ceoltoir

Thanks, that clears that up for me. i think, like boardshorts, that i managed to solve the problem. For me it was either the avenue cross streets or something in the NAM. i removed several plugins form the traffic controllers, ran the city out another five years, and the job zots disappeared as did the commute time cycle. Commutes are still "long" for several lots, but they don't abandon like they did. Sorry, boardshorts, for the threadjack, but it seemed better to discuss our similar problem rather than making a whole new thread.

i believe the difficulty level is only able to be changed when you first found the city. Under the Mayor name line are three selections.

i'm a big fan of the Hole Digging Lots. The NAM now has a lot of "puzzle pieces" for creating more realistic transport systems as well.

Thanks, mitsandwich. The residential section in question IS close to a corner. Would it matter that the sims have to drive through the indistrial zone of their own city to get to the neighbor city? Riot, i am playing a version which has a DVD so the illegal copy argument isn't valid. i believe this problem is an element of the game, and not dependent on the media.

i've had the exact same problem in two cities, and i am convinced that the problem lies with having neighbor connections to other cities. Here's what i've noticed: In the first city the no job zots only appeared on medium-wealth sim's homes, these houses always said they had a long commute, and they began a cycle of move-in and abandon due to commute. My layout in this city as a classic grid system made of avenues, and connected to established cities on all four sides via more than one neighbor connection (ie at least two avenues went to the neighbor city). Reading suggestions on this forum i thought the problem might be that there are not enough jobs for the Medium-weath sims so i built a new, independent city not connect to anything to test this theory. In the new city i began small, placing industry in the upper left corner of the map, and creating residential zones in the other three quadrants of the map. i set taxes such that it discouraged medium and high wealth sims from moving in. Over the course of about 20 years i built up a population of about 7800 without a single problem with commute time or lack of jobs. After 20 years i decided to try and transition my dirty and manufacturing industry area into one more suitable for high tech. To do this i started a neighboring city next to the industrial zone, placed a power plant and zoned for industry there. As soon as i returned to the city with residential zones i began getting no job zots in one residential quadrant. i also noticed that my commute times have entered a cycle of climbing to over 8 before dropping back down below 4. Prior to starting the neighbor city the commute time never rose above 2. i also started the cycle of move-in, and abandon i saw with the other city except this time it is the low-wealth sims with the problem. Other notes: i have the NAM installed. i have tried the suggestion from this thread of adding cross streets in the avenues that connect to the neighbor city, run the simulation out 6 years without change. Commute times still cycle between 4 and 8. i'm stumped on this one. i think i may try to build a city with no neighbor connections to see if anything similar happens, but i find it odd the no jobs problem starts as soon as two cities are connected.

i usually just lurk around here, but i have to say this is my favorite CJ i've seen so far. Being from Michigan it just "feels" right, and the inside jokes are great, Telegraph Rd, Drake Rd, and Big Badger (nice name change there)... Looking forward to a lot more!