SimCity2000 Technical Info v2.0 rev. 3/22/94 Maintained by: Dave Palsen Please send corrections, additions, questions, etc. to me at: dpalsen@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu *DISCLAIMER* Under no circumstance including negligence, shall I (D.M.Palsen) be liable for any incidental, special, or consequential damages that result from the use of the information contained with this file. So there.:P New items to this version have a plus to the left. INDEX 1.0 MISC I (General questions about the game) 2.0 TOOLS (Zoning, transportation, water, city services) 3.0 BUDGET + OTHER WINDOWS (Taxes, ordinances, etc.) 4.0 MISC II (Bugs, rewards, cheats) 5.0 SCURK (SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit) A-1 Appendix 1 (Solving Problems) A-2 Appendix 2 (Adjusting Difficulty) A-3 Appendix 3 (Mac Technical Problems) A-4 Appendix 4 (IBM Technical Problems) A-5 Appendix 5 (How to Make a Boot Disk) A-6 Appendix 6 (SC2K Suggestion List) A-7 Appendix 7 (SC2K Description) 1.0 MISC I 1.1 Q: What's required to run SimCity2000? 1.1 A: (MAC) LC, Performa, II, Centris and Quadra series; Color Classic, Powerbook 165c, 180c. Powerbook 160, 180, Duo 210, 230 with external 256-color monitor. 4MB RAM, hard disk, mouse, color monitor with 8-bit (256 color) graphics, System 7.0 or higher. 1.1 A: (DOS) MS-DOS 3.3 or above, 4MB RAM, hard disk, mouse, extended VGA (640x480 256 colors). A sound card is optional. 1.2 Q: Will SC2K run on a PowerPC Macintosh? What about a native mode release? 1.2 A: According to Chris Weiss, PowerMac versions are due out shortly. Watch for an update on the mailing list. 1.3 Q: Where can I get the v1.1 updater? 1.3 A: (MAC) The updater is available at the following ftp sites: spider.navsses.navy.mil in /Joe 240/pub/game/sc2k netcom.com in /pub/maxis sumex-aim.stanford.edu mac.archive.umich.edu If you are unable to ftp, drop me a line (dpalsen@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu) and I will e-mail you a copy. +1.3 A: (IBM) It's not currently available. Rumor has it that it will become available late this year as version 1.2. 1.1 was out for awhile, but was buggy, so Maxis recalled it until they have a chance to fix it. 1.4 Q: (MAC) What does the updater do? 1.4 A: *The budget should work properly now, transit figures should be correct (and stay that way.) *The Bulldoze Tool should always default to Bulldoze instead of whatever tool was last used. This should prevent accidental mass destruction caused by forgetting that the last bulldoze tool being used was Raise/Lower/Level Terrain. *Airports should build correctly now (the ratio of towers to runways should be better.) *Several problems that show up with more than 7 stadiums/teams should be gone. *Figures in the Analysis window (from the City Hall query window) should stay correct. *Sometimes, destroying bridges would leave an un-usable shoreline tile. This should be fixed. *Querying on certain tiles of the Forest Arcology in certain situations would report bare land, this should not happen. *Arcologies that do not have micro-simulators attached should now affect population (populations far greater than 9.1 million should be attainable.) *There is a new button when using the query tool on a library. *Placing highway and re-enforced bridges now charges the user correctly. *Schools should work properly at population levels above 60,000. *The date should now properly display above 9,999 years. *The power graph should be more accurate. 1.4 A: *The Microsim bug is still not fixed. It should be fixed by the time version 1.2 comes out, at least according to Maxis. NOTE: This is inconsistent with the README.TXT file. *The budget should work properly now, transit figures should be correct(and stay that way) *The Bulldoze tool should always default to Bulldoze instead of whatever tool was last used. *Airports should build correctly now, with a better ratio of towers to runways. *Several problems that show up with more than 7 stadiums/teams should be gone. *Figures in the Analysis window(City Hall query)should stay correct) *Sometimes, destroying bridges would leave an un-usable shoreline tile. This should be fixed. *A new button is now available with the library. *Schools should work properly at population levels above 60,000. *The date should now properly display above 9999 years. *The power graph should be more accurate. 1.5 Q: (MAC) I've installed the updater, but my old cities still have the same bugs. 1.5 A: Cities that already have bugs can't be fixed by the update. Only new cities that are created with the updated version of SC2K will be bug-free (more or less.) 1.6 Q: I'm having trouble installing SC2K. 1.6 A: (DOS) See Appendix 4 and 5 at the bottom of this file. 1.6 A: (MAC) see Appendix 3 at the bottom of this file. 1.7 Q: Where's the SimCity2000 ftp site? 1.7 A: (MAC) spider.navsses.navy.mil in /Joe 240/pub/game/sc2k 1.7 A: (DOS) andyspc.rh.uchicago.edu in /pub/sc2k Logon as anonup with password upload in order to upload. 1.8 Q: Why can't I get onto the spider site? 1.8 A: The proprietor occasionally has things more important than SimCity2000 to occupy his computer's time with. I can't imagine what. :) 1.9 Q: How do I get on the Sim mailing list? 1.9 A: There is a digest and non-digest version of the mailing list. For the digest, send mail to majordomo@cisco.com with the following line in the body of the message: subscribe simlist-digest For the non-digest, use the following line subscribe simlist 1.10 Q: Does Maxis have an E-Mail address? 1.10 A: You can reach e-mail technical support at support@maxis.com 1.11 Q: Is there anybody from Maxis on the net? 1.11 A: Yes - Chris Weiss, cweiss@netcom.com Also-support@maxis.com for help. 1.12 Q: Where can I get a demo of SimCity2000? 1.12 A: Anonymous ftp to netcom.com. Look in the /pub/maxis directory. SC2KDEMO.ZIP is a slide show for DOS. SC2KDEMO.SEA is a slide show for Mac. 1.13 Q: How do I log on to the Maxis BBS? 1.13 A: The phone number is (510) 254-3869. (8-N-1) 1.14 Q: What's a good price for SimCity2000? 1.14 A: Well, I paid $38.88 (with CUE discount) at Egghead. 1.15 Q: Can I upgrade from the old Sim City? 1.15 A: No, I don't think so. SC2K is, pretty much, a totally different product. 1.16 Q: (MAC) Can I run SC2K on my black and white Mac? 1.16 A: No. SC2K is specifically designed to run in 256-colors. 1.17 Q: What newsgroups talk about SimCity2000? 1.17 A: comp.sys.mac.games, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc, and comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic. 1.18 Q: Is there an upper limit on population? 1.18 A: (MAC v1.0) Yes. Only arcologies that have are represented by a microsimulator contribute to population - so, the theoretical maximum is somewhere around 9.1 million. 1.18 A: (MAC v1.1) Well, if the arcos don't launch, you'd be able to fill a map with 961 launch arcos, which equals about 62.5 million. So that's just about the theoretical maximum. 1.18 A: (IBM)There currently is still a limit. This should be fixed in the next version. 1.19 Q: Are there any books out about SimCity2000? 1.19 A: I've heard of three books scheduled for upcoming release: * Daniel A. Tauber and Brenda Kienan are finishing up SimCity 2000 Stategies and Secrets to be published by Sybex (300 pages,ISBN 0-7821-1518-7, $14.99.) which should be in bookstores in May. Dan and Brenda write: "...we think our book is clear and useful -- it's full of strategies for zoning, budgeting, and making the most of every part of your SimCity. We include a complete how-to section and full info on installation. We also cover -- in depth -- dealing with disasters and winning the model scenarios, as well as all the known Easter eggs." * Nick Dargahi writes: "Here's the latest scoop. I am a coauthor of the SimCity Power, Politics, and Planning book that Prima Publishing is releasing [in March], the other author is Michael Bremer who, as you know, wrote the manual that comes with the software. Our book includes information that isn't available anywhere else, since we had direct access to the programmers and staff at Maxis. Our book also includes color pictures of interesting cities, including a city which has the world population record for a SimCity of 9.3 million people. Other topics include: -The most comprehensive information resource guide for all tools, buildings and object types in SimCity. -The Making of SimCity 2000: Interviews with the designers, and background information on how SimCity 2000 came into being. -Greater detail on how the simulation works. -How to beat the scenarios: tested methods to win each scenario. -Tips & Tricks Chapter: Includes how to hex edit your city files to add more money or create new scenarios of your own design. All Easter Eggs are mentioned. -The Economic model. Managing your money, and employing different economic strategies. -Plus an appendix that teaches you how to install the DOS version of SimCity 2000 so that it will run under Windows 3.1 (as a DOS application) or under OS/2." * Johnny L. Wilson is working on The Sim City 2000 Planning Commisioners Handbook, probably to be published by McGraw Hill. 1.20 Q: What is this SimCity CD-ROM I've heard of? 1.20 A: Well, it's an expanded version of the old game, not SimCity2000. And its put out by Interplay, not Maxis. It is expected to be out in April or May. Courtesy of Dave A. Lartigue: SIMCITY ENHANCED (a/k/a SimCity on CD-ROM) "You'll watch dramatic city news unfold through live broadcasts in a full-motion video window. News that will challenge you to make choices that could make your metropolis thrive...or perish!" Ye-ikes! - Incredible video and sound - Hollywood's finest talent captured the intensity of natural disasters, human drama, triumph, and tragedy in 30 minutes of action-packed video footage - See how your citizens react to your decisions in pop-up video windows - Included on same disk - extra sets and terrain editor +1.20 A: There is a version of SC2K available on CD, but it really isn't much different from the disk version. There are a couple of differences, however, in that it has SCURK and the Scenarios package added to it. 1.21 Q: How is the Australian version of SC2K different? 1.21 A: Chris Weiss writes: "The Australian version has a few bug fixes in it that are more or less transparent. I think the only external way to tell is that instead of getting a Braun Llama Dome at 90,000 people, you get the Sydney Opera House. A patch for the Australian version will be available shortly." 2.0 TOOLS 2.1 Bulldozer 2.1.0 Q: Is there a good way to aviod mass destruction? 2.1.0 A: Yes, the bulldoze tool in version 1.1 will default to The bulldoze tool all the time, so some destruction caused by using the wrong bulldoze tool can be avoided. Also, Save Early, Save Often. (Note: V. 1.0 will NOT default to bulldoze) 2.1.1 Q: Should I bulldoze abandoned buildings? 2.1.1 A: You can, but it's not necessary. Sims will build over abandoned buildings, although, abandoned buildings lower property values. 2.1.2 Q: Do I have to bulldoze rubble? 