Thread: Simcity 4 discussions

This is a spin off from this thread: http://www.indiabroadband.net/genera...ding-city.html (My experiments at building a city)

As the original thread has too many pictures, it is better to have a new thread that discusses tips and techniques in a separate thread that can load much quickly.

Mistakes committed and some tips:

1. All execution did not go exactly as per original plan (see photo 2). Quite a few times, I had to demolish zones incorrectly allocated, e.g., commercial zones in planned residential area.

2. Highway planning did not go as per plan. Again lot of anguish of demolition.

3. Parks!!!! Build a lot of them. Sims just love parks and recreation facilities. Not talking about the theme parks -they just beautify the city but add no revenue or value addition (incredible as it seems).

4. In an ideal city that contains railways, subways and other MRT, we would expect that people prefer that. But not so in Simcity. In the beginning, the residential zone was connected to the CBD by rail link and I had heavy usage of the rail link. When the road link was built, the rail traffic dropped to almost nil. Hence I introduced a toll gate at the entrance of the city (got this idea from London Congestion Charge).

5. Start modest. Do not expect heavy influx. The entire story you see is a story of 2 centuries in Sim Life.

6. I wanted to build English style residential localities but the engine never plopped these beautiful cottages. Need to figure out why.

7. I downloaded a lot of agriculture farms (mods and plops) but never got to plan them right. In the end, I made some half hearted attempt to build farm lands some distance away from residents.

8. Citizens do not like to live near polluting industries and farm lands.

9. I never showed water treatment facilities in the city. But they are there.

10. Road should be laid out before zones. Quite a few times, I had to rework these out.

11. I wish I had ploughed a river before starting. I have some beautiful retaining walls that adds beauty to the river bank.

Mistakes committed and some tips:


7. I downloaded a lot of agriculture farms (mods and plops) but never got to plan them right. In the end, I made some half hearted attempt to build farm lands some distance away from residents.

That is the reason i was wondering about the Agri Residencies..


10. Road should be laid out before zones. Quite a few times, I had to rework these out.

The Circular Road plans comes handy..


Well i am on a mission now... will soon see something similar happenning from my Side !!!

From where can I download this game...

If you are really serious about this game, buy it. It will not be very costly.

More tips:

• The key to the successful city is desireability. Sims should feel like moving to your city. Good infrasturcture, employments, education facilities, good health care, hi-tech industries, parks, etc. increase desirability. Pollution, garbage dumps, accident prone roads, dirty industries, etc. are called NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard).
• A serious Simcity enthusiast will soon download a lot of mods (game alters) and plops (custom built houses, comerical establishments, farms, etc.). The Wal*Mart and TESCO that you see in my pictures are custom plops and so are the retaining walls, gardens, trail parks, etc.
• When you download mods and plops, they will consume a lot of memory. Too many mods and plops will crash the game.
• I have some fanstastic plops such as "Burj Dubai" tower - though it looks impressive it is quite useless for the game. It does not bring any desirability to the city.
• Some mods are not compatible with other mods.
• Use your imagination to the fullest.
• Some cheats are available. For example there is a Waterfront Casino that generates insane (and I mean really insane) amount of money for you. It is available as a plop download.
• You can play realistically but it is a very difficult game to start at first. So use the casino cheat to get ridiculous money in bank and then let your imagination fly without too concerned about money. For example, with limitless kitty, plan highways, railways and avenues and inner roads first.
• Once again: Sims prefer cars to public transport. Make them use public transport by introducing tolls on major through ways.
• Disaster scenarios exist. They are quite cool - earthquake, volcano, flood, alien attack. Try them out.
• For all information please visit Simtropolis. There is a wealth of information out there.
• and the cheekiest of all. If you zoom down to individual houses you can see their swimming pools. Sometimes you might be lucky to find a nude sim-woman swimming but it is extremely rare.

Recommended PC Specs:

• Although the game can play on a Pentium 4/2 Gz/512 MB RAM/64 KB Graphics, this may not work when you city becomes very large.
• You will need about 2 GB harddisk for the basic Deluxe game and something more for the mods/plops. I have over 2 GB mods/plops but I use about half of them.
• You should play with Pentium Core-2 Duo, 2 GB RAM and 128 KB graphics. Higher graphics will help in bringing out minute details but not by a great deal.
• The bigger the city, the more the game engine has to do for simulations.
• Zoom facilities are available. So the larger the monitor, the better.

