SimCity 2013 Services Guide – Fire Safety, Health, Police and Parks

How to effectively manage City Services in SimCity 2013 to keep you and your city folks happy.


City services are essential to make sure your Sims are safe and healthy and get their approval along the way. Firefighters, policemen and doctors can save your city in times of emergency and of course, parks make your city shine, so make sure you set a little tax income aside for these services.

However, don’t spend heavily as these services are a drain on your income and don’t provide any profits in return. Be smart and efficient when it comes to providing full coverage of city services.

For more help on SimCity, read our Utilities, Zoning and Tourism Guide.

SimCity City Services

Fire Safety

Fire Station:

  • Cost: 20,000
  • Operational Cost: 400/hour
  • Response Time: 12 minutes

Prerequisite: Town Hall

You never know when your city’s first fire breaks out so it is best to stay prepared. After you have laid the foundation and started off your city, build a fire station once you have the money. Until then, you can employ a neighboring city’s fire fighting services. The fire station comes with one fire truck but you can build additional modules to add more trucks and cut response times.

Modules:

Fire Station Sign:

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1
  • The sign is just a decoration, no actual functionality.

Fire Station Flagpole:

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1
  • The flagpole is another decoration.

Fire Alarm:

  • Cost: 3,000
  • Operational Cost: 75/hour
  • Response Time Modifier: ½ the previous response time (6 minutes)
  • Maximum Modules: 1

You should build the fire alarm as soon as you have some money to spare. The reduction is response time is huge and can even turn out to save you more than you pay for.

Fire Station Garage:

  • Cost: 15,000
  • Operational Cost: 200/hour
  • Maximum Modules: 4 (including the one that comes with the base)

The garage obviously gives you an additional fire truck to improve performance. Most of the fires can be too much to handle for a single fire truck so it’s a good thing that you can always turn to the 3 additional ones.

Large Fire Station:

  • Cost: 85,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,700/hour
  • Response Time: 6 minutes

Prerequisites: City Hall, Department of Safety in the region

When your city grows too big for simple fire stations to provide all the coverage, you can instead consider building a large fire station. It has two fire trucks, one equipped with the hook and ladder that extends its range. You can get modules cut down on the response time, add more trucks and a whole lot of other modules that make at least one large fire station almost essential.

Modules:

Large Fire Station Sign:

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1
  • The sign is just a decoration.

Fire Station Flagpole:

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1
  • Another decoration for your fire station.

Fire Dispatch Tower:

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 525/hour
  • Response Time Modifier: ½ the previous response time (3 minutes)
  • Maximum Modules: 1

The fire alarm equivalent for the Large Fire Station, the fire dispatch tower communicates over satellite to dispatch all the fire trucks and reduce the response times of all your fire vehicles.

Large Fire Station Garage:

  • Cost: 15,000
  • Operational Cost: 400/hour
  • Maximum Modules: 4 (including the one that comes with the base)

The garage offers you another fire truck equipped with the hook and ladder to add to your fire fighting arsenal. You can have up to 3 more.

Fire Marshal office:

  • Cost: 20,000
  • Operational Cost: 500/hour
  • Fire Retardant: 10 per house
  • Maximum Modules: 4

The fire marshal makes occasional rounds of the city to inspect houses, factories, etc. Buildings visited remain immune to fire for several days. You can add more to increase the coverage and reduce the chances of fire significantly.

Hazmat Garage:

  • Cost: 40,000
  • Operational Cost: 250/hour
  • Fire Retardant: 100 per house
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Prerequisites:: University in region, University with School of Engineering in the region and Complete research in a university in the region.

The hazmat fire truck is the only one equipped to deal with hazmat fires. Your normal firemen will be helpless against them so it is crucial to build at least one hazmat truck garage. You can add more garages if you find yourself at occasional risk to hazmat fires.

