Dwyrin's SimCity 4 Tutorial - How to start a city

[@justablankchannel]

An SC4 tutorial with a person actually talking, instead of random bad music and hard-to-read text! Thank you!

[@SpyFromMarsZeus]

Never been good at Sim City 4, played it like Minecraft than a strategy game. Now everything's changed.

[@yaqubhanggaw1635]

same haha

[@Jordynharley]

Thanks for the vid, I will try this approach rather than my previous strategy of randomly adding everything i possibly can

[@insanebarz]

As many times as I made cities of my own, I always find my way back to watching these videos

[@dwyrin]

Good luck!

[@theGTFObutton]

I absolutely love the design style, and you make this tutorial not boring with your consistent commentary and advise, I could watch your videos all day! I love this, thank you!

[@elirayburn647]

"Ghettoville 9000" is what I'm naming my next city! Thnks😂

[@Rodlcopter661]

Hi drywin, I just wanted to thank you for all of your tutorials, they were extremely helpful! I tweaked your layout to accommodate for parks and transit infrastructure and was able to build up to skyscrapers! I ran into a few bugs and had to occasionally start over, but once I figured out how to solve them, my city ran smooth as silk! Thank you so much

[@CRUBBHA]

9 years later and he still sees this comment, respect, must be nostalgic

[@Random_user_8472]

For the few still playing, a few tips: Power plants, hospitals, schools (and libraries/musea), parks and water stuff doesn't have to be connected with a road, they'll work anyway. You can actually create donuts with schools and hospitals in the centre, this saves some space so you can fit more tax paying slaves in your city. Also, after you've placed your first graveyard, simply replace it when they offer you another one, you don't need to build five of those in a city. If you want double gifts, i.e. two mayor houses, when you get the notification take it from the gifts icon first, place it, then click the notification and you can place another one. At a certain moment your city might seems to die, like nothing happens anymore, running stable, not building anymore, no matter what demand. To solve this issue: Cut off the power until everyone has left the city, then do some re-zoning (like commercial zones more to the centre and residential zones more to the city borders), switch on the power again and start bulldozing all black buildings. It'll cost you a few million probably, so make sure you have enough cash to cover your city expenses for a while. It's like an electro shock therapy, but this one actually works. You might even have to add a few more schools and hospitals after reviving your city. Also, when you have like 60k profit per month, lower the taxes a bit, it will stimulate growth as well. This is also a great moment to reconsider your public transportation and even to move your industry to a neighbouring tile, where you also can build a trash burning plant, with local fundings set to 0. In this way you can make industrial cities, providing industry to 3 or 4 cities (especially with the cap mod). Just make sure you don't build res and com zones in these cities. With 0 residents no one will be there to complain about the colourful mist in your city. You do have to pay an amount to city cleaning services though, the trash won't walk to the oven by itself. Tall buildings and roads cause some air pollution, spend some space to plant trees, sims love trees. If you plant enough of them, you get a holiday hotel. Also, if an area refuses to build tall buildings, check the air pollution. If it needs some green, plant your trees and see the buildings grow while you're planting them! You can stimulate high tech industry by placing some parks around the industrial zone (first your sims need a certain level of education). Have fun!

[@graceclaus1466]

2019 squad where you at

[@EE-ig5uo]

Right here bby this game still good as fuck

[@cakeboss7722]

i'm still playing this!

[@jamess4527]

right here nigga

[@Lucy050]

Hah looser im in 2020

[@Error-pd5gi]

2020!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Rizumuish]

The Bob Ross of SC4, great and easy to follow!

[@joehastain5690]

Thank you for this really great explanation - everything you mentioned makes sense. I dusted off SC4 Deluxe and my first few cities failed miserably, for not starting slow. Going to give it a go after watching this

[@GuardianStriker]

I just want to thank you very much dwyrin. There was so much the SimCity 4 tutorial that didn't really help much. But after I seen yours, I can finally enjoy playing the game again.

