How to grow a massive city?

[Sickminecraft45 0]

Hi, I play SimCity 4. I need help to start a large city with millions of people. How do I stop the population from shrinking? I always have the population shrink well before I hit 100k! What is going wrong?

[TheMurderousCricket 5,127]

Hi @Sickminecraft45! The question you've asked is almost impossible to answer due to the sheer number of ways in which a goal like this can be achieved! 

I've got some tips for you though. Read on.

1. Make sure you play regionally. If you plan to stick to just one city tile, grow it to 350 000 first and only then switch to another city tile, you'll probably fail. A single city just doesn't have enough power to support various, complex growth processes. Think of a single tree in the middle of nowhere, trying to make a forest!

2. Make sure to use cap relief structures and offer enough services and employment for your population to grow and stabilize. Note, however, that this won't work if condition #1 is being overlooked.

3. Make sure to offer some basic public transport in your city. Even a single bus stop can kickstart a large-scale redevelopment in its immediate vicinity! You definitely need this! Note, however, that this won't work if condition #1 is being overlooked...

4. Last but not least, be patient! Building a multi-million metropolis takes lots of time. It's not like you can just sit down in the afternoon, play for three hours and have your goal accomplished.  It will take three weeks or maybe even months! (Depending on the skills too.) 

[rsc204 21,869]

Slow down is probably the best advice anyone can give you, SimCity 4 is a reactive game, but if you do too much too quickly, you won't be able to react to the effects of those changes fast enough to keep on top of things.

That your population is contracting is most likely because you've an imbalance between the number of sims and number of jobs. Note that workplaces will grow before there are people to work there and residences will grow, even if no one would need to move in. Your job as mayor is to understand what your city really needs at a given time and provide the conditions for it. You can't simply look at the demand bars and say you need x number of new commercial because you have demand for it for example. Have a look at your Regional Population, it should ideally be around 2x the number of Com and Ind jobs of your region, it's that's really out of whack, it can lead to many problems. Note only around 50% of sims will ever work, to account for kids in school, stay at home carers and pensioners etc.

If no imbalance exists, then you'd need to look more deeply at the in-game data for the cause. I guess my second tip is take in all the information on offer, it is vital to understanding what's actually going on under the surface.

[gviper 922]

Now, I can say it is possible to do this without taking your first city to 350k, however, it won't be easy, and a few mods are really necessary. I know this because I just completed this task. I've been a Simmer for years and never took a single city to 1 million residents. Just completed that. my starter city was only 170k the others no more than 10k combined before I built El Centro, BUT, I use a couple mods from CoriBoom and others including: less abandonment, industrial job multiplier ect. I have actually 3 times undertaken the task of making large areas or entire cities historical to "pen up" demand which helps get the big buildings. 

Now, i will say getting a massive city is one thing, doing so without having dilapidation is hard. that's what I strive for and though not easy it's rewarding to do. Good luck. check out a few mods...

[Naomi57 2,985]

Now, I can't advise you on millions, because I like doing cities with neighbourhood character, not just concrete jungles.

I do like tight and efficient urban environments, however, and my large city tiles generally range from 120 thousand to 350 thousand population, no mods required, though there are some wonderful mods that greatly improve gameplay.

A city of even 350 thousand does require neighbour cities.   If you consider all the great cities throughout history, they did not spring up as an isolated city.  In real life, great cities always grow up on the back of either empire or trade, which SimCity 4 simulates as neighbour cities.

If you've got four large city tiles, each with 350 thousand population, that would be 1.4 million population across the four large city tiles, without even counting the populations in ancillary medium and small city tiles around the borders.  A region that looks something like this would be fun, and this number of neighbour cities would work well to grow more quickly.

Let us know if you'd like any guidance on how to download a brand new region and draw up city borders between large, medium and small city tiles.

When you've got four large cities at 350 thousand population each, you'll be in a much better position to grow one or more of those cities to 1 million population.  Take regular backups!

For building your central business districts, I highly recommend this tutorial of mine, which outlines the pitfalls to dodge for successful commercial development:

• https://community.simtropolis.com/journals/entry/29039-ten-silent-killers-of-SimCity-4-commercial-growth/

As you've discovered, it's easy to attract sims to live and work in your city.  It's hard to get them to stay.  Getting them to stay is essential to growing your city!

Sims have needs, and they will only stay if their needs are being met.  One of their most basic needs, which is sometimes hard to fulfil, is suitable employment.  This includes:

• Happy commute from their homes to a suitable workplace.
• Match of residential education level to workplace hiring opportunities.
• Match of residential wealth level to workplace hiring opportunities.
• 2:1 ratio of population to suitable jobs.

Proximity of home to suitable workplaces, makes your city a much more attractive place for sims to stay, which you can groom and optimise using the Route Query tool.  Here's some other factors that make living in your city attractive for them, especially for medium wealth R$$ and high wealth R$$$ sims:

• Schools and hospitals and university
• Low air pollution
• Zero water pollution
• Low crime levels with good police coverage
• Airport to boost commercial growth
• A few little parks
• Landfill far away
• Highly effective mass transit

For low wealth R$ sims, mostly they just want a bus stop near home and work, and an easy commute to work.  Beyond those two needs, R$ sims are not fussy at all.  Note that bus stops are almost essential if you're wanting high density development.

• https://community.simtropolis.com/journals/entry/29028-the-mysterious-powers-of-the-sc4-bus-stop/

Lastly, city growth tends to work best with a balanced economy in the region, across the various sectors.  These sectors don't all have to be in the one city tile, but it's good if they are in adjacent neighbouring city tiles.

• Agriculture I-R, dirty industry I-D and/or manufacturing I-M.
• Low wealth R$
• Low wealth commercial C$
• Medium wealth R$$
• Medium wealth commercial C$$
• High wealth commercial C$$$
• High wealth R$$$
• High tech I-HT

Please do post back here if you have more questions.  The economic simulation of SimCity 4 is rather deeper than it first appears, and is a major part of the reason why it's been my favourite game for over 15 years.