Markus J

Wow, you really take carefully planning into all your stuff, that airport question though... some of your terminals have no way of getting to them other than walking across an active runway. How do they get to there? A really long underground walk way? lol Sorry it bugged me, the rest is awesome.

Interesting, you built the zoo on that long diagonal. Good use of the space, and something different.

The Empire Strikes Back!! (That comment wins on two levels lol)

I like the light house.

Welcome to the world of CJ, looks promising. Following a small town become a dream city.

Wow, you sure have built that up, my goodness gracious that's impressive! Hey, stepping into Los Angeles/Hollywood, I got my eye on you

Taxes don't have a "Must" number, they are flexible. Now, that seems to be the 'neutral number' wont effect demand one way or another. The higher you go up will decrees demand, and lower will increase demand (everyone wants lower taxes). Use this to your advantage to, control demand, increase demand you want, steer off demand you don't want. Or just play with the numbers to get some great income. It's all up to you, but if you want a neutral effect, I would leave it there.

I voted no!! How dare you not obey me!! Heh, just kidding...

Hey, that's my design! =D You got that off SC4 Devotion? Also, if you're interested I made another version of that (higher capacity) picture in my profile.

I like these signs, my question is are these just made for fun? Or do these becomes actual signs to be used in the game?

Well, grids are pretty common at least for American downtowns. As above, in my Los Angeles inspired city. Grids downtown, but as it gets away from it (outside the freeway loop) the roads and highways start going their own way, so to say. Great example is in the top right corner. Also Noony, nice seaport.

Will there be mass chaos?! I gotta admit, I want to see a less clean town or city, all your places look so clean, and perfect.

I like it, just hate going against people who are... well, just to darn good. I can't do the sheer amount of multitasking they can. I would say on a scale of 1 - 10 with ten being the fastest players and one for slowest. I'm about a 5. lol So I got frustrated and stopped when I couldn't beat anyone anymore.

Very nice, clearly spent a lot of time on this. It's a great blend of new and old.

Replies: Schulmanator "This continues to impress. You capture the feel of it well and it looks realistic." -Glad to hear it, and thank you for your continued support. It's great to hear that, to know I'm accomplishing my goal, thank you. =D dylan88 "Awesome! Looking forward to more updates! " -Thanks! Fresh update now, hope you enjoy! It's time to take a ride on some of the many freeways of the area, we will start before the traffic, and finish in it Hollywood Freeway 101 We shall start from the 110 Harbor Freeway/Arroyo Seco Parkway & 101 Hollywood Freeway Interchange 23rd St (Partial Freeway Access) 20th (Partial Freeway Access) 19th St (No Freeway Access) Broadway Glendale Boulevard (No Direct Freeway Access) Union Avenue (No Direct Freeway Access) Belmont Avenue Echo Park Avenue (No Freeway Access) Echo Park Avenue (No Freeway Access) Alameda St Alameda St (Union Station, City Hall) Union St (Left) Vasco Rd (Right) Light Rail Crossing (Project Scraped) Clinton Keith Rd Industrial Rd (Main Freight Station) 101 Freeway Bridge (Crossing Los Angeles River) D Street (No Freeway Access) 101 Hollywood Freeway & Interstate 10 Junction (End/Begin 101) Interstate 10 & Interstate 5 (Partial Interchange) Day St Sun St (No Freeway Access) Burlington Avenue (Partial Access) Well hope you enjoyed that Freeway Tour! If you remember from the last update... Los Angeles needs your vote! Don't forget to vote 'Yes or No', on the Relocation of the California Plaza's, and construction improvements of surrounding roads! Traffic is out of control, downtown is run down, so why would anyone vote no? Mayor says "We have the money, we just need the votes!"

