Zoning question

[MyFlagshipCity]

Just have a general zoning question. What is a good sized area to zone for that fills up immediately but still allows me to get a decent population for that area?

How soon am I supposed to get a population in the 10,000s?

[twalsh102]

There really is no answer to either of your questions.

The size of the area you zone will be based on demand for a particular developer type.  There is no magic formula that says 'for this amount of demand, you should zone this amount of land.' 

There is no penalty for zoning too little land.  If whatever you zone doesn't take care of the demand you currently have, just zone some more.  There is a monetary penalty for zoning too much land in that you may be spending money for land that won't immediately get built on.  You will also be paying money for maintenance on the roads/streets within that zoned area that isn't being used.  This could be the difference between a positive or a negative balance in your city's coffers early in the game.  As you gain experience, you have a better handle on how much you need to zone to handle a particular amount of demand.

How soon am I supposed to get a population in the 10,000s?

Again there is no magic formula that says 'if you haven't reached a population of 10,000, or 50,000 or 100,000 by some predetermined time, you're failing/doing something disastrously wrong.'  Population growth rate is very much determined by your style of play, and what you are trying to achieve.  If you are going for a farming community, it will take a while to even reach 10,000 Sims (and you may have to fill up most of a medium city square to get there. 

Now, if you get to some point where your city just refuses to grow any more, there is usually a reason.  And we should be able to help you figure it out.

You can't expect perfection your first time out (unless you just happen to be an expert on ALL aspects of game mechanics - and I'm not sure such a person even exists).

Some general tips:
1.  Take things slow!  If you try to do too many new things all at once, it's less likely you will be able to determine proper cause and effect of what you are experiencing.
2.  Don't be afraid to experiment.  That is how most of us have learned what we know.  There is usually no one single correct way of doing things
3.  Don't be afraid to get stuck and/or "fail."  There are really only two ways to truly "lose" the game:  allow your budget to go too far negative and you will be impeached (actually you will be "encouraged to run for senate"; and if you let a nuke power plant explode from old age or overuse, that is essentially game over for that particular city square as NOTHING will grow/develop for thousands of years.  What I normally do is make sure I have a backup copy of every region map I install in the game.  That way I have a fall back if mess things up to the point I can't fix it / find that the city just isn't developing along the lines I wanted it too / any number of other reasons one doesn't want to continue a particular city.  If you obliterate the city while in game, it doesn't get rid of the savegame file for that city; if you choose to start again on that same city square, problems could develop.  If you choose to delete a city from Region view, you end up with a flat featureless city square regardless of what terrain existed in the original.  If you have a backup, you can always just delete the savegame file for that city and replace it with the pristine original from your backup.
4.  Remember that it's only a game.  Have fun with it!

[brick_mortimer]

Just have a general zoning question. What is a good sized area to zone for that fills up immediately but still allows me to get a decent population for that area?

It all depends on *what* you're trying to build.
If you're working on a suburban area / city tile, you'll zone a lot of low density residential, usually larger plots 2x2 or 2x3* and the total population will be rather low compared to the amount of land you used.

*You can "force" the game to zone a certain sized plot by using the ALT key.
And you can "force" the direction of the front side of the plot (the little arrow) by using the CTRL key.
You can, off course, use both ALT + CTRL at the same time 

And like twalsh102 said; there is no fixed "rule" that says you *have* to have "x population" within "y time".
It all depends on what kind of city you want to make, and that's what makes this game so great 

But, if you're going for skyscrapers etc. your regional population must be big enough.
It's not really realistic to have an "Island" of skyscrapers in an otherwise rural region