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========= F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S =========
SimCity 2000 FAQ Part 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have access to the World-Wide Web, see the latest HTML Translation
and Update of this document by Michael Hanson:
URL = http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~hanson/simcity_2000.faq.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
... Tools ...
2.1 BULLDOZER
2.1.1 Q: Should I bulldoze abandoned buildings?
A: You can, but it's not necessary. Sims will build over
abandoned buildings, although, abandoned buildings
lower property values.
2.1.2 Q: Do I have to bulldoze rubble?
A: No. Sims will build over rubble.
2.1.3 Q: Is there any way to bulldoze large areas at a time?
A: No. Although you can destroy a few buildings at a time
using raise terrain tool.
2.1.4 Q: The sims complain when I try to bulldoze some forest.
A: Should I pay any attention to them?
I don't think it'll do you any harm to ignore them.
2.2 LANDSCAPE
2.2.1 Q: How do I make waterfalls?
A: Place water on a slope.
2.2.2 Q: What's the magic eraser?
A: Select the tree tool. Press the mouse button with
the cursor on a blank tile. Keep holding down the
button and press the shift key. The cursor will
now erase any type of development. The effect is
rather odd - when you query the tile that's been
erased, the old structure appears to still be there.
2.2.3 Q: Can I make a deep river at higher elevations?
A: No, the only way to add water at elevations above
sea level is to use the water tool - and this only
makes water that is 50 feet deep.
2.2.4 Q: Does the water tool make fresh water or salt water?
A: The water tool seems to make fresh water half
the time and salt water the other half.
2.3 POWER
2.3.1 Q: Do undeveloped zones conduct power?
A: No. Only tiles that have immediate contact to
power (either next to another building or next
to a power line) will be powered.
2.3.2 Q: What type of power plant should I use?
A: If you aren't concerned with money, fusion plants
are the most efficient, and don't pollute or cause
disasters - like nuclear and microwave.
If you are concerned about money, then hydro is
best. Hydro plants don't pollute and don't need
to be replaced every 50 years.
2.3.3 Q: Isn't it kind of like cheating to use hydro power?
A: Well, first off, it's just a game, and you can
do whatever you want with it. The most efficient
use of hydro would be to use the raise terrain tool
to make a little bump. Line the bump with waterfalls
and then place hydro plants on the waterfalls. You
could even surround the hydro pants with water
pumps. This is the best, and most unrealistic use
of hydro plants. A more realistic approach would
be to make a map with a river, then raise the land
on one end of the river, and draw the river back
in, having it flow down the raised land. You could
then build large dams on the slopes.
2.3.4 Q: My power plants seem to last forever.
A: If you have disasters off, your power plants
will automatically be replaced when they are 50
years old. Their cost will also be deducted from
your coffers.
2.3.5 Q: Why don't hydro plants and wind power have to be replaced every
50 years?
A: Well, you could say that this is bias on the
part of Maxis to encourage the use of clean power.
The real reason has to do with programming
limitations - they'd have to keep track of the
age of each plant.
2.3.6 Q: Why should I use wind power?
A: I don't know - appearance, maybe? If you have extra
space on the top of a mountain, you could put
windmills there. You could use a couple of wind
power plants to sustain a small village in the
middle of nowhere.
2.3.7 Q: Do I have to use raised wires to run power across water?
A: No, there's a cheat you can use to get around this.
Chris Weiss writes:
"There's a little trick you can do to run power across
water without needing lines. First, you need 3 tiles of
water between where you'd run the line from and where
you'd run it to. Build a power line brige across that 3
tile space and bulldoze the power line between the two
"on-ramps" for the power bridge. Replace the flat land
tiles with water again and Voila! The power flows across
the no-longer-existent power bridge."
2.4 WATER
2.4.1 Q: How effective is a water pump?
A: A water pump (not next to water) will service
approximately 24 to 36 tiles, depending on the weather.
An additional 12 tiles (approx.) will be serviced for
every water tile that the pump is adjacent to.
2.4.2 Q: Should I build water towers?
A: Each water tower will hold up to 40,000 gallons of
water. They will only fill up when you have a surplus.
It's probably easier to just build four more pumps in
the space that a tower would take.
