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THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE
By
Steve Novicki
Contents
1 у Introduction
2 у Power To The Sims
3 у Water To The Sims
4 у Transportation To The Sims
5 у How To Lower. . .
Crime
Pollution
Traffic
6 у How To Raise. . .
Education Quotient (EQ)
Life Expectancy (LE)
Land Values
Your City's Coffers
7 у Legal Information and How To Contact Me
8 у Farewell
1 у Introduction
Hello!
My name is Steve Novicki, and I will be your guide throughout this
guide for the awesome computer simulator, SimCity 2000. If at all
possible, you should try to print this FAQ out from a printer rather
than trying to scroll down the page, it is much easier that way.
I would like to start off by saying that I got about seventy percent of
the information in this FAQ from SimCity 2000: Strategies and Secrets,
Special Edition. Without that big book, seventy percent of this FAQ
would be missing.
This FAQ is meant to take the place of those expensive guides you find
at bookstores, the ones with price tags that read $19.99 plus tax tax.
I hope that it does.
2 у Power To The Sims
In SimCity 2000, power is the main building block of life. Without it,
your Sims will not move into your city, and you cannot properly operate
many buildings without it. This section will discuss power, how to get
it, and the advantages/disadvantages of all of the power plants. It
will also discuss basic rules for power.
-COAL POWER-
Date Available: 1900
Output in Megawatts: 200
Cost: $4,000
Coal Power is one of the most commonly used power sources in early
SimCities. This is because that it is relatively cheap and cost-
effective, considering the output of it. They also have no disasters,
such as nuclear meltdowns. Steady, inexpensive, and reliable, coal
power is your best bet in the early years of your SimCity.
But coal power is also the dirtiest source of power in SimCity 2000. It
generates a TON of pollution, so if you are concerned about the
pollution, stay away from coal power. It lowers the property values in
and around your city.
-HYDROELECTRIC POWER-
Date Available: 1900
Output in Megawatts: 20
Cost: $400
Hydro plants are my power source of choice for three reasons: it's
cheap, it's reliable, and it lasts forever. Hydro plants generate
almost no pollution, and pollution is normally a problem in my cities.
It is very reliable, place one and it never goes out or has brownouts.
It is also relatively cheap, enough power to bring to your Sims only
costs about $9,000 or $10,000. The only disadvantages are that they
aren't very powerful, each plant generating only 20 megawatts, and each
plant must be placed on a waterfall tile, very rare in SimCity 2000
unless you make one. Making these is very expensive also, so be
careful.
-OIL POWER-
Date Available: 1900
Output in Megawatts: 220
Cost: $6,600
Oil power also burns a fossil fuel, like coal power, which is oil. It
is also very dirty, just like coal. I normally do not use these due to
their cost, but if you want to, go right ahead. In my mind, these have
no advantages. They are dirty, expensive, and do not produce all that
much electricity. This is basically what oil power is, so do not use it
and you will not have more problems later on in life.
-GAS POWER-
Date Available: 1950
Output in Megawatts: 50
Cost: $2,000
The main advantage of gas power is the cleanliness of it. Gas power
generate no pollution whatsoever. None at all. But there are
disadvantages to gas power. One of these is the cost. Gas power costs
$40 per megawatt of power, now compare that to fusion, which costs $16
a megawatt. Expensive, huh? This is why I do not use gas power.
-NUCLEAR POWER-
Date Available: 1955
Output in Megawatts: 500
Cost: $15,000
Nuclear plants are overall good power sources, the only disadvantages
they have is that (a) they cost a lot, and (b) you always take the
miniscule chance of one melting down (unless, of course, you have No
Disasters turned on). But the good thing about them is that they have a
high power output, and generate no pollution whatsoever. If you do have
one or more, you should probably disable disasters.
-WIND MILLS-
Date Available: 1980
Output in Megawatts: 4
Cost: $100
Wind power is a terrible source of power, I think. It provides almost
zero electricity, and it costs a lot, in terms of both money уand-
land. It has almost no good points; it is only very clean and never
needs replacement. It also presents no risk to your city. But still,
since you can only place one plant per tile of land, you need to devote
one hundred twenty-five tiles of land just to your wind power plants.
That's a lot, considering that the same amount of power could be
generated using just sixteen tiles for a nuclear plant. It is also very
unreliable. You need to have high winds to be able to drive the wind
turbines, and if you do not have any wind, your Sims will experience
brownouts and possibly blackouts.
-SOLAR POWER-
Date Available: 1990
Output in Megawatts: 50
Cost: $1,300
Solar plants cost a lot of money to place, and are very, very
unreliable. They also need replacement every fifty years, costing you
an additional $1,300. But they are very, very clean, and present no
risk to you or your city whatsoever.
-MICROWAVE POWER-
Date Available: 2020
Output in Megawatts: 1,600
Cost: $28,000
An orbiting satellite around the Sun collects solar energy. It then
beams it back down to the plant, harnessing it and making it usable to
the public. That is how microwave power works. But there are occasions
where the beam misses and hits the neighborhood instead, torching it
and destroying the plant, not to mention cutting off power to everyone.
This is what could happen to you and your city if you play with
disasters enabled. But is also very inexpensive, while not looking like
that at first glance. It only costs $17.50 per megawatt of power; you
can compare that to the $40 that gas power costs. It is also very, very
clean, producing no pollution whatsoever. Microwave power is a good
idea for huge cities with gigantic power needs, and very little space,
but have a large cash reserve.
-FUSION POWER-
Date Available: 2050
Output in Megawatts: 2,500
Cost: $40,000
Fusion power is the best type of power there is in SimCity 2000, next
to hydro, that is. It is not only the most cost-effective plant there,
but also one of the cleanest. There is also no risk of a disaster with
a fusion plant. The only downside to it is that it is a very large
investment of capital. While other plants need large amounts of
expensive fossil fuel, fusion plants need only small amounts of water.
These are all of the different kinds of power you can have in SimCity
2000, and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. In general,
you should place the heavily polluting plants as far away from the
heart of your city as possible, and place plants that are clean more
towards the heart of your city. This is because the power needs to run
long distances through power lines to get to the places it must power,
and if your plant is a distance away from your city, you will need more
power.
-POWER LINES-
Every good city needs power lines. These transmit power through
unpowered tiles, and you cannot create a city that does not use power
lines. Costing a mere $2 each, these are relatively inexpensive, but
have a hidden cost. The more you have in your city, the more of a
strain will be placed upon your power plant. So, you could build a
plant at the far end of the landmass and have power lines bringing that
power to the center of the city. There is a lot of wasted power in
those lines. Power lines can pass over roads and rails, but not
anything else aboveground.
3 у Water To The Sims
The water system in SimCity 2000 is not as complex as the power system
(thank goodness), nor as crucial, but important anyway. Without a
proper water system, your cities will not grow to their greatest
density, therefore limiting your population. Watered buildings also
increase land values, therefore increasing income.
If you're going to set up an efficient water system, you must know a
couple of things. Is it fresh water or salt water you're dealing with,
and you need to know if you're able to place pipelines to connect the
water pumps to the rest of the city or not. Simple. To find out if the
water is fresh water or salt water, query the tile(s) of water. It will
tell you what it is.
