A Perfect SimCity

A perfect SimCity city balances population, crime rate, pollution, and land value to achieve a perfect score of 900 to 1000. Don Hopkins has meticulously maintained FOSS ports of SimCity (1989) as Micropolis and MicropolisCore, allowing for algorithmic city design. Five high-scoring and five high-population cities were created using these strategies. The ideal population for a perfect scoring city is between 12-16k.

Perfectly scoring cities have low crime rates, pollution, and land values, with a 1% tax rate. They feature minimal roads and rails, without fire departments or police stations. Residential and industrial zones grow based on the twelve surrounding tiles. Commercial zones are placed in the city center to capitalize on the downtown bonus.

Commercial zones utilize a delivery system, where a vehicle travels up to 30 steps from the perimeter road to arrive at a developed tile. Roads incur pollution costs, while rails emit no pollution. Police and fire departments are costly and must be well-funded to avoid negative impacts on the score. Raising the tax rate to 2% reduces the score by nearly 30 points due to direct and indirect factors.

The SNES edition rewards population, with Megapolis providing a final reward at a population of 500k. Casual players have achieved cities of 600k to 700k in this platform, with one player reporting 911.2k. Parks placed in the city center increase land value and reduce crime indirectly by raising land value around them. Water, park, and tree tiles enhance land value, while pollution reduces it. Industrial zones benefit from being placed at the map edges, as pollution affects only the city, not the entire map.