I. Basic knowledge - ten essential common sense:
1. $,$$$,$$$ - money is everything
These 3 signs represent the high and low income of the residents in your city. In descending order, they are $$$, $$$, $$.
Note: In the game you have to try to attract high income people ($$$$) who will pay a lot of taxes so that your city will have enough money to run.
2. High density, medium density, low density - different densities, different sizes
As the name suggests, they each represent the density of this area. If you build a low-density residential area, this area will never be able to develop into a high-rise building, at best, with dozens of people in small buildings only, of course, the higher the density of the greater the cost.
Note: High density is not the same as high income, don't think that you build a high-density area those high-income residents will come, the same low-density areas may be living in the high-income population. For example, you can often see low-density areas built on high-income villas.
3. RCI - It's all up to you:
It refers to the amount of demand the city has for each aspect. It is very important and changes on the 1st of every month depending on the growth of the city, so it is very important for you to look at it at the beginning of every month in order to target the construction of various facilities.
Note: In RCI, there is a distinction between services and commerce, but in builds there is only commerce. That's because the game's service sector is included in the commercial sector, and the game automatically chooses whether to build service sector or commercial sector according to the RCI level, and the density is not linked to the income as in the case of residential areas.
4. Pause key, high-speed key -- city development, high-speed magic
Mentioned earlier that at the beginning of each month it is best to take a look at the RCI, this time we need to use the pause key, if you don't use the time to let the time go forward will cause delays in the timing of the construction of the city is best to build the pause mode. I generally only use two keys pause and high-speed keys, so that neither waste of time, but also rapid development, the middle key two role is not big.
5. Landmarks - a rich man's game:
Landmarks are some of the most famous buildings in the world, but they're also some of the most expensive in the game, and come with a monthly maintenance fee. Unfortunately it only makes the city look better, but it doesn't bring you any extra income. Hopefully EA will improve on this in the future and add a tourism industry to the mix. So if you're not particularly rich it's better not to build it.
Surprise: In order to make you appreciate the charm of SimCity 4, I specially made 5 screenshots of SimCity 4 for you:
(1) Residential and commercial area (day view) (2) Residential and commercial area (night view 1) (3) Residential and commercial area (night view 2)
Note: These three pictures contain all the coordinates of the buildings of SimCity, as well as a lot of very distinctive buildings, which are carefully designed by me. Please compare (2) and (3) carefully. Some of the coordinate buildings can't be lit up at the same time, it may be designed by EA intentionally, so that the night view can be different every time. The other two are screenshots of the day and night view of the high-tech area.
6. City Polls - Residents are God
In the game, city polls can clearly reflect the operation of the city, if a certain item is in a rising state (green to the right of the small arrows, the more arrows that indicate that the faster the rise) means that you do this aspect of the very good. If an item is on the decline (small red arrows to the left, more arrows means the faster the decline) you need to quickly open the Profile Overview and select the item that is declining to find out why.
7. Overview - city status at a glance
It allows you to view all aspects of the city, such as education and pollution, and gives you the coverage, and displays it in different colors depending on the severity, which is very clear and useful. It is very clear and useful. Managing the city from now on will be much easier with it.
Note: Pressing the small arrow on the top right shows the coverage of public **** facilities on the mini-map. And with different colors to show the degree of pollution. This is more intuitive and visual.
Tip: Select "Area" and press the small arrow. See if you can see the state of your city's planning at a glance.
This will help you to change your original low-density zones to high-density zones later in the game.
8. Table - City Development Laws, Under Control
It reflects the development status of the city in the recent year in the form of curves, and there are curves of the available and current usage of power and water resources, etc. You can keep abreast of whether the power and water resources are plentiful or not, so you can adjust them at any time, so please keep an eye on it. So please pay attention to it.
9. My Citizen Mode - Caring for Citizens Every Day:
My Citizen Mode is a very unique feature that allows you to get a more direct view of each resident's living situation. In the game you can choose any 5 citizens and listen to them. If they pass away, their children and grandchildren will take over and continue to tell you the truth about their lives. My Citizen Mode makes up for the shortcomings of Profile, for example, after the city grows to a certain size, it builds a lot of schools. It is hard to see the coverage of each school in the Overview, and since the coverage of elementary schools is small, it is easy to overlook some places. This is where my Citizen Mode comes in handy, if you put citizens into the area you can learn about every aspect of the area from their mouths, which usually speak with a bit of humor. You can also move them out of the area and put them where they are more needed if you feel the area is no longer in need of observation.
