apricotmuffins

it's not the devs so much as the publishers. Behind shockingly bad implementation of online services, there appears to be a great game. Don't blame maxis for this. Blame EA.

power the agriculture and tollway with wind. agriculture is really sparse, so doesnt require much power at all.

does this mean they are trying to drum up more interest in a proper simcity game.... HMMM. *strokes beard* Interesting why they would 1. release the game on steam and then 2. make a competition with real prizes etc for a game that is 7 years old and by all other appearances left soley to its fanbase to keep it alive.

I personally like a lot of game music. it does vary. I'm thinking of playing the god mode music in mayor mode instead. because I liked it chilled outness.

[Topic not allowed - CaptCity] To the OP: if you are concerned about the disc having copy protection on it that may harm your pc, or you want to be able to play the game disc free and you havent bought it yet, I suggest you look at getting the Steam version. you will be able to install it on any machine you are logged in to with steam. Possibly even a mac, if EA let them.

hmm. It depends what you want from the game. I'm inclined to say a game with only NAM is still playable and very enjoyable. But mods can really enhance either the realism or the gameplay. If you want to have HUGE growth instantly, then there are mods for that (the super demand ordinance mentioned) but I feel like that kind of defeats the challenge of growing a city. Just my personal opinion based on what I get out of the game. There are also slope mods, to make road inclines more realistic, the RHW to build more customisable highways (its a big one to get to grips with though) and I have a radius widener to make my civics cover a wider area. I might uninstall that one, but its very useful and means you don't have to build 3 schools for 3 different neighbourhoods with about 20 pupils in each one etc. So i'm keeping it for now! Theres countless more mods, some good, some not so good. Its up to you. Explore whats out there. Don't get too caught up in downloading everything and trying it. Pick and choose carefully and do one at a time to see how you like it.

If you have some demand for commercial like your RCI bar indicates, You should zone for that, either in this square, or in a new one. Neighbour connections are a must. Also, as nice as solar power is, you can save money by making a 'dirty' tile with some coal power stations and DI and MI (set HI tax to 20% so they dont grow) and maybe some ghetto if you feel like being mean (R$ are always useful- be nasty and don't even give them schools or hospitals or park areas, they will still stick around and even with heavy pollution... its a cruel world) Then, selling the power from those to your nice city tile. To do this, put in the power connection from the dirty tile to the nice tile, run for a few months, then save and go to your nice tile, where you eliminate all sources of power from your city (I mean ALL sources. waste to energy plants etc too) you should then be able to initate a neighbour deal through your budget panel. Buy as much power as you need with a little bit extra. (make sure you put a few power stations in the dirty tile and max their budget, your city is big enough to need a fair bit) If you have any DI or MI in this particular city, bulldoze it, and set their taxes to 20% to keep them out. you want nice HI only. zone more commercial!! you have demand for it. Be sure to build up the surrounding tiles more. A nice commercial only tile adjascent to this might be an idea if you have some cs and co $$ + Put in strong transport connections like rail or highways. I have a city with about 100k population in and a surplus budget of 10 -15k a month doing this. I dont know how far I can take it, but it does work if you are careful, grow in small incriments (never over-zone so your demand dips negative) and if you need more juice and it won't let you buy any more etc, hop over to your dirty city and plop in some more power stations. You should also sell your garbage to the dirty tile. its cheap and keeps your city super clean. Keep moving around your connected cities and grow when demand requires - if your demand for DI and MI bottoms out in your dirty tiles, build more R$ and R$$ in the same tile or a connecting one etc. Strike a balance. like others have said, too much $$$ is bad. you need the $ and $$.

I'll just dump this here. Do you think the mayor should change houses?

EPIC mosaic! really something. I am so proud of this beautiful fledgeling city centre. I don't do ploppables, apart from in game rewards/jobless landmarks. :3 [Oversized image resized. Maximum image size 800x600 - porter]

hey cool. islands are the way to go! I made this region with fun in mind. So far, i'm liking the challenge of building on lots of little islands. I crafted it so most city tiles can be joined to the others with a bridge. So far, only 100,000 residents. How big do you think I could get the region?

Its really bizarre, this city has quite a lot of R$$ sims and they ALL like walking. I think the issue here was that i hadnt connected the avenue properly (only one arrow, not two) but even now they will walk across the city for something. Its really wierd.

My sims are very carbon concious.