Someone show me

[JayJay 3]

Okay I feel like this is posted a lot but I need help. I have a hard time with densities and wealth. Basically what is the proper way to make your city grow? Like when and where should different wealth levels of residential and commercial be placed? I like to have things separated, like not a bunch of rich sims in a slum area, same with commercial areas. I also hate repetition especially with Maxis buildings.

 

I have been playing SimCity off and on for the last few years but never really made a metropolis and I really want to but I feel like this game is too hard for me to crack can someone help, like a video would even help.

[SimRico 968]

Look up simcity 4 and Haljackay on Youtube as well as his profile here in simtrop. Hes got tons of how to's. Personally i start out with a country town and not introduce any metro stuff for a long time. It wirked out great. Look at my city journals, clikc pics in my siggy. Today they are full grown and ready for mega metrop

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

There's lots of threads where you can read about this if you search around.  Remember that you only directly control the density, not the wealth.  By zoning low, medium, and high, you only limit the height/size of the buildings.  High wealth will grow wherever there is water provided (and low crime, pollution, etc.)

 

Just follow the demand of your RCI meter.  You can influence it by having lots of dirty industry and high pollution, or by cleaning it up, as well as crime levels, and provision of services (hospitals, schools).  The nicer the city is, the more high wealth citizens will want to move in.  Just beware not to offset the balance of population.  High wealth jobs are scarce, even with lots of commercial offices and high-tech industry (note that the game has a bug with high-tech industry: it does not provide any high-wealth jobs.  There is a patch to fix this that you can find on the STEX).  You always want the majority of your citizens in a region to be low/medium wealth (of course you can have a slum city, and then next to it have a small high-wealth suburb city).

 

Make sure you adequately plan for expansion where you want it.  You'll need room for large civic complexes, lots of mass transit, wide roads, etc.  Plugins are your friend here; larger road and civic capacities will prove very helpful.  Take advantage of the NAM and downloaded buildings.  And of course that's also the answer to building repetition.  Hit the STEX, get some buildings and building packs.

 

Haljackey makes some great videos, but there's lots of others.  Search YouTube.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If you have the Deluxe game updated to either 1,1,640 or 1,1,641 build levels, you have all the game there is.  Now, to get going with a new region, preferably one already terraformed, you need to look closely at it, and choose the first city tile you want to play.

 

Depending on your choice, you can start with a seaside town or a landlocked village.

 

The program wants you to start small, with low level stuff.  I generally begin with some streets that form a cross, then along on leg I lay down about five to six single occupancy C lots on either side.  Running at Turtle (default) speed, these should start to grow if they have power (a wind power plant will do).  For better buildings, I also include a water source (water tower is fine), and draw the piping necessary.

 

This creates some jobs, which are necessary to attract Sims.

 

Now add some 2 x 1 single occupancy R lots along another leg.  About twice as many as you have C lots.  To get 2 x 1 you hold the control key while drawing individual lots.  This is my strategy for preventing unwanted mansions early n the game.  Back to back 2 x 1 lots can only be merged into 2 x 2 which is not enough for mansions that want at least 3 x 3..

 

Keep an eye on your net profit.  The first goal should be get in the black.  You can add R lots until this happens, but if you start getting no-job zots, add a few for C lots, even some middle occupancy C$$ lots. 

 

Once you are profitable, it is just a matter of growing as you will.  Accept all early rewards.

 

Agricultural and Industrial are not necessary.  You can quite happily create a C/R town/city.

 

For seaside towns I do add some custom content like a fishery or even a seaport.  The seaport will want some industrial stuff for good completion.  I use the  PEG CDK3 set for ports because they are nice and rail enabled.  This can give you a good start on your rail system.

 

Stay profitable by adding residential, and use your judgement as to what level to add.  I often up to lots to 2 x 2 R$$ when I build a port.

[.anonyman 28]

We know what you mean...

 

As Indiana Joe said, you can't control the wealth level directly. If you have a medium- or high-density area with any amount of school/hospital coverage, those high-wealth buildings will take over. And then promptly get abandoned!

 

If you're set on keeping things separate: don't provide your low-wealth areas with any services at all (except water for denser development); pay attention to the overall ratios - 2:1 jobs to Sims, 10% high-wealth, etc. - and don't make the pretty zones too big; and make sure the transport options are available to all Sims.

 

Just respond to the advisers' advice at the beginning, don't build too fast, and have fun! It's not too hard a game to crack.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I just grow organically and am very cautious about zoning.  All my zoning is done by hand with malice aforethought.  The only exception is click and hold zoning for seaport I-D/I-M.

 

It is easy to fall into the habit of using click and hold zoning.  This will result in regrettable loss of control.  One of the fatal errors that people get into these days is running flat out in Cheetah mode.  You miss a big chunk of the game by trying to go too fast.  This is a leisure time activity, not a race to some mythical goal.  The only goals in this program are those you set for yourself.

[Masacashana 85]

Well there are population traunches that dictate what will grow.  But you will start with low density.   As far as controlling wealth levels that is based on the placement on the map and RCI demand.   Do you use custom content?