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A1.01: Basics and Technical Issues "One small step for Mayor, One giant leap for Sims-Kind." -- Sim Mayor. A1.01.1: Query the Hottest Keys The query option is one of the most important tools in the game. Use it to determine a whole host of information. You can also use it to click on any building and then change the name of it. Although that does not make the building historical or unalterable. It can still be destroyed by the computer when redeveloping. And if you want to follow a MySims or a car or change the traffic lights, simply do this: [Query] + [shift] + [click on object] You can check out the list of hot keys at the back of the provided manual although most of them seem quite useless and superfluous to me and seems only to appear there to fill up the back of the manual. For example there is a hot key of obliterating the city. I do not know how you play your city but this is not C&C, there is little violence and you would definitely not need a hot key for obliteration. The following are the more useful hot keys, the hottest of the hot. 1) Home & End: Turn the building around for placement. 2) Shift: Turns off auto roads. Simply press shift after dragging the zone but before releasing the mouse button. 3) Esc: Undo. Sort of. Cancels zones, roads, etc, only if you have not released the mouse button. 4) G: Shows the grid. Great for counting and planning. 5) /: Query. Use with bulldoze to prevent accidental demolition. 6) B: Bulldoze / Demolish. 7) Ctrl S: Save City 1) (Home or End) Turn the building around for placement. 2) (Shift) Turns off auto roads. Simply press shift after dragging the zone but before releasing the mouse button. Make sure that you have the patch installed. 3) (Alt) Switch the layout of the zoning before laying it. 4) (Esc) Undo, sort of. Cancels zones, roads, etc, only if you have not released the mouse button. 5) (G) Shows the grid. This is great for counting and planning. 6) (/) Query. Use it with bulldoze to prevent accidental demolition. 7) (B) Bulldoze / Demolish. (Control) (F) Dispatch fire fighters. 9) (Control) (P) Dispatch police. 10) (Control) + (Shift) + (S) Takes a picture of your city as it is appearing on the screen at this moment. This is a very useful hot key as it allows pictures which may not be possible if you went through the clicking on all picture button process. 11) (Spacebar) Centre on Cursor. 12) (Control) + (Shift) + © Toggle terrain contours. 13) (Control) + (S) Save City. 14) (F12) Exit 15) (Control) + (Shift) + (Alt) + ® This is to record a clip of your city. 16) (Control) + (Shift) + (O) Just in case you are wondering, this is the obliterate hotkey. A1.01.2: Multiple City Save Games and file locations 1) Save Games For those of you who complain about the lack of save games slots, you could always just copy the region to another folder. Go to: MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Regions This is also the place to put any cities you download. You have to place the city in the region in want it to be. 2) File locations A) Album: MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Album B) Bug Report: MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Exception Reports C) Recorded Animation: MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Recorded Animation D) Original Regions: C:\(or wherever you installed the game) SimCity 4 > Regions This is for if you messed up the original regions and want the original back. E) Music for the game / Custom Tunes: SimCity 4> Radio > Stations > Region > Music SimCity 4> Radio > Stations > Mayor > Music A1.01.3: Custom Tunes & Animation 1) Tunes You can play your own music simply by placing the music (MP3) into this folder: For Region Music: SimCity 4> Radio > Stations > Region > Music For City Music: SimCity 4> Radio > Stations > Mayor > Music Then when you play the game open up the Audio Option and select the custom tunes. 2) Animation Simply hit (Control) + (Shift) + (O) to begin. Enter in the various information such as file name, rate, time, output and frame count. The clip will be stored in your Recorded Animation folder. A1.01.4: Technical Issues Firstly, I should state that I am NOT a technical expert or even a technical person at all. However, these problems occurred frequent enough for me to pick some things up.1) Game Requirements: You can easily check the requirements on the box although the game really requires a lot of power such that even if you are above the recommended your cities if they are huge may encounter lag. There is a good test program to test your computer systems vis-à-vis the game requirements. It is found in the game folder itself: SimCity4 > Support > SimCity 4_EZ.exe 2) GDriverWindow--DirectX Error (1) This is one of the most common problems I see. The error you will most probably see is "The configuration file (Graphics Rules.sgr) cannot be parsed using built-in rules." There are two plugin folders. The one I am talking about is the one in your MyDocuments folder. MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Plugins Do not place any of the downloaded things into this folder if not the game will not start. I suggest that after installation of the game and the patch you go and check this folder out to see what should remain in there. Nothing. The reason why an uninstall does not work is because the game does not delete the SimCity 4 folder under MyDocuments unless you actively specify it. Delete what ever you have placed there. 3) GDriverWindow--DirectX Error (2) However, there is another more drastic method. Since I am not well-versed in computers, I am unsure as to whether is this message a generic type for multiple problems or not. If above solution does not work then you may attempt to try this but do it at your own risk and discretion. A) Uninstall SimCity 4 including the SimCity 4 folder in MyDocuments. B) Reinstall: After that do the following: i) Double-click on My Computer. ii) Double-click on C: drive (also labelled local disk) iii) Double-click on Program Files. iv) Double-click on Maxis. v) Double-click on Sim City 4. vi) Double-click on Apps. C) Open SimCity 4.ini file i) Right-click on the SimCity 4.ini file and a menu will appear. Select "open" and left-click to open the file. The found is found in: C:\(or wherever you installed the game) > Apps ii) You will now see notepad open the file up. It will look similar to this: [code][Directories] Data=..\ PlugIn=..\Plugins\ [Graphics Drivers] OpenGL =SimGLRef.dll, C4554841 Software=SimGLSoft.dll, 7ACA35C6 D3D7 =SimGLDx7.dll, BADB6906 [Current Graphics Driver] ;Driver = C4554841 ;OpenGL Hardware ;Driver = 7ACA35C6 ;GRPoly Software Driver = BADB6906 ;DX7 Hardware D) Editing You will need to make edits to the [Graphics Drivers] and [Current Graphics Driver] sections so that they appear as follows: [Directories] Data=..\ PlugIn=..\Plugins\ [Graphics Drivers] ;OpenGL =SimGLRef.dll, C4554841 Software=SimGLSoft.dll, 7ACA35C6 ;D3D7 =SimGLDx7.dll, BADB6906 [Current Graphics Driver] ;Driver = C4554841 ;OpenGL Hardware Driver = 7ACA35C6 ;GRPoly Software ;Driver = BADB6906 ;DX7 Hardware [/code] E) Hopefully that will help you but I make no promises. 4) Graphics options As usual there is a trade-off between speed of the game and quality of it. Patch 2 will automatically set the options rather low, at least in my opinion. So if the graphics look bad, simply change the quality and determine if you can stand the lag in the game. 5) EA Technical help If you have problem operating the game simply send them a message. It is under their technical support, Ask a question tab. You do not need actually need to know their address. This is their main support site. http://techsupport.ea.com Although it should be noted that, often your first reply will be an automated one but do not despair and persist. I did once think of sending in multiple mails just to determine the various sets of automated response and trigger words but I think that sort of would be frowned upon. 6) Permanent Green Highlight Bug If, you see your hospitals or education highlighted as green even if they are not selected, do not worry. Simply go to the data view, and select the respective health, education, etc view. Then after selected, click on the all off. They will no longer have the green glow. A1.01.5: Registration The registration process I recalled was quite complicated. If I remember it correctly, this is the process: 1) Register once on your computer by filling up the form after installation, which will then send a signal to the main site. Or go to the Support folder and click on SimCity 4_eReg.exe to register. 2) Then you have to register a second time also with the same key, which is at the back of your CD case at their official site. 3) Failure to do the first registration before the second will give you a error or invalid key message 4) Enter your email correctly and make sure it does not get directed to your junk folder. Click on the activation and you are done. Again if you have problems send an message to them. They solved, my problem within hours. http://techsupport.ea.com This I must say is one of the most complicated registration process ever. However, it is a good effort against piracy. So if you see anyone or if anyone asks you for your key, do NOT give away your key. And also report all piracy regarding the game to this EA email address: piracy@ea.com For online piracy email contact: piracy2@ea.com A1.01.6: Updates 1) Check all files updated The patch update is problematic. Whether you patch automatically or do it manually, make sure you check that all the relevant files are indeed updated. The list of files can be found on the patch page. Although, I personally seem to have a problem with the ’dbghelp.dll’ file as it not only did not take the 2003 stamp date but it seems to have taken a 2001 stamp date. 2) Patch Log You will have a patch log called: sc4_patchlog.txt It is found in the same folder as the patch file you downloaded if you used the automatic patch. Not too sure where it would be if it was done automatically. This lists what files were patched and whether was it successful at the patch. 3) Region Identification The second problem is for those who has problem with the automatic patch and have to do it manually. Make sure your region is correct. The problematic is the Asian edition. Just because, you live in Asia and bought the game there does not mean that the game is an Asian edition one. If it is English, there is a high chance that your edition could be the North America one. I do not think there is a way to actually determine your region by looking at the files or game itself. The things that could your is an American edition are: (i) Right hand drive and (ii) American spelling. However with regards to American spelling, I am unsure whether is it similar for all the English games. If it is not then look for words such as "harbor" v "harbour" or "color" v "colour." The spelling without the "u" is the American spelling. These words will sometimes appear as park of the message in the news ticker. 4) Failed patch Finally, if you game did not patch properly as in the files were not fully updated, the only way to resolve it is to reinstall everything. A1.01.7: Online Play: SimCityScape You can find more information at the site but this is a brief overview. This online gameplay is available at the official website: http://simcity.ea.com/scape/ http://simcity.ea.com/ 1) Requirements Microsoft’s Internet Explorer version 6 or better. ActiveX Java Registered user Game updated with Patch 2 2) 9 Regions Available Amarica (Large City size: 20 Cities) Discovered in 2003, Amarica is the new world. Griffinland (Large City size: 42 Cities) In a world where water reigns, Griffinland springs to life. Dan’s Grove (Small City Size: 43 Cities) Farmer Dan ran a pistachio orchard on this soil, until approached by a developer. The region has been growing ever since. Emlee Valley (Medium City Size: 18 Cities) Pioneered by Maxoids, additional settlers have been moving in ever since. Molon Island (Small City Size: 47 Cities) Islands rise from the oceans forming this vast archipelago. Sea Shaw (Medium City Size: 47 Cities) With recent development interest, Sea Shaw promises to undergo a real estate boom. Lake Lucky (Medium City Size: 41 Cities) Formed by a giant asteroid 3 million years ago, Lake Lucky is now a vacation haven. Big Ben Basi (Medium City Size: 47 Cities) The lands have been shifting beneath these shallow waters, making it prime realestate for developers. Wee Burg (Small City Size: 45 Cities) In the wee county of Wee Burg, little cities populate the quaint countryside. Cook County (Large City Size: 24 Cities) The wind sweeps across vast stretches of plains, as if whispering “develop me.” Templinton (Medium City Size: 18 Cities) Civilizations have always grown from the fertile river valleys, Templinton is no exception. Annarondacks (Large City Size: 15 Cities) Lakes, forests, and numerous winter sports resorts, attract many tourists, and was once the site of the 1964 Winter SimOlympics. Spider Mountain (Medium City Size: 38 Cities) Once inhabited by a spider so large, no one dared move into the area. Nowadays the spider has taken up a career in a travelling sideshow act, leaving the region spider free. 3) Game Play concept It is quite simple. You get to pick one region and you have up to 5 days to play with it and to end your turn. You may upload it and make as many changes as you want. But after 5 days or if you choose to end your turn early your turn is up then another person can take over. You may not play the same city consecutively although you may play a city multiple times. After certain amount of time, Maxis will reset the region and the good ones I suppose will get into their hall of fame. 4) Download Region You can download their "premade region configuration folder" and place it at My Documents\SimCity 4\Regions\ to extract and create your city. It is a 2k zip file. Yes, 2k I did not have a typing error. It is small. This is not required for playing the online game and download it only if you want to duplicate their region for your own play. A1.01.8: Simtropolis Patch This is not an official patch at all. It is put together by fans of the game. It is located at the Simtropolis site: http://www.simtropol...ategory/9-modd/ The following is one of the official words by Maxis on it: ’Users install, run and download those "mods" from Simtropolis completely at their own risk. Maxis is NOT responsible for ANY errors, crashes, problems or any other issue that you may have if you have downloaded and applied any unofficially supported mod files to your game. Nor is Maxis required to help anyone who has altered their game with any patches/mods/downloads that are not from Maxis themself. Players should also expect that any future patches and/or expansion packs and SimCityscape "may" NOT function properly with the game if you have downloaded any unofficial mods/patches/files and applied them to your game.’ A1.01.9: City Size There are three city size that you can select. And each tile is 16 by 16 metres. A) Small: 64 by 64 tiles = 1024 metres / 1Km B) Medium: 128 by 128 tiles = 2048 metres / 2Km C) Large: 256 by 256 tiles = 4096 metres / 4km

