Problem with game - nobody in my town BUG

[Johny90 0]

Hello,

I after many year start play SimCity 4 Deluxe. I build money big cities in my new regions with some 500 000 - 600 000 peoples and pozitive cash flow, but my region is filled with many small pieces.
I looking on internet, and about manual make new bigger region with only big areas (I start new region, open cinfig.bmp, resaize him to 32x32 and full painted to blue color), but from this time i'am over ...
When I start city and prepare bigger than 1x1 parcels (everything types yellow, green, blue), nobody moving in ... I have water, energy, hospital, police, fire-station, school etc ... just everythnig, but to the place bigger than 1x1 nobody (to everythings types of zones). I Can open my old region and open my old cities (550 000 peoples), and here same problem by new build.
My city have standard 4x6 places, everything filled, but if build new, nobody movig in. If i try on some zones demolish building, anything new biuldings. If I zone partition to 1x1 part, everything immediately filled ...
I try re-instal game (I idiot don't safe regions), same problem. I try another version of game, same problem. I use another patch of game, same problem :-(
I love this game, and us I tell, I build many of biggest cities, but this i see absolutely for first, and I can't find solution.
Can you somebody help with this problem ?

 

[kccl35 83]

It looks like your residential zones are being zoned into parcels that are too big. Try breaking it into 1x2 or 2x2 and you should see some growth, especially since the residential demand is there.

Hope it helps!

[Johny90 0]

I create new zone with hold CTRL, and do it all time, and never be problem ... On bigger zone build first small houses on few squares, than is buildings on all place and next growe buildings over all 6x4 places (somewhere skycraper etc. . But now on this zone is not building anything ... that is it, what me surprised. I never before have problem with size of zone. Only people from start don't live on all area. I create new job, school, bus station and immediately from few small houses 2-3 bigger apartment building, and after 1-2 year (game year) biulding with many floors. But now absolutely nothing ... only if I don't hold CTRL and create small squares, that is immediately full, but never grow to bigger houses. And I can create how many other zones what want :-(
I am so desperate ... I want play, but no only villages with small houses :-(

[rsc204 21,808]

The game has two mechanisms that are behind your problems, the first being Growth Stages and the second Zone Size. In short, this means when starting a new region/city you won't have any demand for larger buildings. In short, this zoning strategy you've used here, is preventing growth from occurring. It's worth noting that:

• If you zone say a 2x4 area, the game can grow smaller lots there and break the original zoning into multiple chunks/pieces.
• If you zone a bunch of smaller zones together, the game can combine then when growing a building into a bigger lot.

Whilst those two factors would make it seem like your zoning could be compensated for by the game automatically, it doesn't always work that way in practise. By breaking up those zones into sizes that can actually appear at this point in the game, 1x2, 2x1, 2x2 are the most common low res units, you'll spur growth. Those houses should later upgrade together if the underlying zoning is right. If not, well deal with the problem later and just delete areas that aren't redeveloping as you'd like. But simply trying to force a broken zoning system to grow is going to give you much more problems that having to alter some stuff later.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Experiment with shift and alt zoning to see what other zoning patterns you can create.

[Johny90 0]

So when I played for first time, I always fight with traffic because I had the road to 4x6 area for future growt, but the game split into 4x4 + small road and 1x4, and the road from allday full. Then I found the possibility of using CTRL on the Internet and this solves all the problems. So I build many small and about 5 big cities of 500,000-600,000 people, but then I got a place to grow. That is why I just tried to create a larger region and started my problems there.
I tried to use SHIFT now and that might be the solution, because people move in and fill the whole area. I'll let the city grow few time and see if there will be some bigger buildings like 2-3 floors etc.
I have forgotten to write that taxes always give 6-7-8% (industry - commerce - residential) and when the city have some 100 000 peoples, and they are satisfied, so I increase.
I'll try that SHIFT ...
Thanks to all

[cogeo 960]

There are no 4-tile deep residential lots for the early, not even the medium growth stages. Actually only some stage-8 residential hi-rises are 4-tile deep, and these are not 6x4 either. And the simulator won't give you a residential hi-rise right from the start.

I would suggest zoning some 3-tile deep zones, not just "some", "a lot" would be more accurate to say. These should best be the vast majority of your zoning pattern. 3-tile deep zones are very versatile, as they can accommodate lots of all growth stages: 1x3 houses (stages 1-3), 2x3 $$ condos (stages 5 & 6), 2x3 $ tenements (stages 4-7), and finally 3x3 and 4x3 hi-rises (stages 7 & 8). $$ rowhouses are stage-4 and grow only on 1x2 lots, medium- or high-density.

A sidenote, this layout is wasteful and inefficient. Too many parallel avenues, ie excess capacity, the houses will be suffering from noise, and the commercial lots won't be getting high traffic (=customers) because it will be shared among the multiple avenues. For the residential area I prefer an "arterial" layout (low-capacity networks leading to high-capacity ones), and it would be best to funnel the traffic through fewer thoroughfares in the commercial area.

[zebulon_stonehenge 135]

Hmm. Maybe nix all those 5x5, 5x6, and 4x6 zoned parcels. I don't think SimCity 4 even has zoned (game-generated) residential buildings that large (if it does, I haven't seen them). Even 4x4 buildings are rare and only crop up after the city gets big.

Now, industrial, on the other hand, does have some big lots, such as Wallace Petroleum (4x4), Jenquai Alchemy (4x5), and Max's Microchips (4x5).

As for commercial, the biggest I've seen is McClelland, Inc (4x4 commercial office).

As for residential, I've not seen bigger than 4x4, and 3x4 is more common (Kaukor Manor, Project Feelgood).

So for your residential zones, I recommend start with your zones consisting of a bunch of small R1 residential parcels (1x2, 1x3, 2x2, 2x3). Then add R2 zones with 2x2, 2x3, and 3x3. Later, add R3 zones with 3x3, 3x4, 4x4, and then buildings will pop up on those, provided residential demand is high enough.