Problems with Demand for R$$$ and CO$$$

[brivixxycej8 0]

So, I've made it a goal for myself and my region to develop the biggest of the big vanilla skyscrapers, doing so as naturally as possible.

I'm talking Hogan Wallace and White Insurance, Lind Entertainment, Hurt Enterprise Headquarters, Cahalane Communications, Walkup Tower, Byall Tower, etc. I want the big mommas and daddies.

I have nearly two million sims across perhaps two dozen cities. So far I'm only using NAM and the Industry Doubler mods, and I only have NAM for the improved traffic simulation, I just use vanilla intersections, highways, transit and roads. I haven't had any problems developing my cities up to the point that they're at now, I feel like I have a solid understanding of the game, at least enough that I developed this region in perhaps 10-20 hours of gameplay.

So here's my problem. The downtown area is not attracting CO$$$ or R$$$. My hope was to make the downtown area the place of residence for the cream of the crop, as well as the location of the tallest skyscrapers. The problem is, it's just not attracting very much in the way of the residents and offices I was hoping to get. R$$ and R$$$ demand is consistently in the negative, as is CO$$$. The residential region is mostly huge tenement slums, and what R$$$ that does develop usually degenerates to R$$ or R$ pretty quickly. The high-wealth offices that have developed also usually degenerate within a moment of cropping up, usually decreasing to CO$$ and sometimes just abandoning outright, due to low demand.

I'm really not sure what's going on. There's plenty of plazas in the commercial region, I have public transit (buses and subways) which are well used, I have a commuter airport, convention center and stock exchange. I also have several 4X4 lots zoned specifically with these office buildings and apartment towers in mind.

Similarly, the residential region is well stocked. There are plenty of parks. I have a really good education system, with plenty of libraries (including a main library), several museums, more than enough room in the high and elementary schools, as well as a university and a city college, both of which are more than sufficiently funded. Same goes for the health system, there's plenty of hospitals which are sufficiently funded. I have plenty of police and fire coverage. Despite all this, demand for R$$ and R$$$ remains finicky and highly variable and is usually negative. Demand for R$ remains absurdly high, which of course drives the development of the tenements which in turn drives a spike in demand for dirty and manufacturing industries, for which I do not have room in any of the surrounding regions (and do not want to dedicate any more space to than I have to.)

All this is immensely frustrating. I really don't know what else I can do to attract the high wealth sims and offices that I am desiring for this downtown region. Really all that I could think of was reducing the pollution from vehicles, which does impact desirability, although I'm not sure it does it enough to justify the consistently negative demand I'm seeing.

Any of yall have any tips? Know what I'm missing? Would love your help.

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

6 hours ago, brivixxycej8 said:

I have nearly two million sims across perhaps two dozen cities.

Overall it sounds like you've given the Sims all they should want for the taller towers to grow.

Some questions:

• Have you propagated all the demands from each city tile to every other one?
• Do you have high traffic counts along the roads / avenues where you want the big commercial to grow?
• Are your tax rates for the R$$$, CS$$$, CO$$$, and IHT set to neutral or below?
• Are air and water pollution low where you want them to be?

Also, in general, you'll need a bunch of R$$$ grown that have an EQ of 160+ which then helps drive the need for the bigger commercial towers and high tech.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,042]

Adding to what Cori said, there are many more mechanics that are at work here.

Putting down plazas, greenery and good education system in place is an imperative. However, it also takes some engineering and administrative (shall I say) decisions to help your tallest skyscrapers grow. Here are my tips...

Demand for CO$$$ (and just about any developer type) flows even throughout the entire city, like a water poured into a bucket.

Sorry for the Sun-Tzu-nesque metaphor but here's what I mean...

Let's say you have a high demand for CO$$$ and lots of C zones across your city. In this situation, you will get lots of small or medium sized CO$$$ buildings instead of several tall ones. Why? Because demand is evenly used by the developers. This, in turn, eats up some of your demand, making it too low, to support large skyscrapers. If the demand is not specifically "hoarded" for later use, it will be averaged and evenly distributed throughout all of your commercial zones. The height of the tallest building possible will, likewise, be averaged in a way...

What can you do then? Well... actually... bulldoze some of the already existing CO$$$!

I know how it sounds, but bare with me while I make my point.

In one of my cities, I have a commercial district which mainly consists of 6x6 zones. Almost all of them yielded 3x3 mid-sized skyscrapers. They were nice, except for the fact that height-wise they were only halfway through to my potentially highest buildings...

I decided to bulldoze the four skyscrapers that occupied one of my 6x6 zones, hoping that they could all be replaced by a single, tall, mighty skyscraper...

And they did.

 

So the bottom line, after this excruciatingly long intro, is that it is sometimes good to:

1. Contract the area that dense commercial zones occupy, to force developers to build denser, taller buildings. Limited space = denser population.
2. Bulldoze smaller footprint buildings in favor of and in hopes of developing larger footprint construction.

This, by the way, is called the "CB strategy". If you like mnemonics just remember the word "CoriBoom" and you'll be fine. 

Having tall skyscrapers in your skyline is a little bit more complicated than just having good amenities and smart population, because the developers are in your way... Oftentimes, you will have to fight the developers and do some demand-engineering to accomplish the goal of developing a really high CBD.