1. Introduction
2. Version Guide
3. Disclaimer and Legal
4. Requirements FAQ
5. FAQ
6. The Newbie Guide
7. The Strategies
8. The Last Resort - Cheats
9. Appendix
a. Civic Buildings
b. Rewards 'n' Deals
c. The "Tools"
d. Other
10. Conclusion
/--[ INTRODUCTION ]--\
Welcome to amazing game called SimCity 4 by Maxis! It's the 4th one in the
long line of SimCity games. The good side of being 4th is it has all of
the features of the old games, plus even newer and better ones. The down
side, all these features can get hard to manage and even annoying. Luckily,
people (like me) are nice enough to help you out in these dark times of
newbie-ism. Now before you shout with glee that you'll finally be able to
build that New York City clone, I have to throw all of this mumbo-jumbo at
you so everythings fine and dandy!
Oh, by the way, this is my first faq submitted to gamefaqs. It's also the
first faq for simcity4 on GameFaqs! Yay! I hope it helps out a lot!
And thanks for reading this! Oh, if you have any suggestions or comments
e-mail at blue_moogle@hotmail.com
-blue_moogle
/--[ VERSION GUIDE]--\
I know everyone HATES these things. Well, I decided to update my FAQ, and
I felt that it was almost a requirement to keep track of things. I hope
it isn't to much of a pest =) Oh, some internet browsers don't
automatically update the faq. Make sure the version number on gamefaqs
matchs the number in my faq. If it doesn't, press refresh/reload on your
browser to see the latest and greatest version!
VERSION 8.5
Started the appendix, added some more user submitted strategies, and fixed
a few of my own. I also noticed I have a few competitors now for being
the best SimCity 4 faq, so I "spiffyfied" my FAQ. =)
VERSION 0.80
Added Version guide, more strategies, re-worded somethings, added more Q's
to the FAQ, and added a mini-FAQ on requirements.
VERSION 0.75
Uhh, this is my first version I submitted. It included everything except
the things the above versions added.
/--[ DISCLAIMER AND LEGAL ]--\
Alright, this is my FAQ. It's copyrighted by me under the international
copyright agreement. Anyways, here's the official way of saying it.
Copyright 2003 Alex Perce
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.
I only give GameFaqs permission to use this FAQ. If you see any site using
this FAQ, please e-mail me at blue_moogle@hotmail.com
If you disagree with anything and you think something in this FAQ is your
work, e-mail me at blue_moogle@hotmail.com and we can try and work an
agreement. Oh, by the way, try to "refresh/reload" your browser everytime
you read this FAQ just incase your browser doesn't automatically update!
/--[ REQUIREMENTS FAQ ]--\
After seeing many questions on the FORUM related to the fact if this game
will run on their computers, I decided to decrease the flood of these
questions by posting it in my FAQ. I just wish it would stop them
completely =) The best way to find out your PC's specs is to open up
system panel. For Windows XP users, go to Start/Allprograms/Accessories/
and system information. Possibly Win2000 users can do it that way too.
Older versions I'm not for sure, but you might be able to do the same
as well. If not, go to start/settings/control panel and then system.
Here you will find your CPU, CPU Speed, and Ram. Then go to display and
to settings. Click advance and go to adapter. A box is around your video
card (and video card MB). Sound/CD I do not know, sorry.
ON THE BOX:
I seriously don't recommend following these. You'll barely run the game.
Operating system: Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP
CPU Speed: Pentium 2/3 500 MHZ or any AMD Athlon
RAM (memory): 128 MB
CD/DVD Rom Speed: 8x
Video Card: 16 MB card (nvidia TNT2/ATI Expert)
Sound Card: Any DirectX Compatible card (sound blaster)
Hard Drive Space: 1+ GB.
RECOMMENDED FOR LOW DETAIL:
You'll run the game nicely and perfectly with no lag on low settings with
these HARDware specs.
