"If this is the best of all possible worlds,
then what must the others be like?"
Voltaire, Candide, Chapter 6.
Ignoring the fact that the quote is taken out of context, my point is do not
be afraid to create your own worlds and if you think of anything better,
share it with me.
==============================================================================
HTML / MS Doc Versions
Check out the Simtropolis site, for the HTML version with pictures. Also
this guide is in MS Doc version over there. I hope to improve upon the MS Doc
version overtime by making it more user friendly.
www.simtropolis.com
www.simcity-4.net
You can also find me and a whole bunch of other people who are truly experts
at the game, at the Simtropolis Site. It is the best SimCity site and also
the best, most active and friendly forum around with several thousand members
and still growing by the day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 2: Additions in this update
Well, pretty much the entire guide is changed, added and improved. So to list
the additions and changes here would be futile as that would mean listing the
entire guide. But briefly:
2.00: Additions:
(1) Expanded the Strategies to get you city into the millions and beyond.
(2) Expanded Online Manual.
(3) Improved the advanced tutorials to take you step by step to
obtain your first skyscrapers in 16 years.
(4) Whole host of game and other information added.
(5) Huge format change.
(6) Added quotes at the start of each part, much like the old SimCity
manuals
NOTE: For complete version history look at the conclusion, under End 2.
-------------------------
BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:
-------------------------
Section A : Online Manual
Section B : Strategy Guide
PART 1 : General Strategies
PART 2 : Layouts
PART 3 : 0 - 40,000 (1st City + Dirty)
PART 4 : 0 - 40,000 (2nd City + Manufacturing)
PART 5 : 0 - 40,000 (Subsequent + High Tech)
PART 6 : 40,000 - 100,000
PART 7 : 80,000 - Millions and beyond
PART 8 : Specialised City, Multi million and Farms
Section C : Advanced Tutorials (To Skyscrapers)
Section D : Cheats and Loopholes
Section E : Handy Reference Guides, Fun Stuff & Building Catalogue
Conclusion: [Wave], Bye Bye
---------------------------------
FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS and INDEX:
---------------------------------
I have provided this full table for you so that you need not scroll through
the entire guide when you are just searching for a single item.
The * means that there is a substantial discussion of the topic in either an
experiment format or a presentation of various competing logical theories.
It may also mean that the results are inconclusive although that does not
mean that I do not have my own personal opinion.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| CHAPTER | CONTENTS | INDEX |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
. .
. ------------------------------------------------------------.
. | SECTION A: ONLINE MANUAL (OM) | 1 .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PART 1 | Basic Game Mechanics | 2 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.01 | Basics and Technical Issues | 3 |
| A1.01.1 | Query the Hottest Keys | 4 |
| A1.01.2 | Multiple Save Games and file locations | 5 |
| A1.01.3 | Custom Tunes | 6 |
| A1.01.4 | Technical Issues | 7 |
| A1.01.5 | Registration | 8 |
| A1.01.6 | Updates | 9 |
| A1.01.7 | Online Play: SimCityScape | 10 |
| A1.01.8 | Simtropolis Patch / Mod | 11 |
| A1.01.9 | City Size | 12 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.02 | God Mode | 13 |
| A1.02.1 | Terraform | 14 |
| A1.02.2 | Changing region & city size | 15 |
| A1.02.3 | Obliterate, Animals, Disasters and Trees | 16 |
| A1.02.4 |*Treatise on God & Natural Trees and Pollution | 17 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.03 | Zones | 18 |
| A1.03.1 | Options: Zone Types | 19 |
| A1.03.2 | Density v Wealth | 20 |
| A1.03.3 | Zoning desirability | 21 |
| A1.03.4 | Road Zots and Flood Filling | 22 |
| A1.03.5 | Agriculture | 23 |
| A1.03.6 | Industrial Pollution | 24 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.04 | Transportation | 25 |
| A1.04.1 | Options: Transport Types | 26 |
| A1.04.2 | Highway, Cloverleaf and On ramps | 27 |
| A1.04.3 | Tunnels and Underwater tunnels | 28 |
| A1.04.4 | Bridges: Roads, Highways and Rails | 29 |
| A1.04.5 | Trains, Turnings and Freight | 30 |
| A1.04.6 | Junctions, Roundabouts, Diagonal and Subway bug | 31 |
| A1.04.7 | Maintenance, Income and Distress | 32 |
| A1.04.8 |*Coverage and Travelling Time | 33 |
| A1.04.9 | Transit Mode | 34 |
| A1.04.10 |*Transit Station | 35 |
| A1.04.11 | Choice of Transportation | 36 |
| A1.04.12 | Overcapacity | 37 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.05 | Utilities | 38 |
| A1.05.1 | Options: Utilities Type | 39 |
| A1.05.2 | Optimum Coverage | 40 |
| A1.05.3 | Maintenance, Decay and Overcapacity | 41 |
| A1.05.4 | Negative Environmental Degradation (NED) | 42 |
| A1.05.5 |*Bio degradable landfills | 43 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.06 | Public Service Commission | 44 |
| A1.06.1 | Options: Public Service Types | 45 |
| A1.06.2 | Dispatch: Police and Fire | 46 |
| A1.06.3 | Crime, Riots and Fire | 47 |
| A1.06.4 | Maintenance: Striking Incompetence | 48 |
| A1.06.5 | Overlap and Optimal Coverage | 49 |
| A1.06.6 |*Hospital, Clinics and low health | 50 |
| A1.06.7 | HQ and LE: Health Quotient and Life | 51 |
| A1.06.8 | EQ: Educational (Emotional) Quotient | 52 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.07 | Landmarks, Rewards and Recreation | 53 |
| A1.07.1 | Options: Landmark Types | 54 |
| A1.07.2 | Options: Reward and Business Deal Types | 55 |
| A1.07.3 | Options: Recreation Types | 56 |
| A1.07.4 | Recreational Sports | 57 |
| A1.07.5 | Disappearing Rewards | 58 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.08 | City Information | 59 |
| A1.08.1 | Data View | 60 |
| A1.08.2 | Chart View | 61 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.09 | Budget | 62 |
| A1.09.1 | Options: Tax Rates | 63 |
| A1.09.2 | Options: Ordinance Types | 64 |
| A1.09.3 | Options: Neighbour Deals | 65 |
| A1.09.4 | Options: Business Deals | 66 |
| A1.09.5 | Options: Loans | 67 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A1.10 | My Sims | 68 |
| A1.10.1 | Hi there, [wave], join me in my hot-tub? | 69 |
| A1.10.2 | Special Agent: Mr Smith | 70 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PART 2 | General Gameplay Concepts | 71 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A2.01 | Desirability | 72 |
| A2.01.1 | Concept of Desire | 73 |
| A2.01.2 | Desire v Demand/Land Value/Mayor Rating | 74 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A2.02 | Demand Caps | 75 |
| A2.02.1 | Demand Caps and Busters concept | 76 |
| A2.02.2 | Inherent capacity | 77 |
| A2.02.3 | Residential Busters | 78 |
| A2.02.4 | Commercial Office Busters | 79 |
| A2.02.5 | Industrial Busters | 80 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A2.03 | Here comes the Skyscraper | 81 |
| A2.03.1 | Proportionality Concept | 82 |
| A2.03.2 | Residential and Commercial skyscrapers | 83 |
| A2.03.3 | Industrial Mega Factory | 84 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A2.04 | Pollution | 85 |
| A2.04.1 | Concept of Pollution | 86 |
| A2.04.2 | Effects of Pollution | 87 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A2.05 | Theories of Growth | 88 |
| A2.05.1 |*Globalization and Trade | 89 |
| A2.05.2 | Perfect Mobility of Labour | 90 |
| A2.05.3 | Job Matching and Hierarchy | 91 |
| A2.05.4 | Demand and Supply | 92 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
. .
. ------------------------------------------------------------.
. | SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE | 93 .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PART 1 | Universal Strategic Doctrines (USD) | 94 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| B1.01 | Primeval Land: Forest, Mountains and Water | 95 |
| B1.02 | Taxes | 96 |
| B1.02.1 | Poor to subsidise the rich | 97 |
| B1.02.2 | Neutral tax rate: Laffer Curve | 98 |
| B1.02.3 | No supply side taxation economics | 99 |
| B1.03 | Tight Fiscal Controls | 100 |
| B1.04 | Utilities | 101 |
| B1.04.1 | Power | 102 |
| B1.04.2 | Water | 103 |
| B1.04.3 | Landfills and Waste Power Plant | 104 |
| B1.05 | Connections | 105 |
| B1.06 | Animal Farm or Great leap forward | 106 |
| B1.07 | Begone evil business deals and loans | 107 |
| B1.08 | Pollution and Solutions | 108 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Part 2 | City Layout and Plans | 109 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| B2.01 | Basic RCI layout | 110 |
| B2.01.1 | Death to the auto-roads | 111 |
| B2.01.2 | Coverage: (FLB) and (VLB) systems | 112 |
| B2.02 | Industrial zoning | 113 |
| B2.02.1 | Green Belt | 114 |
| B2.03 | Residential Superstructures (RS) | 115 |
| B2.03.1 | Original Residential Superstructure (ORS) | 116 |
| B2.03.2 | Local Effect Residential Superstructure (LERS) | 117 |
| B2.03.3 | Sharr's Residential Superstructure (SRS) | 118 |
| B2.04 | Commercial Zoning | 119 |
| B2.05 | Plan for future development | 120 |
| B2.06 | City Master-plans (CM) | 121 |
| B2.06.1 | Grid Unlock City Master-plan (GUCM) | 122 |
| B2.06.2 | McFadyen's Strip City Master-plan (MSCM) | 123 |
| B2.06.3 | Sharr's City Master-plan (SCM) | 124 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PART 3 | First city, a Slum for all: | 125 |
| | 0 - 40,000 (1st City + Dirty) | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| B3.01 | Customised USD for Slum City | 126 |
| B3.01.1 | Primeval Land | 127 |
| B3.01.2 | Taxes | 128 |
| B3.01.3 | Utilities | 129 |
| B3.01.4 | Connections | 130 |
| B3.01.5 | Farmer's Market | 131 |
| B3.02 | Customised City Layout and Plans | 132 |
| B3.02.1 | Industry and Green Belt | 133 |
| B3.02.2 | Residential Superstructure | 134 |
| B3.02.3 | Commercial Zoning | 135 |
| B3.02.4 | Plan for future development | 136 |
| B3.02.5 | City Master-plan | 137 |
| B3.03 | Slum Town | 138 |
| B3.04 | Density: Slum town expands outwards not upwards | 139 |
| B3.05 | Jobs from industry | 140 |
| B3.05.1 | Export oriented economy | 141 |
| B3.06 | Amenities: When and What to build | 142 |
| B3.06.1 | Societal Segmentation | 143 |
| B3.07 | Commercial Development | 144 |
| B3.08 | Budget | 145 |
| B3.08.1 | Ordinance | 146 |
| B3.08.2 | Rewards | 147 |
| B3.9 | Future problems: Come what may... | 148 |
| B3.9.1 | Potential Solutions: I will love you ... | 149 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PART 4 | Second City, Manufacturing Growth | 150 |
| | 0 - 40,000 (2nd City + Mfg.) | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| B4.01 | Customised USD for Mfg. City | 151 |
| B4.01.1 | Taxes | 152 |
| B4.01.2 | Utilities | 153 |
| B4.01.3 | Connections | 154 |
| B4.01.4 | Farmer's Market | 155 |
| B4.02 | Customised City Layout and Plans | 156 |
| B4.02.1 | Initial Setup | 157 |
| B4.02.2 | City Master-plan | 158 |
| B4.03 | A town in development | 159 |
| B4.04 | Residential over industry | 160 |
| B4.05 | Mid density to High density | 161 |
| B4.06 | Amenities | 162 |
| B4.07 | Commerce as a vehicle of transition | 163 |
| B4.08.1 | Budget | 164 |
| B4.08.2 | Ordinance | 165 |
| B4.08.3 | Rewards | 166 |
| B4.09 | Potential Problems and Solutions | 167 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PART 5 | High Tech Arrives | 168 |
| | 0 - 40,000 (Subsequent Cities + High Tech) | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| B5.01 | Expand (Method 1) | 169 |
| B5.01.1 | Raise taxes again | 170 |
| B5.01.2 | Placement at the free space | 171 |
| B5.01.3 | To dump or not to dump the Dirty industry | 172 |
| B5.02 | Reconstruction (Method 2) | 173 |
| B5.02.1 | Raise taxes to crazy European levels | 174 |
| B5.02.2 | Upgrading: Creative Destruction | 175 |
| B5.02.3 | Pollution: Source, Effects and Solutions | 176 |
| B5.03 | New city called patience (Method 3) | 177 |
| B5.04 | Customised USD for High Tech City | 178 |
| B5.04.1 | Taxes: Raise taxes with a vengeance | 179 |
| B5.04.2 | Utilities: Plan for low pollution | 180 |
| B5.05 | Customised City Layout and Plans | 181 |
| B5.05.1 | Selection of Setups | 182 |
| B5.05.2 | City Master-plan | 183 |
| B5.06 | Commercial Expansion | 184 |
| B5.07 | Amenities construction | 185 |
| B5.08 | Be Patient ... Ohmmm | 186 |
| B5.09 | Analysis of Methods | 187 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PART 6 | Skyscrapers Beckons | 188 |
| | 40,000 - 100,000 | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| B6.01 | Tax Cuts or Status Quo | 189 |
| B6.02 | Rezoning | 190 |
| B6.03 | Utilitarian Approach: Neighbour deals | 191 |
| B6.03.1 | Waste: Obliterate & Regional Dump | 192 |
| B6.03.2 | Kantian Approach | 193 |
| B6.04 | Multiplier Effect | 194 |
| B6.04.1 | Prevent Contagion, Promote Growth | 195 |
| B6.05 | Engine of growth: Population & Cities | 196 |
| B6.05.1 | We are surrounded | 197 |
| B6.06 | Amenities for All | 198 |
| B6.06.1 | Education: Public, Private or Libraries | 199 |
| B6.06.2 | Police State | 200 |
| B6.06.3 | Rewards and Recreation | 201 |
| B6.07 | Infrastructure Upgrade | 202 |
| B6.08 | Apprehensive about Airports | 203 |
| B6.08.1 | Sinking Seaports | 204 |
| B6.09 | Abandoned, High Commute and No Development | 205 |
| B6.09.1 | Mass Transit | 206 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PART 7 | Metropolis | 207 |
| | 80,000 - Millions and Beyond | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| B7.01 | Problems ahead | 208 |
| B7.01.1 | Tax Surplus: Fiscal contraction recession | 209 |
| B7.01.2 | Utilities: Decay and New Generation Plants | 210 |
| B7.02 | Standard of Living | 211 |
| B7.03 | Pollution | 212 |
| B7.03.1 | Traffic Noise | 213 |
| B7.04 | Industrial Hinterland | 214 |
| B7.04.1 | Markets abroad | 215 |
| B7.05 | Sinatra Doctrine: I'll do it my way... | 216 |
| B7.05.1 | Shock and Awe Reconstruction | 217 |
| B7.05.2 | Desirability Trap | 218 |
| B7.06 | Commute Cycle of Death | 219 |
| B7.06.1 | Black hole of Mass Transit | 220 |
| B7.07 | Urban Renewal | 221 |
| B7.08 | Too many cars, too little tar | 222 |
| B7.08.1 | Multiple Lanes or Tracks | 223 |
| B7.08.2 | Highways | 224 |
| B7.08.3 | Paternalistic Approach to traffic | 225 |
| B7.08.4 | Vehicle Commute Diagnostic Tool | 226 |
| B7.09 | Innovations | 227 |
| B7.09.1 | Mass transit Nexus | 228 |
| B7.09.2 | Train stations as car parks | 229 |
| B7.09.3 | Web of Subway Tracks | 230 |
| B7.09.4 | Underground Roads | 231 |
| B7.09.5 | Underground: Away with Junctions | 232 |
| B7.09.6 | Freight: Shipping or trains | 233 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PART 8 | Specialised Cities | 234 |
| | Sardines and Apples | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| B8.01 | Sardines: Concept | 235 |
| B8.01.1 | The Higher you go ... | 236 |
| B8.01.2 | The Greater the fall | 237 |
| B8.01.3 | Upwardly Mobile Poor | 238 |
| B8.02 | Fresh farm produce, Nummy... | 239 |
| B8.02.1 | Home Schooling | 240 |
| B8.02.2 | Market for the produce | 241 |
| B8.02.3 | Migrant Workforce | 242 |
| B8.02.4 | Green Water Belt | 243 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
. .
. ------------------------------------------------------------.
. | SECTION C: Advanced Tutorials | 244 .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| C.01 | General Points | 245 |
| C.02 | Region & God Mode | 246 |
| C.03 | Tutorial 1: D'Urberville, Year 0-11 | 247 |
| C.04 | Tutorial 2: Aureliano, Year 0-10 | 248 |
| C.05 | Tutorial 3: D'Urberville Revisited, Year 11-15 | 249 |
| C.06 | Tutorial 4: Villa San Girolamo, Year 0-10 | 250 |
| C.07 | Tutorial 5: D'Urberville's Skyscrapers Year 15-16 | 251 |
| C.08 | Some Final Points | 252 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
. .
. ------------------------------------------------------------.
. | SECTION D: Exploits or 'cheats' | 253 .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| D.01 | Ghost town money maker | 254 |
| D.02 | Force Majeure | 255 |
| D.03 | The Time Machine | 256 |
| D.03.1 | Stasis Pod | 257 |
| D.04 | Two in one reward | 258 |
| D.05 | Garbage roundabouts | 259 |
| D.06 | No Funding Landfill | 260 |
| D.07 | Actual Cheats Codes | 261 |
| D.07.1 | Multiple Rewards | 262 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
. .
. ----------------------------------------------------- .
------------| SECTION E: Handy Reference Guides, |--------
| | Checklists, Fun Stuff & Building Catalogue | 263 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| E.01 | Fun things to do | 264 |
| E.02 | Easter Eggs, Game Observations | 265 |
| E.03 | Websites | 266 |
| E.03.1 | thy451's HOT TUB AWARDS | 267 |
| E.04 | Funny News Ticker Messages | 268 |
| E.05 | rbchaffe's Prima Guide Review | 269 |
| E.06 | Building Catalogue | 270 |
| E.06.1 | Residential | 271 |
| E.06.2 | Commercial | 272 |
| E.06.3 | Industrial | 273 |
| E.07 | Checklists | 274 |
| E.08 | Handy Reference Guides | 275 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
. .
. ----------------------------------------------------- .
. | CONCLUSION | .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| End 1 | Credits | 276 |
| End 2 | Version History | 277 |
| End 3 | Copyright | 278 |
| End 4 | Information on posting this on your site | 279 |
| End 5 | Mailing Info | 280 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are new to the game. I advice you to go to the strategy section and
start playing your first city a bit then return here to read. It will be
easier to read if you are somewhat familiar with the game. Perhaps a short
glance at PART 2, General Gameplay Concept, should be done.
However, there are also some very extensive and intensive discussions and
debate in this area that you might not truly appreciate until you are more
familiar with the game. These can mostly be found in those topics marked
with the little star (*).
This Online Manual (OM) was created because the one provided seems to be
quite inadequate, at least in comparison with the previous SimCity series.
_______________________________________________________________________2______
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION A: ONLINE MANUAL S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ PART 1: BASIC GAME MECHANICS ~~~| START |~~~
A~~\_____/~~1 A~~\_____/~~1
______________________________________________________________________________
There is less strategies in PART 1, so if you are clear on how the game
works, you can simply proceed on to the later sections in the guide. I will
be dealing with the basic game play issues at this section. They will mostly
relate to options available, technical game data and generally how things
operate in the game.
The query option is one of the most important tools in the game. Use it to
determine a whole host of information. You can also use it to click on any
building and then change the name of it. Although that does not make the
building historical or unalterable. It can still be destroyed by the computer
when redeveloping.
And if you want to follow a MySims or a car or change the traffic lights,
simply do this:
[Query] + [shift] + [click on object]
You can check out the list of hot keys at the back of the provided manual
although most of them seem quite useless and superfluous to me and seems only
to appear there to fill up the back of the manual. For example there is a hot
key of obliterating the city. I do not know how you play your city but this
is not C&C, there is little violence and you would definitely not need a hot
key for obliteration.
The following are the more useful hot keys, the hottest of the hot.
1) [Home or End]
Turn the building around for placement.
2) [Shift]
Turns off auto roads. Simply press shift after dragging the zone but before
releasing the mouse button. Make sure that you have the patch installed.
3) [Alt]
Switch the layout of the zoning before laying it.
4) [Esc]
Undo, sort of. Cancels zones, roads, etc, only if you have not released the
mouse button.
5) [G]
Shows the grid. This is great for counting and planning.
6) [/]
Query. Use it with bulldoze to prevent accidental demolition.
7) [B]
Bulldoze / Demolish.
8) [Control] [F]
Dispatch fire fighters.
9) [Control] [P]
Dispatch police.
10) [Control] + [Shift] + [S]
Takes a picture of your city as it is appearing on the screen at this moment.
This is a very useful hot key as it allows pictures which may not be possible
if you went through the clicking on all picture button process.
A1.01.2: Multiple City Save Games and file locations
1) Save Games
For those of you who complain about the lack of save games slots, you could
always just copy the region to another folder. Go to:
MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Regions
This is also the place to put any cities you download. You have to place the
city in the region in want it to be.
2) File locations
A) Album:
MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Album
B) Bug Report:
MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Exception Reports
C) Recorded Animation:
MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Recorded Animation
D) Original Regions:
C:\(or wherever you installed the game) SimCity 4 > Regions
This is for if you messed up the original regions and want the original back.
E) Music for the game / Custom Tunes:
SimCity 4> Radio > Stations > Region > Music
SimCity 4> Radio > Stations > Mayor > Music
1) Tunes
You can play your own music simply by placing the music (MP3) into this
folder:
For Region Music:
SimCity 4> Radio > Stations > Region > Music
For City Music:
SimCity 4> Radio > Stations > Mayor > Music
Then when you play the game open up the Audio Option and select the custom
tunes.
2) Animation
Simply hit [Control] + [Shift] + [O] to begin. Enter in the various
information such as file name, rate, time, output and frame count. The clip
will be stored in your Recorded Animation folder.
Firstly, I should state that I am NOT a technical expert or even a technical
person at all. However, these problems occurred frequent enough for me to
pick some things up.
1) Game Requirements:
You can easily check the requirements on the box although the game really
requires a lot of power such that even if you are above the recommended your
cities if they are huge may encounter lag.
There is a good test program to test your computer systems vis-a-vis the game
requirements. It is found in the game folder itself:
SimCity4 > Support > SimCity 4_EZ.exe
2) GDriverWindow--DirectX Error (1)
This is one of the most common problems I see. The error you will most
probably see is "The configuration file (Graphics Rules.sgr) cannot be
parsed using built-in rules."
There are two plugin folders. The one I am talking about is the one in your
MyDocuments folder.
MyDocuments > SimCity 4 > Plugins
Do not place any of the downloaded things into this folder if not the game
will not start. I suggest that after installation of the game and the patch
you go and check this folder out to see what should remain in there. Nothing.
The reason why an uninstall does not work is because the game does not delete
the SimCity 4 folder under MyDocuments unless you actively specify it.
Delete what ever you have placed there.
3) GDriverWindow--DirectX Error (2)
However, there is another more drastic method. Since I am not well-versed in
computers, I am unsure as to whether is this message a generic type for
multiple problems or not. If above solution does not work then you may
attempt to try this but do it at your own risk and discretion.
A) Uninstall SimCity 4 including the SimCity 4 folder in MyDocuments.
B) Reinstall:
After that do the following:
i) Double-click on My Computer.
ii) Double-click on C: drive (also labelled local disk)
iii) Double-click on Program Files.
iv) Double-click on Maxis.
v) Double-click on Sim City 4.
vi) Double-click on Apps.
C) Open SimCity 4.ini file
i) Right-click on the SimCity 4.ini file and a menu will appear. Select
"open" and left-click to open the file. The found is found in:
C:\(or wherever you installed the game) > Apps
ii) You will now see notepad open the file up. It will look similar to this:
E) Hopefully that will help you but I make no promises.
4) Graphics options
As usual there is a trade-off between speed of the game and quality of it.
Patch 2 will automatically set the options rather low, at least in my opinion.
So if the graphics look bad, simply change the quality and determine if you
can stand the lag in the game.
5) EA Technical help
If you have problem operating the game simply send them a message. It is
under their technical support, Ask a question tab. You do not need actually
need to know their address. This is their main support site.
http://techsupport.ea.com
Although it should be noted that, often your first reply will be an automated
one but do not despair and persist. I did once think of sending in multiple
mails just to determine the various sets of automated response and trigger
words but I think that sort of would be frowned upon.
6) Permanent Green Highlight Bug
If, you see your hospitals or education highlighted as green even if they
are not selected, do not worry. Simply go to the data view, and select the
respective health, education, etc view. Then after selected, click on the
all off. They will no longer have the green glow.
The registration process I recalled was quite complicated. If I remember it
correctly, this is the process:
1) Register once on your computer by filling up the form after installation,
which will then send a signal to the main site. Or go to the Support folder
and click on SimCity 4_eReg.exe to register.
2) Then you have to register a second time also with the same key, which
is at the back of your CD case at their official site.
3) Failure to do the first registration before the second will give you an
error or invalid key message
4) Enter your email correctly and make sure it does not get directed to your
junk folder. Click on the activation and you are done.
Again if you have problems send an message to them. They solved, my problem
within hours.
http://techsupport.ea.com
This I must say is one of the most complicated registration process ever.
However, it is a good effort against piracy. So if you see anyone or if
anyone asks you for your key, do NOT give away your key. And also report all
piracy regarding the game to this EA email address:
1) Check all files updated
The patch update is problematic. Whether you patch automatically or do it
manually, make sure you check that all the relevant files are indeed updated.
The list of files can be found on the patch page. Although, I personally seem
to have a problem with the 'dbghelp.dll' file as it not only did not take the
2003 stamp date but it seems to have taken a 2001 stamp date.
2) Patch Log
You will have a patch log called:
sc4_patchlog.txt
It is found in the same folder as the patch file you downloaded if you used
the automatic patch. Not too sure where it would be if it was done
automatically. This lists what files were patched and whether was it
successful at the patch.
3) Region Identification
The second problem is for those who has problem with the automatic patch and
have to do it manually. Make sure your region is correct. The problematic is
the Asian edition. Just because, you live in Asia and bought the game there
does not mean that the game is an Asian edition one. If it is English, there
is a high chance that your edition could be the North America one. I do not
think there is a way to actually determine your region by looking at the files
or game itself.
The things that could your is an American edition are: (i) Right hand drive
and (ii) American spelling. However with regards to American spelling, I am
unsure whether is it similar for all the English games. If it is not then
look for words such as "harbor" v "harbour" or "color" v "colour." The
spelling without the "u" is the American spelling. These words will sometimes
appear as park of the message in the news ticker.
4) Failed patch
Finally, if you game did not patch properly as in the files were not fully
updated, the only way to resolve it is to reinstall everything.
A1.01.7: Online Play: SimCityScape
You can find more information at the site but this is a brief overview.
This online gameplay is available at the official website:
1) Requirements
Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 6 or better.
ActiveX
Java
Registered user
Game updated with Patch 2
2) 9 Regions Available
Amarica (Large City size: 20 Cities)
Discovered in 2003, Amarica is the new world.
Griffinland (Large City size: 42 Cities)
In a world where water reigns, Griffinland springs to life.
Dan's Grove (Small City Size: 43 Cities)
Farmer Dan ran a pistachio orchard on this soil, until approached by a
developer. The region has been growing ever since.
Emlee Valley (Medium City Size: 18 Cities)
Pioneered by Maxoids, additional settlers have been moving in ever since.
Molon Island (Small City Size: 47 Cities)
Islands rise from the oceans forming this vast archipelago.
Sea Shaw (Medium City Size: 47 Cities)
With recent development interest, Sea Shaw promises to undergo a real estate
boom.
Lake Lucky (Medium City Size: 41 Cities)
Formed by a giant asteroid 3 million years ago, Lake Lucky is now a vacation
haven.
Big Ben Basi (Medium City Size: 47 Cities)
The lands have been shifting beneath these shallow waters, making it prime
realestate for developers.
Wee Burg (Small City Size: 45 Cities)
In the wee county of Wee Burg, little cities populate the quaint countryside.
Cook County (Large City Size: 24 Cities)
The wind sweeps across vast stretches of plains, as if whispering “develop
me.”
Templinton (Medium City Size: 18 Cities)
Civilizations have always grown from the fertile river valleys, Templinton
is no exception.
Annarondacks (Large City Size: 15 Cities)
Lakes, forests, and numerous winter sports resorts, attract many tourists,
and was once the site of the 1964 Winter SimOlympics.
Spider Mountain (Medium City Size: 38 Cities)
Once inhabited by a spider so large, no one dared move into the area.
Nowadays the spider has taken up a career in a travelling sideshow act,
leaving the region spider free.
3) Game Play concept
It is quite simple. You get to pick one region and you have up to 48 hours
to play with it and to end your turn. You may upload it and make as many
changes as you want. But after 48 hours or if you choose to end your turn
early your turn is up then another person can take over. You may not play the
same city consecutively although you may play a city multiple times. After
certain amount of time, Maxis will reset the region and the good ones I
suppose will get into their hall of fame.
3) Download Region
You can download their "premade region configuration folder" and place it at
My Documents\SimCity 4\Regions\ to extract and create your city. It is a 2k
zip file. Yes, 2k I did not have a typing error. It is small. This is not
required for playing the online game and download it only if you want to
duplicate their region for your own play.
This is not an official patch at all. It is put together by fans of the game.
It is located at the Simtropolis site:
Www.simtropolis.com
The following is one of the official words by Maxis on it:
'Users install, run and download those "mods" from Simtropolis completely at
their own risk. Maxis is NOT responsible for ANY errors, crashes, problems or
any other issue that you may have if you have downloaded and applied any
unofficially supported mod files to your game. Nor is Maxis required to help
anyone who has altered their game with any patches/mods/downloads that are
not from Maxis themself. Players should also expect that any future patches
and/or expansion packs and SimCityscape "may" NOT function properly with the
game if you have downloaded any unofficial mods/patches/files and applied
them to your game.'
1) Automatic Reconcile:
I recommend that you turn off the reconcile option. Use it only in a city that
has yet to build anything, unless you wish to lose your buildings at the edge.
2) Map Creation:
Personally, I prefer creating maps one by one rather than doing the entire
region. Firstly, it is so much easier and you get to start playing the game
faster. Gives you greater flexibility to get the terrain to suit the cities
that are sprouting up. Of course even if you do the entire region you can
still change the landscape of the city. But from my experience, you would be
extremely reluctant to do so. And furthermore if the changes are huge it may
impact other maps. Even if that is not so, you will have wasted time altering
the map twice.
3) Size and intensity of terra forming:
Shift F1 - F10: Intensity from less (F1) to most (F10)
Shift 1 > 2 > ... > 9 > 0: Size of brush from small (1) to large (0).
The size of the circle remains the same whatever zoom you are at. So zoom in
to the maximum zoom if you wish to have a smaller effect.
4) Reconcile
Once in a while I hear people complain bitterly that the reconcile destroys
their city. The answer is simple. If it destroys your city then just do not
hit the reconcile button. Go to the options and turn it off.
A) Introduction to Items:
Program: MS Paint
I used this but believe that any graphics program can be used.
File: Config.bmp
Location: My Documents\SimCity4\Regions\(Any original region. Such as Berlin
or Maxisland)
Note: I mentioned the file so for you to get an idea about it. It does NOT
mean that you use this files for your map. Please create a new bitmap.
B) Region Size:
The pixels of the bitmap determine the size of the region. For Example
Maxisland is 16 x 16 pixels
C) City Size Colour Coding:
1x1: Red : Small city.
2x2: Green: Medium city.
4x4: Blue : Large city.
The colour's value must be 255. And in the event that you are unfamiliar with
MS paint, here is a step-by-step guide.
1) Select "Colours" then "Edit Colours."
2) Press "Define Custom Colours."
3) Make sure the value of the colour is 255.
- Colour Red : Red 255 / Green 0 / Blue 0
- Colour Green: Red 0 / Green 255 / Blue 0
- Colour Blue : Red 0 / Green 0 / Blue 255
D) Steps:
1) Create new region. (In the game, obviously but just in case)
2) Create bitmap in MS Paint. (Out of the game) For those who do not know:
- Ctrl E / Or Under "Image", Select "Attributes..."
- Set the width and height. Units are to be in Pixels. Select Colours.
- Remember create a new picture do not use any of the pictures that are
provided in the other regions
3) Based on the colour coding as stated above, create your desired region.
- Do a maximum zoom for easier viewing.
4) Save as Config.bmp and place it in the folder of the new region that you
created in step (1).
5) Congratulations, you now have your very own map.
E) Further Illustration
If you wish to make a 6 x 4 small region here is an example. Each letter, S,
M, or L represents one pixel.
Diagram A1.02.2
S: Small
M: Medium
L: Large
1234
1MMSS
2MMSS
3LLLL
4LLLL
5LLLL
6LLLL
Therefore in this map you will have 1 large city, 1 medium city and 4 small
cities.
If for example your bit map is only 4 x 4 and you attempt this
1234
1MMSS
2MMSS
3LLLL
4LLLL
Then it will result in only the medium and small city appearing.
1) Obliterate
Using obliterate auto-saves thus there is no reload.
2) Disappearing Animals
They need forest cover to survive and further, it is more of a gimmick than
anything. Do not be too perturbed by the mass suicides.
3) Disasters
Fire disaster cannot be turned off. The rest of the disasters do not occur
randomly and requires you to actively use them. The only exception is the
riot disaster which occurs under certain circumstances.
REFER: A1.06.3 for how to create a riot
These are the list of disasters.
A) Tornado
B) Earthquake
C) Fire
D) Lightning
E) Servo the Robot Attack. From the Sims.
4) Trees type and growth
Each tree costs $3.
How fast the trees grow depends on whether is it suitable for the climate.
Climate is determined by the height of the city. It should be noted that the
trees even of the same type planted in the same location do not have the same
growth rate although their growth rate in general is similar.
Table A1.02.3
GR: This is the growth rate rankings based on the default ground level. The
earliest two started reaching its maximum size within 2 years while the
longer ones took up to 3 over years.
-------------------------
| Tree Type | GR |
-------------------------
| Blue Spruce Pine | 3 |
| Noble Fir Pine | 1 |
| Maple | 1 |
| Palm | 4 |
| Oak | 2 |
-------------------------
A1.02.4: * Treatise on God & Natural Trees and Pollution
There is a debate as to whether is there a difference with respect to effect
on pollution between natural trees, those planted after the city was founded
and God mode trees, those planted before the city was founded.
Let me deal with the easy part. Both type of trees do actually remove
pollution. An experiment that you could try is this.
A) Simply start a new city with thickly planted God mode trees.
B) Then build a coal power plant in the midst of the trees.
C) Observe the level of pollution through the data map.
D) Start demolishing the trees and you would see the pollution expanding
Therefore one can conclude that God mode tree do also remove pollution.
However, pollution can seep through if the pollution itself is very strong
and that the tree cover is not thick enough. An experiment which I tried and
which shows that there is no difference at least after Patch 2 is this:
A) Start a city and plant God Mode trees
B) Establish the City and plant Natural trees
C) Wait for the natural trees to mature
D) Place a coal power plant in each of the different forests, making sure that
they line up
E) Start demolishing roll by roll of trees and see in which area the pollution
first seeps through.
It is my conclusion that they both seep through at around the same area.
Therefore at least with Patch 2, there is no difference between God mode trees
and Natural trees. And even if there is a difference it is minute and
insignificant.
The cost is similar for the zones with the same type of density. Also
agriculture is low density industry. Commerce incorporates both services
and offices thus there is no way to actively just select one for
construction. You can select from residential, commercial and industrial
zoning.
Table A1.03.1: Zones and costs
----------------------
Density |Low|Med|High|
----------------------
Cost |$10|$20|$50 |
----------------------
Density is separate and distinct from the wealth and type of zones. In other
words low density housing does not mean low wealth residence. The only
exception, to a certain extent is low density industry, which should really be
called agriculture.
The following table gives an explanation of density and types wealth levels
since this is the part that some are confused about.
Table A1.03.2
L: Low density zoning
M: Medium Density zoning
H: HIgh density zoning
The key is the abbreviation used by the games in the game charts.
-----------------------------------------------
Residential / Key | Tax | Zone Density |
-----------------------------------------------
Poor (R$) | $ | L / M / H |
Middle Class (R$$) | $$ | L / M / H |
Rich (R$$$) | $$$ | L / M / H |
-----------------------------------------------
Commercial | |
-----------------------------------------------
Services (Cs$/$$/$$$) |$/$$/$$$| L / M / H |
Offices (Co$$/$$$) |$$/$$$ | L / M / H |
-----------------------------------------------
Industrial | |
-----------------------------------------------
Farms (I-Ag | No Tax | L |
Dirty (I-D) | $ | M / H |
Manufacturing (I-M) | $$ | M / H |
High Tech (I-HT) | $$$ | M / H |
-----------------------------------------------
Changing density:
Even after buildings are constructed, you can zone a denser zone without
destroying the buildings that are built. If you are zoning a lower density
zone than the building, then a smaller density building will soon take the
place of its former higher density counterpart. There should be no use of the
demolition button when changing zone density.
It is only when the demand is satisfied after the denser zoning that the new
denser buildings will appear. Thus you may have to wait quite a bit before
seeing the effects of the denser zoning.
The following table simply reflects what is required for construction of the
various zones. I have not included all the factors. I have heard that the
gradient of the land, location with relation to other zones also play a part
but personally I find actually using them in the game to be quite difficult
unless of course you have in your mind the layout of the entire city right at
the start.
Table A1.03.3
R : Residential
CO : Commercial Offices
CS : Commercial Services
IA : Agriculture
ID : Dirty Industry
IM : Manufacturing
IH : High-tech Industry
-----------------------
H : High
A : Average
L : Low / Short
---------------------------------------------
Factors | R | CO| CS| IA| ID| IM| IH|
---------------------------------------------
Air pollution | L | L | L | L | | | L |
Crime | L | L | L | L | L | L | L |
Garbage | L | L | L | L | L | L | L |
Land Value | | | | L | L | A | H |
---------------------------------------------
Specific | |
---------------------------------------------
Commute | L | | | | | | |
Education | H | | | | | | |
Health | H | | | | | | |
Freight | | | | L | L | L | L |
Traffic Noise | L | | | | | | |
Customer # | | H | H | | | | |
---------------------------------------------
Radiation:
Radiation is not tolerated by anything. While I have yet to experience a
meltdown, I did try using the toxic waste dump and the area that was
irradiated was quickly abandoned.
Customer and Traffic Volume:
#: If you view the building you will see on information called customer. This
translates to traffic volume or traffic congestion. Looking at the data map, I
realised that the areas of commercial with red traffic has high customers.
However, customers are also created by having more Sims in your city and
region and also in having rich Sims. This is simply because the richer they
are the more they can purchase.
1) Actual Lack of connections
Each building needs to have road access. Thus make sure that the arrows (<)
in the lots face the roads, if not you will get the no connection sign. If a
particular lot is not facing the road then you should zone in parts rather
than zoning the entire area with one click and drag, thus making sure all of
the (<) also face the roads.
Alternatively, you could hit the [alt] key to change the layout of the lots.
2) Transitional lack of connection
Sometimes when the area is being redeveloped, a no road zot will appear. It
should usually disappear within a few months if not you may for to de-zone
and rezone those affected tiles.
3) Flood filling
To flood-fill, create the roads surrounding the zones, select the desired
zone then click and hold it at one tile and the zone will fill up. Best used
for irregular shaped zones.
But because of the problem in (1), I not really recommend flood filling an
area. After all you can easily fill up an irregular shaped area by doing it
over different phases.
4) Undeveloped interior
Sometimes even with auto roads on the interior does not get developed. This
is especially so for industry which can easily zone up to 7x7 without
auto-roads appearing. The reason for it being undeveloped is that the tiles
touching the road develops small-single tile buildings leaving the interior
without roads.
The interior will only develop later in the game when either (i) huge
multi-tile buildings appear or (2) when the single-tile industry expands into
the interior.
I do not really recommend huge zones especially for industries. While
everything might work out in the long run, as John Maynard Keynes once said,
"In the long run we are all dead."
1) Amount of jobs
Even if you see that the barn stating that there is only two jobs, that is
under-reflective of the amount of jobs at that farm. I believe that is per
tile. This is because I got a farmers market with only two large farms.
After creating a large farm, pause your game and wait until about 5pm then
you will see many cars leaving the farm and going home. Therefore logically
the farm must employ more than just those few persons at the barn.
2) No farming taxes
Farms only bring in jobs and do not add to your taxes.
By the way if you are wandering why agriculture does not produce taxes, think
of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and also countries like the US,
Canada or Japan. You should be happy that the farms in your city do not
demand massive subsidies from you or create inter-regional tensions by asking
you to tax other farm goods to protect them.
3) Connections required
Only roads and electricity is needed. Water is not needed. You should not
even connect your pipes even if you wanted too unless you do not mind your
Sims suffering from the indignity of drinking kiwi chocolate colour looking
water.
4) Agriculture and pollution.
While agriculture abhors pollution air pollution, it is nonchalant with
regards to water pollution since they too produces water pollution.
Of course this is not realistic as there are many types of water pollution. I
mean I would not want to eat vegetables coming from a farm next to a LED
factory that dumps its arsenic waste into the water table.
5) Reasons for agriculture
There are several reasons for although I do not find them convincing in terms
of actual benefits.
(A) It is more for atmosphere rather than a means to make money.
