Veterans, Please Give Me the Lowdown on Cap Relief

[Monk's Dream 0]

I've got one city on a medium tile that has about 101,000 people right now.   That was my starting point.  It's mixed with suburban, med., and high density res. zones, and there are some med. density commercial zones along the main avenues.  I have all of my industry on a connecting tile.  That's where my question comes in about cap relief, because although the RCI is showing industry being spiked, only half of the zones are really developed.  I can't seem to find anything online that gets very specific regarding what to place to relieve specific cap levels.  And while we're at it, what are the specific levels?  The only thing that I've seen is that R$$ cap level is 2000, and you can relieve that by placing parks. 

Question, what specifically is 'park' material?  Does this include open grass areas?  What about flower gardens?  Playgrounds?  Gazebos? 

What do I place to relieve industry cap?  I have placed a small municipal airport in the industrial zone, but it's not helping.  I've also begun building low-education/low-wealth R zones in another tile that connects to the industrial zone to try and bring in more I-D jobs.  I have no schools or parks in that city yet, only water.  There is a ton of demand for industry in that city as well, but again, the industrial city is not developing. 

One last unrelated question.  In my main city with 100,000 people, the population will often suddenly drop 10 -15k for no reason.  I have a TON of schools, hospitals, libraries, parks, etc.  They don't seem to affect the cap like they should, as I've placed what I think is MORE than enough, and I still have this happen occasionally.  Then sometimes it will jump up in the same way, 10-15k.   Why does this happen? 

thanks much!!

[Monk's Dream 0]

I thought I'd add that I have a medium tile that connects to a waterfront where I have created a CBD.  Everything in that city has developed instantly, and I have placed a seaport there as well.  Don't know if this would have an effect on my other situation so I thought I'd mention it.

[Monk's Dream 0]

One last thing.  What exactly does a landmark effect do?  I keep seeing this information regarding landmark downloads? 

[The Arrowz 3]

Parks can be anything in the menu, from gazebos, to playgrounds, to bball courts. I would recommend you download some from the STEX just to give some variety though.

Landmarks are sort of like parks, they raise the desireability of the area. From an article:

Landmarks do more than just looking pretty, they provide desirability boosts to certain parts of your city. When your city has matured (100K+ residential pop.) you may want to start thinking about putting in a few landmarks in key locations. Be mindful where you place them to get the most for your money (and watch those monthly costs). For example, putting a landmark that benefits Commercial offices in your industrial section would make no sense. Instead, place it among the potential office locations and it will provide a boost in development which will mean increased tax dollars which will help offset the cost.quote>

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=147&threadid=83090&enterthread=y">https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=147&threadid=83090&enterthread=y

[Vahr 343]

Demand CAPs can be checked with the RCI Query Update Mod, so if you query a commercial and residential lot and take some screenshots, it would help. Link: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=4243&v=1

Also CAPs can be relieved by neighbor connections and special lots on the STEX.

[Monk's Dream 0]

Thanks for the reply, but I'm looking for more of an explanation of cap values, what specifically affects/reduces them, landmark effects (what are they?).

[Goggles 1]

If you follow Blue Lightning's linkie to the extremely useful RCI mod, you'll find an enclosed HTML file with a little more information about Demand Caps and how to increase them.

[Monk's Dream 0]

Thanks for the replies.  When I initially replied, I your responses hadn't come through yet, so sorry if it looks like I didn't read your posts.  ;&gt

[skylaiden 0]

hey everyone,

i'm having trouble grasping cap relief. i've been looking for a simple explanation of what it is, but the best i could find was the site below and it just confused me more.

http://www.wiki.sc4devotion.com/index.php?title=Tutorialemand%2C_Supply_and_CAPs

i also want to understand the numbers in the cap relief chart below.  i get that it explains what's good and bad, but besides the "population cap relief" column, i don't get what those other columns *really* mean.

http://www.simcitycentral.net/html/cap-relief-list.html

[Goggles 1]

@Monk's Dream: No problem, glad to have helped

@skylaiden:

i'm having trouble grasping cap relief. i've been looking for a simple explanation of what it is, but the best i could find was the site below and it just confused me more.quote>

There are actually two things that can prevent development in a city, besides the usual effect of pollution, parks, crime etc. The first is the RCI demand, which is easily visible in game. The other thing is demand caps, which are invisible to the player in the Vanilla version of SC4. These don't affect the RCI demand, but they are a limit on how much of a particular wealth and zone can exist in a city. This means that for example, you can have a low wealth residential demand of 8000 in your RCI meter, but if you have reached the limit of your demand cap no more will grow despite the visible demand. You can increase the demand caps however, by placing certain items in your city.

i also want to understand the numbers in the cap relief chart below. i get that it explains what's good and bad, but besides the "population cap relief" column, i don't get what those other columns *really* mean.quote>

Which brings me to this chart, which shows the demand cap relief of a whole bunch of buildings. The relief that the buildings provide for each individual zone type and wealth level is shown in numbers that represent individual population units. So each basketball court you place provides a demand cap relief of 1000 for all residential wealth types, and this applies to the city as a whole. YIMBY and NIMBY are Yes/Not In My Back Yard, and effect the desirability of areas of your city. The size of the area they effect is limited, and is shown as a distance radius. So, any individual basketball court you place will increase the desirability of its immediate surroundings to within 30 game tiles, and increase it by 30. I know that radial effects sometimes have a drop off in the game, as happens with pollution, but I don't think that happens with parks and such. I couldn't tell you however, where 30 stands on the scale of desirability, but you can get a good idea by looking at the other buildings in that list or by placing one in the middle of nowhereville and looking at the desirability data view

If you install the useful RCI query mod that Blue Lightning linked to earlier in the thread, you can also view the demand caps when you query your buildings. Hope this helps

[skylaiden 0]

goggles,

that was extremely helpful. thanks so much! one more thing though... i don't have vanilla, i have deluxe--so that means i can check demand caps somewhere? i didn't know you could do that.

i just installed the rci query tool too. it's cool that i can see demand caps on buildings but it'd be nice to know where i can see the overall caps of the entire city.

thanks so much,

kris