How to Industry with 2.0

[James Finn (reformed¿)]

Can't get them past tier one. Constantly losing money. As much as I'm glad the economy took the kid gloves off, I need some help with the specialized industries. Any advice?

[john.glossop]

For industries which give no revenue at all, reduce their tax rate down to 1 r 2%, then occasionally come back and see if they have established themselves. If they show up with any sort of return, raise the tax rate a little, and each time you review tax rates, raise it a bit more, until you reach the point where it starts to fall off, at which point, reverse it to maximize the tax return.
Build primary production units. Locally produced grain, vegetables, rock, oil, etc, stimulates industries that use these resources to produce more, and cuts the need for imports of your raw materials.
Make sure that you have sufficient transport routes out of your city to carry trade to other cities. Trucks are fine for fairly small volume exports, but don't really help with large cargoes, for which you need air, rail and ports to handle the heavy load - you can't just produce for local consumption - you need outside trade to make a go of it. Cargo rail connections should be as close to your industrial district as you can make it, so that you don't waste time and resources trucking your goods to a remote shipping point, If your cargo port is remote from your industry, make sure that you have a rail connection between them, as well as a good road connection. Same goes for the airport.
Make sure that your Cims are cared for - education is a good investment in industry, if you want to attract the industries that need well educated employees.
Bottom line is that if you want to be a City Manager, you have to be able to prioritize the needs of your people, or you won't end up with much of a community.
Good luck.

[Narf the Mouse]

Overall, agreed; except that I don't tax primary production; and I even subsidies certain ones. They make so little money that you'll more than make it back from the long tail – although make sure that long tail is established, first.

I haven't started a new city, but my existing one (from March) went through all the updates with no industry problems (my major problems were zoning the health and death care services properly, and making sure I had enough).

I'm now making 17 million per month from 10 million per month; and with 180k cims from 140k cims. I dunno how that rates, but both numbers are going up.

I also don't charge service fees for electricity and water; in my experience, once those become a small enough part of your budget, the increase in taxes from more productive industry more than covers the lost fees. But I might be confusing correlation with causation.

[john.glossop]

Originally posted by Narf the Mouse:

Overall, agreed; except that I don't tax primary production; and I even subsidies certain ones. They make so little money that you'll more than make it back from the long tail – although make sure that long tail is established, first.

I haven't started a new city, but my existing one (from March) went through all the updates with no industry problems (my major problems were zoning the health and death care services properly, and making sure I had enough).

I'm now making 17 million per month from 10 million per month; and with 180k cims from 140k cims. I dunno how that rates, but both numbers are going up.

I also don't charge service fees for electricity and water; in my experience, once those become a small enough part of your budget, the increase in taxes from more productive industry more than covers the lost fees. But I might be confusing correlation with causation.

Sounds excellent to me. I do tax PP, but more in line with housing than with industry.

[James Finn (reformed¿)]

Originally posted by john.glossop:

For industries which give no revenue at all, reduce their tax rate down to 1 r 2%, then occasionally come back and see if they have established themselves. If they show up with any sort of return, raise the tax rate a little, and each time you review tax rates, raise it a bit more, until you reach the point where it starts to fall off, at which point, reverse it to maximize the tax return.
Build primary production units. Locally produced grain, vegetables, rock, oil, etc, stimulates industries that use these resources to produce more, and cuts the need for imports of your raw materials.
Make sure that you have sufficient transport routes out of your city to carry trade to other cities. Trucks are fine for fairly small volume exports, but don't really help with large cargoes, for which you need air, rail and ports to handle the heavy load - you can't just produce for local consumption - you need outside trade to make a go of it. Cargo rail connections should be as close to your industrial district as you can make it, so that you don't waste time and resources trucking your goods to a remote shipping point, If your cargo port is remote from your industry, make sure that you have a rail connection between them, as well as a good road connection. Same goes for the airport.
Make sure that your Cims are cared for - education is a good investment in industry, if you want to attract the industries that need well educated employees.
Bottom line is that if you want to be a City Manager, you have to be able to prioritize the needs of your people, or you won't end up with much of a community.
Good luck.

Thank you for your time and words. Is there a recommended size for PPs in the beginning? I've been maxing out their radius when I initially place them and wonder if that might contribute to their lack of growth.