Megametro City Manager &…tilities for SimCity 2000/Megametro City Manager & Utilities for Simcity 2000.iso/faq.txt

Text File | 1995-09-08 | 101.0 KB | 2,084 lines

SimCity2000 Technical Info v2.0 rev. 3/22/94
 Maintained by: Dave Palsen
 Please send corrections, additions, questions,
 etc. to me at: [e-mail]

*DISCLAIMER*
Under no circumstance including negligence, shall I (D.M.Palsen)
be liable for any incidental, special, or consequential damages
that result from the use of the information contained with this
file. So there.:P

New items to this version have a plus to the left.

INDEX
1.0 MISC I (General questions about the game)
2.0 TOOLS (Zoning, transportation, water, city services)
3.0 BUDGET + OTHER WINDOWS (Taxes, ordinances, etc.)
4.0 MISC II (Bugs, rewards, cheats)
5.0 SCURK (SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit)
A-1 Appendix 1 (Solving Problems)
A-2 Appendix 2 (Adjusting Difficulty)
A-3 Appendix 3 (Mac Technical Problems)
A-4 Appendix 4 (IBM Technical Problems)
A-5 Appendix 5 (How to Make a Boot Disk)
A-6 Appendix 6 (SC2K Suggestion List)
A-7 Appendix 7 (SC2K Description)

1.0 MISC I
1.1 Q: What's required to run SimCity2000?
1.1 A: (MAC) LC, Performa, II, Centris and Quadra series;
       Color Classic, Powerbook 165c, 180c. Powerbook 160,
       180, Duo 210, 230 with external 256-color monitor.
       4MB RAM, hard disk, mouse, color monitor with 8-bit
       (256 color) graphics, System 7.0 or higher.
1.1 A: (DOS) MS-DOS 3.3 or above, 4MB RAM, hard disk, mouse,
       extended VGA (640x480 256 colors).  A sound card is
       optional.
1.2 Q: Will SC2K run on a PowerPC Macintosh? What about
        a native mode release?
1.2 A: According to Chris Weiss, PowerMac versions are due out shortly.
    Watch for an update on the mailing list.
1.3 Q: Where can I get the v1.1 updater?
1.3 A: (MAC) The updater is available at the following ftp sites:
        spider.navsses.navy.mil in /Joe 240/pub/game/sc2k
        netcom.com in /pub/maxis
        sumex-aim.stanford.edu
        mac.archive.umich.edu
       If you are unable to ftp, drop me a line ([e-mail])
       and I will e-mail you a copy.
+1.3 A: (IBM) It's not currently available.  Rumor has it that it will
    become available late this year as version 1.2.  1.1 was out for awhile,
    but was buggy, so Maxis recalled it until they have a chance to
    fix it.
1.4 Q: (MAC) What does the updater do?
1.4 A: *The budget should work properly now, transit figures
        should be correct (and stay that way.)
       *The Bulldoze Tool should always default to Bulldoze
        instead of whatever tool was last used. This should
        prevent accidental mass destruction caused by
        forgetting that the last bulldoze tool being used was
        Raise/Lower/Level Terrain.
       *Airports should build correctly now (the ratio of
        towers to runways should be better.)
       *Several problems that show up with more than 7
        stadiums/teams should be gone.
       *Figures in the Analysis window (from the City Hall
        query window) should stay correct.
       *Sometimes, destroying bridges would leave an
        un-usable shoreline tile. This should be fixed.
       *Querying on certain tiles of the Forest Arcology in
        certain situations would report bare land, this
        should not happen.
       *Arcologies that do not have micro-simulators attached
        should now affect population (populations far greater
        than 9.1 million should be attainable.)
       *There is a new button when using the query tool on a
        library.
       *Placing highway and re-enforced bridges now charges
        the user correctly.
       *Schools should work properly at population levels
        above 60,000.
       *The date should now properly display above 9,999
        years.
       *The power graph should be more accurate.
1.4 A: *The Microsim bug is still not fixed.  It should be fixed by the
    time version 1.2 comes out, at least according to Maxis.  NOTE:
    This is inconsistent with the README.TXT file.
       *The budget should work properly now, transit figures should be
    correct(and stay that way)
       *The Bulldoze tool should always default to Bulldoze instead of
    whatever tool was last used.
       *Airports should build correctly now, with a better ratio of towers
    to runways.
       *Several problems that show up with more than 7 stadiums/teams
    should be gone.
       *Figures in the Analysis window(City Hall query)should stay correct)
       *Sometimes, destroying bridges would leave an un-usable shoreline
    tile.  This should be fixed.
       *A new button is now available with the library.
       *Schools should work properly at population levels above 60,000.
       *The date should now properly display above 9999 years.
       *The power graph should be more accurate.
1.5 Q: (MAC) I've installed the updater, but my old cities still
        have the same bugs.
1.5 A: Cities that already have bugs can't be fixed by the
        update. Only new cities that are created with the updated
        version of SC2K will be bug-free (more or less.)
1.6 Q: I'm having trouble installing SC2K.
1.6 A: (DOS) See Appendix 4 and 5 at the bottom of this file.
1.6 A: (MAC) see Appendix 3 at the bottom of this file.
1.7 Q: Where's the SimCity2000 ftp site?
1.7 A: (MAC) spider.navsses.navy.mil in /Joe 240/pub/game/sc2k
1.7 A: (DOS) andyspc.rh.uchicago.edu in /pub/sc2k
       Logon as anonup with password upload in order to upload.
1.8 Q: Why can't I get onto the spider site?
1.8 A: The proprietor occasionally has things more important
       than SimCity2000 to occupy his computer's time with.
       I can't imagine what. :)
1.9 Q: How do I get on the Sim mailing list?
1.9 A: There is a digest and non-digest version of the mailing
       list. For the digest, send mail to [e-mail]
       with the following line in the body of the message:
        subscribe simlist-digest
       For the non-digest, use the following line
        subscribe simlist
1.10 Q: Does Maxis have an E-Mail address?
1.10 A: You can reach e-mail technical support at
        [e-mail]
1.11 Q: Is there anybody from Maxis on the net?
1.11 A: Yes - Chris Weiss, [e-mail]
    [e-mail] for help.
1.12 Q: Where can I get a demo of SimCity2000?
1.12 A: Anonymous ftp to netcom.com. Look in the /pub/maxis
        directory.
        SC2KDEMO.ZIP is a slide show for DOS.
        SC2KDEMO.SEA is a slide show for Mac.
1.13 Q: How do I log on to the Maxis BBS?
1.13 A: The phone number is [phone]. (8-N-1)
1.14 Q: What's a good price for SimCity2000?
1.14 A: Well, I paid $38.88 (with CUE discount) at Egghead.
1.15 Q: Can I upgrade from the old Sim City?
1.15 A: No, I don't think so. SC2K is, pretty much, a totally
        different product.
1.16 Q: (MAC) Can I run SC2K on my black and white Mac?
1.16 A: No. SC2K is specifically designed to run in 256-colors.
1.17 Q: What newsgroups talk about SimCity2000?
1.17 A: comp.sys.mac.games, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc,
        and comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic.
1.18 Q: Is there an upper limit on population?
1.18 A: (MAC v1.0) Yes. Only arcologies that have are represented
        by a microsimulator contribute to population - so, the
        theoretical maximum is somewhere around 9.1 million.
1.18 A: (MAC v1.1) Well, if the arcos don't launch, you'd be
         able to fill a map with 961 launch arcos, which equals
         about 62.5 million. So that's just about the
         theoretical maximum.
1.18 A: (IBM)There currently is still a limit.  This
     should be fixed in the next version.
1.19 Q: Are there any books out about SimCity2000?
1.19 A: I've heard of three books scheduled for upcoming
        release:
        * Daniel A. Tauber and Brenda Kienan are finishing up
          SimCity 2000 Stategies and Secrets to be published
          by Sybex (300 pages,ISBN 0-7821-1518-7, $14.99.)
          which should be in bookstores in May.
          Dan and Brenda write:
          "...we think our book is clear and useful
          -- it's full of strategies for zoning, budgeting,
          and making the most of every part of your SimCity.
          We include a complete how-to section and full info
          on installation.  We also cover -- in depth --
          dealing with disasters and winning the model
          scenarios, as well as all the known Easter eggs."
        * Nick Dargahi writes:
          "Here's the latest scoop. I am a coauthor of the
          SimCity Power, Politics, and Planning book that
          Prima Publishing is releasing [in March], the other
          author is Michael Bremer who, as you know, wrote
          the manual that comes with the software. Our book
          includes information that isn't available anywhere
          else, since we had direct access to the programmers
          and staff at Maxis.
          Our book also includes color pictures of
          interesting cities, including a city which has the
          world population record for a SimCity of 9.3
          million people.
          Other topics include:
           -The most comprehensive information resource guide
            for all tools, buildings and object types in
            SimCity.
           -The Making of SimCity 2000: Interviews with the
            designers, and background information on how
            SimCity 2000 came into being.
           -Greater detail on how the simulation works.
           -How to beat the scenarios: tested methods to win
            each scenario.
           -Tips & Tricks Chapter: Includes how to hex edit
            your city files to add more money or create new
            scenarios of your own design. All Easter Eggs are
            mentioned.
           -The Economic model. Managing your money, and
            employing different economic strategies.
           -Plus an appendix that teaches you how to install
            the DOS version of SimCity 2000 so that it will
            run under Windows 3.1 (as a DOS application) or
            under OS/2."
        * Johnny L. Wilson is working on The Sim City 2000
          Planning Commisioners Handbook, probably to be
          published by McGraw Hill.
1.20 Q: What is this SimCity CD-ROM I've heard of?
1.20 A: Well, it's an expanded version of the old game, not
         SimCity2000. And its put out by Interplay, not Maxis.
         It is expected to be out in April or May.
         Courtesy of Dave A. Lartigue:
         SIMCITY ENHANCED (a/k/a SimCity on CD-ROM)
         "You'll watch dramatic city news unfold through live
         broadcasts in a full-motion video window.  News that
         will challenge you to make choices that could make
         your metropolis thrive...or perish!"  Ye-ikes!
         - Incredible video and sound
         - Hollywood's finest talent captured the intensity
           of natural disasters, human drama, triumph, and
           tragedy in 30 minutes of action-packed video
           footage
         - See how your citizens react to your decisions in
           pop-up video windows
         - Included on same disk - extra sets and terrain editor
+1.20 A: There is a version of SC2K available on CD, but it really isn't
     much different from the disk version.  There are a couple of
     differences, however, in that it has SCURK and the Scenarios
     package added to it.
1.21 Q: How is the Australian version of SC2K different?
1.21 A: Chris Weiss writes:
         "The Australian version has a few bug fixes in it
         that are more or less transparent. I think the only
         external way to tell is that instead of getting a
         Braun Llama Dome at 90,000 people, you get the
         Sydney Opera House. A patch for the Australian
         version will be available shortly."