[@justice3988]

I just got this game, you have no idea how much i needed THIS video, this will give me the ability to have a nice head start and place to come back to when i inevitably screw it all up lol thanks dude

[@rlricksterson]

This is the best tutorial of how to start a city, thanks and I didn't understood how much important was de NAM.

[@Bradman175]

+rlricksterson Network Addition Mod makes all the difference.

[@Meesmoth]

press CTRL to enable skyscraper zoning. the very largest zone can build is 4x4. where skyscraper builds in a 4x4 zone. NOTE: only high wealth only can build skyscrapers. do not use medium or low wealth. or they build as a bungalow houses if you do that,

[@james3032]

Thank you so much for this video, all of the other strategies i have looked at stoped working after like an hour. My city now has 550k people and several sky scrapers

[@dwyrin]

Excellent! Glad it worked out for you. If you want to try your hand at a rural area, give my other tutorial a try!

[@dwyrin]

Lower population country towns/villages

[@FUTrading]

dwyrin ahhhh, thanks! :)

[@Humma_Kavula]

FUTrading Did you forget you were on the internet man? You could have just done a quick google of the word 'rural' and would have saved yourself the need to ask.

[@FUTrading]

***** It sounds like you're complaining about me wasting MY time but in doing so, you're wasting your own soooo, bye

[@Ronnicus]

it is so true what you are saying about building slowly- i used to absolutely hate sim city 4 because i couldn't keep a positive budget, but if you only build what you need when you need it you'll have a good run

[@KiddKoalaz]

I just strictly put 4x4 high density residential. Have neighboring cities strictly for Dirty Industry,Commercial, Residential, or high-tech to boost demand. Subways on every other corner and filling that block with parks to boost demand further. All roads are one way and you're good to go :D I find this the best way to utilize space and to have a very dense city :)

[@Fif0l]

9:40 I'm fighting the habit of doubling down. "okay, I did this thing, now I'm starting to lose money. Let me quickly fix this by buying even more stuff that's possibly going to attract more people until I get enough revenue to cover the costs."

[@MarauderM00gi]

I LOVE SimCity but I suck at it so horribly. I love just building cities and watching them grow (and eventually fail). I'm going to use this tutorial. Do you have one for SimCity 2013?

[@xormontgomery5741]

Have you played SimCity 2013? It's terribly simple, at least considered to older games. You probably won't have much trouble at all with SC '13 as long as you use common sense. I wouldn't stress over it.

[@jackdets7450]

Cities Skylines is the real sim city 5

[@tdot0001]

Jack Dets it should’ve been the successor to sc4

[@shyletendras6848]

I made a city a big one I ran off room the next day its all gone

[@KnownAsKenji]

Simcity wasn't gonna get a proper successor. EA booted the creator because he tried to make Spore not suck. Much love to Skylines. It's like Jack says, it's the best SC5 we're gonna get.

[@algernoncalvin1521]

It's 2020 and I'm still playing this game. Kids on lockdown like, dad what game is that. had this game since it came out, Im a truck driver with some downtime

[@entonduck]

I know this game and im 12 but i like more Cities Skylines. Beacaue it have more details and a better graphic

[@quantumbrewer]

You will not see high rise, dense residential, until a particular group, reaches a population of 25,000

[@evangaming5416]

So thats where I was going wrong! I was using the wrong plan of attack, 1st, I started out with high density, and instead of building the city this way, I did it like in 3000 where you make 6:12 or 6:10 grids and filling them up. Also I didn't build enough, just like 4 6:12 zones for industry, 2 for residential, and 1 for marketing. Thank u alot, I will be gaming happily now, but I will check out your lets play to see if there are other strats not in this video.

[@datkat2001]

I would also recommend the network addon mod, it adds a lot more transport options but more important it fixes the traffic engine so that how people commute is greatly improved

[@evangaming5416]

@@datkat2001 Ok, tho it feels weird modding a game I didn't even play of the vanilla version yet.

[@aerwin33]

He reminds me of that guy (I cant remember his name, but I'm sure some will know who i'm talking about) that was on PBS and did paintings. Famous for his "happy little trees" etc. lol

[@CrazyRiverOtter]

Definitely Bob Ross.

