Best ratio of residential-commercial-industrial-office areas?

[BustedHipGaming]

Is there a "recommended ratio" of the different areas? Like "build 4 residential for every 2 commercial and 1 industrial" or something like that?

[grapplehoeker]

Nah... you can do pretty much anything you like as long as you're aware of the consequences.
I build my cities with a variety of different ratios of RCI as long as commercial was the smallest.
In all of my cities I have always kept commercial to a minimum, with one exception and that was the task to build 30,000 zone squares of commercial to fulfill the Hypermarket unlock.
So, for me, my average ratio would usually be something like 10-100 residential to 1 commercial and 1 industrial.
You can even build cities with no industrial or no commercial, but they must always have residential.

[Denzarki]

are there bad consequences for having too much commercial? my city atm keeps demanding commercial so i give it to them because i am weak and want to please them D: lol

[Tom]

problem is the heavy traffic needed to feed those commercials

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Denzarki:

are there bad consequences for having too much commercial? my city atm keeps demanding commercial so i give it to them because i am weak and want to please them D: lol

The more commercial you build will create more demand for generic industrial to feed it, which will create more need for specialised industrial to feed generic. All of which will require more and more freight to deliever it all, creating more and more traffic.
It will also force you to zone more and more residential just to provide customers for commercial.
So, everything hinges on the amount of commercial.
The RCI meter is just an indicator of what is possible to build due to existing demand. It is in no way what you 'must' build, just what you 'may'. Ultimately you are the city creator and you decide what you should build, so don't allow the RCI meter to dictate to you what you should build ;)

[ancienthighway]

If you feel you have too much commercial, create tourist and leisure districts. No demands on industry creating more traffic, and tourists will use existing mass transit and taxis.

As far as demands on industry, commercial will import goods from off map, and generic industry will import resources from off map as well as exporting goods to off map.

[mbutton15]

I'm also struggling with knowing what are acceptable zone ratios. I think I saw somewhere it mention that commercial should be your smallest area ? I have probably 2:1 generic industry to commercial (which I've kept to around 50/50 between low/high). But then I look at my import/export figures and see around 900 import and a massive 4000+ export (current population is around 27,000).

So I'm thinking if my generic industry is producting so much that is going to export ( in the form of goods, the pink stuff) then if I build loads more commercial it will soak up the export - am I right to think that, or is that over simplifying things ?

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

I'm also struggling with knowing what are acceptable zone ratios. I think I saw somewhere it mention that commercial should be your smallest area ? I have probably 2:1 generic industry to commercial (which I've kept to around 50/50 between low/high). But then I look at my import/export figures and see around 900 import and a massive 4000+ export (current population is around 27,000).

So I'm thinking if my generic industry is producting so much that is going to export ( in the form of goods, the pink stuff) then if I build loads more commercial it will soak up the export - am I right to think that, or is that over simplifying things ?

Why soak it up? Just reduce generic so that exports reduce to minimum and commercial is satisfied.

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Why soak it up? Just reduce generic so that exports reduce to minimum and commercial is satisfied.

But then doesn't that cause lots of unemployment ? Or do I provide them with offices instead ?

[MarkJohnson]

The only ration I'm ever concerned with is importing and exporting of goods. I like to keep them at or near 0:0. I only build commerce for cosmetics. You don't have to build it if you don't want to and you can just build offices instead of commerce/industry.

So if you look at your outside connections overlay map, none of your buildings should be purple for imports or exports. Otherwise you get excessive traffic.

To keep pedestrians off the street, use lots of mass-transit options. Sidewalks work wonders when you connect then to the street behind you so they don't have to circle the block to get to the other side. It really does help a lot.

But ratios don't apply much to this game as the game could care less about RCI anymore. They introduced offices which act as job sinks and you can now safely ignore industry and commerce. You can completely remove all of industry and commerce if you want with no ill effects.

[mbutton15]

Thanks for the info rmjohnson144. Pretty much all my industry is purple on export !! I never knew offices can soak up all the jobs and effectively replace industry/commercial, at least once you reach the office unlock point !!

I'll keep my industry/commerce and see if I can get it balanced out. But I'll focus heavy on offices now I know the RCI can largely be ignored.

[BustedHipGaming]

Originally posted by rmjohnson144:

...To keep pedestrians off the street, use lots of mass-transit options. Sidewalks work wonders when you connect then to the street behind you so they don't have to circle the block to get to the other side. It really does help a lot....

What do you mean by "connect it to the street behind you?"

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by drewbicus:

Originally posted by rmjohnson144:

...To keep pedestrians off the street, use lots of mass-transit options. Sidewalks work wonders when you connect then to the street behind you so they don't have to circle the block to get to the other side. It really does help a lot....

What do you mean by "connect it to the street behind you?"

I mean taking a shortcut between building to get to the next block instead of going around the block. Since cims can't cut through the yards, place a sidewalk instead.

[BustedHipGaming]

Originally posted by rmjohnson144:

Originally posted by drewbicus:

What do you mean by "connect it to the street behind you?"

I mean taking a shortcut between building to get to the next block instead of going around the block. Since cims can't cut through the yards, place a sidewalk instead.

So, in the middle of each block, put a foot path from one long edge to the other?

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by drewbicus:

So, in the middle of each block, put a foot path from one long edge to the other?

Something like this:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=783564733
Also good for connecting bus stops with metro and such like.

[BustedHipGaming]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Originally posted by drewbicus:

So, in the middle of each block, put a foot path from one long edge to the other?

Something like this:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=783564733
Also good for connecting bus stops with metro and such like.

OK I never thought of that. Do you do that with every residential block? It looks neat, doesn't take up much space, and foot paths are cheap.