Simcity 2000 help

[Racsoviale]

so since my computer sucks so badly I have started to install and play some of all my old games. I recently installed Simcity 2000 which I love, but have never been able to play well. My main problem is to get a positive revenue on my yearly budget and after my initial city has been built I just keep losing money. so what are/were some of the tricks you guys use(d)?

I play on easy and try to keep a good balance between residence, commercial and industrial zones (1/2 res, 1/4 com, 1/4 ind) Initialy I try to keep my industry somewhat away from the rest of the city because of the pollution and build lots of roads and a railway to keep traffic and pollution on a minimum.

I dont mess too much with my budget setings, which might be the problem. they are all at 100%, but I have begun to lower police, fire and health services to 70% percent. And my tax rate stays at the starting 7 %

Any help from hardcore simcity players would be much appreciated

 

[Hakim]

Grow ugly and very fast in the beginning: pause, build powerplant and then zone up (I and R, close to each other) most of the money at once. Once economy is under control, gradually make the city better by adding services, rezone and replan etc. I think it's very hard to grow organically bit by bit.

 

[Dell19]

A slight cheat was to use the map editor to make a 1 tile high hill across part of the map which is then covered in water so that you can build hydro electric power stations as you need them and also have space for water pumps.

Like Hakim says generally you just need to build large lanes of high density zones (I think 6 tiles wide) across the map and keep the funding on the average level.

 

[aelf]

You can actually grow the city as slowly as you like. The trick is simply to maintain a positive net revenue and be able to replace the power plant(s) when you need to (unless you're using all hydro or wind). Growing slowly allows you to plan your city better and fit it into an overall aesthetic plan. Even if you earn much less than $1000 per year early on, with some proper planning and saving up, you can replace the power plant when you need to.

To maintain a positive net revenue all you need is, again, proper planning. Make sure your city is attractive to live in. As you say, keep a good balance of zones - but you probably need more industry relative to commerce early on (something like 70 to 30 ratio); watch the RCI bars. Try to buffer commercial zones from residential zones with a few tiles of park or forest and buffer industrial zones from residential zones with the commercial zones. Make sure they're not too far away from the residential areas, though. If you have enough people living in your city and some commerce/industry zone tiles are not being built on, then they are too far away (10 tiles away is the max, IIRC). Don't overdo services. Watch what the bottom bar says people want. Deal with issues as they come (but before they get too serious) - if you see heavy concentration of crime build a police station nearby, if you see heavy traffic along some roads build some public transport or highways to service them, etc. Basically, keep your city growing or stable rather than declining and don't overspend. Take loans if you absolutely need to (e.g. to replace power plant or turn around a declining city with some quick zoning), but pay them off asap.

Initialy I try to keep my industry somewhat away from the rest of the city because of the pollution and build lots of roads and a railway to keep traffic and pollution on a minimum.

Roads actually contribute to pollution (and railways take up too much space, so I only build them if the aesthetic plan calls for it). You know the 3-tile rule, right? Roads service up to 3 tiles adjacent to them. Using this rule, you can build blocks of 6x6 (or 6xn or nx6) tiles, which would minimise pollution.

PS: Check out the Simcity 2000 download thread here, if you don't already know about it.

 

[Racsoviale]

thanks guys I'll try what you suggested. especially minimizing my roads and i'll try to actually build some parks. And try to not build everything at the beginning

 

[Rashiminos]

Skimp on expenditures such as unnecessary roads, police/fire triple coverage, flood pipes (iirc, you pay for mains when you could use the pipes provide by developed zones), etc. Not every area needs to be pristine beachfront. Avoid mass transit until it benefits industry to have an external connection, then use it sparingly until you have about 100,000 sims.

 

[reddishrecue]

Supply the demand of the IRC by zoning Industry when the I is up or Residential when the R is up. When starting up, start with low density and then as the city grows switch to high density. Police and Fire when theres enough income along with all the other needs that you can afford.