Commercial demand after the patches

[JimmiG]

I seem to remember that some players complained about low commercial demand in the release version of the game.. However, after the last few patches I have the opposite problems. The citizens want more commercial. All the time. It never stops!

It's getting to the point where it's hard to actually expand the city. Every time I plan out a new district, by the time I've satisfied the demand for commercial and added a few offices, there's no room for residential in the district. If I for once manage to satisfy the demand for commercial, just adding a tiny bit of offices and residential causes the demand to shoot right up again and I have to build yet another mega-shopping district. It doesn't feel realistic at all to have so much commercial sprinkled all over the city. Every district looks like a massive shopping center.

I don't know wheter something is wrong in my city, upsetting the balance between RCI, or something is wrong with the Commercial demand in the game right now?

 

[MatthieuL]

I'm having the same problem here. The C bar is always near the half with medium (and sometimes high) demand for more commercial areas.

 

[Puuh]

Parks also lower the demand for commercials. Not as much as it was before patch 1.0.6b but still a little bit.
Also (I think) industry also creates a bit of commercial demand because they what to sell their products rather than exporting them. So maybe you have to much generic industry in town.
I'm not running into those kinds of issues. What patch are you playing? Are you playing the official 1.0.6b or did you opt in for the 1.0.7c beta?

 

[Sotrax]

Didn't get that at all. They want Industry, I build industry, the demand is going down but the industry is whining about not enough customers.
Same with commercials. Half of my town are commercials, they cry for more, I give them more but then they cry for workers and get abadoned. What the hell man. If there are not enough workers, why the hell they cry for more?

 

[Puuh]

Didn't get that at all. They want Industry, I build industry, the demand is going down but the industry is whining about not enough customers.
Same with commercials. Half of my town are commercials, they cry for more, I give them more but then they cry for workers and get abadoned. What the hell man. If there are not enough workers, why the hell they cry for more?

Maybe your workers don't get to their jobs? Buslines and subways helped me a lot to get the workers to thier jobs fast enough. Also education is important. Try to look at the education level needed for the jobs.

But in your case it seems you industry is creating the commercial demand and not the population. You should probably think about building something that helps industry to export their goods better.

 

[JimmiG]

//

Parks also lower the demand for commercials. Not as much as it was before patch 1.0.6b but still a little bit.
Also (I think) industry also creates a bit of commercial demand because they what to sell their products rather than exporting them. So maybe you have to much generic industry in town.
I'm not running into those kinds of issues. What patch are you playing? Are you playing the official 1.0.6b or did you opt in for the 1.0.7c beta?

I'm running 1.06b. I have a bit of generic industry, one small farming area and some forestry, but nothing extreme.

I was under the impression that parks no longer lower commercial demand after the patch. I will try spamming my city with parks the next time commercial demand shoots through the roof.

I really think the problems with parks lowering demand for commercial was mostly due to faulty assets in the workshop and didn't need patching. People didn't realize that things like parking lots and crates and other decorative assets they placed all around their cities counted a s parks and lowered commercial demand.

 

[Sotrax]

Maybe your workers don't get to their jobs? Buslines and subways helped me a lot to get the workers to thier jobs fast enough. Also education is important. Try to look at the education level needed for the jobs.

But in your case it seems you industry is creating the commercial demand and not the population. You should probably think about building something that helps industry to export their goods better.

My street network is not the problem. It occurs in every late game. Yes, one problem is the education level. My Cims are always overeducated. But since the Cim just choose a school from everywhere, It's not really controllable, only if I place less schools than demand. But I think balancing the game is not my task in here.
Industry: not enough workers but there are enough and there is absolutly no demand of residentials
Commercials: Not enough workers or, and thats a thing I really don't get, not enough customers. There is no residential demand, only commercial, and the existing commercials cry for more customers???

 

[AmpsterMan]

Hmn. Perhaps commercial demand is affected by how many tourists you have in your city.

 

[Puuh]

//
I was under the impression that parks no longer lower commercial demand after the patch. I will try spamming my city with parks the next time commercial demand shoots through the roof.

They just lowered the effects of parks not killed it completely

Yes, one problem is the education level. My Cims are always overeducated. But since the Cim just choose a school from everywhere, It's not really controllable, only if I place less schools than demand. But I think balancing the game is not my task in here.
Industry: not enough workers but there are enough and there is absolutly no demand of residentials
Commercials: Not enough workers or, and thats a thing I really don't get, not enough customers. There is no residential demand, only commercial, and the existing commercials cry for more customers???

I make specific parts of the town without schools and being far away from other districts with schools most of them stay uneducated. So it seems to be (at least a bit) controllable.
How high is your unemployment rate?
Industry: education is a big deal here. Your residentials want jobs according to their education and will allways try to get one of those first. It takes a long time to force them into other jobs. But they will go there one day.
Commercials: it really sounds as if the customers or workers seem to struggle reaching the commercial area even when you're saying your traffic is fine. Strange thing... Do you have buslines or subways to support reachability?

Funny thing is, I never experienced this weird demand behaviour.