Operating System: Same as on box
CPU Speed: Pentium 3 650-800 MHZ or any AMD Athlon
RAM (memory): 256 MB
CD/DVD Rom speed: 8x
Video Card: 32 MB card (nvidia Geforce2/older ATI Radeons)
Sound Card: Any DirectX compatible card (sound blaster)
Hard Drive Space: 1+ GB
RECOMMEND FOR MEDIUM DETAIL:
If you want more detail for the game than the other two, this is the best
choice. And what's great, this kind of hardware is fairly common in
computers selling for 300 now days.
Operating System: Same as on Box
CPU Speed: Pentium 3/4 1.2 GHZ/AMD Duron 1.2 GHZ
RAM (memory): 256 MB
CD/DVD Rom Speed: 8x
Video Card: 64 MB card (geforce3/semi-new ATI Radeon Cards)
Sound Card: Any DirectX compatible card (sound blaster)
Hard Drive Space: 1+ GB
RECOMMENDED FOR HIGH DETAILS:
Even this isn't hard to beat if you pay 1,000 bucks for a modern PC. You'll
get best details, but it'll require one hog of a system to handle the lag
you'll be producing.
Operating System: Windows XP Pro*
CPU Speed: Pentium 4 2.0 GHZ/AMD Athlon 2100+
RAM (memory): 256 (some lag)/512 (no lag)/1 GB (incredible)
CD/DVD Rom Speed: 8x
Video Card: 64 MB will work, 128 recommended (geforce4/newest ATI Radeon)
Sound Card: 5.1 compatible sound cards. Get that surrond sound!*2
Hard Drive Space: 1+ GB
*: Others will do fine, But XP Pro handles newest Hardware the best.
*2: DirectX compatible will work fine, but surrond sound is very nice.
I hope this part helps a LOT! The forum gets 15+ questions on this daily,
and it's putting other questions to the back of the burner. If you have
any questions relating to hardware, please e-mail me! My e-mail address
is blue_moogle@hotmail.com
/--[ FAQ]--\
If you don't see an answer to a question you are having, please e-mail me
the question to blue_moogle@hotmail.com and I'll try and answer it. I try
to keep my questions up-to-date with common questions on the SimCity 4
forums at gamefaqs.
1. I can't play the game for [x] reason!
A. Make sure you computer meets the requirements on the box.
2. I'm making no money at all, and when I do, it's very little!
A. Usually you don't make money when you have all the civic buildings (like
schools and police) and very little taxes. I recommend having none of the
civic buildings until your monthly pay check can afford the monthly cost
of the building(s). If you're making little money, try raising taxes
by .2 percent until you're making atleast 100 dollars a month. Then lower
budget for your civic buildings until you're atleast making 200 dollars. If
some sims don't get fire coverage or schools to go to, don't sweat it. You
soon will have enough money to raise those budgets again!
3. Building [x] just caught on fire! What now?
A. Oh no! This is horrible! But easily fixable! Make sure you have one
or more firestations. Then go to the site of the fire. Click the emergancy
button (the ! button) and click firetrucks. Click on the burning building.
Your firetrucks will rush from the firestation to put out the fire. Let's
hope theres no traffic to block the fire truck!
4. My Water pipes keep breaking... Help me!
A. The Water enhancement is one thing you shouldn't lower the budget on. It
will make water pipes age faster and will wear out. If your budget is
already pretty high, and they are still breaking, then it's time to replace
your old ones and add MORE! If the useage of the pipes overpasses 80% they
age faster and will break quicker. THe simple solution is just add more
water pipes.
5. Ok, where are the skyscrapers?
A. They don't appear until you have a really big population and ran out of
room to build. They also only appear on HIGH DENSITY zones. Residential
zones will be the first to make skyscrapers, with commercial following it.
Industrial rarely makes any tall buildings. It takes time, so don't worry
about it... if you absolutely need them, just build a tall landmark =)
6. I'm tired of those red-neck poor people! I want rich snobby sims!
A. Ok, first, make the land value for your zones atleast "high". Then get
a nice mayor approval high. Both can be done by putting city beautification
by the zones. Now build fancy civic buildings, like museums and libraries.
With a good health coverage, education coverage, and fire/police coverage,
your rich sims will move into this distract. They will also pay much much
more taxes, so it's worth the time!
