It's hot in the city tonight... Here's Keith Pullin to cool it down
Reviewed PCZ #74 Score 92%
Owing to the non-linear nature of this particularly complex beast, there's no walkthrough as such to offer. What we have instead is some useful strategies guaranteed to make your city the envy of a nation. So just glance over these pearls of wisdom and get building.
PLANNING
One of the most important skills when building a prosperous city is the ability to plan ahead. If you can envision the layout of your metropolis, complete with roads, railways, different zones and other amenities, the chances are you'll be more successful.
In the very beginning make sure the game is paused and throw down an 8x8 residential, 6x6 commercial and 8x8 industrial zone. Generally speaking you want to try and increase your city in increments of this size, which usually leads to more balanced growth.
Next, make sure you have a power plant a fair distance away from your residential areas, and also leave room for others to be placed alongside. Using this method you only have one area that's prone to heavy pollution, which can then be dealt with more effectively when the time arises.
Connect up the power and then create some fresh water. Water is highly important and we'll find out more about it later, but for now just create one square of surface water (away from industry) and place about four pumps around this source. Go to the pipes screen (underground) and connect your zones to the supply.
Finally, make sure you're connected to at least one of your neighbours via road, water, power or rail. Unpause the game, stick it on 'African Swallow' mode and watch your population soar. Your little town is now up and running. Give it two years or so, then nudge the speed back down to the second lowest setting.
RCI INDICATOR
When the bar is up, your citizens demand more of that particular zone, and when it's down people are leaving. But you already knew that, right? Thought so.
WHEELIN' AND DEALIN'
At first your neighbours offer you plenty of deals (providing you're connected to them). If anyone offers to take away your garbage, accept - the removal price is pretty low and it solves a messy pollution problem. Alternatively, a neighbour may offer to buy water from you - accept this too. It brings much needed income into the city, and if you add a couple more pumps you'll have loads of the stuff to spare anyway. Refuse all other deals - just make sure your exports are higher than your imports.
LEND US A GRAND?
By 1905 your city should be doing okay. Hopefully you've remembered to include some schools, colleges, police stations and fire stations - not to mention parks. Greenery keeps the hippies happy and ultimately raises land value too.
Unfortunately this early expenditure means cash starts to get a bit tight. Don't worry too much though, there's no shame in borrowing money early in the game - in fact your financial advisor usually has such faith in you he's positively rapt about the idea.
Take out a couple of loans (50,000 Simoleons) and spend wisely on increasing your residential areas, as well as your water and power production. Set up a few landfill sites too, and see if you can wangle a deal with a neighbour to dump trash in your city.
Now it's time to be patient. Speed the game up again and after about ten years your loans should be paid off. In the meantime, your existing deals and any others you've negotiated should be helping your income, and people should be turning up in their thousands.
BUDGETS
Health and education are the key funding issues you need to concentrate on. Providing plenty of schools is pointless unless you have enough money to run them properly. Not only does a good education policy attract sims to your city, it pulls in high-technology industry too, which means you can replace the heavy industry zones which produce loads of pollution with cleaner light industrial zones. Ultimately, if you keep your education budget in good order, your sims will be a healthy, intelligent bunch with well-paid jobs. In other words, there'll be no cause for complaint.
PORTS AND AIRPORTS
Set up a seaport as soon as you can. Ships from other parts of the world boost your industry and commercial sectors, especially the latter. From experience commercial areas are definitely the most difficult to sustain, so if you can set up more than one port, the rewards are priceless. But remember: ports are dirty, filthy places full of sweaty, foul-mouthed dockers. Don't place them near residential zones, as the many forms of pollution is more than the inhabitants can bear.
After a while you'll also get the chance build an airport. Like the seaport, the airport has a positive effect on your economy. Keep it away from residential areas, but well connected by road and rail.
LANDMARKS & LEISURE
These not only make your city look cool, they also raise the 'aura' of your urban sprawl. Landmarks that go down particularly well are Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the twin towers of New York's World Trade Centre. You can only have ten landmarks per city, but choose wisely and they will stimulate commercial growth and tempt tourists.
It's the same scenario with leisure facilities. If you place a marina in an estuary it increases surrounding land value and instantly boosts any commercial or residential zones nearby. Zoos make the life of your inhabitants slightly more interesting and are especially effective near residential zones. Sims love to have fun, so make sure you also create plenty of ballparks. The general rule of thumb with these types of buildings is quite simply 'the more the merrier'.
QUENCHING THIRST
Proper water management ensures plenty of water for your guzzling sims and then some for your neighbours too. Here's how to do it:
1. The first trick in nurturing a successful water supply is to create surface water away from salt water.
2. Now arrange your pumping stations around the surface water. You can get 16 stations around one single square.
3. Connect your city to the water supply, but don't waste money on unnecessary pipes - if a zone is coloured blue it is watered.
