Can't grow my city :-(

[SubZer0nl]

Hey guys, I am new on the forums. So please let me know if I post this in the wrong section or something like this has already been talked about.

I recently made the 80k population milestone (monuments) in my city which got me pretty excited to grow the population to 100k! But for the last, I dont know, 4 to 6 hours of playtime I put in the game I have never gotten any residential demand. All the demand I get is focused on commercial or industry. Resulting in huge amounts of commercial/office zones within my city, zones that I had pre-destined to be residential. I am kind a starting to get worried at this point that I will never get any more demand for residential.

Anybody has a clue what I am talking about? Maybe have experienced the same? I can post screenshots or further information on request.

One more thing I must add about this city which I find strange is that I can place districts (obviously), I can rename them and I can set their policies, but the district names do not show up ingame. All I see is some blurred area where the name should be.

 

[CaesarVincens]

As far as demand goes, without any mods, the demand should be based roughly on what's needed. Not enough jobs will generate demand for commercial and industrial/office. Not enough workers will generate demand for residential. One way to check is by unemployment, if you have high unemployment, the demand for residential should be low and likely won't rise.

Demand is also a bit less dynamic for larger cities as there is usually more buffer for jobs and residents and percentages take longer to shift.

 

[SubZer0nl]

You made a really good point, i hadnt checked my employment in some time. I launched the game just to check if this might have been the case and i very much doubt it, because i have an employment rate of 97%.
My industry (not my offices) are 'screaming' for workers. So much so that the last time I played I removed part of my industry, because buildings were being abandoned (presumably due to the lack of workers). Despite this, no demand for residential... :-/

For mods, I am only using "Tree Brush" and "One-way street arrows"

 

[Rottenflesh]

OP the next time you have Indy needing people just build residential but don't build schools near them that always seems to fix that problem.

 

[apd1004]

There's a guy over at Steam Workshop named Maestro who has written some excellent guides on just what you're looking for.

Chasing after the demand meters can get you into trouble because the meters reflect problems that were begun a while ago, and immediate reactions to the meters aren't always reflected in immediate results. Like CaesarVincens says, a great guide is looking at your unemployment rate. You don't want unemployment to be zero, 8-10% is a good number to hang out at.

Not a criticism but if you got to 80k in 4-6 hours you are probably playing way too fast and got that way by spamming huge tracts of zones at a time. That will definitely cause problems, at least in the vanilla game, and I think you are starting to experience that now.

 

[NZSimplicity]

What type of workers are being screamed for? - I remember reading somewhere that if your cims are too well educated and you haven't got an unemployment rate of over 5% then the educated cims won't work in uneducated jobs.

 

[SubZer0nl]

@apd1004 - Thanks, I will take a look at those guides.
I think I havent explained it very well, it didnt take me 4 to 6 hours to get to 80k pop, it took way longer then that. For the past 4-6 hours of playtime I havent had residental demand.

@NZSimplicity - Industry is crying out for it, so mainly low ed. workers. Perhaps I find a problem in there with the RCI indicator, since only 8% of my cims is uneducated whereas 52% is highly educated


Seems I got some stuff to fiddle around with, tnx for the replies

 

[NZSimplicity]

well if it was me (and I am not an expert) I would just get rid of some industry and commercial causing the unemployed to go up, once that starts rising then put down some more industry and commercial a little at a time making sure you keep the unemployment levels up a bit more.. - maybe even delete the schools for a while

 

[Lord Canterbury]

Abandoned factories, but high industrial demand suggests that you have highly educated workers... who would rather work in offices than in a factory... try zoning for office rather than industrial and see if that helps.

 

[apd1004]

@apd1004 - Thanks, I will take a look at those guides.
I think I havent explained it very well, it didnt take me 4 to 6 hours to get to 80k pop, it took way longer then that. For the past 4-6 hours of playtime I havent had residental demand.

Seems I got some stuff to fiddle around with, tnx for the replies

Heh, ok that makes sense. I think even with unlimited money and everything available you would have a hard time getting to 80k in 4-6 hours

Abandoned factories, but high industrial demand suggests that you have highly educated workers... who would rather work in offices than in a factory... try zoning for office rather than industrial and see if that helps.

Ditto, and you might also try leveling up your general industries if you haven't done that already. That's a nice way to start transitioning from all-uneducated to an educated workforce once you start adding schools. Many people when starting a city have just one place or area with all their general industries together but I like to spread them out a little in multiple areas because I like to level them up in sections rather than all at the same time, which is what will happen when you start plopping happiness items near the industries.

 

[SubZer0nl]

Found some time the passed two days to play a few hours and I have been steadily removing factories when they became abandoned, replacing similar size squares with offices. Meanwhile I have kept the demand for commercial at around a half filled bar (from the RCI indicator), while I just drew roads for future shapes of the city.
It took some time before I could notice the progress, but as of this moment I am nearly at 93k population and growing.

I would like to thank you all for the tips and support, game on everybody!!

 

[Admiral 8Q]

Found some time the passed two days to play a few hours and I have been steadily removing factories when they became abandoned, replacing similar size squares with offices. Meanwhile I have kept the demand for commercial at around a half filled bar (from the RCI indicator), while I just drew roads for future shapes of the city.
It took some time before I could notice the progress, but as of this moment I am nearly at 93k population and growing.

I would like to thank you all for the tips and support, game on everybody!!

Awesome! It does take time and talking to other players to improve things and solve problems in the game.