7. I'm bankrupt, rejected, and alone. Help!
A. I hope You're talking about the game =). Ok, to fix the bankruptness,
refer to question #2. It solves many of the things that lower your cash
flow, and can improve it. To get a higher mayor aproval, build parks and
the like around the hateful neighborhoods. You'll find your lost sims
moving back in no time!
8. While I scroll, Zoom, Place roads and zones my game sometime freezes or
even loses detail on already existent buildings!!! Help me!
A. When scrolling around your city, an ATI RADEON card sometimes has a few
problems and will get rid of details in your city. Don't worry, these will
come back after you stop scrolling. When you zoom, details are blurred so
loading times for zooming doesn't take as long. You'll pretty soon see
the details revert to normal though. For freezing problems, it's often your
video/sound card working against the game. The easiest way to fix this is
just lower the details of the game. Go into options mode and click the
gears button. Lower video options to medium, and sound ones to medium
as well. Yes, sound can lag up your game on slower PCs, so don't forget to
lower that aswell!
9. My commercial zones are not being used!
A. Commercial isn't very popular in the beginning. The sims won't have the
right education to work in large offices, only in factories. The sims only
need a few shops to survive on in the beginning. When you raise the budget
for schools, education will increase, and big office business will relocate
to your city (if you have the right types of zones). Don't worry if all you
see are "bob's greasy pits" and "Carie's Great Car Deals". Someday, these
will be offices and software companies. Just have patience.
10. I want to commute people from regions to regions, how?
A. This is in the strategies section and has many other strategies similar.
It's not that hard to do, just be sure to connect your cities.
11. How do I get business deals?
A. These are rare and common at the same time. You'll mostly be offered
them when you are seriously low on money, or seriously losing a lot of
money monthly. Another way to get them is to prepare for it. EXAMPLE: Set
Legalized Casinos on in the ordiances to get a Resort Casino to come to your
city. It's usually random, and they always are offered on the beginning of
a new month (or so I believe, thats when I always offered them).
/--[ THE NEWBIE GUIDE ]--\
As much as that FAQ is helpful, a guide is undoubtly the most helpful you
can get! I'm going to assume you've installed the game, atleast played
the TWO tutorials and is still totally clueless on what to do. That's ok,
I can work with that.
First, lets make a new region. When you first load the game, you are
looking at the Maxisland region. That's a nice region, but it's hilly
and filled with water, nice later in the game when you can work with these
setbacks, but for now, we need a FLAT surface. The fast way to get one is
to make a new region! At the top of the region display is 3 buttons. Click
the first one. Then the first one of the new choices. A window will show
up on your screen. Type in the name of the region... such as Flat Plains
or Green Grasslands. Leave it checked on "plains". The region will start
to be created.
When it's done, it's time to start a city! For this, I recommend getting
a small/medium square. Just click on the square you want. Click the
PLAY button. The city will load. Skip terraforming for now, we want
a flat land city. Click the Mayor Mode button (the second large button on
the panel in the lower left corner). A window will appear prompting you
to name the city and name the mayor. Name the city whatever you like and
name the mayor whatever as well. For this guide, I'll be using Newbtown for
the name of the city and Newton Newguy for the mayors name. Lets get
started!
First we need a power plant. Hmm... this isn't a hard decision. We'll
using the least non-polluting one that is also affordable. It's the natural
gas one! While Wind Power is a great choice too, the Natural Gas one is
more cost effective. Place it anywhere on the map. After it's place, we
better lower the budget, or we're paying 400 bucks for enough power to last
us a LONG time! Using the query tool, open up the status of the natural
gas plant. Lower the budget to 25-50 simoleons.
Now we need some houses. At first only poor people who are looking for a
better life move into your small village. They won't have any education,
not even a 1st grade education, and can barely work on farms. We need to
provide homes for this homeless brave adventurers and get them some jobs.