2.4.3 Q: What good is a water treatment plant?
A: The manual says that water treatment plants will help
you prevent droughts by cleaning and recycling your
water. However, the online help says that water
treatment plants will reduce the overall pollution level
of your city. Experimentation has revealed that water
treatment plants do not really have anything to do with
the water supply. Adding one treatment plant (anywhere
on the map) will reduce the pollution level of your
city quite a bit. Additonal treatment plants have no
effect, though. So, build one, and only one
2.4.4 Q: How effective is a desalination plant?
A: Desalination plants seem to have an effective radius, so
there effectiveness is rather complicated. They can
provide water to 200 - 500 tiles each, depending on how
many seawater tiles are adjacent to the plant.
2.4.5 Q: What types of water will help a water pump?
A: Natural water and artificial water will improve the
performance of a water pump, while salt water will not.
Use the query tool to find out whether water is salty or
fresh. Water pump performance will even be improved by a
waterfall, or a waterfall with a hydro plant on it.
2.4.6 Q: I've built several pumps on the edge of my city, but all the water seems to be going to the center.
A: Well, SC2K figures out how much water you have, then
it distributes it from the center of your city. The
only way to keep the water at the edge would be to
cut it off from the water system.
2.4.7 Q: Where do I need to build pipes?
A: Sims will automatically build pipes underneath
buildings, so, all you need to do, is build pipes
underneath roads. I like to place pipes underneath
my power lines.
2.5 ROAD + RAIL
2.5.1 Q: How much road do I need?
A: A zone (residential, commercial, or industrial) must
be within 3 tiles (not counting diagonally) of a
road in order to start growing. If you're really
strapped for cash (say you start on the hard level)
then you can get away with discontinuous roads.
Just drop down 1 tile sections of road and build
different zones around it.
For example:
R R R
R R R R R
R R r I I
C C I I I
C I I
where r = road R = residential, C = commercial,
I = industrial<br>
Actually you don't really need any roads at all. If you
want, you can rely totally on mass transit. You won't
have any traffic, but growth will be less and
larger(3X3) buildings won't develop.
For example, sims will build given the following setup:
R I
R R R I I I
R R R R R I I I I I
R R R s R R R I I I s I I I
R R R R R I I I I I
R R R I I I
R I
where R = residential, I =industrial,
s = sub stations - connected underground by subway
2.5.2 Q: Why should I use rail instead of a subway?
A: Rail is cheaper, and, supposedly, has a greater
positive impact on heavy industry.
2.5.3 Q: How do bus stations work?
A: Place bus stations at busy intersections to
reduce traffic at that intersection.
2.5.4 Q: How do you build a reinforced girder bridge?
A: You will be asked if you want to build a reinforced
bridge if you place a highway tile halfway over
water:
before: L L L W W W after: L L L W W W
L L L W W W L L H H W W
L L L W W W L L H H W W
L L L W W W L L L W W W
where L = land, W = water, H = highway tile
2.5.5 Q: What's the difference between a highway bridge and a reinforced
bridge?
A: Highway bridges don't allow ships to pass, but are cheaper.
2.5.6 Q: What's the difference between causeways, raising bridges, and suspension bridges?
A: Causeways do not allow ships to pass. Raising
bridges and suspension bridges both allow ships
to pass. Raising bridges are cheaper than
suspension bridges, but can only be a maximum of
eleven tiles long.
2.5.7 Q: How does my transportation system affect growth?
A: Residential zones must be properly connected to a
commercial or industrial zone in order to start
growing. Industrial or commercial zones must be
connected to a residential zone in order to start
growing. This connection can either be made by road
rail, or subway, however, growth will be best with
roads.
2.5.8 Q: Is there an annual charge for bus depots?
A: Yes, in fact, there are transportation charges for lots
of things. The chart below shows the various things that
have maintenance charges. The first column shows the
building cost. The other columns show how much is
charged, per year for each item in each category.
(Some items, like Sub/Rail, have split charges.)
