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Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 18:44:35 -0600 Here is a great SIMCITY FAQ for all you players out there who wanted to know about how to play the MAXIS game called SIMCITY. I know that some of you out there have been having trouble with building a good size city. Well, part of the trick is knowing what to build, when to build it, and how it should look when you are done. In this FAQ, you will learn some great money saving tips on how to make the best looking city in this game. Hopefully by the time you are done reading this, you will me a SIMCITY MASTER. Hope this helps. Enjoy! ################### # # # SIMCITY # # FAQ VERSION 1.0 # # # ################### INTRO ===== SIMCITY first came out on PC back around the late '80's, early '90's when PC's were nearly ready for the SVGA monitors. Later, they came out with a bigger, better version called SIMCITY 2000. Then, when the SNES first hit the shelves, it came out for SNES as one of the first games to be released to the public to show off what the SNES could do. Then, came the hit SIMCITY CLASSIC which was SIMCITY, but with video animation and some nice video clips of crime, polution, and other neato stuff the original SIMCITY didn't do. They also remade SIMCITY for WINDOWS 3.1 and 95 for those of you who know about the game but missed your chance at getting it the first time. Well, since they redid the game, better hurry to your favorite pc gaming store and buy SIMCITY for WINDOWS. From what I can tell, the windows version is like only $15.00 so that is a farely good deal for a good game. The SIMCITY for windows also includes some other freebe stuff like a terrain editor which lets you edit the terrain of a city. You can create a new city, or load a city you were using and add more features to make your city become more realistic. If for some reason you can't get the terrain editor to work properly, it's because of the pentium computers. The terrain editor is a DOS application so it may not run properly if you are using a pentium system. This terrain editor will run on a 286 SX with 580K of conventional memory needed. The terrain editor will also work for the DOS version of SIMCITY as well. The SIMCITY for WINDOWS also comes with some free demos to some of the games they will be coming out with. Well, that's enough about that, lets get on with this FAQ shall we? MENTAL NOTE =========== In case you are wondering, STREETS OF SIM CITY is not the same thing. This is a game where you drive a car with weapons and DESTROY things in a SIM CITY setting. I just wanted to clear that up. Here is a little memory info for you if you want to play this game for WINDOWS 3.1 or DOS... DOS VERSION OF SIMCITY ====================== REQUIRED:286 SX / 580K RAM / DOS 3.0+ / MOUSE RECOMMENDED:386 SX / DOS 6.0 WINDOWS 3.1 VERSION OF SIMCITY ============================== REQUIRED:286 SX / 2MB RAM / WINDOWS 3.1 / MOUSE RECOMMENDED:486 SX / 4 MB RAM / 8-bit Sound Blaster WHAT IS SIMCITY? (Obvious first question) ========================================= SIMCITY is a city manager game where you control where to build things like comercial, residential, industrial, police & fire stations, roads, power lines and power supply, airports, and harbers. Plus, depending on what you do, you can also control the crime, population, frequient fires, and more. This is a game which is basically teaching you what it's like to be a mayor of a city. 1.) HOW DO I GET STARTED? ========================= Well, that is rather easy. Type the command in to start the SIMCITY game and then from the menu screen, use your mouse to click on START NEW CITY, then click on what difficulty setting you want. When you start a new game, you get a map of some terrain with water, trees, and brown colored dirt. Now you can start your game. 2.) WHAT SHOULD I DO FIRST? =========================== Hmmm, good question. Well, usually the first thing to do is to set your game options the way you want it so nothing goes wrong. Once you have set the proper options you want, get an idea of how you want your first city to look like. Usually the best thing to do first is to have the residential, commercial, and industrial stuff built first. Plus, also make sure you build enough police stations so you won't have citizens complaining about the crime rate in this city. You want to start with an idea of how the first city should look before you build your power plant and set power to your city areas.When you think you have a good idea of how you want your first city to look, then build your power plant somewhere away from the city and set power lines as needed to power your city up. Also, please make sure you build roads and they do need to connect to almost all builds you have made. It's also usually best if you have the game on PAUSE mode until you are done with building stuff. 