Simcity 3000 Tips

IndustryLikes trains, especially rail/subway connections to neighbors.

Sims complaining about High-Tech jobsSelect all ordinances that encourage low-pollution industry--basically everything in the zoning ordinance section. Then, you need to wait until your sims have a high enough EQ to fill those high-tech jobs. This could take awhile. Make sure you have fully funded (or overfunded!) education and enough education buildings to support your population. (See the FAQ)

CommercialLikes highways.

WaterMost efficient to use water pumps because they provide more water/space than desalination plants and last 110 years as opposed to 74 years.

How to milk the power deals to make tons of money.Sell electricity generated by Fusion plants to your largest neighbor. Find out who your largest neigbor is from the "Neighbors window" and build a power connection only to that neigbor. Your largest neighbor will be able to give you the most money. If you're generating a surplus of power, you will be asked for a power deal. Reject the offers until you're offered more than $10 per megawatt per month. Once the deal is in place, about every 3-5 years, your neighbor will ask you to renegotiate to buy more electricity and you should accept. Eventually, you'll be rolling in dough, but make sure to keep an eye on the age of your plants and replace them when they start to decline. The size of your neighbors fluctuates, so you you should keep an eye on that too. You can apply these principles to the garbage and water deals as well, but garbage creates pollution and water pumps are annoying to replace.

How to lower pollutionGive your trash to your neighbors, works especially well for smaller cities who sell lots of (pollution-free) electricity.

X-density is not X-densityX-density is the highest density a zone can develop too. So you won't always get X-density buildings on X-density zoned tiles. This means that in a smaller city with low commercial demand, your high density commercial zones will usually not develop fully. After population increases over about 400,000, commercial demand skyrockets and large commercial buildings will develop better. This is because the internal economy of the city is thought to be self-sustaining after reaching about 400K, rather than relying on the exports of industry. You can force large commercial buildings (maybe a few) in a small city by zoning only a little amount of high-density commercial and making the land value of those tiles really high by placing lots of water and parks nearby.

OrdinancesAn ordinance is a municipal regulation. That just means that it's a rule made by the city that everyone living in that city must follow. The city you live in

probably has ordinances too, and you could find out about them from your local government office. An example of an ordinance is the Leaf Burning Ban. What it does is lower the air pollution rate in your city. Each ordinance has a particular effect, good or bad, on some aspect of the city. Another example is the Parking Fines ordinance. This ordinance reduces traffic and gives you money, but discourages commercial businesses. In Simcity 3000, some of the items listed under ordinances are really more like government services than rules. Examples of these are Free Clinics, Junior Sports, and the Clean Industry Association. But, they are similar to ordinances in that they have a particular effect on your city.

PollutionPollution is of three types; air, water, and garbage. Garbage is produced by every type of zone and will cover your city unless you do something about it. What you can do is build landfills, recycling centers, or incinerators. Water pollution is produced by every type of building too. You can eliminate this type of pollution by building some water-treatment plants. Air pollution is produced mainly by traffic and industrial zones, but to some degree by almost every type of building. You can enact ordinances to reduce pollution. Also, anything that lowers traffic, like bus stops and mixed-zoning, will reduce air pollution. (Mixed zoning means putting all three types of zones somewhat near each other so Sims have less distance to travel.) By having a high education rate, you can reduce pollution because industries will go high-tech and these pollute less.

Non-obvious things that will limit a cities growth.

Industrial zones in high land value areas. Move industrial zones out of the center of the city. The center of the city can sustain itself without them, but may be helped by transportation connections to industrial zones on the outskirts. You may or may not see a complaint about industrial land being too expensive if you have this problem.

Not enough parks and recreation. You must have a minimum amount of parkland to support a given amount of residential population, otherwise, you're city won't grow. You may or may not see a complaint about sims wanting more fun in their lives if you have this problem.

You will also have to build the stadium after about 250K population. (See the FAQ)

I think you also have to have a certain number of connections to neighboring cities via transport or airport runways.

The obvious things are low enough tax rates, roads, power, water/sewer, police stations, and garbage collection. Everything else is pretty much superfluous from a simulation point of view.Disclaimer:

I try not to post inaccurate information, nevertheless, some of it may be incorrect.

Copy and Paste to Word Proccesor to Print

How To Develope Farms Howdy, Mayor. I hear tell there’s trouble down to the south forty. Some Mayors can’t seem to attract any Sim farmers to their cities, and others have trouble getting them to stay down on their farms once they develop. Reminds me of the old line, “how are you going to keep them down on the farm, now that they’ve seen Paree?”

Getting Farms to Appear

Sim farmers will only plant their crops in low land value, low-density industrial zones. They need a lot of room, too -- they figure it’s only worth their while to

plant in areas that are 8x8 or larger. Farmers need power to run the machinery in their barns, but they don’t need underground water pipes--farms come with their

own wind-powered wells and irrigation.

Farmers are finicky about the size of their farms, and also about the roads nearby. They need to have a road along at least one side of a farm. On the other hand, they don’t like to have roads all the way around its edges, or even along three edges. If you surround a 10x10 block with roads, and fill it with low density industrial, no farm will grow. If you put only an 8x8 block of low density industrial inside this

10x10 road area, or even a 9x9 block or 9x10 -- so that one edge does not touch the road -- a farm may grow.