2.0 TOOLS
2.1 Bulldozer
2.1.0 Q: Is there a good way to aviod mass destruction?
2.1.0 A: Yes, the bulldoze tool in version 1.1 will default to
      The bulldoze tool all the time, so some destruction caused
      by using the wrong bulldoze tool can be avoided.  Also,
      Save Early, Save Often.  (Note: V. 1.0 will NOT default to bulldoze)
2.1.1 Q: Should I bulldoze abandoned buildings?
2.1.1 A: You can, but it's not necessary. Sims will build over
         abandoned buildings, although, abandoned buildings
         lower property values.
2.1.2 Q: Do I have to bulldoze rubble?
2.1.2 A: No. Sims will build over rubble.
2.1.3 Q: Is there any way to bulldoze large areas at a time?
2.1.3 A: No. Although you can destroy a few buildings at a time
         using raise terrain tool.
2.1.4 Q: Is there a way to get rid of lots of rubble?
2.1.4 A: You can either build power lines over rubble, or you
          could use the de-zone tool to get rid of the zoning
          and the rubble.
2.1.5 Q: The sims complain when I try to bulldoze some forest.
         Should I pay any attention to them?
2.1.5 A: I don't think it'll do you any harm to ignore them.
2.2 Landscape
2.2.1 Q: How do I make waterfalls?
2.2.1 A: Place water on a slope.
2.2.2.Q: What's the magic eraser?
2.2.2 A: Select the tree tool. Press the mouse button with
         the cursor on a blank tile. Keep holding down the
         button and press the shift key. The cursor will
         now erase any type of development. The effect is
         rather odd - when you query the tile that's been
         erased, the old structure appears to still be there.
2.2.3 Q: Can I make a deep river at higher elevations?
2.2.3 A: No, the only way to add water at elevations above
         sea level is to use the water tool - and this only
         makes water that is 50 feet deep.
2.2.4 Q: Does the water tool make fresh water or salt water?
2.2.4 A: (MAC) Fresh water.
2.2.4 A: (DOS) The water tool seems to make fresh water half
         the time and salt water the other half.
2.3 Power
2.3.1 Q: Do undeveloped zones conduct power?
2.3.1 A: No. Only tiles that have immediate contact to
         power (either next to another building or next
         to a power line) will be powered.
2.3.2 Q: What type of power plant should I use?
2.3.2 A: If you aren't concerned with money, fusion plants
         are the most efficient, and don't pollute or cause
         disasters - like nuclear and microwave.
         If you are concerned about money, then hydro is
         best. Hydro plants don't pollute and don't need
         to be replaced every 50 years.
          Eff.   Output   Pollut.
               (16 tiles) Level   Comments
Fusion  $16/MW   2500       80
Micro   $17.5/MW 1600        0    Possible disaster
Hydro   $20/MW    320        0    Doesn't need replacing
Coal    $20/MW    200     3400
Wind    $25/MW     64        0    Doesn't need replacing
Solar   $26/MW     50        0    Weather dependent
Nuclear $30/MW    500       80    Possible disaster
Oil     $30/MW    220     1680
Gas     $40/MW     50      610
2.3.3 Q: Isn't it kind of like cheating to use hydro power?
2.3.3 A: Well, first off, it's just a game, and you can
         do whatever you want with it. The most efficient
         use of hydro would be to use the raise terrain tool
         to make a little bump. Line the bump with waterfalls
         and then place hydro plants on the waterfalls. You
         could even surround the hydro pants with water
         pumps. This is the best, and most unrealistic use
         of hydro plants. A more realistic approach would
         be to make a map with a river, then raise the land
         on one end of the river, and draw the river back
         in, having it flow down the raised land. You could
         then build large dams on the slopes.
2.3.4 Q: My power plants seem to last forever.
2.3.4 A: If you have disasters off, your power plants
         will automatically be replaced when they are 50
         years old. Their cost will also be deducted from
         your coffers.
2.3.5 Q: Why don't hydro plants and wind power have to
         be replaced every 50 years?
2.3.5 A: Well, you could say that this is bias on the
         part of Maxis to encourage the use of clean power.
         The real reason has to do with programming
         limitations - they'd have to keep track of the
         age of each plant.
2.3.6 Q: Why should I use wind power?
2.3.6 A: I don't know - appearance, maybe? If you have extra
         space on the top of a mountain, you could put
         windmills there. You could use a couple of wind
         power plants to sustain a small village in the
         middle of nowhere.
2.3.7 Q: Do I have to use raised wires to run power across water?
2.3.7 A: No, there's a cheat you can use to get around this.
         Chris Weiss writes:
         "There's a little trick you can do to run power across
         water without needing lines. First, you need 3 tiles of
         water between where you'd run the line from and where
         you'd run it to. Build a power line brige across that 3
         tile space and bulldoze the power line between the two
         "on-ramps" for the power bridge. Replace the flat land
         tiles with water again and Voila! The power flows across
         the no-longer-existent power bridge."
2.4 Water
2.4.1 Q: How effective is a water pump?
2.4.1 A: A water pump (not next to water) will service
         approximately 24 to 36 tiles, depending on the weather.
         An additional 12 tiles (approx.) will be serviced for
         every water tile that the pump is adjacent to.
         For example:     W W W
                          L P L
                          L L L
         where W = water, L = land, P = pump
         The above pump is next to 3 water tiles, therefore, it
         will provide 60 to 72 tiles with water. I think that
         each tile requires 600 gallons of water.
2.4.2 Q: Should I build water towers?
2.4.2 A: Each water tower will hold up to 40,000 gallons of
         water. They will only fill up when you have a surplus.
         It's probably easier to just build four more pumps in
         the space that a tower would take.
2.4.3 Q: Why aren't the pipes under my towers filled with water?
2.4.3 A: The pipes turn blue when the tower fills with water.
          For every 10,000 gallons, one pipe will turn blue.
2.4.4 Q: What good is a water treatment plant?
2.4.4 A: The manual says that water treatment plants will help
         you prevent droughts by cleaning and recycling your
         water. However, the online help says that water
         treatment plants will reduce the overall pollution level
         of your city. Experimentation has revealed that water
         treatment plants do not really have anything to do with
         the water supply. Adding one treatment plant (anywhere
         on the map) will reduce the pollution level of your
         city quite a bit. Additonal treatment plants have no
         effect, though. So, build one, and only one
2.4.5 Q: How effective is a desalination plant?
2.4.5 A: Desalination plants seem to have an effective radius, so
         there effectiveness is rather complicated. They can
         provide water to 200 - 500 tiles each, depending on how
         many seawater tiles are adjacent to the plant.
2.4.6 Q: What types of water will help a water pump?
2.4.6 A: Natural water and artificial water will improve the
         performance of a water pump, while salt water will not.
         Use the query tool to find out whether water is salty or
         fresh. Water pump performance will even be improved by a
         waterfall, or a waterfall with a hydro plant on it.
2.4.7 Q: I've built several pumps on the edge of my city,
         but all the water seems to be going to the center.
2.4.7 A: Well, SC2K figures out how much water you have, then
         it distributes it from the center of your city. The
         only way to keep the water at the edge would be to
         cut it off from the water system.
2.4.8 Q: Where do I need to build pipes?
2.4.8 A: Sims will automatically build pipes underneath
         buildings, so, all you need to do, is build pipes
         underneath roads. I like to place pipes underneath
         my power lines.
2.5 Road + Rail
2.5.1 Q: How much road do I need?
2.5.1 A: A zone (residential, commercial, or industrial) must
         be within 3 tiles (not counting diagonally) of a
         road in order to start growing. If you're really
         strapped for cash (say you start on the hard level)
         then you can get away with discontinuous roads.
         Just drop down 1 tile sections of road and build
         different zones around it:
         For example:    R R R
                       R R R R R
                       R R - I I
                       C C I I I
                         C I I
         where - = road R = residential, C = commercial,
               I = industrial
         Actually you don't really need any roads at all. If you
         want, you can rely totally on mass transit. You won't
         have any traffic, but growth will be less and
         larger(3X3) buildings won't develop.
         For example, sims will build given the following setup:
                R               I
              R R R           I I I
            R R R R R       I I I I I
          R R R s R R R   I I I s I I I
            R R R R R       I I I I I
              R R R           I I I
                R               I
         where R = residential, I =industrial,
               s = sub stations - connected underground by subway
2.5.2 Q: Why should I use rail instead of a subway?
2.5.2 A: Rail is cheaper, and, supposedly, has a greater
         positive impact on heavy industry.
2.5.3 Q: How do bus stations work?
2.5.3 A: Place bus stations at busy intersections to
         reduce traffic at that intersection.
2.5.4 Q: How do you build a reinforced girder bridge?
2.5.4 A: You will be asked if you want to build a reinforced
         bridge if you place a highway tile halfway over
         water:
         before:  L L L W W W    after L L L W W W
                  L L L W W W          L L H H W W
                  L L L W W W          L L H H W W
                  L L L W W W          L L L W W W
         where L = land, W = water, H = highway tile
        +Also, be sure that the other side of the river is
         clear and flat.
2.5.5 Q: What's the difference between a highway bridge and a
         reinforced bridge?
2.5.5 A: Highway bridges don't allow ships to pass, but are
         cheaper.
2.5.6 Q: What's the difference between causeways, raising
         bridges, and suspension bridges?
2.5.6 A: Causeways do not allow ships to pass. Raising
         bridges and suspension bridges both allow ships
         to pass. Raising bridges are cheaper than
         suspension bridges, but can only be a maximum of
         eleven tiles long.
2.5.7 Q: How does my transportation system affect growth?
2.5.7 A: Residential zones must be properly connected to a
         commercial or industrial zone in order to start
         growing. Industrial or commercial zones must be
         connected to a residential zone in order to start
         growing. This connection can either be made by road
         rail, or subway, however, growth will be best with
         roads.
2.5.8 Q: Is there an annual charge for bus depots?
2.5.8 A: Yes, in fact, there are transportation charges for lots
         of things. The chart below shows the various things that
         have maintenance charges. The first column shows the
         building cost. The other columns show how much is
         charged, per year for each item in each category. (Some
         items, like Sub/Rail, have split charges.)
                 Build    Road  Hwy   Brid  Rail  Sub   Tun
Road              $10     0.10   --    --    --    --    --
Causeway          $25      --    --   0.22   --    --    --
Raising Bridge    $50      --    --   0.22   --    --    --
Suspension Bridge $75      --    --   0.22   --    --    --
Highway           $100     --   0.80   --    --    --    --
Highway Bridge    $200     --   0.80   --    --    --    --
Reinforced Bridge $300     --   0.80  1.00   --    --    --
Tunnel            $150     --    --    --    --    --   0.10
Tunnel Entrance   $150    0.10   --    --    --    --    --
Onramp            $25     0.10   --    --    --    --    --
Bus Depot         $250   25.00   --    --    --    --    --
Rail              $25      --    --    --   0.40   --    --
Rail Bridge       $75      --    --   0.22   --    --    --
Subway            $100     --    --    --    --   0.40   --
Rail Depot        $500     --    --    --   1.60   --    --
Sub Station       $250     --    --    --    --   0.76   --
Sub/Rail          $250     --    --    --   0.40  0.40   --
Power Lines       $2       --    --    --    --    --    --
Raised Wires      $10      --    --   0.20   --    --    --
2.5.9 Q: Will sims walk to a road, then drive to a sub station,
         take the subway, drive from the sub station, and walk
         from the road to work?
2.5.9 A: Well, I said yes before, but actually, work has to be
         next to the road. (See next question.)
2.5.10 Q: Why do some zones develop away from a road, and others
          don't?
2.5.10 A: [e-mail] writes:
          "I recently posted my theory about the trip generator
          by proposing four schemes. The question came up because
          I was trying to explain how you can have properties
          develop which are not connected to the road. The
          schemes are as follows:
          A. R  -  I
          B. R  -I
          C.   R-  I
          D.   R-I
         +After powering up, I found that neither property in
          (A) developed and both properties in (D) did. This
          is expected as the sims in (A) cannot seem to find
          the road. However, The R in (B) and the I in (C),
          the squares which DO NOT touch the road, DO
          develop! And, the I in (B) and the R in (C), the
          squares which DO touch the road, DO NOT develop!
          Therefore, for roads, the trip generator works as
          follows:
          -assume you have a starting building X
          -assume you need to reach a zone Y which is a zone
           type different than that of X (ie: if X is an R
           zone, Y will be an I or C zone)
          -the trip generator starts from X and looks for the
           nearest road segment Z within 3 squares of X
          -the generator travels along the road searching
           for Y
          -if Y is touching the road and is within 25 squares
           of the originating road segment Z, the trip is a
           success
