#Simcity 4 first time plaaying reddit how to#
#Simcity 4 first time plaaying reddit simulator#

Data for each city is stored in the city name.sc4 file, nowhere else. At that point, delete the region and move the backup into its place to restore it to the way it was. Then you'll see the importance of making slow changes in this circumstance. To see what I mean, copy a backup of one region, then make sweeping changes in one city, such as de-zoning all the residential areas to eliminate the entire population, run the game for a couple Sim-months, save & exit, then see the catastrophic effects in the neighbor cities. Wash, rinse, repeat for the whole region, repeatedly. (This would be a good time to search for the dreaded 'eternal commuter loop.') If you choose to re-design a region, take it slow - make minor changes in one city, then save and exit, enter all the neighboring cities and make adjustments as necessary. This can be quite challenging because of the way data generated by the demand and traffic simulators gets saved in one city and is then used by the surrounding cities to influence their own demand and traffic data.

#Simcity 4 first time plaaying reddit how to#

Third, those haphazard cities and their odd, incongruent, or downright ugly region views served as testbeds for learning how to re-purpose or re-invent a city or part/all of a region. Secondly, they presented opportunities to appreciate realism, or in those early stages, the lack thereof.

#Simcity 4 first time plaaying reddit simulator#

So it was a period of getting to know how to work with the various aspects of the simulator (traffic, workforce & demand, budget, civics, etc.), rather than against them. Firstly, they allowed me the time that a beginner needs to just learn how to make a city profitable, which is the only definite goal of the game - if you go broke, you lose. I understand now, though, that those early cities served a couple purposes. Occasionally I'll load up one of those old regions and shake my head & face-palm, wondering what I was thinking at the time. The cities would grow all willy-nilly and, as such, so did the region thus, the region view looked ridiculous. When I first started playing SC4, I would just draw zones wherever I felt like it, add electricity, and start the simulator. Let me know if you have other questions or need some links to the stuff mentioned here. It's probably more than you want, but I really enjoy this game - playing it as well as talking about it. Eventually, you'll learn that planning ahead is key, and new cities/regions will start with transit networks. Tl Dr: As a beginner, build cities however you want and use this time just to learn how the game works.