Yet another SC2K FAQ
.
and newsgroups. I guarantee you'll learn something new if you read this. =)
It looks like hell, and it isn't standardized. I'm trying to get some sort
of standard format before I make this nice and clean.
Anyway. Tell me if you like the organization. Tell me if you hate it,
like it, or what. There are lots of SC2K Faq's out there. If this one isn't
better, or potentially better, then I won't bother, since there is no point.
When I originally intended to do one, there were none. But now there are, so
the purpose of this one is questionable. I think having 2 FAQ lists isn't
particularly a good idea, with the exception of Simon, who suggested we make
two distinct FAQ's, his mainly emphasising bugs and bug look alikes.
If you like the organization, I'll make an index, and clean this thing
up. If someone makes a better suggestion, I'll reorganize. But I thought
I would throw this at y'all since it is taking me so long. Things to do,
and other distractions are causing long delays, and I apologize.
Also, never use the phrase '-really- neat' in a post. It's a bad idea.
trust me. =)
Mail all suggestions, comments, additions,
or rutabagas to: fw...@sbcs.sunysb.edu
-----------------------cut here!---------------------------------------
last revision: 2/25/94
Simcity 2000 FFAQ version .1
=============MONEY============
I'm not making any money -
If you truly want to make money fast. Follow these easy steps:
(1) Don't listen to your sims until you absolutely HAVE to. I played on
medium level, and was able to reach 120,000 population with TWO (count em!)
police stations, and 0 fire stations. (well, a lot of 0% funded ones). This
is on no disasters, obviously, but if you aren't even able to make money,
you really shouldn't be playing with disasters anyway.
(2) Hydro power. Hydro power is a good thing. no pollution. no 50 year
money suck. (most power supplys self destruct every 50 years, and you have
to pay for a new one. [if no disasters, this deduction is automatic]);
(3) do NOT raise taxes, and I will repeat myself, do NOT raise taxes and
just to be redundant consider LOWERING taxes. I won on hard fairly easily by
lowering my taxes from the default 7% to 6%. (Okay, I also did a bit of
terraforming to create 10 waterfalls, too. Anyway.) The boost in population
easily overcomes the initial loss of money. With small populations, the
amount of money you get from taxes is quite low.
Try it. You should be able start the game, lay out a city, and then crank
up the time, and after a number of years, make money. I have successfully
done this, even on hard. You will need to add pipes and power plants, of
course, but nothing else. Play around, and try out different starting
patterns and layouts.
=========layouts================
How far must things be away from each other?
sims must be withing 3 squares of a road or railway station, or
within 2 squares of a subway station.
Note: diagonal's don't count - you can only count horizontally.
What does it mean when connections are requested?
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.
--------- data from experiments -----------
Oh yeah: putting a little 1x1 island of I in the undeveloped R does
zilch. The I grows fine, but doesn't make a 10x10 of happy R around it.
Making a sizable island, 5x5, does promote good growth of R.
I.e. a zone must be close to *one* different zone, but not two.
========= landscape ========
How do I make waterfalls?
Place water on a slope.
======= power =========
for all power plants:
Coal: $1 / 0.05 watts
Hydroelectric: $1 / 0.05 watts
Oil: $1 / 0.03 watts
Gas: $1 / 0.025 watts
Nuclear: $1 / 0.033 watts
Windmills: $1 / 0.04 watts
Solar: $1 / 0.037 watts
Microwave $1 / 0.057 watts
Fusion $1 / 0.625 watts
"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."
Only tiles that have immediate contact to power (either next to another
building or next to a power line) will develop.
Someone recommended that you use a couple windmill for an isolated thing.
like a pump or something.
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.
If you have disasters off, your power plants will automatically be replaced
when they are 50 years old. You still pay for the new one, though.
=========zones===========
--- type of residential zones --------
Name size population
Lower Class Homes 1 X 1 10
Middle Class Homes 1 X 1 10
Luxury Homes 1 X 1 10
Cheap Apartments 2 X 2 80
Apartments 2 X 2 80
Nice Apartments 2 X 2 80
Condominium 2 X 2 120
Condominium 3 X 3 360
Large Apt. Bldg 3 X 3 450
----- type of commercial zones -------
Name size population
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
Office Building 2 X 2 80
Resort Hotel 2 X 2 80
Grocery Store 2 X 2 80
Office Building 2 X 2 120
Office/Retail 2 X 2 120
Shopping Center 2 X 2 ??
Theatre Square 3 X 3 360
Corporate HQ 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 ??
Parking Lot 3 X 3 ??
Drive-In Theater 3 X 3 ??
----- type of industry zones -------
Name size population
Chemical Storage 1 X 1 10
Ind. Substation 1 X 1 10
Warehouse 1 X 1 10
Factory 2 X 2 80
Factory 2 X 2 120
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
=============Safety===============
police and fire stations do not seem to need roads.