3.) HOW CAN I DO THAT, YOU DON'T START OUT WITH A LOT OF MONEY? =============================================================== I realize that, your just gonna have to use your head. Just start small, the game will play itself out when you have given your city areas power and roads to do things. I know that starting small is not a great way to start out, but like all strategy games, you always have to start out small and then build up gradually to get the bigger, better things you want later in the game. 4.) CAN YOU GIVE ME A SMALL EXAMPLE OF HOW A FIRST CITY SHOULD LOOK? ==================================================================== Hmmm, I guess that is a good idea. I'll show you a small example of how you should build a starting city and I'll let you work from that. Keep in mind that this is only an example, nothing more, this may or may not work out with the starting money you get, but I will exaplain in more detail later on why you would need to do this... R = Residential Area C = Commercial Area I = Industrial Area F = Fire Dept. P = Police Dept. E = Energy Plant T = Power lines + = Rail Roads = = Roads/Highways S = Stadium =============================================================== || --- --- --- || --- --- --- || || --- --- --- || ||| | | |||| | | ||| ||| | | ||| ||| R | R | R |||| R | R | R ||| ||| I | I | I ||| ||| | | |||| | | ||| ||| | | ||| || --- --- --- || --- --- --- || || --- --- --- || ||| | | |||| | | ||| ||| | | ||| ||| R | P | R |||| R | P | R ||| ||| I | P | I ||| ||| | | |||| | | ||| ||| | | ||| || --- --- --- || --- --- --- || || --- --- --- || ||| | | |||| | | ||| ||| | | ||| ||| R | R | R |||| R | R | R ||| ||| I | I | I ||| ||| | | |||| | | ||| ||| | | ||| || --- --- --- || --- --- --- || || --- --- --- || =============================================================== || --- --- --- || ---- ---- ||| | | |||| | | | ||| C | C | C |||| S | | E | ||| | | |||| | | | || --- --- --- ||| | | | ||| | | ||| ---- ---- ||| C | P | C ||| ||| | | ||| || --- --- --- || ||| | | ||| ||| C | C | C ||| ||| | | ||| || --- --- --- || ================= As you can see, this a very good way for you to build your cities in this form and nature. Notice how everything is nice and neat. (One thing I do want to point out is that the reason I did not use a Fire Dept. in any area is because I am assuming you turned off the disasters in the options menu. Personally, by doing that, you will save yourself a ton of money so you don't have to pay for fundings for the Fire Dept.) Plus, as you can see, the police dept. are very close to each other so you shouldn't have much of a crime rate in this city. 5.) WHY DO YOU HAVE INDUSTRIAL AREAS SO FAR FROM THE OTHER AREAS? ================================================================= Well, do you want to live next to polution making buildings? This is also the same reason I have the Energy Plant so far away as well. By keeping such stuff away from your residential and commercial, the people will not complain about polution so much. To put it more mildly, industrial and Energy Plants produce polution, and by keeping them away from clean areas, the people of the city will not complain so much. 6.) OKAY, SO EXPLAIN TO ME HOW I CAN GET PEOPLE TO COME INTO MY CITY? ===================================================================== Okay, this is easily accomplished when you have the number of residential that is EQUAL to the total number of commercial and industrial zones that you have. By doing this, you will create enough jobs for the people to work at and have the right amount of living areas (residential) so people can live and work at the same time. If you look at question 4 above, you will see that I have 16 residential, 8 commercial, and 8 industrial zones. Basically, an EVEN amount of residential & commercial/industrial. One thing I must point out now before I say anymore. Any city you build will generate a population, but only by properly crating a well balanced city with enough police stations, an airport, a ship port, and some stadiums in the right place, will people REALLY thrive off your land that you create. The perfect example is question 4. Notice how nice and neat I did everything. Plus, as you can see, I kepted jobs rather close to the residential, including the industrial areas, but kept it so that the polution is at a safe level for the city to handle it. 7.) HOW COME I DO THAT AND THEY STILL SEEM TO NOT STAY AND LIVE? ================================================================ Well, part of the trick is the jobs (commercial & industrial) have to be fairly close to living areas (residential). Plus, making sure you have roads that connect to every building so people can get to and from work. If you look at the example in question 4, you will see that I have the living area close to job areas. Also remember that people will not live next to places that give off polution, so keep industrial areas away from commercial and residential areas, but close enough so people will work for them as well. 8.) WHAT IF I DO ALL THIS RIGHT, BUT THEY STILL ARE NOT COMING TO THE CITY? =========================================================================== Then attact them with something, like a stadium. This can be a major helper if a certain part of the city is not growing. People get bored real fast if there is nothing near the city to excite them. Building a stadium near an area where residential or commercial is low will greatly improve that area for sure. So try building a stadium and that will help improve the locals in the city. 9.) OKAY, I DID THAT, BUT PEOPLE ARE STILL NOT COMING IN, WHY? ============================================================== Well, maybe you should check your status screen and see what the people are complaining about. If it's the crime, build more police departments where they are needed, if it's the polution, either stop building roads, or build the polution creating buildings away from the residential, if it's the taxes, set the tax to about 8%, that's the best you can do for taxes, if it's the housing costs, build a few more jobs for the people. Another factor is where you have your residential, commercial, and industrial located. The following is just general tips for getting more people to come to your city. Please excuse any- thing I might repeat, but I'm doing this as like a checklist for you so you will know what the trouble is... A.) Try to keep jobs close to the residential areas, people don't like to travel long distances to work. B.) Try to keep polution making buildings away from residential. Nobody likes to live near polution, or breathe it for that matter. Just think of the NIMBY system. (NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard) C.) Make sure you build a police station somewhere near or around each other. Crime can happen anywhere at anytime, so be prepared. D.) Do not build more roads, fire stations, or police stations than you have to. Please remember that YOU are paying for these to be in good shape and the more you build, the more you PAY for them. So only build them if you have no other choice. E.) Sometimes you can get much better quality buildings if you build them near trees, water, or by building a stadium nearby. This can be a contributing factor of 20-50 people or more. F.) Roads are a major problem and a hassle sometimes. Not just from traffic, but also the polution. That's why you sometimes hear people say "BUILD RAILS INSTEAD OF ROADS". In a way, although not realistic, that is the best solution to this problem. Sure, it sounds funny, but at least they can't complain about traffic problems or about the polution for that matter. G.) Don't build COAL power plants, they create polution and don't create enough electricity for the public, on the other hand, if you create a NUCLEAR power plant, you run the risk of having a meltdown, but at least you can power more areas than a COAL power plant. Plus, Nuclear power plants are a little more cleaner. H.) Sometimes, when your residential bar fluctuates, creating 1-2 more jobs will fix this a lot of times. I know that there will be an uneven number of residential versus commercial/industrial jobs, but realisticaly, people can own 2 buildings at one time. So try this if you have trouble with residential going up and down a lot, regardless if you have an even number of jobs vs. living areas. I.) When you are building your city, people will ask you for airports or ship ports. Do not build these until the game says that the people want these some- where on your map. Plus, although you don't have to, it's best to build a shipyard next to water to make it look good. J.) Keep your city together and close when your making your city. Reason is, if you try to make 2 different areas of the city and don't keep it close to each other, the people for some reason will not help the city grow. In fact, they will actually move away and you will be left with a lousey city for doing so. So when you make your city, keep most of the city together and not try to separate the buildings from each other. K.) When you are making your first city, it's usually best to make more industrial areas than commercial areas at first. Why this is I don't really know, but it does work. But, as your