red_xiii

Thanks Nonny, so what do you with your taxes? I don't exactly have population as a goal, but i'm just trying to get a grasp on this and figure if it's bad planning, a bug, or just something i don't quite understand yet. You're right SC4 is really fun to watch progress but there is a lot more technical details than what i'm used to with sc2k. If i can figure that out and build a large metropolis then i'll be able to build any type of cities or regions. I was under the impression that one of these medium tiles that is almost 100% land and densely zoned could have a large population of millions or more. Is that only with mods? I've only installed NAM really. Is it something that only happens after the whole region is developed? From what i've read it doesn't seem to be bad planning on my part. I can look at the desirability view and R$, Cs$ and Co$ are all bright green all over the city, and i do have a lot of skyscrapers already. Although my R$ is about 15%. I attached a graph. And i'll look at my connections. I've been making use of everything... roads, rail, hiway, subway.. Also attached my transportation map. my big city is the one with the airport at the bottom, with the hiways also. BTW i was also under the impression dirty industry doesn't need water (as shown in that first tutorial) and it actually contaminates the water quickly, forcing one to build a treatment plant sooner. I-M and power plants too. I read the only thing it does it help prevent fires, but that can be covered with a nearby fire station.

hi i'm also kinda new to sc4... would you believe i've still been playing sc2k all this time? ha! i'm also having trouble getting my big city past about 220k, it's just on a medium sized tile in Timbuktu, but i was under the impression these could get more than a million population. the whole tile is pretty much zoned dense. i have residential areas covered with all amenities, parks, and courts. i've built most of the rewards and a few of the landmarks in commercial zones. i've let it sit for a hundred years now and have switched back and forth between the other cities... but none of the others are near 100 yet. i tried to follow thy451's tutorial to get started with 3 cities, one with just I-D, another with just I-M, and the third with just I-HT (the third being my 'big city' mentioned above). i've made several more smaller cities around these three with just I-HT also by taxing out I-D and I-M. but it sounds like this is not optimal? typically when i start a new city i've been lowering the commercial and residential $$ taxes to 8.5 and the $$$ to 8.0, or maybe even lower, $ to 8.5, $$ to 8.0 and $$$ to 7.5, but with industry i've raised the I-D and I-M to like 12 or 18 to keep them out. is that a mistake? although the other cities i've developed after the third so far all have thriving HT industries and a range of residential and commercial buildings. also about this infinite commuter bug, i've been connecting the cities on all four side so there are definitely loops there. would you recommend i use my 'big city' as central and use connections on all four sides, but then limit the connections in the other cities? it was my impression that industry needed to be close to the edge with connections, but maybe they don't need connections at all? it's unfortunate this bug exists.... if you want more details about my cities so far let me know.. thanks

One thing that really frustrates me is the terrain requirements to build seaports, cruise ship ports, marinas, and any other water-based lots. What would be great is a plugin that shows, when a certain lot is activated, where it can be placed on the map. Without that, we have to just drag the lot over every possibility and hope that one of them turns blue to let us build it. Anyone know of a plugin like that? Otherwise, please let us know the specific terrain requirements to build these water-based lots. Then we can at least using the terrain editing tools to try and shape it correctly.

this is so amazing TowerDude. can you show a zoomed-out overview of the cities too?

erm, sorry i'm new to simcity 4 but saw this on the front page... it looks stunning i don't see any abandoned buildings or anything. do these cities actually build up like this or do you place all the buildings manually?