          -otherwise, the trip is a failure and X will not
           develop, or will be abandoned in short order if it
           is already developed
          Obviously, this does not take into account traffic
          volumes. As stated in the manual, the trip
          generator will try to avoid areas of high traffic.
          It is also important to note that X is a whole
          building, whether 1x1, 2x2 or 3x3, whereas Y is a
          single square of a zone, developed or undeveloped.
2.5.10 Q: Do I need 2 or 4 onramps at each road-highway
          intersection?
2.5.10 A: Well, really, you only need one. The only reason to
          have more would be for realism, or to shorten some
          trip distances.
2.5.11 Q: Why can't I build onramps?
2.5.11 A: You must build onramps in the following fashion:
                      H H
                    o H H o
              - - - - H H - - - -
                    o H H o
                      H H
                      H H
           where H = highway, - = road, o = onramp
2.5.12 Q: Why can't I put highways where I want them?
2.5.12 A: I assume that they only allow highways to placed on
          every other tile, just so that there won't ever by a
          time when highways mismatch:
                          H H
                          H H H H
                              H H
2.6 Ports + Connections
2.6.1 Q: I've zoned a port - why do they keep complaining?
2.6.1 A: They won't stop complaining until either a runway
         or pier has been built.
2.6.2 Q: What is the smallest size of zone for an airport?
2.6.2 A: An airport must be at least 1 X 5 tiles, in order
         for a runway to be built.
         Since runways are 5 tiles long, you can keep force
         them to only go in one direction by zoning a
         4 X 10, 4 X 15, 4 X 20 etc. area for the airport.
2.6.3 Q: Why won't my airport grow?
2.6.3 A: I don't know. Results seem to vary from person to
         person. Runways won't be built if you have an air
         force base. Just keep trying to zone more airport
         tiles. Sometimes Sims have difficulty building over
         airport tiles that have power lines on them.
2.6.4 Q: Does my airport need to be connected to water pipes or
         transportation in order to grow?
2.6.4 A: No. An airport only needs connection to power.
2.6.5 Q: Does my city have to be a certain size before an
         airport can be built?
2.6.5 A: No. You could build a successful airport, even before
         anybody moves into your city (of course, you won't have
         any money left, but...)
2.6.6 Q: Why do I keep having air crashes?
2.6.6 A: You'll have air crashes if you have tall buildings
         in the immediate flight path. Generally, it's best
         to put your airport out of the way - perhaps on an
         island or plateau.
2.6.7 Q: I've zoned a seaport, why won't piers develop?
2.6.7 A: Well, I think that a pier needs to be able to extend out
         over water that's at least 150 feet deep.
2.6.8 Q: Exactly what effect do seaports and airports have,
         anyway?
2.6.8 A: Unknown. They stop the sim's complaints. Airports
         promote commerce and seaports promote industry. Beyond
         that, who knows? It's a very hard factor to isolate.
2.6.9 Q: What does it mean when connections are requested?
2.6.9 A: You must build connections to your neighbors. Run a
         road, rail, or highway to the edge of the map, and
         you will be asked if you want to build a connection
         to your neighbor.
2.6.10 Q: What does the number on the connection sign mean?
2.6.10 A: That's the distance to your neighbor.
2.6.11 Q: Why is it possible to build a connection to the
          ocean?
2.6.11 A: I don't know.
2.6.12 Q: I've built plenty of connections, but they keep asking
          for more.
2.6.12 A: They may want you to build highway or rail connections.
2.6.13 Q: Just how useful are connections, anyway?
2.6.13 A: A connection acts as a stimulus point. Normally,
          residential zones are stimulated by being connected to
          job zones, and vice versa. A connection will act as a
          stimulus to both residential and commercial/industrial.
2.7 Residential Zones
2.7.1 Q: What kinds of residential zones are there?
2.7.1 A: Name                size  population
         Abandoned building  1 X 1      0
         Construction        1 X 1      0
         Lower Class Homes   1 X 1     10
         Middle Class Homes  1 X 1     10
         Luxury Homes        1 X 1     10
         Abandoned building  2 X 2      0
         Construction        2 X 2      0
         Church              2 X 2      0 (dezones when built)
         Cheap Apartments    2 X 2     80
         Apartments          2 X 2     80
         Nice Apartments     2 X 2     80
         Condominium         2 X 2    120
         Abandoned building  3 X 3      0
         Construction        3 X 3      0
         Condominium         3 X 3    360
         Large Apt. Bldg     3 X 3    450
2.7.2 Q: What's the difference between light residential
         heavy residential?
2.7.2 A: Light residential is cheaper and will only allow
         1 X 1 buildings.
2.7.2 Q: Why should I use light residential?
2.7.2 A: Aesthetics? Not everyone can live in high rise
         apartment buildings. Light residential requires
         less police protection than heavy residential. If
         your zoning an oddly shaped piece of land that
         wouldn't be able to form into a 2X2 or 3X3 building,
         you might want to use light instead of heavy.
2.7.3 Q: Why should I use heavy residential?
2.7.3 A: You will need to use heavy if you want your
         city to have a large population. The blank map looks
         large at the beginning, but you will quickly run out
         of space if you rely on light zoning. The larger
         buildings use the same amount of power, therefore,
         you use less power per person. In addition, you
         will get more tax revenue, for the same amount of
         space.
2.7.4 Q: How do I encourage my sims to build 3 X 3 buildings?
2.7.5 A: First the property values have to be pretty good.
         Second, a 3 X 3 piece of land must be adjacent to
         an intersection:    R R R | C C C I I I C C C |
                             R R R | C C C I I I C C C |
                             R R R | C C C I I I C C C |
                             - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
         where R = heavy residential, C = heavy commercial,
          I = heavy industrial, | and - = road
         In the above example, the residential and commercial
         zones may become 3 X 3 buildings, however, the
         industrial zone will not.
2.7.6 Q: Can I get rid of all these churches?
2.7.6 A: Dave Chaloux <[e-mail]> writes:
         "You can't really get rid of the churchs but it can
         be worthwhile moving them. Zone a 2x2 residential
         where you want the church. Blow up the church
         and do not rezone. The church will often move to the
         2x2 you made for it. Then and only then rezone as
         residential where the church was. The reason this is
         worth it is because if you zoned for a 3x3, you are
         only getting 50 pop around the church (5 1x1s). The 3x3
         will give you 360."
         Pat Traynor <[e-mail]> writes:
         "Hmmm...  I wonder if you could build an industry
         block 8x8, and leave the center 2x2 area empty.
         Demolish a church in the main residential section
         and then quickly zone the center of the industrial
         section for residential.  Perhaps the church would
         pop up there."
         This will work, but you have to build a road out to
         the center:
                 - - - - - - - - - -
                 | I I I I | I I I |
                 | I I I I | I I I |
                 | I I I I | I I I |
                 | I I I R R I I I |
                 | I I I R R I I I |
                 | I I I I I I I I |
                 | I I I I I I I I |
                 | I I I I I I I I |
                 - - - - - - - - - -
         where R = heavy residential, I = industrial,
          | and - = road
         Then, once you coerce the church into the middle, you
         can bulldoze the road into the middle and replace it
         with industrial.
2.8 Commercial Zones
2.8.1 Q: What kinds of commercial zones are there?
2.8.1 A: Name                size  population
         Abandoned building  1 X 1      0
         Construction        1 X 1      0
         Cassidy's Toy Store 1 X 1     10
         Bed & Breakfast Inn 1 X 1     10
         Gas Station         1 X 1     10
         Small Office Bldg   1 X 1     10
         Convenience Store   1 X 1     10
         Office Building     1 X 1     10
         Warehouse           1 X 1     10
         Abandoned building  2 X 2      0
         Construction        2 X 2      0
         Office Building     2 X 2     80
         Resort Hotel        2 X 2     80
         Grocery Store       2 X 2     80
         Shopping Center     2 X 2     80
         Office Building     2 X 2    120
         Office/Retail       2 X 2    120
         Abandoned building  3 X 3      0
         Construction        3 X 3      0
         Theatre Square      3 X 3    360
         Corporate HQ        3 X 3    360
         Parking Lot         3 X 3    360
         Drive-In Theater    3 X 3    360
         Office Park         3 X 3    360
         Office Tower        3 X 3    360
         Historic Office Bldg3 X 3     ??
         Mini Mall           3 X 3    360
         Office Tower        3 X 3    450
2.9 Industrial Zones
2.9.1 Q: What kinds of industrial zones are there?
2.9.1 A: Name                size  population
         Abandoned building  1 X 1      0
         Construction        1 X 1      0
         Chemical Storage    1 X 1     10
         Ind. Substation     1 X 1     10
         Warehouse           1 X 1     10
         Abandoned building  2 X 2      0
         Construction        2 X 2      0
         Factory             2 X 2     80
         Factory             2 X 2    120
         Abandoned building  3 X 3      0
         Construction        3 X 3      0
         Chemical Processing 3 X 3    360
         Factory             3 X 3    360
         Large Factory       3 X 3    360
         Warehouse           3 X 3    360
         Large Warehouse     3 X 3    360
         Ind. Thingamajig    3 X 3    360
2.10 Education Zones
2.10.1 Q: What are the relative effects of education zones?
2.10.1 A: The manual implies that you need 1 school for every
          15,000 people in order to increase EQ to 90. This
          does not seem right, however. Schools lose their A+
          rating when student to teacher ratio goes above 12.
          In other words, a half-full school gets about an A
          and a full school gets an F.
          Colleges have a capacity of 50,000, but, as with
          schools, grade goes down as the number of students
          approaches capacity.
          Libraries and museums increase the EQ of all ages.
          Museums are more effective than libraries.
2.10.2 Q: Does it matter where I put educational zones?
2.10.2.A: No, educational zones do not need proper access
          to transportation to be effective. Educational
          zones do increase land value, though.
2.10.3 Q: What EQ is average?
2.10.3 A: The SimNation EQ average is 100. Although, the average
          age of sims that move into your city is around 83.
2.10.4 Q: My EQ doesn't seem to ever go above 100.
2.10.4 A: High EQ seems to require more than top notch schools,
          colleges, libraries, and museums. I've built a small
          city with excessive amounts of all these items. Over a
          span of 400 years, EQ never got above 100. I think the
          other factor must be industry - there's probably some
          sort of feedback effect from the high EQ industries.
          (Petro, auto, aero, electronics, etc.)
2.10.5 Q: I just put in a school but it still says 0 student,
          and 0 teachers. Why don't they use the school?
2.10.5 A: There seems to be quite a long lag time (maybe a year)
          before students will shuffle around to new schools.
          Chris Weiss writes:
          "Micro-simulators do all their calculations in
          January (well, most of them anyway). So if you
          place one in June, then query on it in July,
          everything will be zeros (or incorrect, at any
          rate). Wait until after January, then things should
          look A-OK."
2.11 Health and Safety Zones
2.11.1 Q: Do police stations and fire stations need to be
          placed next to roads?
2.11.1 A: No, apparently, police and fire power is not
          effected by proximity to transportation.
2.11.2 Q: Do I need prisons?
2.11.2 A: Prisons increase police performance. If you still have
          crime, even though you've just built a police station,
          build a prison next to the police station to improve
          the effectiveness of the police station at close range.
2.11.3 Q: Should I worry about the number of escapes from my
          prison?
2.11.3 A: I believe that this is a symptom of overcrowding (high
          inmate to guard ratio.) I would suspect that crime
          might go up slightly around the prison.
2.11.4 Q: How many policemen or firefighters should I be able
          to dispatch?
2.11.4 A: You should be able to dispatch 1 police icon for every
          police station and 1 firefighter icon for every fire
          station. The maximum number of emergency units you may
          dispatch (including military) is 33.
2.11.5 Q: Do hospitals need road access?
2.11.5 A: I don't think they do.
2.11.6 Q: How many hospitals do I need?
2.11.6 A: The capacity of each hospital is 25,000, although, they
          will have a higher grade at half capacity.
2.11.7 Q: Do I really need a high LE?
2.11.7 A: Logically, LE should have an effect on the available
           work force. The lower your LE, the less people you
           have working at any given population level. Well,
           in theory, anyway.
2.12 Recreation Zones
2.12.1 Q: What are all these things for?
2.12.1 A: Small parks and Large parks increase land value.
          Zoos, stadiums, and marinas increase residential
          demand and improve tourism.
2.12.2 Q: Can I build a marina in the middle of land?
2.12.2 A: Sure, just place a drop of water, then build
          the marina on top of it. The boats'll  have
          trouble leaving though...
2.12.3 Q: Why do my sports teams always lose?
2.12.3 A: Hmmm, bad coaching?
2.12.4 Q: Is there any value in having empty space?
2.12.4 A: Property that borders empty space seems to have
           a higher property value.