First the homes. Since they are poor, they don't care what homese, even
if it's a trailer. Most of these poor style homes are built in dirty parts
of your city. So build some light residential near your power plant (not
very far, or the power won't reach the zone). Though farms is the only
job available to your sims, do not provide it. It pollutes your water
and they pay little to no taxes. Instead, build a small patch of commercial
nearby your residential. Now build a school so we can get them smart enough
to work at a factory. The school should be in the center of your small
neighborhood. Like the natural gas plant, we need to lower the budget.
Lower the bus to have the small greenish yellow ring only surrond your
neighborhood. It only needs to cover the houses, not commercial or the
natural gas plant. Then lower the teacher budget so you only have one
teacher and basically paying to have enough room for 50 or so students.
You will be losing money, but this is normal. To increase it, we need more
taxes. Open up the budget panel in mayor mode. Click the budget to get
a more detailed view. You should see taxes at the top in income. Click
the eye next to this choice. You can now set your taxes here. Raise them
all to 9% or so. You might be making some money now. If not, build so
more light residential/commercial. Raise the bus budget as you get more
houses in your neighborhood. You might need to raise the power budget soon.
Continue to build more zones until you're making money. Once you're making
money, stop, and leave it this way. Wait about 15 game years. Your
population should have a new workforce to handle factories now. Factories
pay much more taxes than "Bob's Greasy Pits" and "Grey Cottages". They
also need a workforce with atleast Elementary Education. To get some
factories, we need to zone them. Build some light industrial by your
neighborhood, but not to close since they will make your neighborhood dirty.
Next to this new industrial zone build a small trash landfill (it's in
the utilities section). Make sure it has street/road access. The landfill
will hurt your income quite a bit when it starts to get used. Hopefully
the demand for factories is large and many will be built. Again, zoning
more residential will increase your income a bit. Your city might even
be awarded a mayors house by now! Before we move, take a look around your
city. It's fun to just watch it work the way it does. When you're ready
to move one, come back here and we'll continue.
So far your city is a dirty factory landfill with meager education. Now
it's time to pretty your city up. It's very undesiarable at the moment.
Lets find our "problem areas". Using the map tool in the mayor mode, look
into mayor approval. Your residential areas will light up. The green
ones mean they like you, brownish/yellowish means they think you're ok, and
red means they dislike you. If it's not green, it means we got a bad
problem. It's probably pollution/crime! Go ahead and check the crime
and pollution around these zones by just clicking the approriate checkbox.
I'm guessing pollution is near red from the factories, and crime is pretty
high as well. You might be lucky and have very little crime, but that's if
you're lucky. The easiest way to fix pollution is to enact some anti
polluting ordiances! To do so, we need to go back to our budget window in
Mayor Mode. Go to expanded view in budget, then click the eye next to
ordiances. The ordiances we will be making will cost money monthly, so we
should balance this out with a money making one. Legalize Casinos and you
will be making money to cover these ordiances. Now select all the
ordiances that sound like the remove pollution. I recommend ones that go
after AIR pollution. Don't check to many ordiances, or you might start to
lose money.
Your city is on it's way. By now you probably have the 3rd reward and
possibly a business deal. If you don't, it's not that important yet. You
will get them soon enough. Now it's time to get some real money! The
best way it to get rich people! Now, they don't like crime or pollution,
and we just fixed one of them. They also like to be surronded by happy
and expansive things. But all these expansive things will pay off, since
the money you'll make from them really helps! Now, solving crime options
is optional, but if you choose to do so, just place a police station in
the location you wish to our soon to be rich people neighborhood. Make
sure it's far away from the polluting factories. Now surrond this little
police station with light density zones. I recommend leaving the game
on paused so no one moves in while you're perfecting your rich people
neighborhood. Make a road/street to the rest of your town, and powerlines
if needed. Now scatter small parks/gardens/recreational sites around this
neighborhood. Now, rich people won't settle for a well in their backyards
for plumbing, so it's time to get water. Don't get worried about the
cost though, as soon as the rich people move in, they are basically paying
it through taxes. Place one water tower in the center of your neighborhood.
