What Mods or feedback do I need to make things work better for me.

[bartmill 0]

I am struggling with some things in Simcity (Deluxe edition) and I want to install some mods to straight things out. 1,5 year ago I had a different account here in which people already gave me some advice, but I can’t find my old account anymore, not the post on the forum.

 

So, my question: What mods should I install?

 

Additional info:

I don’t have rush hour (should I get it too?)

I do have NAM installed

My play style is quick (I am trying to change this), I build large citys in a short time.

 

Main issues:

Struggling with traffic (probably fixable if I change my way of building a city)

Struggling with environment (really hard one to fix)

Struggling to get a city with some really big (high wealth) residential and Commercial (Yeah I kinda want those skyscrapers to pop up)

 

Making profit isn’t really a big problem, but getting all the demands of my sims up and keeping them up is hard. So other general tips are welcome too!

 

If there is more info required (such as screen shots or something), please let me know! Any help would be awesome!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I am struggling with some things in Simcity (Deluxe edition) and I want to install some mods to straight things out. 1,5 year ago I had a different account here in which people already gave me some advice, but I can’t find my old account anymore, not the post on the forum.

 

So, my question: What mods should I install?

 

Additional info:

I don’t have rush hour (should I get it too?)

I do have NAM installed

My play style is quick (I am trying to change this), I build large citys in a short time.

 

Main issues:

Struggling with traffic (probably fixable if I change my way of building a city)

Struggling with environment (really hard one to fix)

Struggling to get a city with some really big (high wealth) residential and Commercial (Yeah I kinda want those skyscrapers to pop up)

 

Making profit isn’t really a big problem, but getting all the demands of my sims up and keeping them up is hard. So other general tips are welcome too!

 

If there is more info required (such as screen shots or something), please let me know! Any help would be awesome!

Welcome back.

 

First of all, deluxe includes rush hour.  In fact, SimCity 4 + Rush Hour = SimCity 4 Deluxe.

If you have the NAM, you must either have a download edition (1,1,641) or have updated to (1,1,638) or the NAM will not install.

 

If you loaded from CDs you should also have the nightlights patch.  Which will bring you to (1,1,640).

 

The mods on the STEX whose title contains the word 'fix' are bug fixes.  You should have all of them plus the one named 'crime doesnt pay'.  These are fixes developed by members for bugs that can be disabling.

 

I suggest your 'quick' style needs to be rethought.  This is a leisure time 'game', actually an exercise in self-created problem solving.  Bearing in mind that the algorithms are designed to build a city from some basic village into a metropolis, think rural => urban => metropolis.  It is entertaining to coach this into happening with leisure time to enjoy some of the very nice animations.  The main thing is to stay in the black, which can be done with a simple start with low density commercial and residential.  Some of the things I do to start a new city:

 

If the city has waterfront one can open with a fishing village.  There are several lots on the STEX, I like the CDK series on Simpeg4.  On the other hand, if you are willing to cheat a little, you can open with one of the Pegasus port installations, giving yourself enough money (I use the moolah command).  I also never play at any level other than hard.

 

Without a waterfront, you have to think that, since a village has to have some reason to exist, a small farming town with associated farms is a good start.  I use the basic SPAM farms, but one could go whole-heartedly into one of several farm sets.

 

A landlocked town can also be a rail head or even a junction.  Try to think of a story to justify the existence of the town for openers, then develop from there.  Other than farms, industrial at the ID or M level can be a nuisance.  Farms are easily absorbed into a growing community.  High tech industry is really just a different kind of CO$$$ and should be reserved for the urban or later stage.

 

A central business district (CBD) doesn't have to be planned at the start.  In some of my tiles I have more than one, in more than one urbanized town with green space between on a single large tile.  It doesn't have to be one tile : one city except on the administrative level.  This can be a real challenge, but sometimes can be fun doing some model railroading to create a little rail network with hubs.

 

Don't think city.

 

Think art, countryside, picturesque, quaint, and hunt around the STEX to find things like this to make it happen.  I've been playing since 2003 on and off (mostly on), but I don't play every day.  Currently I have 11 active regions not counting my sandbox and Timbuktu.  Variety is the spice of life.  Most of these are rural but one of them is a version of New York City.  If you want to have a look at the maps I like, take a look at some of the ones I've posted. [shameless self-plug].  Of course, RL doesn't affect me much.  I've been retired for more than 10 years.

