1 x 1 right away because there doesn't seem to be any stage 1 or stage 2 1 x 1s.  The 2 x 1s do the trick.  Blocks of these make problems later when you want bigger lots but that's what the dezoning tool is for.

[mattias333 3]

Apologies Noony. Just a very eager to learn Newbie. Still learning exactly what a vast majority of the phrases used on here mean etc as well. I feel like im in a country where I dont naturally speak the local lingo at times ha! Getting there. Going to try a few trial an errors without saving using a couple of theories ive seen you guys mention. Fingers crossed I get to the bottom of it.

[mattias333 3]

Followed many of your advice (especially yours noony) and although I wasnt playing for very long (the game seriously slowed up for some odd reason - hoping I dont have to re-install NAM again with even less things installed etc...) the problems I was suffering have appeared to ease for the time being. Less apartments of $$ & $$$ showing no jobs now.

 

Did some work with the road network & followed noony's advice reading the plots for low res. Still massive demand for low res though and R$$ so ill continue expanding that even further as that eased a few of the no job icon lots. Still a fair few med com buildings gone out of business though. Guess I just went over the top when the demand was there. To demolish or leave thats the question I suppose. Stupidly addicted to this sim!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Please, its Nonny.  A noony is a quickie at lunch time.

 

Just get in there and get your feet wet.  Remember to save frequently (garbage collects) and use the -CPUCount:1 option.

[Richie99 159]

Let me drop this observation to see what the masters of the game think:

I've noticed that when I get the no job zots and I demolish the buildings whilst providing closer jobs,the occupants of the new building try going for exactly the same jobs as the former occupants leading to the same problem.But when I de-zone them and rezone,the new residents start life afresh and pick new jobs that I have provided.Is it then more appropriate to dezone than demolish?

[Ltw 401]

Let me drop this observation to see what the masters of the game think:

I've noticed that when I get the no job zots and I demolish the buildings whilst providing closer jobs,the occupants of the new building try going for exactly the same jobs as the former occupants leading to the same problem.But when I de-zone them and rezone,the new residents start life afresh and pick new jobs that I have provided.Is it then more appropriate to dezone than demolish?

 

That depends on several things. If your demand is high (for example if the area is residential and residential demand is high) it's better to demolish the building. However, if you have too much zones it might be better to de-zone and zone something else. If your commercial demand is high and your residential demand is low you could de-zone a residential area and zone a commercial area. This way the commercial demand will be (partly) satisfied and residential demand will rise because you're creating a scarcity in residential zones. This is a very effective method to control demand in your city. It doesn't really matter whether you would rezone or demolish buildings, the difference is mainly the effectiveness of the method while dealing with your demand-problems.