Bankrupt again

[Grey]

My first city, went bankrupt, my second city, went bankrupt, my third city, went bankrupt, 4th 5th all the way up to 8th went bankrupt. 9th city........went bankrupt and was then destroyed by a hail of comets. ( I was getting a little miffed so i took out my rage on the sims in the final city.)

My problem is i can create a small town, where everything is going great, transportation health safety educationis all doing great, the sims don't have any requests becuase its a eutopia.

However, this does'nt last more than 10 minits becuase i start losing money, i try the following but there is always a problem.

Lower funding for schools, police etc. - The crime rate rockets, houses catch fire, schools are underfunded so everyone is mad, health is low and everyone practically dies. So i keep the funding at a standard rate to keep everyone happy.

Add more housing to get more residents to pay more taxes. (evil i know) - I lost all money from building the houses. duh.

Raise taxes - Everyone gets annoyed and leaves.

Bomb the place with comets - just for the sheer heck of it really ;)


Any help?

[ManagerJosh]

balance the budget mainly. Start small and keep a huge source of revenue coming in from industry and commerical. These two industries help regulate your enitre game.

[[ S a g e o n ]]

It is hard trying to gain money than lose it in Sim City 4. Even if you do put everything down education funding, police etc... When you have enough money to put them back up, it can exceed about 5,000 simoleans lost a month! Go to http://code.ign.com for some cheats if you want any.

[Grey]

yeah i got some cheats ent to me earlier yesterday, i was just about to post a link but.....you beat me to it. Thanks :)

[Helén]

Yay!! cheats. :classic:
But I do prefer try without it.

[sam_lawrence]

Grey - it sounds like you have supplies all the sims in your city with every service possible. This doesnt have to be the case. Although your advisors are always telling you to add more of this or more of that, your city doesnt NEED it. Have one part of your city which has access to most or all services - this is where the richer residents will live. For the rest of your city, make sure you have a few schools and maybe some fire stations or police stations, but not everything. These parts of town wont be all that desirable, but poorer sims will still move in providing you with more tax income.

[lewdini]

go with the residential too
more residential means more tax income

[Helén]

That sounds harsh Sam. I remember form SC2000 I always had well off cities with lots of facilities. Can't stand to see them poor.
But it does sound as a strategy, although.. I don't think I can be that "coldhearted".

*Is one big softspot with her sims too*

[ManagerJosh]

Possibly also that you are expanding the city way too fast. If you pace yourself at a nice rate, it could allow you to grow further.

[sam_lawrence]

Thats true Josh. But Nina, you cant have an all wealthy population in SC4. Unfortunatly the economy doesnt work that way. You have to balance things out. I mean, if you didnt have poor Sims, there wouldnt be anyone to work in the industrial factories - rich Sims work in commercial offices.

[Helén]

*mumbles something about being misunderstood*

I meant that I don't want poor like really poor people. I perfer to see even people within the industrial sector as doing good in life. here in Sweden industrial work are actually very well paid. they earn a lot more than for example a junior accountant. Or at least equal with money.
Of course there have to be differences. :classic:

[PhilipTarbuck]

It is very hard to keep the expenses down. I tried last time and managed to balance the budget, but my 'advisor' told me that I hadn't provided 'enough' facilities. I am going to have another go and provided them with what I can afford and not what they want. I believe that I have heard that sentiment somewhere else - I can't afford all I want, so I have to make do. Why shouldn't SC4?

[ManagerJosh]

I should consider adding a profile feature...how many times you've gone bankrupt :p

[PhilipTarbuck]

I think that you have to start on heavy, i.e. dirty, industries and agriculture with high-density residential. And you have to make sure that you have covered by zoning the areas which are covered by electricity and water supplies and, most important, the pipes and wires. They seem to add a large amount of space at relatively little cost.
However, schools, police, fire stations, etc, etc, are very expensive and, so far, I don't know how I am going to fund them. I think I will just have to wait a bit.
The RCI (Residential, Commercial, Industrial - I took quite a time learning that) indicator is a great help in knowing what is needed. If I zone for areas where there is no demand then there is no building - and without building there is quite a chance of going broke.

[B1aze]

Well I had the same problems in the beginning until I saw this topic:
http://www.simcitycentral.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4046

I think it will help alot... It atleast helped me out of being bankrupt alot. :)

tnx to allaneous

[Helén]

Thanks B1aze. :classic:
Very interesting indeed. All hints and tips are welcomed.

[PhilipTarbuck]

I saw a recommendation that you do not provide a city with services. I have tried it and it really works. I couldn't do without electricity (I thought - I will try it again), but I could do without almost everything else. I also gave it roads, but I think that streets will probably do. I didn't give it a school, police, water, or anything. It grew very well and when I had a bit more money I had intended to give it more, only this week we have my grandson over and he took over (for the entire afternoon) and he built it up.

[Helén]

Interesting Philip.
(But who in the world would choose to live without water?? But on the other hand. It's only a game. ;) )
I wonder if the same basic principle works in Simcity 3000?

[PhilipTarbuck]

I was quite wrong. The way to start is to zone as lightly as possible - light industrial - light residential - and to expand them when you have the money. Heavy density is too expensive (5 times the price). Always keep in the black and, to a large extent, as Sam said, ignore what your advisors have told you. I used to be a local government advisor (only legal so it is not represented in the game) at one stage. Our advice was sometime ignored, but you could usually tell when that was going to happen.

[lewdini]

dont use light industrial..its costly cause its only farms

[B1aze]

Well I usually start out all with medium it works quite nice and you can zone quite allot with medium.. :) I also give them electricity and water. With water sims usually make taller buildings-> more sims-> more money. :bunny: Not so long after that I zone high res/commercial even taller buildings and more profit.

[Helén]

There's really good tips in the chattranscript from the event the other night. I hope it will be up soon, I haven't found it yet - anywhere. Not at this moment at least.

[lewdini]

so start with medium density?

[anikan]

you need farms to for getting the farmers market
its add healt point to your healt level too
but after you get it you can remove the farms :)

;)