Now go into pipe laying mode. First created a pipe connected to the water
tower. Now build more pipes so it surronds your neighborhood. Unpause the
game for a second to see if the neighborhood is getting water. Pause the
game again and build pipes in areas that don't have water. Be sure all
your pipes are connected to the tower. To go back to above ground view,
just click the lay road button.
Now, schools, clinic, and museum are optional. While they help attract
rich people, they can really destroy your income. I suggest building them
after a few rich people move it. Now set the game's speed to rhino (two
play buttons). Wait a while. You should mostly 2 story houses and
Victorian houses, if not, you'll need to slowly add more of those benefits
listed in beginning of this paragraph. If you want to see if it's a rich
house, use the query tool and investigate one of the houses. If it's $$
or $$$ for wealth, it means it's average-wealthy household. If you see only
$ in wealth, it's a redneck poor people house. Try bulldozing these and
seeing if nicer houses are built.
From this point on, it's pretty much rinse and repeat. All you have to do
is build more zones, make them poor/rich neighborhoods, give them jobs
with factories, make sure you're making money, lower/raise budgets when
needed, and slowly rezone your land into higher densities so you'll one day
have skyscrappers! Good luck, and if you need more ideas on what to do,
look at my other sections. Oh, here's a review of what your end result
should be like:
1. A functional power plant.
2. One poor neighboorhod, one rich neighborhood, factories, and mild amounts
of commercial.
3. Got a small education system working and possibly a small anti-crime one
too.
4. Enacted Legalize Casinos and anti-pollution ordiances to increase income
while decreasing pollution.
5. Your city will have a population around 15,000-25,000 by now. Unless you
zone very little residential that is. Remember the last paragraph of
the guide, rinse and repeat! You need to continue making more zones to
get more people!
6. Successfully kept budget atleast of 1$ income.
/--[ THE STRATEGIES ]--\
This section shows the strategies I've came up with. You can submit your
own if you want. Submit them to blue_moogle@hotmail.com and I'll put them
in the guide and creditting you. I hope these strategies help!
TITLE... Advance Zoning
AUTHOR... blue_moogle (blue_moogle@hotmail.com)
TYPE... Zoning
GOOD THINGS... Easy to manage city, profitable
BAD THINGS... Residential polluted easily from close by Industrial
In this strategy, I'm going to teach you how to zone effectively. It will
lower commute times, but can increase pollution without the right ordiances.
First lay out 3 zones in this manner:
These "blocks" can be anysize, but just keep these main tic tac toe shape.
The streets listed should be rezoned into roads for main commute ones. Any
streets inside these blocks should be left as streets, unless trafic becomes
heavy there. The the P section you should place your schools, fire, health,
so on. Later on you can zone more commercial and less industrial as the
RCI indicates it. Repeat these blocks through out your city for the easiest
to manage city.
TITLE... How to make neighbor deals
AUTHOR... blue_moogle (blue_moogle@hotmail.com)
TYPE... Neighbor Deals
GOOD THINGS... Learn how to make neighbor deals!
BAD THINGS... none, this is just a small tutorial.
You probably have heard of neighbor deals. They help a lot if you are
starting a new city and already have one working. With neighbordeals you
can easily get a city rolling along. For this example will transfer power
for little cost into a city. First, start your new city next to an already
functional one. Place a power line on the edge between your city and your
already functional one. Say yes to connect to neighbor. Now save and exit
this city. Go to your other functional one.
You'll see a power line on the edge of the map that connects to your new
city. Build more power lines connecting to this one so it can recieve
power from your functional powerplant. Save and exit now.
Back in your new city, you will now have access to power. But you must buy
it first. Go to budget, expand it, then click the eye next to neighbor
deals. Under the power section select a deal from your functional city.
Then click ok. You will now import power from this city for a pretty low
price!
Some Guidelines must be followed though for this to work:
1. The city selling the power must have enough power to give the other city
power for a whole year.
2. The city selling the power must have enough money to support the power
plant for a whole year when you are currently initiating the deal.
3. The city buying the power must have enough money to buy the power for a
whole year when the deal is being initiated.
4. Both cities must be connected together through power lines, and the
power lines must be connected to the powerplant.