It gets trickier with very large blocks. Farms have a minimum, and also a maximum size -- 18x18. Farms will appear in blocks larger than 18x18, and

sometimes sit next to each other to cover a very large area, but any particular farm will max out at 18x18. If you surround a 20x20 area with roads, and fill it with low

density industrial zones, a farm may grow somewhere inside. In a large enough block, more than one farm may appear. Speaking of finicky, all Sims are choosy about the purity of their food. Therefore, farmers won’t bother to grow anything

unless air and water pollution are low. Trying to get farms to build on an area that was previously dirty industry will not work, if the pollution is still there -- even if it’s only on one tile and the rest are clean. Even where a farm does get established, it will go out of business if air or water pollution increase to Medium rating in the

area (you can see the pollution level though the Query tool, or by viewing the pollution map).

One more thing to ensure that farms appear whenever possible: Pass the Farmer’s Market Ordinance. Farms are very likely to appear if conditions are right for them,

but passing this ordinance makes it a certainty.

Keeping Them Down on the Farm

Now that you have a farm, how do you get it to stay that way? For one thing, you should put your farms in low-lying areas on the outskirts of town, wherever land values tend to be lowest and pollution the least (nowhere near your power plant!). Sim farmers are not terribly devoted to their jobs. As soon as the land value under a farm goes up, they tend to sell out to slick downtown real estate speculators who

replace the wheat fields with smelly warehouses and the like. Pretty soon the whole area starts to get polluted and the farms disappear.

It’s not good to let other kinds of industrial development mix with farms. Suppose a farm develops in a block of low-density industrial, but it doesn’t entirely fill the block. If the block is large enough for another farm to appear, it will, but there still may be areas left over that aren’t big enough for farms. If some smelly, polluting

industry then moves in, pretty soon the farmers next door will head off for greener pastures, and the whole area will fill with motor oil recycling businesses, storage

sheds and the like.

What to do? As soon as a farm appears, stop the simulator and trim out any leftover zones around it. Demolish any polluting industry that has shown up and

de-zone all the extra land.

If you’re really dedicated to keeping part of your city rural, you can declare a farm historically preserved. Since you do that through the query window, the process

can take some time -- you’ll have to query every last barn, silo and chunk of field, one at a time!

Historical preservation guarantees that nothing else will come in and replace the farm, but it doesn’t guarantee that it will stay in business. If your city experiences

negative industrial demand, the farm might end up abandoned, and abandoned farms -- even historically preserved ones -- are as blighted as any other abandoned

area. But when industrial demand picks up again, the farm will spruce up and return to its cheerful bucolic state.

How To build Tunnels Good day, Mayor. Down at the Transportation department, we've been fielding quite a few calls about building

tunnels, so here's the dirt:

My engineers will automatically offer a tunnel as an option, whenever a Mayor tries to run a road up a steep slope. The slope has to be the steepest kind -- a "slope four" in road-crew jargon. Also, if you’re running a road from a flat plain up to a

hill, you won’t get a tunnel right at the base of the hill. Tunnels have to start at the second steep slope above the flats, or higher.

Release the mouse at this point and we’ll ask you whether you want to spring for the simoleons needed. Tunnel-building is expensive, so it pays to be careful about where you go digging. If you tell us “no way,” we’ll go ahead and do our best to make a road up the side of the hill. Like as not we’ll have to hack around with the terrain to make it flat enough for Sims to drive on. If you say “yes,” we get out our

spades and dynamite.

Another thing to watch carefully is where the tunnel’s going to emerge on the other side of the hill. We take our orders from you, and we can’t guarantee that digging a tunnel through a particular hill is a good idea. If it’s too steep on the other side for you to run a road to the tunnel mouth, you’ve just paid a whole lot of money for a nice hole to nowhere. Maybe you’ll be able to salvage it by jiggling some terrain on the other side, but that can drain the treasury almost as fast as tunnel-building.

How To Build On-Ramps Hello again, Mayor! Transportation Advisor Moe Biehl, here, to answer another of the top how-to questions our department hears about. Here’s my advice for building on-ramps:

First of all, in SimCity 3000 it’s the Mayor’s job to place those nice, fancy on-ramps, off-ramps and highway intersections. They all get made with the same On-

Ramp tool.

You can put this tool to work in two different situations. One is in the corners of the intersection between two highways. Poke your on-ramp tool snug in the corner

there, and if the tiles turn blue you’re all set to build an interchange. That is, if you’ve been taking care of business and have enough money in the treasury.

The other situation is where a road crosses under a highway. You can’t put a ramp on just any stretch of highway. There has to be a road to drive on from, or off to -- otherwise some poor sap of a Sim would drive off the highway into nothing, and I’d have to send out a crew to clean up the mess. Hey, I’ve got enough to worry

about, thank you very much. The main trick is to point your On-ramp tool a tile or two to the side of the road, right next to the highway. Once again, if it turns blue

you’re in business.

