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[andrea]

I am having a little problem... In this region I have more jobs than people, but people will still leave my city because lack of job.

All the regions are linked by highway ( which nearly nobody uses) and normal roads.

This is annoying, because if people leave taxes are low and I lose money. Which means I can't improve things much.
Also, people really like agriculture here. I feel I could fill the region with farms ( I am working on that already) and they still ask for more. In past games bigger populations needed less agriculture... is that normal?

[Croquantes]

hm. how are residential taxes? if you have a few connected regions, anything above 9% can randomly and drastically lower population demand.

Also, are you sure they're leaving because of unemployment? Sometimes they stick around with the "out of work" sign for awhile. Try placing some parks to increase demand. Sims really like parks. :/

[andrea]

I placed parks, and placing more would require me to destroy Huge residential buildings.
actually, there is an huge demand for low level residential areas, so lack of demand is not the problem. I may try to make big medium density areas and see how it goes, but I am bankrupting now.

I'll have to do more Veichle missions to get some extra money. Feels a bit like cheating, but I can't get more loans unless I want to totally destroy the city.
I wish government would send me more buildings, like missile base or toxic waste dump. Would help greatly.

Taxes were stable at 9, but I had to rise them to 9.2 recently. Might try to get them back up.
Regions connected are many, and very well too. I may try building a second residential city somewhere else, it may help to boost economy, but I first want to solve the agricultural demand, by the building of the new railroad.

I have low difficulty if that helps.

[Morsigil]

I placed parks, and placing more would require me to destroy Huge residential buildings.
actually, there is an huge demand for low level residential areas, so lack of demand is not the problem. I may try to make big medium density areas and see how it goes, but I am bankrupting now.

I'll have to do more Veichle missions to get some extra money. Feels a bit like cheating, but I can't get more loans unless I want to totally destroy the city.
I wish government would send me more buildings, like missile base or toxic waste dump. Would help greatly.

Taxes were stable at 9, but I had to rise them to 9.2 recently. Might try to get them back up.
Regions connected are many, and very well too. I may try building a second residential city somewhere else, it may help to boost economy, but I first want to solve the agricultural demand, by the building of the new railroad.

I have low difficulty if that helps.

If you are not even using medium density residential yet then you should not be using highways. To save money you can toss those, to start.

I don't know if it's possible to place enough low income housing or agriculture. There will -always- be a demand for these things, but they are best avoided. Agriculture is epensive and doesn't return shit for taxes, and the same can be said for low income residential areas. You'll have to build tons of schools and medical facilities for all those poor people who are incapable of adequately paying for those services in taxes.

Mostly, you want to avoid low income residential as much as possible.

[andrea]

Actually, I am using full high density at the moment.
medium density was to expand without spending lots of money.
About the income lost with agricultural, I totally ignore that since it is different regions. I don't even have to load them more than once 
I wish I had enough money to pay for an university, but at the moment a library will have to be enough.

Keep ideas coming, I want to make the region grow!

[Mr.Person]

The SimCity 4 modding community is terrible. I don't think they could of made downloading mods for the game harder or more confusing if they tried. Let's not make it easy to get large modpacks, no, fuck that. Let's not release well-made large packs, let's condemn people for trying to make it easy. Instead, let's release INDIVIDUAL LOTS that can require several prop packs to work properly. Make sure not to bundle the two together, since the prop-packs are literally less than 100kb. For added fun, let's release a vital mod that comes in 8 different versions, but make sure that the manual is as unhelpful and vague as possible! Whoopie!

There's some great shit being made for the game, there really is, it just gets to me how poorly-made Simtropolis.com really is. To get the easy download of the good mods bundled together, you have to pay money. Nice, real nice. Of course, that just scratches the problems. Useful categories? Never heard of them. Ranking system that means something? When everything is rated highly, you know there's a problem. Alright, how about user comments? Nope. Can I at least download the mods without registering? Haha, no. Alright, at least somebody has to have a list of good lots to download, right? Come on, somebody? Anybody? Is there at least an active community that's willing to help? Yeah, but the forum is a bastard to navigate. It's huge, divided into a crazy number of subcategories organized in what seems to be a totally random order. It's not possible to search a specific subforum or even a SECTION of the forums using the search function. Real nice. I would comment on sc4devotion.com, but you have to register to even VIEW the content of the site. Why do people seem so infatuated with registering? I'm not going to post on the forums, I probably won't even look at them. I won't comment, I won't upload anything, why are you wasting my time?

