Demand --- RCI Graph vs. Census Repository Facility

[bhb123123 0]

Hi all...newb here...recently started playing SC4 and am trying to drill down a little into the complexity of the game.  I'm getting bogged down a bit searching for a couple of answers, so I felt the need to add a topic.  Please forgive me if this is redundant.   

I'm approx 35 years into playing a region with two cities with a combined pop. of about 53,000.  My main problem right now is that I am getting a cycling of R$$$ development/abandonment because of "no job" in my main burg.  At first I thought it was a commute issue as I did not lay out the city very well from the outset.  I have since upgraded my transport system, but only a marginal improvement has been realized with the "R$$$ cycle."

So I (1)bought the prima guide and (2)started scouring this site to determine the cause.  I think the problem is a follows:  my city in extremely desirable to the wealthy and is attracting too high a percentage of R$$$ in relation to R$$ and R$.  I have sky high demand for R$ and R$$ but attracting them has proven difficult for some reason.  So for the time being, my businesses cannot attract enough R$ and R$$ to support my R$$$ population with jobs (as the workforce percentage charts that are well documented spell out).  I'm fairly sure of this conclusion from reading similar posts.

But, here's my issue...I was trying to crunch numbers from the Job/Pop graph to get an approx number of how far off my residential wealth level ratio is.  (I figured simply looking at the RCI demand graph would add in all other desirability issues).  Anyway, this was way cumbersome, and thankfully I stumbled onto the Census Repository Facility.  I'm still trying to figure out all the info that this mod offers.  My two questions are regarding the Census:

1) Is there a guide, faq, or post that goes into detail about what each entry actually represents.  Perhaps I'm stupid, but much of the info is going over my head.
2) MOST IMPORTANTLY, I notice the demand numbers are nowhere close to the figures that I get from the standard RCI Demand Graph.  Do I have a bug?  Is the definition of demand not the same in both instances?  Something else?

Long post...ouch.  Any info would be greatly appreciated...thanks.

[simsmart 1]

Those numbers in the repository facility represent the regional cap.

The regional demand cap represents how many jobs/sims can be created.

This number can NEVER be passed, however, it does not affect demand.

[bhb123123 0]

Thanks for the reply simsmart.  I do understand the "cap" column (which is really useful info) on the left side of the Census.

I was wondering if anyone had an idea why the "Demand" column towards the middle of the Census report does not match the figures that are shown in the standard RCI graph.  Or if anyone could point me to an existing post that I may have missed while searching for info on the Census Repos Facility.

[ryannayr140 2]

btw the graph i think u were talking about with the number of different populations. just thot that i would ley you know the C$$$ can employ R$ and the C$ cam employ R$$$.

[simsmart 1]

You may want to try searching "Cenus Repository" on the forums. Maybe even PMing RippleJet as he is the creator of the (V2) Census Repository facility. I don't know what that discrepency could be caused by, could you post some screen-shots?

[RippleJet 36]

Originally posted by: bhb123123 1) Is there a guide, faq, or post that goes into detail about what each entry actually represents.  Perhaps I'm stupid, but much of the info is going over my head.quote>

 

No, instead of writing a guide, I added a brief description to each number in the query itself.

If you hover with the mouse over a number or heading, you'll get this description popping up.

Originally posted by: bhb123123 2) MOST IMPORTANTLY, I notice the demand numbers are nowhere close to the figures that I get from the standard RCI Demand Graph.  Do I have a bug?  Is the definition of demand not the same in both instances?  Something else?quote>

 

The ingame RCI graph is logarithmic, for the reason that also small positive and negative numbers would show in the graph.

Thus, you cannot read any values off it (other than -6000, 0 and +6000).

The values reported in the Census Repository Facility are exact though.

[sim-Al2 4]

Originally posted by: RippleJet

The ingame RCI graph is logarithmic, for the reason that also small positive and negative numbers would show in the graph.

Thus, you cannot read any values off it (other than -6000, 0 and +6000).

quote>

But what if we haven't learned logarithms? I sure we'll get hit in the face with them soo, but how can I read the graphs until then? Am I overexagarting this at all?

[RippleJet 36]

Originally posted by: sim-Al2 But what if we haven't learned logarithms? I sure we'll get hit in the face with them soo, but how can I read the graphs until then? Am I overexagarting this at all?quote>

 

You've probably seen logartihmic scales in papers and elsewhere anyways...

Now, let me explain it by taking the RCI scale as an example.

We know that the minimum is -6,000 and the maximum is +6,000 (unless you're using CAM).

It has horizontal tics at even intervals... if those were linear, they would be interpreted as:

6,000

4,000

2,000

0

-2,000

-4,000

-6,000

Now, in a logarticmic scale, those tics are not evenly distributed.

The tics could go something like (if the base of the logarithm is 10):

6,000

600

60

0

-60

-600

-6,000

If the base of the logarithm were 5, we would have the following tics:

6,000

1,200

240

0

-240

-1,200

-6,000

I haven't further checked what base Maxis used for the logarithmic scale, but I think it's closer to 5 than 10.

[bhb123123 0]

Wow, thanks for the explanation RippleJet. That completely sincs with the discrepancy I'm seeing. Your Census appears to be a must have to mayoring. Kudos.