If it stays red, there are a couple of things to look for. One is uneven terrain. Though my construction crews can make highways go over all sorts of bumpy

terrain, for an on-ramp they need at least three flat tiles, at the same elevation as the highway, counting from the spot where the road and the highway intersect. Oh,

and if there’s anything built on one of those tiles -- a park, say, or a zone with something already built on it? Uh-uh. My teams are under strict instructions not to

tear down anyone’s property in order to put in road stuff. Only the Mayor can demolish public or private property to make way for highway construction.

How To Develop Seaports Ahoy, Mayor! Here’s the scuttlebutt on making your seaports shipshape. First of all, you can only zone a seaport along the shore of a navigable stretch of water. That means by an ocean, a river, or a lake connected to a river. We’re talking real water, too -- though you can make what looks like a lake or a river with the Surface Water tool, all you’ve really done is make a large puddle, and no self-respecting Sim ship captain is going to set sail on a puddle.

Seaports obey several other rules, as well:

1. There needs to be enough room in the water (5 tiles) for piers to appear, otherwise, seaports won't develop

2. The seaport zone must be at least 5 tiles wide at its narrowest point3. The shore must be straight

4. The shore zoning needs to be at least 5 tiles long5. The shore zoning must be close to sea level. If the dirt isn’t sand-colored or

light-green colored, it’s not low enough6. The zone needs to be powered, watered and within 6 tiles of a road, or some

other form of Sim transportation (such as a rail or subway station)

How To Build Bridges Greetings, Mayor! There are a few tricks you ought to know about building bridges. As your Transportation Advisor, I

count myself an expert.

First off, you make a bridge by dragging across water with the road or highway tool. Make sure to give your new bridge plenty of room for construction. Often my construction crews will have to modify the terrain at the water’s edge, so that the bridge can go in flat. If there are any buildings or other stuff close by, my crews will refuse to build until you demolish them. You may have to do some terrain modifying yourself, as well. I’ll talk about that later, but let’s start with basics.

You need to start at least five tiles back from the water when you’re making a road -- four, if you’re building a highway. Don’t be confused if the drop-shadow goes

red when you drag out onto the water, that’s just to let you know you can’t build a

bridge only halfway across. Oh, and don’t bother trying to make a diagonal bridge, either. My construction crews are pretty clever, but they haven’t figured that one

out yet.

Keep dragging to the other side, and then drag another five tiles onto the land. If my crews think there’s a good chance of the bridge getting built, the shadow will

turn blue. That’s when to release the mouse.

We’ll tell you how much of a hit the bridge will make on the city treasury, and let you decide whether to go ahead or not.

If everything is on the level, a nice new bridge will appear across the gap. What kind of bridge depends on how wide the span.

When I say “on the level,” I mean it, because that’s where it gets a little tricky. My crews have trouble building where the angle of the tiles at the edge of the water is too steep on either side. Safest is to build your bridge pretty close to the water’s

surface -- if either side is more than three steep tiles higher than the water’s surface, the construction boss will try to blow you off with a complaint about not

wanting to damage the surrounding buildings. Even if there aren’t any buildings -- go figure. It helps to have straight, parallel shores on either side, too. For all these reasons, you may want to fiddle with raising, lowering or leveling the terrain at the

water’s edge before you try crossing it with a bridge.

Another thing my crews balk at is building a bridge over surface water on flat ground. Maybe they’re just trying to save the city money, figuring it’s a waste to

build a bridge over a puddle. If you really want to make a surface-water bridge, use “lower terrain” to carve out a stream. Drop your surface water onto the stream bed,

and then we’ll be happy to put a bridge over it for you.

Happy bridge-building! Oh, and if you decide to use the Washington, D.C., terrain for your city -- make sure you build a bridge to the 21st century. That’s one I really

want to see.

How To Develop High Tech Industry *NEW Hello again, Mayor. My office has been getting gigabytes of email asking how to get high-tech industry to develop. I guess everyone wants a Silicon Alley within their city limits. Well, there are basically four factors that influence the development of high-tech industries: current date, Education Quotient (education level of your sims), ordinances and land value. The best strategy for developing high-tech is to leverage as many of these factors as you can afford to at the same time.

It Takes Time

As SimNation develops new and better technologies through the years, your city is better able to develop high-tech industries. There is a limit to how much industry in your city can be high-tech, based on the year. In 1900 there is only a 1% chance of high-tech industry developing in your city. In the year 2200, it is possible for 100%

of your city’s industry to develop as high-tech.

Between 1900 and 2200, the maximum chance of high-tech is scaled linearly between those two years; so, for example, in 2050 there is up to a 50% chance of

high-tech development.

Hit the Books

Of course, working in high-tech requires a certain amount of smarts, so education level affects whether you can achieve that maximum percentage of clean industry

for the current year. All other factors aside, the target percentage of high-tech industry developed in your city is equal to your current Education Quotient (EQ) divided by the maximum EQ (which is 150). So if you can get your EQ to 150 through consistently supporting and improving your city’s schools, colleges,

libraries and museums, you are guaranteed to have the maximum possible chance of high-tech development according to the current year.

