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SIMCITY4 MANUAL AND WALKTHROUGH BOOK

SECTION B PART 1 UNIVERSAL STRATEGIC DOCTRINE (USD)

SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE This SECTION will provide you with an extensive range of strategies to deal with almost any situation in your city. Each part of this section deals with a different time frame of the city and regional development. From founding the first city in the region to turning cities into gleaming a metropolis, pride of the entire Sim Nation. Then after you have achieved a gold standard in metropolis construction, the guide will focus on cities built for special purposes. This is how the PARTS are split up. Part 1: Universal Strategic Doctrines (USD) Part 2: City Layout and Plans PART 3: 0 - 40,000: 1st City or Dirty City PART 4: 0 - 40,000: 2nd City or Manufacturing City Part 5: 0 - 40,000: Subsequent Cities or High Tech City Part 6: 40,000 - 100,000: For all cities Part 7: 100,000 - Millions and Beyond: For all cities PART 8: Specialised Cities

SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE PART 1: UNIVERSAL STRATEGIC DOCTRINE (USD)

GENERAL APPLICATION This part will provide you with strategies whose powers and usage apply throughout the game. As these strategies stated here are of general application I will also provide customised USD for the later parts of the guide. B1.01: Primeval Land: Forest, Mountains and Water Prior to starting the city, it is advisable to create a lush, dense forest blanketing the entire map. It helps reduces pollution. Also to increase land value, you could place bodies of water in the map and raise the land. But do not raise it too high as after a certain height the land value falls. You may also create a mountain range around the area your power plants and garbage disposal facilities are. It will block the pollution. This is the best time to attempt to create a straight coast if you plan to build a beach later as they can only be built on straight coasts. When you are building terraforming the land, make sure to hit pause unless you want to start your city years after the Year 0. B1.02: Taxes You should alter or change the tax rate in every city to best suit your needs. Your needs should be determined by the circumstances of the situation such as RCI demand and also your vision for your city.Change the tax rate before you start the game to minimise any negative effects.

B1.02.1: Poor to subsidise the rich While Adam Smith advocated for taxes "in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state," this is not so in the game. It is often the poor that subsidises the rich. This is especially more so later as your city develops. The reason for this according to Adam Smith is because he felt that the "chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which ... nobody can possess but themselves." Well then, if that is the case, then we would not have a problem if the city only consists of the rich right? The advantage of a primarily upper class city is, that since a city can only hold a fixed amount of people, it is for the better that the city's inhabitants are rich Sims rather than the poor. Since the tax rate is based on percentage, it means that the rich are taxed more than the poor. The corollary of this simple means that the rich give you more even though you might tax them less. Therefore, to prevent the poor from flooding the city, you will find yourself raising taxes to prevent their entry. B1.02.2: Neutral tax rate: Laffer Curve Whether or not you agree with this former Reagan adviser, Professor Laffer's theory provides for an optimum tax rate whereby any raising of taxes would result in a drop of total tax collected and any reduction of taxes would also reduce tax revenue. The graph below is an illustration of this effect. "O" represents the neutral tax rate or the optimum. Tax Revenue ^ | _ | /.\ | / . \ | / . \ | / . \ |------------> O Tax Rate In this game the optimum tax rate at the beginning I believe is at 9%. However, the important thing is that this optimum tax rate falls as your population increases. So you have to reduce tax rates as your population increases. B1.02.3: No supply side taxation economics While I did state above that taxes may be reduce slightly over the years, I am not advocating the position whereby tax rate is used as a primary economic policy to drive the economy. I am sorry to disappoint those supporters of George Bush's tax cut policy, for it does not work in this game. The policy of cutting taxes when population rise is not so much to increase demand, but rather to prevent

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taxes as acting as a negative effect on growth. However, while a downward drop in taxes may not really increase demand that much, a huge increase will definitely destroy demand. Please do NOT play around with your tax policy frequently. Raising taxes will have a negative impact on the city lasting for several months. This is even if you raise it for one day and then drop it back to the original level or even drop it to a lower level. REFER: A1.09.1: Options: Tax Rates REFER: A2.05.2: Perfect Mobility of Labour B1.03: Tight Fiscal Controls Save money by reducing funding such that output is slightly above usage. This applies almost everywhere, from public services to utilities, except water, and to a certain extent recreational structures. Take full of control your budget. Do not create an over supply, as that will only bleed your budget and not contribute to anything in the city. Be mindful as to not over cut funding to the point where your infrastructure starts breaking down for that will only cost you more money in replacing everything. However as with everything, always adopt a cost-benefit analysis.

1) Utilities: With regards to utilities, the main focus is on the power plant you operate. While lowering funding will result in faster deterioration, the effect is not that great. Furthermore, the result of lower funding would be sparking poles. But a simple solution is simply not to build them. Use zones every four tiles to transfer electricity. REFER: A1.05.3: Maintenance, Decay and Overcapacity However, you should NOT reduce water funding because the effect of burst pipes will cause more damage and cost more money then if you leave funding as it is.

2) Public Services: The same concept applies to them with the exception of police and fire fighters since you would not want them to be incompetent when disaster breaks out.

3) Recreational services Personally I feel that you should not reduce funding for recreational services. Place them only when you can afford them. Reducing their funding like all reduction lowers their positive effects. B1.04: Utilities There are three simple needs, power a must, water, a must for better development and garbage disposal a must too. Both water and power plants decay over time and they have a limited life span. You could rename the utility to the date which is built so that you can know when is it time to replace it. That way you would make sure that in the years leading up to its demise, you can start saving money to replace it.

You should take note that its capacity falls as you approach its 'use by' date. So prepare for an earlier replacement. Sometimes it is cheaper in terms of maintenance to replace them before their expiry due to its falling capacity. Do not wait until its expiration unless you wish to see an explosion. B1.04.1: Power Make sure that your power plant has road access. You would not want to run the risk of it catching fire and your fire-fighters having no means of reaching there. Set funding all the way down such that capacity used should ideally be around 70%. If you make the plant operate at a higher % your plant will age faster. Try not to use any poles at all. But if funding, is below 50%, the rate of decay is greatly increased. Note that I am talking about funding as a whole rather than capacity.If you choose on building a highly polluting power plant, place them in a corner so that at least the pollution is confined on two sides as pollution cannot cross city boundaries. Also keep all non-dirty industry zones or buildings away from this area. B1.04.2: Water

1) Water Tower then Pumps Use TOWERS rather than pumps initially. This is because it has a lower maintenance cost. Although the pumps are more efficient, because there is no means to reduce water budget except through the budget screen, which I strongly advice you not to unless you want to have burst pipes all across your city. Therefore your only hope of saving money is to build a water tower, which has a lower operating cost. You should continue building water towers until 5th one, as by then a pump would produce more and cost less. After building a pump remember to destroy the rest of the towers.

2) Placement Do not build pipes to power plant and landfills. It pollutes the water supply thus demanding that you buy a treatment plant. Build your water system on the opposite end of your industrial / power plant / landfill side. An alternative approach, is to have separate water supply, pumps and pipes, one for residential and commercial the other for industry. Although this will cost more. Unless of course your pollution is so bad that you require the water treatment plant. This however does not mean that you place the towers or pumps for the industrial area at the industrial site. For the pump will be shut down due to polluted water.

3) Pipes Since the water area is six on each side, you should leave twelve tiles in between the pipes for the most efficient layout as pipes cost money to maintain too.

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B1.04.3: Landfills and Waste Power Plant

1) Landfills or Waste to power Personally, I prefer just building a waste to power plant right at the start and lower its funding to zero. It will act as an incinerator destroying garbage but you will not get any power out of it. I also suggest that you use the waste to power plant as a stop gap measure for producing energy. That is at the point where your existing power plants are close to capacity but building another would result in a lot of idle power. You can use the waste to power to generate energy and build a new power plant only when there is not that much spare capacity.

2) De-zoning landfills Landfill clears over time. It is in my opinion that while there is no need to demolish the roads leading to it, it may be in your interest to do so. Let me present to you the argument for not demolishing the road access first. If you have a waste plant, garbage would not be dumped onto the landfill. If it is being dumped, it means that your waste plant is over capacity. Removing the road will only lead to garbage appearing in your city. With a waste plant, the city garbage should be at zero or if you just install it then the garbage level should be going down. However, based on my calculations, it seems that since decay is based on percentage, it means that if for a month your waste to power cannot handle the garbage due to increase usage, it will be dumped at your landfill. And even if the amount is small, it may add years to the decomposition time. I will now retract my earlier statement that the rate of decay will increase as garbage will be sent to the waste to power plant to be destroyed. REFER: A1.05.5: * Bio degradable landfills B1.05: Connections If your industry is next to a connection to a neighbouring city then the freight time will be lowered. Furthermore, it will reduce traffic as the trucks do not have to drive all the way through your city to the connection. Even if you have no neighbours at all, make connections. No only will it reduce freight time, which increases desirability, but it also means that you have only to worry about one side of the pollution. Also it helps bust the demand caps thereby allowing greater growth. This is even if you have no neighbours because Sim Nation is considered as a neighbour. Note that the land connections also provides demand busting powers for commercial demand. So do build connections even if you have no industry in the city. Besides as is free, make as many of them as possible B1.06: Animal Farm or Great leap forward Often the question one ask at the start is should you

build farms or should you just build industries or both. 1) Farms

I would not recommend just building farms alone. This is simply because they do not offer any tax revenue at all. The advantage of a farm is that its demand initially when you start a city will be very high. That way you can build quite a bit of them and hence generate jobs which in turn attracts residents to move in. By the way if you are wandering why agriculture does not produce taxes, think of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and also countries like the US, Canada or Japan. You should be happy that the farms in your city do not demand massive subsidies from you. A second advantage is that it does not take up that much power, and water is not required. Also it is not as flammable as the dirty industries. With relation to pollution, I am undecided as to which is really worse at the start, water or air. Also like all industries it requires connections, so build it near the edge.

2) Industry Focus exclusively on this if you want accelerated growth. It gives you money but has some disadvantages as stated above. However, the amount of jobs it generates is so much more than the farms, even if in comparison, its demand is lower.

3) Farmer's Market The main and only proper reason I feel one should build a farm is to get the farmers' market reward. This structure helps increase health slightly but more importantly it is a great residential demand buster. Therefore if you wish to have a farmer's market, zone a huge tracts of farm to get 600 jobs. Then build the market and clear the farms. By the way, each farm does NOT provide only the amount of jobs stated when you click on it. Size does matter. Do NOT build a farm then demolish all the farmland leaving only the barn/building. Check you Job & population chart to see how far you are proceeding. Another thing with regards to the point when you get the reward. Place it immediately or as soon as possible and definitely before you start demolishing the farms. If not when you reload, the computer will see that you no longer satisfy the requirements and remove the option to build. REFER: A1.07.5: Disappearing Rewards If you are building farms to get the farmer market, I suggest you do it quickly and at the start because as more industrial jobs are created, there will be less demand for farms REFER: A2.02.2: Inherent capacity B1.07: Begone evil business deals and loans

1) Business Deals I do NOT recommend accepting any of these 'business deals' which are no more than sugar coated poison

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SECTION B PART 2 CITY LAYOUT AND PLANS

pills. As Hamlet stated "it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours." The negative effect it brings is worse than the benefit. Although, there is an argument for an army base as it is a demand cap remover but that does not convince me. If you do place it for whatever reason, try to place it at the far corner of the map away from residential area. Although the Casino and the Army Base should be placed near commercial area but still away from residential area. Even if you place the rewards at some corner, some of its effects are city wide such as mayor rating. REFER: A1.07.2: Options: Reward and Business Deal Types If you have been following my guide, you should not even be offered any of this as you will be making money.

2) Loans Patience is a virtue, there is no need to borrow money especially when you are still making money. There is only one scenario where it is acceptable to borrow money when you are about to go broke.

a) If you are losing money. b) If the economy or demand is either

stagnating or falling. c) If cost cutting measures simply further

reduces demand. d) If you have no neighbours to help you

increase demand Only if conditions (A-D) are satisfied should you take out a loan. But it is unlikely for that to occur. Another acceptable situation to borrow money and in fact should be done is when you are almost out of money and your power plant is about to explode. If it is not feasible to make a business deal, you need to borrow the money. However, this situation can simply be avoided if you keep a certain amount of cash in the bank such as $20,000 to $30,000, enough to replace your aging utilities. One not acceptable situation is to borrow money to build that new transit system or highway. Do it only if you satisfy (A-D). B1.08: Pollution and Solutions

1) Remove Sources The most obvious solution to pollution is simply to remove the sources of pollution. If you do remove the source, all you have to do is to wait a month at the most for the pollution to disappear. These are the following things that you may do:

a) Raise taxes to drive out polluting dirty and manufacturing industries.

b) Enact clean air ordinance or any other pollution reduction ordinance.

c) Start to demolish abandon (black) industrial buildings for they pollute even if they are abandoned and vacant.

d) Mass transit if you can afford it and actually need it. Pollution by itself should not be a reason for construction of a mass transit.

If you are not too sure about the source or effects of pollution simply look above at the (OM). REFER: A2.04: Pollution

2) Reducing Impact since in most cases removing the source is impossible. There are several methods to best deal with the situation. This relates to air pollution.There are 3 solutions on how one should deal with pollution.

a) Concentrate it at the edge of the map. As long as you concentrate and confine you pollution to one part of the city, the residents will not be affected. And high-tech industries can easily come into a city even if there is a large dirty industry present. This is provided that the high-tech is zoned away from the pollution. The problem is that sometimes the pollution is so strong due to the concentration that your green belt of trees is simply overwhelmed. This method is not particularly useful for transport pollutions.

b) Spread it out. The primary advantage of spreading it out is so that you would not get the strongest type of pollution, as pollution is cumulative. Thus perhaps at most this is somewhat useful for manufacturing, but personally I do not see why cannot you just concentrate it on one part of the map where there are no nearby residential area.

c) Counter it. This relates mostly to transport created pollution. Since these methods can be overwhelmed by the stronger pollutions. A green belt of trees along the roads or other structures such as parks and open spaces can also help reduce road pollution. Use it around the highway. That way, you also reduce noise pollution. REFER: B2.02.1: Green Belt

SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE PART 2: CITY LAYOUT AND PLANS

GENERAL APPLICATION These tips are again of general application and show you various successful city layout. Also it provides you with tips as to what to look out for if you wish to create your own layout. Again, I will provide customise plans for the later parts of the guide. B2.01: Basic RCI layout

1) Suggested layouts There are multiple means you can build your city. Thus the following structures are not by all means the only way to build a city. In fact, in my later cities, I sometimes deviate from these.

