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Author: Paul "headbanger" Buzbee
Name of the Game: SimCity 2000
System: Mainly Mac; game version 1.0a
E-Mail: headbanger1547 [at] gmail [dot] com
FAQ Version: 1.36
***************
I. Introduction
A. Basic SimCity stuff
B. About/Contacting Me
C. Version History
II. Detailed stuff
A. Basic Stuff
B. Information Windows
a. Budget
b. Industry
c. Neighbors
d. Ordinances
e. Map
f. Graphs
g. Population
C. Items/Icons
III. Editing a City
IV. Starting a City
A. A few basic tips
B. A Divider
V. To make a highly-populated City
VI. To make a Very-Well-Running City.
VII. How to Increase.....
A. Land Value
B. Education (EQ)
C. Your Money
D. Citizen's Health
E. Your city's Water
F. Your Power supply
VIII. How to Get Rid Of....
A. Crime
B. Pollution
C. The amount of abandoned Buildings
D. Traffic
IX. Disasters
A. The Disasters
a. Fire
b. Flood
c. Riots
d. Tornado
e. Hurricane
f. Air Crash
g. Monster
h. Earthquake
B. How to Fight each Disaster
X. Reward List
XI. Inventions
XII. Scenic Suggestions
XIII. Codes for the Macintosh
XIV. Hall of Fame
XV. FAQs
XVI. SimCity 2000 download sites
XVII. Legal Stuff
XVIII. Special Thanks/ Credits
And now, on with the FAQ.
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Basic SimCity stuff:
In my opinion, SimCity 2000 is one of the best games ever made for the
computer, so long as you know how to play it. It has many challenges, and goes
into a lot of detail.
And when you're bored, you can just launch an earthquake and blow it all up.
This FAQ mainly follows the Macintosh version of the game, but PC users can
also follow along with most everything, with the exception of the codes and a
few other things. The codes are basically only for version 1.00a (to find out
your version number, see the codes), but some might work for other versions as
well. Try and see.
About/Contacting Me:
My e-mail address is: headbanger1547 [at] gmail [dot] com.
Send me an e-mail if you need something.
Version History
1.36:
Date: 1/08/06
Description: Updated copyright for the new year.
Size: Dunno
1:35:
Date: 4/15/05 (tax day >_>)
Description: Some new info from Spud2002 about disasters. Mucho gracias. :)
Size: Probably still 86k.
1.30:
Date: 2/9/2005
Description: Updated legal info to reflect 2005.
Size: 86k, me thinks.
1.29:
Date: 9/23/04
Description: Argh. I had to change my e-mail address.... AGAIN! I'm sorry.
Size: 86k (+1k)
1.28:
Date: 9/9/04
Description: Changed my e-mail address to get away from Hotmail and start
using G-mail a little bit. I also added in the link to my message
boards. Aside from that, no new content. There probably won't be
anything new for quite a while, I'm sad to say.
Size: 85k (+1k)
1.27:
Date: 8/16/04
Description: Made my e-mail address a little more "safe" from spam-bots. I
also added some text saying that I can no longer accept cities.
Seeing as I no longer really have this game, this could very well
be the final version of this FAQ. It's really unlikely, but
possible as well.
Size: Most likely still 84k. (no change)
1.26:
Date: 7/6/04
Description: Updated my MSN and AIM screen names. Re-did the "Legal Stuff"
section completely and made it more lax. Changed anything else I
found to be out-dated.
Size: 84k (+3k)
1.25:
Date: 6/15/04
Descrption: Changed the "Rate this FAQ!" link to the new one.
Size: 81k still as far as I know. (still no change)
1.24:
Date: 5/28/04
Description: Changed e-mail and AIM address.
Size: 81k, I think. (no change)
1.23:
Date: 4/4/04
Description: Changed my MSN address to my new one and added my AIM address.
Size: 81k (no change)
1.22:
Date: 1/31/04
Description: Added a few more websites that can post this guide.
Size: 81k (no change)
1.20:
Date: 1/17/04
Description: Added an FAQ section and updated some stuff on the "Contacting
Me" page.
Size: 81k (+1k)
1.16:
Date: 1/16/04
Description: Updated the Legal Info to reflect the new year.
Size: 80k (no change)
1.15:
Date: 1/1/04
Description: Added ASCII title art. Added a little bit more stuff from
DragonAtma (see credits). Changed Legal Information section.
Size: 80k (+5k)
1.10:
Date: 12/30/03
Description: Added some information given to me by DragonAtma. See the
Credits for more info. Also changed some stuff in the Contacting
Me section.
Size: 75k (+3k)
1.00:
Date: 1/27/03 - 11/23/03
Description: The first form of this FAQ. Contains pretty much what you see
now.
Size: 72k (+72k)
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Detailed Stuff
_______________
Basic Miscellaneous Stuff
Well, when writing this FAQ, I assume that you at least know the basics of
SimCity, like the controls, and how to use a mouse. I also assume that you
have a copy of the game, because I am not going to tell you where you can buy
it at, since not even I know. I also hope that you have a fairly high reading
level, as I might use some "big" words in this (nothing too nerdy though).
Before using this FAQ for a hardcore city, I strongly recommend that you play
the game a bit without using this FAQ. This will give you a feel for the game.
Other than that, that's about it.
Information Windows
All of these windows can either be found on the Icon Toolbar, or in the
"Windows" menu.
Budget:
Ah, yes. The fatal (and evil) budget. Nobody escapes its grasp of doom (or
else they get a crappy city) without codes. Basically, this just tells the
amount of money that goes towards each thing, and allows you to change it to
help/hurt the amount of money you've got. In the budget window, you will see a
book on the right. This shows how much you spend a month on that particular
area, and a few months in advance of that, which the game has predicted (and
must have ESP, since it always seems to be correct). Next to that is a little
speech balloon. Click on that to get a bit of advice, if any. I will go down
the list, and tell what each category tells you.
Taxes: Everybody's worst nightmare. This is the amount that your citizens have
to pay for their property. By clicking on the book, you can modify how much
you pay for residential, industrial, and commercial areas. Ignore the speech
balloon for this one. The guy is an annoying fag (even the Sims think so).
City Ordinances: This is how much you pay for ordinances. For the book, see
"Ordinances", after I describe the "Neighbors" window. The balloon just tells
what ordinances to invest in or drop.
Bonds: Completely ignore this, unless you have a power plant blow up, or a big
loss of money someway else (that needs to be repaired immediately). If so,
read on.
Bonds are like a loan: You have to pay them back, and with interest. You are
allowed 50 bonds, and each one gives you $10,000. By clicking on the little
book, you come up to a window with three options: Show bonds, repay bond,
issue bond. Only the last two matter. Repay bond allows you to repay the
amount left of your last bond, if you have enough money to do so. Issue bond
allows you to get a bond. When it says "current rates are..." that number is
the interest rate. But if you take out a bond, pay it off immediately.
Police Departments: This is the amount of money you invest into your police
power. By reducing the percentage, you lower the amount of money you spend,
but that can increase crime. Be careful with this, and don't lower it anymore
than 75%, and don't lower it at all unless your crime rate is higher than 20
(see your graphs). The book does only the basics, and the balloon tells how
crime is in your city.
Fire Department: This is the exact same as the above, but for fire departments
instead of police.
Health & Safety: This one, always keep at 100%, unless you really need the
money. Ignore everything but the balloon, which tells you whether a new
ordinance is needed, or more hospitals, or whether everything is just fine and
dandy.
Education: This is the amount your city spends on education. I usually keep
this around 90% or higher because having a high educational quotient (EQ) will
attract better and more industries to your city, which can result in higher
revenue. Use the balloon to find out if you need colleges or schools. NOTE: If
anyone has every gotten the balloon dude to compliment you better than saying
that educational coverage is adequate, tell me what he said, and how high your
EQ was.
Transit Authority: Always keep this at 100%. If you don't, then things will
fall into decay, and they will blow up and you'll have to replace them. Not
cool at all.
And that's all for the budget.
Industry
This window tells you three things.
1: The amount of each type of industry in your city. Don't raise the taxes on
an industry that has a bar higher than all of the others. It could seriously
cripple your city (not permanently, though). To get a description of a
category, shift-click its icon.
