SimCity 404: Don't Take What they Give You

Let's talk about modules for a second. There are certain buildings that -- when you buy them and place them in your town, come with modules already attached to them. For the most part, these attachments are a convenient freebee that offers you a clear benefit.

But the position of some of these free modules makes them trouble in the long run. For each building that gives a module by default, evaluate whether or not it is truly worth having and then replace the ones that effect your city's layout as soon as you have the cash.

Landfills

Nowhere does this problem rear it's ugly head more than at your garbage dump -- which sadly is one of the first things that you plop down and is almost instantly filled with garbage. The dump comes with a landfill module already attached. But this landfill is in a horrible spot with regard to future expansion. I highly recommend demolishing this module the second you drop the landfill and then replacing it with a new one -- which is free. By setting up your landfills in the correct orientation now, you remove the possibility that you'll have to demolish them later and spread ground pollution.

Solar Panels

Solar panels consume a tremendous amount of space compared to the power that they generate. The preferred modules should always be the solar collector arrays. The second you get enough cash, ditch the solar panel that comes with the solar power plant and replace it with a collector array. Then, you can line up all the arrays right next to one another and save tons of space.

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I'm sure there are others -- I'll update this page as I discover them.

SimCity 106: Modules

New to this version of SimCity (though long overdue) are the modules. Let's say you plop down a police station somewhere along your main strip. In SimCitys of old, that would be the end of that. As long as you had enough money to cover the expense of operating your police station, you were golden.

Now, however, things have changed.

In addition to the police station proper, you can add modules to the building that will increase it's effectiveness and -- by proxy -- further reduce the crime in your city. Modules are divided into two categories: those modules that aid in reducing problems or increase revenue and those modules that are simply for show.

Valuable Modules

The value afforded these modules is based on the fact that they aid your city in some way. Either they increase the effectiveness of their parent building or they generate revenue that you can then use elsewhere. Examples of this include the bell on top of the firehouse that dispatches fire trucks faster to fires (thereby saving valuable tax-generating properties) and prisons on police stations that allow you to lock up criminals and prevent recidivism (preventing crime and increasing happiness).

The majority of modules in the game have some value, though they differ wildly as to what benefit they bestow. Together, we'll look at each module and then decide which ones are worth the expense.

Cosmetic Modules

Some of the modules you find in buildings offer no real benefit to the functionality of that ploppable. I will refer to these modules henceforth as "cosmetic". Examples of these include signs and flagpoles. They are fun and usually quite cheap and are included in the game solely to allow you to add some character to your city.

There is, however, one warning. As with any module, you can plop down a flagpole in any available spot within a pretty significant radius of your building -- including across streets. If you drop down a flagpole or sign on an un-zoned location, that zone will NOT develop. This is very important to maximizing the density of your city. If you decide that you like to tinker with cosmetic modules, don't put them in places that hinder growth.

Tack-ons

There is one final category that only really applies to parks. Whenever you build a park, you can then click on that park and add extra sections of park that "connect" to that same park -- increasing it's value and overall benefit to local land value. This isn't really a module per se, however it does use the same mechanics so I'm including it here.