[@aerwin33]

I believe so lol

[@bobrail5304]

Couldn't even watch the episode because of his almost whisper, sing-song way of speaking 😒

[@arealassassin]

+Bob Rail also the condescending voice and nasty little digs got a bit much after a while.

[@ihavenoideawhattocallthis952]

Bob ross... NOW BEAT THE DEVIL OUTA IT

[@dwyrin]

I do have the network addon mod installed. Much like simcity 2013, path finding in vanilla simcity 4 was quite horrible. Network addon mod is a must have fix to make your traffic more intelligent. Adds a few features such as that, as well

[@Muazuestuas]

I tried this today and so far I have my population at 25K, my highest ever. Thanks so much for the video!

[@carlosmdc3701]

Quarantine brought me back down memory lane. Started playing again. I saw you mention the roads you use are add-ons, how does that work? Also, is there an un-do button? Or a way to cancel putting down a zone once you start dragging it? Thanks for the helpful video!

[@caseyd9471]

"Esc" cancels the zones as you're dragging them.

[@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333]

I just got this game and I'm thankful for the U-drive it missions because that's the only reason my city is getting by, lol.

[@LOLmusics]

You’re like the Bob Ross of sim city 4 lol! Good vid!

[@Cnw8701]

I like Natural Gas power plants the best, because they're much cleaner and easier to maintain (besides Wind Turbines!) LOL Although they're energy-efficient, they don't generate a high capacity; therefore I tend to place a dozen of them throughout a square foot mile radius or whatever.

[@MrMadMurder]

Well done Sir, you have won our price! It includes someone who cares that your first!

[@doomguys1886]

I chuckled at ghettoville 9000, also thank you for the tutorial, I love managing cities and this game is my childhood, I used to be godly at building cities but overtime I lost my touch

[@darcysstory]

I just build all the roads and create interesting landscapes using the terraforming tools and play it in the sims 2 :P

[@oneverest]

Those were the days when Sim city was great!... I remember over building it and eventually failing... but still fun!

[@G0odf3lla]

Why does he leave a hole in the middle of every industrial, residential and commercial zone ?

[@lyricsyt3123]

Chuck Maurice so you can put parks in it

[@PHILMKD95]

Parks, civics, rewards and other plopables.

[@christina3573]

I’m doing this for a school project and I’m so flipping confused. But this helped a lot. I think I’m gonna restart tmrw

[@stephanieo.3710]

Being quarantined and started playing this game. Came to figure this thing out!

[@dwyrin]

It will surely pass the time. If you can get your hands on cities skylines, you'll love that game, too! It's pretty much the successor to this game. None of the other city builders come close.

[@tungstenwhizard4361]

I forgot how much fun this game and the amount of graphics for how old it was.

[@Eddygeek18]

I have just baught Sim City 4 Deluxe. Havn't played it yet, still downloading. This is a great tutorial to get me started :) thanks

[@tylerrichardson1963]

"I don't want Ghettoville 9000."

[@TommyBoy2159]

dwrin is by far the best simcity youtuber I have ever seen, outstanding tutorial, well understood. Thanks alot it worked plus I subbed and got a load of my mates to sub to you aswell.

[@dwyrin]

Make sure you're starting in a new region. Make sure you give your city a neighbor connection. Make sure you're looking at your RCI. You may need more industrial than what i used

[@appleclaws9653]

i used this pattern but a few customizations of my own and i made a city with population over 550,000 thanks so much

[@Steve14737]

anyone else watching in 2017 ? dwyrin please make a new simcity 4 city

[@thalessilva1]

2019 here hahaha

[@datkat2001]

@@thalessilva1 same

[@VoxFromThePast]

Question: Why do you leave the green spaces in the middle of your commercial and residential blocks? I've never done it that way, but I am curious if that would make a difference, aka, make my cities more profitable, less polluted, etc.

[@craigwallander4438]

You will have so much fun playing it, I have been playing it almost every day since the day i got it (I was in 1st grade). and now im going into 10th and im still using it haha. Deluxe has this great feature where you drive the cars/vehicles.