SECTION E: HANDY REFERENCE CHART, FUN STUFF & BUILDING CATALOGUE "Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moo-cow coming down along the road and this moo-cow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo." - James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. This section includes multitude of things. It includes funny things in the game, good SimCity 4 websites, a catalogue of all buildings in the game and its info. Finally, I have complied several tables throughout the guide into one handy reference chart. Oh, and one more thing since I do not know where to put hits information, the game contrary to some, does not begin in 1900 as flight was not invented then and in the game you can build a huge airport. E.01: Fun things to do 1) Dispatch Police You can dispatch the police under the emergency button to catch the criminals. You will see the police catching the criminal and placing the criminal into the car. To determine where the criminal is use your data chart. If however, most of the time when your police arrives, the criminal has moved away, do not worry. Often the criminal is still around the area. Therefore, you could always blanket the area with multiple police vehicles so that at least one can catch the criminal. 2) Change Traffic lights You can change the traffic lights and lock at the traffic jams that you will cause. However, I belief that only the animation is affected rather then the game play itself. [Query] + [shift] + [click on object] E.02: Easter Eggs, Game Observations Well, these are more of game observations than anything. 1) Un-dead comes forth I have seen this once and initially I thought un-dead walk the cemetery every night. But upon reading the message boards, I realised that the zombies only appear during October. Anybody with me that EA or Maxis should tie up with whatever the company that is doing Buffy so that we can have a "Buffy" reward once we have three cemeteries? Or maybe they could also team up with fox and create an X files division in the local police station. 2) Brotherhood of Nod One of the high-tech buildings is called Kane Tiberium. Perhaps, this is one of the weapons manufacturing plants or refineries. GDI commands you to use your "lightning storm" to destroy this nefarious Nod base. Also the high tech building Havoc Bioenhancements is also from C&C. 3) The Sims I have not played "The Sims" but from what I gather these items relate to them. A) Signs on Commercial Stores: On some commercial stores, you can the "The Sims" sign on the store front. B) Hot tub: The hot tub in the backyard belongs to the Sims. C) Servo the Home Robot: It is not an alien attack disaster but it is a robot from The Sims. D) Sim Names: Bella Barium and Goth mechanics, both manufacturing buildings are supposed to refer to characters from the Sims. 4) Drive Through Cinemas The movie turns on at about 7pm to about 4am. A very short movie of alien space ships making crop circles and planes attacking the ships. It is the intro to SimCity 3000. 5) Prisoners escape When your police station or jails are over-crowded, sometimes there will be a jail break. You will see prisoners running away. 6) Zoo escape When funding is too low, sometimes, the animals will run out and scare the Sims around the animal. 7) Toxic Truck and Fear When you place the toxic truck rewards there will be toxic trucks moving around the area spilling green goo. If the truck passes anybody on the road, that person will run and scream. For best effect use a cheat to place the toxic dump next to a casino. See those conga lines break. Casino and conga lines There will be a conga line outside the casino. 9) University Graduation In late June, you will see the court yard filled up for a graduation ceremony. Slow down your game speed for this last only a few days. 10) Death of My Sim When your MySim dies you can see his soul move up to heaven. 11) Car from Buildings A mayor's car comes forth when you place the Mayor's House down. A black car appears when a cemetery is placed. And for TV Station, TV vans. 12) Strange Happenings When you place the advanced research lab, you will see a glowing thing moving around the area of the lab. 13) Air Base When you place the transport add-on, you will see those exhibition jets flying around. Also like the Army base, you will see troops marching around the camp and there will be tanks driving on your roads. 14) Graffiti Although this is not a crime in the game, it often appears in areas where there are crime. Look around to see the graffiti. 15) Taxis This is not too spectacular but often I wonder where do they appear from. They would definitely appear if you have a train station. 16) Maxis Self Promotion On some retail stores, you can see either the Maxis sign. 17) Flasher or any crime Use the data view to determine the location of the flasher and zone to that location to see this display. This works with any other crime. By the way the pie throwing is also quite funny. But sometimes you may not see any crime in progress. 18) Golf Club There is a nude swimmer at the pond at night. 19) Disease Lab I have heard that once in a while you can see monkeys escaping from the disease lab. E.04: Funny News Ticker Messages The following is a list of all the funny news type messages that appears in your ticker box. I have split them up loosely into various categories of humour. If you spot any others or spot a mistake, send a mail to me. Fluffy the Wonder Cat: Broccoli: Llamas: Coming to life: Discoveries: City News:

