Regional Sharing
by alwe15Original Post
Regional Sharing
Hi,
I have recently been playing SimCity over the last week or so. I find it difficult to work out what resources are actually being shared regionally?
Are there any players with extensive gaming hours that can clarify this for me?
I am not only referring to resources such as power and water. These are my queries:
- Do workers / shoppers / students & freight actually commute correctly? For example, if I have 100 unemployed in one City and 100 available jobs in the second, will those 100 unemployed commute every day?
- Does Power, Water and Sewage share correctly? I know that the available amount will split between claimed cities sharing a road but I have had great difficulty getting another City to accept Sewage. Also, City 1 suggests that it has, for example 100kwh Power available, but City 2 (the only other City on the map) can only purchase 90kwh?
- Who are the tourists? I have placed a ploppable Municipal bus station and now I receive tourists to my City (orange people when Commercial data is selected). Where do these tourists come from because my other City has no unsatisfied shoppers.
- How does sharing services work (Police, Ambulances etc.)? Can the second City run without such services if the first City provides enough of them? It would certainly reduce my monthly outgoings if one City didn't require a Police service or Hospital
- Is it possible to run three Cities, one of each zoning type? One residential, one commercial and one industrial?
I apologise in advance for the many many questions.
Accepted Solution
Re: Regional Sharing
I'll try to help - in some cases, the problems aren't bugs or poor programming, it's just part of the game. There are some cases where the game just doesn't work as intended, but if you're aware of the issues you can work with it and still prevail. I have played this game on and off since launch
@alwe15 wrote:
- Do workers / shoppers / students & freight actually commute correctly? For example, if I have 100 unemployed in one City and 100 available jobs in the second, will those 100 unemployed commute every day?
In a word - No. Unfortunately, they tried, but a number of issues with syncing online really screwed it up. Some regional things directly interact, others just "look" like they're working. So if you have 100 unemployed in one City, when you're in that city's regional view, it will look at the numbers of the other city and show workers commuting, but 100 sims do not actually track to the city with open jobs. The game treats it as if they are, in regional view, but after all my years of playing I have never been able to balance jobs in this manner.
Unfortunately, one of the bugs that is here to stay is Sims leaving a city for any reason lose their tracking and don't return. So it is best to balance population on a per-city basis.
@alwe15 wrote:
- Does Power, Water and Sewage share correctly? I know that the available amount will split between claimed cities sharing a road but I have had great difficulty getting another City to accept Sewage. Also, City 1 suggests that it has, for example 100kwh Power available, but City 2 (the only other City on the map) can only purchase 90kwh?
Yes! Power, Water and Sewage sharing actually work really well. I generally set up a utility city in the region and stack all of those services in one city, share with the region and then never touch the utility city again (unless I need to add more capacity). You are correct - the available amount will be split evenly between claimed cities. Showing 90kwh available instead of 100kwh available may just be a matter of synching. The consumer city may need to play for a bit to catch up to the amount available from the supplier city, or vice versa.
@alwe15 wrote:
- Who are the tourists? I have placed a ploppable Municipal bus station and now I receive tourists to my City (orange people when Commercial data is selected). Where do these tourists come from because my other City has no unsatisfied shoppers.
Tourists come from "The Region" - they're completely separate entities that appear when you add regional transportation, cultural or gambling facilities. This creates another layer of shoppers, known as tourists, that need to be managed with your commercial.
@alwe15 wrote:
- How does sharing services work (Police, Ambulances etc.)? Can the second City run without such services if the first City provides enough of them? It would certainly reduce my monthly outgoings if one City didn't require a Police service or Hospital
I like sharing services - police, fire, ambulances - when I set up a new city for just that reason. Why pay for all those workers when there's a fire or criminal once every 3 months? I would say it works well to cut costs at the beginning, but once your city reaches a certain population it becomes really ineffective really fast. I suggest using sharing as a startup option, but once the traffic or city size makes it so that they're not keeping up, build the stations in your new city. You should have the funds by the time you need them.
@alwe15 wrote:
- Is it possible to run three Cities, one of each zoning type? One residential, one commercial and one industrial?
Not really - mostly because of the "phantom" commuting I talked about earlier. You can successfully build an industrial city, but you'll still need at least a megatower or a section of the city with low wealth residential to actually keep the industry running. Residential must have commercial at the very least, both for the workers and the shoppers.
Hope this helps!
