Creating a practical farm town

[pepsibottle1]

Hey guys. Just wanted a little advice on creating small little farm towns (around 300-900 people) just outside my main metropolis region to fill out the outer portion of my region. But it seems that it is almost impossible to creating something practical to what I want in the game. All I desire are little hicktowns, but with so few people spread throughout the "county", it's impossible to please the sims. They want school and health coverage across the entire city, and with the population so sparce and spread, it simply cannot be feasible to do that.

Is it possible to create little rural areas reminiscent to small counties found across the U.S?

[jmyers2043]

Hey pepsibottle1

R$ Sims like to work in CS$, dirty industry and farms. They don't require schools, police, education, health, or parks. Your Sims may ask for city services but you do not have to provide them until you're ready to have some R$$ Sims move into your town. R$ sims cause demand for CS$, I-D, and I-AG. 

Remember too that all demand has a regional impact. Your big educated rich city will affect the rural villages you want to have.

The best/easiest way is to build out your rural country side before starting any big educated city. You can always go back and revisit the rural cities and plop services after the countryside is to your liking. But that's not your scenario. 

It is possible to have a nice farm community in an existing educated region. The way I'd proceed is to go to the outer portion of your region and start a rural city. DO NOT make any neighbor connections. R$ sims should move into town and farms should develop. Sure, Sims will ask and beg for city serices but don't give in. What am I doing? I want my city to act like and think like it is the first city in a new region. the point is that your city will 'join' the region and be influenced by the other cities when you make neighbor connections.

Now, you'll eventually have to make neighbor connections . But you should almost be able to fill a medium city with farms before you get to that point.

Good Luck

- Jim

[FrankU]

Ah, yes. That is a good way to do it.
I myself didn't think about the part of leaving out the neighbour connections.
And I think it's good to stress that education ruins the demand for farms. So don't punt any educational services in your villages until you are bored by the rural atmosphere and want to make some real cities out of it.





(my 1111th post!)

[pepsibottle1]

Wonderful! Thanks a lot for the advice, I'd have never thought that would be the way to go but sure enough, it works like a charm. That's almost the final piece of the puzzle for my region that I've made. So just leave the city isolated until I feel that I have enough farmland, correct? Perfect!

Thanks again guys! I'll try that when I get home today.

[pepsibottle1]

Just wanted to give you all an update; the method works just as intended. Now I've got a "county" full of farmers and rednecks!

One last question. How would you guys set up your commercial zones? I have a little 5X5 zone of light commercial that is sort of reminiscent of small towns across the USA