SimCity 4 can be a tough game.  It's not easy meeting the demands of your population without breaking your budget.  This is especially true at the start of a new city, where incorrect decisions can start your city on the way down a financial hole that it might never crawl out of.  This guide is designed to give your city a fighting chance of survival by providing some fundamentals of good city design.

Water and Power

Start your city off by building one wind-powered generator and one water tower.  It might be a temptation to build more right off the bat, but you won't need the excess capacity and will incur unnecessary maintenance costs.  The key is to watch your demand meters and to build additional capacity when the demand curve starts to bump up against your supply curve.  However, if your city has a large neighbor, you might want to build a little excess capacity to sell power.

Zoning

In general, start with low density zones, and only add new zones when demand is high and you are running out of room in your existing zomes.  These zones are less expensive and are easier to handle in terms of demands and services.  You won't be getting any higher density structures until your city reaches about 5,000 people anyway.  Remember that once your city grows to a significant size you can rezone for higher density without destroying existing structures, so don't worry that you will run yourself out of room for high density areas.  When checking on the status of your zoned areas, use the desirability data view or the query tool on structures in the zones.

Residential Zones

Residents will soon start demanding schools and medical centers - ignore them.  These services are very expensive and will quickly suck a fledgling city's treasury dry, and high-tech businesses won't be looking to locate in your city for a while.  When your residents begin to get demanding there is a cheaper way to buy them off.  Build small parks, gardens, and other recreational items in areas of low desirability.  Their initial and monthly costs are relatively low and will entice people to locate to the neighborhood and improve the mood of the residents already there.

People also hate long commutes.  Make sure that there are places of employment within a short distance of your residential zones and that there are several roads heading out of your residential zones.  Your sim citizens will even walk to work if their place of employment is within six to eight tiles away.

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