Sim City 4 question
- From: Peter Knutsen <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:30:12 +0200
I recently borrowed Simcity 4 (including the expansion) from the library, and I have another 3 weeks left, trying to figure out how the game works.
The groups for Simcity, Simcity 2000 and Simcity 3 appear to be all dead, so I'll ask in here.
First of all, do connections to neighbouring cities help if I don't develop them? I mean, you're clearly supposed to create and run multiple cities in parallel, but I'm too lazy to do that, I'd rather just have one city. If I do that, is there still some benefit to making road or rail connections? I'm thinking trade and traffic, not neighbour deals for power or water or trash...
Secondly, what are the lot sizes? Low density residential is obviously always 1x2 (or 1x1 if there's less room), but medium density can sometimes be as big as 3x2. Yet when I draw medium density residential or commercial, I sometimes get lot sizes of 3x1 and other times 3x2. What determines this? Usually I'd prefer a mix, like if I'm filling out a 6x6 or 6x8 block, I'd prefer a mix of "wide" and "narrow" lots.
What about high density? What are the biggets possible lots? Smallest possible? Are lots "fixed" once zoned, or can they change automatically on an as-needed basis?
What's a good city block size to use? I usually go, in my so-far feeble attempts at figuring out this version of the game, with block sizes of 6x4, interspersed with a few 6x6 blocks, all surrounded by roads (I tried using streets first, half the time, or even all the time, but I've given up on that, suspecting that it mucks up traffic real bad), but I'm thinking that my large blocks could perhaps be larger. Going with 3x6 and 7x6 blocks would also simplify the grid layout, in that two 3x6 blocks are the same length as one 7x6 block. But are medium density residential 3x6 blocks efficient?
Is there a way to create road grids quickly? Like a "draw" tool? I've read a bit at the GameFAQs site (I have manuals too, but they're PDF, and anyway they're far less extensive than the manual for Simcity 2000, or even Sim City), and found a bunch of hotkeys, including a very nice shift press while zoning, which stops the game from adding strees within the zoned area. Are there other good hotkeys, or tips or tricks like that?
What good do farms do? Do I need them? Do I need them early on, then later I re-zone those areas to suburbs (low-density res)? Or can I just skip them and start out with medium-density industrial, combined with low-density residential, and a very few low-density commercial (seeing as, early on, the game presumably works like earlier verions, where the ratio of I-to-C should be fairly high)?
How much residential zoning do I need per 100 tiles of farm zoning? I mean, I'd like to try out a large farming town, just farms and farms and farms, with res and com added by me on an as-needed basis, but I have no clue whether it is 8 or 12 or 20 or 40 tiles of low-density residential that is a good match for 100 tiles of farm (i.e. low density industrial).
This question is just for fun, rather than game-progress related: How many types of farmland are there? Early on I've only seen apple orchards and one type of grain, but a few hours ago I saw a farm zone with orange trees instead of apple trees. How many types of farms are there? Are there animal farms as well, or only grains and vegetables?
How are ordinance costs calculated? Legalized Gambling, for instance, seems to always give me $100 a month. I'd have thought it depended on the city population? I'm fairly sure it did, in some way, in earlier version (not Sim City, which didnt have ordinances, but both Sim City 2000 and 3).
What is the effect of Graveyards? I mean, when the game suggests to me I build one, I do, but I place it in the less classy part of town, because I figure it is unattractive. But is that the case? In-game advice and help is quite limited. I do give the "place of worship" a prominent position, though, figuring that it will make the area more attractive.
Why is funding to my schools and hospitals automatically reduced to low level? I realize that early on, one entire small primary school is overkill, and one entire small high school is way overkill, but why not let me control the funding? After some years, I run into problems when my schools are overcrowded (or my hospitals), and I find out it's just because they're funded at like 15% or 25%, and so I increase it to (what I assume to be roughly) 100%, ad they're fine for quite a number of years.
More generally, is there a website or FAQ that explains how Sim City 4 differs from Sim City 3? I played Sim City 3 extensively many years ago, and I've also played lots of Sim City 2000, and even quite a bit of Sim City on the Amiga, back in the early 1990s. The various Civilization manuals have always been good about "if you've played earlier versions", and I seem to recall that earlier Sim City manuals have done the same. But not the SC4 one...
--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org
.
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