***************************************************************** SIM CITY VERSION 1.0 FULL DOCUMENTATION SCANNED BY PONYBOY REMEMBER ONE OF THE FASTEST AMIGA BOARDS IN THE WORLD TOGETHER WITH THE RADDEST CODE SUB EVER SPREADPOINT HQ (714) 626-8365 Greets And Hellos At The End Of The Manual ***************************************************************** *Note: The documentation was originally for the Macintosh, but after checking through it, it appears little or almost no changes has been made for the AMIGA version. Since I can't type as fast and as accurate as the guys at Southern Star, this entire text was scanned. ***************************************************************** Enter SimCity and take control. Become the undisputed ruler of a sophisticated real-time City Simulation. Take control of San Francisco 1906, just before the great quake or Tokyo 1957, just before a monster attack. Show your pioneering spirit. Start with virgin territory and create a living, growing city. The quality of life in your city depends on you. Zone land, balance budgets, install utilities, manipulate economic markets, control crime, traffic and pollution, and overcome natural disasters. Your city is populated by Sims-simulated citizens. Like their human counterparts, They build houses, condos, churches, stores and factories. And, also like humans, they complain about things like taxes, mayors, taxes, city planners, and taxes. They let you know if they need more housing, better transportation, an airport or a sports stadium. If they get too unhappy, they move out; you collect excess taxes, the city deteriorates. A WALK THROUGH YOUR CITY Boot your Macintosh, then insert your SimCity disk and double- click the SimCity icon. After a few seconds, a screen with the options to start a new city, load a city, or select a scenario appears. Click START NEW CITY. A map of undeveloped land will be generated and displayed. You will be given a choice: GENERATE A NEW TERRAIN or USE THIS MAP. Click USE THIS MAP You are now given a choice of GAME PLAY LEVEL. Click EASY, then click OK. You will now be asked to name your city. Go ahead and name it, or accept the default name SOMEWHERE. Click the OK box. You are now in the MAPS WINDOW, looking down on an overall view of your entire terrain, approximately 10 miles by 10 miles in area. The icons along the left side of the MAPS WINDOW can be used to display different demographic views of your city. We'll play with them later. The small flashing box located somewhere on the map indicates the portion of your terrain that will be visible in your EDIT WINDOW, your main work area. Click and drag the box around the map, choosing the area you wish to work on, then double-click in the box to go the EDIT WINDOW. NOTE:The BUDGET WlNDOW will pop up once a year in city time. When it does, just click the GO WITH THESE FIGURES box at the bottom. You are now in the EDIT WINDOW, looking at a close-up view of the area box in the MAPS WINDOW. Note the icons on the left. They work just like icons in various draw and paint programs on the market. You can use the scroll boxes along the right side and bottom of the window to the window quickly around the terrain. To scroll over the terrain, use the arrows on each end of the scroll bars or the joystick box in the upper right-hand corner EDIT WINDOW. If you have cursor keys, they can be used to scroll. The EDIT WINDOW may be resized by clicking and dragging the bottom right corner or by using the zoom box to the left of the joystick box. The EDIT WINDOW may be moved around on the screen by clicking and dragging the title bar across the top of the window. Your available land is made of three types of territory. The light areas are clear the grey areas are forests and shrubs, and the dark areas are water. You can build on clear land. You can clear forest and extend coastlines with your bulldozer. You can run roads, rails and power lines across water. To clear the terrain, click the bulldozer icon in the upper-left corner of the EDIT WINDOW. The "pointer" is a small square, outlining the area will be bulldozed every time you click the mouse. Move your bulldozer pointer over some forest land and click. The forest section under your pointer is now clear land. Now, hold the button down and move slowly across the forest. Clear a large a land to prepare for building. Click the house icon, then mouse back to your terrain. Your pointer is now a large square outline. This outline indicates how much clear space you will need to create a residential zone. Clicking the mouse button in clear terrain "zones" the land. The "R" in the center of the zone indicates that it is a residential zone. The flashing lightening symbol indicates that the zone has no power. Place a few more residential zones adjacent to the first one. Now decide where to position a power plant in your city. Point to the power plant icon and hold down the mouse button. A small menu will appear, giving you the option of choosing a coal or nuclear plant. For now, choose the coal power plant. Then place it in some open space near your residential zones. If your power plant is not directly adjacent to a zone, you will have to run a power line from your power plant to the residential zone. To do this, click the power line icon. Using your mouse pointer and button, lay power lines from your power plant to your residential zones. Adjacent power line sections will automatically connect themselves to one another. Roadways and transit lines connect in the same manner. In a moment, the flashing symbols will disappear, indicating that your zones have