One thing I will guarantee you. Those who like strategy and simulation games - this game will hook you for ever.

I am loving this game already trying to find my way around ... Just need some time to get used to

I searched my DVD folder... It has only "the sims" and "the sims 2- which I never played"... guess I'll have to wait a bit to start...

Originally Posted by Admin

I am loving this game already trying to find my way around ... Just need some time to get used to

Oh. It took me a month before I got the basics right. And that after having played Simcity 2000 and (a bit of) Simcity 3000 before.

Maxis have themselves agreed that they pulled themselves in a corner because the game became too complicated for beginners.

The Sims and Sims 2 is a spin off from all Sim games by Maxis (and marketed by EA). Sims concertrated on life of a person and his/her daily chores, struggles, joys, sorrows, drugs, crime, love/dating, issues with children, etc.

oooooppss...... i suggested my Boss n he's stuck on Simcity's website.... he's so convinced that he's gonna buy one.... !!!

:clown::clown::clown::clown:

More tips:

Simcity uses a grid like interface. You must have observed this in the pictures.

Hence if you follow grids, you will make your city look (somewhat) like Milton Keynes, UK. All roads will be straight and city blocks will be grids. This is not realistic in real life where streets curve and bend.

Unfortunately this is a limitation in Simcity games. Streets, by default, are either aligned to grid at 90°/180° or at 45°. But by clever manipulating you can make them slightly curved.

Also recommend highly that you download the Network Addon Mod (NAM). NAM features:

OneWayRoad Bridges: Fully functional OneWayRoad Bridges. Includes the following OneWayRoad Bridge Types:
- Level bridge
- Raised bridge
- Undertruss bridge
- Wooden covered bridge
- Medium suspension bridge
- Stone arch bridge
- Small steel arch bridge
- Cantilever truss bridge
- Overdeck truss bridge

Overpasses:
- Road over Road
- Road over Rail
- Road over Street
- Road over Onewayroad
- Road over Avenue
- Onewayroad over Onewayroad
- Onewayroad over Rail
- Onewayroad over Street
- Onewayroad over Road
- Onewayroad over Avenue
- Onewayroad over Ground Highway [this is without ramps]
- Avenue over Avenue
- Avenue over Rail
- Avenue over Street
- Avenue over Road
- Avenue over Onewayroad
- Elevated Rail over Elevated Highway
- Elevated Rail over Monorail
- Ground Rail over Ground Highway

Custom Interchanges:
- Avenue Y-Stack
- Elevated Highway-Orthogonal by diagonal Interchange
- Elevated Highway-3 Leaf Clover
- Elevated Highway-2 Leaf Clover-Adjacent
- Elevated Highway-2 Leaf Clover-Opposite
- Elevated Highway-1 Leaf Clover

Extra highway ramps:
a) Single-Sided Perpendicular Ramps
- Elevated Highway OnRamp-Road;
- Elevated Highway OffRamp-Road;
- Elevated Highway Straight OnRamp-Road;
- Elevated Highway Straight OffRamp-Road;
- Elevated Highway Straight OnRamp-OneWayRoad;
- Elevated Highway Straight OffRamp-OneWayRoad;
- Elevated Highway OnRamp-OneWayRoad Forward;
- Elevated Highway OffRamp-OneWayRoad Forward;
- Elevated Highway OnRamp-OneWayRoad Reverse;
- Elevated Highway OffRamp-OneWayRoad Reverse;

b) single sided parallel ramps,
- Elevated Highway OnRamp-Road;
- Ground Highway OnRamp-Road;
- Elevated Highway OffRamp-Road;
- Ground Highway OffRamp-Road;
- Elevated Highway Ramp-OneWayRoad Forward 01;
- Elevated Highway Ramp-OneWayRoad Reverse 01
- Elevated Highway Ramp-OneWayRoad Forward 02;
- Elevated Highway Ramp-OneWayRoad Reverse 02;
- Ground Highway Ramp-OneWayRoad Forward 01;
- Ground Highway Ramp-OneWayRoad Reverse 01;
- Ground Highway Ramp-OneWayRoad Forward 02;
- Ground Highway Ramp-OneWayRoad Reverse 02;