Fire Helipad:

  • Cost: 60,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,400 per hour
  • Fire Retardant: 10 per house
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Prerequisites: Municipal Airport in the city or international airport in the vicinity.

The helicopter obviously makes its way around the city much faster than fire trucks can. It is much faster and can hold up until reinforcements arrive or extinguish fire before they arrive altogether. Note that the helicopter uses a lot of water so make sure to stock up on some water towers.

How To Prevent Fires
Remember that the city services are a drain on the income and fires themselves can render buildings unusable, so as much as it is important to have fire coverage, it is even more important to try to prevent fires altogether.

There are several steps you can take to this end. Things which increase the risk of fires include crime, garbage, pollution, abandoned buildings and illiteracy. To counter these factors you can open the appropriate menus to review your coverage of the related facilities, for example, to counter crime you can increase your police coverage and catch any arsonists. To counter garbage, you need to check to see that all the garbage cans are being collected.

To deal with pollution, you can invest in modules which reduce pollution output and make sure that the polluting buildings are away from populated areas. Demolish any abandoned buildings and clear the rubble. Make sure your sims are educated by building more schools and educational facilities, consider building a public library.

Things To Remember

  • Traffic can cause fire trucks to run late.
  • All the fire fighting facilities have an operational cost so don’t overextend your spending.
  • Hazmat fires are caused by heavy industry areas and mines.
  • You can volunteer your fire fighting services and they work similar to volunteering garbage disposal utilities. You receive a small fee for extinguishing fires but the city receiving the service does not have to pay for it.

Health Services

Your sims need to stay healthy and it is your job as mayor to make sure they do. Injured sims die if there is no ambulance to treat them. On the other hand, sick sims remain home If not treated. This means that they don’t go to work which means they will eventually be poor and evicted from their house and this will in turn have a negative effect on your economy.

The sickness can also spread which means that several sims will be affected and combine to have a ripple effect on your tax revenue. So it is in your best interest as both a humane mayor and a rich successful mayor to keep those sims healthy and you can do so by building hospitals and clinics.

Clinic:

  • Cost: 20,000
  • Operational Cost: 400/hour
  • Patient Rooms: 10
  • Waiting Room Capacity: 10

Prerequisites: Town Hall

The clinic is the most basic health care facility. In its stock state, the clinic can dispatch one ambulance and can treat 10 people with a waiting room for 10 more. In a smaller city, it would be sufficient but as your city grows, you might want to consider expanding clinics with modules and building hospitals.

Modules:

Clinic Sign:

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1
  • Just a decoration.

Ambulance Bay:

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 200/hour
  • Capacity: 4 injured Sims
  • Maximum Modules: 4 (including the one that comes with the base)

Ambulances treat and carry your city’s patients to clinics and hospitals. Add another ambulance to increase your capacity, coverage and response time.

Patient Rooms:

  • Cost: 12,000
  • Operational Cost: 300/hour
  • Patient Rooms: 15
  • Maximum Modules: 4

If treating 10 patients is just not cutting it, you can expand the clinic with additional rooms which allows you to treat more patients simultaneously.

Hospital:

  • Cost: 120,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,700/hour
  • Patient Rooms: 50
  • Waiting Room Capacity: 40

Prerequisites: City Hall, Department of Safety in the vicinity

Clinics are fine for small cities but a larger continuously developing city needs better health coverage than that. This is where the hospital comes in. In its default state, it treats way more patients than the clinic.

With additional modules, you can increase the capacity a lot more and give specialized treatment to patients to get them up and working again faster. The hospital has a lot of additional buildings so it might be a good idea to leave out a whole block specifically to expand it.

Modules:

Hospital Sign:

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1
  • Just a decoration.

Ambulance Bay:

  • Cost: 15,000
  • Operational Cost: 400/hour
  • Number of Ambulances: 2
  • Capacity 8 injured Sims
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Need more coverage and better response time? Get more ambulances and you can do so by building additional ambulance bays.