2.1.2 A: No. Sims will build over rubble. 2.1.3 Q: Is there any way to bulldoze large areas at a time? 2.1.3 A: No. Although you can destroy a few buildings at a time using raise terrain tool. 2.1.4 Q: Is there a way to get rid of lots of rubble? 2.1.4 A: You can either build power lines over rubble, or you could use the de-zone tool to get rid of the zoning and the rubble. 2.1.5 Q: The sims complain when I try to bulldoze some forest. Should I pay any attention to them? 2.1.5 A: I don't think it'll do you any harm to ignore them. 2.2 Landscape 2.2.1 Q: How do I make waterfalls? 2.2.1 A: Place water on a slope. 2.2.2.Q: What's the magic eraser? 2.2.2 A: Select the tree tool. Press the mouse button with the cursor on a blank tile. Keep holding down the button and press the shift key. The cursor will now erase any type of development. The effect is rather odd - when you query the tile that's been erased, the old structure appears to still be there. 2.2.3 Q: Can I make a deep river at higher elevations? 2.2.3 A: No, the only way to add water at elevations above sea level is to use the water tool - and this only makes water that is 50 feet deep. 2.2.4 Q: Does the water tool make fresh water or salt water? 2.2.4 A: (MAC) Fresh water. 2.2.4 A: (DOS) The water tool seems to make fresh water half the time and salt water the other half. 2.3 Power 2.3.1 Q: Do undeveloped zones conduct power? 2.3.1 A: No. Only tiles that have immediate contact to power (either next to another building or next to a power line) will be powered. 2.3.2 Q: What type of power plant should I use? 2.3.2 A: If you aren't concerned with money, fusion plants are the most efficient, and don't pollute or cause disasters - like nuclear and microwave. If you are concerned about money, then hydro is best. Hydro plants don't pollute and don't need to be replaced every 50 years. Eff. Output Pollut. (16 tiles) Level Comments Fusion $16/MW 2500 80 Micro $17.5/MW 1600 0 Possible disaster Hydro $20/MW 320 0 Doesn't need replacing Coal $20/MW 200 3400 Wind $25/MW 64 0 Doesn't need replacing Solar $26/MW 50 0 Weather dependent Nuclear $30/MW 500 80 Possible disaster Oil $30/MW 220 1680 Gas $40/MW 50 610 2.3.3 Q: Isn't it kind of like cheating to use hydro power? 2.3.3 A: Well, first off, it's just a game, and you can do whatever you want with it. The most efficient use of hydro would be to use the raise terrain tool to make a little bump. Line the bump with waterfalls and then place hydro plants on the waterfalls. You could even surround the hydro pants with water pumps. This is the best, and most unrealistic use of hydro plants. A more realistic approach would be to make a map with a river, then raise the land on one end of the river, and draw the river back in, having it flow down the raised land. You could then build large dams on the slopes. 2.3.4 Q: My power plants seem to last forever. 2.3.4 A: If you have disasters off, your power plants will automatically be replaced when they are 50 years old. Their cost will also be deducted from your coffers. 2.3.5 Q: Why don't hydro plants and wind power have to be replaced every 50 years? 2.3.5 A: Well, you could say that this is bias on the part of Maxis to encourage the use of clean power. The real reason has to do with programming limitations - they'd have to keep track of the age of each plant. 2.3.6 Q: Why should I use wind power? 2.3.6 A: I don't know - appearance, maybe? If you have extra space on the top of a mountain, you could put windmills there. You could use a couple of wind power plants to sustain a small village in the middle of nowhere. 2.3.7 Q: Do I have to use raised wires to run power across water? 2.3.7 A: No, there's a cheat you can use to get around this. Chris Weiss writes: "There's a little trick you can do to run power across water without needing lines. First, you need 3 tiles of water between where you'd run the line from and where you'd run it to. Build a power line brige across that 3 tile space and bulldoze the power line between the two "on-ramps" for the power bridge. Replace the flat land tiles with water again and Voila! The power flows across the no-longer-existent power bridge." 2.4 Water 2.4.1 Q: How effective is a water pump? 2.4.1 A: A water pump (not next to water) will service approximately 24 to 36 tiles, depending on the weather. An additional 12 tiles (approx.) will be serviced for every water tile that the pump is adjacent to. For example: W W W L P L L L L where W = water, L = land, P = pump The above pump is next to 3 water tiles, therefore, it will provide 60 to 72 tiles with water. I think that each tile requires 600 gallons of water. 2.4.2 Q: Should I build water towers? 2.4.2 A: Each water tower will hold up to 40,000 gallons of water. They will only fill up when you have a surplus. It's probably easier to just build four more pumps in the space that a tower would take. 2.4.3 Q: Why aren't the pipes under my towers filled with water? 2.4.3 A: The pipes turn blue when the tower fills with water. For every 10,000 gallons, one pipe will turn blue. 2.4.4 Q: What good is a water treatment plant? 2.4.4 A: The manual says that water treatment plants will help you prevent droughts by cleaning and recycling your water. However, the online help says that water treatment plants will reduce the overall pollution level of your city. Experimentation has revealed that water treatment plants do not really have anything to do with the water supply. Adding one treatment plant (anywhere on the map) will reduce the pollution level of your city quite a bit. Additonal treatment plants have no effect, though. So, build one, and only one 2.4.5 Q: How effective is a desalination plant? 2.4.5 A: Desalination plants seem to have an effective radius, so there effectiveness is rather complicated. They can provide water to 200 - 500 tiles each, depending on how many seawater tiles are adjacent to the plant. 2.4.6 Q: What types of water will help a water pump? 2.4.6 A: Natural water and artificial water will improve the performance of a water pump, while salt water will not. Use the query tool to find out whether water is salty or fresh. Water pump performance will even be improved by a waterfall, or a waterfall with a hydro plant on it. 2.4.7 Q: I've built several pumps on the edge of my city, but all the water seems to be going to the center. 2.4.7 A: Well, SC2K figures out how much water you have, then it distributes it from the center of your city. The only way to keep the water at the edge would be to cut it off from the water system. 2.4.8 Q: Where do I need to build pipes? 2.4.8 A: Sims will automatically build pipes underneath buildings, so, all you need to do, is build pipes underneath roads. I like to place pipes underneath my power lines. 2.5 Road + Rail 2.5.1 Q: How much road do I need? 2.5.1 A: A zone (residential, commercial, or industrial) must be within 3 tiles (not counting diagonally) of a road in order to start growing. If you're really strapped for cash (say you start on the hard level) then you can get away with discontinuous roads. Just drop down 1 tile sections of road and build different zones around it: For example: R R R R R R R R R R - I I C C I I I C I I where - = road R = residential, C = commercial, I = industrial Actually you don't really need any roads at all. If you want, you can rely totally on mass transit. You won't have any traffic, but growth will be less and larger(3X3) buildings won't develop. For example, sims will build given the following setup: R I R R R I I I R R R R R I I I I I R R R s R R R I I I s I I I R R R R R I I I I I R R R I I I R I where R = residential, I =industrial, s = sub stations - connected underground by subway 2.5.2 Q: Why should I use rail instead of a subway? 2.5.2 A: Rail is cheaper, and, supposedly, has a greater positive impact on heavy industry. 2.5.3 Q: How do bus stations work? 2.5.3 A: Place bus stations at busy intersections to reduce traffic at that intersection. 2.5.4 Q: How do you build a reinforced girder bridge? 2.5.4 A: You will be asked if you want to build a reinforced bridge if you place a highway tile halfway over water: before: L L L W W W after L L L W W W L L L W W W L L H H W W L L L W W W L L H H W W L L L W W W L L L W W W where L = land, W = water, H = highway tile +Also, be sure that the other side of the river is clear and flat. 2.5.5 Q: What's the difference between a highway bridge and a reinforced bridge? 2.5.5 A: Highway bridges don't allow ships to pass, but are cheaper. 2.5.6 Q: What's the difference between causeways, raising bridges, and suspension bridges? 2.5.6 A: Causeways do not allow ships to pass. Raising bridges and suspension bridges both allow ships to pass. Raising bridges are cheaper than suspension bridges, but can only be a maximum of eleven tiles long. 2.5.7 Q: How does my transportation system affect growth? 2.5.7 A: Residential zones must be properly connected to a commercial or industrial zone in order to start growing. Industrial or commercial zones must be connected to a residential zone in order to start growing. This connection can either be made by road rail, or subway, however, growth will be best with roads. 2.5.8 Q: Is there an annual charge for bus depots? 2.5.8 A: Yes, in fact, there are transportation charges for lots of things. The chart below shows the various things that have maintenance charges. The first column shows the building cost. The other columns show how much is charged, per year for each item in each category. (Some items, like Sub/Rail, have split charges.) Build Road Hwy Brid Rail Sub Tun Road $10 0.10 -- -- -- -- -- Causeway $25 -- -- 0.22 -- -- -- Raising Bridge $50 -- -- 0.22 -- -- -- Suspension Bridge $75 -- -- 0.22 -- -- -- Highway $100 -- 0.80 -- -- -- -- Highway Bridge $200 -- 0.80 -- -- -- -- Reinforced Bridge $300 -- 0.80 1.00 -- -- -- Tunnel $150 -- -- -- -- -- 0.10 Tunnel Entrance $150 0.10 -- -- -- -- -- Onramp $25 0.10 -- -- -- -- -- Bus Depot $250 25.00 -- -- -- -- -- Rail $25 -- -- -- 0.40 -- -- Rail Bridge $75 -- -- 0.22 -- -- -- Subway $100 -- -- -- -- 0.40 -- Rail Depot $500 -- -- -- 1.60 -- -- Sub Station $250 -- -- -- -- 0.76 -- Sub/Rail $250 -- -- -- 0.40 0.40 -- Power Lines $2 -- -- -- -- -- -- Raised Wires $10 -- -- 0.20 -- -- -- 2.5.9 Q: Will sims walk to a road, then drive to a sub station, take the subway, drive from the sub station, and walk from the road to work? 2.5.9 A: Well, I said yes before, but actually, work has to be next to the road. (See next question.) 