2: The amount you are taxing each type of industry. Only tax high for two
reasons: Either that type of industry has low demand, or it has very high
pollution. Option-drag the bars to raise/lower all of the values at once.
Don't drag up Electronics because it is a mild polluter, especially if it is
in high demand. That would be something a dumb ass would do.
3: The amount of national demand for each type of industry. This is pretty
close to the ratios in your own city. Generally, I use this to determine what
will come into demand next.
Neighbors
This window tells you your city's population. It also tells the population of
your neighboring cities and the national population. A bit of a note: If one
of your neighboring cities has a higher population than your own, or close to
it, then build a lot of roads connecting your city to it.
Ordinances: This is the amount your city spends/receives from these extra
options.
Finance
1% Sales Tax, 1% Income Tax: Just methods of raising your total funds.
Optional if you need money, but if you have
plenty of money to share, then don't select
these.
Legalized Gambling: DO NOT use this. It will increase crime, and the police
stations you build to counteract this will cost more than
you earn.
Parking Fines: These reduce traffic while raising your funds, but don't get
carried away with these since then the people may think twice
before moving to your town. Also indirectly lowers pollution,
since lower traffic=lower pollution.
Education:
All of these can in increase your education, or reduce crime. Generally, read
the description by shift-clicking on the name of each one.
Other:
Energy Conservation: The most expensive ordinance. Makes people cut back on
power usage. Leave unused unless a power plant blows up,
and you need to raise funds to build one.
Nuclear Free Zone: If you aren't going to build any normal Nuclear power
plants (so a fusion plant is okay), use this, as it's free.
I don't think it makes any difference, though.
Pollution Controls: This can make your city less polluted, but hurts your
industry. It's sort of a gamble. I personally think it
helps you far more than it hurts you.
Safety & Health:
All of the following can make your citizens live longer.
Promotional:
These can increase local land values.
Map
Using this, you can view your city different ways. Using the icons on the
left, you can change what it is you are looking at. Clicking on the icon in
the lower-left hand corner will make the large screen, main picture thingie
follow the map. Useful for finding out high crime/traffic areas. By clicking
on an icon and holding down, a menu comes up displaying different options for
your viewing pleasure. A few ways I use the map:
1. To find out where crime is worst, and place a police station right smack
dab in the middle of it, or the same with traffic and bus depots.
2. To find out where my land values are lowest/highest.
3. To find any unpowered/unwatered areas in my city.
Graphs
One of the most useful tools you have. I will describe each button and what it
does. The graph can be viewed in a 1, 10, or 100 year range. Use the 1-year
range to find immediate changes, like population drop, crime increase, etc.
Use the 10-year chart to see if you are doing an effective job making a
change, if you see a trend, or if something is slowly declining. Use the
100-year chart to see if you have improved/gotten worse over time.
City Size: The combination of Residents, Commerce, and Industry. Also your
city's population.
Industry, Commerce, Residents: The amount of each respective type in your
city. Sometimes I use this to compare certain
factors of my city.
Traffic: The amount of traffic in your city. If above 35, consider reducing
it. If higher than fifty, definitely reduce it. High traffic also
adds to pollution.
Pollution: The amount of pollution in your city. If above 40, consider
reducing it. Pollution will never go completely away.
Value: The value of your city. A really high value is above 200. Land Value
maxes out at 256. By having a high land value, you attract more/better
businesses to your city. Try to keep around 120, if not higher. Don't
bother raising it in industrial areas.
Crime: The amount of crime in your city. If you don't have any arcologies,
keep this below 30, or else people will start complaining. If you do
have arcologies, try to keep it below thirty-five, but people will
still complain.
Power %, Water %: The percentage of power/water you produce that is not used.
Keep this one high, above 60. Since water changes monthly,
and those changes can be dramatic (like from 80-23 in one
month), try to just keep it above zero as long as you can.
Health: The average number of years your citizens in the work force live. By
keeping this high, your city seems like a more attractive place to
live, so more people will come.
Education: The average EQ of your Work Force. Try to keep above 90 once your
city will not grow in population any more.
Unemployment: The percent of citizens that are unemployed. Keep low.
GNP (Gross National Production), Fed Rate: I don't know what these are, their
influence on your city, or even if
they matter, so I can't describe
them.
According to DragonAtma, this is what Fed Rate does:
"GNP doesn't seem to do anything, but the Fed Rate determines how expensive
bonds are. I agree that bonds shouldn't be taken (unless they're necessary),
but a low fed rate means that the bonds will be cheaper."
National Population: The population of the country your city occupies. Can
also be seen in the "Neighbor's" window. A massive city
takes up about 1% of its country's population.
Population: Shows the percentage of people in each age group. Generally, if
most of your people are in the work force or even younger, then your city is
growing. If most people are old, then your city is declining in population.
The education button shows the educational level of people in each age group.
Your goal is to raise everybody's below the end of the Work Force, the higher
the better. The health button shows the life expectancy of each group of
people. Again, the higher, the better.
Items/Icons
This section tells what each button in your toolbar does. In case you don't
know it, I am going to tell you a little secret that held me back from making
a big city when I was younger: You can hold down on the button to bring up a
menu, which has other options under that general category.
Bulldozer Icon:
1) Demolish/clear: destroys the selected building, road, or other man-made
object. Also destroys trees or decorative water. $1
2) Level Terrain: similar to the editing tool, when you click and hold on one
piece of terrain and drag to an area of different elevation, that area
adopts the elevation of the first area. $25
3) Raise Terrain: when you click on a square, the selected terrain will raise
in elevation. If you hold and drag the mouse, then more areas will raise.
$25
4) Lower Terrain: The opposite of Raise Terrain. $25
5) De-zone. Undoes any zoning you may have placed (airport, residential,
etc.). Can undo rubble for free if you start on a zoned area. $1 per square
Tree/ Water Icon
1) Tree: this adds a tree to the selected square. By clicking on a square
multiple times, multiple trees will be placed. Trees can be placed over
zone areas. $3 per click.
2) Water: This adds a piece of decorative water. This type of water can be
demolished. Something I believe I mentioned elsewhere but forgot to put
here (thanks to DragonAtma for pointing this out): if you place water
next to a water pump it will boost that pump's efficiency. The more water
squares are adjacent to the pump, the more water comes in.
Firefighter Icon: This icon only comes into use when there is a disaster
taking place.
1) Dispatch Police: Place police officers.
2) Dispatch Firefighters: Place firefighters.
3) Dispatch Military: Place military.
Lightning Bolt Icon (Power)
1) Power lines: Necessary if you want to put your power plants to use (which
you do). Cheap at $2 per square. When I tell you how to make a good city,
I'll tell you a trick that'll save a good amount of money.
2) Power Plants: This is where your city generates power; I'll use now to tell
you a little bit about each one. DPM stands for Dollars per Megawatt. The
lower it is, the better.
Power Type | DPM | Comments
___________|_____|___________________________________________________________
Coal | 20 | Good DPM, but pollutes a lot. Go for oil instead.
Hydro | 20 | Handy only if you have waterfalls. If so, use this.
Oil | 30 | Bad DPM, but cleaner than coal. Use if you can afford.
Gas | 40 | Never use. Period. Too expensive
Nuclear | 30 | Like oil, but cleaner. If you have No Disasters on, use.
Wind | 25 | Good DPM, but needs a lot of plants to have effect. Ignore.
Solar | 26 | Better than gas. Use only if desperate, since unreliable
Microwave | 17.5| Use if you have 28000 bucks lying around. Efficient.
Fusion | 16 | The best. Save up a lot. Takes only 3 to power a big city.
___________|_____|____________________________________________________________
Some other things about Power Plants:
From DragonAtma:
"There are two things you forgot to mention about Hydro and Wind power
plants. They don't cause ANY pollution, and they NEVER DECAY! So once you
have them, you'll never have to replace them ever. As a resault, I have a
tendency to go ONLY Hydro plants."
