Tips for building a successful city- Utilities

[noow]

Hello

I am new to this forum (not new to Sim City 4 )

I would like to share some of my strategies that I use when I build a city.

Utilities:
I start off with a "supply" city that is neighboring the city that I want to develop. I put tons of coal plants and water pumps there, along with a huge landfill. Also, I add a subway station. (Appropriate connections are made with city I want to develop)

I quit out of the "supply" city and go to the city I want to develop. I make deals with the "supply" city - export all garbage, import all power and water (pollution does not carry over). You save lots of room, pollution, money, and the hassle of replacing your plants often. Note: Importing coal power is cheaper than Oil, Natural gas, etc. plants built in your city.

Water pipes: There is a way to "trick" your city into running on half the water, saving thousands of dollars a month. When a water pipe is laid down, you will see a surrounding area turn blue which shows the range of the water supply. Lay the next water pipe inside of this blue area. Then lay the next in the blue area of the new pipe, and so on. This way the city can run on half the water and still develop. (When the water supply is overused, the water pressure is reduced and therefore the range of water extending from the pipe. Using this method, however, the pipes are close enough so that all buildings in the city within the piped area will have water even when the supply is down). Buildings will still build in the city even though the water demands to the deals/pumps are over capacity. The water pumps will wear out quicker, and you will have to replace them more often, which is why I strongly recommend importing all water from the "supply" city.

Sam

[Infernus]

These are indeed some very good tips for building great cities, I use this same strategy as well. Although at some point I eventually start putting services inside the city to make them mostly self-contained, once the region around it starts getting crowded. Then again, I usually go for max population, so I need the space

Water pipes: There is a way to "trick" your city into running on half the water, saving thousands of dollars a month. When a water pipe is laid down, you will see a surrounding area turn blue which shows the range of the water supply. Lay the next water pipe inside of this blue area. Then lay the next in the blue area of the new pipe, and so on. This way the city can run on half the water and still develop.

This doesn't make sense to me however. I don't think this strategy will actually reduce monthly costs or water usage, the only effect it should have is on how often you need to add or replace water pumps since the lines are closer together (which you mentioned).

Which gives me an interesting idea, how far could this strategy be taken and still be effective? Could you cover virtually the whole map in water pipes to cut down the necessary pumps in any significant way? I realize it's a ridiculous idea, but in theory maybe it could work, at least on very populous cities.

It's been a while since I played though, I might have to try this and see

[noow]

Hello Infernous

I have used this strategy in a small city

I saw that I had excess water demands and my city was still watered

I increased my water deal (I import water) until the capacity was over the usage.

Then I reduced my deal so that the usage was over the capacity until there were un-watered buildings. I found the approximate ratio of acceptable capacity to usage was 1/2.

Saved me over $1600 in water costs a month, not bad for $30 of extra piping

Thanks

[Brandx]

When starting a supply city what do you do about the R and C demands?

[Infernus]

Well, that depends what you want in your 'supply' city, and what city you want to keep 'clean'. Your main city should ideally have the Residential and Commercial zones, while the dirty industries and power plants, etc. go in the supply town.

Basically, build both cities at the same time to keep demand about even, and keep both cities growing parallel to each other.