3.0 BUDGET + OTHER WINDOWS
3.1 Property Taxes
3.1.1 Q: How much should I set property taxes at?
3.1.1 A: Well, 7% is pretty much standard. If you lower
         it, that will stimulate growth. If you raise it,
         that will stifle growth.
3.1.2 Q: How is property tax revenue figured?
3.1.2 A: Use the following formula:
         Population * Propert tax rate * 1.29 = Tax Revenue
          or, if you are taxing zones at different rates:
 Rpop * Rtax * 1.29 + Cpop * Ctax * 1.29 + Ipop * Itax * 1.29
         where Rpop = residential population
               Rtax = residential tax rate(in decimal, i.e. 0.07)
               Cpop, Ipop = commercial, industrial population
               Ctax, Itax = commercial, industrial tax rate
3.1.3 Q: Does property value have anything to do with tax
         revenue?
3.1.3 A: No, not directly. High property values encourage
         growth and higher densities. A piece of land will
         have more tax revenue if it is of a higher density.
3.2 City Ordinances
3.2.1 Q: Why do ordinances get passed when I'm not looking?
3.2.1 A: Ordinances will get passed at random if you do not
         have disasters turned off. Actually, the help says:
         "If you've been doing very well, the city counsellors
         sometimes take it into their heads to begin beneficial
         programs using public funds."
3.3 Bond Payments
3.3.1 Q: I'm running out of money. Should I take out a bond?
3.3.1 A: Not if you can help it. If you can afford to spend
         $300+/year for interest, you can probably do
         without a bond. The only exception I can see is if
         a disaster destroys your only power plant.
3.3.2 Q: How many outstanding bonds can I have?
3.3.2 A: There is a maximum of 50.
3.3.3 Q: What determines the interest rate of the bond?
3.3.3 A: The bond rate is determined by adding a percentage
         to the current fed rate. The percentages are as follows:
            Rating    Added Percentage
              AAA         +1%
               AA         +2%
                A         +3%
                B         +4%
                C         +5%
                D         +6%
                F         +7%
3.3.4 Q: What determines my credit rating?
3.3.4 A: I believe that it's a combination of city value and
         outstanding debt.
3.4 Map
3.5 Graphs
3.5.1 Q: How is traffic measured?
3.5.1 A: The number on the traffic graph is the average number
         of cars/minute on all roads, highways, bridges. This
         means that you can artificially lower your traffic
         level by building lots of roads out in the middle of
         nowhere.
3.5.2 Q: How is pollution measured?
3.5.2 A: In parts per million. Several different types of
         buildings, most notably industrial and power plants,
         give off a certain level of pollution. The pollution
         value is a sum of all the pollution levels divided
         by the amount of tiles occupied by development. Thus,
         adding zones that don't pollute, such as a zoo, will
         lower the value given in the pollution graph.
        +Non-Polluters:
          trees/water
          hydro/wind/solar/micro power plants
          water towers/desalination plants
          Mayor's House/city hall/statue/Braun Llama Dome
          schools/colleges/libraries/museums
          police stations/fire stations/hospitals
          small parks/big parks/zoos/marinas
          airport-control tower/airport-radar
        +Polluters:   pollution level (approx)
          coal plant         3400
          oil plant          1680
          Plymoth Arco       1630
          Launch Arco         960
          Darco               735
          gas plant           610
          prison              610
          Forest Arco         610
          stadium             240
          airport-Runway      125
          seaport-crane/pier  110
          seaport-cargo yard   84
          nuclear plant        80
          fusion plant         80
          airport-Hangar       35
          airport-Tarmac       30
          rail depot           15
          airport-Parking lot  10
          seaport-loading bay  10
          bus depot            10
          treatment plant       5
          water pump            1
          sub station           1
          airport-Building      1
          seaport-warehouse     1
          Industrial(1X1-10)    3
          Industrial(2X2-80)  150
          Industrial(2X2-120) 250
          Industrial(3X3-360)   ?
          traffic               ?
3.5.3 Q: What do the power% and water% numbers mean?
3.5.3 A: This is an inverse percentage of usage - the amount
         of power or water that you have surplus.
3.5.4 Q: How is unemployment figured?
3.5.4 A: The level of unemployment seems to be directly related
         to declines in R, C, or I levels. Growth in these areas
         will lower unemployment.
3.6 Population
3.7 City Industry
3.7.1 Q: Can I change all of the tax rates at once?
3.7.1 A: In the city industry window, you can change all of the
         taxes rates at once by holding down the option key.
3.7.2 Q: Which industries need high EQ?
3.7.2 A: Very High EQ - Aerospace
                        Electronics
              High EQ - Petrochemicals
                        Automotive
              Good EQ - Finance
                        Media
3.7.3 Q: Which industries pollute?
3.7.3 A: Heavy Pollution - Steel/Mining
                           Textiles
                           Petrochemicals
                           Automotive
          Mild Pollution - Food
                           Electronics
                           Tourism
3.8 Neighbors
3.8.1 Q: Can I change the names of my neighbors?
3.8.1 A: (MAC)Not easily, if at all. You would probably have to
         alter your copy of SC2K with ResEdit.
3.8.2 Q: What other names are possible?
3.8.2 A: Oak Creek, Denmont, Fort Verdegris, Schwinton, Mill
         Valley, Petaluma, PortVille, Ashland, Eubanks, Aurac,
         Tent Pegs, Cherryton, Blake, Pioneers, Fortune,
         Phippsville, Jeromi, Harpersville, Washers Grove,
         Stars County, Villa, Serviland, Newton, Avon, Dexter,
         Sinistrel, Jenna, Yestonia, New Boots, Hoek Creek,
         Stimpleton, Little Rogue, Krighton, Cats Corner,
         Rimmer, Lister.