2) Planned v Sprawl Basically main debate of which layout one should select is very much based on whether should one have a planned grid like city or should one just build a city as it sprawls out without any plans. The planned grid system calls for a very fixed, box like, straight roads, manner of organised construction. The sprawl

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method simply means that you can build wherever you want based according to what is around it. It may have diagonal fanciful roads and is not organised in the sense of a defined layout. Each method caters for a different sort of a city. It is my advice that you start off your first few cities under the planned format for that is the most efficient one. The main advantage of a planned layout is that commute time would be much lower or at the very least, it is easier to get a lower commute time. The advantage of the sprawl method is that you have a non-generic unique city. It is not much fun if all your cities look alike. However, given that the first few cities are the hardest to start out, I again reiterate my point, use the planned grid system for your first few cities. B2.01.1: Death to the auto-roads Set up the road structure first rather than use the auto streets. In other words, I have no streets at all. If you have the patch, both 1 or 2, use the shift key to prevent streets from appearing. Make sure that the arrows (<) in the lots face the roads, if not you will get the no connection sign. If a particular lot is not facing the road then you should zone in parts rather than zoning the entire area with one click and drag, thus making sure all of the (<) also face the roads. Alternatively, hit [alt] for a different zoning pattern to see if that helps. B2.02: Industrial zoning There usually is no fixed planning for industry since there are not many services that is needed. Only a fire and police station is required.Set industry at the edge of the map to take advantage of the connections thus you will have shorter freight time. And also it helps to contain the pollution that you will get from dirty industries. Leave a space in between each zone but there is no need to build a road. The plan is to place a rail, subway, bus stations or a highway later on in the city's development game. By the way this is proper industry not agriculture. The following is just an illustration of the layout taking into account the above mentioned ideas.

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Diagram B2.02: Industrial and Green Belt I: Industry -: Road .: Gap/space R: Residential 1 2 3 4 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 1------------------------------------------------- 2-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 3-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 4-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 5-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 6-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC---- 7-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 8-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 9-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 10------------------------------------....-CCCC-.-R 1-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC---- 2-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 3-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 4-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 5-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 6------------------------------------------------- 7-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-CCCC-.-. 8-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-CCCC-.-. 9-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-CCCC-.-. 20------------------------------------------------- 1-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 2-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 3-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 4-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 5-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC---- 6------------------------------------....-CCCC-.-R 7-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 8-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 9-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 30-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC---- 1-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 2-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 3-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 4-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 5------------------------------------------------ <-----------> |

| /

B2.02.1: Green Belt <-----------------------

1) Suggested Green Belt It is advisable to leave a gap between an industrial zone and a residential zone. This is so that trees may be planted in this gap and to reduce the amount of pollution leading to the residential area. Of course if your industry is high tech, there is no need for this green belt. Leave a 3 tile gap not including the road (including it would make it 5 tiles) and have another strip of 4 blank for future commercial expansion. Whether you want commercial or not is up to you but you still should not build any residential area there. In other words there should be 10 tiles from the last point of industry to the first point of residential. This is because even after the green belt, there still will be pollution spilling out. A commercial zoning is used is because if you place a residential area there their health would be affected. Of course you could plant trees across the entire space but that would mean losing valuable space. REFER: Diagram B2.02: Industrial and Green Belt, above

2) Saturation Point How long your green belt is really depends on what is on the polluting side. If the source of pollution is very bad

such as a waste to power plant, then you will need a thicker belt. If the source was not as bad such as manufacturing, then the belt such as above would be good. Remember if the pollution on the other side is really high, the trees will be quite ineffective. It has the possibility of just spilling over. You might see a fall in pollution above the trees but after that pollution picks up again. B2.03: Residential Superstructures (RS) Residential superstructures are more fixed and organised since they have to cater for more services. I will give a few of them which are useful. However, as you play you may find it best or more fun to create your own.

B2.03.1: Original Residential Superstructure (ORS) This was the residential superstructure that I find used and struck gold meaning, having a profitable city. It is still good after all this time. I shall thus refer this as the (ORS) from now on. The empty spaces in between the residential area is meant for construction of future amenities or mass transit stations. If you place an elementary school in the middle its default coverage will just fit the entire RS. For those of you who have read the previous edition of this guide, you will notice that I have increased the gap such that there is a 3 tile gap on all four sides. This is because I realised that the elementary school can still cover the entire RS.

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Diagram B2.03.1: Residential superstructure R: Residential -: Road .: Gap / empty space E: Future development location of Elementary School 1 2 3 12345678901234567890123456789012345 1----------------------------------- 2-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 3-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 4-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 5-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 6----------------------------------- 7-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 8-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 9-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 10-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 1----------------------------------- 2-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 3-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 4-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 5-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 6----------------------------------- 7-....-....-.....EE......-....-....- 8-....-....-.....EE......-....-....- 9-....-....-.....EE......-....-....- 20----------------------------------- 1-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 2-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 3-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 4-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 5----------------------------------- 6-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 7-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 8-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 9-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 30----------------------------------- 1-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 2-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 3-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 4-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 5-----------------------------------

B2.03.2: Local Effect Residential Superstructure (LERS)

1) Concept of Walking to School and Hospitals The (ORS) is based upon the DEFAULT bus coverage of an elementary school. An alternate method of zoning is based instead on the idea of zero funding bus or ambulance coverage. This zero funding is practical because cutting funding for bus coverage would not drastically reduce the radius the school serves. The cut refers to BUS or AMBULANCE and NOT funding for the teachers or doctors.

2) Advantages: a) Save over $100 monthly on bus funding

or $200 on ambulance fees. b) This plans ahead into the future when

population grows greatly. Therefore overcapacity will be less of a problem. You will not need to find a place to build a new school, so as to satisfy the growing population.

c) Since funding can be individually determined, you will not lose any money.

3) Disadvantages: a) You need to spend more space placing

schools and hospitals b) Therefore residential areas are more

spread out. Hence you may then need more amenities.

c) Also as residential area is spread out, commute may become longer.

4) Illustration The following is just an illustration of how to set up this system. In actual fact the main idea of the (LERS) is the zero funding rather than the layout per se. Thus just set the residential zoning according to your desire. As long as all residential area is covered, any zoning layout is fine. I have listed where you might place a whole host of amenities, but of course, you need not place them immediately. This method takes into account, the elementary

school, high school and hospitals. The placement of the workplace is just a suggestion and you may adopt a (VLB) system. Also if you do have industrial in the LERS, make sure that it is only high tech and not any others. You should also note that one of the W zones is about 8x8. Therefore if your region is not developed enough your commercial zone will not extend more than 3 tiles. So change that layout if you are using this for your first city. A placement of a police at the centre and a fire station just a bit off the centre will lead to coverage of the entire LERS.

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Diagram B2.03.2: LERS

R: Residential

-: Roads

E: Elementary School

H: High School

.: Gap / Empty space for other amenities or Stations

S: Bus or Subway Station

P: Parks, Gardens or rewards. Or if need be public transport stations.

C: Tennis Courts of Basketball courts. But any recreation facility will

suffice

M: Hospital

W: Workplace: Commercial or Industrial.

1 2 3 4 5 6

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9-RRR-RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRRR-RRRRRR-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-RRR-

30-RRR-RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRRR-RRRRRR-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-RRR-

1-RRR--------------------------------------------------------------

2-RRR-RRRRRSCC-HHHHMMM..-......-....-......-..MMMHHHH-CCSRRRRR-RRR-

3-RRR-RRRRREEE-HHHHMMM..-......-....-......-..MMMHHHH-EEERRRRR-RRR-

4-RRR-RRRRREEE-HHHHMMM..-......-....-......-..MMMHHHH-EEERRRRR-RRR-

5-RRR-RRRRRSCC-HHHHMMM..-......-....-......-..MMMHHHH-CCSRRRRR-RRR-

6-RRR--------------------------------------------------------------

7-RRR-RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRR-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-RRR-

8-RRR-RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRR-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-RRR-

9-----RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRR-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-----

40-PPP-RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-RRRRRRR-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR-PPP-


53




3-...----------------------------------------------------------...-

4-..S-......-S-RRRRRRREE-RRRRRR-....-RRRRRR-EERRRRRRR-S-......-S..-

5--------------RRRRRRREE-RRRRRR-....-RRRRRR-EERRRRRRR--------------

6-WWW-WWWWWW-.-RRRRRRREE-RRRRRR-MMMM-RRRRRR-EERRRRRRR-.-WWWWWW-WWW-

7-WWW-WWWWWW-.-RRR---RRR-RRRRRR-MMMM-RRRRRR-RRR---RRR-.-WWWWWW-WWW-

8-WWW-WWWWWW-.-RRR-S-RRR-RRRRRR-MMMM-RRRRRR-RRR-S-RRR-.-WWWWWW-WWW-

9-WWW-WWWWWW---------RRR-RRRRRR-HHHH-RRRRRR-RRR-------.-WWWWWW-WWW-




3------------------------------------------------------------------

4-WWW-WWWWWW-S-.......-S-RRRRRR-CEEC-RRRRRR-S-.......-S-WWWWWW-WWW-

5-WWW-WWWWWW-------------RRRRRR-CEEC-RRRRRR-------------WWWWWW-WWW-

6-WWW-WWWWWWWW-WWWWWWW-.-RRRRRR-SEES-RRRRRR-.-WWWWWWW-WWWWWWWW-WWW-






2------------------------------------------------------------------

3-PPP-WWWWWWWW-WWWWWWW-s.PPP-RRRRRRRRRR-PPP..-WWWWWWW-WWWWWWWW-PPP-



6------------------------------------------------------------------

B2.03.3: Sharr's Residential Superstructure (SRS)

1) Sharr's creation This plan is created by Sharr, yes, she is the avatar of the goddess Shar, that Viconia from Baldur's Gate worships. No just kidding, she is just Sharr, the Alias fan and model, brain surgeon, tango dancing and hippy chic from the Simtropolis forum, who has graciously allowed me to use her idea. The beauty of this idea is that it is all part of a larger plan for the entire city. REFER: B2.06.3: Sharr's City Masterplan (SCM)

2) Amenities and Rail I shall refer to this as Sharr's Residential Superstructure (SRS) from now on. The empty spaces can be filled up with mass transit station or recreational facilities. Her plan calls for the placement of rail throughout the city and through the SRS. However, its placement is dependent on where you place the SRS, and the rail runs through the residential but I believe there is no specific layout for it just what you think is right. If you want to use rail just leave adequate spacing for the rail and its turning.

3) Internal park The empty spaces in the residential area is used to place parks, which does not require road access. I did not follow the empty spaces as she presented it, since it is based on partially on a Variable Layout Building (VLB) system as mentioned above. Note that, the one tile empty space in the SRS among the residential area (#) is the place where there will be no road access, so do not build anything there except, a park. You can obviously place a larger park, as Sharr has done so, or

increase the internal road system. REFER: B2.01.2: Coverage: FLB and VLB systems

4) Streets or Roads Another is that you can select whether or not to use streets which she did. While I prefer not to use them, it is up to you to decide the pros and cons of it. Higher traffic capacity and speed versus higher traffic noise and a wee bit higher maintenance.

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Diagram B2.03.3(1): Sharr's Residential superstructure (SRS) R: Residential C: Commercial -: Road $: Streets .: Gap / empty space E: Future development location of Elementary School H: High School M: Medical Facility, Large, Hospital F: Fire Station, Large P: Police Station, Large L: Library #: Build only parks here as there will be no road connection 1 2 3 4 5 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 1-------------------------------------------------- 2-.....................-CCCC-.-...................- 3-.-------------------.-CCCC-.-------------------.- 4-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 5-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 6-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 7-.-RRR#RRR$RR$RRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRR$RR$RRR#RRR-.- 8-.-RRRRRRR$RR$RRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRR$RR$RRRRRRR-.- 9-.-RRRRRRR----RRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRR----RRRRRRR-.- 10-.-RRRRRRR-EE-RRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRR-EE-RRRRRRR-.- 1-.---------EE------------------------EE----------- 2-.-RRRRRRR-EE-RRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRR-EE-RRRRRRR-.- 3-.-RRRRRRR----RRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRR----RRRRRRR-.- 4-.-RRRRRRR$RR$RRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRR$RR$RRRRRRR-.- 5-.-RRR#RRR$RR$RRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRR$RR$RRR#RRR-.- 6-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 7-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 8-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 9-.-------------------.-....-.-------------------.- 20-.....................-....-.....................- 1-----------------------....----------------------- 2-CCCCCCCCCCCC-.........HHHH.........-CCCCCCCCCCCC- 3-CCCCCCCCCCCC-.........HHHH.........-CCCCCCCCCCCC- 4-CCCCCCCCCCCC-.........HHHH.........-CCCCCCCCCCCC- 5-CCCCCCCCCCCC-.........HHHH.........-CCCCCCCCCCCC- 6-----------------------....----------------------- 7-.....................-....-.....................- 8-.-------------------.-....-.-------------------.- 9-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 30-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 1-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 2-.-RRR#RRR$RR$RRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRR$RR$RRR#RRR-.- 3-.-RRRRRRR$RR$RRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRR$RR$RRRRRRR-.- 4-.-RRRRRRR----RRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRR----RRRRRRR-.- 5-.-RRRRRRR-EE-RRRRRR-.-....-.-RRRRRR-EE-RRRRRRR-.- 6-.---------EE------------------------EE----------- 7-.-RRRRRRR-EE-RRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRR-EE-RRRRRRR-.- 8-.-RRRRRRR----RRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRR----RRRRRRR-.- 9-.-RRRRRRR$RR$RRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRR$RR$RRRRRRR-.- 40-.-RRR#RRR$RR$RRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRR$RR$RRR#RRR-.- 1-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 2-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 3-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.-CCCC-.-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-.- 4-.-------------------.-CCCC-.-------------------.- 5-.....................-CCCC-.-...................- 6--------------------------------------------------

5) Preventing no road zot

Another thing to note, is that make sure the lots (<) points to the road. You may have to zone bit by bit, use the [shift] or [alt] key to prevent auto roads from appearing. The diagram below gives an example of the direction the Residential zones should point to, to get road access.

