XenesisMayor

I'm trying to build a heavily populated, somewhat realistic city on a large map. I was wondering what system (grid layout, suburban style, etc.) would be best suited for High Density Development.

Thanks NetPCDoc. The transit connections I have show no support in term of commuters, except for freight trucks. All my schools, high schools, etc. are overfunded and under-capacity, and I have activated almost all of the ordinances. I will try and place a city college and see if it affects my education, and maybe cut the highway connections to my undeveloped neighbours, but I'm starting to think it may be a program glitch, because I have seen a couple of industrial properties develop that appear as blank grey lots with no query window/commuters. I've tried reinstalling the program, but it doesn't seem to have an effect. Anyone out there who may have suggestions on how to fix this problem, please help.

photos of city zoning and a subway map are attached.

Hi NetPCDoc, Thanks for the help. I do have a complete education system with full coverage, but I have skipped the city college, after I realized that it reduces the number of people who attend my university. My health system is also well funded and covered. My city is isolated (it is the only city in the region) and I do have an airport (no seaport since there is no water). The life expectancy of my sims is also stagnating at around 70, and the population by age is showing that most of my sims are between 21 and 30. I have almost all the rewards in my city, yet my demand is still low, and my life expectancy and education is still stagnating. With regard to the commute problems, I do have a few no work zots appearing on my apartment buildings (it's all high density), but most of them have commuters, my grid streets are free of congestion (I have the latest NAM), and my transit system is underused. I am pretty stumped about the problem, and I'm not sure what to do to fix it. Somewhat unrelated, does anyone know if the education level of your sims is affected by the size of your institutions (ie. small elementary school makes dumber sims in comparison to large elementary schools)?

Hi City2TheMax, I don't think it's a problem with the demand caps. I already downloaded the RCI query mod, and my caps are only 10-20% filled. Could it be related to the number of jobs? I seem to have noticed that the addition of my industrial and commercial job numbers are always close to half of the Residential population. Demand seems to be consistently down for those areas as well, even though I have many neighbour connections and rewards.

I can't seem to be able to get my education level of my city above 160. It always gets close and then suddenly begins to decline. All my education systems are well funded and well covered, and there only exists buildings with high capacity (ie. only large elementary/high school, university only, etc.). Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? Somewhat unrelated, my residential demand keeps on fluctuating, and my population is stagnating between 180 000 people and 210 000 people. I have a feeling it may be related to the education system, but I don't know. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Anyone know how to get the lots from the STEX to light up at night?

my mayorial rating is quite good. So far I haven't received any complaints from the advisors, except the usual "cop unearthed den of crime" message and "sims outraged at traffic problems on local avenue). I'm really starting to think I'm missing a crucial step in building my cities. I'm not sure what it could be though.

My city is well covered with the police stations (I've got around four deluxe police stations placed around my city). I also have the neighbourhood watch ordinance checked off, as well as the junior sports, and all the beneficial ones (reduced pollution, increase education). Transit is well used, and health is good. It could be the universities and airport, but it's starting to become uncontrollable now. I do have NAM installed. Is it possible that the mod could affect the crime rates in my city? I've been having the same problem with all my previous cities, and I've had to obliterate them all just because of reduced demand and abandoned buildings.

Anyone know how to fix skyrocketing crime levels? I've got a city of close to 60 000 and excellent education, excellent health, fantastic transit and 10 or more police stations. And yet I still have really high crime rates. It's starting to affect my demand. Any help is greatly appreciated

I have a city of a 61 000, with good medical (one large med center) and good education (one large elementary, one large high school, one college and one university). All schools and hospitals are under capacity levels, but it seems that my residents aren't at the highest education or health level whenever i look at the data view. They seem to stop at the second highest level. I was wondering if there was a way to boost up the education and health level of my sims to the max. My RCI demand also seems to be a little funny. My R$$ andR$$$ never seem to be very high, and all of my demands seem to fluctuate, being in the positive for one month and then negative the next. My desirability for everything is quite good, with few red spots (especially since all my dirty industry is in an neighbouring city), and crime doesn't seem to be a problem in too many areas. I've only reached about 35% of my residential caps, and placing parks doesn't seem to help. I've got quite a few dilipidated buildings, and I'm not sure why they're decaying. Does anyone know how to control the RCI demand a little better? Related to RCI demand in my main city, my neighbouring industrial city seems to have stopped growing. demand is in the negatives, even though the freight trips are short and there is no crime. Also it seems that the largest buildings can only hold a max of 100-200 jobs (even in dense industrial). Is this natural, or are there larger buildings that hold more jobs (excluding mods)? The final problem that I seem to have is commute times and traffic noise. I have a big network of bus stops (one every block) and a grid road system with one way streets. I also have two rail lines running to my industrial city, with over capacity passenger stations. There's almost no traffic congestion in any of my streets. But every house that I click on shows a long commute time and high traffic noise, and I'm afraid that the low demand and abandonment is a result of it. An answer to any of these questions is greatly appreciated. It's really starting to frustrate me.