************************************************************************* It appears that the official site has become a thing of the past... If you're looking for the official game patch downloads, try this location. ************************************************************************* If you just need the SC4Update4BAT patch for night lights to function, try the SC4 Devotion site... Use the EA Support button on the left side of the SC4Devotion home page. Then accept the user agreement to go to the Updates page. Scroll down to the BAT page link. The SC4Update4BAT patch is in the second listing. You do need to have applied the EP1 game patch before applying the night patch. It can be found under the last link on the Updates page. However, you do not need to install the BAT or Gmax to apply the patch. ************************************************************************** REGISTRATION PROBLEMS AT SIMCITY.COM (OFFICIAL SITE) The following article is created from several sources to help you if you encounter any registration problems. 1) USEFUL CONTACT INFORMATION 2) LOST REGISTRATION NUMBER 3) REGISTRATION PROBLEMS: NUMBER IN USE OR INVALID OR OTHER PROBLEMS 4) ACTIVATION EMAIL NEVER ARRIVED 5) SECOND HAND PRODUCTS 6) OTHER EA PRODUCTS 7) MACINTOSH VERSION 1) USEFUL CONTACT INFORMATIONEA Techincal Support questions - 1 Post Site techsupport.ea.com Email: mailto:account@Support.Ea.Com Useful problem resolution tool - 1 Scan SimCity 4 > Support > SimCity 4_EZ.exe Having your account activated: Priceless For everything else there is: http://www.Simtropolis.com 2) LOST REGISTRATION NUMBER This refers to the event of you losing your registration number. Firstly, tidy up your room. Remember it is always locatd at the last place you search, unless you are the type of people that carries on searching even after finding the lost item. There are three means of finding that lost registration number: A) Product Registered If you product registered on the official site: - Click Register along the top of the site. - Make sure you are logged in with your master account that has the game or whatever expansion pack you have. - Click on add product numbers, it should show your serial number to that game. B) Computer Registry If you have not cleaned off the hard drive after uninstalling: - Click Start > run > type in regedit - In the Registry editor window - Click: + next to hkey_local_machine + next to software + next to electronic arts + next to maxis(was just exposed) + next to the expansion pack that serial number was lost look in big window to the right. Next to word default is the serial number. C) Fax Copy You can copy or fax the top of the CD to Maxis and they will gladly send you a new serial number. Please DO NOT borrow friend's serial numbers. This is the legal way to get your own serial numbers. 3) REGISTRATION PROBLEMS: NUMBER IN USE OR INVALID OR OTHER PROBLEMS Remember that registration is a two part process. The registration process I recalled was quite complicated. If I remember it correctly, this is the process: A) Register once on your computer by filling up the form after installation, which will then send a signal to the main site. Or if you did not register when prompted to during installation go to: SimCity 4 > Support > SimCity 4_EZ.exe or SimCity 4 > Support > SimCity 4_eReg.exe B) Then you have to register a second time also with the same key, which is at the back of your CD case at their official site. C) Failure to do the first registration before the second will give you an error, invalid key message or maybe a comment that the number is in use. D) Enter your email correctly and make sure it does not get directed to your junk folder. Click on the activation and you are done. Again if you still have problems send an message to them. They solved, my problem within hours. techsupport.ea.com mailto:account@Support.Ea.Com 4) ACTIVATION EMAIL NEVER ARRIVED if you did not receive your confirmation email either because it somehow was not sent or it was sent but somehow you or your computer system deleted it because they thought it was spam then simply contact EA. Activation email should appear almost immediately, within a few minutes. If by the end of the day you still have not receive it then it is likely you need to contact EA for the activation. Website: techsupport.ea.com Email: mailto:account@Support.Ea.Com [u[Phone: (If you are a child, ask you parents for permission) (650) 628 - 4311 (M-F: 8.30-11.45 / 13.00-16.30 Pacific Standard Time) You should have the EA Help utility Report printed and ready if you decide to make use of the phone call. Proceed to the main SimCity 4 location, the drive where you installed the game, rather than the on in the MyDocuments Folder: SimCity 4 > Support > SimCity 4_EZ.exe Snail Mail: EA Technical Support PO Box 9025 Redwood City, CA 94063-9025 If however you live outside the US, you should check the documentation (Install Guide) that came with the game to determine the local EA office in your country. 5) SECOND HAND PRODUCTS If you happen to purchase a second hand product. Make sure you get the account details from the person you purchase it from. I am not too sure whether would EA create a new account for you. I think you need to convince them that you are the true new owner of the product. Look above for the various means of contacting them. But ultimately remember this warning caveat emptor. Remember it is your right to get the account from the seller because the EULA specifically states that when one sells the product, one must sell it with everything and not retain any portion of it, including the account. 6) OTHER EA PRODUCTS I believe at least you can access the SimCity site and perhaps download (not too sure about the download part) stuff from SimCity site if you have purchased, registered and created an account for another Maxis product, for example The Sims. 7) MACINTOSH VERSION If I am not wrong, Macintosh users can register and use the BBS. However, as far as I know, at this point, EA does not allow you to download the add-ons. Your best bet would be to hope that Aspyr to come out with their downloads. Edit: Mac users can use the add-ons. Please see the "Get your Maxis files here" thread in the Mac forum. ~zel~