(B) It generates jobs, which bring in people and the demand for agriculture
unlike other sectors is usually very high. But I prefer using
non-agricultural industries to generate jobs at the start.
(C) However, while agriculture does pollute the water it does have less air
pollution as compared to the dirty industry.
(D) The best argument from a beneficial point of view is so as to be able to
build the farmer's market. However, since keeping them around is not
necessary after you get the farm this means that agriculture is only good
at the start of the game and should not be a permanent feature of the city
unless you wish to keep the 'farming look' in your city.
6) Unable to convert land back to farms.
Once the city begins getting quite developed, it is very unlikely that farms
will be rebuilt on previously zoned land even if there is no pollution. One
reason is because of the negative demand cap. This is since the more
industries you have the demand cap of the farm becomes lower.
1) Industrial pollution
The following table is a ROUGH guide to the length of the extension of the
pollution. With the exception of the farms, which relates to water pollution
the rest refers to air pollution. The figures refer to the total number of
tiles the pollution extends. The level of pollution decreases as you move
further. But I have included all level of pollution into the one figure. All
these figures operate on the assumption that you have no trees or anything
reducing pollution.
3) Abandoned buildings
These still produce pollution and on top of that attract crime and are prone
to fires. Therefore even if your entire dirty industry is abandoned and all
the buildings lie vacant, the air pollution will still be as bad as ever.
1) Road Vehicle Transport: Streets, Road and Highway
This is the most basic form of transportation around. Streets have a very
much smaller capacity about a tenth than roads while highway offers about
four times more capacity than a road. They too have differing speeds with
the streets being the lowest and the highway being the highest. Even buses
add to the traffic of the roads.
You can build diagonal roads but no diagonal streets. I have simply no idea
why this is so.
Because of the possibility of potholes you have the ability to repair it by
building roads on top of it. But if you do lay a road over an existing one
and even if the road is in perfect condition it will cost money. So do not
waste money by laying roads over existing roads when you are happy dragging
the road tool.
Also if what the MySims state is correct, people do not like to live next to
one of them.
2) Train Transport: Trains and Subway
Both rails and subway have about the same capacity, the difference being that
one operates underground and the other do not. The less obvious difference is
that rails have the capacity for transporting factory goods.
3) Ports: Airport and Seaport
These are primarily demand cap busters. The seaport serves the industry while
the airport serves the commercial areas. It is often asked as to whether
are the effects of an airport city wide or region wide. Its effect is only
city wide. However, there is an indirect effect on the region. This is
because after placement it will improve the demand, growth and economy of
that city and as a result of that, the better city will have a stronger
positive effect on neighbouring cities and such.
Remember, these ports must be connected to the thing they serve, commercial
areas for airports and industry for ports.
And with relation to the airport, they can be upgraded. When your usage is
close to the maximum, an offer of an upgrade will be made. An upgraded
airport still takes up the small amount of space.
REFER: A2.02: Demand Caps
4) Cost and Capacity
Table A1.04.2: Transport
$C: Cost to build / In the case of medium and large airports, this figure
represents the upgrade cost.
$M: Monthly maintenance cost
CA: Capacity
P: Passenger
G: Goods in tons
%: Treat this as a percentage when contrasted with the rest in that category
There are two methods of creating a cloverleaf. The first is when you drag the
highway across another highway. The other is by placing a cloverleaf on an
ALREADY EXISTING highway crossing. While diagonal highways are possible
diagonal highways cannot create cloverleaf or even cross each other.
The following is a diagram of a cloverleaf and on ramp. Please note the
minimum length required for its placements
Cloverleaf Requirements:
A) Excluding the middle intersection there must at least be 6 tiles.
Therefore the total length of each side must at least be 14 tiles.
B) When using the cloverleaf option instead of the auto cloverleaf, there must
already be an existing highway that satisfies requirement (A).
Onramp Requirements
A) Length of the on ramp is 6 tiles. Thus the highway must have 6 free
tiles.
B) If there is a intersection whether do you have a cloverleaf built there or
not, you need to have at least a minimum distance of 6 tiles.
C) The on ramp cannot be placed at the last tile of a highway. There must
be at least one tile of highway free at the end of the highway that will
not be used when you place the on ramp.
Diagram A1.04.2
C: Cloverleaf
M: Middle of the cloverleaf
O: On ramp
H: Normal highway
1 2
12345678901234567890123
1 HH
2 CC
3 CC
4 CC
5 CC
6 CC
7 CC
8HCCCCCCMMCCCCCCHOOOOOOH
9HCCCCCCMMCCCCCCHOOOOOOH
10 CC
1 CC
2 CC
3 CC
4 CC
5 CC
6 HH
1) Tunnels
To create a tunnel simply drag the transport tool, be it a road, highway or
rail across the hill. If it is possible the tunnel option will appear. Often
for smaller size hills, it is the gradient that determines whether a tunnel
option will appear. The steeper it is at the point of entry and exit the
higher the chance of getting the tunnel option.
2) Underwater tunnels
This seems to be a bug of sorts. The cost of building an underwater tunnel
far outweighs any actual benefit if any. The steps are:
A) Take a piece of land without water.
B) Build a tunnel across. If the land to too flat, either raise all the land
or just lower the entrance and exit.
C) Now lower the land in between the entrance and the exit.
D) Hey presto, the tunnel is still there yet there is nothing in between. A
physical matter teleportation device?
This also means that you can have a tunnel functioning even if the hill is
removed and there is only land that is lower in between.
1) Construction
Just simply select the road or highway option and drag it across the water or
if you have a steep chasm a bridge is also possible. Just drag until the
bridge appears.
If a bridge still does not appear try to move the starting point a bit
further back away from the gap. If it still does not appear, then you may
have to do some terrain adjustment at either the start or end point. It is
impossible to build a bridge where the start and end points are very steep.
2) Golden Gate
This appears if you use the highway as the basis of the bridge.
1) Rail Turnings
The tracks cannot turn 90 degrees and must be turned gradually over three
tiles. The following diagram illustrates a 4 way crossing. You cannot place
a road through any gradual railway turns.
Diagram A1.04.5i
R: Railway tracks. No road placement
C: Railway tracks. Only at these areas can you build a road across like a rail
crossing.
1234567
1 C
2 R
3 RRR
4CRRRRRC
5 RRR
6 R
7 C
2) Freight Stations
Freight trains serve one purpose, that is to send industrial goods out of the
city.
Since they only send industrial goods, there is no need to connect rails that
have only freight stations and are not transporting passengers to either a
residential area or a commercial area.
Secondly you need to connect the train tracks to a connection. Think of
freight as a different kind of Sim. Instead of going from residential to his
work, freight goes from industrial to a neighbour connection. Freight
stations are somewhat like a transfer or transit point like a Sim walking to
a subway and then taking the subway to work.
There are two methods of sending goods out on track:
A) Direct:
If your train track runs through an industrial zone, it will automatically
pick up goods even if there is no station
B) Indirect:
Freight station is used where goods are send by road to the station who then
take it away.
Therefore if all your industry already has a short freight trip there is no
need to construct a freight station. Other than being superfluous the trucks
going to your freight station will add to the road traffic.
3) No trains: Low passenger usage
Personally I prefer using rails for inter rather than intra city travel. But
that is just my preference and that rails can perfectly well be used for
intra city travel.
If you are unable to see the train it means that either you have a bad rail
line which is not properly linked up. Or that since the trains like the cars
are a mere representation of the usage of the transport, the usage could be
so low that trains do not even appear. If you see a train, just follow it
and if the usage is not too high it will disappear somewhere along the line.
You can see trains appearing out of nowhere like a ghost train. Like a road,
just because you do not see cars there does not mean that the road is faulty.
Furthermore, this reflects the usage on the tracks not the station. It
measures track congestion and usage.
4) Rail-Station placement
It has been suggested that you should place the track at the back of the
train station. However, I do have success in placing the tracks at the side
of the train station. Make sure that there a road linking to it also.
Diagram A1.04.5ii
>: Train Station and direction of the arrow. Thus it is point away to the
back of the station.
=: Rail
-: Road
A1.04.6: Junctions, Roundabouts, Diagonal and Subway bug
1) Junctions and traffic
Traffic increases at each junction not simply because more people arrive
there but also because the amount of cars it can take is much less than
normal roads. So try not to build too much junctions
2) Streets are not Solution
A street is not a solution to heavy traffic. Using a street to resolve
traffic jams is somewhat like a person stating that the way to reduce traffic
is to narrow the road. And then stating it is a success because there are
less cars on that road now. Of course there are less cars, since one had
reduce the capacity of the road. But that does not mean that the traffic
situation had improved.
One may claim that as a result of it the junction is question is now green
thus stating that it is a success. But the reason it is green is because all
the traffic is stuck behind the street. The street acts as a filter allowing
some to pass but all needs to pass. Hence a green junction does not
necessarily mean that your experiment with streets is working.
Therefore do not build a street on the tile leading up to a junction so that
the traffic lights will not appear. Traffic lights are not prima facie bad.
Also if your roundabout is based on this street design it will not work to
ease traffic.
3) Roundabouts
One may not create a proper roundabout without any traffic unless one goes
through a whole host of building and demolishing or using a street. The
effect is that a proper roundabout cannot be created. Thus they are merely
eye candy and do not really serve to ease your traffic. Note that my
definition of a roundabout is a road junctions type that has no traffic
lights.
4) Diagonal Roads and highway
As stated earlier, there is no diagonal streets. For the most part diagonal
construction just add to the variety of your city. It however does have
several detriments:
A) Diagonal highways cannot have cloverleaf
B) It waste space.
C) It constricts the buildings around it.
5) Subway infinite loop bug
Patch 2 resolved this problem. But for those without the patch for some
reason or other. this here is the problem
Setting up a subway network as in the diagram simply loops the passengers
through each station without actually sending them anywhere. Therefore while
it may be profitable the subway system is not working.
Diagram A1.04.6
-: Subway Tracks
S: Subway Station
1) Potholes
You have reduced your funding for the roads, which you should not have done.
You have to replace the roads rather than raising funding and waiting for
repairs which will not be done automatically.
Make sure you do not build roads on roads that are in good condition as that
will cost you money too.
2) Income
You can make money from your mass transit. The best case scenario would be
for it not just to fund itself but also provide you with an income. You can
check your income under the budget.
3) Ports under distress
Often I hear of people complaining that their ports seem to be distressed
even if they had a full maintenance. This I believe was resolved in Patch 2.
It is stated in the fix list that they have "Addressed issue for airports
and seaports initially showing up distressed."
1) Station "Coverage"
It was stated in an official Sim City 4 article, 'Tips & Tricks -
Transportation' that "your Sims are USUALLY only willing to walk about 6 to 8
tiles to and from bus stops." I have added to capitalization by myself.
Therefore what many people as the “range” or “coverage” of a station commonly
actually refers to the distance that people can walk and travel before the
time runs out.
Before interpreting that sentence it is best to clearly define and explain
some basic concepts and terms
i) Trip
The basis of calculation. The time one takes to go from one's residence to
one's place of work.
ii) Walking Time
This refers to the time one takes to walk to and from the mass transit.
iii) Mass Travel Time
This refers to the time taken to move by mass transit from one place to
another.
iv) Transfer Time
The time taken to change modes of transport
REFER: A1.04.9: Transit Mode
v) Total Trip Time = Walking + Mass + Transfer
vi) Maximum Trip Time > Total Trip Time
The maximum trip time I believe is 150 minutes. This is the time one must
reach one's work place.
vii) Actual maximum trip time
It is my opinion that while 150 minutes is the cut off, not all class of
residence will have 150 minutes. As commute time is a huge part of
determining desirability, it means that for the richer Sims they do not like
a high commute. Thus they may move out of their house even before reaching
150 minutes. The effect is thus that the house will be downgraded. Thus 150
minutes is the time limit for poor ($) Sims but not the richer Sims.
A) Restrictive Interpretation
This interpretation operates restrictively downwards such that 8 tiles is the
maximum range one would walk. It means that Sims will only use the mass
transit if it is in within an 8 tile radius.
The basis of this is that walking, as compared to other modes of transport
takes a lot of time. Therefore people who walked 8 tiles to the station will
have less time left in his total trip time hence they will not be able to
walk another 8 tiles to their workplace.
Therefore the result of this interpretation means that you should not space
out your stations too much if you want an effective mass transit system. In
fact the proponents of this interpretation believe that 6 tiles is the
optimum range.
B) Liberal Interpretation
This interpretation operates liberally upwards such that 6 to 8 is just the
mean range. And as such you can travel more than 8 tiles to and from a
station and there is no cap on the distance one is from a station. All that
matters is that the total trip time is less than the maximum trip time.
The basis of this is based on the later part of the sentence "... 8 tiles to
and from bus stops." That suggests that people can walk further than 8 tiles
but that generally they only walk 8 tiles to a station. In other words like
the restrictive interpretation it focuses on the total trip time but gives
a more liberal interpretation such that one could perhaps walk 12 tiles to
the station and then walk another 1 tile after alighting to reach the office.
Therefore the result of this interpretation means that you can space your
stations further apart although placing more closer together would still
always be a boost.
C) Combined Interpretation
This interpretation takes into account the fact that walking do indeed take
a large part of the travelling time but it also acknowledges that there is no
cap on the number of tiles one would walk.
Therefore the result of this interpretation is that while you can space the
stations further apart as your city expands and there is more strain on
traffic, the mass transit time will become longer thereby reducing the
amount of time remaining for the walking time. In other words while the
liberal approach is right theoretically, practically one must adopt the closer
station placement supported by the restrictive approach.
2) Single maximum trip time theory
Central to the discussion relating to station coverage is the assumption that
people can indeed walk more than 8 tiles and that all that matters is that
the total trip time does not exceed the maximum trip time.
There are multiple experiments you can do to test this out. One of them is:
A) Start a new city.
B) Build a Residential and an Industrial zone separated from each other
without any road connections between them.
C) Build a subway station in each of the zones and connect them up but make
no road connections.
D) Make the distance from your residential area to the subway more than 8
tiles and make the subway directly in the midst of the industrial zone.
E) The length of the subway should be short, one tile.
F) As long as ANY one of the people reaches work it will show that people can
walk more than 8 tiles in general and in using a mass transit
I stated ANY because even if only one building has work it is proof that
people can transfer. Because if it is impossible all will have no work. The
rest of the people without work can thus be attributed to this particular bad
transport network and not the impossibility of Sims being able to transfer to
stations side by side. The conclusion is that people can indeed walk more
than 8 tiles.
3) Travelling Time and the Heuristic coefficient
Somebody called "the7trumpets" at Simtropolis found out and determined how
travel time is actually specifically calculated taking into account traffic
and other things. But it is really complicated and extremely mathematical
with the use of the Heuristic coefficient. Suffice to say I am not posting
it here as this is a SimCity 4 FAQ not a mathematical text. If you are
interested simply go to the site and search for it.
People can change their mode of transportation such as from walking to bus.
But not all types of transportation are mutually compatible with another.
Table A1.04.9
W : Walking. This is only on roads and streets. No walking allowed on highway
and tunnels.
B : Bus. This building has negative residential effect.
T : Trains / Railway
S : Subway
Y/N: Yes / No
WA : This means that connection to this mode of transport is possible but it
is done indirectly through the use of walking again. Thus for example a
bus passenger connects to a train by walking out of the bus station and
into the train station.
-------------------------
Type of |Connects To: |
Movement |W |C |B |T |S |
-------------------------
Walking |--|N |Y |Y |Y |
Car |N |--|N |Y |N |
Bus |Y |N |--|WA|WA|
Trains |Y |Y |WA|--|WA|
Subway |Y |N |WA|WA|--|
-------------------------
For indirect walking connection, simply place both the stations side by side.
Take note that walking takes up the longest time so try not to have that many
connections.
The big debate in this is whether does one need to leave a tile in between
two stations for the Sims to switch transport mode. Thus it means having a
bus stop beside a train station. This is because in the Prima Guide it is
stated that "To change transportation modes, there must be at least one tile
of road between the stations." However, if you look at the official Sim City
site under the 'About > Inside Scope' you will see an article call "Building
a better Transit System" by Alex Peck, Software Engineer. Look at the second
page of the article:
Figure 4 shows a Train station connected to a Bus station. This thus means
that there is a conflicting reports from two official sources.
It is my opinion that the latter argument at the website is the correct one.
It should be noted that the Prima Guide was done months before the release of
the game and there are multiple errors in it that have been confirmed. But I
will prove it to you with an experiment.
1) Experiment
This experiment is done in a similar fashion to the Single maximum trip time
theory experiment in (A1.04.8).
A) Simply create a residential and a work place in a new city that is only
connected by rail or subway.
B) Stop the rail or subway before the work zone and place another station
such as the bus stop right next to the rail/subway. See if they manage to get
to work.
C) Make sure that you place a tunnel between the station and the work place
because Sims cannot walk into a tunnel. This is to prevent people from walking
to work. Thus their only option is to take the bus.
D) As long as ANY one of the people reaches work it will show that people can
transfer even if the stations are beside each other.
I stated ANY because even if only one building has work it is proof that
people can transfer. Because if it is impossible all will have no work. The
rest of the people without work can thus be attributed to this particular bad
transport network and not the impossibility of Sims being able to transfer to
stations side by side.
2) Graphics and Tunnel
Central to this argument is the one that Sims cannot walk through a tunnel.
It was stated by the makers that the graphics are mere representation of the
simulation and are not exactly accurate. If you look closely at the tunnel you
may see people walking into or out of the tunnel. However, it is my opinion
that this is just a graphic. It does not actually represent people moving in
and out of the tunnel. Think of the situation where we put in one reward type
building in a city with 0 population (Industrial cities) yet there are people
cheering it. Alternatively you can see people walking about in a large plaza
and yet there is no people in the city.
If you are not convinced, you could perhaps lengthen the distance between the
bus station and the industrial zone.
3) Combination Argument
It is possible that both arguments are correct. Let us at the prima guide
statement again.
"To change transportation modes, there must be at least one tile of road
BETWEEN the stations." (My emphasis)
To interpret this, we have to give a liberal reading to the word 'between.'
Between does not simply mean sandwiched and in the middle. The prima guide
could simply be stating that there must be a road leading from one station
to the other. The idea they are trying to convey is that while the stations
may be built side by side, unlike actual transit hubs they are not linked
internally and thus the people have to exit it and walk on the roads and then
re-enter the other station.
4) Directional explanations
Since Sims travel in the direction to their destination and would not
deviate too much to take advantage of a mass transit or a less congested road
the reason for the seeming failure of these transit stations, if you do have
a failure, can be attributed to them.
This is because, If the Sim exit the station and his work place is to the
south but the bus station is to the north, then he will not use the bus
station as moving there means moving further away from his destination.
5) Entrance / Exit explanations
Prior to placement you can see the (<) of the station. Make sure that it faces
the road and also the road that the other station faces. If they are pointing
in opposite directions, it may account for the failure of these transit
stations, if you do have a failure.
While everyone in your city has the ability to take all the types of
transportation, whether do they actually take it is dependant on how rich
they are. Classified broadly there are three means people get around the city.
They are, public, private or flexible. Flexible means that the people will
have no qualms about using either public mass transit or private cars to get
around as long as they reach their destination in the shortest possible time.
Table A1.04.11
LW : Low wealth residents
MW : Medium wealth residents
HW : High wealth residents
PR : Private
PU : Public
FS : Flexible short approach
* : Least desire
** : Moderate desire
***: Greatest desire
What this means is that even if you have the best mass transit system any
mayor can offer if the rich populate your city then very few people will use
the mass transit. This is even if taking their cars to work will be longer or
even to the extent that they cannot reach their work place.
Therefore the only means to deal with them is to do build your road network
such that it forces them to use the type of transport you want them to use.
This is especially so when building a highway since Sims always use the
"shortest" possible route to work even if that route is completely congested.
1) Theory
The effect of overcapacity is simple. It reduces speed. Overcapacity does not
only apply to roads but also to subway tracks and train tracks. This is
different from station efficiency and capacity when you query the station.
--
I will quote an email Chris McFadyen sent me for it explains the capacity
of tracks excellently. I have changed edited some of the wording and the
illustration but the words are still his:
Traffic at stations are cumulative. Say we have 5 stations:
A >>>>> B >>>>> C >>>>> D >>>>> E
If we have a 1000 people each at A, B, C and D that want to get to E.
Train leaves Station 'A' with 1000 passengers, gets to 'B' and picks up
another 1000, gets to 'C', etc... When they get to E they would be dropping
off 4000 passengers. Adding more subway stops between, such as:
A >>>>> B >>>>> C >> F >> D >>>>> E
Station 'F' would not increase the capacity of the tracks if nobody got off at
'F'. Therefore all 'F' does is to add to the capacity if nobody or if less
people got off then those who got on.
End Quote. Thanks to Chris McFadyen.
--
You should note that just because when you place station 'F' the usage of
C and D falls, it does not mean that this does not hold true. Usage at the
station is different from usage at the tracks. An analogy may help you to
better understand. Let us say there is a huge train station which can handle
hundreds of trains at any given time. But if there is only one single track
leading out of that station, it means that all hundred of trains will have
to use that one single line. Therefore the solution is not to build bigger
train stations but to build more lines.
2) Effect
The effect of overcapacity is simple. You will have a jam and the speed will
slow down. You can slow down up to 70% of the optimum travelling speed in the
tiles that are overcapacity.
3) Distinguishing Track and Station overcapacity
As stated above these track and station have different overcapacity levels.
However the method to determine track overcapacity is useful only for rails.
Track Overcapacity: Look at the rail line. The longer or the more number of
train the more congested the line.
Station Overcapacity: Query the station, to see its usage.
"There once was a nightclub called Jaks,
Where people went in their stacks.
They queued out the door,
To get on the floor,
All dressed in their coats and their hats.
But, on this one fateful night,
Our crew, they had quite a fright.
They were getting on down,
To Lee’s funky sounds,
When someone looked up and said “shite!”
The crew all stopped and looked up,
Someone shrieked as it dripped in their cup.
The roof made a rumble,
The pipe took a tumble,
The crowd were all covered in muck!
How strange were the looks on their faces,
All covered in paper and wastage.
One girl, she threw up,
Her boyfriend did duck,
As he knelt down to tie his shoelaces.
Lee and the crew were in shock,
It was barely past ten O’clock.
People were wailing,
Cleaning methods were failing.
When would the sewage flow stop?
The bouncers all knew what to do,
But first they shut off the loo!
The crowd, they went mad,
For they all smelled so bad!
So they called for our heroes, two.
The crowd were assembled outside,
In the LeisureWorld foyer so wide.
They all left their drinks,
Exclaiming “This stinks!”
But Shaun took it all in his stride.
Teamed up with his deputy Dom,
They needed to right this wrong.
For such a huge task,
They never would ask.
But, for their crew, they had to be strong.
There seemed so much to do,
Luminar concerned that people may sue.
The plumbers were called,
New pipes were installed
And soon the place was like new.
So Jaks, they made the front pages
Their best publicity in ages.
With the clean-up complete,
And profits now sweet,
The crew all deserved higher wages!
But what did we learn from this night?
... that things don’t always go right!
Try as hard as we may,
You just have to say.
That sometimes reality does bite.
Back at Jaks, beer was again flowing,
The crowd was positively growing.
So, back in his place,
With that look on his face,
No chance of Lee’s music now slowing.
So this brings an end to our tale,
Of music, heartache and ale.
Of his crew, Shaun should be proud,
For no others could have handled that crowd.
They proved to the rest,
That they were surely the best,
And all lived to make another sale!"
1) Electricity
They obviously produce electricity for your city, without which the city will
not grow and Yogi bear and Keiko the whale from Free willy will roam the
area in peace.
A) Wind Power:
Very clean but very pathetic. The most inefficient of all power.
B) Natural Gas:
It does pollute but it is quite little and you can easily use this for your
clean city.
C) Coal:
The most efficient of the lot but generates the most pollution.
D) Oil:
In between a natural gas and a coal plant.
E) Solar:
Clean and expensive.
F) Nuclear:
Clean with the possibility of a catastrophic disaster.
G) Hydrogen:
Generates the most power but is actually quite inefficient.
2) Water
Very important but your city can still grow without it but not much. It is
just that they will be very dirty and flammable. But do not worry their
collective body odour will not contribute to air pollution. A water pump
is so much more efficient than a water tower.
3) Waste disposals
Unless you like living in your filth, this becomes very necessary. Landfill
requires there to be at least some population for it to be effective. Waste
to energy is your best bet but it generates copious amount of pollution.
4) Utility Tables
Table A1.05.1: Utilities
$C: Cost to build
$M: Monthly maintenance cost
E : Efficiency rate. The amount of power $1 generates
MW: Power capacity in MWh per month
LS: Life span of the plant
P : Pollution description
AP: Air pollution extent in tiles. The number in (bracket) represents the
extent of the strongest pollution.
WP: Water pollution extent in tiles. The number in (bracket) represents the
extent of the strongest pollution.
P : Population. If not further clarified it means city size
HW: High wealth residence
IH: Hi tech industrial population
ED: Energy demands including deals. It is in the 1000s (K)
CU: Water capacity in Cu m in one month
The figures for pollution assume that there are no surrounding trees or
anything that can help reduce pollution.
Note: For oil power plant while there is water pollution it is quite little.
Unlike the rest of the polluters it does not have any dark yellow pollution.
Both water and electricity can extend past their pipes and poles
respectively. The water coverage extends 6 tiles. So you should have 12 tiles
between pipes and 6 to the edge of the map. Electrical coverage extends to 4
tiles.
If your pipes are leaking, your poles are sparking then your funding is too
low. Raise them and replace the broken pipes.
1) Life span
Even if you fully fund your utilities, after a certain amount of years
they will be moribund. Also as your utility reaches its end life, its
capacity falls drastically such that it is more cost efficient to replace
the utility in question.
2) Rate of decay
The rate of decay or deterioration increases both when you are operating
close to capacity. Therefore keep it at 70% capacity for the power plants.
But leave the water funding alone as lowering it does not save that much and
it will cause even greater problems with burst pipes and damaged property.
However I recommend reduce power as you can save quite a bit of money and
can avoid sparking poles which increase the probability of fire.
The rate of decay also increase when you lower funding from the 100%. And it
increase greatly if funding is below 50%.
3) Sparking Poles
Changing the individual power station funding affects the global funding.
Therefore it might be impossible to prevent sparking lines short of keeping
funding full, which I do not recommend.
Furthermore if too much power is channelled through one line, it too will
spark. Hence try to arrange you city such that you do not need that much
electricity lines. Since electricity can be transferred four tiles, you can
zone one tile every four tiles to prevent the use of poles.
Sometimes for some odd reason, the electricity does not travel 4 tiles in
one area. To search for the break in the chain, simply place the query
button over the tiles to see which one has power or not. Just place another
zone in between the area of the break.
Diagram: A1.05.3
P: Power Plant
Z: Zones. It can be residential, commercial or industrial
.: Empty tiles
P....Z....Z....Z
Because deterioration occurs much faster when global funding is below 50%, I
recommend that you should not build a new power plant until the present one
is close to full capacity.
Yes, I do know I am using a double negative in this title. But NED sounds
good to me.
1) Water Pollution
This has the effect if it is high enough to cause a shut down of your water
pumping system. To reduce that probability simply build the pumps and towers
away from polluted water areas. And also to refrain from making connections
to landfills or agricultural areas.
2) Water treatment
By right you should not need to use this building. This is required if the
water pollution is so bad that your water pumps cannot work. Place at the
source of the water although there is an argument out there that one should
place it at the source of the pollution. As long as your water pump does
not stop for reason of pollution, I do not think this is needed even if your
"city is full of filth" and that your Sims are drinking chocolate kiwi
coloured water.
3) Landfill Connection Bug
All landfill requires connection even if you new landfill is connected to
your old landfill that has road connections. There is a bug that has yet to
be completely resolved by Patch 2. It is stated in the patch that they:
"Addressed landfills to combine easier if drawn adjacent to each
other. Still problematical if drawn between two landfills, so
try adding them one at a time."
Remember that the roads must not only just touch one point of the landfill
but must at least cover the entire one side of a landfill.
4) Recycling Centre
The 20% is not cumulative. This due to its costs can only have a limited
impact on garbage disposal.
Landfills decompose over time in this game. Of course this does not make much
sense unless everything in SimWorld is bio degradable.
1) Decommission
Only if you actually removed road access can it be possible to determine
whether is a landfill actually decommissioned. A landfill not connected
would display a no road zot sign. Also if you look at the garbage chart
you will see a drop in the total garbage capacity.
2) Rate of decay
The formula for the rate of decay is simple. Trash degrades at 7% a month,
however, the upper limit is set at 15 tons. Thus even if 7% of your total
trash is more than 15 tons, only 15 tons will decay that month. There are
thus two time frame of decay. the (1) being the time when 15 tons are being
degraded each month. The (2) is when less than 15 tons are degraded each
month.
In my opinion the turning point occurs when you have about 215 tons of trash
left. It is because after that, the 7% rate would only yield less than 15
tons. Therefore to calculate the rate of decay of the first phase, all you
have to do is this:
A)
Base - 215
Time 1 = __________
15
Base: Current amount of waste in the landfill
B)
log (Y / Base)
Time 2 = ______________
log 0.93
Y: Amount waste must decompose to for all to disappear
Base: Current amount of waste left in the landfill (215)
log 0.93: Rate of decay at 7%
C)
Amount of time to decompose in months = Time 1 + Time 2
The landfill total is simply calculated by counting the number of tiles
in that landfill and multiplying it with the capacity of each tile, which is
300 tons. Alternatively, you could cut off road access and then check the
garbage chart to see how much total capacity has fallen. That amount
would thus be that landfill's capacity. Obviously this operates on the
assumption that the landfill is filled to capacity.
Generally a 4x3 landfill will take 10 years 11 months to decay. A 2x2 landfill
will take 14 years 4 months.
2) Rate of decay cannot be increased
Until I did the experiment on landfills, I was operating under the notion
that a waste to power plant, exporting or trees help increase the rate of
decomposition. There is a belief that if you have a road connected from your
landfill to your waste to power plant, the garbage will be transferred to
the waste to power plant. Therefore increasing the rate of decay. A similar
argument is also made when you have a neighbour deal. Also there is a belief
albeit held less widely that planting trees around a landfill will increase
the rate of decay.
Let me show that after an experiment, all the above hypothesis no longer
holds true. This is the experiment:
A) Build three landfills of equal sizes apart from each other.
B) Wait for all of them to fill up. Check your garbage chart to make sure
that total garbage exceeds total garbage capacity such that the Sims are
wallowing in there own filth.
C) Pause the game.
D) Build a waste to power plant beside one landfill.
E) Demolish the roads leading to the other two landfills.
F) Select one landfill without the road connections and surround it
completely and utterly with trees.
G) Make sure that the waste to power plant can sufficiently handle all the
trash in your city.
H) Take note of the date, unpause and wait for the landfill to be cleared.
The conclusion is that both those landfills without road connections was
cleared at the same time. Hence trees have no effect. Secondly, the landfill
that was connected took a bit longer, about a month. Therefore a waste to
power plant does help increase the rate of decay. You can try the same
experiment with an export deal.
However, because the difference between the decommissioned landfill and the
one that is still linked up to the road, I believe that there really is no
need to demolish the road leading up to it. By the way if you are interested
it took 14 years 4 months to clear a 4 tile landfill.
1) Police
Without any superheroes, you need them to reduce crime and suppress the Sims
as you rig the elections to become Mayor for life. There is also a city jail
if the cells in your police station is overwhelmed. But hold off on it until
you at least witness a jail break. It is quite a sight.
2) Fire
Not everything is as indestructible as garbage. Build these to prevent and
stop fires.
3) Education
Unless you want your Sims to be flipping burgers for life, build some
education facilities. A high school is not a larger version of an elementary
school thus it is not a counterpart to the smaller-larger police and fire
stations. The library and museum ensures that your Sims do not loss too
much education as they grow older.
4) Health
Good wealth is good health. Build them to raise life expectancy from third
world average of 40.
5) PSC list
Table A1.06.1: Civil Buildings
$C : Cost to build
$MT : Monthly total maintenance cost.
MTM : Monthly max funding total maintenance cost
$MC : Monthly coverage cost (bus / ambulance cost)
MCM : Monthly max funding coverage
$MF : Monthly service cost
MFM : Monthly max funding service cost (excluding bus / ambulance cost)
CV : Default Coverage in tiles
CV0 : Zero funding coverage
CVM : Max funding coverage
CA : Default capacity
CAM : Max funding capacity
Simply click on the disaster button and send them to the location. There is
no automatic dispatch.
1) Redeploy
To redeploy when the vehicles are already out, simply click on the circle
sign to pick it up and replace it in the new location.
2) Fire fighters standing around
If upon arriving at the site, the fire fighters are not deploying even if you
are certain that it has full funding, you may have to redeploy. Perhaps a bit
further down the road or on the opposite side of the road. Sometimes it gets
a little irritating as they refuse to get into action.
3) Pause for return
I suggest that upon the successful containment of the fire, you pause the
game and allow the fire trucks to return. If your city has a very high
incidence of fire, another fire could breakout while your fire truck is on
the way back. You can always redeploy but it may be that your fire station is
placed at a central location and that the current fire truck position is very
far away from the fire. Thus delaying arrival.
4) Crime
You can deploy police if you see a crime being committed. But it is more of a
graphics than anything. You will see the criminal being taken away. However
there is minute benefit as you will see your safety rating move up for a
while. The effect is not permanent.
1) List of Crimes
The following is a list of crimes that can be committed in your city. They are
listed in according to the seriousness of the crime with the most serious
being bank robbery.
A) Tping
B) Graffiti
C) Pie Throwing
D) Flashing
E) Solicitation
F) Purse Snatching
G) Fighting
H) Car Theft
I) Drugs
J) Stick Up
K) Assault
L) Arson
M) Bank Robbery
2) Crime near police station
No explanation except perhaps, corruption of the cops or really dumb criminals
committing crime the moment they leave the station? Furthermore since crime
does not disappear the moment you have coverage, perhaps it is just a
statistical luck of the draw thing that there is crime over there.
3) Riots
You need to cut them off with police blocking all the routes. Try pushing
them into a dead-end.
4) How to start a riot
This oddly enough appears on the forum quite a bit. Most probably because the
person have not seen a riot. To get one simply trash the city. First cut off
the water supply, then reducing power funding so that you have rolling
blackouts. Then create a few disasters. You will note that the Sims are on
edge at this point. Then set a few fire in the neighbourhood and pretty soon
the whole block will go crazy. I do not need to tell you not to save over
this city unless.
5) Sources of Crime
These generally are caused by:
A) Unemployment
I believe unemployment in this sense refers not to that no job zot. Because
if it is unemployment would not contribute much as the criminals would have
left town within a few months. I believe it refers to a smaller percentage
of people that cannot find a job and not enough to actually cause a building
to display that no job zot.
B) Low education
The lower the education the higher the probability of committing a crime.
C) Wealth Level
The lower the wealth level, the high the probability one would be a criminal.
D) External Factors
These relates to sources that can be easily removed such as legalised
gambling and some other business deals buildings.
6) Crime generators v Attractors
It is in my opinion that there are two types of building that seemingly is a
den of crime. The first is one that actually generates crime such as the
state fair or the army base. The second are those that attract criminals to
the area but does not actually create crime such as the country club. It does
not make sense that getting together and playing golf would turn one into a
criminal. What makes more sense is that as this is a place where the rich
congregates, it makes sense for the criminals to travel here and commit
economic crime. Notice the crime relates a lot to car theft?
7) City, city burning bright
Fire occurs based on a probability. It is recalculated each month. And are
not affected by the previous month's calculation. Therefore even if you have
a very low fire incidence rate, you may get a few consecutive fires in a roll
due to bad rolls of the dice.
These are the following reasons that increase the rate of fire.
A) No fire-coverage. (Fire Station)
B) No smoke alarm ordinance. (Actually this reduces probability of fire
occurring rather than increase the probability of fire.)
C) No water.
D) Abandon buildings.
E) Industrial areas are more prone to fire. Especially dirty and
manufacturing industries.
F) No Patch 2 installed. They reduce the rate of fire.
The effect of lowering maintenance below usage level means that you will have
strikes and incompetence.
1) Clearing strikes and effects
Upon the occurrence of a strike, rise funding to about 90% or even to its
maximum. It should take a month for the strike to break-up. However, after
that there are still the after effects of a strike that will last for another
month. In the recovery period you may reduce funding to the normal level.
Normal being the level where capacity exceeds demand slightly not the
previous strike level funding.
Also do not question why police only clears rioters not strikers. There are
laws against breaking a strike in most countries. However, I feel that there
should be an option to pass legislation to prevent strikes by key sectors of
the civil service much like in the real world. Well at least on the bright
side, your fire-crew would not ask for a 40% pay rise.
Alternatively, do something that is illegal in most countries but the Sims
are fine with it. Sack the bunch by demolishing that building. Of course this
is not a very good solution.
2) Incompetence
Reducing funding for police and fire fighters mean that when you dispatch
them they may not handle the riot or put out the fire.
1) City wide coverage
The museum and the college operates on a city wide basis. Therefore you can
place them anywhere.
2) Rule against multiple coverage
This rule simply provides that overlapping the coverage in an area will not
increase the effectiveness of that service in that area. This relates to all
services, fire, police, education and health. Although overlapping coverage
for education and health will allow the students or patients in that overlap
area to spread between the two schools or two health buildings.
However, health facilities may be the exception to this rule. Although it is
in my opinion that there is an additional condition when calculating this
coverage that makes it look like an exception when it is not.
REFER: A1.06.6: Hospital, Clinics and low health for this exception
3) Optimum coverage
Therefore as a result of the rule against multiple coverage, for the other
buildings which are not restraint by numeric demand, its coverage is best
optimised by reducing as much overlap as possible. This is to save as much
money as possible. To be extremely effective you should blanket the entire
city with police coverage in a systematic method.
1) Points of Confusion
There is a common complaint that health levels are bad at the edge of the
hospital coverage even though the area in question is within the coverage
circle of the hospital. Obviously, for ease in this discussion, we are
assuming that the hospital is not suffering from over capacity and that
capacity is greater than usage.
This complaint is often coupled with the belief that you need both clinics
and hospitals to improve health.
Clinics and hospitals serve the same purpose. In other words a hospital is
merely a larger version of a clinic much like a small-large fire or police
station rather than like an elementary-High school. As stated by doctorvu,
one of the SimCity 4 designers at one of those chat events, "Clinics and
hospitals serve the same purpose.
2) Raising ambulance funding argument
If you notice when you raise the ambulance funding from its default $200 the
coverage does not increase. But when you reduce funding, it falls. Therefore
the question is whether increasing funding past the default is a waste of
money. This is obviously assuming that this is not a bug.
Taking the fact that there is low health at the edge of the hospital despite
being within coverage and couple it with the coverage not increasing after
you increase the default ambulance funding, several hypothesis can be
formulated:
A) An increase in funding must have an effect. The increase cannot simply be
a case of superfluous funding.
B) An increase in funding should have the effect of increasing efficiency or
effectiveness.
C) The only thing that is currently lacking in effectiveness is the coverage
of the people living.
D) Therefore the conclusion is that coverage at the edge is linked to
ambulance funding.
The logic behind this is that speed is of the essence for medical treatments
and if one is sent late to a hospital then your chances of recovery is less.
And the further you are from a medical facility the longer it will take to
get to the hospital from treatment. Therefore, the increase in funding simply
improves the transportation speed of the ambulance from the edge of the
coverage to the hospital. And as such improves health at the edge.
3) Health facilities overlap coverage
There is an argument by some that often when people place a clinic within the
hospital coverage, the health at the edge improves. It is my opinion that
you could be dealing with an exception to the rule that overlap do not
improve services provided.
REFER: A1.06.5: Overlap and Optimal Coverage
The amount of patients in a hospital will drop when you place a clinic
within the hospital's coverage. If the hospital and a clinic both serve
different purposes, then logic will dictate that placing a clinic will have
no effect on the usage of the hospital. For example, placing an elementary
school will not affect the usage of the high school. But placing another
elementary school in the coverage of the first school will result in a fall
of usage in the first elementary school. Therefore in comparison, it suggests
that both clinics and hospitals serve the same purposes.
The improvement that you see is due to placing two medical facilities in
that same area. You can get the same effect even if you place two hospitals
rather than one hospital and a clinic. Therefore if this is true, it means
that the improvement is due to overlap rather than clinics being a necessary
component of the health system.
If the reason is due to overlap, then does this not bring the rule against
multiple coverage into question vis-a-vis the other services? My opinion is
that this is confined only to health facilities because of the Dual Coverage
effect.
4) Dual coverage effect
Hospitals as compared to other services have a special characteristics where
there are different health effects in one single coverage. It is submitted
that for practical purposes, there are two coverage for a hospital. I will
call them the inner circle and the outer circle. However, the game only shows
you the wider coverage. If you look at your health data map you can almost
make out the inner circle.
It is thus further submitted that good coverage occurs only when there is an
overlap of two circles of coverage. And that the rule against multiple
coverage is still applicable, simply because having three or more circles of
coverage will not further increase the effectiveness of the coverage.
Therefore to get good coverage you can either make sure that the edge of the
coverage overlaps or that you could reduce ambulance funding such that the
coverage is not that wide. I believe that reducing coverage will affect the
radius of the outer circle more so than the inner circle.
Finally, because of the above explanation, I am compelled to discard the
possible suggestion that I had in my previous edition where clinics serve
the poor while hospitals the rich.
1) HQ: Health Quotient
This is a component to aid in the determination of LE, life expectancy and it
indirectly also affects EQ, education quotient. Simply put, the higher the
number you have for this the better it is. A HQ as such is merely part of
the calculation of LE, hence by itself it has no direct effect on your city
unlike LE which will obviously determine the Sims life spans.