Pipe Icon
1) Pipes: Only use if you have it hooked up to a powered pump. Strangely,
having your city watered does little more than raise land value (it doesn't
kill your citizens). When I tell you how to make a city, I will say how to
water your city well. $3 per square
2) Water Pumps: Required if you want a watered city. $100
3) Water Tower: Stores excess water. Place next to pumps. $250
4) Water Treatment: Lowers pollution. Keep around 3 in your city. $500
5) Desalinization: Takes salt out of water. If your city borders a coast,
placing these will largely increase your water supply.
House Icon (Awards)
This icon becomes available everytime you earn an award (see Awards section).
Becomes permanent once you earn Arcologies. With the exception of arcologies,
every award is free.
Road Icon
1) Road: If you don't know what this is, then you need help now. $10 per
square. Notes: By dragging tile to edge of map, you can connect to neighbor
for $1000. Do this if you can spare the money. Also: If you drag to the
water, you can build a bridge. The bridge types are Causeway (for all
distances), Raising Bridge (for medium distances), and Suspension Bridge
(for long distances). The latter two allow bridges to pass underneath.
Prices will vary between bridge type and the that distance they cover.
2) Highway: Same as road, but designed to carry people long distances. I
usually don't use this. Can build bridges and connect to neighboring cities
also. $100 per square.
3) Tunnel: If there are two slanted pieces that are straight across from each
other, then you can build a tunnel to connect them both. If you have a
hilly city, zone on the hills to maximize land usage. Price varies with the
length of the proposed tunnel.
4) Onramp: Connects highway to road. Crucial for your highway system to work.
$25.
5) Bus Depot: One of several ways to reduce traffic. By placing bus depots at
busy intersections, you can greatly reduce traffic in your city. Bus depots
are the most efficient way of reducing traffic in your city. In one of my
cities (which happens to have over 9 million people), I took out all of my
bus depots. The amount of traffic went from 15 to 34 in just one month.
These are more useful after your city reaches about 50000 people. $250 per
depot
Train-Track Icon
1) Rail: Similar to roads, but for trains. I usually completely ignore
anything to do with rail, as it just wastes space if you already have an
efficient road system. It is good for scenic stuff, though. $15 per square
2) Rail Depot: Critical if your rail systems are to work at all. It is fun to
watch the trains move around on your screen, and then pause it, and blow
the track up between the trains to make a fire. $500 per depot
3) Subway: Identical to rail, but below ground. Meant more for taking sims
long distances, so if your city is divided into two sections with mountains
or something in between them, then use the subway to connect them. Other
than that, subways just waste money. Invest in bus depots instead, as they
remove traffic far better. $100 per square
4) Sub Station: Identical to Rail Depot, but 250 dollars cheaper and 3 squares
smaller.
5) Sub <--> Rail: A little thing that makes the subways go above ground and
connect with rails, or vise-versa. Use if rails and subways are commonly
used in your city. $250
Boat/Plane Icon
1) Seaport: This can increase trade and industry in your city. Place next to
deep water for this to thrive. Do not put power lines over these; just next
to 'em. $150 per square
2) Airport: An airport can help boost your city's commerce a fair bit. Like
your seaport, don't power over it. It needs to be at least 2x6 for a runway
to be built. I make my airports 4x6-6x6, though. Once you have a runway, a
little helicopter will appear. If you center your map on it, it will call
out "I'm Hit!" and circle around and fall. It will make a fire, though.
Expensive at $250 per square.
House Icon (residential)
1) Light Residential: This is where people live. This will be the part that
takes up most of your city once it gets going. Light residential is
generally where poor people live. See where I talk about making your city
to find out how to zone this. $5 per square.
2) Dense Residential: Similar to the above, but builds better looking places,
as well as condominiums and apartments. Preferable to light residential
since it allows denser zoning which leads to higher populations. If you use
codes to get a lot of money, make all of your residential this type. $10
per square
Building Icon (commercial)
1) Light Commercial: This is your towns business. Later in your city's life,
there will be a boom for this stuff. Commercial areas raise local land
values. A lot. Never use light commercial, because it does nothing major
for your city. $5 per square
2) Dense Commercial: Identical to the above, but makes bigger and better
buildings, like office towers. Again, only use dense commercial. $10 per
square
Factory Icon (industrial)
1) Light Industrial: Industry is your city's backbone. Industry is what your
city demands in its beginning and hardly anywhere else. Light industrial
pollutes less then dense, but brings in less business. Your decision. $5
per square.
2) Dense Industrial: See above. This one can make large factories and chemical
plants. $10 per square.
Some things from DragonAtma about light Residential and Industrial:
"You should mention that unless there's no room to grow to 2x2, light
residential and industrial zoning should never be used. After all, why spend
$20 to get four houses when $40 can get you a hi-rise apartment?"
Graduation Cap Icon
1) School: Raises the EQ (educational Quotient) of citizens ages 8-20. I know
you probably hate school (like me), but it will help make your city nice
and big. $250
2) College: Raises the EQ for citizens ages 15-25, and a little bit for older
citizens. $1000
3) Library: Raises the EQ for all ages, but to a lesser degree than schools
and colleges. I usually knock down churches (meaning nothing against
religion) and build libraries in their place. Also has no annual cost. $500
4) Museum: Identical to library, but 500 dollars more, and yet it has a
greater effect. $1000
Police Badge Icon
1) Police Station: Place in high crime areas to lower crime. $500
2) Fire Station: Fire Stations lower pollution (I think), and should be placed
often if you want to prepare for disasters. $500
3) Hospital: Raises the life expectancy for your citizens. It doesn't matter
where you place them; just so long as you have them. $500
4) Prison: If crime is high in your city, these will seem hecka handy to you.
$3000
Balloon Icon
1) Small Park: Raises local land values. $20
2) Big Park: Same as above, but with a greater effect. $100
3) Zoo: Helps attract people to your city, as well as increasing land values.
$3000
4) Stadium: I don't know what this or a marina does; I think it just pleases
the citizens. $5000
5) Marina: $1000
And that's it.
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III: Editing a City
When you edit a city, which is free of cost, you change the overall look of
your city. You could make it a scenic forested and mountainous terrain; you
can make it a flat piece of land; or you could just make one big ocean. I'm
not going to describe the tools in the editing window, so to find out what
they do, just shift-click on the icon.
Before I lunge into detail, I might as well say it now: There are two types of
cities:
1) High-Population Cities
2) Scenic/Fun Cities
Alas, I can only help you edit for the first one. Your imagination should take
care of the second one. Just make it the type of place you would want to live
in.
And here's how to do it.
First, start up SimCity. When the dialog box appears, click on Edit City. You
will then be given a map that the computer thinks is good.
Now, look at the buttons at the top of the toolbar. Make sure Coast is dark
and River is light. This will give you a coast. Then, slide the Mountain and
Water bars to the bottom. You can do what you like with the trees. Then click
Make. You will be presented with your new city. Now, using the Level Terrain
tool, level out every part of your city except for the ocean. Once you've done
that, find one of the two corners the ocean touches. Count out 8 squares on
way and 12 the other way. That will be where land comes up to. Leaving the
corner water, make everything else land. Then, using that corner, lay it out
like this:
L L L L L L L L W W W W
L L L L L L L L W W W W
L L L L L L L L W W W W
L L L L L L L L W W W W
W W W W W W W W W W W W
W W W W W W W W W W W W
W W W W W W W W W W W W
W W W W W W W W W W W W
L= Land
W= Water
Then, make sure the land under the water is continually sloping downwards, or
at least goes down as far as you can get it to.
Click Done when, well, you're done. Now we start building. Heh, heh, heh.
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VI. Starting a City
A few basic Tips
Feel free to stray from the FAQ and try your own ideas. Experimenting is the
best way for you to gain experience and find out successful techniques. I
recommend saving on a backup save slot, though, so you don't lose everything
you've gained. If you develop a technique that is better than mine, please
E-mail it to me.
When you start out, you can name your city. Be creative. There's more to
naming a place then giving it a label. Also, you can pick your year. I
recommend starting out in 2050. And pick your difficulty. Easy starts you out
with 20 grand. Medium starts you out with 10 grand, and Hard starts you out
with a $10,000 bond you have to pay back. Make your choice.