4.0 MISC
4.1 Bugs
4.1.1 Q: What known bugs exist?
4.1.1 A: Well, I've only heard of a few.
         (MAC v1.0) Airport bug - your airport will not make
         runways anymore once you've got an air force base.
         (I don't know if the same thing holds true for
         piers and naval bases.)
         (MAC v1.0) Budget bug - various budget items increase to
         an enormous level.
         (MAC v1.0) Newspaper bug - newspaper stories are screwed
         up. Try switching to 256 colors before starting SC2K.
4.1.2 Q: What's being done about the bugs?
+4.1.2 A: There is currently an updater for the mac version that
         fixes the above bugs.  There is also an IBM version that
     fixes SOME of the bugs. A new version is still on the way.
4.1.3 Q: Why do some of my police stations tell me how many
         arrests have been made, while others don't?
4.1.3 A: Well, this is the microsimulation limit. Certain
         zones, like police stations, power plants, schools,
         etc., are called microsimulations, and each one
         has it's own data. There is a limit to these of 150.
4.2 Terrain Editor
4.2.1 Q: How do I get rid of trees?
4.2.1 A: With the tree or forest tool selected, press shift.
4.3 Military Bases
4.3.1 Q: When should I get a military base?
4.3.1 A: When your population reaches 60,000
4.3.2 Q: My population is more than 60,000, why haven't I
         been asked for a military base?
4.3.2 A: (MAC) You won't be asked for a base if you use the ptga
         cheat.
4.3.3 Q: Why should I have a military base?
4.3.3 A: It provides customers and jobs. Certain bases
         may deter the monster. You may be able to deploy
         troops during an emergency. Military bases will
         increase crime and traffic, though.
4.3.4 Q: How big is a military base?
4.3.4 A: Air force and army bases are 8 X 8 tiles.
         (I don't know for sure whether or not the others
          are this size.)
4.3.5 Q: Why does the military say they can't find a suitable
         site for a base?
4.3.5 A: Probably because there isn't an empty piece of land that
         is large enough. There may be some randomness in this,
         however. Try saving your game before you get to 60,000,
         and then restart from your save point if they don't
         find a suitable site.
4.3.6 Q: Will the military ever ask me to grant land for a
         base again?
4.3.6 A: No. Only once.
4.3.7 Q: How do I get rid of a military base?
4.3.7 A: You'll either have to use the raise terrain or lower
         terrain tool.
4.3.8 Q: Why does the air force dispatch tanks to disasters?
4.3.8 A: There's only one icon (a tank) for all military.
4.4 Disasters
4.4.1 Q: How do I put out fires?
4.4.1 A: Use dispatch firefighters tool to place a
         firefighter icon next to a patch of fire. If there's
         a lot of fire, you can also build a fire station on
         top of it to put it out (you'll have to experiment
         with this.)
4.4.2 Q: How do I make the monster go away?
4.4.2 A: I don't think you can.
4.4.3 Q: What other disasters are there?
4.4.3 A: Meltdown, Microwave Oops, Pollution, Fire Storm,
         Mass Riots, Major Floods, Toxic Spill, Volcano.
4.4.4 Q: Hey, why is the monster making wind generators?
4.4.4 A: Chris Weiss writes:
         "The Monster is not neccesarily bad. He's an
         elemental kind of guy. 50% of the time, he'll place
         something bad (fire). The other 50%, he'll place
         something good. If it's something good, there's a
         33% chance of it being Windmills, Water, or Trees."
4.4.5 Q: What do I do about floods?
4.4.5 A: Besides dispatching emergency units, you can prepare
         ahead be building dikes on your coastlines - use the
         raise terrain tool to increase the land on the coast
         one level.
4.5 Cheats, Bonuses, and other Secrets
4.5.1 Q: How do I get more money?
4.5.1 A: (MAC v1.0) Well, the easiest way is to type
         porntipsguzzardo. This will give you $500,000 and allow
         all technologies and rewards to become available. It
         will also prevent the military from building a base.
         Once you've typed porntipsguzzardo, you can type
         ardo by itself to get additional $500,000s.
4.5.1 A  (MAC v1.1) Open the map window and type pirn. Click
         on the status window (next to the weather) and then
         type topsguzzardo. Subsequently typing ardo will
         give additional money.
4.5.1 A: (DOS) Neither of the above mac cheats work on the DOS
         version. There is a cheat, but it has not, as of yet,
         been discovered.
4.5.2 Q: (MAC v1.1) Where did the new cheat come from?
4.5.2 A: Anne Peck (from Compuserve) writes:
          "All credit goes to my husband, Darryl. He was
          attending an SPA dinner in San Francisco a few days
          ago, and he called me from the dinner to say
          "goodnight" (my time.) He mentioned that he'd been
          talking to Will Wright, and so _naturally_ I asked him
          to pester Will about the cheat. Will didn't seem to
          think it was a big deal and sent Darryl e-mail the next
          day!"
4.5.3 Q: Why aren't all of the cheats the same?
4.5.3 A: Apparantly, the programmers have decided that users
          enjoy looking for the cheat, thus they intend to
          change it with each version.
4.5.4 Q: Are there any other secret words?
4.5.4.A: FUND, CASS, JOKE, VERS. Typing cass, will give you
         $250 at the end of the month. If you type more than once
         during a month, you will incite a fire storm.
4.5.4 A: (DOS) In addition to the above mac codes HECK,
          DARN, DAMN, TEST, and MEMY work on the DOS version.
          PORN does something, too.
4.5.5 Q: Is there any other ways to get lots of money?
4.5.5 A: If you have the old Sim City, you can import an old
         city into Sim City 2000. One city (Big City) that
         came with the old Sim City has a large sum of money.
         You can use the old terrain editor to clear this map
         and then import it into SC2K.
         [e-mail] writes:
         "You will need a calculator/program that can convert
         Decimal to Hex, and Hex to Decimal and a code editor
         like Norton.
         *****Before you start this you should make a copy of
         your game, just in case you make a mistake******
         1. Save your game and note how many funds you have. If
            you have less than 4095 then I recomend taking out a
            bond, the reason will become clear later.
         2. Open the game with your code editor
         3. Convert the ammount of funds you have into Hex,
            eg. 9379 = 24A3.
         4. Now search for this number in the code, using a find.
         5. When you have found it, change all the numbers into
            "F"'s eg. 24A3 becomes FFFF. This is why you should
            have more funds than 4095, otherwise there will only
            be 3 digits in Hex, above that figure you will have 4
            digits to change.
         6. Quit the editor and remember save.
         7. Open it with SC again and you should, if you changed
            4 digits into FFFF, have 65535 funds.
         8. Now, go take out a bond and quit & save again.
         9. Open it with the editor again and change the new
            number that's there (1270F) to...yep, you guesed it,
            FFFFF. That should give you $1048575 funds! Now if
            you are still more greedy you can repeat it from step
            7."
4.5.6 Q: What is the Launch Arco secret?
4.5.6 A: (MAC v1.0) Apparently, there is no secret. You can build
         as many launch arcos as you want, and nothing will
         happen. Reports are that it was nothing more than
         a bad joke.
         (MAC v1.1) Well, now they launch. You've got to build
         about 350 of them though. It really isn't as exciting
         as you might think...
4.5.7 Q: What are the city bonuses, and when do I get them?
4.5.7 A: Mayor's House      2,000
         City Hall         10,000
         Statue            30,000
         Military Base     60,000
         Braun Llama Dome  90,000
         Arcologies       120,000
4.5.8 Q: There's something flying around my city, and it's
         not a helicopter or an airplane.
4.5.8 A: That's Captain Hero! He/She/It appears to take care
         of disasters (sometimes) if you don't have an other
         capacity for dealing with it.
4.5.9 Q: There's something swimming around in my ocean!
4.5.9 A: Well, that's a Nessie. Nessie appears when you build
          marinas. Apparently Nessie likes to eat sailboats.
4.5.10 Q: How do I shoot down the traffic helicopter?
4.5.10 A: Click on it with the centering tool.
4.5.11 Q: What's with all the llamas?
4.5.11 A: Maxis is obsessed with many things. Llamas don't
          have copyright lawyers.
4.5.12 Q: Where can I get my picture taken on a llama?
4.5.12 A: At the Yakima Mall - Yakima, WA.
4.5.13 Q: Why are the number of bungee jumps and weddings the
          same at the Braun Llama Dome?
4.5.13 A: Chriss Weiss writes:
          "Uhm, sure. See, the chapel at the Llama Dome is owned
          by the brother-in-law of the guy who runs the Bungee
          jump center. Newlyweds get a coupon for a free jump as a
          special gift from the chapel. In addition, those who
          Bungee get a coupon for a free wedding! (I seem to
          remember the top of the coupon reading 'You've taken
          the plunge, now take the plunge!' :)"
4.5.14 Q: It seems like my statue is always made of bronze. Am I
           doing something wrong?
4.5.14 A: No, the statue is always made of bronze.
4.6 Arcologies
4.6.1 Q: The newspaper just reported that some other city has
         built an arcology. Why can't I?
4.6.1 A: Once arcologies have been invented, you must have a
         population of 120,000 in order to build them.
4.6.2 Q: What do I need to do to improve the conditions of my
         arcologies?
4.6.2 A: Place some parks nearby to increase property value,
         build a police station, add water and power. This
         ought to give you an A+ rating.
4.6.3 Q: Do I need to add water and power to launch arcos too?
4.6.3 A: Well, the online help says that they are self-contained,
         however, this does not seem to be the case. I think it
         may still work, but conditions will be D+ at best.
4.6.4 Q: What do conditions have to do with anything, anyway?
4.6.4 A: I would assume that arcos that have a higher grade
         will grow faster.
4.6.5 Q: What do people do in these arcologies?
4.6.5 A: Well, look at the population of the arco. Half that
         goes towards residential, 1/4 towards commercial, and
         1/4 towards industrial. This is true for all arcos.
4.7 Weather
4.7.1 Q: Why should I care about the weather?
4.7.1 A: Weather affects the output of water pumps, solar
         plants, wind power, and influences the likelihood
         of riots and fires.
4.7.1 Q: The weather icon shows a tornado. Should I be
         worried?
4.7.1 A: The tornado shown on the weather icon is different
         than the tornado on the disaster menu. When the
         icon is showing a tornado, you can pretty much
         ignore it.
4.8 Scenarios
4.8.1 Q: How do I beat these scenarios?
4.8.1 A: From the March 94 issue of Electronic Entertainment:
         "Charleston - Pause the game. Build water pumps in the
           swamps then rebuild the connections to other cities
           and put more onramps on the freeway system. Then let
           the simulation run, keeping taxes low while you create
           dense zoning in areas damaged by the hurricane.
          Dullsville - Pause the game. Lower taxes to zero until
           the population is big enough to make you money. Then
           build dense using 13-by-6-tile zoning. Take out a bond
           if you have to.
          Flint - Click on the book for property taxes and set
           industrial taxes to zero. Find a good hangout and
           wait.
          Hollywood - Control the fires the monster sets and
           after he leaves, lower the property taxes to zero.
           The go see a movie.
          Oakland - Control the fire using bulldozers to clear a
           fire break and just ignore the Sims' complaints. Then
           set taxes as low as you can and build dense in the
           empty area by Lake Temescal."
4.8.2 Q: How do I get more scenarios?
4.8.2 A: Maxis has released a Scenarios pack, available at
      your local software store.
          SIM CITY 2000 SCENARIOS VOLUME 1: GREAT DISASTERS
          "...wrestle with 10 different cities on the brink
          of destruction and tackle everything from an alien
          invasion in Atlanta to a misplaced microwave beam
          in the Silicon Valley."
          - 10 challenging scenarios with explosions, fires,
            volcanoes, and other good stuff
          - Easy to install - Loads right into the SimCity
            2000 Scenario menu, complete with pictures,
            descriptions, and objectives.
          - Includes real cities like Chicago, Atlanta, and
            Portland
          - Scenarios include:
                A nuclear meltdown in Manhattan
                Flooding in Des Moines
                An earthquake in San Francisco
            A Volcano in Portland
        Pollution in Chicage
    The SRP on this puppy is $19.95.
4.8.3 Q: How do I make my own scenarios?
4.8.3 A: (DOS) There doesn't seem to be any easy way to create
         scenarios for the DOS version.
4.8.3 A: (MAC) Well, first, you'll need a copy of ResEdit.
         (which can be located at ftp.apple.com in
         /dts/mac/tools/resedit)
         Then, you'll have to learn how to use it. :)
         (not very hard)
         1. Build a city to the point that you want the
            scenario to start at.
         2. Make a copy of your city and use ResEdit to
            open it.
         3. ResEdit will ask if you want to make a resource
            fork - say yes.
         4. Use ResEdit to open one of the scenario files
            that came with SC2K.
         5. Copy and paste each resource from the scenario
            file to your city. (There should be four - PICT,
            SCEN, TEXT, and TMPL)
         6. Once you've got a copy of each resource in your
            city, you can edit them.
            PICT - This is the picture that goes with the
                   Scenario selection screen. Delete the old
                   picture and use a graphics program to make
                   your own picture and paste it in. The PICT
                   should have an ID=128.
            TMPL - You don't need to mess with this one.
            TEXT - There are two TEXT ID's
                   128 - This text describes the scenario on
                         the Scenario selection screen.
                   129 - This text is used for the extended
                         description that pops up just before
                         the city begins.
            SCEN - This resource has all of the goal details.
                   Disaster type - There are 16 different
                         disasters. A 0 means no disasters.
                   Disaster Xloc, ylox - these are the origin
                         coordiantes - I'm not exactly sure
                         how to make use of these.
                   Time limit (months) - you must reach goal
                         before this many months pass.
                   City size, Ind, Res, Com Goal - build
                         population to this size
                   Cash Funds-Bonds - raise this much money.
                   Land Value Goal - increase land value to
                         this level.
                   Pollution, Crime, Traffic limit - I
                         haven't experimented with these yet.
                   There are 4 more goals that I don't know
                   what to do with.
         7. Once you've edited the resources, you need to
            change the file type. Use Get Info to change the
            file type from CITY to SCEN.
         8. Now just make sure that the city is in the same
            folder as SC2K and everything should work out.
            You might have to play with the PICT to make it
            fit right. and you will probably need to
            experiment with the goals to make your scenarios
            challenging, yet reachable.
         9. The disasters are numbered as follows:
            1 fire          9 meltdown
            2 flood        10 microwave
            3 riots        11 volcano
            4 pollution    12 firestorm
            5 air crash    13 mass riots
            6 earthquake   14 major floods
            7 tornado      15 chemical spill
            8 monster      16 hurricane

