Introduction Like many Simcity fans, I was underwhelmed by the new one, which inspired me to dust-off Simcity 4 and play that again. It has been fun. So much fun, that I wanted to share it here with fellow TL players who might be looking to play Simcity 4 (SC4) again, or for the first time.
I am no expert in Simcity, I am not claiming that this is the best, fastest, or most efficient way to play. This is demonstration of one way to play SC4, which I hope will be useful to some people. I'll be playing rather deliberately, simply, and slowly. Simcity has a lot of features, I'll only use a few of them.
Setup Get Simcity 4 Deluxe, install the NAM version 30 mod (optional).
NAM version 30, found here is a traffic mod which will make the traffic simulation for SC4 much more realistic. I used the "high capacity" option for this playthrough. It isn't necessary to have a good time, but your ultimate city size will be capped at a lower limit without it. For part 1 of this tutorial, it won't be necessary.
This is at medium difficulty.
Let's Play
This is the overall plan. We'll start in the top right, create a starter city with a balanced mix of residential, commercial, and industrial, and just work our way, down the numbers, to eventually build a mega-city, with residential zones feeding into it, and a industrial zone by the bay. The red lines are the highway network. The plan is subject to change, but this is gives you an idea of the scale you need to be thinking on to get the simcity 4 experience. If you feel like going back to downloading NAM now, I highly encourage it.
Here's our starting bit of land. Since our future industrial zone will be to the southwest of here, for continuity's sake we will put our industrial zone in that corner. With hills and the coast boxing us in, we'll have a main north-south axis. Pause to start building.
This is the overall plan. There are two main blobs, polluting and non-polluting. I've got low-density residential along streets, with medium- and low-density commercial lining the main avenue and roads. The industry currently consists only of agriculture. The coal powerplant and landfill is tucked in the corner. The water pumps are far to the north, drawing pristine water from the forests.
Detail on the residential/commercial zone. Notice that the residential housing faces the street, not roads. Housing value is decreased by traffic, and no one wants their front door to open to a highway. The roads funnel traffic to the main avenue, which can handle much more traffic. Commercial likes traffic, so we put commercial zones along the sides of the avenue, and in a buffer zone between the residential and the industrial. We've also placed an elementary school to get those sims educated right away. Let's start the game.
As the sims move in, they will start demanding things, such as fire, police, health services. Add them as they ask for it. Never build more than you need. You will be losing money each month, don't worry about it. The farms should pop up pretty quickly. Now that things are underway, hit dirty industry with 20% taxes, the maximum. To do this, click on the budget, then click on the taxes to open a pop-up. This will insure that dirty industry will never come, as shown by the negative demand for I-D. Wait for I-M (Industry-Manufacturing) to show positive demand. Now that it has, we can start to put down industry.
Re-zone some of your farms as medium-density industry. Manufacturing should start to pop up, which will really help your economy.
We're making money now. The city still has plenty empty space, so we need to do something to get more people here. Let's zone some more industry. Time to evict some farmers.
With more industry, we need ways for them to ship their goods. Create a rail connection to SimNation (the region map), by dragging a railroad line to the edge. Build a freight terminal to start shipping freight.
Goods are starting to move, which will give you a nice boost to the economy. As you build-out more zones, the interplay between zones will make a huge difference in your economy.
Things are really starting to come along, we've got a healthy demand for residential, now that there are industrial jobs available. Start re-zoning a few areas with medium or high density as you prefer, and upgrading streets to roads as needed. Also add emergency services as needed. You should be getting goodies like mayor's house, statues, and houses of worship, which you can use to boost the desirability of certain areas. Don't forget water and power.
Our first major wave of expansion sees a east-west avenue, and continued build-out along the periphery. We've added a high-school, a major hospital, and some other amenities. We're beginning to see the first hints of high-tech industrial demand.
You also see one of the cosmetic benefits of NAM, which gives us a nice roundabout at the intersection of the avenues.
Continued buildout. We put down a small airport, which greatly boosted commercial demand, and put in a university and a golf course, as well as an advanced research facility.
The downtown commercial district. We're making good money, and there is massive demand for more commerce. This is a good thing - the demand boosts land value, which pushes up those skyscrapers. We're making good money, our mayor rating is high, and we're approaching 40k sims.