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Diagram B2.03.3(2) R: Residential -: Road $: Streets .: Gap / empty space E: Future development location of Elementary School #: Build only parks here as there will be no road connection 1 2 123456789012345678901 1--------------------- 2-.................... 3-.------------------- 4-.-/\ /\ /\ /\ /\- 5-.-|| || || || ||- 6-.-|| || || || ||- 7-.-<<<#>>>$>>$<<<>>>- 8-.-|| ||$<<$|| ||- 9-.-|| ||----|| ||- 10-.-\/ \/-EE-\/ \/- 1-.---------EE-------- 2-.-/\ /\-EE-/\ /\- 3-.-|| ||----|| ||- 4-.-RRRRRRR$<<$RRRRRR- 5-.-<<<#>>>$>>$<<<>>>- 6-.-|| || || || ||- 7-.-|| || || || ||- 8-.-\/ \/ \/ \/ \/- 9-.------------------- B2.04: Commercial Zoning Again much like industrial zoning, there is not much fixed layout for this as, there is no much services demanded. It is up to you to use whatever size zoning you prefer, although I do like a 6x6 zone. You can have a smaller one or even a larger one. It does not matter, as long as you leave spaces in between for future expansion of either mass transit, or plazas to improve the desirability. The following is an example of a commercial zoning that is of the same size as the (ORS). Of course you could always change the road layout at the centre to incorporate a larger reward other than a 3x3 one.

Diagram: B2.04 C: Commercial P: Plaza, reward or any commercial boosters .: Free space for commercial boosters, mass transit stations or amenities -: Roads 1 2 3 12345678901234567890123456789012345 1----------------------------------- 2-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 3-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 4-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 5-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 6-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 7-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 8----------------------------------- 9-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 10-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 1-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 2-CCCCCC-CCC-------------CCC-CCCCCC- 3-CCCCCC-CCC-PPP-...-PPP-CCC-CCCCCC- 4-CCCCCC-CCC-PPP-...-PPP-CCC-CCCCCC- 5-CCCCCC-CCC-PPP-...-PPP-CCC-CCCCCC- 6----------------------------------- 7-......-...-...-...-...-...-......- 8-......-...-...-...-...-...-......- 9-......-...-...-...-...-...-......- 20----------------------------------- 1-CCCCCC-CCC-PPP-...-PPP-CCC-CCCCCC- 2-CCCCCC-CCC-PPP-...-PPP-CCC-CCCCCC- 3-CCCCCC-CCC-PPP-...-PPP-CCC-CCCCCC- 4-CCCCCC-CCC-------------CCC-CCCCCC- 5-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 6-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 7-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 8----------------------------------- 9-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 30-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 1-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 2-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 3-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 4-CCCCCC-CCCCCCC-...-CCCCCCC-CCCCCC- 5----------------------------------- B2.05: Plan for future development

1) Future Highway and Mass transit Also after each residential or industrial superstructure and before the next industrial strip or residential area, you should leave a gap (G) of six including the road (R) thus making it like this (RGGGGR). This is for future mass transit expansion or large amenities such as hospitals, although I recommend leaving it for highways and stations. Remember if you wish to use the cloverleaf, you must leave the requisite space for it. Whether you chose to initially build large amenities there or not I strongly advice you NOT to build your rewards here. Building an amenity may be acceptable since the cost to build a new one is low unlike a reward. This diagram is a small middle cross section taking into account the industry,

56



breathing space, commercial district and the gap down for when using the (ORS) layout. If you are confused, look at the numbers at the side and compare it with Diagrams B2.02 and B2.03.1. The lower residential area refers to another RS rather than the same RS. Diagram B2.05: Middle section for perspective I: Industry -: Road .: Gap/space R: Residential 30-....-...------.----------- 1-IIII-...-CCCC-.-RRRR-RRRR- 2-IIII-...-CCCC-.-RRRR-RRRR- 3-IIII-...-CCCC-.-RRRR-RRRR- 4-IIII-...-CCCC-.-RRRR-RRRR- 5--------------------------- 6.........-....-.-....-....- 7.........-....-.-....-....- 8.........-....-.-....-....- 9.........-....-.-....-....- 40--------------------------- 1-IIII-...-CCCC-.-RRRR-RRRR- 2-IIII-...-CCCC-.-RRRR-RRRR- 3-IIII-...-CCCC-.-RRRR-RRRR- 4-IIII-...-CCCC-.-RRRR-RRRR- 5---------------------------

2) Borders I also left three tiles between the edge of the map and any roads or structures I built. The first reason is for mass transit expansion and the second is to prevent accidental destruction of buildings through the creation of connections in the other cities. B2.06: City Master-plans (CM) It is up to you whether you want to create a masterplan for your entire city laying out where each and everything will go. It does have its advantage but also it is quite tedious. B2.06.1: Grid Unlock City Master-plan (GUCM)

1) Concept This idea was first suggested to me by Chris McFadyen a long time ago. Rather than splitting up the various zones, they are placed near each other. As the name suggests, it is a city layout to reduce commute time since people do not have to go across the city to get to their work place. This layout may however have problems with industry. Even assuming it is a high-tech non-polluting industry freight trips will be long. Therefore it might still be advisable to place the bulk of the industries at the edge of the map. Of course you could use freight stations but that will only take up valuable space and create traffic.

Diagram B2.06.1 R: Residential Zone. This represents not one just one tile but an entire block of maybe 4x4 or 6x6, up to you, surrounded by roads. C: Commercial Zone. Again this does not represent just one tile. CRCRCRCR RCRCRCRC CRCRCRCR RCRCRCRC CRCRCRCR B2.06.2: McFadyen's Strip City Master-plan (MSCM) This is a full city master-plan created by Chris McFadyen. These do not letters in the diagram does not represent single tiles but a 6x6 zone with surrounding roads. You may use the paternalistic approach to traffic to design your highway system in this city. Also you do not need to build a highway immediately, just leave the space for it in the future. REFER: B7.08.3: Paternalistic Approach to traffic

57


SECTION B PART 3 FIRST CITY, A SLUM FOR ALL

Diagram B2.06.2 R : Residential C : Commercial I : Industry = : Highway . : Amenities * : Cannot remember what this stands for but I think it is most probably government facilities. Unlikely to be an airport since he does not believe in them. Or rather since the highway serves the same function as the airport. 1 2 3 123456789012345678901234567890123456 1==================================== 2IIIRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRIII 3IIIRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRIII 4IIIRR.RRCCIIICCRRR.RRCCIIICCRR.RRIII 5==================================== 6IIIRR.RRCCIIICCRR.RRRCCIIICCRR.RRIII 7IIIRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRIII 8IIIRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRIII 9==================================== 10IIIRRRRRCCCCCCCRRRRRRCCCCCCCRRRRRIII 1IIIRRRRRCCCCCCCRRRRRRCCCCCCCRRRRRIII 2IIIRR.RRCCCCCCCRR.RRRCCCCCCCRR.RRIII 3==================================== 4IIIRR.RRCC***CCRRR.RRCC***CCRR.RRIII 5IIIRRRRRCC***CCRRRRRRCC***CCRRRRRIII 6IIIRRRRRCC***CCRRRRRRCC***CCRRRRRIII 7==================================== 8IIIRRRRRCC***CCRRRRRRCC***CCRRRRRIII 9IIIRRRRRCC***CCRRRRRRCC***CCRRRRRIII 20IIIRR.RRCC***CCRRR.RRCC***CCRR.RRIII 1==================================== 2IIIRR.RRCCCCCCCRR.RRRCCCCCCCRR.RRIII 3IIIRRRRRCCCCCCCRRRRRRCCCCCCCRRRRRIII 4IIIRRRRRCCCCCCCRRRRRRCCCCCCCRRRRRIII 5==================================== 6IIIRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRIII 7IIIRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRIII 8IIIRR.RRCCIIICCRR.RRRCCIIICCRR.RRIII 9==================================== 30IIIRR.RRCCIIICCRRR.RRCCIIICCRR.RRIII 1IIIRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRIII 2IIIRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRRCCIIICCRRRRRIII 3====================================

Diagram B2.06.3 S: SRS =: Highway R: Reward quad a: Airport which is in Reward quad I: 4 tiles of industry C: 4 tiles of commercial +: Rail Tracks ---=----- -III=III- -IAA=CCI- -IRR=SCI- ========= -ICS=SCI- -ICC=CCI- -III=III- ----=----

SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE PART 3: FIRST CITY, A SLUM FOR ALL

0 - 40,000 (1st City + Dirty) This part will give you a range of basic tips for building your first city in the region. It may also be used if for some reason you wish to build a dirty industry city only. And if you find yourself still unsure as to how to start simply proceed to SECTION C: ADVANCED TUTORIAL, where I have crafted a detailed step-by-step, year-on-year walkthrough. Think of it as your advanced tutorial. But if you are stumped by a certain problem and do not wish to follow the advanced tutorial, then go to SECTION E: Checklists, where I have listed a range of common problems and a checklist as to what you can do to resolve them. B3.01: Customised USD for Slum City Read the USD above if you have not done so. I

B2.06.3: Sharr's City Master-plan (SCM) Sharr's city wide master-plan is a continuation of her residential plan above, (SRS). Industry of 4 tile length is placed by the side. The 4 SRS fits into one map and they are divided by two highways, and a cloverleaf meeting at the centre. However, while 4 SRS could be placed in the map, she chose to use the fourth quarter as one for her rewards, airport also some commercial zones. The following diagram is obviously not to scale nor proportionate at all. It is simply meant to illustrate. All four quads are of equal size.

will customise them for better application to the city. B3.01.1: Primeval Land This is more of a suggestion but for your first city you should select to play a mid-sized map. That way you are not overwhelmed. A second reason is that it is easier to fill it and have connections on all four sides and take advantage of any constructed cities over there. Even if you do not want to place trees on the entire map, place it around the area where you intend to build your power plants. Also pause the game when terraforming.

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B3.01.2: Taxes Before the game even starts set your taxes to: ------------------- | $ | $$ | $$$ | --------------------- |R| 8.3 | 8.0 | 7.5 | |C| 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | |I| 9.0 | 8.0 | 7.0 | --------------------- Feel free to play around with the tax to determine your optimum. The optimum tax rate at the beginning is at 9%. Thus even though you are raising taxes, you still would receive a positive boost from the tax rates as it is below the norm. B3.01.3: Utilities

1) Power: Coal Plant I suggest that you build a COAL power plant rather than those pathetic but environmentally friendly wind power plant. It is the cheapest both in terms of building it and maintaining. Of course it is pollutes a great deal. So place it with your garbage disposal facilities all at one corner. It is near the industrial site but I don't think it should be that close. Maybe 15 - 20 tiles away. You should leave spaces around this power generating area both to act as a buffer to the spread of pollution and also to allow for future expansion. By the time you move on to your second city you would have built a few more power plants. Remember to adjust its funding. REFER: B1.03: Tight Fiscal Controls

2) Water Use a Water tower until the fifth one then a water pump. Do not adjust its funding. REFER: B1.03: Tight Fiscal Controls There are some people who advocate not placing water until your population hits about 5000 I believe. But personally, you can hit 5000 so fast, at least with water coverage, that I do not think this is too good an idea. However, MDMUFF sent me a mail telling me that he "have gotten a population of 50,000 without water facilities..." That most probably refer to a large map where you can spread out the population. Basically the lack of water has an effect on:

a) Stopping Denser buildings from being built b) Increased risk of fire c) Possible prevention or at least a slow down on

$$$ moving in. But since the main idea of not have water is to save money, it most probably mean that this city by itself is not very attractive to the $$$. So not much harm done.

You should be cautioned on the point that while people may not mind moving in despite the lack of water, the cutting off of water will result in people actually leaving. So the moral of the story, if any, is if you wish to treat the population badly do so consistently and at the start of your inauguration.

1) Landfills and Waste Power Plant I prefer using a waste to power plant and reduce its

funding to zero. However if you choose to use a landfill, build only 4 tiles at a time. And try to switch to a waster to power by the time you reached 16 tiles unless you want a good part of your map to be filled up with garbage.Place these next to the power plants and do not connect water to it. B3.01.4: Connections Make as many connections as possibility even if it is to Sim Nation. REFER: B1.05: Connections B3.01.5: Farmer's Market I prefer to get the population up as fast as possible for my first city. Spending on zoning on farms will slow down my development. However, it is up to you as to whether or not to slow play down a bit, build farms and get the farmers market before clearing them. REFER: B1.06: Animal Farm or Great leap forward B3.02: Customised City Layout and Plans I strongly recommend that at least for the first city you follow the suggested layouts. B3.02.1: Industry and Green Belt Use the layout discussed above in PART 2. Place your industry on the edge of the map. For your convenience, I have reproduced the diagram here. Obviously you do not need to fill up the whole thing immediately. REFER: B2.02: Industrial zoning REFER: B2.02.1: Green Belt

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Diagram B2.02: Industrial and Green Belt I: Industry -: Road .: Gap/space R: Residential 1 2 3 4 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 1------------------------------------------------- 2-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 3-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 4-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 5-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 6-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC---- 7-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 8-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 9-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 10------------------------------------....-CCCC-.-R 1-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC---- 2-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 3-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 4-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 5-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 6------------------------------------------------- 7-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-CCCC-.-. 8-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-CCCC-.-. 9-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-....-CCCC-.-. 20------------------------------------------------- 1-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 2-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 3-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 4-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 5-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC---- 6------------------------------------....-CCCC-.-R 7-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 8-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 9-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 30-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC---- 1-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 2-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 3-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 4-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-IIII-IIII-IIII-....-CCCC-.-R 5------------------------------------------------- B3.02.2: Residential Superstructure Again use the layout discussed above in PART 2. I recommend using the (ORS) at least for your first city since the SRS has too much space given to commercial zones which are not very in demand for the first city. Place it at the middle of the city or after the industrial zones. If you look at the industrial zoning and green belt diagram above, you will see that the last row to the right is a row of residential area. That is where the (ORS) should go. You should count from the industry side. Don't be afraid to build a long stretch of road and to make some markers through the creation of junctions in case you lose count. But do NOT place a school at this point. For your convenience, I have reproduced the diagram here. REFER: B2.03: Residential Superstructures (RS)

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Diagram B2.03.1: Residential superstructure R: Residential -: Road .: Gap / empty space E: Future development location of Elementary School 1 2 3 12345678901234567890123456789012345 1----------------------------------- 2-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 3-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 4-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 5-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 6----------------------------------- 7-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 8-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 9-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 10-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 1----------------------------------- 2-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 3-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 4-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 5-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 6----------------------------------- 7-.........-.....EE......-.........- 8-.........-.....EE......-.........- 9-.........-.....EE......-.........- 20----------------------------------- 1-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 2-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 3-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 4-RRRR-RRRR-.............-RRRR-RRRR- 5----------------------------------- 6-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 7-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 8-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 9-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 30----------------------------------- 1-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 2-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 3-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 4-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR-...-RRRR-RRRR-RRRR- 5-----------------------------------

create a cloverleaf. If you wish a cloverleaf remember to leave the space for it. B3.02.5: City Master-plan This was how I lay out my city when using the above system. This is not to scale nor proportionate at all it merely illustrate the placement. Diagram B3.02.5: I : Industrial Zone RR: Each of this R represents one quadrant of the (ORS) RR: Thus the four together makes one (ORS). G: Green Belt C: Commercial Zones or some rewards =: Future planning of 4 tiles P: Power plant and waste disposal area PGIGCRR=CC G=IGCRR=CC ========== I=IGCRR=RR I=IGCRR=RR ========== I=IGCRR=CC I=IGCRR=CC ========== B3.03: Slum Town Education, health, recreation, hi tech industry all sound wonderful but really which nation in the world went immediately from third world to first. Well actually one did, at least according to the book written by the leader whom George Bush calls "one of the brightest, ablest men I have ever met." Anyone knows or wishes to hazard a guess?

