How to Increase City Population

[Aqua Regia 3]

Hello,

I want to explore different ways to increase population in my city.

I have extremely high RES, CO, and IND demand and I have no trouble having large buildings for both RES and CO. However, my population is constantly fluctuating, never really increasing much from 100,000 to 140,000. I am planning to have a city with a population of about 1,000,000, but it seems something is hindering me from achieving that goal.

Can someone told me what I should do to increase my population?

Reply would be greatly appreciated.

[Ltw 401]

Could you post some screenshots of your city and maybe some graphs? (RCI-graph and population-graph for example). That gives us more of an idea what we're dealing with. Also, do you have any mods installed? (like the NAM and CAM or any demand-altering mods).

I'm going to do my best to help without screenshots anyway. First of all, getting a higher population depends on how fast you build zones. The problem I often see is that people zone too much at once. Simcity 4 is a game of patience, thus zoning reletavely small areas at the same time might help. A fluctuating population could indicate that your existing zones aren't align with the demand there is. Are you having trouble with abandonment?

Second of all, you'll have to make sure your city can handle such an increase in population. Another plausible cause for your problem is that your energy-supply, water-supply and garbage disposal is not sufficient enough. You could download some custom BATs from the STEX with a higher capacity. This could really help.

Another cause might be the fact that your commercial/industrial zones don't have enough jobs available. The residents will need jobs, and not just any job, but the right job. If they can't find the job that's in the right income-class they might leave. Zoning more commercial/industrial zones might help. You could also zone them in an adjacient city. This might make it easier to get to your 1.000.000 people goal.

If all these conditions are good you can think about things like schools and hospitals. I usually spend money on education, health and other services once it is financially responsibly to do so.

Good luck!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The general clue is jobs, jobs, jobs! 

Build up your education quotient so that your CO demand is higher and don't neglect your CS demand either.  Not everyone is a knowledge worker in a CO outfit.  Keep a few I-M and maybe even some I-D to windward (East side) in your city and make sure you have good transit there.

Remember that CO and I-HT share the same requirements of cleanliness, services, parks and general niceness.  An I-HT plaza can quite happily exist in the middle of an R mixed neighbourhood (cuts transit time) where you can't really get away with this with I-M.

As your Sims age out of the schools, watch school population for schools no longer fulfilling their mandate and replace them with museums and arts facilities.  The population by age display shows this very well.  The blue areas should have museums, the green: schools.

I have one city over 1,000,000 population on a very full large tile.  It is unplayable on this machine and all kinds to weird things happen when I open it.  Every time I get a wine update, I give it a shot.  When the simulation has a couple of million objects to manage, it kind of goes off the rails.

  Edited August 10, 2015 by A Nonny Moose  

[Aqua Regia 3]

Could you post some screenshots of your city and maybe some graphs? (RCI-graph and population-graph for example). That gives us more of an idea what we're dealing with. Also, do you have any mods installed? (like the NAM and CAM or any demand-altering mods).

I'm going to do my best to help without screenshots anyway. First of all, getting a higher population depends on how fast you build zones. The problem I often see is that people zone too much at once. Simcity 4 is a game of patience, thus zoning reletavely small areas at the same time might help. A fluctuating population could indicate that your existing zones aren't align with the demand there is. Are you having trouble with abandonment?

Second of all, you'll have to make sure your city can handle such an increase in population. Another plausible cause for your problem is that your energy-supply, water-supply and garbage disposal is not sufficient enough. You could download some custom BATs from the STEX with a higher capacity. This could really help.

Another cause might be the fact that your commercial/industrial zones don't have enough jobs available. The residents will need jobs, and not just any job, but the right job. If they can't find the job that's in the right income-class they might leave. Zoning more commercial/industrial zones might help. You could also zone them in an adjacient city. This might make it easier to get to your 1.000.000 people goal.

If all these conditions are good you can think about things like schools and hospitals. I usually spend money on education, health and other services once it is financially responsibly to do so.

Good luck!

So, basically, here are the snapshots of my two cities.

My CO zone is towards the bottom left portion of my city with not many high-rises. My RES zone surrounds the CO zone with a great deal of high-rises.

I used Super Demand mod to boost RES, CO, and IND at their highest. Also, I don't have any landfill zones.

CO is towards upper left portion of my city. RES surrounds the CO all around.