It is calculated by taking into account several factors. Let me give you the
formula first:
HQ = Base + Genetics + Health care + Sports - Aging - Pollution
A) Base:
This depends on the wealth level, ($) that one is. The poor will have the
lowest base, the rich the highest and the middle class the an average base.
B) Genetics:
Sims get 80% of their parents' final HQ. Therefore if you end up with a
positive HQ, your city will overtime become more and more healthy as they
pass on their good health to the next generation.
C) Health care:
This refers to the effects of medical facilities, including the disease
research lab reward. And because health care also means healthy eating, it
also includes the small benefit from the farmer's market reward.
D) Sports:
It is submitted although it has not really been adequately proved that
certain recreational facilities improve health. These are the sports based
one such as the soccer field. If this sports effect is true, then I wonder
whether does adding a country club also improves health as the rich play
golf.
E) Aging:
The effect of aging applies to all uniformly regardless of age or wealth
level. Thus every month your Sims will lose part of their HQ.
F) Pollution:
This refers to actually living in the midst of the smog and chocolate kiwi
coloured polluted water. And obviously, the more the pollution, the greater
loss there is to your HQ. I stated being in the midst because if parts of
your city is very polluted but your Sims do not stay there then they will
not be affected by that pollution. I do believe that pollution only matters
in the residential areas and not the workplace. Therefore working in a dirty
industry would not affect your health. Although logically that does not seem
to be the case.
2) LE: Life Expectancy
This refers to the life span of your Sims and unless you have the second Patch
installed there is a very high probability that your life span will fall
drastically over time. This shows what is the current effect of your health
system as a result of past policies. Contrasted to this the HQ shows the
possible future trends of your Life Expectancy.
The refers to one's education level. Again the higher it is the better it
is for your city. That is unless you want a city of dirty and farming
industries and in that case it means that having a high EQ will most probably
destroy the dirty and farming industries. I wonder why they call it EQ,
perhaps some of the developers really like the book "Emotional Intelligence"
by Daniel Goldman. Obviously EQ does not mean IQ because of the ease to get
to 200 points.
1) Calculation
It is calculated by taking into account several factors. Let me give you the
formula first:
EQ = Base + Genetics + Education -
A) Base:
This depends on the wealth level, ($) that one is. The poor will have the
lowest base, the rich the highest and the middle class the an average base.
B) Genetics:
Sims get 80% of their parents' final EQ. Therefore if you end up with a
positive EQ, your city will overtime become more and more educated as they
pass on their good education to the next generation.
C) Education:
This refers to the effects of educational facilities. It also includes the
educational rewards such as main city library, major art museum, university
and opera house although their effect differs according to age.
D) Declining Brain Capacity
The effect of aging applies to all uniformly regardless of age or wealth
level. Thus every month as some of your Sims brain cells expire perhaps
because just like us, Sims levels of GABA, a neurotransmitter, decreases with
aging. The result is that they will lose part of their EQ.
2) Education Effects
All educational buildings are effective only for a certain Sims of a certain
age. Also within the range there are differences in the effects of that
educational facility on the Sims. The age is quite obvious with the lower
education spectrum the elementary school having the greatest effect. Also for
those art and culture type buildings like museums or opera houses, they
affect the older age Sims.
The building that has the widest effects would I suppose be the library.
Hence it may be possible to have full EQ reached over time with only a
library.
REFER: B6.06.1: Education: Public, Private or Libraries
3) Road access
There is short debate as to whether is road access necessary for education.
It seems that even if you cut off access to that education facility, the
surrounding residential area still states that the education level is high
and that there is no fall in desirability. Furthermore the schools are still
being used.
However, it is in my opinion that you let them have road access. There are
several reasons for it:
A) Facilities provide jobs for your Sims. If you have no roads they cannot
take up the job offer. The amount offered however is small.
B) Fire Prevention. If the facility caught fire, how would your fire fighters
have access to the building without roads.
C) The benefits of saving on one measly tile does not come close to the
disadvantages of having no road connections.
These are famous buildings from around the globe. They only have a effect on
commercial and not on residential development. Remember to save before each
placement in case you made a mistake in the placement. Thus you can reload
and would not have wasted a huge amount of money.
Also like all many buildings in the game, these too produce pollution but
obviously not on the scale of your dirty industries or polluting power
plants. I would not really worry too much about it.
It should be noted that Alcatraz (the prison) is the only landmark that
generates a negative mayor rating when placed. The rest are all positive.
However, the Alcatraz still performs like every other landmark, that of
being an aid to commerce. The only negative is the mayor rating, nothing
else.
On every Tuesday, the SimCity 4 official site might release a new landmark.
Table A1.07.1: Landmarks
$C: Cost to build. The figure is in '000s.
$M: Monthly Cost
CE: Commercial Effect
CR: Commercial Radius
-------------------------------------------
Structure | $C | $M | CE | CR |
-------------------------------------------
Alamo | 65 | 130| 40 | 20 |
Alcatraz | 50 | 100| 10 | 24 |
Amalienborg | 70 | 120| 30 | 18 |
Bank of America | 110| 210| 80 | 28 |
Bank of China Tower | 180| 300| 10 | 48 |
Big Ben | 75 | 150| 40 | 20 |
California Plaza | 50 | 100| 30 | 18 |
Chrysler Building | 170| 330| 100| 48 |
CN Tower | 225| 440| 80 | 28 |
Coit Tower | 55 | 110| 30 | 18 |
Empire State Building | 240| 470| 100| 48 |
Faneuil Hall | 50 | 100| 20 | 16 |
Fernsehturn | 85 | 170| 50 | 22 |
Gateway Arch | 90 | 180| 50 | 22 |
Great Pyramid | 160| 310| 70 | 26 |
Guggenheim Museum | 95 | 180| 70 | 26 |
Hagia Sofia | 80 | 160| 40 | 20 |
Hollywood Sign | 30 | 60 | 20 | 16 |
Independence Hall | 60 | 120| 30 | 18 |
Jefferson Memorial | 80 | 160| 50 | 22 |
John Hancock Centre | 165| 320| 90 | 30 |
Lincoln Memorial | 85 | 170| 50 | 22 |
Living Mall | 55 | 110| 80 | 20 |
Palace of Fine Arts | 90 | 180| 30 | 18 |
Palacio Real | 65 | 130| 30 | 18 |
Rotes Rathaus | 65 | 130| 30 | 18 |
Smith Tower | 55 | 110| 40 | 20 |
Sphinx | 50 | 100| 20 | 16 |
St. Basil's | 90 | 180| 60 | 24 |
Statue of Liberty | 85 | 170| 60 | 24 |
Taj Mahal | 105| 200| 60 | 24 |
Tokyo Tower | 55 | 90 | 80 | 28 |
Tower of London | 175| 340| 30 | 18 |
U.S. Capitol Building | 135| 260| 80 | 28 |
Washington Monument | 70 | 140| 40 | 20 |
White House | 70 | 140| 40 | 20 |
-------------------------------------------
Downloaded Landmarks | |
---------------------------------
Brandenburg Gate | 60 | 120|
Capital Records | 50 | 100|
Arc de Triomphe | 55 | 110|
Grand Central | 110| 220|
Sungre-mun | 65 | 130|
Seoul City Hall | 65 | 130|
Globe Arena | 70 | 140|
---------------------------------
1) Rewards
These are given after you fulfil a certain requirement. Mostly their effects
are good but there are some with a negative effect. Take note of those that
have a negative impact on residential areas. Some of these buildings have
a negative impact on mayor rating. Mayor rating and residential and
commercial impact are different matters. One can have a positive mayor rating
and yet still have a negative residential impact.
Once placed these rewards can still be moved. However you have to pay for
the demolition and reconstruction which costs quite a bit.
There is only one downloaded reward here. It is the one that came with the
transportation bonus. I believe this is the same one as those who
pre-ordered. You can get this transportation download at the official
Simcity 4 site.
Table A1.07.2i: Rewards and Business Deals
E : Effects
R / r: Structure has residential effects
B / b: Structure has commercial or business effects
$C : Cost to build
$M : Monthly Cost or in the case of budget deficit rewards, monthly income
Pop : Population requirement. Unless stated otherwise it refers to city size
RP : This refers to regional population as opposed to city population
IH : High Tech industrial population
HW : High wealth residential population
MHW : Medium and High wealth residential population
Cm : Commercial population
F : Farm population
Re : Residential population
Rg : Regional population
MR : Mayor rating
If I use a lower case letter (r/b) with a capital letter then it means
that the effect represented by the capital letter has a stronger effect. Also
for those structure with detrimental effect I will place an (!) in front. Thus
if there is detriment to residence but positive effect on commercial it will
be (!R B). Look at the handy guide at the back for a more detailed effect
listing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Structure | E | $C |$M | Pop |MR| Other |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advance R. Cent. |!R B| 0 | 0 |2000 IH |54|University |
Bureau of B. |!R B|46000| 320|39000 |30|Well funded Health + Edu. |
Cemeteries (1) | R | 0 | 0 |2000 |42| |
Cemeteries (2) | R | 0 | 0 |15000 |46| |
Cemeteries (3) | R | 0 | 0 |60000 |50| |
City Hall | B|40000| 280|12500 |20| |
City Zoo | r B|37000| 260| |68|25 Parks |
Colo. M. Statue | R B|57000| 400|120000 |60| |
Convention C. |!R B|32000| 220|25000 Cm |40|Major Airport |
Country Club | R | 0 | 0 |2000 HW |55| |
Courthouse | B|44000| 310|40000 |33|City Hall |
Disease R. Lab | B|26000| 180|56000 |45|3 Hospital |
Farmer's Market | R b| 4900| 30|3000/600 F|34| |
H. of Worship (1)| R | 0 | 0 |1000 |40| |
H. of Worship (2)| R | 0 | 0 |5000 |44| |
H. of Worship (3)| R | 0 | 0 |30000 |48| |
H. of Worship (4)| R | 0 | 0 |120000 |52| |
Impr. M. Statue | R B| 6400| 40|30000 |60| |
Magn. M. Statue | R B|22000| 150|60000 |60| |
Main Library | R B|19000| 130|34000 |37|5 Good Library |
Major Art Museum | r B|13000| 90|12000 MHW |45|4 Good Museums |
Major Leag. Sta. |!R B|48000| 340|85000 |30|Minor League Sta. |
Mayor's House | R B| 1800| 10|500 |20| |
Mayor's Statue | R B| 3700| 30|5000 |60| |
Minor Leag. Sta. |!R B|17000| 120|22500 |20|16 Recreation facilities |
Movie Studio | B| 0 | 0 |110000 |52|Television Studio |
Opera House | B|28000| 200|48000 MHW |52|Major Art Museum |
Private Sch. (1) | R | 0 | 0 |750 HW | |Education less than 85 |
Private Sch. (2) | R | 0 | 0 |3750 HW | |Education less than 85 |
Private Sch. (3) | R | 0 | 0 |7500 HW | |Education less than 85 |
Radio Station | B| 0 | 0 |18000 |30| |
Resort Hotel | B| 0 | 0 |RP50000MHW|52|4 Cities + Low Pollution |
State Fair |!R B| 0 | 0 |3500/1200F|48| |
Stock Exchange | B| 0 | 0 |25000 Cm |45| |
Tel. Studio |!R B| 0 | 0 |65000 |50|Radio Station |
Tourist Trap |!R B|10000| 210|RP 40000 | |4 Connected neighbours + |
| | | | | |6 Connected Cities in region |
University | R B|12000|1500|15000 Re |42| |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downloaded | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air Force Base | | 0 | 0 |15000 | |EQ > 60 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Business Deals
These appear only when you are losing money and have a small amount of cash
in your bank. To get rid of them, you need to pay quite a lot for the
demolition.
Whether or not you link the toxic waste dump to your city, there still will
be radiation. The unreasonably negligent drivers of these toxic dump that you
see is more of a graphic showing the area of the radiation rather than
actually causing the radiation. This is my theory since the only time I got
a toxic plant was when I purposely busted the bank to see all the business
deals / budget deficit rewards.
All of them negatively impacts on the mayor ratings.
Table A1.07.2ii: Rewards and Business Deals
E : Effects
R / r: Structure has residential effects
B / b: Structure has commercial or business effects
$C : Cost to build
$M : Monthly Cost or in the case of budget deficit rewards, monthly income
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Business Deals | E | $C |$M | Notes |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Army Base |!R B| 0 | 350| Requires a certain population |
Casino |!R B| 0 | 300| Increase Crime |
Federal Prison |!R!B| 0 | 250| |
Missile Range |!R!B| 0 | 450| IA! IA! Possibility of accidental misfire |
Toxic Waste Dump |!R!B| 0 | 400| 9 tiles of radiation / Water pollution |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These structure serves two purposes. To increase the desirability of the
surrounding area and also acts as a demand buster. Just like all other
buildings in the game, if you lower maintenance for it, its effectiveness
will fall. You can take a look at the number of recreational facilities
under the budget tab.
A) Gardens, Parks and open areas
These refer to the (1) Community Garden (2) Flower Gardens of all sizes (3)
Park Green of all sizes and (4) Open grass or paved areas.
These mostly are for residential usage although they do have commercial
effects. For raising residential desirability, I prefer to use the flower
gardens as they have the greatest effects. Furthermore, they are the best
residential demand busters around.
B) Sports
These include the (1) Basketball Court (2) Playground of all sizes (3)
Skateboard Park (4) Soccer Field (5) Softball Field and (6) Tennis Court.
I believe despite them seeming to cater for different age groups, their
effect is the same for all age groups. They also mostly affect residential
desirability but are not as effective. They are good intermediaries when you
something better than a small park but not as expensive as a large park. The
best of the lot for desirability in my opinion is the playground.
They also offer demand cap busting. I like to use the tennis courts
because combined they offer more power in busting than a large flower garden
and at a cheaper price.
C) Natural
These are the (1) Beach (2) Gazebo and (3) Ranger Station.
The best is obviously the beach as it offers great residential and also
good commercial desirability boost. However, as it can only be built at the
water edge, it is limited in its applicability. Furthermore it takes a bit
of practise before you can get the correct lay out for the coast to lay it.
It should be noted that to build a beach the coast must be straight. Part of
the beach must be on land while the other in water. Move the cursor around.
The little white dot on the beach is the point where water meets land.
L: Land / W: Water.
LLLLL
LLLLL
LLLLL
LLLLL
WWWWW
WWWWW
WWWWW
WWWWW
D) Plazas
These refer to the three sizes of plazas.
They offer the best desirability boost to commercial areas. Although they
also have some residential boost. The large plaza the most powerful demand
cap buster for non-reward recreational facilities.
Table A1.07.3: Recreation
E: Effects
R / r: Structure has residential effects
B / b: Structure has commercial or business effects
$C: Cost to build
$M: Monthly Cost
If I use a lower case letter (r/b) with a capital letter then it means
that the effect represented by the capital letter has a stronger effect. Also
for those structure with detrimental effect I will place an (!) in front.
Thus if there is detriment to residence but positive effect on commercial it
will be (!R B).
--------------------------------------
Structure | E | $C | $M |
--------------------------------------
Basketball Court | R | 90 | 10 |
Beach | R b| 70 | 5 |
Community Garden | R | 70 | 5 |
Gazebo | R b| 90 | 10 |
Large Flower Garden | R b| 310 | 35 |
Large Park Green | R b| 320 | 25 |
Large Plaza | r B| 400 | 35 |
Medium Flower Garden | R b| 170 | 20 |
Medium Park Green | R b| 160 | 15 |
Medium Playground | R | 210 | 25 |
Medium Plaza | r B| 210 | 25 |
Open Grass Area | R b| 40 | 5 |
Open Paved Area | r B| 40 | 5 |
Playground | R | 90 | 10 |
Ranger Station | R | 90 | 10 |
Skateboard Park | R | 210 | 25 |
Small Flower Garden | R b| 80 | 5 |
Small Park Green | R b| 40 | 5 |
Small Plaza | r B| 90 | 10 |
Soccer Field | R b| 340 | 35 |
Softball Field | R b| 400 | 35 |
Tennis Court | R | 130 | 15 |
--------------------------------------
It has been suggested that some of these recreational facilities can help
improve the health of your Sims. The logic is certainly good unless if you
happen to be one of those who believes in that since everything wears out
eventually, your heart is only good for so many beats and thus you should not
waste them on exercise. That is because you believe that speeding up your
heart will not make you live longer for that is like saying that you can
extend the life of your car by driving it faster.
Anyway, the question is whether do all recreational facilities improve your
health quotient or do only those that has a direct reference to a sport can
be considered.
A second question is that since the effect of any particular education
structure is dependant on the age of the Sim, then do the age of the Sim
matters, if there is such thing a healthy sports. Therefore is a skateboard
park more effective for young people? In my opinion it does not seem so.
Often a person would have sworn to have be given a reward or a business deal
but did not build it at that point of time. Subsequently when they wish to
build it, it is no longer available. There are two possible explanations to
this. The one many people immediately jump onto is that this is a bug.
However, it is my opinion that the better explanation is that you no longer
statisfy the requirements of that reward. This occurred with respect to a
business deal where after becoming profitable, the deal disappeared.
A second important point to note is that this disappearance does not occur
immediately after you no longer satisfy the requirements. It only occurs when
the following TRINITY of events occur. Firstly, the reward is not built,
secondly, you no longer fulfil the requirement and thirdly it only occurs
when you saved and exit and then RELOADED the city. When the city is RELOADED,
the computer will scan the MATRIX to look for the TRINITY of events and if it
is found that reward option will be purged. As much as you hate it, there is
no REVOLUTIONS or things that you can do except for fulfilling the
requirements again to get the NEO-rewards. Until then as the mayor it is up
to you to select whether you wish the take to blue or the red pill.
"Now that we have all this useful information, it would be nice to do
something with it. (Actually, it can be emotionally fulfilling just
to get the information. This is usually only true, however, if you
have the social life of a kumquat.)"
These provide quite a number of good information. However, I find myself
usually focusing only on a few good ones. I will put a (+) beside the ones
that I feel are quite useful.
You can expand the menu for "radar viewing". Especially important when you
are seeking out the type of crimes being committed. Click on the (^) to
expand to radar view.
The (1-6) or (1-5) represents the data view with a map based on intensity.
Thus it will show you the areas which are the least affected and those that
are the most.
1) Fire hazard (1-6)
Simply use this to determine where to place your fire stations.
2) Crime (+)
To see the type of crime committed. Use to search for the flasher to see him
to his deed. Quite funny.
3) Education (1-6)
I personally prefer giving every Sims an equal opportunity for education so
this view is not very important to me. It shows the level of education. You
can however use it to go to your education facilities if you cannot remember
where they are.
4) Desirability (1-6) (+)
Desirability of areas with relation to all the various zones such as poor
Sims, high tech and etc.
5) Water
6) Power
To determine which part of your city is not powered up. This is quite useless
for if there is anything that is not powered up you can see a no power zot
over it.
7) Traffic (1-5) (+)
To see which are your congested areas and also to help determine areas of
high customer volume.
8) Zones (+)
To see just the type of zones minus the buildings. Very useful when you are
searching for zones to increase the density.
9) Land value (1-6)
The higher it is the more tax you get.
10) Mayor Rating (1-6)
To determine which part of the city loves you and which wants to impeach you.
11) Resident Average Age (1-6)
To see where the young like to stay and which part of your town is a
retirement community. You can if you so wish use this to plan your education
placement for the elementary and high school.
12) Health (1-6)
To see which part of your city needs better medical facilities and more HMOs.
13) Air Pollution (1-6) (+)
To know how far apart to build your zones. Or to find out which roads are
producing allot of pollution. Plant some trees there.
14) Water pollution (1-6)
Try to steer your pipes away from it.
15) Garbage (1-6)
This is very useless, since you should not be operating a city where the
garbage system has failed and that trash is place onto the ground. Also, how
likely is it that you will forget where your landfill is.
16) Radiation
Again not very useful. It is not everyday that you suffer a nuclear strike
on your nuclear facilities or that you will forget the placement of the one
toxic plant in your city if you did place it.
Again, these provide quite a number of good information. However, I find
myself usually focusing only on a few good ones. I will put a (+) beside the
ones that I feel are quite useful. The most useful being the RCI chart and
the jobs and population chart. You can change the time scale of this chart.
1) Crime
To see the amount of crime committed and the number of arrest.
2) Commute (+)
To see your commute time. You have to realise that this is the average
commute time of your city. Therefore even though it may show that the commute
time is reasonable, some parts of your city might have a very high commute
time. So do not mix up actual specific commute time with this average city
commute time.
3) Power (+)
Power supply and demand. So you do not have to hunt for it through the
station. Tells you when to increase power. If you see the capacity falling
even if you did not reduce funding it suggests that your power plants are
deteriorating.
4) Water (+)
Again to determine supply and demand. Similarly it aids you in informing you
when to raise power. If you see the capacity falling even if you did not
reduce funding it suggests that your water facilities are deteriorating.
5) Air pollution
To see the effects of your anti pollution drive or the result of your
economic success. The mark of a great city is how much pollution it can
produce that is not linked to industries or power plants.
6) Job & population (+)(+)(+)(+)(+)
This most important chart of all. It helps you determine the residents by
wealth or amount of people working in a particular industry. It is very
helpful when seeking out to determine how much more you need to meet a reward
requirement.
Once you have Patch 2 installed, you can pick and choose which graph to
display by clicking on the checkbox rather than having a headache due to
seeing everything appear together. If you have patch 2 installed but the
option to select individual graphs is not available, it means your patch was
not properly installed.
7) Water pollution
To determine water pollution. Not too useful since you can split your water
system such that the pollution would not affect you residential pumps. So
this is not very useful to determine when a treatment plant is absolutely
necessary.
8) Garbage (+)
On top of supply and demand this is very important especially when you are
not using a landfill. If you are not using a landfill, waste figures should
hold steady. If it starts going up either in need to export more or build a
new waste to power plant. Remember if you are not using a landfill once the
waste starts going up, it will increase very quickly.
Also when you decommission a land fill or create a new one, the total
capacity should change to reflect it.
9) Education
Determines how educated and how ready they are for high tech. Or you can use
it to determine whether you fulfil the requirements for certain rewards.
10) Education by age
This breaks down the education level according to their ages. There are nine
distinct age spans. Each last ten years. It starts from 1-10 years and ends
with 81-90 years. It is good to determine the success of your education
policy vis-a-vis the age group or whether is the next generation of workers
going to lead the digital revolution in your city and bring in the high tech,
the big offices and the money.
11) Population by age
To see whether is this a city filled with youngsters or is it a retirement
community. See which age group was that baby boomer group. And see if whether
did you have a baby boom as a result of your last blackout.
12) Life Expectancy
To show how long does your citizens live.
13) Residents Average Income
This is calculated in a unit of 1000. Of course this does not make sense
vis-a-vis your tax income and the cost of your power plants and such. It
seems that a poor Sim can easily make as much money as the city makes.
Generally, use this to determine whether your city growth is qualitative or
merely quantitative.
14) City Income Expense
To see the history of your income and expense. Not too useful, unless perhaps
using it to see whether is your profit generally increasing, decreasing or
stagnating under your wise and benevolent dictatorship.
15) Funds
Again to see the history of the funds you have in the bank. Not very useful.
Perhaps the game should base the amount of loan and the interest rates on
your credit history.
16) RCI Demand (+)(+)(+)(+)(+)
This shows the individual demand of each of the different zones rather than
all just being lumped into one residential, commercial or industrial bar.
Take note that after Patch 2 the maximum no longer is 1000 but it goes up
to 6000. Therefore, do not fret if it seems that demand is lower after Patch
2. It is merely an illusion.
17) Mayor Rating (+)
For more specific information on your rating rather than just little green
bars. Again for use of determining rewards.
Nothing much to say about this. To increase it either click on the arrow
or click on the number itself to type in the tax rates.
1) Demand Impact
Changing tax rates have an impact on your demand. And obviously raising it
will have a negative impact and lowering it a positive demand. However
the way they calculate tax rate and their effects on demand makes it
impossible to raise taxes to get a lot of money then quickly lower it again
so that demand is not that affected. The reason is that the game takes the
most negative or highest tax rate that your city has over the past three
months to calculate the impact on demand.
2) Mayor Rating Impact
And also obviously the taxes have an impact on your mayor ratings. The larger
the tax change as a percentage with respect to its CURRENT tax levels the
greater the impact on mayor ratings.
Not much of an introduction since everything seems quite self-explanatory. The
only thing worth mentioning is that city ordinance appears only after a few
days of starting the city. By starting I mean actually putting down one
thing in the city such as a street. You may have to wait a bit after the
placement but it will appear in a few days.
You should note that just because an ordinance seem to be one that benefits
the city, the Sims or the business community may not see it that way.
1) Community CPR Training Program
It increase the health quotient.
2) Water Conservation Program
It cut down on water consumption but also negatively impacts on industrial
demand.
3) Paper waste Reduction Program
It decrease waste output but also causes commercial demand to fall.
4) Free Clinic Program
It increase the health quotient
5) Smoke Detector Program
It decrease the possibility of fire.
6) Tourism Promotion Program
It increase demand for commercial services.
7) Power Conservation Act
It reduces power consumption and industrial demand. Although it may help
pro-long the life of your power plants.
8) Carpool Incentive Program (+)
It reduces traffic volume greatly. This is one of the better programs
available.
9) Commuter Shuttle Service
It persuades Sims to use public transport and reduces air pollution. You
should enact this if you have any mass transit.
10) Clean Air Act
It reduces air pollution but also have a negative impact on dirty industry.
11) Youth Curfew Act
It reduces crime. The interesting question is that if you enact this, should
you still be able to see kids on the roads at night?
12) Auto-Mobile Emission Reduction Act
It reduces air pollution.
13) Tire Recycling Program
It cuts down waste production.
14) Nuclear Free Zone
You may not build any nuclear plants and all existing ones will be shut down.
Any violation will see your city being accused of harbouring Weapons of Mass
Destruction (WMD). And if you too have disease research plant, then you will
be accused of constructing chemical and biological weapons. And we all know
what that means. Pretty soon the statues build in your honour will be torn
down.
15) Pro-Reading Campaign
It increases your education quotient
16) Neighbourhood Watch Program
It reduces crime. It requires at least one police facility because without it
this would be called the vigilante mob program.
17) Junior Sports Program
It reduces crime but yet oddly does not increase the health quotient. Perhaps
because committing crime also requires exercise such as running away. You
require at least one recreational facility for this to be available.
18) Landfill Gas Recovery Program
You require a landfill and a natural gas plant. It increases the capacity
of the natural gas plant and reduces air pollution around the landfill.
19) Trash Pre-sort Requirement Program
You require a recycling plant. It reduces waste and increase effectiveness
of the recycling plant.
20) Legalize Gambling
It causes crime to increase. But you need it to get the casino. Thus if you
make it illegal again, then the casino will be gone.
Table A1.09.2: Cost and requirements
F$: Fixed component of the monthly cost or income
V$: Variable component of the monthly cost
MR: Mayor Rating
- : Negative mayor rating
+ : Positive Mayor rating
Pop: Population
---------------------------------------------------
Ordinance | F$ | V$ | MR |
---------------------------------------------------
Legalize Gambling | 100 | NA | |
---------------------------------------------------
Comm. CPR Training P. | 50 |$1/200 Pop | |
Water Conservation P. | 50 | NA | |
Paper waste Reduc. P. | 20 |$1/200 Pop | |
Free Clinic P. | 50 | | |
Smoke Detector P. | 0 |$1/1000 Pop | |
Tourism Promotion P. | 50 | NA | |
Power Conservation Act | 0 |$1/100 Pop | - |
Carpool Incentive P. | 50 |$1/100 Pop | |
Commuter Shuttle Serv. | 20 | NA | |
Clean Air Act | 20 | NA | |
Youth Curfew Act | 40 |$1/500 Pop | - |
A. Emission Reduc. Act | 20 | NA | - |
Tire Recylcing P. | 20 |$1/1000 Pop | |
Nuclear Free Zone | 50 |$1/500 Pop | + |
Pro-Reading Campaign | 50 |$1/Library | |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ordinance | F$ | V$ | | Requirements |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Neighbourhood Watch P. | 10 |$1/1000 Pop | |Police Station |
Junior Sports P. | 100 | | |Recreation Amenity|
Landfill Gas Recovery P. | 20 |$30/Landfill | |Gas PP + Landfill |
Trash Presort Require. | 20 |$1/R. Centre | |Recycling Centre |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can initiate a deal for water, electricity or garbage with your
neighbouring city so that you can either import water or electricity or
export garbage.
1) Requirements
The following are the requirements for a deal to be available.
A) Necessary connections
That is power line for power, pipes for water and roads for garbage. Just
drag whatever is needed to the edge of the map and reply in the affirmative
when asked to make a connection. You should know that building or zoning on a
power line would destroy the connection.
B) Nemo dat quod non habet
This little Latin phrase simply means no one can give what she does not have.
So applying that (in a manner totally out of the phrase's context), before
you wish to buy or sell, you have to make sure that the relevant neighbour
has the supply and you the money and demand. You must at least have a year's
supply of money before a deal is possible.
C) Time
You should not need to wait long. A few days of game time should suffice,
before a deal is offered. It will appear in your little message box. A little
trick I do if I do not want the deal but want to preserve such an offer is
not to clear that particular message offering the deal.
2) Initiating the deal
There are two ways in which one might initiate a deal.
A) News Ticker Message
Sometimes a message will appear asking you to make a deal. While the message
may seem to suggest only one deal is on offer such as trash, power or water,
in reality once you click on the underlined words, all possible deals appear.
After accepting one deal you can control your deals through the budget
screen.
B) Budget Screen
I do not know whether did this occur only after Patch 1 but it seems that all
I have to do now is to press the neighbour deals button in the budget and
immediately a deal is available if you fulfil all the requirements.
3) Cancelling and altering the deal
You can cancel the deal any time by going to the budget screen. Patch 2 will
give you a warning that you are out of money before cancelling the deal
automatically if that is not resolved. Without the patch, the deal cancels
automatically.
It has been argued that if the deal was cancelled because of lack of payment
you may not initiate another deal with the city for a short while.
4) Supply
The cost for each deal is not fixed. It is determined by the supply of the
neighbouring city. Therefore if they have plentiful of empty landfill for
example, the cost of exports will be lower.
1) Municipal bonds of 10-year maturity
When times are tough or when you want emulate President Bush tax policy to
cut taxes even if you are losing money, you need to take out a loan. Or take
out a bond issue. This is your typical 10-year local municipal bond. The
time frame is fixed.
And given that the current rate in real life for single-A to AAA local
municipal bonds of 10-year maturity is around 3 to 4%, there can only be
one conclusion relating to the rate of 8.5% a year for the bond issued by
your city. It is a high yield bond or more precisely a junk bond. Either that
or your city has the most pathetic credit rating ever. You have to make
monthly payments.
Do not worry if the initial loan seems small for the amount you can loan
increases over time.
2) "Westdeutsche" Loan Bug
I have heard of people encountering the situation where they keep having to
pay each month even after the 10-year period. It is a debt that never ends.
I have no solutions to this unless you take out another loan and follow the
example of Islington London Borough Council who also had a ten year deal
except that they refused to make any payment to the lender Westdeutsche
Landesbank Girozentrale. But of course if you withhold payments your
Courthouse will be called upon to rule against you even though you are paying
them. You may end up paying compound interest rather than just simple
interest.
So I am afraid this avenue of self help remedy is not possible. The only
thing I advice is that you should not take a loan.
A1.10.1: Hi there, [wave], join me in my hot-tub?
You can place up to five Sims in each city. The game comes with its own
Sims but you can place the ones you created if you had "The Sims" game. There
will be an graphic when you Sim dies of a natural death or when the Sim has
stayed in your city for a number of generations.
Personally, I do not really like this because of the amount of spam that the
Sim sends your way. Who gave out the Mayor's contact info? It is as if the
Sims was trying to improve their "Social needs" bar.
1) Dolly the Sim clone
Its the attack of the clones, but at least they would not be faced with the
emotional scarring of having to hear "... I am your father. Nooo!!!!"
In the world of the Sims therapeutic cloning or stem cell cloning not a only
is not a controversial topic but that they have absolutely no problem with
cloning themselves. After the first Sim die, it will be replaced by the same
Sim with the numbers (2, 3, and so on) depending on its generation.
2) Insertion and Eviction
To place a Sim, simply click on the Sim you desire then select any
residential buildings and click on it.
To evict them, simply click on the evict button. Actually, a better term
would be exile or maybe even worse. Use if you are bored with it or that you
are sick of the Sim complaining about the city. So to preserve your position
you will need to silence the opposition in a dirty war.
3) Follow the Sim
To follow the Sim, simply switch to query mode and press shift and click on
the Sim.
4) Pre-Patch: Conflict with transportation add-on
You should take note that unless you have at least patch 1 installed, this
feature is buggy if you also installed the transportation add on.
A1.10.2: Special Agent: Mr Smith
I mainly use My Sim as an investigative tool. Think of them as the secret
agents of the office of the mayor. Or more precisely think of them as Mr
Smith, the never dying bad guy in the Matrix. Also the Sims like the bad
people in the show, also clones themselves after 'death' and is sent by a
higher power who controls their world on a computer.
If you are wondering why a certain residential area is distressed, then place
him or her in that building and you will soon receive a field report relating
to the problem.
Also it will give you an idea of how the Sims travel about in your city.
Understanding the game mechanics of movement can help you create a better
city at least with relation to the issue of transportation.
===========================END OF SECTION A-PART 1============================
_______________________________________________________________________[71]___
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION A: ONLINE MANUAL S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ PART 2: GENERAL GAMEPLAY CONCEPTS ~~~| START |~~~
A~~\_____/~~2 A~~\_____/~~2
______________________________________________________________________________
These refer to the general key concepts that affect the game. If you have
read the entire PART 1 and have yet to play the game, I really must commend
you for being so patient.
These concepts are more complicated than those in PART I. In fact it was only
after I played my first and second good cities and reached over 30,000 in
each of these cities that I started to pick up on these ideas.
But if you want to start out with the perfect city, then this is a must read.
It is also helpful to take a quite glance at this before starting the game.
1) Theory
Each section of Sim society have their own demands on desirability. Simply
put what may statisfy a poor Sim may not satisfy a rich Sim or what may
satisfy a dirty industry may be off putting to high tech.
The Residential, Commercial and Industrial as a whole each have their own
specific ladder of desirability. The higher the wealth level the higher the
desirability is required.
The effect of desirability is that if the area falls below the desirability
of the building that is over there, then the occupants of the building will
leave it. The initial effect would be that the building is distressed such
that when you query it, you can see that one or two of the ($) sign is faded
out. That means lower wealth occupants have now taken up residence.
For residential buildings, such an event will lead to higher occupancy of the
building. But population numbers are not everything, because for each fall
in level results in a great fall in taxes from the building. Thus even if
there are more people in the city, you will be making less money on taxes.
If desirability continues to fall, eventually the building will become
abandoned and vacant.
2) Factors
The desirability is calculated by taking into account of general factors
such as those referred to above in A1.03.3. To avoid repetition, let me
state that for all areas, radiation is not desired.
Before showing you how desirability is calculated, let me explain some of the
terms that I will be using.
SWN - Similar Wealth Neighbourhood:
If the surrounding houses are of the same wealth type then this value
increases. But since Sims do not like to live in a neighbourhood that is
poorer than them it will have a negative effect if the building is surrounded
by poorer Sims.
COMMUTE:
This is one of the most important factors especially for the richer Sims. A
total failure in this will lead to abandonment of the building as residents
cannot get to work. As stated by doctorvu, SimCity 4 game designer in one of
those chat events, "...bad commute time can totally stop development."
Modifier (R) or (C):
This refers to the effect of structures such as parks and such. It is often
called YIMBY (Yes in my back yard) for positive modifier and NIMBY (Not in
my back yard) for negative modifier such as a Toxic waste dump. The (R) refers
to it being residential modifier. (C) refers to commercial modifiers.
REFER: A1.07: Landmarks, Rewards and Recreation
Flat Ground:
The simply refers to the gradient of the land.
A) Residential Desirability
Residential = COMMUTE + Education + Health + Modifier (R) + Land Value + SWN
- Pollution - Crime - Waste - Traffic Noise
B) Commercial Desirability
Commercial = Customers + Land Value + Modifier (C) + SWN - Pollution - Crime
- Garbage
C) Agriculture Desirability
Agriculture = Freight Trip + Low Land Value + Low Traffic + Flat Ground
- Air Pollution - Crime - Garbage
D) Dirty Desirability
Dirty = Freight Trip + Low Land Value + Flat Ground - Crime - Garbage
Demand, Land value and mayor ratings are all separate and distinct from
desirability. However, they do have a relationship with each other.
1) Desirability v Demand
There is no direct relationship between them in the sense that their
calculations of their values are not affected by each other. However there is
a indirect relationship between them. That is if your city or the area is
not sufficiently desirable enough then even if your demand is sky high, there
will be no construction of the demanded residential, commercial or industrial
buildings there.
In other words, desirability acts as a filter for demand fulfilment. An
analogy would be that of you refusing to place a reward. Thus because the
demand is sufficient, that particular building is available for construction
but if desirability is not sufficient, then it acts as an automatic rejection
of the construction. Therefore, just like you refusing the reward, the
building or demand is still available and will not be spent until it is no
longer rejected by the desirability filter.
2) Desirability v Land Value
Land value is a component for calculating desirability. It is affected only
by two things, water and height. If the land is near water, its value
increases. If it is on a nice hill, the value increases but if it is on a
K7 type of mountain the value falls. Therefore as the land rises, its value
increases but past a certain point, the value starts falling again.
3) Desirability v Mayor Rating
Desirability to a certain extent help determine mayor rating. The more
desirable the area, the happier the Sims are in that area and hence the
higher the mayor rating. The relationship is however tenuous since there are
different factors in the calculation of each.
There is a capacity limit for residential, commercial and industry, which
prevents growth above certain levels. The only way to get past these limits
is to bust them, hence the term demand busters. The demand busters are
mainly structures and connections.
1) Calculation
The mechanics behind this from what I gather is that upon reaching the
capacity, the growth will fall to zero and this will be represented in the
RCI chart. If capacity has been reached halfway then, the maximum growth can
only be half. However, as Patch 2 has raised the RCI chart maximum to 6000
demand units (Du), it is unlikely at least in the beginning to reach the
maximum. Here is a simple formulation of the factors involved in demand:
RCI Demand = or < Current Demand Cap > or = Maximum Actual Potential Demand
RCI Demand:
The demand that you see in the RCI charts. The demand that actually impacts
on your city.
Current Demand Cap:
The total demand cap after adding up all busters and initial capacity. In
other words this is what demand might have been if your maximum actual
potential demand is high enough.
Maximum Actual Potential Demand:
The demand that would have been, if there had not been any demand caps.
2) Patch 2 RCI increase
Also, because of the increase in maximum (Du), it may seem to you that demand
is low less than a sixth of the maximum, but in reality that demand is quite
good. For those who did not play the game prior to Patch 2, you have to
realise that the maximum used to be 1000. So having 500 (Du) was quite high
the last time. If you are wondering, this increase in demand is not merely
cosmetic. The increase is in real terms and not just a reworking of the then
1000 (Du) into an alternative proportion. The reason for this increase is I
believe in response to the complained of low rate of appearance of some
skyscrapers. It was only by increasing the demand that these higher wealth
skyscrapers can be constructed in your lovely city.
If you wish to see the effects of demand caps, there is a simple experiment
that can be done. Simply start a new city and carry on building without
constructing any demand busters. As you reach 20,000, you will see that
the demand for poor ($) Sims residence will taper off until it hit 0. At that
point start placing in some demand busters and you will see it increase
demand rise again. Alternatively, you could work backwards and demolish
demand cap buildings and see your population drop.
3) Determining Current demand cap
To determine what your cap is, simply add up the inherent capacity to all the
demand busters. To determine the number of busters you have for residential
area simply go to the budget, which will show the number of buster buildings
you have in the city.
Each city starts off with a similar initial base limit. These here are the
starting capacity.
Commercial Services:
There are no demand caps for commercial services.
Farming:
Demand for agriculture unlike others are calculated by taking into account all
the other industrial jobs. Therefore the more dirty, manufacturing or high
tech industries there are the less one can build agriculture. Thus if you
have 20,000 non-agriculture industrial jobs, only 10,000 agiculture jobs are
available. Basically as your city develops farming demand will fall. This
accounts for why some people claim that if the land had been previously
constructed upon, farms would not take root there. It actually is mostly
because of demand and also perhaps desirability.
Table A2.02.2: Starting Capacity
LW : Low wealth residential
MW : Medium wealth residential
HW : High wealth residential
F : Agriculture
ID : Dirty Industry
IM : Manufacturing industry
IH : High Tech industrial population
COM : Medium wealth offices
COH : High wealth offices
CS : Low / Medium / High wealth commercial services
-----------------------
Zone | Start Capacity |
-----------------------
LW | 20,000 |
MW | 2000 |
HW | 1000 |
F | 30,000 |
ID | 14000 |
IM | 7000 |
IH | 4000 |
COM | 3000 |
COH | 2000 |
CS | 0 |
-----------------------
Removing residential capacity is a simple matter of placing the buildings in
the city. You can try the experiment I suggested above to test for the
effects of these buildings.