I've tried downloading SC4 stuff before, I really did. It's just frustrating. It shouldn't be frustrating, it should be an adventure to see a whole mess of new buildings, exciting new modifications and regions, and weird-but-cool other stuff that really makes the game better. Yes, the lots and mods are free, but it shouldn't be such a hugeass job to download their shit. I enjoy downloading mods, I really do, I just don't want it to be a giant puzzle I have to figure out before I can even begin. So if I ever do decide to play SimCity 4 again, I'll just get the giant modpack off of the Pirate Bay. I don't even care if it has errors, I'll work out a few problems. Hell, I might even add several other packs I can find, but I am not downloading individual buildings or dealing with scores of tiny little prop packs the lot-makers don't feel like bundling together. That bullshit is not worth my time.

if you're looking to respond and defend the SC4 communities, don't bother. I'm going to bury the issue right now. I think they're bad, I don't care what the rest of you think. If you think they're good, have fun, enjoy the content, some of it really is high quality. You've already trudged through the bullshit, so you're in the valley of sunshine and rainbows, which in this case, is a finished product of a large number of custome buildings, regions, and props that work well together. If you are in that state, please do us all a favor and post your list of lots, props, mods, utilities, and, most importantly, BAT's. I don't have Sim City 4 installed anymore, and I can't find the discs for the game (although I have the Rush Hour disc, oddly), but somebody else might like your information. Hell, if I ever do get around to playing the game again and somebody gives out some info here, I'll probably use it.

Just wanted to get that off my chest. To take a stab at helping Uber Dwarf, have you tried different resolutions? I'm assuming you have no problems playing in windowed mode? Your video drives are up to date, I think you already were asked that. Well, it's probably a problem with Vista. If that's the case, I can't help you, sorry.

[sneakey pete]

Never had a problem downloading stuff myself. And while i agree that the dependencies issue etc. is a bitch, its the only real way to do it without worring about copyright etc. (eg, someone uploads a prop, then decides to take it down. now if someone else has uploaded a building with that prop included, then they have to take their building down aswell. Or worse, the person could sue ST to get it taken down. And so on). That said, i've never done much downloading of custom buildings, mainly other fixes such and addons such as the NAM and hole digging lots.

As for the site itself, if had an upgrade a few months ago. There is a search, that can search subforums. There is a comment section for each download now (might have always been there too i think...). Also, there is a fucking category system. I don't get why your so infuriated with registering either. Its not like it asks for your street adress and credit card number. Hell, it doesn't even ask for country.

I am having a little problem... In this region I have more jobs than people, but people will still leave my city because lack of job.

All the regions are linked by highway ( which nearly nobody uses) and normal roads.

This is annoying, because if people leave taxes are low and I lose money. Which means I can't improve things much.
Also, people really like agriculture here. I feel I could fill the region with farms ( I am working on that already) and they still ask for more. In past games bigger populations needed less agriculture... is that normal?

Sounds like the enternal commuter bug. Basically, if you've got 4 regions connected in a loop, they'll go to the next one for a job, get there and go to the next one, get there and go to the next one, and get there and go back to  your main region, where they'll then... go to the one.

Best way to fix it is to make sure that there's no loops via your region connections.

Also, install the NAM so that sims are smart enough to use highways instead of roads for long distance travel.

[Mr.Person]

I dunno why everybody tip-toes around copyright infringement when it comes to mods. Either the prop-maker released the prop-pack for free use, or the prop-maker is an idiot. They're tiny files, I really wouldn't mind having the same prop in several different places. Hell, if you made it right, they would be in the same location for each release and would thus overwrite each other. That's how pretty much every other modding community does it. People who only want to make one portion (such as textures, or models, or maps, or whatever) usually release them as free-to-use resource packs. Anybody else who wants to use the file is free to do so, as long as they credit the maker of the resource pack they're using. It's sometimes necessary, but always nice, to ask the resource-pack maker if you can use their pack. There is literally no reason to have seperate prop packs the user needs to install individually.

I didn't say there were no categories, I said they were bad categories. Some of them are good. Specifically, the lot categories are accurate most of the time. On the other hand, the prop categories are totally random, while the categories for everything else makes no sense. Oh, and of course, I can't get a category view of a single type of file. If I click on BAT's and then click on Residential, it'll start showing me Lots, Props, and BAT's. Thanks, that's clearly what I wanted.

Oh, and thanks for naming your mods with acronyms without saying what they're acronyms of. I clearly want to memorize the shorthand of every single mod on the site. I can take shorthand for a few, like CAM, NAM, and SAM, but seriously, every single mod does not need a 3-letter acronym. At the best least, spell the whole mod out in the name of your mod. No, I have no idea what your random acronyms mean, and I don't want to find out. Stop using them, give your addons sensible names!