The general clue is jobs, jobs, jobs! 

Build up your education quotient so that your CO demand is higher and don't neglect your CS demand either.  Not everyone is a knowledge worker in a CO outfit.  Keep a few I-M and maybe even some I-D to windward (East side) in your city and make sure you have good transit there.

Remember that CO and I-HT share the same requirements of cleanliness, services, parks and general niceness.  An I-HT plaza can quite happily exist in the middle of an R mixed neighbourhood (cuts transit time) where you can't really get away with this with I-M.

As your Sims age out of the schools, watch school population for schools no longer fulfilling their mandate and replace them with museums and arts facilities.  The population by age display shows this very well.  The blue areas should have museums, the green: schools.

I have one city over 1,000,000 population on a very full large tile.  It is unplayable on this machine and all kinds to weird things happen when I open it.  Every time I get a wine update, I give it a shot.  When the simulation has a couple of million objects to manage, it kind of goes off the rails.

Yes, I'm having trouble getting my Sim people to work. Some places show that their residents are jobless.

As for I-M and I-D, I really do not want to have any negative impact on the environment, so I didn't zone them.

  Edited August 12, 2015 by Aqua Regia  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

So, are you using high-speed transit (subway, GLR, monorail)?

With no I-D nor I-M where do you expect your R$ to work?  You will need lots of CS$, CS$$ and CO$$ for them to work in.

If you are worried about pollution, put your I-D, I-M on the east side of your tile.  The prevailing winds are westerly.  You can get rid of I-D by setting their tax to 20% after about four years of development.  This allows you to harvest them while they convert to I-M.

Outlying areas can be land-banked by zoning I-Ag, especially if you use the SPAM.

You must have around 40 to 50% R$.  Somebody has to take out the garbage and deliver the mail.

Try for balance.  Remember, no more than about 15% R$$$.  Everyone can't be the boss.

[Aqua Regia 3]

So, are you using high-speed transit (subway, GLR, monorail)?

With no I-D nor I-M where do you expect your R$ to work?  You will need lots of CS$, CS$$ and CO$$ for them to work in.

If you are worried about pollution, put your I-D, I-M on the east side of your tile.  The prevailing winds are westerly.  You can get rid of I-D by setting their tax to 20% after about four years of development.  This allows you to harvest them while they convert to I-M.

Outlying areas can be land-banked by zoning I-Ag, especially if you use the SPAM.

You must have around 40 to 50% R$.  Somebody has to take out the garbage and deliver the mail.

Try for balance.  Remember, no more than about 15% R$$$.  Everyone can't be the boss.

I am in the middle of constructing my first subway line.

I don't have any R$; all of my Residentials are R$$$ and all of my Commercials are C$$$. I did that, because I wanted a downtown-style city with only high-rises.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

<snip>

I don't have any R$; all of my Residentials are R$$$ and all of my Commercials are C$$$. I did that, because I wanted a downtown-style city with only high-rises.

My friend, you are conducting a labour of Sisyphus.  The game will fight you tooth and nail if you persist in rolling this rock uphill forever.  The algorithms in this game want each city to be balanced with a demographic of the normal hierarchy found in most corporate organizations with only a very few members of the population operating at the highest level. 

You should be thinking of an organizational pyramid with the Pharaoh and the royal family at the top, some knowledge workers (the priesthood) in the middle and mostly the general population doing all the menial stuff.

The only way you'll get this to work is probably on a small tile surrounded by others that contain the rest of the hierarchy with lots and lots of neighbour connections, and even then you are in for a struggle from the program.

[drpfaff 54]

So, are you using high-speed transit (subway, GLR, monorail)?

With no I-D nor I-M where do you expect your R$ to work?  You will need lots of CS$, CS$$ and CO$$ for them to work in.

If you are worried about pollution, put your I-D, I-M on the east side of your tile.  The prevailing winds are westerly.  You can get rid of I-D by setting their tax to 20% after about four years of development.  This allows you to harvest them while they convert to I-M.

Outlying areas can be land-banked by zoning I-Ag, especially if you use the SPAM.

You must have around 40 to 50% R$.  Somebody has to take out the garbage and deliver the mail.

Try for balance.  Remember, no more than about 15% R$$$.  Everyone can't be the boss.

I am in the middle of constructing my first subway line.

