It's good to be mayor! Let's Play SimCity 3000!

(Alternate titles: "Yes, I CAN cut back on funding!" or "I totally didn't forget about this!")



Welcome to Let's Play SimCity 3000! Like its predecessors, you take on the role of mayor in a fledgeling village and must help it grow into a thriving metropolis through sound fiscal management and intelligent layout planning. Then you destroy it all with a disaster (after making a backup save, of course).

3000 adds several new elements to the series, such as garbage management and business deals, while streamlining some of the more awkward mechanics from 2000. Not everything made the cut, but what's there still works well together as a standalone game.

The soundtrack is also pretty cool, featuring sixteen catchy tracks: mostly jazz, but with some other styles as well. Check it out!

Anyway, let's get this started:



Here's our settings. The name can be changed later if we want, especially if "-ville" ceases to be an adequate descriptor.

Starting year determines the availability of certain development options such as airports and highways. It also affects what ordinances are available. I'm starting in 1900 because most of the advanced stuff isn't necessary in a small town, and I'd rather discuss the new ordinances as they become available. More on this later.

Difficulty is on Medium because Hard just takes longer to get set up, without really being much harder.

Map is Medium-sized because I feel like it.



Here's our map generation screen. I can't make any direct adjustments to the terrain, but I can set some parameters. The land is flatter than normal to simplify expansion, and added an extra coastline because coastlines are cool.

Also, this lake will make for a nice place to start development.



Here's the interface and a bigger picture than what we were seeing before; the map editing phase doesn't let us zoom out all the way. Let's start with the shiny buttons on the right.

Landscaping: For adding trees or water, or making changes to the terrain.
Zoning: There are six different zone types, and this menu lets us add or remove them. Pretty straightforward.
Transportation: Just roads and rails for now, but that's really all we need until our fair city gets really dense.
Utilities: Power plants, running water systems, and garbage processing. This category probably gets the most new additions as the years go by.
Civic Buildings: By far the most crowded category, this covers health, education, law enforcement, fire protection, parks & rec, and the various reward buildings that may become available during the game.

Each of these first five categories has a convenient Bulldozer button, but ALT-clicking does the same thing so it's rather redundant.

HIDDEN FUN STUFF: a.k.a. disasters. But not right now.

Meet: This is where we talk to petitioners and advisors. More on them in a bit.
Adjust and Review: All the boring administrative stuff like budget, ordinances and demographics are found in this menu. I'll try to post interesting data from time to time.
Settings: The File menu, essentially.

At the bottom of the screen is the news ticker, which keeps the mayor up-to-date on important civic news. If there's noting important, it talks about random things like kittens and broccoli. Seriously. Right now it's giving me some basic starting information about the game and the ticker itself.

Below the ticker are some basic statistics, and to the right are the speed controls. The button that looks like three sheets of paper is the layer views button; it lets us remove certain elements from sight or look underground. Further right is the RCI indicator, which informs us of the current demand for the three main zone types. Finally, in the bottom right corner, there is a minimap.

Okay, enough of the boring stuff, let's get on with the game.



I'll start by levelling this patch of terrain, which would be more clear if I had set Irfanview to capture the cursor. Level Terrain is a very useful tool, and unlike in SimCity 2000, it won't randomly demolish buildings that are five miles away.

Now that we've smoothed out this patch of land, let's start zoning.



Anything above light density is wasteful right now. In fact, it probably wouldn't even develop due to the non-existant land values.



Pop!

Next up is commerce:



Commercial demand will always be less than residential demand, so we'll only need a bit to start.

Finally, we need an industrial zone for our citizens to work in.



We'll want it to be far enough from the residential zones that no one will be bothered by pollution, but close enough that they can still make the commute.

A general rule of thumb for zone sizes is R = C + I. The ratio of commercial to industrial fluctuates somewhat and will slowly shift to commercial as the city grows. But we have the RCI indicator to help us manage that.

Next, some roads to link them all together:



Alright, looking good! We should be set now-



Oh, right.



Starting in 1900 (or 1950, for that matter) leaves us only two options, neither one very appealing to our modern climate-change-savvy sensibilities. But we'll make do. Oil is less polluting than coal, but also less efficient. In fact, it'll be a long time before we get a power plant that gives us more watt for our buck than coal.



Placing it on the map edge like this mean we only get half the pollution, with the other half blowing into neighboring...



...Coffers Corner. Incidentally, I didn't know until now (or forgot, more likely) that you could name your neighbors in this game. I predict this having considerable hilarity potential.

