========= F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ========= SimCity 2000 FAQ Part 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have access to the World-Wide Web, see the latest HTML Translation and Update of this document by Michael Hanson: URL = http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~hanson/simcity_2000.faq.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ... Tools ... 2.1 BULLDOZER 2.1.1 Q: Should I bulldoze abandoned buildings? A: You can, but it's not necessary. Sims will build over abandoned buildings, although, abandoned buildings lower property values. 2.1.2 Q: Do I have to bulldoze rubble? A: No. Sims will build over rubble. 2.1.3 Q: Is there any way to bulldoze large areas at a time? A: No. Although you can destroy a few buildings at a time using raise terrain tool. 2.1.4 Q: The sims complain when I try to bulldoze some forest. A: Should I pay any attention to them? I don't think it'll do you any harm to ignore them. 2.2 LANDSCAPE 2.2.1 Q: How do I make waterfalls? A: Place water on a slope. 2.2.2 Q: What's the magic eraser? A: Select the tree tool. Press the mouse button with the cursor on a blank tile. Keep holding down the button and press the shift key. The cursor will now erase any type of development. The effect is rather odd - when you query the tile that's been erased, the old structure appears to still be there. 2.2.3 Q: Can I make a deep river at higher elevations? A: No, the only way to add water at elevations above sea level is to use the water tool - and this only makes water that is 50 feet deep. 2.2.4 Q: Does the water tool make fresh water or salt water? A: The water tool seems to make fresh water half the time and salt water the other half. 2.3 POWER 2.3.1 Q: Do undeveloped zones conduct power? A: No. Only tiles that have immediate contact to power (either next to another building or next to a power line) will be powered. 2.3.2 Q: What type of power plant should I use? A: If you aren't concerned with money, fusion plants are the most efficient, and don't pollute or cause disasters - like nuclear and microwave. If you are concerned about money, then hydro is best. Hydro plants don't pollute and don't need to be replaced every 50 years. 2.3.3 Q: Isn't it kind of like cheating to use hydro power? A: Well, first off, it's just a game, and you can do whatever you want with it. The most efficient use of hydro would be to use the raise terrain tool to make a little bump. Line the bump with waterfalls and then place hydro plants on the waterfalls. You could even surround the hydro pants with water pumps. This is the best, and most unrealistic use of hydro plants. A more realistic approach would be to make a map with a river, then raise the land on one end of the river, and draw the river back in, having it flow down the raised land. You could then build large dams on the slopes. 2.3.4 Q: My power plants seem to last forever. A: If you have disasters off, your power plants will automatically be replaced when they are 50 years old. Their cost will also be deducted from your coffers. 2.3.5 Q: Why don't hydro plants and wind power have to be replaced every 50 years? A: Well, you could say that this is bias on the part of Maxis to encourage the use of clean power. The real reason has to do with programming limitations - they'd have to keep track of the age of each plant. 2.3.6 Q: Why should I use wind power? A: I don't know - appearance, maybe? If you have extra space on the top of a mountain, you could put windmills there. You could use a couple of wind power plants to sustain a small village in the middle of nowhere. 2.3.7 Q: Do I have to use raised wires to run power across water? A: No, there's a cheat you can use to get around this. Chris Weiss writes: "There's a little trick you can do to run power across water without needing lines. First, you need 3 tiles of water between where you'd run the line from and where you'd run it to. Build a power line brige across that 3 tile space and bulldoze the power line between the two "on-ramps" for the power bridge. Replace the flat land tiles with water again and Voila! The power flows across the no-longer-existent power bridge." 