-PIPES-
Pipes are how you connect your water pumps and the rest of your water
system together. Pipes cost $3 each, and you need pipes. But I suppose
that you could try for a goal of having no pipes in your city.
Pipes are located under the Water button in your toolbar, click and
hold. Select Pipes. The view of your city will change from aboveground
to underground. Now you are free to connect the pipes, assuming you
have enough money. If the pipes underground that your Sims have built
upon are gray, that indicates that they have no water. They have water
when they are depicted as blue, with stuff moving around in them. Your
goal is to try and make every pipe in your city blue with stuff moving
around in it.
-WATER PUMPS-
In the early years of your city, water pumps are the only means you
have of getting water to your Sims and other buildings. Each pump
waters about anywhere from seventeen to thirty-eight tiles, dependent
upon how much it rains and the location of the pump. Each pump should
try to be placed near a source of fresh water to maximize its
efficiency (such as rivers, lakes, streams, or even lone tiles of
water). They also cost $100 each. You can, if you do not let your water
become polluted, continues using water pumps as a source of water
indefinitely; just keep adding more pumps and pipelines as your city
grows. Each pump requires electricity to operate properly, and an
underground pipeline connection to the rest of your city.
-WATER TREATMENT PLANTS-
These treatment plants are a way of cleaning up your water system,
therefore increasing the capacity of your water system and lowering the
overall pollution. Treatment plants are available in about the middle
of the twentieth century, and cost only $500 each. They do not have to
be placed near a source of water, fresh or salt, and do not need to be
connected to your pipe system either, only if you want to. They do,
however, need to be connected to the power grid.
-DESALINIZATION PLANTS-
Desalinization plants, when placed near salt water, remove the salt
from the salt water, making that water usable to the city. They must be
placed adjacent to salt water tiles, which are ocean tiles, and
connected to your power system to function effectively. Connect them to
the rest of the piping system, and one plant provides as much as two
times as much water as one pump placed next to one tile of fresh water.
Each desalinization plant costs $1,000.
-WATER TOWERS-
Water towers store as much as forty thousand gallons of water when
there is a surplus of it, helping your city during times of droughts.
Each tower is two by two tiles in size, for a grand total of four tiles
each, and they need power and pipes to function properly. But you may
find it more productive to just place four water pumps than one water
tower. Each tower costs $250.
That is all for the water system. Remember that every building's land
value increases around $2,000 if it has water. This could mean a
sufficient increase of income for you. A good strategy that most
SimCity 2000 users and I use is to run water pipes only under the
roads. This will take care of all of the unwatered buildings. So
concludes the section dedicated to water.
4 у Transportation To The Sims
The Sims all require some way or another to get around, and no, it
isn't just biking or walking! The Sims love to drive their cars, and
they also like to take public transportation a little, too. All this
adds up to one thing: cars and public transportation.
-ROADS-
Roads are the main way of transportation, invented in 1910, and the
mode that the Sims prefer the most. The main disadvantage to placing a
lot of roads is (a) you get a ton of traffic, and (b) you get a ton of
pollution. But the Sims will use the road system happily without
complaining, so long as you fund it adequately. And there's another
problem, the more roads you add, the more pollution and traffic you get
in return. A temporary solution to this is to build as few roads as you
need.
NOTE: ALL SIMS MUST BE ABLE TO GET TO THE NEAREST MODE OF
TRANSPORTATION IN THREE TILES OR LESS.
The above mentioned rule is the most important for placing roads, Sims
simply will not walk more than three tiles to get to a road or other
mode of transportation. A good strategy around this is to build roads
with six bare land tiles in between. This maximizes land, and helps cut
down on pollution and traffic. Each tile of road costs $10 to build,
and every ten tiles of road cost one dollar ($1) in the Budget window
to maintain. Also, avoid placing roads diagonally; it's a waste of land
and money. When you lay roads up to the edge of a water source, like a
lake, an info box will come up and ask you for a bridge. The types of
bridges are listed below.
CAUSEWAY у The most primitive form of bridges, their only disadvantage
is that they inhibit ships from passing under them. They also cost the
least of all three bridges, and can cross any body of water. Also, in a
hurricane or tornado, you'll find that Causeways wash away really
easily.
RAISING BRIDGES: These are the second kind of bridge. It is a bridge
that can be mechanically raised and lowered, therefore allowing ships
to pass underneath. They are more expensive than Causeways, but allow
ships to pass, and look a little more aesthetically pleasing.
SUSPENSION BRIDGES: These are the most expensive kind of bridge in
SimCity 2000, but they are also the best. They are long, engineering
marvels, using graceful cables to lead the way across the bridge. They
allow ships to pass, and can cross almost any body of water
Roads can also be blasted through a mountain into a tunnel. Tunnels
cost much more to build, $150 per tile, and they cost an addition to
the Budget window via the Transit Authority department. The benefits of
blasting a tunnel through a mountain are that you do not have to waste
money laying down roads all the way up and all the way down the hill;
instead, that money is spent on a more aesthetically pleasing method of
transportation: a tunnel! There really aren't any benefits to placing
them and only one disadvantage: it costs a heck of a lot of money to
build, not to mention maintain.
Road connections to your neighbors do not help you, they help to boost
the industry in your city. They cost only 1,000 each, but pay for
themselves in the boost they provide for industry. The same goes for
rail and highway connections; they do the same only in different
quantities. You do not need more than one road, rail, and/or highway
connection to any one neighbor more than once, but I like to put a few
more just in case.
-RAILS-
Rails are a way of public transportation, and one of the kinds that you
will have the hardest time of all getting your Sims to use. This was
not true of the first SimCity; you could build an entire city without
any roads or highways at all. This is not true of SimCity 2000, though.
Whenever Sims use public transit, they like it to be road or buses, not
rail. Thusly, if you're going to have any rail system at all, you had
better construct it so that the tracks go everywhere and there are
plenty of train stations.
The main advantage of using rail as a means of public transportation is
that there is zero pollution. There is also another benefit of using
rail as public transportation, connections to your neighbors via rail.
Rail not only allows people to be transported, but goods and cargo as
well. There are disadvantages to using rail, however. One is that you
will have a really tough time getting your Sims to use the rail
transit. This shouldn't really be a problem though, because what you
have to do to avoid this is just make the tracks go everywhere and
place lots and lots of depots. But this is not cheap, that is another
disadvantage. Not only are railroad tracks 2- times as expensive as
roads to place, but you must place depots as well. Rails rack up an
additional cost in the Transit Authority window, and they also take up
a lot of land, not only the tracks but also the depots, places where
Sims board the trains.
Depots are no laughing matter either; they cost $500 each. They must be
placed adjacently to the tracks, otherwise they are useless. They must
also have power, but water is not absolutely critical to their proper
functioning, it would be nice, though. Rail depots are included in the
Rail section of the Transit Authority window. Another good idea when
placing depots is to consider that because trains not only carry people
and freight, consider placing rail lines and depots in industrial zones
and areas. This will further aid this area's development.