Hey, I actually remember the old site. That piece of crap was terrible. Lack of pictures, an even WORSE category system, and of course, a really fugly layout and background. I don't really remember it that well, but I do remember hating every single moment I spent on the site. The new site is much better in pretty much every way.

Registering isn't really a big deal, it's just a strange annoyance. I rarely ever use sites that require logins to download mods. Not only does this tend to make the community more elitist, but it's also a hassle I don't really want to deal with, if possible. Nowadays they tend to have options to stay logged in, which Simtropolis appears to have, so they get bonus points for that. But seriously, I flatly refuse to use a site that requires registration to even VIEW the site. That's bullshit, pure and simple. The fact that sc4devotion looks to be a real shitty community is only gravy. Seriously, look at that forum. Terrible. I've finally found a community I can honestly say might be more elitist than the folks around here, and that's saying something. Yes kids, elitism is bad.

I'm noticing a strange lack of bad releases on Simtropolis, do they screen everything uploaded before it gets put up for download? That might explain a lot. I like that, there's at least one good reason to jump through all their hoops. I've also found a bunch more packs, that's cool. The site is still a mess to navigate and find anything, but at least the releases are a bit simpler and better than I thought.

[andrea]

No loops would fix it? so, if I have a circular road that links several regions, people will endlessly walk among them? that is... odd.
But I am not going to destroy my good highway for that.

I am downloading NAM now, hope that it helps. ( But I need to know if it works with Rush hour expansion)

Oddly, the unemployment problem is semi-fixed, not by the icnrease of jobs but by the increase of population. Odd. At least, I got enough taxes to make university and several other things to boost economy.

Was the problem of OP fixed? or is it still crashing?

[sneakey pete]

Yes, the NAM is compatible. I'll try to illustrate the problem using code, as i couldn't be assed uploading a picture

road connections are -, cities are blocks of #

Code: [Select]

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with this, they could circle around forever

However, if you remove just one of the connections, it should stop happening. It might mean sims travel through 2 different citites to get to the one next to it, however they don't usually mind doing that, and will actually stop once they reach the final destination.

Code: [Select]

### ###
###-###
### ###
 -   -
### ###
### ###
### ###
I've seen other exaples with small and large cities etc, but basically avoid loops. There hasn't been a fix for it yet unfortunatly.

[andrea]

Actually, I found it being a no problem. Everything went VERY well after the new residential area, which allowed to expand commercial and High tech industry and so on. I have more than 4 regions linked in this way, but unemployment problem nearly stopped after I got more people.

So, after new public transport ( those things are money wells! I get enough from them alone to pay for the whole road network), after population reached 150K, after most of the map is covered by building, i get a 5000 monthly income, I am switching to full solar power for the city .... I try to replace a piece of highway and game crashes. At least I know what to do this time...


Have any of you noticed that a 150K city, all high density, but with heavy public transport has MUCH less things on the roads than a small 4000 people low density town? I can do driving missions in my main residential city easily, but in the small agricultural town roads are hell.

Is there any other public transport worth the money invested in it? Buses and underground surely are, but they are still overloaded in some places.
( really, people, invest in public transport. I have an huge blob of buildings, but traffic is relatively little and air is not polluted. And I get 2000§ PROFIT each year.)

[sneakey pete]

Yeah, my agricultural cities are hell. trucks every 3 tiles along all of my farms.

As for public transport, it depends on what mod you have, with the NAM, simulatorz medium capacity, i've noticed that even with 2-300 people on a single street things handle ok. That said, buses are invaluable, and trains also work wonders too at extending the distance people will travel (its very fast).

[andrea]

I'll try the NAM later. Keeping traffic low seems easy, I just need to keep spamming things ( and what do you mean 300? I have a road with 2800 buses and 800 cars! ( more buses than cars. I wish my city was like that.)

[Starver]

SimCity 4 can import height maps. Dwarf Fortress can export height maps.

You can see where this is going.

Nonononono...

What we need is one/both to also allow exports of terrain/features, in a manner trivially compatible with the import.  Build a modern human city upon a dwarf-carved terrain, or embark your wagon onto a map replete with skyscrapers and abandoned cars and pre-existing irrigation system...

[QuakeIV]

SimCity 4 can import height maps. Dwarf Fortress can export height maps.

You can see where this is going.

Nonononono...

What we need is one/both to also allow exports of terrain/features, in a manner trivially compatible with the import.  Build a modern human city upon a dwarf-carved terrain, or embark your wagon onto a map replete with skyscrapers and abandoned cars and pre-existing irrigation system...