Give me a target . . .

[Forrester]

With all of the patches, upgrades, and options out there, I'm not sure what kind of goals to set for myself. I'm not looking to specifically make an awesome-looking city or a city that resembles some real-world location (as it seems more than half of the folks here are -- and more power to them) and/or start with a huge pile of $$ and drop & plop everything in the region at once (as everyone else seems to want to do) -- I kind of want to play it as a strategery game.

Thing is, with all of those patches/upgrades/options, it's difficult for me to determine what's good and what's not. I started SC4 with *zero* patches other than the original Maxis patch, and had the goal to create a large (2x2) city, "Hippieville", where I would cram as many folks in there, with the following ground rules:

1) Use every ordinance (except for curfew)
2) All educational levels 160+
3) Life span 90+
4) All solar/hydrogen power
5) Recycling plant for every 25k population
6) As much mass transit use as possible

I was doing okay, and then I found the NAM patch, which pretty much changed everything. And so I tried again, and was doing ever better, and then I found the CAM patches, which pretty much changed everything again -- the population skyrocketed and I'm running a huge surplus. (BTW, using Simulator Z, medium, and CAM-wise, using 5% R$$ in C$ and I$, but with a slow walking speed).

(Interestingly, with CAM, I hardly have any poor people in Hippieville at all these days -- which makes sense, of course, who likes poor people?)

Problem is . . . I have no idea whether I'm doing well, poorly, or whatever . . . maybe I'm doing well, maybe an stupid, just like myself chimp that had been dropped on its head as a child could be doing as well, or better.

So can someone give me some guidelines about what kind of populations I might shoot for, region-wise (New York, in this case) or city-wise? How tough is it to get to the various levels of progression for the Res/Com/Ind buildings? What are some interesting challenges that I might set for myself here? (Given Hippieville has almost no poor people -- yay regressive tax rate -- I think my next goal is to create a small city that has no schools whatsoever, no IT, only dirty/manufacturing, and see how many folks I can cram in there.)

Thanks much for any input you can give me . . .

[xxdita]

There are so many different ways to play this game, which is what keeps so many of us interested after all this time.

In order to reach the higher stages of CAM, you'll need to grow your region out a bit. So play multiple cities and have them connected.

Use the CAMelot Counter from the LEX to keep track of your progress, as well as the Census Repository v3. A Power Search for RippleJet in the creator category will lead you to both of these.

[Forrester]

There are so many different ways to play this game, which is what keeps so many of us interested after all this time.

In order to reach the higher stages of CAM, you'll need to grow your region out a bit. So play multiple cities and have them connected.

Use the CAMelot Counter from the LEX to keep track of your progress, as well as the Census Repository v3. A Power Search for RippleJet in the creator category will lead you to both of these.

Thanks much! They look very cool . . . not that I know what to do with that info . Well, it does tell me how many higher-stage buildings I have, at least -- I do wish that it helped me find 'em on the map somehow.

[xxdita]

Well, it won't help you find them on the map, but it will help you track your progress. For the CAMelot Counter, if you hover over some of the zero's, it'll tell you what at capacity you can possibly start seeing buildings in that stage.

The Census Repository has a wealth of information in it, which helps you keep track of not only the city you're playing, but the entire connected region as well. So you know what kind of zoning you need to do, how effective your education system is, and how well your private sector economy is doing. I'm sure you'll come to depend on that information as much as I do when planning my cities.