There is also the matter of crossing bodies of water with rails. To do
this, run a rail track right up to the coast of a body of water. A box
will pop up, asking you what you want to do. Click Rail Bridge. A rail
bridge will be constructed automatically. Alternatively, you can
perform another option, running the rail line underground via subway
tubes. To do this, run the rail up to the water, a few tiles away. Now
click and hold on the Rail button to get the submenu. Click on the
Subway Rail choice. Now click on the tile directly in front of the
rail. A hooded structure should appear. Now select the Subway tube
choice from the same submenu. Your view of your city will switch from
aboveground to underground. Click and drag a line of subway tubing from
the underground structure to across the body of water. Now repeat the
process over again in reverse, build the Subway Rail thingamajig
again. Now select the Rail option from the same submenu and continue
building your rail system aboveground! It sounds complicated, but
you'll get used to it with practice.
-SUBWAYS-
Subways are invented early in the twentieth century with three main
advantages and one main disadvantage. The main disadvantage is the cost
of the entire system, which adds up very fast. Each tile of subway
tubing costs $100; each sub station costs $250. In addition to that
initial cost, subway systems also rack up an additional cost in the
Transit Authority window in the Budget window. Be уextremely+ cautious
when placing subway tubes and stations; money drains away by the
thousands easily.
The three main advantages of using subways as public transportation is
(a) there is zero pollution, (b) it is an effective way of moving many
people across long distances very fast, and (c) it does not take up
valuable building land aboveground. Pretty simple. You cannot make
neighbor connections with subway tubes, but you can build a Sub
Rail connection and then use one tile of rail to connect to the
neighbor. Also, since subway system are entirely underground most of
the time, there is no special procedure for running tubes across water,
you run them UNDER the water!
-BUSES-
Buses are a mode of transportation that you will never have any problem
getting your Sims to use. They produce pollution, yes, but nothing
compared to that of cars. The main advantage of using buses is that (a)
your Sims will love riding them, and (b) you will cut down drastically
on pollution. The only disadvantages are that it is ver, very expensive
to build a bus system. Each depot costs $250, but there is a
maintenance cost of $25 per bus depot. These costs add up very fast.
All you must do to place a bus depot is click and hold on the
Transportation button in the city toolbar. Then select Bus Depot at the
bottom. Now you find a clear place, two by two tiles in size. The best
place for placing bus depots are busy parts and intersections of roads.
You must place at least two bus depots, or else they won't function
properly. That is all you have to do to get bus depots working
correctly, the depots supply themselves with buses. Just make sure that
the payments do not eat you into debt. You will not see buses riding on
the roads, just assume that they are working properly.
-HIGHWAYS-
Highways are really just extra-large capacity roads up on pilings. I do
not normally use them in my cities due to the fact that they bring
extra pollution. But they do allow many more Sims to travel much longer
distances in your city, and you can connect to your neighbors with
highways. But also, you need a lot of land dedicated to highways and
onramps for them, and they are not cheap, either. Highways themselves
cost $100 per section, and onramps cost $50 per onramp, I think. But
there are also maintenance charges for both of them. As a rule of
thumb, just do not use highways unless you have bucket loads of spare
money and land, and you are not concerned with pollution.
So concludes the Transportation section of this FAQ, I hope that you
have learned a lot from it. And remember that transportation is the
second most important thing Sims demand and need, second to power.
4 у How To Lower Crime, Pollution, and Traffic
As in real life, crime, pollution, and traffic are bad in SimCity 2000.
They lower land values, cause disasters, and are generally unpleasant
for both you and your Sims. But there are ways to lower them of course,
and like always, they all costing money. Read on to find these
solutions out.
-HOW TO DECREASE CRIME-
Crime is a given thing in SimCity 2000. It is not possible to
completely omit crime from your city without breaking the bank; I
applaud anyone who can. The most obvious solution is to build multiple
Police Stations with excellent funding. Police Stations are set as the
default selection in the city toolbar's City Services menu. Police
Station lower crime and raise land values in your city. Every good city
must have at least one station, otherwise everyone will move out of
them. They cost $500 each to build initially, and another $100 every
year to maintain. In other words, do not place more than you must in
your city, or else you will break the bank. You should try to place
Police Stations right in the center of the area with the most crime,
you can determine where this area is by going to the Map window and
selecting Crime from the tabs at the top. Now just click in place and a
station will appear. You can monitor the efficiency of the station by
querying it with the Query tool. If the amount of crimes is somewhat
equal to the amount of arrests, crime is low. If it is higher than the
amount of arrests, you need more Police Stations. Industrial areas
generally need more Police Stations, Commercial areas need a few less,
and Residential areas need the least. Also, the bigger the building,
like two by two or three by three tiles in size, the more crime there
will be in that particular area.
You can also pass certain ordinances to lower crime. You could pass the
Neighborhood Watch ordinance and that would SLOWLY decrease crime over
the years, not all at once. Monitor the cost of it though, because it
can get pretty expensive. The Anti-Drug Campaign ordinance also cuts
crime a bit, so pass that as well. Monitor its cost as well, because
most ordinances do not come cheap.
-HOW TO DECREASE POLLUTION-
Pollution is normally a problem in a lot of my cities, but I have
figured out what to do to rectify it. Pollution is caused by three main
factors: traffic pollution, industrial zones, and power plants (I
think). To cleanse air polluted with traffic pollution, all you can
really do is build multiple public transit system, preferably subways
or rails because they generate no pollution whatsoever. You can also
pass the Pollution Controls ordinance to cut down on small amounts of
pollution.
You can decrease industrial pollution the same way, but you can also
just build lots of Light Industry zones instead of Dense Industry.
Another thing to do is to discourage heavily polluting industries via
the Tax Rates section of the Industry window. Heavily polluting
industries include textiles, mining, and automotive.
There's not much you can for power plants except build them far away
from your city, as close to the edge as possible so that a good deal of
the pollution drifts off into your neighboring community.
Alternatively, build a non-polluting power plant.
A small solution for overall pollution is to build one Water Treatment
plant per every fifteen thousand Sims. This will help decrease water
pollution, therefore decreasing overall pollution.
-HOW TO DECREASE TRAFFIC-
Traffic is caused by lots and lots of Sims driving their little cars on
the lovely roads that you build and PROPERLY maintain (at least you
better!). The main solution to this is to build lots of public
transportation systems in your city and encourage lots of Sims to use
them, like build rail and subway depots everywhere. This is the main
solution for traffic problems, but you can also build lots of highways
if you don't mind a lot of pollution. These are not cheap solutions,
but what do you expect, you can't have everything in life!
How To Raise EQ, LE, Land Value, and Your City's Coffers
One of your mayoral duties includes looking out for your Sims
health, happiness, and prosperity. You must do these without breaking
the bank in order to succeed in SimCity 2000. THEN you are considered a
great mayor! This section is designed to help you raise these various
aspects in your city that make for your Sims' health, happiness, and
prosperity.