TITLE... It's time for a vacation, lets commute!
AUTHOR... blue_moogle (blue_moogle@hotmail.com)
TYPE... Commuting
GOOD THINGS... Learn how to have sims commute from region to region.
BAD THINGS... none, just a small tutorial.
Generally when you communite, you want an industrial "city" so no pollution
occurs in your residential "city". You usually put commercial in the same
city as well as your residential. In SimCity 4, city maps are extremely
small in many cases, so learning how to do this is highly recommended so
you can get one huge metropolis.
First, lets play with the trains! These are the best way to commute people
from city to city, and even inside a city. The problem is, they will often
overflow with people, requiring you build more of them. To solve this
problem, remember to play a good amount of stations atlest every 5 "blocks"
in your city. NOw to get started. The two station types will be used.
PASSENGER: Sims use this to transport from homes in residential to jobs in
industrial.
FREIGHT: Sims use this to transport the products they make in industrial to
shops in commercial.
With that knowledge known, build the respective stations in the areas you
wish to build them. Now connect the two cities with rail, making sure
all the stations are connected. Passenger and Freight trains can use the
same railroad, so don't waste money making two seperate ones. Now build
your cities like you normally would. You can seize the opprotunity to even
build a more residential heaven by putting all the utilites in the icky
industrial one. One thing to remember about this strategy is, it doesn't
always work. Sometimes your sims won't see a point of going over to the
other city to work. Sometimes you need to "push" them into it by first
starting with only residential in one city so all the jobs are in the
other one. Good luck!
TITLE... Assorted Mini-Hints
AUTHOR... Reliant (no e-mail)
TYPE... Zoning, Commuting, Schools, and more!
GOOD THINGS... Awesome strategies for many of the tough things.
BAD THINGS... Can have long commutes and can lower land values.
Reliant has sent me a pretty long e-mail with various tips on playing he
wishes to post in this section (or so I believe). They all seem to very
helpful and cover topics such as school budgets, zoning effectively, and
working with commuters.
EFFECTIVE ZONE:
He's came up with a nice way to zone. The only downfall is the closeness
between the industrial and the residential, giving low land values from
the start. Here's his little ascii image of it.
R: Residential zone connecting to make a 1x3 plot of land facing left/right
r: Residential zone connecting to make a 1x2 plot of land facing up/down
C: Parks/Beautification
B: Bus stop
He recommends playing numerous blocks like these so bus stops are taken to
full advantage, plus the park will help with some land values, plus this
way no residential land is wasted (if you zone it right). The key says
"land plots" in it. A land plot is the amount of land is used when a sim
builds his/her house. EXAMPLE: houses that are 1x3 usually have a house,
a driveway, and a backyard. This takes up 3 squares. He recommends these
facing towards the roads that are |. The 1x2 plots should face toward the
- roads.
COMMUTERS ADVISE:
He's given a lot of advise on commuting. I would trust him on this too,
since he says he's used this strategy since the beginning, and only this
one. He recommends always having residential/commercial cities seperate
from the industrial ones. He also recommends placing all utilities in
the industrial one. He says this will cause long commutes, but it works
smoothly and is great to over come those small city sizes.
He also recommends not connecting a new city to a pre-excistent one that
is hugely populated. A rush of people will move to your city really quickly
and you won't have room for them. He says you'll have to zone highly
dense residential to take care of them, and this costs major amounts of
money.
SCHOOL BUDGET CUTS:
He says make the budgets very low for schools/clinics. It's more effective
to place many schools with low budgets than one school with a high budget.
In the end, if you budget it right, the cost will be the same, plus it gives
you the opprotunity of always increasing the budget later for a better
education level.
That's all the advise Reliant has to offer. Great stuff, I must admit.
TITLE... Where does the Garbage man take the trash?
AUTHOR... blue_moogle (blue_moogle@hotmail.com)
TYPE... Garbage Utility
GOOD THINGS... How to remove Trash effectivly
BAD THINGS... Pollution and lower land values.
