SimCity 4 > Miscellany > Disasters

Disasters

In thy darkest moments thou hast always desired to give vent by unleasing thy wrath upon the hapless sims of thy city. Thine heart waxeth full of wicked glee as hundreds of helpless citizens run screaming in terror as fire and destruction rain over their heads. The tiny hearts of the sims freeze in terror as thine evil gaffaw carrieth on the roaring wind.

Shame on you.

Yet in the great tradition of Sim City you get your choice of disasters to inflect on your city, as well as disasters that appear when you sit on your thumbs doing nothing for your hapless sims.

There are two classes of disasters: those you set off and those the game sets off. For moveable disasters (tornados, meteors, robots), you can click and hold your mouse button to guide the path of the disaster. For disasters that don't move holding down the mouse button intensifies the effect.

SimCity 4 Disasters

Volcano

A cratered mountain of fire rises from the spot you clicked on. Any buildings around the spot will be destroyed at once. The flow and spray of lava sets anything they touch on fire. Lava also causes steam to rise when it hits water.

Fire

Nurture the arsonist in you by making your cursor a torch and setting your own fires. Of course, fires near a fire station do not last long. For fires further out (and set by the game itself), you can press the Emergency Tools button and guide a fire truck to the scene.

Meteor

A flamming chunk of space rock falls to earth. It destroys everything at the impact site (including pipes) and sets fires to whatever surrounds the crater. This is useful if you want to destroy something (like a corporate tower or a toxic waste dump) that is too expensive to bulldoze.

Robot Attack

Servo the Home Robot from The Sims descends from the skies; and he's serving you nothing but kickass! Servo stamps on buildings and throws giant plates like Frisbees to destroy from afar. When Servo is done venting, he rockets into the sky.

Tornado

A funnel cloud appears to rip up anything in its random path. After a while it dissipates. A tornado also breaks up when it hits water.

Lightning

Point and click on a target, O Zeus, to set it ablaze with your might thunderbolts. You can zap several targets in fast succession.

Earthquake

Wherever you click is the epicenter of a tremor that shatters buildings around the fault line. Any subsequent earthquake will follow the direction of the first quake fault.

Deluxe Edition Disasters

Autosaurus Wrecks

The younger brother of Truckosaurus Rex (the monster that ate the Simpsons' car with the family inside it!) rampages through the city. He materializes out of nowhere, throws no plates, and explodes into a ball of fire when finished; otherwise he acts like Servo.

UFO

With one click an alien mothership descends to the city. First it fires a teleport beam, drawing sims and assorted loose items into itself. Then it launches at least three smaller flying saucers that fire bolts of energy. In time the mothership returns to space; its offspring disappear after a minute or so.

Simulation Disasters

The game can set its own fires; and there are other disasters it sets off as well. A well-funded and well-governed city will keep these disasters at bay.

Riot

If you become extremely unpopular in a neighborhood (and we are talking a negative mayoral rating here), a sim will gather followers and touch off a riot. The riot will grow, spawning secondary riots, until it gets so frenzied that the sims start tossing Molotov cocktails. Quell the riot with police before it gets out of control. Better still, work on your city to gain the respect of your sims.

Sparks

Aging or ill-kept power lines will spark, setting fires to buildings or forest underneath the lines. Keep your power budget well-funded.

Pipe Burst

Aging or ill-kept water mains will rust. Then the rusted pipes will burst. Water from burst mains erode the ground below, causing sinkholes that swallow buildings around them. They also cause secondary bursts. Keep your water budget well-funded.

Explosions

A power plant explosion is a wonder to behold: A titanic blast that destroys everything in a multi-tile radius and ignites fires far beyond that. Replace a power plant that nears the end of its life, and put out a power plant fire at once! Just be thankful that your city is too small (<20,000 sims) for a nuclear power plant; when that explodes, the game is over.