How do you keep growable lot repetition to a minimum?

[leemarc 0]

Hey guys.  First post.  Love all the work that is done here ... doing a great job ...

Now, to my question ... and I'm guessing that this forum is a good spot.  Couldn't find a better one, sorry if I missed it.

This thread talks about how buildings are chosen.  My question is sort of an extention of this thread.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=42&threadid=96785&enterthread=y

 What can be done to decrease the chance of a particular growable lot repeating itself all over? 

There is a Go Away Wren mod.  (https://www.simtropolis.com/modding/index.cfm?p=details&id=329)  Haven't tried it yet, but it only addresses one building.  I would like to know if there is a way of  diversifying (sp?) your city.  If I download a butt-load of custom content, will my city be more diverse?  Are there any tricks while playing the game that will  - ahem ... encourage the computer to make lot choices more random, unique, diverse, ... whatever?

For example, I'll zone several commercial in a row and three or four of the same business will show up.  That's what I would like to prevent or at least limit from happening.  I've noticed that as the city grows, those repeated businesses will be replaced with others ... but the repetition problem doesn't really go away.

Help!

Mark

[Sam 163]

Originally posted by: leemarc

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 What can be done to decrease the chance of a particular growable lot repeating itself all over?

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quote>

Simple. Its caused by the game needing a particular kind of lot and having only a very limited number of lots to choose from. For some growables, the game only ships with 1 that the game can choose from. This is the case with the stage 3 farm Pedriana's Plants. There are no other stage 3 farms in the game as it ships, so every time the game needs a stage 3 farm you will get a Pedriana's Plants.

The solution is to use custom content, ie download more lots of the same kind that you see repeating. IThat way you give the simulator more choices and the problem lots have more competition. The kinds of things the simulator may take into account when choosing which lot to build on a particular space might be: size of space, stage required, numbers and types of residents and jobs required. Its not really a modding solution that is required, as if the variety isn't there in the first place then there is nothing other than more options that will improve the variety.

So if you see a stage 5 3x3 R$$ building with 249 residents repeating itself all the time, then you know it hasn't got enough competition and you should be looking to download more stage 5 3x3R$$ buildings with approximately 249 residents (bit of variation in number of residents is also desirable)

Sometimes though, building repetition can be desirable to achieve certain effects, in which case you do the opposite: restrict your downloaded plugins to the type you want (and perhaps use some No Maxis mods). You need to be really careful when you do this as you have to know and balance the needs of your city in much greater detail yourself, as you've effectively stopped the simulator from doing so. For example:

A military housing estate often uses a limited number of house styles:

These markets are small growable lots repeating, using the method I described above:

Building repetition can be used to create a distinctive style for your city:

[Hamish 1,369]

And in some cases it is realistic.

I know that over here in New Zealand, many homes called state houses were made, with the same design in mind. These were just simple buildings that popped up in suburbs of their own all over the country. I can't remember the time but I think it was around the time of the great depression.

[leemarc 0]

Thank you for this information.  I can understand why Maxis chose to go with something more easily understood when they designed SCS.  But, it's the complex nature of SC4 that makes it so much fun to play.  Personally, I kinda hope that the two games can co-exist, which means we also need another actual Sim City - a complex one.