Garbage is one of those things that is really annoying to take care of in
the game. People generally forget about it until far into the game and
don't have properly prepared cities to handle it. There is 3 ways to fix
this smelly problem that lowers land value.
SOLUTION 1 - Truck it
Simply open up a city in one of the smallest available squares on the region
map and call it "Land Fill" or something. Have surronding cities ship their
garbage it. Here it can use the money it's making to pay for incinerators
to dispose the garbage. Only pollution will occur in this city, the others
are trash free. This the best way to get rid of trash.
SOLUTION 2 - Make it Local
Have the city pick up the garabe and bring it to facilities (preferably ones
away from civilization) and recycle/incinerate the garbage. This releases
lots of pollution in the immediate area and effects areas farther away as
well. Plus it costs a lot of money. This is better than SOLUTION 3, but
not that good of a way to remove trash.
SOLUTION 3 - The easy bad way
Just zone a huge landfill in the center of your already dirty industrial
park. High Tech industries will never move in, dirty industries will never
move out. Pollution will double, from garbage and the dirty industries.
This lowers the land value even farther than just having the garbage be
taken care of by the sims themselves. This is just a stupid choice and
should never be done unless you purposely want low land values. Avoid this
one!
TITLE... Starting, planning, and working with your City
AUTHOR... MDMUFF (no-email)
TYPE... Starting a city
GOOD THINGS...
BAD THINGS... Can have long commutes and can lower land values.
/--[ THE LAST RESORT - CHEATS ]--\
So they game was just to hard for you? Well, these cheats should help you
beat that challenging part in city making. To enter a cheat, press ctrl
and continue to hold it down, then press x. A window will appear allowing
you to enter the cheats. Then press enter to activate them. Some cheats
can be deactivated by typing them in again.
CHEAT DESCRIPTION
--------------------------------------------------------------
weaknesspays* Gives $1000 to your bank.
stopwatch Turns on/off 24 hour clock.
whatimeizit Set time in military time. [hour:minute]
whererufrom [name] Changes the city name to [name].
hellomynameis [name] Changes mayor's name to [name].
you don't deserve it Unlocks all the reward buildings.
fightthepower Removes need for power in all buildings.
howdryiam Removes need for water in all buildings.
dollyllama Turns your advisors into llamas.
fps Shows your framerate per second.
zoneria Turns off all the zone colors (empty zoned land)
*: When pressing enter to activate cheat, continue to hold down left shift.
Then press up and enter again to quickly reactivate the cheat. Continue
to do so until you have as much money as you want.
GOD MODE: To reactivate god mode after starting your city, hold down ctrl,
alt, and shift and press the god mode button.
/--[ APPENDIX ]--\
So you have your little town but your sims want things. Hmm! Roads, Zones,
what is all of these strange tools? Well, I'll go over them for you! Yay!
--Part A--
These are the civic buildings, the normal buildings and stuff you can build
as a mayor. This includes MOST of the mayor tools.
NAME... Light Residential Zoning
TYPE... Zones
COST... $10.00 per square
REQ.... none
DESC... Your sims buy this type of land so they can build their houses
and live. This type only supports houses and small apartments.
NAME... Medium Residential Zoning
TYPE... Zones
COST... $20.00 per square
REQ.... none
DESC... This is an "upgraded" version of the light residential one. It
can support houses, small and normal apartments, and condos.
NAME... Heavy Residential Zoning
TYPE... Zones
COST... $50.00 per square
REQ.... none
DESC... This is very expansive land. It's not recommend for nice small
cities to use. Later, when you can support tall buildings, this
is what you'll use.
NAME... Light Commercial Zoning
TYPE... Zones
COST... $10.00 per square
REQ.... none
DESC... Your small local businesses and fastfood chains work here. It
hardly gives any jobs. These sell mainly products made in
agriculture and dirty industries.
NAME... Medium Commercial Zoning
TYPE... Zones
COST... $20.00 per square
REQ.... none
DESC... Many modest citizens work in these kind of businesses. They
include office buildings, sell products from the industry area,
and provide decent amounts of jobs.
