mr_sim

SimCity 4 is all about region play. Your city is likely as big as it can get because you are attempting to encompass the entirety of the game in a single city. I recommend looking at the Making Money the Easy Way tutorial by Soldyne. It covers everything anyone needs to know about the game including the issues you appear to be having with population.

A true "guide" in every sense. Soldyne was awesome! I just wish Simtrop would stop changing the site so much. The guide is now broken without the images as they are key to understanding what is going on. Edit: Hey folks! I cleaned the image links up and reposted the guide to a blog HERE. I gave proper credit to Soldyne and Simtrop.

Considering the fact that you are in the SimCity 2013 forum and not the SimCity 4 forum, I'd venture a guess that, at least here, the game being talked about is SimCity 2013. But that's just a hunch.

I'm not sure how many of you read soldyne's three part article titled "Making Money the Easy Way", for SC4 but, it was very insightful. Basically, it describes how to utilize the game mechanics to not only grow a successful city, but a successful region complete with CBD. So, I applied this to SC2013 and, it worked. I've not reached the point of a CBD yet but I do have a solid city of 70k+ that is comprised of residential and commercial only. All industry, power, trash, sewage, etc. is in a neighboring town and it too is doing well. I'll put up a brief article post once the system proves completely feasible but for now, I highly recommend applying this method in order to maximize the little bit of space we have in these cities.

Well after several months of working out bugs I believe I have this working successfully now. This is the first of 3 cities in a test sandbox region. Notice there is no industrial. I placed all industrial initially in one other city but later built another RCI city in the hopes of helping with traffic and boosting overall region population. Thus far, it has not made much difference. That said, this main city is still growing. Here are some more shots. This is a better view of the road layout. Traffic is still rough but, by having only one connection to the main road things are not too terrible. At this point, it is all high density road and avenue. The tri-city area. The left city is the main IND city. It is doing okay but it certainly is hurting from the lack of RES and COM tax dollars. The city to the right is the full RCI city. I'm just getting it started and I don't plan to make it huge as it is still more of a support for the main city. I will add that I have a very successful mass transit system with buses across the region. It does not seem to help alleviate traffic, bug?, but having plenty of buses keeps the wait times in the green. Still a WIP at this point but region play is most definitely possible with SC2013.

The CTD, on multi-core systems, is strictly a problem of SC4 being single threaded. Simply set the game to run on only one core and you can play indefinitely without issues. I had CTD on a dual-core laptop, WinVista, and my quad-core tower, Win7 Home. Did the single core trick and all was well.

It's all good sim_link. I just felt it necessary to clarify where I was coming from on the matter. As you stated, context and emotion do not come through in text. I appreciate your explanation of the comments toward my own and wish you luck with this contest given it was your idea.

My assertion that 1920x1920 was a typo stems from the obvious fact that this is a non-standard resolution and would require editing outside of the game. Seems unnecessary at best. I am also very aware that this contest is voluntary hence my own statement, As for the constraints, if you don't care for them, just don't enter. I have no intention of entering this contest and I was merely commenting with regard to others comments. Not sure why I was singled out here but I don't appreciate it as I said nothing derogatory toward you or this contest. My statement about them all being the same is my opinion, which I'm entitled to and it was in no way negative.

Intelligent

I would say it's safe to assume the 1920x1920 is a typo. As for the constraints, if you don't care for them, just don't enter. Silent protest will cause the whole thing to be re-thought. After all, what is the point of such a contest if the submissions are all the same?

Dezoning said zones before upgrading your roads prevents such an issue, allows for better control of your skyline/population and is a built-in mechanic, not a bug. So, there's that. Yeah but then if you get an abandoned building or rubble, you have to rezone it for anything to build there again after you demolish it. Then you gotta remember to go back and de-zone it AGAIN so you keep the same density. It's a complete waste of time and unnecessary micromanaging of things that should be made easier by tying density to zones instead of road capacity. Complaining for the sake of complaint. The method works fine and is not the inconvience you are making it to be. I do however, agree on density to an extent. I feel roads need different densities and zones need different densities. Just like in SC4 and just like in the real world. I do not agree though "easier" should be the justification. This game is already kindergarten simple.