Patient Rooms:

  • Cost: 40,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,400/hour
  • Patient Rooms: 75
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Additional Patient rooms increase the capacity for the patients being treated. With all the modules you will have enough room to treat your city and your neighbors as well.

Emergency Center:

  • Cost: 40,000
  • Operational Cost: 400/hour
  • Time Until Death: 2x previous time until death
  • Maximum Modules:

Professionals at the emergency center keep injured Sims alive for twice as long as they wait for an ambulance. Combined with a sprawling number of ambulances, no Sim will go untreated.

Wellness Center:

  • Cost: 30,000
  • Operational Cost: 450/hour
  • Wellness Vans: 1
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Like the fire marshal, the wellness vans also visit residences, factories, shops, etc and guide Sims on how to clean up and reduce germs. Buildings visited have reduced chances of sickness.

Diagnostic Lab:

  • Cost: 60,000
  • Operational Cost: 750/hour
  • Sick Recovery Time: ½ the previous recovery time
  • Prerequisites: University in the region and University with School of Science in the region
  • Maximum Modules: 1

The diagnostic lab speed up the process of identifying sicknesses, reducing recovery time by half.

Surgical Center:

  • Cost: 80,000
  • Operational Cost: 750/hour
  • Injury Recovery Time: ½ the previous recovery time
  • Prerequisites: University in the region, University with School of Medicine in the region and Complete research at the university in the region
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Similar to the diagnostic lab but for injured patients. The expert surgeon will reduce the recovery time for you injured Sims by half.

How To Prevent Health Issues
The health care system is a drain on your tax income especially the hospital with all its various buildings. Instead of expanding the hospital, it might be better to prevent injuries and sicknesses altogether.

Sickness is caused due to ground and air pollution. Ground and air pollution are caused by utility buildings and industries. Sewage and garbage are a major cause of ground pollution so make sure your sewage outlet is away from the city or make a treatment center; similarly, make sure all the garbage cans are being collected.

Make sure the garbage incinerator, coal/oil power plant and heavy industries are away from the populated part of the city and that the wind doesn’t blow all the fumes over the residents.

Another prevention measure is to make sure your Sims know about measures they can take to avoid sickness. To this end you need to increase the education level. Build schools, colleges and libraries as you see fit.

To prevent injuries, you need to prevent accidents, crimes and situations in which your Sims can get hurt. Invest into other city services to make sure your sims are safe.

Things to Remember:

  • Sick Sims that aren’t taken to a hospital become injured and injured Sims die if not taken to a hospital.
  • Kids don’t get sick.
  • Clinics and Hospitals increase land value.
  • You can volunteer your health care services to neighboring cities.

Police

Your city might have all the utilities, take care of your Sims health, provide them basic necessities and a good education but if it does not take care of the criminals that will inevitably make your city their home, then your Sims are not safe at all. Building more fire stations when you have an arsonist on the loose is hardly the best course of action.

Police Station:

  • Cost: 30,000
  • Operational Cost: 400/hour
  • Jail Cells: 10
  • Patrol Cars: 2
  • Patrol Rate: Every 60 minutes

Prerequisites:  Town Hall

The police station comes with two patrols cars and a jail with a capacity for holding 10 criminals. The criminals are eventually rehabilitated.

Modules:

Police Station Sign:

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1
  • Decoration

Police Station Flagpole:

  • Cost: 20
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1
  • Another decoration for your police station.

Patrol Car Lot:

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 225/hour
  • Patrol Cars: 2
  • Patrol Rate: Every 60 minutes
  • Maximum Modules: 4

More police patrol cars mean more frequent and widely spread surveillance.

Jail Cells (Ground Floor):

  • Cost: 15,000
  • Operational Cost: 300/hour
  • Jail Cells: 15
  • Maximum Modules: 4

More jail capacity means more criminals will be dealt with.