-HOW TO RAISE YOUR CITY'S EDUCATIONAL QUOTIENT (EQ)-
Your Sims take much pride in themselves for having a high intelligence
level. This intelligence level is expressed as a number called the EQ,
standing for Educational Quotient. If your Sims do not have a high EQ,
they will move out of your city and seek a more mind-stimulating city
to build their happy homes in.
The chart below is a breakdown of the levels of EQ in your city:
0 EQ = brain dead
90 EQ = elementary (grades K-12) education
100 EQ = SimNational average
140 EQ = four-year college education
These should give you a rough guideline as to what your city needs more
of. Also, there are special ordinances in the Budget window you can
enact to help raise your city's EQ. These are:
Pro-Reading
Anti-Drug Campaign
CPR Training
Junior Sports
These ordinances are the main ones that help to raise your city's EQ.
But keep in mind that you will not see changes in your city's overall
EQ immediately, it takes approximately ten to fifteen years to take
effect.
Any good city requires Schools. Housing grades Kindergarten through
twelfth grade, these keep the EQ up to approximately ninety, assuming
that they are properly funded. Keeping it there is another matter,
though. Schools initially cost $250 to build, and $25 per School each
year to maintain. These do not require power, water, or transportation,
but it's a good idea to provide these resources anyway.
To bump your city's overall EQ up to about one hundred forty, you must
build approximately one college per forty thousand Sims in your city.
These are basically Schools, but take the EQ up to a higher level.
Colleges cost $1,000 to build, and an additional $100 per year per
College to maintain. You must also fund these properly so they function
well, too. You do not need transportation, water, or power to Colleges,
but I provide them anyway.
Okay, now your Sims have attended elementary school and college, but
your EQ isn't up there, in fact it'd decreasing. What's wrong? They are
forgetting what they learned. You can prevent and rectify this problem
by placing lots of Libraries and Museums, these help SimAdults and
SimSeniorCitizens maintain their EQ. These, unlike Schools and
Colleges, do not require a yearly funding, just place it and you're
done. It might be a good idea to add power, water, and transportation,
though. The more of each you have, the better the grade they will
receive.
-HOW TO RAISE YOUR CITY'S LIFE EXPECTANCY (LE)-
A healthy Sims is a happy and productive Sims. You need productive Sims
in your city to maintain the work force, and provide enough jobs that
Industrial and Residential zones are in demand. There are certain ways
you can go about bringing a longer life to your Sims, and here they
are.
The first and most important thing is to have lots of well-funded
Hospitals in your city. These keep your city's LE up to about sixty or
seventy, and that is pretty good, but we want it up to about eighty or
eighty-five. Hospitals require power and transportation, but not water.
The next and last option is to enact certain ordinances. These are:
Public Smoking Ban
Free Clinics
Junior Sports
Anti-Drug Campaign
CPR Training
Pollution Controls
Enacting all of these provide a very significant boost to your city's
overall LE, and the most expensive thing is Free Clinics, which aren't
very expensive at all. Basically, just make sure that you have lots and
lots of well-funded Hospitals and you'll be excellent.
-HOW TO RAISE LAND VALUES-
Your city's main income comes from property taxes. If they are too
high, your Sims will move out in droves. If they are too low, your Sims
will be as happy as clams, but you will be in debt before you know it.
By having and encouraging high land values in your city, you increase
the amount of revenue you get but do not make your Sims unhappy. For
example, if you tax land that is worth $70,000 at ten percent, you'd
get $7,000. But if you tax land that is worth $150,000 at seven
percent, you'd get $10,500, and all without making your Sims unhappy.
To raise land values, you must understand one thing: Sims like
excellent city services, good hospitals, and smart schools and
colleges. They also like entertainment, such as stadiums and marinas,
to relax at on the weekends. By placing these, but not close to your
Sims dwellings, you will raise land values very much so. So just add a
lot of entertainment buildings a you will be fine for entertainment.
They also provide something for tourists who come to your city to do.
You can also build Parks, big and small. They raise land value even
more than entertainment buildings. They do not require power, and they
do not transmit power, so forget power when building these. They should
have water, though.
You must remember than while building structures such as stadiums and
zoos that your Sims do not want to love next door to loud and smelly
places such as these. Placing them in the direct vicinity of your Sims'
houses will guarantee you a land value drop, but you should rather
place them a distance away from them instead. Provide them with power
and water, and let's not forget transportation.
These will all guarantee you eventual land value raises. You can also
place lots and lots and lots of water and trees scattered around your
city. Sims love water and trees, and waterfront low-density Residential
zones around the ocean or river will guarantee you the highest land
value. Placing greenbelts of tress will also buffer Residential areas
away from Industrial and/or Commercial areas.
-HOW TO RAISE YOU CITY'S COFFERS-
As in real life, money makes things happen. The same is true for
SimCity 2000. Without money, you are done for. You could try issuing a
few bonds, but they will quickly throw you in debt. Your only hope
would be to raise your city's available cash.
You can do this in multiple ways. One is to cut down on city
ordinances. Some are just plain useless and eat away money like there's
no tomorrow. I personally think that one of these would be Energy
Conservation; it has no point, just build another power plant if one
isn't enough. It also costs the most amount of money out of all
ordinances.
Another is to remove unnecessary roads. In my cities, I have A LOT of
unnecessary roads, and all they do is eat away at my budget. And once
you remove those roads, you can use the land for zoning.
Another is to cut down on funding for your city services. For some
departments, like the Transit Authority department, this is not wise,
because your roads will develop potholes in them before you know it.
But departments like the Health and Welfare, you could probably cut
down to eighty-five percent, maybe even eighty, and still get away with
it. You might notice a slight decrease in LE, but that's to be
expected.
The most obvious way would be to just stop building for a while, like
for three or four hours. Sometimes I even leave the game on overnight
and let it build up billions of dollars. THEN I build away a serious
city!
These are all the ways that I can think of right now. They are all
effective methods, and I like them all. This so concludes the How To
Raise section.
7 у Legal Information and How To Contact Me
This FAQ is Copyright • February 22, 2000 by Steve Novicki. If anyone
rips off of this FAQ, I can and will sue you, and easily win. Just
don't do it, it's as simple as that. All rights reserved. The
owner/writer if this FAQ reserves the right at all times to modify the
document without notice to anyone. But, if you would like to do
anything with this FAQ or even pieces of it, feel free to give me an e-
mail asking me permission to do so. Just as long as I know about it,
you may use this FAQ for almost anything except publishing it for
commercial use, and I will cheerfully say yes. Simple as that.
You can contact me by sending an e-mail or two to Aristotle47@aol.com,
I check my e-mail about two or three times daily, always in the
evening. That is just about it, any questions, comments, complaints,
updates, etc. should be sent to Aristotle47@aol.com.
-8 у FAREWELL-
This has been another pleasure, writing another one of my FAQs. You
see, I have nothing better to do with my time, so I just waste it
writing these FAQs. But they are good FAQs, and I try to fill them with
as much detail as possible. Again, thank you for taking the time to
read my FAQ on the PC computer game SimCity 2000, I hope that it has
much aided you in playing the game. If you found this FAQ helpful, I
have written more on SimTower, SimAnt, and Theme Hospital, all for the
PC. Thank you!
