Solaris Region – Here you’ll note I specifically laid out the map to have a large central city. This city can then be fueled and supplied by the outer smaller cities.

Sol Metro – You’ll notice that while the 4×4 grid system here works I still didn’t include enough open spaces to stop the stagnation process once a city grows up. I’ve put down an airport in this city even though it really is a no-no for a large city – soooo much pollution – but commerce asked for it and even though I had enough links out already I thought I’d throw one down.

Sol Metro Close Up – Just a quick close up of the Residential zones that have built up into medium sized skyscrapers. Again they’re unlikely to build much higher because of the little open spaces available.

The Peaks Community - A good mixture of all zones here. I’ve still not learnt my ‘open spaces = good’ mantra yet.

Sin City – I thought I’d show the zone layout for this city before an actual screen shot of the buildings because it’s a good example of when a Commercial zone pollution buffer works. Open spaces better designed but still not enough.

Sin City – Building view of the above layout showing the pollution barrier of commercial zones.

New New York – This city is a good example of how mixed Residential and Commercial zones can actually work together to build an overall higher wealth city – except those abandoned buildings… ehm.

Because of a few errors I made early on this region was never going to build up enough population for any massive buildings to appear. The fact that the region only has one large city zone will eventually also cause problems and breaking region population caps will be a nightmare.

Time for a new custom zone I think. One with more expansion options and more large city zones.

What’s the worst thing you can do when starting to play Sim City 4 again?  Questioning the 4×4 grid and forgetting the advantage of doubling up roads that’s what.

OK it’s not actually all that bad to forget those things as it can make for more interesting city layouts than the usually mundane – but highly effective – 4×4 double road – or avenue – grid system.  As this was my first time playing a custom map created by me for me I decided to play with some alternative layouts.

Sunspear Region Overview - You’ll notice I haven’t filled every zone. I usually don’t. Boredom sets in at some point when things don’t go my way OR I find out the map isn’t that great. It’s a recurring theme. Also I usually use comedy names.

Weyland-Yutani Beaches - Commerce and Residential zones like the coast and open spaces but the large number of smaller roads make traffic noise and pollution an issue.

Weyland-Yutani education center – Having a University near both Residential and Commerce zones helps boost demand. That alone though isn’t enough, just check out the empty houses right near the ocean because of – again – busy roads.  Also notice how sometimes a Commercial buffer to Industry can backfire.

ExoGeni the cheat-scape – Yes I used the services cheat here by using this city to power, water and clean up my major city. I don’t use it often but sometimes it speeds up play. Using the cheat will also mean you need the business deals. Ekk radiation!

ExoGeni Center – A lot of the time a ‘cheat’ city like this one can actually have a nice population. I also liked my cunning use of the X road system. (^_^)

Cruciform Center – Not really too much to say with this one other than I had a nice time laying out the roads. One thing I will note about the above and below screen shots is that although elevated rail looks good, it really doesn’t work as well as standard railways.

That’s all I’m going to show you from this play session. I’m never going to show you every city in a region because, well, some are just plain boring. That or they are farm cities and lets face it once you’ve seen one farm city you’ve seen them all.

Few things to note here: Single two way roads cause havoc to a cities traffic once the population rises. Not leaving enough open spaces means cities can only grow to a certain size beacuse they become undesirable. And finally putting down infrastructure you don’t need – railways, parking, hospitals etc – will eat you’re money super quick.