B3.02.3: Commercial Zoning The initial commercial zones should be placed just beside the green belt and the (ORS) as seen above. I will further talk about commercial zoning slightly later under commercial development. For now the amount of commercial you produce at the founding of the city is very minimal. A few tiles would satisfy demand. B3.02.4: Plan for future development You should leave 4 tiles in between each (ORS) for highway development. Although for the (ORS) facing the industrial side there is no need unless you so wish. But on the other three sides of the (ORS) and that industrial zone too, you should leave 4 tiles. It is up to you whether should your highway just criss-cross or to

But that is beside the point. In this game, treat the Sims as mere chattels, whose only purpose is to bring you money. So what if they live in a bleak house and have a bleak existence. With the exception of those messages warning you that you are running out of capacity, Treat the rest of the messages your advisors give you as how you would treat spam. The only time when you start building these facilities is when population hits a barrier of some sort. Remember and I cannot stress this enough, your purpose is less of a mayor, at least at the start, and more of an evil industrialist bent on chaining and exploiting the masses.

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B3.04: Density: Slum town expands outwards not upwards

1) Mid Density Use mid density for industry and residential at the start, forget about low density. However, commercial zoning should be kept at low density at least until you reach 20,000 population. After zoning mid or low density and if you wish to increase the density later on, all you have to do is drag the higher density zone over the area. There is no need to demolish any buildings whatsoever. However, since the higher density only develops if there is the demand and that your city is of a sufficiently high population, you may not see immediate changes if the city is not ready.

2) Outwards Remember as long as there is space on the map. Zone and expand sideways. This means zoning more rather than zoning denser. If you are starting out with the largest map, you obviously do not need to fill up the entire map before zoning denser. But that is a long way from now. And when you do zone denser later on, I suggest you start off with the area that is the most central in your development. An interesting thing that I noticed, is that if you zone high density at the start when your city is not ready for it, it will barely develop past the tiny single houses. In fact if you zone high density on areas with apartments, if the city is not ready, the houses there will become smaller. Therefore my advice is do not zone for high density until your city is ready. Build high density around 40,000 population. REFER: A2.03.2: Residential and Commercial skyscrapers B3.05: Jobs from industry The reason why people come to a city is to find jobs. So zone as much industry as possible when there is demand. This is especially so since with the exception of jobs there is nothing attractive in your dismal slum. B3.05.1: Export oriented economy

1) Low Commerce Since any developing nation is an export-oriented economy rather than a consumer based one, there is really no need to build that much commercial zones at the start. A few tiles here and there would be sufficient. Take note that in the beginning the only desired commercial area is the low density one, that of small shops rather than offices. Therefore I would advice zoning light density rather than medium at the start.

2) Low Customers The reason for low commerce is due to low customers. But it is not as simple as trying to make the road congested around your commercial area. You need to have a sizeable amount of people with a

sizeable amount to spend. By spending, I am referring to wealth levels. B3.07: Commercial Development I started producing large areas of commercial tiles around 20,000 pop. You can see its demand rising. I think that my population growth from 20000 to 30000 was fuelled by the commerce because by then I ran out of places for industry, the left side of the map is used up. My commerce is on the right. It is IMPORTANT to take note that if your education system is up to the task, you may face a decline in the dirty industry as more people choose not to work there. This commercial development is to provide the newly educated with alternative employment. While I sometimes use a 4x4 sometimes 4 x 5 structure. A 6x6 commercial structure is now my preferred placement. Make sure that if you do use the 6x6, all the lots have road connections. I placed both mid and high density zoning at this point. I do not have any fixed structure for it, simply because the map does not allow any more huge superstructure areas. The main thing is to make sure that it is built in a place where it is desirable to commerce. REFER: A2.01.1: Concept of Desire B3.08: Budget At the peak of my surplus for this first city, which is around the time before I built any amenities I was pulling in as much as $4000 surplus a month. The lowest point would be during the time the pop was between 18000-24000 when you will have most of the amenities lower end amenities, such as full elementary coverage, partial high school and hospital coverage and some recreational facilities. The reason for the low point is that the full effects of these amenities which you just placed have yet to be reached. However, I was still making about $800 surplus. So the low point does not mean you are close to making a loss. But when the commercial area and the benefits starts kicking in, the surplus started increasing again. As stated earlier, ignore the population's request for water treatment and all other stuff other than the basics needed to expand. Water treatment is not needed unless your pumps stop from pollution which should not happen since you put it away from the industries, power plants and their water pollution. B3.08.1: Ordinance Tourism ordinance: It costs only $50 and increases commercial demand. This is helpful since this is the first city and there are no neighbours to aid your demand.

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SECTION B PART 4 SECOND CITY, MANUFACTURING GROWTH

Smoke detector: After getting a ridiculous amount of outbreaks of fire and getting irritated with dispatching them, I enacted this. Remember you should pause after the fire crew put out the fire to allow them to return. Because I did not and as often will be the case, Murphy's Law will strike such that another fire will start at a position far, far away from the fire crew. B3.08.2: Rewards

1) Government buildings: Yes, the mayor’s house, three statutes and the town hall all look very nice but I did not build them in the slum town for quite sometime because they require maintenance. However, if you are skilful enough you will be making enough money to build some of them. Use your discretion to see whether is it an affordable luxury.

2) University: As both a university and a college can be scaled according to usage, you may if you can afford it chose to build it. But I would advice holding them off until your city is more well developed.

3) Free upkeeps: Of course feel free to place the worship sites, graves, radio station down since they cost nothing to maintain.

You can place your cemetery my cemetery next to the power plants. Or if you have a landfill next to it since after all, they both serve the same purpose of putting things into the ground. The reason why I placed them there instead of it near my residential zones is because I felt that using a simple park is more effective given the huge size of the cemetery. It is up to you to decide. Alternatively, if you want the best of both worlds, you can place the cemeteries at the area where the industry ends and residential begin as the cemetery helps reduce air pollution of the industrial zone and also increase the desirability of the nearby residential houses. B3.9: Future problems: Come what may... Industrial changes: Despite still not having a college in the slum town version, your demand for high tech will be increasing while that of dirty is falling. Furthermore, the slightly better educated people are not that keen on working in a dirty industry. Pollution: This relates to the clearing of the huge brown cloud over the industrial area so that the high tech can move in. Urban renewal: For further increase in population you have to put more facilities, which might add greater pressure on the budget. But properly managed it should not be a problem Falling Demand and Space constraints: Demand may be falling or that you are running out of space,

especially if you start off with a medium or small map. But because this is your first city, you do not have the population to allow high density buildings to appear. B3.9.1: Potential Solutions: I will love you ... Sometimes, the song "Love is all you need," is not always true. So here are some solutions but I will be talking about them in more detail in the later parts of the strategy guide. Create New Neighbouring City: Creating another city in the region will help. Additional cities helps to increase demand and also spur the growth of the population thereby increasing the demand and income of this first city Do not worry, the second city is always easier to turn a profit.

SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE PART 4: SECOND CITY, MANUFACTURING GROWTH

0 - 40,000 (2nd City + Mfg.) I have had several attempts on the creation of a second city. I was hoping to create a completely hi-tech hub for the second city in the region where the first was a medium sized map. But it was not successful to a significant extent that I hoped it to be. However, if you started out with the large map you should be able to have the demand to create a hi-tech city immediately. Therefore the object of this PART is to give you hints to create another city to further add to the high-tech demand and to increase the economic growth of the region. B4.01: Customised USD for Mfg. City I again use a middle sized map. It is up to you to select which map you want to use. But for optimal use in conjunction with this guide, select a map to the left of your first city. That is the map nearer to the industrial side of the first city. B4.01.1: Taxes As usual before the start, raise your taxes to: ------------------- | $ | $$ | $$$ | --------------------- |R| 8.3 | 8.0 | 7.5 | |C| 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | |I|11.0 | 8.0 | 7.0 | --------------------- The aim is to discourage dirty industries not kill them. Most probably a combination of the tax and the clean air would kill of dirty demand. But do not worry as manufacturing can pick up the pieces.

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B4.01.2: Utilities There may be times where you will find it to your advantage to purchase either power or export garbage. However, I find any such deals, at least in this stage, to be merely transitional since you do not have that much cash.

1) Power: Again I used a coal power plant. I did this because it eventually will be cheaper and the amount of power needed would be more than what my first city can offer at this point. I did do one power deal when my coal plant was near capacity but I did not want to construct another. However this deal did not last long, especially when my power demands kept rising.

2) Water: Since in my first city I continuously had this message that green stuff was coming out of the water, I choose not to make any water deals. But again build four towers before the pump.

3) Garbage: Again I recommend using the waste to power. But if you choose not to then again build no more than 16 tiles of trash. If you build a waste to power than there really is no need to make any deal concerning garbage with the first city.

4) Tight Fiscal Control Remember everything that I stated relating to tight budget controls still applies. B4.01.3: Connections As I stated earlier in PART 1, the benefits of connections are immense. To take full advantage of the fact that you now have two cities in the region, make sure that you have connections not just on the side with the Slum City but also with the other sides that connects to Sim Nation. This will mean that your connections are now double the effectiveness then when you only had connections to Sim Nation in your first Slum City.For added effectiveness, you may even include one or two rail connections. They need not be hooked up for it to provide some demand cap busting for commercial demand. B4.01.4: Farmer's Market It is in my opinion that there is more reason to build a set of farms to get the farmer's market right now than in the first city. There are two reasons

a) Middle class ($$) demand buster. Since you are hoping to attract them to your city but the limiting factor is that the initial capacity for the middle class unlike the poor is only a few thousand. So a farmers market is quite useful.

b) Industries built at the start would most probably result in dirty industries. So you

c) should not build too many industrial zones at the start. Thus farms may provide some extra jobs and attract more people and hopefully make up for the lack of industrial zoning.

Remember do not put the farms close to your water pumps or towers. B4.02: Customised City Layout and Plans Everything that I stated in relation to auto-roads, residential areas and leaving breathing space for future development still applies. However, as I have stated earlier, since industrial and commercial zones requires less structures, it really does not matter what layout you choose as long as you leave space for future development such as mass transit. It is up to you to decide whether is a 4x4 zone for commercial and industrial area is better or a (S)x(S) zone better. Where (S) represents the maximum length you can drag the zone before a no road zot will appear. I now favour a 6x6 zone for commercial. B4.02.1: Initial Setup

1) Taking advantage of your first city: Taking into consideration that people can travel between cities for work. You should plan your city as if it was like an extension of the first city or any neighbouring city such that the Sims of the neighbouring city can say lovingly to your city "You complete me." Thus if there is a workplace such as industry or commerce on the edge of the neighbouring city, then you should build a residential area on the edge of the city closest to the neighbour city and vice versa. Do not start of a new city right in the middle of the map. If you recall in the first city, I placed my industry on the left side of the map. Therefore since the second city is to the left of the first city, it obviously means that what is on the right of the map is closer to the first city. Thus I started my residential zones on the right of the map. That way the people can go to the first city to get jobs. After all you are not building that much industrial zones at the start.

2) Confining pollution: However, for the first industrial zone and the power stations and other polluting contraptions, I placed them on the top right hand of the city. This little diagram below, which is not representative of the actual proportion I used, illustrates what I meant by placing the residential area to the right of the city. Please note that each R represents one residential super structure akin to the one I mentioned in Part I relating to my first city. However, I do not have specific structure in mind for the industry and the commercial areas since they do not require that much services.

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Diagram B4.02.1 I: Industrial zone, Power plant and waste to power R: Residential zone 2nd City|1st City I|I R|I R|I B4.02.2: City Master-plan

1) Commercial: I placed a whole strip of commercial zone in the middle. It is about 17 tiles wide. You should be able to build three residential super structures and the commercial zone across the map. My placement is RCRR.

2) Industry: I did create another two more industrial zones but they are much smaller and consists of manufacturing mainly, which though polluting is not as polluting. Therefore, you should further raise $I taxes at this point so instead of dirty manufacturing coming into this new zone, manufacturing would enter. Try to fine tune the raise such that it merely causes dirty demand to stagnate but not so much that is causes it to go into the negative. You do not want them to leave your city as of yet. Remember the raise of taxes is a delicate process because the reason for the additional manufacturing zones was to bring in more cash, which I needed. So an increase of $I taxes might backfire on my financial plans. It takes about one financial quarter or three months for taxes to have its full effect. You may if you wish load and try again to get the perfect mix.

