Well, thats nice, but pretty much everything on there I already knew.
-Its better to make a prosperous community and buy all your utilities. Zones make houses and businesses, which make money. Utilities cost money. If you look at affluent communities in America they have strong NIMBY issues. They never want ugly shit near them.
-Mass transit is FAR superior to roads and cars. Again, real life tells us this. Americans have hard ons for their wide open roads and monstrous vehicles, but any efficient society doesnt allow them. Subways are of course more efficient for letting you put junk up top, on the land. Like zones. Which generate money.
-You dont really need fire houses in Simcity if you disable disasters.
-Buildings like schools and hospitals dont actually have to be spread around the city. They have a good effect anywhere, cuz they only affect the background numbers, not zones.
-Police do have to be spread out, but a prosperous community has much less crime than one with lots of police, and police cost money.
BUT, I have to admit he did indeed figure out the most efficient zoning method. I often thought it had to be some sort of spiral pattern of residential and commercial interspersed. Many games are like this. In supreme commander that works pretty well for maximizing real estate when building assloads of tech 3 power plants and metal makers (which is also the most efficient in terms of resources generated per unit).
Lemme draw one up and show you guys.
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