By
Steve Novicki
Contents
1 у Introduction
2 у Power To The Sims
3 у Water To The Sims
4 у Transportation To The Sims
5 у How To Lower. . .
Crime
Pollution
Traffic
6 у How To Raise. . .
Education Quotient (EQ)
Life Expectancy (LE)
Land Values
Your City's Coffers
7 у Legal Information and How To Contact Me
8 у Farewell
1 у Introduction
Hello!
My name is Steve Novicki, and I will be your guide throughout this
guide for the awesome computer simulator, SimCity 2000. If at all
possible, you should try to print this FAQ out from a printer rather
than trying to scroll down the page, it is much easier that way.
I would like to start off by saying that I got about seventy percent of
the information in this FAQ from SimCity 2000: Strategies and Secrets,
Special Edition. Without that big book, seventy percent of this FAQ
would be missing.
This FAQ is meant to take the place of those expensive guides you find
at bookstores, the ones with price tags that read $19.99 plus tax tax.
I hope that it does.
2 у Power To The Sims
In SimCity 2000, power is the main building block of life. Without it,
your Sims will not move into your city, and you cannot properly operate
many buildings without it. This section will discuss power, how to get
it, and the advantages/disadvantages of all of the power plants. It
will also discuss basic rules for power.
-COAL POWER-
Date Available: 1900
Output in Megawatts: 200
Cost: $4,000
Coal Power is one of the most commonly used power sources in early
SimCities. This is because that it is relatively cheap and cost-
effective, considering the output of it. They also have no disasters,
such as nuclear meltdowns. Steady, inexpensive, and reliable, coal
power is your best bet in the early years of your SimCity.
But coal power is also the dirtiest source of power in SimCity 2000. It
generates a TON of pollution, so if you are concerned about the
pollution, stay away from coal power. It lowers the property values in
and around your city.
-HYDROELECTRIC POWER-
Date Available: 1900
Output in Megawatts: 20
Cost: $400
Hydro plants are my power source of choice for three reasons: it's
cheap, it's reliable, and it lasts forever. Hydro plants generate
almost no pollution, and pollution is normally a problem in my cities.
It is very reliable, place one and it never goes out or has brownouts.
It is also relatively cheap, enough power to bring to your Sims only
costs about $9,000 or $10,000. The only disadvantages are that they
aren't very powerful, each plant generating only 20 megawatts, and each
plant must be placed on a waterfall tile, very rare in SimCity 2000
unless you make one. Making these is very expensive also, so be
careful.
-OIL POWER-
Date Available: 1900
Output in Megawatts: 220
Cost: $6,600
Oil power also burns a fossil fuel, like coal power, which is oil. It
is also very dirty, just like coal. I normally do not use these due to
their cost, but if you want to, go right ahead. In my mind, these have
no advantages. They are dirty, expensive, and do not produce all that
much electricity. This is basically what oil power is, so do not use it
and you will not have more problems later on in life.
-GAS POWER-
Date Available: 1950
Output in Megawatts: 50
Cost: $2,000
The main advantage of gas power is the cleanliness of it. Gas power
generate no pollution whatsoever. None at all. But there are
disadvantages to gas power. One of these is the cost. Gas power costs
$40 per megawatt of power, now compare that to fusion, which costs $16
a megawatt. Expensive, huh? This is why I do not use gas power.
-NUCLEAR POWER-
Date Available: 1955
Output in Megawatts: 500
Cost: $15,000
Nuclear plants are overall good power sources, the only disadvantages
they have is that (a) they cost a lot, and (b) you always take the
miniscule chance of one melting down (unless, of course, you have No
Disasters turned on). But the good thing about them is that they have a
high power output, and generate no pollution whatsoever. If you do have
one or more, you should probably disable disasters.
-WIND MILLS-
Date Available: 1980
Output in Megawatts: 4
Cost: $100
Wind power is a terrible source of power, I think. It provides almost
zero electricity, and it costs a lot, in terms of both money уand-
land. It has almost no good points; it is only very clean and never
needs replacement. It also presents no risk to your city. But still,
since you can only place one plant per tile of land, you need to devote
one hundred twenty-five tiles of land just to your wind power plants.
That's a lot, considering that the same amount of power could be
generated using just sixteen tiles for a nuclear plant. It is also very
unreliable. You need to have high winds to be able to drive the wind
turbines, and if you do not have any wind, your Sims will experience
brownouts and possibly blackouts.
-SOLAR POWER-
Date Available: 1990
Output in Megawatts: 50
Cost: $1,300
Solar plants cost a lot of money to place, and are very, very
unreliable. They also need replacement every fifty years, costing you
an additional $1,300. But they are very, very clean, and present no
risk to you or your city whatsoever.
-MICROWAVE POWER-
Date Available: 2020
Output in Megawatts: 1,600
Cost: $28,000
An orbiting satellite around the Sun collects solar energy. It then
beams it back down to the plant, harnessing it and making it usable to
the public. That is how microwave power works. But there are occasions
where the beam misses and hits the neighborhood instead, torching it
and destroying the plant, not to mention cutting off power to everyone.
This is what could happen to you and your city if you play with
disasters enabled. But is also very inexpensive, while not looking like
that at first glance. It only costs $17.50 per megawatt of power; you
can compare that to the $40 that gas power costs. It is also very, very
clean, producing no pollution whatsoever. Microwave power is a good
idea for huge cities with gigantic power needs, and very little space,
but have a large cash reserve.
-FUSION POWER-
Date Available: 2050
Output in Megawatts: 2,500
Cost: $40,000
Fusion power is the best type of power there is in SimCity 2000, next
to hydro, that is. It is not only the most cost-effective plant there,
but also one of the cleanest. There is also no risk of a disaster with
a fusion plant. The only downside to it is that it is a very large
investment of capital. While other plants need large amounts of
expensive fossil fuel, fusion plants need only small amounts of water.
These are all of the different kinds of power you can have in SimCity
2000, and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. In general,
you should place the heavily polluting plants as far away from the
heart of your city as possible, and place plants that are clean more
towards the heart of your city. This is because the power needs to run
long distances through power lines to get to the places it must power,
and if your plant is a distance away from your city, you will need more
power.
-POWER LINES-
Every good city needs power lines. These transmit power through
unpowered tiles, and you cannot create a city that does not use power
lines. Costing a mere $2 each, these are relatively inexpensive, but
have a hidden cost. The more you have in your city, the more of a
strain will be placed upon your power plant. So, you could build a
plant at the far end of the landmass and have power lines bringing that
power to the center of the city. There is a lot of wasted power in
those lines. Power lines can pass over roads and rails, but not
anything else aboveground.
3 у Water To The Sims
The water system in SimCity 2000 is not as complex as the power system
(thank goodness), nor as crucial, but important anyway. Without a
proper water system, your cities will not grow to their greatest
density, therefore limiting your population. Watered buildings also
increase land values, therefore increasing income.
If you're going to set up an efficient water system, you must know a
couple of things. Is it fresh water or salt water you're dealing with,
and you need to know if you're able to place pipelines to connect the
water pumps to the rest of the city or not. Simple. To find out if the
water is fresh water or salt water, query the tile(s) of water. It will
tell you what it is.