 

[Kagemusha]

I for my part don´t have this problem anymore (with 1.06b and 1.07b) ...
and I still build as much parks as before and the only thing I have changed (from times before when I encountered the problems with commercial demand) is,
that I have gotten used to building lots of pedestrian walkways in my residential/commercial zones, so my citizens can reach a lot of places (including the commercial zones) by foot, without having to use their cars

 

[AmpsterMan]

Industrial saying it has no buyers strikes me as a traffic issue ( industrial can ALWAYS export)

Unless, of course, there is a limit to the number of trucks that can be on the streets as any one time.

 

[youngzack]

No, my commercial keeps crashing every time my population gets to around the 250,000 mark!!

First Commercials says it has no goods to sell... then Industry says it has no buyers (eh?!?)... then the commercial starts abandoning like mad leaving huge gaps in the city... then Industry does the same!! The population meanwhile starts to fall as citizens desert the city, which of course perpetuates the cycle! Once the population gets down to around the 220,000 -230,000 mark it seems to stabilise and slowly rebuild... then we are off again!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

For the industry i think it is because you have to much of them and to little commercial, u will need train and sea trade route for this or build more commercial. For the commercial i will believe it is because of traffic, goods dont arrive as cars tend to teleport if they dont arrive to theyre destination. I would suggest building industries closer to your commercial, but not to close or the traffic will be to heavy with a bad road design, atleast make sure the semi-trucks dont pass through commercial zones.

Edit: just noticed your response on the traffic flow between them, u can look away from this reply and i can say i dont have had that issue besides from traffic problems. Was up to 235k cims with no issues. Balanced zning with RCI is very important from start to end.

 

[DCT1080]

I noticed the same thing as the OP, but what I will say is that with the "closed beta" patch, demand seems more steady overall. I have also changed my play style slightly since getting the patch too, because now I never race to fulfil demand, instead zoning smaller and mixed areas to see how it effects the bars. The end result is that I have at least some demand in all three bars, making choices about where to zone what next a little easier but more creative and rewarding.

 

[youngzack]

I noticed the same thing as the OP, but what I will say is that with the "closed beta" patch, demand seems more steady overall. I have also changed my play style slightly since getting the patch too, because now I never race to fulfil demand, instead zoning smaller and mixed areas to see how it effects the bars. The end result is that I have at least some demand in all three bars, making choices about where to zone what next a little easier but more creative and rewarding.

This is very smart way to play it, also it prevents from mass death which seems to effect everything else.

 

[JimmiG]

I noticed the same thing as the OP, but what I will say is that with the "closed beta" patch, demand seems more steady overall. I have also changed my play style slightly since getting the patch too, because now I never race to fulfil demand, instead zoning smaller and mixed areas to see how it effects the bars. The end result is that I have at least some demand in all three bars, making choices about where to zone what next a little easier but more creative and rewarding.

It would be interesting to know what the blue bar actually "means" - Are the citizens unsatisfied with the shopping? Does the local industry just want to ship more freight locally, regardless of whether or not people are willing to buy it?

I'm still finding it ridiculously hard to satisfy the commercial demand. Everything else I can keep under control, but I rarely see the blue bar at less than 50%.

This is the latest area I built:

It seems like the ideal ratio is like 25% Office/Industry, 25% Residential and 50% High Density commercial.

 

[IVIaarten]

you could try using the high and low density versions of the 'business benefactor' policy (doubling sales in the district). That might clear some demand without having to 'overbuild' commercial sectors.

Could be a balance thing as well, parks might end up filling some more commercial demand if more people are seeing this effect.

Personally, I think I currently have to zone a bit more commercial than I find realistic.

 

[JimmiG]

you could try using the high and low density versions of the 'business benefactor' policy (doubling sales in the district). That might clear some demand without having to 'overbuild' commercial sectors.

Could be a balance thing as well, parks might end up filling some more commercial demand if more people are seeing this effect.

Personally, I think I currently have to zone a bit more commercial than I find realistic.

I did try turning on those policites for a few districts. I'm going to try them city-wide and see what happens.

I already have a large number of parks as well. Doesn't seem to affect commercial demand much if at all.

I know you're not supposed to "chase the bars", but I feel like all my citizens are total shopaholics. Their shopping district alone is bigger than a small city, and they've got shops at eery street corner as well, yet they're screaming for more.

 

[Camlon]

I am using population balance mod, and I am quite satisfied with the balance.

However, I also get a lot of problems with not enough goods to sell and not enough customers. I just had that problem and the end result was an industrial boom combined with a big crash in both offices and commercial. I like it, it gives me a challenge.

 

[JimmiG]

I am using population balance mod, and I am quite satisfied with the balance.

However, I also get a lot of problems with not enough goods to sell and not enough customers. I just had that problem and the end result was an industrial boom combined with a big crash in both offices and commercial. I like it, it gives me a challenge.

I might have to resort to mods, though that mod does seem a little over the top for my needs. Something that simply reduces overall commercial demand, or changes the parks back to how they were before they were patched would be enough for me.

 

[topleya]

Yup, it's driving me insane. Constantly wanted more and more commercial.