Sim City 4

edited July 2003 in Gaming
I LOVE this game. I started playing it last week, and never managed to make a dime. A friend of mine told me a few simple tricks, and now I'm building cities far and high! The expansiveness of this game blows me away.

Anyone else playing? Got any secrets to share?

Comments

  • paroxymparoxym Toronto, Canada
    edited July 2003
    Secret 1: Bring up the console and type "weakness pays" :p

    But seriously, I was hooked on SimCity4 for a good month or so, leaving it on all night just to let my funds build up. (make sure you turn off disasters if you plan to do the same)
    The gameplay kinda hits a wall though when you have 5-6 massive cities all interconnected and every gift built. I have a feeling however, that the new expansion 'Rush Hour' will get me back into my 'up-till-4am' SimCity rut again. :wtf::D
  • edited July 2003
    You download the freely available gifts from the simcity4.com website?
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    I got bored of Sim City in 1hr. Never got any people to move in the neighborhoods so I said screw it. Got any tips?
  • NecropolisNecropolis Hawarden, Wales Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    This game never gripped me at all. I tried it on a friends PC for about the same time as Black Hawk but it never grabbed me and said "Play me some more". Maybe I should have give it more time I guess.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited July 2003
    SimCity 4 is a radical departure from the previous SimCity titles. You no longer simply plop down zones, attach power & water and watch people move in.

    The engine that drives how cities are built has been completely overhauled from previous games. You can't instantly turn your little village of people into a bustling metropolis. It takes time, money, a well-trained eye and lots of planning to grow your towns.

    A large emphasis has been placed on the interconnection of cities. You are NOT able to grow your city to have a large population unless you diversify and spread your city across multiple land tiles. There are "ceilings" in the game that prevent your city from developing any further unless you do specific things, such as expanding your cities to multiple land tiles, and have each city diversified enough that they provide certain services to the other city tiles in exchange for other services (such as one city being a suburban mecca, while the other city is the dirty, industrial slum). :)

    If you are a die-hard player of this game, your best bet is to purchase Prima's "SimCity 4 Official Strategy Guide", available at Electronics Boutique for $19.99 CDN. It's over 350 pages of tips, strategies and explainations. I consider it the "documentation" that SHOULD have been included with the game. I never play without it. :)

    Enjoy!
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    shocking.gif

    /me goes back to Wolfenstein Enemy Territory :D
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited July 2003
    Secrets? Certain buildings have a great NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) / YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) effect on both Commercial and Residential Zones.

    For example, placing the "Bank of China Tower" next to your commercial zones, it will have an "effect" on the zones of 100 YIMBY points, and has an effect radius of 48 tiles from the centre of the building (essentially 24 tiles from each side to the centre).

    These higher YIMBY points that a building has an effect on the surrounding buildings, the more desirable the building is and the more tenants will move in, increasing land value, decreasing crime and increasing the city population, allowing you to extract more tax values from them.

    There are two types of YIMBY/NIMBY classifications: Commercial & Residential/HighTech.

    Generally, commercial YIMBY buildings have a NIMBY value on residential/hightech and vice versa.

    The best buildings in the game to place next to both commercial zones & residential/hightech buildings to provide maximum effectiveness are the "Colossal Mayor's Statue" and the "Mayor's House."

    Use them wisely. :D
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    I built huge cities, but was taking out 200,000C loans to pay 200,000C loans to pay 200,000C loans to pay 200,000C loans to pay 200,000C loans to pay etc etc....

    so I just stopped playing it.

    NS
  • edited July 2003
    Loans are evil, unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing, and are sure that you will end up with a budget surplus that could offset the loan payments, and still get money to spend on the city itself. In a way, loans are a lot like credit cards in this game.
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited July 2003
    Sim City 4 rocks.

    Here's my favorite games, in no particular order:

    Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
    Sim City 4
    Age of Mythologies
    Super Mario Sunshine
  • T-BirDT-BirD Montgomery, AL
    edited July 2003
    My typing skills improved dramatically thanks to SimCity 4. I'm up to 87 "weakness pays" a minute now!
  • danball1976danball1976 Wichita Falls, TX
    edited July 2003
    Another two cheats are:
    howdryiam - enables water cheat. You no longer have to build water plants

    fightthepower - enables power cheat. No need to build power plants.

