BlackStar

I do this with a pen pal of mine. We speak on MSN so we know what we're both doing with our cities, so we can decide what to build. We have two synchronized folders for plugins and regions, using MS Office Groove. Everytime we save our cities, the other player automatically receives the updated city when they turn the computer on. If they are IN SC4 at the time, they will have to F8 then re-enter to get new connections and neighbour deals, but it works very well indeed. Edit: Just to be clear, cities are updated in real-time. We stay in touch over MSN to avoid any possible saving conflicts. Generally speaking we each have our own city. For example, I say I'll work on suburbs to the east, and he'll work on a CBD.

Demand caps possibly? Create some new highway/subway connections and make sure you have all your reward buildings placed

Demand caps possibly? Create some new highway/subway connections and make sure you have all your reward buildings placed

Just a little update: Am still working on the next update, it involves a large population (in comparison), and need to get the buildings *just so* for it to be correct. You will see two completely different developments going up. 

Depends. Sims are just retards. You could try different pathfinding plugins

Am I missing something? Why not just use the god mode terraforming tools?

Well I run SC4 on an old, underpowered, widescreen dual core laptop and I get nice frame rates between 40 and 70FPS, with no problems at all. Even with 1gb of RAM and running vista with all the toys it runs wonderfully.

What I meant with the connections is simply to have *a* subway connection. It doesn't matter where it comes from or where it goes, just having a connection helps with demand caps and the like. I've always noticed there to be a correlation between congestion and customer levels. Not only do I frequently observe it, its logical - how else would the game determine how successful a business is? I expect this to be a replication of foot traffic, so that shops in dingy backstreets suffer. Although I may stand to be corrected by someone with relevant experience in the field. And of course education matters! Low educated sims cannot work for a CO§§§ (apart from 1 or 2 sims as cleaners, etc). Equally, highly educated sims won't work as security guards (i.e. low wealth jobs). It is a well-documented fact and covered in many guides.

Intentionally throwing up a bit of traffic congestion in the heart of your shopping district can generate a bit of commercial demand at the expense of commute time. It is not very common for the customers information to read as 'high'. Infact, I suspect it might even relate to pedestrian traffic. Would be interesting if this was the case. If it is, then bus stops generate foot traffic. With 100k residents you are not likely to see skyscrapers just yet. SC4 works through the growth stages as the demand caps are broken and the city grows. What I would say is work on a more regional level - developing adjacent cities really helps. Make a load of subway connections to neighbouring cities, too (even if it is just a 1 tile section of subway to get the yellow arrow), and also work on what worker Commerce NEEDS. High end commerce requires R§§ and R§§§ with high educational quotients. It sounds like you have the ideal layout - however, it would be a good idea to check the traffic volume dataview to find out where the highest levels of traffic actually are. If you have some heavily traversed streets and roads, you might consider placing shops there instead of homes (may as well, residents don't like busy routes). 'Too long commute' is simply a generic way of saying 'unsuitable commute', or 'cannot find suitable job'. The best way to assume this error is that the jobs aren't suitable.

Looking good Some more regional-oriented shots in the future maybe? Will be interesting to see the overall layout 

Lol I wondered where all the off topic boards went https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/index.cfm?FTVAR_SUBCAT=132&subcatname=Simtropolis%20Forum And yeh, the Peg incident is pretty much was said in the original post. Pegasus was probably one of the most prolific authors on Simtropolis back then, so he came out of it fine and continues to make excellent BATwork to this day. This was arguably the start of overzealous copyrighting and having readme.html forced upon you by installers which I helped popularize many years back

Also, hold Alt to rotate the zone, and Ctrl so solidify is (i.e. make it one lot)

Well don't forget SC4 is a very old game by now. It came out in 2003. If you are working on a fresh region with no plugins, there could be the chance that your hardware setup (maybe graphics card) is just not compatible. One thing I might say though, if it IS your graphics card being incompatible, have you tried to run SC4 with the software rendering command line? (And further to the previous comment, your OS is completely irrelevant. It would be unlikely for an OS to cause CTD of SC4 in the first instance. But nevertheless SC4 is fully compatible with it and wouldn't be causing your problems imo)

I am not too reliant on money-making mods - I don't have extreme ordinances mods, nor do I have money gen lots. However, I do occasionally find myself in economic trouble, which can sometimes spark into an economic depression. It's probably due to mismanagement of finances, but the economic modeling in SC4, no matter how basic is very nice indeed. I was just wondering if anyone else has these episodes? I've only had a few major crises in all my years playing SC4, but the most recent I had was when public spending got too high, following a series of investments to increase the tax base. The investments didn't pay off, and with the funds dangerously low, I struggled to keep away from the red - going into debt a few times. I had to severely cut many city services - fire crews and transit workers were on strike - congestion soared as roads crumbled. Mayor ratings plummeted as libraries, local clinics and schools were closed and centralized into larger downtown facilities. Combined with traffic congestion and high taxes, this led to some occasional civil unrest. I also had to contend with a few pipe burst disasters, which destroyed several homes. This is the sort of thing which could normally be the cause of Game Over, but I eventually recovered, and income slowly crept up - and after a lucky break with a new residential development, I was able to gradually reinstate services and boost funding. I was wondering what you do to solve such economic downward spirals? And what is the best way?

I too love the RHW. However, I feel that the intersections are still a bit fudged in places. Prefab RHW intersections would be endlessly useful for many players here. However, I do like the Maxis default highway for urban use. Whilst it is a little narrow (why does it not fill the 2 tiles?), it looks great in downtown settings and reminds me of many highways I have driven on, like parts of the M5 in England or parts of the Hume Highway near Melbourne.