Sim City 4 tips

[SS-18 ICBM]

Well, my cities are built over several tiles. I prefer to keep the heavy industry in its own tile.

 

[Dell19]

Lately I've had quite a lot of issues with hospitals or schools going on strike even when the funding is on the level amount. I assume it means that I'm meant to build more clinics or hospitals but sometimes there doesn't seem to be enough spare cash in the budget to maintain another building.

I've started a new city and that has seemed to work better with more planning of bus stops and tube stations. Are avenues just two roads next to each other or are they something available in an expansion?

Also when I went back to my original city the residential demand crashed completely with commerce being low as well which I assume means that more people were choosing to live in the second city so the only demand in the first city appeared to be for industry.

 

[Tani Coyote]

Lately I've had quite a lot of issues with hospitals or schools going on strike even when the funding is on the level amount. I assume it means that I'm meant to build more clinics or hospitals but sometimes there doesn't seem to be enough spare cash in the budget to maintain another building.

I just plop down another hospital/clinic and lower its funding so it can cover whatever the other one couldn't. I raise it as needed.

I've started a new city and that has seemed to work better with more planning of bus stops and tube stations. Are avenues just two roads next to each other or are they something available in an expansion?

Avenues are just one way roads going opposite ways. You get them in Rush Hour.

Also when I went back to my original city the residential demand crashed completely with commerce being low as well which I assume means that more people were choosing to live in the second city so the only demand in the first city appeared to be for industry.

When you link cities, their demands become forever intertwined. If you built a lot of homes in that other city, it decimates the demand in the original city.

 

[W|M]

Avenues also happen to look awesome on the map.

Railways are good for connecting different cities. Build Industrial stations if you are connecting two different industries, otherwise build Passenger stations.

There is a massive amount of mods and custom art here for you to use.

EDIT: Also make sure each school and hospital has enough capacity to hold it's people. Increasing the capacity to about 100 more than the current amount of patients/students, and gradually increasing is good practise. Libraries are cheap, though, and it's better to have about 1000 more books than are currently used. Never use clinics unless you have a small isolated community.

 

[Tani Coyote]

Avenues also happen to look awesome on the map.

I myself always got a kick out of how the avenues' appearance changes depending on what's around it. They look more and more beautiful depending on the wealth of their surroundings.

Railways are good for connecting different cities. Build Industrial stations if you are connecting two different industries, otherwise build Passenger stations.

I just use roads for that myself, though an argument could be made that in a large industrial city, roads aren't as crowded if you just use railways...

I do build a lot of water-based cities, however, so usually a seaport can handle industry's freight needs.

Also make sure each school and hospital has enough capacity to hold it's people. Increasing the capacity to about 100 more than the current amount of patients/students, and gradually increasing is good practise. Libraries are cheap, though, and it's better to have about 1000 more books than are currently used. Never use clinics unless you have a small isolated community.

Yeah, clinics are a waste of money if you're a rapid developer like me. I just build a lot of low res, build water as soon as we hit the 1000 mark, start re-zoning, bam, all clinics get flooded. Much better to just take a higher startup cost of a hospital, and increase its funding as needed.

I mainly use clinics for those upscale wealthy neighborhoods I build, if I build them a few blocks apart from the rest of the city. (Keep the riff raff out and all)

Libraries, I've never actually used much... I primarily just build elementary schools and colleges. Sometimes high schools once I get the money...

Though those high-density schools are another perk to Rush Hour. Very good if you intend to go beyond a country town.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

A clinic before 1000 population? I generally hold off on services unless I'm sure I can stay in the green. The only absolute requirements are power and road access anyway.

You really should use Libraries. They raise education for all age groups and are cheap to boot.

 

[Tani Coyote]

A clinic before 1000 population? I generally hold off on services unless I'm sure I can stay in the green. The only absolute requirements are power and road access anyway.

Oh, I meant I build water once I reach around 1000. That way, the apartments can start cropping up and expansion can become extremely rapid.

And with that comes the real fun: making the growth last.

You really should use Libraries. They raise education for all age groups and are cheap to boot.

I'll have to try that next time; it's a nice way to easily raise it with minimal investment. Also has that reward building for it...

 

[aronnax]

I enjoy putting my Main Library in a large tile space with trees surrounding it entirely. It looks nice.

 

[civ_king]

Help, my cities seem to plateau at around 80k people with them being employed in high end commercial and high tech, how do I make them bigger

 

[Tani Coyote]

Help, my cities seem to plateau at around 80k people with them being employed in high end commercial and high tech, how do I make them bigger

As I recall, the game actually will arrest growth if you don't have enough neighbor connections. This is to encourage use of interdependent cities.

So, start building up some small towns on the borders. Or, at least, build road connections to every neighboring city. That should alleviate your problem.

 

[W|M]

Get an airport, and reserve a bit of space around it for expansion.

 

[Tani Coyote]

On airports: even when you have a city that supports level 3 of the major international airport(each airport upgrades twice on its own at no additional cost, before you need to actually expand), always keep a small airstrip. The small airstrip allows a lucrative mission from Dr. Vu that's easy and nets you 100,000 Simoleons. Money troubles? What are those?