2.5.10 Q: Why do some zones develop away from a road, and others don't? 2.5.10 A: terry@laue.biochem.ubc.ca writes: "I recently posted my theory about the trip generator by proposing four schemes. The question came up because I was trying to explain how you can have properties develop which are not connected to the road. The schemes are as follows: A. R - I B. R -I C. R- I D. R-I +After powering up, I found that neither property in (A) developed and both properties in (D) did. This is expected as the sims in (A) cannot seem to find the road. However, The R in (B) and the I in (C), the squares which DO NOT touch the road, DO develop! And, the I in (B) and the R in (C), the squares which DO touch the road, DO NOT develop! Therefore, for roads, the trip generator works as follows: -assume you have a starting building X -assume you need to reach a zone Y which is a zone type different than that of X (ie: if X is an R zone, Y will be an I or C zone) -the trip generator starts from X and looks for the nearest road segment Z within 3 squares of X -the generator travels along the road searching for Y -if Y is touching the road and is within 25 squares of the originating road segment Z, the trip is a success -otherwise, the trip is a failure and X will not develop, or will be abandoned in short order if it is already developed Obviously, this does not take into account traffic volumes. As stated in the manual, the trip generator will try to avoid areas of high traffic. It is also important to note that X is a whole building, whether 1x1, 2x2 or 3x3, whereas Y is a single square of a zone, developed or undeveloped. 2.5.10 Q: Do I need 2 or 4 onramps at each road-highway intersection? 2.5.10 A: Well, really, you only need one. The only reason to have more would be for realism, or to shorten some trip distances. 2.5.11 Q: Why can't I build onramps? 2.5.11 A: You must build onramps in the following fashion: H H o H H o - - - - H H - - - - o H H o H H H H where H = highway, - = road, o = onramp 2.5.12 Q: Why can't I put highways where I want them? 2.5.12 A: I assume that they only allow highways to placed on every other tile, just so that there won't ever by a time when highways mismatch: H H H H H H H H 2.6 Ports + Connections 2.6.1 Q: I've zoned a port - why do they keep complaining? 2.6.1 A: They won't stop complaining until either a runway or pier has been built. 2.6.2 Q: What is the smallest size of zone for an airport? 2.6.2 A: An airport must be at least 1 X 5 tiles, in order for a runway to be built. Since runways are 5 tiles long, you can keep force them to only go in one direction by zoning a 4 X 10, 4 X 15, 4 X 20 etc. area for the airport. 2.6.3 Q: Why won't my airport grow? 2.6.3 A: I don't know. Results seem to vary from person to person. Runways won't be built if you have an air force base. Just keep trying to zone more airport tiles. Sometimes Sims have difficulty building over airport tiles that have power lines on them. 2.6.4 Q: Does my airport need to be connected to water pipes or transportation in order to grow? 2.6.4 A: No. An airport only needs connection to power. 2.6.5 Q: Does my city have to be a certain size before an airport can be built? 2.6.5 A: No. You could build a successful airport, even before anybody moves into your city (of course, you won't have any money left, but...) 2.6.6 Q: Why do I keep having air crashes? 2.6.6 A: You'll have air crashes if you have tall buildings in the immediate flight path. Generally, it's best to put your airport out of the way - perhaps on an island or plateau. 2.6.7 Q: I've zoned a seaport, why won't piers develop? 2.6.7 A: Well, I think that a pier needs to be able to extend out over water that's at least 150 feet deep. 2.6.8 Q: Exactly what effect do seaports and airports have, anyway? 2.6.8 A: Unknown. They stop the sim's complaints. Airports promote commerce and seaports promote industry. Beyond that, who knows? It's a very hard factor to isolate. 2.6.9 Q: What does it mean when connections are requested? 2.6.9 A: You must build connections to your neighbors. Run a road, rail, or highway to the edge of the map, and you will be asked if you want to build a connection to your neighbor. 2.6.10 Q: What does the number on the connection sign mean? 2.6.10 A: That's the distance to your neighbor. 2.6.11 Q: Why is it possible to build a connection to the ocean? 2.6.11 A: I don't know. 2.6.12 Q: I've built plenty of connections, but they keep asking for more. 2.6.12 A: They may want you to build highway or rail connections. 2.6.13 Q: Just how useful are connections, anyway? 2.6.13 A: A connection acts as a stimulus point. Normally, residential zones are stimulated by being connected to job zones, and vice versa. A connection will act as a stimulus to both residential and commercial/industrial. 2.7 Residential Zones 2.7.1 Q: What kinds of residential zones are there? 2.7.1 A: Name size population Abandoned building 1 X 1 0 Construction 1 X 1 0 Lower Class Homes 1 X 1 10 Middle Class Homes 1 X 1 10 Luxury Homes 1 X 1 10 Abandoned building 2 X 2 0 Construction 2 X 2 0 Church 2 X 2 0 (dezones when built) Cheap Apartments 2 X 2 80 Apartments 2 X 2 80 Nice Apartments 2 X 2 80 Condominium 2 X 2 120 Abandoned building 3 X 3 0 Construction 3 X 3 0 Condominium 3 X 3 360 Large Apt. Bldg 3 X 3 450 2.7.2 Q: What's the difference between light residential heavy residential? 2.7.2 A: Light residential is cheaper and will only allow 1 X 1 buildings. 2.7.2 Q: Why should I use light residential? 2.7.2 A: Aesthetics? Not everyone can live in high rise apartment buildings. Light residential requires less police protection than heavy residential. If your zoning an oddly shaped piece of land that wouldn't be able to form into a 2X2 or 3X3 building, you might want to use light instead of heavy. 2.7.3 Q: Why should I use heavy residential? 2.7.3 A: You will need to use heavy if you want your city to have a large population. The blank map looks large at the beginning, but you will quickly run out of space if you rely on light zoning. The larger buildings use the same amount of power, therefore, you use less power per person. In addition, you will get more tax revenue, for the same amount of space. 2.7.4 Q: How do I encourage my sims to build 3 X 3 buildings? 2.7.5 A: First the property values have to be pretty good. Second, a 3 X 3 piece of land must be adjacent to an intersection: R R R | C C C I I I C C C | R R R | C C C I I I C C C | R R R | C C C I I I C C C | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - where R = heavy residential, C = heavy commercial, I = heavy industrial, | and - = road In the above example, the residential and commercial zones may become 3 X 3 buildings, however, the industrial zone will not. 2.7.6 Q: Can I get rid of all these churches? 2.7.6 A: Dave Chaloux writes: "You can't really get rid of the churchs but it can be worthwhile moving them. Zone a 2x2 residential where you want the church. Blow up the church and do not rezone. The church will often move to the 2x2 you made for it. Then and only then rezone as residential where the church was. The reason this is worth it is because if you zoned for a 3x3, you are only getting 50 pop around the church (5 1x1s). The 3x3 will give you 360." Pat Traynor writes: "Hmmm... I wonder if you could build an industry block 8x8, and leave the center 2x2 area empty. Demolish a church in the main residential section and then quickly zone the center of the industrial section for residential. Perhaps the church would pop up there." This will work, but you have to build a road out to the center: - - - - - - - - - - | I I I I | I I I | | I I I I | I I I | | I I I I | I I I | | I I I R R I I I | | I I I R R I I I | | I I I I I I I I | | I I I I I I I I | | I I I I I I I I | - - - - - - - - - - where R = heavy residential, I = industrial, | and - = road Then, once you coerce the church into the middle, you can bulldoze the road into the middle and replace it with industrial. 2.8 Commercial Zones 2.8.1 Q: What kinds of commercial zones are there? 2.8.1 A: Name size population Abandoned building 1 X 1 0 Construction 1 X 1 0 Cassidy's Toy Store 1 X 1 10 Bed & Breakfast Inn 1 X 1 10 Gas Station 1 X 1 10 Small Office Bldg 1 X 1 10 Convenience Store 1 X 1 10 Office Building 1 X 1 10 Warehouse 1 X 1 10 Abandoned building 2 X 2 0 Construction 2 X 2 0 Office Building 2 X 2 80 Resort Hotel 2 X 2 80 Grocery Store 2 X 2 80 Shopping Center 2 X 2 80 Office Building 2 X 2 120 Office/Retail 2 X 2 120 Abandoned building 3 X 3 0 Construction 3 X 3 0 Theatre Square 3 X 3 360 Corporate HQ 3 X 3 360 Parking Lot 3 X 3 360 Drive-In Theater 3 X 3 360 Office Park 3 X 3 360 Office Tower 3 X 3 360 Historic Office Bldg3 X 3 ?? Mini Mall 3 X 3 360 Office Tower 3 X 3 450 2.9 Industrial Zones 2.9.1 Q: What kinds of industrial zones are there? 2.9.1 A: Name size population Abandoned building 1 X 1 0 Construction 1 X 1 0 Chemical Storage 1 X 1 10 Ind. Substation 1 X 1 10 Warehouse 1 X 1 10 Abandoned building 2 X 2 0 Construction 2 X 2 0 Factory 2 X 2 80 Factory 2 X 2 120 Abandoned building 3 X 3 0 Construction 3 X 3 0 Chemical Processing 3 X 3 360 Factory 3 X 3 360 Large Factory 3 X 3 360 Warehouse 3 X 3 360 Large Warehouse 3 X 3 360 Ind. Thingamajig 3 X 3 360 2.10 Education Zones 2.10.1 Q: What are the relative effects of education zones? 2.10.1 A: The manual implies that you need 1 school for every 15,000 people in order to increase EQ to 90. This does not seem right, however. Schools lose their A+ rating when student to teacher ratio goes above 12. In other words, a half-full school gets about an A and a full school gets an F. Colleges have a capacity of 50,000, but, as with schools, grade goes down as the number of students approaches capacity. Libraries and museums increase the EQ of all ages. Museums are more effective than libraries. 2.10.2 Q: Does it matter where I put educational zones? 2.10.2.A: No, educational zones do not need proper access to transportation to be effective. Educational zones do increase land value, though. 2.10.3 Q: What EQ is average? 2.10.3 A: The SimNation EQ average is 100. Although, the average age of sims that move into your city is around 83. 2.10.4 Q: My EQ doesn't seem to ever go above 100. 2.10.4 A: High EQ seems to require more than top notch schools, colleges, libraries, and museums. I've built a small city with excessive amounts of all these items. Over a span of 400 years, EQ never got above 100. I think the other factor must be industry - there's probably some sort of feedback effect from the high EQ industries. (Petro, auto, aero, electronics, etc.) 2.10.5 Q: I just put in a school but it still says 0 student, and 0 teachers. Why don't they use the school? 2.10.5 A: There seems to be quite a long lag time (maybe a year) before students will shuffle around to new schools. Chris Weiss writes: "Micro-simulators do all their calculations in January (well, most of them anyway). So if you place one in June, then query on it in July, everything will be zeros (or incorrect, at any rate). Wait until after January, then things should look A-OK." 2.11 Health and Safety Zones 2.11.1 Q: Do police stations and fire stations need to be placed next to roads? 2.11.1 A: No, apparently, police and fire power is not effected by proximity to transportation. 2.11.2 Q: Do I need prisons? 2.11.2 A: Prisons increase police performance. If you still have crime, even though you've just built a police station, build a prison next to the police station to improve the effectiveness of the police station at close range. 