city grows, you will soon need to build more commercial areas than industrial areas. L.) Try to keep your tax pretty low. People don't like to pay a lot of taxes in this game so remember that. The best number to use without people of the city complaining so much is 8%. Anything higher will cause your citizens to leave your city and find something elsewhere. M.) Unless you want to play a game of risk, you should turn off the disasters option so you don't have to pay extra money for fire departments, and so you don't have to waist your money on destroyed buildings. N.) If your one of those who wants to build roads than railways, you might want to make some extra room for the roads for future reference. I'm serious. As your city grows, so does the traffic, so you should plan ahead for more roads incase 2 or more areas get high traffic. O.) Just so you know, people will not come to live in your city until you make jobs for them. I mean, what's a city without a little business on the side? P.) Another thing to rememebr is if you build something like residential, and it does nothing for your city, then get rid of it. Reason being, if a certain area like residential is not building anything, they add to YOUR costs and expenses. So if something like that is not doing anything but sitting there, remove it and try something else. Q.) As you know, residential and commercial areas build certain other types of buildings that can't generate people or much money for you. A perfect example is hospitals. (Only residential areas can have hospitals.) It's okay to have a few of them, but if for some reason you have like 10-15 or more, or if you see a lot of hospitals in one area, remove a few and rebuild a residential area to see if it will change. (For those of you who are not really sure, hospitals will look like buildings shaped like a cross with a RED CROSS on top of the building. Schools are commercial buildings and have a sorta U shape to them and a lot of them will be a green colored building.) Another thing to look for is churches which only a residential area can build. One more thing, DO NOT REMOVE ALL THE HOSPITALS, SCHOOLS, OR CHURCHES FROM YOUR CITY! Doing so will cause your people to move out and/or dezone your areas. 10.) I NOTICED YOU DIDN'T BUILD A FIRE DEPARTMENT IN QUESTION 4, WHY? ===================================================================== Okay, 2 reasons why I didn't do that... 1.) Just like the Police Department, they require funds, and you are the only person they will take the funds from. So by not building them, you will get more money by doing so. 2.) By disabling the disasters in the options menu, then you won't need a Fire Department at all, and by doing so, will save you lots of money. Okay, that's why I didn't put Fire Departments in my city example in question 4. Part of the trick to SIMCITY is to spend less and to give as little as possible to the public so you can get more money back from the people at the same time. 11.) I DID DISABLE THE DISASTERS, BUT PEOPLE ARE STILL DEMANDING A FIRE DEPT.? ============================================================================== That's people for you. People will complain about anything if they don't get what they want. Well, if you did disable the disasters, and they still ask for a Fire Dept., then just build ONE somewhere and that's it. Like I said, they require funds, and your the only person they will get the funds from. Please remember this, this is SIM CITY, and this is based on being a mayor, so you have to realize that people will complain about something, no matter what. 12.) HOW COME YOU DIDN'T BUILD A SHIPYARD OR AIRPORT IN QUESTION 4? =================================================================== That's because those buildings are not needed that early in the game yet. As mentioned earlier, the game itself will let you know when you need to build a harber or airport. When you start out with a small town, people require little things for their business or life style. One thing to point out, please make sure you don't build an airport or shipyard next to residential or commercial, these are polution making buildings. Please remember that. 13.) I JUST CAN'T SEEM TO PLEASE THESE PEOPLE, WHY? =================================================== Hey, even in reality, you can't please everyone. I'll explain in further detail about what people complain about in SIM CITY, and the way people complain in reality. If you want to find out what your people are really cmplaining about, just click on the WINDOWS, then click on the EVALUATION to see what people think about your idea of the city and more... SIM CITY = People complain about taxes being too high, regardless if you have the