Building a garden city (SC3)

Contributor/author(s): Miss Smiley

Tired of the overly dense urban jungles where all you see are buildings, buildings, and more buildings? Due to the fact that SC3000 has filler tiles, you can now have a very dense yet very attractive city, one with wide plazas and gardens with tall buildings interspersed.

A 1x1 filler tile, such as Community Garden or Three Tree Plaza can contain just as many sims per tile as a skyscraper. By properly positioning parks, fountains, or different density zones, it is possible to inhibit the construction of buildings in medium or high density zoning.

Layout:

DDDDDDDDDDD
DNDNDNDNDND
DDDDDDDDDDD
DNDNDNDNDND 

D = dense zone
N = Medium zone, park, fountain, windmill, tree, statue, etc.

Since there are no feasible 2x2 or greater tile areas, the sims can only build 1x1 buildings or filler tiles. Sims cannot build across zone densities. Above a certain land value sims won't build 1x1 buildings, therefore you will get a broad swath of filler. If you used parks or fountains as N, the land value will be sky high and it will be a really attractive filler. Otherwise, you will get sludge fields, parking lots, and dirt lots instead of gardens and parks. Buildings can easily be incorporated into this layout by not placing N in certain areas as to allow for 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4 areas.

There are a few drawbacks to this system. The first one is that your tax income is going to be significantly lower. Sixteen filler tiles pay very little in taxes compared to a skyscraper. Secondly, the flammability of filler is much higher. Also, the large number of different "buildings" being simulated might really slow down the game in a big city. It is not possible to use this system on light density. This is because the light density "climax community" consists of 1x1 tiles, which will build anyway. So if you want a residential area with huge estates you'll have to use a different method.

See also
Making realistic cities
The park phalanx: a better park layout
Build pretty landscapes for any building
Build a realistic-looking campus
Create a nice-looking school
Creating a farm country