been powered. Any zones that are adjacent to a powered zone do not need separate power lines run to them. Soon you will see small houses start to appear. The Sims have started to move in. When you zone land, you designate where building is allowed. It is the Sims who actually build. Now that you have a few residential zones, you're ready for commercial and industrial areas. Select the commercial icon and place a few commercial zones near your residential ones. Then select the industrial icon and map out some industrial zones. Connect all necessary power lines. Note that when you select different icons, the icon description and its associated cost will be displayed in the lower left-hand corner of the EDIT WINDOW. The message bar across the top of the EDIT WINDOW displays your total funds available. If you do not have enough money in your treasury to pay for a certain function, that icon will be "ghosted" on your screen and is unavailable for use. Now click the road icon and add roads from your residential housing to the commercial and industrial areas to allow the Sims to commute to work. Once you have roads, traffic will be generated. Now select the BUDGET WlNDOW from the WlNDOWS MENU. This is where you set the level of funding for your fire police and transportation departments. Click the up or down arrows to change the funding Ievel. You can also adjust the current property tax rate. If you have no police or fire departments they don't need funds. Click thc GO WITH THESE FIGURES box when you are done. Now select MAPS from the WINDOWS MENU. By clicking on the icons along the left you can see different demographic views of your city. You will need this information to build and adjust conditions in your city. For example you can pinpoint the areas with the highest crime to determine locations for new police stations. Additional information can be gained through the GRAPHS selection from the WINDOWS MENU. Unlike the maps which only show the current state of your city, the graphs give you a record of the past so you can gauge trends and cycles. This is all the basic information you need to run SimCity but we suggest reading on. The User Reference explains in detail how to use each program function. Inside SimCity explains the inner workings of the simulator and gives some hints and tips for using it. There is also an essay on The History of Cities and City Planning and a Bibliography for serious City Planners. USER REFERENCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MENU BAR SimCity Menus follow the standard Amiga/Macintosh interface. FILE MENU LOAD SCENARIO provides you with a menu of available scenarios. Click a city to load it. START NEW CITY generates a new, empty terrain. You will he given the option to accept it or generate another terrain. LOAD CITY lets you load a previously saved city. SAVE CITY saves any scenario or city-in-progress for later use. Once you have loaded a scenario, It can be saved and re-loaded, like any city, without the impending disaster PRINT CITY prints your city in either of two sizes; all on one page or on a three-page by two-page poster. Requires an ImageWriter printer. Laser Printer is not supported. QUIT ends SimCity OPTIONS MENU A checkmark to the left of an item indicates that the option is active. AUTO-BULLDOZER allows you to place zones, roadways, etc., directly on top of trees and shoreline without manually bulldozing first. You will be charged the same as for manual bulldozing. AUTO-BUDGET keeps your budget at the same percentage settings without asking for approval every year. AUTO-GOTO automatically transports you to the scene of a disaster or major event. SOUND ON toggles the various city sounds on and off. Defaults to the "on" position. The simulation runs slightly faster with the sound off. Make sure that the volume is up on the control panel. GAME SPEED MENU FAST sets city time to maximum speed. MEDIUM is the default setting, about three times slower than FAST. SLOW sets the speed about seven times slower than FAST. PAUSE stops time. Zoning and building are possible in paused time. DISASTERS MENU FIRE starts a fire somewhere within the city limits FLOOD causes a flood to occur near the water. AIRCRASH causes a plane to crash. If there are no planes in the air, one will be generated TORNADO causes a tornado to appear within the city limits. EARTHQUAKE causes a MAJOR earthquake. MONSTER ATTACK sets a monster loose in your city. WINDOWS MENU MAPS brings the MAPS WINDOW up on the screen. GRAPHS brings up the GRAPHS WINDOW. BUDGET brings up the BUDGET WINDOW. EDIT brings up the EDIT WINDOW. EVALUATION brings up the EVALUATION WINDOW. EDIT WINDOW GADGETS TITLE BAR displays city name. Clicking and dragging the Title Bar allows you lo relocate the EDIT WINDOW. MESSAGE BOX displays treasury information, current date, and messages. Status messages tell you about events - if a disaster occurs, the message box will indicate the nature of the disaster, and supply a GOTO button to take you to the scene. Help messages are about the Sims' needs and wants, such as more housing. DEMAND INDICATORS in the lower left-hand corner of the EDIT WINDOW give a constant reading of the residents' need for residential, commercial and industrial zoning. Above the center line indicates a positive demand. Below the line is negative demand. CLOSE BOX closes the EDIT WINDOW. GROW BOX resizes the window. JOYSTICK BOX moves you around your city. The city scrolls in the direction you point as long as you are holding the mouse button down. SCROLL ARROWS scroll your city horizontally and vertically. SCROLL BOXES