Understanding Commercial Office

[JeffSalisbury 59]

Been a while since I posted anything, never started a topic before. Hopefully this isn't rehashing a topic that's already better covered elsewhere and I simply missed it while trying to search the forum.

I read through as much info on Cori's No Kickout Mod and one other mod, the Less Abandonment Mod, as together they seem to create a simulation environment that simply makes more sense for how the game should actually run compared to how it does run in vanilla. Added both to my plugins and they're both working as described.

So, I'm really enjoying the greater level of control these two mods provide when paired - R§ is allowed to establish itself and evolve into higher capacity lots without being booted by R§§ or R§§§. Same goes for CS§. I've had some R§§ and CS§§ develop naturally via demand. Even had some I-HT develop already (and is incredibly stable, only lacking the R§§§ employees as none have developed in my R zones).

Just to provide a bit more context before my questions, I'm currently building a test city to see how things have changed with these two mods added. Everything is gridded to 6x10 using roads only. I've got R at the core with an elementary school, high school, and medical clinic in the very center with low-density R zoning in the surrounding eight blocks. There's a single low-density commercial block right beside the one R block at 3 o'clock (best way to visualize it). The rest is all I-Ag with two med-density I zones that don't touch any of the R zones. I could provide a screenshot but I'm not sure it really matters. Everything has water.

So I haven't had any CO develop yet, and there's quite a bit of demand for both CO§§ and CO§§§ at this point. In the vanilla game, desirability was so high just by default it seemed that both would inevitably develop without much effort as long as there wasn't pollution nearby and the zone was fully watered. So now I'm interested in learning more about what CO actually DOES need to develop with these two mods in the picture.

Should I expect to have to start adding plazas to my commercial parcels to get any CO to develop, whether §§ or §§§? Is there a different demand threshold for CO to develop compared to CS§§ and CS§§§? Is there a different desirability threshold for CO to develop compared to CS? Are there other conditions to consider in order to start getting CO development?

Thanks.

[kSlank 151]

I think it's just land value

[Propfam 2,301]

17 hours ago, JeffSalisbury said:

Should I expect to have to start adding plazas to my commercial parcels to get any CO to develop, whether §§ or §§§? Is there a different demand threshold for CO to develop compared to CS§§ and CS§§§? Is there a different desirability threshold for CO to develop compared to CS? Are there other conditions to consider in order to start getting CO development?

Personal tips:

1. Continually growing your city. Reach at least 200k in a single tile (or city).
2. Give CO 0% taxes. If we take a look RL cities like Dubai and Singapore, they're operating at almost the exact same way.
3. Educate your citizen. 60 is enough for CO$$, especially in large cities, and 100 is enough for CO$$$.
4. Use trees to seduce CO developers. I hate doing this, but SimCity developers are often lazy lol.

[JeffSalisbury 59]

Another question I have is if there's any issue with only having CS in a city. Does only having CS create any adverse effect(s) on R and/or I development? Does it affect the ability to evolve R zones into a higher density?

The nice thing about the two mods is it allows you to really get to understand the underlying mechanics of the simulator. You're able to purposefully make all changes without overdevelopment creating havoc within the balance of your city's existing development.

[Simizen 1,100]

I don't think there's any limitations on residential going into higher levels, when you're solely reliant on commercial services. The thing about developing into higher densities, is that you need to effectively find a way to restrict outward growth, so that demand requires vertical growth. This can be done regardless of how much CS you have in a city. Though, there will be some limitation inherent to relying on CS, simply due to the fact that there's not that many tall CS buildings. The best you're going to get out of CS is mid-rise buildings, but, it'll still continue on with some pretty solid R development.

As for having only CS affecting industrial? I believe it does, but, not in the way you'd think. Commerce, especially services, needs products. Products are made with industry, so, by default it'll be increasing demand for industrial. I don't know what the correlation is (if it's 1:1, o, 1:2, or 2:1, etc) between how much commerce increases industrial demand, but, it does increase it.

The way the game's built, there's only 1 thing that's always in demand, and that's CS$. Not clear on why it's not R$ tbh, but, either way, it helps to attract more people to the city, so, you'll always be building something up. CS$ requires workers, which raises demand for R and requires goods, which requires I, allowing for constant growth.

Keep in mind, that depending on things such as population size and education, demand for everything will still vary, and so, you can still have CS development with higher density R development, but there will be a stagnation if you don't really have education and some other services.

It's a very interconnected web of things, so, focusing on one thing or another won't inherently improve or degrade your city, or your Sims interest in moving/working there, but it often relies on multiple moving parts.

[JeffSalisbury 59]

This is insightful. I don't plan on only allowing CS to develop, but I also don't plan on doing anything in the short term to force any CO to develop, either. This is a test city where I'm trying to get a proper feel for how things influence each other, so it'll be interesting to see if there's some kind of tipping point as to when CO starts developing naturally.

[JeffSalisbury 59]

Sorry for the double post, but I wanted to report a couple things that have become obvious from playing a bit over the weekend:

1. CO definitely now requires plazas to develop in any way no matter how much demand there is for it. The Less Abandonment mod raises the thresholds for CO to develop to the point where you absolutely need something beyond clean water and lack of pollution for either wealth level of CO to develop. 

2. R§§§ also requires something beyond just clean water and no pollution to develop now, which is great as you can really control how much and where your R§§§ will come into play.

3. All three zone types, and the wealth levels within, seem more resilient to tax hikes, in the sense that you can raise taxes more than a full percent without taking too much of a hit on that particular wealth level's demand.