2.4 WATER 2.4.1 Q: How effective is a water pump? A: A water pump (not next to water) will service approximately 24 to 36 tiles, depending on the weather. An additional 12 tiles (approx.) will be serviced for every water tile that the pump is adjacent to. 2.4.2 Q: Should I build water towers? A: Each water tower will hold up to 40,000 gallons of water. They will only fill up when you have a surplus. It's probably easier to just build four more pumps in the space that a tower would take. 2.4.3 Q: What good is a water treatment plant? A: The manual says that water treatment plants will help you prevent droughts by cleaning and recycling your water. However, the online help says that water treatment plants will reduce the overall pollution level of your city. Experimentation has revealed that water treatment plants do not really have anything to do with the water supply. Adding one treatment plant (anywhere on the map) will reduce the pollution level of your city quite a bit. Additonal treatment plants have no effect, though. So, build one, and only one 2.4.4 Q: How effective is a desalination plant? A: Desalination plants seem to have an effective radius, so there effectiveness is rather complicated. They can provide water to 200 - 500 tiles each, depending on how many seawater tiles are adjacent to the plant. 2.4.5 Q: What types of water will help a water pump? A: Natural water and artificial water will improve the performance of a water pump, while salt water will not. Use the query tool to find out whether water is salty or fresh. Water pump performance will even be improved by a waterfall, or a waterfall with a hydro plant on it. 2.4.6 Q: I've built several pumps on the edge of my city, but all the water seems to be going to the center. A: Well, SC2K figures out how much water you have, then it distributes it from the center of your city. The only way to keep the water at the edge would be to cut it off from the water system. 2.4.7 Q: Where do I need to build pipes? A: Sims will automatically build pipes underneath buildings, so, all you need to do, is build pipes underneath roads. I like to place pipes underneath my power lines. 2.5 ROAD + RAIL 2.5.1 Q: How much road do I need? A: A zone (residential, commercial, or industrial) must be within 3 tiles (not counting diagonally) of a road in order to start growing. If you're really strapped for cash (say you start on the hard level) then you can get away with discontinuous roads. Just drop down 1 tile sections of road and build different zones around it. For example: R R R R R R R R R R r I I C C I I I C I I where r = road R = residential, C = commercial, I = industrial
Actually you don't really need any roads at all. If you want, you can rely totally on mass transit. You won't have any traffic, but growth will be less and larger(3X3) buildings won't develop. For example, sims will build given the following setup: R I R R R I I I R R R R R I I I I I R R R s R R R I I I s I I I R R R R R I I I I I R R R I I I R I where R = residential, I =industrial, s = sub stations - connected underground by subway 2.5.2 Q: Why should I use rail instead of a subway? A: Rail is cheaper, and, supposedly, has a greater positive impact on heavy industry. 2.5.3 Q: How do bus stations work? A: Place bus stations at busy intersections to reduce traffic at that intersection. 2.5.4 Q: How do you build a reinforced girder bridge? A: You will be asked if you want to build a reinforced bridge if you place a highway tile halfway over water: before: L L L W W W after: L L L W W W L L L W W W L L H H W W L L L W W W L L H H W W L L L W W W L L L W W W where L = land, W = water, H = highway tile 2.5.5 Q: What's the difference between a highway bridge and a reinforced bridge? A: Highway bridges don't allow ships to pass, but are cheaper. 2.5.6 Q: What's the difference between causeways, raising bridges, and suspension bridges? A: Causeways do not allow ships to pass. Raising bridges and suspension bridges both allow ships to pass. Raising bridges are cheaper than suspension bridges, but can only be a maximum of eleven tiles long. 2.5.7 Q: How does my transportation system affect growth? A: Residential zones must be properly connected to a commercial or industrial zone in order to start growing. Industrial or commercial zones must be connected to a residential zone in order to start growing. This connection can either be made by road rail, or subway, however, growth will be best with roads. 