[@mikaylawinslow]

Your voice would be great for guided meditations. V calm. Love. THANKX!

[@SkeepyJeepyJohnson]

When do we get the Sim Cities Back to Basics series?

[@dwyrin]

Really depends on what kind of cities you want to build. Rural, skyscraper, japanese, french, latin american, english, etc..etc...

[@jimmye3027]

Thank you so much! I knew a ot about this game already but I had forgot a lot since I haven't played in a while. Great tutorial!

[@XavierBetoN]

I am doing usually a very good strategy on Mass Transit, using intertransports by making them first use metro or monorail than bus etc. I get like 7000$ from mass transit as my toll boths on the highway get 400% pass. but suddenly no job and city fails but the growths good. I don't really know the problem after all these years of playing though, i got here for a tip for mass transit system..

[@williamfisher12]

What mod are you using for the industry? Great video btw, been waiting for something like this for a while!

[@Trainlover1995]

Your way of talking sounds alot like Bob Ross.

[@StannyObelisk]

And some H A P P Y L I T T L E T R E E S

[@ihavenoideawhattocallthis952]

@killachris28 now BEAT THE DEVIL OUTTA IT!

[@sensitreezentertainment9003]

Hey this is a cool video. Kinda used this as my sim city bible. Appreciate the quality work.

[@dwyrin]

Thanks! Though, if you're a fan of this game, i do have to recommend cities skylines nowadays.

[@dwyrin]

which is also why i state that the mods dont matter and you'd only have to build more industrial

[@oren.hausler]

Awesome, clear instructive video! Is there a reason you leave empty squares in the center of the residential and commercial blocks?

[@dwyrin]

for this video i built in the style of the very first simcity game, cause why not? here you can also add parks and stuff in the middle to up land value

[@MaxHorsePowerRBLX]

If you have the transport mod, you can cut all your transportation and road expenses. Try it.

[@EddieFonzarelli]

Whats the empty 4x4 areas in the zones for?

[@ddawg1956]

What's the trick to lining up and/or Orientating your Civics/buildings/zoning layouts ... Also, since the manual sux ... I notice a wide variance of tutorial city beginnings ... when do you worry about the dreaded Landfill? I do think your methodology is rather intuitive ... Looking forward to seeing more of your Sim City 4 tutorials ...

[@Nihilianth]

Yes! COmpared to Sim City 2013, this game completely blows the newer way out of the water. Graphically, the city is more realistically gritty. (City buildings are nowhere near as shiny and plasticy as the buildings in 2013.) Added bonus: Mods, realistically large maps, mods, realistic traffic patterns, and...did I mention....MODS!

[@mikigamiyamamoto6554]

i got a question i hope some one could answer, how do you build a blocks, like the 2x2, 3x4, etc. becuase when i set down Zoning it only gives me the 1x1 though the 1x3 single blocks.

[@supertminecraft8675]

This helped, thumbs up. By the way, you're channel picture looks like Sheldon Cooper XD

[@DanielGarcia-cp7oo]

2022 someone???

[@qgbgb2491]

Me

[@leongarcia3281]

amogus thumbnail lmao

[@tungstenwhizard4361]

The only part I really hated about getting the roads past the borders is that criminals could use it to escape. (But it also brings new people in, so I mustn't complain.)

[@emoellieroks]

So if things become stagnant and buildings stop going up, people stop moving to my town etc, I've started it out all wrong?

[@nathanbrammer8471]

If you like making squares that's cool, but by downloading NAM, and a selection of mods you can make amazing cities.

[@xavierrhino4991]

Can I use commercial as a buffer between residental and industrial?

[@dwyrin]

+Xavier Rhino yes but mind the pollution. you will need industry on the otherside of a highway or something

[@xavierrhino4991]

:)

[@MaxHorsePowerRBLX]

+dwyrin About that putting your polluting industries on the edge of your city may affect other cities, so even at the edge may not be a good idea either.

