Simcity 4 Tutorial [Part 4]

But at least my boy Sen took a game off Parting. Give the state of HOTS zerg, that was more than I expected.

Land value is enhanced by proximity to water and high ground.

Trees are your last step before establishing your city. Use a lot
of greenery during this terraforming phase. It’s good for the
environment, it looks nice, and it costs you big Simoleons and
a lot of work to do it later.

TOP CRIME EFFECT
NOTE
These buildings reduce
the effectiveness of nearby
police stations. They do
not generate crime; instead, they impede
the police ability to fight it.
1. Casino
2. Army Base
3. State Fair
4. Convention Center
5. Federal Prison

TOP MAYOR RATING
ENHANCERS
1. Arc de Triomphe
2. Great Pyramid
3. U.S. Capitol Building
4. Chrysler Building
5. Empire State Building
6. Statue of Liberty

TOP MAYOR RATING
REDUCERS
1. Toxic Waste Dump
2. Army Base
3. Federal Prison
4. Casino
5. Country Club
6. Missile Range
7. Advanced Research Center
8. Alcatraz

For most city sizes, keeping your taxes at nine percent has no effect on demand,
though altering it in either direction will; the larger the change, the larger the effect.
As the city grows, this “neutral” tax rate will drop to eight percent.

Fill the map with low density before laying a tile of medium or high density. As
density increases, tax revenue per occupant drops. Therefore, a large city of low
density yields more revenue than a geographically smaller city of the same popula-tion with high density.

You need a low income Residential population, so after your city begins to grow and
wealth-attracting amenities improve, look to expand into areas that population will
accept living in. This means you can (and in some instances, should) zone Residential in
areas of high pollution or near NIMBYs, areas that only low-wealth Sims find desirable.

To contain pollution, build your polluters on one side of a hilly range and your pollu-tion-sensitive zones on the other. This keeps them linearly close together (linked by a
tunnel) while providing a barrier to pollution; the higher the hill, the more pollution it
can contain.

You can only reduce crime through greater education. If you raise your Sims’ EQ,
crime will be impacted.
Crime occurs in random locations, so the problem that led to a crime has nothing to
do with where the crime is committed.

• Build a dedicated Road and Rail (and later a Highway) used only by your Industrial
zones to get to a nearby Neighbor Connection. The shorter they have to go for their
freight trips out of town, the more desirable your zones will be.
• Never reduce road maintenance. The traffic problems the potholes create are never
worth the savings.
• Put a one-tile gap between different types of mass transit stations to permit direct
transfers from system to system.
• Build Seaports closer to your Industrial zones than the nearest Neighbor Connection
or nothing will go to the Seaport.
• When Streets become congested, upgrade them to Roads. This raises their capacity
but reduces surrounding Desirablity.
• Intersections slow traffic. Use long, straight roads.

• Use Disasters to demolish buildings with expensive bulldoze costs for free.

Structures can downgrade but
can’t upgrade. You won’t ever
find a R§§§ Sim living in a R§ house. In this
situation, the house would be demolished and
redeveloped.

Workforce Demand
Developer Type R§ R§§ R§§§
CS§ 100% 0% 0%
CS§§ 68% 27% 5%
CS§§§ 62% 30% 8%
CO§§ 40% 50% 10%
CO§§§ 20% 65% 15%
IA 100% 0% 0%
ID 100% 0% 0%
IM 50% 45% 5%
IH 10% 80% 10%
For example, a Co§§ buildings with 100 jobs
would require 40 R§, 50 R§§, and 10 R§§§ Sims,
and would accordingly increase demand for
each.

As a rule, zone less than you think you need, especially if you’re dealing with high-density
zones and their potential for high-capacity buildings. You can also increase taxes to temper
overdevelopment.

Demand Capping is a force working against
growth of your city of which you may not be
aware. If you fail to tend to it, demand for your
city will dry up.
Demand Caps are fixed ceilings beyond which a
population cannot grow, overriding actual
demand

Initial Demand Caps
Developer Type Initial Demand Cap
R§ 20,000
R§§ 2,000
R§§§ 1,000
CS§ N/A
CS§§ N/A
CS§§§ N/A
CO§§ 3,000
CO§§§ 2,000
IA 30,000
ID 14,000
IM 7,000
IHT 4,000

For example, a city has an Initial Demand Cap on its R§ population of 20,000. In other words,
population can grow to 20,000 and no further without some relief. At zero R§ population,
demand can potentially reach +1,000 (+1000 is the demand bar to the maximum). At 10,000, it can climb only as high as +500 no matter
how high demand actually is. When you get to 20,000, demand can’t register above zero.If you did nothing about Demand Caps, your city would be incapable of growing beyond these points.

In general:
• Residential: Desires amenities
• Commercial Office: Desires connections to other cities
• Industrial: Desires connections to other cities

Don’t destroy a building or connection with Demand Cap Relief after passing the
Demand Cap it expanded. If you do, you’ll drop to the previous Demand Cap, and
your demand sinks to zero until you provide alternative relief.

+ Show Spoiler [Structures That Provide Residential De…] +

Commercial Service isn’t limited by Demand Caps. It can grow without relief.
Commercial demand Cap Relief comes from making a connection to another city; it doesn’t have to be extended
into the neighboring city.