 

Take your time and have fun.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Your traffic problems can indeed be fixed partly by the NAM, partly by the layout of your transportation system.

 

Your environment problems are probably not problems at all. Many people seem to think they can have a sprawling metropolis where household and industry smokestacks as well as car exhausts emit nothing but flower scents and perfumes. Many are worried that their "environment" bar is deep red. All of this is not a problem: the former is just normal, the latter is not that important because you can think of it as a display of the worst environmental conditions prevailing in your current city tile. As long as those development types that need a clean environment are in an area with low pollution, you are fine.

 

Your skyscraper problems cannot be fixed by downloading more skyscrapers, it's merely a question of how to play. If you cannot get Maxis skyscrapers to grow, you will not get downloaded skyscrapers to grow. If you can get Maxis skyscrapers to grow, you have solved your problem. I've described the basic technique several times in other threads - it boils down to limiting commercial growth by zoning only low and a little medium density and waiting for enough commercial office demand to build up. Then, place e.g. a 4x4 high-density zone at a desirable spot to "channel" all the demand onto that one lot.

[bartmill 0]

Welcome back.

 

First of all, deluxe includes rush hour.  In fact, SimCity 4 + Rush Hour = SimCity 4 Deluxe.

If you have the NAM, you must either have a download edition (1,1,641) or have updated to (1,1,638) or the NAM will not install.

 

If you loaded from CDs you should also have the nightlights patch.  Which will bring you to (1,1,640).

 

The mods on the STEX whose title contains the word 'fix' are bug fixes.  You should have all of them plus the one named 'crime doesnt pay'.  These are fixes developed by members for bugs that can be disabling.

 

I suggest your 'quick' style needs to be rethought.  This is a leisure time 'game', actually an exercise in self-created problem solving.  Bearing in mind that the algorithms are designed to build a city from some basic village into a metropolis, think rural => urban => metropolis.  It is entertaining to coach this into happening with leisure time to enjoy some of the very nice animations.  The main thing is to stay in the black, which can be done with a simple start with low density commercial and residential.  Some of the things I do to start a new city:

 

If the city has waterfront one can open with a fishing village.  There are several lots on the STEX, I like the CDK series on Simpeg4.  On the other hand, if you are willing to cheat a little, you can open with one of the Pegasus port installations, giving yourself enough money (I use the moolah command).  I also never play at any level other than hard.

 

Without a waterfront, you have to think that, since a village has to have some reason to exist, a small farming town with associated farms is a good start.  I use the basic SPAM farms, but one could go whole-heartedly into one of several farm sets.

 

A landlocked town can also be a rail head or even a junction.  Try to think of a story to justify the existence of the town for openers, then develop from there.  Other than farms, industrial at the ID or M level can be a nuisance.  Farms are easily absorbed into a growing community.  High tech industry is really just a different kind of CO$$$ and should be reserved for the urban or later stage.

 

A central business district (CBD) doesn't have to be planned at the start.  In some of my tiles I have more than one, in more than one urbanized town with green space between on a single large tile.  It doesn't have to be one tile : one city except on the administrative level.  This can be a real challenge, but sometimes can be fun doing some model railroading to create a little rail network with hubs.

 

Don't think city.

 

Think art, countryside, picturesque, quaint, and hunt around the STEX to find things like this to make it happen.  I've been playing since 2003 on and off (mostly on), but I don't play every day.  Currently I have 11 active regions not counting my sandbox and Timbuktu.  Variety is the spice of life.  Most of these are rural but one of them is a version of New York City.  If you want to have a look at the maps I like, take a look at some of the ones I've posted. [shameless self-plug].  Of course, RL doesn't affect me much.  I've been retired for more than 10 years.

 

Take your time and have fun.

 

Thanks!

 

Looking at your name and profile picture, I am pretty sure you helped me the first time.

NAM is installed and so is Rush hour (lol), so that’s good.

Thanks for the suggestions about the fix on the STEX. It’s just a bit hard for me to find these downloads. There isn’t a search button for this really.. I guess I’ll filter on popular and look for titles with ‘fix’ in them.

