Simcity 2000 Tips And Tricks - Somacon

This page is from 1996!

I admit it. I'm a Simcity Freak! My first experience with it was on Samir's black and white laptop computer. I still remember my first city I made on that computer. I love urban planning so much that I think I'm going to study it in grad-school. Anyways, for your information, I'm going to tell all that I've learned about Simcity that I think is special.

• BEGINNERS TRICKS AND TIPS
• INTERMEDIATE TRICKS AND TIPS

BEGINNERS TRICKS AND TIPS:

• You absolutely need three things to start a city in Simcity 2000. This is the toughest part for beginners.
  • FIRST: Build a Power Plant.
  • SECOND: Build Roads (not rails) (A grid pattern works very well.)
  • THIRD: Build a mix of Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Zones not more than 3 blocks from a road.
• This took me a long time to figure out. If you press the mouse button and hold it down on the menu bar where you choose which structure to build, a menu will pop up with more choices. Kind of like Windows 95. You need to know this.
• You will probably have zoning that does not develop. Check the following things.
  • Does it have a road within three tiles?
  • Does it have access to power either through adjacent buildings or power lines?
  • Can the people who might live (or work) there have an short, connected route to another zone type?
• Now, look at the demand indicator. What you want is for all three indicators to be in the full + position. If they are not, then something is wrong with your city that makes it undesirable.
  • The first thing you can do to raise the demand indicator is to lower taxes in the budget window. Lowering taxes always brings cheers from the populace.
  • The second thing that you can do is often overlooked by people. You must have the correct ratio of Residential to Commercial to Industrial. The optimum ratio changes as a city grows larger. The ratios are approximately as follows:
    • >10,000 people, R:C:I = 4:1:3 (lots of industry)
    • 10,000 to 60,000, R:C:I = 4:2:2 (about equal industrial and commercial)