General game advice: + Don't worry about having a "master plan" with everything straight and nice, at least in the beginning. That can wait for later. + Just try stuff out - it's a game, you're a beginner, getting a feel for the game engine is more important than avoiding mistakes. + In general, use a light touch. Don't do too much too quickly. Add some zoned land, wait for the game to respond, then decide what to do next. + Before you do something major, build up a cash reserve. For example, putting down your first airport is a big budget-buster, and it may take a few years before it begins to pay for itself in increased commercial activity. Make sure you have enough buffer to survive the years in-between. + Save often. While I have played SC4 continuously on 64-bit Win7 for hours, it does crash without warning.
General starting tips: + Build landfills and a coal-power plant in a far corner. There are cleaner options, but coal is cheap, and money will be tight. + Build your water pumps in a different corner, wherever your residential zones will be. + Your first city will have two main blobs - polluting and non-polluting. Residential/commercial will be in one blob, industry in the other. + Don't build roads or avenues if you don't need them. Streets are perfectly good for low-density. You can always upgrade to roads later. Don't be shy about building streets, as they are cheap and provide "reserve upgrade capacity" for later. + Don't build more fire, police, health, water, power, and garbage services than you need. You can skip police kiosk, but generally speaking, work your way up the various city-service builds as needed. Remember that most buildings have sliders so you can reduce the cost. + Zone low- and medium- density for now. You can always upgrade to high-density later. + Cash flow is precious, cash is cheap. The true cost of any item is the monthly cost. The initial cost is basically irrelevant.
General strategy: + Residential demand requires jobs from commercial and industrial zones. Commercial zones need customers from residential zones to create jobs. Industry is the "jumpstarter" to get the residential-commercial demand cycle going. + There are four types of industry. Agriculture, dirty, manufacturing, and high-tech. There are basically three strategies for jump-starting your economy. The two easier ways are to use agriculture or dirty industry, which require no education. Agriculture consumes a lot of land but doesn't pollute, giving you the option of re-zoning that land for something else later. Dirty industry produces too much pollution, and nothing else will grow there. Once dirty, always dirty. The harder way is to shoot straight for manufacturing. This will require you to educate your sims first, meaning building a elementary school as part of your initial build-out, and raising taxes on dirty industry to max to choke them out. + Education and commercial demand are the two keys to "advancing" in the game. By "advancing", I mean getting to tall skyscrapers. So whenever your budget can afford it, build the next thing in education or commercial demand.
After that... You should have a good feel of what Sim4 is after building your first successful city. Then start playing it the way it was intended...as a massive metropolitan area simulator. Build up one area as a suburb, one area as a industrial zone, one area as a city center, and connect it all with highways and train lines. NAM will help with this.
Holy shit man. I just installed all the mods and shit for this game! One thing I'm having huge trouble a lot with my games is farms. No matter how much farms I put, it never satisfies the RCI for my city and I always end up stuck with just farms and mediocre towns.
On March 12 2013 03:48 Torte de Lini wrote: Holy shit man. I just installed all the mods and shit for this game! One thing I'm having huge trouble a lot with my games is farms. No matter how much farms I put, it never satisfies the RCI for my city and I always end up stuck with just farms and mediocre towns.
Any suggestions?
Farms are super space-inefficient, and they don't generate many jobs. It's good for the opening game, but if you want more that 10k people, you'll have to go to real industry.
On March 12 2013 03:48 Torte de Lini wrote: Holy shit man. I just installed all the mods and shit for this game! One thing I'm having huge trouble a lot with my games is farms. No matter how much farms I put, it never satisfies the RCI for my city and I always end up stuck with just farms and mediocre towns.
Any suggestions?
Farms are super-space inefficient, and they don't generate many jobs. It's good for the opening game, but if you want more that 10k people, you'll have to go to real industry.
But the demand never really asks for it. Do I build them anyways? I got a mod that gives me more jobs for farmlands to help ease the pain.
On March 12 2013 03:48 Torte de Lini wrote: Holy shit man. I just installed all the mods and shit for this game! One thing I'm having huge trouble a lot with my games is farms. No matter how much farms I put, it never satisfies the RCI for my city and I always end up stuck with just farms and mediocre towns.
Any suggestions?
Farms are super-space inefficient, and they don't generate many jobs. It's good for the opening game, but if you want more that 10k people, you'll have to go to real industry.
But the demand never really asks for it. Do I build them anyways? I got a mod that gives me more jobs for farmlands to help ease the pain.
I just added a big block of text to the OP, copy-pasted from what I wrote in the Simcity 5 thread. It answers your question. (As does the tutorial...just read it!)
EDIT: But basically, to get demand for manufacturing or high-tech, your sims need to be well-educated. The demand won't happen until they are. Also, don't go crazy on game-engine mods. I've only used NAM and cosmetic mods, I don't know how well the other mods play with each other. You'll have to ask someone who knows a lot more about Simcity 4.
