It seems like you can get a huge bonus for putting certain buildings together and creating a "Specialty District," although I've also seen this called a "Combo."
There's a pretty exhaustive list of parts of the game in this Google Doc spreadsheet, which might be enlightening reading, although it's a bit dense.
I found a list of combos in this message board post. I don't believe it's 100% complete, but it might be enough to help you figure out what the pattern is:
- Pleasure - Casino, Arcade, Bowling Alley
- Health - Hospital, Sports Gym, Spa/Jpn Rest
- Shopping - Supermarket, Boutique, Jeweler
- H. Springs - Jpn Rest, Woods, Lake
- Culture - Jeweler, Art Museum, Movie Thtr
- Gourmet - Sushi Bar, Chinese Rest, Bar
- Student - Trade School, Steakhouse, Diner
- Fashion - Boutique, Art Museum, Drugstore
- Business - Office, Office, City Hotel
- Intellect - Bookstore, Trade School, Art Museum
- Geek - Elec Shp, Anime Shp, Game Shp
- Kids - Toy Str, Park, Game Shp
- Tourist - Woods, Mountains, City Hotel/Jpn Rest
- Local - Cake Shp, Greengrocer, Florist/Fish Monger
- Industry - Scooter Shp, Car Dealer, College
- Date - Theme Park, Zoo, Movie Thtr/Arcade
- Sports - Stadium, Bsbll Field, Sports Gym
- Nature - Pasture, Park, Woods/Lake
- Lunch - Cafe, Deli, Bakery
- Silicon - PC Shp, Mobile Shp, Game Co.
- Ancient - Monument, Pagoda, Jpn Garden
- Animal - Zoo, Pet Shp, Pasture
- Media - Antenna, Concert Hall, TV Station
- Fishy - Fishing Pond, Aquarium, Fish Monger
- Hacker - Pizza Parlor, Fast Food, Security Co.
- Rock - Record Str, Video Rental, Concert Hall
- Ghost - Skyscraper, Skyscraper, Skyscraper/Antenna
- Hollywood - Movie Thtr, Theme Park, Jeweler/Boutique
- Special - Airport, TV Station, Office (M)
There's also this page which purports to have some help information on it, but it looks like it just might be a transcription of the help files in the game, so I don't know how much value that will add to you.
I also found this thread, which covers (I'm guessing) the Japanese version, but I bet the core gameplay is the same.
In one place I found a reference to something called a "house combo" but the tip was unsourced and I couldn't find any other reference to such a thing. If you're still stuck after mastering Specialty Districts, you might try to figure out if this is possible and how.
Yeah I had this problem too. There is a secret to building in this game, or an understanding that you need in order to succeed, but unfortunately the game never makes this information available to you.
Important: The range from which an office building can discover jobs from closeby businesses is 5 tiles. The mega large office you get way late in the game has range 10.
Important: To successfully combo, the three buildings in the combo have to have AT LEAST 1 SQUARE of their territory inside what I could call a combo-window. Remember this when you are comboing with buildings that are 2x2. The window is a 3x3 grid like this:
X X X
X X X
X X X
So you can still qualify for a combo by placing buildings at the following 'O' locations:
O X O
X X X
X O X
This is very important, and turns out to be the secret to succeed. What you need to do is spread out the scaling benefits of combos to as wide an area as possible in order to raise land values, INCLUDING land values of the resident's homes. When you do this, and they upgrade their properties, they end up paying loads of tax and this is the solution to your money problem. Therefore I recommend building like this, where 'R' is a road, '#' and '*' are business combos, and 'X' are houses where people live:
# X #
R R R R R
X # X
* X *
R R R R R
X * X
There you have it, do this and you will be rocking in this game. Also, try this combo:
Office, City hotel, Office (yes a second one). Although it sounds crazy and limiting to have two offices within a couple squares of each other, this is potentially the best combo in the game.
Best Answer
$12,000 for certain, and possibly $11,900.
It's somewhat challenging to precisely calibrate land prices, but I did some experiments. $11,800 gives "no rank", while $12,000 gives #100. So technically, $11,900 might squeak into 100th place - I wasn't able to check with the buildings available in my current save.