Feeling overwhelmed...
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@TheMurderousCricket, you've missed the value the low-wealth R$ Sims bring. Consumer dollars drive a Commercial-based economy. Each R$ Sim goes shopping on the weekend, spends money at a pub or a restaurant, buys clothes and insurance, and does jobs that R$$ and R$$$ Sims are unwilling to do.
Note, this is about building a Commercial paradise. @CorinaMarie is our resident expert on building an Agricultural paradise. Cori's advice is better for your short-term growth, transitioning from your start as an Agricultural economy.
SC4 is an economy simulation, not just a city building game. To develop a city, you need to develop a virtuous cycle of growth, a virtuous cycle being the opposite of a vicious cycle. Here's the vicious cycle:
Without jobs, these sims won't come live in your city.
If the living conditions and amenities are not good enough, sims who come won't stay in your city.
Without sim employees of the right education and wealth level, businesses are sub-par.
Without enough sim road traffic and light rail traffic, businesses languish with Low Customers.
Here's the virtuous cycle for a concrete and glass Commercial paradise:
More sims come live in your city because there's jobs and housing.
If the living conditions are satisfactory, they stay.
The longer they stay, the better educated they become, at all wealth levels.
The better educated they are, the more suitable for office jobs, at all wealth levels, from R$ clerk to R$$ supervisor to R$$$ executive.
With steadily increasing road traffic and light rail traffic, businesses build to High Customers ... and then upgrade to taller buildings with more jobs.
High Customers is ESSENTIAL to the upgrade to taller Commercial buildings with more jobs. In SC4 High Customers of each business EQUALS high levels of adjacent road traffic and light rail traffic, that's it. R$ Sims bring you those high levels of road traffic and light rail traffic, early in the game, fuelling a virtuous cycle if you play all the factors right.
If you avoid R$ Sims, you are losing Customers in a consumer driven Commercial economy.
Nope. The "power is in numbers" is consumer power, not residential income tax revenue. See the numbers below.
In my Jamaica Bay 256x256 large city, there are 30 thousand jobs in our C$$$ office towers. These towers would never have grown if the businesses hadn't grown. They DEPEND on consumer demand, which is High Customers, defined in SC4 as high levels of road traffic and light rail traffic.
Jamaica Bay has a population of 137 thousand sim residents:
41.6% R$ Sims at 57 thousand R$ population,
43.8% R$$ Sims at 60 thousand R$$ population,
14.6% R$$$ Sims at 20 thousand R$$$ population.
The R$ Sims bring in just $3,531 in income tax revenue. [#bee7c0]
The same R$ Sims GENERATE 41.6% of the $21,423 Commercial tax revenue , in consumer demand (road traffic)
... that 41.6% calculates out to $8,911 in business income as a result of the road traffic and light rail traffic of R$ Sims. [#d4ebff] There's very little Commercial Monthly Income without a large market of consumers. In the SC4 game economy, these sims don't need to shop at a store to generate business prosperity, they just need to drive past the store (or commercial tower), on their commute route to work. Residents generate income from jobs Commercial generates income from adjacent traffic Industry generates income off successful freight trips to the city border So, the R$ Sims generate $12,442 in tax revenue per month, across residential income tax and commercial tax. That's 29.2% of our monthly city tax income of $42,638 due to our R$ Sims, even though their portion of residential income tax is just 17.2%. If you bundle these low wealth R$ Sims into high rise R$ tenements, they take up very little space. Click the Earlier screenshots of Jamaica Bay for the zoomed in pics I posted earlier in this thread, and scroll down for the Jamaica Bay city-wide zoomed out view. Here's a snapshot of the of the entire Jamaica Bay, zoomed out, with all of the unplanned low & medium density R$ housing on the outskirts circled in lime green, and the three planned high density R$ tenement districts nearer the centre of the city circled in forest green. So these highlighted R$ Sims generate 29.2% of my monthly city income, across both residential tax and commercial tax, while taking up very little space, and being the least fussy about environment, civic services, and amenities. In my worst cities, I still have a padding of civic buildings, Water Treatment Plants, trees, and Manufacturing zones, between my Dirty Industry and R$ Residential zones. Even R$ Sims don't want to live right next to a Coal Power Plant or a Farley's Foundry. R$ Sims have a good life here in Jamaica Bay. The R$ Sims value public transport and short commute the most, but in my Commercial paradise, they get clean air, clean water, low crime, trees, lots and lots of shopping and entertainment venues, schools and hospitals, and bushwalks in the North Forty Natural Area and the Ecology Village, or fishing at Plumb