How do you plan your cities?

I find I think big but work small - I can never reach the density I would likle because I'm always thinking inside one small region, not on three or four within one city.

How do you come up with the basic infastructure? Do you plan the city out on paper? Lots of roads before zones? I find I'm at over 200 years before the city is hitting 30,000! (I know! :eek2: )

Thanks!

I build the region, decided where I want my main "Downtown" area, and know where i want my industrial section. Then I build the cities and do lots of neighboring connections between the cities, and keep going back and forth. Eventually the cities keep getting bigger and bigger, so i keep making new cities and see where it goes. Making highways early is a good plan if u plan on having a big city. I kinda plan a city in my head, but never pre-lay all the roads. I let it keep spanning out as i go.

I plan where my downtown area is going to be, and then have all sorts of rail lines spread out from it. My latest city is packing 8 or 9 train lines coverging at a downtown station (2 buildings right beside each other, combined capacity serving over 3000 people, 9 (or 18 depending on how you count) tracks (1 (2) providing through service), with the next-nearest station serving a similar amount as a single building way over capacity, and required the laying of quad-track (<- I'm rather impressed I managed to create that kind of demand!), which has been added). Some gaps get supplemented by subway, but I avoid building highways, usually stick to avenues, until after I build the airport, then highways come in. I have a highly concentrated commercial sector, and my public transportation funds table is almost breaking even (about $70 deficit, not bad, all from the farebox), all rail and subway, no bus network (I find the bus network is way too expensive by comparison in maintenance costs).
I have industry spread out here and there in patches along the rail corridors, usually near residential, almost always divided from commercial by something (anything will do, they don't mix!).

I try to "communitize" residential patches with a core area for school, med, fire, etc..

This city is about 75 years old and pushing 50K. I have another city nearing 200 years that is over 100K (this one has complicated terrain, too, the newer one is pretty much flat with a shore).

gridded streets; put the industrial on an edge and everything else in the middle and to the other side (starting in the middle) with buffer zones between it and the industrial.

set up some neighbors, run roads and power to them, get some neighbor spill going, keep on with it. lots of room left for parks and mass transit, too.

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Go to,http://simcity.ea.com/exchange/lots/results.php?keywords=Thermal+Power&keyword_search=true&x=29&y=6

and download the thermal power building,this building is asome it cleans air, cleans water,produces power, and produces water. I'm the guy with the San Francisco region and I use these in all my cities and it boost your population
if you have poluted water or poluted air and sometimes people just like moving close to them.It cost about 140,000 dollars to build and it cost 12,000 a month but, If you raise your taxes in high tech industry to maximum it will pay you 20,000 dollars a month.If you don't use cheat codes for money, take out a loan and buy it,Hope this helps.

If you have any qustions or don't understand, ask me anything that your confused about. :)

Go to,http://simcity.ea.com/exchange/lots/results.php?keywords=Thermal+Power&keyword_search=true&x=29&y=6

and download the thermal power building,this building is awsome it cleans air, cleans water,produces power, and produces water. I'm the guy with the San Francisco region and I use these in all my cities and it boost your population
if you have poluted water or poluted air and sometimes people just like moving close to them.It cost about 140,000 dollars to build and it cost 12,000 a month but, If you raise your taxes in high tech industry to maximum it will pay you 20,000 dollars a month.If you don't use cheat codes for money, take out a loan and buy it,Hope this helps.

If you have any qustions or don't understand, ask me anything that your confused about. :)

Is this helping?

yes it sure is - thanks a lot!

question: if i download these lots from the lot exchange thing, and they are automatically installed in my plugins folder, do they build automatically with the proper zoning? or do i have to manually put them in my city?