3) Green Belt: It is up to you which configuration you wish to adopt. A pure trees approach, or a trees in combination with commerce method. I prefer the commerce one.

4) Future planning Remember to leave space for future transit. It is up to you whether should your highway just criss-cross or to create a cloverleaf. If you wish a cloverleaf remember to leave the space for it.

5) Master-plan Again the little diagram below merely illustrates the layout of this second city and is not proportionate. The layout of the 1st city as seen here is merely representative of the industrial side rather than being accurate with respect to the first city. Diagram B4.02.2 I : Industry p : Power plants and waste disposal RR: Original Residential Superstructure (ORS) RR: Again each R represents one quod C : Commercial zone G : Green Belt M : Manufacturing

H : Free space left to start your first hi-tech zone. = : Future planning for highways. 2nd City | 1st City II=II=GP|P II=II=II|I GG=GG=GG|I ========|= RR=CC=RR|I RR=CC=RR|I ========|= CC=RR=RR|I CC=RR=RR|I B4.03: A town in development Your goal, I assume, would be the eventual creation of the hi-tech industrial park. So that means while budget control is still the number one priority, education should not be overlooked. Remember while deficit spending may be the American way, this is not the Sims way. What changes is that, instead of waiting until you hit a barrier to build schools, you should start earlier. It should preferably be before your population hits 10,000. I started mine at about 8,000. Some may state that this is too late, but I placed four elementary schools and one high school down all at the same time. Anyway, I suppose it is your preference. B4.04: Residential over industry I do have one initial industrial park filled with dirty industries but since our goal is for hi-tech, we should restrict our construction of dirty industry for the moment. This first industry is to serve as a means to increase the population and provide some income. I zoned 30 4x4 mid density industry. You may of course zone more or less depending on your discretion and vision for the city. Anyway I placed these near my power plant and landfill, so no harm done. However, subsequent industrial parks should result in mostly manufacturing. I suggest you hold off creating more industry at the start for two reasons:

a) By allowing time for the city to develop, it ensures that the next time you build your industrial park, mostly manufacturing would appear.

b) Furthermore, if you wish to achieve high tech with this city, it means reserving space for them. Since high-tech usually do not appear in polluted areas, if you zone too much, you may have to demolish some industrial buildings.

However, if you do not wish to obtain high tech from this city yet, you may carry on zoning. B4.05: Mid density to High density Again I used mid-density for all my residential areas.

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But I have tried placing high density zoning for industrial and commercial areas when the population reaches about 20,000. I had cash to spare at this point so I had no problems zoning high density even if the high density effect have yet to kick in. B4.06: Amenities Fire Station: Again it should be the first structure you build Education and Health: The time you build these facilities should be earlier than the first town. It is important to build them as you do not want another slum town. Of course you need not build them all at one go. I suggest a library first as it is quite cheap and helps to prevent Sims' EQ from atrophying. You can lower its funding quite low because usage is often not that high. You should at least provide elementary schooling for all. Hospitals not clinics: Personally, I feel that you should always build a hospital rather than a clinic and then scale accordingly. I find the clinic reaches its maximum capacity too fast thus resulting in strikes. Thus unless you wish to build other nearby surrounding clinics, it seem more suitable to build a hospital and have a larger service area. Furthermore a hospital treats more patient for every dollar spent on its upkeep. Since you can scale its usage most of the time the initial upkeep is less than the default. I suggest you place one in each (ORS) and reduce coverage such that is covers only that (ORS) Higher Education: Because they are city wide, I suggest placing the college and also the university as soon as you can afford it. Recreation and Rewards: You should build more of these to attract wealthier people to come to your city. So plazas for commercial districts, parks for residential areas and private schools and the mayor house in your wealthy area. I suggest placing those cheap $5 flower park in each (ORS) to help increase desirability. Finally, build only when you can afford it. And by afford I mean still have at least $500 profit each month. This city will make more money but not that much to go crazy. B4.07: Commerce as a vehicle of transition Again I only started commercial construction when the population went close to 20,000. It really does spur new population growth. Also at this point, your hi-tech demand while present may not be high enough. Therefore you need to bid your time and build commercial zones to bring in the cash. Another reason for zoning more commerce is that you should try to hold off zoning for industry since what would most probably appear would either be dirty or

manufacturing. Therefore to save money on demolishing these polluting factories, you may want to leave space for your high-tech. B4.08.1: Budget Peak profits: The peak profits for this second city, is again prior to any amenities construction. However since I started on education expenditure faster, my top profits is only about $3,000. It fell to about $600 after the first wave of construction, 4 elementary schools and one high school. Close to the edge: Because I was less patient, I started on my second wave of city improvements, which included the hospital, library, garbage to power plant, sooner rather than later. What this means is that at this point, I was only making less than a $100 profit a month. So do not panic when you see your profits falling drastically. Although, I advice you to be more patient unlike me. You should realise by now, by the number of times I have repeated this, the way out of this is the construction a new commercial zones. My population was also close of the 20,000 at this point. Because of the close budget call, there are three important things you have to take note of during or rather before this phase development. (1) Save game: Remember to save before this second wave of expansion. Try not to save over this until you start seeing clear and rising profits, preferably several hundred dollars of profits. This is just in case things do not go as planned. And just in case for some reason you click on the save and exit rather than exit, which for some reasons seem to be a complaint that appears too often on the message boards, do a backup save of your city. (2) Large reserves: Because there might be a possibility of loss making coupled with the need for the expenditure of large cash to develop large commercial zones, I used hi-density zoning, you need to have a large reserve. $70,000 to $80,000 in the bank should be more than enough. At the lowest point, my reserves hit $39,000 but prior to hitting that amount, I already was starting to make a few hundred dollars profit. I just wanted to accelerate the rate of increase in profitability. (3) Timing: Try not to start the second wave too early. Wait until your population reaches a sizeable amount. That way you can use the commercial demand increase method. Also your education policies might start kicking in. But you do not need to worry too much about this since by the time you accumulate the

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SECTION B PART 5 HIGH TECH ARRIVES

requisite amount of reserves, your population should be at the very least in the 15,000. Note: If you are willing to wait for you reserves to build up greatly and more people to move in after the first wave, the second wave improvements will not be as dicey. B4.08.2: Ordinance Clean Air: I checked this box immediately after starting the city. It reduces general pollution and also the amount specifically produced by dirty industry, $I. Also it acts as a check on dirty industrial demand. Finally, checking it at the start means that all those that come in can tolerate the ordinance. Often when one checks a clean air ordinance in the middle, some dirty industry will be abandoned. Smoke detector: I got a bit irritated at the number of times that I, as a mayor, had to double as dispatch for the fire fighters. Tourism ordinance: This will not result in a huge commercial boom. The growth of commerce is related to the size of the city, its education and the amount of wealthy people in it. Logically, the wealthier you are the more you would spend, thus the increase in commerce. However, another reason for not placing the ordinance was that my commercial demand seems to be quite high. So I did not see a point in increasing demand further at this point. B4.08.3: Rewards Even in my second city, at the year 16 where my profits is at $2,200, I still have yet to build the mayor’s house. Actually, this has more to do with finding a nice location. But remember build only if you can afford the upkeep. Private School: Place it wisely to relieve the burden of your education system. Taking into account that since only the wealthy goes there, it should be placed where it is or it is very likely to be a somewhat desirable location. At the very least it should be away from the polluting industries. While it may increase desirability, I do not think an entire neighbourhood will become wealthy upon placement. Therefore, it is in my opinion that if you place it in an undesirable location, you will have very little students in the school thus defeating its purpose. I placed it near the centre of my four residential super structures because that offers the best coverage and also my wealthier residents are there and it is also very likely that further improvements would cover these areas.

Country Club: I got this slightly after the creation of my hi-tech industry. Often according to the data map, the country club is a den of crime. This has nothing to do with police stations by the way, if you are wondering. In my opinion, the country club do not generate that much crime but merely attracts the criminals to that area. After all why rob the poor folks when there is rich pickings here. B4.09: Potential Problems and Solutions Again there is the issue of pollution. But because of confinement of the dirty industry, it should only affect a small portion of the city. The other two smaller industrial zones are manufacturing areas. So while there is pollution, it should not be as bad. While a neighbouring city is not a panacea for all city problems, what it does do is help increase demand greatly. That is also another reason why I could reach a higher population with greater desirability and have more profits on hand in a shorter amount of time as compared to my first city.

SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE PART 5: HIGH TECH ARRIVES

0 - 40,000 (Subsequent Cities + High Tech)

The instinct to improve, control and grow in inherent in us all and reflect in this poem by T.S. Eliot. Hence in this part I will show you three methods to improve your industry and bring about your first high tech industry. The first two shows you how to get your high tech in the second city talked about in Section B, Part 4. I prefer method 3 but it is slower and you will not really get your high-tech industry now. high tech appears only in the third new city. B5.01: Expand (Method 1) The method is obviously only possible if you still have space left in your second city that is undeveloped. B5.01.1: Raise taxes again As you should realise, high tech abhors pollution. Therefore the key is not to let the dirty industries enter the high-tech park. You should only raise the taxes for dirty industries. This would be somewhat delicate as you have two manufacturing parks which you would not want them abandoned at this point if not your budget will really take a big hit. --------------------- | $ | $$ | $$$ | ----------------------- |R| 8.3 | 8.0 | 7.5 | |C| 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | |I| 11 > | 8.0 | 7.0 | ----------------------- Dirty taxes should be raised until the industry is slowing getting abandoned. Keep on raising until they get your point. Until then, enjoy the massive amount of tax revenue coming in.

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B5.01.2: Placement at the free space This is the alternative to raising taxes. Remember me telling you to hold off on industrial construction in, B4.04 and B4.07? Well this is the reason for doing so. In my city, I left one very large free space to the bottom left of the map. You can if you still have not any developed area away from pollution place your high-tech over here. Since Hi-tech does not pollute you can place this industry nearer your residential areas. An added advantage of this is that the land nearer your residential area would, I hope, have a higher desirability value, the other industries would not want to move in. This is to a certain extent is a means of building hi-tech without actively raising taxes to kick out the polluting industries. To further ensure only high tech comes in, you could build a park or two in the industrial area as high-tech is positive affected by structures with good positive residential effect. B5.01.3: To dump or not to dump the Dirty industry Do not destroy your dirty industries as of yet unless:

a) You are out of space b) You want a pure high tech city

And even if you select (2), you should not at this point destroy your industries unless (1) applies. This is because your city might experience a fall in profits due to the dirty industries leaving but demand for high tech is not high enough to give you enough money to turn a profit.

c) Short of cash for full demolition and reconstruction

If conditions (1) and (3) are satisfied, do not go all the way out and demolish the entire industry at once. You can make a gradual demolition as you build moving out from one part. If the above conditions are satisfied, proceed on to method 2, reconstruction on how to best proceed. B5.02: Reconstruction (Method 2) This method is used if you are out space and wish to build a high tech in that city. It primarily involves lots of demolition. B5.02.1: Raise taxes to crazy European levels As the key to this method is the building of hi-tech industries on old polluting grounds, your first task at hand is to kick the polluting industries out and make sure they stay out.

----------------------- | $ | $$ | $$$ | ------------------------- |R| 8.3 | 8.0 | 7.5 | |C| 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | |I| 12.5-13 | 8.0 | 7.0 | ------------------------- One might ask why do not I raise taxes for the manufacturing even higher. Getting rid of two entire industries immediately will result in a drastic fall in population. Remember not everybody can work at your hi-tech park at the moment. You need to be patient and take things slowly. B5.02.2: Upgrading: Creative Destruction The industry on the top right should really now look like an abandoned industrial park. You however, have to demolish all the pre-existing buildings, wait for a few months for the pollution to clear before Kane and his hi-tech Tiberium brotherhood moves in. Before actually beginning on the tax increase and change remember the golden rule of saving and having a large bank reserve. REFER: B4.08.1: Budget

1) Creative Destruction Joseph Schumpeter stated that there are several stages of the business cycle that comes into being when new technology is introduced. And that cycle exactly shows you what you can expect in the game when you are upgrading your old industrial zones with high tech.

a) Installation and Implementation This occurs when you have risen taxes and started on some demolition but the benefits of the high tech has yet to appear while the loss in the old industries are most keenly felt. Your income will fall and there is a possibility of making a loss. Coupled with the money need for demolition, and people leaving the city due to the fall in jobs, this is the period of the crash.

b) Golden Age This occurs after the turning point where sufficient high tech has appeared and that you are starting to reap the rewards of the new technology. Furthermore, your old industries is completely moribund by now thus, income should no longer drop as it has already fallen to its lowest level. Also the fall in pollution and the rise in wealth level means that commercial and also residential areas become more desirable and more people moves in.

c) Maturity This occurs when you have completed the upgrade. The growth has stabilised and you are out of space for more high tech. Congratulations, you have created a high tech city.

2) Fire Disaster demolition: This seems to me like a cheat of some sort but as long as you enjoy the game which you bought with your own money, who am I to say anything. Since it is going to cost quite a bit to demolish the buildings, this

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method simply requires you to go into god mode, select the fire disaster button and click on the desired building. You have to click and hold on the same location, especially if you have smoke detectors and fire coverage. The longer you hold, the more deadly the fire is. By the way ever wonder why when you try to set fire to your own city the fire gets extinguished so fast yet when a real fire breaks out nothing like that occurs. B5.02.3: Pollution However, if the pollution from the power plants is too strong, then you may have to do something more drastic such as rising manufacturing taxes too. That way your high tech can move into another zone other than the one next to the power plants and waste to power. Generally, as long as the source of the pollution is not around the smog will disappear. Remember an abandoned vacant building still produces as much pollution as if it was fully active.To deal with pollution if you do not have money to demolish all the industry in the area is to do a gradual movement. The diagram below represents an industrial park 1: 1st to demolish 2: 2nd to demolish 3: 3rd to demolish 111122223333 111122223333 111122223333 111122223333 Therefore the pollution will clear up a bit in area one thus allowing high tech to move in. Remember to remove any polluting structures that appear in that area. Then you can move on to area (2) and (3) when you have the cash for demolition. B5.03: New city called patience (Method 3) This method calls for the setting up of a third city. I chose to set up another mid sized map at the bottom of the first city. To get the best out of your two cities, make sure you go and play the slum city for a while so that demand from your second city can register. Make sure when you leave the second city, you have positive demand. B5.04: Customised USD for High Tech City Perhaps you can try your hand at some terraforming. Creating a some island for your power plants and waste disposal. Also a river front for your commercial areas would be nice.