========== cheats =============
Mac : porntipsguzzardo - $500,000, allows all technologies and rewards
prevents the military from building a base.
ardo - $500,000, after porntipsguzzardo is done.
CASS - 1st time/month, $250. 2nd time = firestorm.
JOKE - ?
both : FUND - gives you a $10,000 bond. yee haw.
---------money cheats----------------
You can load old Simcity cities with huge amounts of money into sc2k.
======= specials and when you get them ===========
4.4.5 A: Mayor's House 2,000
City Hall 10,000
Statue 30,000
Military Base 60,000
Braun Llama Dome 90,000
Arcologies 120,000 (if after 2050)
"Arcology," as I understand it, was a term originally invented by
Paolo Soleri. The term was intended to cover what amounted to a city
in a building, with all services, industries, etc, and possibly
hydroponic farmland all in one structure. The term also appears
in Niven and Pournelle's novel "Oath of Fealty."
There's a superhero type thing that flies around the city. I'm not sure
if it has an official name. he/She/It appears to take care of disasters
(sometimes) if you don't have an other capacity for dealing with it.
There's a loch ness monster that eats ships and roars. It appears in the
water sometimes.
You can destroy the chopper by clicking on it with the centering tool. This
may make a fire.
=======miscellaneous tactics=============
x
xxx
xxxxx
xxxSxxx
xxxxx
xxx
x
This city is stable and will actually give you a profit! I was
using coal power, and the profit was enough to cover the cost
of a new plant in 50 years time.
From the FAQ:
I tried to come up with a subway grid as follows:
R
RRR
RRRRR
RRRSRRRI
CRRRRRIII
CCCRRRIIIII
CCCCCRIIISIII
CCCSCCCRIIIII
CCCCCRRRIII
CCCRRRRRI
CRRRSRRR
RRRRR
RRR
R
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!
=========disasters==============
Monsters may lay down windmills or water if disasters are off
If you destroy the chopper - see 'specials', it won't create a fire if
disasters are off.
Gotta love the way the fire brigade works. I placed four fire markers
at the crash site of that plane just before it landed, and it didn't
even start a fire! Landed on a luzury home, exploded, no fire. Yes,
I had disasters turned on.
=======water ================
To use water towers, you need to be pumping more water into your towers
than your city can use. The extra goes into the water towers. In addition,
when droughts occur, the first things to lose water are the towers.
2.4.4 Q: How effective is a desalination plant?
2.4.4 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.
2.4.6 Q: I've built several pumps on the edge of my city,
but all the water seems to be going to the center.
2.4.6 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.
=========roads=================
The highway bridge AI sometimes gets confused and tries to build the bridge
the wrong direction, then to top it off, it sometimes doesn't give the
correct error message. You might try tweaking the shorelines of the river a
tiny bit and also when trying to build the bridge, get a "running start" and
start to drag the highway a across the river from a few tiles before it. Also
try running it from the other shore, and try it NOT doing a "running start"
(just click on one of the shorelines instead of dragging the highway).
making low bridges can block sea commerce
you need four on ramps when a highway passes over a road, or it won't work.
Data from experiments
---------------------
So far, I haven't had any problems with police, fire, schools,
hospitals, parks, marinas, and such. [if they're not connected to any roads]
the maximum commute distance by road was 25 road squares.
you do NOT need roads to get your city going.
Highways and trains didn't change the picture at all. I know sims
are supposed to commute 3 times as far on public transit, but I couldn't
get it to show anything different. Highways are great at sucking traffic
off roads, but that was the only effect I could see.
Sims cannot find a road unless there is a direct connection from the zone,
but a direct connection is not required for the subway.
=========Education =============
education buildings are very generous. They don't have to be near roads,
or even be powered or watered. (I would think they'd be less efficient,
but this needs a test.) They do increase land value, though.
They don't actually get 'activated' till the start of the next year.
The real impact on the city's EQ doesn't start to be felt for at least 10-15
years, when the students start to enter the workforce.
museum and libraries make the adult EQ stop sloping downward so quickly.
---- extra facts -----
Btw, has anyone noticced that new arrivals always have an EQ of 85? I
tried to discover how low an EQ I could get, but the small city I was
working with leveled at 74-76 because of frequent immigration/emigration.
I tried a much larger, stable city, and got it down to 33 in a generation,
but then the immigration/emigration started... Grrr.
===========extra=========
2) Many confusing things happen after you've used a cheat. I feel no
need to help people who use cheats. (e.g. Sims build lots of
churches.) Chris tells me that cheats will be a lot harder to spot
in the next Mac version so all you guys with PCs can stop complaining
about it !