10. Consultants - sound advice, wise choices
They are your advisors, and they will give you the best advice on urban planning. They will not mince their words of praise when you achieve something, but they will also give you the harshest criticism when you fail to satisfy them. Do what they say, and I believe you will benefit greatly.
II. At the beginning of the start - careful planning - planning in advance - twice the result with half the effort
In the early stages of urban construction you have to have a plan, I present my experience to you. Residential areas should be 3 × 3 square grid, supplemented by 3 × 4, special circumstances can be built 4 × 4 grid will be accounted for later, other forms of square grid of don't build. Because it is very easy to appear "no connection out of the road" situation square grid above the marking will be displayed. This will make the city look beautiful, but also to ensure the smooth flow of traffic.
When you build it, you should draw the squares with roads first, and leave a 3×3 space in the center so that you can fill it with residential areas. Why don't we use the "streets" that come with the neighborhoods? First of all, we need to understand that residential areas come with "streets", not "roads". Highway" is a high capacity road, while "street" is a low capacity road. In the middle of the process, "street" will not be enough to meet the requirements of the city, and the traffic conditions will deteriorate, so instead of having to change it sooner or later, it is better to build a "highway" for the first time, and the highway will not be expensive either. At the same time, the first to build the highway also plays a role in planning, the game comes with the "street" after all, can not according to our mind to layout.
Tips: You can drag and drop the mouse to select the area you want to build, so you don't have to fill in the planned roads one by one. The residential areas will not cover the roads. The same applies to other areas.
Here are the steps for development:
Prep: Press pause.
1. Plan the roads first.
Note: Since large medical centers take up a 3×4 grid, make sure there is a 3×4 square in the middle at the beginning.
2. Build a clinic, police station, water tower, and wind farm.
Note; building these types of buildings together doesn't mean building them right next to each other, it means that the squares they're on are together
The reason for not building large facilities straight from the start is because they're too expensive to maintain, and they'll have all sorts of problems if you fund it down to what you think is appropriate. For example: when you reduce the funding for a large medical center so that it has just enough beds to be able to handle more patients than you have, it's supposed to save you money and meet your needs, but in less than two months it's guaranteed that the doctors will go on strike. The same is true of the police station, you reduce the funding to just enough so that the police station covers the residential areas and the thieves celebrate in unison because the police are also on strike. This is because at the beginning, no one will have many patients, and no one's neighborhoods are likely to be large. I'm guessing that EA set a ratio for the various utilities when designing the game, and below that there's a high chance that something will go wrong. And of course you try not to have your patient count higher than your bed count that would be just as bad. The adverse reaction to underfunding utilities is a leaky pipe, and you'll have to go in every month and get that pipe to patch things up. If you do not adjust the funds to the normal standard that is, the white line at the same situation, but the problem is that the cost is too high, my approach is the beginning of the game to adjust the funds to about 3/5 of the normal funds, if there is a leakage phenomenon on the funds to the standard, so that the pipe does not leak, and then a month and then adjust the funds to a little more than 3/5, and so on and so forth until the pipe does not leak until the general One or two times will be fine. This saves a lot of money. Oh, it's not easy!
3. These buildings as the center, to the surrounding residential areas, mixed with a small number of commercial areas, because the beginning of the commercial demand is not large, the specific construction of how much according to the RCI.
Note: At the beginning of the game, residential areas and commercial areas are mainly low-density, because this can save a lot of money. And even if you plan a high density area, you can only build up some small houses. Later you can change the low density to medium or high density. You just have to remove the original zoning and rebuild it again. Regional densities can be found in the "Profile Overview" as described above.
4. Industrial zones are planned in 4×4 or 5×5 blocks, which saves roads and makes the factories denser.
Note: Industrial area is a fire-prone area. So it is very necessary to build a fire station. But it is best to have a certain size in the industrial area and then build the beginning of the fire is unlikely to occur, so that another part of the savings. Industrial areas should not be built together with residential areas because they inevitably produce pollution, so they should be separated from residential areas by a certain distance. The middle must be connected by roads so that the industrial area can solve the employment problem of the residents and also facilitate the development of the industrial area.
5. Let the water coverage encompasses the entire residential area connected by water pipes, wind power station funds to just meet the needs of the residential area can be used to account for the amount of 80% to 90% of production, if there is no water and no electricity even low-income ($) residents will not come.
Note: The coverage of the water pipe is to the left and right of each extension of 6 squares, the construction of special attention, do not let the coverage of the water pipe overlap with each other to ensure maximum utilization of the water pipe, after all, the water pipe also want to repair costs ah.