All Replies
Re: Regional Sharing
I'll try to help - in some cases, the problems aren't bugs or poor programming, it's just part of the game. There are some cases where the game just doesn't work as intended, but if you're aware of the issues you can work with it and still prevail. I have played this game on and off since launch
@alwe15 wrote:
- Do workers / shoppers / students & freight actually commute correctly? For example, if I have 100 unemployed in one City and 100 available jobs in the second, will those 100 unemployed commute every day?
In a word - No. Unfortunately, they tried, but a number of issues with syncing online really screwed it up. Some regional things directly interact, others just "look" like they're working. So if you have 100 unemployed in one City, when you're in that city's regional view, it will look at the numbers of the other city and show workers commuting, but 100 sims do not actually track to the city with open jobs. The game treats it as if they are, in regional view, but after all my years of playing I have never been able to balance jobs in this manner.
Unfortunately, one of the bugs that is here to stay is Sims leaving a city for any reason lose their tracking and don't return. So it is best to balance population on a per-city basis.
@alwe15 wrote:
- Does Power, Water and Sewage share correctly? I know that the available amount will split between claimed cities sharing a road but I have had great difficulty getting another City to accept Sewage. Also, City 1 suggests that it has, for example 100kwh Power available, but City 2 (the only other City on the map) can only purchase 90kwh?
Yes! Power, Water and Sewage sharing actually work really well. I generally set up a utility city in the region and stack all of those services in one city, share with the region and then never touch the utility city again (unless I need to add more capacity). You are correct - the available amount will be split evenly between claimed cities. Showing 90kwh available instead of 100kwh available may just be a matter of synching. The consumer city may need to play for a bit to catch up to the amount available from the supplier city, or vice versa.
@alwe15 wrote:
- Who are the tourists? I have placed a ploppable Municipal bus station and now I receive tourists to my City (orange people when Commercial data is selected). Where do these tourists come from because my other City has no unsatisfied shoppers.
Tourists come from "The Region" - they're completely separate entities that appear when you add regional transportation, cultural or gambling facilities. This creates another layer of shoppers, known as tourists, that need to be managed with your commercial.
@alwe15 wrote:
- How does sharing services work (Police, Ambulances etc.)? Can the second City run without such services if the first City provides enough of them? It would certainly reduce my monthly outgoings if one City didn't require a Police service or Hospital
I like sharing services - police, fire, ambulances - when I set up a new city for just that reason. Why pay for all those workers when there's a fire or criminal once every 3 months? I would say it works well to cut costs at the beginning, but once your city reaches a certain population it becomes really ineffective really fast. I suggest using sharing as a startup option, but once the traffic or city size makes it so that they're not keeping up, build the stations in your new city. You should have the funds by the time you need them.
@alwe15 wrote:
- Is it possible to run three Cities, one of each zoning type? One residential, one commercial and one industrial?
Not really - mostly because of the "phantom" commuting I talked about earlier. You can successfully build an industrial city, but you'll still need at least a megatower or a section of the city with low wealth residential to actually keep the industry running. Residential must have commercial at the very least, both for the workers and the shoppers.
Hope this helps!
Thank you for your incredibly detailed response
It is such a shame that the commuting element was never patched to work correctly. I used to play another Sim City, perhaps Sim City 4, and I am certain it worked on that game.
Thank you for the tip about service sharing. I found purchasing a med centre, police station and fire station too early on cost too much. However, you are right to suggest that these services prove inefficient quickly once the City grows!
Do you upgrade your Police and Fire services to include helipads? Does this help? I found on YouTube a player who suggested upgrading with helipads and removing fire truck garages as the helicopters are so much better at putting out fires...
I have identified that Power & Water do indeed share correctly. I misread the 90kwh / 100kwh issue and now both Cities show correctly. However, I am still struggling to get my City to agree to take City 2's sewage. What I have noticed is that on occasion, despite having more than enough extra sewage capacity available, the City Utilities adviser tells me that my Sewage Treatment Plant is struggling...do you know anything about that?
Hey!
I have another Region related question.
I have just recently started work on a Great Work
So, each day at 0600 hours and again at 1800 hours, a few dozen cars leave their place of residence and travel through the City and out along the Highway. These cars are all workers and if selected, tell me that they're "going to work at the Great Work".
There do appear to be workers returning as well.
If I look at the Population tab, there are NO commuting workers.
Who are these workers and why does it not contribute to commuting?
Secondly, once the Great Work is built it'll be the first GW I've ever fully constructed. 
However, will the GW actually work as intended? I have selected Solar Farm so hope that it just provides my Region with untold power.