The "Bzzt" sound used for electricity is Will Wright going "Bzzt" into a
microphone. It was a "placeholder" sound while we searched for something
more "realistic" (we wanted to find a good sample of a Jacob's Ladder or
Tesla Coil discharge). We were suprized at the number of people who said
"Wow! That's a cool sound" so we left Will's voice in it.
The people in the budget window are:
Budget Advisor - Bob Derber, our Legal Councel (which makes the "Boo" sound
all the funnier)
City Ordinance - Holly Scheaffer ex-Human Resources gal, now with Peoplesoft
uhm.. Tari Kobylanski is the other woman. She's in our MIS department and
started as the fire chief (Tari's a fun gal, so we all laughed when her
photo came up with "We need more firemen!"
Carter Lipscomb is the police chief - He used to be our Tech Support manager
and is now with Spectrum Holobyte
Alan Barton is the Fire Chief. He's in charge of Q/A (my boss). We shot his
picture at the Orinda Fire Department.
Let's see if I can remember the rest. One of the men is the president (I
think he still has that office) of Micrografix and "won" the priveledge to
be in SimCity 2000 by bidding the highest ($5000) at a fundraising auction.
Trees grow. More or less at a realistic rate.
I was playing with that the other day. Apparently, arcologies that don't
have microsimulators do not add to the population. We're workin on a fix for
that (give it a month or two or three for the update - don't worry, I'll
be sure and post as soon as it's available).
How do I destroy underground structures?
Use Ctrl-LeftButton while underground. (what's the mac equivalent?)
Why aren't my buildings working? Why isn't query working?
Simcity can only support 150 mini simulations, so If you have more
than 150 different fire stations, police stations, etc, etc, then some start
turning off.
What's the magic eraser?
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.
What is the Launch Arco secret?
There is no secret. It was admitted to be a joke by Maxis.
there are a few SimCity200 ftp sites at the following locations:
spider.navsses.navy.mil
========================= Need to verify! (Maxis?===============
1) I like the special effects in the "Sun goes supernova, melts all the
arcologies" ending at about year 1,000,000 in Sim City 2000.
You have to leave the game on the fastest setting for a couple of weeks
to get to it, though. Use a small window to speed it up.
2) Why won't Sims live out in the country ?? I made a residential zone
about 50 squares away from town up in the hills and connected it
with roads and electricity. No one moved in !!! There complaining
about Pollution but Noone wants to live out in the country ....
3)
Question: If/when are Maxis going to release a bug fix updater? The
product is very buggy; this would be well recieved.
4)
are highways reallwatery -that- useful?
5) is a pump next to 2 waters more efficient than a pump next to 2 water?
does this include diagonal waters?
=========airports=============
2.6.2 Q: What is the smallest size of zone for an airport?
2.6.2 A: An airport must be at least 1 X 5 tiles, in order
for a runway to be built.
You need a minimum of 5 long on at least one side. 4x4 won't work, I
think.
========bonds=========
To survive a bond, you need to survive the interest. Taking the bond when
you're losing money each year won't help you at all. If your city makes
money, but you ran out of cash temporarily, then taking a bond can be good,
especially if interest is low.
It is possible on the hardest level to make enough money to pay back the
bond. You need to drop your interest to 6%, and use hydro power.
===============my comments on some questions===============
1. "Technical" problems: How to create a stable water supply, how to keep
pollution/crime/traffic low etc.
Me : I really want to just say 'read the manual and use the things you are
given'. BUt I guess you're talking about optimal ways of solving
problems?
Hi! You could add a section of people's most sucessfull layouts.
Me : Unless this is like a regular layout, it doesn't seem like a
particularly realistic idea. ideas, anyone?
=====================questions that need answers ===================
I've noticed they seem to be kind to me, and only start fires on
one side of my river (which bisects the city) when they start several
(such as an earthquake). Is this accident, luck, planning, or is this
a 'feature'?
Other than the references to weather as a cause (such as for fire,
hurricanes, tornadoes) is there any rhyme or reason to when disasters
occur? I've had four eathquakes occur in the 100 or so years since I
hit 50k population. I've only had 1 air crash and 1 chemical spill in
the same period. Is this normal?
I'd like a better understanding of the considerations that go into
population density vis-a-vis various zone types. Also, the role of some of
the more esoteric investments (museums, prisons, marinas, etc.), and the
interaction between transportation assets and industrial/commercial
development.
---------------------slice and dice---------------------------------------
I would give credit to all those who helped me, but I don't have their
e-mail addresses anymore. Thanks do go to Chris Weiss, and the maintainers
of the other FAQs. Hope they don't mind that I took some of their info. =)
Frank Wang | Come and go gonzo on Wacko
fw...@sbcs.sunysb.edu | red-branch.mit.edu 6003