6. If you want to build, you can also build an agricultural area to replace the industrial area, or both. But in my experience building an agricultural district is not a good way to make money we don't get tax revenue from agricultural districts. It can solve the problem of employment for a small portion of the population, but the main effect is to increase the demand for RCI residential areas, if your residential area demand stops trying to build some agricultural areas might help a lot. But from the point of view of making money, I don't recommend building agricultural districts.
Note: The demand for agricultural zones has been high don't therefore go wild and build agricultural zones, which also cover a large area, and after a period of development will also produce water pollution pollution is no less than the level of industrial zones which is one of the reasons I don't recommend industrial zones can't produce the maximum benefit in a limited space.
Start: Press the high speed key.
7. After a few months of development press pause and observe the RCI demand and build accordingly.
Note: It is not easy to build too much at this time, 5.6 plots (3×3 squares) per month will do. If the plots planned last month have not yet been developed, there is no rush to plan again until they are built.
8. After a period of development to maximize the use of small fire stations, elementary schools, police stations, clinics (if necessary, you can increase the fund to expand the scope) can be transformed. The police station into a police station, the small fire station into a large fire station, the clinic into a large medical center, in addition to adding an elementary school this is because the coverage of the elementary school is much smaller in comparison. If funds are available a high school could also be added to help attract a higher income population. The water tower can be converted to a pumping station as needed in the middle of the development since water is not in high demand.
Note: At this point, be sure to cut back just enough funds for each facility, or else you're likely to get into a cash-flow situation.
9. If the expenses are too large, it will be "financial collapse", then the consultant will propose some solutions. For example, "missile base ($ 450)", "toxic waste treatment plant ($ 400)", "military base ($350)", etc., they will increase a small amount of additional income. It is better to build them at the edge of the map. It is better to build them on the edge of the map so that they do not pollute the environment. Don't worry about the no-power sign, you'll get paid every penny even if you don't have power.
Note: Don't intentionally build too much to lose money because you want to earn that extra money. SimCity 4 is a city where once you lose money, it's very difficult to make a profit because if you cut back on money to make a profit, you're bound to have some adverse effects, resulting in a loss of inhabitants and a decrease in tax revenues. These facilities will undoubtedly act as a "lifesaver" for you, allowing you to keep the city on track and turn it into a profit at the same time.
Special reminder: SimCity's loans give me the feeling of a "trap", he does not let you pay off once a few years later, but to pay a part of the monthly payment, ten years to pay off, after calculating the interest rate is as high as 46.4% usury? This has been a loss of finances is undoubtedly worse, the city is very easy to fall into a vicious circle of not enough to borrow again, borrowed more loss. Strongly recommend that we do not loan as much as possible, try to get out of the financial difficulties through other means specific methods can refer to the following (II.6).
10. Don't raise taxes because it costs too much, think of other ways. The 7.5% tax in the game is more reasonable. If you don't believe me, raise the tax to 20% and almost every building in your city will be black. See (II.8) for a solution to the "black room" problem
II. Mid-development - Steady as She Goes - Top 10 Questions - Answered for You
At this point in your development, your city has grown to a small size, and you will be able to use every penny wisely. make your city grow steadily. The approach to development is much the same as in the early stages, but here I will give specific advice on questions that tend to arise in the middle stages:
1. Are educational facilities that important?
My feeling is that it is very important. With a well-developed education system, you will be able to attract more high-income residents to your city, and also lay a solid foundation for the construction of high-tech industries later on.
2. How many educational facilities are appropriate?
It is best to have every area covered by a primary and secondary school. Universities can just build one at this point, it is covering the whole city, so the requirements for building location are not very strict. I would suggest building in the center of a residential area so that residents don't have to spend a long time going to school and shorten their commute.
3. What is the use of "local libraries", and if so, how many should be built?
Local libraries are educational aids that serve to keep adults from forgetting what they have learned. In other words, it is only an aid to education, but when built, it will contribute to the development of education in the city, as evidenced most notably by the upward trend of the education item in the "public opinion polls". If you have the money, you can build more of them to cover the whole city.
4. Does the ordinance do much?
Large, and the later it gets, the more effective the ordinances become. For example, the Energy Conservation Program reduces the amount of power generated in the city by a percentage of the current power usage. So the more power you use, the greater the effect of the decree. Of particular note here are the Juvenile Curfew Act and the Air Purification Program. The former reduces the crime rate, but the citizens have a strong opinion about it, they feel that they are not free in the city, and the ordinance is not conducive to the growth of the city's population. The latter will reduce air pollution in the city, which is not very obvious, but it will hinder the development of industrial areas and many highly polluting factories will be banned from operating, which will reduce the industrial income. So these two should be used with caution in city ordinances.