 

So far thanks for that info. I think I had some (extra) traffic fixes before, just can’t remember which one(s). Maybe it was just NAM.

 

Anyway, about my way of playing, I know you’re right. The thing is, is that I like to zone BIG. I often build the maximum square if demand is high, and I guess I shouldn’t do that. Because later on, I get problems when I try to fit in large things like a highway.

I should just build 1 block at a time, and see what that does to my demand. Because now, I often have negative demands, which isn’t good either. Anyway, I’ll experiment with this. And about the cheating, I don’t like it :$ doesn’t gives me a lot of satisfaction then.

 

I notice you really love this game, you spend a lot of time on it, but that’s great! I do have to work though, so not that much spare time for me.

 

Anyway, thanks for the help so far. I really appreciate it! 

 

Your traffic problems can indeed be fixed partly by the NAM, partly by the layout of your transportation system.

 

Your environment problems are probably not problems at all. Many people seem to think they can have a sprawling metropolis where household and industry smokestacks as well as car exhausts emit nothing but flower scents and perfumes. Many are worried that their "environment" bar is deep red. All of this is not a problem: the former is just normal, the latter is not that important because you can think of it as a display of the worst environmental conditions prevailing in your current city tile. As long as those development types that need a clean environment are in an area with low pollution, you are fine.

 

Your skyscraper problems cannot be fixed by downloading more skyscrapers, it's merely a question of how to play. If you cannot get Maxis skyscrapers to grow, you will not get downloaded skyscrapers to grow. If you can get Maxis skyscrapers to grow, you have solved your problem. I've described the basic technique several times in other threads - it boils down to limiting commercial growth by zoning only low and a little medium density and waiting for enough commercial office demand to build up. Then, place e.g. a 4x4 high-density zone at a desirable spot to "channel" all the demand onto that one lot.

 

My problem is that I love symmetry. Therefore I get a lot of X crossings and I guess I should try to make more T-Crossings, to get less jams.  Same goes for putting down railroads & subways.

 

Maybe environment isn’t that big of a problem, but I felt it might was. Seeing that bar in the red and some abandoned houses just makes me feel those two are related.

 

I guess I ain’t patient enough and I overzone. I often wanne get big flats asap, so I build a lot of dense commercial zones. I’ll try your tip and see if that works!

 

Thanks a lot for the help! 

[cromabianca 158]

Nonny, your post is just inspiring!
 
About the pollution problem, though, I would suggest this mod here: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1968  (registration required) (warning: it needs perfectly flat ground to be plopped, otherwise it will give you a "terrain too steep" error )

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Tony, I have that lot, and I have an alternate solution that I made myself, but it does require two lots but it does a lot of other stuff besides.  Feel free to have a look at my lots on the STEX.

[bartmill 0]

After reading in quite a lot of things (including your feedback) I continued my region yesterday.

 

I am getting a grip on how to control R and I demands. To keep it simple I look at it like this:

Low wealth & education level wil result in a (main) demands of IA and ID
Meduim wealth & education level wil result in a (main) demand of IM

High wealth& education level wil result in a (main) demand of IHT

 

Also the Cs$ and Cs$$ demands seems to become bigger right when new sims enter your town. This makes sense because this are 'simple' shops like food markets and stuff like that. Placing them near residential areas seems best.

 

But I really keep struggeling with the Co$$ and mainly the Co$$ demand. My current region layout has 1 'main' city with only R+C (175K residents), two city's with only Industry (D/M/H) and 1 'suburb' which has become half a city to be honest.

 

I actually see some Co$$ and Co$$$ demand in both industrial city's, but non in the main city (of course, there already is some there). But really getting a high demand there, is though for me. But maybe I just have to expand R & I to create that.  

[crishy 57]

CO needs a significant population to get to high levels. At low populations it will quickly fluctuate up and down because demand is very quickly satisfied by new CO, resulting in apparent discrepancies in neighboring cities.

[bartmill 0]

what is a significant population?