I don't have any R$; all of my Residentials are R$$$ and all of my Commercials are C$$$. I did that, because I wanted a downtown-style city with only high-rises.

As Nonny Moose said, you need some balance or decide to create a large 1M city in an adjacent tile and allow your downtown area to connect large population areas. Eventually you could make these cities into offices, highrises, and park/rec only down the road.

For some reference, I have a city just over 2.3M and the breakdown in population is about 650k R$, 1.6M R$$, and only about 150K R$$$ (which in terms of real demographics matches most developed countries like US, Germany, Britain, Canada with about 2/3rds middle class). Despite that I am able to have a booming CO$$$ job market due to my high level of education, hosptials, and extensive highway, subway and HSR.

You may want to also search around for some custom content that will help larger buildings grow more steadily with higher caps and higher population per square. Of course this isn't for everyone, but the CAMelots can help with this or the numerous custom BATs here on the STEX.

  Edited August 13, 2015 by DrPfaffinator  

[Aqua Regia 3]

<snip>

I don't have any R$; all of my Residentials are R$$$ and all of my Commercials are C$$$. I did that, because I wanted a downtown-style city with only high-rises.

My friend, you are conducting a labour of Sisyphus.  The game will fight you tooth and nail if you persist in rolling this rock uphill forever.  The algorithms in this game want each city to be balanced with a demographic of the normal hierarchy found in most corporate organizations with only a very few members of the population operating at the highest level. 

You should be thinking of an organizational pyramid with the Pharaoh and the royal family at the top, some knowledge workers (the priesthood) in the middle and mostly the general population doing all the menial stuff.

The only way you'll get this to work is probably on a small tile surrounded by others that contain the rest of the hierarchy with lots and lots of neighbour connections, and even then you are in for a struggle from the program.

So, are you using high-speed transit (subway, GLR, monorail)?

With no I-D nor I-M where do you expect your R$ to work?  You will need lots of CS$, CS$$ and CO$$ for them to work in.

If you are worried about pollution, put your I-D, I-M on the east side of your tile.  The prevailing winds are westerly.  You can get rid of I-D by setting their tax to 20% after about four years of development.  This allows you to harvest them while they convert to I-M.

Outlying areas can be land-banked by zoning I-Ag, especially if you use the SPAM.

You must have around 40 to 50% R$.  Somebody has to take out the garbage and deliver the mail.

Try for balance.  Remember, no more than about 15% R$$$.  Everyone can't be the boss.

I am in the middle of constructing my first subway line.

I don't have any R$; all of my Residentials are R$$$ and all of my Commercials are C$$$. I did that, because I wanted a downtown-style city with only high-rises.

As Nonny Moose said, you need some balance or decide to create a large 1M city in an adjacent tile and allow your downtown area to connect large population areas. Eventually you could make these cities into offices, highrises, and park/rec only down the road.

For some reference, I have a city just over 2.3M and the breakdown in population is about 650k R$, 1.6M R$$, and only about 150K R$$$. Despite that I am able to have a booming CO$$$ job market due to my high level of education, hosptials, and extensive highway, subway and HSR.

You may want to also search around for some custom content that will help larger buildings grow more steadily with higher caps and higher population per square. Of course this isn't for everyone, but the CAMelots can help with this or the numerous custom BATs here on the STEX.

Well, I connected my city to a neighbouring city with a similar population, and I have created two subway lines. Population rose to 150,000 to 200,000. I keep thinking it is a risk to build a great deal of R$ and R$$, because although I want to raise my population even more, I want my city to have great looks, such as having a great deal of high-rises that look like a true downtown city.

I believe with R$ and R$$ you will get a great deal of houses and small apartments instead of high-rises.

Also, I am trying to get my seaport to work, but it is not really functioning at all.

[sys12189 21]

I'm not a pro at these games but I can tell that thinking about the lower wealth class in such a way isn't a very good thing. Don't worry - some of the big R$ buildings doesn't look too bad, and a couple of R$$ hi-rises look good actually. If you really want that downtown view, don't forget the slums beneath the scenes! I personally think R$ is lovely. So easy to please....

As many others said above, CO$$$ employs 15% rich people (which is the most $$$ out of all job types) which means your total R$$$ pop count should not exceed that point. (technically, it's region-wide, but not all jobs are CO$$$ and provides the 15 percent) Which means, I think, your R$$$ count suits the levels of about a 1~2M city.