Jail Cells (Top Floor):

  • Cost: 15,000
  • Operational Cost: 300/hour
  • Jail Cells: 15
  • Maximum Modules: 4

More jail capacity means more criminals will be dealt with.

Police Precinct:

  • Cost: 95,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,700/hour
  • Jail Cells: 50
  • Patrol Cars: 4
  • Patrol Rate: Every 30 minutes

Prerequisites: City Hall, Department of Safety in the vicinity

The police station is fine if you are starting out and there isn’t much crime but once your city starts growing and developing rapidly, it might be time to consider a police precinct. It is essential to deal with certain crimes and with the added modules, you’re city will be crime free forever. Once you have enough money, buy the dispatch tower as soon as possible.

Modules:

Police Precinct Sign:

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1
  • Decoration

Patrol Car Lot:

  • Cost: 15,000
  • Operational Cost: 600/hour
  • Patrol Cars: 6
  • Patrol Rate: Every 30 minutes
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Increases your patrol cars which helps you arrest more criminals and prevent more crimes.

Jail Cells (Ground Floor):

  • Cost: 22,000
  • Operational Cost: 700/hour
  • Jail Cells: 70
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Give you more jail capacity to deal with several criminals at once.

Jail Cells (Top Floor):

  • Cost: 22,000
  • Operational Cost: 700/hour
  • Jail Cells: 70
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Give you more jail capacity to deal with several criminals at once.

Police Dispatch Tower:

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 525/hour
  • Response Time: Instant!
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Tells your patrol cars about crimes reported in the area. They receive information instantly which means they can get to it immediately.

Detective Wing:

  • Cost: 60,000
  • Operational Cost: 750/hour
  • Detective Cars: 1
  • Prerequisites: University in the region, University with School of Law in the region and Complete research at a university in the region.
  • Maximum Modules: 4

The detectives employed at the detective wing are always on the case. This enables you to eventually arrest criminals on the loose when the detective car pulls over at the hideout.

Crime Prevention Center:

  • Cost: 30,000
  • Operational Cost: 400/hour
  • Crime Prevention Vans: 1
  • Maximum Modules: 1

The crime prevention vans stops by around the neighborhood, teaching kids to stay in school and avoid a life of crime. Effectively, reduces the number of potential criminals.

Police Helipad:

  • Cost: 20,000
  • Operational Cost: 750/hour
  • Police Helicopter: 1
  • Prerequisites: Municipal Airport in the city or international airport in the vicinity
  • Maximum Modules: 4

The police copter is much faster than the patrol cars and gets to the crime scene before the criminal can escape.

Things to Remember

  • Employment and a good education can reduce criminals significantly.
  • Criminals start as kids, if they get the proper education and are raised in a good household, they won’t turn to the life of crime.
  • If cells are full, criminals will be released early without being fully rehabilitated.
  • You can volunteer your police force to the neighboring cities or make use of their police force. You get a small income when criminals are caught.
  • Police buildings increase land value.

Heroes and Villain Set

Dr. Vu
The super villain Dr. Vu resides at the Vu tower. Sims that enter the Vu tower are brainwashed into criminal activities. Dr. Vu goes about the city doing evil deed but the police force is helpless.

Vu Tower also has other functions which you can explore. It boosts the growth of nearby industries and attracts more tourists.

Maxis Man – Maxis man is the only one that can stop Dr. Vu. He can perform the duties of the health, fire fighter and police services. With additional modules, Maxis Man can get the power to defeat Dr. Vu and put him in jail. Dr. Vu, however, may not sit still in the jail for long…

Parks

Parks can serve several purposes. It increases land value, keeps your Sims happy, keep kids away from a life of crime and attract tourists. The increased land value can help create high class residential and commercial buildings.

Basic Parks:
These little parks don’t offer much in terms of land value but they are still visited by adults and kids alike. If you have any small unfilled space in between, fill them in with these parks to make your city more attractive.

Blacktop Park:

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: 10 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 12
  • Description: Just enough room for foursquare and hopscotch.

