Section 3.7: Zoning

Learn the core of SimCity 2000! Understand RCI zones, the golden ratio, and how taxes affect your city's growth. Build a thriving metropolis!

Alright, let's dive into the heart of SimCity 2000: zoning! This is where your city truly comes to life. Residential, commercial, and industrial zones – RCI for short – are the bedrock of your population and your tax income. Everything else you build is basically there to support these core zones. Power and transit are also essential, but RCI zones are the only ones that actually *need* transit to function.

The game likes things a certain way, with an internal 'golden ratio' for how many of each zone type you should have. This ratio actually shifts as your city grows, so you'll need to adapt. The RCI demand meter is a helpful guide, but keep in mind it can be a little jumpy due to random factors and might lag a bit when your city is expanding rapidly. Think of it as a general direction, not a strict rulebook.

Here are a couple of general rules to keep in mind about this ratio. First, your Residential demand will pretty much always be about the same as your Commercial and Industrial demand combined. So, aim for about 50% of your city to be Residential. Second, early in the game, you'll need way more Industrial zones than Commercial – like a 3-to-1 ratio or even more. As your city passes 100,000 people, this evens out, and eventually, Commercial demand will actually overtake Industrial. For the early game, until you hit about 10,000 citizens, try building in a ratio of about 4 Residential, 1 Commercial, and 3 Industrial. After that, start paying closer attention to those demand meters, as they'll be more stable.

Quick Breakdown of Early Zoning:

• Very Small Cities (Pre-10k Pop): Aim for roughly 48% Residential, 11% Commercial, and 41% Industrial. Remember, this is based on population, not just land area. Industrial zones tend to develop more densely, so you might need to zone a bit more land for them than the percentage suggests.
• Larger Cities (Post-10k Pop): Start using the demand meters as your primary guide, as the desired balance between Commercial and Industrial zones begins to shift.

  Getting this RCI ratio right is the biggest key to a successful city. You can actually get away with a lot of other things – like higher crime or pollution – and still see new citizens move in, as long as you keep those zones balanced, powered, and ensure people can get to work without spending hours in traffic. If a certain zone type just isn't developing, even though the demand meter says it should, it's probably because it doesn't have a good transit path to the other two zone types. Make sure those connections are solid!