SimCity

[Crimson Sunrise]

I've been playing this game for years (mostly SimCity 2000 and SimCity 3000 recently) and I have no idea how to keep my cities financially solvent. I always have to cheat to keep from running out of money - in 2000 I just type the code that gives you $500,000 and this keeps me afloat.

In 3000, though, even when I cheat to turn off construction costs, I run out of money! In fact, I've only ever had one city that was a success financially. I keep it on a CD-ROM, safe from my computer's frequent crashes.

So where do you get money from? My natural inclination would be to get invovled in drug or diamond smuggling, but the game doesn't let me.

(You can talk about other SimCity related things if you like, too! I don't care. )

 

[puglover]

Originally posted by Crimson Sunrise
I've been playing this game for years (mostly SimCity 2000 and SimCity 3000 recently) and I have no idea how to keep my cities financially solvent. I always have to cheat to keep from running out of money - in 2000 I just type the code that gives you $500,000 and this keeps me afloat.

Me too. I've had SimCity 2000 since I was 7. I have SimCity 4. It was a waste of 50 good bucks.

 

[WillJ]

I will now let you in on the great SimCity secret, allowing you to do whatever you want without cheating : (This works with all the games, or at least 4 and 3000)

The trick is to get lots (and I mean lots) of money, so much that you can just build, build, build to your heart's content, and THEN worry about your city. To do this, build a fairly small city WITHOUT ANY CITY SERVICES (besides the necessities: power and transportation, and maybe water in 2K, but not in 4, not sure about 3K). Keep taxes at their default rate. You should be able to get your city to make a thousand or so dollars a month (in SimCity4; not sure about the other games, but I'm near postive you can get a couple thousand a year in other games).

Then just let your city run. You'll need a lot of patience, but once you get a few million or more in the bank, you can pretty much not have to worry about finances ever again. In SimCity4, it takes about 7 or so hours. In SimCity2000 I think you can just let the game run by itself with auto disasters off, with you doing whatever you want (including sleeping). In 3K and 4 you have to pay attention to power plants (a major bummer for this strategy) and also fires (in SC4; in 3K you can have auto disastors off, but again, you'll still need to watch your power plants).

Hope this helps. If you need any help, just say so.

 

[Dell19]

Whenever I try do that, I come back after a couple of hours to see that my city has collapsed and is instead making huge losses...

 

[Thrawn]

Usually I have the same problem, except for my first 3k game. I don't know how, but I managed to make a profitable city. Occassionally I had to wait until the end of the year to have money, but I was making a profit.

 

[Dell19]

Oh I can make profitable and large cities but I have to constantly watch my cities so that they don't suddenly start making a loss.

 

[Crimson Sunrise]

Thanks for the advice, gang.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by Dell19
Whenever I try do that, I come back after a couple of hours to see that my city has collapsed and is instead making huge losses...

That's why you're supposed to watch it. (unless you're playing 2K, in which you can have auto-disastors off and not worry about a thing)

Sure, it's boring, but it doesn't take too long....

 

[Dell19]

Ah okay I thought you were assuming that you could simply leave the computer on all night and wake up with a very rich city. Although it is very strange that simply watching will keep your city from collapsing...

 

[.:KNAS:.]

I may suck at "the Sims", but when it comes to Sim City 2000 i am GOD!