Red Tape

You can also affect the percentage of high-tech by passing certain ordinances. The following ordinances increase the target percentage of high-tech:

Tourist Promotion

Conservation Corps

Clean Industry Association

Electronics Tax Incentive

Aerospace Tax Incentive

Electronics Job Fair

BioTech Tax Incentives

Public Access Cable

You can also discourage low-tech (polluting) industry from developing by passing the following ordinances:

Clean Air

Industrial Pollutant Impact Fee

Clean Industry Association

Note that discouraging low-tech does not necessarily mean that high-tech will be developed instead. If you have not encouraged high-tech industries enough, you

may end up with empty zones.

Land Value

Finally, land value has some effect on whether high-tech or low-tech will develop -- and how tall the buildings that do develop will be. Basically, low-tech will only develop in fairly low land value, although taller low-tech buildings will develop

under slightly higher land value if there is enough demand and water supply. High-tech can develop on more-valuable land than low-tech, but can't develop under

extremely low land value. So, for example, if you have high land value industrial zones but don't meet the qualifications for high-tech industry, you may not have

any industry develop at all. But once you qualify for high-tech, your city will hum

with production from your techie factories. 

Last Updated Sunday, March 28, 1999 

SIMCITY 3000 - Guide (version 1.11)

Written by Tim Wuyts (April 13th-14th, 1999) E-mail: [email protected]

The author is also the webmaster of The Cheat Empire:

http://home.planetinternet.be/~twuyts

Where you can always find the latest cheats & walkthroughs for PC Games.For the LATEST VERSION of this Guide, check his website!

(Copyright notice at the bottom)

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{TABLE OF CONTENTS}

* Introduction* Updates* General Building Tips - Layout - Transportation - Fire & Police - Education & Health - Recreational Facilities - Utilities* Controlling the Budget - General Expenditures Loans Education Public Health Fire Roads Police Mass Transit - General Income Business Deals Transit Fares Residential Tax Commercial Tax Industrial Tax - Ordinances Utilities Health, Education & Aura Public Safety Environment City Transport Financial* Neighbour Deals - Supplying - Offering* Legal Notice - Terms of Use - Webmasters

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Introduction============

Aaaaah, who doesn't remember the old Simcity series. I remember sitting in front of mymonochrome monitor playing simcity for days ... sleep was irrelevant. Times have changed,these days everybody is getting swamped in nice graphics (and often less gameplay). Simcity3000 still offers exactly the same gameplay as the previous series with almost no changesexcept the graphics.

This guide tries to both accomodate the newbies and the not-so newbies at playing simcity.Experts don't really need this guide, since they already know everything. Maybe some ofyou can even give me a few more pointers.

I'm not going to explain how to start building your city, since that's pretty obvious. Lookaround you, what do you need? Power, water, some recreation, no crime, no fire, roads, ...you figure out what you need to get all of this in your city!I will give you some general building tips and an explanation about cash management,ordinances, neighbourhood deals, ...

If you are looking for building tips, I suggest you read the Sim City Guide ofJarrod Hampton ([email protected]), who has written a nice section about this!

Updates=======

Version 1.0 - The raw materialVersion 1.1 - Some additions concerning budget control + minor changes (16/04/99)Version 1.11 - Updated Legal Information (06/06/00)

General Building Tips=====================

Layout------This is generally a good layout for your city:

= : RoadR : Residential zoneC : Commercial zoneI : Industrial zone

=========================================

= R R R R = R R R R = C C C C = I I I I == R R R R = R R R R = C C C C = I I I I == R R R R = R R R R = C C C C = I I I I == R R R R = R R R R = C C C C = I I I I == R R R R = R R R R = C C C C = I I I I == R R R R = R R R R = C C C C = I I I I == R R R R = R R R R = C C C C = I I I I == R R R R = R R R R = C C C C = I I I I ==========================================

2 residential zones, 1 commercial zone and 1 industrial zone.

Later on, you can mix the commercial zones and residential zones freely as needed (watch theRCI indicator at the bottom). Just remember to keep your residential areas far enough fromthe industrial ones!

This is a very basic layout. Keep in mind that you still have to place schools,recreational facilities, ...

I tend to build zones which are 4-6-8 x 4-6-8. Don't use zones with an uneven tiling, sincemost of the buildings are 2x2. I also suggest not to build incredibly large zones all thetime (=larger than 8x8). This might seem cost effective, but in the long term it could leadto traffic congestions and it's harder to manage in general. Sometimes I also build largerzones (eg. 4x16 or 6x12) but not all of them should be extremely large! Some people mightdisagree on this one ... but it works for me!

This layout is also good at the start of the game: your sims don't want to live nearpollution, so I use the commercial zone as a buffer against the industry. Later on, you can build the industry at a secluded spot on the map, far away from your residential andcommercial zones. But doing that recuires more money (more roads to connect them), soit's not advisable to do this when you start the game!

Also keep in mind that your transportation capabilities will improve over time. So when youdesign a layout for your city you might as well reserve some space for railroads, highways, ... If you want to save some space for this, I suggest you do it in between the commercialand the industrial zone, moving the pollution further away from your sims.