[@jeeeyjey]

what? no it doesnt affect the neighbouring cities at all? at least not in my experience

[@vernandus4136]

>>>ABS is а unique wау оf mаking mооnеууу onlinе throoough binаrу орtions.Get staaаrtеd ==>twitter.com/3bff9d0a97811892c/status/742671681655853056

[@EricOfLucas]

Hey Dwyrin, great video. What's the mod that doubles the industrial? And is there one for agriculture?

[@TrainScott]

when i try to place zones like you why do streets show up where im zoning?

[@RazgulTheKind]

This is ultra late but if you hold either ctrl, shift or alt while zoning it changes the zone layout and one will be without streets - usually alt.

[@tomerilan4647]

Might be too late for him, but still good for the rest of us!

[@Ramp10er]

Tip: Don't place Commecial zone too much at the start of the games since your residence are not yet educated, they rely too much on Dirty Industry for jobs. Place your residence in the middle of your industry and commercial. Place a school after your commercial, so that whenever they have been educated the traffic will be diverted to the commercial. Limit the bus range of your school, since you want your city to grow a high density , you want to limit your educated residence since there will be a lot of demands for Low Wealth Industry and they will get rich as long as there are demands for low wealth.. Don't forget Hospital since it attracts Residence from moving into your city. Recognize what type of residence have no jobs Low wealth uneducated or High wealth uneducated. These will guide you to what zones to add and develop. Low wealth relies on Dirty industry and Low commercial Shops while High wealth relies on Medium/High wealth Commercial zones and manufacturing/High tech Industries...

[@culebringamboa]

I thought you were going to put parks inside those blocks

[@dwyrin]

Possible. Can put anything you want inside those blocks!

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

Could i have a list of the mods your using ? is that in another video series ?

[@SineN0mine3]

Pretty much every tutorial I've watched to date has Network Addon Mod (NAM) installed. It overhauls the traffic engine and adds a few new road options that make it a bit easier to plan the city you imagine. I'm in the process of installing it now, it seems to improve the playability of the game without affecting the strategy of the simulation. Other than this mod, the main mods i've seen youtubers using are simply aesthetics, new designs for existing buildings and resizes, so you don't need them to make a successful city

[@AndrewKillerGamer1]

@@SineN0mine3 and I hate that the NAM can't work on Origin copies of the game, and even the patch install link for the mod is unavailable.

[@JamieAndLTTB]

I know this question isn't to do with Simcity 4 but where do you come from?

[@dylancarter380]

2 questions, how do you change camera angle?(because mine doesn't look like that) And how do you add grid lines

[@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333]

Also, is there a button you have to push to make lots the size you want? When I'm zoning, they often aren't.

[@KenrickBlock]

You are a brilliant teacher. Thank you.

[@deanjamesy]

You have a very calming voice! I like listening to you... :)

[@cjsnibbor]

You need the Network Addon Mod to make that intersection. Just Google it, should be there. I hope you found this answer helpful.

[@GlassDeviant]

1:38 How do you control your zone placement so that the 'street affinity' arrows in the commercial zones point to the 1 tile wide roads rather than the 2 tile wide avenues? With the bottom right block of the section at the given time code, if I use no modifier key, I get streets; if I use the shift key, I get broken up strips within the 3x5 block; if I use ctrl, I get a 3x5 block with the arrows pointing to the avenue. I have no trouble building successful cities, I'm just looking for ideas and trying them out, and this particular behaviour of the game is unfamiliar to me. Is it a key? A mod? Also, do you remember what mod you use to make the nice road intersections with turning lanes? I've seen them before but it's a dim memory from long before this video was ever posted (haven't played in many years), and Simtropolis is a bloody mess with a non-working search feature right now (easier to google "simtropolis" + the mod name, but if you don't know the name of the mod...). Edit: Eventually found it myself...alt turns the arrows. Still could use the name of the mod that gives turning lanes, if you can recall it. TIA. Edit 2: Found that one too, apparently I already have it installed (NAM) but it's no longer automatic, you have to tell it to add turning lanes if you want them, for reasons.