Also, apparently the river that runs through town is actually a freshwater strait? That strikes me as geographically dubious.



Power transmission has been streamlined since SC2K in two ways. Powered tiles will "radiate" power up to two tiles away, allowing power to cross roads freely, and undeveloped zones conduct power, eliminating the need to preemptively fill the zone with power lines. The result is the setup seen here, though I still used more lines than I needed to.

While not strictly necessary for development, Sims will probably complain if they don't have running water. Water Towers are bigger and less productive than pumps, but they can get water no matter where they're placed.

But hey, we have a lake.



Here's the view from underground. Pipes also "radiate", providing water up to seven tiles away in every direction. However, watered tiles themselves do not carry water any further, nor do pipes fed exclusively through "radiated" water. (This sounds so weird, but I can't think of a better way to put it.)

It's still brown because the game is paused and the water grid can take a bit of time to update itself.



Like so. Let's get the ball rolling.

*unpause*



Development!

While that's happening, let's meet our team of advisors.



From left to right:

-Finance: Mortimer Green
-Transportation: Moe Biehl
-City Planner: Constance Lee
-Environment: Karen Frawl
-Public Safety: Maria Montoya
-Health, Education, and Aura*: Randall Snoop
-Utilities: Gus Oddman

*Aura is SC3K's fancy way of referring to the happiness of your citizens, so Randall could basically be considered a "quality of life" advisor.

Each advisor has a set of breifing files on relevant game mechanics and ordinances, but none of them are particularly comprehensive. They also talk about current issues pertaining to their departments, but things are obviously a little unbalanced at the moment; Maria and Randall are somewhat perturbed by the lack of services, but everyone else is feeling just peachy.

The big empty box below them is the Petitioner list. Anyone who wants to talk with me shows up here. Sometimes it's just a broad request such as lower taxes or more parks, in which case I can send them off with nothing but a warm assurance. Others will have a more specific proposal, such as enacting an ordinance or organising a business deal. In these cases, I can get the counsel of an advisor, but only one will ever respond - usually the one who's against whatever's being offered. Sadly, there's no inter-advisor bickering � la Civ 2. But it doesn't matter, because I'm the one in charge and I like to think I know what I'm doing.



The housing market seems healthy, so let's expand uphill.



Cha-ching!

Speaking of which, let's look at our budget.



Still pretty small-scale. As you can see, if we'd started on Hard, we'd be almost out of money and probably running a deficit due to loan interest.

We're not making or spending any money on ordinances since we haven't enacted any yet, so let's have a look at that.



Junior Sports and Pro-Reading both keep kids out of trouble and provide a small education boost. Note that the low cost is only due to our tiny population; most of these ordinances scale with city size.

Crossing Guards increase life expectancy, but also slow down traffic a bit.

Farmer's Market increases the likelihood of farms developing, and actually is free regardless of city population. Farms are a feature I don't usually bother with, but I can try to set some up if you guys want.

Parking Fines decrease traffic and provide revenue, but Sims will complain about it.

There's also a Legalized Gambling ordinance hidden off to the bottom. It provides a boost to the treasury, but increases crime. It also allows for a certain something else to happen.

Which ones will I enact? That's for you folks to decide! But first, more urban development.



Landfills are the fourth zone type, and are necessary if we want to prevent trash from piling up in the streets. Obviously no one wants to live near one, but factory owners are a lot less picky.



Whee, more development! Such prosperity in only six months!



Quiet, you.

I won't be doing a lot of close-ups like this for obvious reasons, but I want to point out that little unzoned flat space in that residential district. Also, pedestrians. But mainly that little space. I think it could use some sprucing up.







(Ignore the blue square, that's just the nonexistent cursor getting ready to place another park.)



Parks and similar venues can also be renamed. I'll probably be placing too many in the long run to name them all, but if you've got a name then feel free to share it.

So here we are, one year in:



And here's the big picture:



Plenty of room to sprawl, but not much demand at the moment. We'll want to provide some services so more people want to live here, but there's only so much money to go around. We'll need to prioritize if this municipality is to be a success.

That's where you folks come in. You're all invited to join the Spiteville City Council and help play a hand in shaping this beautiful city's future. We are, after all, a democracy (or at least that's what we tell the plebians). It doesn't matter if you've played a SimCity game before, everyone can make a suggestion.

But I still get final say. That's why it's good to be mayor.

Make Bowser stomp all over Spiteville! Set things on fire!

And it sounds like we will need more Police to deal with that.

i'm excited for this LP!

