As you expand, costlier items become available, but everything starts in a meager state. Don't expect to have tidal waves of money rolling in at the city's start. YOU WON'T BE A MILLIONAIRE RIGHT OFF THE BATĮvery city starts small that's just the way it is. Pay attention to the meters and build accordingly, and you'll keep your employment and income rates steady. If commercial demand starts rising, zone more commercial space. In other words, build twice the residential zones as you build commercial or industrial: the amount commercial and industrial zones combined should equal residential.Īs the city grows, keep an eye on these demand meters. When you being your city, start zoning in a 2:1 ratio that favors residential. These represent residential demand, commercial demand, and industrial demand respectively. The bottom right corner of the menu shows three bars: green, blue, and yellow. Make sure you place enough services to adequately cover your city, then begin upgrading them. The more sprawling your city, the more you'll need to place.Įach building has a limited response time: maxing out a firehouse in the northern part of town does no good if the trucks can't reach the southern part of town in time. Don't get caught up in maxing out every aspect of these buildings so soon. Hospitals can have more ambulances firehouses can have more trucks. Nearly every buildable object can tweaked. Do you have enough services in place to collect trash, fight fires, cure sick, and stop crime in each district? SPREAD IT BEFORE YOU EDIT If you don't like web metaphors, think of it this way: divide your city up into districts (which you've probably already thought about anyway). Think of each building as a web - each one can only cover so much ground. For example, you'll need enough police stations to cover crime in all regions of the city. In SimCity, everything works like a giant game of rock-paper-scissors everything serves a purpose.Īs you progress, you'll require more than just one of each construct. Don't ignore schools, or your Sims will never get educated. Don't ignore firehouses, or buildings will burn. This way you will be able to place it in another way.Of course, you need a bit of everything. When you click the middle mouse button, the building will rotate. How do you rotate buildings?Īs it turns out, the option may be slightly “hidden” because instead of the standard Q/E key, you need to press the middle mouse button. You have to demolish and spend the money to rebuild it just as in the real world. There is no way to move buildings in SimCity. Try holding down Ctrl, Shift, or both when zoning. If there are 2 roads (eg corner) while placing the building, try to slowly nudge your finger to the road you want the building to face to.