What about the seaport and airport zones? The airport isn't that difficult to build, butagain ... not too close to your residential area. In between industrial and commercialzones seems to be perfect! Seaports need to be build at the water (surprised?). Always makesure you have a straight shore before you start building it and always make a connection

with at least one road and make sure that there is enough place to build piers. So you'llneed at least 4-5 tiles of water in front of your seaport!

I tend to build it like this:

= : RoadW : WaterH : Harbour

... ===================== ...

... H H H H H H H H H H H ...

... H H H H H H H H H H H ...

... H H H H H H H H H H H ...

... H H H H H H H H H H H ...

... W W W W W W W W W W W ...

... W W W W W W W W W W W ...

... W W W W W W W W W W W ...

... W W W W W W W W W W W ...

... W W W W W W W W W W W ...

Transportation--------------Traffic jams can be very annoying, but a bit of planning might do wonders. I usually basemy transportation on roads, train and subway. I never tend to use highways, becauseI find them expensive and they take up too much space.

Keep some open space to build a train station (2x2) and the rails. A subway is even easier,but also expensive, so I suggest you build it later on in the game when you have enough cashat hand!Just remember that the train and subway don't need to be as extensive as the road network.Just install them at regular intervals in your city.

If you install the shuttle ordinance and later on maybe the mass transit subsidy. You'llhave no traffic problems at all.

Fire & Police-------------Before you start building fire & police stations at random, it's wise to check the map ofyour city in order to see the coverage. Make sure that the coverage is adequate but alsomake sure that it's not excessive ... maintaining police & fire stations is very costly.So if you build an excess of stations, you'll receive a nice large bill of maintenance cost.

It's also wise to build your police stations near industrial areas, seaports or airports.These are the places where there's usually a lot of crime.The same goes for fire stations ... industry, seaports & airports are the most flammablebuildings, so build your fire station closer to these zones than to the residential ones.Anyway, make sure you have good coverage of the residential areas too.

Education & Health------------------This is a huge drain for your budget. So, DON'T LOSE CONTROL. I've seen many peoplebuilding too many education and health facilities too early in the game. Result: theywent broke. There is a simple rule to follow here: build when asked, so check your advisorat regular intervals! In the beginning, especially in the hard level, you might want tokeep the education level at a lower level. If you have cash at hand, you should alwaysthrive for a higher level of education, without overspending.

This is also one of the topics in the budget where you might want to cut if you are havingsome financial difficulties.

Recreational Facilities-----------------------It's important to have these ... Sims want to have fun. Not only are they necessary to increase a sims happiness, they also increase land value. So build these at regulartimes between your residential and commercial zones (not the industrial ones)!

Utilities---------By utilities I mean the water, electricity and garbage disposal.

It's pretty obvious that every house needs water and power. So, make sure you supply everyzone with water and juice. I hardly ever use power cables, because they are annoying and aren't really necessary. The water pipes can cover a region of 7 tiles to each side, so don't start building a pipe at every tile. Keeping a space of 14 tiles between every pipeis sufficient to have good coverage, but you should make additional connections. This isfor safety reasons, if an earthquake occurs, the pipes might break, so if you have only onepipe, a whole part of your city will be without water!

Now about the structures. If you build a power plant, there's more to keep in mind thanthe cost/power ratio they deliver. Also look at pollution. If you don't have cash at handyou usually have to build a more polluting plant (eg. coal). If you do have the cash andthe technology, always build a fusion plant. It's cheap and clean, unfortunately it's onlyavailable later in the game.I would never build a nuclear power plant. Sure it gives a lot of juice at the time it isinvented but it is a hazard. One little disaster on top of your plant and ... BOOM! ...nuclear meltdown. This results in an area of unusable land. On top of that, some sims

don't like the idea of having a nuclear power plant in their town. (cfr. the nuclear-freezone ordinance). So only use at own risk!Later on in the game don't build any more coal or oil power plants, since they are quite polluting ... there are better alternatives!

You don't need too worry too much about the water structures, they are safe. What shouldyou choose? The pumps are the best alternative ... they don't take up a lot of space andprovide a high volume of water. Water towers are only to be used if you don't have any cashto spare ... they take up larger chunks of land and don't provide much water. If you areclose to salt water (check water with query button), you might want to use thedesalinization plant. It works, but I prefer the pumps: desalinization takes up 3x3 tilesand doesn't produce the same amount of water per tile, so ...

Garbage disposal is also important because it has a direct impact on the land value: toomuch garbage means low land values and that's something we don't want. To clear the wateryou'll have to use the water treatment plants.Garbage can be treated in 5 ways: landfills, incinerators, recycling centers,waste-to-energy incinerators and neighbour deals. I wouldn't recommend landfills, theylower the land values and the aura in the surrounding area. On top of that, you can'tremove it unless it's empty (trust me, this will give you a major headache). Generallyspeaking this is a no-do unless you have a cash issue. Incinerators do the job they have todo, but have a high air pollution. As long as you place them at a remote location, youwon't experience too much troubles with your sims, the air pollution remains however.Recycling centers are good: they do the job, but are too expensive and they don't have areally high capacity. You can never use them to dispose all of the garbage in your city!The waste-to-energy incinerators are excellent! They pollute a lot less than the normalincinerators, have a higher capacity and produce energy. They might look expensive, but arewell worth the money.For the neighbour deals, check one of the sections below!