PART X: X for Extra stuff Easter Eggs: Game observations Well, these are more of game observations than anything. Un-dead comes forth: I have seen this once and initially I thought un-dead walk the cemetery every night. But upon reading the message boards, I realised that the zombies only appear during October. Anybody with me that EA or Maxis should tie up with whatever the company that is doing Buffy so that we can have a "Buffy" reward once we have three cemeteries? Or maybe they could also team up with fox and create an X files division in the local police station. Brotherhood of Nod: One of the high-tech buildings is called Kane Tiberium. Perhaps, this in one of the weapons manufacturing plants or refineries. GDI commands you to use your "lightning storm" to destroy this nefarious Nod base. Drive Through Cinemas: The movie turns on at about 7pm to about 4am. A very short movie of alien space ships making crop circles and planes attacking the ships. Flasher or any crime: Use the data view to determine the location of the flasher and zone to that location to see this display. This works with any other crime. But sometimes you may not see any crime in progress. Sending the police to catch criminals: You can dispatch the police under the emergency button to catch the criminals. You will see the police catching the criminal and placing the criminal into the car. X’tra Insights: Multiple Save Games: For those of you who complain about the lack of save games slots, you could always just copy the region to another folder. All you have to do is to go to my documents and copy the region that you want to another file / location and now you have an effective backup of the region. This is what I did when I was trying out the various means of creating hi-tech. Mew 3: Idea Incubator This section is for ideas that cannot really be fit into the guide or that it is an alternative to the ideas given in the guide. It also includes ideas by contributors which sounds logically good but I have yet to try it out myself. Idea I: To water or not to water There are some people who advocate not placing water until your population hits about 5000 I believe. But personally, you can hit 5000 so fast, at least with water coverage that I do not think this is too good an idea. The amount of money save is minimal provided that you are using the water towers. However, if the rate of growth from 0 to the time one needs water is similar whether you there is water coverage or not, then if one truly wishes to save money this is a good idea. MDMUFF’s Comments: "I have gotten a population of 50,000 without water facilities..." That means that a lack of water coverage will only have effect on: 1) Higher population growth: Above 50,000 2) Increased risk of fire 3) Possible prevention or at least a slow down on §§§ moving in. But since the main idea of not have water is to save money, it most probably mean that this city by itself is not very attractive to the §§§. So not much harm done. You should be cautioned on the point that while people may not mind moving in despite the lack of water, the cutting off of water will result in people actually leaving. So the moral of the story, if any, is if you wish to treat the population badly do so consistently and at the start of your inauguration. Idea II: Coverage Construction: By MDMUFF I will talk more about this method after receiving a reply from the author of it. Basically rather than using a elementary school as a basis of construction he seems to suggest using a fire station and its coverage as the basis. And then fitting in the school coverage into the fire coverage. But more importantly, he places down the structures with coverage such as fire and education first. Then turning on the view showing the coverage, he constructs zones to fit completely in them. Comments: This plus point of this method of building makes it such that no coverage is wasted. The problem, is unless you leave adequate places, when the city starts getting really huge, one may have problem preventing the schools from overflowing. When the population starts becoming higher, you will find that you either have to build another school and overlap the coverage or reduce the funding for the buses of the school so as to cut the area of coverage. This is simply to prevent strikes from occurring. Idea III: Generation Development: By MDMUFF Since education is built upon foundations, placing a high school or college in a place where the elementary system is not developed is only a waste of money. Therefore according to MDMUFF, you should wait several years after placing an elementary school before placing a high school, then a college and a library. This is a further method of saving money. Comments: However, its effect is in my opinion somewhat limited. The only savings that you can make is in the first few years and it is a bit of a hassle to remember the date you place the school at and then calculate the next phase of development. Although the remembering of the date can easily be remedies through the naming of the school to the date it was founded. The only savings you make is through bus coverage. And if you adopt a zero bus funding coverage then you will make little savings. This is because if there are very little students in the college or high school, it does not mean you are wasting money since you can easily reduce their funding. However, it is my opinion that this should not really matter since most of the time you do at least wait a few years before placing higher education because of budget constraints. Idea IV: Policy favouring the rich When you decide to start placing facilities into the city, you may find yourself unable to get full coverage. Thereby forcing you to select certain areas over another. If you adopt this method, concentrate building amenities in one area. That is giving this particular area health, education, police etc. Make sure this area is at a somewhat desirable location, preferably away from pollution. At least by providing full facilities to one area, you can attract a higher wealth class into that area. Spreading your amenities around may result in higher desirability but because of the lack of the other facilities, a higher wealth class may not move in. Remember, facilities are placed with view of using them to further increase your income. Idea V: Grid Unlock City: By Chris McFadyen This is a simple idea. Rather than splitting up the various zones, they are placed near each other. Comment: This layout helps reduce traffic since people do not have to go across the city to get to their work place. This layout may however have problems with industry. Even assuming it is a high-tech non-polluting industry freight trips will be long. Therefore it might still be advisable to place the bulk of the industries at the edge of the map. Of course you could use freight stations but that will only take up valuable space and create traffic. Mew 4: Positivist or Natural / Stoics approach to cheats The following are methods that exploit the game under the rules it has. Whether you view them as "cheats" depends on if you are a positivist, or a follower of natural law. As a positivist who views things as it is without reference to moral judgement and normative statements, you will easily conclude that these methods are not cheats at all for these follow the rules of the game. After all these are not means that change the codes or support the use trainers, which circumvent the rules laid down. However, as follower of natural law, which St. Thomas Aquinas has described as the "dictate of right reason," you might disagree. Or if you are not of the Christian religious belief there is also the natural stoics school of thought. Either way you might conclude for whatever reason that these are wrong and thus are cheats. Furthermore, the term cheats is already misleading since the act of cheating requires a form of deception with a party being deceived. Even if you view your computer as a human being, it cannot be claim to be deceived because it is the one acting upon your directions with full knowledge. For those of you who wonder what this digression is for, it simply is to show people there are different ways to approach this issue. But I am not going to dictate the way you play a game, which you bought. Therefore do not flame me telling me to remove these exploits. Exploit I: Ghost town money maker The basis of this method is to generate income without expenses or population in the city at all. It does not matter that the amount made is small since you can also run the simulation for many years to build up the cash. Thus after setting it up, you can either take a break or read a book since it may take sometime to build up the cash. There are several variants of it. You can either use them in conjunction or separately. Legalize Gambling: To start any ordinance you need something built. I think a single residential square is sufficient. Legalize gambling to make §100 a month then remove the road and wait for the next few hundred years. Selling power or water: This only occurs if you have the neighbour with the demand. Similarly set this up and allow the simulation to run. Business deals: Start up a small town just maybe less than a hundred. Then build a huge amount of expenses such as normal power plants or waster to power plants. Run your budget into the ground. Accept all the deals possible. Then either remove the budget busters or sell power and water to your neighbours if possible. Import waste if and only if you have the waste to power plant and NOT a landfill. Exploit II: Force Majeure As Winfield & Jolowicz book on tort stated so clearly, "Lightning, earthquakes, ... and tornadoes may be acts of God..." Therefore you should use them as a means to frustrate any obligations relating to monetary payment when destroying buildings. Of course the most effective is still the fire disaster. But I prefer to view them as arsonists sent on behalf of the mayor. Fire unless started by a natural disaster is always man-made, be it through negligence or intentional. For those of you who have trouble directing your fire-starters, you have to realise that you should not release the mouse button until and unless the building is blown apart by the fiery cursor. A single click in most cases is not sufficient to start a firestorm. Exploit III: The Time Machine As I have stated in PART III(A) under Info 1b: Utilitarian Approach: Dump and obliterate, this approach simply means creating a city with a huge dump and destroy it when it is filled. Repeat as often as necessary. Exploit IV: Two in one reward Let me quote MaxisDevinoch (Mayor Steven) who is from Maxis / EA and is one of the moderator of the official SimCity 4 forum. "Q: Users can get reward buildings twice. They can open rewards, choose building, then place it. Then, click on the link in the news ticker about the new reward, and place it again. A: This is an extra bonus to those clever enough to discover it." Prior to this, I thought that this was a bug. But since the person writing this is from Maxis / EA therefore, one can only say that this is not a bug. Mew 5: Sim City websites The following are obviously not all or even a great amount of sites. But I find these sites either quite useful or these are sites that posted this FAQ up. Oh no, I hope you do not view me as an egomaniac. Please note that I have not tried any of the trainers or files that are on these sites. So use your own discretion. OFFICIAL WEBSITE 1) http://simcity.ea.com Specific website dedicated solely to Sim City 4 2) http://www.simtropolis.com - Articles / Forums / Download §3.5 Billion 3) http://www.sc4ever.com - Articles / Forum 4) http://www.simcitycentral.net - Articles / Forum General game website with things on Sim City 4 5) http://www.gamefaqs.com - Original Post site 6) http://www.ggmania.com - Articles / Trainer / (Popup) - My FAQ is here too... 7) http://dlh.net - Articles / Trainer / - German + English site. - My FAQ is here too... http://www.trainerscity.com - Articles / Trainer / (Popup) - French + English site. - My FAQ is here too... - Note: Articles, trainer, etc are under the heading "Trainers."