Swings Playground:

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: 10 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 12
  • Description: Swing time! Higher!

Rides Playground:

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: 10 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 12

BBQ Pit

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: 10 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 12

BBQ Pavilion

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Water Park Playground

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Small Field

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Small Field with Parking

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Medium Field with Parking

  • Cost: 1,600
  • Operational Cost: 160 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 192

Large Field with Parking

  • Cost: 1,600
  • Operational Cost: 160 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 192

Sports Parks:
These parks offer much more land value than the basic parks. More Sims come to play sports as well.

Public Tennis Court

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Basketball Court

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Volleyball Court

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Medium Skate Park

  • Cost: 800
  • Operational Cost: 80 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Large Skate Park

  • Cost: 1,600
  • Operational Cost: 160 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 96

Soccer Field

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 600 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 180

Baseball Field

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 500 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 150

Nature Parks:
These parks are a perfect spot for your Sims to kick back and relax and enjoy the scenery. These beautiful parks also increase land value significantly.

Pond

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: 20 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 12

Wavy Path Park

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Straight Path Park

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Colorful Path Park

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Tall Tree Row

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: 10 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Short Tree Row

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: 10 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Medium Path Park

  • Cost: 800
  • Operational Cost: 80 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Tree-Lined Walkway

  • Cost: 800
  • Operational Cost: 80 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Wavy Tree-Lined Walkway

  • Cost: 800
  • Operational Cost: 80 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Large Park Path

  • Cost: 3,200
  • Operational Cost: 320 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 192
  • Prerequisites: City Hall, Department of Tourism in the region

City Park

  • Cost: 3,200
  • Operational Cost: 320 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 192
  • Prerequisites: City Hall, Department of Tourism in the region

Community Park

  • Cost: 3,200
  • Operational Cost: 320 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 192
  • Prerequisites: City Hall, Department of Tourism in the region

Plant Forest

  • Cost: 50
  • Operational Cost: None

Clear Forest

  • Cost: 50
  • Operational Cost: None

Plazas:
These sophisticated plazas offer upper class Sims a great place to relax. These parks increases land values a lot and encourage growth of high wealth buildings.

Simple Walkway

  • Cost: 1,200
  • Operational Cost: 120 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Double Walkway

  • Cost: 1,200
  • Operational Cost: 120 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Flower Plaza

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Small Sculpture Garden

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Medium Sculpture Garden

  • Cost: 1,200
  • Operational Cost: 120 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Large Sculpture Garden

  • Cost: 2,400
  • Operational Cost: 240 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 96

Large Urban Sculpture Garden

  • Cost: 2,400
  • Operational Cost: 240 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 96

 Urban Greenspace

  • Cost: 2,400
  • Operational Cost: 240 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 96

Tiered Urban Greenspace

  • Cost: 2,400
  • Operational Cost: 240 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 96

Formal Parks:
Formal Parks are highly sophisticated parks that encourage high wealth buildings.

Fountain Plaza

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Fenced Fountain Plaza

  • Cost: 400
  • Operational Cost: 40 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 24

Small Fountain Park

  • Cost: 1,200
  • Operational Cost: 120 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 48

Reflecting Pool Park

  • Cost: 2,400
  • Operational Cost: 240 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 96

Large Fountain Park

  • Cost: 2,400
  • Operational Cost: 240 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 96

Amphitheater

  • Cost: 4,800
  • Operational Cost: 480 per hour
  • Visitors per day: 192
  • Prerequisites: City Hall, Department of Tourism in the region

Things to Remember

  • Parks attract homeless. Parks have a limited amount of space and if homeless settle in, it could deny your tax paying residents from enjoying hanging out in the park themselves.
  • The short tree row and tall tree row absorb pollution.
  • Parks also reduce ground pollution if there was any on the area they are placed.
  • Bigger, more attractive parks attract crowds and even tourists due to the increased appeal of your city.

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