4. Add more pumping stations when necessary.
Eventually you have to replace your pumping stations. You can do this in two ways; the first is to simply demolish the old pump and put a new one in its place. The second method is to buy water treatment plants that convert sea water into fresh water. You won't have access to these until around 1970, but when you do, it's actually the easiest option as they produce more water and last longer.
REWARDS AND OPPORTUNITIES
As mayor you're constantly inundated with suggestions and possibilities. These deals can look great on the surface, but in fact harbour a huge disadvantage for you in the long run. For example, having the toxic waste factory in your town means loads of cash, but the amount of pollution it brings with it - and the subsequent exodus of the populace - eventually weighs heavily on your resources. And then there's the casino - the amount of crime it attracts is hardly worth the small revenue it brings in.
One of the better options is the military airbase and defence contractor. As long as you keep the GIs away from your dense residential areas and create a kind of army satellite village for them, things work well. An even better opportunity is the university. This is a direct result of a good education budget, and further increases the intelligence of your sims. Then of course, there's the Country Club - one for the high rollers really, but you've got to keep the rich happy as well as the poor.
BECOMING SELF SUFFICIENT
Eventually, after approximately a hundred years, your city should become completely self-sufficient. You should terminate all neighbourhood deals and ensure you have everything in place to fend for yourself. Never sell water after about 1985 - your neighbours want too much and the cost of production just isn't viable. Furthermore, if you inadvertently terminate the deal by miscalculating the amount of water you have, the penalties are astronomical.
Rubbish should be dealt with efficiently, as pollution becomes a big issue later in the game. You'll need plenty of landfill areas and loads of recycling plants, all of which must be situated well away from residential zones.
You should also build an underground tube network, as it lowers air pollution levels and is a much faster way to travel - providing the system has been planned properly. One way of guaranteeing an effective service is to place subway stations automatically into your plans as you are building your city. Finally, when you have enough money to complete the system, the stations are already there and you don't have to demolish anything to make room for them.
HOW TO DEAL WITH...
Certain rarities occur in your lovely city that result in a fair amount of disruption. You need to deal with these as quickly as you possibly can
Riots
If you have good police coverage just send the feds into the fray and they'll disperse the hoodlums in seconds. A blue lollipop appears on the map when the police are on their way.
Fires
Just send the fire engine to the scene of the blaze. A red lollipop appears on the map when they're rolling. The speed of their response depends on the amount of fire stations in the area, so make sure your coverage is good.
Tornadoes
Set off the warning siren the moment one appears. This minimises damage and casualties, and your people love you all the more for warning them early.
Earthquakes
Once again set off the siren if you get the chance, but the rest is pretty much down to fate. Obviously it's worth enacting the building strengthening ordnance to keep the damage at a minimum, but overall it's how quickly you clear up that's the real disruption factor.
UFOs
Put everybody on alert. Ah, what the hell they come in peace... Don't they?
VARIETY OF CITY LIFE
One of the biggest complaints levelled at SimCity 3000 is that once you've created a thriving metropolis it gets a bit boring. If that's the case, why not diversify? After all, the aim of the game is not necessarily to create the biggest city, but to find different methods of doing so. Try these for size...
City in the Sky
Try raising a city on the side of a mountain. You need to be a dab hand with the landscape tools in order to create plateaux for your zones. You can put a statue of yourself at the summit too.
Yo redneck!
There's no law saying you have to create an urban sprawl. One of the most challenging missions is to create a small town and keep the population at about 5000. This is much harder than it sounds, and is ultimately even more rewarding.
Desert Island
Create a small island and then pack as many people as you possibly can onto it. The key to succeeding here is zone management.
Satellite method
Build many little towns, each independent from one another. The biggest challenge is to stop them from joining together and thus creating a terrible mess.
Home town
Yes, it's the perennial favourite: recreate a city of your choice. There are now specific buildings that actually allow you to do this even more accurately, so take the opportunity to do so. You can then send your savegame to your local MP to show him how to do his bloody job properly.
CHEATS
Capital City blues? Bring up the cheat console by pressing Ctrl, Shift, Alt and 'C' at the same time, and type the following codes:
garbage in, garbage out Access all garbage buildings
power to the masses Access all power buildings
water in the desert Access all water buildings
salt on Saltwater ocean
salt off Freshwater ocean
i am weak Free buildings, utilities, zoning, transportation, trees and surface water
call cousin Vinnie Dodgy geezer offers you some extra cash
zyxwvu Type this after refusing the 'call cousin Vinnie' code to be given a majestic castle. This increases land value, aura, and other useful things besides
terrain one up Raise the terrain by 1
terrain one down Lower the terrain by 1
terrain ten up Raise the terrain by 10
terrain ten down Lower the terrain by 10
pay tribute to your king Access all rewards
i love red tape Access all ordinance
let's make a deal Neighbour/business deal(s) offered