Kinda beats me, since I have another, opposite problem  for me, the "R$$$ = trouble" equation   stumped my growth for decades... Freed the tax rate and now at 13% R$$$ I'm becoming worried LOL, but well that's my story.

[drpfaff 54]

Well, I connected my city to a neighbouring city with a similar population, and I have created two subway lines. Population rose to 150,000 to 200,000. I keep thinking it is a risk to build a great deal of R$ and R$$, because although I want to raise my population even more, I want my city to have great looks, such as having a great deal of high-rises that look like a true downtown city.

I believe with R$ and R$$ you will get a great deal of houses and small apartments instead of high-rises.

Also, I am trying to get my seaport to work, but it is not really functioning at all.

For the most part, R$ and R$$ will grow into high rises as well, providing you zone high density and have enough power/water and ultimately demand. By building a slum of R$ high density away from the city center you can solve some of the problems. It would be important to connect that tile or area with highways or forms of public transit other than bus (which is slow and not ideal for high density). You can attempt to fight building R$ all you want, but the game simply won't let you keep growing without places to balance the population. Another thing that would help is placing down some more landmarks and parks. It will help your city's caps on growth even more for R$$ and R$$$.

Having played both with and without BATs and Mods of any kind, I know that building a nice high wealth city form the out-of-the-box game play can be very frustrating because many issues are unresolved. I can post some pics of large city/slums to help if you need ideas.

[Aqua Regia 3]

Well, I connected my city to a neighbouring city with a similar population, and I have created two subway lines. Population rose to 150,000 to 200,000. I keep thinking it is a risk to build a great deal of R$ and R$$, because although I want to raise my population even more, I want my city to have great looks, such as having a great deal of high-rises that look like a true downtown city.

I believe with R$ and R$$ you will get a great deal of houses and small apartments instead of high-rises.

Also, I am trying to get my seaport to work, but it is not really functioning at all.

For the most part, R$ and R$$ will grow into high rises as well, providing you zone high density and have enough power/water and ultimately demand. By building a slum of R$ high density away from the city center you can solve some of the problems. It would be important to connect that tile or area with highways or forms of public transit other than bus (which is slow and not ideal for high density). You can attempt to fight building R$ all you want, but the game simply won't let you keep growing without places to balance the population. Another thing that would help is placing down some more landmarks and parks. It will help your city's caps on growth even more for R$$ and R$$$.

Having played both with and without BATs and Mods of any kind, I know that building a nice high wealth city form the out-of-the-box game play can be very frustrating because many issues are unresolved. I can post some pics of large city/slums to help if you need ideas.

Pictures of large cities and slums would be greatly appreciated.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

About sea ports:  I don't think the default sea ports in the game are very useful.  I use the PEG CDK3 seaports most of which are enabled for rail.  You can find them now in the PLEX section of the STEX.

This is a very large kit, and you may only want parts of it, but it must be cohesive.  Here is the tree of my CDK3 folder in my Plugins:

CDK3
├── Algae Farm
│   └── PEG-CDK3 Algae Farm_100.dat
├── Blackies Boat Yard
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_Blackies-BoatYard_100.dat
│   └── PEG-CDK3_BoatYard_RESOURCE_100.dat
├── Capt Jacks Landing
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_Capt-Jacks-Landing_101.dat
│   └── PEG-CDK3_CaptJacksLanding_RESOURCE.dat
├── CDK3 SUPER PAK
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_Basics_110.dat
│   └── PEG-CDK3_SUPER-PAK_RESOURCE.dat
├── Coast Guard Station
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_10x5_CoastGuardStation_100.dat
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_10x5_CoastGuardStation_south_100.dat
│   ├── PEG_CDK3_CG-Equiptment_RESOURCE.dat
│   ├── PEG-CDK3-CG_RESOURCE.dat
│   └── SimCougs PEG CG Boats
│       ├── SimCoug_1x1_PEG CG Cutter_af9cc857.SC4Lot
│       └── SimCoug_1x1_PEG CG Patrol Boat_2f9cc6f1.SC4Lot
├── Fishery
│   └── PEG-CDK3_4x6_Fishery_100.dat
├── Garbage Dock
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_Garbage-Dock_103.dat
│   └── PEG-CDK3_GarbageDock_RESOURCE.dat
├── Puerta De Pego
│   └── PEG-CDK3_CoastalFort_102.dat
├── Seaport
│   ├── 1x Lots
│   │   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_Dock_1x_110.dat
│   │   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_Dock-BusStop_1x_110.dat
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_Dock-BusStop_WT-IconDupe_110.dat
│   ├── 1x RCI Dock
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_RCI-Dock_1x3_110.dat
│   ├── Barge Warehouse
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_Dock_WH_2x5_w-barge_100.dat
│   ├── Break-Bulk Dock
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_WH_Break-Bulk Dock_110.dat
│   ├── Bubbas Barge
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_WH_BubbasBulkBarge_100.dat
│   ├── Container Dock
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3_Container-Dock_9x5_110.dat
│   ├── Container Ship Fleet
│   │   └── CDK3-SP_Container-Fleet_RESOURCE.dat
│   ├── Corner Docks
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_Docks-Corners_100.dat
│   ├── Pier One
│   │   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_Pier-One_LV_100.dat
│   │   ├── PEG_CDK3-SP_Pier-One_RESOURCE.dat
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_Pier-One_WV_100.dat
│   ├── Ploppable Ships
│   │   └── Ship Pack 1
│   │       └── PEG-CDK3_ShipTraffic1_101.dat
│   ├── Row Warehouses
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_RowWarehouses_110.dat
│   ├── SEAPORT SUPER PAK
│   │   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_RowWarehouses_110.dat
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_SEAPORT_SUPER-PAK.dat
│   └── Vandy Shipping
│       ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_VandyShipping_101.dat
│       └── PEG-CDK3-SP_VandyShipping_RESOURCE.dat
├── Ship Pack 1
│   └── PEG-CDK3_PropPack_Ships_01.dat
├── Trawler Pack 1
│   └── CDK3_Trawlers_RESOURCE.dat
└── Vehicle Pack 1
    └── PEG-CDK3_PropPack_Vehicles_01.dat

27 directories, 39 files

And I have these last in my Plugins to force overrides (if any)

CDK3
├── Algae Farm
│   └── PEG-CDK3 Algae Farm_100.dat
├── Blackies Boat Yard
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_Blackies-BoatYard_100.dat
│   └── PEG-CDK3_BoatYard_RESOURCE_100.dat
├── Capt Jacks Landing
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_Capt-Jacks-Landing_101.dat
│   └── PEG-CDK3_CaptJacksLanding_RESOURCE.dat
├── CDK3 SUPER PAK
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_Basics_110.dat
│   └── PEG-CDK3_SUPER-PAK_RESOURCE.dat
├── Coast Guard Station
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_10x5_CoastGuardStation_100.dat
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_10x5_CoastGuardStation_south_100.dat
│   ├── PEG_CDK3_CG-Equiptment_RESOURCE.dat
│   ├── PEG-CDK3-CG_RESOURCE.dat
│   └── SimCougs PEG CG Boats
│       ├── SimCoug_1x1_PEG CG Cutter_af9cc857.SC4Lot
│       └── SimCoug_1x1_PEG CG Patrol Boat_2f9cc6f1.SC4Lot
├── Fishery
│   └── PEG-CDK3_4x6_Fishery_100.dat
├── Garbage Dock
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_Garbage-Dock_103.dat
│   └── PEG-CDK3_GarbageDock_RESOURCE.dat
├── Puerta De Pego
│   └── PEG-CDK3_CoastalFort_102.dat
├── Seaport
│   ├── 1x Lots
│   │   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_Dock_1x_110.dat
│   │   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_Dock-BusStop_1x_110.dat
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_Dock-BusStop_WT-IconDupe_110.dat
│   ├── 1x RCI Dock
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_RCI-Dock_1x3_110.dat
│   ├── Barge Warehouse
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_Dock_WH_2x5_w-barge_100.dat
│   ├── Break-Bulk Dock
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_WH_Break-Bulk Dock_110.dat
│   ├── Bubbas Barge
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_WH_BubbasBulkBarge_100.dat
│   ├── Container Dock
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3_Container-Dock_9x5_110.dat
│   ├── Container Ship Fleet
│   │   └── CDK3-SP_Container-Fleet_RESOURCE.dat
│   ├── Corner Docks
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_Docks-Corners_100.dat
│   ├── Pier One
│   │   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_Pier-One_LV_100.dat
│   │   ├── PEG_CDK3-SP_Pier-One_RESOURCE.dat
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_Pier-One_WV_100.dat
│   ├── Ploppable Ships
│   │   └── Ship Pack 1
│   │       └── PEG-CDK3_ShipTraffic1_101.dat
│   ├── Row Warehouses
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_RowWarehouses_110.dat
│   ├── SEAPORT SUPER PAK
│   │   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_RowWarehouses_110.dat
│   │   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_SEAPORT_SUPER-PAK.dat
│   └── Vandy Shipping
│       ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_VandyShipping_101.dat
│       └── PEG-CDK3-SP_VandyShipping_RESOURCE.dat
├── Ship Pack 1
│   └── PEG-CDK3_PropPack_Ships_01.dat
├── Trawler Pack 1
│   └── CDK3_Trawlers_RESOURCE.dat
└── Vehicle Pack 1
    └── PEG-CDK3_PropPack_Vehicles_01.dat