+5.0  SCURK(SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit)
+5.1.0Q:What is SCURK?
      A:SCURK is the SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit.  It's designed to
    let the user import his own graphics(such as scanned images), and also
    comes with its own graphics set, a futuristic set of buildings that
    Maxis designed to take SC2K well beyond the year 2000.  It also has
    a function to let the user set up his own city(with whatever buildings
    where-ever he wants them), and then print that city out to a printer.
+5.1.1Q:Where can I find SCURK?
      A:SCURK is commercial software, and is currently availbe for both Mac
    and IBM versions of the game at your local software store or by
    contacting Maxis.
+5.2  Q:Where can I find other people's tile sets?
      A:A few tile sets for SCURK are currently available at ftp.netcom.com
    in /pub/thx/scurk.  Hopefully more will become available soon.

SimCity2000 Technical Info v2.0 rev. 11/6/94
 Maintained by: Dave Palsen
 Please send corrections, additions, questions,
 etc. to me at: [e-mail]

*DISCLAIMER*
Under no circumstance including negligence, shall I (D.M.Palsen)
be liable for any incidental, special, or consequential damages
that result from the use of the information contained with this
file. So there. B-}

New items to this version have a plus to the left.

INDEX
1.0 MISC I (General questions about the game)
2.0 TOOLS (Zoning, transportation, water, city services)
3.0 BUDGET + OTHER WINDOWS (Taxes, ordinances, etc.)
4.0 MISC II (Bugs, rewards, cheats)
5.0 SCURK (SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit)
A-1 Appendix 1 (Solving Problems)
A-2 Appendix 2 (Adjusting Difficulty)
A-3 Appendix 3 (Mac Technical Problems)
A-4 Appendix 4 (IBM Technical Problems)
A-5 Appendix 5 (How to Make a Boot Disk)
A-6 Appendix 6 (SC2K Suggestion List)
A-7 Appendix 7 (SC2K Description)

A-1 Appendix 1 (Solving Problems)
Growth
* Lower taxes
* Improve roads/transportation system
* Improve water system
* Intersperse zones
* Improve land values
* Build airports (Commercial)
* Build seaports (Industrial)
* Build connections
* Lower pollution/crime/traffic
* Improve education/health
* Pass Legalized Gambling ordinance (Commercial)
* Pass Tourist Advertising ordinance (Commercial)
* Pass Business Advertising ordinance (Industrial)
* Pass City Beautification ordinance (Tourism)
* Pass Annual Carnival ordinance (Tourism, Commercial)
* Pass Nuclear Free Zone ordinance (Residential)
* Remove Nuclear Free Zone ordinance (Industrial)
* Remove Parking Fines ordinance (Residential)
* Remove 1% Income Tax ordinance (Residential)
* Remove 1% Sales Tax ordinance (Commercial)
Land Value
* Build parks, trees, water
* Build recreational zones
* Build educational zones
* Build police, fire, hospitals
* Pass Pass City Beautification ordinance
* Pass Homeless Shelter ordinance
Pollution
* Pass Pollution Control ordinance
* Increase tax rate on polluting industries
* Build a water treatment plant
* Lower traffic
* Use light industrial instead of heavy industrial
* Use solar, hydro, wind, microwave, fusion power
* Move poluting buildings to edges of map
Traffic
* Build more roads and highways
* Build mass transit
* Pass Parking Fines ordinance
* Intersperse different zones (build R close to I, C)
Crime
* Build police stations
* Pass Anti-Drug Campaign ordinance
* Pass Neighborhood Watch Campaign
* Use more light zoning
* Build prisons
Unemployment
* Zone more industry and commercial zones
* Remove Pollution Control ordinance, if in place
* Lower industrial and commercial tax rates
Education
* Build Schools, Colleges
* Build Libraries, Museums
* Pass Pro-Reading Campaign ordinance
* Give tax breaks to high-EQ industries
Health
* Build hospitals
* Pass Public Smoking Ban ordinance
* Pass Free Clinic ordinance
* Pass Junior Sports ordinance
* Pass CPR Training ordinance

A-2 Appendix 2 (Adjusting Difficulty)
Money cheats
 Using one of the previously mentioned methods for getting
 more money is the simplest way to make things easier. You
 don't have to worry about balancing the budget and you can
 lower taxes to zero.
No disasters
 Disasters can be quite, well, disasterous, for a young city.
 It's not a good a to leave a city running overnight without
 turning the disasters off. For one thing, even if you had
 good fire coverage, you'd probably lose a lot of your city
 to fire. In addition, most power plants need to be replaced
 every 50 years, so, soon, everyone would be out of power.
Starting Level
 Changing the starting difficulty level changes the amount of
 money you start with, the frequency of disasters, and the
 level of external demand for your manufactured products.
Starting Time
 Later starting times are easier because of the increased
 availability of inventions and the increase in external
 demand.
Terrain Editing
 It's much easier to build a city on flat ground - and you
 can do all the flattening you want, at no cost, in the
 terrain editor. You can also add waterfalls for use with
 hydro power.
Riverless hyrdo plants
 This source of power is not very realistic, however, it does
 not pollute, is fairly efficient, and does not need to be
 replaced every 50 years. Just place a drop of water on any
 slope, and build a hydro plant there.
Artifically watered pumps
 Water pump efficiency can be artificially improved by
 placing drops of water next to them.
Disconnected roads - roadless city
 By not building full road systems, it is possible to
 keep traffic down, however, it's not very realisitic.
Heavy/Light Density Zoning
 If you're interested in building a city with a large
 population, you need to use mostly heavy zoning. A more
 realistic city (N.Y. and Hong Kong excepted) would
 have heavy to light zoning in a ratio of from 25/75 to
 50/50.
Arcologies
 Don't use them. Or, limit yourself to one of each.

A-3 Appendix 3 (Mac Technical Problems) from 1.1 Updater
Restart With Extensions Off
 SimCity 2000 has been tested with many, many extensions with
 few or no problems - however, we cannot guarantee that there
 will not be conflicts. It's possible that, if certain
 extensions are loaded in a certain order, or in certain
 configurations, SimCity 2000 might not work correctly. If
 you do have problems running SimCity 2000, we suggest re-
 starting with extensions off. To do this, select Restart
 from the Special menu, and hold down the Shift key until you
 see the "Welcome to Macintosh" screen with the text
 "Extensions Off". When you are finished playing SimCity
 2000, restart your machine again and your extensions will
 load properly.
Make Sure You Are Running In 32-Bit Mode (If Possible)
 In your Control Panel folder, select the Memory control
 panel and make sure that 32-Bit Addressing is enabled. Some
 machines will not have this option available. If this is the
 case, 32-bit addressing is probably not the source of the
 problem.
Upgrade To Sound Manager 3.0
 We also recommend upgrading your system software with the
 Sound Manager 3.0 extension available from many on-line
 services (including the Maxis Technical Support BBS at 1-
 510-254-3869) or directly from Apple Computer.
Switch To 256 Colors (660av Users Especially)
 SimCity 2000 automatically switches your Macintosh to 256-
 color mode if it is not already set, and returns it to the
 original color depth when exiting. Some Macintoshes display
 erratic behavior when this happens (e.g., the Newspaper
 display draws pixels on the top area of your screen and
 doesn't display newspaper articles when you click on
 newspaper article headings). The solution is to manually
 switch your Macintosh color depth to 256. This is done in
 the Monitors control panel.
Beware Of Screen Savers
 Certain windows in SimCity 2000* may not re-draw after some
 screen savers have cleared the screen. This will leave you with
 a white window and no idea what to do with it. The buttons in
 these windows are still active; just keep clicking around until
 you hit something. In some situations, Delrina's Bill'n'Opus
 screen saver may conflict. We recommend disabling the screen
 saver while SimCity 2000 is running.