-PIPES-
Pipes are how you connect your water pumps and the rest of your water
system together. Pipes cost $3 each, and you need pipes. But I suppose
that you could try for a goal of having no pipes in your city.
Pipes are located under the Water button in your toolbar, click and
hold. Select Pipes. The view of your city will change from aboveground
to underground. Now you are free to connect the pipes, assuming you
have enough money. If the pipes underground that your Sims have built
upon are gray, that indicates that they have no water. They have water
when they are depicted as blue, with stuff moving around in them. Your
goal is to try and make every pipe in your city blue with stuff moving
around in it.
-WATER PUMPS-
In the early years of your city, water pumps are the only means you
have of getting water to your Sims and other buildings. Each pump
waters about anywhere from seventeen to thirty-eight tiles, dependent
upon how much it rains and the location of the pump. Each pump should
try to be placed near a source of fresh water to maximize its
efficiency (such as rivers, lakes, streams, or even lone tiles of
water). They also cost $100 each. You can, if you do not let your water
become polluted, continues using water pumps as a source of water
indefinitely; just keep adding more pumps and pipelines as your city
grows. Each pump requires electricity to operate properly, and an
underground pipeline connection to the rest of your city.
-WATER TREATMENT PLANTS-
These treatment plants are a way of cleaning up your water system,
therefore increasing the capacity of your water system and lowering the
overall pollution. Treatment plants are available in about the middle
of the twentieth century, and cost only $500 each. They do not have to
be placed near a source of water, fresh or salt, and do not need to be
connected to your pipe system either, only if you want to. They do,
however, need to be connected to the power grid.
-DESALINIZATION PLANTS-
Desalinization plants, when placed near salt water, remove the salt
from the salt water, making that water usable to the city. They must be
placed adjacent to salt water tiles, which are ocean tiles, and
connected to your power system to function effectively. Connect them to
the rest of the piping system, and one plant provides as much as two
times as much water as one pump placed next to one tile of fresh water.
Each desalinization plant costs $1,000.
-WATER TOWERS-
Water towers store as much as forty thousand gallons of water when
there is a surplus of it, helping your city during times of droughts.
Each tower is two by two tiles in size, for a grand total of four tiles
each, and they need power and pipes to function properly. But you may
find it more productive to just place four water pumps than one water
tower. Each tower costs $250.
That is all for the water system. Remember that every building's land
value increases around $2,000 if it has water. This could mean a
sufficient increase of income for you. A good strategy that most
SimCity 2000 users and I use is to run water pipes only under the
roads. This will take care of all of the unwatered buildings. So
concludes the section dedicated to water.
4 у Transportation To The Sims
The Sims all require some way or another to get around, and no, it
isn't just biking or walking! The Sims love to drive their cars, and
they also like to take public transportation a little, too. All this
adds up to one thing: cars and public transportation.
-ROADS-
Roads are the main way of transportation, invented in 1910, and the
mode that the Sims prefer the most. The main disadvantage to placing a
lot of roads is (a) you get a ton of traffic, and (b) you get a ton of
pollution. But the Sims will use the road system happily without
complaining, so long as you fund it adequately. And there's another
problem, the more roads you add, the more pollution and traffic you get
in return. A temporary solution to this is to build as few roads as you
need.
NOTE: ALL SIMS MUST BE ABLE TO GET TO THE NEAREST MODE OF
TRANSPORTATION IN THREE TILES OR LESS.
The above mentioned rule is the most important for placing roads, Sims
simply will not walk more than three tiles to get to a road or other
mode of transportation. A good strategy around this is to build roads
with six bare land tiles in between. This maximizes land, and helps cut
down on pollution and traffic. Each tile of road costs $10 to build,
and every ten tiles of road cost one dollar ($1) in the Budget window
to maintain. Also, avoid placing roads diagonally; it's a waste of land
and money. When you lay roads up to the edge of a water source, like a
lake, an info box will come up and ask you for a bridge. The types of
bridges are listed below.
CAUSEWAY у The most primitive form of bridges, their only disadvantage
is that they inhibit ships from passing under them. They also cost the
least of all three bridges, and can cross any body of water. Also, in a
hurricane or tornado, you'll find that Causeways wash away really
easily.
RAISING BRIDGES: These are the second kind of bridge. It is a bridge
that can be mechanically raised and lowered, therefore allowing ships
to pass underneath. They are more expensive than Causeways, but allow
ships to pass, and look a little more aesthetically pleasing.
SUSPENSION BRIDGES: These are the most expensive kind of bridge in
SimCity 2000, but they are also the best. They are long, engineering
marvels, using graceful cables to lead the way across the bridge. They
allow ships to pass, and can cross almost any body of water
Roads can also be blasted through a mountain into a tunnel. Tunnels
cost much more to build, $150 per tile, and they cost an addition to
the Budget window via the Transit Authority department. The benefits of
blasting a tunnel through a mountain are that you do not have to waste
money laying down roads all the way up and all the way down the hill;
instead, that money is spent on a more aesthetically pleasing method of
transportation: a tunnel! There really aren't any benefits to placing
them and only one disadvantage: it costs a heck of a lot of money to
build, not to mention maintain.
Road connections to your neighbors do not help you, they help to boost
the industry in your city. They cost only 1,000 each, but pay for
themselves in the boost they provide for industry. The same goes for
rail and highway connections; they do the same only in different
quantities. You do not need more than one road, rail, and/or highway
connection to any one neighbor more than once, but I like to put a few
more just in case.
-RAILS-
Rails are a way of public transportation, and one of the kinds that you
will have the hardest time of all getting your Sims to use. This was
not true of the first SimCity; you could build an entire city without
any roads or highways at all. This is not true of SimCity 2000, though.
Whenever Sims use public transit, they like it to be road or buses, not
rail. Thusly, if you're going to have any rail system at all, you had
better construct it so that the tracks go everywhere and there are
plenty of train stations.
The main advantage of using rail as a means of public transportation is
that there is zero pollution. There is also another benefit of using
rail as public transportation, connections to your neighbors via rail.
Rail not only allows people to be transported, but goods and cargo as
well. There are disadvantages to using rail, however. One is that you
will have a really tough time getting your Sims to use the rail
transit. This shouldn't really be a problem though, because what you
have to do to avoid this is just make the tracks go everywhere and
place lots and lots of depots. But this is not cheap, that is another
disadvantage. Not only are railroad tracks 2- times as expensive as
roads to place, but you must place depots as well. Rails rack up an
additional cost in the Transit Authority window, and they also take up
a lot of land, not only the tracks but also the depots, places where
Sims board the trains.
Depots are no laughing matter either; they cost $500 each. They must be
placed adjacently to the tracks, otherwise they are useless. They must
also have power, but water is not absolutely critical to their proper
functioning, it would be nice, though. Rail depots are included in the
Rail section of the Transit Authority window. Another good idea when
placing depots is to consider that because trains not only carry people
and freight, consider placing rail lines and depots in industrial zones
and areas. This will further aid this area's development.