When you build a city, the most efficient way to lay it out is like this:
RRRRRRRR
RZZZZZZR
RZZZZZZR
RZZZZZZR
RZZZZZZR
RZZZZZZR
WPZZZZZR
RWRRRRRR
R= Road. Z= Zoned area. P= Powerline over zone. W= Powerline over road.
Doing it this way will save you money on power lines, as the Sims will keep
growing from there. It will also fill up all of the zoned areas. If you want,
sometimes you can place water pumps at the corner of each block. If you fill
the entire city with blocks of zoning like this, it will be efficiently laid
out. You can also build 2 roads with one square between them, and put rail
between the roads. You can make your blocks as long as you want, but the
highest width is six. Otherwise, there will be a narrow row of unused zone
areas. However, seaports and airports do not have a width limit, as they
expand in other ways.
Also, when laying out the roads of your city, I recommend placing an outer
layer of roads around your city, one square away from the edge. Place light
residential areas along the edge to get more people into your city. Make
connections to your neighbor if it is in a high traffic area. And again, don't
use highways. They only seem to add to traffic. But if you decide to anyway,
then I recommend making two highways: One running north and south, the other
east and west. And highways will only work with onramps and roads. You can use
rail/subway if you want, but I recommend that you don't use rail at all, since
it takes up a lot of space and doesn't do much for traffic, and that you only
use subway if you have a large mountain/ lake in the center of your city, and
your sims need to get over/across. Otherwise, use bus systems. They are more
efficiently designed to lower traffic.
When building police or fire stations, it sometimes helps to lay them out in a
grid across your city. That way all areas are covered. This is expensive, so I
don't do this, but the decision is yours. What I do is occasionally place
them, and use the fire power/crime rate part of the map to see where there is
the biggest gap or the most crime.
And a few types of buildings (hospitals, schools, colleges, stadiums,
libraries, zoos, museums, prisons, power plants, water treatments, and
marinas) do not need to be placed in a specific area. The simulation only
checks to see if you have them. So place all of those types of buildings
together in one area to save room.
When it comes to seaports and airports, sims don't want to build over
powerlines. Instead, place the power lines so that they border the
airport/seaport. Otherwise you will only have a runway/pier built. When
building a seaport, make sure that the land under the water has a good
downhill slope (about 3 or 4 squares), or else a pier will not be built. It
also helps to place your runway a little ways above ground or away from tall
buildings, since the planes will fly into nearby buildings and make a fire. If
you place your airport on a hill, then you can place tunnels under it to still
have an efficient roadway. Be warned that even if there aren't any surrounding
buildings, planes will still crash.
When laying out the zoning in your city, it helps to place industry on the
edge. Some of the pollution will blow off the edge, helping to lower one
annoyance. Also, place residential areas near industrial areas. Apparently,
the Sims don't like to drive far to work. So probably the best way to lay out
your city is like this:
IIIII I= Industrial
IRRRI R= Residential
IRCRI C= Commercial
IRRRI
IIIII
Of course, you will need more residential and commercial then that, but that's
still a basically good layout.
Often refer to the icon guide. There I make some recommendations on how to
build something, or which choice is the best.
Remember to use the information charts, mainly the graphs and map. The graphs
can tell you what needs to be improved upon (mainly crime, pollution, and
traffic), and the map can tell you where to improve it. The map can show flaws
in your city, or tell you which areas are thriving. Use the industry window to
find out how your city's industry is laid out, and which kinds should be in
it.
The more bodies of water next to the pump, the more water the pump generates.
If you are making a scenic city, remember that you shouldn't make arcologies,
and try to cut back on industry. Place it off to the sides. It looks good to
line a coastline with trees then place commercial buildings behind them. If
the commerce has a high land value, you will get buildings like office towers
and parking lots, which are both 3x3. A good scenic city will have hills,
trees, water, and high land value. Basically, just make it a place you would
want to live in.
Expand your city slowly. The dimensions of your land are 128 squares by 128
squares (128x128). That is a total of 16,384 squares. That may sound like a
lot, but it fills up fast when your city is growing rapidly. Those 16,384
squares are all you'll ever get, and the only way to regain them is to destroy
something else.
16,384 squares is:
1) $4,096,000 (4.096 million) of Airport.
2) enough space to hold 1,024 arcologies. That's:
a) $204,800,000 (204.8 million) of Launch Arcologies.
b) $102,400,000 (102.4 million) of Plymouth Arcologies.
3) Enough space to build a decent and highly populated city if you use it
right.
The newspapers are your friends. Use them to find out what's current in your
city. I usually use the Courier, as it rates you, and tells about one of your
city's major problems.
Remember that by shift-clicking on just about anything in the game, it will
bring up a description of that item/button. This can give you a description
beyond what I give you (but it still won't be as good as mine).
Keep taxes around 6-8 percent. If you go higher, people will leave your city
in anger, resulting in a decline in income. If you lower it too much, the
people that come into your city will not be enough to repay the amount of
money you lose. I you use codes, it doesn't matter how low your taxes go, but
I keep mine around 3-5 percent so that if there is a slump in my city's growth
I can lower my taxes and bring in some more people to it.
If you don't want to waste time and money on fighting disasters, then go into
the disasters menu and make sure "No Disasters" has a check by it. This will
eliminate random disasters such as a microwave. I usually use no disasters as
it saves me a lot of trouble and worry. There is a reason behind this:
One night, I wanted my city to expand while I ate dinner (by leaving the
computer on). I had No Disasters turned off.
When I came back, my whole city was in flames, and I could not recover it.
That may have been one of my best cities ever.
Also remember that there are three types of military protection available:
Police, firefighters, and the military. But if you want to challenge yourself,
turn off No Disasters. Just make sure you pay attention to the game.
Never take out a bond. Well, unless a power plant blows up, or something close
to that. But try to repay it as fast as you can. Bonds are major money killers
that will drive you closer and closer to bankruptcy. Once you've saved up
enough money, go into the bond window and click Repay Bond. This will finish
off most of it, before the interest kills you for good. But even still, try
and save up enough money beforehand in case something like that happens.
Now I know some of you are religious, so please take no offense from the
following statement: Churches just get in the way. They do nothing to your
city but take up 4 valuable squares of space. Instead, every once in a while,
go through your city and destroy all of your churches and replace them with
libraries or rezone them with residential.
Signs can be very helpful. Use them to mark out your future plans for an area.
That way you can manage your city well. You can also use them to name streets
if you want to make your city seem more scenic.
Don't be afraid to cut back on funding. If you desperately need money, then
you have nothing to spend days crying about. It'll help more then hurt (unless
you cut back on it too much). Just don't cut back on the wrong thing. See my
description of the budget window to find out what you should cut back on, and
how much your limits are.
Don't be a reckless spender. If you build rapidly, it will take years to
regain the money you lose, and that will hurt you in the long run. Instead,
take it slow. You can always expand later. Be patient. It takes hundreds,
sometimes thousands of years (in the game of course) to make a massive city.
Just try and keep your budget balance positive. That's the most important
thing to remember if you don't use cheats for money. Don't spend more then you
gain (unless you are building a power plant or an arcology).
Build parks often. It will raise land value and increase business. Although
trees look better, parks will do more or your land value because the park
square will actually count, increasing the local area value. It also helps to
build roads through forested areas to increase land value.
Try not to cheat until you get the feel of the simulation. Not only will you
get smarter, you will be able to build better thriving cities. But if you
really need a bit of money immediately, use a minor money giving cheat, like
the $250 cheat.
Building Arcologies is a gamble. Whereas it can greatly increase your
population by millions, it can also make your crime level skyrocket.
Arcologies are an expensive investment that take years to fill up. Make sure
you can afford to spare over 100 grand, and make sure at least one police
station is nearby.
B. A Divider
I'm afraid that now I must split you into 2 groups. If you are building a
scenic city (a well running city), then skip the next section. If you are
building a high population city, then read on.