A-4 Appendix 4 (IBM Technical Problems) from the Maxis BBS
*****THE MAXIS EMERGENCY TOP TEN LIST FOR SIM CITY 2000*****
Technical Support is totally overwhelmed at the moment answering
SimCity 2000 questions.  Here are the top ten questions we are
getting and the fixes for each one.  Hope these help to get you
up and running!
Q. I loaded the program but when I go to run it (by typing
   SC2000) it gives me a message that I don't have enough memory
   even though I've got 4 megabytes of RAM on my system.
A. The problem happens because out of 4 megabytes of memory,
   there isn't enough available to load the program.  When your
   computer starts up, it loads other programs into that memory.
   The easiest way to get around this is to make a boot disk and
   start your computer with it instead.  See your SIMCITY 2000
   ADDENDUM & QUICK START GUIDE pg. 6 and the "HOW TO MAKE A
   BOOTDISK" section at the bottom of this document.
Q. I try to start the program and get a message, "Microsoft
   compatible mouse not found".
A. The program requires that a mouse driver be loaded in memory.
   If you do have a mouse driver loaded and the program still
   doesn't find it, make sure that it is at least version 8 or
   higher by the Microsoft version numbering system.  If you have
   an older version of a mouse driver, you will need to update
   the driver version by contacting the manufacturer of the mouse
   OR by contacting the store where the computer was purchased.
Q. I get a message, "The video card you've selected is not found.
   Please re-install and verify that your video card is
   supported."
A. Sim City 2000 needs a SVGA video card in order to display the
   640 x 480 - 256 color video resolution.  The video card needs
   to have at least 512K of video memory.  Some cards may need a
   VESA driver to be loaded prior to running the program and
   since there are many different video cards, there are many
   different VESA drivers for each card.  If you aren't sure
   which video card you have, try loading the UNIVESA.EXE driver
   as this driver supports a wide variety of video cards.  You
   can load this driver by typing,
   "C:\SC2000\VESA\UNIVESA\UNIVESA " and pressing the "Enter"
   key.  This will load the VESA driver for the video card.  If
   this VESA driver isn't the correct one for your video card,
   contact the manufacturer of the video card to determine what
   the correct VESA driver is.  To find out whether or not you
   need to load a vesa driver for your video card, go to the
   C:\SC2000 sub-directory and type " INFO " and press enter.
   This will display information about your system.  Press the
   spacebar twice to get to the third page of the info program to
   find out whether your card has a VESA driver loaded.  If it
   tells you that the following VESA modes are supported then you
   won't to load one. If it says "Either your card does not
   support VESA or there is no driver loaded", this means that
   you have to load a vesa driver for the video card.
Q. I have a SOUND BLASTER type sound card and it fails when I try
   to select it for sound effects.  What's going on in Dodge?
A. The earlier SOUND BLASTER cards used an IRQ setting of 7.  The
   new ones, however, now use IRQ 5.  We are looking for IRQ 7
   and if your card fails you probably have it set differently.
   Try running the install again and this time, when the sound
   card fails initialization, click on the CHANGE SETTINGS button
   and change the IRQ setting to the number 5.  Then click on the
   CONTINUE button and this should make the program accept the
   sound card.
Q. I try to run Sim City 2000 and when I do I get some weird
   UNEXPECTED INTERRUPT - ERROR 35 message.  I'm really confused!
A. This means that you have an ATI video card.  You must run a
   program before starting Sim City 2000.  Type " MW_ATIUP " and
   press the "Enter" key from within the SC2000 sub-directory.
   Once you do this it will return you to the C:\SC2000 prompt.
   Now type SC2000 and the program will run fine.
Q. I have a DIAMOND VIPER video card and I can't get the program
   to work with it.
A. All you have to do is type " VPRMODE VESA " and press enter.
   This will load the vesa driver for your video card.  If you
   get a "Bad command or filename" message then you need to be in
   your VIPER sub directory before you run the VPRMODE VESA
   command.  Also, make sure that Sim City 2000 is set up for
   VESA Super VGA graphics.  (You can check this by running the
   INSTALL program from within the SC2000 sub-directory.)
Q. I run the installation program and when it gets to the type of
   video card I have, the program locks up.
A. The installation program is trying to figure out what kind of
   video card you have in your computer.  Sometimes it conflicts
   with a program and that will cause the installer to lock up.
   If you have DOS version 6.X, you can do a clean boot by
   pressing the F5 key when the "Starting MS-DOS" message
   appears.  This will bypass your configuration files and then
   run the installer again.  It will work fine now.
Q. I have OS/2 and I want to run Sim City under it.  I tried
   doing all of the memory stuff but still can't get enough free.
   Please tell me it's possible.  -Gooie
A. Dear Gooie....Yes! You can run it under OS/2.  All you have to
   do is select a DOS FULL-WINDOWS session.  Once in DOS, go to
   the SC2000 sub-directory and type " SC2000 NO_MEM_CHK " and
   the program will run.  You should only do this if you have at
   least 6 - 8 Megabytes of memory though because with four you
   won't have enough.
Q. I play the program and during a certain point, I get a "STACK
   OVERFLOW" message and the system dies an ugly death.
A. Ouch!  This is a little problem (or bug) that has surfaced on
   some machines.  We are currently working on a fix and believe
   that the new version of the DOS Extender that we are using
   will fix the problem. In the meantime, contact MAXIS technical
   support and ask to have you name added to a list.  We will
   contact you when a solution is found. I hope it is really soon
   because I know you are dying to play this wonderful product!
Q. I have a problem and it isn't listed in the list.
A. If you have any problems that aren't addressed in this list,
   please post (to the Maxis BBS) a message with the type of
   problem you are having and we'll be sure to add it to our
   list!  This list will be revised depending on the types of
   problems you are experiencing.
This concludes the wonderful TOP TEN question and answer list.
Thanks for reading it!

A-4 Appendix 4 (How to Make a Boot Disk) also from the Maxis BBS
*****************HOW TO MAKE A BOOT DISK***************
If you are having problems making a boot disk, take the time to
browse over this stuff and see if it helps you any.
1. The BOOT DISK must be in your A: drive to work properly.  A
   boot disk in your B: drive just won't cut the cake; it has to
   be in drive A:.
2. Make sure your mouse driver is copied onto the BOOT DISK.  You
   need to copy your mouse driver onto the boot disk and it must
   be named either MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.EXE to work in your
   AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE.  If it has a different name, simply type
   the correct name in the autoexec.bat file in order to load the
   driver.  i.e. If your mouse is named AMOUSE.COM, then you need
   to type AMOUSE on the mouse line of your autoexec.bat file.
3. From the C:\ prompt, type "SYS A:" and press the Enter key on
   your keyboard.  This will copy the system start-up files to
   your floppy disk in the A: drive.
4. If you need a vesa driver for your video card, enter in the
   name of the vesa driver into the autoexec.bat file.  This is a
   sample of what you need to type: IGNORE THE QUOTES! Don't type
   them, they just surround what you need to type in.
    A:>\"COPY CON AUTOEXEC.BAT"  (type the line and then press
                                  the ENTER key.)
   Once you type this line it will drop you down to a flashing
   cursor that is waiting for you to type commands.  Type the
   following commands that are in upper-case letters and press
   the enter key to drop to the next line:
    PROMPT $P$G
    MOUSE
    C:\SC2000\VESA\UNIVESA\UNIVESA
    C:
    CD\SC2000
    SC2000
   After typing the SC2000 line, press the F6 key on your
   keyboard and then press the enter key.  It should say "One
   file(s) copied" when done.
   Try to restart your computer with the BOOTDISK in drive A: and
   it should boot up into the program.  If it doesn't, see the
   possible errors below to help trouble shoot.
1. While booting, it gets to MOUSE and says, "Bad command or file
   name". This will happen if you don't have the mouse driver
   (MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.EXE) copied onto your bootdisk or if the
   mouse driver has a different name.  Make sure the mouse driver
   is on the bootdisk AND that it is named MOUSE.COM or
   MOUSE.EXE.  If it is named MSMOUSE.COM or something else,
   rename the mouse file by typing "REN MSCMOUSE.COM MOUSE.COM"
   at the A: prompt.  This will rename the mouse from
   mscmouse.com to mouse.com and it should now work.
2. If you use the bootdisk and you still get the "The video card
   you have selected is not found. Please re-install......."
   message, this means that you don't have the correct video card
   VESA driver loaded. Please contact your video card
   manufacturer to inquire as to the correct VESA driver to load
   for your video card.
3. If you get a message "Non-system disk or disk error", remove
   the floppy and press any key.  This means that the system
   (startup) files aren't on the floppy disk.  Once you have
   booted up, go to the DOS sub-directory by typing CD\DOS
   <Enter>.  Make sure you put the boot disk back in the A: drive
   and then type, SYS A:.  This will transfer the system to your
   boot-disk and correct the problem.
Additional notes:
You only need to have a mouse driver loaded and, in some cases, a
vesa driver.  You don't need any type of memory manager because
we use a dos extender.
If you have an IBM XGA or XGA2 video card it will switch the
program into sixteen colors.  We are currently looking into a
solution that would prevent this from happening thus allowing the
program to run in 256 colors.
If you have a Texas Instruments Travel Mate 4000 and can't run
the program: We have been in contact with the good folks at Texas
Instruments and are currently working on a fix.
If you have a Packard Bell computer and are getting "mouse
trails" where the cursor moves on the screen - You need to
contact Packard Bell's technical support department.  They have
found a solution to the problem and are also taking care of the
method in which to correct it.  (I just wanna say that there
doing one heck of a good job too!  Especially after going through
that major earthquake!)  Kudos to the folks at Packard Bell!
The program makes some heavy demands on the system hardware.
There is very little out there in terms of standards and it makes
the development of a product such as this a tremendous job.  Hang
in there and we'll get you going! Maxis Technical Support is open
from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. We experience HIGH
call volumes on MONDAYS and during the later hours of the day.
If you are having trouble reaching us by telephone, try to call
earlier in the day or during the middle of the week as this is
our lowest call volume time.

Thanks!


A-6 Appendix 6 (SC2K Suggestion List)
     Last updated: 3-6-94

This is a list of ideas for improvements to the game
SimCity 2000 (SC2K) from Maxis.  It is a compilation of
suggestions from people on CompuServe and the SC2K mailing
list (which is actually a list for all Maxis games) on the
Internet.  I have included the names of the contributors and
their addresses.  Please note that addresses are in Internet
form, including CompuServe addresses.  For those CIS users
not familiar with this form, it is your CIS ID number with a
period instead of a comma, followed by "@compuserve.com".
F'rinstance, my CIS address of 72172,230 would be
[e-mail].
Contributions to this list should be mailed to Dave Lartigue
at either of the following addresses:
Internet: [e-mail]
CompuServe:    72172,230
In the case of two people suggesting the same thing, I will
usually credit the first person, unless the second expresses
the idea more fully.  If you wish to elaborate on another
person's suggestion, please note the number of the suggestion
on the list, and in future updates this will be noted.
Please note that the items collected here are suggestions,
not bug fixes.
This list will be regularly updated and distributed on
CompuServe (in the Gamers Forum under the "Other Games"
section) and on the Internet.
Anyone wishing to donate an FTP site for the list, please
contact me.  For the moment, it is available on request at my
address above.  I will post a general message on the Simlist
mailing list when a new update is available.
Thanks to all who have contributed, and thanks to Maxis for
providing such an entertaining game!