There is also the matter of crossing bodies of water with rails. To do
this, run a rail track right up to the coast of a body of water. A box
will pop up, asking you what you want to do. Click Rail Bridge. A rail
bridge will be constructed automatically. Alternatively, you can
perform another option, running the rail line underground via subway
tubes. To do this, run the rail up to the water, a few tiles away. Now
click and hold on the Rail button to get the submenu. Click on the
Subway Rail choice. Now click on the tile directly in front of the
rail. A hooded structure should appear. Now select the Subway tube
choice from the same submenu. Your view of your city will switch from
aboveground to underground. Click and drag a line of subway tubing from
the underground structure to across the body of water. Now repeat the
process over again in reverse, build the Subway Rail thingamajig
again. Now select the Rail option from the same submenu and continue
building your rail system aboveground! It sounds complicated, but
you'll get used to it with practice.
-SUBWAYS-
Subways are invented early in the twentieth century with three main
advantages and one main disadvantage. The main disadvantage is the cost
of the entire system, which adds up very fast. Each tile of subway
tubing costs $100; each sub station costs $250. In addition to that
initial cost, subway systems also rack up an additional cost in the
Transit Authority window in the Budget window. Be уextremely+ cautious
when placing subway tubes and stations; money drains away by the
thousands easily.
The three main advantages of using subways as public transportation is
(a) there is zero pollution, (b) it is an effective way of moving many
people across long distances very fast, and (c) it does not take up
valuable building land aboveground. Pretty simple. You cannot make
neighbor connections with subway tubes, but you can build a Sub
Rail connection and then use one tile of rail to connect to the
neighbor. Also, since subway system are entirely underground most of
the time, there is no special procedure for running tubes across water,
you run them UNDER the water!
-BUSES-
Buses are a mode of transportation that you will never have any problem
getting your Sims to use. They produce pollution, yes, but nothing
compared to that of cars. The main advantage of using buses is that (a)
your Sims will love riding them, and (b) you will cut down drastically
on pollution. The only disadvantages are that it is ver, very expensive
to build a bus system. Each depot costs $250, but there is a
maintenance cost of $25 per bus depot. These costs add up very fast.
All you must do to place a bus depot is click and hold on the
Transportation button in the city toolbar. Then select Bus Depot at the
bottom. Now you find a clear place, two by two tiles in size. The best
place for placing bus depots are busy parts and intersections of roads.
You must place at least two bus depots, or else they won't function
properly. That is all you have to do to get bus depots working
correctly, the depots supply themselves with buses. Just make sure that
the payments do not eat you into debt. You will not see buses riding on
the roads, just assume that they are working properly.
-HIGHWAYS-
Highways are really just extra-large capacity roads up on pilings. I do
not normally use them in my cities due to the fact that they bring
extra pollution. But they do allow many more Sims to travel much longer
distances in your city, and you can connect to your neighbors with
highways. But also, you need a lot of land dedicated to highways and
onramps for them, and they are not cheap, either. Highways themselves
cost $100 per section, and onramps cost $50 per onramp, I think. But
there are also maintenance charges for both of them. As a rule of
thumb, just do not use highways unless you have bucket loads of spare
money and land, and you are not concerned with pollution.
So concludes the Transportation section of this FAQ, I hope that you
have learned a lot from it. And remember that transportation is the
second most important thing Sims demand and need, second to power.
4 у How To Lower Crime, Pollution, and Traffic
As in real life, crime, pollution, and traffic are bad in SimCity 2000.
They lower land values, cause disasters, and are generally unpleasant
for both you and your Sims. But there are ways to lower them of course,
and like always, they all costing money. Read on to find these
solutions out.
-HOW TO DECREASE CRIME-
Crime is a given thing in SimCity 2000. It is not possible to
completely omit crime from your city without breaking the bank; I
applaud anyone who can. The most obvious solution is to build multiple
Police Stations with excellent funding. Police Stations are set as the
default selection in the city toolbar's City Services menu. Police
Station lower crime and raise land values in your city. Every good city
must have at least one station, otherwise everyone will move out of
them. They cost $500 each to build initially, and another $100 every
year to maintain. In other words, do not place more than you must in
your city, or else you will break the bank. You should try to place
Police Stations right in the center of the area with the most crime,
you can determine where this area is by going to the Map window and
selecting Crime from the tabs at the top. Now just click in place and a
station will appear. You can monitor the efficiency of the station by
querying it with the Query tool. If the amount of crimes is somewhat
equal to the amount of arrests, crime is low. If it is higher than the
amount of arrests, you need more Police Stations. Industrial areas
generally need more Police Stations, Commercial areas need a few less,
and Residential areas need the least. Also, the bigger the building,
like two by two or three by three tiles in size, the more crime there
will be in that particular area.
You can also pass certain ordinances to lower crime. You could pass the
Neighborhood Watch ordinance and that would SLOWLY decrease crime over
the years, not all at once. Monitor the cost of it though, because it
can get pretty expensive. The Anti-Drug Campaign ordinance also cuts
crime a bit, so pass that as well. Monitor its cost as well, because
most ordinances do not come cheap.
-HOW TO DECREASE POLLUTION-
Pollution is normally a problem in a lot of my cities, but I have
figured out what to do to rectify it. Pollution is caused by three main
factors: traffic pollution, industrial zones, and power plants (I
think). To cleanse air polluted with traffic pollution, all you can
really do is build multiple public transit system, preferably subways
or rails because they generate no pollution whatsoever. You can also
pass the Pollution Controls ordinance to cut down on small amounts of
pollution.
You can decrease industrial pollution the same way, but you can also
just build lots of Light Industry zones instead of Dense Industry.
Another thing to do is to discourage heavily polluting industries via
the Tax Rates section of the Industry window. Heavily polluting
industries include textiles, mining, and automotive.
There's not much you can for power plants except build them far away
from your city, as close to the edge as possible so that a good deal of
the pollution drifts off into your neighboring community.
Alternatively, build a non-polluting power plant.
A small solution for overall pollution is to build one Water Treatment
plant per every fifteen thousand Sims. This will help decrease water
pollution, therefore decreasing overall pollution.
-HOW TO DECREASE TRAFFIC-
Traffic is caused by lots and lots of Sims driving their little cars on
the lovely roads that you build and PROPERLY maintain (at least you
better!). The main solution to this is to build lots of public
transportation systems in your city and encourage lots of Sims to use
them, like build rail and subway depots everywhere. This is the main
solution for traffic problems, but you can also build lots of highways
if you don't mind a lot of pollution. These are not cheap solutions,
but what do you expect, you can't have everything in life!
How To Raise EQ, LE, Land Value, and Your City's Coffers
One of your mayoral duties includes looking out for your Sims
health, happiness, and prosperity. You must do these without breaking
the bank in order to succeed in SimCity 2000. THEN you are considered a
great mayor! This section is designed to help you raise these various
aspects in your city that make for your Sims' health, happiness, and
prosperity.