    These two cheats save quite a bit of money
  • edited July 2003
    "water plants"? you mean pumps?
  • danball1976danball1976 Wichita Falls, TX
    edited July 2003
    Yeah, thats what I mean
  • MarkTAWMarkTAW Brooklyn, NY
    edited July 2003
    I'm glad to see the Sim City engine got a re-write.. SC3k seemed more like SC 2.5 to me.

    Anyone up for a game of Life?
  • JLunarJLunar the t dot.
    edited July 2003
    hehe.. cool link.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited July 2003
    SimCity 4 Cheats:

    Enable them by pressing CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+X and then enter any one of the following cheats:

    stopwatch - Pause/resume the 24 hour clock.
    whatimeizit - Set the time of day. Follow with a space and the time you wish to set (in military time, e.g., 8 PM = 20)
    whererufrom - Change the city name.
    hellomynameis - Change the mayor name.
    you don't deserve it - All Rewards Available.
    sizeof - Increases magnification (1 to 100).
    weaknesspays - Adds §1000 to your treasury.
    fightthepower - Eliminates the need for electricity-producing equipment.
    zoneria - Hides empty zone colors.
    tastyzots - Toggles zots.
    howdryiam - Eliminates the need for water-producing equipment.
  • NorgeNorge Sidney, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    Yeah I've been thinking about getting Sim City 4. The only thing I was worried about is that it would be too overwhelming due to all the new features. I've been playing Sim City since the SNES version and have really liked each version so far. Is it fairly easy to get into and learn all the new stuff? I think I'd like to give it a try if I wouldn't get completely lost in all the nit picky details of a city. The new expansion pack "Rush Hour" does sound pretty kick ass though with all the traffic changes and stuff you can make. Does anyone know when that is due out?

    Oh and someone said something about letting the game run all night just to build funds. I found that with SC3K I could never really let it sit or else everyone would leave my city or something. Of course maybe that is because my city sucked but iono. Is Sim City 4 more friendly when it comes to just letting it sit for a while?

    Norge
  • danball1976danball1976 Wichita Falls, TX
    edited July 2003
    I would suggest having a 2GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM to run Sim City 4 - no joke. It runs better with this.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited July 2003
    danball1976 said
    I would suggest having a 2GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM to run Sim City 4 - no joke. It runs better with this.

    1.5 GHz and 512 MB of RAM with a decient video card (GF4 or higher) can handle it no problem. The original version (1.0) of the game lagged quite badly when your city started to become large.

    Now, if you install the latest patch, it does wonders for performance of the game. :)
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited July 2003
    Norge said
    Yeah I've been thinking about getting Sim City 4. The only thing I was worried about is that it would be too overwhelming due to all the new features. I've been playing Sim City since the SNES version and have really liked each version so far. Is it fairly easy to get into and learn all the new stuff? I think I'd like to give it a try if I wouldn't get completely lost in all the nit picky details of a city. The new expansion pack "Rush Hour" does sound pretty kick ass though with all the traffic changes and stuff you can make. Does anyone know when that is due out?

    Oh and someone said something about letting the game run all night just to build funds. I found that with SC3K I could never really let it sit or else everyone would leave my city or something. Of course maybe that is because my city sucked but iono. Is Sim City 4 more friendly when it comes to just letting it sit for a while?

    Norge

    As long as when you leave your PC on for the night, you make sure that your Sims are happy, well-powered, well-watered, well protected (fire, police & medical) and traffic moves nicely around the city, you should be fine to leave it on overnight.

    A word of warning though, I'd disable disasters and lower the graphical detail so as to let the simulation run as fast as possible. :)
  • NorgeNorge Sidney, Ohio
    edited July 2003
    Hey thanks for the tip. I just bought the game so I'll have to give it a shot once I get a city going. Glad ya let me know about turning disasters off. With my luck I'd let it run all night just to come back to a city in shambles from multiple disasters.

    Norge
Sign In or Register to comment.