SimCity 2000 Strategy

[Mr. President]

I took up my trusty SimCity 2000 CD again, for the features that were lost in the transition to 3000, such as the signposts, the right to name public buildings, and the newspapers.

But I have no idea how to keep my cities financially solvent. Even if I build a small town to start off with, and cut fire department funding to about 20% , my budget goes negative within a year or two. And yet there are cities among the ones that installed into my Cities folder that have populations of five million-plus, and make money.

[St Leo]

Your immediate goal is to be able to pay for the rebuilding of the power plant in fifty years.

1. Build a coal power plant.
2. Zone industrial.
3. Zone residential. Personally, I like mixed development in 6x6 and 6x12 blocks, but I very much doubt that anyone else does.
4. Build a school and a hospital.
5. You have powerlines and roads, right?
6. If you aren't making enough at the end of the year, build a few more blocks.
7. Once you are, let it african swallow while you make money, zone more blocks, and allow for powerplant rebuilding.
8. Build police departments and fire departments only when the ingrates really demand them.

[monolith94]

Yeah, you basically have to live life in the ghetto for a while before you can begin to upgrade... Sucks, don't it?

[Soul Survivor]

Originally posted by monolith94
Yeah, you basically have to live life in the ghetto for a while before you can begin to upgrade... Sucks, don't it?

until a tornado wipes out your nuclear plants

[The Mad Monk]

9. Turn natural disasters OFF.

[Maquiladora]

Build lots of waterfalls on the terrain editor, and just build a hydro-electric power plant everytime you need a power boost, and they dont need replacing.

[da_hal]

i went with 50% res, 25% industrial, 25% commercial in roughly 20 X 3 strips with roads between and around each area. This appears to be the widest area possible where people can get to their jobs and homes with the least amount of hassle. This strategy also allows you to skip freeways and subways.

Water and power are a hassle though. I usually had like 1/4 of the map devoted to water and power in the corner, and had a line/pipe running to the city.

For the above strat, add whatever utilities/services you want, one per strip. i think i used wind power and the crappy wells.

The key for me was the max 3 block wide zone. max efficiency.