Are industry and office zones interchangable?
There's a small info-box in Cities: Skylines telling me about the needs for a particular zone type.
The last one, orange-coloured, seems to correspond to industry type zones as well as office zones.
But this feels... strange - does this mean I can designate either of these zones to satisfy the need?
If they are interchangeable then do I NEED industry zones at all and can I rely entirely on offices?
Finally, is there any more information with regards to the zone needs, or is that little box at the bottom everything there is?
Offices will satisfy your need for industrial zones within your city. However, this comes with a few important caveats.
Disadvantages of Offices
- Tax Revenue - Offices will generate lower tax revenue than industrial zones. As such, it will be harder to maintain a profitable city. Not hard, per se, just harder than if you zoned with industry.
- Job Creation - Offices do not make as many jobs available to your citizens as general industry, which means you'll need more offices to satisfy the same job demand. In addition, offices need educated citizens to staff them, so your uneducated citizens will be left jobless.
- Traffic & Goods Transportation - Goods can come from outside of the city via highways and any mass transit that connects to the outside world and has a cargo station. When your city only has office industry, the increased traffic tends to be more elevated and you'll need more transportation infrastructure to support it.
Benefits of Offices
- Provides Educated Jobs - If you're generating an educated populace, office work will make your citizens happy.
- Noise/Ground Pollution - Offices do not generate pollution of any kind.
- Lower Commute Times - Since offices do not generate pollution, you can place them right beside residential areas without ill effect. This can reduce the transit time for people to get to their jobs.
In terms of satisfying the need, both industry and office will satisfy the orange-colored need bar.
However, I have found that in my cities with little industry, the commercial shops will run out of goods and eventually go out of business. Though I think goods can come from outside the city (I'm not 100% sure), things seem to go smoother (in terms of city growth) if you have pockets of industrial zones.