B5.04.1: Taxes: Raise taxes with a vengeance Before the city even starts set your taxes to: --------------------- | $ | $$ | $$$ | ----------------------- |R| 8.3 | 8.0 | 7.5 | |C| 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | |I| 18.0 | 18.0 | 7.0 | ----------------------- Basically, raise taxes for dirty and manufacturing until demand becomes negative. Could believe it that even at 18% some dirty and manufacturing came in? But do not worry as, only at most one or two will come. Thus they will not pose that much of a problem. And they will leave soon. Make sure that when you change to the data view of air pollution, they are not generating any. B5.04.2: Utilities: Plan for low pollution Power: That means using natural gas plant and placing the structure at the furthest possible end. I created a small island of sorts and placed it here. Later on, I replaced it with a solar plant and sadly, an oil plant. Waste: Initially I exported it to my first city until it started costing over a $1000. I simply cannot waste such money. So I built a Waste to power plant. Again, place it in an island on the far side of the map. Trees: Remember to fill the little dirty island with as much trees as possible before starting the city. Fill to the point where when you click the mouse you no longer see any more difference in foliage. Ordinance: Enact the clean air act. Deals: Again I stick to my original statement that for a city at this point of time, all deals are merely transitional. B5.05: Customised City Layout and Plans There is no need to leave a green belt for this city since, you are not expecting to produce polluting industries. Although a blanket of trees around the power plants and waste disposal is still recommended. Place your city in a way to take advantage of the neighbouring city. Also do not forget to make connections. B5.05.1: Selection of Setups It is up to you which selection you choose, but I continued with my (ORS). This is so that it will fit into the plans of my first city. If you wish to get the farmers market, I advise you to get it as soon as possible since the level of education in this city will be moving up quite fast.

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SECTION B PART 6 SKYCRAPERS BECKONS

B5.05.2: City Master-plan This layout again is merely illustrative and not proportionate. The plan of the first city is merely illustrative. RR: (ORS) RR: Each R represents one quod C : Commercial P : Power and Waste disposal I : Industry /\: Water = : Free space for future highway or mass transit 1st City| II=RR=CC=CC\/ _______________________ 3rd City| RR=CC=RR=CC/\ RR=CC=RR=CC\/ ===========/\ II=CC=RR=CC\/ II=CC=RR=CC/\ ===========\/ II=CCCCCCCC/\ /\/\/\/\/\/\/ \/\/\/\/\/\/P Alternatively, you could try using the (LERS) method of placement rather than the (ORS). REFER: B2.03.2: Local Effect Residential Superstructure (LERS) B5.06: Commercial Expansion While this was my first true hi-tech city, it is mainly a commercial centre. I had over 22,000 commercial jobs compared to about 6000 industrial jobs all of which are high tech. Personally, the more I played, the more I realise that I prefer commercial so much more than industrial even if the industrial is high-tech. B5.07: Amenities construction While I still do caution against reckless deficit spending, because of the demand from the first two cities, you will make money so much faster. The amount of amenities you can and should easily get in this city is so much more compared to the other two combined. You can easily have the following and still make a good profit:

a) Full Education coverage: Elementary, High School, College, libraries and even University.

b) Full Health Coverage: c) 1 Large fire station d) 2 Large police stations e) Several hundred dollars worth of recreation

facilities. I have more than sixteen public recreation facilities because I also have the minor league stadium.

f) 1 Port if you so wish. g) Mayor house / City Hall / 2 Statues

B5.08: Be Patient ... Ohmmm You have to be patient. Do not fret if only a few hi-tech appears. This is because you need to increase the education of your work force before they can work in the high tech plants. So all current workers most probably are new migrants. And the higher wealth and educated ones only appear if you have the requisite facilities and desirability. Also, just a note, high tech while being a high ($$$) wealth level building hires as much middle class ($$) people as rich people. What they seek is high education levels primarily. Although, I do not think a poor ($) but educated worker will work there. The reason is simply because the moment the poor gets the job, their pay would increase and they would no longer be classified as poor. So in that sense wealth is not that important. B5.09: Analysis of Methods Method 2 definitely gets you a better and more beautiful city. My pollution index fell by more than half. But and this is a big but, the potential of a disaster occurring is quite high. You may end up with a city of a much lower population, making less money and yet only a miniscule amount of hi-tech appears. As I have stated earlier, I prefer Method 3 and creating a third city and using that as your hi-tech city. But this is really up to you.

SECTION B: STRATERGY GUIDE PART 6: SKYSCRAPERS BECKONS

40,000 - 100,000 The key to a larger city is make sure that your cities work together in one coherent unit. This section deals with not just what to do in the individual city but also documents what you should take note of with regards to maximising your neighbouring cities. I suggest that at this point you should familiarise yourself with most of the Online Manual (OM). B6.01: Tax Cuts or Status Quo --------------------- | $ | $$ | $$$ | ----------------------- |R| 8.3 | 8.0 | 7.5 | |C| 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | ----------------------- I found that with the above tax rates, I have no need to reduce taxes in the move to 100,000. I did not list the tax rate for industry because its tax rate is dependent on the type of industry you want. If however, you started out with a tax rate of 9%. It may be useful to reduce them at least to 8.5%.

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B6.02: Rezoning

1) Rezone Finally at 40,000 this is the time to start zoning denser. Remember just zone on top of the existing zones, There is no need to demolish them. Use the data view to see which areas have not been "up-sized." Try to place the denser regions closer to the centre of the city. There is no need to rezone everything at once. If one side of that city does not have a neighbour, it is not advisable to zone it denser there as of yet.

2) Effects You have to wait for a while for the effects to appear if you city is not ready. If you do not see your population increasing, you may have to put more recreational facilities. Make sure you have not reached your demand cap. If the population is still not increasing, either start another city along the side of this city if not all sides are filled up, or go further develop another neighbouring city. However, in my experience you will soon see a population boom. One last point is that if you are still having trouble, check your commute time. It may be the thing that is holding you back. REFER: B6.09: Abandoned Building & High Commute and No Development REFER: PART 7: Metropolis B6.03: Utilitarian Approach: Neighbour deals There are those who state that neighbour deals are the best means to create a clean and beautiful city. The main focus is on waste. For you can easily get clean power and water when your city expands. As Jeremy Bentham once remarked that we should adopt a policy that will result in “The greatest happiness for the greatest number.” Therefore by adopting this community above self, utilitarian approach, it means making one city the scapegoat and sacrificing it for the good of the others. In other words, you shall zone a lot of landfill in the "dump" city. This is because the greater the supply, the cheaper the cost. For, those of you Utilitarians out there, yes, I do know about how "rule Utilitarian" easily trumps the "scapegoat" so there is no need to mail me about your objections. Furthermore, the "dump" city is not so much a victim for it does get its share of money in the neighbour deal. You can easily use this oversupply method for power and water too. B6.03.1: Waste: Obliterate & Regional Dump

1) Dump and obliterate I have never tried this before but it does sound quite possible albeit it is very close to cheating. Create a dump city and use it until it is full or if you wish to

create a new city at this location. Then when that occurs, simply delete the city. If you so wish to do this, try to have minimal development in this city, just enough to operate the dump or power. That way when it is obliterated, it will not have a hugely negative impact on the demand on your proper cities surrounding it.

2) Dump for the region This is possible although I have never tried it out in the large scale. And also I have only done tried this with regards to power. Not too sure whether is it possible for waste. You can sell power to another city even if this power is purchased from another city. To further clarify:

a) Neighbour: A & B are neighbours. B & C are neighbours. But A & C are not neighbours.

b) Deal: A sells to B and B in turn sells to C (A > B > C).

Therefore with the method of transfer all you have to do is to have one city or perhaps only a few cities serving the entire region. The drawback to this is simply that with each resale it is going to cost even more. It means the furthest city is going to have quite a strain on her budget.The way to counter this is simply to get the last city to sell back to the first city. Now that is cheating. I will explain about this and other "cheapo" methods to resolve the waste issues under the Section on Cheats. REFER: SECTION D: Exploits or 'cheats' B6.03.2: Kantian Approach

1) Self-Sufficient I personally prefer this approach with regards to power, water and waste management. This is a more individualistic approach where there is no one city is suffering the ails of the entire region. Furthermore, with the saving on export, you could improve you city with relation to the type of power used. The drawback to this approach is dealing with garbage. Even if you have a recycling plant, the remainder of the garbage still have to go to a landfill or a waste to power plant. Either of these options is terrible for the environment and desirability. But then again exporting it will also lead to environmental degradation in the other city, unless you are not going to play that city at all.

2) Time Vortex This method again, is to a certain extent a cheat but it is up to you. This is the method that will prevent trash from ever appearing if you are willing to throw money at it.

a) Build landfill in "X". Keep the game pause and make sure when you save and exit the landfill has not been used at all.

b) At city "Y" export trash to "X." c) After playing finish with "Y," pause the game

and cancel the deal. d) Now build a landfill at "Y." e) Initiate an import deal with "X" and save and

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f) exit making sure that the landfill is not used. g) Return to city "X," dezone the landfill. h) When the time has come to change the city

again return back to step (A). This is the most environmentally friendly of all the cheats, as there are no city that is getting the waste products. B6.04: Multiplier Effect When you have multiple cities, do not spend too much time on one city. Switch cities to optimise, the advantage of multiple city play. Remember when you save, the game freezes all the information of that city. After successfully building or further playing another city, you will have added to your population or at least improve the other city. Play the other neighbouring city to make use of the newly improved city. The following is abrief time line of events as to how cities improve through regional play.

1) Exit City 1: City 1 saves city information 2) Play City 2: City 2 uses City 1 to spur its growth

based upon save information. 3) Exit City 2: City 2 now has improved city

statistics and information 4) Play City 1: City 1 uses improve city 2 statistics

and information to further spur its growth. 5) Play City 2: Using even further improved city

statistics and information, City 2 grows even more.

6) Repeat the process as much as possible for optimal result.

B6.04.1: Prevent Contagion, Promote Growth The regional equilibrium process also works the other way round. Therefore do not create a situation where one city is suffering from an economic depression if not the contagion will spread.Make it a point to create multiple save each time you play the game, that way if recession does occur and you are unable to revive the economy you can reload and will not cause the downfall of the region. B6.05: Engine of growth: Population & Cities

1) Number of Cities The strength of the multiplier is dependant upon the number of different neighbours that you have. Therefore one tactic if you so choose is to create a large map surrounded with small maps. A connection to "Sim Nation" is also considered as a connection to another city. In case you have not realised it by now, connections are the means to bust the demand caps of commercial and industry. It has no direct effect on residential demand. But it does have an indirect effect because if there is huge growth of commerce and industry in the

city it will act to attract residence to the city. 2) Number of Sims

If your computer can handle it or if you do not mind the lag, you could create a massive huge city. The high population of this city will make development of surrounding cities easier. Demand in the outlying cities will be ridiculously high. B6.05.1: We are surrounded

1) Concept: To get skyscrapers, I find it easier if that city in question is surrounded by cities or at least have them established on most of its sides. There is this pattern of development that seems to occur quite often in my cities. High rise development seems dependent on not just whether is the zone central but whether is it central in relation to the development of other cities. This may thus explain why certain zones of yours does not seem to be developing even if demand is high. Think of your entire region as one city, and like a city based on concentric development those on the edge will often be low rise such as in the diagram below. Diagram B6.05.1 L: Low Density M: Medium Density H: High Density LLLLL LMMML LMHML LMMML LLLLL Therefore if your city is not generally surrounded, high rise may not appear even if you have the requisite demand and development. I suggest you surround the city by establishing others. But the above diagram is a mere illustration of a pattern rather than a rule since I have achieve high rise on the edge before. The pattern simply increases the possibility of high-rise development for likely to almost definitely.

2) Multiple Small Cities You can create your own region and place sixteen small maps around a large map. Then start all 16 cities. And then use their growth to help create a huge city at the large map. This works because of the optimistic growth evaluation. REFER: A2.05.1: Globalization and Trade B6.06: Amenities for All You should have enough money by now such that everyone in the city is covered by full education and health. That means at least elementary, high schools, city college, libraries and hospitals.

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B6.06.1: Education: Public, Private or Libraries

1) Waiting for Private Schools The main issue here is that to get private schooling, other than the need for a certain amount of $$$ residence, your overall education system must be pathetic. Therefore the question one has to ask, especially when you build future cities which can easily start building schools earlier is, are you willing to wait and delay development into the education system so that you can get the private schooling. Advantages of Private School:

a) Demand buster for the $$$ residence. b) Building itself increases the desirability of

the surroundings. c) Reduce the amount of money spent on

education. Disadvantage of delaying education system

a) May play a waiting game since $$$ may be less attracted to a city with bad education system.

b) Hurts the entire city's development for advantages that you can easily obtain through other buildings.

In my opinion, I do not think you should purposely wait for the arrival of all three private schools before beginning on your education. As Dworkin once remarked "the final evil of a genuinely unequal distribution of resource" occurs when people "have been cheated of the chance other have had to make something valuable of their lives." And this valuable thing equates to taxes in the game.

2) Private school Only Do not think that private school alone can increase your education levels. They only work for the rich ($$$) Sims. An experiment you can try is to simply build private school in a predominantly poor area. The education quotient will not rise.