Metropolis - 80,000 - Millions and Beyond! by Thy451 PART 7: METROPOLIS -- 80,000 - Millions and Beyond 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.' Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias. Thus this part will provide you with ideas on how to get that bigger and better city and to control its problems that comes with growth such that your city will not become a "colossal wreck" due to the upcoming problems. B7.01: Problems ahead The problems you encounter mostly are no longer dealing with how to generate growth but how to facilitate it or rather how to remove the restrictions that are choking off growth. The better part of this part is simple on how to reduce that pesky commute time. You should also check out the checks and cheats section as I have placed many of the more dubious methods of city improvement there. These are dubious not because they involve an outright cheat or the use of codes, but simply because you are exploiting a certain aspect of the game to improve your city. REFER: SECTION D: Exploits or ''cheats'' B7.01.1: Tax Surplus: Fiscal contraction recession Again, you have to reduce your taxes overtime. Having a huge profit is great. But having a huge surplus is not that good. There is a reason why many governmental budgets are focused on balancing rather than profiteering. Let me ask you, what are you doing with all the millions in the bank. It is not earning interest. If you spent them, they will lead to further growth. While I do always say fiscal restraint is good, after a certain amount of time when you have too much cash, it will be good to actually spend it. Of course I am not telling you to throw caution to the wind, but just to make sure that the money made from previous good policies does not go to waste and sit idle in the bank. So start your Keynesian fiscal expansion by either reducing taxes, building more amenities or just spend it on improving the desirability of your city. B7.01.2: Utilities: Decay and New Generation Plants The question here is whether to convert to that spanking beautiful and clean hydrogen power plant. Sadly while it produces the most power, it is the second least efficient plant of the lots. So decide whether is it better to build it or just import it from an dirty / manufacturing city that uses coal plants. REFER: A1.05.1: Options: Utilities Type Remember to replace the utilities as when they age they have diminishing returns. B7.02: Standard of Living Parks, plazas, rewards, place them well and you shall be rewarded. With your city pretty much built up, with zones, education health, there is nothing much left to construct right? Wrong! Now it is time for OPERATION: Strategic Placement. Place your positive effects building to maximise its effects. This is not as simple as mere coverage based on what was stated as the range of these positive effects. This is since their effects diminish over the range much like the pollution effect. If you wish to be more experienced in OPERATION: Strategic Placement, you need to use save and reload quite a bit at least at the start but after some experience you will be an expert. Here is what to take note: A) Site Survey Take a look at the surrounding area of the intended placement. Query the buildings to see what level of development the buildings are. Are they low wealth or low density. Or are they a high wealth and high density building. B) Wealth Determination If the buildings are primarily high wealth, high density and generally are your stage 8 buildings, then do NOT place anything there. You are at the maximum development already. Do not fall into the trap of thinking, "Let's make my city centre the most beautiful place in the region." Unless you are going for aesthetic reasons, do not build those positive effect buildings in that site anymore. Remember my advice against dual coverage earlier? The same applies. It operates on the same logic as why you do not place ten schools side by side as the education in that area cannot be any higher. C) Recreation Selection If the site passes stage (B), the next question is what to place. Go for the most efficient. Why pay for a structure that has so much commercial benefits when the site is a residential area, or vice versa. Personally I prefer a strong effect rather than a strong radius. But I do not know whether is it just me but it seems that certain areas like certain recreational facilities better than another. So perhaps you can try to experiment with the range rather than just rely on basing it on pure numbers. D) Testing Time Increasing desirability serves only one purpose. That is to get the higher wealth and density buildings to appear. Which means a few months after placement your income should increase. A good placement can raise income by as much as several hundred dollars or more. A bad placement will just lead to an increase in costs without income. So save and reload. I recommend that you perfect this skill or at least get the hang of it when your city is merely above 100,000. Any larger and you will have problem determining whether is the change in income due to usual city fluctuations or the placement. B7.03: Pollution Even at this point, industrial pollution at best can only be contained by a green belt. And short of converting them to high tech there is nothing much that you can do. The pollution that really is getting out of hand now is traffic pollution. There are several ways to combat traffic pollution but unless, the expansion pack comes out with fuel cell cars, these methods are again at best only slightly helpful: A) Clean Air Act: If you check this, your industrial demand will fall. B) Auto Emission Reduction Act C) Carpool Incentive Program D) Commuter Shuttle Service E) Green Belt: A row of trees around the more congested areas might help. But this depends on whether you left room for it. F) Public Transport: The more people who use this, the less cars there will be, so improve it. B7.03.1: Traffic Noise I get a lot of questions on how to reduce it. But pretty much short of reducing city size there is no all out solution. However, do not worry, its effect can be easily countered through placement of positive desirability things in the area. I have often seen the best high density high wealth residential area having high traffic noise. However, if the area is those sprawling mansions, then they might not be as tolerant. Here are some ways that can reduce traffic noise albeit by only a certain amount. Most of it also deals with air pollution from traffic. 1) Carpool Incentive Program 2) Commuter Shuttle Service 3) Green Belt 4) Public Transport 5) Roads to Streets (NOT RECOMMENDED): Changing roads back into streets or Rezone to low density. This option is NOT recommended unless you wish to reduce population in the city. Let me explain how changing road to streets will reduce noise. A) Streets and roads can be used over their capacity. B) But the greater the over capacity the less additional vehicles will use it. C) Therefore it is unlikely that usage will rise to the same level as roads. D) Analogy 1: As your bag becomes fuller, it becomes harder and harder to stuff more things in it until you reach a point where nothing more will enter. E) Analogy 2: A lightly loaded huge bag can easily contain more and weigh heavier than a fully stuffed small bag. B7.04: Industrial Hinterland There is a small debate especially as your region goes into the millions, as to whether should you convert all your industries to high tech or should you still leave some dirty and manufacturing areas in your industrial hinterland. The main focus is on the question of "What impact does these polluting industries have in the region and are they necessary.?" 1) Impact The answer to this part is that they do have a positive impact. The reason is that growth of these lower wealth cities are usually faster because dirty and manufacturing provides more jobs than high tech, which in turn raises residential demand and numbers. And with the increase in population, commercial demand also increases. Since unfulfilled demand in each city can be transferred to the neighbouring city and so forth, these dirty and manufacturing cities do aid in growth of the region. 2) Necessary I have yet to come to a proper formulation of this part. Once in a while, I notice that when my region size becomes larger, demand in the big city seems to fall. But a new dirty or manufacturing city near that city seems to help. The problem is that I am not too certain as to what caused the fall in demand. Hence, all I am sure is that these industrial hinterland do help but I am not too certain as to whether are they necessary for larger growth. 3) Industrial Hinterland Therefore my recommendation is to create some of these industrial hinterland in your region. After all there is nothing too difficult about keeping some of these kind of cities in your region. 4) Population boost Another added effect of these hinterland is that they raise the general population of your region which is important if you want more skyscrapers. Since skyscrapers appear only as a percentage of population, they will not appear unless you have more population in the region. And you cannot expect the city with the skyscraper to grow because it has already used up the percentage of skyscrapers. Thus the remaining lower capacity buildings cannot be upgraded to skyscrapers even if you have the demand for them. 5) Movement to Suburbs If your industrial hinterland grows too much, there is a possibility that you main city could suffer a fall in demand. This is only an observation and it seems to occur only when your region and main city is very, very huge. B7.04.1: Markets abroad As stated above, I am not exactly a big fan of the airports. But as your city becomes larger, the land connections may no longer be sufficient to provide you with commercial demand busters due to diminishing returns. Thus, if you see your commercial demand falling and strongly suspect it is due to demand caps, start placing these. Usually I do place at least one quite early, just because no metropolis looks good without its own airports. B7.05: Sinatra Doctrine: I'll do it my way... The following two tactics are a little on the dark side. If you feel they are considered as cheating, by all means do not use it. Take note that you should backup your city before implementing them. It may lead to spectacular results but a failure would make your city become as worthless as a bunch of Enron shares. B7.05.1: Shock and Awe Reconstruction The basic idea is to bulldoze high wealth buildings to reduce supply thus creating artificial demand. The concept is based on that of cornering the market supply, just like Yasuo Hamanaka from Sumitomo did for the copper market sometime back. Then the rest of the market would respond and unfulfilled demand will rise, thus resulting in multiple stage 8 high wealth buildings across your cities. Of course this method of embedding shock and awe into the city to generate growth has a potential of a disaster. B7.05.2: Desirability Black Hole This only works if you have Patch 2 installed. It is because of the implementation of a check which prevents abandonment in areas of high desirability. Therefore, all you have to do is to place a lot of parks or plazas in that area then raise taxes to an astronomical level and you would be making a lot of money. Of course your demand will fall but those buildings in question will not be vacant. And when you have drained enough money out of the Sims, you can always reduce tax levels and demand will rise again. Again I warn you, save before attempting this. B7.06: Commute Cycle of Death The rest of PART 7 will be ideas on how to deal with traffic. As stated earlier, commute time is one of the biggest stops to growth. Especially in the larger cities. Often as long as you can keep commute time down, your city can still grow. 1) Actual v Average Commute time Before we proceed, I have to clarify something about commute time. There is the average commute time as seen in the charts and there is the actual commute time, which you can only estimate when you query the buildings. It is the actual commute that truly matters. This is because the average commute might show that your time is not that bad, but certain areas of your city might be having a long commute time. And it seems unless you can resolve the problems in this area, often further development across the city is not that possible. 