2.5.8 Q: Is there an annual charge for bus depots? A: Yes, in fact, there are transportation charges for lots of things. The chart below shows the various things that have maintenance charges. The first column shows the building cost. The other columns show how much is charged, per year for each item in each category. (Some items, like Sub/Rail, have split charges.) Build Road Hwy Brid Rail Sub Tun Road $10 0.10 -- -- -- -- -- Causeway $25 -- -- 0.22 -- -- -- Raising Bridge $50 -- -- 0.22 -- -- -- Suspension Bridge $75 -- -- 0.22 -- -- -- Highway $100 -- 0.80 -- -- -- -- Highway Bridge $200 -- 0.80 -- -- -- -- Reinforced Bridge $300 -- 0.80 1.00 -- -- -- Tunnel $150 -- -- -- -- -- 0.10 Tunnel Entrance $150 0.10 -- -- -- -- -- Onramp $25 0.10 -- -- -- -- -- Bus Depot $250 25.00 -- -- -- -- -- Rail $25 -- -- -- 0.40 -- -- Rail Bridge $75 -- -- 0.22 -- -- -- Subway $100 -- -- -- -- 0.40 -- Rail Depot $500 -- -- -- 1.60 -- -- Sub Station $250 -- -- -- -- 0.76 -- Sub/Rail $250 -- -- -- 0.40 0.40 -- Power Lines $2 -- -- -- -- -- -- Raised Wires $10 -- -- 0.20 -- -- -- 2.5.9 Q: Will Sims walk to a road, then drive to a sub station, take the subway, drive from the sub station, and walk from the road to work? A: Well, I said yes before, but actually, work has to be next to the road. (See next question.) 2.5.10 Q: Why do some zones develop away from a road, and others don't? A: terry@laue.biochem.ubc.ca writes: "I recently posted my theory about the trip generator by proposing four schemes. The question came up because I was trying to explain how you can have properties develop which are not connected to the road. The schemes are as follows: A. R = I B. R =I C. R= I D. R=I Well, I finally ran this experiment. Previously, I just ran A and D. A did not develop but D did. Now, by running all four, I have figured out how the trip generator works. Again, A does not develop. Both properties in D do develop. The R in B and the I in C develop, but the I in B and the R in C stay empty Therefore: the trip generator works by starting at a square. It finds the nearest transportation link to the building, which can be up to three tiles away. It then finds paths to the nearest zones (ie: from an R square, the generator looks for I and C zones). However, and this is IMPORTANT, the zones must TOUCH THE ROAD! If it cannot find zones touching the road, the originating square will not develop!" 2.5.10 Q: Do I need 2 or 4 onramps at each road-highway intersection? A: Well, really, you only need one. The only reason to have more would be for realism, or to shorten some trip distances. 2.5.11 Q: Why can't I put highways where I want them? A: I assume that they only allow highways to placed on every other tile, just so that there won't ever by a time when highways mismatch: H H H H H H H H 2.6 PORTS + CONNECTIONS 2.6.1 Q: I've zoned a port - why do they keep complaining? A: They won't stop complaining until either a runway or pier has been built. 2.6.2 Q: What is the smallest size of zone for an airport? A: An airport must be at least 1 X 5 tiles, in order for a runway to be built. 2.6.3 Q: Why won't my airport grow? A: I don't know. Results seem to vary from person to person. Runways won't be built if you have an air force base. Just keep trying to zone more airport tiles. Sometimes Sims have difficulty building over airport tiles that have power lines on them. 2.6.4 Q: Does my airport need to be connected to water pipes or transportation in order to grow? A: No. An airport only needs connection to power. 2.6.5 Q: Does my city have to be a certain size before an airport can be built? A: No. You could build a successful airport, even before anybody moves into your city (of course, you won't have any money left, but...) 2.6.6 Q: Why do I keep having air crashes? A: You'll have air crashes if you have tall buildings in the immediate flight path. Generally, it's best to put your airport out of the way - perhaps on an island or plateau. 2.6.7 Q: I've zoned a seaport, why won't piers develop? A: Well, I think that a pier needs to be able to extend out over water that's at least 150 feet deep. 2.6.8 Q: Exactly what effect do seaports and airports have, anyway? A: Unknown. They stop the sim's complaints. Airports promote commerce and seaports promote industry. Beyond that, who knows? It's a very hard factor to isolate. 