27 directories, 39 files

There may be some other dependencies, so watch carefully if you pick these up.  I have some other stuff but I think it is all from the MTP pack.

These packages used to be organized differently on the PLEX and were much easier to get the whole pack together.

  Edited August 13, 2015 by A Nonny Moose  

[Aqua Regia 3]

About sea ports:  I don't think the default sea ports in the game are very useful.  I use the PEG CDK3 seaports most of which are enabled for rail.  You can find them now in the PLEX section of the STEX.

This is a very large kit, and you may only want parts of it, but it must be cohesive.  Here is the tree of my CDK3 folder in my Plugins:

Hidden Content

And I have these last in my Plugins to force overrides (if any)

Hidden Content

There may be some other dependencies, so watch carefully if you pick these up.  I have some other stuff but I think it is all from the MTP pack.

These packages used to be organized differently on the PLEX and were much easier to get the whole pack together.

Wow. That is a great deal of plugins. Now, do I have to make it part by part or do all the plugins come in one structure?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Unfortunately, each one is separate.  Be sure you get the properties packs.  Here is the list from my Downloads archive of CDK3 files downloaded from SimPeg.  You should be able to find all of them on the PLEX section of the STEX now.

CDK3
├── 1187621593PEG_Coastal-Fort_102.zip
├── 1188341723PEG-CDK3_Trawler_Pack1_101.zip
├── 1201284476PEG-CDK3_CaptJacksLanding_101.zip
├── 5246d287c19bf99c08957e8b4eab73ab.zip
├── CDK3GarbageDock.zip
├── PEG-CDK3_AlgaeFarm_100.zip
├── PEG-CDK3_Blackies-Boatyard_100.zip
├── PEG-CDK3_CoastGuardStation_101.zip
├── PEG-CDK3_Fishery_100.zip
├── PEG-CDK3_PropPack_Ships_01.zip
├── PEG-CDK3-SP_NavBuoys_100.zip
├── PEG-CDK3_SUPER-PAK.zip
├── PEG-CDK3_ZBasics_Cement-patch.zip
├── SEAPORT
│   ├── 1209966426PEG-CDK3-SP_VandyShipping_101.zip
│   ├── 1212683485PEG-CDK3-SP_RCI-Dock_110.zip
│   ├── 1212683678PEG-CDK3-SP_1x-Lots_110.zip
│   ├── 1212837429PEG-CDK3-SP_SEAPORT-SUPER-PAK.zip
│   ├── 1212841827PEG-CDK3-SP_Container-Dock_110.zip
│   ├── 1212842273PEG-CDK3-SP_ContainerSeaport_110.zip
│   ├── 1212845632PEG-CDK3-SP_RowWarehouses_110.zip
│   ├── 1214577062PEG-CDK3-SP_MasterSeaportController_105.zip
│   ├── 1215952967PEG-CDK3-SP_PierSeaport_101.zip
│   ├── 1218548540PEG-CDK3-SP_PloppableShips1_101.zip
│   ├── 1218629965PEG-CDK3-SP_ContainerShipFleet_101.zip
│   ├── PEG-CDK3_RailFleet_RESOURCE_100.zip
│   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_BargeWarehouse_100.zip
│   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_BreakBulkDock_110.zip
│   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_BreakBulkSeaport_110.zip
│   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_BubbasBulkBarge_100.zip
│   ├── PEG-CDK3-SP_CornerDocks_100.zip
│   └── PEG-CDK3-SP_Pier-One_100.zip
└── SimCoug
    └── SimCougs PEG CG Boats.zip

2 directories, 32 files

You see, one builds these up over time, but I recall grabbing a majority of these in one sitting.