quickly move you to distant portions of your city. ZOOM BOX sizes the window to cover the entire screen. SELECTED ITEM & COST BOX displays active item and related cost. EDIT WINDOW KEYBOARD COMMANDS (Some key commands are not available on older keyboards.) Q - (Query) - Hold down the "Q" key while clicking on parts of your city to bring up a status box identifying the spot (zone, road, terrain, etc.), and giving information on Population Density, Land Value, Crime Rate, Pollution and Growth. Z and X - Cycle active icons in opposite directions. B, R, T and P are shortcut keys. No matter which icon is selected, if you Push and hold down the "B" key, you will be in active Bulldozer mode. Release the "B" key to return control to the selected icon. The "R" key activates Roadbuilding mode in the same way. Thc "T" key activates Transit line building, and the "P" key puts you in Power line mode. CURSOR KEYS scroll the terrain around under the EDIT WINDOW. EDIT WINDOW ICONS Active icons are highlighted. Ghosted icons are unavailable due to lack of funds. Clicking on a ghosted icon shows the item's cost. BULLDOZER clears trees and shrubbery, creates landfill along the water, levels developed, existing zones and clears rubble caused by disasters. Bulldozing the center of a zone demolishes the entire zone. The Auto-Bulldozer option only works on natural terrain, not developed land. It costs $1 to bulldoze a section of land. ROADWAYS connect developed areas. Intersections and turns are automatically created. Lay continuous roads by clicking and dragging your pointer. Be careful - if you accidentally lay a road in the wrong place you will have to pay for bulldozing and rebuilding. Roads may not be placed over trees, shrubbery, or zoned areas. They can cross over power lines and transit lines only at right angles. Laying roads across water creates a bridge. Bridges can only be built in a straight line - no curves, turns or intersections. Shorelines must be bulldozed prior to building a bridge (unless the auto-bulldoze feature is on). Roadways are maintained by the transit budget, and wear out if there is a lack of funding. It costs $10 to lay one section of road and $50 to lay one section of bridge. POWER LINES carry power from power plants to zoned land and between zones. All developed land needs power to function. Power lines cannot cross trees, shrubbery, or zoned land. Power is conducted through adjacent zones. Unpowered zones display the flashing power symbol. There is a delay between the line you power up a zone and when the flashing light disappears. The delay grows longer as the city grows larger. Junctions and corners are automatically created. Lay continuous power lines by clicking and dragging your pointer. Power lines across a river must be horizontal or vertical - no turns, curves or intersections. Power lines consume some power due to transmission inefficiencies. It costs $5 to lay one piece of power line on land, $25 on water. TRANSIT LINES create a railway system for intra-city mass transit. Place tracks in heavily trafficked areas to help alleviate congestion. Intersections and turns are created automatically. Lay continuous transit lines by clicking and dragging your pointer. Tracks laid under rivers will appear as dashed lines. These underwater tunnels must be vertical or horizontal - no turns curves or intersections. Transit lines are maintained by transportation department funds. The level of funding affects the efficiency of the system. It costs $20 per section of track on land $100 per section under water. PARKS can be placed on clear land. Parks forests and water raise the land value of surrounding zones. Parks can be bulldozed as fire breaks or reserve space for later mass transit expansion. It costs $10 to lay one segment of park. RESIDENTIAL ZONES are where the Sims build houses apartments and community facilities such as schools and churches. Residential zones develop into one of four values: slums, lower middle class, upper middle class, and upper class. They can range in population density from single-family homes to high-rise apartments and condominiums. Factors influencing residential value and growth are crime rate, pollution, traffic density, population density, surrounding terrain, roadway access, parks and utilities. It costs $100 to zone one plot of land as residential. COMMERCIAL ZONES are used for many things, including retail stores, office buildings, parking garages, and gas stations. There are four values for commercial property and five levels of growth from the small general store to tall skyscrapers. Factors influencing the value and growth of commercial areas include internal markets, pollution, traffic density, residential access, labor supply, airports, crime rates, transit access, and utilities. It costs $100 to zone one plot of land as commercial. INDUSTRIAL ZONES are for heavy manufacturing and industrial services. There are four levels of industrial growth from small pumping stations and warehouses to large factories. Factors influencing the growth of industrial areas are external markets, seaports, transit access, residential access, labor supply, and utilities. It costs $100 to zone one plot of land as industrial. POLICE DEPARTMENTS lower the crime rate in the surrounding area. This in turn raises property values. Place these in high-density crime areas as defined by your Crime Rate map. Thc efficiency of a station depends on the level of police department funding. It costs $500 to build a police station. FIRE DEPARTMENTS make surrounding areas less susceptible lo fires. When fires do occur, they