Well maybe if I speak from my personal experience it shall help you. My city has a positive income of $79,000 roughly. It's expenditures are $75,000 roughly. My profit margin is about $4,000 monthly (where I like it, I don't like huge surpluses then I feel I'm neglecting services). Everything is at max funding, and taxes haven't been touched. It's been 9.0 for everything (might lower it some actually). How did I accomplish this? My city has everything for one. Seriously, it has everything (well not farms). Whatever was in demand I grew, I honestly got by pretty well just by paying close attention to my RCI chart, and nagging ad-visors (though not bad when on Hard). No obviously my high wealth are not right next door to my industrial. that's where planning and proving desirability comes in. You make more money (for the most part) by having lower buildings, and a small cluster of skyscrapers (like real metro area) than towers everywhere you can put one. Now services, I provide as much as is needed. By that, I mean schools and hospitals are where residents are, not where industrial and commercial are (get some hospitals and schools off this website too if you haven't). Basically provide as much coverage and little overlap as possible to maximize you money. Water, only have enough pumps so that your usage is around 90% - 95%, otherwise you have excess water that is being wasted, and that's money wasted. Same for power. Trash, as mentioned landfills are expensive, and in your urban environment it kills the area (seriously in all aspects), you're better of using a waste incinerator, or exporting your trash if possible. At least an incinerator can give some power. Give what is needed, nothing more. Always watch your RCI and your desirability factors. If you have questions or want to see graphs and data views, I got some on my City Journal and more are coming.

Reply: SimCoug Great freight yard - the dried up river channel reminds me of T2 Thank you. That's the Los Angeles river for you. Thinking of adding concrete to it's base, leave the center open and add palpable water. To really give that last wow factor. But need concrete that can go under the bridge like a overhanging prop. Or I'll just add plop able water. Driving from South Los Angeles, this is the junction between Interstate 10, Interstate 5, Highway 101, 60 Freeway. If you compare it to my last one, it is mostly the same, just a little more compact. Construction in downtown is in full swing, I also played around with an angle editor for this picture. Raining again... Los Angeles City Hall (The closest looking building I could find, looks great though), some Sims didn't get home before the rain came though. At least traffic is moving smoothly. Viewer Question: For anesthetics, should I move the Califorina Plazas to the side they belong on... right now they're on the right but should be on the left by "Bunker hill" and the Aon Center where the California Plazas are, your thoughts on it? Or should they just stay where they are? Any other feedback and comments welcome.

Wow, already a volume 3? It's huge!

If my eyes aren't mistaken I see lots of 'No Job Zots' above darkened buildings. More jobs need to be provided, that either means improving the desirability factors in that city for those jobs in demand to grow, or grow more in the cities next door. Seems there also just are not enough jobs to support all of his towers, he clearly has the demand but it's a domino effect. One high rise is built cause of the demand, then abandons cause of lack of jobs, then another tower grows (wash, lather, and repeat). That's the only other advice I could see that hasn't already been offered.

Your problem seems to be your grid layout of all your networks, in addition your zone placement. Though it's hard, try to break your grid up some. Grid networks though are easiest to do (SimCity4 doesn't work best on diagonals without careful planing), really should be reserved for downtown clusters. Then from there should be a mix. It's important to have Sims go where they need to go as well. Also be sure to note, if your city doesn't have enough jobs to meet your rapid growth, mass abandonment will happen. Which I think is another problem you're having. Not enough jobs for how quickly all those High Residential buildings are growing. But this is based on what I see in the pictures.

After four years (real life years), I just was able to build something like this: It takes time, and lots of trail and error. Sorry I don't have a great region picture to show you, I'm not ready yet to show my region off yet. But wanted to show the benefit of having industrial in your city as part of the city. It can look nice.

1860 is going to be a big year I see...

My gosh, your updates are huge, and so many of them too! i also see you're starting to reply to people, which is good. I'm interested in this, as it's another Los Angeles. It's interesting, I've been comparing yours with mine, two different animals entirely. Keep it up, you've got a good direction with this.

[i][font=times new roman,times,serif]It's a winter wonderland! It's not fair, your cities look so good[/font][/i]

It gives Sims a fair and speedy trial... What? All the serious answers were taken... plus that is what it does.