[Aqua Regia 3]

Hmm, I see.

I rezoned a part of my residential and commercial areas and increased my population to 300,000. Just as a note, I am in my 16th year. Thank you for the advice.

I am still disappointed, because I am not reaching 1,000,000, but I guess only time will tell.

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

That's the way of it.  There is no rush, this is a leisure time game, and a leisurely approach is best.  Rome wasn't built in a day as the saying goes, and neither was Paris (Lutetia) nor Bordeaux (Burdigilia).  I take the approach that most cities grew from cattle trails or fishing docks with few exceptions (Phoenix, AZ).

FYI, I have been retired since 2003 and will be 78 next month.  So you have a long haul to gain the experience that some of us have garnered over the years.

[drpfaff 54]

Pictures of large cities and slums would be greatly appreciated.

Got very busy with work over the weekend as my firm had a large submittal, but I will look into getting some pics out of my main city/slum tonight. Slow and steady though certainly wins the race. Took almost a year to develop the 9 large city tile area known as Sapphire Springs in my region.

[Aqua Regia 3]

Pictures of large cities and slums would be greatly appreciated.

Got very busy with work over the weekend as my firm had a large submittal, but I will look into getting some pics out of my main city/slum tonight. Slow and steady though certainly wins the race. Took almost a year to develop the 9 large city tile area known as Sapphire Springs in my region.

Yeah, take your time. RL is more important, for sure. I'm not in a rush.

[drpfaff 54]

Pictures of large cities and slums would be greatly appreciated.

So here we are. The first picture is the overall region (still a work in progress in some areas) view zoomed and trimmed to show the largest area of my region centered around the city of Sapphire Springs. This portion of the region contains 9 large city tiles and is home to 5.5M Sims. There is the main city which is outlined in yellow. To the north (up) there is a large harbor. The west side (right) is a wealthy housing area still in development and the south side (bottom) is a small extension of the main city. The area most interesting to our discussion is the left side, which is a large slum city bordering the main city. All the pictures are from the main city in yellow for this post:

The next image contains the downtown area, labeled as 1 above. This is a CO$$$ area for the most part with some R$$$ on the very edges and stretching out from what can clearly be seen as the main downtown.

Next is the transition area between the downtown and the low wealth slums. This area is both residential and commercial and contains many tall skyscrapers as well, yet not as nice of buildings, nor the same density height as the downtown area. Around the interchange in the center there is somewhat higher growth due to the increased traffic and offramps in that area.

Lastly is the area of interest to our discussion. The area to the far bottom left is the poorest in the entire tile. High rise tenaments are covering the land and most of the business are small. This portion of the city is also the newest, so some growth of the poor neighborhood is still happening. Going back to the region view in image #1 you can see the area directly to the left of this is a less dense, but equally poor area that extends all the way to the left. This is all R$ and roughly accounts for 1M of the population between the two cities. The remainder of the main city tile is mostly R$$ with a mix in of R$$$.

Remember that I am using the CAM for balance and that I have downloaded some of the more prominent buildings. However I have duplicated this with more "vanilla" style out of the box game in similar manner. If you have any questions let me know, regarding zoning, transit, concepts, etc.... Hope this helps somewhat!

[matias93 7,535]

@Aqua Regia, what I've noted looking at your city photos is that almost every building you have is in a small lot, mainly 2x3 and 2x4 lots. That's a probable cause of part of your low density problems.

When lotting, experiment using Control, Alt and Shift keys to control size, orientation and street presence (respectively). You will find that the most dense maxis buildings grow in 4x4 lots, and some custom content needs more than that just to appear (for example, 5x5 and 6x6 R$$ mega lots).

Anyway, if you are aiming at realism, consider that you have surpassed already most cities' central district's densities by now. In RL, cities are full of mid rise buildings, small parks and plazas, wide streets and lots of superficial parkings.