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V. How to make a Highly-Populated City
A high population city doesn't need to bother with little tiny details, like
trees and hills, or water even. A big city needs money and people. If you are
trying to make a big city, it often helps to use codes to gain money (see the
codes section down further). That way, you don't have to worry about income,
and you can build a massive city fast. I am going to assume that you have used
codes to get money, so that way I don't have to hassle with telling you how to
get your budget balance positive. The main key to a large population city is
arcologies. In my biggest city, arcologies hold over 98% of my city's people,
amounting to over 8 and a half million people just in my arcologies. Although
they increase crime, they still increase your population. Opt for the launch
arco over the others, as it holds the most people.
I'm afraid I can't baby you into building a perfect city. You will have to
know when to expand, and what to place where. I can give you the basics in
laying out a city.
For those of you who doubt my greatness, then know this: As I tell you what to
do, I am building a city that I hope will pass up Paul City for my highest
population.
Use the map I told you to edit. This is your best layout I know of. Use codes
to get a lot of money. I recommend using the code that gives you all awards,
inventions, and 500 grand, and you can get and unlimited amount of 500 grand
more. I am going to assume you've used this one, also.
First place seaport over the area that extends over the water. Then pause the
game. Place roads right next to the seaport, and around the city, but make
sure there is an empty square next to the edge. Make the roads connect, so
that the corners are like this:
NNNNNNN
NEREEEE
NRRRRRR
NEREEEE
N= Nothingness E= Empty Land R= Road
Make sure the roads connect to your neighboring cities.
See the that empty land on the sides? Make it all light residential. As time
goes along, you will need to destroy some buildings to connect your city with
the neighboring cities, but we'll wait on that.
Now you have two choices: You can build the arcologies now, or later. If you
build them later, then you're on your own. To build the arcologies, you will
need a lot of money (at least 30,000,000 dollars), and the Launch Arco needs
to have been invented. Here's how I did it: First, I place an entire row of
launch arcos on one side of the map. Then, I make another row, this time of
police stations. I keep alternating the two until something happens: When you
bring up a dialog box on the arcologies, there is no picture. Then, destroy
all of the arcologies without a picture, and the police stations next to them.
Then, fill up the rest of the row with schools and colleges. Take the next row
and place six to eight fusion power plants, and then build some more schools,
colleges, hospitals, stadiums, libraries, a couple of prisons, water treatment
plants, water towers, and museums. Also make an effective water model (See the
water pipe Icon description). This will set up your city. Then take the
remaining land and do two things: Set it up into blocks, but first make an
airport. Your airport should be about 4x8 to 6x8, in other words, not too big.
And make sure that power lines aren't running through it, but still touching
the airport zoned land. Once you have divided your city into blocks, then take
the outermost blocks and make them industrial. Then take the centermost blocks
and make the commercial. Take the blocks in between the industry and
commercial and make them residential. Just make sure you don't fill up the
whole map. As time goes on, add bus depots, police stations, fire stations,
and, if you really need them, schools, libraries, hospitals, etc. Also zone
your city by using the demand bars, not your instincts, when you feel it is
time to expand your city's zoned areas.
And if you just let your city grow, it will get up to around 9 million (which
is pretty much as big as New York City or Los Angeles), so long as everything
is OK. So what is everything?
1) Make sure crime isn't booming, with the exception of around the arcologies.
2) Keep traffic low by using bus depots at busy intersections (all if you
can), and if it still is really bad, try and use Parking Fines to lower it.
3) Pollution should be low. All you really need to do is enact Pollution
Controls. Lowering traffic will lower pollution a little bit too.
4) Maintain a high city-wide land value. This will make your city look good as
well as help it thrive.
5) Minimize abandoned buildings.
6) Keep commerce flowing by maintaining a high land value.
7) Keep residential areas flowing by placing them near industry.
8) Keep industry flowing by giving them connections to the neighboring areas.
If you do all this, you should be able to have an amazing city that you can
brag to your friends with.
Once your city reaches 9 million, you can enact every expensive ordinance,
keep all funding full, and still have a positive income from taxes.
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VI. How to make a Well-Running City
Quite the opposite of a city with a high population, a well-running city is
the type of city I would be a lot more willing to live in. A well-running city
has low pollution, crime, traffic, unemployment rates, and everything else
that's bad. Instead, it has high land values, high EQ, and a high life
expectancy. A well-running city usually has no arcologies, since those just
get in the way. These cities boast their efficiency, not their people. To make
a well-running/scenic city, you have to take your time, and hope for the best.
Also in this section, I will give you a walkthrough that works if you do not
use codes to get money, so listen up!
Since the map is your own creation, I can only do so much. But I recommend
doing the borders the same way as in a big city. Just leave mountains and
lakes the way they are (unless you have something else that's better in mind).
I still recommend dividing your city's land into blocks, but for these types
of cities it is usually better to expand when it is needed, adding one block
at a time. Also, it is sometimes good to have a block of major buildings
(police stations, schools, colleges, hospitals, bus depots, etc.), and then
build more police stations and fire stations where there is a gap or they are
just needed badly. Lower traffic later when you have a solid massive cash
flow.
But when doing the borders, do it a bit at a time. You only get so much money.
First, I recommend building an oil power plant. Oil and nuclear power plants
are your best bet, as they are efficient and don't pollute too much (nuclear
hardly at all, but only use it if you have No Disasters on). Of course, if you
have plenty of money to spare, you will want to build a fusion or microwave
power plant instead.
In cities that don't use money codes, it saves a lot of money if you don't
bother with watering your city, as it won't kill off your Sims. If you decide
to water your city, I recommend doing it later on when you have more money to
spare.
DragonAtma had something to say about watering in your city:
"I think that piping in water to your RCI zones is necessary to get the
highest population buildings"
I agree with this because I think that watering boosts land value, which in
turn brings in better buildings.
Put your power plant in a block with some industrial. Build a few more blocks
of industrial and one of residential. Don't make the blocks extend across your
whole city, making them 8x5 or so is good enough. As time goes on, expand more
blocks close to the same size by using the demand bars
TAKE IT SLOW!!!
If you build too much, you will end up losing lots of money. Remember that it
is okay to cut back on funding, just make sure it isn't too much or on the
wrong thing. Don't enact heavy ordinances until you have a steady positive
cash flow. I only use 1% Income Tax and Parking fines to gain money, though.
As you build, be saving up money for power plants. Remember, they only have a
50 year life span.
Read the newspapers often to find out what your city's problems are.
A well-running/scenic city has:
1) High city-wide land values. This keeps demand up for industry, commerce,
and residential areas.
2) Reasonable pollution. A well-running city should be clean.
3) Low traffic. Helps keep pollution low, and makes your city effective.
Traffic is easy to lower if you have an efficient road system.
4) Low Crime. I wouldn't want to be mugged daily and neither should you. Use
Police Stations at high crime areas to lower this.
5) High Educational Quotient (EQ) and Life Expectancy (LE). This makes your
city a desirable place to live.
6) A very positive budget flow. You should be making thousands yearly, if not
better.
7) Few abandoned buildings. Build zoos, lower taxes, and raise land values for
this one.
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VII. How to Increase....
A. Land Value
Land Value is the cost that people pay to own an area of land. The higher this
is, the bigger and better businesses and other buildings you'll attract. This
is crucial, so I'll say how to do it for each zoning type.
1) Industrial: Usually, you don't want industrial areas to have high land
values. Use them instead to place fusion power plants, prisons, water
treatments, and just about anything else people might hate, there.
2) Commercial: Usually, if you leave commercial areas on their own, and don't
place anything by them that would lower the land value (like Industry),
your commercial areas will have a high land value; so long as crime,
pollution, and traffic aren't booming. Placing parks nearby helps. If you
have all of these, it is easy to have a massive flourishing area of
commercial buildings, which also looks cool.
3) Residential: Well, residential zones are tougher to raise. Make sure crime
and pollution are low, and build zoos and parks. Make sure there are few
abandoned buildings, and lower traffic. It helps to build your industry
alongside the homes.
4) Your Overall City: Lower crime, pollution, and traffic. Select all the
options under Promotional in the City Ordinances window. Water your city.
B: Education
Education can help attract massive industries to your city. Don't neglect it.
1) Build lots of schools, colleges, libraries, and museums. Also select Pro
Reading Campaign.
C: Your Money
Take note of this.
1) Raise Taxes. You can do this for just industry or commercial. I don't
recommend doing it too much for residential.