are put out sooner and do less damage if a station is near. The effectiveness of fire containment depends on the level of fire department funding. It costs $500 to build a fire station. STADIUMS encourage residential growth. The message window will indicate when the city wants a stadium. You may build a stadium in your city prior to this request without negative effect. Stadiums indirectly generate a lot of revenue, but create a lot of traffic. Properly maintaining a stadium requires a good road and transit network. It costs $3000 to build a stadium. POWER PLANTS can be coal or nuclear, chosen from a sub-menu provided when you click and hold on the icon. Thc nuclear plant is more powerful but carries a slight risk of meltdown. The coal plant is less expensive, but less powerful and it pollutes. Connecting too many zones to a Power Plant causes brownouts. You will get a message saying "You need to build another power plant. Coal power plants cost $3000 to build, and supply enough electricity for about 50 zones. Nuclear power plants cost $5000 and supply electricity for about 150 zones. SEAPORTS increase the potential for industrial growth. They have little effect in a small city, but contribute a lot to industrialization in a large city. Seaports should be placed on a shoreline. The shoreline must be bulldozed prior to zoning a seaport. Once the port is operational, you may see ships in the water. It costs $5000 to zone land for use as a seaport. AIRPORTS increase the growth potential of your commercial markets. Once a city starts getting large, commercial growth will level off without an airport. Airports are large and expensive and should not be built unless your city can afford one. Position airports to keep flight paths over water whenever possible lessening the impact of air disasters. Once you build an airport you will see airplanes flying above your city to and from the airport. There is also a traffic helicopter which alerts you to heavy traffic jams. It costs $10,000 to zone land for use as an airport. BUDGET WINDOW When your first taxes are collected in a new city, and each year after, the BUDGET WINDOW will appear (unless you select the Auto- Budget function). You will be asked to set the funding levels for the fire, police, and transportation departments, and to set the property tax rate. You can raise and lower budget levels by clicking on the little arrows that correspond to each category. A percentage indicator will display the level of funding that will be maintained if you turn on the Auto-Budget function. You may adjust your tax rate by clicking on the arrows next to the tax rate indicator. Click on "GO WITH THESE FIGURES" to exit the BUDGET WINDOW. The level of budgeting requested by each department is based on the number of fire departments, police stations, and the amount of roadways and transit lines in your city. These figures increase as your city grows - it costs money to maintain your city infrastructure. WAITING... An hourglass icon is displayed at the top left of the budget window. It indicates the time remaining to enter the budget information. When the hourglass empties, the budget that is set is accepted. If you need more time, click in the budget window to reset the hourglass. MAPS WINDOW The MAPS WINDOW gives you various overviews of your city. The portion of your city currently visible in the EDIT WINDOW is represented by a flashing box on your map. You can click and drag this box to the area you wish to edit. Double-click in the flashing box to go to the EDIT WINDOW. You cannot resize the MAPS WINDOW but you can move it on your screen by clicking and dragging the drag bar at the top of the window. Clicking on the close box in the upper left-hand corner of the window closes the window. By clicking on the icons along the left side of the MAPS WINDOW you can view the following maps and cartograms. The CITY MAPS icon brings up a sub-menu allowing you to choose between views of developed sections of your city. You may individually display the residential commercial or industrial areas or all three. POWER GRID shows you the network of the power lines in grey and powered zones as black dots. TRANSPORTATION is a road map of your city displaying all roads and rail lines in black. Use this view to examine your city's access to specific areas and to plan future expansion of the network. The POPULATION MAPS icon brings up a sub-menu offering two views. The Population Density view uses degrees of shading to show the average number of people occupying an area each day. The Rate of Growth shows the most recent growth (positive or negative) of your city and where it is occurring. TRAFFIC DENSITY shows the amount of traffic on your roads. Spot traffic problems and determine where new roadways and transit lines are needed. The POLLUTION map shows levels of pollution throughout your city. Pollution is generated by industry and traffic. The CRIME RATE map shows the level and location of crime in your city. Crime is calculated from population density land value and proximity of police stations. The LAND VALUE map shows the relative value of land within the city limits. Land values are used to establish the amount of revenue generated in taxes. The CITY SERVICES icon brings up a sub-menu offering views of police or fire services. The service map displays the effective radius of each of your stations based on their location, power and funding levels. GRAPHS WINDOW The GRAPHS WINDOW gives you time-based graphs of various city data. You cannot resize the GRAPHS WINDOW, but you can move it on your screen by clicking and