THE FAQ

In the mid-1990s, Maxis' FTP site hosted an "official FAQ" for the game, mostly just questions and answers that weren't in the manual. It's not really relevant if you have other resources but it's a fun read. You can see it here although I have a few remarks of my own...

How many hospitals do I need? (2.11.6)

"The capacity of each hospital is 25,000, although, they will have a higher grade at half capacity."

Actually, you don't need hospitals at all. The way the health model works is determining the lifespan of new Sims. The lifespan is important because it's tied into the education model. The education model raises the "EQ" (education quotient) of new Sims, and will start decaying with each generation. Longer lifespans means longer generations, means less decay is going on with schools. Therefore, you can not build any hospitals at all and just counter that with adding more schools and other educational buildings to keep the EQ up.

Does property value have anything to do with tax revenue? (3.1.3)

"No, not directly. High property values encourage growth and higher densities. A piece of land will have more tax revenue if it is of a higher density."

Something's wrong here because higher density areas also tend to attract crime, which will cause land values and revenue to decrease. And clearly, there is an effect on property value on what buildings develop. Low density residential has three levels, crummy rental homes four to a block (low), small middle class homes (middle), or large, fun looking houses with pools (high). There's no way it's just aesthetics...but maybe I've been wrong this whole time!

What known bugs exist? (4.1.1)

From my experience playing, I've noticed a few ones in v1.2, including sometimes only 2-3 dispatchers appearing in a disaster no matter you have, elevated wires getting destroyed in a fire meant the distended wires still hang above the water, sometimes destroying it doesn't actually stop power flow to the other side, and a few others. They're all minor and unless the source code is ever released, they'll never be fixed.

Where can I get my picture taken on a llama? (4.5.12)

The answer they gave is the Yakima Mall (which of course is in Yakima, Washington). However, if you search for the mall today you will most likely find information on Valley Mall in nearby Union Gap. The Wikipedia article mentions that it was able to take off customers from Yakima Mall downtown. I can't find much on it, but I can determine it had Mervyn's, The Bon Marché, and JCPenney at its peak (maybe not three simultaneously)...but even in the more informative pages, I can't find anything on taking a picture on a llama.

IBM Technical Problems (A-4)

People say DOS was the superior gaming option in computers in the 1990s but the amount of voodoo required to run everything just right is often missing in these conversations.

SC2K Suggestion List (A-6)

One of the most interesting (if kind of useless) parts of the FAQ is a list of requests for future SimCity titles that were gathered from newsgroups and email (55 unique ones). Some of these requests range from being implemented in SimCity 2000 Network Edition at the earliest (#5, selling off power) or SimCity 3000 (#47, trash dumps) to being extremely stupid (#4 and #11 in particular), and some that haven't been implemented in any satisfactory sense. #33 talks about this and it's more thought out than ANYTHING done or implemented before (not saying it should be added as described, but certainly has thought put into it). In my first Cities: Skylines review I make reference to this FAQ and how it talks about universities.
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