Build Road Hwy Brid Rail Sub Tun
Road $10 0.10 -- -- -- -- --
Causeway $25 -- -- 0.22 -- -- --
Raising Bridge $50 -- -- 0.22 -- -- --
Suspension Bridge $75 -- -- 0.22 -- -- --
Highway $100 -- 0.80 -- -- -- --
Highway Bridge $200 -- 0.80 -- -- -- --
Reinforced Bridge $300 -- 0.80 1.00 -- -- --
Tunnel $150 -- -- -- -- -- 0.10
Tunnel Entrance $150 0.10 -- -- -- -- --
Onramp $25 0.10 -- -- -- -- --
Bus Depot $250 25.00 -- -- -- -- --
Rail $25 -- -- -- 0.40 -- --
Rail Bridge $75 -- -- 0.22 -- -- --
Subway $100 -- -- -- -- 0.40 --
Rail Depot $500 -- -- -- 1.60 -- --
Sub Station $250 -- -- -- -- 0.76 --
Sub/Rail $250 -- -- -- 0.40 0.40 --
Power Lines $2 -- -- -- -- -- --
Raised Wires $10 -- -- 0.20 -- -- --</pre>
2.5.9 Q: Will Sims walk to a road, then drive to a sub station,
take the subway, drive from the sub station, and walk
from the road to work?
A: Well, I said yes before, but actually, work has to be
next to the road. (See next question.)
2.5.10 Q: Why do some zones develop away from a road, and others don't?
A: terry@laue.biochem.ubc.ca writes:
"I recently posted my theory about the trip generator
by proposing four schemes. The question came up because
I was trying to explain how you can have properties
develop which are not connected to the road. The
schemes are as follows:
A. R = I
B. R =I
C. R= I
D. R=I
Well, I finally ran this experiment. Previously, I just
ran A and D. A did not develop but D did. Now, by
running all four, I have figured out how the trip
generator works. Again, A does not develop. Both
properties in D do develop. The R in B and the I
in C develop, but the I in B and the R in C stay empty
Therefore: the trip generator works by starting at a
square. It finds the nearest transportation link to the
building, which can be up to three tiles away. It then
finds paths to the nearest zones (ie: from an R square,
the generator looks for I and C zones). However, and
this is IMPORTANT, the zones must TOUCH THE ROAD! If it
cannot find zones touching the road, the originating
square will not develop!"
2.5.10 Q: Do I need 2 or 4 onramps at each road-highway intersection?
A: Well, really, you only need one. The only reason to
have more would be for realism, or to shorten some
trip distances.
2.5.11 Q: Why can't I put highways where I want them?
A: I assume that they only allow highways to placed on
every other tile, just so that there won't ever by a
time when highways mismatch:
H H
H H H H
H H
2.6 PORTS + CONNECTIONS
2.6.1 Q: I've zoned a port - why do they keep complaining?
A: They won't stop complaining until either a runway
or pier has been built.
2.6.2 Q: What is the smallest size of zone for an airport?
A: An airport must be at least 1 X 5 tiles, in order
for a runway to be built.
2.6.3 Q: Why won't my airport grow?
A: I don't know. Results seem to vary from person to
person. Runways won't be built if you have an air
force base. Just keep trying to zone more airport
tiles. Sometimes Sims have difficulty building over
airport tiles that have power lines on them.
2.6.4 Q: Does my airport need to be connected to water pipes or transportation in order to grow?
A: No. An airport only needs connection to power.
2.6.5 Q: Does my city have to be a certain size before an airport can be built?
A: No. You could build a successful airport, even before
anybody moves into your city (of course, you won't have
any money left, but...)
2.6.6 Q: Why do I keep having air crashes?
A: You'll have air crashes if you have tall buildings
in the immediate flight path. Generally, it's best
to put your airport out of the way - perhaps on an
island or plateau.
2.6.7 Q: I've zoned a seaport, why won't piers develop?
A: Well, I think that a pier needs to be able to extend out
over water that's at least 150 feet deep.
2.6.8 Q: Exactly what effect do seaports and airports have,
anyway?
A: Unknown. They stop the sim's complaints. Airports
promote commerce and seaports promote industry. Beyond
that, who knows? It's a very hard factor to isolate.
2.6.9 Q: What does it mean when connections are requested?
A: You must build connections to your neighbors. Run a
road, rail, or highway to the edge of the map, and
you will be asked if you want to build a connection
to your neighbor.
2.6.10 Q: What does the number on the connection sign mean?
A: That's the distance to your neighbor.
2.6.11 Q: Why is it possible to build a connection to the
ocean?
A: I don't know.
2.6.12 Q: I've built plenty of connections, but they keep asking
for more.
A: They may want you to build highway or rail connections.
