It isn't necessary to have a good time, but your ultimate city size will be capped at a lower limit without it However, Sim City 4 isn't the newest Sim City game build out there anymore. I used the high capacity option for this playthrough. NAM version 30, found here is a traffic mod which will make the traffic simulation for SC4 much more realistic. Get Simcity 4 Deluxe, install the NAM version 30 mod (optional).
Here I will show you how to build a medium-sized city with skyscrapers.I built the cities for this tutorial in u. The first installment in my tutorial series.