indeed, simcity has some issues, but i think touchmyapps are going to give it a glowing review... ill what i can muster. ive had crashes only 2x now and am not bothered by the load times. however, despite ample trains, roads or short walking distance, my citizens all complain of not getting to work. lazy ba&tards.
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Sim City Strategy
- Thread starter Walter P Henson
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Ditto. I keep getting the same message, even though I have ample roads. I got the train to run once, but usually it never has any passengers so I stopped building it.
Hopefully the transport bug isn't actually making sims move away and is just an error on the ticker screen.
I tried to create a whole new city from scratch and after 15 years I was so far in debt I had to take a 25000 loan every year. So next time I'm gonna use a premade city.
ChrisN
ChrisN
Things are rough in my 2nd city(first was just be playing around)
I've taken a 15k loan out, and lost it fast...hopefully things will improve!
I've taken a 15k loan out, and lost it fast...hopefully things will improve!
You have to spend 100% of that loan as soon as you take it out, otherwise you end up taking a huge loss. Take the
Loan, push pause and zone till that loan is spent
Loan, push pause and zone till that loan is spent
Stop Complaining about Transportation
When I first started playing the PC version I had the same problem with transportation and roads, ITS FUNNY.
When you build zones don't build the roads around it, build roads around it and through them so that every block is not farther than 5 blocks from a road. That tends to solve all the problems.
About the trains... You need more than three train stations on the track. Something that I found helpful is connecting it with the subway. I'm not sure about the iPhone (I bought the game, but I've been downloading so much I still haven't got to it)
GOod luCK!
When I first started playing the PC version I had the same problem with transportation and roads, ITS FUNNY.
When you build zones don't build the roads around it, build roads around it and through them so that every block is not farther than 5 blocks from a road. That tends to solve all the problems.
About the trains... You need more than three train stations on the track. Something that I found helpful is connecting it with the subway. I'm not sure about the iPhone (I bought the game, but I've been downloading so much I still haven't got to it)
GOod luCK!
is getting a loan the only way to have any money? it seems tax revenue is so small it barely makes a difference in the deficit.
the bridge issue has to be resolved. i have had some luck with them but loads of users complain about the inability to drop a hard connection to the other side.
as for money: i wish i could help. i have raked in 50$ per month for a bit and feel wealthy. i guess when/if my land value goes up, ill get lucky. but i prefer the smog.
however, it does not always work. often, it gives the red error even on perfectly level looking land
there may be a bug but I have been able to build several bridges across the river without problems
Even with the PC version
I've had experience with SimCity 2000,3000,4 and played a little with the new one. Bridges are easy. But with 3000 the terrain has to be exactly the same and the ends shouldn't be too far. Even then sometimes it just dosen't work.
A tip would be to level all of the land (so there is no water) but keep a little so you can pump water. This gives you more space and reduces the messed up bridge hassles. Not sure about the iPhone.
I've had experience with SimCity 2000,3000,4 and played a little with the new one. Bridges are easy. But with 3000 the terrain has to be exactly the same and the ends shouldn't be too far. Even then sometimes it just dosen't work.
A tip would be to level all of the land (so there is no water) but keep a little so you can pump water. This gives you more space and reduces the messed up bridge hassles. Not sure about the iPhone.
You can't level the land on the iPhone version. In fact, there are no functions to manipulate the landscape at all.
Sim City - Startup Strategy
Hey all. I've been playing this with relative success. Here's how to start a successful city without going into debt. Remember, from small acorns grow mighty oaks.
The trick is to start small and GRADUALLY grow bigger. Start your city almost like the tutorial city. And very gradually grow. If you expand too quickly you won't have the money to provide the services your new larger city requires. The MAIN tip however, is don't get school, health, fire, police, etc until very much later on as small communities cannot cope with the costs these kinds of things incur. Wait until you have well over 30,000 people before you even start looking at those kinds of things.
All communities have ups and downs so don't fret that a building might have gone derelict - it happens now and then. Just concentrate on parks, bus stops and keeping your industrial stuff way away from the residential. Parks and water lower the pollution and raise land value so work to something like a new york city kind of layout works best for me. A large park based area surrounded by residential and commercial areas with industrial outskirts.
Hope that helps everyone!
Oh, by the way, I can't get my trains to run either!
Good luck, remember - forget utility buildings until you can afford them. If you DO get one and find yourself losing money - demolish it.