tax rate at a very decent setting. (This is, in fact, the most common problem in this game when you see your evaluation. Keep in mind of course that I say this only if your city is maturing, but you still have a few other things people want you to fix.) REALITY = People ALWAYS complain about taxes, and what's worse, nobody wants to pay for taxes in reality, but we have it and we complain about it, so don't worry about it. SIM CITY = People complain about the housing costs. REALITY = People ALWAYS complain about how high their rent or housing costs are so don't worry about it. SIM CITY = People complain that the crime is a problem. REALITY = People ALWAYS complain about the problems with crime or gangs so don't worry about it. SIM CITY = People are complaining about the polution being so high. REALITY = We have lots of people complaining about that, and none of us can do much about it, so don't worry about it. (The only solution for this is to try to keep your industrial away from your other areas so there won't be too many complaints. Another solution is to build park areas all over so there is more oxygen and this sometimes helps to. Keep in mind of course that having high traffic will also cause polution on the highways, and to fix that, replace roads with rails.) SIM CITY = People are complaining about the high traffic rate of the city. (Although this problem can be solved by creating rail roads instead of highways. Although not realistic, it saves you from a complaint or 2.) REALITY = Hey, have you ever seen NEW YORK, BOSTON, DETROIT, L.A., CHICAGO, DALLAS, HOUSTON, or any other city style place with lots of roads? If you have, then you would know about this complain, especially during rush hour and holidays. People don't like high traffic either, but since there is little we can do in reality, your just gonna have to deal with it. 14.) ARE THERE ANY CHEATS FOR THIS GAME? ======================================== Yes, there is. And it can be a helper, but not much help. This cheat is a money cheat, so if you want to enjoy this game to the fullest, stop reading this right now and go play the game and see what you can do. If you really don't care about the game value, then read on. Just so you know, this cheat will work for either the DOS or WINDOWS version. In order for this cheat to work, you have to be in the game, and you must hold down a SHIFT key while you do this. During gameplay, while holding a SHIFT key, type in this word... FUND This will add $10,000 to your current stock of money. You can do this a few times to build up your money. CAUTION:Although this cheat is a helper, there is a catch to it. After you have typed in the code 3 times, the 4th time you put it in, you will get an earthquake disaster and your city will be be damaged by it. Another thing about this cheat is that you can only do this cheat 6 times. That is why I said a FEW times instead of a lot of times. If you really want to do a serious cheat, start a new city, but BEFORE you build anything, use the FUND cheat all 6 times and you will have an increase of $80,000 to your stock, and you didn't lose a building by doing so. INFO ABOUT FAQ ============== Info provided by CooperTeam. None of this info may be copied or reproduced without proper permission from the writer of this FAQ. You may only use this for your own personal/private use and only for helping you play this game, nothing more. Please do not rewrite or redistribute this info without my expressed concent. If I am missing any info you feel needs to be cleared up, please E-mail me at... cooperteam@hotmail.com If your info does need to be added to this, I'll give you the proper credit for doing so. Please, only true and factual info, no bogus stuff. I want to make this as simple, clear, and complete as possible. When you send your info, please put the subject as... COOPERTEAM/SIMCITY so I will know what your E-mailing me about. Also, please inform me if you want your name in the next update and if you want me to add your E-mail to it as well. If you do not inform me, I will automatically assume you want your name and E-mail posted. (Personally, it's best to give me a codename, nick, callsign, or special name you like to be called on the net like chat sites or something like that.) If you are interested in my other solutions, just check out the following solutions with my name on them... DARKSUN:SHATTERED LANDS = Solution = PC DEATH RALLY = FAQ = PC STRONGHOLD = FAQ = PC DARKRIFT = Strategy = N64 WARGODS = Strategy = Multi-Platform X-MEN VS. STREET FIGHTER = Strategy = Arcade DARKSUN:WAKE OF THE RAVAGER = Solution = PC (COMING SOON) SYNDICATE PLUS = Strategy = PC (COMING SOON) SYNDICATE WARS = Strategy = PC (COMING SOON)