2.11.3 Q: Should I worry about the number of escapes from my prison? 2.11.3 A: I believe that this is a symptom of overcrowding (high inmate to guard ratio.) I would suspect that crime might go up slightly around the prison. 2.11.4 Q: How many policemen or firefighters should I be able to dispatch? 2.11.4 A: You should be able to dispatch 1 police icon for every police station and 1 firefighter icon for every fire station. The maximum number of emergency units you may dispatch (including military) is 33. 2.11.5 Q: Do hospitals need road access? 2.11.5 A: I don't think they do. 2.11.6 Q: How many hospitals do I need? 2.11.6 A: The capacity of each hospital is 25,000, although, they will have a higher grade at half capacity. 2.11.7 Q: Do I really need a high LE? 2.11.7 A: Logically, LE should have an effect on the available work force. The lower your LE, the less people you have working at any given population level. Well, in theory, anyway. 2.12 Recreation Zones 2.12.1 Q: What are all these things for? 2.12.1 A: Small parks and Large parks increase land value. Zoos, stadiums, and marinas increase residential demand and improve tourism. 2.12.2 Q: Can I build a marina in the middle of land? 2.12.2 A: Sure, just place a drop of water, then build the marina on top of it. The boats'll have trouble leaving though... 2.12.3 Q: Why do my sports teams always lose? 2.12.3 A: Hmmm, bad coaching? 2.12.4 Q: Is there any value in having empty space? 2.12.4 A: Property that borders empty space seems to have a higher property value. 3.0 BUDGET + OTHER WINDOWS 3.1 Property Taxes 3.1.1 Q: How much should I set property taxes at? 3.1.1 A: Well, 7% is pretty much standard. If you lower it, that will stimulate growth. If you raise it, that will stifle growth. 3.1.2 Q: How is property tax revenue figured? 3.1.2 A: Use the following formula: Population * Propert tax rate * 1.29 = Tax Revenue or, if you are taxing zones at different rates: Rpop * Rtax * 1.29 + Cpop * Ctax * 1.29 + Ipop * Itax * 1.29 where Rpop = residential population Rtax = residential tax rate(in decimal, i.e. 0.07) Cpop, Ipop = commercial, industrial population Ctax, Itax = commercial, industrial tax rate 3.1.3 Q: Does property value have anything to do with tax revenue? 3.1.3 A: No, not directly. High property values encourage growth and higher densities. A piece of land will have more tax revenue if it is of a higher density. 3.2 City Ordinances 3.2.1 Q: Why do ordinances get passed when I'm not looking? 3.2.1 A: Ordinances will get passed at random if you do not have disasters turned off. Actually, the help says: "If you've been doing very well, the city counsellors sometimes take it into their heads to begin beneficial programs using public funds." 3.3 Bond Payments 3.3.1 Q: I'm running out of money. Should I take out a bond? 3.3.1 A: Not if you can help it. If you can afford to spend $300+/year for interest, you can probably do without a bond. The only exception I can see is if a disaster destroys your only power plant. 3.3.2 Q: How many outstanding bonds can I have? 3.3.2 A: There is a maximum of 50. 3.3.3 Q: What determines the interest rate of the bond? 3.3.3 A: The bond rate is determined by adding a percentage to the current fed rate. The percentages are as follows: Rating Added Percentage AAA +1% AA +2% A +3% B +4% C +5% D +6% F +7% 3.3.4 Q: What determines my credit rating? 3.3.4 A: I believe that it's a combination of city value and outstanding debt. 3.4 Map 3.5 Graphs 3.5.1 Q: How is traffic measured? 3.5.1 A: The number on the traffic graph is the average number of cars/minute on all roads, highways, bridges. This means that you can artificially lower your traffic level by building lots of roads out in the middle of nowhere. 3.5.2 Q: How is pollution measured? 3.5.2 A: In parts per million. Several different types of buildings, most notably industrial and power plants, give off a certain level of pollution. The pollution value is a sum of all the pollution levels divided by the amount of tiles occupied by development. Thus, adding zones that don't pollute, such as a zoo, will lower the value given in the pollution graph. +Non-Polluters: trees/water hydro/wind/solar/micro power plants water towers/desalination plants Mayor's House/city hall/statue/Braun Llama Dome schools/colleges/libraries/museums police stations/fire stations/hospitals small parks/big parks/zoos/marinas airport-control tower/airport-radar +Polluters: pollution level (approx) coal plant 3400 oil plant 1680 Plymoth Arco 1630 Launch Arco 960 Darco 735 gas plant 610 prison 610 Forest Arco 610 stadium 240 airport-Runway 125 seaport-crane/pier 110 seaport-cargo yard 84 nuclear plant 80 fusion plant 80 airport-Hangar 35 airport-Tarmac 30 rail depot 15 airport-Parking lot 10 seaport-loading bay 10 bus depot 10 treatment plant 5 water pump 1 sub station 1 airport-Building 1 seaport-warehouse 1 Industrial(1X1-10) 3 Industrial(2X2-80) 150 Industrial(2X2-120) 250 Industrial(3X3-360) ? traffic ? 3.5.3 Q: What do the power% and water% numbers mean? 3.5.3 A: This is an inverse percentage of usage - the amount of power or water that you have surplus. 3.5.4 Q: How is unemployment figured? 3.5.4 A: The level of unemployment seems to be directly related to declines in R, C, or I levels. Growth in these areas will lower unemployment. 3.6 Population 3.7 City Industry 3.7.1 Q: Can I change all of the tax rates at once? 3.7.1 A: In the city industry window, you can change all of the taxes rates at once by holding down the option key. 3.7.2 Q: Which industries need high EQ? 3.7.2 A: Very High EQ - Aerospace Electronics High EQ - Petrochemicals Automotive Good EQ - Finance Media 3.7.3 Q: Which industries pollute? 3.7.3 A: Heavy Pollution - Steel/Mining Textiles Petrochemicals Automotive Mild Pollution - Food Electronics Tourism 3.8 Neighbors 3.8.1 Q: Can I change the names of my neighbors? 3.8.1 A: (MAC)Not easily, if at all. You would probably have to alter your copy of SC2K with ResEdit. 3.8.2 Q: What other names are possible? 3.8.2 A: Oak Creek, Denmont, Fort Verdegris, Schwinton, Mill Valley, Petaluma, PortVille, Ashland, Eubanks, Aurac, Tent Pegs, Cherryton, Blake, Pioneers, Fortune, Phippsville, Jeromi, Harpersville, Washers Grove, Stars County, Villa, Serviland, Newton, Avon, Dexter, Sinistrel, Jenna, Yestonia, New Boots, Hoek Creek, Stimpleton, Little Rogue, Krighton, Cats Corner, Rimmer, Lister. 4.0 MISC 4.1 Bugs 4.1.1 Q: What known bugs exist? 4.1.1 A: Well, I've only heard of a few. (MAC v1.0) Airport bug - your airport will not make runways anymore once you've got an air force base. (I don't know if the same thing holds true for piers and naval bases.) (MAC v1.0) Budget bug - various budget items increase to an enormous level. (MAC v1.0) Newspaper bug - newspaper stories are screwed up. Try switching to 256 colors before starting SC2K. 4.1.2 Q: What's being done about the bugs? +4.1.2 A: There is currently an updater for the mac version that fixes the above bugs. There is also an IBM version that fixes SOME of the bugs. A new version is still on the way. 4.1.3 Q: Why do some of my police stations tell me how many arrests have been made, while others don't? 4.1.3 A: Well, this is the microsimulation limit. Certain zones, like police stations, power plants, schools, etc., are called microsimulations, and each one has it's own data. There is a limit to these of 150. 4.2 Terrain Editor 4.2.1 Q: How do I get rid of trees? 4.2.1 A: With the tree or forest tool selected, press shift. 4.3 Military Bases 4.3.1 Q: When should I get a military base? 4.3.1 A: When your population reaches 60,000 4.3.2 Q: My population is more than 60,000, why haven't I been asked for a military base? 4.3.2 A: (MAC) You won't be asked for a base if you use the ptga cheat. 4.3.3 Q: Why should I have a military base? 4.3.3 A: It provides customers and jobs. Certain bases may deter the monster. You may be able to deploy troops during an emergency. Military bases will increase crime and traffic, though. 4.3.4 Q: How big is a military base? 4.3.4 A: Air force and army bases are 8 X 8 tiles. (I don't know for sure whether or not the others are this size.) 4.3.5 Q: Why does the military say they can't find a suitable site for a base? 4.3.5 A: Probably because there isn't an empty piece of land that is large enough. There may be some randomness in this, however. Try saving your game before you get to 60,000, and then restart from your save point if they don't find a suitable site. 4.3.6 Q: Will the military ever ask me to grant land for a base again? 4.3.6 A: No. Only once. 4.3.7 Q: How do I get rid of a military base? 4.3.7 A: You'll either have to use the raise terrain or lower terrain tool. 4.3.8 Q: Why does the air force dispatch tanks to disasters? 4.3.8 A: There's only one icon (a tank) for all military. 4.4 Disasters 4.4.1 Q: How do I put out fires? 4.4.1 A: Use dispatch firefighters tool to place a firefighter icon next to a patch of fire. If there's a lot of fire, you can also build a fire station on top of it to put it out (you'll have to experiment with this.) 4.4.2 Q: How do I make the monster go away? 4.4.2 A: I don't think you can. 4.4.3 Q: What other disasters are there? 4.4.3 A: Meltdown, Microwave Oops, Pollution, Fire Storm, Mass Riots, Major Floods, Toxic Spill, Volcano. 4.4.4 Q: Hey, why is the monster making wind generators? 4.4.4 A: Chris Weiss writes: "The Monster is not neccesarily bad. He's an elemental kind of guy. 50% of the time, he'll place something bad (fire). The other 50%, he'll place something good. If it's something good, there's a 33% chance of it being Windmills, Water, or Trees." 4.4.5 Q: What do I do about floods? 4.4.5 A: Besides dispatching emergency units, you can prepare ahead be building dikes on your coastlines - use the raise terrain tool to increase the land on the coast one level. 4.5 Cheats, Bonuses, and other Secrets 4.5.1 Q: How do I get more money? 4.5.1 A: (MAC v1.0) Well, the easiest way is to type porntipsguzzardo. This will give you $500,000 and allow all technologies and rewards to become available. It will also prevent the military from building a base. Once you've typed porntipsguzzardo, you can type ardo by itself to get additional $500,000s. 4.5.1 A (MAC v1.1) Open the map window and type pirn. Click on the status window (next to the weather) and then type topsguzzardo. Subsequently typing ardo will give additional money. 4.5.1 A: (DOS) Neither of the above mac cheats work on the DOS version. There is a cheat, but it has not, as of yet, been discovered. 4.5.2 Q: (MAC v1.1) Where did the new cheat come from? 4.5.2 A: Anne Peck (from Compuserve) writes: "All credit goes to my husband, Darryl. He was attending an SPA dinner in San Francisco a few days ago, and he called me from the dinner to say "goodnight" (my time.) He mentioned that he'd been talking to Will Wright, and so _naturally_ I asked him to pester Will about the cheat. Will didn't seem to think it was a big deal and sent Darryl e-mail the next day!" 4.5.3 Q: Why aren't all of the cheats the same? 4.5.3 A: Apparantly, the programmers have decided that users enjoy looking for the cheat, thus they intend to change it with each version. 