+----------------------------------------------------------+

1) Toll highways and bridges.  Would provide extra income,
   but at the expense of possible commercial development.
   However, may help to decrease pollution and traffic by
   encouraging carpooling.
   (Dave Lartigue: [e-mail] /
   [e-mail])
2) Wildlife Preserves and Scenic Routes.  You could designate
   an area of land (or a highway) as a wildlife preserve/
   scenic route.  This would increase tourism and Sim-
   happiness, but the designated land would be locked out of
   development.  Some encouragement for more aesthetic
   cities, rather than slash-and-burn.
   (Dave Lartigue)
3) Amusement Parks as Recreation objects.  5x5 squares?
   (Dave Lartigue)
4) SimSuffrage:  The Sims should be given the right to vote
   every few years and if the ballot goes against you, you
   are booted out of office. However, it's a SimElection --
   you'd still run the city, but you'd have to pick a new
   name.  There would be no real penalty for losing, but it
   would remind players that real-life mayors must listen to
   the complaints and needs of their citizens.
   (Alan Czarnek:  [e-mail])
5) Power Brokerage.  You should be able to sell off extra
   power to neighboring cities for a certain amount per watt,
   and likewise be able to buy power from neighboring cities.
   (Peter Kasmir: [e-mail])
6) Advanced forms of transportation that appear after a
   certain date, such as elevated trains, monorails (that go
   from arcology to arcology), etc.
   (Darin Gurney: [e-mail])
7) Ski Resorts on the slopes of mountains.
   (Darin Gurney)
8) A floating Arcology that could be built on water.
   (Darin Gurney)
9) Underground power lines, along with undersea power lines.
   (Darin Gurney)
10) Highway and Rail Tunnels.
    (Darin Gurney)
11) A wartime *mode* where you are trying to fortify your
    city against invaders.  That is, set up defenses
    batteries, and provide shelters for your citizens while
    still growing your population.  There would be a
    drain on your young male populations, of course!
    (Darin Gurney)
12) Bridges that go over land, from one hill to another.
    (Sushil Gupta: [e-mail])
13) More selections for highway bridges.
    (Sushil Gupta)
14) Stadiums which look like the stadiums for the sport you
    select.  I.E., a football stadium with a gridiron,
    baseball with a diamond, etc.
    (Sushil Gupta)
15) Elevated trains.  [Others had mentioned elevated trains,
    but Sushil went into a little more detail.]  Cheaper than
    subway, more expensive than regular rail.  1x1 sized
    stations, above ground, and able to connect to rail.
    Effective as commuter rail.
    (Sushil Gupta)
16) Special events like the Olympics.  Will cost a lot, but
    increase industry and commerce revenue, as well as
    tourism.  You must have at least two stadiums before you
    are asked.  Would create a heavy toll on traffic.
    (Sushil Gupta)
17) SimFarm!  Combine light residential and industrial.
    (Sushil Gupta)
18) Instead of rebuilding power plants every 50 years,
    simply pay maintenance costs for nukes and fuel gosts
    for gas and coal.
    (Sushil Gupta)
19) Highway Patrol.  If you have enough miles of highway, you
    could get a highway patrol office.  Might reduce traffic.
    (Sushil Gupta)
20) More rewards!
    (Sushil Gupta)
21) More interesting military bases.
    (Sushil Gupta)
22) The ability to edit terrain without losing the city.
    (James Walker: 70007,[e-mail])
23) A mode that would allow you to select an icon (bus
    stations, for example) and then would highlight all of
    those structures on the map.
    (James Walker)
24) A right-click property inspector.
    (James Walker)
25) A true flat view, straight down, to help in placing
    pipes, subways, etc.
    (James Walker)
26) Expand the advisors into more areas [suggestions welcome
    on which areas!] plus the ability to turn them off if
    desired.
    (James Walker)
27) Change the river icon in the terrain editor so that you
    can point the direction of the river.
    (James Walker)
28) The ability to turn off parts of the simulation that may
    slow it down.
    (IE, cars, planes and helicopters, animation).
    (James Walker)
29) An UNDO!
    (James Walker)
30) Go back to rating cities by population (town, city,
    capitol, etc.).  It is frustrating that nothing happens
    when your population reaches 1 million.  The last reward
    you get is Arcologies, which allow you to dramatically
    increase your population, but there doesn't seem to be
    any reason to do so after that point.
    (Dave Lartigue)
31) Have built-in hints in the form of "special research
    studies".  You could get hints on, say, reducing
    pollution, by funding money towards a study that, after a
    few years, would give ideas on reducing pollution.
    (Dave Lartigue)
32) Malls as recreation items.  Sure, malls spring up as a
    commercial zone, but in every city I've ever been to,
    malls are strategically positioned, usually next to the
    interstate.  Also, you'll notice that being close to a
    big mall is often a selling point for homes in newspaper
    classifieds.
    (Dave Lartigue)
33) Extend the college concept and have a "university"
    zoning construct. You could zone an area for this and it
    would promote dense residential (student housing) and
    light commercial zoning in its immediate
    neighborhood, the effect depending on the size (small -->
    virtually no effect, large --> very spread out effect).
    As time progresses, you could get things like a "free"
    hospital (med school) and sports stadium.  Also,
    as time goes by, if your university is doing well, it
    would start demanding more space, which of course will
    cause all kinds of problems for the neighbors.  (I grew
    up in Austin, TX, which has no shortage of friction
    between the University of Texas and everyone else.)
    (Steve Rodrigues: [e-mail])
34) How about courthouses? Once you get to a certain size,
    you can get one of these, maybe some government buildings
    when you get bigger...  It seems that lots of little
    towns I have driven through have their courthouse (if
    they're the county seat) very prominent in the center of
    town.
    (Steve Rodrigues)
35) Another "outside world" suggestion:  be able to compete
    with your neighbors for industries.
    (Steve Rodrigues)
36) Other utilities, such as telephone, TV, and radio
    stations.
    (Steve Rodrigues)
37) The ability to save cities as .PCX, .BMP, or .GIF files.
    (Fred Chang: [e-mail])
38) In addition to the terrain editing mode, an icon editor
    that would allow you to design buildings and icons.  Say,
    a condo that looks like one in your area.
    (Fred Chang)
39) Bookmarks.  I'd like to be able to assign, say, five
    bookmarks and jump directly to them.
    (Dave Lartigue)
40) Track popularity on the graph so you'd know what was
    going on at times when your popularity was up or down.
    (Dave Lartigue)
41) Recycling Plants, which of course would help somewhat
    with pollution and, in the future, Air Treatment Plants.
    Expensive, but they cut through the smog.
    (Dave Lartigue)
42) After, say, 2200, have a Spaceport in addition to Air-
    and Sea-.
    (Dave Lartigue)
43) Ferries as alternatives to bridges.  You'd need one on
    each bank, fairly close to each other.
    (Dave Lartigue)
44) Underwater tunnels.
    (Dave Lartigue)
45) A driving add-on which would allow you to drive (or fly!)
    through your city.
    (M.J. Bluett?: [e-mail])
46) In real life electric (and telephone) wires run parallel
    with roads.  Why can't we have this? You would be able to
    select a road, road with power, with water, or with power
    and water. There is no need to take up two tile widths
    for both out to the SimAirport, for example. Bridges and
    tunnels should have this capability too. And while I'm at
    it, subways and rail, too, should conduct power.
    (Karen Todd: [e-mail])
47) Until the aforementioned recycle plants become availble
    in time, trash dumps should be considered. (I know,
    pretty yucky idea, but it's realistic.)
    (Karen Todd)
48) I miss the hot keys from SC classic. I know B for
    bulldoze still works, but how about p==power, t==train,
    s==subway, r==roads, w=water, etc.. Maybe even command-p
    for power plants, command-t for train stations,
    command-s for subway stations, etc. You get the idea.
    (Karen Todd)
49) Why do Sims complain so much about polution and *have* to
    live close to work? They should be smarter than that.
    Maybe if the eq is high, Sims would live farther away and
    take the subway, if the eq is low, they'd have to live
    close and drive.
    (Karen Todd)
50) One thing I've always wanted was an increase in the
    problem of land competition -- especially agricultural/
    suburban. So -- "Farm" zones that are *extremely* cheap
    to build (or just pop up on their own), are extremely low
    density, but something bad happens to you (popularity?
    inflow of new residents falls? I dunno) when you get rid
    of them. Or you have to pay extra to re-zone them
    (bribery + eminent domain). I guess I like the early
    stages of the game, and would be willing to see more
    detail -- dirt roads, for example, or county courthouses,
    and stuff that survives without electricity (like the
    aforementioned farm zones) Or the chance to build a 21st
    century agrarian community powered by windmills with
    electric cars on dirt roads.....SimCommune!
    (Stanley Chin: [e-mail])
51) Golf Courses.  I'm a golf addict and I want my Sims to
    be able to play as well.  I usually give my Big parks
    names of famous golf courses but it would be nice to see
    some bunkers and water surrounding freshly cut grass..
    ("Eagle": [e-mail])
52) Country Estates.  Historically, rich folk are the ones on
    the outskirts of the city (the enclaves may get swallowed
    up, but that's another story). If you build/zone
    residential stuff really far away from the center of
    town, maybe we could have a step up from luxury homes and
    have the estates of the "ultra-rich": huge, sprawling
    things. Anyone who's ever visited River Oaks in Houston,
    or Chappaqua in Westchester County, NY, or Heart
    Castle in California, will have an idea what I'm talking
    about. (This is the "filthy rich beyond imagining" type
    of people.)
    (Steve Rodrigues)
53) Post Offices as government buildings.
    (Simon Leung: sngpit.dnet![e-mail])
54) Highways on the ground, instead of always in the air.
    (Simon Leung)
55) Time flies when you're having fun!  How about a Clock in
    the Title Bar?
    (Dave Lartigue)

A-7 Appendix 7 (SC2K Description)
This Text File was created by Sally Vandershaf, edited by
Peter Alau, with additions by Chrispy Squid and posted by the
dudes at Maxis.

SIMCITY 2000, THE ULTIMATE CITY SIMULATOR
Product Name: SimCity 2000, The Ultimate City Simulator.
Price: $69.95 SRP.
Availability: Fourth quarter 1993 for IBM/DOS and Macintosh
versions.
Company:              Maxis
                      2 Theatre Square
                      Orinda, CA 94563
Main:                 510/254-9700
Fax:                  510/253-3736
Customer Service:     800/33-MAXIS
Tech Support:         510/253-3755
Preliminary           IBM/DOS: 386 or above; MS-DOS 3.3 or
Requirements:         above; 4MB RAM; hard disk; mouse;
                      extended VGA mode, 640 x 480 (256
                      colors). Supports AdLib, Ad Lib Gold,
                      Sound Blaster, Roland MT-32, Roland MPU
                      401, Pro Audio Spectrum and 100%
                      compatibles.
Macintosh:            LC, Performa, II, Centris and Quadra
                      series; Color Classic; PowerBook (160,
                      165c, 180, 180c, Duo 210, (230); System
                      7.0; 4MB RAM (2.5MB RAM free); mouse;
                      hard disk; 256 color monitor.
Disk Size:            IBM/DOS: 3 1/2" high-density with 5
                      1/4" high-density disks available from
                      Maxis.
Macintosh:            3 1/2" high-density.

WHAT IS SIMCITY 2000? Incorporating four years of customer
suggestions, SimCity 2000 combines dozens of new features and
stunning three-dimensional graphics with the intuitive
interface and engrossing gameplay that made the
original SimCity (which has been re-christened "SimCity
Classic-The Original City Simulator",) so successful. Current
SimCity Classic players will be able to start playing SimCity
2000 immediately, using just the features that are familiar
from the original game. As players learn the new features of
SimCity 2000, they will become more proficient mayors. Here's
a sample of what SimCity 2000 lets players do:

        -Modify terrain with mountains, forests, rivers,
         streams, waterfalls, and bays.
        -Zoom into the city at three levels of magnification,
         and rotate the three-dimensional model of the city
         360 degrees for more realistic perspectives.
        -Place new structures-schools, universities,
         libraries, museums, zoos, hospitals, prisons,
         marinas, freeways, bridges-as well as the original
         SimCity services, with updated graphics.
        -Dig underground tunnels and subways and lay pipe for
         transporting water.
        -Import cities from SimCity Classic into SimCity
         2000.

Target Audience: SimCity 2000 is targeted to current owners
of SimCity Classic and other Maxis "Sim" games, as well as
high-end computer owners who may not already own a Maxis
game, but are interested in sophisticated, open-ended
entertainment software.  SimCity Classic, which has been a
consistent best-seller since its introduction four years ago,
now includes a terrain editor and support for popular sound
cards. SimCity Classic's simplicity makes it a natural for
customers who are new to the computer game category, and want
an easy and fun introduction to gaming before advancing to
more intricate simulations.

Design philosophy:  Like all "Sim" games, SimCity 2000
enables players to challenge themselves to meet their own
goals, rather than goals artificially imposed by the game's
design. Our purpose in designing SimCity 2000 was to make it
as easy to use as the original SimCity was, but at the same
time to incorporate user suggestions and many of the things
we had to leave out of the original SimCity because of
hardware constraints. For example, we added underground
infrastructure (subways, water pipes, tunnels) and a much
more detailed economic model. In essence, we tried to bring
SimCity 2000 a lot closer to reality, with 3-D graphics
that enhance the feeling that the city is real when you're
working with it.