1. Create a new region.
2. Choose whether you want it to be plains or water. Name your region. Next, click on a section of your region and choose "play".
First you will want to customize that part of your region and make it unique. Go to "God Mode" and begin shaping your landscape. Steep mountains and water cannot be zoned on. Remember that trees at this point are free, and also increase land value and health. Adding trees now will be very beneficial.
Once you are done with that, go to "Mayor Mode" and name your city. Then zone some low density residential. Put in a Natural Gas power plant to provide your residents with electricity. You should see a bit of development move in. The power plant only provides a few jobs, so growth will be small at this stage. Don't worry. This is normal.
Zone a very, very small amount of medium density industrial next to the power plant. This will actually provide quite a few jobs. Once development begins to taper off, save you city and exit to your region.
3. Start another city next to the first one and create a connection. You will want the land to be flat, so don't go crazy creating your landscape. Zone a lot of medium density industrial. Do not add any residential zones. Next add a coal power plant. You should see factories and other buildings develop very rapidly. This is because the demand for jobs in your other city is high because it offers only a handful of jobs. They will work in this industrial city. Once development tapers off, save and exit to your region.
4. Go back to your first city. Remove the small amount of industry you put there earlier. Most of your Sims now work in the industrial city. A very small amount still work at the power plant. Keep zoning low density residential until development tapers off. Once your residential city has a population of over 1,200 Sims, you can start zoning medium density. Make sure you provide those zones with water.
5. Continue going back and forth between your two cities. As your population grows, demand for industrial jobs grows. And in turn, the industrial development will attract new Sims to your Residential city. Once you seem to have a strong pattern going between your two cities, it is time to create a new city.
Name this new city and zone some low density commercial. Add a natural gas power plant. By now the demand for commercial development is probably very high. Your zone will develop quickly. Continue to play between your three cities. Soon you should add medium and high density commercial to your commercial city. This will attract offices and higher wealth Sims. The Sims will settle in your residential city and commute to your other two cities to work. Make sure you have good connections between your cities.
6. Now create and name a fourth city. Only develop agriculture in this city. By now your region should have a very healthy economy.
Continue play between your four cities. By now you should have several thousand Sims living in your Residential city. You will develop high-tech industry in your Industrial city. And once you have over 45,000 Sims working in your Commercial City, you will get skyscrapers.
At first your industrial city will have the most workers. Your commercial city will not be far behind. On the other hand, you won't have too many workers in your agricultural city. In time your Commercial city will overtake your Industrial city in the number of jobs. Your Residential city will grow to have 20,000 or more Sims living in it. It could even have over 100,000! Your region will be thriving by this point.
7.If you wish, continue to add new cities to your region. You can mix and match types of development to make it fun. Your region should continue to grow around your four core cities.
it's a known issue btw, yet to find a solution......