4.5.4 Q: Are there any other secret words? 4.5.4.A: FUND, CASS, JOKE, VERS. Typing cass, will give you $250 at the end of the month. If you type more than once during a month, you will incite a fire storm. 4.5.4 A: (DOS) In addition to the above mac codes HECK, DARN, DAMN, TEST, and MEMY work on the DOS version. PORN does something, too. 4.5.5 Q: Is there any other ways to get lots of money? 4.5.5 A: If you have the old Sim City, you can import an old city into Sim City 2000. One city (Big City) that came with the old Sim City has a large sum of money. You can use the old terrain editor to clear this map and then import it into SC2K. MartinL@ozonline.apana.org.au writes: "You will need a calculator/program that can convert Decimal to Hex, and Hex to Decimal and a code editor like Norton. *****Before you start this you should make a copy of your game, just in case you make a mistake****** 1. Save your game and note how many funds you have. If you have less than 4095 then I recomend taking out a bond, the reason will become clear later. 2. Open the game with your code editor 3. Convert the ammount of funds you have into Hex, eg. 9379 = 24A3. 4. Now search for this number in the code, using a find. 5. When you have found it, change all the numbers into "F"'s eg. 24A3 becomes FFFF. This is why you should have more funds than 4095, otherwise there will only be 3 digits in Hex, above that figure you will have 4 digits to change. 6. Quit the editor and remember save. 7. Open it with SC again and you should, if you changed 4 digits into FFFF, have 65535 funds. 8. Now, go take out a bond and quit & save again. 9. Open it with the editor again and change the new number that's there (1270F) to...yep, you guesed it, FFFFF. That should give you $1048575 funds! Now if you are still more greedy you can repeat it from step 7." 4.5.6 Q: What is the Launch Arco secret? 4.5.6 A: (MAC v1.0) Apparently, there is no secret. You can build as many launch arcos as you want, and nothing will happen. Reports are that it was nothing more than a bad joke. (MAC v1.1) Well, now they launch. You've got to build about 350 of them though. It really isn't as exciting as you might think... 4.5.7 Q: What are the city bonuses, and when do I get them? 4.5.7 A: Mayor's House 2,000 City Hall 10,000 Statue 30,000 Military Base 60,000 Braun Llama Dome 90,000 Arcologies 120,000 4.5.8 Q: There's something flying around my city, and it's not a helicopter or an airplane. 4.5.8 A: That's Captain Hero! He/She/It appears to take care of disasters (sometimes) if you don't have an other capacity for dealing with it. 4.5.9 Q: There's something swimming around in my ocean! 4.5.9 A: Well, that's a Nessie. Nessie appears when you build marinas. Apparently Nessie likes to eat sailboats. 4.5.10 Q: How do I shoot down the traffic helicopter? 4.5.10 A: Click on it with the centering tool. 4.5.11 Q: What's with all the llamas? 4.5.11 A: Maxis is obsessed with many things. Llamas don't have copyright lawyers. 4.5.12 Q: Where can I get my picture taken on a llama? 4.5.12 A: At the Yakima Mall - Yakima, WA. 4.5.13 Q: Why are the number of bungee jumps and weddings the same at the Braun Llama Dome? 4.5.13 A: Chriss Weiss writes: "Uhm, sure. See, the chapel at the Llama Dome is owned by the brother-in-law of the guy who runs the Bungee jump center. Newlyweds get a coupon for a free jump as a special gift from the chapel. In addition, those who Bungee get a coupon for a free wedding! (I seem to remember the top of the coupon reading 'You've taken the plunge, now take the plunge!' :)" 4.5.14 Q: It seems like my statue is always made of bronze. Am I doing something wrong? 4.5.14 A: No, the statue is always made of bronze. 4.6 Arcologies 4.6.1 Q: The newspaper just reported that some other city has built an arcology. Why can't I? 4.6.1 A: Once arcologies have been invented, you must have a population of 120,000 in order to build them. 4.6.2 Q: What do I need to do to improve the conditions of my arcologies? 4.6.2 A: Place some parks nearby to increase property value, build a police station, add water and power. This ought to give you an A+ rating. 4.6.3 Q: Do I need to add water and power to launch arcos too? 4.6.3 A: Well, the online help says that they are self-contained, however, this does not seem to be the case. I think it may still work, but conditions will be D+ at best. 4.6.4 Q: What do conditions have to do with anything, anyway? 4.6.4 A: I would assume that arcos that have a higher grade will grow faster. 4.6.5 Q: What do people do in these arcologies? 4.6.5 A: Well, look at the population of the arco. Half that goes towards residential, 1/4 towards commercial, and 1/4 towards industrial. This is true for all arcos. 4.7 Weather 4.7.1 Q: Why should I care about the weather? 4.7.1 A: Weather affects the output of water pumps, solar plants, wind power, and influences the likelihood of riots and fires. 4.7.1 Q: The weather icon shows a tornado. Should I be worried? 4.7.1 A: The tornado shown on the weather icon is different than the tornado on the disaster menu. When the icon is showing a tornado, you can pretty much ignore it. 4.8 Scenarios 4.8.1 Q: How do I beat these scenarios? 4.8.1 A: From the March 94 issue of Electronic Entertainment: "Charleston - Pause the game. Build water pumps in the swamps then rebuild the connections to other cities and put more onramps on the freeway system. Then let the simulation run, keeping taxes low while you create dense zoning in areas damaged by the hurricane. Dullsville - Pause the game. Lower taxes to zero until the population is big enough to make you money. Then build dense using 13-by-6-tile zoning. Take out a bond if you have to. Flint - Click on the book for property taxes and set industrial taxes to zero. Find a good hangout and wait. Hollywood - Control the fires the monster sets and after he leaves, lower the property taxes to zero. The go see a movie. Oakland - Control the fire using bulldozers to clear a fire break and just ignore the Sims' complaints. Then set taxes as low as you can and build dense in the empty area by Lake Temescal." 4.8.2 Q: How do I get more scenarios? 4.8.2 A: Maxis has released a Scenarios pack, available at your local software store. SIM CITY 2000 SCENARIOS VOLUME 1: GREAT DISASTERS "...wrestle with 10 different cities on the brink of destruction and tackle everything from an alien invasion in Atlanta to a misplaced microwave beam in the Silicon Valley." - 10 challenging scenarios with explosions, fires, volcanoes, and other good stuff - Easy to install - Loads right into the SimCity 2000 Scenario menu, complete with pictures, descriptions, and objectives. - Includes real cities like Chicago, Atlanta, and Portland - Scenarios include: A nuclear meltdown in Manhattan Flooding in Des Moines An earthquake in San Francisco A Volcano in Portland Pollution in Chicage The SRP on this puppy is $19.95. 4.8.3 Q: How do I make my own scenarios? 4.8.3 A: (DOS) There doesn't seem to be any easy way to create scenarios for the DOS version. 4.8.3 A: (MAC) Well, first, you'll need a copy of ResEdit. (which can be located at ftp.apple.com in /dts/mac/tools/resedit) Then, you'll have to learn how to use it. :) (not very hard) 1. Build a city to the point that you want the scenario to start at. 2. Make a copy of your city and use ResEdit to open it. 3. ResEdit will ask if you want to make a resource fork - say yes. 4. Use ResEdit to open one of the scenario files that came with SC2K. 5. Copy and paste each resource from the scenario file to your city. (There should be four - PICT, SCEN, TEXT, and TMPL) 6. Once you've got a copy of each resource in your city, you can edit them. PICT - This is the picture that goes with the Scenario selection screen. Delete the old picture and use a graphics program to make your own picture and paste it in. The PICT should have an ID=128. TMPL - You don't need to mess with this one. TEXT - There are two TEXT ID's 128 - This text describes the scenario on the Scenario selection screen. 129 - This text is used for the extended description that pops up just before the city begins. SCEN - This resource has all of the goal details. Disaster type - There are 16 different disasters. A 0 means no disasters. Disaster Xloc, ylox - these are the origin coordiantes - I'm not exactly sure how to make use of these. Time limit (months) - you must reach goal before this many months pass. City size, Ind, Res, Com Goal - build population to this size Cash Funds-Bonds - raise this much money. Land Value Goal - increase land value to this level. Pollution, Crime, Traffic limit - I haven't experimented with these yet. There are 4 more goals that I don't know what to do with. 7. Once you've edited the resources, you need to change the file type. Use Get Info to change the file type from CITY to SCEN. 8. Now just make sure that the city is in the same folder as SC2K and everything should work out. You might have to play with the PICT to make it fit right. and you will probably need to experiment with the goals to make your scenarios challenging, yet reachable. 9. The disasters are numbered as follows: 1 fire 9 meltdown 2 flood 10 microwave 3 riots 11 volcano 4 pollution 12 firestorm 5 air crash 13 mass riots 6 earthquake 14 major floods 7 tornado 15 chemical spill 8 monster 16 hurricane +5.0 SCURK(SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit) +5.1.0Q:What is SCURK? A:SCURK is the SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit. It's designed to let the user import his own graphics(such as scanned images), and also comes with its own graphics set, a futuristic set of buildings that Maxis designed to take SC2K well beyond the year 2000. It also has a function to let the user set up his own city(with whatever buildings where-ever he wants them), and then print that city out to a printer. +5.1.1Q:Where can I find SCURK? A:SCURK is commercial software, and is currently availbe for both Mac and IBM versions of the game at your local software store or by contacting Maxis. +5.2 Q:Where can I find other people's tile sets? A:A few tile sets for SCURK are currently available at ftp.netcom.com in /pub/thx/scurk. Hopefully more will become available soon. SimCity2000 Technical Info v2.0 rev. 11/6/94 Maintained by: Dave Palsen Please send corrections, additions, questions, etc. to me at: dpalsen@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu *DISCLAIMER* Under no circumstance including negligence, shall I (D.M.Palsen) be liable for any incidental, special, or consequential damages that result from the use of the information contained with this file. So there. B-} New items to this version have a plus to the left. INDEX 1.0 MISC I (General questions about the game) 2.0 TOOLS (Zoning, transportation, water, city services) 3.0 BUDGET + OTHER WINDOWS (Taxes, ordinances, etc.) 4.0 MISC II (Bugs, rewards, cheats) 5.0 SCURK (SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit) A-1 