Farms and agricultural structures are also introduced, appearing on large light industrial zones in a city with low land value and little pollution.

In addition to their limited life span, power plants and other utility buildings were also made vulnerable to decreasing maximum output due to age.

New for players is interaction with neighbouring cities, negotiating rudimentary business deals with other mayors, such as the sale or purchase of water, electricity or waste management services.

Business deals were another new concept to SimCity 3000; by allowing certain structures, such as a maximum security prison, to be built within the city, the player can receive a substantial amount of funds from them.

As opposed to previous versions of SimCity, these advisors have names and give in-depth advice, rather than brief summaries of the situation in their department.

Some are outside interests, often pushing proposals which would harm the city (i.e. building a casino, which would attract crime) in exchange for a boost to its financial coffers.

Generally, when things were going very well in a city, the news ticker would display headlines which are comical, or even nonsensical and often seemingly useless to the player.

On occasions, the ticker will even provide a foreshadowing of an approaching disaster, for example, sometimes reading "Did you feel that big truck pass by?

Real world landmarks are also introduced in SimCity 3000, but are mostly for aesthetic purposes (though placing a building would open up an option in the city ordinances window for tourism advertising), and are free of construction cost.

Another major change from SimCity 2000 is the addition of a live music score, whose lead composer is Jerry Martin.

The new soundtrack incorporates new-age and live jazz songs, with David Lauser on drums and Darol Anger on violin.

[10] Although the idea was deemed impractical by employees for being too graphically demanding, Maxis management pushed for the concept, and the game was developed for a year.

[15] In the German market, it received a "Gold" award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) by the end of May 1999,[16] indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Edge ranked it as the country's sixth best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006, and the highest-selling SimCity title during that period.

[24] According to Maxis's Lucy Bradshaw, SimCity 3000 achieved global sales of 4.6 million units by January 2002.

Using data from product registrations, she explained that the overall series' userbase was three-fourths male and one-fourth female at that time.

[30] Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "SimCity 3000 is great fun and loaded with interesting, mind-absorbing gameplay.

At the time of the game's release, EA launched a website for Simcity 3000 Unlimited which allowed users to exchange their creations.