Andy
Hey all. I've been playing this with relative success. Here's how to start a successful city without going into debt. Remember, from small acorns grow mighty oaks.
The trick is to start small and GRADUALLY grow bigger. Start your city almost like the tutorial city. And very gradually grow. If you expand too quickly you won't have the money to provide the services your new larger city requires. The MAIN tip however, is don't get school, health, fire, police, etc until very much later on as small communities cannot cope with the costs these kinds of things incur. Wait until you have well over 30,000 people before you even start looking at those kinds of things.
All communities have ups and downs so don't fret that a building might have gone derelict - it happens now and then. Just concentrate on parks, bus stops and keeping your industrial stuff way away from the residential. Parks and water lower the pollution and raise land value so work to something like a new york city kind of layout works best for me. A large park based area surrounded by residential and commercial areas with industrial outskirts.
Hope that helps everyone!
Oh, by the way, I can't get my trains to run either!
Good luck, remember - forget utility buildings until you can afford them. If you DO get one and find yourself losing money - demolish it.
Andy
Here's what I do, my city begins making money 3-5 years out from the start.
I start in 2000, and use a landform with water on three sides, with a river dividing from coast to coast - a peninsula and an island. The peninsula is primarily industry and services, and the island is commercial and residential.
Plan the two land/ocean corners for the dirtiest things - a powerplant of your choosing, incinerators etc. Use one coast of the peninsula for desalinization plants. Put your first of all the needed utility things and then zone some industry along the 'land' edge - I use 5x5 blocks spaced three squares apart - so this automatically cuts down on the impact of the smog - half of it is on the other side of the border, or in the ocean, and these enough space between things so the smog never gets too concentrated.
I run a road along the back edge along the industry blocks and bring it forward across the river, and then put in about as much commercial as I did industry, and then double that in residential. I have somthing that looks like this:
. . I I I I . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . S . . . .
==============
. . R R C . . .
. . R R C . . .
. . R R C . . .
. . R R C . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
The S is for services - start with one police, one firehouse, one school and one hospital. You never need to add another firehouse (I play with disasters off) but you need to keep the other three so you are getting a grade of B or better (or opressive for the police)
I never worry about the traffic warnings.
The I go and drop the tax rate a bit. 5 or 6% depending on my generosity, and thene I turn on almost all of the ordinances. I don't care much for the energy / water converation ones, but all the others, I pretty much go for! They're cheap now, when the city is small, and you might as well start things off on the right foot. and seriously, you'll be able to afford them with a profit by the 3rd to 5th year.
Then I turn on 3x speed, and watch it zoom up to about 30,000 pop - tending things that need to be watched along the way, like maybe add another police station or pipe something. Once I start making more yearly than my expenses, I expand the original zoning so the island has a stripe of commercial running down the middle and residential on either side.
I I I I I I I I
I I . . . . I I
. . . . . . . .
S S S S S S S S
==============
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
I find if there is ONE square zoned but not piped my population can drop 50,000 people in a year, so I check every now and then if I've connected everything. and I'm liberal with parks and fun items too. I don't put new industry in just because it's in demand, so I sort of try to limit growth based on industry.
When I have time on my hands I place parks around the coastline on the squares that won't zone but will carry a park, and then I put palm trees in the spaces between my industrial blocks, just to intensify property value.
My city swings between 650,000 and 750,000 pop right now, I'm working on what I can do to stableize that.
I start in 2000, and use a landform with water on three sides, with a river dividing from coast to coast - a peninsula and an island. The peninsula is primarily industry and services, and the island is commercial and residential.
Plan the two land/ocean corners for the dirtiest things - a powerplant of your choosing, incinerators etc. Use one coast of the peninsula for desalinization plants. Put your first of all the needed utility things and then zone some industry along the 'land' edge - I use 5x5 blocks spaced three squares apart - so this automatically cuts down on the impact of the smog - half of it is on the other side of the border, or in the ocean, and these enough space between things so the smog never gets too concentrated.
I run a road along the back edge along the industry blocks and bring it forward across the river, and then put in about as much commercial as I did industry, and then double that in residential. I have somthing that looks like this:
. . I I I I . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . S . . . .
==============
. . R R C . . .
. . R R C . . .
. . R R C . . .