5. Why is my electricity always overloaded and do I need to build those polluting high power generating stations?
Yes. Wind farms are only an initial option. Later on, you will have to build something powerful. I suggest "coal-fired power station", the monthly maintenance fee is 5 times that of wind power station $250 the cheapest of the large power stations, the power generation is also very large but the power generation is 30 times that of the wind, but it also produces the most highly polluted air pollution, anyway, there is a lot of pollution in the industrial area, and it does not matter if there is a lot of pollution, so it would be better to build it in the industrial area of the city. If there is a lot of open space in the city, you can build it there too, but you have to pull a power line to the industrial area so that it doesn't pollute the residential area. Connect the residential area to the industrial area with a power line and then remove the wind farms to save money. Finally, the funding for the "coal-fired power station" should be lowered to about 80% to 90% of the usage and then adjusted every few months to make sure that the usage is 80% to 90% of the actual power generation.
Note: Try not to stretch the wires too long, because it is also necessary to have maintenance costs.
6. I found out in the Fact Sheet that there is water pollution in my industrial area, but the cost of a sewage treatment plant is too high, should I build one?
It depends on the situation, if you build, it is a loss usually build 2 to solve the problem, which will be $ 700, the later will be 3, do not build, we must hurry to find ways to increase the city's population, increase income can expand residential areas, industrial areas, maximize the coverage of your public **** facilities to increase the area, increase the number of people, more people, the tax revenue is also natural! More people, otherwise it will not pay for itself. If you can guarantee that the profit after building is still above 400, then you can feel free to build, there is a good environment, the city will have good prospects for development.
7. Citizens in my city complain about too much trash.
Build a "landfill" as soon as possible, but of course with enough money, not too big, just enough, not enough can be built again later. Since the landfill is polluting, it should be built far away from residential areas, and don't forget to use roads to connect the residential areas to the landfill so that it can work properly.
Note: Later in the game, you can build a non-polluting Resource Recovery Center, which also recycles garbage proportionally. If you have too much garbage, you can build an incineration power station, which reduces garbage and provides energy, but the only bad thing is that it produces a high level of pollution.
Tip: If the planned "landfill" is too big and much of it is unused, you can use residential de-zoning to reduce its size.
8. Why are so many houses in residential and industrial zones blacked out and have zero inhabitants?
This is a common phenomenon in SimCity 4. There are many reasons for this phenomenon:
1. Please open the "Profile Overview" to double-check whether the public **** facilities (such as water, electricity, schools, etc.) in this area are complete. If it is not perfect, please make it up quickly.
2. It is possible that the demand for this area in the RCI is very low. For example, if there is a high income ($$$$) villa, but the RCI has a negative demand for high income at this time, then those middle income or even low income residents are likely to live in this villa. Viewing this villa, we see that what was a high income villa has become middle income or even low income housing This housing will be slightly darker in color. Some of them are simply unoccupied, which is what we call a "black house", a particularly dark color that is easily recognizable in the game. If no one lives there, you won't receive a penny in taxes. You can also tear down all these houses to redevelop them according to the RCI, but it costs a lot of money to do so, so there's no way around it. If you don't tear them down, it's possible for them to change back again, but it's up to you to have the patience, and it usually takes longer.
9. Are some recreational facilities such as gardens useful?
If you want to attract a high-income population these facilities are essential, and the later the more necessary. Gardens and green areas can purify the air. Basketball and volleyball courts can enrich people's spare time.
Note: Not only parks can purify the air, but also planting trees can purify the air. But I don't recommend planting trees, because they can only be planted in the open space next to the house. As the city develops, the trees will disappear as more buildings are built on the original foundations, so they are not very useful.
Myth: Some players think that using the terrain tool to plant more trees at the beginning will be good for the urban environment in the game and reduce pollution. I have personally verified that this is not the case, so if you don't believe me, you can plant a lot of trees on the ground at the beginning of the game, and then verify it in the game. The trees created by the terrain tool are just for looks look closely these trees are not the same as the trees that can be planted in the game, they are extra large. These trees will obscure the squares in the game and are not conducive to the player planning the area, I don't see the need to build them.
10.Every aspect of my city is fine, but the RCI demand never goes up, and no one lives on the planned land, what can I do?