NAME... Heavy Commercial Zoning
TYPE... Zones
COST... $50.00 per square
REQ.... none
DESC... Places like Bank Headquarters and major businesses own this zone.
This provides many jobs to educated workers. Sells mainly high
tech industry products and relies on them.
NAME... Agriculture Zoning
TYPE... Zones
COST... $10.00 per square
REQ.... none
DESC... This type of zone, though cheap, is actually expansive since it
requires huge amounts of land. It pollutes water and the workers
often pay no taxes, but can sometimes pay little meager amounts.
Not recommended unless your citie's education is terrible or you
don't care.
NAME... Medium Industrial Zoning
TYPE... Zones
COST... $20.00 per square
REQ.... none
DESC... Though more expansive than agriculture, it's quite a bit cheaper.
If you zone a fairly large of land of residential, you might get
6 or so houses, with medium industrial, you can get 25 or so
small factories. You don't need a lot of industrial zoned to
serice the city. Mainly dirty industry "grows" on this type,
which also provides the most amount of jobs.
NAME... Heavy Industrial Zoning
TYPE... Zones
COST... $50.00 per square
REQ.... none
DESC... High Tech industry favor this type of land, but it needs the
right stuff to "grow" there. It supports everything but farms.
---------------------------------
NAME... Streets
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $5.00 to build, $0.05 monthly upkeep
REQ.... none
DESC... Your basic neighborhood road. People will drive on it, slowly.
It's not the best way to solve traffic problems...
NAME... Roads
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $10.00 to build, $0.10 monthly upkeep
REQ.... none
DESC... These are the roads you drive on when going to mall, not really
a highway, but just normal city roads. You'll use these to
connect close by neighborhoods and busy neighborhood roads.
NAME... Bus Station
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $150.00 to build, $0.05 monthly upkeep (holds 1000 people)
REQ.... Roads/Streets
DESC... These will deploy buses around your city so less cars will be
used to pollute your city and turn roads into the daily rush
hour. Helps with traffic when placed right.
NAME... Highway
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $600.00 to build, $1.00 monthly upkeep
REQ.... onramp connected to road/street
DESC... Using onramps, cars can drive onto the highway and go super
speeds. Clears up huge amounts of traffic, but keeps the same
pollution problems and increases traffic noise problems.
NAME... Cloverleafs
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $3000.00 to build, $26.00 monthly upkeep
REQ.... Highway
DESC... Have 2 highways that you want to connect together? Use this.
The problem is, it's PRICEY!! But it allows you to connect all
4 corners of the map without the driver leaving and entering the
highway twice.
NAME... Onramps (side and overpass)
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $5.00 to build, $0.05 monthly upkeep
REQ.... Highway and street/road
DESC... This allows your faithful sim citizens to drive from their small
neighborhood streets onto those busy highways.
NAME... Railroad tracks
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $8.00 to build, $0.03 monthly upkeep
REQ.... none
DESC... A great anti-pollution transportation service, plus you get money
from people using it! Great!
NAME... Train Stations (passanger and freight)
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $100.00 to build, $0.10 monthly upkeep (holds 2000 people)
REQ.... Railroad Tracks
DESC... Your citizens drive to the stations with their cars and delivery
trucks to bring their families and products to these depots so
they can ride the trains!
NAME... Subway
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $156.00 to build, $0.30 monthly upkeep
REQ.... none
DESC... A more expansive version of railroad, but it doesn't take up any
space plus gives no pollution. Worth the price? Hmm...
NAME... Subway Station
TYPE... Transport Service
COST... $500.00 to build, $20.00 monthly upkeep (holds 2000 people)
REQ.... subway
DESC... If you want people on your subways, then make these! They only
exit and enter your subway trains with these.
/--[ CONCLUSION ]--\
I hope my guide helped a lot of you in playing SimCity 4. I hope my FAQ
helped you have a more enjoyable experience while playing this great game
called SimCity 4. I recommend you checking out the SimCity 4 forum sometime
since it's filled with a lot of questions that get answered quickly. I
might even put a question very similar to yours in my FAQ! Have fun playing
SimCity 4!
