Let's share small useful Tips

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During collected strategies and tactics for my post http://www.capitalismlab.com/forum/view ... =11&t=2010, there are some small tips I screened out , because they just don't seem to fit. So I think I'll make a new post here, and let's share some small useful tips

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* A quick way to find a reasonably high traffic index store location besides using land value mini map, is to zoom out and find locations near those big blue 4x4 commercial buildings. Where there are 4x4 commercial and some residential buildings nearby, it's almost guarantee to have 30+ traffic index. When there are two 4x4 commercial nearby, it's a golden spot to have 50+. This is particularly useful when you try to find location for 4x4 discount store or plan your own "mini" town to boost traffic initially.

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* R&D towns : in late game when you have tons of R&D centers, you can create a reasonable high traffic index land for retail stores, surrounded by R&D centers. It sort of like providing goods for researchers working in R&D centers. Usually 2x2 stores can get about 40+, 3x3 store get around 30+ index.

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* A quick way to find a reasonably high traffic index store location besides using land value mini map, is to zoom out and find locations near those big blue 4x4 commercial buildings. Where there are 4x4 commercial and some residential buildings nearby, it's almost guarantee to have 30+ traffic index. When there are two 4x4 commercial nearby, it's a golden spot to have 50+. This is particularly useful when you try to find location for 4x4 discount store or plan your own "mini" town to boost traffic initially.

Do you know if this also works with the 4x4 commercial buildings owned by players? I've found that my R/C real estate developments plopped near my own stores after the stores have had a chance to operate (and after the occupancy rate goes up) does start boosting the traffic index mid-game. What I don't know yet is the coefficient of effectiveness; i.e., does the profit from the increased traffic help justify the RE investment?

It also seems that you can extend the high value zones in a direction you want if enough money is spent on intervening real estate investments, both yours and the AI's. Has this also been your observation?

[counting]

* A quick way to find a reasonably high traffic index store location besides using land value mini map, is to zoom out and find locations near those big blue 4x4 commercial buildings. Where there are 4x4 commercial and some residential buildings nearby, it's almost guarantee to have 30+ traffic index. When there are two 4x4 commercial nearby, it's a golden spot to have 50+. This is particularly useful when you try to find location for 4x4 discount store or plan your own "mini" town to boost traffic initially.

Do you know if this also works with the 4x4 commercial buildings owned by players? I've found that my R/C real estate developments plopped near my own stores after the stores have had a chance to operate (and after the occupancy rate goes up) does start boosting the traffic index mid-game. What I don't know yet is the coefficient of effectiveness; i.e., does the profit from the increased traffic help justify the RE investment?

It also seems that you can extend the high value zones in a direction you want if enough money is spent on intervening real estate investments, both yours and the AI's. Has this also been your observation?

IMO, building your own 4x4 commercial buildings would take a long time to gain back the initial investment, and the boost of traffic is usually only worth when sales growth is needed at the market growth phase, or when there are competitors. So it's more of a special tactic when there are no more natural or AI 4x4 commercial buildings left.

And since the investment return rate in real estate is usually the lowest, it would take immense amount of initial capital to setup an area with high enough land value that can support all kind of sales, hence not quite viable as a beginning strategy, but could work, when you run out of prime real estate at late game.

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IMO, building your own 4x4 commercial buildings would take a long time to gain back the initial investment, and the boost of traffic is usually only worth when sales growth is needed at the market growth phase, or when there are competitors. So it's more of a special tactic when there are no more natural or AI 4x4 commercial buildings left.

And since the investment return rate in real estate is usually the lowest, it would take immense amount of initial capital to setup an area with high enough land value that can support all kind of sales, hence not quite viable as a beginning strategy, but could work, when you run out of prime real estate at late game.

Once the R/C building gets to full occupancy, it takes about 15 years to pay off the cash cost for land and building. The building is break even at about 50% occupancy. Sure, that's probably the second lowest yield in the game, second only to natural resources. The payback period is actually shorter than 15 years if you speculated early in the game and got the land cheap, using land appreciation to offset the interest expense of carrying the property.

However, one scenario where it become really useful is in Real Estate Mogul. You start with crazy large capital, 100 million in the bank and another 100 million credit line. That's enough to get a lot of players in trouble if they go on a spending spree in early game, but it's perfect for starting small in a traditional business and also buy up real estate early with the excess capital.

The clever way to do that is to locate your initial business near Downtown early in the game, pay the current real estate premium, but then relocate the businesses mid-game and back fill with residential or commercial. This is much more productive than just buying bare land plots. Best businesses for this are factories, warehouses, and farms. When you relocate the businesses, you pay for the buildings a second time but keep the training, productions levels, and business links. You can also arrange an early advantage in freight costs if you co-locate these early businesses in the prime real estate areas, such as close to the ports.

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The clever way to do that is to locate your initial business near Downtown early in the game, pay the current real estate premium, but then relocate the businesses mid-game and back fill with residential or commercial. This is much more productive than just buying bare land plots. Best businesses for this are factories, warehouses, and farms. When you relocate the businesses, you pay for the buildings a second time but keep the training, productions levels, and business links. You can also arrange an early advantage in freight costs if you co-locate these early businesses in the prime real estate areas, such as close to the ports.

This is a very interesting strategy using Real Estate Mogul later in mid-game, and tried to maximize space efficiency and minimize freight cost, even possibly combined with wholesales tactics when there are enough AIs doing retails for you. Let's think a cool name, and add it to the strategy collection. "Flying Scotsman"? "Nomad Businessman"?

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I would call it "Flight to the Suburbs". The strategy combines urban gentrification and greater metropolitan area development.