Building a city is easy; keeping everyone alive is hard. In Theotown, your citizens have needs. If they get sick, dumb, or set on fire, they will leave (or die), and your tax revenue will plummet.

However, services are expensive. A beginner mistake is to blanket the city in hospitals and police stations, leading to bankruptcy. This guide will teach you how to provide 5-star service on a 1-star budget.

1. The Golden Rule: The Radius

Every service building has a Radius Circle.

  • Green Area: Citizens here get the service.
  • Outside Area: Citizens here get nothing.
  • The Trap: Overlapping circles provides ZERO extra benefit. Two polices stations covering the same house does not make it “double safe”. It just wastes your money.
  • Strategy: Space your buildings out so the circles barely touch. Minimal overlap = Maximum Efficiency.

2. Emergency Services (Fire & Police)

These are reactive services. You need them to prevent bad things from happening.

Fire Department

  • Priority: High for Industrial zones. Low for.
  • Mechanic: Industrial zones have a high “Fire Risk”.
  • Deep Dive: For a full survival manual, read our Disaster Management Guide.
  • Placement: Place fire stations near your factories. Ensure the traffic isn’t blocked, or the truck won’t make it in time.

Police Department

  • Priority: High for Commercial zones and poor Residential areas.
  • Mechanic: Crime lowers land value. High crime = wealthy people move out.
  • Radius: Police stations usually have a large radius. You don’t need many.
  • Riot Control: If happiness drops too low (high taxes, no food), people will riot. Police can suppress riots, but solving the root cause is better.

3. Education: The Growth Engine

Education is not just about happiness; it unlocks better buildings.

The Hierarchy

  1. Elementary School:
    • Cost: Cheap.
    • Radius: Small.
    • Effect: Reduces crime, slightly increases poor wealth demand. You need these everywhere.
  2. High School:
    • Cost: Medium.
    • Radius: Medium.
    • Effect: Essential for Middle-Class citizens. Without this, your residential zones will never upgrade past Level 1 slums.
  3. University:
    • Cost: Very Expensive.
    • Radius: Huge (often covers half a city).
    • Effect: Enables High-Tech demand. Required for the Industrial Strategy to unlock clean tech zones.

4. Health and Death

Hospitals

Sick citizens don’t work.

  • Illness: Caused by Pollution and lack of water.
  • Strategy: Before building a massive hospital, check for pollution. Are your houses next to a coal plant? Move the plant. Prevention is cheaper than the cure.

Cemeteries

This is a unique mechanic in Theotown.

  • Death: Sims eventually die of old age.
  • Ghosts: If you have no cemetery space, “ghosts” will haunt homes.
  • Effect: Haunted houses have terrible land value.
  • Placement: Surprisingly, Cemeteries act as “Parks”. Sims like living near them (peace and quiet?). Place them near residential zones to boost value.

5. Waste Management (Garbage)

  • Landfill: The fast cheap fix. Fills up eventually. Emits smell (radius of pollution). Place it FAR away.
  • Incineration: Burns trash. Infinite capacity, but massive air pollution.
  • Recycling Center: Slower, cleaner, produces some materials. Good for green cities.

Conclusion

The key to Economy management is to under-fund your services slightly.

  • Use the budget sliders!
  • If your school isn’t full, lower the budget.
  • If your hospital has empty beds, lower the budget.

You don’t need 100% funding if you only have 50% capacity usage. Optimize, save money, and use the profit to expand!