Forget the police for now, as I'm sure Spiteville is idyllic and totally, completely without crime.

But fire protection is always nice, and maybe a school to up desirability and entice better types of industry.

It's a nice start for a good city. Pretty well balanced so far.

Personally, I usually kick on a farmer's market and the parking fines (which no one likes, and at the moment predate cars, but still...) but that's just me.

Coffer's Corner, huh? Nice! (Unless that's pure coincidence, then doubly so!)

This is cool.

I found SimCity SNES to be oddly relaxing, but I couldn't stand the DS version, what with the constantly nagging advisor. And...that's all I've ever experienced from SimCity, so of course I had that "Cool!" moment when the underground concept was introduced.

Well, I guess we'll be needin' ourselves some frontier justice, won't we? And lakefront property might be best allocated to residential.

This is probably a bit into the future, but I wonder what options we'll have for spanning Freshie Strait to get to the island. For some reason I'm seeing the pre-Floating Continent from FFVI in this formation. Maybe we'll find Shadow on the island!

Gambling = on.

Also, legalize prostitution.

I could never ever get farms to develop...

You need to take out massive loans and build up your city as fast as possible. Loading it with crippling debt later when growth slows!

a school is probably a good idea as is a police dept.

You should get a police department online as soon as possible, that will provide a fertile recruiting ground for the army that we will build to go out and conquer our neighbors with!

Coincidence. I didn't even realize the relevance until you pointed it out.

I've never been able to play a simcity without cheating. It's like doing a fists-only playthrough of Doom or a speedrun of that Bill and Ted NES game.

I've never played 3000, but I played a bunch of the first and 2000. I loved the money cheat in 2000. I'd use it, set up a near-perfect town on pause, and then just unpause and watch everything explode into growth. It was an odd mix of relaxing and OCD.

I think whatever town gets the bulk of our pollution should be called "Screwyouguysville."

Whenever I play a Simcity nowadays I always ashamedly steal a joke from Family Guy and name a town Whatsthebigideasville. So I vote for that for one of the neighbors.

New Toasty is in serious need of a harbor. Think of the business opportunities! England will pay millions to shave time off their journeys by cutting through the strait.

I like how there's two cities with a total population of 10000 people that are, as far as I can tell, entirely submerged in the ocean.

One should be named Rapture.

I propose we export all garbage to Coffers Corner. We've already got our power plants billowing soot in that direction, why not take the next logical step. And we should entice the paper industry to move into that side of the map.

SimCity 3000 is my favourite SimCity. 2000 had arcologies, true, but 3000 feels like a polished 2000 in many ways. 4 was just clunky and weird, and the original is really showing its age at this point.

I've also always had trouble with farms. I've managed to get them started, but after awhile they always die off. Would appreciate some strategisin' there!

I whole heartily support this name.

It's weird - I'm so used to doing the "efficient" building models for this game that it's weirding me out to see them done more organically.

(For those who aren't aware: each type of tile will only "activate" if a certain distance away from a road. For commercial, it's three, for residential it's four, and for industrial it's five. So if you build a commercial block that's 9x9, the equivalent of the old SimCity "doughnut block", the middle three squares won't develop. Which is fine; stick a large park in the middle, just like the old days, and let it be.)

It's astounding how much of SC2K's junk they fixed with this. Then again, they had far more ambitious plans that got scaled back, so they had more time to tweak.

Favourite bit: bankrupting the city and then scooping up every dirty inducement available. The SuperJail and toxic waste plants are personal favourites since you can easily mitigate their effects, and the extra $100 / month from each becomes invaluable until you start importing garbage and exporting water and power.

Okay, I was kind of hoping to keep my updates short and frequent for maximum interactivity potential, but I haven't been able to get myself working these past few days. Oh well, here goes. Hopefully this LP won't completely crash once school starts.

I dunno, Coffers Corner is just too perfect. The fact that it was generated by the game makes it that much more amusing.

They're supposed to represent overseas cities, actually; one for each direction that I gave a coast during setup. But Rapture is cool, so sure.

I agree with the spirit, but we have neither the money nor the garbage to make that worthwhile at the moment. And I used to live in a paper mill town, so I know exactly what you mean.

To be honest, the same thing happens to me. All I know is that farms only develop where land values are low. They also don't satisfy much industrial demand or pay very many taxes, so I probably won't even bother.

I use blocks too, but I like to switch it up every now and then when playing sandbox games. Bulldozing, zones, and roads are all cheap enough that we can do some urban renewal easily enough later on. Also, I wanted to take advantage of the waterfront property.