. . R R C . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
The S is for services - start with one police, one firehouse, one school and one hospital. You never need to add another firehouse (I play with disasters off) but you need to keep the other three so you are getting a grade of B or better (or opressive for the police)
I never worry about the traffic warnings.
The I go and drop the tax rate a bit. 5 or 6% depending on my generosity, and thene I turn on almost all of the ordinances. I don't care much for the energy / water converation ones, but all the others, I pretty much go for! They're cheap now, when the city is small, and you might as well start things off on the right foot. and seriously, you'll be able to afford them with a profit by the 3rd to 5th year.
Then I turn on 3x speed, and watch it zoom up to about 30,000 pop - tending things that need to be watched along the way, like maybe add another police station or pipe something. Once I start making more yearly than my expenses, I expand the original zoning so the island has a stripe of commercial running down the middle and residential on either side.
I I I I I I I I
I I . . . . I I
. . . . . . . .
S S S S S S S S
==============
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
R R R R C R R R
I find if there is ONE square zoned but not piped my population can drop 50,000 people in a year, so I check every now and then if I've connected everything. and I'm liberal with parks and fun items too. I don't put new industry in just because it's in demand, so I sort of try to limit growth based on industry.
When I have time on my hands I place parks around the coastline on the squares that won't zone but will carry a park, and then I put palm trees in the spaces between my industrial blocks, just to intensify property value.
My city swings between 650,000 and 750,000 pop right now, I'm working on what I can do to stableize that.
I am completely new to the sim city game. I am a big strategy fan and when I was little I could never figure out how to play it.
After playing around with it and looking up some sim city 3000 strategy I found this out.
1. Block by block is the best way to do your city. I tried 5x5 and 8x8 and they both worked pretty well.
2. Make sure you don't add any services unless its badly needed (aka a fire breaks out) until you have a steady cash flow.
3. try to get as many business deals as possible. (so far i have only gotten 1 per city) this will bring tons of cash.
Because i am only human I have a couple of questions about improving my game
1. I am having major transportation issues. my different zones are really spread out but all connected with proper roads (and the traffic view doesn't show any congestion)
3. I can't get my land values up at all.
4. originally i had all my industry on the other side of the bridges. but i had the same issue with transportation. when i would turn on the transportation view it would show 1 red square on the bridge and i assumed that it was clogging the bridge so i built more. It still had the same problem so i just moved my industry to the other side
After playing around with it and looking up some sim city 3000 strategy I found this out.
1. Block by block is the best way to do your city. I tried 5x5 and 8x8 and they both worked pretty well.
2. Make sure you don't add any services unless its badly needed (aka a fire breaks out) until you have a steady cash flow.
3. try to get as many business deals as possible. (so far i have only gotten 1 per city) this will bring tons of cash.
Because i am only human I have a couple of questions about improving my game
1. I am having major transportation issues. my different zones are really spread out but all connected with proper roads (and the traffic view doesn't show any congestion)
3. I can't get my land values up at all.
4. originally i had all my industry on the other side of the bridges. but i had the same issue with transportation. when i would turn on the transportation view it would show 1 red square on the bridge and i assumed that it was clogging the bridge so i built more. It still had the same problem so i just moved my industry to the other side
And therein is your problem. Sims don't like to travel too far to work. If your zones are too spread out it won't be congestion as such that is annoying them but the "commute" (like us all
). I can't remember the actual requirements but you do need low density/value housing relatively near the industry for the blue collar workers.
Thanks for the advice. The reason i had that layout is because the starter cities that i looked at were that spread out. granted, there was stuff inbetween but i think i may have found another solution to my road problem thanks.
Here's some tips for money making and such...
As others have said, build slow. All you need to start a city is a power plant, a water pump (and pipes), an industrial zone, a residential zone, a commercial zone, a police station, a fire station, a school, a hospital, and some type of garbage system (I always go with the incinerator). I typically build zones in 4x7 sections but that's not written in stone.
Before you start the game, adjust the tax rates. I use 10% on residential and industrial and usually 5% for commercial, but you could use 10 for commercial too. They will complain about taxes no matter what they are at but at these rates it won't prevent sims from moving in.
The best way to make money in the game is to get a business deal. All the deals have negative side effects but they will pump a lot of money into the city. There doesn't seem to be any real pattern to it but after several years at least one will become available. If you go to ordinances and legalize gambling you will likely be offered a casino. The other ones are the Gigamall and the Maximum Security Prison. If SimCity 3000 there is also a toxic waste site but I haven't seen it in the iPhone version yet.