Controlling the Budget======================

There are 2 sides to the budget: you have expenditures and income. That's also the way I amgoing to explain it too you. I have given some special attention to the ordinances, sincethey fall under both categories and are quite specific.

The main thing to remember when handling the budget is that you got to keep your balancehealthy ... that means at least break even, preferably positive. Once you are in a negativespiral it's hard to get out of without damaging your city (read: sims leaving your citybecause you raised taxes too much or several years of without investments in your city).

So check the budget at least once a year, to see how you are doing and make adjustmentsbefore the harm is done!

General Expenditures--------------------

Like I already said, if you want more info about the ordinances or the neighbour deals checkthe sections below.

LOANS

If possible, don't try to take a loan. They are expensive and have an impact on your futurebudget. If you take too many loans, you might end up in a negative cash flow because of thedownpayments.

Are loans that bad? No, not really ... they are needed at some points in the game. If youhave to make an urgent replacement you didn't expect or if a disaster blows up a power plantwhich is essential. These are situations in which you might consider a loan. In all othersituations, try to avoid it, especially if it is spend on unnecessary buildings. If youwant to build the stadium, but can't, don't take a loan, just wait a few years until youhave the cash.

EDUCATION

This part usually represents a large part of the expenses made. That's also the reason whythis is the part which you have to cut back if you are in financial troubles, but don't doit for a long period of time!

PUBLIC HEALTH

Not such a large post on the budget ... and therefore also a less important one. You cansave some cash on this topic too, should it be necessary.

FIRE

No cutbacks here, we don't want a city on fire burning down large chunks of the city. Whenyou already have a high flammability in your city raising this will push the flammabilitylevel downwards ... but remember, there are better ways of doing this!

ROADS

Depends on the density of your road network. Usually not such a big post. If it is, youare overspending on roadconstruction. CUT BACK, immediatly; not by reducing the budget,which results in crappy roads, but by removing some unnecessary roads!

POLICE

No cutbacks, especially if you have a serious crime problem. Usually overspending is notnecessary if you have a good, balanced police coverage. In this case overspending mightleads to an oppressive police force, which means it's functioning too efficiently, butbasically you don't want to be put away in jail for cursing, so I wouldn't recommend it.

MASS TRANSIT

The cost of maintenance of your mass transit system ... if you have it of course. Can be quite high if you have a dense network. But like I said before, a mass transit systemdoesn't need to be that extensive, a station here and there will suffice. Remember, thisexpense has nothing to do with mass transit fares!

General Income--------------

The same goes here, if you want more info about the ordinances or the neighbour deals checkthe sections below.

BUSINESS DEALS

Business deals are generated through offers you accepted. eg. a casino, military base,maximum prison facility, ...

You have to study the impact of every one of them. It's hard to draw a line here. I tendto be more cautious and don't accept everything easily, since the city usually does survivewithout it. But it does come in handy at the beginning of the game. I accept the prisonand the military base ... the rest depends on my financial situation. If I do have a cashproblem I'm more easily tempted to accept a deal. I never accept the Toxic Waste Dumpthough, seems to have a too negative impact if you ask me. Also keep in mind that the simsmight not like the deal ... making it harder to please them. Just read the advice carefullyand never accept without taking a look at the negative side effects!

Remember that these are business deals I'm talking about, not the building the sims offer you.

They also have an impact on your city, but usually a positive one. I'm talking about eg.the lighthouse, stock exchange (has an extremely positive effect on your commercial zones),statue, ... Remember that these do not give you an extra income!

TRANSIT FARES

This is the income generated by your mass transit system. It usually isn't that high, sodon't count on it that much. It's way to small to cover the maintenance cost of thetransit system. So, don't overexpand your mass transit. The Subsidized Mass Transit ordinance also has an effect on this income, so if it seems extremely low, just check if theordinance is enacted!

DISASTER RELIEF

This means both good and bad news. The good news is that you get some support, the bad newsis that you just had a disaster in your beautiful city!

RESIDENTIAL TAX

This will be your largest income source. Keep this in mind when you start fiddling withthe tax percentage. 1% change can easily make a change of quite a large sum of money. At a certain point sims will keep on complaining about the taxes being too high, even if they areat an extremely low rate (2%-3%). Don't listen to them anymore or reduce them for a shortperiod. Remember that a large city requires more maintenance, so you'll need a higherincome than eg. 1,000$.Also don't make abrupt changes. Changing your taxes from 5% to 8% will give the sims quitea little shock. Result: Sims will start leaving your city!In the beginning of the game the tax should be at higher levels, say 7%-10%. Later on, whenyou have enough income you might want to lower it to 4%-6%. And if you are really lucky youmight even push it lower, but then it also requires a strict follow up. Tax rates of 2% arepossible, but are hard to maintain if you don't have a good planning!

