Meet Your City Planning Advisor
ISl U j jyilU UiS Constance Lee has an infectious energy that bolsters everyone around her. Her professors at San Bolima State College of Urban Design remember her as one of their brightest, most hard-working students. Accepted into the City Planning Commission Office right out of college, Constance rose quickly to the top of her profession through sound judgement, quick learning, and cheerful enthusiasm for serving in city government. The function of the City Planning department is to oversee...
Water
1. Click on the MEET button on the Main Toolbar. This is where you'll go to meet with an Advisor or Petitioner. 2. Select the Utilities Advisor and select BRIEFINGS from the drop down menu. Briefings contain reference documents provided by SimNation. 3. Read through the briefing Getting Water To Your Sims. 4. When you've finished, close the Advisor window and select WATER STRUCTURES from within the BUILD UTILITIES button menu. This brings up a window containing a selection of Water Structures....
Credits
Development Director Christine McGavran Architect and Senior Engineer Greg Kearney Engineering Dr. Venkat Ajjanagadde, Grant Blaha, Kevin O'Hare, Paul Kerchen, Cisco Lopez-Fresquet, Heather Mace, Cort Oi, Paul Pedriana, Jason Slater, Benjamin Thompson, Vasyl Tsvirkunov, Alex Zvenigorodsky, The Mayor by Night Art Director Ocean Quigley User Interface Art Director Christian Stratton Art Charlie Aquilina, Justin Brown, Kevin Byall, Hawkin Chan, John FrantzJr., Kevin Kraus, Kok Wee Lim, Broderick...
Keeping Sims HappyAura
The key to happiness is elusive at best. Sims a group well-versed in the art of complaining admire those who put aside their own personal quests for happiness and instead focus on creating good feelings for the city as a whole-its aura. Like invisible vibrations, aura resonates feelings through the city, touching the lives of all Sims who live there. Many things affect a city's aura. High education levels, high life expectancy, a growing economy, and desirable buildings such as parks and zoos...
How Power Is Conducted
Power plants provide power, and high tension wires conduct this power to your undeveloped zones. You can, however, avoid running wires due to the superb work of the city engineers. Zones and buildings come with built in power infrastructure, handled by the omnipresent city engineers. Any building or zone placed within two tiles of an already powered building or zone automatically gets power. Connections over roads are not necessary. As long as power flows to a zoned tile or building, it will...
HighTension Power Lines
High-tension power lines carry power any distance over zones or unzoned tiles. Power lines can originate at a power plant or at any point in your city that has power and can end at any tile in the city needing power. Power is conducted through the lines to the end point, and also radiates out two tiles along the path of the power line. These lines can cross most types of terrain including large bodies of water. However, if the terrain is too mountainous you'll need to find another path.
Water Pollution
Invisible contaminants, primarily from industry, can invade your water supply. When this happens, pumps lose efficiency, and Sims complain loudly about smelly, greyish coloured drinking water and falling health levels. Water treatment plants can mitigate minor water pollution problems, but to attack the source of pollution, you must go after polluting industries. Enact clean water ordinances that offer tax incentives to encourage non-polluting, high-tech industries to replace heavy...
News Ticker
J J U LI', J 'i L.lL-.AIiil JiUI'J.mjiSEinE M There are various types of messages that come across the News Ticker. They will tell you about everything going on in your city, from little kids that are stuck in trees to the latest tornado to touch down. Orange text messages give you general information about the goings on in your city. Underlined green text messages are from one of your Advisors or a Petitioner. Click on them to open the Meet window for that Advisor or Petitioner. Plain yellow...
Water Pipes
Water mains are large pipes that carry fresh water from pumps to buildings in the city that need water. Don't tell the Sims this, but these same water mains also carry sewage from the buildings back to the water sources. Water seeps out along water mains also called pipes , watering all areas within seven tiles of any part of the pipe. Unlike power transmission, watered tiles do not act as relay stations. For a tile to be watered, it must be within seven tiles of a pipe, not seven tiles from a...
Connecting to Neighbours
Making connections to neighbouring cities helps your Industrial sector by creating a way to export goods to other cities. Inter-city connections help your Commercial sector as well, by opening up the borders so new customers can visit and shop. And only when connections are built will you be able to contract with neighbours to buy or sell waste disposal services. To create a land connection, build a road, highway, or rail line right to the city border. If you tell your city engineers that, yes,...
