XpirAment

Here's an option... Commercial Services Doubler Wow, thanks for the speedy reply. Downloaded it and about to play.

Here's what I've done for a few years now: Author+County. I have a bookshelf in front of me. And since the cities are square, I treat them like counties. So in my regions I end up with, e.g.: Irving County Rand County Sinclair County Butcher County King County Mumford County Orwell County Camus County Dalby County you get the idea

My number one of all time is the Industry Quadrupler. I'm wondering if anyone knows how to get something that will take care of my CS$ and CS$$ demands in the same manner? An additional mod I like the Sarah Bingham Hospital. It takes up the same amount of space, but can handle 12,000, which saves space in my densest cities. I don't understand the OP's reasoning for using the GodModeInMayorMode mod. Is "CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+god tools" really too much to do?

Suddenly Connecticut! Looks amazing.

You realize this thread is nearly 6 years old, and the newest post by crybkeeper is already 3 years old?

I will not be giving up my SC4. After playing the CXL demo, I only have one thing to say: all the lot sizes are the same. 1x1 for every res, com, and ind. There is little variation. And somehow I doubt Montecristo will be opening up their code for us to make extensions and add ons. The whole MMO bit bothers me the most. It's a chat room for avatars. And every city is its own chat room, so one explorable city per user, in which you may never see anyone. The only way to make the avatars interactive is to pre-arrange a meet up in one virtual city. And the trading resources thing didn't work for me in the demo at all. I'm sorry, but even if MC could improve CXL, there's nothing it has over SC4's region play, and STEX add-on-ability.

Woot! The final codeword was "finale". And I got it.

Also, increase the distance between intersections. Sims are annoyed by travel time. I've seen Sims bypass boulevards in favor of streets just because of the stoplights. By using one-ways you are increasing the intersections as opposed to using two-ways. Not every block has to have a one-way going up and down. Put up-roads every other block and down-roads in between. You'll cut down some of those intersections.

Mr. Beer (who has commented above) has recreated 3 cities I have lived in. Perhaps we know one another? But to recreate your hometown, it helps to live in the midwest, because of all the gridded streets. Boring? Nah, just easier that way. You can't get lost in Omaha. Follow that up with downloading all the bats/lots from your city on the STEX first (if there are any, I don't think Omaha has a bunch...) and play them in a blank city before setting them permanently in your final city. Forget perfection. Omaha has 12 city blocks per mile, while Lincoln has 13. It's odd that I know that, but again, you can't get lost in Omaha. While most American cities have 12 blocks per mile, you should use Google Earth/Maps to find some pattern in your hometown. Last tip: fake it. Most of us aren't from your hometown, so you can get away with some fudging of the zoning, roads, airport/seaport/spaceport, and/or skyline. Remember it's just a game. (Mr. Beer, watch out though, I am from Omaha-Lincoln-CB,IA, so I will do some judging...) - Bryan

There's two routes to go for this: 1) helpful downloads that change the way the game is played, or 2) which BATs and LOTs I like in my cities. I'll just answer under category number one. Pedriana Plants Killer (if you build a lot of farmland), or any farming variety pack. Industry Quadrupler - makes the RCI ratio a little more playable Stage Limits Mod - also makes the game a little more playable Underground Depth Mod - not necessary, but helps cut down your frustration with realism issues Stupid News Ticker Mod - cuts about half of the messages in your news inbox Black Hole Water Works, Power, and Waste Management - clean up your dump of a city... And if you are not going to use iLive Reader to tweak your buildings outputs (like increase hospital capacity from 3000 to 30,000 or increase water treatment plant's treating capacity, etc...) then you should search the STEX for larger capacity items. There are numerous schools, hospitals, fire stations, and what have you that increase some variable. Just surf the STEX, download and unzip, and play SC4. If you don't like something, delete it from your plugins folder and move on.

I have a new computer and a fresh install of SC4, so none of my ten cities are old. But back in the day... Oh man, let me tell you what. I played a region called Barrington Woods for about four years. Every tile in that region was nuked at least once. I topped out at 10 million people (region was medium-ish sized).

Hmm. Where did my post go? I will now reattach the picture that wrangled up this old thread... Just another example of why I love the Pedriana's Plant Killer mod.

Wow, really? Has it been four years since I started playing SC4? I've even been on ST for three years now... Thanks ST for the many years of wonderful downloads.

So many factors come into play (as was intended by the game designers...) when making your cities. We all play differently, and we will all get different results. If I tell you that something works for me, it might not work for you. So much depends on what type of city you are trying to build (realistic, experimental, urban, suburban...). But here goes anyways: 1) I always zone medium or high density, thus saving me the expense later on of having to upgrade my zones. Low density buildings will be the only thing that builds until you add water underneath. So when I want to grow my population, I just add water! I usually do this in developed areas of town (ie, my core areas) when the demand for R or C is high enough. Otherwise, I just keep building low density out from the center. 2) I also play the trick of putting my polluting industry in neighboring cities, which is handy, but creates a lag for low-wealth sims in finding their jobs. So you have to be careful. But mostly what I've come to discover is that every city tile that you play benefits from having R, C, and I all on the same city tile. The greatest improvement from SC3 to SC4 was region play, so explore, experiment, and build away. (I choose my screen name "XpirAment" because I liked experimenting with the game play. Try it.) 3) I only use taxes to encourage or discourage certain types of development (usually taxing ID about 20% to keep it out of my cities). I don't use taxes as a means of making money. In the beginning of a city's life, I leave the percents all at 9, and lower the medium wealth a little, and the high wealth some, as the game goes on, just to encourage more those types of residential and commercial establishments. Seems to do the trick for me. And finally, I don't see any problems with having R$ demand. I like all kinds of demand, because in reality, I'm not a discriminating guy (okay, I do discriminate when it comes to coffee, bad coffee is just bad.) Hey Krontron, welcome to ST and have fun playing SC4. I have for four years now!