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When I make a Sim City I try to accomplish the following objectives
Water and vistas 
Make the city close to water so the citizens can have a nice view. I like coastal maps because you get a lot of waterfront property. Then what I really stress is not filling the beach with high rise buildings. My platform as mayor would be to restrict coastal zones to light residential only, dotted with a few light commercials, THEN I would allow the sky scrapers to be built several blocks inland. This allows all single family homes an unobstructed view of the coast, while still allowing condo owners to see the water too, as opposed to the other way around where only a few buildings get a view of the beach and everyone else is "bricked out". Industry Nothing makes a city grow like plenty of industry. When a city matures, it’s been suggested that you should replace a percentage of your industrial zones with commercial. I find the best ratio of zones is about 50% industrial, 35% residential and 15% percent commercial. 
Don’t forget to have at least 1 airport and 1 seaport, and it wouldn’t hurt to connect them with rail. Commercial just never seems to flourish unless it’s in small proportions. I try and keep industrial areas away from residential zones. What I will usually do is set up an industrial park somewhere, away from the city, but not too far from the seaport and airport, and with an emphasis on road and rail access so Sims can get to work fast and easily. I try to leave empty blocks once in a while for trees which help reduce pollution and give the workers a nice area to eat their lunch. I also place light commercial zones at strategic areas so workers can do a little shopping on their way home. I try to lay out the city on a grid where each block is 6x6. Since each zone needs to be within 3 squares of a road to develop. 
Hydroelectric Power I try and use only hydroelectric power since it’s clean and they don’t break. I usually plan for one long row of hydro electrics somewhere close to the edge of the map. That way you can let the map run indefinitely without the power plants exploding. 
Neighboring Cities. Don’t forget to connect your roads to neighboring cities. I don’t know if it really matters that much, but it does seem to improve the economy a little, and its only $1000 bucks so, heck, why not. (Shhhhh, the Money Cheat) I’m sure you already know the money cheat for Sim City 2000. Click on the very top of the toolbar and type IMACHEAT. You will get 500,000 dollars. Another way is to build a basic "perfect city" and let it run for a few years at highest speed. Particularly on today’s fast computers, you can easily rack up a million dollars just by letting a profitable city run for a few minutes. Someone once asked me what I meant by "perfect city". According to the Ferengie rules of acquisition number 129, a perfect city is any city that "makes a profit". I use my standard 50-30-20 formula and hydroelectric power only to build a small little city that makes a lot of money. Once it makes a few hundered K you can simply erase the whole thing and make the city you wanted in the first place, all at once. 
Using this method you can pause the game, build your dream city (all in one shot) then take it out of pause. BOOM! Your city will literally blossom to life in about 3 seconds. Then you can go around tweaking different areas to eliminate those unsightly brown patches. The result is a perfect city every time that will make a profit and run indefinitely. 
Room for Expansion Once your city is up and running on its own and making a profit you can experiment on different areas and try all those crazy ideas that otherwise would have driven you bankrupt. Good job Mayor! |