REFER: A2.02.1: Demand Caps and Busters concept
Table A2.02.3: Residential Busters
LW : Low wealth residential
MW : Medium wealth residential
HW : High wealth residential
$C : Construction cost
$M : Monthly cost to maintain
------------------------------------------------------
Structure | $C | $M | LW | MW | HW |
------------------------------------------------------
Recreation | |
------------------------------------------------------
Basketball Court | 90 | 10 | 1000| 1000| 1000|
Beach | 70 | 5 | 250| 250| 250|
Community Garden | 70 | 5 | 250| 250| 250|
Gazebo | 90 | 10 | 1000| 1000| 1000|
Large Flower Garden | 310 | 35 | 7000| 7000| 7000|
Large Park Green | 320 | 25 | 2500| 2500| 2500|
Large Plaza | 400 | 35 | 9000| 9000| 9000|
Medium Flower Garden | 170 | 20 | 3000| 3000| 3000|
Medium Park Green | 160 | 15 | 1000| 1000| 1000|
Medium Playground | 210 | 25 | 3000| 3000| 3000|
Medium Plaza | 210 | 25 | 4000| 4000| 4000|
Open Grass Area | 40 | 5 | 250| 250| 250|
Open Paved Area | 40 | 5 | 250| 250| 250|
Playground | 90 | 10 | 1000| 1000| 1000|
Ranger Station | 90 | 10 | 1000| 1000| 1000|
Skateboard Park | 210 | 25 | 4000| 4000| 4000|
Small Flower Garden | 80 | 5 | 750| 750| 750|
Small Park Green | 40 | 5 | 250| 250| 250|
Small Plaza | 90 | 10 | 1000| 1000| 1000|
Soccer Field | 340 | 35 | 5000| 5000| 5000|
Softball Field | 400 | 35 | 6000| 6000| 6000|
Tennis Court | 130 | 15 | 4000| 4000| 4000|
------------------------------------------------------
Reward | |
------------------------------------------------------
Country Club | 0 | 0 | 0| 0| 8000|
Disease R. Lab |26000| 180| 0| 10000| 10000|
Farmer's Market | 4900| 30| 20000|150000| 0|
Major Art Museum |13000| 90| 0| 6000| 6000|
Major Leag. Sta. |48000| 340|300000|300000| 0|
Minor Leag. Sta. |17000| 120|200000|200000| 0|
Opera House |28000| 200| 0| 0| 5000|
Private Sch. | 0 | 0 | 0| 0| 6000|
Radio Station | 0 | 0 | 0| 9000| 0|
Resort Hotel | 0 | 0 | 0| 5000| 5000|
Stock Exchange | 0 | 0 | 0| 0|125000|
Tel. Studio | 0 | 0 | 0| 3000| 0|
Tourist Trap |10000| 210|100000| 0| 0|
University |12000|1500| 0| 15000| 15000|
------------------------------------------------------
Commercial busters are mainly fulfilled with connections, be it land or air.
There are also buildings that seemingly seem to boost my demand.
For land-based connections, there is a diminishing rate of returns for each
similar connection, such as 5 roads, to the same neighbour. While a connection
to "Sim Nation" is considered as a connection, multiple connections even on
all four sides will still be viewed as a connection to one neighbour if there
are no cities there and all are represented as Sim Nation.
Looking at the table A2.02.4, you will soon realise that you can easily get
more demand from connections than an airport, hence my aversion to airports.
Ports:
Airports generally serve commercial demand relief, and seaports industrial
relief. However, airports do provide some industrial relief. Airports must
thus be connected to commercial areas and that the commercial zones can
reach the airport. Only then does it offer relief based on its usage,
The relief of the seaports are not fixed but operates on a percentage of the
industrial activity at the port. Thus having more activity means greater
demand relief.
Table A2.02.4: Commercial Office Busters
CO : Medium and High Wealth offices
COM : Medium wealth offices
COH : High wealth offices
$C : Construction cost
$M : Monthly cost to maintain
Note 1: The numbers beside the land connection represents the number of
connections to the same neighbour. While I only provide for two, it does NOT
mean that any connection after is ineffective.
Connections:
Industrial demand depends on successful freight transfer to a connection.
Think of freight as a different kind of Sim. Instead of wanting to go from
residence to work place, freight goes from industrial area to a connection.
Thus like the Sim it too is affected by traffic.
An experiment is that when I placed the industrial zone in the centre of town
or in a city without connections, growth is minimal. But when placed at the
edge growth starts to increase. There are some buildings that have demand
busting capability. Therefore it is ESSENTIAL to have connections.
Ports:
Similarly as stated above, seaports cater to industry demand but airports
play a small part as well. Ports are merely another form of connection.
Therefore if you wonder why is it not being used, a reason could simply be
because the freight finds a better way to send their goods to a connection.
It is thus only useful if the industry is in the middle of the city and
there is no way freight can get to a road connection at the edge.
Airports give you demand busting based on a percentage of its commercial
usage.
Table A2.02.5: Industrial Busters
$C : Construction cost
$M : Monthly cost to maintain or income for Army Base
IM : Manufacturing
IH : High tech industry
-------------------------------------------
Structure | $C | $M | IM | IH |
-------------------------------------------
Adv. Research C. | 0 | 0 | 0|150000|
Radio Station | 0 | 0 | 9000| 0|
University |12000|1500| 0|100000|
-------------------------------------------
Army Base | 0 | 350|100000| 0|
-------------------------------------------
There have been confusion as to why skyscrapers do not appear and for some
there is confusion over whether is a building a skyscraper. I have decided to
give a more detailed explanation due to the amount of discussion this topic
has raised in the forums.
However, the following are just some of the mechanics behind skyscrapers. It
does not really matter if you do not understand them since even knowing them
will not aid you in getting a skyscraper.
1) Theory of proportionality and regions
There are several points to note about how skyscrapers appear. Central to
this is the idea that buildings in a city must correspond to one popular
European civil law concept. Any guesses? Read on or just look at the title
of this topic, if for some reason you cannot guess the name of the concept.
A) The most obvious is that it is dependent on population but less obvious is
that it is the regional rather than the individual city population that
really matters.
B) Skyscrapers will not suddenly spring up across the entire city and on
every tile the moment you reach a sufficient population, which allows the
first skyscraper to appear.
C) An corollary of (B) is that only a proportion or percentage of buildings
in the city will be skyscrapers and this percentage is dependant on the
population of the region as stated in (A).
D) Since the appearance of skyscrapers means that population of the city will
increase, there is a need that growth limits have not been reached. You thus
have to focus on the detailed RCI chart rather than the general RCI chart on
the menu.
REFER: A2.02.1: Demand Caps and Busters concept
2) Stage Levels
Proportionality must be based on different categories. That is unless you
can make a mathematical breakthrough and teach the world how can one compare
the proportion of an item with it oneself.
A) Buildings do not just fall into three levels, low, medium or high. Each of
these categories are further sub-divided to reflect the different intensity
of each level. There are eight stages for residential and commercial
buildings are three for industrial. Therefore whenever someone refers to a
"stage 8" building it simply refer to the pinnacle, or the crème de le crème,
or apex, or is the personification of skyscrapers. I hope that was clear
enough. Send me a mail if you want more, I could go on all day with words
such as epitome, embodiment or quintessence... Just to be clear it does
not mean that all "Stage 8" buildings are high wealth ($$$). They are just
the best of its own wealth type. So there are also ($) and ($$) "stage 8"
buildings.
However, for ease, I will just focus on the main categories since it is quite
difficult to discern amongst the sub-categories as to which building belongs
to which category.
B) The significance of the sub-categories, is simply that when you achieve a
higher standard, the percentage of higher density buildings will increase
significantly. For those who know a bit on economics, this is somewhat like
the issue of NAIRU and the shifting of the Phillips curve. For those who do
not, you could go do a bit of research for the basic concepts of this theory
are quite simple. If you do so, at least you can claim that games are
"educational." Hehe.
3) Bugs
There are two reported bugs that you should take note of.
A) There might be a skyscraper bug, which makes it such that skyscrapers may
not appear. This seems to have been fixed with Patch 2, most probably with
the increase in the RCI demand.
B) There may be a bug whereby skyscrapers appear on mid-density zones,
especially for residential zones. But I have yet to encounter this.
There are some points to take note about the chart.
A) As stated above, I will be focusing only on the main categories.
B) The population level in the graph does not represent the total population.
It represents the various types and wealth level individually. Therefore
having 5000 middle wealth residents and 5000 rich residents means that you
should be looking at the 5000-population level rather than the 10,000.
C) Table A2.03.2 does not represent a combination of residence and commercial
population. It is just that their growth proportions are similar so I placed
the two charts together to save space.
D) Finally the following is just a very rough estimate. The main idea is just
to give you an inclination of when might you expect to see a higher density
building.
5) A placement at 0% simply means that it is less than 5%.
Table A2.03.2: Residential and Commercial
|\| : High density buildings
|=| : Medium density buildings
|-| : Low density buildings
% : This represent the percentage of buildings.
"We have to strengthen, not weaken, environmental protection across
the board, from global warming to stabilizing world population....
Polluters should pay to clean up the pollution they've created rather
than impose the burden on taxpayers...."
Unless you have been living in Laa-Laa land and spending time with Po,
Tinky-Winky or Dipsy you should know about the idea of pollution. And just
have the events surrounding the Kyoto Protocols shows, it is only with the
help of the government or the Mayor in this case, can pollution be combated.
1) Spread of Air and Water pollution
There are two types of pollution, air and water. Water pollution often can be
easily dealt with and its effect are not as bad as air pollution. Often the
key focus would be on air pollution.
The pollution effect weakens as one moves away from the source. Pollution
is also "stackable." This means that if building "X" produces "P" amount
of pollution and if building "Y", which also produces "P" amount of pollution
is near "X", the total pollution in that area would be "2 x P."
There is another form of pollution although it is not stated so in the game.
That is traffic pollution or traffic noise. It only affects residential
housing.
2) Self-Contained biosphere
One of the odd things about pollution is that it is contained within each
city and does not spill over. It is as if each city has its own energy shield
containing the pollution within the city that pollutes. Something that I am
sure Canadians would like to install on US. So take advantage of this and
build your dirty stuff at the edge of the city.
However, within city, the pollution can be affected by the weather or even
the height of the ground. Zoom out to see the direction of the clouds and
air pollution will be slightly extended in that direction. You use the
mountains if you so have in the city to contain the pollution.
3) Sources of Pollution
Almost every structure produces pollution but I will just state those that
are the more pernicious of the lot.
A) Some Power plants
These include in the order of how big a polluter they are: (1) Waste to power
(2) Coal power (3) Oil power (4) Natural gas.
B) Toxic waste dump
The most versatile of the lot, it contributes to air, water and even
radiation pollution.
C) Heavy Traffic (Air + Noise)
As your city increases in size, this is one area which you find hard pressed
to fight against unlike the other types of pollution. With relation to
traffic noise, remember congestion is not the cause of traffic noise. It is
the huge amounts of traffic that created the congestion that is responsible
for the noise. But you might ask whether is this just the flip side of the
same coin. Actually no so because it is possible to have high traffic without
congestion and low traffic with congestion. For example a congested street
will not generate as much noise as a more heavily used road but which is a
road that is not congested.
D) Dirty and Manufacturing
Dirty being more polluting than manufacturing.
E) Farms (Water)
They only generate water pollution but they do it in the bucket loads. They
produce no air pollution, obviously since they cannot stand air pollution.
4) Tree huggers
Only densely packed trees have any power in combating heavy pollution. The
rest such as a country club, large gardens and parks or cemeteries simply
will be overwhelmed.
5) Radiation
The radiation from the toxic waste dump disappears over time. But the
radiation you get if your nuclear power plant decides to do a Chernobyl
or Three Mile Island, last for a very long time. Long enough for you to
contemplate using the time-machine and sending the city back to its founding
days.
Pollution pretty much affects the game the way it affects our real lives.
A) Desirability
It reduces the desirability value for certain zonings.
REFER: A2.01.1: Concept of Desire
B) Health
It reduces health quotient and thus life expectancy.
REFER: A1.06.7: HQ and LE: Health Quotient and Life
C) Mayor Rating
Reduces mayor ratings.
D) Water shut down
If the water pollution around your pumps or towers is too high, it will shut
down and Erin Brockovich will go after you until you have reduce the
pollution.
E) Death
I have heard that pollution may result in the death of MySim.
Therefore, the simple overall effect of pollution is that it affects your
profitability.
"... Led by an invisible hand to promote an end, which was no part
of his intention. By pursuing his own interest he frequently
promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really
intends to promote it."
There is a debate about the true direct effects of neighbours. But it is
generally agreed that they do indeed help the economy or demand in the city.
What is not too clear is how is this benefit sent over. What is certain is
that connections become more effective thus being a greater demand buster.
However, the more questionable issue is whether demand can be transferred
across the borders to another city. It is in my opinion that it is possible.
1) RCI Main Bars
The main RCI bar the one you see along with your Mayor bar rather than the
detailed chart that appears when you click on it represents regional demand.
This regional demand can in time be very different from the detailed city
demand chart.
2) Unfulfilled Potential Growth
Before we proceed, bear with me as I further clarify the concept of demand.
ECI demand that you see does not reflect the growth of the city. You can have
high RCI demand and yet the economy of the city is stagnating and also vice
versa, you can have low demand but the city is growing and booming. Think of
this demand as a form of cash which is spent when buildings are constructed.
Thus demand simply means unfulfilled potential growth.
3) RCI has cross boundary effects
So the question is what is the effect of this RCI demand or unfulfilled
potential growth? Let me show you its effect with an experiment:
A) Select two cities "X" and "Y" that are neighbours with each other and that
there is no one else in the region. Also make sure that BOTH have fairly
substantial positive RCI demand.
B) Fiddle with the taxes of City "X" until its RCI demand is stagnant. Wait
for a while to make sure the city has truly stagnated.
C) Go City "Y" and also stagnate the RCI.
D) Return to City "X" and let the city run for a while. The RCI should have
changed. Hence suggesting that something must have occurred, but since it was
fine before you left for a very long time, the only conclusion is that it
was caused by the neighbour. If it did not I have a good explanation, which
I will tell you below under" (3) Optimistic estimation." But first to show
you that RCI is affected by neighbouring RCI.
E) Remain at City "X" and raise taxes to ridiculous levels and wait for the
massive fall in RCI. Save and leave it.
F) Return to City "Y" and see you formerly fixed demand go into a free fall.
4) Optimistic estimation
The reason for the lack of change is that the game adds demand to the RCI
demand of the other city when doing the calculation for the demand of its
city. As seen from the experiment above, the higher the RCI demand the
greater the RCI demand is in the other city. But at low or even zero RCI
demand, there seems to be a positive effect on the other city. Hence
suggesting that the city gives a higher estimation.
The result is thus that not only do RCI demand affects neighbouring cities
but that because of the optimistic estimation, there is even greater benefit
to regional play.
5) Driving out of Town
Now it seems that the experiment might not always turn out right especially
if the fall in demand is triggered by taxes. It seems there are times where
a tax induced fall in demand may result in an increase in demand for that
particular type of zoning in the neighbours.
This should be obvious to anybody right now. Unlike in the real world, the
Sims have no qualms about leaving the city. Without the basic facilities,
jobs, water, electricity, people will leave within 3 to 6 months. Jobs here
also include the inability to commute to work and also if they cannot find a
job that matches their education and wealth status.
The more problematic issue relates to distressed buildings. You need to
resolve their problems before they leave. Simply send in your special agents
to discover the problem. They should be able to file a field report to you
very soon about the problem. In case you have not figured it out the mayor's
special agents is the My Sims. If you do not want to play them nor do you
want to evict them because it seems wrong, you can always send them in,
discover the problem then reload.
1) Job matching
Just because job A is on offer and citizen B is jobless does NOT mean
that citizen B will definitely take the job on offer. That is one of the
reasons why buildings especially industrial ones get abandoned over the
years even if you did not raise dirty or industrial taxes. It simply might be
vacant because of a lack of supply of labour.
While it is not only education per se that determines the type of job one
takes, it is quite an important determination, the other being wealth level.
2) Education and Wealth level
However, education pushes people out of the lower wealth type of employment
much faster than wealth level does. For example, a highly educated person will
not desire to work in dirty industries. And they will after a certain level of
education NEVER work in dirty industries. However even a high wealth person
with low education will still work in dirty industries although he may not
really desire it that much.
The education pushing out effect is more pronounced in industries than in
commercial jobs. A slightly educated person will not even work in agriculture
at all.
3) Hierarchy
While a workplace may state that it is a high wealth ($$$), that does not
preclude it from hiring lower wealth people. This is quite logical for while
the company produces high end services, not everybody is paid as much as the
CEO or executives. There are also the office boys and cleaners working there.
Conversely a low wealth workplace is not precluded from hiring a $$$ resident
for the same reason that she might be the manager of that dirty factory. The
table below shows the type of jobs and their corresponding wealth level
demands. I have arranged it in a rough manner such that you will know what to
expect as your city gets richer. Of course education also plays a part too.
Table: A2.05.3
Services and Offices are both created by Commercial zones
L: Poor Sims
M: Middle Class Sims
H: Rich Sims
1) Demand = Supply
There is a basic rule of zoning. That is demand for jobs must match the
supply for jobs.
That is the amount of residence should correspond to the amount of
commercial and industry. Make sure you also take into account the issue of
age of the residents in the city.
An expansion on the idea of unemployment and oversupply is that, do not be
over zealous when you zone. The city may start constructing on all the lots
but upon their completion, your supply shoots up so greatly that demand
becomes negative. Then your buildings will soon be abandoned within a few
months of its construction.
2) Further Illustration
I have created a graph to further illustrate the situation. I hope it is
clear, if not, just focus on the demand and supply concept above.
A) Factors Affecting Demand:
Factors affecting demand such as taxes, education, wealth levels, health,
population, demand caps and neighbouring aid.
B) RCI
This refers to the demand that you see on the chart as opposed to the demand
for zones.
C) Supply of zones:
Supply is almost fixed, since only you can decide when to zone more or
denser. But the rise there reflects the fact that as (F) the factors
affecting demand is raised, there is a greater possibility that more denser
buildings will be built. However, the levelling off shows that once all the
zones are fully built up for their level of density, supply is again fixed.
D) Demand for Zones:
There are 3 demand curves. the (1) curve occurs when there is still place
to expand denser. The (2) curve occurs when the expansion into denser
buildings is taking place. The (3) third occurs when the city is maxed out
at current density levels.
This SECTION will provide you with an extensive range of strategies to deal
with almost any situation in your city. Each part of this section deals with
a different time frame of the city and regional development. From founding
the first city in the region to turning cities into gleaming a metropolis,
pride of the entire Sim Nation. Then after you have achieved a gold standard
in metropolis construction, the guide will focus on cities built for special
purposes. This is how the PARTS are split up.
Part 1: Universal Strategic Doctrines (USD)
Part 2: City Layout and Plans
PART 3: 0 - 40,000: 1st City or Dirty City
PART 4: 0 - 40,000: 2nd City or Manufacturing City
Part 5: 0 - 40,000: Subsequent Cities or High Tech City
Part 6: 40,000 - 100,000: For all cities
Part 7: 100,000 - Millions and Beyond: For all cities
PART 8: Specialised Cities
_______________________________________________________________________[94]___
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ PART 1: UNIVERSAL STRATEGIC DOCTRINE (USD) ~~~| START |~~~
B~~\_____/~~1 GENERAL APPLICATION B~~\_____/~~1
______________________________________________________________________________
"Power! He felt a new sense of power flowing through him:
power over all these men, over the hundreds and hundreds..."
D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover.
This part will provide you with strategies whose powers and usage apply
throughout the game. As these strategies stated here are of general
application I will also provide customised USD for the later parts of the
guide.
Prior to starting the city, it is advisable to create a lush, dense forest
blanketing the entire map. It helps reduces pollution.
Also to increase land value, you could place bodies of water in the map and
raise the land. But do not raise it too high as after a certain height the
land value falls.
You may also create a mountain range around the area your power plants and
garbage disposal facilities are. It will block the pollution.
This is the best time to attempt to create a straight coast if you plan to
build a beach later as they can only be built on straight coasts.
When you are building terraforming the land, make sure to hit pause unless
you want to start your city years after the Year 0.
You should alter or change the tax rate in every city to best suit your
needs. Your needs should be determined by the circumstances of the situation
such as RCI demand and also your vision for your city.
Change the tax rate before you start the game to minimise any negative
effects.
While Adam Smith advocated for taxes "in proportion to the revenue which they
respectively enjoy under the protection of the state," this is not so in
the game. It is often the poor that subsidises the rich. This is especially
more so later as your city develops.
The reason for this according to Adam Smith is because he felt that the
"chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which ... nobody
can possess but themselves." Well then, if that is the case, then we would
not have a problem if the city only consists of the rich right? The
advantage of a primarily upper class city is, that since a city can only hold
a fixed amount of people, it is for the better that the city's inhabitants
are rich Sims rather than the poor.
Since the tax rate is based on percentage, it means that the rich are taxed
more than the poor. The corollary of this simple means that the rich give
you more even though you might tax them less.
Therefore, to prevent the poor from flooding the city, you will find yourself
raising taxes to prevent their entry.
Whether or not you agree with this former Reagan adviser, Professor Laffer's
theory provides for an optimum tax rate whereby any raising of taxes would
result in a drop of total tax collected and any reduction of taxes would also
reduce tax revenue. The graph below is an illustration of this effect. "O"
represents the neutral tax rate or the optimum.
In this game the optimum tax rate at the beginning I believe is at 9%.
However, the important thing is that this optimum tax rate falls as your
population increases. So you have to reduce tax rates as your population
increases.
While I did state above that taxes may be reduce slightly over the years, I
am not advocating the position whereby tax rate is used as a primary economic
policy to drive the economy. I am sorry to disappoint those supporters of
George Bush's tax cut policy, for it does not work in this game.
The policy of cutting taxes when population rise is not so much to increase
demand, but rather to prevent taxes as acting as a negative effect on growth.
However, while a downward drop in taxes may not really increase demand that
much, a huge increase will definitely destroy demand.
Please do NOT play around with your tax policy frequently. Raising taxes will
have a negative impact on the city lasting for several months. This is even
if you raise it for one day and then drop it back to the original level or
even drop it to a lower level.
REFER: A1.09.1: Options: Tax Rates
REFER: A2.05.2: Perfect Mobility of Labour
Save money by reducing funding such that output is slightly above usage.
This applies almost everywhere, from public services to utilities, except
water, and to a certain extent recreational structures. Take full of
control your budget. Do not create an over supply, as that will only bleed
your budget and not contribute to anything in the city.
Be mindful as to not over cut funding to the point where your infrastructure
starts breaking down for that will only cost you more money in replacing
everything. However as with everything, always adopt a cost-benefit analysis.
1) Utilities:
With regards to utilities, the main focus is on the power plant you operate.
While lowering funding will result in faster deterioration, the effect is
not that great. Furthermore, the result of lower funding would be sparking
poles. But a simple solution is simply not to build them. Use zones every
four tiles to transfer electricity.
REFER: A1.05.3: Maintenance, Decay and Overcapacity
However, you should NOT reduce water funding because the effect of burst
pipes will cause more damage and cost more money then if you leave funding
as it is.
2) Public Services:
The same concept applies to them with the exception of police and fire
fighters since you would not want them to be incompetent when disaster
breaks out.
3) Recreational services
Personally I feel that you should not reduce funding for recreational
services. Place them only when you can afford them. Reducing their funding
like all reduction lowers their positive effects.
There are three simple needs, power a must, water, a must for better
development and garbage disposal a must too. Both water and power plants
decay over time and they have a limited life span.
You could rename the utility to the date which is built so that you can know
when is it time to replace it. That way you would make sure that in the years
leading up to its demise, you can start saving money to replace it.
You should take note that its capacity falls as you approach its 'use by'
date. So prepare for an earlier replacement. Sometimes it is cheaper in terms
of maintenance to replace them before their expiry due to its falling
capacity.
Do not wait until its expiration unless you wish to see an explosion.
Make sure that your power plant has road access. You would not want to run
the risk of it catching fire and your fire-fighters having no means of
reaching there.
Set funding all the way down such that capacity used should ideally be around
70%. If you make the plant operate at a higher % your plant will age faster.
Try not to use any poles at all.
But if funding, is below 50%, the rate of decay is greatly increased. Note
that I am talking about funding as a whole rather than capacity.
If you choose on building a highly polluting power plant, place them in a
corner so that at least the pollution is confined on two sides as pollution
cannot cross city boundaries. Also keep all non-dirty industry zones or
buildings away from this area.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><[103]><>
B1.04.2: Water
1) Water Tower then Pumps
Use TOWERS rather than pumps initially. This is because it has a lower
maintenance cost. Although the pumps are more efficient, because there is no
means to reduce water budget except through the budget screen, which I
strongly advice you not to unless you want to have burst pipes all across
your city. Therefore your only hope of saving money is to build a water
tower, which has a lower operating cost.
You should continue building water towers until 5th one, as by then a pump
would produce more and cost less. After building a pump remember to destroy
the rest of the towers.
2) Placement
Do not build pipes to power plant and landfills. It pollutes the water supply
thus demanding that you buy a treatment plant. Build your water system on the
opposite end of your industrial / power plant / landfill side.
An alternative approach, is to have separate water supply, pumps and pipes,
one for residential and commercial the other for industry. Although this will
cost more. Unless of course your pollution is so bad that you require the
water treatment plant. This however does not mean that you place the towers
or pumps for the industrial area at the industrial site. For the pump will be
shut down due to polluted water.
2) Pipes:
Since the water area is six on each side, you should leave twelve tiles in
between the pipes for the most efficient layout as pipes cost money to
maintain too.
1) Landfills or Waste to power
Personally, I prefer just building a waste to power plant right at the start
and lower its funding to zero. It will act as an incinerator destroying
garbage but you will not get any power out of it.
I also suggest that you use the waste to power plant as a stop gap measure
for producing energy. That is at the point where your existing power plants
are close to capacity but building another would result in a lot of idle
power. You can use the waste to power to generate energy and build a new
power plant only when there is not that much spare capacity.
2) De-zoning landfills:
Landfill clears over time. It is in my opinion that while there is no need to
demolish the roads leading to it, it may be in your interest to do so.
Let me present to you the argument for not demolishing the road access
first. If you have a waste plant, garbage would not be dumped onto the
landfill. If it is being dumped, it means that your waste plant is over
capacity. Removing the road will only lead to garbage appearing in your city.
With a waste plant, the city garbage should be at zero or if you just
install it then the garbage level should be going down.
However, based on my calculations, it seems that since decay is based on
percentage, it means that if for a month your waste to power cannot handle
the garbage due to increase usage, it will be dumped at your landfill. And
even if the amount is small, it may add years to the decomposition time.
I will now retract my earlier statement that the rate of decay will increase
as garbage will be sent to the waste to power plant to be destroyed.
If your industry is next to a connection to a neighbouring city then the
freight time will be lowered. Furthermore, it will reduce traffic as the
trucks do not have to drive all the way through your city to the connection.
Even if you have no neighbours at all, make connections. No only will
it reduce freight time, which increases desirability, but it also means that
you have only to worry about one side of the pollution.
Also it helps bust the demand caps thereby allowing greater growth. This is
even if you have no neighbours because Sim Nation is considered as a
neighbour. Note that the land connections also provides demand busting powers
for commercial demand. So do build connections even if you have no industry
in the city.
Besides as is free, make as many of them as possible
Often the question one ask at the start is should you build farms or should
you just build industries or both.
1) Farms:
I would not recommend just building farms alone. This is simply because they
do not offer any tax revenue at all. The advantage of a farm is that its
demand initially when you start a city will be very high. That way you can
build quite a bit of them and hence generate jobs which in turn attracts
residents to move in.
By the way if you are wandering why agriculture does not produce taxes, think
of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and also countries like the US,
Canada or Japan. You should be happy that the farms in your city do not
demand massive subsidies from you.
A second advantage is that it does not take up that much power, and water is
not required. Also it is not as flammable as the dirty industries.
With relation to pollution, I am undecided as to which is really worse at the
start, water or air.
Also like all industries it requires connections, so build it near the edge.
2) Industry:
Focus exclusively on this if you want accelerated growth. It gives you money
but has some disadvantages as stated above. However, the amount of jobs it
generates is so much more than the farms, even if in comparison, its demand
is lower.
3) Farmer's Market
The main and only proper reason I feel one should build a farm is to get the
farmers' market reward. This structure helps increase health slightly but
more importantly it is a great residential demand buster.
Therefore if you wish to have a farmer's market, zone a huge tracts of farm
to get 600 jobs. Then build the market and clear the farms. By the way, each
farm does NOT provide only the amount of jobs stated when you click on it.
Size does matter. Do NOT build a farm then demolish all the farmland leaving
only the barn/building. Check you Job & population chart to see how far you
are proceeding.
Another thing with regards to the point when you get the reward. Place it
immediately or as soon as possible and definitely before you start
demolishing the farms. If not when you reload, the computer will see that
you no longer satisfy the requirements and remove the option to build.
REFER: A1.07.5: Disappearing Rewards
If you are building farms to get the farmer market, I suggest you do it
quickly and at the start because as more industrial jobs are created, there
will be less demand for farms
1) Business Deals
I do NOT recommend accepting any of these 'business deals' which are no more
than sugar coated poison pills. As Hamlet stated "it appeareth nothing to me
but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours." The negative effect it
brings is worse than the benefit.
Although, there is an argument for an army base as it is a demand cap remover
but that does not convince me. If you do place it for whatever reason, try to
place it at the far corner of the map away from residential area. Although
the Casino and the Army Base should be placed near commercial area but still
away from residential area. Even if you place the rewards at some corner,
some of its effects are city wide such as mayor rating.
REFER: A1.07.2: Options: Reward and Business Deal Types
If you have been following my guide, you should not even be offered any of
this as you will be making money.
2) Loans
Patience is a virtue, there is no need to borrow money especially when you
are still making money. There is only one scenario where it is acceptable
to borrow money when you are about to go broke.
A) If you are losing money.
B) If the economy or demand is either stagnating or falling.
C) If cost cutting measures simply further reduces demand.
D) If you have no neighbours to help you increase demand
Only if conditions (A-D) are satisfied should you take out a loan. But it
is unlikely for that to occur.
Another acceptable situation to borrow money and in fact should be done is
when you are almost out of money and your power plant is about to explode.
If it is not feasible to make a business deal, you need to borrow the money.
However, this situation can simply be avoided if you keep a certain amount of
cash in the bank such as $20,000 to $30,000, enough to replace your aging
utilities.
One not acceptable situation is to borrow money to build that new transit
system or highway. Do it only if you satisfy (A-D).
1) Remove Sources
The most obvious solution to pollution is simply to remove the sources of
pollution. If you do remove the source, all you have to do is to wait a month
at the most for the pollution to disappear. These are the following things
that you may do:
A) Raise taxes to drive out polluting dirty and manufacturing industries.
B) Enact clean air ordinance or any other pollution reduction ordinance.
C) Start to demolish abandon (black) industrial buildings for they pollute
even if they are abandoned and vacant.
D) Mass transit if you can afford it and actually need it. Pollution by
itself should not be a reason for construction of a mass transit.
If you are not too sure about the source or effects of pollution simply look
above at the (OM).
REFER: A2.04: Pollution
2) Reducing Impact
since in most cases removing the source is impossible. There are several
methods to best deal with the situation. This relates to air pollution.
There are 3 solutions on how one should deal with pollution.
A) Concentrate it at the edge of the map.
As long as you concentrate and confine you pollution to one part of the city,
the residents will not be affected. And high-tech industries can easily come
into a city even if there is a large dirty industry present. This is provided
that the high-tech is zoned away from the pollution. The problem is that
sometimes the pollution is so strong due to the concentration that your
green belt of trees is simply overwhelmed. This method is not particularly
useful for transport pollutions.
B) Spread it out.
The primary advantage of spreading it out is so that you would not get the
strongest type of pollution, as pollution is cumulative. Thus perhaps at
most this is somewhat useful for manufacturing, but personally I do not see
why cannot you just concentrate it on one part of the map where there are no
nearby residential area.
C) Counter it.
This relates mostly to transport created pollution. Since these methods can
be overwhelmed by the stronger pollutions. A green belt of trees along the
roads or other structures such as parks and open spaces can also help reduce
road pollution. Use it around the highway. That way, you also reduce noise
pollution.
REFER: B2.02.1: Green Belt
===========================END OF SECTION B-PART 1============================
_______________________________________________________________________[109]__
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ PART 2: CITY LAYOUT AND PLANS ~~~| START |~~~
B~~\_____/~~2 GENERAL APPLICATION B~~\_____/~~2
______________________________________________________________________________
"The MAYOR reigns.
The region is firmly established, it
cannot be moved;
he will judge the Sims with equity."
Sim Mayor's address to 96th annual city planners conference.
These tips are again of general application and show you various successful
city layout. Also it provides you with tips as to what to look out for if you
wish to create your own layout. Again, I will provide customise plans for
the later parts of the guide.
1) Suggested layouts
There are multiple means you can build your city. Thus the following
structures are not by all means the only way to build a city. In fact, in
my later cities, I sometimes deviate from these.
2) Planned v Sprawl
Basically main debate of which layout one should select is very much based
on whether should one have a planned grid like city or should one just build
a city as it sprawls out without any plans.
The planned grid system calls for a very fixed, box like, straight roads,
manner of organised construction.
The sprawl method simply means that you can build wherever you want based
according to what is around it. It may have diagonal fanciful roads and is
not organised in the sense of a defined layout.
Each method caters for a different sort of a city. It is my advice that you
start off your first few cities under the planned format for that is the
most efficient one.
The main advantage of a planned layout is that commute time would be much
lower or at the very least, it is easier to get a lower commute time. The
advantage of the sprawl method is that you have a non-generic unique city.
It is not much fun if all your cities look alike.
However, given that the first few cities are the hardest to start out, I
again reiterate my point, use the planned grid system for your first few
cities.
Set up the road structure first rather than use the auto streets. In other
words, I have no streets at all. If you have the patch, both 1 or 2, use the
shift key to prevent streets from appearing.
Make sure that the arrows (<) in the lots face the roads, if not you will get
the no connection sign. If a particular lot is not facing the road then you
should zone in parts rather than zoning the entire area with one click and
drag, thus making sure all of the (<) also face the roads. Alternatively,
hit [alt] for a different zoning pattern to see if that helps.
Hmm, what do you think FLB and VLB stands for? Nope, it is not the bridging
equipments. Got it? It stands for the Fixed Layout Building (FLB) and the
Variable Layout Building (VLB) system. Bonus question, if VLB is a very long
bridge in bridging lingo then what does FLB mean? Anyway back to the topic.
1) Coverage Construction
The basis of an efficient planned grid residential layout is that of coverage
construction. That is simply building your zones around a certain service
such that that service's coverage is maximise.
2) Fixed Layout Building (FLB) system:
There are two ways you can do this, I prefer simply setting out the zones
first then placing in the services later. This is the fixed layout building
method. It is very fixed, certain, and some what boring as the layout is
repeated over time.
3) Variable Layout Building (VLB) system, by MDMUFF:
However, MDMUFF suggests places down the structures with coverage first. Then
he turns on the view showing the coverage, and constructs zones to fit
completely in them. His is the variable layout system. It has the possibility
for a less grid like construction for all you have to do is to place the
zones within the services. It is thus good if you wish to design your own
different layout for each residential area. This however is not really
suited for your first few cities but is a very good idea for your later
cities where you might be bored with the (FLB) system.
4) Basis of layout:
There a various different opinions as to which should be the services that
form the core of the layout, the one which all the zones must correspond to.
A) Variable Demand Services
A variable demand service refers to buildings such as schools and hospital
where demand changes overtime. The advantage of basing the coverage on
buildings with a variable demand is that usage is maximised and you get the
best dollar for each spent on buses or ambulances.
The disadvantage is that this layout becomes useless when you hit high
density as there will often be more demand than capacity thus forcing you to
overlap when you place another building. Thus this is more useful for your
starting cities. Usually it is based on the elementary school as it has the
smallest radius of the lot. The disadvantage of this system may be overcome
with a zero bus funding layout.
REFER: B2.03.2: Local Effect Residential Superstructure (LERS)
B) Fixed demand Services
A fixed demand means thing such as police or fire station where there is no
changes in its demand. MDMUFF, prefers this method especially a fire station.
This is a good system for the later cities in the region rather than the
initial few.
There usually is no fixed planning for industry since there are not many
services that is needed. Only a fire and police station is required.
Set industry at the edge of the map to take advantage of the connections
thus you will have shorter freight time. And also it helps to contain the
pollution that you will get from dirty industries.
Leave a space in between each zone but there is no need to build a road. The
plan is to place a rail, subway, bus stations or a highway later on in the
city's development game. By the way this is proper industry not agriculture.
The following is just an illustration of the layout taking into account the
above mentioned ideas.
Diagram B2.02: Industrial and Green Belt
I: Industry
-: Road
.: Gap/space
R: Residential
1) Suggested Green Belt
It is advisable to leave a gap between an industrial zone and a residential
zone. This is so that trees may be planted in this gap and to reduce the
amount of pollution leading to the residential area. Of course if your
industry is high tech, there is no need for this green belt.
Leave a 3 tile gap not including the road (including it would make it 5
tiles) and have another strip of 4 blank for future commercial expansion.
Whether you want commercial or not is up to you but you still should not
build any residential area there. In other words there should be 10 tiles
from the last point of industry to the first point of residential.
This is because even after the green belt, there still will be pollution
spilling out. A commercial zoning is used is because if you place a
residential area there their health would be affected. Of course you could
plant trees across the entire space but that would mean losing valuable
space.
REFER: Diagram B2.02: Industrial and Green Belt, above
2) Saturation Point
How long your green belt is really depends on what is on the polluting side.
If the source of pollution is very bad such as a waste to power plant,
then you will need a thicker belt. If the source was not as bad such as
manufacturing, then the belt such as above would be good.
Remember if the pollution on the other side is really high, the trees will be
quite ineffective. It has the possibility of just spilling over. You might
see a fall in pollution above the trees but after that pollution picks up
again.
Residential superstructures are more fixed and organised since they have to
cater for more services. I will give a few of them which are useful. However,
as you play you may find it best or more fun to create your own.
B2.03.1: Original Residential Superstructure (ORS)
This was the residential superstructure that I find used and struck gold
meaning, having a profitable city. It is still good after all this time.
I shall thus refer this as the (ORS) from now on.
The empty spaces in between the residential area is meant for construction
of future amenities or mass transit stations. If you place an elementary
school in the middle its default coverage will just fit the entire RS.
For those of you who have read the previous edition of this guide, you will
notice that I have increased the gap such that there is a 3 tile gap on all
four sides. This is because I realised that the elementary school can still
cover the entire RS.
Diagram B2.03.1: Residential superstructure
R: Residential
-: Road
.: Gap / empty space
E: Future development location of Elementary School
B2.03.2: Local Effect Residential Superstructure (LERS)
1) Concept of Walking to School and Hospitals
The (ORS) is based upon the DEFAULT bus coverage of an elementary school.
An alternate method of zoning is based instead on the idea of zero funding
bus or ambulance coverage. This zero funding is practical because cutting
funding for bus coverage would not drastically reduce the radius the school
serves. The cut refers to BUS or AMBULANCE and NOT funding for the teachers
or doctors.
2) Advantages:
A) Save over $100 monthly on bus funding or $200 on ambulance fees.
B) This plans ahead into the future when population grows greatly. Therefore
overcapacity will be less of a problem. You will not need to find a place to
build a new school, so as to satisfy the growing population.
C) Since funding can be individually determined, you will not lose any money.
3) Disadvantages:
A) You need to spend more space placing schools and hospitals
B) Therefore residential areas are more spread out. Hence you may then need
more amenities.
C) Also as residential area is spread out, commute may become longer.
4) Illustration
The following is just an illustration of how to set up this system. In actual
fact the main idea of the (LERS) is the zero funding rather than the layout
per se. Thus just set the residential zoning according to your desire. As
long as all residential area is covered, any zoning layout is fine. I have
listed where you might place a whole host of amenities, but of course, you
need not place them immediately.
This method takes into account, the elementary school, high school and
hospitals. The placement of the workplace is just a suggestion and you may
adopt a (VLB) system. Also if you do have industrial in the LERS, make
sure that it is only high tech and not any others. You should also note that
one of the W zones is about 8x8. Therefore if your region is not developed
enough your commercial zone will not extend more than 3 tiles. So change that
layout if you are using this for your first city.
A placement of a police at the centre and a fire station just a bit off the
centre will lead to coverage of the entire LERS.
Diagram B2.03.2: LERS
R: Residential
-: Roads
E: Elementary School
H: High School
.: Gap / Empty space for other amenities or Stations
S: Bus or Subway Station
P: Parks, Gardens or rewards. Or if need be public transport stations.
C: Tennis Courts of Basketball courts. But any recreation facility will
suffice
M: Hospital
W: Workplace: Commercial or Industrial.
1) Sharr's creation
This plan is created by Sharr, yes, she is the avatar of the goddess Shar,
that Viconia from Baldur's Gate worships. No just kidding, she is just Sharr,
the Alias fan and model, brain surgeon, tango dancing and hippy chic from
the Simtropolis forum, who has graciously allowed me to use her idea. The
beauty of this idea is that it is all part of a larger plan for the entire
city.
REFER: B2.06.3: Sharr's City Masterplan (SCM)
2) Amenities and Rail
I shall refer to this as Sharr's Residential Superstructure (SRS) from now
on. The empty spaces can be filled up with mass transit station or
recreational facilities. Her plan calls for the placement of rail throughout
the city and through the SRS. However, its placement is dependent on where
you place the SRS, and the rail runs through the residential but I believe
there is no specific layout for it just what you think is right. If you want
to use rail just leave adequate spacing for the rail and its turning.
3) Internal park
The empty spaces in the residential area is used to place parks, which does
not require road access. I did not follow the empty spaces as she presented
it, since it is based on partially on a Variable Layout Building (VLB)
system as mentioned above. Note that, the one tile empty space in the SRS
among the residential area (#) is the place where there will be no road
access, so do not build anything there except, a park. You can obviously
place a larger park, as Sharr has done so, or increase the internal road
system.