[@dwyrin]

if your budget can support it, go make it. Just remember to keep the prison away from the residents. Serious NIMBY effect on that thing.

[@icepurity]

Wow this was really helpful! I immediately went brankrupt starting this game and the tutorial in the game was not helpful at all. Thanks man!

[@reecerox2]

I have a question. Is it possible to have an entire city devoted to Residential and Commercial, and have residents travel to a neighbouring city that is devoted to Industrial?

[@robertstrohl4318]

Im not sure if you mentioned this in the guide but are you using Low medium or high in your zones, it looks like your colors are darker then mine!

[@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333]

How do you do cities dedicated specifically for one zone type. Like for power? I don't want a coal power plant for a residential or commercial city.

[@alexandergilana6018]

In case you haven't figured out yet. create another city right beside yours already established. Drag a road to ,from the side of the other city, edge of the city out into space. Then go to that city and connect roads. Citizens will commute through that.

[@choccy15]

hold ctrl whilst zoning, it gets rid of the automatic roads.

[@kathleenlousich6335]

Thanks but whenever I try to add the commercial spaces next to the avenue they go 1 by 1 and face the direction of the avenue instead of going 1 by 3 and facing the road how do I fix that

[@gaminggoliath6881]

yet when you make a small town to start of you still end up losing tons of cash :(

[@RafaelZeratai]

whats the point of the game if you build a square boring city?

[@dwyrin]

Good question! You see, the point is to give those a starting stable build to be able to branch out from, not to continue this across the entire region. If something goes wrong, you have something tested and sure to fall back on. Good luck building!

[@dannywilliams54]

Holy crap your kind! I commend you sir.

[@MrPeacelover423]

Danny Williams I second that. He's definitely polite. You're kind too for mentioning it :)

[@kvrraa5121]

Rafael Zeratai ikr I regret buying it even though it was $1.50 lol

[@dtdlilcoold]

@@kvrraa5121 you don't know how to play then and this game is too far above your attention level. You don't have to build like this and it's just for people that are new and still can't get a functioning city/region without it falling apart

[@Xbiggie216X]

You remind me of Bob Ross. I'm going to call you and refer to you as the Bob Ross of SimCity

[@dwyrin]

***** If you think that, you should see the latest tutorial one i put out

[@DreadmanEc]

Only Watched this now-_-... Love the way you speak dude :D

[@dwyrin]

thanks!

[@dwyrin]

you can space out some industrial and remember to plant trees and parks

[@zairasilva9331]

Hi Dwyrin, I'm relatively new to the game and I've tried your method as well as other methods but I can't seem to keep up a happy, healthy, and wealthy city. Maybe you could send a step by step guide to help me out? Thanks

[@tuckerhorsch6086]

It wasn't high density because it showed that house when you were placing the residential. High density would have a skyscraper on it.

[@businessleadership2717]

How do you make the zones without the streets appearing in the zone? I like how you made your zones with the space in the middle, however it is hard to make them that way with the damn pre-made roads that appear while dragging the residential zone in the space.

[@miketbo25]

QUESTION: How do you use subways and where do you get your mods? Which ones do you use?

[@IhorM1992]

I don't know what its called, but how do you make your residential/commercial 3 x 4 in full, instead of breaking them into 4 different 3 by 1 blocks?

[@tomtheprogamer9352]

when you did the residential blocks with a square could you put like a park there or something ? thanks

[@dwyrin]

If you want to build cities on a large scale, yes. If you want to add mods to a city building game, even more yes!

[@nalyDmI]

How are you alternating your zone placement options? Like when you a placing your zone, you press something to change the way the arrows are facing etc. If that makes sense?

[@dwyrin]

alt shift and control all change zoning patterns

[@samcrauwels8756]

Great tutorial dwyrin! Love the layout of your city. One question though: how do I make my commercial and housing zone the way you do without it adding streets every three blocks?

[@samcrauwels8756]

Found it in the comments below. For all those interested, hold CTRL while zoning.

[@Entuz]

Sam Crauwels Thanks!