Appendix 1 (Solving Problems) A-2 Appendix 2 (Adjusting Difficulty) A-3 Appendix 3 (Mac Technical Problems) A-4 Appendix 4 (IBM Technical Problems) A-5 Appendix 5 (How to Make a Boot Disk) A-6 Appendix 6 (SC2K Suggestion List) A-7 Appendix 7 (SC2K Description) A-1 Appendix 1 (Solving Problems) Growth * Lower taxes * Improve roads/transportation system * Improve water system * Intersperse zones * Improve land values * Build airports (Commercial) * Build seaports (Industrial) * Build connections * Lower pollution/crime/traffic * Improve education/health * Pass Legalized Gambling ordinance (Commercial) * Pass Tourist Advertising ordinance (Commercial) * Pass Business Advertising ordinance (Industrial) * Pass City Beautification ordinance (Tourism) * Pass Annual Carnival ordinance (Tourism, Commercial) * Pass Nuclear Free Zone ordinance (Residential) * Remove Nuclear Free Zone ordinance (Industrial) * Remove Parking Fines ordinance (Residential) * Remove 1% Income Tax ordinance (Residential) * Remove 1% Sales Tax ordinance (Commercial) Land Value * Build parks, trees, water * Build recreational zones * Build educational zones * Build police, fire, hospitals * Pass Pass City Beautification ordinance * Pass Homeless Shelter ordinance Pollution * Pass Pollution Control ordinance * Increase tax rate on polluting industries * Build a water treatment plant * Lower traffic * Use light industrial instead of heavy industrial * Use solar, hydro, wind, microwave, fusion power * Move poluting buildings to edges of map Traffic * Build more roads and highways * Build mass transit * Pass Parking Fines ordinance * Intersperse different zones (build R close to I, C) Crime * Build police stations * Pass Anti-Drug Campaign ordinance * Pass Neighborhood Watch Campaign * Use more light zoning * Build prisons Unemployment * Zone more industry and commercial zones * Remove Pollution Control ordinance, if in place * Lower industrial and commercial tax rates Education * Build Schools, Colleges * Build Libraries, Museums * Pass Pro-Reading Campaign ordinance * Give tax breaks to high-EQ industries Health * Build hospitals * Pass Public Smoking Ban ordinance * Pass Free Clinic ordinance * Pass Junior Sports ordinance * Pass CPR Training ordinance A-2 Appendix 2 (Adjusting Difficulty) Money cheats Using one of the previously mentioned methods for getting more money is the simplest way to make things easier. You don't have to worry about balancing the budget and you can lower taxes to zero. No disasters Disasters can be quite, well, disasterous, for a young city. It's not a good a to leave a city running overnight without turning the disasters off. For one thing, even if you had good fire coverage, you'd probably lose a lot of your city to fire. In addition, most power plants need to be replaced every 50 years, so, soon, everyone would be out of power. Starting Level Changing the starting difficulty level changes the amount of money you start with, the frequency of disasters, and the level of external demand for your manufactured products. Starting Time Later starting times are easier because of the increased availability of inventions and the increase in external demand. Terrain Editing It's much easier to build a city on flat ground - and you can do all the flattening you want, at no cost, in the terrain editor. You can also add waterfalls for use with hydro power. Riverless hyrdo plants This source of power is not very realistic, however, it does not pollute, is fairly efficient, and does not need to be replaced every 50 years. Just place a drop of water on any slope, and build a hydro plant there. Artifically watered pumps Water pump efficiency can be artificially improved by placing drops of water next to them. Disconnected roads - roadless city By not building full road systems, it is possible to keep traffic down, however, it's not very realisitic. Heavy/Light Density Zoning If you're interested in building a city with a large population, you need to use mostly heavy zoning. A more realistic city (N.Y. and Hong Kong excepted) would have heavy to light zoning in a ratio of from 25/75 to 50/50. Arcologies Don't use them. Or, limit yourself to one of each. A-3 Appendix 3 (Mac Technical Problems) from 1.1 Updater Restart With Extensions Off SimCity 2000 has been tested with many, many extensions with few or no problems - however, we cannot guarantee that there will not be conflicts. It's possible that, if certain extensions are loaded in a certain order, or in certain configurations, SimCity 2000 might not work correctly. If you do have problems running SimCity 2000, we suggest re- starting with extensions off. To do this, select Restart from the Special menu, and hold down the Shift key until you see the "Welcome to Macintosh" screen with the text "Extensions Off". When you are finished playing SimCity 2000, restart your machine again and your extensions will load properly. Make Sure You Are Running In 32-Bit Mode (If Possible) In your Control Panel folder, select the Memory control panel and make sure that 32-Bit Addressing is enabled. Some machines will not have this option available. If this is the case, 32-bit addressing is probably not the source of the problem. Upgrade To Sound Manager 3.0 We also recommend upgrading your system software with the Sound Manager 3.0 extension available from many on-line services (including the Maxis Technical Support BBS at 1- 510-254-3869) or directly from Apple Computer. Switch To 256 Colors (660av Users Especially) SimCity 2000 automatically switches your Macintosh to 256- color mode if it is not already set, and returns it to the original color depth when exiting. Some Macintoshes display erratic behavior when this happens (e.g., the Newspaper display draws pixels on the top area of your screen and doesn't display newspaper articles when you click on newspaper article headings). The solution is to manually switch your Macintosh color depth to 256. This is done in the Monitors control panel. Beware Of Screen Savers Certain windows in SimCity 2000ª may not re-draw after some screen savers have cleared the screen. This will leave you with a white window and no idea what to do with it. The buttons in these windows are still active; just keep clicking around until you hit something. In some situations, Delrina's Bill'n'Opus screen saver may conflict. We recommend disabling the screen saver while SimCity 2000 is running. A-4 Appendix 4 (IBM Technical Problems) from the Maxis BBS *****THE MAXIS EMERGENCY TOP TEN LIST FOR SIM CITY 2000***** Technical Support is totally overwhelmed at the moment answering SimCity 2000 questions. Here are the top ten questions we are getting and the fixes for each one. Hope these help to get you up and running! Q. I loaded the program but when I go to run it (by typing SC2000) it gives me a message that I don't have enough memory even though I've got 4 megabytes of RAM on my system. A. The problem happens because out of 4 megabytes of memory, there isn't enough available to load the program. When your computer starts up, it loads other programs into that memory. The easiest way to get around this is to make a boot disk and start your computer with it instead. See your SIMCITY 2000 ADDENDUM & QUICK START GUIDE pg. 6 and the "HOW TO MAKE A BOOTDISK" section at the bottom of this document. Q. I try to start the program and get a message, "Microsoft compatible mouse not found". A. The program requires that a mouse driver be loaded in memory. If you do have a mouse driver loaded and the program still doesn't find it, make sure that it is at least version 8 or higher by the Microsoft version numbering system. If you have an older version of a mouse driver, you will need to update the driver version by contacting the manufacturer of the mouse OR by contacting the store where the computer was purchased. Q. I get a message, "The video card you've selected is not found. Please re-install and verify that your video card is supported." A. Sim City 2000 needs a SVGA video card in order to display the 640 x 480 - 256 color video resolution. The video card needs to have at least 512K of video memory. Some cards may need a VESA driver to be loaded prior to running the program and since there are many different video cards, there are many different VESA drivers for each card. If you aren't sure which video card you have, try loading the UNIVESA.EXE driver as this driver supports a wide variety of video cards. You can load this driver by typing, "C:\SC2000\VESA\UNIVESA\UNIVESA " and pressing the "Enter" key. This will load the VESA driver for the video card. If this VESA driver isn't the correct one for your video card, contact the manufacturer of the video card to determine what the correct VESA driver is. To find out whether or not you need to load a vesa driver for your video card, go to the C:\SC2000 sub-directory and type " INFO " and press enter. This will display information about your system. Press the spacebar twice to get to the third page of the info program to find out whether your card has a VESA driver loaded. If it tells you that the following VESA modes are supported then you won't to load one. If it says "Either your card does not support VESA or there is no driver loaded", this means that you have to load a vesa driver for the video card. Q. I have a SOUND BLASTER type sound card and it fails when I try to select it for sound effects. What's going on in Dodge? A. The earlier SOUND BLASTER cards used an IRQ setting of 7. The new ones, however, now use IRQ 5. We are looking for IRQ 7 and if your card fails you probably have it set differently. Try running the install again and this time, when the sound card fails initialization, click on the CHANGE SETTINGS button and change the IRQ setting to the number 5. Then click on the CONTINUE button and this should make the program accept the sound card. Q. I try to run Sim City 2000 and when I do I get some weird UNEXPECTED INTERRUPT - ERROR 35 message. I'm really confused! A. This means that you have an ATI video card. You must run a program before starting Sim City 2000. Type " MW_ATIUP " and press the "Enter" key from within the SC2000 sub-directory. Once you do this it will return you to the C:\SC2000 prompt. Now type SC2000 and the program will run fine. Q. I have a DIAMOND VIPER video card and I can't get the program to work with it. A. All you have to do is type " VPRMODE VESA " and press enter. This will load the vesa driver for your video card. If you get a "Bad command or filename" message then you need to be in your VIPER sub directory before you run the VPRMODE VESA command. Also, make sure that Sim City 2000 is set up for VESA Super VGA graphics. (You can check this by running the INSTALL program from within the SC2000 sub-directory.) Q. I run the installation program and when it gets to the type of video card I have, the program locks up. A. The installation program is trying to figure out what kind of video card you have in your computer. Sometimes it conflicts