Museums can be built as they can organize exhibitions to attract business, and don't forget to adjust the "votes" to save money.
Low taxes are a great way to boost your city's growth, so if you're earning a decent income, try lowering your taxes and you're sure to attract new investment to your city.
III. The peak period - emphasize science and technology - high-tech building - uprooted
Development to this point I believe that your city has not small scale. If it is no accident, the monthly income should be at least a thousand dollars or more. Next I'm going to take you to the real charm of SimCity 4.
I think you'll find that the demand for high tech in RCI is very high, and now it's time to build them. How do you build high tech businesses?
The first thing we must understand is that high tech zones are created from industrial zones.
Below I will give a few conditions for building a high-tech zone:
1. The people in your city must be highly educated (university degree or higher). In other words if you have only 1 university in your city it's not enough, build more universities, it will make more residents to get high education.
2. The area where the high tech is built must have good environmental conditions, no water and air pollution.
3. The areas where high technology is built must have high land prices. This is shown in bright green on the map in the "Profile Overview".
4. It is better to have a very low negative demand for high and medium polluters so that all your planned areas will be developed into high tech areas. You can lower the demand by raising taxes.
Note: Why not build high tech and general industry together? Because the pollution generated by general industry would adversely affect the construction of high-tech businesses. High-tech districts not only raise the city's income all high-tech districts are high-income enterprises and most importantly, it is low pollution and can be developed vigorously. If there are general industrial zones interspersed with high-tech zones, especially highly polluting factories, the only thing we should do is to dismantle them. They must not be allowed to interfere with the development of the high-tech zone.
Problems that need attention in the late stage of game development:
1. Traffic problems in the city:
Since high-rise buildings can be found everywhere in the city, and the population density increases, the traffic problem is bound to become more and more prominent.
Solution: 1. Construction of "public **** bus station" cheap, practical, recommended.
2. Construction of the "subway" high-speed and fast transportation, carrying the flow of passengers is also large, but the cost is too high, if the funds are not sufficient is not recommended.
Note: They will also bring some income to the city, after all, to do the bus is to pay.
2. Aging of public **** facilities
To the late game some public **** facilities will appear aging phenomenon is generally water and electricity facilities. For example, power stations, pumping stations. Specifically manifested in the "operating conditions" reduced This is inevitable, public **** facilities "operating conditions" will be reduced with the growth of time. If you find that the "operating condition" of a facility has dropped to less than 50%, and the "operating condition" of a recently built facility is 100%, you should tear it down! Tear it down, because it's not worth the money you're giving it every month. Reduced "operational status" is the equivalent of reduced efficiency without reduced funding, and that's something I really don't want to see.
Note: If one of your facilities is deteriorating your consultant will also notify you that it needs to be dismantled, and if you don't wait until it's "operational status" drops to zero, it will catch fire and explode, destroying the surrounding buildings.
3. Citizen Unemployment
You'll sometimes see buildings in the game that are marked with a "Can't find a job" sign, which indicates that the building's inhabitants are unemployed. The best solution would be to build some business districts in their neighborhoods so that they can find jobs at the nearest location.
4. Environmental Issues
If you have 3,000 or more high-income residents and a mayor's rating of 55 or higher, you can build a non-polluting, high-power solar power plant to replace the high-polluting "coal-fired power plant" and improve the city's environment. Nuclear fusion power plants" are also a good choice if necessary.
In the process of urban development, if you meet the requirements of some incentive buildings, they will be located in your city. They are not only beautiful in appearance, but also have practical functions, such as medical research institutes, which can greatly improve the health of citizens, and private schools, which can enroll the children of rich families without costing you a penny.
Do you want your city to have buildings that stand out from the rest? Landmarks" are great if your city's finances are in order, but be aware that they come with a maintenance fee.
Win the love of the citizens:
If your city's population grows to over 100,000 people, the citizens will ask you to build a "large statue of the mayor", and you can choose between a male or a female statue, which will signify that you're a qualified mayor and have the respect of the city's people. Congratulations!
Your journey as mayor isn't over yet, and in the end, may you be happy as mayor.
Conclusion: This is the first time I wrote a game guide, spent a lot of effort, a lot of content in order to ensure the accuracy of the special verification. I would have liked to write into the experience of a class of things, but wrote wrote some of the feeling of endless, so it was written into a full strategy. Said to be a full strategy but most of them are my own summarized experience, which certainly have omissions or inaccuracies, please be sure to leave your valuable comments. Welcome to leave a message to continue the discussion.