2) Lower funding to Police & Fire departments.
3) Don't get a bond ever.
4) Cut back on City Ordinances
5) Set Parking Fines or 1% Income Tax.
6) Stop expanding your city.
D: Citizens Health
This makes more people want to live in your city.
1) Build lots of hospitals.
2) Select Anti-Drug campaign
3) Select everything under Safety & Health
4) Reduce Crime.
E: Your City's Water
Watering your city raises land value; nothing more.
1) Build pumps next to standing water. This increases how much they put out.
Here's my system of doing it.
PWPWPWPWPWPWPWPWP
PWPWPWPWPWPWPWPWP
PLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLP
PWPWPWPWPWPWPWPWP
PWPWPWPWPWPWPWPWP
P= Water Pump W= Water L= Power Line over water
2) Lower your population
3) If you have an ocean, build a Desalinization plant
F: Your Power supply
1) Build efficient Power Plants (see where I list them)
2) Select Energy Conservation if you have enough money
3) Kill your Sims (not recommended)
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How to Get Rid Of...
A. Crime
1) Build Police Stations (use the Crime part of your map to find out where to
put these).
2) Set Neighborhood Watch
3) Don't legalize gambling
4) Place at least one police station near Arcologies, or better yet, don't
build arcos at all.
5) If you still have a lot of crime, building a prison may help.
B. Pollution
1) Set Pollution controls.
2) Build less industry
3) Lower pollution-increasing industry
4) Lower traffic
C. The amount of abandoned buildings
1) Build a strip of Industry next to Residential
2) Raise land values
3) Only build what the demand bars tell you to
4) Build zoos
5) Lower taxes
D. Traffic
1) Build bus depots at high-traffic areas (usually intersections)
2) Set parking fines
3) Build a more efficient road system
4) Don't use highways
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Disasters
A. The disasters
So... you've built a massive city. Every square of land has something on it.
And now you wanna blow it up as fast as you can. I would too. Here, I'll tell
you what each disaster is, and rate how destructive it is (1-10)
a. Fire: Sets a random square of land on fire. Sometimes blows up bigger
buildings, like police stations. 2
b. Flood: Makes a little bit of water expand to a massive size. Doesn't
destroy everything, but close to 60% of the affected area. 6
c. Riots: Weak until they get out of control. Just a bunch of unhappy people,
but when they get out of control, they n fill up the whole map. 3
d. Tornado: A giant funnel of wind. Makes a narrow 3-square path of
destruction on its quest to the edge of the map. 4
e. Hurricane: Very powerful. One whole edge of your map is wiped out. Such a
shame it doesn't spread through the entire city. Destroys about 90% of the
affected area. 8
f. Air Crash: A plane spins and falls down. Burns about 3 or 4 squares. 2
g. Monster: Similar to Tornado, but a big alien space ship that uses a laser
to fry stuff. 4
h. Earthquake: The "big city killer". This one does a lot of damage to massive
cities, but little to smaller ones. It collapses some buildings and
explodes others all across the city. Causes a lot of fires. 5 or more
earthquakes in a row is sure to ruin your citizens day. 9
Other disasters I've seen:
The disasters in the menu aren't the only disasters in this game. If you turn
off "No Disasters", then others will occur randomly during the play of game. I
consider a disaster different if its name up top is different. Seeing as all
of these disasters happen randomly, so I have no control over it at all, I
have no effective way of fighting them. Half of them I haven't even seen to
tell you about. If anyone has seen more, please e-mail me the name of the
disaster and describe it (if you can).
1) Microwave: Info for the microwave was provided by spud2002: "When the
Microwave beam misses the Power Plant it causes fires in a straight line
from the plant."
2) Crash: When a plane crashes into a building. Causes a fire. Usually only
happens when you have a tall building close to a runway.
3) Toxic Spill: Little gas clouds fly around. Spud2002 writes: "There are
actually 2 types of toxic cloud disasters, pollution disaster and chemical
spill (The latter is worse). Both are caused by having lots of polluting
industries & when the clouds touch a building it becomes abandoned."
4) Nuclear Meltdown: Spud2002 writes about this one: "A little more info on
Meltdowns for you; Basically besides causing a lot of fires they also leave
radioactive squares which cannot be inhabited for a few hundred years
after. Toxic clouds are also formed by a meltdown. "
5) Volcano (courtesy of spud2002): "It's a very rare one to get though.
Basically out of nowhere a huge mountain rises and fire spreads around it,
there are also toxic gas clouds produced by it."
And, from DragonAtma:
"Back when I read the manual (loooong ago), it said something like
"Occasionally, the laser misses the Microwave power plant. Oops." -- which
would mean that it's a rare side-effect of a microwave power plant. (7) Like
in the original SC, there should be nuclear meltdowns (Hello Boston 2047!),
but only from nuclear power plants. (duh?)"
B. How to fight each disaster
So you blew up your city, and realized you accidentally saved your city when
it was on fire. So now you want to save your city from utter destruction.
Well, you're on your own. Nah, just kidding. Read on.
a. Fire: Pause the game, and put firefighters/military around the affected
area. It is a good idea to eliminate the areas closest to your
expensive/important/big buildings, so they don't blow up and spread the
fire. Fire only spreads to the horizontal and vertical sides though, which
helps a lot. Not too tough.
From DragonAtma:
"There's a (relatively) simple solution to fire -- bulldoze every square
that they touch, as empty squares and rubble squares can't be burned.
Obviously, this'll be most important if you have lots of fires (Hint: LA
'06 nostalgia) or are playing the addon scenario with a large fire (which
becomes ridiculously easy)."
b. Flood: All you can really do is wait it out. Just place
police/firefighters/military around your expensive/important buildings to
guard them from the raging waters.
c. Riots: Surround the affected areas, like fire, but with police instead of
firefighters. Riots move fast, so be prepared.
d. Tornado: Wait it out.
e. Hurricane: See flood.
f. Air Crash: Just place firefighters in the area you estimate it'll land in,
and put out the fires one by one.
g. Monster: See tornado.
h. Earthquake: Uh oh. Lots of fires to put out. You could do it the hard way
(see fire) or do it my way: Lower the burning land to below sea level! Even
if it destroys lots of buildings, it will put out the fires before they
cause widespread destruction.
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X. Reward List
So you've built a big city, and the city votes to reward you. Congratulations.
Here are the awards, the population you get them at, and some tips. All of the
awards, with the exception of Arcologies, are free of cost. You can place the
rewards to make a scenic view. To hear one of my recommendations on how to
make a scenic view, see where I tell you how to make a well-running city
further up on the walkthrough.
A. Mayors House- 2,000 people must be in your city
This is a home for you, the mayor. Place it in a scenic place, or whatever.
2x2
B. City Hall- 10,000 citizens
Place wherever. When you bring up its info box, click on analysis to see how
much space of your city is taken up by each category. Kinda useful. Most large
cities with codes have transportation/arcologies/ health & safety take up most
of the space. Cities without codes will not. Instead, they usually have
residential take up that space. 3x3
C. Statue- 30,000 residents
A 1 square statue. Whoop-de-doo. If you use the All-Awards cheat, you can
build multiple statues and make a scenic landscaping effect.
D. Military Base Option- 60,000 dudes in your city
This is the option to build a military base in your city. This will raise
crime a lot in the area the military chooses. I usually say no, but once
again, it's up to you. If you say no, then you don't get a base, but also lose
the help of the military. If you say yes, you will have the protection of the
military during disasters, and the military will pick out a piece of land and
build on it. If your city is full, then they will inform you of this. The type
of base you get generally depends on the land in your city.
1) Navy Base: you have an open coastline.
2) Army Base: Your open land is bumpy.
3) Air Force Base: Your open land is level.
Once the military owns the land, you cannot modify it at all. If you have "No
Disasters" on, then the base will do nothing more then add to crime and take
up your city's precious land and space.