Although, if you prefer to get along with your density ratios, keep in mind that public transportation infraestructure should be scaled into correspondence. For example, if RL metro stations are separated by ~400 meters in central districts (25 SC4 tiles), in your city anymore than 10 tiles will be insufficient.

[Aqua Regia 3]

Pictures of large cities and slums would be greatly appreciated.

So here we are. The first picture is the overall region (still a work in progress in some areas) view zoomed and trimmed to show the largest area of my region centered around the city of Sapphire Springs. This portion of the region contains 9 large city tiles and is home to 5.5M Sims. There is the main city which is outlined in yellow. To the north (up) there is a large harbor. The west side (right) is a wealthy housing area still in development and the south side (bottom) is a small extension of the main city. The area most interesting to our discussion is the left side, which is a large slum city bordering the main city. All the pictures are from the main city in yellow for this post:

The next image contains the downtown area, labeled as 1 above. This is a CO$$$ area for the most part with some R$$$ on the very edges and stretching out from what can clearly be seen as the main downtown.

Next is the transition area between the downtown and the low wealth slums. This area is both residential and commercial and contains many tall skyscrapers as well, yet not as nice of buildings, nor the same density height as the downtown area. Around the interchange in the center there is somewhat higher growth due to the increased traffic and offramps in that area.

Lastly is the area of interest to our discussion. The area to the far bottom left is the poorest in the entire tile. High rise tenaments are covering the land and most of the business are small. This portion of the city is also the newest, so some growth of the poor neighborhood is still happening. Going back to the region view in image #1 you can see the area directly to the left of this is a less dense, but equally poor area that extends all the way to the left. This is all R$ and roughly accounts for 1M of the population between the two cities. The remainder of the main city tile is mostly R$$ with a mix in of R$$$.

Remember that I am using the CAM for balance and that I have downloaded some of the more prominent buildings. However I have duplicated this with more "vanilla" style out of the box game in similar manner. If you have any questions let me know, regarding zoning, transit, concepts, etc.... Hope this helps somewhat!

Thank you for sharing your Downtown with me. It looks spectacular.

Did you use landmarks? The skyscrapers are extremely high. I just can never get my commercial buildings to get that high.

The problem with my city is that I barely have any space to build my R$ slum area. 70% of my area consists of R$$$ and if I zone R$ areas over those, I will lose a significant portion of my population. My city size is actually quite smaller than the one shown on the image.

[drpfaff 54]

Thank you for sharing your Downtown with me. It looks spectacular.

Did you use landmarks? The skyscrapers are extremely high. I just can never get my commercial buildings to get that high.

The problem with my city is that I barely have any space to build my R$ slum area. 70% of my area consists of R$$$ and if I zone R$ areas over those, I will lose a significant portion of my population. My city size is actually quite smaller than the one shown on the image.

No problem and thank you! For the most part, the downtown region grew from zoning, with the exception of a few buildings that are landmark only. Those would be the International Commerce Center (the glassy angled cube building to the right of the ball park and WTC) and a few others that I can't recall right off. I think I may have plopped a hotel and a few other CS$$$ initially to stem larger growth and create traffic. AS for HEIGHT, one thing I did not like about the out of the box game was the scale of "tall" buildings which led me search out some of the standard real world buildings that have been modeled. I am unsure of how you feel regarding downloading BATs or Lots off this site, but they can greatly increase the diversity and height of your downtown. Any questions about which buildings are in my pictures and I can point you to where you can get them. I also use the CAMelots (not on this site, but on SC4D.com), but as explained in this post and others, the CAM is not for everyone.

I understand your hesitance to make a R$ slum in a nice city where you have lots of R$$$ and I would discourage it. Getting R$$$ to stick around is never a certain and easy thing to do, so the fact you got that down is great! My suggestion would be to use a bordering city (if available) and make it a poor slum. The city tile to the left of the city I used as example is a dirt poor, grimy area perfect of R$, and that population is nearly all R$ as they make up almost 700k of the 800k residents. I then use either highways (NAM 32) or train to bring them in for jobs at CS$$, CO$$ or I-M.

The big thing to discover is how you want to continue playing once you hit caps and what makes the game most fun. If you decide to get some custom content not found in the game, myself or many others here can point in the direction of some of SC4's best creations. And you can always start here too: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/66775-where-to-find-some-of-the-best-sc4-content/