The Underlying Mechanics

We performed several experiments on Theotown, and found some stuff. But first you need to know:

Prerequisite Information

• The chart with green, blue, and yellow bars describes the demand for different areas.
• Different bars of the same color represent different "levels" of buildings. You can check a building's level by pressing on it and counting the number of T signss. Learn more here
• I will be calling the leftmost green bar G₁, the middle green bar G₂, the rightmost green bar G₃, and all the others in a similar fashion.
• Green represents residential sections
• Blue represents commercial sections
• Yellow represents industrial sections
• All the experiments took place in medium difficulty
• In the game, "demand" means potential for growth, or how fast a particular area will grow

Now, the fun part.

The Experiment

When you start a new city, G₁ is slightly higher than the others. In other words, only residential areas are in demand, at the beginning.

When I built a 4*4 green area with roads surrounding it, B₁ rose. When I build one 4*4 blue area, G₂ and Y₁ rose. B₁ and B₂ fell. When I built one 4*4 yellow area, G₂ and B₁ rose, and Y₁ and Y₂ fell.

When I built a park affecting only the green and a small part of the blue sections, G₁, G₂, and B₁ rose.

Adding electric and water systems had no effect on the chart.

Results

So apparently,

• Adding level 1 residential areas causes the demand for level one commercial areas to grow.
• Adding level 1 commercial areas causes the demand for level two residential areas and level one industrial areas to grow, and the demand for level 2 commercial areas to fall.
• Adding level 1 industrial areas causes the demand for level 1 commercial and residential areas to grow, and the demand for level 2 industrial areas to fall.
• A later experiment showed that parks cause the demand for residential areas level 1 and 2 to grow, regardless of position. They have little to no effect on commercial and industrial areas.