dragging the drag bar at the top of the window. Use the close box in the upper left-hand corner of the window to exit. Clicking on the icons on the left side of the GRAPHS WINDOW will toggle each graph on and off. You may have any combination of graphs displayed at any time. Each graph is displayed as a different line pattern. Data may be displayed on 10-year or 120-year graphs. The RESIDENTIAL POPULATION graph shows the total population in residential zones. The COMMERCIAL POPULATION graph shows the level of development in commercial zones. The INDUSTRIAL POPULATION graph shows the level of development in industrial zones. The CRIME RATE chart shows the overall crime rate of the entire city. The CASH FLOW graph shows your city's cash flow: money collected in taxes last year minus money it took to maintain your city. Note: Cash flow has little to do with your current funds, or how much you spend in building (except that city expansion will increase both taxes collected and maintenance costs). The line in the center of the Cash Flow graph represents a cash flow of zero. Do not build more infrastructure (roads, rail, police departments, fire stations) than you can support with tax revenues. The POLLUTION graph shows the overall pollution reading of the entire city. EVALUATION WINDOW The EVALUATION WINDOW gives you a performance rating. You can access it through the WINDOWS MENU. You can click and drag the title bar of the window to relocate it on the screen. Click on the close box in the upper-left corner to close the window. PUBLIC OPINION data is presented in poll form, rating your overall job as mayor and listing what the public regards as the city's most pressing problems. You are advised to keep your residents happy or they might migrate away, and you will be left with a "ghost town." Some example problem-solving strategies are: Crime-Build more police departments, or try to raise land values. Housing - Provide more residential zones. Unemployment - Build more industrial and commercial zones. Traffic - Possibly add more roads or mass transit. STATISTICS on population, net migration, and assessed value are displayed, along with the city game level and an overall city score. This data is calculated once a year at budget time. Population shows how many people live in your city now; net migration shows how much the population changed over the last year. Assessed value represents the net worth of all city-owned property. CATEGORY - Your city will be assigned to one of six categories - Village, Town, City, Capital, Metropolis, and Megalopolis - based on its size. The overall city score is a composite index of many factors (including crime, pollution, employment, environment, housing), calculated once a year based on a scale of 0 to 1000. A higher score indicates a more efficient and successful city. DISASTERS Disasters will randomly occur as you play SimCity. At higher game levels the disasters will happen more often. Most disasters can be activated from the DISASTERS MENU. FIRES can start anywhere in the city. Fire spreads fairly rapidly through forests and buildings, somewhat slower over roadways and transit lines. Fire will not cross water or clear terrain. The effectiveness of the fire department (which can be viewed in the MAPS WINDOW) is based on how close it is to the fire, and its funding levels. Fires inside this effective radius will be extinguished automatically. If you have no operational fire departments in the area you can try to control the fire yourself. Since fire will not spread across clear terrain, you can build firebreaks with the bulldozer. Just surround the fire with clear areas and it will stop spreading and eventually burn itself out. Note: You cannot directly bulldoze a fire. FLOODS occur near the water. They gradually spread and destroy buildings and utilities. After a while the flood waters recede, leaving behind cleared terrain. AIR CRASHES can happen anywhere in the city if an airport is operational. This happens whenever aircraft collide with things, such as a tornadoes or another aircraft. When a crash occurs, a fire will start, unless the crash is on water. A good strategy is to locate the airport away from the central city to minimize the fire damage. TORNADOES can occur anywhere on the map at any time. Very fast and unpredictable, they can appear and disappear at a moment's notice. Tornadoes destroy everything in their path, and can cause planes, helicopters, trains, and ships to crash. EARTHQUAKES are the most devastating disaster. This is a MAJOR earthquake between 8.0 and 9.0 on the Richter Scale. It will destroy buildings and start fires. The initial damage will vary with the severity of the earthquake, and the eventual fire damage depends on your fire control efforts. When an earthquake occurs, you will see the edit window shake for a while. When it stops, you will have to take charge and control the scattered fires. Use the bulldozer to contain the largest fires first and work your way down to the smaller ones. MONSTER ATTACKS are provoked by high levels of pollution. A monster destroys everything in its path, starts fires, and causes planes, helicopters, trains, and ships to crash. MELTDOWNS are only possible if you are using a nuclear power plant. If a meltdown occurs your nuclear plant will explode into flames. The surrounding area will be unusable for the remainder of the simulation due to radioactive contamination. Meltdowns are not available on the DISASTERS MENU. SHIPWRECKS can occur once you have an operating seaport. They can cause fires where the ship crashes into a shore or bridge. Shipwrecks