3) Library Only It has been suggested that a library only system will result in growth over a long period of time. This is because parents pass a part of their acquired intelligence to their kids. This method can work but it does take quite some time and personally, I am not very convinced by it. This is because you can still make money with full education coverage. However, this method is good when you are starting out and have a shortage of cash. But yet on the other hand, the faster you raise your education, the faster higher wealth commerce or industry will appear. Thus on that note I am not to certain as to whether to recommend it. Use your own discretion. B6.06.2: Police State

1) Combat You have rigged the elections to be Mayor for life, build statues of yourself across the city and started a personality cult with the Houses of Worship. Now all that is left is the placement of the police to firmly

entrench your rule in the city. This is especially since the one of the neighbour of Sim Nation are threatening you not to start the missile or toxic waste WMD research. And they would not believe that your nuclear facility is only for "legitimate peaceful purposes." I have listed out the sources of crime in the Online Manual (OM) REFER: A1.06.3: Crime, Riots and Fire So if you cannot remove the sources of crime, the best means would be to institute a zero tolerance, one strike and you are out policy. Thus you need police stations. As stated earlier, all you have to do is to get full coverage and overlapping coverage is just a waste of space. Generally, you start placing police stations when you see commercial buildings or any others being distressed or abandoned due to high crime. I stated commercial because it is greatly affected by crimes, more so than others. Usually, I begin police coverage from 50,000 onwards and by 100,000 a good part of the city is covered. How then do you tell if your rate of crime is too high other than the distressed buildings? Simply if you have a good coverage and you keep getting messages that your police cells are close to capacity. There usually is no need to build a city jail. A federal prison also serves the provides you with jail space if you are wondering.

2) Keeping a watchful eye I always find it useful to place a police station next to several structures that seem to attract crime. The less obvious ones are the airport, university or country club. The obvious ones are those business deals or the state fair. You should note that the obvious ones generate rather than attract crime. And the crime generators also generate a secondary effect which reduces the effectiveness of the police. REFER: A1.06.3: Crime, Riots and Fire B6.06.3: Rewards and Recreation

1) Recreation Amenities such and parks and plazas, are needed for your city to expand right now. So start placing them. You should at least have enough for the minor league stadium , that is 16 recreational facilities. And you should also place the stadium as it is one of the top of the range residential demand busters.

2) Rewards It will do your city good if you start placing some of your rewards now. Government: Your mayor house, statues should all be placed already. Although it is debatable, I do feel that adding a city hall improves the chances of higher density development. It is up to you as to whether

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you would want to place a court house at this point. Education: Again private schools, place them when you get them. If you have the requisite amount of libraries, the main library will open. Again the funding of it can be scaled, so there should not be too much of a problem in placing them. Health: It is up to you whether or not to hold off placing the disease research lab right now. If you can afford it, then place it but if your profits does not seem that healthy, then you can hold it off. Economic: I would place the advance research facility even if the residents hate it. Simply put it away from them and perhaps also your high tech areas. Place it near your commercial areas. Others: Depending on which type of city it is, how you develop it and the regional development, you may get other rewards such as the tourist trap or zoo. Place them if you so wish. Obviously those "freebies" rewards should be placed as soon as possible. B6.07: Infrastructure Upgrade

1) Power: Depending on your vision for your city and also your neighbour deals method, it may be time to change your power generating system. Thus if the city is a dirty or manufacturing one, there really is no need to use anything other than coal. But if you want a clean one, perhaps a solar plant or some of the cleaner ones, even the natural gas plant would be a good replacement. That is if you have the money. Of course, if you have effectively isolated them, you can carry on with the polluting plants.

2) Transport: I am not a fan of streets but if you are, then now is a good time to widen them and convert them into roads. Note that if you follow my (ORS) you should not need to worry about transportation woes until at least 80,000. If your city is suffering from long commute, you should proceed to read the next part. REFER: Part 7: Metropolis

3) Expiration If you have played for quite a bit of time, take note that some of the utilities might be close to their expiration so you should check it and replace before they go Ka-blooie! REFER: A1.05.1: Options: Utilities Type

4) Connections Check your connections to see which is packed. Perhaps a few more near that area would help. B6.08: Apprehensive about Airports I am apprehensive about the effectiveness of an airport because I feel they are like an oversized, overpriced connection. A few highway connections serves more than a few largest airports. However, if

you must then try to place one where your commercial areas can easily reach. I do place them but it is mostly for show, at least in my opinion. B6.08.1: Sinking Seaports Again this is quite useless. It has a limit to the amount of goods it can send. Why spend money on a seaport to duplicate when a land connection can do it cheaper and better. There is a use for it, in that it can help reduce road traffic to a certain extent. I will explain it later. REFER: B7.09.6: Freight: Shipping or trains B6.09: Abandoned, High Commute and No Development This final bit is a precursor to the next part. If your city has high commute, abandoned buildings and general economic stagnation, the answer is in Part 7. I did not place them here because if you followed my method of city layout, you can at the very least reach 80,000 without these issue cropping up. However, your problems could be less simple as it might only relate to desirability, demand caps or tax rates. You could scan the (USD) and also the General gameplay concepts, especially the bit on theories of growth to see whether have you broken any of those rules which are applicable. REFER: Section A, Part 2: General Gameplay Concepts REFER: Section B, Part 1: Universal Strategic Doctrine REFER: A2.05: Theories of Growth B6.09.1: Mass Transit This point is obvious. But I keep seeing people asking about should they build a mass transit when their population is only about 10,000 or even 20,000. Depending on the way you build you can easily reach up till 60,000 without needing any transit. Therefore, build mass transit only when it is needed. As Irina Dunn would say "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." Do not mail me telling me the quote is by Gloria Steinem because she said it in an interview that it was not her but Irina Dunn. I will not offer my opinion on the statement here but the point is do not build a highway or any mass transit when there clearly is no need for it. To determine whether is it time for mass transit or highway construction, look at the commute time on the chart. If it is moving way above the two-hour mark and approaching the 150 minutes mark, it is time not just to build but also to proceed on to Section B Part 7.

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SECTION B PART 7 METROPOLIS

SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE PART 7: METROPOLIS

80,000 - Millions and Beyond Thus this part will provide you with ideas on how to get that bigger and better city and to control its problems that comes with growth such that your city will not become a "colossal wreck" due to the upcoming problems. B7.01: Problems ahead The problems you encounter mostly are no longer dealing with how to generate growth but how to facilitate it or rather how to remove the restrictions that are choking off growth. The better part of this part is simple on how to reduce that pesky commute time. You should also check out the checks and cheats section as I have placed many of the more dubious methods of city improvement there. These are dubious not because they involve an outright cheat or the use of codes, but simply because you are exploiting a certain aspect of the game to improve your city. REFER: SECTION D: Exploits or 'cheats' B7.01.1: Tax Surplus: Fiscal contraction recession Again, you have to reduce your taxes overtime. Having a huge profit is great. But having a huge surplus is not that good. There is a reason why many governmental budgets are focused on balancing rather than profiteering. Let me ask you, what are you doing with all the millions in the bank. It is not earning interest. If you spent them, they will lead to further growth. While I do always say fiscal restraint is good, after a certain amount of time when you have too much cash, it will be good to actually spend it. Of course I am not telling you to throw caution to the wind, but just to make sure that the money made from previous good policies does not go to waste and sit idle in the bank. So start your Keynesian fiscal expansion by either reducing taxes, building more amenities or just spend it on improving the desirability of your city. B7.01.2: Utilities: Decay and New Generation Plants The question here is whether to convert to that spanking beautiful and clean hydrogen power plant. Sadly while it produces the most power, it is the second least efficient plant of the lots. So decide whether is it better to build it or just import it from an dirty / manufacturing city that uses coal plants. REFER: A1.05.1: Options: Utilities Type Remember to replace the utilities as when they age they have diminishing returns.

B7.02: Standard of Living Parks, plazas, rewards, place them well and you shall be rewarded. With your city pretty much built up, with zones, education health, there is nothing much left to construct right? Wrong! Now it is time for OPERATION: Strategic Placement. Place your positive effects building to maximise its effects. This is not as simple as mere coverage based on what was stated as the range of these positive effects. This is since their effects diminish over the range much like the pollution effect. If you wish to be more experienced in OPERATION: Strategic Placement, you need to use save and reload quite a bit at least at the start but after some experience you will be an expert. Here is what to take note:

a) Site Survey Take a look at the surrounding area of the intended placement. Query the buildings to see what level of development the buildings are. Are they low wealth or low density. Or are they a high wealth and high density building.

b) Wealth Determination If the buildings are primarily high wealth, high density and generally are your stage 8 buildings, then do NOT place anything there. You are at the maximum development already. Do not fall into the trap of thinking, "Let's make my city centre the most beautiful place in the region." Unless you are going for aesthetic reasons, do not build those positive effect buildings in that site anymore. Remember my advice against dual coverage earlier? The same applies. It operates on the same logic as why you do not place ten schools side by side as the education in that area cannot be any higher.

c) Recreation Selection If the site passes stage (B), the next question is what to place. Go for the most efficient. Why pay for a structure that has so much commercial benefits when the site is a residential area, or vice versa. Personally I prefer a strong effect rather than a strong radius. But I do not know whether is it just me but it seems that certain areas like certain recreational facilities better than another. So perhaps you can try to experiment with the range rather than just rely on basing it on pure numbers.

d) Testing Time Increasing desirability serves only one purpose. That is to get the higher wealth and density buildings to appear. Which means a few months after placement your income should increase. A good placement can raise income by as much as several hundred dollars or more. A bad placement will just lead to an increase in costs without income. So save and reload. I recommend that you perfect this skill or at least get the hang of it when your city is merely above 100,000. Any larger and you will have problem determining whether is the change in income due to usual city fluctuations or the placement.

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B7.03: Pollution Even at this point, industrial pollution at best can only be contained by a green belt. And short of converting them to high tech there is nothing much that you can do. The pollution that really is getting out of hand now is traffic pollution. There are several ways to combat traffic pollution but unless, the expansion pack comes out with fuel cell cars, these methods are again at best only slightly helpful:

a) Clean Air Act, If you check this, your industrial demand will fall.

b) Auto Emission Reduction Act c) Carpool Incentive Program d) Commuter Shuttle Service e) Green Belt, A row of trees around the more

congested areas might help. But this depends on whether you left room for it.

f) Public Transport, The more people who use this, the less cars there will be, so improve it.

B7.03.1: Traffic Noise I get a lot of questions on how to reduce it. But pretty much short of reducing city size there is no all out solution. However, do not worry, its effect can be easily countered through placement of positive desirability things in the area. I have often seen the best high density high wealth residential area having high traffic noise. However, if the area is those sprawling mansions, then they might not be as tolerant. Here are some ways that can reduce traffic noise albeit by only a certain amount. Most of it also deals with air pollution from traffic

1) Carpool Incentive Program 2) Commuter Shuttle Service 3) Green Belt 4) Public Transport 5) Roads to Streets (NOT RECOMMENDED)

Changing roads back into streets or Rezone to low density. This option is NOT recommended unless you wish to reduce population in the city. Let me explain how changing road to streets will reduce noise.

1) Streets and roads can be used over their capacity.

2) But the greater the over capacity the less additional vehicles will use it.

3) Therefore it is unlikely that usage will rise to the same level as roads.

4) Analogy 1: As your bag becomes fuller, it becomes harder and harder to stuff more things in it until you reach a point where nothing more will enter.

5) Analogy 2: A lightly loaded huge bag can easily contain more and weigh heavier than a fully stuffed small bag.

B7.04: Industrial Hinterland There is a small debate especially as your region goes into the millions, as to whether should you convert all your industries to high tech or should you still leave some dirty and manufacturing areas in your industrial hinterland. The main focus is on the question of "What impact does these polluting industries have in the region and are they necessary.?"

1) Impact The answer to this part is that they do have a positive impact. The reason is that growth of these lower wealth cities are usually faster because dirty and manufacturing provides more jobs than high tech, which in turn raises residential demand and numbers. And with the increase in population, commercial demand also increases. Since unfulfilled demand in each city can be transferred to the neighbouring city and so forth, these dirty and manufacturing cities do aid in growth of the region.

2) Necessary I have yet to come to a proper formulation of this part. Once in a while, I notice that when my region size becomes larger, demand in the big city seems to fall. But a new dirty or manufacturing city near that city seems to help. The problem is that I am not too certain as to what caused the fall in demand. Hence, all I am sure is that these industrial hinterland do help but I am not too certain as to whether are they necessary for larger growth.

3) Industrial Hinterland Therefore my recommendation is to create some of these industrial hinterland in your region. After all there is nothing too difficult about keeping some of these kind of cities in your region.

4) Population boost Another added effect of these hinterland is that they raise the general population of your region which is important if you want more skyscrapers. Since skyscrapers appear only as a percentage of population, they will not appear unless you have more population in the region. And you cannot expect the city with the skyscraper to grow because it has already used up the percentage of skyscrapers. Thus the remaining lower capacity buildings cannot be upgraded to skyscrapers even if you have the demand for them.

5) Movement to Suburbs If your industrial hinterland grows too much, there is a possibility that you main city could suffer a fall in demand. This is only an observation and it seems to occur only when your region and main city is very, very huge. B7.04.1: Markets abroad As stated above, I am not exactly a big fan of the airports. But as your city becomes larger, the land connections may no longer be sufficient to provide you with commercial demand busters due to diminishing returns. Thus, if you see your commercial

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demand falling and strongly suspect it is due to demand caps, start placing these. Usually I do place at least one quite early, just because no metropolis looks good without its own airports. B7.05: Sinatra Doctrine: I'll do it my way... The following two tactics are a little on the dark side. If you feel they are considered as cheating, by all means do not use it. Take note that you should backup your city before implementing them. It may lead to spectacular results but a failure would make your city become as worthless as a bunch of Enron shares. B7.05.1: Shock and Awe Reconstruction The basic idea is to bulldoze high wealth buildings to reduce supply thus creating artificial demand. The concept is based on that of cornering the market supply, just like Yasuo Hamanaka from Sumitomo did for the copper market sometime back. Then the rest of the market would respond and unfulfilled demand will rise, thus resulting in multiple stage 8 high wealth buildings across your cities. Of course this method of embedding shock and awe into the city to generate growth has a potential of a disaster. B7.05.2: Desirability Black Hole This only works if you have Patch 2 installed. It is because of the implementation of a check which prevents abandonment in areas of high desirability. Therefore, all you have to do is to place a lot of parks or plazas in that area then raise taxes to an astronomical level and you would be making a lot of money. Of course your demand will fall but those buildings in question will not be vacant. And when you have drained enough money out of the Sims, you can always reduce tax levels and demand will rise again. Again I warn you, save before attempting this. B7.06: Commute Cycle of Death The rest of PART 7 will be ideas on how to deal with traffic. As stated earlier, commute time is one of the biggest stops to growth. Especially in the larger cities. Often as long as you can keep commute time down, your city can still grow.