-HOW TO RAISE YOUR CITY'S EDUCATIONAL QUOTIENT (EQ)-
Your Sims take much pride in themselves for having a high intelligence
level. This intelligence level is expressed as a number called the EQ,
standing for Educational Quotient. If your Sims do not have a high EQ,
they will move out of your city and seek a more mind-stimulating city
to build their happy homes in.
The chart below is a breakdown of the levels of EQ in your city:
0 EQ = brain dead
90 EQ = elementary (grades K-12) education
100 EQ = SimNational average
140 EQ = four-year college education
These should give you a rough guideline as to what your city needs more
of. Also, there are special ordinances in the Budget window you can
enact to help raise your city's EQ. These are:
Pro-Reading
Anti-Drug Campaign
CPR Training
Junior Sports
These ordinances are the main ones that help to raise your city's EQ.
But keep in mind that you will not see changes in your city's overall
EQ immediately, it takes approximately ten to fifteen years to take
effect.
Any good city requires Schools. Housing grades Kindergarten through
twelfth grade, these keep the EQ up to approximately ninety, assuming
that they are properly funded. Keeping it there is another matter,
though. Schools initially cost $250 to build, and $25 per School each
year to maintain. These do not require power, water, or transportation,
but it's a good idea to provide these resources anyway.
To bump your city's overall EQ up to about one hundred forty, you must
build approximately one college per forty thousand Sims in your city.
These are basically Schools, but take the EQ up to a higher level.
Colleges cost $1,000 to build, and an additional $100 per year per
College to maintain. You must also fund these properly so they function
well, too. You do not need transportation, water, or power to Colleges,
but I provide them anyway.
Okay, now your Sims have attended elementary school and college, but
your EQ isn't up there, in fact it'd decreasing. What's wrong? They are
forgetting what they learned. You can prevent and rectify this problem
by placing lots of Libraries and Museums, these help SimAdults and
SimSeniorCitizens maintain their EQ. These, unlike Schools and
Colleges, do not require a yearly funding, just place it and you're
done. It might be a good idea to add power, water, and transportation,
though. The more of each you have, the better the grade they will
receive.
-HOW TO RAISE YOUR CITY'S LIFE EXPECTANCY (LE)-
A healthy Sims is a happy and productive Sims. You need productive Sims
in your city to maintain the work force, and provide enough jobs that
Industrial and Residential zones are in demand. There are certain ways
you can go about bringing a longer life to your Sims, and here they
are.
The first and most important thing is to have lots of well-funded
Hospitals in your city. These keep your city's LE up to about sixty or
seventy, and that is pretty good, but we want it up to about eighty or
eighty-five. Hospitals require power and transportation, but not water.
The next and last option is to enact certain ordinances. These are:
Public Smoking Ban
Free Clinics
Junior Sports
Anti-Drug Campaign
CPR Training
Pollution Controls
Enacting all of these provide a very significant boost to your city's
overall LE, and the most expensive thing is Free Clinics, which aren't
very expensive at all. Basically, just make sure that you have lots and
lots of well-funded Hospitals and you'll be excellent.
-HOW TO RAISE LAND VALUES-
Your city's main income comes from property taxes. If they are too
high, your Sims will move out in droves. If they are too low, your Sims
will be as happy as clams, but you will be in debt before you know it.
By having and encouraging high land values in your city, you increase
the amount of revenue you get but do not make your Sims unhappy. For
example, if you tax land that is worth $70,000 at ten percent, you'd
get $7,000. But if you tax land that is worth $150,000 at seven
percent, you'd get $10,500, and all without making your Sims unhappy.
To raise land values, you must understand one thing: Sims like
excellent city services, good hospitals, and smart schools and
colleges. They also like entertainment, such as stadiums and marinas,
to relax at on the weekends. By placing these, but not close to your
Sims dwellings, you will raise land values very much so. So just add a
lot of entertainment buildings a you will be fine for entertainment.
They also provide something for tourists who come to your city to do.
You can also build Parks, big and small. They raise land value even
more than entertainment buildings. They do not require power, and they
do not transmit power, so forget power when building these. They should
have water, though.
You must remember than while building structures such as stadiums and
zoos that your Sims do not want to love next door to loud and smelly
places such as these. Placing them in the direct vicinity of your Sims'
houses will guarantee you a land value drop, but you should rather
place them a distance away from them instead. Provide them with power
and water, and let's not forget transportation.
These will all guarantee you eventual land value raises. You can also
place lots and lots and lots of water and trees scattered around your
city. Sims love water and trees, and waterfront low-density Residential
zones around the ocean or river will guarantee you the highest land
value. Placing greenbelts of tress will also buffer Residential areas
away from Industrial and/or Commercial areas.
-HOW TO RAISE YOU CITY'S COFFERS-
As in real life, money makes things happen. The same is true for
SimCity 2000. Without money, you are done for. You could try issuing a
few bonds, but they will quickly throw you in debt. Your only hope
would be to raise your city's available cash.
You can do this in multiple ways. One is to cut down on city
ordinances. Some are just plain useless and eat away money like there's
no tomorrow. I personally think that one of these would be Energy
Conservation; it has no point, just build another power plant if one
isn't enough. It also costs the most amount of money out of all
ordinances.
Another is to remove unnecessary roads. In my cities, I have A LOT of
unnecessary roads, and all they do is eat away at my budget. And once
you remove those roads, you can use the land for zoning.
Another is to cut down on funding for your city services. For some
departments, like the Transit Authority department, this is not wise,
because your roads will develop potholes in them before you know it.
But departments like the Health and Welfare, you could probably cut
down to eighty-five percent, maybe even eighty, and still get away with
it. You might notice a slight decrease in LE, but that's to be
expected.
The most obvious way would be to just stop building for a while, like
for three or four hours. Sometimes I even leave the game on overnight
and let it build up billions of dollars. THEN I build away a serious
city!
These are all the ways that I can think of right now. They are all
effective methods, and I like them all. This so concludes the How To
Raise section.
7 у Legal Information and How To Contact Me
This FAQ is Copyright • February 22, 2000 by Steve Novicki. If anyone
rips off of this FAQ, I can and will sue you, and easily win. Just
don't do it, it's as simple as that. All rights reserved. The
owner/writer if this FAQ reserves the right at all times to modify the
document without notice to anyone. But, if you would like to do
anything with this FAQ or even pieces of it, feel free to give me an e-
mail asking me permission to do so. Just as long as I know about it,
you may use this FAQ for almost anything except publishing it for
commercial use, and I will cheerfully say yes. Simple as that.
You can contact me by sending an e-mail or two to Aristotle47@aol.com,
I check my e-mail about two or three times daily, always in the
evening. That is just about it, any questions, comments, complaints,
updates, etc. should be sent to Aristotle47@aol.com.
-8 у FAREWELL-
This has been another pleasure, writing another one of my FAQs. You
see, I have nothing better to do with my time, so I just waste it
writing these FAQs. But they are good FAQs, and I try to fill them with
as much detail as possible. Again, thank you for taking the time to
read my FAQ on the PC computer game SimCity 2000, I hope that it has
much aided you in playing the game. If you found this FAQ helpful, I
have written more on SimTower, SimAnt, and Theme Hospital, all for the
PC. Thank you!