2) Commute Cycle of Death How do you know that your city has attain the zenith of commuter hell, and thus snatching the title away from cities such as London where the average speeds of vehicles in some areas are even lower than that of the horse drawn carriage. Here are the symptoms, call your local transport planners if you develop this horrible affliction. A) New skyscrapers are completed, population increases. B) New skyscrapers shortly display no job zot. C) Several months later, new skyscraper is abandoned, population falls. D) Shortly after, construction for another new skyscraper starts. E) Repeat the process by going back to (A). Let me explain why this occurs. at stage (A), actual commute time around that area is sufficient for the construction of anew skyscraper. But when the new skyscraper appears, the amount of traffic increases greatly because of the skyscraper itself. This increase in traffic increases commute time to the point where these people cannot get to work, hence (B) occurs. © is the result of the lack of jobs and people leaving. But since they have abandoned the building, the traffic that they generate no longer exists so actual commute in that area falls again to the original level, which was sufficient for the construction of a skyscraper, thus (A, D, E) occurs, as this cycle continues. Therefore the only way to break this is to reduce commute time such that when the new skyscraper appears, the Sims in it can find jobs. Finally, another way to determine whether is this occurring is when you see your population fluctuating up and down over a certain range. 3) Falling Wealth level A weaker version of this cycle of death is if you see your higher wealth Sims leaving the city to be replaced by poorer Sims. B7.06.1: Black hole of Mass Transit Whether you get the black hold of a bus system message or if you notice that your usage of other mass transit is not particularly high, there is a very high chance that you are lacking destinations. The effectiveness of a public transport is dependant upon the destinations available. For example, if there is a station outside your house but it only goes to one location, the probability of you using it will be very low especially if you do not work in that destination. Similarly that is the same thing for the game. Of course an alternative could simply be that your placement of the public transport is not that good. But even behind that is the basic idea of destinations and locations. If the placement are in areas Sims do not frequent not only are people not both want to take the system and even if they wanted to they might not find it. Remember the Sims path finding skills are not all that great. B7.07: Urban Renewal This is the easiest option of the lot to reduce commute and restart your city growth. If you see an area having long commute or being abandoned because of it, the solution is simply. If a Sim cannot get to work, then bring the work to the Sim. Demolish and dezone a central part of the residential dead zone. Then rezone it with commercial zones. Pretty soon the place will be brought back to life. You may have to demolish rather than dezone a few abandoned residential buildings in the area to kick start the revival. I recommend commercial because it can generate more in less area than industrial and you do not have to run the risk of a polluting industry appearing. Also even if a high tech appears, the jobs they offer is quite little in comparison to the space they take up. Throw in a few parks and plazas to further improve this new mini downtown of yours. B7.08: Too many cars, too little tar The bad thing about public transport is that not everyone likes to use them and your city, when it becomes richer, will generate more rich folks who prefer to drive to work. So you have to accommodate them the best you can for your city to grow. You would think that if you offered them a viable public transport means to get to work they would use it. But they rather not turn up for work and get fired, complain to you with a big no job zot over their homes then quit your town a few months later. B7.08.1: Multiple Lanes or Tracks Since there is no such thing as multiple lane roads, you can always create one yourself. Traffic problems can be generally reduced to one cause, a shortage or fixed supply, the roads, and an excess and growing demand that of cars and other vehicles. Therefore increase the supply of road to help relief the burden. 1) Roads This obviously means that you should plan from the inception of the city. Remember those spaces that I told you to leave earlier on? If you do build another lane directly side by side, do not connect the two roads at every point such that a junction and traffic light appear. Junctions have a lower capacity and speed. Look at the diagram below for the two styles of double lane roads. You can even create triple lane roads. Diagram B7.08.1 This is to a certain extent is a temporary measure. Since you may have to build highway once the three lane roads can also no longer sustain the traffic demands. 2) Tracks More so for subway than rail since I only use rail for intercity connections. Simply create another set of tracks like the roads. An alternative method is the separate lines construction. Just because tracks are next to each other does not mean you have to connect them. Think of the mass transit system in the real world. This method has its disadvantages as it may mean that passengers stay on the train for longer than necessary. This is a stopgap measure until you have the cash to construct the multiple track system. B7.08.2: Highways Use wisely and this will help reduce commute time, implement it badly and this will be a white elephant draining cash out of your bank. I am a bit undecided as to whether to leave a few spaces between them and your residential area. On one hand they create noise and air pollution yet on the other hand, these can be countered by placing more parks. Secondly, I am also undecided about the cloverleaf. It costs quite a bit but if you plan it well, people need to really have to make any turns to get to work. An advise, save before construction because each block cost quite a bit and few wrong placement would set you back quite a bit. REFER: A1.04.2: Highway, Cloverleaf and On ramps B7.08.3: Paternalistic Approach to traffic A simple two-step process determines the way people move from point to point. Firstly it decides on the shortest possible route. After that it takes that route without any alteration at all. Since congestion or even the availability of a faster mode of transport a tile away will not affect their decision, it means you have to take a hands on approach to traffic. In my opinion, the game should allow the imposition of road pricing or congestion charges on all roads. And that we can determine the price on each road thereby affecting the route the Sims takes. Petition to the Sim City 4 official forum! Chris McFadyen: Again, I see no reason to provide my own diagram when Chris McFadyen has already provided it for me. I have just changed the key. The entire diagram is still his creation. Diagram B7.08.3 This above is just an illustration of how to "persuade" Sims in a more forceful manner to take the highway. The layout of the residential and commercial is only an example. Therefore you should construct this method of highway layout to suit the setup of your own city. While Patch 2 seems to have improved the route finding skills, this method is still very useful since the improvement is not that much. B7.08.4: Vehicle Commute Diagnostic Tool You may use a MySim to determine how one would travel to work. But that has several limitations as a MySims does not use public transport and you cannot really send them where you want. Therefore use a dispatch instead. Either a police or a fire engine will suffice. Of course it still does not take public transport into account but you can set the starting location and the final destination. This is very useful after you just implemented a new highway or road system and you are not sure of its effectiveness especially if the commute time does not fall. So test it before your construction and test is after your construction to see whether does it improve travel and what are the flaws if any in your new system. B7.09: Innovations Here are some stuff that may help reduce traffic congestion although most are quite legit ideas, some seems to be a bit on the borderline of cheating but most are just good planning. B7.09.1: Mass transit Nexus I am undecided about the effectiveness of this but, it does makes sense logically. Basically, they operate on the assumption that since each station may only serve that much users, you can resolve that overcrowding by building more stations. Alternatively, this could be the place where you congregate the various types of transports. This system is most useful for buses. You need to use this in conjunction with an improvement in your subway lines if a subway is part of the nexus. REFER: B7.08.1: Multiple Lanes or Tracks REFER: B7.09.2: Train stations as car parks REFER: B7.09.3: Web of Subway Tracks B7.09.2: Train stations as car parks Again another interesting idea, which has been mooted but does not really seem that useful is using train stations as car parks. Since a train station is the only public transport station that allows a person to drive there, we could create a system where a Sim drives to the train station and then switch to another mode of transport. Diagram B7.09.2 You should note that this does not work if you put the two train stations too close to each other. B7.09.3: Web of Subway Tracks This is an effective method of improving your subway system if the tracks are overcrowded. This is slightly different with respect to the ideas of multiple lanes. REFER: B7.08.1: Multiple Lanes or Tracks For some reason or other, simply laying down tracks that does not go particularly anyway around the station seems to improve commute time. It seems the game take into account these additional tracks and thus reduce the congestion on subway. B7.09.4: Underground Roads This idea originate some years ago when I was playing transport tycoon. Unlike Sim City 2, roads can be built on top of tunnels. Therefore it is possible to have one road on the surface and another underground to relief traffic issues. There are two ways to build the road tunnels. 1) Raise ground A) This is best done before starting the city at God Mode. B) Raise certain part of the land in anticipation of the underground roads 2) Lower the ground A) This is for those who already have started the city or does not wish to pre-plan so much. B) Lower the ground and build a tunnel-road across. This diagram is not a top down view. It is a view from the side a cross section so that you can look underground. Diagram B7.09.4 B7.09.5: Underground: Away with Junctions This is an easier method and less expensive use of the underground roads. All you have to do is to raise a little slope such that a tunnel can be created under the land. The following is just a small illustration. Diagram B7.09.5 This little illustration is NOT to size. How much you need to rise really depends on your "skill level." As you use this more often, you will find it easier to build thus junction bypass with less land raised. You still need junctions in the game if not people may not be able to connect from place to place. Therefore because of that this is not too good a strategy, just an interesting one. B7.09.6: Freight: Shipping or trains Since freight moving to connections contribute to traffic, what better way to reduce traffic then by reducing freight. Since ports serve the same purposes, you could place a port near the industry, such that the freight does not have to travel across town. Alternatively you could use a freight train and run the tracks underground. However, this method does not seem to be able to reduce traffic that much. What it does help is to improve the freight "commute time." In other words helping to improve your industry which is getting choked up by the traffic too.