with a program and that will cause the installer to lock up. If you have DOS version 6.X, you can do a clean boot by pressing the F5 key when the "Starting MS-DOS" message appears. This will bypass your configuration files and then run the installer again. It will work fine now. Q. I have OS/2 and I want to run Sim City under it. I tried doing all of the memory stuff but still can't get enough free. Please tell me it's possible. -Gooie A. Dear Gooie....Yes! You can run it under OS/2. All you have to do is select a DOS FULL-WINDOWS session. Once in DOS, go to the SC2000 sub-directory and type " SC2000 NO_MEM_CHK " and the program will run. You should only do this if you have at least 6 - 8 Megabytes of memory though because with four you won't have enough. Q. I play the program and during a certain point, I get a "STACK OVERFLOW" message and the system dies an ugly death. A. Ouch! This is a little problem (or bug) that has surfaced on some machines. We are currently working on a fix and believe that the new version of the DOS Extender that we are using will fix the problem. In the meantime, contact MAXIS technical support and ask to have you name added to a list. We will contact you when a solution is found. I hope it is really soon because I know you are dying to play this wonderful product! Q. I have a problem and it isn't listed in the list. A. If you have any problems that aren't addressed in this list, please post (to the Maxis BBS) a message with the type of problem you are having and we'll be sure to add it to our list! This list will be revised depending on the types of problems you are experiencing. This concludes the wonderful TOP TEN question and answer list. Thanks for reading it! A-4 Appendix 4 (How to Make a Boot Disk) also from the Maxis BBS *****************HOW TO MAKE A BOOT DISK*************** If you are having problems making a boot disk, take the time to browse over this stuff and see if it helps you any. 1. The BOOT DISK must be in your A: drive to work properly. A boot disk in your B: drive just won't cut the cake; it has to be in drive A:. 2. Make sure your mouse driver is copied onto the BOOT DISK. You need to copy your mouse driver onto the boot disk and it must be named either MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.EXE to work in your AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE. If it has a different name, simply type the correct name in the autoexec.bat file in order to load the driver. i.e. If your mouse is named AMOUSE.COM, then you need to type AMOUSE on the mouse line of your autoexec.bat file. 3. From the C:\ prompt, type "SYS A:" and press the Enter key on your keyboard. This will copy the system start-up files to your floppy disk in the A: drive. 4. If you need a vesa driver for your video card, enter in the name of the vesa driver into the autoexec.bat file. This is a sample of what you need to type: IGNORE THE QUOTES! Don't type them, they just surround what you need to type in. A:>\"COPY CON AUTOEXEC.BAT" (type the line and then press the ENTER key.) Once you type this line it will drop you down to a flashing cursor that is waiting for you to type commands. Type the following commands that are in upper-case letters and press the enter key to drop to the next line: PROMPT $P$G MOUSE C:\SC2000\VESA\UNIVESA\UNIVESA C: CD\SC2000 SC2000 After typing the SC2000 line, press the F6 key on your keyboard and then press the enter key. It should say "One file(s) copied" when done. Try to restart your computer with the BOOTDISK in drive A: and it should boot up into the program. If it doesn't, see the possible errors below to help trouble shoot. 1. While booting, it gets to MOUSE and says, "Bad command or file name". This will happen if you don't have the mouse driver (MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.EXE) copied onto your bootdisk or if the mouse driver has a different name. Make sure the mouse driver is on the bootdisk AND that it is named MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.EXE. If it is named MSMOUSE.COM or something else, rename the mouse file by typing "REN MSCMOUSE.COM MOUSE.COM" at the A: prompt. This will rename the mouse from mscmouse.com to mouse.com and it should now work. 2. If you use the bootdisk and you still get the "The video card you have selected is not found. Please re-install......." message, this means that you don't have the correct video card VESA driver loaded. Please contact your video card manufacturer to inquire as to the correct VESA driver to load for your video card. 3. If you get a message "Non-system disk or disk error", remove the floppy and press any key. This means that the system (startup) files aren't on the floppy disk. Once you have booted up, go to the DOS sub-directory by typing CD\DOS . Make sure you put the boot disk back in the A: drive and then type, SYS A:. This will transfer the system to your boot-disk and correct the problem. Additional notes: You only need to have a mouse driver loaded and, in some cases, a vesa driver. You don't need any type of memory manager because we use a dos extender. If you have an IBM XGA or XGA2 video card it will switch the program into sixteen colors. We are currently looking into a solution that would prevent this from happening thus allowing the program to run in 256 colors. If you have a Texas Instruments Travel Mate 4000 and can't run the program: We have been in contact with the good folks at Texas Instruments and are currently working on a fix. If you have a Packard Bell computer and are getting "mouse trails" where the cursor moves on the screen - You need to contact Packard Bell's technical support department. They have found a solution to the problem and are also taking care of the method in which to correct it. (I just wanna say that there doing one heck of a good job too! Especially after going through that major earthquake!) Kudos to the folks at Packard Bell! The program makes some heavy demands on the system hardware. There is very little out there in terms of standards and it makes the development of a product such as this a tremendous job. Hang in there and we'll get you going! Maxis Technical Support is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. We experience HIGH call volumes on MONDAYS and during the later hours of the day. If you are having trouble reaching us by telephone, try to call earlier in the day or during the middle of the week as this is our lowest call volume time. Thanks! A-6 Appendix 6 (SC2K Suggestion List) Last updated: 3-6-94 This is a list of ideas for improvements to the game SimCity 2000 (SC2K) from Maxis. It is a compilation of suggestions from people on CompuServe and the SC2K mailing list (which is actually a list for all Maxis games) on the Internet. I have included the names of the contributors and their addresses. Please note that addresses are in Internet form, including CompuServe addresses. For those CIS users not familiar with this form, it is your CIS ID number with a period instead of a comma, followed by "@compuserve.com". F'rinstance, my CIS address of 72172,230 would be 72172.230@compuserve.com. Contributions to this list should be mailed to Dave Lartigue at either of the following addresses: Internet: lartigue@firefly.prairienet.org CompuServe: 72172,230 In the case of two people suggesting the same thing, I will usually credit the first person, unless the second expresses the idea more fully. If you wish to elaborate on another person's suggestion, please note the number of the suggestion on the list, and in future updates this will be noted. Please note that the items collected here are suggestions, not bug fixes. This list will be regularly updated and distributed on CompuServe (in the Gamers Forum under the "Other Games" section) and on the Internet. Anyone wishing to donate an FTP site for the list, please contact me. For the moment, it is available on request at my address above. I will post a general message on the Simlist mailing list when a new update is available. Thanks to all who have contributed, and thanks to Maxis for providing such an entertaining game! +----------------------------------------------------------+ 1) Toll highways and bridges. Would provide extra income, but at the expense of possible commercial development. However, may help to decrease pollution and traffic by encouraging carpooling. (Dave Lartigue: lartigue@firefly.prairienet.org / 72712.230@compuserve.com) 2) Wildlife Preserves and Scenic Routes. You could designate an area of land (or a highway) as a wildlife preserve/ scenic route. This would increase tourism and Sim- happiness, but the designated land would be locked out of development. Some encouragement for more aesthetic cities, rather than slash-and-burn. (Dave Lartigue) 3) Amusement Parks as Recreation objects. 5x5 squares? (Dave Lartigue) 4) SimSuffrage: The Sims should be given the right to vote every few years and if the ballot goes against you, you are booted out of office. However, it's a SimElection -- you'd still run the city, but you'd have to pick a new name. There would be no real penalty for losing, but it would remind players that real-life mayors must listen to the complaints and needs of their citizens. (Alan Czarnek: 71401.3330@compuserve.com) 5) Power Brokerage. You should be able to sell off extra power to neighboring cities for a certain amount per watt, and likewise be able to buy power from neighboring cities. (Peter Kasmir: 72420.1776@compuserve.com) 6) Advanced forms of transportation that appear after a certain date, such as elevated trains, monorails (that go from arcology to arcology), etc. (Darin Gurney: 71620.2531@compuserve.com) 7) Ski Resorts on the slopes of mountains. (Darin Gurney) 8) A floating Arcology that could be built on water. (Darin Gurney) 9) Underground power lines, along with undersea power lines. (Darin Gurney) 10) Highway and Rail Tunnels. (Darin Gurney) 11) A wartime *mode* where you are trying to fortify your city against invaders. That is, set up defenses batteries, and provide shelters for your citizens while still growing your population. There would be a drain on your young male populations, of course! (Darin Gurney) 12) Bridges that go over land, from one hill to another. (Sushil Gupta: 70314.3052@compuserve.com) 13) More selections for highway bridges. (Sushil Gupta) 14) Stadiums which look like the stadiums for the sport you select. I.E., a football stadium with a gridiron, baseball with a diamond, etc. (Sushil Gupta) 15) Elevated trains. [Others had mentioned elevated trains, but Sushil went into a little more detail.] Cheaper than subway, more expensive than regular rail. 1x1 sized stations, above ground, and able to connect to rail. Effective as commuter rail. (Sushil Gupta) 16) Special events like the Olympics. Will cost a lot, but increase industry and commerce revenue, as well as tourism. You must have at least two stadiums before you are asked. Would create a heavy toll on traffic. (Sushil Gupta) 17) SimFarm! Combine light residential and