2.6.13 Q: Just how useful are connections, anyway?
A: A connection acts as a stimulus point. Normally,
residential zones are stimulated by being connected to
job zones, and vice versa. A connection will act as a
stimulus to both residential and
commercial/industrial.
2.7 RESIDENTIAL ZONES
2.7.1 Q: What kinds of residential zones are there?
Name size population
Abandoned building 1 X 1 0
Construction 1 X 1 0
Lower Class Homes 1 X 1 10
Middle Class Homes 1 X 1 10
Luxury Homes 1 X 1 10
Abandoned building 2 X 2 0
Construction 2 X 2 0
Church 2 X 2 0 (dezones when built)
Cheap Apartments 2 X 2 80
Apartments 2 X 2 80
Nice Apartments 2 X 2 80
Condominium 2 X 2 120
Abandoned building 3 X 3 0
Construction 3 X 3 0
Condominium 3 X 3 360
Large Apt. Bldg 3 X 3 450</pre>
2.7.2 Q: What's the difference between light residential
and heavy residential?
A: Light residential is cheaper and will only allow
1 X 1 buildings.
2.7.2 Q: Why should I use light residential?
A: Aesthetics? Not everyone can live in high rise
apartment buildings. Light residential requires
less police protection than heavy residential. If
your zoning an oddly shaped piece of land that
wouldn't be able to form into a 2X2 or 3X3 building,
you might want to use light instead of heavy.
2.7.3 Q: Why should I use heavy residential?
A: You will need to use heavy if you want your
city to have a large population. The blank map looks
large at the beginning, but you will quickly run out
of space if you rely on light zoning. The larger
buildings use the same amount of power, therefore,
you use less power per person. In addition, you
will get more tax revenue, for the same amount of
space.
2.7.4 Q: How do I encourage my sims to build 3 X 3 buildings?
A: First the property values have to be pretty good.
Second, a 3 X 3 piece of land must be adjacent to
an intersection:
R R R r C C C I I I C C C r
R R R r C C C I I I C C C r
R R R r C C C I I I C C C r
r r r r r r r r r r r r r r
where R = res, C = com, I = ind, r = road<br>
In the above example, the residential and commercial
zones may become 3 X 3 buildings, however, the
industrial zone will not.
2.7.6 Q: Can I get rid of all these churches?
A: Dave Chaloux <chaloux@mandolin.mitre.org> writes:<br>
"You can't really get rid of the churchs but it can
be worthwhile moving them. Zone a 2x2 residential
where you want the church. Blow up the church
and do not rezone. The church will often move to the
2x2 you made for it. Then and only then rezone as
residential where the church was. The reason this is
worth it is because if you zoned for a 3x3, you are
only getting 50 pop around the church (5 1x1s). The 3x3
will give you 360."
Pat Traynor <traynor@bostech.com> writes:<br>
"Hmmm... I wonder if you could build an industry
block 8x8, and leave the center 2x2 area empty.
Demolish a church in the main residential section
and then quickly zone the center of the industrial
section for residential. Perhaps the church would
pop up there."
This will work, but you have to build a road out to
the center:
r r r r r r r r r r
r I I I I r I I I r
r I I I I r I I I r
r I I I I r I I I r
r I I I R R I I I r
r I I I R R I I I r
r I I I I I I I I r
r I I I I I I I I r
r I I I I I I I I r
r r r r r r r r r r
where R = residential, I = industrial, r = road
Then, once you coerce the church into the middle, you
can bulldoze the road into the middle and replace it
with industrial.
2.8 COMMERCIAL ZONES
2.8.1 Q: What kinds of commercial zones are there?
Name size population
Abandoned building 1 X 1 0
Construction 1 X 1 0
Cassidy's Toy Store 1 X 1 10
Bed & Breakfast Inn 1 X 1 10
Gas Station 1 X 1 10
Small Office Bldg 1 X 1 10
Convenience Store 1 X 1 10
Office Building 1 X 1 10
Warehouse 1 X 1 10
Abandoned building 2 X 2 0
Construction 2 X 2 0
Office Building 2 X 2 80
Resort Hotel 2 X 2 80
Grocery Store 2 X 2 80
Shopping Center 2 X 2 80
Office Building 2 X 2 120
Office/Retail 2 X 2 120
Abandoned building 3 X 3 0
Construction 3 X 3 0
Theatre Square 3 X 3 360
Corporate HQ 3 X 3 360
Parking Lot 3 X 3 360
Drive-In Theater 3 X 3 360
Office Tower 3 X 3 450
Office Park 3 X 3 ??
