The "Commuters: None" Problem...

[TogaMasterJohn 700]

27 minutes ago, Rendell001 said:

RCI demand is pretty high across the board except for dirty industry which has taxes of 20% to keep them out.

I could be wrong (I'm interested in hearing what others have to say, too  ), but I think it is best to not raise the taxes for I-D that high, if it all. A small amount of dirty industry in a city is an alright thing from my experience. Dirty industry is alright at the start of the city (and it seems to be encouraged), so I wouldn't recommend taxing them to Timbuktu at the beginning.

If you wish to increase the tax rate for I-D, I personally suggest a 2-3% boost, but too much generally does not seem to be the best thing from my experience.

37 minutes ago, Rendell001 said:

Have just gotten the TV studio though I'm unclear on what benefits this provides and wether better placement will give improved results.

I believe it is best to put near a commercial district (generally a medium to high wealth commercial area).

I'd recommend checking out the SimCity 4 Rush Hour guide from Prima over at the Internet Archive for more information about the Television Studio and the game in general (although the guide has a few things incorrect about the game - though I can't remember which things exactly).

Hope this helps!
(and I hope it's okay to link the guide here; I think I've seen it linked here before!)

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

2 minutes ago, TogaMasterJohn said:

I think it is best to not raise the taxes for I-D that high, if it all.

I agree. There are a bunch of posts which recommend 20%, but I find it best to keep increasing in stages until the demand goes to zero or slightly negative. That could be 10.5% or 11.9% or any such depending on other factors, but simply adjusting a wee bit, running time, viewing the demand graph, and repeating as needed until it's low without completely bottoming out is the method I favor.

 

4 minutes ago, TogaMasterJohn said:

(and I hope it's okay to link the guide here; I think I've seen it linked here before!)

(Yep, tis perfectly fine and even encouraged.)

[TheMurderousCricket 5,042]

6 minutes ago, TogaMasterJohn said:

I could be wrong (I'm interested in hearing what others have to say, too  ), but I think it is best to not raise the taxes for I-D that high, if it all. A small amount of dirty industry in a city is an alright thing from my experience.

I agree! Alternatively it can be moved to another city tile to stay open to employees but far enough so they don't influence land values and pollution levels. There is nothing wrong with a little bit of CO2. (The Slackers-certified paragraph)

I-D will generally be fine with high rates... as long as they rise gradually.

My I-D sector in one of my regions is being hammered with a 14.7% tax rate and it is still there, about 250 years after the tax rates became "unbearable". It will take a veeeery long time for them to actually abandon their operations. I only lost about 1800 workplaces throughout all this time. True - no new I-D will develop due to demand being rock bottom. But they will not beat a hasty retreat either.

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

Just to comment...

For the strategies discussed, this all really emphasises how in SC4 there are so many ways to play. So overall it each depends on how we wish to go about crafting our cities, with many diverse solutions for solving puzzles, as we wish to solve them. It is often a case of whatever works best for what we have as our own goals. With no defined objectives in SC4 (other than avoiding running for Senator!) it gives boundless freedom to build in a multitude of imaginative ways.

[Rendell001 36]

So I should mention that I installed a few Air purifier lots and a combined water and air processing lot for use in my industrial district. Water pollution is virtually extinct and air pollution has plummeted to the point where even high tech industry is begining to appear on the outer edges of the main industrial district...

I still have significant dirty industry in there but I've been gradually working my way in from the edges of the district, bulldozing a few small businesses at a time for them to be replaced by manufacturing instead. There is a core of large Dirty industries around where the power stations are located at the edge of that corner. Changing them over is something that I'll need to do gradually...

[TheMurderousCricket 5,042]

7 hours ago, Rendell001 said:

So I should mention that I installed a few Air purifier lots

Careful while treading there. There are several confirmed "wunderwaffe" lots down here which do the intended job but are so poorly written that they destabilize other mechanics of your city.

I just hope that this is not what's causing problems for you. Generally, dirty-cheating your way through the game brings more problems than you can imagine. Demand overrides being one of the weirdest and most damaging mods. 

Besides, while tempting, I wouldn't be in a rush to cheat my way around pollution this way. It is too easy. 

Realistically, and in the current stage of human (mal)development, air quality game is "unwinnable by design" as gamers would say. It is just a fact of life and you can't completely eliminate it.

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

14 minutes ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I wouldn't be in a rush to cheat my way around pollution this way. It is too easy. 

Those are good points about some mods being more detrimental than helpful in the long run. That said, I've been using the MCP Water & Air Purification Plant for a few years and I love it.

[Rendell001 36]

11 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Careful while treading there. There are several confirmed "wunderwaffe" lots down here which do the intended job but are so poorly written that they destabilize other mechanics of your city.

Realistically, and in the current stage of human (mal)development, air quality game is "unwinnable by design" as gamers would say. It is just a fact of life and you can't completely eliminate it.

No, the air pollution is not completely removed but it is certainly better than it used to be - areas bordering the industrial district are very much healthier as a result.

Additionally, a couple of these lots do have significant costs / upkeep attached to them so they're not entirely unbalanced.
I would not be installing cheats as that would defeat the purpose of the game.

RCI demand has generally remained at high levels for quite some time and I think has been influenced by some of the changes I've made to residential and commercial areas.

 

11 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Those are good points about some mods being more detrimental than helpful in the long run. That said, I've been using the MCP Water & Air Purification Plant for a few years and I love it.