REFER: B2.01.2: Coverage: FLB and VLB systems
4) Streets or Roads
Another is that you can select whether or not to use streets which she did.
While I prefer not to use them, it is up to you to decide the pros and cons
of it. Higher traffic capacity and speed versus higher traffic noise and a
wee bit higher maintenance.
Diagram B2.03.3(1): Sharr's Residential superstructure (SRS)
R: Residential
C: Commercial
-: Road
$: Streets
.: Gap / empty space
E: Future development location of Elementary School
H: High School
M: Medical Facility, Large, Hospital
F: Fire Station, Large
P: Police Station, Large
L: Library
#: Build only parks here as there will be no road connection
5) Preventing no road zot
Another thing to note, is that make sure the lots (<) points to the road.
You may have to zone bit by bit, use the [shift] or [alt] key to prevent
auto roads from appearing. The diagram below gives an example of the
direction the Residential zones should point to, to get road access.
Diagram B2.03.3(2)
R: Residential
-: Road
$: Streets
.: Gap / empty space
E: Future development location of Elementary School
#: Build only parks here as there will be no road connection
Again much like industrial zoning, there is not much fixed layout for this
as, there is no much services demanded. It is up to you to use whatever size
zoning you prefer, although I do like a 6x6 zone. You can have a smaller
one or even a larger one. It does not matter, as long as you leave spaces
in between for future expansion of either mass transit, or plazas to improve
the desirability.
The following is an example of a commercial zoning that is of the same size
as the (ORS). Of course you could always change the road layout at the centre
to incorporate a larger reward other than a 3x3 one.
1) Future Highway and Mass transit
Also after each residential or industrial superstructure and before the next
industrial strip or residential area, you should leave a gap (G) of six
including the road (R) thus making it like this (RGGGGR). This is for future
mass transit expansion or large amenities such as hospitals, although I
recommend leaving it for highways and stations. Remember if you wish to use
the cloverleaf, you must leave the requisite space for it.
Whether you chose to initially build large amenities there or not I strongly
advice you NOT to build your rewards here. Building an amenity may be
acceptable since the cost to build a new one is low unlike a reward.
This diagram is a small middle cross section taking into account the
industry, breathing space, commercial district and the gap down for when
using the (ORS) layout. If you are confused, look at the numbers at the side
and compare it with Diagrams B2.02 and B2.03.1. The lower residential area
refers to another RS rather than the same RS.
2) Borders
I also left three tiles between the edge of the map and any roads or
structures I built. The first reason is for mass transit expansion and the
second is to prevent accidental destruction of buildings through the creation
of connections in the other cities.
It is up to you whether you want to create a masterplan for your entire
city laying out where each and everything will go. It does have its advantage
but also it is quite tedious.
1) Concept
This idea was first suggested to me by Chris McFadyen a long time ago. Rather
than splitting up the various zones, they are placed near each other. As the
name suggests, it is a city layout to reduce commute time since people do not
have to go across the city to get to their work place. This layout may
however have problems with industry. Even assuming it is a high-tech
non-polluting industry freight trips will be long. Therefore it might still
be advisable to place the bulk of the industries at the edge of the map. Of
course you could use freight stations but that will only take up valuable
space and create traffic.
Diagram B2.06.1
R: Residential Zone. This represents not one just one tile but an entire
block of maybe 4x4 or 6x6, up to you, surrounded by roads.
C: Commercial Zone. Again this does not represent just one tile.
This is a full city master-plan created by Chris McFadyen. These do not
letters in the diagram does not represent single tiles but a 6x6 zone with
surrounding roads.
You may use the paternalistic approach to traffic to design your highway
system in this city. Also you do not need to build a highway immediately,
just leave the space for it in the future.
REFER: B7.08.3: Paternalistic Approach to traffic
Diagram B2.06.2
R : Residential
C : Commercial
I : Industry
= : Highway
. : Amenities
* : Cannot remember what this stands for but I think it is most probably
government facilities. Unlikely to be an airport since he does not believe
in them. Or rather since the highway serves the same function as the
airport.
Sharr's city wide master-plan is a continuation of her residential plan
above, (SRS).
Industry of 4 tile length is placed by the side. The 4 SRS fits into one
map and they are divided by two highways, and a cloverleaf meeting at the
centre. However, while 4 SRS could be placed in the map, she chose to use
the fourth quarter as one for her rewards, airport also some commercial
zones. The following diagram is obviously not to scale nor proportionate
at all. It is simply meant to illustrate. All four quads are of equal size.
Diagram B2.06.3
S: SRS
=: Highway
R: Reward quad
a: Airport which is in Reward quad
I: 4 tiles of industry
C: 4 tiles of commercial
+: Rail Tracks
===========================END OF SECTION B-PART 2============================
_______________________________________________________________________[125]__
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ PART 3: FIRST CITY, A SLUM FOR ALL ~~~| START |~~~
B~~\_____/~~3 0 - 40,000 (1st City + Dirty) B~~\_____/~~3
______________________________________________________________________________
"Through me you enter into the city of woes,
Through me you enter into eternal pain,
Through me you enter the population of loss.
...
Abandon all hope, you who enter here."
The Inferno of Dante, Canto III.
This part will give you a range of basic tips for building your first city
in the region. It may also be used if for some reason you wish to
build a dirty industry city only.
And if you find yourself still unsure as to how to start simply proceed to
SECTION C: ADVANCED TUTORIAL, where I have crafted a detailed step-by-step,
year-on-year walkthrough. Think of it as your advanced tutorial.
But if you are stumped by a certain problem and do not wish to follow the
advanced tutorial, then go to SECTION E: Checklists, where I have listed
a range of common problems and a checklist as to what you can do to resolve
them.
This is more of a suggestion but for your first city you should select to
play a mid-sized map. That way you are not overwhelmed. A second reason is
that it is easier to fill it and have connections on all four sides and
take advantage of any constructed cities over there.
Even if you do not want to place trees on the entire map, place it around
the area where you intend to build your power plants.
Feel free to play around with the tax to determine your optimum.
The optimum tax rate at the beginning is at 9%. Thus even though you are
raising taxes, you still would receive a positive boost from the tax rates
as it is below the norm.
1) Power: Coal Plant
I suggest that you build a COAL power plant rather than those pathetic
but environmentally friendly wind power plant. It is the cheapest both in
terms of building it and maintaining. Of course it is pollutes a great deal.
So place it with your garbage disposal facilities all at one corner. It is
near the industrial site but I don't think it should be that close. Maybe
15 - 20 tiles away.
You should leave spaces around this power generating area both to act as a
buffer to the spread of pollution and also to allow for future expansion. By
the time you move on to your second city you would have built a few more
power plants. Remember to adjust its funding.
REFER: B1.03: Tight Fiscal Controls
2) Water
Use a Water tower until the fifth one then a water pump. Do not adjust its
funding.
REFER: B1.03: Tight Fiscal Controls
There are some people who advocate not placing water until your population
hits about 5000 I believe. But personally, you can hit 5000 so fast, at least
with water coverage, that I do not think this is too good an idea. However,
MDMUFF sent me a mail telling me that he "have gotten a population of 50,000
without water facilities..." That most probably refer to a large map where
you can spread out the population.
Basically the lack of water has an effect on:
A) Stopping Denser buildings from being built
B) Increased risk of fire
C) Possible prevention or at least a slow down on $$$ moving in. But since the
main idea of not have water is to save money, it most probably mean that
this city by itself is not very attractive to the $$$. So not much harm done.
You should be cautioned on the point that while people may not mind moving in
despite the lack of water, the cutting off of water will result in people
actually leaving. So the moral of the story, if any, is if you wish to treat
the population badly do so consistently and at the start of your
inauguration.
3) Landfills and Waste Power Plant
I prefer using a waste to power plant and reduce its funding to zero. However
if you choose to use a landfill, build only 4 tiles at a time. And try to
switch to a waster to power by the time you reached 16 tiles unless you
want a good part of your map to be filled up with garbage.
Place these next to the power plants and do not connect water to it.
I prefer to get the population up as fast as possible for my first city.
Spending on zoning on farms will slow down my development. However, it is
up to you as to whether or not to slow play down a bit, build farms and
get the farmers market before clearing them.
Use the layout discussed above in PART 2. Place your industry on the edge
of the map. For your convenience, I have reproduced the diagram here.
Obviously you do not need to fill up the whole thing immediately.
REFER: B2.02: Industrial zoning
REFER: B2.02.1: Green Belt
Diagram B2.02: Industrial and Green Belt
I: Industry
-: Road
.: Gap/space
R: Residential
Again use the layout discussed above in PART 2. I recommend using the (ORS)
at least for your first city since the SRS has too much space given to
commercial zones which are not very in demand for the first city.
Place it at the middle of the city or after the industrial zones. If you look
at the industrial zoning and green belt diagram above, you will see that
the last row to the right is a row of residential area. That is where the
(ORS) should go. You should count from the industry side. Don't be afraid to
build a long stretch of road and to make some markers through the creation
of junctions in case you lose count.
But do NOT place a school at this point.
For your convenience, I have reproduced the diagram here.
REFER: B2.03: Residential Superstructures (RS)
Diagram B2.03.1: Residential superstructure
R: Residential
-: Road
.: Gap / empty space
E: Future development location of Elementary School
The initial commercial zones should be placed just beside the green belt
and the (ORS) as seen above. I will further talk about commercial zoning
slightly later under commercial development. For now the amount of
commercial you produce at the founding of the city is very minimal. A few
tiles would satisfy demand.
You should leave 4 tiles in between each (ORS) for highway development.
Although for the (ORS) facing the industrial side there is no need unless
you so wish. But on the other three sides of the (ORS) and that industrial
zone too, you should leave 4 tiles.
It is up to you whether should your highway just criss-cross or to create a
cloverleaf. If you wish a cloverleaf remember to leave the space for it.
This was how I lay out my city when using the above system. This is not
to scale nor proportionate at all it merely illustrate the placement.
Diagram B3.02.5:
I : Industrial Zone
RR: Each of this R represents one quadrant of the (ORS)
RR: Thus the four together makes one (ORS).
G: Green Belt
C: Commercial Zones or some rewards
=: Future planning of 4 tiles
P: Power plant and waste disposal area
Education, health, recreation, hi tech industry all sound wonderful but
really which nation in the world went immediately from third world to first.
Well actually one did, at least according to the book written by the leader
whom George Bush calls "one of the brightest, ablest men I have ever met."
Anyone knows or wishes to hazard a guess?
But that is beside the point. In this game, treat the Sims as mere chattels,
whose only purpose is to bring you money. So what if they live in a bleak
house and have a bleak existence.
With the exception of those messages warning you that you are running out of
capacity, Treat the rest of the messages your advisors give you as how you
would treat spam.
The only time when you start building these facilities is when population
hits a barrier of some sort. Remember and I cannot stress this enough, your
purpose is less of a mayor, at least at the start, and more of an evil
industrialist bent on chaining and exploiting the masses.
B3.04: Density: Slum town expands outwards not upwards
1) Mid Density
Use mid density for industry and residential at the start, forget about low
density. However, commercial zoning should be kept at low density at least
until you reach 20,000 population.
After zoning mid or low density and if you wish to increase the density later
on, all you have to do is drag the higher density zone over the area. There
is no need to demolish any buildings whatsoever. However, since the higher
density only develops if there is the demand and that your city is of a
sufficiently high population, you may not see immediate changes if the city
is not ready.
2) Outwards
Remember as long as there is space on the map. Zone and expand sideways.
This means zoning more rather than zoning denser. If you are starting out
with the largest map, you obviously do not need to fill up the entire map
before zoning denser. But that is a long way from now.
And when you do zone denser later on, I suggest you start off with the area
that is the most central in your development.
An interesting thing that I noticed, is that if you zone high density at the
start when your city is not ready for it, it will barely develop past the
tiny single houses. In fact if you zone high density on areas with
apartments, if the city is not ready, the houses there will become smaller.
Therefore my advice is do not zone for high density until your city is ready.
Build high density around 40,000 population.
REFER: A2.03.2: Residential and Commercial skyscrapers
The reason why people come to a city is to find jobs. So zone as much
industry as possible when there is demand. This is especially so since with
the exception of jobs there is nothing attractive in your dismal slum.
1) Low Commerce
Since any developing nation is an export-oriented economy rather than a
consumer based one, there is really no need to build that much commercial
zones at the start. A few tiles here and there would be sufficient.
Take note that in the beginning the only desired commercial area is the low
density one, that of small shops rather than offices. Therefore I would
advice zoning light density rather than medium at the start.
2) Low Customers
The reason for low commerce is due to low customers. But it is not as simple
as trying to make the road congested around your commercial area. You need
to have a sizeable amount of people with a sizeable amount to spend. By
spending, I am referring to wealth levels.
1) Rule of Construction
In your first city, as I have stated, there should be no rush to build any
amenities. This is the general rule of when and what to build.
A) There must be a purpose with a i) clear and ii) defined result, meaning
you can actually quantify the result and put a number to it such as demand
busting.
B) The purpose must not be a one with a i) vague and ii) variable result,
such as a general improvement of desirability in that neighbourhood.
C) That clear and defined purpose(A) must relate to either i) an increase in
population or ii) the prevention of a certain event
The strictness in application of this rule is inversely proportionate to how
developed and profitable your city is. The larger and more profitable it
is the less the rule applies. Use your discretion
2) Specific Structures and purposes
A) Fire station - Fire Suppression
The main purpose is not so much to prevent fire, but have the option to
send a fire fighting crew when fire breaks out.
Unless you like to save and reload I recommend you build this as your first
structure. It should be built maybe after the population reaches 5000. Or you
could build it after you first fire if you do not mind the possibility of a
disaster. The coverage should be at the industrial areas rather than the
residential as the dirty industries are more susceptible to fire.
B) Tennis Courts / Farmers market - Demand busting
The main purpose is to raise the residential demand cap above 20,000 for the
poor Sims and also raise it for the richer ones.
If you have built farms and have 600 farm jobs, you should build the
farmer's market as it provides a huge amount of busting power. If you do not
have it then, the best would be to build Tennis courts. It may not be the
highest demand buster of all the recreational facilities, but in terms of
maintenance it offers the best buster for the dollar.
REFER: A2.02.3: Residential Busters
REFER: B1.06: Animal Farm or Great leap forward
REFER: B3.01.5: Farmer's Market
3) Relaxation of Rule of Construction
The rules are relaxed for the purposes of bringing in richer and higher
quality Sims and also to improve the quality of your current stock of Sims.
Yes, I said stock, treat them as chattels deserving no different treatment
from that of cattle.
A) Education
The purpose is to allow richer Sims to move into the area and also to train
the youth for the next generation of development.
Around the population of 15,000 you should start placing in elementary
schools. Should try to get all your residential area covered by elementary
school at least by the time you reach 20,000. The high school is the most
expensive to maintain education structure at least at the start but is a
vital part of the education system. Therefore, as a compromise select one
area if you cannot afford it, and place it there. Make that area your high or
at least higher than slum residential area.
A library or a college can be built because the amount of people using them
initially will be very low. My college upkeep was about $20, operating at
1 professor. This is the world's saddest college. The library upkeep was
about $40 and that was enough to satisfy demand. Also upkeep for the
university can be set at different levels. Thus you may if you have the cash
and profit build a university.
B) Health
Again, it allows richer Sims to move in and also to prolong the lifespan of
your Sims thus increasing population indirectly and allow them to pay you
more taxes before their demise.
I built the large hospital in the middle of the two RS. However, you may
build it in one RS. Building in the middle would get you a wider coverage
but you may have to demolish it many years later for your highway. Again
this health improvement was slightly after the elementary school
construction.
C) Recreation
Recreational facilities serve two purposes, that of demand busting and
improvement of the desirability in the area. A tennis court serves both
purposes well. But if you want to spread the effects, then build a small
flower garden. There is at this point not much a need to build anything for
the commercial district but if you can afford it one or two small plazas
would be nice.
1) Policy favouring the rich
When you decide to start placing amenities into the city, you may find
yourself unable to get full coverage. Thereby forcing you to select certain
areas over another. If you adopt this method, concentrate building amenities
in one area. Make sure this area is at a somewhat desirable location,
preferably away from pollution. However, you should only do this for the
higher up amenities such as high school or hospitals. It is advisable that
you first spread the amenities across the city and only if you cannot afford
the next wave of improvements do you select an area over another.
Thus by providing full facilities to one area, you can attract a higher
wealth class into that area. Spreading your amenities around may result in
higher desirability but because of the lack of the other facilities, a higher
wealth class may not move in.
Remember, facilities are placed with view of using them to further increase
your income.
2) Generation Development: By MDMUFF
Since education is built upon foundations, placing a high school or college
in a place where the elementary system is not developed is only a waste of
money. Therefore according to MDMUFF, you should wait several years after
placing an elementary school before placing a high school, then a college
and a library. This is a further method of saving money.
However, its effect is in my opinion somewhat limited. The only savings that
you can make is in the first few years and it is a bit of a hassle to
remember the date you place the school at and then calculate the next phase
of development. Although the remembering of the date can easily be remedied
through the naming of the school to the date it was founded.
The only savings you make is through bus coverage. And if you adopt a zero
bus funding coverage then you will make little savings. This is because if
there are very little students in the education facilities, it does not
mean you are wasting money since you can easily reduce their funding.
REFER: B2.03.2: Local Effect Residential Superstructure (LERS)
I started producing large areas of commercial tiles around 20,000 pop. You
can see its demand rising.
I think that my population growth from 20000 to 30000 was fuelled by the
commerce because by then I ran out of places for industry, the left side of
the map is used up. My commerce is on the right.
It is IMPORTANT to take note that if your education system is up to the task,
you may face a decline in the dirty industry as more people choose not to
work there. This commercial development is to provide the newly educated with
alternative employment.
While I sometimes use a 4x4 sometimes 4 x 5 structure. A 6x6 commercial
structure is now my preferred placement. Make sure that if you do use the 6x6,
all the lots have road connections. I placed both mid and high density
zoning at this point. I do not have any fixed structure for it, simply
because the map does not allow any more huge superstructure areas. The main
thing is to make sure that it is built in a place where it is desirable to
commerce.
At the peak of my surplus for this first city, which is around the time
before I built any amenities I was pulling in as much as $4000 surplus
a month.
The lowest point would be during the time the pop was between 18000-24000
when you will have most of the amenities lower end amenities, such as full
elementary coverage, partial high school and hospital coverage and some
recreational facilities. The reason for the low point is that the full
effects of these amenities which you just placed have yet to be reached.
However, I was still making about $800 surplus. So the low point does not
mean you are close to making a loss.
But when the commercial area and the benefits starts kicking in, the surplus
started increasing again.
As stated earlier, ignore the population's request for water treatment and
all other stuff other than the basics needed to expand. Water treatment is
not needed unless your pumps stop from pollution which should not happen
since you put it away from the industries, power plants and their water
pollution.
Tourism ordinance:
It costs only $50 and increases commercial demand. This is helpful since this
is the first city and there are no neighbours to aid your demand.
Smoke detector:
After getting a ridiculous amount of outbreaks of fire and getting irritated
with dispatching them, I enacted this. Remember you should pause after the
fire crew put out the fire to allow them to return. Because I did not and as
often will be the case, Murphy's Law will strike such that another fire will
start at a position far, far away from the fire crew.
1) Government buildings:
Yes, the mayor’s house, three statutes and the town hall all look very nice
but I did not build them in the slum town for quite sometime because they
require maintenance.
However, if you are skilful enough you will be making enough money to build
some of them. Use your discretion to see whether is it an affordable luxury.
2) University:
As both a university and a college can be scaled according to usage, you may
if you can afford it chose to build it. But I would advice holding them off
until your city is more well developed.
3) Free upkeeps:
Of course feel free to place the worship sites, graves, radio station down
since they cost nothing to maintain.
You can place your cemetery my cemetery next to the power plants. Or if you
have a landfill next to it since after all, they both serve the same purpose
of putting things into the ground. The reason why I placed them there instead
of it near my residential zones is because I felt that using a simple park is
more effective given the huge size of the cemetery. It is up to you to
decide.
Alternatively, if you want the best of both worlds, you can place the
cemeteries at the area where the industry ends and residential begin as the
cemetery helps reduce air pollution of the industrial zone and also increase
the desirability of the nearby residential houses.
Industrial changes:
Despite still not having a college in the slum town version, your demand for
high tech will be increasing while that of dirty is falling. Furthermore, the
slightly better educated people are not that keen on working in a dirty
industry.
Pollution:
This relates to the clearing of the huge brown cloud over the industrial area
so that the high tech can move in.
Urban renewal:
For further increase in population you have to put more facilities, which
might add greater pressure on the budget. But properly managed it should not
be a problem
Falling Demand and Space constraints:
Demand may be falling or that you are running out of space, especially if
you start off with a medium or small map. But because this is your first
city, you do not have the population to allow high density buildings to
appear.
Sometimes, the song "Love is all you need," is not always true. So here are
some solutions but I will be talking about them in more detail in the later
parts of the strategy guide.
Create New Neighbouring City:
Creating another city in the region will help. Additional cities helps to
increase demand and also spur the growth of the population thereby increasing
the demand and income of this first city
Do not worry, the second city is always easier to turn a profit.
===========================END OF SECTION B-PART 3============================
_______________________________________________________________________[150]__
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ PART 4: SECOND CITY, MANUFACTURING GROWTH ~~~| START |~~~
B~~\_____/~~4 0 - 40,000 (2nd City + Mfg.) B~~\_____/~~4
______________________________________________________________________________
I have had several attempts on the creation of a second city. I was hoping
to create a completely hi-tech hub for the second city in the region where
the first was a medium sized map. But it was not successful to a significant
extent that I hoped it to be. However, if you started out with the large map
you should be able to have the demand to create a hi-tech city immediately.
Therefore the object of this PART is to give you hints to create another
city to further add to the high-tech demand and to increase the economic
growth of the region.
I again use a middle sized map. It is up to you to select which map you want
to use. But for optimal use in conjunction with this guide, select a map
to the left of your first city. That is the map nearer to the industrial
side of the first city.
The aim is to discourage dirty industries not kill them. Most probably a
combination of the tax and the clean air would kill of dirty demand. But do
not worry as manufacturing can pick up the pieces.
There may be times where you will find it to your advantage to purchase
either power or export garbage. However, I find any such deals, at least in
this stage, to be merely transitional since you do not have that much cash.
1) Power:
Again I used a coal power plant. I did this because it eventually will be
cheaper and the amount of power needed would be more than what my first city
can offer at this point.
I did do one power deal when my coal plant was near capacity but I did not
want to construct another. However this deal did not last long, especially
when my power demands kept rising.
2) Water:
Since in my first city I continuously had this message that green stuff was
coming out of the water, I choose not to make any water deals. But again
build four towers before the pump.
3) Garbage:
Again I recommend using the waste to power. But if you choose not to then
again build no more than 16 tiles of trash. If you build a waste to
power than there really is no need to make any deal concerning garbage with
the first city.
4) Tight Fiscal Control
Remember everything that I stated relating to tight budget controls still
applies.
As I stated earlier in PART 1, the benefits of connections are immense. To
take full advantage of the fact that you now have two cities in the region,
make sure that you have connections not just on the side with the Slum City
but also with the other sides that connects to Sim Nation.
This will mean that your connections are now double the effectiveness then
when you only had connections to Sim Nation in your first Slum City.
For added effectiveness, you may even include one or two rail connections.
They need not be hooked up for it to provide some demand cap busting for
commercial demand.
It is in my opinion that there is more reason to build a set of farms to get
the farmer's market right now than in the first city. There are two reasons
A) Middle class ($$) demand buster. Since you are hoping to attract them to
your city but the limiting factor is that the initial capacity for the middle
class unlike the poor is only a few thousand. So a farmers market is quite
useful.
B) Industries built at the start would most probably result in dirty
industries. So you should not build too many industrial zones at the start.
Thus farms may provide some extra jobs and attract more people and hopefully
make up for the lack of industrial zoning.
Remember do not put the farms close to your water pumps or towers.
Everything that I stated in relation to auto-roads, residential areas and
leaving breathing space for future development still applies.
However, as I have stated earlier, since industrial and commercial zones
requires less structures, it really does not matter what layout you choose
as long as you leave space for future development such as mass transit. It is
up to you to decide whether is a 4x4 zone for commercial and industrial area
is better or a (S)x(S) zone better. Where (S) represents the maximum length
you can drag the zone before a no road zot will appear. I now favour a 6x6
zone for commercial.
1) Taking advantage of your first city:
Taking into consideration that people can travel between cities for work. You
should plan your city as if it was like an extension of the first city or any
neighbouring city such that the Sims of the neighbouring city can say
lovingly to your city "You complete me."
Thus if there is a workplace such as industry or commerce on the edge of the
neighbouring city, then you should build a residential area on the edge of
the city closest to the neighbour city and vice versa. Do not start of a new
city right in the middle of the map.
If you recall in the first city, I placed my industry on the left side of the
map. Therefore since the second city is to the left of the first city, it
obviously means that what is on the right of the map is closer to the first
city. Thus I started my residential zones on the right of the map. That way
the people can go to the first city to get jobs. After all you are not
building that much industrial zones at the start.
2) Confining pollution:
However, for the first industrial zone and the power stations and other
polluting contraptions, I placed them on the top right hand of the city.
This little diagram below, which is not representative of the actual
proportion I used, illustrates what I meant by placing the residential area
to the right of the city. Please note that each R represents one residential
super structure akin to the one I mentioned in Part I relating to my first
city. However, I do not have specific structure in mind for the industry and
the commercial areas since they do not require that much services.
Diagram B4.02.1
I: Industrial zone, Power plant and waste to power
R: Residential zone
1) Commercial:
I placed a whole strip of commercial zone in the middle. It is about 17
tiles wide. You should be able to build three residential super structures
and the commercial zone across the map. My placement is RCRR.
2) Industry:
I did create another two more industrial zones but they are much smaller and
consists of manufacturing mainly, which though polluting is not as polluting.
Therefore, you should further raise $I taxes at this point so instead of
dirty manufacturing coming into this new zone, manufacturing would enter. Try
to fine tune the raise such that it merely causes dirty demand to stagnate
but not so much that is causes it to go into the negative. You do not want
them to leave your city as of yet.
Remember the raise of taxes is a delicate process because the reason for the
additional manufacturing zones was to bring in more cash, which I needed. So
an increase of $I taxes might backfire on my financial plans. It takes about
one financial quarter or three months for taxes to have its full effect.
You may if you wish load and try again to get the perfect mix.
3) Green Belt:
It is up to you which configuration you wish to adopt. A pure trees approach,
or a trees in combination with commerce method. I prefer the commerce one.
4) Future planning
Remember to leave space for future transit. It is up to you whether should
your highway just criss-cross or to create a cloverleaf. If you wish a
cloverleaf remember to leave the space for it.
5) Master-plan
Again the little diagram below merely illustrates the layout of this second
city and is not proportionate. The layout of the 1st city as seen here is
merely representative of the industrial side rather than being accurate with
respect to the first city.
Diagram B4.02.2
I : Industry
p : Power plants and waste disposal
RR: Original Residential Superstructure (ORS)
RR: Again each R represents one quod
C : Commercial zone
G : Green Belt
M : Manufacturing
H : Free space left to start your first hi-tech zone.
= : Future planning for highways.
2nd City | 1st City
II=II=GP|P
II=II=II|I
GG=GG=GG|I
========|=
RR=CC=RR|I
RR=CC=RR|I
========|=
CC=RR=RR|I
CC=RR=RR|I
Your goal, I assume, would be the eventual creation of the hi-tech
industrial park. So that means while budget control is still the number one
priority, education should not be overlooked. Remember while deficit
spending may be the American way, this is not the Sims way.
What changes is that, instead of waiting until you hit a barrier to build
schools, you should start earlier. It should preferably be before your
population hits 10,000. I started mine at about 8,000. Some may state that
this is too late, but I placed four elementary schools and one high school
down all at the same time. Anyway, I suppose it is your preference.
I do have one initial industrial park filled with dirty industries but since
our goal is for hi-tech, we should restrict our construction of dirty
industry for the moment. This first industry is to serve as a means to
increase the population and provide some income. I zoned 30 4x4 mid density
industry. You may of course zone more or less depending on your discretion
and vision for the city. Anyway I placed these near my power plant and
landfill, so no harm done.
However, subsequent industrial parks should result in mostly manufacturing.
I suggest you hold off creating more industry at the start for two reasons:
A) By allowing time for the city to develop, it ensures that the next time
you build your industrial park, mostly manufacturing would appear.
B) Furthermore, if you wish to achieve high tech with this city, it means
reserving space for them. Since high-tech usually do not appear in polluted
areas, if you zone too much, you may have to demolish some industrial
buildings.
However, if you do not wish to obtain high tech from this city yet, you may
carry on zoning.
Again I used mid-density for all my residential areas.
But I have tried placing high density zoning for industrial and commercial
areas when the population reaches about 20,000. I had cash to spare at this
point so I had no problems zoning high density even if the high density
effect have yet to kick in.
Fire Station:
Again it should be the first structure you build
Education and Health:
The time you build these facilities should be earlier than the first town.
It is important to build them as you do not want another slum town.
Of course you need not build them all at one go. I suggest a library first as
it is quite cheap and helps to prevent Sims' EQ from atrophying. You can
lower its funding quite low because usage is often not that high. You should
at least provide elementary schooling for all.
Hospitals not clinics:
Personally, I feel that you should always build a hospital rather than a
clinic and then scale accordingly. I find the clinic reaches its maximum
capacity too fast thus resulting in strikes. Thus unless you wish to build
other nearby surrounding clinics, it seem more suitable to build a hospital
and have a larger service area. Furthermore a hospital treats more patient
for every dollar spent on its upkeep. Since you can scale its usage most of
the time the initial upkeep is less than the default. I suggest you place
one in each (ORS) and reduce coverage such that is covers only that (ORS)
Higher Education:
Because they are city wide, I suggest placing the college and also the
university as soon as you can afford it.
Recreation and Rewards:
You should build more of these to attract wealthier people to come to your
city. So plazas for commercial districts, parks for residential areas and
private schools and the mayor house in your wealthy area. I suggest placing
those cheap $5 flower park in each (ORS) to help increase desirability.
Finally, build only when you can afford it. And by afford I mean still have
at least $500 profit each month. This city will make more money but not that
much to go crazy.
Again I only started commercial construction when the population went close
to 20,000. It really does spur new population growth. Also at this point,
your hi-tech demand while present may not be high enough. Therefore you need
to bid your time and build commercial zones to bring in the cash.
Another reason for zoning more commerce is that you should try to hold off
zoning for industry since what would most probably appear would either be
dirty or manufacturing. Therefore to save money on demolishing these
polluting factories, you may want to leave space for your high-tech.
Peak profits:
The peak profits for this second city, is again prior to any amenities
construction. However since I started on education expenditure faster, my
top profits is only about $3,000. It fell to about $600 after the first wave
of construction, 4 elementary schools and one high school.
Close to the edge:
Because I was less patient, I started on my second wave of city improvements,
which included the hospital, library, garbage to power plant, sooner rather
than later. What this means is that at this point, I was only making less than
a $100 profit a month. So do not panic when you see your profits falling
drastically. Although, I advice you to be more patient unlike me.
You should realise by now, by the number of times I have repeated this, the
way out of this is the construction a new commercial zones. My population was
also close of the 20,000 at this point.
Because of the close budget call, there are three important things you have to
take note of during or rather before this phase development.
(1) Save game:
Remember to save before this second wave of expansion. Try not to save over
this until you start seeing clear and rising profits, preferably several
hundred dollars of profits. This is just in case things do not go as planned.
And just in case for some reason you click on the save and exit rather than
exit, which for some reasons seem to be a complaint that appears too often
on the message boards, do a backup save of your city.
(2) Large reserves:
Because there might be a possibility of loss making coupled with the need for
the expenditure of large cash to develop large commercial zones, I used
hi-density zoning, you need to have a large reserve. $70,000 to $80,000 in the
bank should be more than enough. At the lowest point, my reserves hit $39,000
but prior to hitting that amount, I already was starting to make a few hundred
dollars profit. I just wanted to accelerate the rate of increase in
profitability.
(3) Timing:
Try not to start the second wave too early. Wait until your population
reaches a sizeable amount. That way you can use the commercial demand
increase method. Also your education policies might start kicking in. But you
do not need to worry too much about this since by the time you accumulate the
requisite amount of reserves, your population should be at the very least in
the 15,000.
Note: If you are willing to wait for you reserves to build up greatly and
more people to move in after the first wave, the second wave improvements
will not be as dicey.
Clean Air:
I checked this box immediately after starting the city. It reduces general
pollution and also the amount specifically produced by dirty industry, $I.
Also it acts as a check on dirty industrial demand. Finally, checking it at
the start means that all those that come in can tolerate the ordinance. Often
when one checks a clean air ordinance in the middle, some dirty industry will
be abandoned.
Smoke detector:
I got a bit irritated at the number of times that I, as a mayor, had to
double as dispatch for the fire fighters.
Tourism ordinance:
This will not result in a huge commercial boom. The growth of commerce is
related to the size of the city, its education and the amount of wealthy
people in it. Logically, the wealthier you are the more you would spend, thus
the increase in commerce.
However, another reason for not placing the ordinance was that my commercial
demand seems to be quite high. So I did not see a point in increasing demand
further at this point.
Even in my second city, at the year 16 where my profits is at $2,200, I still
have yet to build the mayor’s house. Actually, this has more to do with
finding a nice location. But remember build only if you can afford the
upkeep.
Private School:
Place it wisely to relieve the burden of your education system. Taking into
account that since only the wealthy goes there, it should be placed where it
is or it is very likely to be a somewhat desirable location. At the very least
it should be away from the polluting industries.
While it may increase desirability, I do not think an entire neighbourhood
will become wealthy upon placement. Therefore, it is in my opinion that if
you place it in an undesirable location, you will have very little students
in the school thus defeating its purpose. I placed it near the centre of my
four residential super structures because that offers the best coverage and
also my wealthier residents are there and it is also very likely that
further improvements would cover these areas.
Country Club:
I got this slightly after the creation of my hi-tech industry. Often
according to the data map, the country club is a den of crime. This has
nothing to do with police stations by the way, if you are wondering. In my
opinion, the country club do not generate that much crime but merely attracts
the criminals to that area. After all why rob the poor folks when there is
rich pickings here.
Again there is the issue of pollution. But because of confinement of the
dirty industry, it should only affect a small portion of the city. The other
two smaller industrial zones are manufacturing areas. So while there is
pollution, it should not be as bad.
While a neighbouring city is not a panacea for all city problems, what it
does do is help increase demand greatly. That is also another reason why I
could reach a higher population with greater desirability and have more
profits on hand in a shorter amount of time as compared to my first city.
===========================END OF SECTION B-PART 4============================
_______________________________________________________________________[168]__
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ PART 5: HIGH TECH ARRIVES ~~~| START |~~~
B~~\_____/~~5 0 - 40,000 (Subsequent Cities + High Tech) B~~\_____/~~5
______________________________________________________________________________
"To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits,
To report the behaviour of the sea monster,
Describe the horoscope, haruspicate or scry,
Observe disease in signatures, evoke
Biography from the wrinkes of the palm
And tragedy from fingers; release omens
By sortilege, or tea leaves ...
... all these are usual
Pastimes and drugs, features of the press:
And always will be ..."
T.S. Eliot, The Dry Salvages.
The instinct to improve, control and grow in inherent in us all and reflect
in this poem by T.S. Eliot. Hence in this part I will show you three methods
to improve your industry and bring about your first high tech industry.
The first two shows you how to get your high tech in the second city talked
about in Section B, Part 4. I prefer method 3 but it is slower and you will
not really get your high-tech industry now. high tech appears only in the
third new city.
As you should realise, high tech abhors pollution. Therefore the key is not
to let the dirty industries enter the high-tech park. You should only raise
the taxes for dirty industries. This would be somewhat delicate as you have
two manufacturing parks which you would not want them abandoned at this
point if not your budget will really take a big hit.
Dirty taxes should be raised until the industry is slowing getting abandoned.
Keep on raising until they get your point. Until then, enjoy the massive
amount of tax revenue coming in.
Remember me telling you to hold off on industrial construction in, B4.04 and
B4.07? Well this is the reason for doing so. In my city, I left one very
large free space to the bottom left of the map. You can if you still have
not any developed area away from pollution place your high-tech over here.
Since Hi-tech does not pollute you can place this industry nearer your
residential areas. An added advantage of this is that the land nearer your
residential area would, I hope, have a higher desirability value, the other
industries would not want to move in. This is to a certain extent is a means
of building hi-tech without actively raising taxes to kick out the polluting
industries.
To further ensure only high tech comes in, you could build a park or two
in the industrial area as high-tech is positive affected by structures with
good positive residential effect.
B5.01.3: To dump or not to dump the Dirty industry
Do not destroy your dirty industries as of yet unless:
A) You are out of space
B) You want a pure high tech city
And even if you select (2), you should not at this point destroy your
industries unless (1) applies. This is because your city might experience a
fall in profits due to the dirty industries leaving but demand for high tech
is not high enough to give you enough money to turn a profit.
C) Short of cash for full demolition and reconstruction
If conditions (1) and (3) are satisfied, do not go all the way out and
demolish the entire industry at once. You can make a gradual demolition as
you build moving out from one part.
If the above conditions are satisfied, proceed on to method 2,
reconstruction on how to best proceed.
As the key to this method is the building of hi-tech industries on old
polluting grounds, your first task at hand is to kick the polluting
industries out and make sure they stay out.
One might ask why do not I raise taxes for the manufacturing even higher.
Getting rid of two entire industries immediately will result in a drastic
fall in population. Remember not everybody can work at your hi-tech park at
the moment. You need to be patient and take things slowly.
The industry on the top right should really now look like an abandoned
industrial park. You however, have to demolish all the pre-existing buildings,
wait for a few months for the pollution to clear before Kane and his hi-tech
Tiberium brotherhood moves in.
Before actually beginning on the tax increase and change remember the golden
rule of saving and having a large bank reserve.
REFER: B4.08.1: Budget
1) Creative Destruction
Joseph Schumpeter stated that there are several stages of the business cycle
that comes into being when new technology is introduced. And that cycle
exactly shows you what you can expect in the game when you are upgrading your
old industrial zones with high tech.
A) Installation and Implementation
This occurs when you have risen taxes and started on some demolition but the
benefits of the high tech has yet to appear while the loss in the old
industries are most keenly felt. Your income will fall and there is a
possibility of making a loss. Coupled with the money need for demolition, and
people leaving the city due to the fall in jobs, this is the period of the
crash.
B) Golden Age
This occurs after the turning point where sufficient high tech has appeared
and that you are starting to reap the rewards of the new technology.
Furthermore, your old industries is completely moribund by now thus, income
should no longer drop as it has already fallen to its lowest level.
Also the fall in pollution and the rise in wealth level means that commercial
and also residential areas become more desirable and more people moves in.
C) Maturity
This occurs when you have completed the upgrade. The growth has stabilised
and you are out of space for more high tech. Congratulations, you have
created a high tech city.
2) Fire Disaster demolition:
This seems to me like a cheat of some sort but as long as you enjoy the game
which you bought with your own money, who am I to say anything.
Since it is going to cost quite a bit to demolish the buildings, this method
simply requires you to go into god mode, select the fire disaster button and
click on the desired building. You have to click and hold on the same
location, especially if you have smoke detectors and fire coverage. The
longer you hold, the more deadly the fire is.
By the way ever wonder why when you try to set fire to your own city the fire
gets extinguished so fast yet when a real fire breaks out nothing like that
occurs.
However, if the pollution from the power plants is too strong, then you may
have to do something more drastic such as rising manufacturing taxes too.
That way your high tech can move into another zone other than the one next
to the power plants and waste to power.
Generally, as long as the source of the pollution is not around the smog
will disappear. Remember an abandoned vacant building still produces as much
pollution as if it was fully active.
To deal with pollution if you do not have money to demolish all the industry
in the area is to do a gradual movement. The diagram below represents an
industrial park
1: 1st to demolish
2: 2nd to demolish
3: 3rd to demolish
Therefore the pollution will clear up a bit in area one thus allowing
high tech to move in. Remember to remove any polluting structures that appear
in that area. Then you can move on to area (2) and (3) when you have the cash
for demolition.
This method calls for the setting up of a third city. I chose to set up
another mid sized map at the bottom of the first city. To get the best out
of your two cities, make sure you go and play the slum city for a while so
that demand from your second city can register. Make sure when you leave the
second city, you have positive demand.
Perhaps you can try your hand at some terraforming. Creating a some island
for your power plants and waste disposal. Also a river front for your
commercial areas would be nice.
Basically, raise taxes for dirty and manufacturing until demand becomes
negative. Could believe it that even at 18% some dirty and manufacturing
came in? But do not worry as, only at most one or two will come. Thus they
will not pose that much of a problem. And they will leave soon. Make sure
that when you change to the data view of air pollution, they are not
generating any.
Power:
That means using natural gas plant and placing the structure at the furthest
possible end. I created a small island of sorts and placed it here. Later on,
I replaced it with a solar plant and sadly, an oil plant.
Waste:
Initially I exported it to my first city until it started costing over a
$1000. I simply cannot waste such money. So I built a Waste to power plant.
Again, place it in an island on the far side of the map.
Trees:
Remember to fill the little dirty island with as much trees as possible before
starting the city. Fill to the point where when you click the mouse you no
longer see any more difference in foliage.
Ordinance:
Enact the clean air act.
Deals:
Again I stick to my original statement that for a city at this point of time,
all deals are merely transitional.
There is no need to leave a green belt for this city since, you are not
expecting to produce polluting industries. Although a blanket of trees around
the power plants and waste disposal is still recommended.