The downsides of the deals are :
Casino - Increases crime.
Prison - Increases crime, really lowers land values. Build far away from homes.
Gigamall - Decreases commercial demand.
Toxic Site (if it does exists in the game) - Massive pollution and lowers land value. Build on the complete other side of the map if you take it, which i never do.
If you build slowly and take a business deal you will never have to take a loan except occasionally for expensive projects like the stadium.
There also seems to be a budget issue...or at least its a little confusing. Pay attention to the monthly budget, not the year end budget. Even if the year end budget shows a loss, you may still be making money.
In addition the business deals there are a few ordinances that will bring in money, such as the legalized gambling (the best option), parking fines, industrial waste disposal, and the industrial pollutant impact fee. However, both the industrial taxes will lower demand.
As far as bridges go, as others have said, they can't be built anywhere due to the land formations. Just stretch the road across both sides of the river and try moving it up and down the river to see where it can be placed. There isn't any bugs as far as the bridges goes, its just that placement is everything.
And there is a transportation bug...no matter what I do they won't ride buses or trains. I only saw the train work once, at the very beginning of a new city it showed 167 passengers per day then when I checked it later it was back to 0. Hopefully that will get fixed soon but I don't bother with mass transportation right now because of it.
I think that about covers it. If I can think of anything else I'll be sure to post it.
Edit - Land values
A few others asked about land values. The best advice for land values is first to keep your industrial zones very far away from your commercial and residential zones. Second, building things like museums, libraries, and parks will raise the land values majorly. Place lots of parks in the city. Also, homes near water also will have higher land values.
As others have said, build slow. All you need to start a city is a power plant, a water pump (and pipes), an industrial zone, a residential zone, a commercial zone, a police station, a fire station, a school, a hospital, and some type of garbage system (I always go with the incinerator). I typically build zones in 4x7 sections but that's not written in stone.
Before you start the game, adjust the tax rates. I use 10% on residential and industrial and usually 5% for commercial, but you could use 10 for commercial too. They will complain about taxes no matter what they are at but at these rates it won't prevent sims from moving in.
The best way to make money in the game is to get a business deal. All the deals have negative side effects but they will pump a lot of money into the city. There doesn't seem to be any real pattern to it but after several years at least one will become available. If you go to ordinances and legalize gambling you will likely be offered a casino. The other ones are the Gigamall and the Maximum Security Prison. If SimCity 3000 there is also a toxic waste site but I haven't seen it in the iPhone version yet.
The downsides of the deals are :
Casino - Increases crime.
Prison - Increases crime, really lowers land values. Build far away from homes.
Gigamall - Decreases commercial demand.
Toxic Site (if it does exists in the game) - Massive pollution and lowers land value. Build on the complete other side of the map if you take it, which i never do.
If you build slowly and take a business deal you will never have to take a loan except occasionally for expensive projects like the stadium.
There also seems to be a budget issue...or at least its a little confusing. Pay attention to the monthly budget, not the year end budget. Even if the year end budget shows a loss, you may still be making money.
In addition the business deals there are a few ordinances that will bring in money, such as the legalized gambling (the best option), parking fines, industrial waste disposal, and the industrial pollutant impact fee. However, both the industrial taxes will lower demand.
As far as bridges go, as others have said, they can't be built anywhere due to the land formations. Just stretch the road across both sides of the river and try moving it up and down the river to see where it can be placed. There isn't any bugs as far as the bridges goes, its just that placement is everything.
And there is a transportation bug...no matter what I do they won't ride buses or trains. I only saw the train work once, at the very beginning of a new city it showed 167 passengers per day then when I checked it later it was back to 0. Hopefully that will get fixed soon but I don't bother with mass transportation right now because of it.
I think that about covers it. If I can think of anything else I'll be sure to post it.
Edit - Land values
A few others asked about land values. The best advice for land values is first to keep your industrial zones very far away from your commercial and residential zones. Second, building things like museums, libraries, and parks will raise the land values majorly. Place lots of parks in the city. Also, homes near water also will have higher land values.
in my experience power can cross the river on a bridge. for some reason it only worked in one of the two cities i tried it in. so you don't actually need a physical power line to cross the river