E. Braun Llama Dome- 90,000 brave souls
Does this game have an obsession with llamas? Seriously, I think the creators
need counseling, or something, about that. Anyway, this is a big Space Needle
thingie. Good only for scenery. I like to place it on a high plateau that
overlooks the city. 4x4
F. Arcologies- 120,000 people
The only truly useful award. Arcologies are big, bad, and (most importantly)
very expensive. They are massive structures that hold lots of people, and cost
a lot. The game calls them "cities within a city," and I hope that speaks for
itself. As time progresses, more will be discovered/invented. Since Arcologies
cost lots of money, you will need to save up quite a while. Each one is 4x4.
Here's each type of arcology in detail.
1) Forest: Holds 30,000 people for $120,000. Costs 4 bucks per person (which
is a lot), yet it is the most efficient (pollution and I think crime-wise)
arco. I usually don't use these at all, since you get hardly any bang for
your buck.
2) Darco: Holds 45,000 people for $150,000. Costs $3.33 per person. I hate
these things, but they do look cool. Not worth the money since it excels in
nothing in particular.
3) Plymouth: Holds 55,000 people for 100,000 dollars, or $1.80 per person. The
most cost efficient arco, but it doesn't hold the most people. Handy if you
aren't using codes since you can get a lot of people for a relatively low
cost.
4) Launch: Holds 65,000 people for $200,000, which is $3.07 per person.
Expensive, but it's definitely worth it. If you use codes to get money,
then this is the way to go. If your city is past 2050 ( I think that's the
year) and you have like 300 of these, they will launch into space (but it
doesn't work on Mac version 1.0a). In Mac 1.00a, you can only have (I
think) 138 arcologies. If you use Plymouth Arcologies instead and build 138
of them instead of 138 Launch Arcos, it will cost you 1,380,000 people, but
save you $13,800,000. The choice is yours to make. It's money versus
people. Money can create people, but within limits...
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XI. Inventions
As time progresses, more things will be developed, giving you more options of
how to improve (and in some cases wreck) your city. When something is
invented, a newspaper will pop up (if you have a subscription/extra) and
describe the invention. For some reason, it seems that each invention has a
zone of time in which it is invented between. I'm gonna list the time it was
discovered for me. Feel free to e-mail me your invention dates because I am
going to try and list a zone of dates. If you see the that your date is
between the listed ones, then don't e-mail me, OK? I actually have better
things to do with my time then read pointless E-mails like that. Anyways, if
you e-mail me, say the invention and the date it was invented (try to include
the month).
I made my list start in 1900, the earliest year you can get.
Bus Depot: March 1916
Subway: January 1920
Highway: March 1925
Airport: April 1927
Water Treatment: November 1929
Gas Power: February 1957
Nuclear Power: September 1962
Wind Power: March 1977
Desalinization: August 1997
Plymouth Arco: March 2010
Microwave Power: May 2034
Forest Arco: January 2048
Fusion Power: January 2066
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XII. Scenic Suggestions
This is not a strict guideline area. You don't have to use this if you don't
want to. I use these because I think these look cool.
Here something I do to make my city look cool with commercial buildings and
the awards.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ The Z's indicate commercially zoned areas.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ The R's indicate road.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR The W's indicate water.
RWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWR The M's indicate a square of the Mayor's House.
RWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWR The B's indicate a square of the Braun Llama Dome.
RWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWR The S indicates the Statue.
RTBBBBWWWWWWWWWWR The T's indicate trees.
RTBBBBWWWWWWWWWWR
RTBBBBCCCWWWWWWWR
RTBBBBCCCTTTMMWWR
RTTTTTCCCTSTMMWWR
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I know the letters look hecka crappy, but when you actually put this into a
city, it looks pretty cool.
I have a very scenic thing I do that looks cool. You will need a Mayor's
House, Statues (the s isn't a typo), City Halls, and a Llama Dome. So the only
way to get this is to type in the "porntipsguzzardo" cheat (Read what it does
in the codes section before entering this). And this is it:
TTTBBBBTTT
CCCBBBBCCC
CCCBBBBCCC
CCCBBBBCCC
TTTSMMSTTT
TTTSMMSTTT
TTTSWWSTTT
TTTSWWSTTT
Each letter indicates one square on the grid. The 4x4 "B" section indicates
the Braun Llama Dome. The 2 3x3 sections indicated with a "C" means that
that's where you should put a City Hall. All eight "S"s indicate that's where
a statue would go. So you need eight statues. The one 2x2 section labeled "M"
means to put the Mayor's House there. The W's mean to put water there, and the
trees mean to put trees there.
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XIII. Codes for the Macintosh
Cheater. Type in the code EXACTLY as I type it here, or it will not work. If
you know any more, please E-mail them to me, and tell me the version number it
works for. If it works for PC only, you can still E-mail it to me.
a. Basic Cheats:
1. porntipsguzzardo: All awards are open to you, plus you get $500,000. Use
multiple times to get awards again (so you can build
multiple statues or whatever). Excludes you from a
military base. Also unlocks all inventions and
newspapers. Very handy if you are going to make a massive
city.
2. ardo: If you did the above, gives you five hundred thousand more dollars.
If you quit SimCity and restart it, type in the above
once more to be able to do this.
3. vers: Tells your version number (mine is 1.00a).
4. joke: tells you a joke.
5. cass: sometimes you get $250, sometimes you get a fire storm (a disaster)
6. fund: bond with low interest.
THE FUND TRICK:
Use this RIGHT WHEN YOU START A NEW CITY. Don't build anything. This will give
you 1.5 million dollars every year, and you can still get that military base
you've been wanting.
First, type in fund and click yes.
Next, type in fund and click yes.
Third, go into the budget and issue a bond. The rate should be .%, and click
yes. Say hello to 1,500 grand (or $1,500,000) every January of the year.
Populate Arcologies Fast
First, build any arcology of your choice. Don't connect it to any power lines
or pipes whatsoever. Make sure it is neither powered or watered. Wait a year
(sometimes it takes two), and check it. It should have a full population.
The Magic Eraser:
This allows you to erase something (usually Arcos) and build over them, but
have it still count as being there. To do this, first click on the tree icon.
Then click on the area you want to erase. DON'T LET GO! Then, press and hold
shift. Then move the mouse over the areas you want to erase. To erase
something, every square must be erased. I usually don't bother with this
trick.
Get Easy Money (from DragonAtma)
Thanks to DragonAtma for this information. I'm not sure if this is exactle a
cheat, but this is probably the best place for this to go. Because of my busy
schedule I have yet to try this, but here it is:
"In the netplay edition, money comes from three sources: taxes, ordinances,
and stupidity. You've covered the first two, and the key to the third is that
sticking a single residential zone in the middle of nowhere, with no ability
to develop (but no crime or pollution), becomes a land value of $64! So,
here's the trick (which you'll probably realize) to turning stupidity into
money: * Build a Light Residential zone away from your city. (Your temporary
loss: $5) * Wait for it to shoot up to $64 (or more). Because of how the game
works (presumably to save money), the city is divided into 2x2 squares -- so
not only will the zone get rich, but the other three tiles will too! * Keep
the residential tile, but sell the other three for a total of $192. (Your
profit: $187) * Time to screw the customer (whatever chip you buy and sell
land from)! De-zone the residential spot. (Your profit: $186) * Without the
zone, the game will consider the tile be about as important as a refrigerator
in Siberia, so just wait for the fool's gol- err, land to drop back down to
$20 (for whatever reason your unowned land is double price). * Buy the land
back, leaving where you started (Your profit: $126 -- not bad for a $5
investment!) * Mock the CPU land trader (okay, this step is optional, but
makes you feel good. You can't see me, but I'm laughing as I type this up!) By
building 20 seperated zones for a mere $100, you're guaranteed to make $2,520
when you're done -- and that's not all! Having them near each other (but not
touching, of course) will increase the price, and scenic additions (trees,
water, and hills) will increase it even more! My latest nugget of advice: Keep
a few separated light residential tiles in the middle of nowhere just in case
you have a money problem."
"Well when you do, I have one last addition: when selling land, you can sell
the unoccupied zoned areas too, as it'll automatically unzone them. Therefore,
the profit'll be $45 more ($64 for selling, minus $20 for buying, plus $1 for
not having to dezone), for a total of $171."
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XIV. Hall of Fame
I can never resist a chance to brag.
I have a series of my greatest cities: The Paul City Series. In it there are 9
cities. I have made a total of 12, but over time they became ruined or lost.