Building Your Transportation System
A transportation system can be based on private transportation meaning roads for cars , or public transportation meaning trains, subways and buses . Most Sims prefer to drive their cars, so if roads are plentiful, more Sims will be willing to live in your city, especially when the city is small. But if you rely solely on roads, you'll find that as the population grows, traffic problems become horrendous. Public transit gets cars off the street, and keeps the air cleaner. It's the right thing to...
Funding Roads and the Mass Transit System
The road budget pays for maintenance of all roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels in the city. Roads, especially well-travelled routes, will begin to fall apart if they are not maintained. This causes Sims to have to take alternate routes and, if the commutes become too difficult, you may find Sims leaving town. The mass transit budget pays for the upkeep of rail and subway track, and also the salaries of conductors, and bus drivers. If the mass transit budget is low, things will start...
Incinerators
Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators get rid of rubbish by burning it. Unfortunately, they are nasty metal monsters that spew out lots of air pollution and ash. Sims don't like them, and they especially don't like them built in their backyards. Waste-to-energy incinerators are not any kinder to the environment. They have a greater disposal capacity and actually create electricity by burning rubbish that can be used to supply power to your Sims. The catch is that they are expensive to build, and...
Layer Views
v This button gives you access to the CITY LAYER VIEWS window. From here you can turn on and off the display of certain city elements and have quick access to data views in the City View window. Use the check boxes and radio buttons to determine your view options, then click the APPLY button to update the City View window. Your chosen City View, above or below ground or city layer views, will update to reflect your choices. ABOVE GROUND Checking or unchecking these selections allows you to turn...
Police Protection
Police stations provide protection in a radius around each station called a precinct. The size of a precinct expands as you raise the police budget. Criminals can roam free in any area that is not covered by a precinct, so try to place police stations in strategic areas around your city. Funding not only affects a precinct's size, but also its effectiveness. Police effectiveness is the likelihood that a criminal who commits a crime within a precinct will get caught. Effectiveness is always...
Raising Education Levels
Education levels determine a city's potential. Non-polluting high-tech industries are attracted to cities that have a pool of educated employees. High education levels in a city means less pollution, less crime, and happier Sims. If you want to raise education levels in your city, concentrate on educating the children. You should place enough schools and colleges in your city so that every young Sim has a place to learn. When young Sims do well in school, they pull up the educational average...
Power Plants
SimCity 3000 offers nine types of power plants, though not all of them are available all the time. Some of them must be invented first Each Power Plant has a different cost, generates a different amount of power, and produces some level of pollution. You need to decide which is best for your city's needs. If you can afford it, it's worth spending the extra money to lower pollution, but there will be times when you have no choice but to cover your Sims in black soot. As power plants age, they...
Advisors
A group of seven Advisors are always available to help you with the many aspects of being Mayor. To meet with an Advisor Open the Advisors and Petitioners Window from the MEET button menu on the Main Toolbar. iKi- Itab art iwinp-k w r iKi- Itab art iwinp-k w r Select the Advisor you wish to meet by clicking on his or her picture in the top half of the Advisors and Petitioners Window. Each Advisor has a list of relevant NEWS TOPICS, BRIEFINGS and department ORDINANCES he or she may want to...
Understanding the Budget Window
The Budget window is where you'll be doing all of your financial adjusting. It can be accessed by choosing the BUDGET button from within ADJUST amp REVIEW button menu on the Main Toolbar. lb I I I if I Ifel LKiria. bdfYkrfti lb I I I if I Ifel LKiria. bdfYkrfti The Budget window shows you how you are allocating your money for the year. There are two faces to the Budget window EXPENDITURES and INCOME. To switch between the two, click on the desired button at the top of the window. The...
Loans
When times get tough, or you are looking for rapid growth, you can take out a loan to raise quick cash. You may have up to ten loans outstanding at any time. A loan can be taken for any reason, and at any time unless you have ten loans outstanding . Loans are available in 5000 Simoleon increments, up to 25K per loan. Each new loan is extended for ten years, and cannot be paid off early. The city must make annual payments on each loan for ten full years. Annual payment amounts are based on...
Setting Taxes
Taxes are your main source of income. They are broken down by the three basic zone types RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL and INDUSTRIAL. Tax rates affect the demand for each type of zone, and determine the amount of income your city collects in taxes. Typically, when you lower tax rates for any sector, demand for that sector will increase. If you raise taxes, demand decreases. Lowering taxes gives Sims an incentive to move in to your city, so demand goes up. Just remember that demand is influenced by...