COMMERCIAL TAX

Commercial tax works the same as the residential tax but isn't as important. A change inthis rate doesn't affect your budget too much. That's why you can easily lower them to 2%if you have too, since the residentials have the biggest importance. That doesn't mean thatyou have to lower it that much. At some point these sims will keep complaining too. It'sbetter to keep it a little higher and don't experience any troubles than to lower it to 2%

and having to push it a few % higher later on. Later on in the game this tax surpasses thesize of the industrial tax, which is quite normal. However once this has happened, yourcity shouldn't have any financial troubles any more. So my statement remains true:commercial taxes require less planning, since they are the least important in the mostcritical fase of the game.

INDUSTRIAL TAX

Comparable to the commercial tax. Not as important than the residential tax but moreimportant than the commercial tax. Only if you have a more evolved city, the commercialtax will become more important than this one. A more careful planning is in order, sincethis tax is important in the beginning of the game and that's the time that most playersget into trouble. Let's just say that you have to mix and shake the 2 previous tax incomesto get a perfect blend.

Ordinances----------

If you do have a budget problem, this is also a section at which you should take a look andmake some budget cuts. If you have a good city, you can enable all of the ordinances if youwant to ... but the burden can get extremely high. So don't be afraid to disable a few ordinances if you experience financial troubles!

If you have a large, fully functioning city with a huge cash income, you can easily activateall of the ordinances, even if they are not necessary. You'll still be making huge amountsof money.

UTILITIES

* Water Conservation

This lowers the water consumption in your city and it has a reasonable price tag.However, don't enable it if you have water to spare or if you have a cash problem.

* Power Conservation

Does the same as the above but this one lowers the power consumption. Same reasons toenable it here too, don't if you have enough power or a shortage of money.

* Stairway Lighting

Also lowers the city power consumption, but is usually cheaper than the above. So itmight be a good alternative if you have less money to spare.

* Mandatory Water Meters

Same as the above but for water. Also cheaper than the conservation ordinance.

HEALTH, EDUCATION & AURA

* Free Clinics

Gives you an extra boost in health care. Might prove to be worthwile, especially if youhave a lack in hospitals. Doesn't cost all that much either. Activate this one later on inthe game, once you can spare the money.

* Junior Sports

Gives a boost in education and lowers crime and all at a very low price. All positive effects I should say. This is a "MUST activate" even at an earlier point in the game.

* Nuclear Free Zone

Once you enact this ordinance you won't be allowed to build nuclear power plants any more.It increases the aura in your city, so you sims feel safer. I always enable this one, sinceit hardly costs anything and it also doesn't pose any troubles to me, since I don't usenuclear power plants in general.

* Pro Reading

Increases the education level at a low price. I always enable this one at one point oranother.

* Public Smoking Ban

Although the advantages are obvious, it has one major drawback it is extremely expensive foran ordinance. I usually don't activate it, unless I really have enough cash at hand. Don'teven think about activating this one if you don't have the cash. This is only for thericher, well organised cities out there!

PUBLIC SAFETY

* Neighborhood Watch

Lowers crime in the city. I activate it if I have a crime problem (but I usually don't) orto reach a perfect state of peace in my city (that means: NO crime).

* Mandatory Smoke Detectors

I always enable this ordinance. A city on fire means the same as starting back from scratch. I can't stress the importance of a city with a low flammability. Besides, a lower flammability make the sims happier.

* Youth Curfew

It has a moderate cost and lowers crime, but usually isn't necessary to make your city asafe place to stay. You can make a crimeless city without this ordinance, so why enact it?I suggest trying out the neighborhood watch out first!

* Crossing Guards

This increases the health of your sims but has a huge drawback: traffic jams. If I have tomake a choice between the health of my sims and no traffic problems, I choose the latter.I never enable it and never will, your sims can be healthy without the crossing guards.

ENVIRONMENT

* Leaf Burning Can

Always enact this one. It is FREE and lowers air pollution and the flammability of yourcity. Give me one good reason why you shouldn't enable it?

* Landfill Gas Recovery

Only usefull if you have landfills ... which I don't use. So I don't enable it either.If you do use landfills (which I consider a screw up) you might consider it, but it onlyhas a minimal impact.

* Industrial Waste Disposal Tax

The big advantage, finally an ordinance that makes money ... the disadvantage, pollutingindustries tend to leave because of the extra burden. I usually enable it, since I wantto have the least pollution possible. Don't worry about the industry, it will keep oncoming if you enable this option or not.

* Clean Air

Lowers the air pollution, which usually the most difficult one to lower and therefore alsoa stronger polluter than the water or garbage! I enable this one later on in the game,because it's quite expensive. But you can only get good things at a certain price!

* Trash Presort

This increases the efficiency of the recycling centers and, I usually build the centers, soI also enable this ordinance. It doesn't cost that much and has a positive effect.

* Lawn Chemical Plan

Agricultural industries will be less tempted to come to your city, but the water pollutionlowers also. This is a trade off you have to make, set priorities: what do you want?Water pollution can be solved by water treatment plants, but some of you don't want to develop agriculture, so basically it depends on the kind of city you want to build!