Yup, thats one of the ones I installed - very much more compact than the vanilla water plant!

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

10 minutes ago, Rendell001 said:

Yup, thats one of ones I installed - very much more compact than the vanilla water plant!

And much more reasonable for the monthly cost too!

Btw, have you played in any of the connected, adjacent tiles? You can create jobs there to help increase population in Big City.

[Rendell001 36]

9 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

And much more reasonable for the monthly cost too!

Btw, have you played in any of the connected, adjacent tiles? You can create jobs there to help increase population in Big City.

I've only played in the other tutorial where the objective is to get the population to 40K or more - I'm currently on 38.5K.

I found that there were similar problems to "Big City Tutorial" as regards commute Time and abandonment, additionally the terrain in that map was quite challenging to work around.

Of course that map is not next door to Big City, I'd need to work out what I was going to do with those neighbouring maps first!

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

3 hours ago, Rendell001 said:

I'd need to work out what I was going to do with those neighbouring maps first!

Good plan!

Here's what I did for the one east (to the right) of Big City:

^ In the upper left, I made an extension of the industrial area so it blends in nicely at the region level view. Then because of the mini mountain range, I curved the rail line to go south.

Here's an overlay with the Rail shown in orange:

^ The cyan (light blue) denotes Roads, the white/gray are Streets, and in the water, the dark blue shows Ferry paths.

The general idea for region play is to grow adjacent city tiles, save them, then go back and load the connected main city tile. This will cause the demands and job availability to be shared. Then, too, you can play city tiles adjacent to these which are not directly connected to the main tile (but are connected to the tile in between), save them, load the tile that's in between, save it, then load the main tile, and now you have demand propagated from the outlying tile thru the intermediate, and into the main tile.

[Rendell001 36]

So I'm working on that neighbouring map which you have shown in your screenshots and I'm having trouble with the bridges across the river.

The road bridge is fine but it's the rail bridge thats the issue - it needs to be raised up on a gradually inclining embankment on the town side and then rise higher still on the opposite bank since that has higher gradient. This is further annoying as it's that side of the map that the railway line will have to exit in order to connect with "Making Money"...

I have been looking at a couple of YouTube tutorials on the subject though they use different mods to create embankments.

This is quite frustrating!

[TheMurderousCricket 5,042]

59 minutes ago, Rendell001 said:

This is quite frustrating!

Make sure to have enough pre-bridge clearance to successfully put it down. Don't start the bridge on the first tile you would like it to be laid down. It needs to be started as a flat road or rail and only then turned into one.

Could you post a screenshot of where do you want to install your bridge? I can try it as well if you like and we'll see.

[Rendell001 36]

1 hour ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Make sure to have enough pre-bridge clearance to successfully put it down. Don't start the bridge on the first tile you would like it to be laid down. It needs to be started as a flat road or rail and only then turned into one.

Could you post a screenshot of where do you want to install your bridge? I can try it as well if you like and we'll see.

To be honest I still have much work to do getting the hang of elevated railways etc - working with underpasses is stressful enough!

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

@Rendell001 Yep, this is a persnickety one.

Here's how I did it. First start where the rail is already poking thru from Big City:

 

Build a Road bridge in line with the railroad:

 

West end of bridge:

 

One the east end, bulldoze all except a one cell stub of road extending from the bridge:

 

Single click plop Road stubs north and south of said stub, then six more to the east of them to level the terrain:

 

Bulldoze only the Road stub extending from the bridge:

 

Now single click plop Road stubs starting in the empty cell you made and working towards the west until you have a 45º (ish) embankment at the left end:

 

Go to the left side of the map, single click two Road stubs north and south of the right end of the remaining road, then do the same technique plopping singles going to the right till you have a good embankment there:

 

Start your rail on the end of the existing rail:

 

While holding down the left mouse button, also hold down the right mouse button and scroll across the water till you get it like this:

 

Let go of both buttons and choose the bridge type you want:

 

And now let the bridge build:

 

[TheMurderousCricket 5,042]

Aaah, ok, so it's an elevated rail that you are having problem with.

Yes, it seems logical that an already elevated network may go out of whack when it becomes a river crossing which, by definition, is elevated as well. 

I'm not a rail expert either, so perhaps someone else can address your concerns. Granted, I'm interested in the answer too.

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

7 minutes ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

... so perhaps someone else can address your concerns. Granted, I'm interested in the answer too.

I realise you posted this just moments after an expert (Cori) posted so eloquently above.

[Rendell001 36]

15 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

@Rendell001 Yep, this is a persnickety one.

Now single click plop Road stubs starting in the empty cell you made and working towards the west until you have a 45º (ish) embankment at the left end:

Go to the left side of the map, single click two Road stubs north and south of the right end of the remaining road, then do the same technique plopping singles going to the right till you have a good embankment there:

 

I have to say Corina that if I had to rate what is the most important tip I've learned recently regarding SimCity 4, it would have to be one about using indivdual road plops to level terrain.

I had already used it for a few things in the other two tutorials but your post takes it to a whole other level!

I had to spend a fair amont of time working on both banks but it's very much better now than before...

That just leaves tunnels for the next part!

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

3 hours ago, Rendell001 said:

I had to spend a fair amont of time working on both banks but it's very much better now than before...

Yes, indeed. That's looking good and gives a realistic feel to it.

 

Random Tip: You can transfer power across the water without using power transmission lines if you want.

^ As long as zoning or other plops get close enough to the bridge ends, they will carry the electricity across.