industrial. (Sushil Gupta) 18) Instead of rebuilding power plants every 50 years, simply pay maintenance costs for nukes and fuel gosts for gas and coal. (Sushil Gupta) 19) Highway Patrol. If you have enough miles of highway, you could get a highway patrol office. Might reduce traffic. (Sushil Gupta) 20) More rewards! (Sushil Gupta) 21) More interesting military bases. (Sushil Gupta) 22) The ability to edit terrain without losing the city. (James Walker: 70007,4651@compuserve.com) 23) A mode that would allow you to select an icon (bus stations, for example) and then would highlight all of those structures on the map. (James Walker) 24) A right-click property inspector. (James Walker) 25) A true flat view, straight down, to help in placing pipes, subways, etc. (James Walker) 26) Expand the advisors into more areas [suggestions welcome on which areas!] plus the ability to turn them off if desired. (James Walker) 27) Change the river icon in the terrain editor so that you can point the direction of the river. (James Walker) 28) The ability to turn off parts of the simulation that may slow it down. (IE, cars, planes and helicopters, animation). (James Walker) 29) An UNDO! (James Walker) 30) Go back to rating cities by population (town, city, capitol, etc.). It is frustrating that nothing happens when your population reaches 1 million. The last reward you get is Arcologies, which allow you to dramatically increase your population, but there doesn't seem to be any reason to do so after that point. (Dave Lartigue) 31) Have built-in hints in the form of "special research studies". You could get hints on, say, reducing pollution, by funding money towards a study that, after a few years, would give ideas on reducing pollution. (Dave Lartigue) 32) Malls as recreation items. Sure, malls spring up as a commercial zone, but in every city I've ever been to, malls are strategically positioned, usually next to the interstate. Also, you'll notice that being close to a big mall is often a selling point for homes in newspaper classifieds. (Dave Lartigue) 33) Extend the college concept and have a "university" zoning construct. You could zone an area for this and it would promote dense residential (student housing) and light commercial zoning in its immediate neighborhood, the effect depending on the size (small --> virtually no effect, large --> very spread out effect). As time progresses, you could get things like a "free" hospital (med school) and sports stadium. Also, as time goes by, if your university is doing well, it would start demanding more space, which of course will cause all kinds of problems for the neighbors. (I grew up in Austin, TX, which has no shortage of friction between the University of Texas and everyone else.) (Steve Rodrigues: steverod@cs.berkeley.edu) 34) How about courthouses? Once you get to a certain size, you can get one of these, maybe some government buildings when you get bigger... It seems that lots of little towns I have driven through have their courthouse (if they're the county seat) very prominent in the center of town. (Steve Rodrigues) 35) Another "outside world" suggestion: be able to compete with your neighbors for industries. (Steve Rodrigues) 36) Other utilities, such as telephone, TV, and radio stations. (Steve Rodrigues) 37) The ability to save cities as .PCX, .BMP, or .GIF files. (Fred Chang: fchang@delphi.com) 38) In addition to the terrain editing mode, an icon editor that would allow you to design buildings and icons. Say, a condo that looks like one in your area. (Fred Chang) 39) Bookmarks. I'd like to be able to assign, say, five bookmarks and jump directly to them. (Dave Lartigue) 40) Track popularity on the graph so you'd know what was going on at times when your popularity was up or down. (Dave Lartigue) 41) Recycling Plants, which of course would help somewhat with pollution and, in the future, Air Treatment Plants. Expensive, but they cut through the smog. (Dave Lartigue) 42) After, say, 2200, have a Spaceport in addition to Air- and Sea-. (Dave Lartigue) 43) Ferries as alternatives to bridges. You'd need one on each bank, fairly close to each other. (Dave Lartigue) 44) Underwater tunnels. (Dave Lartigue) 45) A driving add-on which would allow you to drive (or fly!) through your city. (M.J. Bluett?: mj.bluett@ic.ac.uk) 46) In real life electric (and telephone) wires run parallel with roads. Why can't we have this? You would be able to select a road, road with power, with water, or with power and water. There is no need to take up two tile widths for both out to the SimAirport, for example. Bridges and tunnels should have this capability too. And while I'm at it, subways and rail, too, should conduct power. (Karen Todd: ktodd@census.gov) 47) Until the aforementioned recycle plants become availble in time, trash dumps should be considered. (I know, pretty yucky idea, but it's realistic.) (Karen Todd) 48) I miss the hot keys from SC classic. I know B for bulldoze still works, but how about p==power, t==train, s==subway, r==roads, w=water, etc.. Maybe even command-p for power plants, command-t for train stations, command-s for subway stations, etc. You get the idea. (Karen Todd) 49) Why do Sims complain so much about polution and *have* to live close to work? They should be smarter than that. Maybe if the eq is high, Sims would live farther away and take the subway, if the eq is low, they'd have to live close and drive. (Karen Todd) 50) One thing I've always wanted was an increase in the problem of land competition -- especially agricultural/ suburban. So -- "Farm" zones that are *extremely* cheap to build (or just pop up on their own), are extremely low density, but something bad happens to you (popularity? inflow of new residents falls? I dunno) when you get rid of them. Or you have to pay extra to re-zone them (bribery + eminent domain). I guess I like the early stages of the game, and would be willing to see more detail -- dirt roads, for example, or county courthouses, and stuff that survives without electricity (like the aforementioned farm zones) Or the chance to build a 21st century agrarian community powered by windmills with electric cars on dirt roads.....SimCommune! (Stanley Chin: chins@vrinet.com) 51) Golf Courses. I'm a golf addict and I want my Sims to be able to play as well. I usually give my Big parks names of famous golf courses but it would be nice to see some bunkers and water surrounding freshly cut grass.. ("Eagle": blake@calvin.se.fit.edu) 52) Country Estates. Historically, rich folk are the ones on the outskirts of the city (the enclaves may get swallowed up, but that's another story). If you build/zone residential stuff really far away from the center of town, maybe we could have a step up from luxury homes and have the estates of the "ultra-rich": huge, sprawling things. Anyone who's ever visited River Oaks in Houston, or Chappaqua in Westchester County, NY, or Heart Castle in California, will have an idea what I'm talking about. (This is the "filthy rich beyond imagining" type of people.) (Steve Rodrigues) 53) Post Offices as government buildings. (Simon Leung: sngpit.dnet!leung@turtle.fisher.com) 54) Highways on the ground, instead of always in the air. (Simon Leung) 55) Time flies when you're having fun! How about a Clock in the Title Bar? (Dave Lartigue) A-7 Appendix 7 (SC2K Description) This Text File was created by Sally Vandershaf, edited by Peter Alau, with additions by Chrispy Squid and posted by the dudes at Maxis. SIMCITY 2000, THE ULTIMATE CITY SIMULATOR Product Name: SimCity 2000, The Ultimate City Simulator. Price: $69.95 SRP. Availability: Fourth quarter 1993 for IBM/DOS and Macintosh versions. Company: Maxis 2 Theatre Square Orinda, CA 94563 Main: 510/254-9700 Fax: 510/253-3736 Customer Service: 800/33-MAXIS Tech Support: 510/253-3755 Preliminary IBM/DOS: 386 or above; MS-DOS 3.3 or Requirements: above; 4MB RAM; hard disk; mouse; extended VGA mode, 640 x 480 (256 colors). Supports AdLib, Ad Lib Gold, Sound Blaster, Roland MT-32, Roland MPU 401, Pro Audio Spectrum and 100% compatibles. Macintosh: LC, Performa, II, Centris and Quadra series; Color Classic; PowerBook (160, 165c, 180, 180c, Duo 210, (230); System 7.0; 4MB RAM (2.5MB RAM free); mouse; hard disk; 256 color monitor. Disk Size: IBM/DOS: 3 1/2" high-density with 5 1/4" high-density disks available from Maxis. Macintosh: 3 1/2" high-density. WHAT IS SIMCITY 2000? Incorporating four years of customer suggestions, SimCity 2000 combines dozens of new features and stunning three-dimensional graphics with the intuitive interface and engrossing gameplay that made the original SimCity (which has been re-christened "SimCity Classic-The Original City Simulator",) so successful. Current SimCity Classic players will be able to start playing SimCity 2000 immediately, using just the features that are familiar from the original game. As players learn the new features of SimCity 2000, they will become more proficient mayors. Here's a sample of what SimCity 2000 lets players do: -Modify terrain with mountains, forests, rivers, streams, waterfalls, and bays. -Zoom into the city at three levels of magnification, and rotate the three-dimensional model of the city 360 degrees for more realistic perspectives. -Place new structures-schools, universities, libraries, museums, zoos, hospitals, prisons, marinas, freeways, bridges-as well as the original SimCity services, with updated graphics. -Dig underground tunnels and subways and lay pipe for transporting water. -Import cities from SimCity Classic into SimCity 2000. Target Audience: SimCity 2000 is targeted to current owners of SimCity Classic and other Maxis "Sim" games, as well as high-end computer owners who may not already own a Maxis game, but are interested in sophisticated, open-ended entertainment software. SimCity Classic, which has been a consistent best-seller since its introduction four years ago, now includes a terrain editor and support for popular sound cards. SimCity Classic's simplicity makes it a natural for customers who are new to the computer game category, and want an easy and fun introduction to gaming before advancing to more intricate simulations. Design philosophy: Like all "Sim" games, SimCity 2000 enables players to challenge themselves to meet their own goals, rather than goals artificially imposed by the game's design. Our purpose in designing SimCity 2000 was to make it as easy to use as the original SimCity was, but at the same time to incorporate user suggestions and many of the things we had to leave out of the original SimCity because of hardware constraints. For example, we added underground infrastructure (subways, water pipes, tunnels) and a much more detailed economic model. In essence, we tried to bring SimCity 2000 a lot closer to reality, with 3-D graphics that enhance the feeling that the city is real when you're working with it. -- -Peace, Man! *****--Dave Palsen(dpalsen@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu)--****** **--Official Distributor of the Simcity 2000 FAQ--**