BjoernLars

I've had the same problem too. I feel your pain! I've picked this game up at least 20 times since it came out! Right now I am only using a couple of nice buidling and the park that gives you 400 Billion cash a month. (You can find it at www.simcity.com , in the exchange area. Just click on Most Downloaded and it should be at the top.) Mind you I only use park for one month, and then I am set on money. I am currently working on my new city. I picked a spot where most cities would probably start... Where the river meets the coast. Also this land is pretty flat, so I can get the basics of the game down before I start going into complicated mountainous regions. Get some experience first. I found that trying to set up all of the police and fire departments and schools and highways and what nots first sort of complicates the city building process for me. So I start off with an area with industry, residential and commercial all together. Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, pollution, but I worry about that later. You've got to crawl through pollution before you walk in the nice pretty perfect environment. For me, I make my city efficent first, then once I have the giant population base and cash then I start to worry about making my city look pretty. I use some sort of grid usually around a 6x6, but that is flexiable as I come across hills, rail or other things that may get in the way. Also, in every grid, I put one bus stop. Bus stops are not too expensive, but they really help keep traffic under control. In my main city of 50k, I have lots of bus stops and only streets and roads. The rule of thumb I use is, once my I am making more money than spending, I add a service to my city. This is usaully the order I do it in... Fire Department Police Station Medical Elementary School Water Library High School Garbage I personally recomend having one of your neighbors build a few waste to energy plants and ship your garbage there. Once you start playing that neighbor, then destory the waste to energy plants and put it in another neighbor. Repeat until it's at the edge of the map. This helps the environment factor. Then I start to expand my city until the population is approaching 50k. There are limits on how large a city can become until the region population hits a certain number. A city can't grow beyond 50,000 unless the region population is greater than 80,000. A city can't grow beyond 120,000 unless the region population is greater than 120,000. A city can't grow beyond 200,000 unless the region population is greater than 500,000. Once I am starting to approach 50k in my first city, I will have a strong commercial demand. So I raise my Dirty and Manufacturing Taxes to 20% and then destroy those types of factories. Then I quickly build some more commercial building to replace the lost jobs. Once the first city is 50k, I move to a new region and lower the Dirty and Manufacturing Taxes down to 8%. This place will be my industrial area. So I try to divide this map into two parts, one for residential and a sprinkling of commerce and the other half of industry. Now be warned, you need good connections between the two cities, because there will be lots of traffic of people from your first city going to this city to work. That's where I am at right now. So far, I am content with my cities. I hope this helps. -Bjoern Lars PS. Let me know where I can find this 10x commute Mod and how to install it. I need to be cured of my ignorance of Mods. Thanks dudes!

Thanks for the warm welcome all. I've been reading around the site a lot, but I am still a bit ignorant of BATs and MODs. Thanks again!

Hello, I am Benjamin. I live in Columbia, Missouri, going to University of Missouri. I am a 22 years old, starting on my second year trying to get a masters degree in Accountancy. I've played Sim City, 2000, 3000 and now 4. I played 2000 the most. I've been a member for awhile, but never really dove into the site. After living in South Korea for a year, I am really inspired to make giant high density urban cities like Seoul and Tokyo. It's amazing to see a city of 14 Million people packed into a large valley along the Han River. I got most of the basics down of the game, and if anybody has tips for building great cities, feel free to send me a message.

After living in Seoul, South Korea, I am inspired to make cities that are nothing but dense urban buildings. South Korea is mostly mountains, so they must be efficent in their space. The idea of a Suburb does exist for them. Only people that have suburb type of houses are extremely rich. It was amazing the first time I drove throught the mountain pass entering Seoul, and seeing nothing but tall buildings for as far as the eye could see...