are not available on the DISASTERS MENU. SCENARIOS Thc scenarios provide both real and hypothetical problems for you to deal with in seven famous cities (and one not-so-famous). They present various levels of difficulty. Some problems are in the form of disasters which will occur some time after you start. Other problems are more long-term such as crime. Your task is to deal with the problem at hand as well as possible under the circumstances. After a certain amount of time the city residents will rate your performance in a special election. If you do very well you may be given the key to the city. However if you do poorly they might just run you out of town. To avoid the disaster which is tied to a scenario save it to disk and reload the city from the saved file. DULLSVILLE, USA 1900 - BOREDOM Things haven't changed much around here in the last hundred years or so and the residents are beginning to get bored. They think Dullsville could be the next great city with the right leader. It is your job to attract new growth and development turning Dullsville into a Metropolis by the 21st century. (Easy) SAN FRANCISCO, CA 1906 - 8.0 EARTHQUAKE Damage from the earthquake was minor compared to that of the ensuing fires, which took days to control. 1500 people died. Controlling the fires should be your initial concern here. Afterwards clearing the remaining rubble will allow the city to start rebuilding. (Very difficult) HAMBURG, GERMANY 1944 - FIRE Allied fire-bombing of German cities in WWII caused tremendous devastation and loss of life. People living in the inner cities were at greatest risk. You must control the fire storms during the bombing and then rebuild the city after the war. (Very difficult). BERN, SWITZERLAND 1965 - TRAFFIC The roads here are becoming more congested with automobile traffic every day, and the residents are upset. They demand that you do something about it. Some have suggested a mass transit system as the answer, but this may require major rezoning in the downtown area. (Easy) TOKYO, JAPAN 1957 - MONSTER ATTACK A large reptilian creature rose from Tokyo Bay and rampaged through the city, destroying much of the industry along the bay. (Moderately difficult) DETROIT, Ml 1972 - CRIME By 1970, competition from overseas and other economic factors pushed the once "automobilc capital of the world" into recession. Plummeting land values and unemployment increased crime in the inner-city to chronic levels. You have just been elected after promising to reduce the crime and rebuild the industrial base of the city. (Moderately difficult) BOSTON, MA 2010 - NUCLEAR MELTDOWN A major meltdown is about to occur at one of the new downtown nuclear reactors. Thc area in the vicinity of the reactor will be severely contaminated by radiation, forcing you to restructure the city around it. (Very difficult) RIO de JANEIRO, BRAZIL 2047 - FLOOD In the mid 21 st century, the greenhouse effect raised globaI temperatures 61F. Polar icecaps melted and raised sea levels worldwide. Coastal areas were devastated by flood and erosion. Unfortunately, some of the largest cities in the world are located on the coasts. (Moderately difficult) GAME PLAY LEVEL When you first start a new city you must pick a difficulty level. Once a city is started you cannot change the game level; it remains at your initial setting for the life of the city. The game level setting is displayed in the evaluation window. This level - Easy, Medium, or Hard - adjusts the simulation to your current abilities by altering several factors. A harder setting will increase the chance of disasters, make residents more intolerant of taxation, cause maintenance costs to grow, etc. KEYBOARD REFERENCE CHART GENERAL KEYBOARD COMMANDS COMMAND A - Activates Auto-Bulldoze option COMMAND B - Brings up BUDGET WINDOW COMMAND E- Brings up EDIT WINDOW COMMAND G - Brings up GRAPHS WINDOW COMMAND L - Loads a City COMMAND M - Brings up MAPS WINDOW COMMAND N - Starts a New City COMMAND Q - Quits SimCity COMMAND S - Saves a City COMMAND 0 - Stops City Time COMMAND 1 - Sets City Time to Slow Speed COMMAND 2 - Sets City Time to Medium Speed COMMAND 3 - Sets City Time to High Speed SPECIAL EDIT WINDOW KEYBOARD COMMANDS d Z - Cycle through and activate icon functions Q - ( Query) - Point to a zone or object in the EDIT WINDOW, hold down "Q" while clicking the mouse to bring up information about the zone or object. B activates the Bulldozer while depressed, overriding active icon. R activates Road laying while depressed, overriding active icon. T activates Transit line laying while depressed, overriding active icon. P activates Power line laying while depressed, overriding active icon. CURSOR KEYS scroll the terrain under the EDIT WINDOW. INSIDE SimCity HOW THE SIMULATOR WORKS AND STRATEGIES FOR USING IT Many factors influence the chance of your city's prospering or floundering: both internal factors (the structure and efficiency of your city) and external factors (the regional economy, disasters, etc.). ZONES Your city is divided into three primary zones: residential, commercial and industrial. These zones symbolize the three basic pillars upon which a city is based: population, industry, and commerce. All three are necessary for your city to grow and thrive. RESIDENTIAL ZONES are where the Sims live. Here they build houses, apartments and community facilities such as churches and schools. Sims are the workforce for your city's commercial and industrial zones. INDUSTRIAL ZONES are used to site warehouses, factories, and other unsightly and polluting structures which have a negative impact on