On March 12 2013 03:48 Torte de Lini wrote: Holy shit man. I just installed all the mods and shit for this game! One thing I'm having huge trouble a lot with my games is farms. No matter how much farms I put, it never satisfies the RCI for my city and I always end up stuck with just farms and mediocre towns.
Any suggestions?
Farms are super-space inefficient, and they don't generate many jobs. It's good for the opening game, but if you want more that 10k people, you'll have to go to real industry.
But the demand never really asks for it. Do I build them anyways? I got a mod that gives me more jobs for farmlands to help ease the pain.
I just added a big block of text to the OP, copy-pasted from what I wrote in the Simcity 5 thread. It answers your question. (As does the tutorial...just read it!)
EDIT: But basically, to get demand for manufacturing or high-tech, your sims need to be well-educated. The demand won't happen until they are. Also, don't go crazy on game-engine mods. I've only used NAM and cosmetic mods, I don't know how well the other mods play with each other. You'll have to ask someone who knows a lot more about Simcity 4.
Ya, I read!
I installed NAM, but I didn't change anything or modify it to my interests. Is that wrong? I basically said custom install and just chnaged nothing.
About the crashes on Win7 64bit, I was extremelly annoyed with them and started looking for a solution. The first thing I found was setting the process affinity on the task manager to a single core, and it hasn't crashed since. I haven't played that much since, but if that's an issue for you, it's a possible solution.
On March 12 2013 04:59 SKC wrote: About the crashes on Win7 64bit, I was extremelly annoyed with them and started looking for a solution. The first thing I found was setting the process affinity on the task manager to a single core, and it hasn't crashed since. I haven't played that much since, but if that's an issue for you, it's a possible solution.
Did you set your target to be set to 1 core? I also use an autosaver. Autosaves every 10 minutes or more/less if you want.
On March 12 2013 03:48 Torte de Lini wrote: Holy shit man. I just installed all the mods and shit for this game! One thing I'm having huge trouble a lot with my games is farms. No matter how much farms I put, it never satisfies the RCI for my city and I always end up stuck with just farms and mediocre towns.
Any suggestions?
Farms are super-space inefficient, and they don't generate many jobs. It's good for the opening game, but if you want more that 10k people, you'll have to go to real industry.
But the demand never really asks for it. Do I build them anyways? I got a mod that gives me more jobs for farmlands to help ease the pain.
I just added a big block of text to the OP, copy-pasted from what I wrote in the Simcity 5 thread. It answers your question. (As does the tutorial...just read it!)
EDIT: But basically, to get demand for manufacturing or high-tech, your sims need to be well-educated. The demand won't happen until they are. Also, don't go crazy on game-engine mods. I've only used NAM and cosmetic mods, I don't know how well the other mods play with each other. You'll have to ask someone who knows a lot more about Simcity 4.
Ya, I read!
I installed NAM, but I didn't change anything or modify it to my interests. Is that wrong? I basically said custom install and just chnaged nothing.
You should get a ton of new building-elements for streets, trains etc.
On March 12 2013 04:59 SKC wrote: About the crashes on Win7 64bit, I was extremelly annoyed with them and started looking for a solution. The first thing I found was setting the process affinity on the task manager to a single core, and it hasn't crashed since. I haven't played that much since, but if that's an issue for you, it's a possible solution.
Did you set your target to be set to 1 core? I also use an autosaver. Autosaves every 10 minutes or more/less if you want.
It seems you can simply add a line to the filepath as well, which should be easier and permanent, but I haven't tried that yet. I was mostly trying to see if it would work.
Autosaving helps, but I don't ussually like it in games. There's the constant interruptions, the possibility you may want to go back or leave without saving for some reason and the fact that losing 10 mins is less annoying but still annoying.
On March 12 2013 04:59 SKC wrote: About the crashes on Win7 64bit, I was extremelly annoyed with them and started looking for a solution. The first thing I found was setting the process affinity on the task manager to a single core, and it hasn't crashed since. I haven't played that much since, but if that's an issue for you, it's a possible solution.
Cool, thanks. With it running in XP SP2 compatibility, it's only crashed once in ten hours of play, so I can live with that. My graphics card has some weird problem that may be causing it.
On March 12 2013 03:48 Torte de Lini wrote: Holy shit man. I just installed all the mods and shit for this game! One thing I'm having huge trouble a lot with my games is farms. No matter how much farms I put, it never satisfies the RCI for my city and I always end up stuck with just farms and mediocre towns.
Any suggestions?