Place your city in a way to take advantage of the neighbouring city. Also
do not forget to make connections.
It is up to you which selection you choose, but I continued with my (ORS).
This is so that it will fit into the plans of my first city. If you wish
to get the farmers market, I advise you to get it as soon as possible since
the level of education in this city will be moving up quite fast.
This layout again is merely illustrative and not proportionate. The plan of
the first city is merely illustrative.
RR: (ORS)
RR: Each R represents one quod
C : Commercial
P : Power and Waste disposal
I : Industry
/\: Water
= : Free space for future highway or mass transit
While this was my first true hi-tech city, it is mainly a commercial centre.
I had over 22,000 commercial jobs compared to about 6000 industrial jobs all
of which are high tech.
Personally, the more I played, the more I realise that I prefer commercial so
much more than industrial even if the industrial is high-tech.
While I still do caution against reckless deficit spending, because of the
demand from the first two cities, you will make money so much faster. The
amount of amenities you can and should easily get in this city is so much
more compared to the other two combined. You can easily have the following
and still make a good profit:
A) Full Education coverage:
Elementary, High School, College, libraries and even University.
B) Full Health Coverage:
C) 1 Large fire station
D) 2 Large police stations
E) Several hundred dollars worth of recreation facilities. I have more than
sixteen public recreation facilities because I also have the minor league
stadium.
F) 1 Port if you so wish.
G) Mayor house / City Hall / 2 Statues
You have to be patient. Do not fret if only a few hi-tech appears. This is
because you need to increase the education of your work force before they
can work in the high tech plants. So all current workers most probably
are new migrants. And the higher wealth and educated ones only appear if you
have the requisite facilities and desirability.
Also, just a note, high tech while being a high ($$$) wealth level building
hires as much middle class ($$) people as rich people. What they seek is
high education levels primarily. Although, I do not think a poor ($) but
educated worker will work there. The reason is simply because the moment
the poor gets the job, their pay would increase and they would no longer
be classified as poor. So in that sense wealth is not that important.
Method 2 definitely gets you a better and more beautiful city. My pollution
index fell by more than half. But and this is a big but, the potential of a
disaster occurring is quite high. You may end up with a city of a much lower
population, making less money and yet only a miniscule amount of hi-tech
appears.
As I have stated earlier, I prefer Method 3 and creating a third city and
using that as your hi-tech city. But this is really up to you.
===========================END OF SECTION B-PART 5============================
"No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main."
John Donne.
The key to a larger city is make sure that your cities work together in one
coherent unit. This section deals with not just what to do in the individual
city but also documents what you should take note of with regards to
maximising your neighbouring cities.
I suggest that at this point you should familiarise yourself with most of
the Online Manual (OM).
I found that with the above tax rates, I have no need to reduce taxes in the
move to 100,000. I did not list the tax rate for industry because its tax
rate is dependent on the type of industry you want. If however, you started
out with a tax rate of 9%. It may be useful to reduce them at least to 8.5%.
1) Rezone
Finally at 40,000 this is the time to start zoning denser. Remember just zone
on top of the existing zones, There is no need to demolish them. Use the
data view to see which areas have not been "up-sized." Try to place the
denser regions closer to the centre of the city. There is no need to rezone
everything at once.
If one side of that city does not have a neighbour, it is not advisable to
zone it denser there as of yet.
2) Effects
You have to wait for a while for the effects to appear if you city is not
ready. If you do not see your population increasing, you may have to put more
recreational facilities. Make sure you have not reached your demand cap. If
the population is still not increasing, either start another city along the
side of this city if not all sides are filled up, or go further develop
another neighbouring city.
However, in my experience you will soon see a population boom. One last point
is that if you are still having trouble, check your commute time. It may be
the thing that is holding you back.
REFER: B6.09: Abandoned Building & High Commute and No Development
REFER: PART 7: Metropolis
There are those who state that neighbour deals are the best means to create
a clean and beautiful city. The main focus is on waste. For you can easily
get clean power and water when your city expands.
As Jeremy Bentham once remarked that we should adopt a policy that will
result in “The greatest happiness for the greatest number.” Therefore by
adopting this community above self, utilitarian approach, it means making one
city the scapegoat and sacrificing it for the good of the others. In other
words, you shall zone a lot of landfill in the "dump" city. This is because
the greater the supply, the cheaper the cost.
For, those of you Utilitarians out there, yes, I do know about how "rule
Utilitarian" easily trumps the "scapegoat" so there is no need to mail me
about your objections. Furthermore, the "dump" city is not so much a victim
for it does get its share of money in the neighbour deal.
You can easily use this oversupply method for power and water too.
1) Dump and obliterate
I have never tried this before but it does sound quite possible albeit it is
very close to cheating. Create a dump city and use it until it is full or if
you wish to create a new city at this location. Then when that occurs, simply
delete the city.
If you so wish to do this, try to have minimal development in this city, just
enough to operate the dump or power. That way when it is obliterated, it will
not have a hugely negative impact on the demand on your proper cities
surrounding it.
2) Dump for the region
This is possible although I have never tried it out in the large scale. And
also I have only done tried this with regards to power. Not too sure whether
is it possible for waste.
You can sell power to another city even if this power is purchased from
another city. To further clarify:
A) Neighbour:
A & B are neighbours. B & C are neighbours. But A & C are not neighbours.
B) Deal:
A sells to B and B in turn sells to C (A > B > C).
Therefore with the method of transfer all you have to do is to have one city
or perhaps only a few cities serving the entire region.
The drawback to this is simply that with each resale it is going to cost even
more. It means the furthest city is going to have quite a strain on her
budget.
The way to counter this is simply to get the last city to sell back to the
first city. Now that is cheating. I will explain about this and other
"cheapo" methods to resolve the waste issues under the Section on Cheats.
1) Self-Sufficient
I personally prefer this approach with regards to power, water and waste
management. This is a more individualistic approach where there is no one
city is suffering the ails of the entire region. Furthermore, with the saving
on export, you could improve you city with relation to the type of power
used.
The drawback to this approach is dealing with garbage. Even if you have a
recycling plant, the remainder of the garbage still have to go to a landfill
or a waste to power plant. Either of these options is terrible for the
environment and desirability.
But then again exporting it will also lead to environmental degradation in
the other city, unless you are not going to play that city at all.
2) Time Vortex
This method again, is to a certain extent a cheat but it is up to you.
This is the method that will prevent trash from ever appearing if you are
willing to throw money at it.
A) Build landfill in "X". Keep the game pause and make sure when you save and
exit the landfill has not been used at all.
B) At city "Y" export trash to "X."
C) After playing finish with "Y," pause the game and cancel the deal.
D) Now build a landfill at "Y."
E) Initiate an import deal with "X" and save and exit making sure that the
landfill is not used.
F) Return to city "X," dezone the landfill.
G) When the time has come to change the city again return back to step (A).
This is the most environmentally friendly of all the cheats, as there are no
city that is getting the waste products.
When you have multiple cities, do not spend too much time on one city.
Switch cities to optimise, the advantage of multiple city play.
Remember when you save, the game freezes all the information of that city.
After successfully building or further playing another city, you will have
added to your population or at least improve the other city. Play the other
neighbouring city to make use of the newly improved city. The following is a
brief time line of events as to how cities improve through regional play.
1) Exit City 1: City 1 saves city information
2) Play City 2: City 2 uses City 1 to spur its growth based upon save
information.
3) Exit City 2: City 2 now has improved city statistics and information
4) Play City 1: City 1 uses improve city 2 statistics and information to
further spur its growth.
5) Play City 2: Using even further improved city statistics and information,
City 2 grows even more.
6) Repeat the process as much as possible for optimal result.
The regional equilibrium process also works the other way round. Therefore do
not create a situation where one city is suffering from an economic
depression if not the contagion will spread.
Make it a point to create multiple save each time you play the game, that way
if recession does occur and you are unable to revive the economy you can
reload and will not cause the downfall of the region.
1) Number of Cities
The strength of the multiplier is dependant upon the number of different
neighbours that you have. Therefore one tactic if you so choose is to create
a large map surrounded with small maps. A connection to "Sim Nation" is also
considered as a connection to another city.
In case you have not realised it by now, connections are the means to bust the
demand caps of commercial and industry. It has no direct effect on residential
demand. But it does have an indirect effect because if there is huge growth of
commerce and industry in the city it will act to attract residence to the
city.
2) Number of Sims
If your computer can handle it or if you do not mind the lag, you could
create a massive huge city. The high population of this city will make
development of surrounding cities easier. Demand in the outlying cities will
be ridiculously high.
1) Concept:
To get skyscrapers, I find it easier if that city in question is surrounded
by cities or at least have them established on most of its sides.
There is this pattern of development that seems to occur quite often in my
cities. High rise development seems dependent on not just whether is the
zone central but whether is it central in relation to the development of
other cities. This may thus explain why certain zones of yours does not seem
to be developing even if demand is high.
Think of your entire region as one city, and like a city based on concentric
development those on the edge will often be low rise such as in the diagram
below.
Diagram B6.05.1
L: Low Density
M: Medium Density
H: High Density
LLLLL
LMMML
LMHML
LMMML
LLLLL
Therefore if your city is not generally surrounded, high rise may not appear
even if you have the requisite demand and development. I suggest you surround
the city by establishing others. But the above diagram is a mere illustration
of a pattern rather than a rule since I have achieve high rise on the edge
before. The pattern simply increases the possibility of high-rise development
for likely to almost definitely.
2) Multiple Small Cities
You can create your own region and place sixteen small maps around a large
map. Then start all 16 cities. And then use their growth to help create
a huge city at the large map. This works because of the optimistic
growth evaluation.
You should have enough money by now such that everyone in the city is covered
by full education and health. That means at least elementary, high schools,
city college, libraries and hospitals.
1) Waiting for Private Schools
The main issue here is that to get private schooling, other than the need for
a certain amount of $$$ residence, your overall education system must be
pathetic. Therefore the question one has to ask, especially when you build
future cities which can easily start building schools earlier is, are you
willing to wait and delay development into the education system so that you
can get the private schooling.
Advantages of Private School:
A) Demand buster for the $$$ residence.
B) Building itself increases the desirability of the surroundings.
C) Reduce the amount of money spent on education.
Disadvantage of delaying education system
A) May play a waiting game since $$$ may be less attracted to a city with bad
education system.
B) Hurts the entire city's development for advantages that you can easily
obtain through other buildings.
In my opinion, I do not think you should purposely wait for the arrival of all
three private schools before beginning on your education. As Dworkin once
remarked "the final evil of a genuinely unequal distribution of resource"
occurs when people "have been cheated of the chance other have had to make
something valuable of their lives." And this valuable thing equates to taxes
in the game.
2) Private school Only
Do not think that private school alone can increase your education levels.
They only work for the rich ($$$) Sims. An experiment you can try is to
simply build private school in a predominantly poor area. The education
quotient will not rise.
3) Library Only
It has been suggested that a library only system will result in growth over
a long period of time. This is because parents pass a part of their acquired
intelligence to their kids. This method can work but it does take quite
some time and personally, I am not very convinced by it. This is because you
can still make money with full education coverage.
However, this method is good when you are starting out and have a shortage
of cash. But yet on the other hand, the faster you raise your education, the
faster higher wealth commerce or industry will appear. Thus on that note I am
not to certain as to whether to recommend it. Use your own discretion.
1) Combat
You have rigged the elections to be Mayor for life, build statues of yourself
across the city and started a personality cult with the Houses of Worship.
Now all that is left is the placement of the police to firmly entrench your
rule in the city. This is especially since the one of the neighbour of
Sim Nation are threatening you not to start the missile or toxic waste WMD
research. And they would not believe that your nuclear facility is only for
"legitimate peaceful purposes."
I have listed out the sources of crime in the Online Manual (OM)
REFER: A1.06.3: Crime, Riots and Fire
So if you cannot remove the sources of crime, the best means would be to
institute a zero tolerance, one strike and you are out policy. Thus you
need police stations. As stated earlier, all you have to do is to get full
coverage and overlapping coverage is just a waste of space.
Generally, you start placing police stations when you see commercial
buildings or any others being distressed or abandoned due to high crime. I
stated commercial because it is greatly affected by crimes, more so than
others. Usually, I begin police coverage from 50,000 onwards and by 100,000
a good part of the city is covered.
How then do you tell if your rate of crime is too high other than the
distressed buildings? Simply if you have a good coverage and you keep getting
messages that your police cells are close to capacity. There usually is no
need to build a city jail. A federal prison also serves the provides you
with jail space if you are wondering.
2) Keeping a watchful eye
I always find it useful to place a police station next to several structures
that seem to attract crime. The less obvious ones are the airport, university
or country club. The obvious ones are those business deals or the state fair.
You should note that the obvious ones generate rather than attract crime.
And the crime generators also generate a secondary effect which reduces the
effectiveness of the police.
1) Recreation
Amenities such and parks and plazas, are needed for your city to expand right
now. So start placing them. You should at least have enough for the minor
league stadium , that is 16 recreational facilities. And you should also
place the stadium as it is one of the top of the range residential demand
busters.
2) Rewards
It will do your city good if you start placing some of your rewards now.
Government:
Your mayor house, statues should all be placed already. Although it is
debatable, I do feel that adding a city hall improves the chances of higher
density development. It is up to you as to whether you would want to place
a court house at this point.
Education:
Again private schools, place them when you get them. If you have the
requisite amount of libraries, the main library will open. Again the funding
of it can be scaled, so there should not be too much of a problem in placing
them.
Health:
It is up to you whether or not to hold off placing the disease research lab
right now. If you can afford it, then place it but if your profits does
not seem that healthy, then you can hold it off.
Economic:
I would place the advance research facility even if the residents hate it.
Simply put it away from them and perhaps also your high tech areas. Place
it near your commercial areas.
Others:
Depending on which type of city it is, how you develop it and the regional
development, you may get other rewards such as the tourist trap or zoo. Place
them if you so wish. Obviously those "freebies" rewards should be placed
as soon as possible.
1) Power:
Depending on your vision for your city and also your neighbour deals method,
it may be time to change your power generating system. Thus if the city is
a dirty or manufacturing one, there really is no need to use anything other
than coal. But if you want a clean one, perhaps a solar plant or some of the
cleaner ones, even the natural gas plant would be a good replacement. That is
if you have the money. Of course, if you have effectively isolated them, you
can carry on with the polluting plants.
2) Transport:
I am not a fan of streets but if you are, then now is a good time to widen
them and convert them into roads. Note that if you follow my (ORS) you
should not need to worry about transportation woes until at least 80,000.
If your city is suffering from long commute, you should proceed to read the
next part.
REFER: Part 7: Metropolis
3) Expiration
If you have played for quite a bit of time, take note that some of the
utilities might be close to their expiration so you should check it and
replace before they go Ka-blooie!
REFER: A1.05.1: Options: Utilities Type
4) Connections
Check your connections to see which is packed. Perhaps a few more near that
area would help.
I am apprehensive about the effectiveness of an airport because I feel they
are like an oversized, overpriced connection. A few highway connections
serves more than a few largest airports.
However, if you must then try to place one where your commercial areas can
easily reach. I do place them but it is mostly for show, at least in my
opinion.
Again this is quite useless. It has a limit to the amount of goods it can
send. Why spend money on a seaport to duplicate when a land connection can
do it cheaper and better. There is a use for it, in that it can help reduce
road traffic to a certain extent. I will explain it later.
This final bit is a precursor to the next part. If your city has high
commute, abandoned buildings and general economic stagnation, the answer is
in Part 7.
I did not place them here because if you followed my method of city layout,
you can at the very least reach 80,000 without these issue cropping up.
However, your problems could be less simple as it might only relate to
desirability, demand caps or tax rates. You could scan the (USD) and also
the General gameplay concepts, especially the bit on theories of growth to
see whether have you broken any of those rules which are applicable.
REFER: Section A, Part 2: General Gameplay Concepts
REFER: Section B, Part 1: Universal Strategic Doctrine
REFER: A2.05: Theories of Growth
This point is obvious. But I keep seeing people asking about should they
build a mass transit when their population is only about 10,000 or even
20,000. Depending on the way you build you can easily reach up till 60,000
without needing any transit.
Therefore, build mass transit only when it is needed. As Irina Dunn would say
"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." Do not mail me telling me
the quote is by Gloria Steinem because she said it in an interview that it was
not her but Irina Dunn. I will not offer my opinion on the statement here but
the point is do not build a highway or any mass transit when there clearly is
no need for it.
To determine whether is it time for mass transit or highway construction,
look at the commute time on the chart. If it is moving way above the two-hour
mark and approaching the 150 minutes mark, it is time not just to build but
also to proceed on to Section B Part 7.
===========================END OF SECTION B-PART 6============================
_______________________________________________________________________[207]__
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ PART 7: METROPOLIS ~~~| START |~~~
B~~\_____/~~7 80,000 - Millions and Beyond B~~\_____/~~7
______________________________________________________________________________
"'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias.
Thus this part will provide you with ideas on how to get that bigger and
better city and to control its problems that comes with growth such that
your city will not become a "colossal wreck" due to the upcoming problems.
The problems you encounter mostly are no longer dealing with how to generate
growth but how to facilitate it or rather how to remove the restrictions
that are choking off growth. The better part of this part is simple on how
to reduce that pesky commute time.
You should also check out the checks and cheats section as I have placed
many of the more dubious methods of city improvement there. These are dubious
not because they involve an outright cheat or the use of codes, but simply
because you are exploiting a certain aspect of the game to improve your city.
Again, you have to reduce your taxes overtime. Having a huge profit is great.
But having a huge surplus is not that good. There is a reason why many
governmental budgets are focused on balancing rather than profiteering.
Let me ask you, what are you doing with all the millions in the bank. It is
not earning interest. If you spent them, they will lead to further growth.
While I do always say fiscal restraint is good, after a certain amount
of time when you have too much cash, it will be good to actually spend it.
Of course I am not telling you to throw caution to the wind, but just to make
sure that the money made from previous good policies does not go to waste
and sit idle in the bank.
So start your Keynesian fiscal expansion by either reducing taxes, building
more amenities or just spend it on improving the desirability of your city.
B7.01.2: Utilities: Decay and New Generation Plants
The question here is whether to convert to that spanking beautiful and clean
hydrogen power plant. Sadly while it produces the most power, it is the
second least efficient plant of the lots. So decide whether is it better
to build it or just import it from an dirty / manufacturing city that uses
coal plants.
REFER: A1.05.1: Options: Utilities Type
Remember to replace the utilities as when they age they have diminishing
returns.
Parks, plazas, rewards, place them well and you shall be rewarded. With your
city pretty much built up, with zones, education health, there is nothing
much left to construct right? Wrong! Now it is time for OPERATION: Strategic
Placement. Place your positive effects building to maximise its effects.
This is not as simple as mere coverage based on what was stated as the range
of these positive effects. This is since their effects diminish over the
range much like the pollution effect.
If you wish to be more experienced in OPERATION: Strategic Placement, you
need to use save and reload quite a bit at least at the start but after some
experience you will be an expert.
Here is what to take note:
A) Site Survey
Take a look at the surrounding area of the intended placement. Query the
buildings to see what level of development the buildings are. Are they low
wealth or low density. Or are they a high wealth and high density building.
B) Wealth Determination
If the buildings are primarily high wealth, high density and generally are
your stage 8 buildings, then do NOT place anything there. You are at the
maximum development already. Do not fall into the trap of thinking, "Let's
make my city centre the most beautiful place in the region." Unless you are
going for aesthetic reasons, do not build those positive effect buildings in
that site anymore. Remember my advice against dual coverage earlier? The same
applies. It operates on the same logic as why you do not place ten schools
side by side as the education in that area cannot be any higher.
C) Recreation Selection
If the site passes stage (B), the next question is what to place. Go for the
most efficient. Why pay for a structure that has so much commercial benefits
when the site is a residential area, or vice versa. Personally I prefer
a strong effect rather than a strong radius. But I do not know whether is
it just me but it seems that certain areas like certain recreational
facilities better than another. So perhaps you can try to experiment with
the range rather than just rely on basing it on pure numbers.
D) Testing Time
Increasing desirability serves only one purpose. That is to get the higher
wealth and density buildings to appear. Which means a few months after
placement your income should increase. A good placement can raise income by
as much as several hundred dollars or more. A bad placement will just lead
to an increase in costs without income. So save and reload. I recommend that
you perfect this skill or at least get the hang of it when your city is
merely above 100,000. Any larger and you will have problem determining
whether is the change in income due to usual city fluctuations or the
placement.
Even at this point, industrial pollution at best can only be contained by
a green belt. And short of converting them to high tech there is nothing much
that you can do.
The pollution that really is getting out of hand now is traffic pollution.
There are several ways to combat traffic pollution but unless, the expansion
pack comes out with fuel cell cars, these methods are again at best only
slightly helpful:
A) Clean Air Act
If you check this, your industrial demand will fall.
B) Auto Emission Reduction Act
C) Carpool Incentive Program
D) Commuter Shuttle Service
E) Green Belt
A row of trees around the more congested areas might help. But this
depends on whether you left room for it.
F) Public Transport
The more people who use this, the less cars there will be, so improve it.
I get a lot of questions on how to reduce it. But pretty much short of
reducing city size there is no all out solution. However, do not worry, its
effect can be easily countered through placement of positive desirability
things in the area. I have often seen the best high density high wealth
residential area having high traffic noise. However, if the area is those
sprawling mansions, then they might not be as tolerant.
Here are some ways that can reduce traffic noise albeit by only a certain
amount. Most of it also deals with air pollution from traffic
1) Carpool Incentive Program
2) Commuter Shuttle Service
3) Green Belt
4) Public Transport
5) Roads to Streets (NOT RECOMMENDED)
Changing roads back into streets or Rezone to low density. This option is NOT
recommended unless you wish to reduce population in the city.
Let me explain how changing road to streets will reduce noise.
A) Streets and roads can be used over their capacity.
B) But the greater the over capacity the less additional vehicles will use it.
C) Therefore it is unlikely that usage will rise to the same level as roads.
D) Analogy 1: As your bag becomes fuller, it becomes harder and harder to
stuff more things in it until you reach a point where nothing more will enter.
E) Analogy 2: A lightly loaded huge bag can easily contain more and weigh
heavier than a fully stuffed small bag.
There is a small debate especially as your region goes into the millions, as
to whether should you convert all your industries to high tech or should you
still leave some dirty and manufacturing areas in your industrial
hinterland. The main focus is on the question of "What impact does these
polluting industries have in the region and are they necessary.?"
1) Impact
The answer to this part is that they do have a positive impact. The reason is
that growth of these lower wealth cities are usually faster because dirty and
manufacturing provides more jobs than high tech, which in turn raises
residential demand and numbers. And with the increase in population,
commercial demand also increases. Since unfulfilled demand in each city can
be transferred to the neighbouring city and so forth, these dirty and
manufacturing cities do aid in growth of the region.
2) Necessary
I have yet to come to a proper formulation of this part. Once in a while,
I notice that when my region size becomes larger, demand in the big city
seems to fall. But a new dirty or manufacturing city near that city seems to
help. The problem is that I am not too certain as to what caused the fall in
demand. Hence, all I am sure is that these industrial hinterland do help but
I am not too certain as to whether are they necessary for larger growth.
3) Industrial Hinterland
Therefore my recommendation is to create some of these industrial hinterland
in your region. After all there is nothing too difficult about keeping some
of these kind of cities in your region.
4) Population boost
Another added effect of these hinterland is that they raise the general
population of your region which is important if you want more skyscrapers.
Since skyscrapers appear only as a percentage of population, they will not
appear unless you have more population in the region. And you cannot expect
the city with the skyscraper to grow because it has already used up the
percentage of skyscrapers. Thus the remaining lower capacity buildings cannot
be upgraded to skyscrapers even if you have the demand for them.
5) Movement to Suburbs
If your industrial hinterland grows too much, there is a possibility that
you main city could suffer a fall in demand. This is only an observation and
it seems to occur only when your region and main city is very, very huge.
As stated above, I am not exactly a big fan of the airports. But as your
city becomes larger, the land connections may no longer be sufficient to
provide you with commercial demand busters due to diminishing returns. Thus,
if you see your commercial demand falling and strongly suspect it is due to
demand caps, start placing these.
Usually I do place at least one quite early, just because no metropolis looks
good without its own airports.
The following two tactics are a little on the dark side. If you feel they are
considered as cheating, by all means do not use it.
Take note that you should backup your city before implementing them. It may
lead to spectacular results but a failure would make your city become as
worthless as a bunch of Enron shares.
The basic idea is to bulldoze high wealth buildings to reduce supply thus
creating artificial demand. The concept is based on that of cornering the
market supply, just like Yasuo Hamanaka from Sumitomo did for the copper
market sometime back. Then the rest of the market would respond and
unfulfilled demand will rise, thus resulting in multiple stage 8 high wealth
buildings across your cities.
Of course this method of embedding shock and awe into the city to generate
growth has a potential of a disaster.
This only works if you have Patch 2 installed. It is because of the
implementation of a check which prevents abandonment in areas of high
desirability.
Therefore, all you have to do is to place a lot of parks or plazas in that
area then raise taxes to an astronomical level and you would be making a lot
of money. Of course your demand will fall but those buildings in question
will not be vacant.
And when you have drained enough money out of the Sims, you can always
reduce tax levels and demand will rise again.
The rest of PART 7 will be ideas on how to deal with traffic. As stated
earlier, commute time is one of the biggest stops to growth. Especially in
the larger cities. Often as long as you can keep commute time down, your
city can still grow.
1) Actual v Average Commute time
Before we proceed, I have to clarify something about commute time. There is
the average commute time as seen in the charts and there is the actual
commute time, which you can only estimate when you query the buildings. It is
the actual commute that truly matters. This is because the average commute
might show that your time is not that bad, but certain areas of your city
might be having a long commute time. And it seems unless you can resolve the
problems in this area, often further development across the city is not that
possible.
2) Commute Cycle of Death
How do you know that your city has attain the zenith of commuter hell, and
thus snatching the title away from cities such as London where the average
speeds of vehicles in some areas are even lower than that of the horse drawn
carriage. Here are the symptoms, call your local transport planners if you
develop this horrible affliction.
A) New skyscrapers are completed, population increases.
B) New skyscrapers shortly display no job zot.
C) Several months later, new skyscraper is abandoned, population falls.
D) Shortly after, construction for another new skyscraper starts.
E) Repeat the process by going back to (A).
Let me explain why this occurs. at stage (A), actual commute time around
that area is sufficient for the construction of anew skyscraper. But when
the new skyscraper appears, the amount of traffic increases greatly because
of the skyscraper itself. This increase in traffic increases commute time
to the point where these people cannot get to work, hence (B) occurs. (C)
is the result of the lack of jobs and people leaving. But since they have
abandoned the building, the traffic that they generate no longer exists so
actual commute in that area falls again to the original level, which was
sufficient for the construction of a skyscraper, thus (A, D, E) occurs, as
this cycle continues.
Therefore the only way to break this is to reduce commute time such that
when the new skyscraper appears, the Sims in it can find jobs. Finally,
another way to determine whether is this occurring is when you see your
population fluctuating up and down over a certain range.
3) Falling Wealth level
A weaker version of this cycle of death is if you see your higher wealth Sims
leaving the city to be replaced by poorer Sims.
Whether you get the black hold of a bus system message or if you notice that
your usage of other mass transit is not particularly high, there is a very
high chance that you are lacking destinations.
The effectiveness of a public transport is dependant upon the destinations
available. For example, if there is a station outside your house but it only
goes to one location, the probability of you using it will be very low
especially if you do not work in that destination. Similarly that is the same
thing for the game.
Of course an alternative could simply be that your placement of the public
transport is not that good. But even behind that is the basic idea of
destinations and locations. If the placement are in areas Sims do not frequent
not only are people not both want to take the system and even if they wanted
to they might not find it. Remember the Sims path finding skills are not all
that great.
This is the easiest option of the lot to reduce commute and restart your city
growth.
If you see an area having long commute or being abandoned because of it, the
solution is simply. If a Sim cannot get to work, then bring the work to the
Sim. Demolish and dezone a central part of the residential dead zone. Then
rezone it with commercial zones. Pretty soon the place will be brought back
to life. You may have to demolish rather than dezone a few abandoned
residential buildings in the area to kick start the revival.
I recommend commercial because it can generate more in less area than
industrial and you do not have to run the risk of a polluting industry
appearing. Also even if a high tech appears, the jobs they offer is quite
little in comparison to the space they take up.
Throw in a few parks and plazas to further improve this new mini downtown
of yours.
The bad thing about public transport is that not everyone likes to use them
and your city, when it becomes richer, will generate more rich folks who
prefer to drive to work. So you have to accommodate them the best you can
for your city to grow.
You would think that if you offered them a viable public transport means to
get to work they would use it. But they rather not turn up for work and get
fired, complain to you with a big no job zot over their homes then quit your
town a few months later.
Since there is no such thing as multiple lane roads, you can always create
one yourself. Traffic problems can be generally reduced to one cause, a
shortage or fixed supply, the roads, and an excess and growing demand that of
cars and other vehicles. Therefore increase the supply of road to help relief
the burden.
1) Roads:
This obviously means that you should plan from the inception of the city.
Remember those spaces that I told you to leave earlier on? If you do build
another lane directly side by side, do not connect the two roads at every
point such that a junction and traffic light appear. Junctions have a lower
capacity and speed. Look at the diagram below for the two styles of double
lane roads. You can even create triple lane roads.
Diagram B7.08.1
-: Normal road with no junction
#: Junction
.: Gap or place for subway or bus or plazas etc.
This is to a certain extent is a temporary measure. Since you may have to
build highway once the three lane roads can also no longer sustain the traffic
demands.
2) Tracks:
More so for subway than rail since I only use rail for intercity connections.
Simply create another set of tracks like the roads.
An alternative method is the separate lines construction. Just because tracks
are next to each other does not mean you have to connect them. Think of the
mass transit system in the real world. This method has its disadvantages as
it may mean that passengers stay on the train for longer than necessary. This
is a stopgap measure until you have the cash to construct the multiple
track system.
Use wisely and this will help reduce commute time, implement it badly and
this will be a white elephant draining cash out of your bank.
I am a bit undecided as to whether to leave a few spaces between them and
your residential area. On one hand they create noise and air pollution yet
on the other hand, these can be countered by placing more parks.
Secondly, I am also undecided about the cloverleaf. It costs quite a bit but
if you plan it well, people need to really have to make any turns to get to
work.
An advise, save before construction because each block cost quite a bit and
few wrong placement would set you back quite a bit.
A simple two-step process determines the way people move from point to point.
Firstly it decides on the shortest possible route. After that it takes that
route without any alteration at all. Since congestion or even the availability
of a faster mode of transport a tile away will not affect their decision, it
means you have to take a hands on approach to traffic.
In my opinion, the game should allow the imposition of road pricing or
congestion charges on all roads. And that we can determine the price on each
road thereby affecting the route the Sims takes. Petition to the Sim City 4
official forum!
...........
Chris McFadyen:
Again, I see no reason to provide my own diagram when Chris McFadyen has
already provided it for me. I have just changed the key. I have just changed
the key. The entire diagram is still his creation.
Diagram B7.08.3:
= : Highway
| : Underpass. Road below the highway
/ : On / Off ramp. Entrance or exit
- : Road
R : Residential
C : Commercial
. : Empty space for what I assume to be for amenities
This above is just an illustration of how to "persuade" Sims in a more
forceful manner to take the highway. The layout of the residential and
commercial is only an example. Therefore you should construct this method of
highway layout to suit the setup of your own city.
While Patch 2 seems to have improved the route finding skills, this method
is still very useful since the improvement is not that much.
You may use a MySim to determine how one would travel to work. But that has
several limitations as a MySims does not use public transport and you cannot
really send them where you want.
Therefore use a dispatch instead. Either a police or a fire engine will
suffice. Of course it still does not take public transport into account but
you can set the starting location and the final destination.
This is very useful after you just implemented a new highway or road system
and you are not sure of its effectiveness especially if the commute time does
not fall. So test it before your construction and test is after your
construction to see whether does it improve travel and what are the flaws
if any in your new system.
Here are some stuff that may help reduce traffic congestion although most
are quite legit ideas, some seems to be a bit on the borderline of cheating
but most are just good planning.
I am undecided about the effectiveness of this but, it does makes sense
logically. Basically, they operate on the assumption that since each station
may only serve that much users, you can resolve that overcrowding by building
more stations. Alternatively, this could be the place where you congregate
the various types of transports. This system is most useful for buses.
You need to use this in conjunction with an improvement in your subway
lines if a subway is part of the nexus.
REFER: B7.08.1: Multiple Lanes or Tracks
REFER: B7.09.2: Train stations as car parks
REFER: B7.09.3: Web of Subway Tracks
Again another interesting idea, which has been mooted but does not really
seem that useful is using train stations as car parks. Since a train station
is the only public transport station that allows a person to drive there,
we could create a system where a Sim drives to the train station and then
switch to another mode of transport.
Diagram: B7.09.2
T: Train Station
=: Tracks
-: Roads
S: Subway or Bus station. Place to transfer to.
----
-TTT
-TTT
=====-
TTT-
TTT-
S-
You should note that this does not work if you put the two train stations
too close to each other.
This is an effective method of improving your subway system if the tracks
are overcrowded. This is slightly different with respect to the ideas of
multiple lanes.
REFER: B7.08.1: Multiple Lanes or Tracks
For some reason or other, simply laying down tracks that does not go
particularly anyway around the station seems to improve commute time. It
seems the game take into account these additional tracks and thus reduce
the congestion on subway.
This idea originate some years ago when I was playing transport tycoon.
Unlike Sim City 2, roads can be built on top of tunnels. Therefore it is
possible to have one road on the surface and another underground to relief
traffic issues.
There are two ways to build the road tunnels.
1) Raise ground
A) This is best done before starting the city at God Mode.
B) Raise certain part of the land in anticipation of the underground roads
2) Lower the ground
A) This is for those who already have started the city or does not wish to
pre-plan so much.
B) Lower the ground and build a tunnel-road across.
This diagram is not a top down view. It is a view from the side a cross
section so that you can look underground.
Diagram B7.09.4
S: Surface road
U: Underground road / tunnel
-: Ground
E: Entry into the tunnel
This is an easier method and less expensive use of the underground roads. All
you have to do is to raise a little slope such that a tunnel can be created
under the land. The following is just a small illustration.
Diagram B7.09.5
R: Surface Road
U: underground road or tunnel
*: Road on top and tunnel below. Therefore there is no intersection.
R
R
RUU*UUR
R
R
This little illustration is NOT to size. How much you need to rise really
depends on your "skill level." As you use this more often, you will find it
easier to build thus junction bypass with less land raised. You still need
junctions in the game if not people may not be able to connect from place to
place. Therefore because of that this is not too good a strategy, just an
interesting one.
Since freight moving to connections contribute to traffic, what better way
to reduce traffic then by reducing freight. Since ports serve the same
purposes, you could place a port near the industry, such that the freight
does not have to travel across town. Alternatively you could use a freight
train and run the tracks underground.
However, this method does not seem to be able to reduce traffic that much.
What it does help is to improve the freight "commute time." In other words
helping to improve your industry which is getting choked up by the traffic
too.
===========================END OF SECTION B-PART 7============================
_______________________________________________________________________[234]__
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ PART 8: SPECIALISED CITIES ~~~| START |~~~
B~~\_____/~~8 SARDINES AND APPLES B~~\_____/~~8
______________________________________________________________________________
In the last part of this section, I will make a short discussion on how to
achieve those specialised cities, cities that are built only for one purpose
only. All other considerations are thus disregarded. These are not the best
cities in the sense of high wealth or high profits but they are the best in
terms of their particular vision and purpose.
The purpose of this is to pack as many people as possible into the city. It
is not about how much profit or how advanced the city is but how many people
can you squeeze into one city.
To start off, you need first to get those high wealth residential buildings.
So build as you normally would. You have to make sure that all residential
buildings are of stage 8 and highest wealth ($$$) level. It must be high
wealth not low wealth buildings.
Place as many parks as you can. Start off in on area rather than do it
throughout the city, unless you can afford all the parks.
Once you have secured the neighbourhood and make it rich, it is time to cause
the buildings to be distressed. As each level of fall in wealth level, the
same building will hold more. This is why I told you to move section by
section. Since after removing all those parks, your maintenance levels would
fall. Thus you can proceed on to the next area.
Therefore start removing those desirable parks and maybe even education. But
I do not advice removing health facilities as the longer the people live,
the larger your city will become.
Remember, it is a fall in desirability not an increase in commute time, even
though changing the commute time for the worse would lower desirability. This
is because this city is primarily going to hold a lot of people and if
commute time is high, no one will move into the city and you may get
buildings that become abandoned.
A good advice would be to place the low costs buses. It will help you
generate some additional income to make up for the loss in taxes from the
rich. And also it will improve commute time in this overcrowded city.
The concept for this is to create a viable sustainable farming community that
is profitable. I used the word sustainable because the farms must be able
to exist many years later and not be pushed out due to development or lack
of people working in the farms.
This is the most important thing about creating a sustainable farming
community, there must be no education. Not even a library. This is because
once a Sim starts getting educated, they will no longer want to work at the
farms at all.
If that happens, these Sims will have no jobs and the result is that they
will soon leave the city, thus causing your buildings to be distressed. After
that, a new batch of ignorant Sims will move in and the buildings will be
back to normal. But this would not last long. You will have this cycle of
distressed buildings or massive waves of reconstruction over and over again
in the city.
To allow this farming community to prosper, it is best to have big neighbours
with huge demand. That way the demand will rub off on your city, which is
not likely to generate that much demand herself.
An added way to bring in more cash other than construction of those polluting
industries is to make use of the fact that people can travel and work in
different cities. You could build a commercial area at the edge of the map
so people from the neighbouring city can come here to work.
Or you could build a residential area for the poor such that these people
go and work in the richer cities. This also helps your richer city as they
need not have low wealth housing in their city.
Given that farms pollute the water supply, you should place your water supply
away from the farms. Also try to leave a distance between the farms and the
residential area much like the Green Belt idea for air pollution.
Commercial zoning in between is acceptable since they do not complain about
the water. Although if one was working in an office, I am sure that one would
not want their water for making coffee to be green in colour. But I suppose
Sims enjoy their morning coffee with a tangy pesticide flavouring.
===========================END OF SECTION B-PART 8============================
This here is the new and improved walkthrough until you get your first
skyscraper. All in 16 years too! It used to be called the IdOIt's walkthrough
to 40,000 but that sounds kind of mean. So now I am calling it the advanced
tutorials also, the new name reflects the improvements to it. The aim of it
is to help you understand the basic mechanics of city building and how to get
a good profitable city started.
I am not sure whether is it because of Patch 2, but this time round, I
reached 40,000 population in about 10 years. Of course this time round, I
was more reckless with my spending. I spend more mostly because I am quite
certain of the effects of each spending. Therefore it should be noted that
with the exception of this tutorial, you should not spend so much and you
should leave more money in the bank.
Take note of the following:
Background Information
1) Read the earlier sections especially Section B, Parts 1 to 6.
2) Except for the first few months, you will always be making profits so no
business deals
Construction:
1) Statistics taken at the start of the year.
2) My constructions done at start of the year.
3) Always build when paused.
4) For those zero cost and maintenance rewards build them as soon as
possible. I usually will not tell you where to build it. But base its
placement on its effects.
Notes on Tutorial itself
1) I will not be repeating the word build over and over again. Whenever I
mention a structure in BLOCK LETTERS, it means build it.
2) Unless mentioned otherwise, all zoning is MEDIUM density.
3) I will refer to building instructions by use of square brackets. Thus
reference to the first instruction in year 0 will be like [0-1]. You will see
these numbers beside each instruction.
Adapt to your situation:
There is often a slight difference in the rate of increase each year even if
you do exactly the same thing. Therefore, focus on the population numbers
and income, which I have given and compare it with your situation. If my
figures are higher, than just wait a while to reach it. If my figures are
lower than your then just proceed.
1) Region:
This here would be the final setup of the three cities that I will be using
in the tutorial. They are all mid-sized maps. The numbers coincide with
their tutorial numbers. I will introduce you to my puppet mayors later on in
each tutorial. Bonus points for those who can spot from where are they
inspired from.
------------------------------------------
| Aureliano (2) | D'Uberville (1,3,5) |
------------------------------------------
| Villa San Girolamo (4) |
--------------------------
2) God Mode:
G-1) Create new Region selecting plain
G-2) Go into the city and immediately hit pause.
G-3) Optional: Use the mesa tool and click slightly on the right side of the
map. Use quick brush and spread across the right side of the map. If this
confuses you then forget it. This really is optional since I did not even
do it for my tutorials
G-5) Fill the place with trees thickly. Especially the top left hand side.
This here is an explanation of how the city plan is laid out. To save space,
I obviously cannot reproduce the entire plan of the city tile by tile. Hence
this mini map plan is used as an explanation.
Diagram C.03(1): Final City Layout for tutorial 1
I: Industrial Zone
R: Residential Zone
C: Commercial Zone
G: Green Belt
=: Free space for future highway or mass transit. It is 4 tiles long
w: Waste to power
P: Coal plant
A: Air force base
?: Possible place for cemetery
.: Black space for amenities, or pubic transport stations.