surrounding zones. One of the major goals of planning is to separate these nuisances from the areas where people live. In this simulation, industrial zones represent the "basic" production of your city. Things produced here are sold outside the city to an "external market," bringing money into the city for future growth. COMMERCIAL ZONES represent the retail stores and services in your city, including gas stations, grocery stores, banks, and offices. Commercial areas are mainly dedicated to producing goods and services needed within your city. This is called "non-basic" production or production for the "internal market". POPULATION-RESIDENTIAL The major factors controlling residential population are birthrate, availability of jobs and housing, unemployment, and quality of life within the city. Birthrate as used here is actually a combination of the birthrate (+) and the deathrate (-). Within SimCity there is always a positive birthrate. Availability of jobs (the employment rate) is a ratio of the current commercial and industrial populations to the total residential population. As a rule of thumb, the number of commercial and industrial zones together should roughly equal the number of residential zones. If there are more jobs in your city than residents, new settlers will be attracted. If the job market declines during a local recession, your people will migrate away in search of jobs. Housing for your residents is built in the residential zones. These zones must be powered and connected to the places of employment with a road and/or rail network. The structures built in residential zones are influenced by land value and population density. Quality of life is a measure of relative "attractiveness" assigned to different zone locations. It is affected by negative factors such as pollution and crime, and positive factors such as parks and accessibility. EXTERNAL MARKET - INDUSTRIAL There are thousands of variables that influence your city. All these variables can be influenced by your actions with the exception of one. Thc external market (the economic conditions that exist outside of your city) is controlled by the simulation-there is nothing you can do to change it. In many ways, this external market is the original source of all city growth. Towns frequently begin as production centers (steel towns, refineries, etc.) that service a demand in the surrounding region. As time passes, the external market grows to reflect the regional growth going on around your city. The industry in your city will attempt to grow as the external market grows. For this to happen there must be room for expansion (more industrial zones) and an adequate labor supply (more residential zones). INTERNAL MARKET-COMMERCIAL The internal market is completely influenced by the conditions within your city. Internal production, created in the commercial zones, represents all the things which are purchased and consumed within the city. Food stores, gas stations, retail stores, financial services, medical care, etc. - all depend on a nearby population to service. Within SimCity, the size of the internal market determines the rate at which commercial zones will prosper. Commercial zones need enough zoned land to build on and an existent, sufficient workforce to employ. The structures built in commercial zones are mainly influenced by land value and population density. Commercial zones grow and develop to serve the expanding internal market. Commercial growth will usually be slow at first, when the population is small and needs very little. As your city grows, commercial growth will accelerate and the internal market will become a much larger consumer of your total city production. This accelerating effect, when the external/ industrial production is overtaken by the accelerating internal/commercial sector, can turn a sleepy little town of 50,000 into a thriving capital of 200,000 in a few short years. TAX RATE The tax rate you set controls the amount of income generated by your city. As taxes are collected each year (city time), the BUDGET WINDOW will appear, giving you the fiscal details of your city and a chance to adjust rates. The simulation determines the amount of revenue collected by assessing each zone an amount based on its land value, current level of development and the current tax rate. The tax rate has a global effect on your city's growth rate. If you set it low (0 - 4%), growth will be brisk but the city income will be low. If you set it high (10 - 20%), you will collect a lot in the short run but in the long run tax income will decrease along with the population. You must keep tax income high enough to meet city maintenance costs and invest in new development, but low enough not to scare off residents and businesses. A high tax rate is one way to control city growth, should you want to experiment with growth control measures. BUDGETING City budgeting effects the way your city grows. City infrastructure cost is represented by three departments: police, fire, and transportation. You may set the funding levels separately for each. All three departments will request a certain level of funding each year. You may supply all or part of the requested funds, in the attempt to balance safety needs and budgetary concerns. POLICE DEPARTMENTS Police stations lower the crime rate within a territory. The effective radius of your police station is related to the amount of funding allocated to the police department. There is a positive correlation between the value of land and proximity to a police station. Police Stations cost $100 per year to fund. FIRE DEPARTMENTS Fire