Sim City 4

[MorganFreeman911]

How does one go about zoning for places such as farmland and such?

 

[Qonfused]

You never zone farmland, lol.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Start out with a school, a water tower, a wind power. Build residential from there and let it develop out. Build a little commercial around it or industrial in the areas you want to develop. Once you've got some more income, do fire and police and your commercial/industry should blossom. Dont spread out too fast or itll be hard to provide cheap fire/police coverage, and make sure to keep expanding your water pipes.

Start like that and you will do well. There really isnt a point to 'win' its just managing and building up a great city. If you want a farming town do that and keep it 'small town.' There are different rewards for each style of city.

For example a city with a huge commercial pop gets convention centers, etc. Farming town gets 'farmers market' after a certain point, etc etc.

 

[Dr.Demento]

The mistake I always make is imagining a large city from the get go. Think about a small country town and start from there. One main road with shops and low density residential around it.

This is basically how I do it. You have to start with the smallest density zones. Except for industrial, which in place of the small density zone, is the agricultural industry.

The problem I had is laying new roads and making sure the fronts of the zoning properties runs alongside them. (the little arrows on the zones pointing to the outside) If you don't, residents will complain that they can't get their cars off their property and on the roads, and thus will not go to work. That got annoying for me.

Also, I wish maps weren't so strictly grid based in that you can't make curvy roads and such. If EA/maxis makes another SimCity, I hope they address this issue.

 

[Ridge]

Curvy roads can be done if you do small segments at a time, usually 2 or 3 squares long...

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

the NAM gives you tools to make any roads you need (roundabouts, diagonal streets, etc etc)

 

[Dr.Demento]

Curvy roads can be done if you do small segments at a time, usually 2 or 3 squares long...

Ya, you can make diagonal roads and small curves, but I mean like fully customizable roads. Like being able to drag your mouse over and curve it anyway you like. This is impossible to do with SimCity's current grid-based system.

Also, to address your question to whether or not you can make a high-density city in a smaller region/square, only if it's neighboring a larger city. If you start a new region, then it's impossible to create a high-density city in a small square. The small squares will become something like a district in a large region that's mostly cityscape, and you can build a thriving small 'district' with skyscrapers and such.

the NAM gives you tools to make any roads you need (roundabouts, diagonal streets, etc etc)

Maybe I'll give it a try. Where'd you get NAM?

 

[Kyorisu]

Maybe I'll give it a try. Where'd you get NAM?

NAM is an absolute must have http://sc4devotion.com/nam.html

There.