Puzzle peices (for custom sized bridges and overpasses):
- Road Overpass Starting/Ending Section
- Road over Blank Terrain – Straight
- Road over Road
- Road over Rail
- Road over Street
- Road over OneWayRoad
- Road over Avenue
- Road over GroundHighway
- OneWayRoad Starting Piece - ON
- OneWayRoad Ending Piece - OFF
- OneWayRoad over Blank Terrain – Straight
- OneWayRoad over OneWayRoad
- OneWayRoad over Rail
- OneWayRoad over Street
- OneWayRoad over Road
- OneWayRoad over Avenue
- OneWayRoad over GroundHighway
- Avenue Overpass Starting/Ending Section
- Avenue over Blank Terrain - Straight
- Avenue over Avenue
- Avenue over Rail
- Avenue over Street
- Avenue over Road
- Avenue over OneWayRoad
- Avenue over GroundHighway

Ped Mall Tiles, (predestrian only network)
- 1x1 Tile Piece with a centre pole
- 1x1 Open Paved Area

Here is one more Simcity KB: SimCity 4 Knowledge Tree - SC4EVER.COM

This is an example of a grid city. Looks quite boring and unrealistic.

I downloaded SimCity 4 Deluxe...there were 3 folders sc4d_a, sc4d_b & cr**k.
I have attached the screenshots.Inside the sc4d_a folder I clicked on the Autorun & it started installing...

While around 50 % was over,it was asking to insert the cd 2....

What do I do....
How to I proceed installing.....

Did you read the instructions.txt file ? Still no good. Then can you post the screen screenshot of the 'insert the cd 2' message.

Originally Posted by vishnus89

Did you read the instructions.txt file ? Still no good. Then can you post the screen screenshot of the 'insert the cd 2' message.

This is what is given in the instruction file..

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SIMCITY 4 DELUXE
----------------
1. Download DAEMON Tools: - THE DAEMONS HOME
2. Mount sc4d_a.iso file in DAEMON Tools
3. Install - when it asks for disk 2, mount sc4d_b.iso in DAEMON Tools and press OK
4. Copy the file in "Crack" folder to C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps (folder name may vary depending
on where you installed the game) and replace the old file
5. Run and enjoy!

There is no iso file...i just got folders sc4d_a & scd4_b

What will happen if you click OK in that message ?
If a browse option comes up point it to the second folder(I mean sc4d_b).

When I click "Ok"..Again the same pop up comes "Please insert disk number 2...

May be I think I need to create iso image of sc4d_a & sc4d_b folders....
How to create iso image of folder....Is there any software for that,,,

Originally Posted by jee.ramesh1983

When I click "Ok"..Again the same pop up comes "Please insert disk number 2...

May be I think I need to create iso file of sc4d_a & sc4d_b folders....

Yes, create an ISO file of sc4d_a & sc4d_b. and use daemon tools to mount in. First 'mount sc4d_a' after the popup come unmount sc4d_a and mount sc4d_b in the same drive. After the installation if asked for first cd mount sc4d_a again(I there a n**d c***k use it). I am not very good with daemon tools but i think this is how you do it.

Will try using alcohol for creating the image file...

Originally Posted by jee.ramesh1983

how to create iso image of folder....Is there any software for that,,,

Try this one CDBurnerXP(freeware). I use MagicISO for that.

Yes you can also use Alcohol120% for that.

Warez !

And that to in j4k's thread !.

Originally Posted by ShAdOwCoN

Warez !

And that to in j4k's thread !.

Warez . Who said a anything about Warez, he only wanted help with the installation.

Where Warez.....

Kindly confirm whether asking for help in installing comes under Warez...

Did you installed it ? Did you started building the city.
How is the game ?

Cudnt install....Dunno what to do....
I created the iso image of those 2 folders using Alcohol....
When I mounted the first file using Daemon...the folder got opened & I had click on the autorun to install....Then pop up message came to insert the cd 2.
Then I mounted the second folder. & click on "ok" on that pop up message. But nothing happened....

Dunno what to do...:48::48::48::48:

Originally Posted by jee.ramesh1983

Cudnt install....Dunno what to do....
I created the iso image of those 2 folders using Alcohol....
When I mounted the first file using Daemon...the folder got opened & I had click on the autorun to install....Then pop up message came to insert the cd 2.
Then I mounted the second folder. & click on "ok" on that pop up message. But nothing happened....

Dunno what to do...:48::48::48::48:

Did you mounted the 2nd ISO in the same drive ?

Yes......

Originally Posted by jee.ramesh1983

Yes......

Sorry. I will post when I find fix.