Impacts on demand
A common observation by players used to the vanilla game who start using this mod is that they see different demand patterns (particularly lower industrial and commercial demand) than they're used to.
This mod doesn't touch demand directly, but the more realistic simulation balance does mean that industrial demand will play out slightly differently than in the base game. The mod (intentionally) gives quite a different balance and 'feel' to the game, and if you're used to playing vanilla it may take a little while to fully adapt.
Note: Some other mods, most notably Real Time, do directly affect demand (Real Time in particular will noticeably reduce commercial demand for many players). Obviously, the effects of those mods are outside the scope of this mod.
- This guide by perafilozof on the Paradox forums;
- Youtube version of the above; and
- This guide on Reddit by u/spector.
"Industrial demand" in this game doesn't actually represent what people intuitively think it means, i.e. a genuine demand for industrial services. Instead, it's essential just a proxy for unemployment, so if your citizens are all taking up jobs elsewhere (commercial especially, but also service buildings) then there'll (quite naturally) be low industrial demand.
Because of the more realistic workplace densities with the mod (according to the base game, tall office skyscrapers only employ 12 people and sprawling factories only 8) it's very easy to have 'excess' jobs available with this mod. This is intended behaviour to help build real-world cities. The base game requires you to have huge swathes of offices and industrial builings; the mod gives you more realistic ratios. Generally this means lower "industrial demand" as shown by the game.
Take a look at your favourite city in Google Earth (or similar) and see how much space is actually given to industrial and office buildings, and compare that to the "cartoon" look that you get in the base game. This mod helps you move away from the cartoon and towards Google Earth - which means you're going to need less industry.
Commercial demand in the game basically increases linearly with population, so due to the above factors, growing commercial demand with low industrial demand is a quite common pattern seen with this mod, especially with people who are still new to the changed simulation balance.
Again, note the changed capacities and balance with this mod - as with industry, you'll typically need fewer commercial buildings for a given population than in the vanilla game, and individual buildings will tend to 'soak up' more commercial demand than you might be used to.
An important factor to remember is that the game's "commercial" demand is really demand for "leisure"; commercial demand is equally met by building leisure buildings, such as parks (including Parklife park areas). Giving your citizens plenty of options for leisure other than going shopping can help significantly with balancing commercial demand.
Note also that even the base game's commercial demand is not well-balanced, and it's generally good to have the commercial demand bar around 50% full most of the time. DON'T try to drive the commercial demand bar down to zero solely through commercial buildings; you'll just end up building more commercial buildings than your city can handle. Make sure you build plenty of parks and other leisure options as well to help 'soak up' the commercial demand.
Note that the issue of the game displaying commercial demand well above what the city can actually handle is a base-game issue, and not something introduced by this mod (although the changed commercial capacities implemented by this mod can certainly magnify the issues).
Take it steadily, and monitor your unemployment. Don't rely solely on the demand bar to tell you what's going on - periodically check your employment levels to gain a better understanding of where your city's true balance is.
Before building more workplaces (especially offices or industrial areas), check that your existing businesses of that type have sufficient workers. If they're all full, then you should be able to add some more, regardless of what the demand bar says. If your existing workplaces have a lot of vacant jobs, then hold off on any further workplace expansion until those jobs have largely been filled.
Don't try to boost industry or commercial growth until you're sure that you have the population to support it (your unemployment rate is a good guide here - if your unemployment rate is low, then any new employment building is going to struggle to find enough workers).
If commercial demand is high and your existing commercial buildings don't have large numbers of unfilled jobs, then concentrate on adding more commercial buildings to your city before expanding your industry or offices. However, remember: don't add any more commercial buildings once your commercial demand drops below 50%!
If unemployment is low, but you still have low residential demand, then ading/improving services, especially beautification/entertainment, can help boost residential demand more.