Farms are super-space inefficient, and they don't generate many jobs. It's good for the opening game, but if you want more that 10k people, you'll have to go to real industry.
But the demand never really asks for it. Do I build them anyways? I got a mod that gives me more jobs for farmlands to help ease the pain.
I just added a big block of text to the OP, copy-pasted from what I wrote in the Simcity 5 thread. It answers your question. (As does the tutorial...just read it!)
EDIT: But basically, to get demand for manufacturing or high-tech, your sims need to be well-educated. The demand won't happen until they are. Also, don't go crazy on game-engine mods. I've only used NAM and cosmetic mods, I don't know how well the other mods play with each other. You'll have to ask someone who knows a lot more about Simcity 4.
Ya, I read!
I installed NAM, but I didn't change anything or modify it to my interests. Is that wrong? I basically said custom install and just chnaged nothing.
No, that's not wrong, that's perfect - install NAM with defaults. You can always modify later when you have a better idea of what you want. I was more worried about the additional-farm-job plugin you were talking about. I don't know much about mods other than NAM.
For the purposes of this tutorial, you don't even need NAM.
I'm about to build a road and there's this SAM road piece. What do I use it for? Also, is there a good windowed mode or is it windowed mode or just smaller fullscreen?
On March 12 2013 06:33 Torte de Lini wrote: I'm about to build a road and there's this SAM road piece. What do I use it for? Also, is there a good windowed mode or is it windowed mode or just smaller fullscreen?
You mean to tell me that you are playing Simcity rather than watching HOTS? Eh...me neither.
Don't know about windowed. Alt-tab works just fine.
NAM should not interfere with road building. Roads should behave as before, but there are more options that you can tab through for most buttons, as well as new options, like streetcars and trams and such.
On March 12 2013 06:33 Torte de Lini wrote: I'm about to build a road and there's this SAM road piece. What do I use it for? Also, is there a good windowed mode or is it windowed mode or just smaller fullscreen?
You mean to tell me that you are playing Simcity rather than watching HOTS? Eh...me neither.
Don't know about windowed. Alt-tab works just fine.
NAM should not interfere with road building. Roads should behave as before, but there are more options that you can tab through for most buttons, as well as new options, like streetcars and trams and such.
Eh, my preorder doesnt come until tomorrow.
I have SAM as well. Also, where is the option to build material Industrial? I have Low, medium and high density and I never understood where to get material. (got it, medium is "material")
I'm about to build some schools which I realize is what you need but after that: is it unlocked or something?
Thanks for posting this fantastic tutorial. SimCity 4 is truly one of the most underrated games of all time, and the mods look like they make the game even better than ever. Really wish I had more time to pick up the game again but in the meantime I'll be looking forward to the rest of this series (hopefully you're planning on continuing!)
On March 12 2013 07:21 Cornell wrote: Thanks for posting this fantastic tutorial. SimCity 4 is truly one of the most underrated games of all time, and the mods look like they make the game even better than ever. Really wish I had more time to pick up the game again but in the meantime I'll be looking forward to the rest of this series (hopefully you're planning on continuing!)
Yeah, I do. Part 2 is out, but that will be all for maybe a week or so.
Simcity 4 is pretty sweet, I totally forgot how awesome it was.
Thanks for posting this, Simcity 4 is 70% off on steam and I'm planning on using this guide to get myself started. Remembered this guide from a while back and wanted to bump it in case anyone else is in the same situation as me.
Good tutorial........made me realize what I was doing wrong in SC4........(only just started using SC4 Deluxe).......... I wasn't thinking on a large enough scale, and every part of the region doesn't have to contain a fully developed city.
I tried this tutorial in my own game and came up with a few anomalies........ demolishing your only elementary school and putting in a private school is a BAD idea, as you've got no way of locally controlling education budgets, and who knows what them guys are teaching your kids ????
Also, setting the dirty industry tax rate to 20% without decreasing the other taxes seemed to slow my game to a halt..... I eventually got demand back by lowering every other tax by 1%..... (I figured that if the dirty taxes were raised by 11%, the other 11 tax bands could be lowered by 1%.......seems logical, but I'm not making a great deal of money, although I've just got into the black after 30 years of penny-pinching !
The 6X6 zones didn't make sense to me at first, as I thought that real life cities are rarely based on a square grid layout, but I've got to admit, it looks more natural than any other attempt I've made before.The killer tip for me was having the houses face the street rather than the road...... I could have played this for 50 years and not thought of that !!!!
Nice one, guy !!....... thanks for your tutorial ...... very informative, and useful. :-)
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