Historic Office Bldg3 X 3 ??
Mini Mall 3 X 3 ??</pre>
2.9 INDUSTRIAL ZONES
2.9.1 Q: What kinds of industrial zones are there?
Name size population
Abandoned building 1 X 1 0
Construction 1 X 1 0
Chemical Storage 1 X 1 10
Ind. Substation 1 X 1 10
Warehouse 1 X 1 10
Abandoned building 2 X 2 0
Construction 2 X 2 0
Factory 2 X 2 80
Factory 2 X 2 120
Abandoned building 3 X 3 0
Construction 3 X 3 0
Chemical Processing 3 X 3 360
Factory 3 X 3 360
Large Factory 3 X 3 ??
Warehouse 3 X 3 360
Large Warehouse 3 X 3 360
Ind. Thingamajig 3 X 3 360</pre>
2.10 EDUCATION ZONES
2.10.1 Q: What are the relative effects of education zones?
A: The manual implies that you need 1 school for every
15,000 people in order to increase EQ to 90. This
does not seem right, however. Schools lose their A+
rating when student to teacher ratio goes above
12.75.
In other words, a half-full school gets about an A
and a full school gets an F.
Colleges have a capacity of 50,000, but, as with
schools, grade goes down as the number of students
approaches capacity.
Libraries and museums increase the EQ of all ages.
Museums are more effective than libraries.
2.10.2 Q: Does it matter where I put educational zones?
A: No, educational zones do not need proper access
to transportation to be effective. Educational
zones do increase land value, though.
2.10.3 Q: What EQ is average?
A: The SimNation EQ average is 100. Although, the average
age of sims that move into your city is around 83.
2.10.4 Q: My EQ doesn't seem to ever go above 100.
A: High EQ seems to require more than top notch schools,
colleges, libraries, and museums. I've built a small
city with excessive amounts of all these items. Over a
span of 400 years, EQ never got above 100. I think the
other factor must be industry - there's probably some
sort of feedback effect from the high EQ industries.
(Petro, auto, aero, electronics, etc.)
2.10.5 Q: I just put in a school but it still says 0 student,
and 0 teachers. Why don't they use the school?
A: There seems to be quite a long lag time (maybe a year)
before students will shuffle around to new schools.
Chris Weiss writes:
"Micro-simulators do all their calculations in
January (well, most of them anyway). So if you
place one in June, then query on it in July,
everything will be zeros (or incorrect, at any
rate). Wait until after January, then things should
look A-OK."
2.11 HEALTH AND SAFETY ZONES
2.11.1 Q: Do police stations and fire stations need to be
placed next to roads?
A: No, apparently, police and fire power is not
effected by proximity to transportation.
2.11.2 Q: Do I need prisons?
A: Prisons increase police performance. If you still have
crime, even though you've just built a police station,
build a prison next to the police station to improve
the effectiveness of the police station at close range.
2.11.3 Q: Should I worry about the number of escapes from my
prison?
A: I believe that this is a symptom of overcrowding (high
inmate to guard ratio.) I would suspect that crime
might go up slightly around the prison.
2.11.4 Q: How many policemen or firefighters should I be able
to dispatch?
A: You should be able to dispatch 1 police icon for every
police station and 1 firefighter icon for every fire
station. The maximum number of emergency units you may
dispatch (including military) is 33.
2.11.5 Q: Do hospitals need road access?
A: I don't think they do.
2.11.6 Q: How many hospitals do I need?
A: The capacity of each hospital is 25,000, although, they
will have a higher grade at half capacity.
2.12 RECREATION ZONES
2.12.1 Q: What are all these things for?
A: Small parks and Large parks increase land value.
Zoos, stadiums, and marinas increase residential
demand and improve tourism.
2.12.2 Q: Can I build a marina in the middle of land?
A: Sure, just place a drop of water, then build
the marina on top of it. The boats'll have
trouble leaving though...
2.12.3 Q: Why do my sports teams always lose?
A: Hmmm, bad coaching?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have access to the World-Wide Web, see the latest HTML Translation
and Update of this document by Michael Hanson:
URL = http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~hanson/simcity_2000.faq.html