Chapter IX : My Sims Introduction & Basics Never really played with this option too much after hearing about all its problems. But it is to a certain extent useful. It provided me with details about the bad effects of a bus station. Also it will give you an idea of how the Sims travel about in your city. Understanding the game mechanics of movement can help you create a better city at least with relation to the issue of transportation. Forget about the controversy about cloning because in the world of My Sims they are all clones. After the first Sim die, it will be replaced by the same Sim with the number (2, 3, and so on) depending on its generation.

Specialized Cities - Sardines and Apples by thy451 PART 8: SPECIALISED CITIES -- SARDINES AND APPLES In the last part of this section, I will make a short discussion on how to achieve those specialised cities, cities that are built only for one purpose only. All other considerations are thus disregarded. These are not the best cities in the sense of high wealth or high profits but they are the best in terms of their particular vision and purpose. B8.01: Sardines: Concept The purpose of this is to pack as many people as possible into the city. It is not about how much profit or how advanced the city is but how many people can you squeeze into one city. B8.01.1: The Higher you go... To start off, you need first to get those high wealth residential buildings. So build as you normally would. You have to make sure that all residential buildings are of stage 8 and highest wealth ($) level. It must be high wealth not low wealth buildings. Place as many parks as you can. Start off in on area rather than do it throughout the city, unless you can afford all the parks. B8.01.2: The Greater the fall Once you have secured the neighbourhood and make it rich, it is time to cause the buildings to be distressed. As each level of fall in wealth level, the same building will hold more. This is why I told you to move section by section. Since after removing all those parks, your maintenance levels would fall. Thus you can proceed on to the next area. Therefore start removing those desirable parks and maybe even education. But I do not advice removing health facilities as the longer the people live, the larger your city will become. B8.01.3: Upwardly Mobile Poor Remember, it is a fall in desirability not an increase in commute time, even though changing the commute time for the worse would lower desirability. This is because this city is primarily going to hold a lot of people and if commute time is high, no one will move into the city and you may get buildings that become abandoned. A good advice would be to place the low costs buses. It will help you generate some additional income to make up for the loss in taxes from the rich. And also it will improve commute time in this overcrowded city. B8.02: Fresh farm produce, Yummy... The concept for this is to create a viable sustainable farming community that is profitable. I used the word sustainable because the farms must be able to exist many years later and not be pushed out due to development or lack of people working in the farms. B8.02.1: Home Schooling This is the most important thing about creating a sustainable farming community, there must be no education. Not even a library. This is because once a Sim starts getting educated, they will no longer want to work at the farms at all. If that happens, these Sims will have no jobs and the result is that they will soon leave the city, thus causing your buildings to be distressed. After that, a new batch of ignorant Sims will move in and the buildings will be back to normal. But this would not last long. You will have this cycle of distressed buildings or massive waves of reconstruction over and over again in the city. B8.02.2: Market for the produce To allow this farming community to prosper, it is best to have big neighbours with huge demand. That way the demand will rub off on your city, which is not likely to generate that much demand herself. B8.02.3: Migrant Workforce An added way to bring in more cash other than construction of those polluting industries is to make use of the fact that people can travel and work in different cities. You could build a commercial area at the edge of the map so people from the neighbouring city can come here to work. Or you could build a residential area for the poor such that these people go and work in the richer cities. This also helps your richer city as they need not have low wealth housing in their city. B8.02.4: Green Water Belt Given that farms pollute the water supply, you should place your water supply away from the farms. Also try to leave a distance between the farms and the residential area much like the Green Belt idea for air pollution. Commercial zoning in between is acceptable since they do not complain about the water. Although if one was working in an office, I am sure that one would not want their water for making coffee to be green in colour. But I suppose Sims enjoy their morning coffee with a tangy pesticide flavouring.

Appendix 1: IdOIt’s walkthrough to 40,000 Before you flood my mail, yes I spelt idiots, idoits on purpose. This guide is place here away from the main sections because I thought it to be superfluous as I had believed that PART I enough for your first city. This is a step-by-step guide to 40,000 by year 16. Actually I only got 40,000 a few months into year 16 but lets not quibble over minor details okay? Another reason why I placed this here is because any explanation of why I am doing one thing or another will be very brief or none. Feel free to add other stuff according to your own city’s needs. Take note of the following: 1) Walkthrough Layout: Chronological order. 2) Statistics taken at the start of the year. 3) Construction done at start of the year. 4) The map view refers to the default view. 5) I will be referring to the PART I constantly because I do not want to repeat myself 6) I will not be repeating the word build over and over again. Whenever I mention a structure in BLOCK LETTERS, it means build it. 7) Read PART I, as I may not be restating many of the tips. I will assume you already know them. Try not to let budget fall below 40,000 9) Except for the first few months, you will always be making profits so no business deals 10) Always build when paused. Idiot’s Town: Pop: 39579 > 40,000 (Few months into year 16) Current cash: 65,000 + Time: 16 years Budget: Income: 9156 / Expense: 7625 / Profit: 1531 Map: Mid size Neighbours: None Idiot’s Town: God Mode G-1) Create new Region selecting plains G-2) Select a mid size map. For best effect with the rest of this guide, meaning PARTS II and III, chose a map with the following surroundings. G-3) Go into the city and immediately hit pause. G-4) Optional: Use the mesa tool and click slightly on the right side of the map. Use quick brush and spread across the right side of the map. If this confuses you then forget it. G-5) Fill the place with trees thickly. Especially the top left hand side. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 0 Statistics: NA 0-1) Establish the city, make sure the game is still at pause 0-2) Have no construction with the exception of connections along the borders. Leave 3 tiles along all edges and then place a road on the fourth tile. This is an illustration on the corner of the map. 0-3) Raise Tax: Refer to Tip 1 0-4) COAL POWER PLANT: 31 Place on the top left of the map. Look at the above. 0-5) LANDFILL: 32 Just place 4 tiles of it on the right of the coal plant. Make sure to give it road connection to all your city 0-6) INDUSTRIAL: Refer to Tip 8bi and Diagram T8bi. 33 Zone it on the left side of the map and about 23 tiles from the top. Or about 16-20 tiles away from the coal plant. Place about 12 (4x5) industrial zones. Fill from the top of Diagram T8bi. 0-7) COMMERCIAL: Refer to Tip 8biv and Diagram T8biv. 34 Build it to the right of the industrial zone. Leave the appropriate spacing after the industrial zone. 2 (2x5) commercial zones. One zone on top of the diagram the other somewhere in the middle. 0- RESIDENTIAL: Refer to Tip 8biii and Diagram T8biii and T8biv. 35 Build the zone to the right of the commercial and breathing space. Fill up the entire residential super structure (RS) where appropriate. Make sure you follow the diagram and leave the centre empty. 0-9) WATER TOWER: Refer to Tip 2b 36 Place it on the top right of the map or any place away from the industrial site, at least to the right of the RS. Best place near the corner. Note that you should only follow my water placement in the following years if your city actually needs the water 0-10) POWER LINES: 37 Power extends about 4 tiles away from a place that has power. Power up everything that is not powered 0-11) Budget control. Refer to Tip 2. Applies to everything with micro budgets. Remember that power demand grows greatly at the start. Check your power plant frequently or allow a high funding at the start, about half or more until most zones are built. 0-12) Cash left is about §58,000 0-13) Make a lot of connections, to the top and the left side. Tip 6. Carry on making connection throughout the years as you expand the city size. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 1 Pop: 1504 Income: §740 (This is not profit. I will not list expense as it depends on funding and you will never make a lost except for the first few months.) Funds: §58,000 (Refers to cash left in the bank.) 1-1) No construction this year. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 2 Pop: 2252 Income: §966 Funds: §63,000 2-1) WATER TOWER (2) 38 Water is needed around the time the population hits 2600. About one or two month into the second year. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 3 Pop: 4593 Income: §1136 Funds: §70,000 3-1) RESIDENTIAL: Refer to Tip 8bi and Diagram T8bi. 39 Fill another RS completely. This should be placed below the first RS. Make sure to leave the appropriate gap between the two RS. 3-2) COMMERCIAL: 40 1 (5x4). Place it near the middle of both RS. 3-3) INDUSTRIAL: Refer to Diagram T8bi 41 Fill up the remainder of the industrial zone as stated in T8bi. You can place the zones closer than in the diagram. For example this time round, I placed 12 (4x6) and 6 (6x7) zones. 3-4) LANDFILL 42 Another 4x4. 3-5) WATER TOWER (3) 3-6) FIRESTATION 43 Cover the industrial area. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 4 Pop: 6765 Income: § 2074 Funds: § 51,000 4-1) WASTE TO POWER PLANT 44 Turn it’s funding to zero. Later in the years whenever you need to increase power supply but do not want to build a new power station, you can turn the funding up. Build this beside the coal power plant 4-2) WATER TOWER (4) Idiot’s Town: YEAR 5 Pop: 8706 Income: § 2450 Funds: § 40,000 5-1) COMMERCIAL: 45 Fill the zone between the industry and residential. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 6 Pop: 11,003 Income: § 3133 Funds: § 58,000 6-1) INDUSTRIAL: Refer to Diagram T8bi 46 Create another of those industrial parks below the first one. Fill up about half of it from the top. 6-2) WATER TOWER (5) Idiot’s Town: YEAR 7 Pop: 14189 Income: § 3746 Funds: § 72,000 7-1) WATER PUMP: 47 Demolish the 5 towers and place 1 water pump in its place. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 8 Pop: 17264 Income: § 4321 Funds: § 101,000 8-1) RESIDENTIAL: 48 Create a truncated RS below the other RS. Leave a space of 4 tiles excluding road between the second RS and this RS. Truncated means leaving out the top and bottom row of 4x4. This is because there is no space below for a full RS. About 20 (4x4) zones were left on my map. 8-2) COMMERCIAL: 49 When you get the radio or even if you do not build 2 (6x6) commercial zones to the right of the RS. Place this in line with the bottom half of the second RS. Leave a gap of 4 excluding roads between the RS and this zone. H: Residential / C: Commercial / .: Empty / -: Roads / F: Future residential development. (12-2) 8-3) INDUSTRIAL: 50 Fill up the industrial park created in 6-1. 8-4) COAL POWER PLANT: 51 Place it with the rest of the power plants 8-5) You will be reaching your first residential demand cap soon. I believe it is around 20,000. Therefore the following structures will help further increase your population 8-6) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (1+2) 52 Place 2 elementary schools, one in each full RS. Place it in the middle such that the entire RS is covered. 8-7) LIBRARY 53 Place one the first RS. Try to cover the entire first RS and part of the second RS if possible. 8- HOSPITAL 54 I will use the term hospital for large medical centre. Place it in between the first two RS. Try to get as much residential in the coverage as possible. 8-9) TENNIS COURTS (1+2) 55 Place 2 tennis courts, one in each full RS. I selected the tennis courts because it is one of the better recreational facilities with a great demand cap remover. 8-10) Remember to adjust the education and health funding individually Idiot’s Town: YEAR 9 Pop: 22216 Income: § 5260 Funds: § 76,000 9-1) RESIDENTIAL: 56 Create another truncated residential area on the top of the map above the other RS. Leave a space of three, excluding roads between the RS. Fit as much as possible without changing the structure drastically. There is no need to stick completely to 4x4 for this RS. I placed 4 (4x6) zones. 9-2) COMMERCIAL: 57 Create another 2 (6x6) commercial zones. Place them beside the zones created in year 8-2. Again do not intrude onto above the bottom tier of the second RS. 9-3) INDUSTRIAL: 58 Create another industrial park at the bottom left of the map. I could place 12 (4x5) and 12 (4x4) industrial zones at the bottom left. This park would obviously be a little smaller than the other 2 parks. 9-4) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (3): 59 Place at the bottom of the RS. As long as the entire bottom RS is covered do not worry if the coverage spills into the second RS. This is helpful when the school there is at over capacity. 9-5) HIGH SCHOOL 60 At the first RS. Try to place it such that it captures the entire first RS and the greatest amount of the second RS. 9-6) CITY COLLEGE 61 Place it near the industrial zone. Any place way since its effect is citywide. Except near the water pump. 9-7) WATER PUMP (2) Idiot’s Town: YEAR 10 Pop: 25654 Income: § 5984 Funds: § 61,000 10-1) COMMERCIAL: 62 Looking at 8-2 to get an idea of the layout. Place 2 (6x6) and 1 (6x7) on the top tier of the first RS. Do not intrude below the top tier of the first RS as you will be building another RS in between this commercial zone and the one created in 8-2 and 9-2. 10-2) LARGE FLOWER GARDEN 63 This is again to help bust the demand cap. Place it such that residential areas surround it. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 11 Pop: 27469 Income: § 6900 Funds: § 79,000 11-1) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (4) 64 Place it in the top RS. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 12 Pop: 28030 Income: § 6676 Funds: § 93,000 12-1) Notice the fall in income, this shows that your economy is changing for the better. People do not want to work in dirty industries. It is still too early for high-tech industry but it is good for commercial development. 12-2) RESIDENTIAL 65 Place half a RS on the right of the other RS. Look at 8-2 and this RS is represented as future development. For this RS, you the gap in between will be four instead of three. 12-3) COMMERCIAL 66 Place 8 (6x6) at the bottom and 2 (7x6) at the top commercial zones. 12-4) SMALL FLOWER GARDEN (1+2...6) 67 Spread them among your RS. 12-5) LIBRARY (2) 68 Second RS. Provided you can cover the entire RS, try placing it lower to cover some of the bottom RS. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 13 Pop: 31527 Income: § 7715 Funds: § 93,000 13-1) No Construction Idiot’s Town: YEAR 14 Pop: 33686 Income: § 8398 Funds: § 117,000 14-1) RESIDENTIAL 69 Complete the RS created in 12-2. 14-2) COMMERCIAL 70 Place another 2 (7x6) zone at the bottom commercial area. 14-3) INDUSTRIAL 71 Create a small zone 4, (5x4) and 2 (4x4), at the top of all rest of the industrial parks. With reference to Diagram T8bi, build from tiles 22-30. In other words build only two strips of industry. 14-4) HOSPITAL 72 Place near the new RS on the right 12-2 and 13-1. 14-5) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (5) 73 At the new RS 14-6) LIBRARY (3) 74 At the new RS 14-7) SMALL FLOWER GARDEN (7) 75 At the new RS 14- WATER PUMP (3) 14-9) MAYOR HOUSE 76 Near the new RS or the place you wish to attract richer people. It should definitely away from the residential areas closer to the industry. 14-10) CITY HALL 77 Place it near the bottom commercial zones. Try to place it in the middle so that it commercial effect is not wasted. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 15 Pop: 38298 Income: § 8793 Funds: § 73,000 15-1) COMMERCIAL 78 3 (7x6) at the bottom and 2 (7x6) and 2 (6x6) on the top. 15-2) OIL POWER PLANT 15-3) SMALL PLAZA (1+2) 79 One at each of the top and bottom commercial zones 15-4) I hope as you have been expanding your city you remember to create connections. You should at the very least have ten connections on each side where there are buildings (top/left/Bottom). Try also to have a few connections on the fourth side too. Idiot’s Town: YEAR 16 Pop: 39579 Commercial Jobs: 8126 Industrial Jobs: 11069 Income: § 9156 Expenses: § 7625 Funds: § 65,000 RCI Demand R: §: 600 / §§: 100 / §§§: 250 CS: §: 1000 / §§: 600 / §§§: 200 CO: §§: 650 / §§§: 200 ID: 400 IM: 1000 IH: 600 Structures 1) 2 Hospitals/Large medical centres 2) 5 Elementary Schools 3) 1 High School 4) 3 Libraries 5) 1 City College 6) 2 Tennis Courts 7) 7 Small flower gardens 2 Small Plazas 9) 1 Large flower garden 10) 1 Oil power plant 11) 2 Coal power plants 12) 1 Waste to power plant 13) 3 Water pumps Statistics Average Income: §28,000 Mayor Rating: 60-70 or 8/12 green bars Education: 100 Life: 44 Real Time taken: 150 min.