Beach. https://www.google.com/search?q=north+forty+natural+area+new+york&source=lnms&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q="ecology+village"+brooklyn+new+york&tbm=isch&sclient=img https://www.google.com/search?q=plumb+beach+(gateway+national+recreation+area)&source=lnms&tbm=isch For all these benefits, my R$ Sims suffer just one downside, living in tiny units in high-rise blocks. After I flag the high rise R$ tenements as "Historical" (preventing the land from being stolen by R$$ and R$$$ property developers), then city budget permitting, I gift my R$ Sims with some parks, playgrounds, and plazas, too. Without these R$ high rise tenements, my R$ Sims wouldn't be able to afford to live in Jamaica Bay at all. All the other residential zoned land will eventually be bought out by property developers for R$$ and R$$$ dwellings. Nature reserves are cheap to maintain, and fun to build. If they are built with just earthworks, roads, pedmalls, MMP decorations, and trees, then nature reserves don't need Police protection, either. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Careful land use is important, not only because real estate is limited, but because sims have limits on how far they will commute to work. Those limits are different for each profession, and different by mode of transport and directness of route, and different for inter-city vs local travel, but commute limits mean that conserving real-estate is ESSENTIAL to Commercial prosperity in your urban centres. Build up ... not out! Here's what that looks like on my 100 year Jobs & Pop graph for Jamaica Bay, at July of sim-year 109. I doubled the size and annotated the graph to make it easier to read, click or download to see the larger version of the graph. Keep in mind it's 100 years! Commercial prosperity is defined primarily by office towers, Co-§§ and Co-§§§ shown on the right-side of the graph using curved cyan-blue arrows. Based on efficient land use, office towers are by far the biggest employers in the game, providing many jobs for many employed sims. Commercial development is tied to ongoing population rise , via how busy the roads and light rail are in the tiles adjacent to each Commercial lot. See the sharp rise in R$ population at annotations 1 and 2 in the graph above. That's when I built my two R$ tenement districts. The red brace indicates the period of instability in my R$ population, because I overstretched with a little too much R$ housing all at once, not enough R$ jobs available, and a little too much pollution back at that time (the pollution is all gone now ). Notice that the Commercial prosperity, as measured by number of office jobs, didn't rise until economic stability reasserted. Economic stability is that important. Notice that Co-§§§ rich sim jobs rose ahead of the R$$$ population rise. I let large numbers of R$$$ Sims into the city, only after I had jobs prepared for them. The red arrow indicates the point that I reduced R$$$ taxes, letting more rich sims into the city, because I had the jobs, services, and amenities to convince them to live in medium density and high density apartments. Prosperous urban living has to be medium & high density, even for R$$$ Sims, or at least have medium & high density portions on your map. Let the R$$$ rich sims in your city too soon, and they will build mansions on 3x4 estates, and then sell them to R$$ medium wealth sims, and leave your city again. The mansions remain, but they look grotty and dilapidated, and even the grass is no longer lush and green. It's a waste of space, and it's not pretty! The Co-§§§ line is the one to watch, when considering long-term economic prosperity, but the build up involves this sequence: Cs-§ basic commercial. Cs-§§ and Co-§§ growth in areas with low pollution, high traffic, and Small Plaza / Small Park Green plops in commercial districts. Cs-§§ , Cs-§§§ and continued Co-§§ growth with economic stability and larger plazas. Co-§§§ job numbers eventually outstripping the other commercial sectors. Decline of Cs-§ is typical, but R$ Sims still have employment as clerks, cleaners, and service personnel, in the richer Commercial sectors. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: There's no income generating plops at all in Jamaica Bay. Monthly tax income is $2,435 more than expenses, but that's at sim-year 109. It takes time. Of course, there's a host of other factors, which is why my separate tutorials reveal hidden factors in the SC4 economic simulation, that will prevent the virtuous cycle from establishing itself. While it's still just a game, the economic simulation is far deeper than it appears at first: Ten Silent Killers of SimCity 4 Commercial Growth Thoughtful reflections on Oompa-Loompas (aka Where are all the workers?) City Startup Economic Gameplay - A recipe for happy sims! The mysterious powers of the SimCity 4 Bus Stop I use a dramatic and mischievous tone in these tutorials, but the economic information is solid. If I'm not sure of something, I'll say so. Yes, even the humble Bus Stop has key economic benefits, without which your virtuous cycle of Commercial growth is much harder to find.