You see, I had a password encryption program, but it got messed up and I can't
decrypt my files, and I know the cities I lost were better than some of the
ones I put here. Below I have listed one of my favorite cities and one of my
biggest cities. Amongst other cities I have made, I have imitated Lake Town
(from the book: The Hobbit), and also imitated Los Angeles (you don't want to
see the traffic in it). The land value, crime, traffic, education, etc. info I
get from the graph window. I also rate how good I feel I did in each category
(1-10). Most of these cities (well, actually all) I used codes to get money.
The whole point of the Hall of Fame is to give you something you can model off
of when you build your city. It provides an example of what is high, and what
is low. It can also give you a goal to accomplish, as well as give you an idea
of what is good, bad, and impossible. If you have a city that:
1) beats my highest population by over 500,000
2) has a land value over 175 (but with a population that's over 75,000 without
arcos or 500,000 with arcos)
3) you think is extremely scenic
then compress that city (preferably by using StuffIt, BinHex, or Compact Pro,
but WinZip or ZipIt is OK too). Please don't use anything else (you can get
Compact Pro at
ftp://mirrors.aol.com/) and E-mail it to me. If it is truly one
of those 3, I will list everything here. In the comments of E-mailed cities, I
will list my own thoughts on the city.
Oh, and E-mail me the name too if you can.
Paul City7
Created: January 15, 2003 N/A
Population: 70,110 5 (OK for a scenic city)
Type of City: Scenic N/A
Year: 2079 N/A
Completed: Yes N/A
Largest Neighbor: 4,138 (New Boots) N/A
Military Base: No N/A
Land Value: 130 6
Crime: 0 10 (well, duh)
Pollution: 18 7
Traffic: 9 5
Education: 94 6
Health: 63 5
Total Arcologies: 0 N/A
Darcos: 0 N/A
Launch: 0 N/A
Plymouth: 0 N/A
Forest: 0 N/A
National Population: 198,458,000 N/A
Percent of Nation: 0.03% N/A
Comments/ Description: One of my more recent cities. It has low population so
that it looks good. Very beautiful. I spent days in the editing window making
it look perfect. The mountains are just the right shape and height, the water
and coastline is perfectly shaped to make it look fancy. It has a V-shaped
valley with lots of trees, and a road running through it. Has a coast line, a
large lake, and a bay. Along the bay is a commercial area that hosts lots of
big buildings, trees, and parks to add to the scenery. Also, where the bay
connects to the ocean, there is a bridge (Gotta imitate the Golden Gate
Bridge) Here's a diagram.
W= Water. M= Mountain. T= Tree. G= Water on Mountain. := Boundary.
Blank areas are my City. Notice the island in the ocean.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:MMMMMMMGGMMMMTTT TTTTMMMMMMMGGMMMM:
:MMMMMMMMGMMMTTTT TTTTMMMMMMGGMMMMM:
:MMMMMMMMGGTTTTT T TTTTTMMMGGMMMMMM:
:MMMMM WWW WWW MMMM:
: WWW WWW :
: WWWWWWWWWW :
: WWWWWWWWWWWW :
: WWWWWWWWWW :
: WWWWWW :
: :
: :
: WWW :
: WWWWWWWWW :
: WWWWWWW :
: WWWWWWW :
:WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW:
:WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW:
:WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWMMWWWW:
:WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW:
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul City
Created: February 13, 2003 N/A
Population: 9,280,119 9
Type of City: high population N/A
Year: 2193 N/A
Completed: yes N/A
Largest Neighbor: 52205 (Little Rouge) N/A
Military Base: no N/A
Land Value: 123 7
Crime: 26 7
Pollution: 35 4
Traffic: 5 9
Education: 118 5
Health: 80 4
Total Arcologies: 138 N/A
Darcos: 0 N/A
Launch: 138 N/A
Plymouth: 0 N/A
Forest: 0 N/A
National Population: 1,073,240,000 N/A
Percent of Nation: 0.86% N/A
Comments/Description: This is the last (meaning most recent) city I built. It
also happens to be the biggest I've ever made. Notice that traffic is
EXTREMELY low for a city with 9 million people living in it..... Wish LA was
like that. Health and Education could be higher, but I'm too lazy to perfect
that. Since 138 arcos is my version of the game's limit, I can't get too much
higher than this.
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XV. FAQs
In case you didn't know, FAQs stands for Frequently Asked Questions. If you
have a question regarding the game, feel free to e-mail it to me.
Q: Why won't my seaport/airport build up?
A: You probably put powerlines directly onto it. Put it next to the zoned area
instead.
Q: Why can I only build so many arcologies that actually hold people?
A: The version of the game that you have probably won't let you.
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XVI. SimCity 2000 Download Sites
There are tons of Internet sites where you can download cities. I know of only
one that's of TRUE quality, but if you know any more, please e-mail them to
me. A good Internet download site has a lot of cities (over ten), and almost
all of the cities are of quality (scenic or high population). I have been to
lots of sites that say things like:
"Joshuaville boasts a population of 53,297 people in the year 2576. There is
$2709 saved up for you to use! Download Joshuaville to see what a truly great
city looks like!"
1.
http://www.sc3000.com/sc2000
The SimCity 2000 Resource guide. Has downloadable scenic cities and
high-population cities. These are the cities I tried to beat. I still can't
beat Millennium 25, and I know I never will because of my version of the game.
Also gives more detailed information on the game.
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XVII. Legal Stuff
This document copyright 2003-2006 Paul Buzbee.
Well, after thinking things out a bit, I decided to lax up my rules on letting
other sites post this guide. I decided that I'm not running a business with
these FAQs, so why should I be demanding in who can use them? There are a lot
of gamers out there who need help, and they should be able to get that help.
So, I decided that ANY site may post this, or any of my other FAQs, so long as
they follow the following guidelines:
1. Try to keep this guide updated the best you are able to. It's a real pain
receiving e-mails asking questions that you have answered already. So, if you
want to post this guide on your site, try to keep it updated. The most recent
version can always be found at
http://www.gamefaqs.com/.
2. Post this guide as a .txt page, not as a .html page. Also, the whole guide
should be on one page. If you are unsure as to what this means, check out the
version of this guide posted at
http://www.gamefaqs.com/. That is what I mean
by a .txt page.
3. Give me full credit. Honestly, it's not that hard to do. All you really
have to do is just post the full guide, not clip it or anything. In this guide
it says I wrote it, and that's all that I'm asking for. Sure, if you give me
credit in a bigger way I will be grateful, but you don't have to do that. Just
give me credit. My guide, my work, so give me my credit. That's the only
reason I write FAQs anyways. Don't take away my hobby from me.
4. If you plan to make any sort of profit from this guide, ask for my
permission first. I will say yes, almost guaranteed.
These regulations are not hard to follow. I'm not asking a lot. So, please,
just follow them. And thank you.
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XVIII. Special Thanks/Credits
\|||||||/
-CREDITS-
/|||||||\
1)
http://www.sc3000.com/
That's the website I got the codes from. The codes helped me to assemble my
line of great cities.
2) DragonAtma
Thank you for the following:
1) Telling me that Hydro and Wind power plants don't pollute and never
decay
2) Telling me what Fed Rate is
3) Submitting another way to deal with fires
4) Telling me about the Microwave and the Nuclear Meltdown disasters
5) Telling me that Piping is necessary to produce high-population
buildings
6) More stuff about light residential and industrial zoning
7) A few comments about watering in RCI zones
8) A trick to get more money in netplay edition
3) The program FIGlet
Thank you for the awesome ASCII art in the beginning of the FAQ.
4) spud2002
Thanks goes out to you for the following:
1) Info on several disasters I left out. Thanks!
\WWWWWWWWWWWWWW/
-SpEcIaL ThAnKs-
/MMMMMMMMMMMMMM\
1) Anyone who has sent in helpful E-mails
This keeps me from ditching my FAQ projects. Thank you.
2) YOU!
Thank you for reading this FAQ! Your support helps. Thanks!
3) The makers of SimCity 2000.
Thanks for making such a great game!
------------------------------End of FAQ--------------------------------------
