can anyone tell me how a commercial zone prosper? I just started playing this game a week ago and played several cities but commercial zones in everycity never grew. I lowered my tax on commercial zones and thought it might work but it never did. I looked at some picture on this forum and found those nice skyscrapers in commercial zones, I want some of those, but how??

You need high education, first off. Cover ALL areas with libraries. Add colleges and museums as they are needed through capacity. Build the university whenever you can. The idea is that these are cheap buildings (beacuse they don't require bus funds) and can really amaze you how much effect it has on education. Anways, eventually, your EQ (education) will rise enough to start demanding more and more commercial office.

Desirability and demand play a big role in this game. Zone your commerce all low density for a long time. When the EQ rises, wealthier houses develop as does demand for the commercial offices. You can eventually start zoning for higher and higher density as the zones are filling up. Plazas and high traffic can make an area very desirable to commerce, but pollution is the number one killer IMO. Especially dense areas with roads, I have known them to cause high vacancy rates, so do leave plenty of room for open spaces.

The heartbreaker, but not to be taken as a let down; Sim City 4 uses a method called "stage limits." These are population ceilings for which a building can grow. For instance, you will never ever see a high-rise office tower in a low populated city. As your commercial office population grows, the percentage of you getting a high rise goes higher and higher. You need at least 45,000 office jobs to see the tallest possible building, but you need it to be much higher if you want a greater chance. You also need very high demand (usually at least 4000.) If you want high-rise apartments, just keep zoning residential, but the nicer buildings come with education. **Important Note** You need 45,000 office jobs in the REGION, not the individual city. *phew* Don't try packing in the jobs in one city. It's possible to have your first building be a skyscraper, but you just need the demand and population.

Patience is your number one fuel to get skyscrapers! Nothing grows over night (or perhaps it can...)

You can make all the surrounding cities be residental only cities and make connection with highways. Then the middle city can be a commerical only city with some residental, then your demand for commerical will skyrocket an ull get skyscarper in no time.

-Mdake sure you have traffic , becasue commerial thrive in it.
-Water (essential) except for cs$
-High density for high rises , low density for low rises.

thanx guys, I'll try that. One more question, what's the difference between high density zones and low density zones? I usually start everything with high density(residential, commercial and industrial) thinking they can pack more people in. Why is low density beneficial?

Well first, higher density is so much more expensive (50$ a tile compared to 10$ a tile for low density.) Low density is of course fewer jobs per tile and higher density buildings have more jobs per tile. And as a general rule, higher density usually means taller buildings. As I mentioned, stage limits keep you from getting high density buildings for a while. For instance, when you're just starting out, you'll get the same buildings no matter what. You'll make money very easily by conserving and trying to get a stable income. Once money is rolling in, you can afford higher density. Plus, you're forced to have water to see medium or high density buildings, which can take an extra bite into your budget. Finally, I just think low-density is more realistic in the long run. I mean, unless you're aiming for nothing but a concrete jungle, you should still zone low-density to start and "evolve" your skyline. With low density, you also get more money per occupant than a higher density building. For instance, a city of small houses at 30,000 people will give you more income than the same 30,000 in condos. You also have less straining on utilities, schools, hospitals, crime, etc. with lower density. Your roads won't cram up as much. Now personally, I would actually rather have a larger population than a sprawled out nation, but low density does have its upsides.

To get the largest office lot in low density, you need about 2,500 jobs; you can zone for medium density office when you have at least 1,110 jobs. You need roughly 45,000 office jobs to see skyscrapers. That means you shouldn't be zoning high density until at least 45,000 office jobs (not commercial as a whole, but office AFAIK.) It doesn't matter what the density is, it matters on how many jobs you have. You can have 45,000 low density jobs without ever moving to medium density, but it's best just to grow out before growing up.

some other suggestions:

1. don't make your surrounding cities "all residential..." have some commercial services in there, and industry...

2. keep your main city clean; buy coal power from a neighbor, stick dirty industry there

3. lots of parks...like make a park and a mass transit stop on one corner, and put commercial and or residential around them

4. except for areas near polluted areas and landfills, or for scenic purporses, don't bother with low-density. medium for iffy areas or to keep residential population in-check, and dense for commercial.

5. landmarks increase demand. and make the areas by them more pleasent.

-

also commerical prefer plazas over parks!

i.e parks are for residental mostly

also commerical prefer plazas over parks!

i.e parks are for residental mostly
Not if you do a little bit of tweaking!

thanx pros, I think I'll be patient and actually play a city until it goes bankrupt. So from what I saw above, I need to
1)make a good transportation system
2)make surrounding cities lack in commercials, and concentrate on industrial and residential.
3)minimize pollution level
4)raise my education level
5)build landmarks
6)pack residence by zoning high densities

so, I can have an impressive office skyline by doing these?

well... if your willing to for a desprate measure to get commerical:

-Go to www.simtropolis.com and download DuskTrooper's (or other people's) BAT (builder's archetial tool) buildings, place them in your Plugins folder [c:/programfiles>maxis>plugins] . Then in game go in your landmarks and plop the building. The building contains jobs and will act like a normal commerical building BUT it not on zoned land , so it cannot be built over and acts like a landmark.

-Also you can go into the RH manual on page 58 and there will be more info there.