My city is broke, any tips?

[Lueton]

I hate to be the first guy asking this.

Started a city after the new update. Having a population around 4k with basic services except for a power plant (build it but toggled off due to cheaper import cost). I found no way to be even close to a positive balance over a longer time. I decreased all services to the bare minumum and raised taxes to point where people are about to go on the streets.

I noticed a few things which im a bit confused of. 1st thing is that after achieving another milestone my balance significantly dropped without adding any building or so. I dont find a reason for that.

My 2nd problem is that even if i get people happy my city is in a state where there is zero demand for any zone type even when my unemployment is at about 50%. Since there are no new people coming to my city and no new houses are getting build there is no growth which could be the only way to increase my income.

I could imagine not building some at the services at the first place and just hope that things will turn out fine, but all these weird ways to save money dont feel realistic and i feel this should not be the way. I cannot imagine how i should get the money for another tile with 13k upkeep cost...

Any tipps for me?

EDIT: (since i cannot mark my own messages as thread answer)
I figured it out. Seems like heavy expansion at the start is to only way to not get broke in the beginning. I still think that it might be a bit unbalanced because your city requires service which you definitly cannot affort at the time they get unlocked. Also i still dont understand some very unexpected income/expense jumps. But yea, just heavily expanding seems like the way to go.

Also this post is not intended to be a "rage post/thread" so please keep this conversation nice. Add helpful tipps or suggestions for the devs. I know some people (including me) are frustrated but it is what it is. Now its time to honor a good step into the right direction.

[Townsendvol]

Sorry you are having a tough time but unfortunately we are relying on CO to fix and balance a game that they had the nerve to release in the state it was.

Even if they can fix and balance it, it’s going to take them a long time. Least they got us to beta test their game and finance it.

Hopefully someone can help ya but it could just be unbalanced right now.

[AG2590]

This is how it should be, It's very reminiscent of Sim City 4.

Keep zoning Res, Com and Ind until you're in the green - it's quite simple.

[jk2l]

I just started a new game, i found the new patch have a new "unlocked tile maintenance cost". if you have mod like 512tiles that unlocked all tiles, it will cause insane amount of upkeep cost there is no way you can keep the balance

not sure is that related to your case

[Lueton]

Originally posted by jk2l:

I just started a new game, i found the new patch have a new "unlocked tile maintenance cost". if you have mod like 512tiles that unlocked all tiles, it will cause insane amount of upkeep cost there is no way you can keep the balance

not sure is that related to your case

Thank you for the advice. I dont have any mods enabled or tiles unlocked.

[dot1q1978]

Originally posted by jk2l:

I just started a new game, i found the new patch have a new "unlocked tile maintenance cost". if you have mod like 512tiles that unlocked all tiles, it will cause insane amount of upkeep cost there is no way you can keep the balance

not sure is that related to your case

This applies to all cities. Not just new. Until a mod comes out that disables this, most people aren't going to be able to play their cities with all tiles unlocked.

[Lueton]

Okay i figured it out. Seems like heavy expansion at the start is to only way to not get broke in the beginning. I still think that it might be a bit unbalanced because your city requires service which you definitly cannot affort at the time they get unlocked. Also i still dont understand some very unexpected income/expense jumps. But yea, just heavily expanding seems like the way to go.

[Mr.D]

Upkeep and cost of services seem like the bottle neck for new cities. Hoping for a quick patch to fix this. Older ones need a lot of work. Avoided a lot of crashes by disabling all mods.

Still trying to save older city. Nerfed population form 80k to 32k by putting all medium residential to medium row housing, and all high density to low rent. (sorted a lot of those pesky unemployed). Doubled size of Industries and office at the cost of large amounts of commercial that is thankfully no longer required. Re-balanced excessive amount of wheat farms for more variety in resources although have an excess of everything now and old Trash issues are back.

Still losing money at about £200kp/h at reasonable taxes with unemployment skyrocketing but wacking them up to 25% (except residential that stays at 10% max) for a bit gets me back to profitable and a lot of the unemployment disappears.

Overall I think its a step in the right direction but service costs need re-balancing for early game and I hope they can push that out quick before their holiday.

All I can say for now is that I still have hope for Moretonhamptonheathtonsteadmontonshire.

Edit: £350million war chest to tank a lot of the hit.

[dot1q1978]

I can't blame the devs for this as it is not intended for you to unlock all tiles from the beginning. However, this concept does heavily impact how I personally play. The main reason I use a mod to unlock all tiles is to keep heavy pollution (industry, garbage, electricity, etc) somewhat distant from rest of my areas. This is right from the beginning. I can no longer do this. Even if a mod comes out that disables tile upkeep, I'm concerned by disabling it, it could impact the rest of the economics. I guess it is what it is and will have to relocate high pollution gradually as your city expands. I suppose this is what you're intended to do without using tile mods.

[Stealthy]

Originally posted by dot1q1978:

I can't blame the devs for this as it is not intended for you to unlock all tiles from the beginning. However, this concept does heavily impact how I personally play. The main reason I use a mod to unlock all tiles is to keep heavy pollution (industry, garbage, electricity, etc) somewhat distant from rest of my areas. This is right from the beginning. I can no longer do this. Even if a mod comes out that disables tile upkeep, I'm concerned by disabling it, it could impact the rest of the economics. I guess it is what it is and will have to relocate high pollution gradually as your city expands. I suppose this is what you're intended to do without using tile mods.

Use the vanilla option then to unlock them all for free and without upkeep?

[モーニングスター]

This update broke a city I've been building for 2 weeks. I had 2,5 mil per hour and in a in half a year the whole economy just killed itself and there is nothing saving it no matter what I did.
Starting a new city makes me go bankrupt 10/10 times before even getting to city milestone 3.
Worst ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ update ever. Deleted the game will come back in half a year thx.

[Stealthy]

Lol. Rage quit.

[flacwby]

Originally posted by MorningStar:

This update broke a city I've been building for 2 weeks. I had 2,5 mil per hour and in a in half a year the whole economy just killed itself and there is nothing saving it no matter what I did.
Starting a new city makes me go bankrupt 10/10 times before even getting to city milestone 3.
Worst ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ update ever. Deleted the game will come back in half a year thx.

Yeah that's the way to go. Instead of learning to play the new game mechanics, just quite. You'll go far in life with that philosophy.

However yes you are right, the new economy is tough but others have already given you advice in this thread even on how to prosper.