simcity-2013
My question on Sim City (2013) is:
Is there any way to import freight for my commercial zones? There is a big industrial city connected to me by road and rail. But I can't seem to get enough freight for my shops and businesses. Is there a way to import this freigth from the international market?
Thanks in advance!
Goods spawn at commercial buildings at 6 am and at 6 pm.
Residential shoppers buy the goods from commercial buildings. If there are no goods at a close commercial building, the shopper will search farther and farther for goods.
This is how it happens:
In the commercial view, dark blue bars represent goods, while dark blue cars and people represent shoppers. The building on the left has depleted its goods, and will not be visited by any more shoppers this cycle.
The green smiley (with an up arrow above) is a residential building gaining happiness that a satisfied shopper has returned.
Commercial buildings that don't successfully sell goods will abandon.
Freight is generated from industrial buildings while workers are present. Industrials ship freight to commercials and storage. Freight that is delivered to storage just "rots", allowing allowing more shipments to arrive.
Freight that is delivered to a commercial building is converted into money inside the building. Money in a commercial building allows the building to grow and keeps the building from abandoning. It is possible to keep a commercial building alive and growing through goods sales only, with no freight delivered.
This is how it happens:
In the Industrial View, there are four highlighted items:
The yellow bar indicates freight in the industrial building, while the teal bar indicates past successful shipments. Yellow trucks indicate freight headed to fill an order. Teal trucks indicate satisfied shipments returning to the industrial building.
The whole freight acceptance and decay concept appears to be in flux at this point. At launch, I observed trade depots filling with freight, which would just sit. Today, these same depots receive freight and vaporize it within the hour. I have observed trade depots, commercial buildings and coal mining plants accepting freight.
Industrial buildings that don't successfully ship freight will abandon.
Each industrial building gets its own truck to deliver freight. The truck will locate nearby available orders and attempt delivery. Delivery may involve multiple buildings. All the freight on the truck must be delivered before the return trip starts.
If the truck returns from delivery quickly, it will spawn once per hour - each industrial building has its own timer. This way you get 24 truck deliveries per day.
If the truck is delayed, does not return in one hour (before the next truck would spawn... then the next truck doesn't spawn. The building resets the clock for another hour. This can happen when the gets stuck in traffic, or its freight shipment is far away. In this case, you get less than 24 truck deliveries per day.
For example: if a truck takes 2.5 hours to return, the next truck will spawn in 0.5 hour. The building keeps the timer. If this happens consistently to the same building, you'll get 8 truck shipments per day.
If your city suffers complete gridlock, you may get down to 2 truck shipments per day.
If you switch to industry view, and you observe an industry building which never hits 0 freight (empty yellow bar) - then you have identified a building that really needs better freight shipping. Either solve the traffic jams, or place a freight accepting building close to the industry. Watch the truck before you try to solve the problem.
Freight accepting buildings include commercial buildings, trade depot with freight attachment, trade port with freight attachment, many service buildings (power, sewage), and the road out of the city (although I haven't seen that last one accept freight yet).
Best Answer
Freight cannot be bought on the market. Freight can be transmitted via region by a street connected neighbor overproducing. The trucks from that city will automatically go directly to your Commercial buildings. Freight Warehouse is counter-productive because freight does not move between warehouse and Commercial buildings.
However, you might be misled by the message. Commercial buildings will abandon for lack of selling 100% of goods, and then will complain for lack of freight. Freight is a bonus like tourist souvenirs, and freight arriving at commercial buildings is not essential for preventing abandonment. Reduce/spread Commercial buildings until all goods are sold each 5 AM.
More information: http://imgur.com/a/1vnxM