bharmala

1. I usually begin zoning for medium density residential in the most centralized neighborhoods, which are closest to commercial/industrial zones, and have good health/education services in them. Generally, once your city is profitable and has a fairly established industrial/commercial zone, you can go ahead an rezone. 2. I've always expanded into many different lots from the beginning of the game. I've usually made one city R$ and industrial and the neighboring city R$$/$$$ and CS/CO 3. I keep my taxes for R$$$ high and only decrease them when I have established CO in my city. Even then, I don't let too much R$$$ develop, since it's quite unstable (as you mentioned). 4. R$ demand is almost always high. All commercial and industrial zones need R$ workers, so there's really no point that R$ will drop down. Instead, if you'd like your city to become wealthier over time, increase the taxes for R$ later on and watch as R$$ redevelops these buildings

Hmmm...didn't realize this - I'm gonna have to check that out.

Those ugly brown buildings get redeveloped quickly once you have a good R$$ and R$$$ demand, especially if you make the areas for HD housing development limited. Just give it 5 years or so, and improve services around the area.

Wouldn't removal of the plazas decrease desirability though and hence the development of skyscrapers? I would suggest following arrow's directions but alternating his block design with your own to create blocks with the largest skyscrapers alongside office buildings (which are 3x3) but are adjacent to the plaza. That way you get the best of both worlds.

Originally posted by: HandsOff Agreed. However, from a certain point onwards the messages come up for no reason at all - everything's funded to the hilt. Another weird one is the one about the lions - if you plop down a zoo, you'll get it. But the budget concerned is always - by default - at its limit. You cannot increase it, thus the lions are running..quote> Really? I'll have to try that out sometime.

Canada, (also my home country) is my favorite.

You can also see more sims on your streets by going to the options menu (display) and selecting for 'sims visible' to be on the 'high' setting

Where are your industrial areas in these super-cities? I usually sprout up my highrises near large manufacturing areas, but I don't see anything like that here or in Montaukshire.

The roundabouts made without the NAM don't look as great, though. They're pretty 'square' for roundabouts

Definitely. Your region should be big enough to sustain a larger population of middle and upper classes though. I often build a lot of my R$ in polluted industrial areas while my R$$ and R$$$ cities generally 'tax out' R$. This seems to be a pretty easy way of keeping R$ out. Also, remember that if R$$ demand is high and residential areas are limited, R$ will be redeveloped into R$$.

Yeah 2.6 million seems pretty crazy!!! The most I've had for a medium tile has been 1 million. I'm pretty sure you would need the NAM, since commute times would be out of control otherwise. OP: Nice picture

Originally posted by: tunheim I've read that when calculating commute time, the game only calculates the morning commute and then doubles the time. If roperly planned out this should be possible to exploit using one-way-roads. You could build a road network with good connetions TO the work places, but with only one back. There would be massive traffic jams in the evening rush, but the game engine wouldn't take this into consideration.quote> I didn't know that! Has anyone done any experiment to show this?

I hate slums, but I've noticed that R$ serves as the basis of the economy, especially during an economic slump. Build an adjacent slum/industrial city with very high densities of R$. This adjacent city will stimulate the economy in the 'good' city, letting more businesses develop, as well as R$$/R$$$

Yeah, it's really annoying when R$$$ sims say they have no job when there are hundreds around them. I don't use the NAM, but I'm sure it would help correct this.

What was the largest region you have ever built or are building? When I mention biggest region, I mean highest population. I'm currently at 9.1 million and growing...there are 2 major cities of about 1.1-1.2 million each.