Co Demand Cap Relief by Neighbor Connection
and Redundant Connections
Second Connection of Third Connection of
Connection Type First Connection to Nbr same type to same Nbr same type to same Nbr
Highway 100,000 58,496 41,504
Subway 20,000 11,699 8,301
Road 10,000 5,850 4,150
Rail 10,000 5,850 4,150

Connections provide their full Demand Cap Relief to Co§§ and Co§§§
separately. In other words, one Road connection raises the Co§§ Demand
Cap to 13,000 and Co§§§ to 12,000.
Make connections to each possible neighbor by each possible transportation type. Just
because a connection doesn’t offer its full effect doesn’t mean it isn’t worth making: Demand
Cap Relief is Demand Cap Relief.

Maximum Demand Cap Relief by Airport Type and Size
Airport Type Small Medium Large
Landing Strip 10,200 13,100 16,000
Municipal Airport 28,800 34,100 40,000
International Airport 70,000 80,000 90,000

The amount of Demand Cap Relief offered by
an Airport equals the number of Commercial
Office structures reachable by Road/Street from
the Airport. The larger the Co population that
can get to the Airport, the greater Demand Cap
Relief you receive. The relief is limited by the
kind of Airport.
To get full Demand Cap Relief from Airports, lead the Road that touches
the Airport to your Commercial Office zones.

Buildings Providing Commercial Office Demand Cap Relief
Structure Demand Cap Relief Co§§ Demand Cap Relief Co§§§
Convention Center 100,000 100,000
University 15,000 0
Television Studio 10,000 0

INDUSTRIAL DEMAND CAP RELIEF
Industrial Demand Cap Relief is based on
freight trips to the connections. The more trips
arrive at the connections, the more Demand
Cap Relief is provided.
Several times a month, Industrial buildings
send out shipments to connections (the larger
your Industrial population, the more trips go
out) including Seaports. If the shipment arrives
at the connection, 20 is added to the Demand
Cap of each Industrial developer type (or 20 x
the number of trips). If the trip can’t get to the
connection (due to, for example, heavy traffic),
no Demand Cap Relief is earned.

AGRICULTURE ANDDEMANDCAPS
Generally, every job offered by developer type counts against its own Demand Cap.
All ID jobs make up the ID population, all Co§§ jobs comprise the Co§§ population,
etc. Agriculture is different.
Jobs from all other businesses count against the Agriculture Demand Cap, except
Agricultural jobs. The effect of this is that as other businesses grow, Agriculture is
forced to stagnate. Connections keep raising the cap, but the influx of non-Agricultural businesses should outpace relief.
At some point in your city’s life you have to decide whether you want farms in your
city. If so, you must curtail all other business forms and put nearly all of your
resources into farming. Only then will Agriculture grow to large scale.
When your city begins to thrive, commence a neighboring city, connect it, and commit
it to Agriculture. The Residential population of your main city will feed the demand
for Agriculture jobs and the farms’ isolation will let them grow unimpeded. Plus you
won’t have to worry about their water pollution output affecting your Residents.

Airports work differently because their primary concern is Commercial. The Industrial
Demand Cap Relief offered by Airports is a presumed amount of Industrial air traffic based
on the current Co populations that can reach the Airport. It is 10% of the Commercial Office
population. The larger the Co population using the Airport, the more Demand Cap Relief
you’ll get for Industrial.

Buildings Providing Industrial Demand Cap Relief
Structure Demand Cap Relief IM Demand Cap Relief IHT
Army Base 100,000 0
Radio Station 9,000 0
Advanced Research Center 0 150,000
University 0 100,000


DEMAND AND TAXES
Demand is influenced by tax rates, especially if
they’re too high. Use this tax sensitivity to increase
demand or cool it off. Or, set every developer type to
a neutral rate that brings in the cash, but doesn’t
affect demand. The neutral tax rate depends on population, but doesn’t vary much, especially when your
city is small. It begins at 9% and drops gradually to
8% after Residential population grows to 2,250,000.
Neutral Tax Rate by Population
Population Neutral Tax Rate
0–149,999 9.0%
150,000–299,999 8.9%
300,000–449,999 8.9%
450,000–599,999 8.8%
600,000–749,999 8.7%
750,000–899,999 8.7%
900,000–1,049,999 8.6%
1,050,000–1,199,999 8.5%
1,200,000–1,349,999 8.5%
1,350,000–1,499,999 8.4%
1,500,000–1,599,999 8.3%
1,650,000–1,799,999 8.3%
1,800,000–1,949,999 8.2%
1,950,000–2,099,999 8.1%
2,100,000–2,249,999 8.0%

The negative effect brought about by raising taxes above neutral persists for several months,
even if you change your mind.
Set tax rates below the neutral rate and demand
is amplified to 35%. Raise them higher, and
demand can suffer by as much as -350%!
Don’t think you can get away with briefly raising
the rates to bring in quick cash before demand
takes a dive. When you increase rates above the
neutral rate and press Accept, the demand
depression effect sticks around for as long as you
keep rates below neutral and for 90 days there-after (even if you lower the rate immediately).
The tax demand penalty, is defined by the
highest tax rate in force during the last 90 days.


One exceptional case (the Casino) performs the unusual stunt of increasing Commercial
Service demand. The Casino is unique in that its arrival creates the need for more Commercial
Service buildings to cater to its customers.

Commercial Office Sims like to be near busy thor-oughfares, so place them in areas with high traffic
volume. They also benefit from being near other
Commercial Office structures.