Pollution Levels

[Mathew_MC 0]

In a patch that should be released sometimes this month, we'll update the way offices, high tech and hotels react to pollution.

Currently, they react only to air pollution and it can be a bit tricky to have them profitable due to the pollution extending city wide if you build a lot of polluting industries. After the patch, they will react to the quality of life in the neighborhood, which is influenced in a negative way by air pollution and noise pollution and in a positive way by landmarks and greeneries.

The fact that noise pollution is added into the equation means that some of the biggest cities based on offices might run into some issues after the patch, as some players built a lot of T3 offices right next to their airports for example. But that's it, office workers are tired of working with ear plugs to cover the noise of Boeings landing nearby

The good news is that you will have the possibility to compensate air and noise pollution with buildings generating positive landmarks or with greeneries in zones where the pollution is not to strong

We'll post more details on this some time before the patch is released, so that you can start preparing your cities to the changes, but I wanted to let you know what was in the pipes in regards to pollution.

[SimBurger 0]

After the patch, they will react to the quality of life in the neighborhood, which is influenced in a negative way by air pollution and noise pollution and in a positive way by landmarks and greeneries.quote>

Does this mean that Landmarks currently reduce pollution in any way? I know greeneries don't do anything for pollution at this time. But you guys are still working on the trees so i know thats in the pipeline.

office workers are tired of working with ear plugs to cover the noise of Boeings landing nearbyquote>

Hmmm. Is Paris really quiet, with poor soundproofing in the buildings? Most of our offices are near Airports here in San Diego, and - airplane noise doesn't affect Offices at all. People are awake. Windows are shut and unless you're directly under the plane as its 50 feet above ground, Airport noise isn't an issue. The only thing Airplane noise affects in real life, pretty much under any scenario, are those who are trying to sleep. So only residential. And usually even then, only at night. Thoughts?

-SB-

[Khanon 0]

Yes, SimBurger, but people who work in offices like to go out for lunch, take walks, etc. When your office is adjacent to an airport, you tend to not want to do those things. San Jose Minetta International Airport has office buildings nearby and before there were nice malls, parks, and other "landmark" items put in place, they weren't a very popular place to work...

I think MC is on the right track with using landmarks, parks, etc. to offset the negative effects of pollutions (both noise and air) with things to increase satisfaction in the area (people tolerate negative effects when there's enough positive distractions and attractions for them to put up with it).

[Sainty 0]

MC Mathiew, pleeease, can you please explain greeneries, how do they work? Does it matter how large the greenery is or is it all about the white aura that it creates?

Do landmarks produce a city wide satisfaction, just like factories produce local and city wide pollution? If not, I would suggest that should do.

[JakeMD 107]

thread read.

[SimBurger 0]

GAH!!!!!!!!

I can't believe nobody mentioned this in this thread.

So basically as your population increases, and new buildings are unlocked, in the "OFFICES" button you will see the STAR button. Inside there you'll start to see the SHELL building, and the ELECTRICITY plant, and the FUEL plant etc ...

ALL OF THESE are buildings which contribute 35% or more to your FUEL, INDUSTRY, ELECTRICITY needs, and they don't produce pollution.

In other words, as these buildings have become unlocked, I've been able to bulldoze my pollution producing electricity plants, my pollution producing oil fields, etc.

This is notable as it has reduced pollution in my city to a noticeable extent.

-SB-

[morriswalters 16]

Which is how you run a million pop city with 137 windmils.  But I wouldn't want to be seen as bragging.

[Mathew_MC 0]

Toothpaste wrote:

MC Mathiew, pleeease, can you please explain greeneries, how do they work? Does it matter how large the greenery is or is it all about the white aura that it creates?

Do landmarks produce a city wide satisfaction, just like factories produce local and city wide pollution? If not, I would suggest that should do.quote>

Greeneries are all about the white aura they create.

When the pollution patch is released, parcs will generate "landmark" instead of "greenery". This change is transparent as it will have the same effect on quality of life, but it will allow to display all the positive effects in a single layer. The effect of wooded plazzas will be nerfed down a bit, but on the other hand all kinds of plazzas will a small positive landmark effect (except the dirt one). Please note that these changes are still being reviewed by QA, so I will update on the situation when everything has been approved.

Landmarks should produce some city wide bonus to satisfaction. If you have a big city with no landmarks, you might see a negative "bonus" in the satisfaction panel : placing landmarks in your city can bring it back to 0%. However, this bonus currently never goes into the positive which is something we are looking into as it is not really intuitive.