Simcity 4 SUX

Nubclear · February 6, 2003, 21:32

Because I dont know how to play it! Im' a total newbie, and someone needs to teach me the good techniques.

Urban Ranger · February 6, 2003, 21:53

Have you read the threads on Simcity 4? Got some excellent tips.

Nubclear · February 6, 2003, 22:43

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Have you read the threads on Simcity 4? Got some excellent tips.

I'm too lazy to read through all that text sorry

vovan · February 6, 2003, 22:55

Regional play is absolutely key! Switch cities every decade or so, share RCI demand, and everything will work great. I haven't played much, but here is what I got after about ten-eleven hours of play (spread over about two weeks

). See attachment.

As you can see, I already have four well-developed cities. (Well, maybe you can't, since I turned the borders off.

Trust me

) And I also am just starting two new ones on the right-hand side. They are all connected to each other, so basically, in each city, the demands are sky-high for any type of industry, housing, and commerce. I then pick and choose what kind of city I want - poor populace + dirty industry, or a sort of rural farmer's village, a wealthy community, or a bustling commercial district, and zone the tiles, and services accordingly. Since the sims freely move around the cities, the demand is shared, and everyone can find a place according to their education and wealth.

Nubclear · February 7, 2003, 00:34

How do I make deals for cities? I want to make Tassagrad the BEST city of the cities I'll create, and the others are simply there to serve.

War4ever · February 7, 2003, 00:43

perhaps you should read the manual?

Nubclear · February 7, 2003, 00:51

Originally posted by War4ever
perhaps you should read the manual?

Comrade Tribune · February 7, 2003, 01:16

Originally posted by vovansim
As you can see, I already have four well-developed cities.

Splendid.

Can you post a larger screenie?

ZargonX · February 7, 2003, 02:20

perhaps you should read the manual?

While good advice, that assumes that the manual is more than a pamphlet telling you what's new in the game. *sigh*

aaglo · February 7, 2003, 06:14

A quick question:

Do I need a DVD-player on my PC to play simcity 4?

Lemmy · February 7, 2003, 06:22

ehm..No, i'm pretty sure it's still comes on a normal CD-ROM.

Eli · February 7, 2003, 06:32

:cries:

My city doesnt work!

I build some low res and low ind, a wind power plant and 3 water towers. No one comes!

Grumbold · February 7, 2003, 07:58

Have you connected any roads to offmap Eli? I always start with one connection to SimNation at least (this can be an empty zone or out of the region entirely.) If that doesn't kick start it I would try a small amount of medium or dense industrial. Then I'd triple check that I wasn't on pause mode

General Ludd · February 7, 2003, 08:13

I don't think that connections do anything if there's no city there.

The only things you should need to get development going is a power plant and industrial / residential zoning, connected together by roads and power lines (if they are not close together). It may take a month or two for construction to begin.

DrSpike · February 7, 2003, 08:32

I thought this was going to be a let's bash sim games thread...........damn you for disappointing me Tassadar.

Grumbold · February 7, 2003, 08:41

SimNation is supposed to produce demand but I've never tried doing two identical cities, one with connections and one without.

Eli · February 7, 2003, 09:00

ADG tried to play that game of mine and no one came either. But it doesnt matter now, I started a new one and it works perfectly.

Adagio · February 7, 2003, 09:34

Eli >> Just make sure you don't put your taxes tooooo high

Tassadar >> Had the same problem, and came to the conclusion: Practice makes... better

One important thing to remember:

Keep an eye on your schools/hospitals/etc, and cut the spending, if there's only little demand for it...

Oh, and one more thing: DON'T play it like it was SimCity 3k...

Grumbold · February 7, 2003, 12:30

Yeah. Its even less forgiving than SC 2000, so playing like SC 3000 is a disaster

Kc7mxo · February 7, 2003, 13:43

SC4 is fun, but I've started to run into a wall in city size. It just slows my game down too damn much. At 45k I can barely scroll around the dang map. And my system is no slouch, though it isn't top of the line. (Amd XP 2000, 512 mb pc2100 ram, geforce 3 ti200).

I've basically given up on getting big cities, and now i just try for high performance small ones.

Skanky Burns · February 7, 2003, 14:12

Try setting details lower. By default, they are all at maximum.

Comrade Tribune · February 7, 2003, 15:53

Originally posted by Grumbold
Yeah. Its even less forgiving than SC 2000, so playing like SC 3000 is a disaster

This is heart-warming to hear. I wish HoI were so unforgiving; it would be the perfect game, wouldn´t it?

vovan · February 7, 2003, 15:58

Turning the clouds off sped up my game quite a bit...

Sava · February 7, 2003, 17:29

C'mon Tass, just use a little effort to learn some of the nuances of the game. Having a thriving city is so fun!

vovan · February 7, 2003, 20:44

Originally posted by Comrade Tribune
Splendid.

Can you post a larger screenie?

Well, I can't post a larger screenie of the region, since there is no zoom on that level. However, I can post some screenies of the cities.

This here below is just a closeup of some low-wealth commercial area, and some residential zoning.

vovan · February 7, 2003, 20:46

And this is my first city that is a century old.

(Don't look for a university, it's not there yet.

)

Nubclear · February 7, 2003, 20:48

How do I get regional play to work? Do I Just hook everything up? Can I build a power city and i just hook up the power lines and it'll begin giving power to the connected cities?

Help

vovan · February 7, 2003, 20:51

Yes. Only the neighboring cities need to give $ for the electricity.

So, you need to start neighbor deals. That's a bit weird to do. I spent a long time trying to figure that one out (about ten-fifteen minutes

). On the finance tab, the one with the simoleon sign. You need to click the income/expense table to bring up the detailed report, and then click "Neighbor deals" from either list. That will bring a list with the possible neighbor deals. Choose the one you want, and how much you want to pay / make, and there ya go.

Eli · February 8, 2003, 03:32

I could use some help with the traffic here.

The southern bank is Industry, the shores of the norhtern bank are commercial and the rest of the northern bank is residential. Most of it $.

So basically, most of the residents move through the bridges to work and most of the "work" falls on one briddge.

I scattered a few bus stations around the city(you can see them in the screenshot, I think). It helped, but only temporarily. Most of the bus stations are barely used, and those that are used are only and less than 20-30% capacity.

I added a railroad line... less than 50 people use it.

Any advice?

Basically I need to make the people who live in the Western neighborhoods to use the Western bridge, instead of using the middle one like everyone else.

Eli · February 8, 2003, 05:07

What I did is to get rid of the congested bridge and build a highway bridge instead. No one was using the highway and everyone started to move to the yellow bridge, which immediately became all red. I razed it.

Now everyone use the highway but there is a lot of congestion in the roads leading to it.

So I razed the Eastern bridge and built another highway bridge instead of it. Still, all the sims seem to flock to that middle highway bridge, thus causing lots of traffic in the roads leading to it. All this, despite having another perfect highway bridge on the East and a road bridge on the West.