If you want an easy start, create your own montain that is one tile high, one tile wide and say 20-30 tiles long. Then add water (one on each sloped tile AND DO IT IN THE EDITOR, otherwise it will cost you a fortune!) and start the city. Then you can build hydro power on those waterfall tiles and never have to rebuild them. Its a pretty good trick that will make it easier for you in the early year. Stay away from solar and wind power, it is not cost effective! You can however build wind power if you have a couple of empty squares if you can't fit something useful there, but don't build large farms of wind power. Oil, Nuclear and Fusion is the way to go (besides hydro). Also if you run with disasters off remember to lower your FD budget to round 50 %. Never let health, school or PD go below 80% and never let transportation go below 100%. Subways are a neat feature but expensive. Its better if you just expand your bus network instead. Though later in the game you may ad subway if you wish to.
Highways: never use them, because in the beginning they're to expensive and later in the game i dont want to have to tear down half my city to fit them in.
Ordinances: A tough one, but if your city is just barley making, leave all taxes things unchecked and add city beautification etc.. Pollution penaltys i do recomend you get if you want your city to be hospitable.
Taxes: 6 % is okay, lower it to 5 if you need growth, raise it if you want quick cash.

I think that should help you a bit.

 

[Dell19]

Yeah yeah we all know the hydro trick. Just make a long mountain of water and also you can make one tile wide rivers for your pumps and then flatten the rest of the map...

Edit: without disasters I simply set fire to 0% as they complain but who cares...

 

[.:KNAS:.]

actually, just a series of one tile lakes with 2 tiles bewteen them would be even more cost effective then the little river...

anyways, in the sim series my favourite is Sim City 2000 followed by the first Sim City. Never played Sim City 4, but number 3000 sucked.

 

[Dell19]

Ah yes, well I was rushing so I forgot that there was an even better method, but you don't need to save that much space on SC 2000.

 

[.:KNAS:.]

All this talking about Sim City made me think...

How about some sort of Sim City 2K sucession game, or a tournament or something? Would it be possible?

 

[Dell19]

Yes but it would have to be 1 year at a time or something for a succession game to keep everyone interested. Check out Gamecatcher for a Simcity tournament. Sadly it failed there but it could work here, I will try to get a link.

here:
http://www.gamecatcher.net/fora/viewtopic.php?t=1372&start=0

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by Dell19
Ah okay I thought you were assuming that you could simply leave the computer on all night and wake up with a very rich city. Although it is very strange that simply watching will keep your city from collapsing...

Well, if you read carefully you'd have noticed that's not the case. Oh, and "simply watching" doesn't keep your city from collapsing. You need to continuously replace your power plants (and take care of fires in SC4). You CAN usually sleep while your city runs in 2K, but not in 3K or 4.

Originally posted by Dell19
Ah yes, well I was rushing so I forgot that there was an even better method, but you don't need to save that much space on SC 2000.

It's not just about space; water pumps pump a certain amount of water depending on how many sides face water. Ideally, you should have a series of one tile islands for your water pumps.

Originally posted by .:KNAS:.
All this talking about Sim City made me think...

How about some sort of Sim City 2K sucession game, or a tournament or something? Would it be possible?

Bah, 4 is the way to go. (No, really, I highly recommend getting it, assuming you have a little money to throw around.) What I would like is a competition where people build cities and submit them to judges, who give awards (I think this is what Gamecatcher does). An "inter-game" (meaning any version of the game is allowed) competition would probably work, although it might be tough to compare a 2K city with a 4 one.

 

[.:KNAS:.]

i thought it ditn't matter how many sides that faced water as long as atleast one side did?

 

[Dell19]

Neither did I, at least I've never noticed any deterioration in pumping power.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by .:KNAS:.
i thought it ditn't matter how many sides that faced water as long as atleast one side did?

Nope, in 2K at least, that's not the case.

 

[Dell19]

On SC3k I usually build a Coal power plant, a school, hospital, police and fire station and then set fire funding to 0. Introduce smoking bans and parking fines. Then with the rest of the money I build roads and zone about 55% residential, 30% Industry and 15% Commercial as it doen't grow very quickly to start off with. Try and keep everything together with the education and health next to res zone but industry close and commercial zone and try to build the special buildings such as police stations in the middle of your city to maximise coverage.

Then I just expand at a similar rate, gradually zoning landfill site and building new power plants as I need them. Forget about building bus stops or colleges etc until the city has established itself and has two coal power plants. This is starting in the earliest age.