The same R$ Sims GENERATE 41.6% of the $21,423 Commercial tax revenue , in consumer demand (road traffic)
... that 41.6% calculates out to $8,911 in business income as a result of the road traffic and light rail traffic of R$ Sims. [#d4ebff] There's very little Commercial Monthly Income without a large market of consumers. In the SC4 game economy, these sims don't need to shop at a store to generate business prosperity, they just need to drive past the store (or commercial tower), on their commute route to work. Residents generate income from jobs Commercial generates income from adjacent traffic Industry generates income off successful freight trips to the city border So, the R$ Sims generate $12,442 in tax revenue per month, across residential income tax and commercial tax. That's 29.2% of our monthly city tax income of $42,638 due to our R$ Sims, even though their portion of residential income tax is just 17.2%. If you bundle these low wealth R$ Sims into high rise R$ tenements, they take up very little space. Click the Earlier screenshots of Jamaica Bay for the zoomed in pics I posted earlier in this thread, and scroll down for the Jamaica Bay city-wide zoomed out view. Here's a snapshot of the of the entire Jamaica Bay, zoomed out, with all of the unplanned low & medium density R$ housing on the outskirts circled in lime green, and the three planned high density R$ tenement districts nearer the centre of the city circled in forest green. So these highlighted R$ Sims generate 29.2% of my monthly city income, across both residential tax and commercial tax, while taking up very little space, and being the least fussy about environment, civic services, and amenities. In my worst cities, I still have a padding of civic buildings, Water Treatment Plants, trees, and Manufacturing zones, between my Dirty Industry and R$ Residential zones. Even R$ Sims don't want to live right next to a Coal Power Plant or a Farley's Foundry. R$ Sims have a good life here in Jamaica Bay. The R$ Sims value public transport and short commute the most, but in my Commercial paradise, they get clean air, clean water, low crime, trees, lots and lots of shopping and entertainment venues, schools and hospitals, and bushwalks in the North Forty Natural Area and the Ecology Village, or fishing at Plumb Beach. https://www.google.com/search?q=north+forty+natural+area+new+york&source=lnms&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q="ecology+village"+brooklyn+new+york&tbm=isch&sclient=img https://www.google.com/search?q=plumb+beach+(gateway+national+recreation+area)&source=lnms&tbm=isch For all these benefits, my R$ Sims suffer just one downside, living in tiny units in high-rise blocks. After I flag the high rise R$ tenements as "Historical" (preventing the land from being stolen by R$$ and R$$$ property developers), then city budget permitting, I gift my R$ Sims with some parks, playgrounds, and plazas, too. Without these R$ high rise tenements, my R$ Sims wouldn't be able to afford to live in Jamaica Bay at all. All the other residential zoned land will eventually be bought out by property developers for R$$ and R$$$ dwellings. Nature reserves are cheap to maintain, and fun to build. If they are built with just earthworks, roads, pedmalls, MMP decorations, and trees, then nature reserves don't need Police protection, either. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Careful land use is important, not only because real estate is limited, but because sims have limits on how far they will commute to work. Those limits are different for each profession, and different by mode of transport and directness of route, and different for inter-city vs local travel, but commute limits mean that conserving real-estate is ESSENTIAL to Commercial prosperity in your urban centres. Build up ... not out! Here's what that looks like on my 100 year Jobs & Pop graph for Jamaica Bay, at July of sim-year 109. I doubled the size and annotated the graph to make it easier to read, click or download to see the larger version of the graph. Keep in mind it's 100 years! Commercial prosperity is defined primarily by office towers, Co-§§ and Co-§§§ shown on the right-side of the graph using curved cyan-blue arrows. Based on efficient land use, office towers are by far the biggest employers in the game, providing many jobs for many employed sims. Commercial development is tied to ongoing population rise , via how busy the roads and light rail are in the tiles adjacent to each Commercial lot. See the sharp rise in R$ population at annotations 1 and 2 in the graph above. That's when I built my two R$ tenement districts. The red brace indicates the period of instability in my R$ population, because I overstretched with a little too much R$ housing all at once, not enough R$ jobs available, and a little too much pollution back at that time (the pollution is all gone now ). Notice that the Commercial prosperity, as measured by number of office jobs, didn't rise until economic stability reasserted. Economic stability is that important. Notice that Co-§§§ rich sim jobs rose ahead of the R$$$ population rise. I let large numbers of R$$$ Sims into the city, only after I had jobs prepared for them. The red arrow indicates the point that I reduced R$$$ taxes, letting more rich sims into the city, because I had the jobs, services, and amenities to convince them to live in medium density and high density apartments. Prosperous urban living has to be medium & high density, even for R$$$ Sims, or at least have medium & high density portions on your map. Let the R$$$ rich sims in your city too soon, and they will build mansions on 3x4 estates, and then sell them to R$$ medium wealth sims, and leave your city again. The mansions remain, but they look grotty and dilapidated, and even the grass is no longer lush and green. It's a waste of space, and it's not pretty! The Co-§§§ line is the one to watch, when considering long-term economic prosperity, but the build up involves this sequence: Cs-§ basic commercial. Cs-§§ and Co-§§ growth in areas with low pollution, high traffic, and Small Plaza / Small Park Green plops in commercial districts. Cs-§§ , Cs-§§§ and continued Co-§§ growth with economic stability and larger plazas. Co-§§§ job numbers eventually outstripping the other commercial sectors. Decline of Cs-§ is typical, but R$ Sims still have employment as clerks, cleaners, and service personnel, in the richer Commercial sectors. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: There's no income generating plops at all in Jamaica Bay. Monthly tax income is $2,435 more than expenses, but that's at sim-year 109. It takes time. Of course, there's a host of other factors, which is why my separate tutorials reveal hidden factors in the SC4 economic simulation, that will prevent the virtuous cycle from establishing itself. While it's still just a game, the economic simulation is far deeper than it appears at first: Ten Silent Killers of SimCity 4 Commercial Growth Thoughtful reflections on Oompa-Loompas (aka Where are all the workers?) City Startup Economic Gameplay - A recipe for happy sims! The mysterious powers of the SimCity 4 Bus Stop I use a dramatic and mischievous tone in these tutorials, but the economic information is solid. If I'm not sure of something, I'll say so. Yes, even the humble Bus Stop has key economic benefits, without which your virtuous cycle of Commercial growth is much harder to find.
A highly insightful and well-presented post explaining about population factors.
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Sorry for being so incredibly late. Two years I guess?
I once wrote an introduction for beginners. It's the Fantozzi style - maybe even more confusing than the real stuff. But maybe fun. Didn't get much feedback so I'm not shure if it's really helpfull.
Try it on your own risk!
https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=18402.0
Reminds me of the joke of a man sitting completely drunk an a bar yelling: "Happy New Year!"
And the bartender smirks: "What are you talking about.? It's Pentecost gone."
And the man responds: "Yuck. So my wife will be really mad at me. I never came home this late."
A very useful intro guide on learning SC4 in stages from starting out.
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