I'll try to help - in some cases, the problems aren't bugs or poor programming, it's just part of the game. There are some cases where the game just doesn't work as intended, but if you're aware of the issues you can work with it and still prevail. I have played this game on and off since launch
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- Do workers / shoppers / students & freight actually commute correctly? For example, if I have 100 unemployed in one City and 100 available jobs in the second, will those 100 unemployed commute every day?
In a word - No. Unfortunately, they tried, but a number of issues with syncing online really screwed it up. Some regional things directly interact, others just "look" like they're working. So if you have 100 unemployed in one City, when you're in that city's regional view, it will look at the numbers of the other city and show workers commuting, but 100 sims do not actually track to the city with open jobs. The game treats it as if they are, in regional view, but after all my years of playing I have never been able to balance jobs in this manner.
Unfortunately, one of the bugs that is here to stay is Sims leaving a city for any reason lose their tracking and don't return. So it is best to balance population on a per-city basis.
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- Does Power, Water and Sewage share correctly? I know that the available amount will split between claimed cities sharing a road but I have had great difficulty getting another City to accept Sewage. Also, City 1 suggests that it has, for example 100kwh Power available, but City 2 (the only other City on the map) can only purchase 90kwh?
Yes! Power, Water and Sewage sharing actually work really well. I generally set up a utility city in the region and stack all of those services in one city, share with the region and then never touch the utility city again (unless I need to add more capacity). You are correct - the available amount will be split evenly between claimed cities. Showing 90kwh available instead of 100kwh available may just be a matter of synching. The consumer city may need to play for a bit to catch up to the amount available from the supplier city, or vice versa.
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- Who are the tourists? I have placed a ploppable Municipal bus station and now I receive tourists to my City (orange people when Commercial data is selected). Where do these tourists come from because my other City has no unsatisfied shoppers.
Tourists come from "The Region" - they're completely separate entities that appear when you add regional transportation, cultural or gambling facilities. This creates another layer of shoppers, known as tourists, that need to be managed with your commercial.
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- How does sharing services work (Police, Ambulances etc.)? Can the second City run without such services if the first City provides enough of them? It would certainly reduce my monthly outgoings if one City didn't require a Police service or Hospital
I like sharing services - police, fire, ambulances - when I set up a new city for just that reason. Why pay for all those workers when there's a fire or criminal once every 3 months? I would say it works well to cut costs at the beginning, but once your city reaches a certain population it becomes really ineffective really fast. I suggest using sharing as a startup option, but once the traffic or city size makes it so that they're not keeping up, build the stations in your new city. You should have the funds by the time you need them.
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- Is it possible to run three Cities, one of each zoning type? One residential, one commercial and one industrial?
Not really - mostly because of the "phantom" commuting I talked about earlier. You can successfully build an industrial city, but you'll still need at least a megatower or a section of the city with low wealth residential to actually keep the industry running. Residential must have commercial at the very least, both for the workers and the shoppers.
Hope this helps!