When 'web-based' emails are not allowed, it usually means that the larger and more popular ones such as yahoo or hotmail are not allowed. Just search around and try to look for a less well known web-based email. They are unable to program in all web-based only emails given the huge amount. So search for a less well known account.

Love commissonner scruffy. Can we have more of Scruffy?

Remember the multiplier effect. 2% of something high will result in quite a bit. Also think about the indirect effect this boost will have on residential and then that on industrial. However, it is quite miniscule. But after all it is a fixed $50 cost, you rally cannot expect that much.

I believe there are 5 different shades of red and green. At one point in time when I was making my guide I was contemplating giving a classification of the y/nimby effect based on shades of colour. But gave up and just resorted to a simply positive or negative effect.

Start, strat whoops silly me. Perhaps if we place another structure with the same radius and effect and compare the slight changes in colour in the surronding areas? Use two areas one with the other structure the other with the statue. And perhaps a third with nothing at all as a control?

The 'start guide'? Are you talking about the prima guide? Anybody here interested in doing an experiment to determine the true radius of the impressive statue?

I have looked at the y/nimby things and there is something which seems to be wrong. Note I said 'seems' because it is based on a logical assumption rather than actual data. The data which I think is wrong is that of the Impressive Mayor statue. If you look at all the statistics for the 4 matyor statues: A) Mayor's Statue 25 17 25 17 B) Impressive Mayor's Statue 50 14 50 22 C) Magnificent Mayor's Statue 75 27 75 27 D) Colossal Mayor's Statue 100 48 100 48 1) All of them except the impressive one have the same radius for both commercial and residential. 2) Radius expands with each new statue 3) Yet for the impressive one the radius shrank from 17 to 14 4) Given that Magnificant statue's radius is 27, a logical assumption would be that the radius for the impressive statue should be 22 throughout. Note I only checked the one by Kolyana but since every other table here is based on hers, I assume that they all have this mistake.

If you are so inclined to change your guide, an alternative could be simply be to rename the commercial column as others. Then simply place a letter such as I$$$ or Co$$$ beside the number. And if the structure has both such as the uni you could always have another row for it.

Opps did not see your reply to the ARC post. Well, looking at Sharr's excel format I believe hers is now the best means to squeeze in the industrial info at least with regards to the 4 buildings.

I believe that these four structures offer specific industrial demand cap relief: Adv. Research C: Hi-tech Radio Station: MFG University: Hi-tech Army Base: MFG

After a commnet by somebody about one of my post, I went to download your guide to check out demand cap relief. But I realised that the buildings show residential and commercial relief but not industrial relief. I believe that certain buildings do have industrial relief. Could you check you guide to see if I am correct?

Yes that 'aww' was my thought too when I saw this picture. GOt a whole buncu of other real cute cat pictures.

Wraith, thanks for the info on how to get a screen shot of my desktop.