2.6.9 Q: What does it mean when connections are requested? A: You must build connections to your neighbors. Run a road, rail, or highway to the edge of the map, and you will be asked if you want to build a connection to your neighbor. 2.6.10 Q: What does the number on the connection sign mean? A: That's the distance to your neighbor. 2.6.11 Q: Why is it possible to build a connection to the ocean? A: I don't know. 2.6.12 Q: I've built plenty of connections, but they keep asking for more. A: They may want you to build highway or rail connections. 2.6.13 Q: Just how useful are connections, anyway? A: A connection acts as a stimulus point. Normally, residential zones are stimulated by being connected to job zones, and vice versa. A connection will act as a stimulus to both residential and commercial/industrial. 2.7 RESIDENTIAL ZONES 2.7.1 Q: What kinds of residential zones are there? Name size population Abandoned building 1 X 1 0 Construction 1 X 1 0 Lower Class Homes 1 X 1 10 Middle Class Homes 1 X 1 10 Luxury Homes 1 X 1 10 Abandoned building 2 X 2 0 Construction 2 X 2 0 Church 2 X 2 0 (dezones when built) Cheap Apartments 2 X 2 80 Apartments 2 X 2 80 Nice Apartments 2 X 2 80 Condominium 2 X 2 120 Abandoned building 3 X 3 0 Construction 3 X 3 0 Condominium 3 X 3 360 Large Apt. Bldg 3 X 3 450 2.7.2 Q: What's the difference between light residential and heavy residential? A: Light residential is cheaper and will only allow 1 X 1 buildings. 2.7.2 Q: Why should I use light residential? A: Aesthetics? Not everyone can live in high rise apartment buildings. Light residential requires less police protection than heavy residential. If your zoning an oddly shaped piece of land that wouldn't be able to form into a 2X2 or 3X3 building, you might want to use light instead of heavy. 2.7.3 Q: Why should I use heavy residential? A: You will need to use heavy if you want your city to have a large population. The blank map looks large at the beginning, but you will quickly run out of space if you rely on light zoning. The larger buildings use the same amount of power, therefore, you use less power per person. In addition, you will get more tax revenue, for the same amount of space. 2.7.4 Q: How do I encourage my sims to build 3 X 3 buildings? A: First the property values have to be pretty good. Second, a 3 X 3 piece of land must be adjacent to an intersection: R R R r C C C I I I C C C r R R R r C C C I I I C C C r R R R r C C C I I I C C C r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r where R = res, C = com, I = ind, r = road
In the above example, the residential and commercial zones may become 3 X 3 buildings, however, the industrial zone will not. 2.7.6 Q: Can I get rid of all these churches? A: Dave Chaloux writes:
"You can't really get rid of the churchs but it can be worthwhile moving them. Zone a 2x2 residential where you want the church. Blow up the church and do not rezone. The church will often move to the 2x2 you made for it. Then and only then rezone as residential where the church was. The reason this is worth it is because if you zoned for a 3x3, you are only getting 50 pop around the church (5 1x1s). The 3x3 will give you 360." Pat Traynor writes:
"Hmmm... I wonder if you could build an industry block 8x8, and leave the center 2x2 area empty. Demolish a church in the main residential section and then quickly zone the center of the industrial section for residential. Perhaps the church would pop up there." This will work, but you have to build a road out to the center: r r r r r r r r r r r I I I I r I I I r r I I I I r I I I r r I I I I r I I I r r I I I R R I I I r r I I I R R I I I r r I I I I I I I I r r I I I I I I I I r r I I I I I I I I r r r r r r r r r r r where R = residential, I = industrial, r = road Then, once you coerce the church into the middle, you can bulldoze the road into the middle and replace it with industrial. 2.8 COMMERCIAL ZONES 2.8.1 Q: What kinds of commercial zones are there? Name size population Abandoned building 1 X 1 0 Construction 1 X 1 0 Cassidy's Toy Store 1 X 1 10 Bed & Breakfast Inn 1 X 1 10 Gas Station 1 X 1 10 Small Office Bldg 1 X 1 10 Convenience Store 1 X 1 10 Office Building 1 X 1 10 Warehouse 1 X 1 10 Abandoned building 2 X 2 0 Construction 2 X 2 0 Office Building 2 X 2 80 Resort Hotel 2 X 2 80 Grocery Store 2 X 2 80 Shopping Center 2 X 2 80 Office Building 2 X 2 120 Office/Retail 2 X 2 120 Abandoned building 3 X 3 0 Construction 3 X 3 0 Theatre Square 3 X 3 360 Corporate HQ 3 X 3 360 Parking Lot 3 X 3 360 Drive-In Theater 3 X 3 360 Office Tower 3 X 3 450 Office Park 3 X 3 ?? Historic Office Bldg3 X 3 ?? Mini Mall 3 X 3 ?? 