-------------------------
|W|A|I|G|C|R|.|R| | | | |
-------------------------
|P|A|.|G|.|.|.|.| | | | |
-------------------------
|G|G|I|G|C|R|.|R| | | | |
-------------------------
|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|
-------------------------
|I|=|I|G|C|R|.|R|=|R|.|R|
-------------------------
|.|=|.|G|.|.|.|.|=|.|.|.|
-------------------------
|I|=|I|G|C|R|.|R|=|R|.|R|
-------------------------
|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|
-------------------------
|I|=|I|G|C|R|.|R|=|C| | | > > > Commercial Plaza Zone
-------------------------
|.|=|.|G|.|.|.|.|=|.|.|.|
-------------------------
|I|=|I|G|C|R|.|R|=| | | |
-------------------------
|I|=|I|G|?|C|.|C|=| | | | > > > Zoning just to fit into last bit of map
-------------------------
Diagram C.03(2): Magnification of (ORS)
R: Residential
-: Road
.: Gap / empty space
E: Future development location of Elementary School
H: 3 possible sites for hospitals depending on position of (ORS) on map. It
does NOT ask you to place 3 hospitals in one (ORS).
Diagram C.03(3): Magnification of Commercial Plaza zoning
C: Commercial
P: Plaza, reward or any commercial boosters
.: Free space for commercial boosters, mass transit stations or amenities
-: Roads
Note that in the first tutorial only one quod the top left is filled up. And
the other commercial zones in the area are not based on the above design but
based on the design as seen in Diagram C.03(2): Magnification of Industrial
Zones.
This is the main plan of the city until the end of tutorial 1. The numbers
below refer to the instructions as to when to build it. I will not put
numbers below those areas left for expansion or the greenbelt. Also some
areas have two dates of construction because the initial construction does not
exhaust the entire area. Therefore I will list only the first date and in the
instructions for the subsequent build dates, I will refer to the first
instruction. I will place a (m) in that box to indicate areas of multiple
construction dates.
And before we begin, let me introduce you to D'Urberville's mayor, Tess.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 0<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
0-1) Establish the city, make sure the game is still at pause
0-2) Raise Tax:
-------------
| $ | $$|$$$|
---------------
R |8.3|8.0|7.5|
C |7.0|7.0|7.0|
I |9.0|8.0|7.0|
---------------
0-3) Have no construction with the exception of connections along the borders.
Leave 3 tiles along all edges and then place a road on the fourth tile.
This is an illustration on the corner of the map.
.: Empty / -: Roads / W: waste to power plant
...-.
...-.
...-.
-----
...-W
0-4) 1 WASTE TO POWER PLANT
Reduce Funding to Zero
0-5) 1 COAL POWER PLANT (1)
Remember to adjust funding.
0-6) INDUSTRIAL with GREEN BELT
1 Full Industrial Zone. (Unless Stated otherwise zoning is in MEDIUM density)
0-7) COMMERCIAL
2 (3x4) Zones. (Light)
0-8) RESIDENTIAL
1 Full (ORS). (Unless Stated otherwise zoning is in MEDIUM density)
0-9) 1 WATER TOWER (1)
Far end, away from polluting industry and power plants.
0-10) POWER LINES
Power extends about 4 tiles away from a place that has power. Power up
everything that is not powered.
0-11) Budget control
Applies to everything with micro budgets. Remember that power demand grows
greatly at the start. Check your power plant frequently or allow a high
funding at the start, about half or more until most zones are built.
0-12) Cash Balance: $25,069
0-13) Connections
Make a lot of connections, to the top and the left side. 1.6. Carry on making
connection throughout the years as you expand the city size.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 1<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 1513
Income: $757 (This is not profit. I will not list expense as it depends on
the funding you select and you will never make a lost except for the first
few months.)
Funds: $25,069 (Refers to cash left in the bank.)
1-1) COMMERCIAL
1 (4x4) built in same area as [0-7]. (Light)
1-2) RESIDENTIAL
1 Full (ORS).
1-3) 1 WATER TOWER (2)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 2<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 3701
Income: $ 1732
Funds: $ 16,555
2-1) 1 SMALL FIRE STATION
Remember to plant a few trees around any area where there is a fire outbreak.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 3<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 5681
Income: $ 2206
Funds: $ 31,490
3-1) INDUSTRIAL
2 quads or half an industrial zone.
3-2) 1 WATER TOWER (3)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 4<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 7441
Income: $ 2426
Funds: $ 35,675
4-1) COMMERCIAL
Fill up the commercial zones between the 2 (ORS) and the Green belt (LIGHT).
There should be 4 completed zones. Thus it includes the zone in [0-7].
4-2) 1 WATER TOWER (4)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 5<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 11,994
Income: $ 3057
Funds: $ 53,197
5-1) RESIDENTIAL
1 Full (ORS) at the bottom. Remember to leave the 4 tile highway space.
5-2) COMMERCIAL
Fill up the commercial zone between the new (ORS) and the Green Belt / new
industrial zone. (Light)
5-3) INDUSTRIAL
1 Full industrial zone
5-4) 1 WATER PUMP (1)
Demolish other water towers
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 6<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 17,547
Income: $ 4136
Funds: $ 37,198
6-1) COMMERCIAL
Fill up the row below the bottom (ORS) with commercial. Note, the zone should
be of medium density.
6-2) 3 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (3)
One in each (ORS). Remember to adjust all funding for all services.
6-3) 3 LIBRARIES (3)
One in each (ORS).
6-4) 2 TENNIS COURTS (2)
1 in top (ORS) the other at the bottom (ORS).
6-5) 1 COAL POWER PLANT (2)
I placed this midway through the way. Place it when you require more power.
Place it at where you place the other plants [0-5].
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 7<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 26,252
Income: $ 5305
Funds: $ 37,720
7-1) RESIDENTIAL
1 Full (ORS) to the right of the middle (ORS). Remember to leave highway gap.
7-2) COMMERCIAL
1 quad of the commercial plaza design.
7-3) 1 TENNIS COURT (3)
Place at the new (ORS).
7-4) 1 LARGE PLAZA (1)
Place at the new commercial plaza area, [7-2].
7-5) 1 LIBRARY (4)
One in the new (ORS)
7-6) 1 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (4)
One in the new (ORS)
7-7) 1 HOSPITAL
In the new (ORS) Remember to place it on the left most part of it such that
it capture not just its own (ORS) but part of the middle (ORS)
7-8) 1 WATER PUMP
7-9) 8 SMALL FLOWER GARDENS (8)
Two in each (ORS)
7-10) 1 CITY COLLEGE
Anyway, but I place it at the middle (ORS)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 8<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 29,751
Income: $ 6650
Funds: $ 22,205
8-1) INDUSTRIAL
Fill up the row below the bottom industrial zone [5-3] with industry.
8-2) MAYOR'S HOUSE
Just below the commercial plaza zones [7-2].
8-3) 1 HIGH SCHOOL (1)
At newest or right most (ORS).
8-4) COMMERCIAL UPGRADE
Upgrade all Commercial zone from light to medium.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 9<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 34,133
Income: $ 7590
Funds: $ 30,354
9-1) 3 HIGH SCHOOLS (4)
Place them in the remaining 3 (ORS) that does not have them
9-2) 2 HOSPITALS (3)
Place one in the bottom (ORS) and another in the top (ORS). The placement
in each (ORS) should be closest to the middle (ORS) such that the result is
all residential areas are covered.
9-3) INDUSTRIAL
Upgrade 6 (4x5) industrial zones closest to the middle (ORS) at [0-6].
9-4) AIR BASE
Midway through this way or maybe even earlier, you will get an air force
base reward. Place it beside your power plants.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 10<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 38,407
Income: $ 8297
Funds: $ 21,419
It should be noted that even if you do not build the following things, you
can reach 40,000 population within June of year 10.
10-1) 1 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (5)
Bottom (ORS). But only if the elementary school there can no longer handle
the students. Place it close and reduce bus funding to 0.
10-3) 4 MEDIUM PLAYGROUNDS (4)
One in each (ORS).
10-4) SMOKE DETECTOR ORDINANCE
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 11<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Note that all or most of your demand is should be positive. If they are not,
allow the simulation to run a bit more for it to turn into a positive one
before saving, exiting and proceeding on to the next tutorial
Just a side note for those viewing the version of this guide with the actual
pictures. I made a mistake when typing in the city and mayor name and mixed
up the name Macondo and Aureliano. But for your convenience, I shall stick to
the name Aureliano for the city even though it is wrong.
Diagram C.04(1): Final City Layout for Tutorial 2
I: Industrial Zone
R: Residential Zone
C: Commercial Zone
G: Green Belt
=: Free space for future highway or mass transit. It is 4 tiles long
w: Waste to power
P: Coal plant
A: Air force base
?: Possible place for cemetery and College
.: Black space for amenities, or pubic transport stations.
U: university
-----------------------
| | | |=|I|.|I|=|G|P|W|
-----------------------
| | | |=|I|.|I|=|G|A|A|
-----------------------
| | | |=|I|.|I|=|I|.|I|
-----------------------
| | | |=|G|.|G|=|G|G|G|
-----------------------
|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|
-----------------------
|R|.|R|=|C|.|C|=|R|.|R|
-----------------------
|.|.|.|=|.|.|.|=|.|.|.|
-----------------------
|R|.|R|=|C|.|C|=|R|.|R|
-----------------------
|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|
-----------------------
| | |C|=|R|.|R|=|R|.|R|
-----------------------
| | |.|=|.|.|.|=|.|.|.|
-----------------------
| | |U|=|R|.|R|=|R|.|R|
-----------------------
| | | |=| | | |=|C|.|?| >>> Zoning just to fit into last bit of map
-----------------------
The industrial zone in this city is rotated. Thus the strips go across the
map rather than down. And since the proportions of it placement is a bit
different, in the instructions on placement, I will state how many strips to
place. The diagram below represents the rotation and one strip. Placement
of strips should always move from the centre of town out. Also a half strip
means without the other half portion past the free space
Diagram C.04(2): Industrial Zone Rotate Strip
I: Industry
-: Road
.: Free Space
And now without further adieu Aureliano's mayor, Macondo.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 0<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
0-1) Raise Tax
--------------
| $ | $$|$$$|
----------------
R | 8.3|8.0|7.5|
C | 7.0|7.0|7.0|
I |11.0|8.0|7.0|
----------------
0-2) 1 SMALL FIRE STATION
0-3) 1 COAL POWER PLANT (1)
0-4) 1 WASTE POWER PLANT
Zero funding.
0-5) 3 WATER TOWERS (3)
Place them one by one over the course of the year. Keep a close eye on
water usage. Alternatively you could just place a water pump if you do not
mind not making as much in the start. After all the water pump will be
placed by year 2.
0-6) RESIDENTIAL
2 Full (ORS)
0-7) COMMERCIAL
1 quad of commercial plaza zoning. The two squares (6x7 + 6x6) closer to the
(ORS) should be zoned light while the other two that form the commercial
plaza zoning should be medium. Do not place the plaza yet.
0-8) INDUSTRIAL
3 strips of industry.
0-9) No electricity poles
Do not use any electricity poles in the city or from all cities now on. Use
the no poles method as stated earlier in the guide in the (OM). One tile of
commercial zone every 4 tiles.
REFER: A1.05.3: Maintenance, Decay and Overcapacity
0-10) CLEAN AIR ORDINANCE
0-11) Cash Balance: $13,924
0-12) CONNECTIONS
Make them both to D'Urberville and also to the other sides to SimNation to
get the double effect.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 1<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 2934
Income: $1521
Funds: $15,813
1-1) COMMERCIAL
One quad of Commercial Plaza zoning and another below the bottom right (ORS).
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 2<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 5173
Income: $2420
Funds: $17691
2-1) RESIDENTIAL
1 Full (ORS)
2-2) WATER PUMP (1)
Demolish the water towers.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 3<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 13,425
Income: $3539
Funds: $21,318
3-1) 3 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (3)
One in each (ORS).
3-2) 3 LIBRARIES (3)
One in each (ORS).
3-3) 3 TENNIS COURTS (3)
One in each (ORS).
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 4<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 19146
Income: $4101
Funds: $35,446
4-1) COMMERCIAL
2 quads.
4-2) INDUSTRIAL
3 half strips
4-3) 1 COLLEGE
Anywhere. I place it at the bottom (ORS)
4-4) 1 HOSPITAL (1)
To the left most of the bottom right (ORS)
4-5) 1 HIGH SCHOOL (1)
Bottom right (ORS).
4-6) MAYOR HOUSE
At the central commercial area. The lowest possible part of the zone, closest
to the bottom centre (ORS)
4-7) 6 SMALL FLOWER GARDENS (6)
2 in each (ORS)
4-8) 1 LARGE PLAZA
Place it at [4-1]. The bottom left quod.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 5<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 24,646
Income: $4954
Funds: $24,646
5-1) RESIDENTIAL
1 Full (ORS).
5-2) 1 HOSPITAL (2)
At the newest or left most (ORS).
5-3) 1 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (4)
At the newest or left most (ORS).
5-4) 1 LIBRARY (4)
At the newest or left most (ORS).
5-5) 2 SMALL FLOWER GARDENS (8)
At the newest or left most (ORS).
5-6) 1 WATER PUMP (2)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 6<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 30,260
Income: $6055
Funds: $12,110
6-1) INDUSTRIAL
3 full strips. No gap between this 3 strips and the prior 3 strips placed
earlier.
6-2) SMOKE DETECTOR ORDINANCE
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 7<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 31922
Income: $6662
Funds: $20,057
7-1) 3 HIGH SCHOOLS (4)
One in each of the remaining (ORS) without a high school.
7-2) 2 + 1 HOSPITALS (4)
Demolish the one in the bottom right (ORS). Then place one in each (ORS)
without a hospital. Remember to adjust the ambulance funding.
7-3) 4 MEDIUM PLAYGROUND (4)
One in each (ORS)
7-4) AIR FORCE BASE
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 8<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 37,738
Income: $7566
Funds: $25,142
8-1) COMMERCIAL
1 quad.
8-2) COMMERCIAL PLAZA
Place it at [4-1]. The top left commercial quod.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 9<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 38091
Income: $7927
Funds: $32,176
9-1) UNIVERSITY
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Aureliano - Year 10<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
C.05: Tutorial 3: D'Urberville Revisited, Year 11-15
Nothing much will be built here. This short period serves to fill up the
map, allow the demand from Aureliano to filter over and have a positive
effect and to save up some money.
Diagram C.05: Final City Plan for Tutorial 3
R: Residential Zone
C: Commercial Zone
G: Green Belt
=: Free space for future highway or mass transit. It is 4 tiles long
w: Waste to power
P: Coal plant
A: Air force base
?: Possible place for cemetery
.: Black space for amenities, or pubic transport stations.
L: Golf country Club. The L means links.
S: Minor League Stadium
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 11<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 41,712
Income: $8950
Funds: $35,588
The above figures represent exactly from where we left off in tutorial 1.
11-1) Raise Taxes
--------------
| $ | $$|$$$|
----------------
R | 8.3|8.0|7.5|
C | 7.0|7.0|7.0|
I |11.0|8.0|7.0|
----------------
11-2) CLEAN AIR ACT
11-3) COAL POWER PLANT
Place it when you require the power.
11-4) Electricity Poles
Remove all of them and use the no poles method.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 12<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 42,807
Income: $10,095
Funds: $35,185
12-1) 1 WATER PUMP
12-2) RESIDENTIAL UPGRADE
Upgrade this one quod to high density. You will most probably not see any
skyscrapers at this point. This is here just in case you get lucky, which is
very, very unlikely.
12-3) COMMERCIAL
3 commercial quads without the plaza
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 13<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 43,944
Income: $10711
Funds: $43,944
No Construction
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>D'Urberville - Year 14<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Pop: 46015
Income: $11558
Funds: $80,498
L: Golf Course
U: University
S: Stadium
C: Commercial
-: Roads
.: Empty
P: Police Station
I made this tutorial in a manner so that I can introduce you to another layout
pattern, LERS. I will also used the (ORS) in this city. That way you can
compare to see which do you prefer.
The main purpose of this city is to further build up demand and to show
you a high tech city in operation. So do not worry if in the first few years
the population is not growing or even dropping. It will recover once the
power of the LERS kick in. Remember to look at the concept behind LERS,
before you implement it.
REFER: B2.03.2: Local Effect Residential Superstructure (LERS)
I will only point out a few areas but I am sure upon seeing them you can
under stand the entire diagram.
Diagram C.06(2): LERS Magnification
R: Residential
-: Roads
E: Elementary School
H: High School
.: Gap / Empty space for other amenities or Stations
S: Bus or Subway Station
P: Parks, Gardens or rewards. Or if need be public transport stations.
C: Tennis Courts of Basketball courts. But any recreation facility will
suffice
M: Hospital
W: Workplace: Commercial or Industrial.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - PLAN<><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Diagram C.06(2): Final City Layout
I: Industrial Zone
R: Residential Zone
C: Commercial Zone
G: Green Belt
=: Free space for future highway or mass transit. It is 4 tiles long
w: Waste to power
P: Coal plant
A: Air force base
R: Advance Research Centre
?: Possible place for cemetery and College
.: Black space for amenities, or public transport stations.
U: university
\: This zig zag represents not a break in the city but rather only in
/: the diagram. The reason is that the (LERS) on the left is in different
proportions to the (ORS) on the right in this diagram. This is to alert
you to the different proportions so you do not get confused.
And introducing the last of the mayors, Villa San Girolamo's mayor, Hana.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 0<><><><><><><><><><><><><
0-1) Raise Tax
---------------
| $ | $$ |$$$|
-----------------
R | 8.3| 8.0|7.5|
C | 7.0| 7.0|7.0|
I |18.0|18.0|7.0|
-----------------
0-2) 1 COAL POWER (1)
0-3) WASTE TO POWER
Zero funding.
0-4) RESIDENTIAL
Fill part of LERS according to city plan.
0-5) COMMERCIAL
Fill top right of LERS according to city plan.
0-6) INDUSTRIAL
Fill top left of LERS according to city plan. Do not worry if one or two
manufacturing or dirty appears. As long as when you turn on the pollution
data view, there is no air pollution, you may leave them. They will soon
be gone by themselves as high tech gets established.
0-7) 4 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (4)
Place them to cover the residential area according to the LERS placement.
Remember to adopt the LERS concept of funding for all services if not you
will be broke in no time.
0-8) 1 HOSPITAL (1)
0-9) 1 HIGH SCHOOL (1)
Place one at [0-8].
0-10) 2 TENNIS COURTS (2)
Beside the top most elementary school. According to LERS placement.
0-11) WATER TOWER / PUMP
It is up to you whether or not to use a water tower or pump. The rate of
usage increase so much that I had to use a pump within a year.
0-12) CLEAN AIR ACT
0-13) CONNECTIONS
0-4) Cash Balance: 22,619
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 1<><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 2300
Income: $1487
Funds: $24,505
1-1) RESIDENTIAL
Fill according to city plan.
1-2) COMMERCIAL
Fill bottom right of LERS according to diagram.
1-3) 1 HIGH SCHOOL (2)
1-4) 1 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (5)
Place to cover new residential area
1-5) 1 HOSPITAL (2)
Place at [1-3]
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 2<><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 3164
Income: $2638
Funds: $1,703
No Construction
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 3<><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 2909
Income: $2725
Funds: $35,463
3-1) RESIDENTIAL
Fill up rest of LERS.
3-2) COMMERCIAL
Bottom left of LERS.
3-3) 3 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (8)
Fill up the remaining LERS area for schools.
3-4) 2 HOSPITALS (4)
Fill up the remaining LERS area for hospitals.
3-5) 1 CITY COLLEGE
Place it anywhere that is not slated for future construction.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 4<><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 5572
Income: $4235
Funds: $29,264
4-1) 2 HIGH SCHOOLS (4)
Fill up the rest of the LERS slated for high school. [3-4]
4-2) 1 SMALL FIRE STATION
Cover the industrial area.
4-3) 6 TENNIS COURTS (8)
Fill up the areas slated for tennis courts.
4-4) MAYOR HOUSE
Place it inside the LERS.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 5<><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 9888
Income: $4839
Funds: $57393
5-1) RESIDENTIAL
1 Full (ORS)
5-2) COMMERCIAL
Place 4(6x10) zones. After the third (6x10), leave a space of 4 empty tiles
not including the road. Thus somewhat like the small diagram.
C
C
C
.
C
5-3) 1 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (9)
At new (ORS). Remember to return this school's bus coverage to normal.
5-4) 1 HIGH SCHOOL (5)
At new (ORS). Remember to return this school's bus coverage to normal.
5-5) 1 HOSPTIAL (5)
At new (ORS). Remember to return this hospital's ambulance coverage to
normal.
5-6) 2 TENNIS COURTS (10)
At new (ORS).
5-7) 1 WATER PUMP (2)
Place it when needed.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 6<><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 13,056
Income: $6176
Funds: $60,504
6-1) RESIDENTIAL
1 full (ORS).
6-2) SMOKE ORDINANCE
6-3) 1 HOSPITAL (6)
At new (ORS)
6-4) 1 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (10)
At new (ORS)
6-5) 1 HIGH SCHOOL (6)
At new (ORS)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 7<><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 14,927
Income: $6983
Funds: $75,421
7-1) AIR BASE
7-2) UNIVERSITY
7-3) MAYOR STATUE
In the LERS, preferably in between the top right commercial LERS zone and
residential zone
7-4) 1 LARGE PLAZA (1)
In the LERS, preferably in between the bottom left commercial LERS zone and
residential zone. Put it in the designated slot as provided for in the
magnified LERS diagram.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 8<><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 17,785
Income: $7631
Funds: $96,588
8-1) RESIDENTIAL
A partial LERS.
8-2) COMMERCIAL
8-3) INDUSTRIAL
8-4) 1 SOFTBALL (1)
In the new partial LERS, preferably in between the top left industrial LERS
zone and residential zone
8-5) 1 LARGE PLAZA (2)
In the new partial LERS, preferably in between the top right commercial LERS
zone and residential zone
8-6) 5 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (15)
Cover the new partial LERS.
8-7) 3 HIGH SCHOOLS (9)
Cover the new partial LERS.
8-8) 3 HOSPITALS (9)
Cover the new partial LERS.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 9<><><><><><><><><><><><><
Pop: 23,000
Income: $9214
Funds: $86,799
9-1) INDUSTRIAL
The last row of the new LERS is a bit longer, since we want to make use of
the last bit of the map space. Place 2(6x8) and 2(8x8) at the bottom of the
partial LERS.
9-2) IMPRESSIVE MAYOR STATUE
In the old full LERS. Preferably in between the bottom right commercial LERS
zone and the residential area.
9-3) 1 LARGE FLOWER GARDEN (1)
At any of the old full LERS designated park area that has yet to be filled.
9-4) 1 LARGE PLAZA (3)
At any of the old full LERS designated park area that has yet to be filled.
9-5) 2 TENNIS COURTS (12)
At the new partial LERS area. Place them at the designated court area. Mix
it with the skateboard court.
9-6) 2 SKATEBOARDS (2)
At the new partial LERS area. Place them at the designated court area. Mix
it with the tennis court.
9-7) 1 COAL POWER PLANT (2)
At the power plant area
9-8) ADVANCED RESEARCH CENTRE
Somewhere along the line you will get this. Do NOT place it near your
residential area. Place beside air force base.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>Villa San Girolamo - Year 10<><><><><><><><><><><><>
For commercial skyscrapers, carrying on expanding and creating new cities.
And refer to the strategy section. Right now you should have three
profitable cities with strong demand.
But most importantly, this should teach you the main mechanics behind the
game. This is ultimately an advanced tutorial. The more complicated game
play strategies are found under SECTION B.
===============================END OF SECTION C===============================
_______________________________________________________________________[253]__
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION D: EXPLOITS OR "CHEATS" S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ ~~~| START |~~~
C~~\_____/~~ C~~\_____/~~
______________________________________________________________________________
"Under capitalism, man exploits man.
Under communism, it's just the opposite."
John Kenneth Galbraith.
The following are methods that exploit the game under the rules it has.
Whether you view them as "cheats" depends on if you are a positivist, or a
follower of natural law.
As a positivist who views things as it is without reference to moral judgement
and normative statements, you will easily conclude that these methods are not
cheats at all for these follow the rules of the game. After all these are not
means that change the codes or support the use trainers, which circumvent the
rules laid down.
However, as follower of natural law, which St. Thomas Aquinas has described
as the "dictate of right reason," you might disagree. Or if you are not of the
Christian religious belief there is also the natural stoics school of thought.
Either way you might conclude for whatever reason that these are wrong and
thus are cheats.
Furthermore, the term cheats is already misleading since the act of cheating
requires a form of deception with a party being deceived. Even if you view
your computer as a human being, it cannot be claim to be deceived because it
is the one acting upon your directions with full knowledge.
For those of you who wonder what this digression is for, it simply is to show
people there are different ways to approach this issue. But I am not going to
dictate the way you play a game, which you bought. Therefore do not flame me
telling me to remove these exploits.
The basis of this method is to generate income without expenses or population
in the city at all. It does not matter that the amount made is small since you
can also run the simulation for many years to build up the cash. Thus after
setting it up, you can either take a break or read a book since it may take
sometime to build up the cash.
There are several variants of it. You can either use them in conjunction or
separately.
Legalize Gambling:
To start any ordinance you need something built. I think a single residential
tile is sufficient. Legalize gambling to make $100 a month then remove the
road and wait for the next few hundred years.
Selling power or water:
This only occurs if you have the neighbour with the demand. Similarly set this
up and allow the simulation to run.
Business deals:
Start up a small town just maybe less than a hundred. Then build a huge
amount of expenses such as normal power plants or waster to power plants. Run
your budget into the ground. Accept all the deals possible. Then either remove
the budget busters or sell power and water to your neighbours if possible.
Import waste if and only if you have the waste to power plant and NOT a
landfill.
As Winfield & Jolowicz book on tort stated so clearly, "Lightning,
earthquakes, ... and tornadoes may be acts of God..." Therefore you should
use them as a means to frustrate any obligations relating to monetary payment
when destroying buildings.
Of course the most effective is still the fire disaster. But I prefer to view
them as arsonists sent on behalf of the mayor. Fire unless started by a
natural disaster is always man-made, be it through negligence or intentional.
For those of you who have trouble directing your fire-starters, you have to
realise that you should not release the mouse button until and unless the
building is blown apart by the fiery cursor. A single click in most cases is
not sufficient to start a firestorm.
This is not so much a cheat at all but merely how you play the game. You
could set up a normal utility city and import power from there or export
garbage to their. But do not play that city. That way your power plants and
utilities will never age and the landfill if any will never fill up.
Let me quote MaxisDevinoch (Mayor Steven) who is from Maxis / EA and is one
of the moderator of the official SimCity 4 forum.
"Q: Users can get reward buildings twice. They can open rewards,
choose building, then place it. Then, click on the link in
the news ticker about the new reward, and place it again.
A: This is an extra bonus to those clever enough to discover it."
Prior to this, I thought that this was a bug. But since the person writing
this is from Maxis / EA therefore, one can only say that this is not a bug.
Another obvious bug, which I have heard. Reduce funding to the landfill. You
will get messages about problems with garbage yet no garbage is being piled
up in the city. And your garbage chart will show an increase in garbage
yet if you look at the data view, there is no garbage in the city.
1) Cheat Codes
There seems to be two ways of activating the cheat box.
[Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Alt] + [x]
[Ctrl] + [x]
If one does not work then try the other. I seem to have problem activating
the box and often I have to hit the keys over and over again. Here are some
of the cheats. I really do not recommend the rest especially the no power
or water one since, I have heard of people who are unable to turn it off
once it is turned on and their city starts having problems.
stopwatch: Stop the 24 hour cycle clock
whererufrom: Change City Name. Put in new name after the code.
hellomynameis: Change mayor's name. Put in new name after the code.
you don't deserve it: All rewards available
sizeof: Select a size between (1) current magnification and (100) maximum
magnification.
weaknesspays: $1000.
2) God Mode Cheat
To terraform your city after you have established your city for free, hit
this code and press on the God Mode button. Its terraform tools will be
available again.
A) Select the reward or business deal you wish to build.
B) Press the right mouse button and hold it.
C) Press the left button to build while still holding on to the right button.
D) Continue to place it as long as you do not release the right button.
E) When you wish to build the same reward again later on, simply demolish one
of the existing rewards and the option to build will be available again.
===============================END OF SECTION D===============================
_______________________________________________________________________[263]__
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
S~~| o |~~P SECTION F: HANDY REFERENCE CHART, S~~| o |~~P
~~~| START |~~~ FUN STUFF & BUILDING CATALOGUE ~~~| START |~~~
F~~\_____/~~ F~~\_____/~~
______________________________________________________________________________
"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moo-cow
coming down along the road and this moo-cow that was coming down
along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo."
James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
This section includes multitude of things. It includes funny things in the
game, good SimCity 4 websites, a catalogue of all buildings in the game and
its info. Finally, I have complied several tables throughout the guide into
one handy reference chart.
Oh, and one more thing since I do not know where to put hits information,
the game contrary to some, does not begin in 1900 as flight was not invented
then and in the game you can build a huge airport.
Dispatch Police:
You can dispatch the police under the emergency button to catch the
criminals. You will see the police catching the criminal and placing the
criminal into the car. To determine where the criminal is use your data
chart. If however, most of the time when your police arrives, the criminal
has moved away, do not worry. Often the criminal is still around the area.
Therefore, you could always blanket the area with multiple police vehicles
so that at least one can catch the criminal.
Change Traffic lights:
You can change the traffic lights and look at the traffic jams that you
will cause. However, I belief that only the animation is affected rather then
the game play itself.
[Query] + [shift] + [click on object]
Well, these are more of game observations than anything.
1) Un-dead comes forth:
I have seen this once and initially I thought un-dead walk the cemetery every
night. But upon reading the message boards, I realised that the zombies only
appear during October. Anybody with me that EA or Maxis should tie up with
whatever the company that is doing Buffy so that we can have a "Buffy" reward
once we have three cemeteries? Or maybe they could also team up with fox and
create an X files division in the local police station.
2) Brotherhood of Nod:
One of the high-tech buildings is called Kane Tiberium. Perhaps, this is one
of the weapons manufacturing plants or refineries. GDI commands you to use
your "lightning storm" to destroy this nefarious Nod base. Also the high
tech building Havoc Bioenhancements is also from C&C.
3) The Sims
I have not played "The Sims" but from what I gather these items relate to
them.
A) Signs on Commercial Stores:
On some commercial stores, you can the "The Sims" sign on the store front.
B) Hot tub:
The hot tub in the backyard belongs to the Sims.
C) Servo the Home Robot:
It is not an alien attack disaster but it is a robot from The Sims.
D) Sim Names:
Bella Barium and Goth mechanics, both manufacturing buildings are supposed
to refer to characters from the Sims.
4) Drive Through Cinemas:
The movie turns on at about 7pm to about 4am. A very short movie of alien
space ships making crop circles and planes attacking the ships. It is the
intro to SimCity 3000.
5) Prisoner's escape:
When your police station or jails are over-crowded, sometimes there will
be a jail break. You will see prisoners running away.
6) Zoo escape:
When funding is too low, sometimes, the animals will run out and scare
the Sims around the animal.
7) Toxic Truck and Fear:
When you place the toxic truck rewards there will be toxic trucks moving
around the area spilling green goo. If the truck passes anybody on the road,
that person will run and scream. For best effect use a cheat to place the
toxic dump next to a casino. See those conga lines break.
8) Casino and conga lines:
There will be a conga line outside the casino.
9) University Graduation:
In late June, you will see the court yard filled up for a graduation
ceremony. Slow down your game speed for this last only a few days.
10) Death of My Sim:
When your MySim dies you can see his soul move up to heaven.
11) Car from Buildings:
A mayor's car comes forth when you place the Mayor's House down. A black car
appears when a cemetery is placed. And for TV Station, TV vans.
12) Strange Happenings:
When you place the advanced research lab, you will see a glowing thing
moving around the area of the lab.
13) Air Base:
When you place the transport add-on, you will see those exhibition jets
flying around. Also like the Army base, you will see troops marching around
the camp and there will be tanks driving on your roads.
14) Graffiti:
Although this is not a crime in the game, it often appears in areas where
there are crime. Look around to see the graffiti.
15) Taxis:
This is not too spectacular but often I wonder where do they appear from.
They would definitely appear if you have a train station.
16) Maxis Self Promotion
On some retail stores, you can see either the Maxis sign.
17) Flasher or any crime:
Use the data view to determine the location of the flasher and zone to that
location to see this display. This works with any other crime. By the way the
pie throwing is also quite funny. But sometimes you may not see any crime in
progress.
18) Golf Club
There is a nude swimmer at the pond at night.
19) Disease Lab
I have heard that once in a while you can see monkeys escaping from the
disease lab.
This game has been released for several month and many of the SimCity 4
sites has fallen. But there are still some bright lights left. And some
shinning even brighter than ever.
Please note that I have not tried or downloaded any of the trainers or files
that are on these sites. So use your own caution and discretion.
--------------------------------------
|All encompassing Sim City 4 websites|
--------------------------------------
These are sites with all encompassing information. Some more so than others.
Generally, these sites provide downloads, tactics and have a forum.
1) www.simtropolis.com
www.simcity-4.net
Simtropolis site is the best among the lot. You can find thousands of others
in their forum. It has the one and only viable Mod download, sandbox,
regions and many others. You can find my guide here with pictures instead of
ASCII diagram too.
2) w1.193.telia.com/~u19311232/home.html
Gothia is a good site for landmarks download.
3) www.sc4ever.com
4) www.jphayden.com/sc/
-------------------------
|SimCity 4 Support Sites|
-------------------------
These are sites that provide good information for the game
1) home.new.rr.com/larzgames/
2) http://www.simbase.info/#
This site is still under construction.
-------------------------------------------------
|General game websites with things on Sim City 4|
-------------------------------------------------
The following are the sites with my guide.
The following exceptional sites has won thy451's HOT TUB awards. These
outstanding city sites has won the award because through the sheer talent and
originality of their mayors, they have managed to bring each and every one
of their cities and region to life.
The numbers are just numbers, not rankings. The LLAMA standard are the best
of the lot. The FLUFFY standard are given to sites with great potential and
on the verge of attaining the LLAMA standard. The FLUFFY standard is named
in honour of Fluffy the Wonder Cat, who is part of the committee of judges
along with some Llamas too.
HOT TUB (LLAMA) AWARDS
1) www.members.shaw.ca/stormfront/
2) www.fastincorporated.co.uk/
3) www.485group.com/sc4/index.php
4) www.geocities.com/timville_city/
HOT TUB (FLUFFY) AWARDS
5) emma.bailey.bei.t-online.de/home.htm
6) www.tnfj.com/SC4/
The following is a list of all the funny news type messages that appears in
your ticker box. I have split them up loosely into various categories of
humour. If you spot any others or spot a mistake, send a mail to me.
Fluffy the Wonder Cat:
Fluffy the wonder cat arrested at anti-mouse protest.
Fluffy the wonder cat dating juicy Hollywood babe; “Just friends” he says.
Fluffy the wonder cat says, “Use ‘Control - /’ to turn off help text!”
Fluffy the wonder cat given honorary degree; “Whisker-tingling” he says.
Fluffy the wonder cat recruited by pro basketball league.
Fluffy the wonder cat relaxes in scented bath, handlers reveal.
Giant broccoli sculpture of Fluffy the wonder cat proposed immediately
rejected.
Broccoli:
Broccoli growing in memory chips common cause of main frame failures.
Broccoli S’mores not nearly as popular as predicted.
Highly compressed broccoli found to be more explosive than TNT.
New broccoli based hairstyle all the rage for teens.
Sim fiancée fervently declares she’d rather have broccoli than ring.
Talking broccoli displays talents; “Easier than walking,” he says.
Llamas:
Cigar-smoking llamas defies restaurant ban; shouts “Ruminant rights!”
Five llamas charged in daring daytime bank heist.
Llamas petition to get in on Twelve day of Christmas song.
Two in three llamas prefer deodorant over anti-perspirant.
Researchers find that llamas have perfect hoof / eye coordination for driving.
Coming to life:
Armadillos want aardvarks removed from dictionary claims “Here first.”
Angel found dancing on pinhead ordered to stop; cited for public nuisance.
Cat speaks; “How can you stand the high price of milk today?”
Fleas protest bad wages, long hours at flea market.
Kangaroo spotted with newspaper and cappuccino at trendy eatery.
Letters claim they are better than number; “Always have been.”
Man bites dog; dog writes bestseller on animal cruelty.
Poker-playing cats and dogs would rather play checkers.
Polly Wally firmly declares he’s never doodled at all.
Pens proclaim pencils obsolete, “lead is dead.”
Rock and paper sues scissors for discrimination.
Steak tell-all book reveals he never liked sitting by potato.
Talking computer demands better situation comedies and fewer cop shows.
Talking mailbox signed up to be star of new network situation comedy.
Three kinds of chesses can speak rudimentary French; accents “atrocious.”
Woodchuck stops counting how many times he’s chucked “Never again.”
Discoveries:
90-weight motor oil found to be better than gravity for Thanksgiving potatoes.
100 years of newspapers boiled, but no nutritive content found.
Aerobic exercise found to increase hair loss.
Age 16 not particularly sweet; 15-year-old hopes dashed.
Aging sure sign of getting old says science-Schmience researcher.
Ancient dog food found in dinner plate crack; “Tastes like chicken.”
Aromatic cleaning products found to cause spontaneous song in Sims.
Ball squarely hitting bat determined “best sound of all time.”
Boringly obvious scientists group warns “Don’t cuddle chainsaws.”
“Boy meets girl” plot declared unreasonable.
Bunnies have long history of aggression, also have deep philosophical side.
Car batteries not recommended as book ends.
City discovered to be shaped like giant kiwi, say fruit geographers.
Centenarians say key to longevity is bacon fat and whiskey.
Comic books found to be ideal college-prep reading material.
Dentists declares video games causes tooth decay; Sims defiantly smiling.
Doctors disagree that skin blemishes sign of higher intelligence.
Etiquette maven says nail tile good emergency substitutes for steak knife.
Female chimpanzees more likely to succeed in law school than males.
French mayonnaise fine substitute for good parenting, survey shows.
High cholesterol is mark of mechanical genius; new studies pending.
High-protein diets linked to urge to buy undersized shoes.
Hop, skip and jump found to be most effective travel pattern.
“Huh?” and “How’s that?” favoured quiz answers, says teachers.
Intelligent earthworms discovered; can perform long-division in seconds.
Inventor declares soft toothbrushes make better cell phone antennas.
Jumping rope well “definitive path to political office” says expert.
Large footed men’s society declared high-heeled women menace.
Matching cups and saucers more important than integrity, manners expert
declares.
Men with “jaunty step” discovered to be slightly depressed.
Miniature glacier found to in soft drink.
More children own municipal bonds than ever before, statisticians find.
Moving mouth while reading shown to be alien possession.
No evidence that belching stimulates clear thinking, scientists find.
Occurrences of knowing glances rise 3% over last year.
Outrageous levels of dirt found in open fields.
Palaeontologist finds dinosaur library; “Avid readers, but mostly summer
novels.”
Paper clip deemed greatest achievement of 20th century.
Perception of beauty relies on 3% of face near chin, not on beholder.
Plastic would make perfect food if it tasted better and had nutrients.
Psychic abilities found in claw hammers; carpenters grow paranoid.
Psychologists insist that minding one’s business is deceptive and threatening.
Reckless skateboarding indicates hidden propensity for Elizabethan poetry,
researchers avow.
Record played backwards reveals Julius Caesar had feminine side.
Researchers discover that oatmeal has consciousness eating it considered
“gruel and unusual.”
Researchers says staring at dormant phone proven to decrease calls.
Rolling gutter balls proven to enhance sex life, bowling scientists say.
Scientist says anyone who can thread needle must be a space alien.
Scientist spots end of infinity; “looks like umbrella.”
Scientist proclaims that yeast doesn’t rise, “Gravitational trick” he scoffs.
Seven percent of Sim Scientists discontented with zero: “It’s nothing.”
Sim discovers tiny world ruled by microbes in cufflink.
Sims curious about the afterlife proven to have better digestion.
Sims that wish upon starts better lovers, survey says.
Space probe finds that rock and roll originated on Pluto.
Studies show that cat food may actually be pleasant smelling after all.
Study concludes “one and one not two. Never has been.”
Study says soldiers’ digestion aided by periodic loud explosions.
Tennessee waltz found to have originated in Hawaii.
Trying harder just makes it worse, specialists agree.
“Three strikes, you’re out” declared detrimental to self esteem.
Vertical writing society says people afraid of good new ideas.
Wearing gloves found to be negatively impact sense of touch.
Wednesday 3pm perfect time to scream say researchers.
Words “Have a nice day produces psychosis in 3% of hearers.
Words revealed to be simply sounds; “No real meaning at all.”
Tabloid News:
Awestruck diners see perfect burger cooked in real time.
Big sale on used musking tape downtown attracts discount housepainters.
Birthday cake that magically turns into oil filter depresses celebrating baby.
Carbonated cherry coffee product developed; “I’d rather drink antifreeze”
tester says.
Camera and mic found in apple given to Sim teacher.
Celtic-dancing waitress kicks pastrami sandwich thirty feet, a new record.
Charcoal briquette missing after surgery found years later as diamond.
Child rewrite encyclopaedia; “It lacked narrative drive,” he says.
Company claims rodent found in bottled drink is “flavouring.”
Couples names infant “Booby Dooby Da-Da Ding-Ding” he sues.
Donut with square hole sold on online auction site.
Enraged computer user eats balky machine, takes tiny bytes.
European map with all capitals discerned on horse’s rump.
Genius considers pencil chewing, ear-pulling as greatest inspiration.
“Here kitty kitty” no longer preferred cat retrieval technique.
Husband locked out all night rewrites Moby Dick; “Prefers happy ending.”
Lawyer sues to get empty spaces filed; hates holes and gaps.
Linguists disagree about word placement in “Boo Hoo.”
Little is know about unusual thing; speculation rampant.
Man addicted to licking stamps donates tongue to science.
Man travels 7000 miles to retrieve lost hankie, “It was my favourite.”
Man with constant hiccups found to have trampoline in stomach.
Men assembles 700-pound hairball; “Just a hobby,” he says.