 

[civ_king]

Get an airport, and reserve a bit of space around it for expansion.

I'm playing the SFBA map and I have the Penisula covered and I have connections East to Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda and North to Tiburon, I've got a total of ~9 cities

 

[Tani Coyote]

I'm playing the SFBA map and I have the Penisula covered and I have connections East to Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda and North to Tiburon, I've got a total of ~9 cities

...well. Meep. You have connections.

Do you have demand? See what demands you have, and build those. Also check desirability in the maps section so as to make sure you're zoning in areas that business will like. Nobody but the poor or dirty industry will willingly live next to a dump, prison, etc.

 

[Antilogic]

I used to use exclusively 3-length blocks, so 6x9 or 6x6, but recently I've been experimenting with high-density 2-lengthers, with the 6x4 block being a standard grid. I've found it relatively easier to get the massive 4x4 buildings, and then the other part of the block is usually replaced with parks, subway and bus stops, police/fire stations, etc.

In one coastal region (a 2x2 map size), I had two peninsulas extending from a city to the east. Although it was unintentional, the smaller northern peninsula quickly became a high-end luxury estate with commercial offices, and a few high-tech industries. I bull-dozed the public school because it only had 3 students (and the private school had 170).

The other peninsula, due to its proximity to the power plant and greater number of industrial zones (mostly dirty and manufacturing), quickly became what I call "The Projects". Out of a total population of ~29k, ~8k live in a single 4x4 building (Project Bootstrap). It literally has its own subway station, which is maxed out on traffic. One-way roads alleviated some of my high-density traffic problems, but the subway fixed it entirely.

Now, if only I could get the names on the south peninsula to show in the Fake Cyrillic font, it would be perfect.

 

[NBAfan]

I always cheat for money, designing is much more fun then the lousy budget game.

If you don't have it already, get the NAM mod at Simtropolis now! It makes the game's traffic so much better! It is so awesome and necessary that no sane or smart person would play SC4 without it.

 

[Tani Coyote]

I always cheat for money, designing is much more fun then the lousy budget game.

You don't need to cheat. Just build a small airstrip, do missions for Dr. Vu in the skywriter. Each success nets you +100,000 Simoleons. The mission refreshes very quickly so you can do it over and over again. A few hours makes you a millionaire; money will never trouble you again. Then you can focus on the real fun - trying to unlock the rewards (though this too can be circumvented with Missions), developing an aesthetic wonderland, and keeping a large metro from falling apart because it lacks a magic ingredient.

If you don't have it already, get the NAM mod at Simtropolis now! It makes the game's traffic so much better! It is so awesome and necessary that no sane or smart person would play SC4 without it.

I tried that once, I think I mis-installed it since for some reason, whenever I put one of the props down, it was surrounded by a large cardboard box.

 

[W|M]

You don't need to cheat. Just build a small airstrip, do missions for Dr. Vu in the skywriter. Each success nets you +100,000 Simoleons. The mission refreshes very quickly so you can do it over and over again. A few hours makes you a millionaire; money will never trouble you again. Then you can focus on the real fun - trying to unlock the rewards (though this too can be circumvented with Missions), developing an aesthetic wonderland, and keeping a large metro from falling apart because it lacks a magic ingredient.

That mission is damn hard. You can get 70 000 Simoleons each by completing Dr. Vu's Area 5.1 missions, although one will require you to destroy a lot of important infrastructure (don't do the one which makes you destroy your power plant), and another will make you destroy a small amount of residential, commercial and industrial space (make sure you're at low altitude and know exactly where the missile will land on this one), another will make you just abduct people from a house with a UFO (This is good to do, though be careful in that you don't abduct too many people from the surrounding area).

 

[Tani Coyote]

That mission is damn hard.

It is?

It can be time-consuming... but it's only hard if you go so high up you lose track of your position. If you stay low, you can see the cursor of your location beneath you. This way, you're actually above stuff when you can see it, or close enough, rather than it being a screen or two beneath you.

Air missions just require patience, especially since if you keep gaining altitude, you'll lose track of where you are.

You can get 70 000 Simoleons each by completing Dr. Vu's Area 5.1 missions, although one will require you to destroy a lot of important infrastructure (don't do the one which makes you destroy your power plant), and another will make you destroy a small amount of residential, commercial and industrial space (make sure you're at low altitude and know exactly where the missile will land on this one), another will make you just abduct people from a house with a UFO (This is good to do, though be careful in that you don't abduct too many people from the surrounding area).

Judging by how costly these are, using the skywriter sounds wiser.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I tried that once, I think I mis-installed it since for some reason, whenever I put one of the props down, it was surrounded by a large cardboard box.

Ah yes. Dependency trouble. Dependencies are what allow you to see the structure of the building in the game. Even if one of many is wrong you'll see the box. They're known for being finicky to install. One reason I don't plan on installing custom lots. If you want to though, probably best to get ones with auto-installers to avoid all that.