Ixtellor

I don't think you're dumb, not my intention. 1) Your simcity is basically on an aqufier, But you use up all the water faster than nature can replenish it. So you basically have the exact same choices real cities use. Import water (See California) or Treat your water and reuse it. In the game, your treatment center treats the water and puts it back in your 'aquifer'. I see it as a pretty reasonable simulation, although in reality, the treated water would go straight into your water system. 2) I don't know the threshold anymore than people in real life know the threshold for police protection 3) This is also part of the answer to #2. Your ambulance coverage is broken because the servers are broken (between cities)

1) Water is a problem in many cities in America. I like this realistic aspect. You basically have to do what REAL cities have to do, import water or filter your sewege and reuse it. No idea why people are complaing about this. 2) Why is it self evident what the "right" amount of police is, or fire protection, or medical attention? There is no right answer to any of those questions, in real life, so why are people expecting to just look at a chart and plug in the "right" amount of fireman in game? Also, our simcities grow a lot faster than real cities, so of course we are going to struggle with sewage, water, trash pick up, etc. If you don't want to have problems, dont' expand your city so rapidly. Build a small city with few zones areas, save up enough money to expand services, then add zones. People are trying to go from 0 population to 200K population overnight, then get surprised when they can't handle all the challenges that kind of INSANE growth leads to. 3) Server issues are causing many of your problems. City #1 isn't talking to City #2 via the Cloud, hence you're having trouble with sharing resources. 4) The game is a puzzle, so don't get upset if you dont' solve it on day 1.