* Backyard Composting

Garbage can be a big problem if you don't have the money to remove it effectively! Thismight help removing it. Enable if you are having garbage troubles!

* Paper Reduction Act

Does the same as the above but has a drawback. Paperwork has an impact on the industry, soenabling it will result in a complaint sooner or later. Make sure you always enable thecomposting first and if you still have a problem, you might consider enacting this one too.

* Tire Recycling

This ordinance costs practically nothing, so always enable it. It lowers the garbage levelsin your city and lowers the road cost.

CITY

* Industrial Pollutant Impact Fee

Another ordinance that makes money for you. I tend to enable it, since it brings up moneyand it repels pollutant industries away. Like I already said, the industry will continue tosettle in your city, enacting this ordonance has little to no effect on that.

* Electronics Tax Incentive

Used to attract clean industries to your city. It kind of depends how much money you haveleft. There are similar incentives and I wonder if it's necessary to enable them all?!

* Homeless Shelter

This is not a bad ordinance. Opening homeless shelters increases the land value in your

city, since it takes the riff-raff off the street. Enable it ... always! Remember, youcan only get the enormous buildings if you have high/very high/astronomical land values.

* Aerospace Tax Incentive

Has the same effect as the electronics tax incentive (=attracting clean industries). Butlike I already said, there are a few more similar projects and you probably don't have toenable them all!

* Tourist Promotion

Should give a boost to your commerce, but also increases traffic problems. I tend to enableit from time to time, but not constantly.

* Farmers Market

Should attract more farmers to your city and gives your sims a recreational activity one daya week. Enable it, it doesn't cost anything so, why shouldn't you?

* Conservation Corps

This one is usually quite expensive, but as a trade-off it also generates a lot of positiveeffects: the pollution lowers, you attract more clean industries and the crime rate lowers.I usually activate it, but keep a close look at it.

* Electronics Job Fair

Again ... does the same as some of the other non-polluting tax incentives. Take your pick.

* Earthquake Resistance and Retro Funding

This option gives your buildings a better resistance to earthquakes. I always enable thisone: it hardly costs anything and gives a lot of protection. It's better to pay this smallsum than to having to rebuild your entire city because of a little shake.

* Public Acces Cable

Once more ... cleaner industries.

* Clean Industry Association

This also attracts clean industries and keeps the polluting ones at a distance. This alsocan get pretty expensive, but I usually enable it sooner or later.

* Biotech Tax Incentives

Take a guess ...

TRANSPORT

* Alternate Day Driving

Enabling this ordinance kind of depends on the size of your traffic problem. I usuallydon't enable it, unless I have cash to spare!

* Subsidized Mass Transit

This doesn't seem to have an impact on your financial status, but it does. You just can'tfind it under the ordinances section. At the income screen is a part called transit fares,you'll see it drop 50% if you enable this. Since Mass Transit fares aren't usually thathigh, you might want to enable this. Actually it doesn't really matter!

* Shuttle Service

I usually enable this one and quite early in the game too. It is expensive but not asexpensive as the carpooling and it does offer a relief if you have a high traffic problem!

* Carpool Incentive

It does lower traffic, but usually it isn't really needed. On top of that, it can becomequite expensive. Try to solve your traffic problems in another way, if all else fails youmight consider activating it.

* Parking Fines

Activate this one from the beginning ... it does give a nice sum of extra money and it generally doesn't piss the sims of as much as they claim. If you do get a complain, ignoreit. It allows you to activate a lot of the other ordinances without actually having to payfor them from other resources like taxes or business deals.

FINANCIAL

* Legalized Gambling

Don't activate this one if you already have a crime problem. However if there is a goodpolice presence in your city, there is no objection to activating it! Let the sims whine,as long as you don't have a crime problem, it's ok. This income can get pretty high too andit's a good counter balance for most of the other ordinances for which you have to pay!

Neighbour Deals===============

Supplying---------I'm generally not in favor of supplying anything (=water & power) to the neighbouringcities. Ok, you can make a bundle of money ... but Simcity 3000 lacks the charts whichallow you to have complete control. Ok, you can see how much water and power you have leftbut it's hard to label a quantity on it! I once made a deal to supply water and the firstmonth I already didn't reach the required amount, resulting in a nice fine and no financialgain at all.

What I do accept are garbage deals ... let them dump it all in my city. Later on in thegame, you can build the waste-to-energy incinerators, which allow you to handle a largeamount of garbage. This is profitable and is under your complete control, since you cancalculate the garbage handling capacity you need.

Offering--------The neighbours sometimes offer to supply you with water or power. I never tend to acceptthese deals, since they make you dependable. It's better to build your own pumps and powerstations and be self-sufficient.

Again ... I accept garbage deals, but now they are taking my excess garbage to their town.The combination with an import garbage deal is perfect. You make money and if you don'thave the capacity you just dump it at your neighbour for the same price. Watch out though,those nasty ufo's tend to zap the incinerators quite a lot and that might make youcompletely dependable on your neighbour and destabelizing your budget ... I can only adviseone thing in that situation: act swiftly!

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