Multiple-personality Sim wins Best Actor / Actress / Supporting Actor awards.
New bowling lanes that shoots balls at bowlers very popular.
One syllable poem wins Sim slam poetry festival; “Emotionally compelling.”
Publishers test printing on pets; “can simultaneously groom and read.”
Raging storms wash out hair dye; distressed woman sues God.
School children tie up teachers and go on 24-hours news watching binge.
Sculptor transforms car into giant frog; “lousy mileage” critics say.
Sim achieves world record in whistling at work; fellow workers homicidal.
Sim children discovered operating international “Go Fish” gambling ring.
Sim claiming to “live on love” caught using credit card.
Sim composes commercial jingles in her sleep, also knits and write haiku.
Sim farmer makes tractor that runs in pancake syrup.
Sim get tattoo of solar system on chest; “moons tickle most.”
Sim marries computer; wedding attended by 100 modems.
Sim reports successfully using harmonica as cheese grater.
Sim wound all-expenses paid vacation to his garage.
Sims finally skip to M’Lou, but she’s not home.
Sims invents handkerchief that says “Bless you” after sneeze.
Sims petition city council for soy-free Wednesdays.
Society of children named Mavis stages library sit in.
Subliminal TV messages command Sims to don pants two legs at a time.
Teachers outraged at students passing notes written on foundation garments.
“Three more days until doomsday” reports pleasant Sim lunatic.
Tiny tots card shark school promises two-year old blackjack experts.
Toe jam miracle weight-loss cure, recipe book planned.
Twin accused of posing for other twin’s school photo.
Wife’s perfume causes husband’s excessive sweating; hospitalized.
Woman harbouring rhino in closet not apologetic; “He’s quiet, groomed.”
Woman robs store with hair dryer; clerk loves new style.
City News: [CN] refers to the name of the city the news appears in.
[CN] Clerk first person able to pronounce “@*$%OA!”
[CN] cat drives bus four blocks, “Competent but shed everywhere.
[CN] crows sought by schools as translation experts.
[CN] delis serving boiled paperback dictionaries, “Adjectives chewy”
customers declare.
[CN] man uses gigantic magnets to prevent balding.
[CN] man raises singing bacteria; “Just a hobby he says.”
[CN] man writes opera based on water main noises.
[CN] novelist writes one word book, “Eloquent! says it all.”
[CN] Schnauzer can roller skate; is also day trader.
[CN] transit worker rolls 100 miles inside giant tire for charity.
[CN] weather deemed “boring;” thunderbolts and hail to be imported.
[CN] woman can tell future by reading sock drawers.
[CN] woman has model of solar system in her mouth.
Cloud shaped like typing porcupine seen in [CN] skies.
Congratulations to [CN] resident with world record for largest tongue.
Crushed corn chips popular new furniture setting in [CN].
Cucumber shaped like broccoli found in [CN] garden.
Famous actress returns to [CN] to build sombrero factory.
Media reports every third streets in [CN] haunted by singing cats.
Men telekinetically tunes car; vacuum cleaner still on Fritz.
More roast yak / cucumber sandwiches eaten in [CN] than elsewhere.
Most [CN] traffic cops prefer cream over sugar.
New craze of wearing one flip-flop and one spiked heel sweep [CN].
Palindrome speakers conference in [CN]; “Wow!” says Otto.
Question mark worshipped as deity by ancient [CN] dwellers.
Spilled milk causes whole [CN] block to cry.
World largest tofu patty at display in [CN].
This part is a review by Robert B. Chaffe, who has done a review of the Prima
Guide. Just in case you are not too certain as to whether or not to purchase
it, this should provide you with a good idea of whether would it be helpful
to your needs. So without further delay, here is the guide:
Since a few individuals have inquired about the usefulness of SimCity4:
Prima’s Official Strategy Guide, I thought I would offer my review of the
book.
Overall it is a somewhat useful guide. It provides many facts and figures
that may assist the player in understanding the inner workings of the
simulation. The various interface elements are described in more detail
compared to the game manual. There are several tables of data that may help
in various decisions, such as if and where one should place various reward
buildings. There are also several game play tips scattered throughout.
It must be noted, however, that the Guide is very light on strategy when it
comes to the design and layout of a city. For example, it will provide
adequate data regarding freight trip lengths and rail capacities, but very
little advice on how to actually lay out a rail system for maximum
efficiency. And should the freight station arrow face the road or the rail?
The Guide doesn’t say! Anyway, if you’re interested in the figures, and can
develop city layout strategies on your own based on those figures, then this
book can be very useful. If you’re looking for a bit more advice on city
layout strategy, you will be disappointed. But it is still a whole lot more
informative than the manual provided with the game!
I must also note that several errors are evident in this book. Conflicting
figures are provided on different pages for the age ranges of educational
buildings, for example. Some buildings’ radius of effect figures are more
confusing than helpful. I am fairly certain the figures in the Time To
Cross table on page 246 are minutes per tile, not tile per minute. The
errors do not detract too much from the overall usefulness of the book,
though. (Did I mention that it is a whole lot more informative than the game
manual?)
Before I get started on a more detailed review, I must state that there are
now numerous other resources on the internet, many of which will be much more
helpful than the Guide, especially in the area of region and city layout
strategy. Additionally, many of the useful lists and tables from this Guide
are duplicated somewhere on the net. Consider this before deciding upon
purchasing this book.
Here is a review of the contents by chapter, in case you’re bored.
Chapter 1: Getting Started
This is a very brief introduction to the region view, basic terra-forming
and game modes. It includes a useful tip on land value.
Chapter 2: Life of a City
This contains a breakdown of game play and city growth into "phases". Might
be somewhat useful to the beginner. Provided are some general guidelines of
what to provide for a city at successive population levels. It’s the
closest thing to a "strategy" in the Guide but it lacks specifics and
provides no city layout strategy.
Chapter 3: Vital Information
This chapter just contains lists and tables that are scattered throughout
the Guide. Fairly useful. Could have had more table data consolidated
here, though. Might have been more useful yet as a detachable quick
reference card.
Chapter 4: Quick Tips
This is probably the most useful chapter in the book. There are a lot of
tips in here. A "must read" for the beginner. Did you know that, if you
go §100,000 in the red, you’ll be impeached? I must try that sometime.
Chapter 5: Modes
Here the various tool menu icons are explained for all modes, in a little
more detail than that found in the game manual. Includes cross-references
to other chapters and a few useful notes and tips.
Chapter 6: Pre-City Considerations
This chapter starts with a few helpful thoughts on how to view the region
overall before starting the first city within a region. It notes the number
of tiles per city size, and that a tile is 16 meters across. A great
portion of this chapter is dedicated to the terra-forming tools of god mode.
Much information is provided here that is lacking in the game manual, like
the keystrokes that control the size and strength of the various
terra-forming tools. Very nice.
Chapter 7: Developer Types and Occupancy
An understanding of the concepts in this chapter is crucial before studying
the chapters on demand, desirability and development. Developer types and
occupancy are simple concepts to grasp, though. A thorough description is
provided here for each of the 12 developer types in the game. Provided are
a few paragraphs each on how developer types work with zoning, demand,
desirability, development and some ancillary effects. Good explanations of
occupancy and abandonment are provided as well. It’s a useful chapter for
general background information but not one that I have bookmarked.
Chapter 8: Demand
This chapter I have bookmarked! Demand is the most important aspect of
SimCity 4, in my opinion. In this chapter, the concepts of demand and
demand caps are defined thoroughly. There is some information on how taxes
affect demand. Several important tables are included: workforce demand,
business demand, demand caps, demand cap relief structures, and jobs in
non-RCI structures.
Chapter 9: Zoning
In this chapter is the closest thing to a city layout strategy found in the
Guide. Included are some guidelines for the placement of the different zone
types. Most of it is common sense, though. There is a good tip providing a
reason to "zone low density for as long as you can." For the players of
previous versions of SimCity, it is noted that tile counting and zone
balancing concepts are somewhat obsolete. The information on automatic
streets and "parcelization" is somewhat obvious by just playing the game.
Chapter 10: Desirability
Here is another one that I have bookmarked. Desirability is almost as
important as demand. This chapter defines desirability and provides good
information on the factors that affect it: air pollution, crime, garbage,
health care, land value, NIMBY/YIMBY effects, zone proximity, radiation,
education, terrain slope, traffic volume, commute or freight trip time.
Actually, my bookmark is on the page with the Desirability Factors by
Developer Type table. That table shows the relative effect of the
desirability factors. For example, I know that traffic noise is a bad thing
near residential, but according to this table I should only worry about it
for R§§§. R§ and R§§ are much more concerned with other factors. The three
pages preceding that table give a good overview and breakdown of desirability
factors by developer type. The specific numbers here are not as important
as understanding what the simulation is doing while one is trying to develop
a city. I found this chapter very helpful in that regard.
Chapter 11: Development
This chapter details how the simulation develops the zones. A few important
concepts are defined in this chapter: stage limits, stage caps and
abandonment. Stage limit tables are provided that indicate the percentage
of each stage level structure that are available at different population
thresholds. I don’t find this to be all that useful, actually. (Except
when we were proving that it was nigh impossible to obtain the infamous
Stage 8 Skyscrapers!) The information on stage caps and abandonment is more
useful, perhaps, but mostly common sense.
Chapter 12: Getting Information
As the title suggests, this chapter provides instructions on how to obtain
available information. It discusses visual cues, lot props, "zots", pop-ups,
the query tool, data views, graphs, polls, advisors and the news flipper.
No surprises here, mostly explanations for the information easily found by
just clicking on every informative tool in the game. Included are
instructions on how to watch a crime in progress. This chapter also includes
some details on the "My Sim" mode. Here’s a tip: "Keep an eye out for your
My Sim’s departed soul as it lofts heavenward."
Chapter 13: Budget and Finance
This chapter describes the features of the budget panel. There are many
cross-references to other chapters since budgeting affects almost everything.
(Or is it the other way around?) Also provided are the effects of
overfunding and underfunding various structures. The most useful information
provided here would be the short-term effect on your mayor rating when you
adjust the tax rates, and the tip about keeping zones low density until the
city map is full.
Chapter 14: Pollution and Environment
A great amount of detail is provided here regarding air pollution, water
pollution, garbage and radiation. For those of you who really like to see a
lot of numbers, a four-page table shows the pollution levels of several
structures. It gives general information regarding the consequences of
pollution - lowers desirability, mayor rating, health quotient. Fairly
obvious stuff. Also gives some advice on combating pollution, which is a bit
more useful.
Chapter 15: Crime
Herein lies one of the errors. The Base Criminality by EQ chart has its axis
labels reversed. Not that it matters, anyway, since it doesn’t actually help
one play the game. There are a lot of details regarding the causes of crime
and which crimes are committed where. All you really need to know are three
things: keep your Sims employed, increase your Sims’ education quotient,
and provide heavily overlapping police coverage. I bet you were going to do
those things anyway without needing a Guide to tell you that! Oh, and by
the way, crime cannot be eliminated completely.
Chapter 16: Mayor Rating
This is a fairly useful chapter for one who is concerned with one’s mayor
rating. Provided are the short-term, long-term and building effects upon
the mayor rating by various factors in the game. It’s nice to know what
those factors are. Of course, the exact values given are useless without
units. I see effect radius values like 256 and I wonder what that 256
represents. Is it tiles? Then why do some buildings have a radius of 440
when you consider the fact that the largest city square is 256 tiles across?
Little things like this really annoy me.
Chapter 17: Utilities
Herein are several good tables regarding the usage, aging, decay rate and
utility output of the various utility structures. Of course, one only needs
to periodically query each structure in the city to see when it needs to be
supplemented or replaced. Then again, one might want to know the expected
lifespan of a power plant in the first place, so this chapter is somewhat
useful. The Non-RCI Building Utility Use Table is interesting. Did you know
that the John Hancock Center consumes 1,500 units of water per month?
Chapter 18: Public Safety
This chapter provides details on the usage and effectiveness of fire
stations, police stations and jails. It also provides useful information on
dispatching fire trucks or police units. Perhaps the best information here
is that of flammability. Especially the fact that "an abandoned building is
the most flammable of all, increasing [base] flammability by 50 percent."
And, did you know that the protection strength is zero at the exterior of a
police station’s coverage circle?
Chapter 19: Transportation and Traffic
This should have been one of the best chapters in the book. The
transportation feature is completely revised from the previous version of
SimCity. This chapter is full of facts and figures regarding the
transportation elements of a city. Network capacity, maximum speeds, route
planning, congestion effects, transit switching time, travel selection by
wealth type... It’s all here. However, there are no helpful strategies,
nothing that instructs the reader in how one should actually apply all these
data. There are a couple of useful tips, like how to best utilize the
airport and seaport, and the obvious suggestion to place mass transit stops
between the origin and destination. If this is supposed to be a "strategy
guide" then I would expect a bit more helpful strategy here. A quick perusal
of the internet forums will reveal that there are a lot of issues with the
transportation feature of SimCity 4. Experimentation has revealed various
quirks in the usage (or lack of usage) of mass transit features and ways of
circumventing those quirks. Unfortunately, none of those issues are covered
in this Guide.
Chapter 20: Education
There is some useful information in this chapter. It actually includes an
"Educational Strategy" section. It is also useful to know that "educational
buildings do not need to be in contact with transportation" unless you want
your Sims working in them. I would have never guessed that, "at death, a
Sim bequeaths to the next generation 80 percent of his EQ." The
discrepancies between the tables and charts might cause some confusion,
however. I understand that the effects of various educational buildings can
decline over the age of a Sim, but the EQ Boost % axis of each chart doesn’t
look quite right to me. And I love the picture of the opera house - looks
like a golf course, to me!
Chapter 21: Health
No surprises in this chapter. It includes an interesting note about how
increasing the health quotient contributes to pollution reduction.
Chapter 22: Parks and Recreation
This short chapter includes a wonderful "building catalogue" that shows the
YIMBY, pollution effects and demand cap relief of each park and recreation
item. Invaluable to mayors who like to squeeze as much value as possible
out of every simolean.
Chapter 23: Rewards
Another bookmark! The "reward directory" allows me to decide which rewards
are worth the cost of placement. It provides the YIMBY/NIMBY ratings for
the rewards so that I know whether to place it near residential or near
commercial zones for a positive effect. The demand cap relief values are
shown as well. (I don’t believe the relief numbers for the courthouse,
though; those are probably supposed to be the job numbers.) The listing of
prerequisites is useful as well, although this information is readily
available in the game.
Chapter 24: Ordinances
If you want to know which ordinances hurt your mayor rating or lower demand,
and by how much, then you will appreciate this chapter. Too bad one of the
ordinances is missing, though: Neighborhood Watch Program. Tsk, tsk.
Chapter 25: Multiple Cities
This chapter provides a fairly good explanation of regional development and
how neighboring cities affect each other. Neighbor deals are also explained
thoroughly.
Chapter 26: Business Deals
You can probably guess that a business deal is not necessarily a good thing,
outside of the monthly income, of course. This chapter gives the details on
various effects of these structures, not necessarily all bad - YIMBY/NIMBY,
pollution, crime, mayor rating, jobs, and demand cap relief. Yes, the army
base provides a 100,000 IM demand cap relief! Included is a tip to use a
disaster (or repeal Legalized Gambling) to remove a business deal structure
instead of bulldozing it. Much cheaper that way. Unlike the rewards, these
don’t show up on the menu until you have met the requirements. The listing
of prerequisites is therefore useful.
Chapter 27: Disasters
The god mode disasters section contains mostly obvious information. Of
course, I didn’t know until I read it in this Guide that you could direct
the path of some disasters by holding and dragging the mouse pointer. The
section on simulation initiated disasters is a little more interesting.
Never had a riot, but if I do, now I know how many police units to dispatch.
Chapter 28: Landmarks
This chapter simply lists the costs and effects of the landmarks that were
available upon release of the game. Generally speaking, the more expensive
the landmark, the better the commercial YIMBY and the higher the mayor
rating boost. If your city is large enough to afford them, do you really
need to know the specific numbers?
Chapter 29: Cheats
Herein are the cheat codes that were widely known throughout the internet
within hours of the game’s release!
I hope this information has been helpful to somebody. Go build a city!
I must thank Larsz and Ftisb for creating this building catalogue and
allowing me to put it in my guide. If you managed to discover any building
not listed, send them to me. It is best if you included a picture too. You
can alternatively send it to Ftisb who is creating the site which stores the
pictures. If you wish to see the pictures of the buildings proceed to this
site:
(M): Multiple. It means that there are multiple types of the same building
They have different graphics but the same name and statistics.
NC: Normal Capacity
-$: Distressed of one wealth level below normal capacity
-$$: Distressed of two wealth levels below normal capacity
W: Original Wealth Level
LOT: Size of the Building
D: Density of building
L: Low Density
M: Medium Density
H: High Density
Stage: There are up to 8 levels but only those Stage 8 will be stated.
-----------------------------------------------------
RESIDENTIAL | NC | -$ | -$$ | W |LOT| D | S |
-----------------------------------------------------
2 Story House | 13 | x | | $$|1x1| L | |
2 Story Row House | 30 | | x | $$|1x1| M | |
3 Story Row House | 27 | | x | $$|1x1| M | |
Apartments (M-3) | 53 | x | x | $ |1x3| M | |
Baity Courts | 162| | xx | $ |2x2| M | |
Baritone Palazzo | 15 | | |$$$| | L | |
Barrett Apartments | 136| 302|401 |$$$| | | |
Bell Towers | 658|3346|6688 |$$$|4x2| H | 8 |
Bennet Apartments |2812| x | x | $ | | H | 8 |
Brick 2 Story | 13 | x | | $$|1x3| L | |
Brick House | 11 | x | | $$|1x3| L | |
Brick Walk Up | 27 | | | $$|1x3| M | |
Brown Hi-Rise |3120| | | $ | | H | 8 |
Brown Stone | 28 | 49 | | $$|2x2| M | |
Bungalow | 7 | | | $$|1x3| L | |
Bunker Towers |2714| | | $ |4x2| H | 8 |
Butts Condos | 134| 265| |$$$|3x3| | |
Byall Tower |4203|8666|17328|$$$|4x4| H | 8 |
Cape Cod House | 14 | | | $$|1x3| L | |
Catalina House | 30 | | |$$$| | L | |
Catalina House | 14 | | |$$$| | L | |
Concrete Manor |1565| | | $ |3x4| H | |
Copur Apartments |1993|3414| x | $$|3x3| H | 8 |
Cottage | 6 | | | $ |1x3| L | |
Cute House | 5 | | | $ |1x3| L | |
DuBois Place | 141| 638| |$$$| | | |
Faith Apartments | 238| | | $ | | | |
Graham Apartments | 520|2621| x | $$|3x3| H | 8 |
Gray Cottage | 6 | | | $ |1x3| L | |
Gray Mansion | 11 | | |$$$|1x3| L | |
Grossman Apartments |1290|2577| x | $$|3x3| H | 8 |
Hamster Tenements |2872| | | $ |4x4| H | 8 |
Hi-Rise Apartments |1232|2460| x | $$| | H | 8 |
Hi-Rise Tenement | 599| | | $ | | H | |
(Brick) | |
Hyde Condos | 158| 187| |$$$|2x3| M | |
Ingebretson Place | 586|1461| 1947|$$$|4x3| H | |
Jolly Manor | 982|1961| x | $$|3x3| H | 8 |
Kauker Manor | 323| 675| 3303|$$$|4x3| H | 8 |
Langerak Place | 34 | | |$$$| | M | |
Large Tenement |2863| x | x | $ |3x3| H | 8 |
(Donut) | |
Lawson Manor | 43 | 68 | |$$$|2x2| M | |
Low Rent Apartments | 108| x | x | $ |2x3| M | |
Manning Condos | 246| 147| x | $$|2x3| | |
McCarthy Condos |2790|1677| |$$$| | H | 8 |
McCormick Place | 557|2816|5628 |$$$|4x4| H | 8 |
Midlock Place | 28 | | |$$$|2x3| L | |
Modern Apartments | 23 | | x | $$|1x1| M | |
(Stucco) | |
Modern Apartments | 38 | | x | $$|1x1| M | |
(Red) | |
Modern Mansion | 14 | | 38 |$$$| | L | |
Modern Villa | 12 | | |$$$| | L | |
Molon Condos | 83 | | 429 |$$$| | | |
New Beginning | 798| x | x | $ |4x2| H | 8 |
Apartments | |
Ng Place | 26 | | 78 |$$$|2x2| M | |
Ngo Manor | 95 | 234| 136 |$$$|2x2| M | |
Nichols Manor | 225| 558| |$$$|3x2| | |
O'Hare Apartments |2204|1134| x |$$ |4x2| H | 8 |
Ong Condos |5039|2895|20778|$$$|4x4| H | 8 |
Packard Apartments | 175| 434| 241 |$$$| | | |
Pastel Row House | 21 | | x | $$|1x3| M | |
Pauvre Apartments | 195| x | x | $ | | | |
Posh Villa | 14 | | |$$$|2x3| L | |
Project Bootstrap |6978| x | x | $ |4x4| H | 8 |
Project Feelgood |2533| x | x | $ |3x3| H | 8 |
Project Hope |1975| x | x | $ |4x4| H | 8 |
Quigley Place | 823|4293|2187 |$$$| | H | 8 |
Reed Place |1899|3794| x | $$|3x3| H | 8 |
Residential Hotel | 108| x | x | $ |2x3| M | |
Roberts Apartments | 176| 232| x | $$|2x2| M | |
Rock Bottom Terrace |2280| x | x | $ |4x2| H | 8 |
Russo Condos | 231| 572| |$$$|3x3| M | |
Ryan Apartments | 915|1227| x | $$|4x3| H | 8 |
Salvation Tower |1647| x | x | $ |4x4| H | 8 |
Sheehy Condos | 241| 586|781/ |$$$|3x3| | |
| | 795 | |
Sheehy Manors | 88 | 150| 447 |$$$|2x2| M | |
Sheeza Brick House | 11 | 13 | x | $$|1x3| L | |
Shingle House | 12 | | x | $$|1x3| L | |
Simon Manor | 486| 909| x | $$|3x3| H | 8 |
Small Brick | 21 | x | x | $ |1x3| M | |
Apartments | |
Small Cabin | 7 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
Small Condos C | 331| 667| x | $$|2x2| M | |
Small Condos C2 | 335| 667| x | $$|2x2| M | |
Small Condos H | 204| 271| x | $$|2x2| M | |
Small Condos N | 245| 331| x | $$|2x2| M | |
Small Duplex | 12 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
Small Estate | 13 | | |$$$| | L | |
Small Modular Home | 9 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
Small Ranch House | 12 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
Small Wood House | 6 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
Somers Place | 119| | x | $$|2x3| M | |
Stoic Arms | 248| x | x | $ |2x2| M | |
Stone Chateau | 15 | | |$$$|2x3| L | |
Stone Mansion | 30 | | |$$$|2x3| L | |
Stone Row House | 31 | | x | $$|1x1| M | |
Templin Manor | 31 | | |$$$|1x3| M | |
Tenement (M-4) | 227| x | x | $ |2x2| | |
The Braccia | 113| 683| |$$$|3x3| M | |
Building | |
The Bradshaw | 789| | |$$$| | | |
The Flinchum | 30 | | |$$$|2x3| M | |
Building | |
The Grabrians | 12 | | |$$$| | L | |
The Hogan | 375|1823|3643 |$$$|4x3| H | 8 |
The Knight Building |3491| | x | $$|4x4| H | 8 |
The Long Building | 277| 512|2593 |$$$|4x2| H | 8 |
The MacVicar | 37 | 84 |175 |$$$|2x3| M | |
Building | |
The Pratt |1257|2511| x | $$| | H | 8 |
The Sundy Building | 196| | 306 |$$$|3x3| M | |
The Wilkinson |3037| | x | $$|4x4| H | 8 |
Tiny Bungalow | 5 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
Vernon Manor | 214| 425|846 |$$$|2x3| | |
Victorian Mansion | 12 | 21 | |$$$|2x3| L | |
Villa | 12 | | |$$$|2x3| L | |
Walkup Tower |2572|3643|1863 |$$$|4x4| H | 8 |
Wallace Manor |3767|1938| x | $$|3x4| H | 8 |
Weburg Apartments | 177| 235| x | $$|2x2| M | |
White Bungalows | 12 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
White Cottages | 12 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
White Mansion | 14 | | |$$$|2x3| L | |
White Modular House | 5 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
Wilsonoff Condos | 267| 213| x | $$|2x2| | |
Zaidi Apartments |4603|9203| x | $$|4x4| H | 8 |
Hi-Rise Tenement | 649| x | x | $ |3x2| H | |
(Stucco) | |
Buechner Apartments |1198|2468|1345 |$$$|4x4| H | |
The Primavera | 921|4817| |$$$|4x3| H | |
The Chandler | 913|1223| |$$$|4x4| H | |
-----------------------------------------------------
(M): Multiple. It means that there are multiple types of the same building
They have different graphics but the same name and statistics.
NC: Normal Capacity
-$: Distressed of one wealth level below normal capacity
-$$: Distressed of two wealth levels below normal capacity
W: Original Wealth Level
LOT: Size of the Building
D: Density of building
L: Low Density
M: Medium Density
H: High Density
Stage: There are up to 8 levels but only those Stage 8 will be stated.
T: Type
O: Commercial Office
S: Commercial Services
------------------------------------------------------------
COMMERCIAL |T| NC | -$ | -$$ | W |LOT| D | S |
------------------------------------------------------------
Ajjanagadde Inc. |O|842 | | |$$$|3x2| H | |
Albert Publishing |O|34 | | x | $$|2x3| L | |
Andrew's Fashion Center |S|76 | | |$$$|6x6| L | |
Bain Brothers |S|75 | | x | $$|2x3| | |
Barthelet Corporation |O|1203| | |$$$| | H | 8 |
Baybrack Building |S|61 | | x | $$|2x2| | |
Bennett Music Corp |O|46 | | x | $$|2x2| | |
Benson Talent Management|O|34 | | x | $$|2x2| L | |
Bilyk Galleria |S|66 | | |$$$|4x4| | |
Bob's Grease Pit |S|14 |x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
Boutiques (M-11) |S| | | |$$$| | | |
Boutiques (1 Story, |S|9 | | |$$$|1x2| L | |
3 Pillar) | |
Boutiques (1 Story, |S|11 | | |$$$|1x2| L | |
Corner Block) | |
Boutiques (Ajjanagadde |S|171 | |1681 |$$$|2x3| H | |
K-O) | |
Boutiques (Curtin K-O) |S|56 | 135 | |$$$|2x3| | |
Boutiques (Landry K-O) |S|26 | | |$$$|2x2| L | |
Boutiques (Rooftop Café)|S|102 | | |$$$|2x3| | |
Boutiques (Walton K-O) |S|169 | | |$$$|2x3| | |
Brink Real Estate |O|212 | | |$$$| | | |
Brock Furnishings |O|1455| | |$$$|3x3| H | 8 |
Brown & Sons. |O|718 | | x | $$|3x2| | |
Bunch Engineering |O|499 |586 | |$$$|2x3| | |
Cahalane Communications |O|5339|10674| |$$$|4x4| H | 8 |
Cameron Cameras |O|2453| | |$$$|3x4| H | 8 |
Car Care Center |S|5 | | |$$$|2x2| | |
Carlin Department Store |S|30 | | |$$$|2x2| | |
Chalmers Co. |O|61 | | |$$$|2x2| L | |
Charvat Imports |O|19 | | x | $$|1x3| | |
Cheng Currency Exchange |O|41 | | |$$$|2x2| | |
Chez Eyler |S|6 |9 | |$$$|1x3| | |
Chin Corp. |O|36 | | |$$$|2x2| L | |
Cho & Sons |O|242 | | x | $$|2x2| | |
Chong Inc. |O|4595| | x | $$|3x4| H | 8 |
Cinema House |S|552 | | x | $$|3x4| H | 8 |
Cox Family Court |S|44 | | x | $$|2x3| L | |
Curtin Fabrics |O|109 | | |$$$|2x3| | |
Custer Foods |O|20 | | x | $$|1x3| | |
Dennis Department Store |S|204 | | x | $$|3x2| | |
Deppiesse's Diner |S|9 | | x | $$|1x1| | |
Despret Consulting |O|46 | | |$$$|1x1| | |
Dieckmann Consulting |O|22 | | x | $$|2x1| | |
Dolan Contractors |O|365 | | x | $$|2x2| | |
Downend Entertainment |O|37 | | x | $$|2x2| L | |
Family Inn |S|136 | | x | $$|2x3| | |
Fancey Foods |O|89 |111 | |$$$|3x2| L | |
Farley Audio |O|182 | | |$$$|2x2| | |
Farley Publishing |O|41 | | |$$$|2x2| L | |
Fennell Corp |O|346 | | x | $$|3x2| | |
Ferrara Inc. |O|527 | | |$$$|2x3| | |
Fisk Insurance |O|5752| | x | $$|4x4| H | 8 |
Flea Market |S|89 |x | x | $ |1x3| | |
| |2x4| |
Futa Consulting |O|1378|2753 | |$$$|3x3| H | 8 |
Goldman Building |O|734 |1099 | |$$$|3x2| | |
Gordon Theaters |S|117 | | x | $$|2x3| | |
Grand Hotel |S|297 | | |$$$| | H | 8 |
Gregory Tile |O|32/ | | x | $$|1x3| | |
| |34 | |
Grove Consulting |O|275 | | x | $$|2x2| | |
Ham LLC |O|1670| | x | $$|3x3| H | 8 |
Hedman Planners |O|286 | | |$$$|3x2| | |
Hiatt Architects |O|394 | | x | $$|3x2| | |
Honest Carrie's Used |S|7 | x | x | $ |1x3| L | |
Cars | |
Hourvitz Accounting |O|734 | | |$$$|2x3| H | |
Jenkins Consulting |O|15 | | |$$$|1x3| | |
Jordan Inn |S|355 | | x | $$|3x3| H | 8 |
Kanarowski & Co. |O|909 | | x |$$ |2x3| H | 8 |
Kearney LLC |O|77 | | |$$$|3x2| L | |
Kenner Dinner Theatre |S|37 | | 339 |$$$|2x3| L | |
King Design |O|22 | | x | $$|1x3| L | |
Kobylanski Accounting |O|43 | | |$$$|2x2| L | |
Kosmakos Imports |O|14 | | x | $$|1x3| L | |
Kusin Motors | |9 | | x | $$| | | |
Lam Building |O|27 | | x | $$|2x3| L | |
Landry Co. |O|49 | 61 | |$$$|2x2| | |
Last Chance Motel |S|42 | x | x | $ |1x3| | |
Lay Architects |O|42 | | x | $$|1x3| | |
Lee Shopping Mall |S|507 | | x | $$|6x6| | |
Leong Accountants |O|139 | | x | $$|2x3| | |
Letourneau Architects |O|44 | | |$$$|1x2| | |
Levine Management |O|61 | | x | $$|2x2| | |
Lewis LLC |O|1219| | x | $$|3x2| | |
Lillard Audio |O|1455|2907 | |$$$|3x3| H | 8 |
Lind Entertainment |O|5796|11589| |$$$|4x4| H | 8 |
Luxury Auto Center |S|15 | | |$$$|2x2| L | |
Mace Co. |O|801 | | x | $$|3x2| H | |
Marshall Printing |O|245 |326 | |$$$|3x3| | |
Maxis Theatre |S|40 | | |$$$|3x3| | |
McClellan Inc. |O|6798| | x | $$|4x4| H | 8 |
McCord Printing |O|34 | | |$$$|2x3| L | |
Meehan Marketing |O|36 | | |$$$|1x1| | |
Mellon Inc. |O|87 | | x | $$|3x3| L | |
Miguel LLC |O|346 | | x | $$|3x3| | |
Modde Inc. |O|112 | 139 | |$$$|3x2| | |
Multiplex 13 |S|106 | | x | $$|3x3| | |
Nanale Shopping Center |S|117 | | x | $$|3x4| | |
Oi Finance |O|19 | | |$$$|2x3| L | |
Paull Inc. |O|62 | | |$$$|1x1| | |
Peck Cinema |S|57 | | |$$$|2x3| | |
Pedriana Pharmaceuticals|O|7103| | |$$$|4x4| H | 8 |
Pump and Scoot Gas |S|6 | | x | $$|1x3| L | |
Reamon Plaza |O|2117|4231 | |$$$|3x4| H | 8 |
Retail Stores (M-4) |S| | | x | $$| | | |
Retail Stores (3 Tier) |S|119 | | x | $$|2x3| | |
Retail Stores (Cho K-O) |S|105 | | x | $$|2x2| | |
Retail Stores (Fennell |S|175 | | x | $$|2x3| | |
K-O) | |
Retail Stores (Grove |S|119 | | x | $$|2x2| | |
K-O) | |
Retail Stores (Hiatt |S|198 | | x | $$|2x3| | |
K-O) | |
Retail Stores (Miguel |S|175 | 689 | x | $$|2x3| | |
K-O) | |
Retail Stores (Wright |S|135 | | x | $$|2x3| | |
K-O) | |
Sari Management |O|65 | | x | $$|2x2| | |
Schnittjer Printing |O|337 | | x | $$| | | |
Shankel Insurance |O|22 | | x | $$|2x2| L | |
Simpson Inc. |O|20 | | x | $$|1x3| L | |
Small Shops (M-6) | | | x | x | $ | | | |
Small Shops |S| | x | x | $ | | H | 8 |
Small Shops (Dark |S|52 | x | x | $ |1X1| L | |
Brick) | |
Small Shops (Red |S|49 | x | x | $ |1X1| L | |
Brick) | |
Small Shops (White |S|32 | x | x | $ |1X1| L | |
Brick) | |
St. Ritzy |S|78 | | |$$$|2x3| | |
Stompel Printing |O|39 | | |$$$| | L | |
Stores (M-7) | | | | | | | | |
Stratton Spa |S|7 | | |$$$|3x3| | |
Tablante Communications |O|289 | | x | $$|2x3| | |
The Freytag Building |O|76 | 131 | |$$$|1x1| | |
The Galvin Corp |O|1675| | |$$$|3x3| H | 8 |
The Hsu Mall |S|267 | | x | $$|4x3| | |
The McAdams Building | |46 | | |$$$| | | |
The Phillipine Building |O|18 | | x | $$|1x3| L | |
The Rivello Building |O|17 | | x | $$|1x2| | |
Thompson Trading |O|31 | | x | $$|1x3| | |
Todd and Co. |O|15 | | |$$$|1x3| L | |
Trottier Trading |O|1865|3727 | |$$$|3x4| H | 8 |
Tsang Accountants |O|1752| | x | $$|3x3| H | 8 |
van Prooijen Trading |O|4533| | |$$$|4x4| H | 8 |
Vikayakar Foods |O|31 | | |$$$|1x1| L | |
Vu Financial |O|4343| | x | $$|3x4| H | 8 |
Waco Co. |O|6536| | x | $$|4x4| H | 8 |
Walton Plaza |O|832 | 979 | |$$$| | | |
Weber Designs |O|39 | | x | $$|2x1| | |
West & Co, Inc. |O|526 | 918 | |$$$|3x2| H | |
White's Clothier |S|68 | | |$$$|2x2| | |
Wilmott Drive-In |S|131 | x | x | $ |4x4| | |
Wilson-Wade Attorneys |O|308 | x | | $$|3x2| | |
Wong Insurance |O|1991| | x | $$|4x3| H | |
Wren Insurance |O|1401| | |$$$|2x3| H | 8 |
Wright & Daughter |O|135 | | x | $$|3x2| | |
Xia Publishing |O|32 | | |$$$|2x2| | |
Yates Real Estate |O|1203|1802 | |$$$|2x3| H | 8 |
Zilber Communications |O|71 | | x | $$|2x3| L | |
Zvenigorodsky Inc. |O|119 | | x | $$|3x3| | |
------------------------------------------------------------
(M): Multiple. It means that there are multiple types of the same building
They have different graphics but the same name and statistics.
INDUSTRIAL
NC: Normal Capacity
-$: Distressed of one wealth level below normal capacity
-$$: Distressed of two wealth levels below normal capacity
W: Wealth Level
LOT: Size of the Building
T: Type
HT: High Tech
ID: Dirty
IM: Manufacturing
Landmarks
---------------------------------
BUILDING | CE | CR |
---------------------------------
Alamo | 40 | 20 |
Alcatraz | 10 | 24 |
Amalienborg | 30 | 18 |
Bank of America | 80 | 28 |
Bank of China Tower | 10 | 48 |
Big Ben | 40 | 20 |
California Plaza | 30 | 18 |
Chrysler Building | 100| 48 |
CN Tower | 80 | 28 |
Coit Tower | 30 | 18 |
Empire State Building | 100| 48 |
Faneuil Hall | 20 | 16 |
Fernsehturn | 50 | 22 |
Gateway Arch | 50 | 22 |
Great Pyramid | 70 | 26 |
Guggenheim Museum | 70 | 26 |
Hagia Sofia | 40 | 20 |
Hollywood Sign | 20 | 16 |
Independence Hall | 30 | 18 |
Jefferson Memorial | 50 | 22 |
John Hancock Center | 90 | 30 |
Lincoln Memorial | 50 | 22 |
Living Mall | 80 | 20 |
Palace of Fine Arts | 30 | 18 |
Palacio Real | 30 | 18 |
Rotes Rathaus | 30 | 18 |
Smith Tower | 40 | 20 |
Sphinx | 20 | 16 |
St. Basil's | 60 | 24 |
Statue of Liberty | 60 | 24 |
Taj Mahal | 60 | 24 |
Tokyo Tower | 80 | 28 |
Tower of London | 30 | 18 |
U.S. Capitol Building | 80 | 28 |
Washington Monument | 40 | 20 |
White House | 40 | 20 |
------------------------------------------------------
Landmark buildings have no effect on residential zones
------------------------------------------------------
===============================END OF SECTION E===============================
_______________________________________________________________________[276]__
/\___/\ /\___/\
/() ()\ /() ()\
~~| o |~~B CONCLUSION B~~| o |~~
~~~| END |~~~Y Y~~~| END |~~~
~~\_____/~English E~~\_____/~~
______________________________________________________________________________
End 1: Credits (Alphabetical Order)
1) Robert B. Chaffe: For the Prima Guide Review
If you wish to host only the review alone or if you have and questions
about it send it to: robertchaffe@earthlink.net
2) Ftisb / R. Brian Brown: For the Building Catalogue.
3) Larsz: For the Building Catalogue.
4) Chris McFadyen: For (a) GUCM and (b) MSCM.
5) MDMUFF: For (a) Fire Station basis Coverage, (b) generation development
and (c) To water or not to water.
6) Samantha: For the lovely poem "Music, Heartache & Ale."
7) Sharr: For (SRS) and (SCM)
8) lShadowzl: For recommending I create this FAQ after posting a portion of
the old guide on the message boards.
Finally, a great thanks to the Simtropolis Forums for providing me with an
opportunity to sound out some of my ideas. Also, a great bow to those who
send me a mail telling how much you liked the guide. Your kind words are much
appreciated.
Version 1.10:
(1) Added Part II.
(2) Changed the layout in Part I and also added some stuff there.
(3) Added Part X.
Version 1.15:
(1) Added "Online Manual."
(2) Added Method III under PART II (B): High Tech Arrives.
(3) Added new sections to Part X and more Easter eggs.
(4) Just started Part III and is very much under construction.
(5) Edited 1.8 and diagram for easier viewing.
(6) Typos, Grammar and some minor corrections.
Version 1.20:
(1) Added IdOIts walkthrough to 40,000
(2) Expanded greatly on PART III
(3) Updated PART II and added new hint
(4) Reworked PART I and included reference to walkthrough
(5) Format Changes to table and version history
(6) Added new items to PART X
(7) Updated Online Manual
(8) Typos, spelling, grammar
This guide is copyrighted by thy451. For more serious and proper posting
information look below at End 4.
I have called upon Fluffy the wonder Cat to work his magic. Such that if you
post it without asking my permission even though I have never rejected
anybody, you must send me the an email telling me of what you did, and send
a copy of this copyright notice to 75 people within 24 hours detailing your
apology and mistake.
Do not scoff at this. I know of one site called GullibleGames.Com that
ignored this warning. Well, their host suffered a massive crash and they lost
their entire site. Then on their way to the local office of the host, they
flashed at a car whose lights was not turned on. Suddenly they were pounced
upon and ATTACKED, as that was a GANG INITIATION RITE. And as they were
crawling to a phone booth, they damaged the diskette which contained the
email with all 5000 names needed to get a FREE TRIP TO DISNEYLAND. When they
reached the phone, they realised they had no change so they decided to check
the change return slot. But they had their hands pricked. On closer
inspection, there was a needle and a note saying. "Welcome to the world of
Copyright violators HELL!"
But I know of one site called HopefulHints.com which regretted posting this
guide without permission and sent me a mail. Well, the site was bought out
for over a MILLION DOLLARS and its owner, on the day of cashing the check,
met the PERSON OF HIS DREAMS working at the bank. And they live happily ever
after.
So if you do not send me a mail but still post it on your site, or make money
from it, the next time you encounter some bad luck, you know it could have
been avoided.
Send me an email if you wish to post this on your site. I have yet to refuse
anybody and cannot foresee actually refusing anybody who asks. Sending me a
mail will allow me to inform you of updates to this guide.
Please also tell me the version that you currently have, that way I can
inform you in my reply if that is not the latest version.
If you have anything to add you could post it to me. Also if you noticed any
mistakes, be it factual, spelling or grammatical, please inform me.
Do me a favour, please tell me what version your guide is and at which site
you got it from. If you cannot recall the site, then it is fine. Thank You.
thy451
thy451451@yahoo.com
I hope you found this guide useful. Thank for reading it and hope you
enjoyed it.