----------

1901



Every time you load a game, a message like this shows up on the ticker after you unpause. Apparently Sims find the pause process unnerving.



I'm not entirely sure why I put this road here. As Sven pointed out, residential zones will only develop within 4 squares of a road, so there's three squares near the middle that won't develop. That'll be a good a place as any for our first school.



The Civic category has enough subcategories already, so hospitals are lumped in with the educational buildings.



As far as I know, schools don't need to be particularly close to roads in order to function, but they obviously need power and water.



This is why I dont like bumpy terrain. Lots of wasted space, and it looks really weird, at least until the zone develops. Levelling it isn't really an option with large plateaus like the one here, the best you can do is push the cliff back unless you level the whole thing.





I can still vent my frustration by levelling some little hills and divets, though.



Pretend I Photoshopped "Legalized Prostitution" into this picture to make it funny. Also, Homeless Shelters are available because we have enough unemployment. Uhh... yay?

Speaking of unemployment...



Okay yeah, we need a police station.



Placing it here removes those unsightly wires and covers a decent area.



It also breaks the bank. Fortunately, there's some industrial demand that we can tax, so let's get zoning.



The uneven spots are colored in here because I'm still selecting an area (note the factory cursor). When I let go, they won't be zoned, nor will I be charged for it.

Bear with me for this next part; I'm getting a little munchkin-y here:



When variations in height form outcroppings, like the three-tile-wide one a little left of center here, space is wasted because you have not only the front, but also the sides of the hill that are unsuitable for bulding.



Square them off like so...



And you get more zoning done. I probably should've levelled that east corner before building the road, but oh well.



Black ink! Not much, but at least we're making progress on this before going broke.



Let's celebrate by zoning more expensive waterfront property.



And promptly forgetting to power it. *facepalm*



We'll power it with houses.



...yeah. I told you this game likes to talk about broccoli.



I don't even know what this about. Though it might be an earthquake warning. We'll see.



Meanwhile, residential demand has skyrocketed,which means more expansion!

Also, it became 1902 at some point around here.



Another shopping center, since we're starting to drift away from our commercial/industrial base.



Okay, I may be going a little overboard here.



What an odd place to hold an environmental conference.

The big picture. I think my citizens may be having some trouble getting to work. The solution?







Trains! Everyone likes trains, right?



Hmm, what seems to be the problem here?



Oh, we'll just build another one nex- what?



Crap.



Shit!



FUUUUUUUUCK!!!



MOTHE- oh, that's good, I guess.



The remainder of the treasury is spent on this industrial complex so these Sims at least have somewhere to work. Since, y'know, the trains don't make it all the way across town yet.



So yeah. We're making a profit here, just not enough to do very much with. And funding a hospital will cut into it even more.

NEXT TIME: Spiteville II: The Search for More Money

Trains are SOOOO useless in this game (which, as someone who only used trains in the original game, upset me greatly). They screw up your zoning because they take too much space, they cost a lot, and ultimately they're not that efficient. Buses are the much more preferable option, since you can just saturate the city for not all that much money and hold the line until subways come along.

I'm fully expecting one of the temptation island offers to show up soon.

I'm fairly sure Industrial tiles generate more tax revenue per square, which is why there's an imbalance in the city right now. You can kinda get away with not having much Commercial early on.

FWIW, if anyone wants to actually plan a commuter network, the best game for that is Railroad Tycoon II: The Second Century. There's a couple of commuter rail scenarios that are amazingly well-designed.

Funny, trains seemed to work better than buses in my test game. Either way, it's no fun if I do everything perfectly efficiently, right?

Fair enough. They're just too much trouble to bother with IMHO, but go nuts.

They're the best way to create industrial connections, though.

Follow SEPTA's example and just let the trains run 90 minutes late every day, with unpaid vacations whenever the employees feel like it. You'll cut costs in no time!

Man, I'm remembering how much I used to love Sim City.

How hard is it to get and run this nowadays?

(Oh, and I don't get the Coffer's Corner thing )

I had to say it out loud a couple of times before I got it.

2000 and 3000 run on Windows XP without any problems or compatibility fussing, so I imagine you could get them to work on a newer OS one way or another. 3000 is rather poorly optimized, though. It monopolizes the entire CPU without any appreciable gain in performance; the later years seem to go by as slowly on my Athlon 64 as they did on my Pentium 2 back in the day.

As for obtaining one... 2000 is technically abandonware, but that's a dubious concept so I won't provide a link. 3000 would likely require a trip to Ebay, or "finding it on a bus".