Hi there, New to SC4 and forums

[Xielos 0]

Hi there, I've been lurking for a couple days now after FINNALY getting SimCity 4 Deluxe edition. It was somewhat of an impulse buy, I've always wanted this game, but never had the time/money to just go out and get it.

Now I was raised on good old SimCity 2000, and I totaly skipped over 3000. Some things I have noticed with SC4 as compared to 2k: ITS FREAKING HARD! I mean jeebus! I would have had skyscrapers by now if I was playing 2k, but here I'm having serious trouble getting past 3,000 population. This is nuts! Then I see all these sickeningly huge region-wide cities you people have and I get even more frustrated. All my towns peak at 3000 then go back and hover around 2.5k, and nothing I do seems to boost it up. And so I have prepared some questions which I havent been able (or just too lazy to look for) find answers to.

1.) In SC2k, each square on the grid was 1 acre. does the same hold true for SC4?

2.) I think my main problem with my population is as soon as I approach the 3k population mark, I start seeing abandonment and long commute times. I try to remedy this with bus stops + parking garages, avenues, hell even subways, but it dosen't seem to work. What am I missing here?

3.) I finnaly understand the difference between high wealth and high density, as well as desirability. But what good is high desirability if there is no demand? How can I increase and stabilize demand for a certain group?

4.) How long does it take to make some of those massive, region-spanning, high-rise covered metropolii? At the rate I'm going it'll take me a year to get something like that!

5.) Is downloading extra structures and buildings totaly necessary to achieve a large city? I want to avoid extra stuff as much as possible.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer, and agian, Hi ^ ^

[sloppet 3]

1 square in sc4 is 16x16 meters...

maybe some awards, less taxes, or not enough places that sims can work in... hmm....

better school system, lower taxes for them

it depends if you're playing witch cheats/ downloads from the stex or not... if no, it can take u a while...

no it' not, but sc4 looks much better with all the great stex downloads....

[onlyplace4 603]

First of all, welcome to SimTrop

1. Answered ^^

2. Look at the distances between your zoning ... it's no good putting industrial on one side of the grid and residentail way across the other side. Sims tend to be lazy and con't like to travel too far (if only that was the case in RL! lol), Put commercial zones between residential and industrial, it's better for the Sim environment, and it means that they can do their shopping whilst going to and from work without having to make a special journey.

3. Make sure you have all the amenities a population might require - health, education, policing and leisure. You can widely influence the SIms with your tax rates, so lowering them will increase demand, and raising thm will obviously do the opposite.

4. If you can get the zoning right then, on cheetah speed, you can get a city to 500K inhabitants in a few hours (ok, so you have to cheat with cash to do this, but it can be done). If you play the normal way, you need patience and vigilance to your taxes, etc.

5. The downloads from the STEX are not essential to making a great city, but they do fill in all the gaps that Maxis left in the game. Be selective and choose a few that you really like. Extras do not slow down the speed of the game, and can in many cases speed up the development of your city/cities. The only slow down you might possibly notice with a large number of downloads is the speed at which the game loads and starts, but that is a minimal cost to have to pay for some of the amazing stuff on the STEX.

I am sure other more seasoned players will have further advice for you, but I hope this helps in a small way.

[Constantina 5]

Welcome to the community. I hope you will enjoy your stay.

[Xielos 0]

Thanks for all the advice and answers

I'll go check out STEX, see if theres anything I like

[dudeson 0]

Xielos, I'm in the same boat... only I played SC3000 a lot, a long time ago.  I'm also new to ST...

But looks like I'm a $%&^! again...  You're right... SC4 is way tougher.

(BTW I think SC4 is great, but I don't like the terrain editing.. SC3000 was easier to form land, but at least farms are easier to do)

sloppet and onlyplace4, thanks for the great ideas to get rolling on SC4!  

[sim1234 62]

Welcome to Simtropolis Xielos! I hope you enjoy yourself at this fantastic SC4 community!