Dezoning said zones before upgrading your roads prevents such an issue, allows for better control of your skyline/population and is a built-in mechanic, not a bug. So, there's that.

This is an old argument. Too many people fuss and carry on about patches. The truth is, the ones that complain, don't understand the process or the business involved. Those deadlines and investors, moreso investors of course, are what make the game possible to begin with. There were no "donations" from SC fans to create this latest version. It takes cash to pay devs, artists, testers, publishers, etc. Money, money, money. Even the resources put in to these patches are paid for by investors initially. That aside, as a game dev, you can not just take a bug report, open up a file full of code, swap some stuff around, call it fixed and ship out an update. Aside from the sheer time involved in finding the actual problem in the code, you first must have enough reports of the same problem. Then you have to develop and agree with the other devs on the fix. Then you must test the fix to ensure it does indeed "fix" the problem as well ensuring it does not cause further issues, see above complaints. After all of that, you submit your code to be approved and upon approval, wait for it to be included in a patch full of other fixes that may or may not agree with your code. It is a long process that requires a great deal of effort and MONEY and it behooves anyone affected to, at the very least, be content with the knowledge that the game developers recognize there are issues and are working through this very process to fix them.

Same. I've invested quite a bit of time into some of my cities and without the benefit of saves I can't risk the damage. Well, its not "risk" but it would be an unnecessary hassle to implement the changes to my cities necessary to compensate for the issues following 2.0. For me its been the Beijing like smog cloud covering my cities along with the abandonment/bulldoze click fest. It's a real bummer because I was working around most of the release issues and having fun but I've no defense against the pollution so I can't really play even if I wanted to. Really bummed. The "abandonment clickfest" is the only thing that is getting to me really. I'm still playing though just because I paid $60 and want to get my time on the game. It has a long way to go before it is right.

You do not need a department of tranportation in each city. All of the departments that attach to the city hall affect your region. Therefore, once you've built a Department of Transportation in one city, all of the cities in your region share the benefit. That said, you do need the town hall in each city to allow for neighbor deals and to establish it as an actual city. As for development, what I am finding as I go along is that it does help to zone at least a little bit of low density RES in your industrial city. On my first test, the utilities in my IND city, the ones that served my entire region, began to show no workers as the industry grew larger. As soon as I zoned RES in the IND city, this problem cleared. I know it is an issue with the game itself not properly applying commuter numbers to ALL available jobs so for the time being, a bit of low density RES will make things go smoother.

Easiest method for water is to build a city that borders a water source ie., lake, river, ocean and use that as your "water city". Any city bordering a water source has infinite water supply. A perfect place to supply all of your cities with water.

I think part of it is you have to at least have the town hall for the shared region services to be available.

Build slow. You have to give your city time to adjust to any changes you make. Simcity has always been a game of patience and planning. If you try to do too much too soon, you'll fail.

Yeah, I'm running in to the same problem. Hopefully 2.0 update will help inter-city worker issues The thing with this concept is, it takes time. I was worried at first that this would not work because it took so long to finally get people to commute to a different city to work but, it finally happened. Just like in SC4, the demand has to exist for things to "pop". Then, it's a bunch of back and forth to keep each city going.

I'd say your first step should be understanding the game on its base level first. Making Money the Easy Way That will give you a very solid foundation in this game. It is three parts which teach you all you'll need to know to grow successful cities. Good Luck!

I'd say your first step should be understanding the game on its base level first. Making Money the Easy Way That will give you a very solid foundation in this game. It is three parts which teach you all you'll need to know to grow successful cities. Good Luck!

Just got around to browsing these CJ's. 5/5 to this one. I have no idea how you've managed to do this but I'm in awe of your abilities. I sincerely hope you're not only using this talent to play a game because you are an artist.