Industrial builds, but no sims build homes

[ook]

I have built a city where the industrial section start to fill up right away, but the commercial district stays empty, and no houses get built. I have plenty of road connections, plenty of power, no warning symbols - and the residential areas just sit there, empty. I'm making money because of the industrial stuff, but why would the residential and commercial sections just sit there, empty, nothing getting built?

This is a basic boring grid type city, roads everywhere, nothing fancy.

[ook]

Here is a screen shot of the city. You can see roads everywhere, you can see the industrial area is all built up, and the huge residential area is totally empty, as is the commercial section. What do you have to do to get sims to build homes and move in?

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3770/citywithnopeeps.png

[icharus5558]

Do you have other cities in your region that have a lot of R and C?
Or in other words, is your region-wide demand for I much higher then that of R or C?

Regional demand is key. With a good transportation network, you can have a successful city with nothing but C or I, as long as there are sufficient R population elsewhere in your region.

[ook]

Do you have other cities in your region that have a lot of R and C?
Or in other words, is your region-wide demand for I much higher then that of R or C?

Regional demand is key. With a good transportation network, you can have a successful city with nothing but C or I, as long as there are sufficient R population elsewhere in your region.


There is only one other region, and it is short on both I and R, and has too much C, as the commercial areas are not full. But I and R fill up in this region as fast as I zont them. There are no other regions - I just got the game.

Would that cause the residential areas to be completely empty in this new city?

[ook]

I wonder if maybe my game is "broken" and I should remove it and reinstall it? I just created a new city, put down a road, put down a few residential areas, put down a few windmills, and nothing happens. With a road, windmills, and residential areas, all connected, they should start to build. Right? I mean, isn't that all it takes to get at least a few sims to build house?

The residential areas have no warnings, the power graph shows power generation and zero consumption, and the residential areas just sit there, doing nothing. No growth.

[ook]

Meh - I deleted one of the windmill sections, and it suddenly started to build.

I think the game is just buggy. In another city that would not build, I removed an avenue - I didn't replace it, I just removed it. And suddenly it starts to build. Weird.

[icharus5558]

Strange indeed.

A few years ago, I had a region with almost 300k population. One of my first cities, fairly large, got sucked into a black hole. Everyone was moving out. Even when I got the mod that adds an ordnance to supercharge demand nobody moved in. Was strange.
I still have that region on CD backed up somewhere =p

[tiki hut]

In general commercial doesn't like being right next to industrial.
The best way is to start off with strips of commercial along the busiest roads as commercial likes lots of passing trade. So I always build commercial along the main roads connecting residential to the other zones. :)

[Cooper Kid]

You don't have any road connections to neighbouring cities :confused:

[ook]

No no no that would not cause sims to not build houses. The game is just buggy. Every now and then I start a city, and sims just won't build houses. I delete the city and start over and it works fine. Go figure.

[TrippleD]

You don't have any road connections to neighbouring cities :confused:

Very important.

I never had issues. But I am on the retail version.


Speed up the game and see what happens. If demand is there they will come. Lower taxes.

[icharus5558]

There is always a "cap" to how much R C or I can be built. If the cap is reached, but there is massive demand, no sims will move in or build.

The cap can be raised by building... anything, really. Police stations, fire stations, airports, they all boost R and C caps. Neighbor connections and seaports boost I cap.

Consider having just one highway connection to a neighbor city, even if you just merge it to an avenue. A highway connection boosts I's cap by, 15000 I think? not sure. I CBA to pull out my prima guide from its airtight plastic container =3

[ook]

I just built another small city. Moderate farmland area, small residential, small commercial. Small industrial. The farmland filled right up, and there are freight trucks on the road leading to a neighboring city. There are cars driving through the commercial area, which built up quickly. But the residential area won't build, and the city population is zero. The RCI graph shows negative demand for R-$, positive demand for R-$$ and R-$$$, negative demand for all commercial, high demand for I-Ag, negative demand for I-D/M/HT. And the city just sits there :).

I gotta wonder where the traffic for the commercial area is coming from, since the city population is zero, and there are no residential areas built up?

And after a very very long time of the city doing absolutely nothing, I add an elementary school and a small medical clinic, and suddenly residential starts to explode.

[TrippleD]

You need Water, Fire, Police, School, Medical. People will not want to move in with out these.

[ook]

You need Water, Fire, Police, School, Medical. People will not want to move in with out these.

But that simply is not true. Do this:

Start with blank city.
Plop down some low density residential
Add power - I like windmills.

And nothing happens...and it just sits there...and nothing happens...

To get housing to build you have to add either some commercial zones, or industrial zones. If you add either one, they c/i you just added will immediately build, followed a minute later by residential. No water, no fire, no police, no school, no medical. Just R and either C or I.


The city I built that I discussed in the previous message had residential and industrial and commercial, and the C and I built like crazy, but no sims moved in. In this particular case the school and/or clinic caused sims to move in, but I can build cities with nothing but R and either C or I, and sims will build.

I wish I knew why - I wish I knew the algorithms they use to determine when to build R, but it's a black box that I don't think we will ever see.



I have built many cities with NONE of these services, and sims move in immediately.

[ook]

I might add that if you add R and then a clinic and school, R will also build.

My point is that you don't necessarily have to have these - you just have to have *something* besides R.

And that still doesn't tell me why one city with R and I/C won't build, and yet another will.

[TrippleD]

If you feel your game is messed up then uninstall and redownload the game.

[ook]

I never said the game is messed up - I said it's buggy. More specifically, the algorithms that they use to decide to build or not build R are a bit flaky. Re-downloading the game won't fix anything.

[TrippleD]

I don't have the issue your having.

But I am on the retail version.

[ook]

If you build enough cities, playing with minimal zones or R/C/I and minimal services to start the city, eventually you will find a city that does not grow for no reason that you can find. It's rare, most cities will take off and grow just fine, but if you play with it long enough sooner or later you will find one.

I'm on the Steam version. I doubt the retail version would be any different.

[TrippleD]

Well my region is closing in on 900k over 12 cities. I guess I will wait and see.

[§W-]

The RCI graph shows negative demand for R-$

There is your problem. Bare residential, with no services and low land value can only support R-$. And you have no demand for R-$.

SC4 uses some prediction stuff to calculate a city's building demands based on the date and the region. It seems you have somehow drained any demand for R-$ in your region.

[Bague]

there is a cap on residental/industrial/commercial.

You can raise that cap by building parks/airports etc.


So especially in a big region it might be that you used up the limits and need to extend the cap limits.