Simcity 4 experiment, etc.

[brianc1327 161]

Recently, I got a $50 gift certificate to Amazon, and looked and simcity deluxe was on sale for $5, so I got it.  I had to install Origin, which appears to be the equivalent of Steam, but specifically for EA games.

 My basic strategy is still pretty much the same as in the original SC4:

1.  I build some basic infrastructure such as power plants, roads, pumps, water piping, etc.  In the original, I built these things until I had somewhere between $20k and $50k left.  If I don't spend that much, not enough area is zoned for my city to start making money.  If I spend more, I go into debt before enough is built up and am forced to take the toxic waste dump, the army base, etc.  I guess there is no real shame in taking those things, but I still don't like doing it.    In deluxe, since so far I am wimping out and selecting "easy" mode and starting with $500k, money is not so much an issue.

2.  I let it run until it gets back to 100k (at least in the original), then start putting in services such as schools (both elementary and high schools) and medical clinics.  I let these things run fully funded for about 2 game years, so they can reach their capacity for the city size you currently have, then I adjust their funding.  The schools I fund to twice their enrollment, for example if the school has 100 students I set the funding to 200 students, or a close as the sliders will let me get.  I also do the same for the medical clinics, but the funding is somewhere between 1.1x and 1.5x instead of 2x. 

3.  I repeat steps 1 and 2 until I have a "mature" city that has all of its areas zoned and is making pretty good money.

4.  When I have this "mature" city, I start adding stuff like colleges, museums, libraries, etc.

In this basic strategy, I have also along the way experimented with adding city beautification (park greens, plazas, etc), farmland and other stuff.  At least to my understanding, there is more "other stuff" available.  In the original,  I dont like farms because can't be taxed and create very large amounts of water pollution, even more than industrial areas.  In deluxe, it appears they can be, so perhaps I will revisit my farming community  and see what happens if I tax them heavily enough to pay for the many water purification plants that are needed.

I have also decided to try some thing. On the lower SW corner of maxisland, there are 3 areas, 2 small and 1 big.  I levelled these and put them at the same height so I could try my experiment without the variables of mountains and such.

One of the smaller cities I named trash town, and put in it just land fill and power plants, so perhaps I should have named it trash/power town.  The other small city I called "water town" and am putting only water pumps and wind turbines (clean power) in.  The large city I called "test city" and am building up using "trash town" and "water town" to provide the utilities.

After I get "test city" built up, I will make a "test city 2" that is connected to "test city", but not directly connected to either trash or water town.  Will the neighbor deals offered be to the actual producers of the services or will it be with who the actual connection is to.  I think it will be a bit easier to manage if the deals are with the actual producer.

As for naming cities, for my first city I just used the default "New City" with "Defacto" for the mayor. For another city, I called it "Socorro" (where I grew up) and called the mayor "Brian."  For another I  looked around my desk and called the city "Cooler Master" and the mayor "H. P. Deskjet".  My farming community I named "Farm Town" and would have to open up simcity4 and look to be certain, but I think I used a name for the mayor something like "Fred the Farmer."  

I was just curious how other people name their cites.  Do you use the default "New City X" and "Defacto?"  Do you look around your desk and come up with names like "Cooler Master" and "H.P. Deskejet?"  Do you use real city names and do a google search to find the actual name of the current mayor?  Some other method?  Inquiring minds (or at least mine) wants to know.

Well that is enough babbling for one post, perhaps in the future I will report on how my experiment with "Test City" came out.

Brian Christiansen 

[citycowboy 183]

um, no, you download over 10,000 buildings, trees, and bus stops, and then spend months trying to recreate some city block by block using google maps. Then you take screenshots of it and post it here, only to find out you got in 28th place for that week. Then you start over, exchange notes with others, and try again, only to get in 48th place, because while you were getting better, wiser, and more experienced, so were they. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Naming a city is largely a matter of experience.  I often name mine from literature, especially obscure literature.  One of the cities I've illustrated recently is Lomokome.  I know this is an African word, but I got it long before I knew that from a short story by Edgar Rice Burroughs called 'The Lomokome Papers'.

I tend to use science fiction names for cities, but occasionally use a 'locale' name because it fits the scene.

One thing you mustn't do with building a city is blow your budget.  If you have something special in mind like building a port with lots of factories you may have to make grants in aid to keep from going broke.  For this, I use the extra cheats dll command moolah.  Later on you can recover this from the treasury simply by taking it back when the city can afford it.  After all, if you are a god you can do what you please.

Cities should grow historically from either a riparian village or a farming village or both.  No huge layouts.  Just start small and grow towards your target (if any).

[Lucario Boricua 7,049]

My cities are named based on a series of master lists I created for Civilization IV, using cities that correspond to my fictional countries.  I'll always use as major cities the ones I have designated for the capital role or for otherwise important locations, with filler towns alternating between the names of the lesser settlements and names coming from geography of wherever I happen to place the city or town.

[matias93 7,535]

I try to give a fictional historical context to my cities and regions, and so my names correspond mainly to indigenous toponyms and colonizers' exonyms. For example, 'Guaico' is a stuary called 'morass' in Mapudungún, and so 'Lican mahuida', shortened to 'Licanmay', meaning 'quartz hills' in the same tongue; in the same region there is 'Villa Albión', a suburban community founded by english colonists bring by the local government in the 19th century.

[Compdude787 916]

I name my cities often based on the terrain surrounding them, like one city where two forks of a river meet is called "Twin Forks." Other cities are named for a bay they are near. Finally, other cities are just randomly picked names based on real life city and town names.

[Prophet42 1,503]

For naming cities, I basically use the same technique the Compdude787 states.  I will use some feature of the terrain (like Scripture Bay), or some region "history" (like Dead Goat), or some randomly picked name that I think sounds cool (like Hebron).

[citycowboy 183]

My cities are a blend of regional geographic features, made up indian name sounding words, random popular last names, and words I've read on housing development signs. I have a large excel worksheet loaded with names I think sound pretty. So far my favorite names I've made up are 'Magnolia Highlands' and 'Palamino Hills'. I think they would make great suburbs. My newest Indian word is 'Obskaniwa'. Simple names like Thompson Falls and Harrison Creek exist, and sometimes, like for example, I take a pre existing word and regionalize it, like for Klatskanee its just a polish version of the word Clatskanie, a town in Oregon. I like to name all the streets too, using an american format of numbered streets, types of trees, waterways, presidents, and popular US street names like Ashland, Ogden, Wall, and Lombard. Usually I do the geographical street names first, like Hill Street, Cemetery Street, and Water Street. Then I fill in the rest. Depending on where the city is, I might include the neighboring states. For example, if I made a city in Indiana, I'd be sure to include street names like Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois downtown. Also sometimes a main arterial will have the name like Martin Luther King Way or something. Sometimes further out into the country, a road that connects one town to another might have that town's name as the road, with a corresponding highway number, which usually becomes Main Street once it gets close enough to the town. Major cities are often street names, like Pittsburgh and Sacramento. Also, the waterways, forests, hills, and neighborhoods have their own names too. A thorough knowledge of old english comes in handy at times for making up names, depending primarily on how far east I've placed the city.