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Bigger Private Schools  1.0

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In SC4, the private schools all have a capacity of 1000, although this is not displayed anywhere. Because their capacity is relatively low, and they serve both elementary and high school populations, it is easy for these schools to become overcrowded, especially in higher-density residential districts. When this happens, the quality of education in the private schools declines, and this is reflected in a lower city-wide EQ.

 

This plug-in solves this problem by raising the capacity of each of these schools from 1000 to 10,000. Everything else about the private schools remains exactly the same. It is exceedingly difficult to overcrowd these schools at the higher capacity; I have never seen it happen. Once these schools are installed, they are indistinguishable from the in-game private schools (which they replace), except for the lack of overcrowding.

 

For best results in an existing city, bulldoze your existing private schools, save the city, and then install this plug-in. The new private schools should then become available as conditions warrant; if you don't want to wait that long, or those conditions don't arise, you can always use the "You don't deserve it" cheat to make these schools available. To do this, type Control-X, "You don't deserve it" (without the quotes) and then press Enter.

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It's not very realistic to have 10000 kids pack into a school that in no way can hold them, just the same it makes no sense to have a EQ of 10000. It basically just becomes a cheat.

If a cheat is what you are looking for then it's a really well done job but for my self I much more rather a realistic private school such as the one I put together. If you check out real cites around the world there are many schools in close proximity to each other to circumvent the problem of overcrowding, weather they be private or public.
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thank you, now can go the kids to school, in may cities, thanks a lot!

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This is really nice! It is slightly unrealistic in having so many students in one building. But it works perfectly when you have a city full of custom R$$$ Mattb325 buildings. :golly: 45 people per home is ridiculous and now this works for that. :thumb: Thanks. 4.5/5.
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[b]robin9000:[/b] Yes, it's not very realistic to have 10000 kids pack into a school that in no way can hold them, but there's no way a building that size can hold anywhere near 1000 - the default Maxis value. This mod was made so that the increase in higher density custom content doesn't automatically ruin the built-in private schools. Schools in SC4 are already in close proximity compared to the real world; there would have to be a lot more of them or a lot bigger ones to handle the population, which would be even more unrealistic. SC4 city population density is simply a lot greater than that of the real world - about 10 times as much, according to some thorough studies. This mod, like the Opera House fix, simply reflects that fact.
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[quote name='z1' timestamp='1309457411']
[b]robin9000:[/b] Yes, it's not very realistic to have 10000 kids pack into a school that in no way can hold them, but there's no way a building that size can hold anywhere near 1000 - the default Maxis value. This mod was made so that the increase in higher density custom content doesn't automatically ruin the built-in private schools. Schools in SC4 are already in close proximity compared to the real world; there would have to be a lot more of them or a lot bigger ones to handle the population, which would be even more unrealistic. SC4 city population density is simply a lot greater than that of the real world - about 10 times as much, according to some thorough studies. This mod, like the Opera House fix, simply reflects that fact.
[/quote]

There is some merit in what you are saying but if you create a school that's 2 or three stories in height and then make it able to hold a realistic number like 1500 students or so, then you solve the problem of making your cites look like they have to many schools and give it a nice look and feel to it at the same time. I think it's all about finding that nice balance to make your cites look accurate. I have cites that are on mid sized blocks holding upwards of over half a million and they do very well in keeping with this concept. I don't think buildings should be on top of each other, so to speak. I think you should have parks and other things in a city to make it look nice too. But that's just because I like things to look as accurate as possible.