1) Actual v Average Commute time Before we proceed, I have to clarify something about commute time. There is the average commute time as seen in the charts and there is the actual commute time, which you can only estimate when you query the buildings. It is the actual commute that truly matters. This is because the average commute might show that your time is not that bad, but certain areas of your city might be having a long commute time. And it seems unless you can resolve the problems in

this area, often further development across the city is not that possible.

2) Commute Cycle of Death How do you know that your city has attain the zenith of commuter hell, and thus snatching the title away from cities such as London where the average speeds of vehicles in some areas are even lower than that of the horse drawn carriage. Here are the symptoms, call your local transport planners if you develop this horrible affliction.

a) New skyscrapers are completed, population increases.

b) New skyscrapers shortly display no job zot. c) Several months later, new skyscraper is

abandoned, population falls. d) Shortly after, construction for another new

skyscraper starts. e) Repeat the process by going back to (A).

Let me explain why this occurs. at stage (A), actual commute time around that area is sufficient for the construction of anew skyscraper. But when the new skyscraper appears, the amount of traffic increases greatly because of the skyscraper itself. This increase in traffic increases commute time to the point where these people cannot get to work, hence (B) occurs. (C) is the result of the lack of jobs and people leaving. But since they have abandoned the building, the traffic that they generate no longer exists so actual commute in that area falls again to the original level, which was sufficient for the construction of a skyscraper, thus (A, D, E) occurs, as this cycle continues. Therefore the only way to break this is to reduce commute time such that when the new skyscraper appears, the Sims in it can find jobs. Finally, another way to determine whether is this occurring is when you see your population fluctuating up and down over a certain range.

3) Falling Wealth level A weaker version of this cycle of death is if you see your higher wealth Sims leaving the city to be replaced by poorer Sims. B7.06.1: Black hole of Mass Transit Whether you get the black hold of a bus system message or if you notice that your usage of other mass transit is not particularly high, there is a very high chance that you are lacking destinations. The effectiveness of a public transport is dependant upon the destinations available. For example, if there is a station outside your house but it only goes to one location, the probability of you using it will be very low especially if you do not work in that destination. Similarly that is the same thing for the game. Of course an alternative could simply be that your placement of the public transport is not that good. But even behind that is the basic idea of destinations and locations. If the placement are in areas Sims do not frequent not only are people not both want to

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take the system and even if they wanted to they might not find it. Remember the Sims path finding skills are not all that great. B7.07: Urban Renewal This is the easiest option of the lot to reduce commute and restart your city growth. If you see an area having long commute or being abandoned because of it, the solution is simply. If a Sim cannot get to work, then bring the work to the Sim. Demolish and dezone a central part of the residential dead zone. Then rezone it with commercial zones. Pretty soon the place will be brought back to life. You may have to demolish rather than dezone a few abandoned residential buildings in the area to kick start the revival. I recommend commercial because it can generate more in less area than industrial and you do not have to run the risk of a polluting industry appearing. Also even if a high tech appears, the jobs they offer is quite little in comparison to the space they take up. Throw in a few parks and plazas to further improve this new mini downtown of yours. B7.08: Too many cars, too little tar The bad thing about public transport is that not everyone likes to use them and your city, when it becomes richer, will generate more rich folks who prefer to drive to work. So you have to accommodate them the best you can for your city to grow. You would think that if you offered them a viable public transport means to get to work they would use it. But they rather not turn up for work and get fired, complain to you with a big no job zot over their homes then quit your town a few months later. B7.08.1: Multiple Lanes or Tracks Since there is no such thing as multiple lane roads, you can always create one yourself. Traffic problems can be generally reduced to one cause, a shortage or fixed supply, the roads, and an excess and growing demand that of cars and other vehicles. Therefore increase the supply of road to help relief the burden.

1) Roads: This obviously means that you should plan from the inception of the city. Remember those spaces that I told you to leave earlier on? If you do build another lane directly side by side, do not connect the two roads at every point such that a junction and traffic light appear. Junctions have a lower capacity and speed. Look at the diagram below for the two styles of double lane roads. You can even create triple lane roads.

Diagram B7.08.1 -: Normal road with no junction #: Junction .: Gap or place for subway or bus or plazas etc. Close Roads: | Boulevard Roads | #------------# #---------# | -............- #---------# | #------------# This is to a certain extent is a temporary measure. Since you may have to build highway once the three lane roads can also no longer sustain the traffic demands.

1) Tracks: More so for subway than rail since I only use rail for intercity connections. Simply create another set of tracks like the roads. An alternative method is the separate lines construction. Just because tracks are next to each other does not mean you have to connect them. Think of the mass transit system in the real world. This method has its disadvantages as it may mean that passengers stay on the train for longer than necessary. This is a stopgap measure until you have the cash to construct the multiple track system. B7.08.2: Highways Use wisely and this will help reduce commute time, implement it badly and this will be a white elephant draining cash out of your bank. I am a bit undecided as to whether to leave a few spaces between them and your residential area. On one hand they create noise and air pollution yet on the other hand, these can be countered by placing more parks. Secondly, I am also undecided about the cloverleaf. It costs quite a bit but if you plan it well, people need to really have to make any turns to get to work. An advise, save before construction because each block cost quite a bit and few wrong placement would set you back quite a bit. REFER: A1.04.2: Highway, Cloverleaf and On ramps B7.08.3: Paternalistic Approach to traffic A simple two-step process determines the way people move from point to point. Firstly it decides on the shortest possible route. After that it takes that route without any alteration at all. Since congestion or even the availability of a faster mode of transport a tile away will not affect their decision, it means you have to take a hands on approach to traffic. In my opinion, the game should allow the imposition of road pricing or congestion charges on all roads. And that we can determine the price on each road thereby affecting the route the Sims takes. Petition to the Sim City 4 official forum! Chris McFadyen: Again, I see no reason to provide my own diagram when Chris McFadyen has already provided it for me. I

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have just changed the key. I have just changed the key. The entire diagram is still his creation.

seems to be a bit on the borderline of cheating but most are just good planning.

Diagram B7.08.3: = : Highway | : Underpass. Road below the highway / : On / Off ramp. Entrance or exit - : Road R : Residential C : Commercial . : Empty space for what I assume to be for amenities --------------- ----------------------------- //-// //-// //-////-// //-// //-// //-// //-// ==|======|======|====|======|======|======|======|== ==|======|======|====|======|======|======|======|== //-// //-// //-////-// //-// //-// //-// //-// ---------------....----------------------------- -CCCCCC-CCCCCC-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR- -CCCCCC-CCCCCC-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR- -CCCCCC-CCCCCC-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR- -CCCCCC-CCCCCC-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR- -CCCCCC-CCCCCC-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR- -CCCCCC-CCCCCC-....-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR-RRRRRR- ---------------....-----------------------------

B7.09.1: Mass transit Nexus I am undecided about the effectiveness of this but, it does makes sense logically. Basically, they operate on the assumption that since each station may only serve that much users, you can resolve that overcrowding by building more stations. Alternatively, this could be the place where you congregate the various types of transports. This system is most useful for buses. You need to use this in conjunction with an improvement in your subway lines if a subway is part of the nexus. REFER: B7.08.1: Multiple Lanes or Tracks REFER: B7.09.2: Train stations as car parks REFER: B7.09.3: Web of Subway Tracks B7.09.2: Train stations as car parks

This above is just an illustration of how to "persuade" Sims in a more forceful manner to take the highway. The layout of the residential and commercial is only an example. Therefore you should construct this method of highway layout to suit the setup of your own city. While Patch 2 seems to have improved the route finding skills, this method is still very useful since the improvement is not that much. B7.08.4: Vehicle Commute Diagnostic Tool You may use a MySim to determine how one would travel to work. But that has several limitations as a MySims does not use public transport and you cannot really send them where you want. Therefore use a dispatch instead. Either a police or a fire engine will suffice. Of course it still does not take public transport into account but you can set the starting location and the final destination. This is very useful after you just implemented a new highway or road system and you are not sure of its effectiveness especially if the commute time does not fall. So test it before your construction and test is after your construction to see whether does it improve travel and what are the flaws if any in your new system. B7.09: Innovations Here are some stuff that may help reduce traffic congestion although most are quite legit ideas, some

Again another interesting idea, which has been mooted but does not really seem that useful is using train stations as car parks. Since a train station is the only public transport station that allows a person to drive there, we could create a system where a Sim drives to the train station and then switch to another mode of transport. Diagram: B7.09.2 T: Train Station =: Tracks -: Roads S: Subway or Bus station. Place to transfer to. ---- -TTT -TTT =====- TTT- TTT- S- You should note that this does not work if you put the two train stations too close to each other. B7.09.3: Web of Subway Tracks This is an effective method of improving your subway system if the tracks are overcrowded. This is slightly different with respect to the ideas of multiple lanes. REFER: B7.08.1: Multiple Lanes or Tracks

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SECTION B PART 8 SPECIALIZED CITIES SARDINES AND APPLE

For some reason or other, simply laying down tracks that does not go particularly anyway around the station seems to improve commute time. It seems the game take into account these additional tracks and thus reduce the congestion on subway. B7.09.4: Underground Roads This idea originate some years ago when I was playing transport tycoon. Unlike Sim City 2, roads can be built on top of tunnels. Therefore it is possible to have one road on the surface and another underground to relief traffic issues. There are two ways to build the road tunnels.

1) Raise ground a) This is best done before starting the city at

God Mode. b) Raise certain part of the land in anticipation

of the underground roads 2) Lower the ground

a) This is for those who already have started the city or does not wish to pre-plan so much.

b) Lower the ground and build a tunnel-road across.

This diagram is not a top down view. It is a view from the side a cross section so that you can look underground. Diagram B7.09.4 S: Surface road U: Underground road / tunnel -: Ground E: Entry into the tunnel SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ------------------------------- --------------------------------- EUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUE B7.09.5: Underground: Away with Junctions This is an easier method and less expensive use of the underground roads. All you have to do is to raise a little slope such that a tunnel can be created under the land. The following is just a small illustration. Diagram B7.09.5 R: Surface Road U: underground road or tunnel *: Road on top and tunnel below. Therefore there is no intersection. R R RUU*UUR R R This little illustration is NOT to size. How much you need to rise really depends on your "skill level." As you use this more often, you will find it easier to build

thus junction bypass with less land raised. You still need junctions in the game if not people may not be able to connect from place to place. Therefore because of that this is not too good a strategy, just an interesting one. B7.09.6: Freight: Shipping or trains Since freight moving to connections contribute to traffic, what better way to reduce traffic then by reducing freight. Since ports serve the same purposes, you could place a port near the industry, such that the freight does not have to travel across town. Alternatively you could use a freight train and run the tracks underground. However, this method does not seem to be able to reduce traffic that much. What it does help is to improve the freight "commute time." In other words helping to improve your industry which is getting choked up by the traffic too.

SECTION B: STRATEGY GUIDE PART 8: SPECIALISED CITIES

SARDINES AND APPLES In the last part of this section, I will make a short discussion on how to achieve those specialised cities, cities that are built only for one purpose only. All other considerations are thus disregarded. These are not the best cities in the sense of high wealth or high profits but they are the best in terms of their particular vision and purpose. B8.01: Sardines: Concept The purpose of this is to pack as many people as possible into the city. It is not about how much profit or how advanced the city is but how many people can you squeeze into one city. B8.01.1: The Higher you go ... To start off, you need first to get those high wealth residential buildings. So build as you normally would. You have to make sure that all residential buildings are of stage 8 and highest wealth ($$$) level. It must be high wealth not low wealth buildings. Place as many parks as you can. Start off in on area rather than do it throughout the city, unless you can afford all the parks. B8.01.2: The Greater the fall Once you have secured the neighbourhood and make it rich, it is time to cause the buildings to be distressed. As each level of fall in wealth level, the same building will hold more. This is why I told you to move section by section. Since after removing all those parks, your maintenance levels would fall. Thus you can proceed on to the next area. Therefore start removing those desirable parks and maybe even education. But I do not advice removing health facilities as the longer the people live, the larger your city will become. B8.01.3: Upwardly Mobile Poor Remember, it is a fall in desirability not an increase in

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SECTION B PART 8 SPECIALIZED CITIES SARDINES AND APPLE

commute time, even though changing the commute time for the worse would lower desirability. This is because this city is primarily going to hold a lot of people and if commute time is high, no one will move into the city and you may get buildings that become abandoned. A good advice would be to place the low costs buses. It will help you generate some additional income to make up for the loss in taxes from the rich. And also it will improve commute time in this overcrowded city. B8.02: Fresh farm produce, Nummy... The concept for this is to create a viable sustainable farming community that is profitable. I used the word sustainable because the farms must be able to exist many years later and not be pushed out due to development or lack of people working in the farms. B8.02.1: Home Schooling This is the most important thing about creating a sustainable farming community, there must be no education. Not even a library. This is because once a Sim starts getting educated, they will no longer want to work at the farms at all. If that happens, these Sims will have no jobs and the result is that they will soon leave the city, thus causing your buildings to be distressed. After that, a new batch of ignorant Sims will move in and the buildings will be back to normal. But this would not last long. You will have this cycle of distressed buildings or massive waves of reconstruction over and over again in the city. B8.02.2: Market for the produce To allow this farming community to prosper, it is best to have big neighbours with huge demand. That way the demand will rub off on your city, which is not likely to generate that much demand herself. B8.02.3: Migrant Workforce An added way to bring in more cash other than construction of those polluting industries is to make use of the fact that people can travel and work in different cities. You could build a commercial area at the edge of the map so people from the neighbouring city can come here to work. Or you could build a residential area for the poor such that these people go and work in the richer cities. This also helps your richer city as they need not have low wealth housing in their city. B8.02.4: Green Water Belt Given that farms pollute the water supply, you should place your water supply away from the farms. Also try to leave a distance between the farms and the residential area much like the Green Belt idea for air pollution. Commercial zoning in between is acceptable since they do not complain about the water. Although if one was working in an office, I am sure that one would not want their water for making coffee to be green in colour. But I suppose Sims enjoy their morning coffee with a tangy pesticide flavouring.