3DX Gamer Community

Development Sim City 4 Game Tips

Why Am I Not Getting Development?

There could be several reasons why your development has stalled. If your demand bars are low, perhaps your taxes are too high or you have passed ordinances that are limiting demand. If your demand is high but you are still not seeing development, it could be because desirability is low in the areas that you have zoned, traffic congestion is too high, or you haven’t provided water.

Which Zone Density Should I Use?

Early in the game, you are better off zoning low density commercial and residential. First, it is probably too expensive to zone higher densities. Second, you will be forced to deal with many problems if you zone too high, too fast. For example, traffic congestion, decent schooling, and adequate hospital coverage can be quite difficult in higher density cities. For industry, either zone for agriculture or medium density depending on whether you want farms or dirty industry. When your city treasury is rich enough, you can start to build your city taller instead of wider by rezoning some of the areas that are already developed. For example, if you zone high density residential over an area that has already been zoned low density residential, the buildings will stick around until redevelopment occurs.

Using Demand Bars

In the main UI, you will see three bars colored green, blue, and yellow. The green bar indicates your residential demand. When it is high, then lots of people want to move into your city. In this situation, make sure to zone residential in highly desirable locations. Blue shows commercial demand, yellow shows industry demand, and these both work similarly to residential. If you click on the three demand bars, a detailed breakdown of your RCI demands is displayed. This graph shows you the demands for different wealth levels and business types in your city. Use this in conjunction with your desirability maps to develop the most efficient city.

Using Desirability Maps

If your desirability is low, then the occupancy level of your buildings will be low. Even worse, if desirability drops too low, buildings will be abandoned or never develop in the first place. In the Data views, you can see the desirability maps for every residential and business type. Use these maps to decide where to zone or to target areas that require you to increase desirability.

Increasing Desirability

Residential

Your residential population can be the hardest to satisfy. They require good schools, decent hospitals, low traffic noise, little garbage, minimal pollution, and a short trip to work. In addition to that, Residents also like to have parks nearby. If you have an area of low desirability for residential, place a park, school, and/or a hospital nearby to improve it. However, if either pollution or commute time is too high, then your only option may be to zone in a different area. The quickest way to determine the reason for your current desirability level is to query the buildings in the area. Using the Query tool, either hover over a building to get a quick glimpse of the most important information, or click on the building to bring up a dialog with detailed information.

Commercial

Like residential, commercial buildings hate pollution and trash. Placing parks and trees can lower air pollution. Make sure to have a landfill to ensure that trash stays off the streets. In addition, commercial requires customers. Placing commercial zones in areas of high traffic ensures that they will stick around and be happy. Commercial buildings develop well near tourist sites. Placing a landmark near commercial zones helps businesses grow. The quickest way to determine the reason for your current desirability level is to query the buildings in the area. Using the Query tool, either hover over a building to get a quick glimpse of the most important information, or click on the building to bring up a dialog with detailed information.

Industrial

Dirty and manufacturing industry could not care less about pollution, so don't worry about that. They do, however, need to transport the goods they make to stay in business. Make sure your industries have good road access to either an airport, a seaport, or a neighbor connection. Farms and high-tech industry have this same requirement but also dislike pollution. All industries hate trash, so make sure you have a landfill around to collect the garbage. The quickest way to determine the reason for your current desirability level is to query the buildings in the area. Using the Query tool, either hover over a building to get a quick glimpse of the most important information, or click on the building to bring up a dialog with detailed information.

Getting High Wealth Residents and Businesses

Water Coverage

If you want to attract high-wealth residents and businesses, you need to supply water to your city. Without water, no high-wealth residents, offices, commercial services or high-tech industries will move into your city. To water your city, place water towers and pumps, then lay a network of pipes.

Education and Jobs

Why build schools, libraries and other educational buildings? Because that's the best way to attract high-tech industries. High-tech businesses won't move into your town unless your workforce is well-educated.

