Problem with Population Management

[Wolve64 0]

I have an issue that I encounter in every single one of my cities and it is that I seem to always have way too many unsatisfied shoppers, but too many available jobs. 

 

Wont creating more commercial zones to satisfy the shoppers also give me more available jobs? And therefore the shops won't find enough workers? I could always dezone some industrial but wont that mean freight shipments are unfulfilled? Somebody help!

 

 

 

[CapTon 592]

Do you have too much traffic in your city? If you do, your workers/shoppers won't be able to get to where they need to go therefore, they become unsatisfied.

[Aardvark1313 5]

In the city I was currently working on traffic had nothing to do with it, the weak AI and the lack or real time processing are now killing my city. I had it perfectly(or as perfectly as you can get with this piece of crap game)and suddenly shoppers aren't shopping even though they have it right next door or less than 2 small blocks away with no traffic issues at all and plenty of public transportation. From out of nowhere I suddenly developed huge unemployment in my $$ class even though according to all the spreadsheets I'm looking at, I shouldn't and the rest of my commercial is constantly complaining about freight which is impossible to balance properly. It's been the issue since day 1 and continues to be to this day a lack of accurate math behind the scenes in the game engine and a weak....nay stupid AI. 

 

It gets frustrating when some changes take place in real time(ie right away) and cause issues with things that take too long to develop. You create a ton of jobs by  building C or I to match the new density increase of you R, but they take too long to mature, so while your jobs are created real-time, the density takes forever sometimes to grow for some reason and you get a ton of unfilled jobs, which causes C & I to shut down due to lack of population while you sit there waiting for density to increase and often you get the reverse and it creates unemployment instead which in turn releases the homeless to wander around, buildings and houses shutting down etc etc. It just keeps happening every time I think I've got the balance just right between job creation and increasing my residents to match to a point then it all starts to unravel for reasons unknown and yet another city ruined.  If the purpose of the game like that mental midget whose posts I keep reading(I'm a sucker for punishment) on the official EA SimCity 5 forums seems to think and that's to just make money and screw your budget being in the red, then that's the wrong idea behind the game and shows a weak game design. Oh Will Wright, why hast though forsaken us. Had you been in charge I'm sure this mess would have never been created *sigh*.

 

     I thought the purpose of these sims was to create a balanced budget by making micro-decisions at the proper times, building things slow and steady making minor adjustments here and there so why does it always unravel after a certain time as though the game was designed to make you fail. That's poor game design. I know how to build cities on a budget yet this is the 1st sim game I've EVER had so many problems with trying to run a proper city. I may do as someone suggested and try sim 4 since I skipped that one even though I've had a copy of it for years as I'm told it's a better balanced game and more realistic and a lot less frustrating. I'm a mathematically OCD person so when the math don't work, I get crazy

 

    Sorry didn't mean to hijack your post to rant but there is no proper solution to your question though Capton might be right and his suggestion is worth looking into as he's a knowledgeable member of this community.

 

    Small edit is I wonder if(assuming anyone's experimented with this) if playing online rather than offline  has ANY impact at all on the timing of the real-time functions and would impact the problems I'm having or is it same old same old regardless of playing on or off  line.

 

As for me, I've given up on this game and unless Mr. Wright is involved with Maxis on Sim city 6(assuming there ever IS one) and Maxis breaks away from EA, I sure as hell won't be buying it.