Do they really want more airports in SimCity 3000

Contributor/author(s): Mayor Big Al

Many times as your city gets larger and you approach the 21st century, commerce _should_ be increasing in demand, but it never does. In my third city, I found that, for a while, I could never get the "Commerce needs airports" to go away, even though I had 4 different airports killing land values, taking up space, and producing too much pollution.

So I've found out what the request for airports really means. You can stimulate demand for different types of sectors by adding different types of infrastructure/rewards/zones. By simply maxing out your residential demand, you may slightly increase the need for commerce. By placing commerce exactly right as far as Sim "trips" are concerned, you may make your zones more successful.

But the best way to increase your demand for commerce are as follows, in order of influence:

Spaceport - once the spaceport shows up, it's demand 'o' plenty.

Subway connections to neighbors - increases demand significantly (but not nearly as much as the space port).

Highway connections to neighbors - just slightly less than the subway connections.

Road connection to neighbors - helps about half as much as a subway connection. Two road connections are better than one highway connection.

A minimum sized 3x5 airport - provides 2/3 of the stimulation as 1 road connection. A 6x10 airport is better than a road connection but roughly 2/3 of a highway connection.

A minimum sized seaport - helps, but seaports are really for industry. Don't build seaports to help stimulate commerce.

So does your city really need to have more airports or airport tiles? Probably not. All things considered, a minimum sized airport costs about 3 road connections, provides about 1/5 of the commerce relief of those 3 road connections, and pollutes like crazy with a strong anti-aura/land value effect.

So build an airport, on or near the edge of your city, surrounded by trees, but unless you really want the aesthetics of airports, I suggest using other methods to stimulate commerce.

See also
Efficient airports and/or eliminating them entirely
The lost airports of SimCity