2.9 INDUSTRIAL ZONES 2.9.1 Q: What kinds of industrial zones are there? Name size population Abandoned building 1 X 1 0 Construction 1 X 1 0 Chemical Storage 1 X 1 10 Ind. Substation 1 X 1 10 Warehouse 1 X 1 10 Abandoned building 2 X 2 0 Construction 2 X 2 0 Factory 2 X 2 80 Factory 2 X 2 120 Abandoned building 3 X 3 0 Construction 3 X 3 0 Chemical Processing 3 X 3 360 Factory 3 X 3 360 Large Factory 3 X 3 ?? Warehouse 3 X 3 360 Large Warehouse 3 X 3 360 Ind. Thingamajig 3 X 3 360 2.10 EDUCATION ZONES 2.10.1 Q: What are the relative effects of education zones? A: The manual implies that you need 1 school for every 15,000 people in order to increase EQ to 90. This does not seem right, however. Schools lose their A+ rating when student to teacher ratio goes above 12.75. In other words, a half-full school gets about an A and a full school gets an F. Colleges have a capacity of 50,000, but, as with schools, grade goes down as the number of students approaches capacity. Libraries and museums increase the EQ of all ages. Museums are more effective than libraries. 2.10.2 Q: Does it matter where I put educational zones? A: No, educational zones do not need proper access to transportation to be effective. Educational zones do increase land value, though. 2.10.3 Q: What EQ is average? A: The SimNation EQ average is 100. Although, the average age of sims that move into your city is around 83. 2.10.4 Q: My EQ doesn't seem to ever go above 100. A: High EQ seems to require more than top notch schools, colleges, libraries, and museums. I've built a small city with excessive amounts of all these items. Over a span of 400 years, EQ never got above 100. I think the other factor must be industry - there's probably some sort of feedback effect from the high EQ industries. (Petro, auto, aero, electronics, etc.) 2.10.5 Q: I just put in a school but it still says 0 student, and 0 teachers. Why don't they use the school? A: There seems to be quite a long lag time (maybe a year) before students will shuffle around to new schools. Chris Weiss writes: "Micro-simulators do all their calculations in January (well, most of them anyway). So if you place one in June, then query on it in July, everything will be zeros (or incorrect, at any rate). Wait until after January, then things should look A-OK." 2.11 HEALTH AND SAFETY ZONES 2.11.1 Q: Do police stations and fire stations need to be placed next to roads? A: No, apparently, police and fire power is not effected by proximity to transportation. 2.11.2 Q: Do I need prisons? A: Prisons increase police performance. If you still have crime, even though you've just built a police station, build a prison next to the police station to improve the effectiveness of the police station at close range. 2.11.3 Q: Should I worry about the number of escapes from my prison? A: I believe that this is a symptom of overcrowding (high inmate to guard ratio.) I would suspect that crime might go up slightly around the prison. 2.11.4 Q: How many policemen or firefighters should I be able to dispatch? A: You should be able to dispatch 1 police icon for every police station and 1 firefighter icon for every fire station. The maximum number of emergency units you may dispatch (including military) is 33. 2.11.5 Q: Do hospitals need road access? A: I don't think they do. 2.11.6 Q: How many hospitals do I need? A: The capacity of each hospital is 25,000, although, they will have a higher grade at half capacity. 2.12 RECREATION ZONES 2.12.1 Q: What are all these things for? A: Small parks and Large parks increase land value. Zoos, stadiums, and marinas increase residential demand and improve tourism. 2.12.2 Q: Can I build a marina in the middle of land? A: Sure, just place a drop of water, then build the marina on top of it. The boats'll have trouble leaving though... 2.12.3 Q: Why do my sports teams always lose? A: Hmmm, bad coaching? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have access to the World-Wide Web, see the latest HTML Translation and Update of this document by Michael Hanson: URL = http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~hanson/simcity_2000.faq.html