Slash -the Texan-

Do a little at a time, wait to see what happens, then do some more. When you put in Power, school, clinic, hospital, etc., adjust the budget down to just cover what you need. Keep an eye on them so you don't let them get away from you. Later, you will want to keep the margin higher for schools so you can be "well-funded" to be eligible for some of the buildings that can help attract people to your city. Only use streets until you need to expand them to roads. Throw in a park every now and then. When you need water, use one pump. It'll supply quite a few buildings. And put it in a residential area far from any industry or the enviro-nazi will shut it down without telling you. Run a pipe from the pump a long way, then put in a perpendicular pipe, count six tiles sideways from where it has no water, and run another pipe off of your fist pipe. You'll end up with one long pipeline from your pump with perpendicular extensions off of it. This will maximize water coverage at the lowest cost (fewer pipes and no overlap areas). Only use power lines if you have to. Instead, drop in a zone if you can. I like to use low-end commercial ones. After your town is up and running, go to the region and start up cities in the adjacent tiles, so your first city is in the center. The cities will start to work together and your pops will grow.

This newbie thanks you very much!

I won't use the NAM, myself. I thought I might be interested, but I tried to register at the site to DL it and they're just to difficult. It doesn't need to be a super secure, top-secret site. The info contained therein will not cause world war or world peace, so I refuse to create a password of a mix of upper and lower case letter and numbers. It's just not that important to me to jump through hoops to play SC4. Is that the only site with the NAM? If not, I'll take another look. If it is, they can keep it and their vault-like attitude.

! ! NEWBIE ALERT ! ! 1) How do the airports "expand"? 2) What is RMIP, please.

I am not new to SC4, but just recently got into it enough to want, or need, the help of a forum. I remember playing SC1 way, way back (I won't say how far back . . .) and had alot of fun with SC3kU. SC4, though, is a very different animal than all the other SC's (duh, me!), and I didn't really play it much after getting it and trying it out. I'm really more a driving/racing game guy (TDU, RACE 07, etc.). I decided to give SC4 another go recently after realizing I needed a break from all the intense, non-stop action of racing. OK. Actually, I was getting just a little bored driving around Oahu. I'd driven the roads there so much, it was almost like really being there. I had fun playing SC3kU, but initially found SC4 kind of frustrating. I didn't really understand the new concepts (yes I read the manual. I'm a technical person, and always read the manual of everything I buy). I didn't fully grasp the regions function. Nor did I understand how the budget slider of schools, power plants, etc. help you manage your budget in a much better way than the old SC's. I actually found the budget slider to be an annoyance until I (slowly) began to understand how useful it actually is. I admit it: I'm a slooooooooow learner at times. I am here to learn more about how to expand my enjoyment of SC4, and to learn a few tricks from the experts. A better understanding of the game will go a long way to improving my game play and help minimize the frustrations encountered. For example, there must be a way or a mod to shut up that enviro-wacko nutjob that considers it her function to shut down water pumps without notifying you or even asking permission! You only hear about it from the Utilities guy! There should be a way for a Mayor to control his people like that. He/she should be able to fire/replace any one of them. If she can do that, why can't the Police/Fire guy dispatch the fire trucks on his own? Now I'm not here to learn how to make bigger cities (read: population). I am more interested in designing and building pleasing, aesthetic "towns" - a high desirability factor. So, a few Q's: Trees have different costs. Do they have different values? If so, what are they? Can you get rid of a dump? Say, start one somewhere else when your city starts to grow in ways you had not planned on, or install enough recycle centers? Can you turn off the Rush Hour icons floating around? I never play those and they get in the way when they are near something I'm trying to click on to check it's status. Do heavily polluting industries on the edge of your town pollute the air and/or water of the adjacent town? For that matter, do you always need some manufacturing, or can you get away with deleting them altogether once you have the High Tech industry? Thank you. And if you've read all of this post . . . I REALLY thank you!! Slash