departments prevent and extinguish fires. The level of funding determines the effective radius of a fire department. Fire departments put out fires within this radius much sooner than outside it, and decrease the chance that they will start in the first place. Fire Departments cost $100 per year to fund. TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT When you build roads and rail systems you are charged for construction and yearly maintenance. The larger your transportation network, the more it will cost for upkeep. If you decide not to or are unable to pay this maintenance cost, roads will slowly deteriorate and become unusable. The maintenance cost for each piece is: Road - $1, Bridge - $4, Rail - $4, Rail tunnel -$10. POWER Electrical power makes modern cities possible. Efficient and reliable power transmission to all zones is the goal of good "power management." Periodically in the simulation the entire power grid of your city is checked for links to power. If a zone is connected (by other zones or power lines) to a power plant, the zone is considered powered (unless the power plant is overloaded). Zones must be powered for development to occur. Many things (such as fires, floods monsters and bulldozers) can knock down power lines and cause blackouts in parts of your city. Development will stop in unpowered zones, and if power is not quickly restored, the zone will decline back to its original state of emptiness. Redundant power connections can make your power grid more reliable, but running more line adds construction costs and transmission line loss. TRANSPORTATION - TRAFFIC One of the most important elements of city structure is the transportation network. It moves Sims and goods throughout your city. Roads typically occupy as much as 25% - 40% of the land in urban areas. Traffic along these roads indicates which sections of your road system are used the most. Traffic levels are simulated by a process known as "Trip Generation." Over time, each populated zone in the city will generate a number of trips, depending on the population. Each generated trip starts at the origin zone, travels down the road/rail network, and if a "proper destination" is reached, ends at the destination zone - otherwise, the trip fails. Trip failure indicates inaccessibility of a zone and limits its growth. The majority of generated trips represent people commuting to and from work. Additional traffic is generated by residents traveling to shopping, recreation, etc. Each road has a limited capacity for traffic. When this capacity is exceeded traffic jams will form. Traffic jams drastically lower the capacity of a road, compounding the problem and frustrating drivers. Traffic conditions fluctuate quickly, responding to things such as open bridges, sporting events and port activity. Avoid traffic problems by providing several routes for the traffic to take, and building rail systems when you can afford to. The traffic helicopter will spot traffic bottlenecks and report them. POLLUTION Pollution levels are tracked in all areas of your city. This is a general "nuisance level" which includes air and water pollution, noise pollution, toxic wastes, etc. Pollution has a negative impact on the growth of residential areas. The primary cause of pollution is industrialized zones. The level of pollution created by an industrial zone increases with its level of growth. Traffic is another cause of pollution. As your city gets large you may notice periodic smog generated from automotive commutes. Fires, Seaports, Airports, and Coal Power Plants also pollute. There are limited means of combating the pollution level. Lowering traffic density, limiting industrial development, and separating the pollution from the residential areas will help. CRIME Crime rates are influenced by population density, local law enforcement and land values. As population density increases in an area, the number of crimes committed increases. Crime will also increase in areas of low land value. The most effective way to deal with high crime rates is to introduce a police station into the area. Based on its level of funding, the police station will reduce the rate of crime in its sphere of influence. A long-term approach to lowering crime is to raise the land value of the area. One way to do this is to demolish and rezone (urban renewal). LAND VALUE Land value is one of the most fundamental aspects of urban structure. The land value of an area affects how that area is used. In this simulation the land value of an area is based on terrain, accessibility, crime, pollution, and distance to downtown. The farther the residents have to go to work, the lower the land value where they live, due in part to transportation costs. The value of commercial zones depends greatly on accessibility by the populace. Land value is also affected by surrounding terrain. If land is closer to water, trees or parks, its value will rise. Creative placement of zones within the terrain, with little bulldozing, can make good use of this natural advantage Land value and crime rate have a feedback effect on each other. Lower land values cause crime rates to rise. Higher crime rates cause land values to drop, and can cause "transition areas" near your central city to rapidly decline in value. ********************************** THATS ALL FOR THE DOCS -- HAVE FUN ********************************** Some Personal Greetinx Go To: Puppet Master, The Freelancer, Bigfoot, Warehead Rokman, Nomad, Blackhawk, The Agnostic, and of course all Spreadpoint/Defjam/CCS Members! X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X