CS$ and CS$$ building recommendations

[vFareW 1]

Hi all,

I recently returned to playing again and have been experiencing very high CS demand. Since I'm working on urban centers right now, I have been downloading high-density CS$$ and CS$$$ from the STEX. I notice that CS$, CS$$ demand is still very high, so I searched for more large CS$, CS$$ files.

Now most mid-level highrises and skyscrapers are CO, so I have been focusing on hotel lots and using ilive reader to repurpose CO$$ lots as CS$$, or dropping the level of some CS$$$ lots to CS$$. I am wondering if anyone has any recommendations on any high-density Lots that are either already CS$/CS$$ or could be good candidates to repurpose as such, especially CS$. Ideally they can look like they can hold 1K+ jobs, but 500+ is good too. Thanks!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

The thing is, the game's default CS$ / CS$$ buildings aren't that big, either. It's typically your average little shoebox store, the biggest buildings being either groceries / shopping centres or hotels.

If your situation is that bad, it may be that your existing BATs are tuned to very low values compared to Maxis buildings. A 1x2 CS$ store that's part of the vanilla game may hold 40-90 jobs (!), which is a number many BATers apparently shy away from, opting for job numbers in the range of 15-25 instead. Multiply that by the number of corresponding lots in your city, and you got yourself a pretty serious discrepancy.

It might make more sense to check that your existing CS$ and CS$$ BATs have suitable job numbers, and even if the CS$ demand bar remains very high, that doesn't necessarily mean you need to get it to disappear at all times. However, with properly tuned BATs, the problem shouldn't be quite so bad, which means you won't have to hunt for huge buildings to repurpose.

IIRC, bixel has made a few that fit the bill, though - you may want to check his portfolio on the STEX if you haven't already done so.

[vFareW 1]

Thanks for the suggestions on the buildings! I have downloaded several of them.

I am mostly looking for alternatives to having CS$/CS$$ only cities, or some more variety than just mass flea markets and drive in theaters, or a flood of small shops and boutiques. Something like a large vertical mall or food court could be interesting, for example. One lot I have been using is Richardson's by Simgoober, a big department store that fits into urban locations.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Normally CS$ and (albeit to a lesser degree) CS$$ are mostly starter buildings that provide some entry-level jobs for your Sims in the early development phases. As the edcuation effect kicks in and the city grows wealthier - thus being able to provide better amenities - these flea markets, cinemas and small shops will be replaced/overgrown by better CS$$ / CS$$$ boutiques as well as CO$$ and CO$$$ because at this time your city will have wealthier and better educated Sims who call for better jobs, raising demand for more qualified service, office, and high-tech industry jobs. Only a small base population plus a larger part of Sims moving into your city will hold up demand for low-qualification jobs by then - unless, of course, you force it by not providing much education and many amenities.

In addition to demand, desirability is another factor: Plop down a few plazas and/or flower gardens, run the game for a while, and you should see quite some development going on in your "flea market rows" - if there is corresponding demand, that is.

Finally, if you are looking for BATs to add more variety to your CS$ / CS$$ zones (a step I can understand irrespective of the two above paragraphs because those Maxis buildings sure get repetitive!), then you can cover a large portion of the problem with the downloads offered by two authors alone: @jmyers2043 and @madhatter106. Maybe add @dk1 to the mix.