Health and Workforce

Why build clinics and hospitals? Because the healthier your population, the longer their lifespan. And the longer your Sims live, the more people who can work at jobs, which means your workforce is larger.

Getting Skyscrapers

You need to build your city wider before you can build it taller. The size of the buildings that you see are directly related to the population of your city. So even if you have high desirability, if your city is too small, you won't see skyscrapers. For example, to get the tallest residential buildings, your city must have a population greater than 30 thousand. Likewise, to get commercial office high-rises, your city must have more than 45 thousand commercial jobs. In addition, your city must have zoned areas with very high desirability.

Other Ways to Affect Demand

Taxes

If your taxes are too high, then your demand will tank. In the Budget panel, you can adjust the tax rates for three wealth types for each zone type. By tinkering with the tax rates, you can control the kinds of businesses that will develop in your city. For example, if you want to keep dirty industry out of your city, raise the tax rates for low wealth industry to 12% or higher. On the flip side, you can boost demand by lowering taxes. So if you want to encourage high wealth residential to move in, give them a tax break by setting their rate to 5% or lower.

Ordinances

Several ordinances have an impact on the demand for different residences and businesses. For example, the Tourist Promotion ordinance increases demand for all commercial services. On the other hand, an ordinance like the Clean Air Act lowers demand - in this case, for dirty industry.

Demand Caps

If you don't provide your Sim citizens with the amenities that they desire, eventually you will hit a ceiling in terms of the population of your city. If you find that your residential demand is low despite having low taxes and plenty of jobs, it's likely that you've hit the cap. To relieve that cap, place parks and recreational buildings. Similarly, you can hit a cap for commercial businesses and industries. To relieve those caps, be sure to build airports and seaports, and make neighbor connections.

Explaining the Zots

No Power

When you see a lightning bolt with a circle-slash through it, this indicates that the area is not powered. This could either mean you need to place a power plant or you need to connect your power plant to the area using a power line or by zoning. If you see this zot appearing and disappearing throughout the city, then your city is experiencing a rolling blackout. This means that your power plant is not producing enough power for your city. Placing an additional power plant in your city and making sure it is connected will solve this problem.

No Water

When a water droplet with a circle-slash through it appears over a building, this indicates that a building requiring water no longer has it. This can occur if a pipe has burst or if the capacity of the water towers and pumps in your city are overtaxed. Either fix the broken pipes using the pipe tool, or place additional water pumps and/or towers in your city. And don't forget to make sure they are powered.

No Work

When a briefcase with a circle-slash through it appears over a building, it indicates that the residents in that building cannot find a job. This is usually because the distance to the jobs is too far for the Sims or your city simply doesn't have enough jobs. To fix this problem, you either need to create more jobs, bring the jobs closer to the resident's home, or improve your traffic networks.

No Car

When you see a car with a circle-slash through it over a building, this indicates that the residents cannot complete a trip to any business. This usually means that you haven't connected your residential lot with a commercial or industrial zone. Every residential lot must have a road connected to it and a business for development to occur. This problem can usually be fixed by drawing a connecting road between the lot with the zot and a business.

Why Are My Buildings Distressed?

What Is Distress?

When things are going badly, the state of the buildings in your city may distress. When this occurs, the building appears worn and dilapidated, and the surrounding yard looks unkempt. There are different stages of distress, the worst stage indicating abandonment. The quickest way to get feedback about what is causing the distress is to query the building using the Query tool.

Wealth vs. Occupancy Distress

When desirability is low in an area, the buildings in that areas begin to vacate. When this happens, the building distresses and the props in the lot for that building begin to disappear. A building that once housed wealthy jobs or residents can oftentimes become reoccupied by lower wealth Sims. This also results in the building becoming distressed, but instead of having props on the lot simply disappear, the props will be replaced with lower wealth objects. For example, a tennis court might be replaced with a clothesline.

From : http://simcity.ea.com