But don't get me wrong, I understand what you were trying to do.
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[quote name='robin9000' timestamp='1309458513']
[quote name='z1' timestamp='1309457411'][b]robin9000:[/b] Yes, it's not very realistic to have 10000 kids pack into a school that in no way can hold them, but there's no way a building that size can hold anywhere near 1000 - the default Maxis value. This mod was made so that the increase in higher density custom content doesn't automatically ruin the built-in private schools. Schools in SC4 are already in close proximity compared to the real world; there would have to be a lot more of them or a lot bigger ones to handle the population, which would be even more unrealistic. SC4 city population density is simply a lot greater than that of the real world - about 10 times as much, according to some thorough studies. This mod, like the Opera House fix, simply reflects that fact.[/quote]There is some merit in what you are saying but if you create a school that's 2 or three stories in height and then make it able to hold a realistic number like 1500 students or so, then you solve the problem of making your cites look like they have to many schools and give it a nice look and feel to it at the same time. I think it's all about finding that nice balance to make your cites look accurate. I have cites that are on mid sized blocks holding upwards of over half a million and they do very well in keeping with this concept. I don't think buildings should be on top of each other, so to speak. I think you should have parks and other things in a city to make it look nice too. But that's just because I like things to look as accurate as possible. But don't get me wrong, I understand what you were trying to do.
[/quote]

All your comments are valid, as well as those of the uploader, but right now I am contend that somebody here have done something to fix the capacity of these private schools, if not fixing the radius distance. The real problem why these debates between you two was that there is only a maximum of three Maxis private schools allowed so far (I have grown cities with population of over 800K), but the capacity and distance coverage is just not adequate. I am voting this at least a 4 regardless, but I will definitely vote a 5 if somebody is going to solve all of the above.
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I purposely did not change the distance coverage. It would have been easy enough to do so; it's just one more number in Ilive's Reader, so it's something that other people can do if they want to. But rewards are supposed to have a certain scarcity aspect to them, which seems quite reasonable, and I saw nothing that's changed in the game that would require a change there. Increasing the radius of the schools by any noticeable extent would definitely make the game easier, and that was not the intent of this mod. Instead, exactly as with the Opera House, there was a problem that accepting an award that was supposed to be completely positive could have negative repercussions that the user might not be aware of, and could not fix in the game even if he or she were aware of them. I consider that a bug, and by returning the function of the schools to what Maxis clearly intended, I consider this a bug fix; I don't see that eliminating unanticipated, undocumented, and undesirable behavior can be considered a cheat. But having accomplished this much, I need to stop here. Since I have taken these files out of SimCity_1.dat, it's quite a bit easier now for anyone else to make whatever changes are desired using the Reader.

As for the number of private schools, although there are only three, I usually get offered four during the course of the game. I don't know why that is.
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[quote name='robin9000' timestamp='1309429282']
It's not very realistic to have 10000 kids pack into a school that in no way can hold them, just the same it makes no sense to have a EQ of 10000. It basically just becomes a cheat.If a cheat is what you are looking for then it's a really well done job [b]but for my self I much more rather a realistic private school such as the one I put together. [/b]If you check out real cites around the world there are many schools in close proximity to each other to circumvent the problem of overcrowding, weather they be private or public.
[/quote]


Cheats is like unlimited rewards (ie. unlimited 4x2 Private schools @ 1,000 capacity each).

However, is it cheating if the game itself is retarded to put 10,000 students into 1,000 spaces at 1/5 star efficiency? I'd say, if the game engine is going to pack that many students into one private school, then you might as well increase the capacity to the point where it runs 100% or seriously drop the whole idea of a private school altogether if it's going to run at 1/5 efficiency.

Yes, it's not realistic, but the game engine is flawed if it forces someone to download this file just to keep it realistic (ie. 1/5 star inefficiency)
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I don't consider this a cheat. This is a very nice addition that fixes the flawed Maxis one...

I'm very careful when choosing my lots so the game keeps being challenging and realistic. E.g. I think Maxis default waste disposal plant generates too much pollution but I did not choose a replacement that generates no pollution at all, as many were created, but one that generates less pollution.

That's the same for this mod. I feel confortable downloading it. It's an improvement, not a cheat.

It's 5/5. Thanks so much for the good work! ;)

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I'm new to modding SC4 and basically just want to install some fixes of various aspects of the game at this point (cime doesn't pay, Opera house, these kind of things).

 

I understand "the need" for making a fix to the private schools. I am simply wondering if I should get this one (no sliders) or the other one "with sliders" by RippleJet (referred to below in "Other files..."). Main difference seems to be that z1's seems to be like "install and forget" whereas RippleJet's needs occasional intervention to adjust the sliders... any thoughts on this?

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