Neighbour Deals 1
Mayors from neighbouring cities may approach you from time to time with offers to dispose of your waste for a price, or offers to pay you to take their rubbish and dispose of it for them. Waste disposal deals are only available if you have built connections to neighbouring cities. Transporting rubbish in or out of your city requires a road, highway, rail, or seaport connection. When a deal of either type is in place, open the Neighbours Window from the ADJUST amp REVIEW button menu to check up...
Recycling Centres
Recycling centres can significantly reduce the amount of waste that Sims produce. It's much cheaper to recycle rubbish than it is to dispose of it, so build a Recycling centre as soon as they become available. These centres pay for themselves quickly, and no city should be without one. Each recycling centre can only deal with a limited amount of rubbish, so large cities should have them in multiple locations for maximum effectiveness. Enact the Trash Presort Ordinance and you'll raise the...
How To Zone
First you must chose a zone type. Click on the ZONE button on the Main Toolbar to display buttons for the various types of zones. Click on a button to select a zone type, and your cursor will change shape, indicating that you may begin zoning. Residential, Commercial, and Industrial buttons have a density submenu. If you click one of these buttons without viewing the submenu, the last chosen density will be active. To view or change the density, click and hold the mouse button down on the...
Commercial Zones
This is where your Sims shop, and where some of them work. Office buildings as well as stores of various shapes and sizes are located within Commercial zones. The type of Commercial buildings that get built depends on the density of the zone, as well its land value. Large stores and office buildings will come with the higher densities. You'll need light or medium density Commercial zones to let the small business Sim get a foot in the door. The demand for Commercial zones typically rises as a...
Data Maps
Data Maps show how specific areas of your city are functioning. Each Map has a legend in the bottom right corner that explains what you are looking at. You can use any of the data maps as your Navigation Map by clicking the USE AS MAP button in the Data View window. To see the information from each data map in your City View window, use the Layer View button in the Information Toolbar. The following maps are always available to you Aura Data Map Aura shows the overall happiness in a city. This...
Landfills
If you want to bury your city's waste, you need to zone landfill space. Landfills slowly decompose rubbish that is buried there, but they are not black holes overused landfills will reach a point where they can't handle any more waste. When a landfill is full, rubbish will accumulate around the city unless you have other means in place to dispose of it. Put some thought into choosing a landfill site. Landfills don't make good neighbours. They stink up the air and cause surrounding land values...
Early Warning Siren
Though you can hope for the best, it is always best to prepare for the worst, especially if that worst is a tornado or an alien attack. If you can get your Sims off the streets and inside before a disaster strikes, the damage from the disaster will be much less. Activate the Early Warning Siren and they will heed your warning and take cover. You are the only one who can control this siren, and you should not abuse the privilege. If you activate the siren when no emergency is imminent, Sims will...
BAj Emergency
Here you'll find tools that will help fight disasters, as well as tools that create them. The Public Safety Department section can provide you with additional information. GO TO DISASTER When a disaster is happening in your city, this button will centre your City View on the location. If there is more than one disaster happening at a time, pressing this button centres your City View from one emergency to the next in the order in which they started. ACTIVATE WARNING SIREN Keep your eyes on the...
Starter Town
Various standard designs, or templates, have been used for years by various mayors in various cities all across the world. These templates are available to you in the form of STARTER TOWNS. These are ready to go templates based on city planning theories through the ages. All of a city's basic needs are laid out, simply unpause the simulation and watch them build. Where these templates go from here is up to you. Select the Starter Town you would like to use and click the checkmark. The next step...
City Planning Maps Graphs and Queries
Certain maps and graphs can give you a broad overview of your city planning progress. Maps most helpful to a city planner are To see these maps, click the ADJUST amp REVIEW button menu on the Main Toolbar, and select View Data to see a list of available Maps, Charts and Graphs. Another good source of information comes from using the Query tool. Click the ADJUST amp REVIEW button menu and select QUERY. Then click on any building or zone to see up-to-date status information.
Change Sellings Exit
This is where you go to set preferences, save and load your city, and exit back to the mundane world. These settings will be saved with each city. PREFERENCES From the in game Preferences window, in addition to editing the preferences available to you from the main menu, you can set the following city options Disasters - Enables and disables disasters. Auto Budget - When this is ON, the financial advisor will maintain status quo on each budget item. The Budget window will only appear at the end...
Flammability
Flammability is a measure of how easily something will burn. All buildings in your city have an inherent flammability rating, which you can see if you query the building. The higher the rating, the more likely that building will be consumed by fire if one occurs. The most effective way to reduce the flammability of a building is to see that it is receiving water, meaning that it is located on a watered tile. To be watered, a tile must be located within seven tiles of a water pipe that is...