[crishy 57]

I cannot give you specific numbers especially since I use a ton of different mods now but from my experience these fluctuations will become less wilder as you increase your population. I do have for comparison purposes an isolated large city with a little bit of everything (except the dirtier industries have been mostly replaced by HT) at 350k that has already a decent downtown with a few tall skyscrapers.

 

Fluctuations will still occur though if you continuously allow CO to grow everywhere anytime.

 

An easy way to control demand so that CO will stay high and grow only in the places you want is to raise taxes in any city you do not want them to grow (i.e. mixed commercial/residential suburban like cities, etc) so that when you go back to the city you designate as the downtown demand will be very high.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Because of the growth demanded from the built-in game features, I've given up having separate R-C/I city tiles.  I've found a blended mix works and that as time goes on, you find less and less I as the Co grows.  Do remember that I-HT really counts as Co$$$ for it has the same requirements.

 

Over the years, I've found that my "separated" cities have eventually become more homogenous out of necessity, and keeping the zone types separated is a mugs game.

 

I suggest you expand your region so that every tile is occupied by something, even just a low-level, but profitable, start up.  You then have options to expand any of the tiles as seems indicated.  Within a given region, you'll find some city tiles tend to become large cities while others do not, probably from heavenly inattention.

[bartmill 0]

I downloaded some mods which pretty screwed up my entire region (double jobs from industrie)... So I started a new region.

 

At this point I have three filled tiles: 
1 With R+C

1 With ID and IM

1 with (a little) IHT

 

Some things I notice:

When Education grows, so grows the demand for IHT (of course)

I keep having a major demand in R$ (350k population, 250k+ is R$)
I have a HUGE CS$ (and CS$$) demand, which is almost impossible to fix. Is this normal? (I mean, If I want to give into the CS$ and CS$$ demand in my R+C city, C tiles would be a lot more then R tiles. This isn't normal right? 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I have only been able to fill the C$ command once in my memory, and that for a short time.  I think both R$ and the C$ are a necessary part of your infrastructure.  You always need labour and little stores that satisfy their demands.  Think hierarchy at at least three levels, and remember that the higher, the fewer.

 

The world needs janitors, copy machine operators, etc.  It also needs small service industries like grocers, barbers, and so on.  The vast majority of people work in dead-end jobs such as production line worker and make enough to be happy with their lot in life.

 

Now, since this program came out, there have been many more changes due to automation, and this is not in the game.  Many of the hum-drum jobs on assembly lines have been automated, releasing workers for better things.  If the workers don't upgrade one way or another, then they will fall by the wayside.  If you look at the history of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, you will find similar effects on people when industrial complexes absorbed many a farm worker to the detriment of farms which had to become better at what they did.  Now farms are becoming automated, but in this case the farmer's kids have already left for greener pastures elsewhere.

 

So, think of this game as stuck in the year 2000 and you'll get a better feel for what is happening.  Now we have synthesizers that can be whole orchestras:  Then you needed about 100 instrumental players and only one conductor and maybe five or six section heads.

[bartmill 0]

Having a bit more info about stage 8 buildings. I will try to get my CO$$ and CO$$$ total population to 40k+. That will hopefully help getting those stage 8 buildings pop up. 

[dubldrop 43]

After reading in quite a lot of things (including your feedback) I continued my region yesterday.

 

I am getting a grip on how to control R and I demands. To keep it simple I look at it like this:

Low wealth & education level wil result in a (main) demands of IA and ID

Meduim wealth & education level wil result in a (main) demand of IM

High wealth& education level wil result in a (main) demand of IHT

 

Also the Cs$ and Cs$$ demands seems to become bigger right when new sims enter your town. This makes sense because this are 'simple' shops like food markets and stuff like that. Placing them near residential areas seems best.

 

But I really keep struggeling with the Co$$ and mainly the Co$$ demand. My current region layout has 1 'main' city with only R+C (175K residents), two city's with only Industry (D/M/H) and 1 'suburb' which has become half a city to be honest.

 

I actually see some Co$$ and Co$$$ demand in both industrial city's, but non in the main city (of course, there already is some there). But really getting a high demand there, is though for me. But maybe I just have to expand R & I to create that.  

I should also point out that if you have regional CO demand but none in the city you want to build it in, you may have reached a demand cap and have to place down some CO cap busters to make the demand rise again