hitomichan1

There are a number of guides for building cities, which I suggest you review. These could answer your question. While I or anyone could give you an overview of how we have done it, the fact is there are many factors inherent in your specific city that must be reviewed: pollution, R$$$ population, education, sim satisfaction level, etc. Other cities in the region will also impact your city's demand. The more cities you have the more demand for Commercial you will get. Don't forget that there are ordinances that affect C demand (tourism) and the airport helps as well. Mike

I've had SC4 Deluxe for a long time now and have mainly played off and on using a single large tile and one or two small tiles, rather than a pre-made region. Well the other day I downloaded Vancouver from STEX and began to play it. What a difference! Here is what I found and has brought me to be a regional player. First the smaller cities made development planning more critical. I found that the smaller cities quickly ran out of room when I was zoning so if I didn't plan well, I had no where to go. If I zoned too much residential I would have to bulldoze/dezone, rather than spread out like in a large city. It also made it easier to personalize and “decorate” the city with parks because I could visualize the much smaller community. Second, because I was creating more cities in the region, the impact on RCI was immense. I have found that I need very little I (I am using Industry 4x mod) and C/R are skyrocketing. Population has also exploded! I assume due to the increased demands from other cities, but I reached 66,000 sims much faster than playing on a single large city. I now believe that development in one city greatly impacts development in another. I will build C zones in one city. Pop into another and see that R demand is increasing and that high density residential develops large skyscrapers fairly quickly. Demand for commercial zones is much higher than playing a single large city. I assume because of the regional play. Not all cities have high EQ but the demand is there, whereas the demand for Industry is limited. Third, the fun & challenge of SC4 has increased because now I am trying to develop a regional look, rather than just a single city. I pull out to region view and see how I want things to look and then go into the individual cities to build it. I don’t want each city to look identical so I am trying to build personality into each city. Thanks to all BATers and Modders on STEX for your great work. Special thanks to SPA for recreating so many Halifax BATs. I spent 7 years there and really enjoy seeing the stores in my cities – especially the Bank of Nova Scotia – gotta love that building! Mike

The solution is in basic economics, rather than in game play. Income - expenses = profit (in the red/black) What is your income and where is that coming from? Income comes from Sims - thus residential zones are critical to your income. Industry & Commercial give a much smaller income. You can affect this through taxation and residential zoning. Expenses need to be examined & paired down as much as possible. look at each line in your budget and really think about those items which are big ticket. Can you reduce expenses for them? Is it a power plant / school / hospital that can reduce capacity to reduce expenses? Do you have too many parks & you need to bulldoze some for a while? Your own analysis will tell you what all of us cannot: why you are in the red. Keep cutting expenses & adding residential zoning until you see profits every month. Mike

Bealystock, In my experience, a park does not need road access. I usually plop a park between a row of houses, which has no access and it has magnificent, quick effects on the houses by boosting the residents to medium or high wealth. As for your 2nd question, I look forward to an answer myself! Mike

I appreciate all the replies. The landfill is connected and the road was there first. I will try surrounding the landfill with roads to see what happens. Again, thanks for your help.

I'd like to get input on how you arrange your high density residential. Do you spread it out among your low density in order to keep traffic down (does that even work?)? Do you concentrate it and feed it to commercial/industrial through rail or road? Do you concentrate it among commercial, reducing need for transportation? Mike

I try to use as few mods as possible.

To do really artistic & beautiful cities, one needs money, correct? Parks, trees & landmarks cost $. It seems there are two thoughts & types of play: 1) build a city for artistic purposes & thus cheats/helpful plops are fine 2) build a city simulating reality (well...we all know it's not, but...) and thus no cheats and mayne a few helpful plops I prefer the 2nd, mainly because I have no artistic talent and I enjoy simulating reality. However, when looking at the CJs out there, I realize that some players are real artists when it comes to city (& region) design.

Yes, I know, but that was an example of how small the landfill is when the zot appears. If I make anything bigger I get multiple zots! Mike

I continue to get a no car zot over my landfill and it is driving me nuts. Sorry I don't have a picture, but if I make a 2x3 lot of landfill and place roads on 2 sides, I will get a no car zot. Sometimes it disappears if I add a single road tile in the middle, sometimes not. Has anyone seen this? Do I need to wrap a road around the landfill? What's the best size for a lanfill?? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks for the input everyone. My understanding now is that a gradually declining education level is natural with an aging population. My EQ is usually excellent as I build using the "small circle" theory of cities (I just coined that term). I got this from a thread somwhere (sorry I can't give credit where it is due). Before I build a community, I always plop the elementary school first and max the bus funding, which gives me my community range. I leave space open around the school to add hospital, high school library, etc. I build residential that fills in the radius of the school. Once that is going well, I build a similar community, ensuring that the radii do not overlap. This gives me great EQ (demand, mayor rating, etc). Thus, as the radius of a school is a circle, I have a cirlce shaped residential community. Cheers, Mike

I am interested in learning how many people use money cheats in order to grow the huge cities & regions we see? Why or why not? I do not to use money cheats, and I consider plops & multipliers (trafffic, induistry) to be gray areas. I use some, but not many. I haven't built a huge city/region yet as I am still learning the basics. Mike

I am having trouble getting education maxed out. There seems to be a barrier at about 100 or so, even though I have schools, libraries, etc. and a very high EQ. Does plastering the city with libraries & museums boost education to the max? Or, is it the landmarks or rewards that max education? Thanks for any input. Mike

Let me try a different tact here. Is there anyone else interested in such a mod? If so, would there be a skilled person who could & would be willing to create such a mod? I can't... Mike

I am looking for a mod or function within the game (which I'm not finding) that will automatically pause the game every December 31 or January 1. I like to review the city on an annual basis but as I get caught up in playing, the New Year passes and I often miss it. Has anyone heard of such a function or Mod? Mike