Main libary/museum/opera

[Pengwuino 2]

So I was wondering, do you still need the small versions of the buildings in my title? I noticed that when I have a university, the city college seems to just siphon off of it. Similarly, I noticed that when I got a main library, all my smaller libraries had very very little useage after that. Same with the art museums. Are they siphoning off the main buildings as well? If so, are there any uses for having the smaller buildings anyhow?

I wondered if the disease research center would do the same, but when i deleted a large number of hospitals, the research center didn't take over the health care duties  teehee.

How about the college/university? I did notice that when i deleted the city college, they all went to the university. Is having a city college if youa lready have a university with room to spare any use? Does the university give better education?

Thanks!

[Munchiez 74]

Well with the Disease reasarch place is not a Hospital, it is a research facility.

And one large library is all you really need

[Pengwuino 2]

Ok and somewhat unrelated, my advisors keep *****ing about funding education and all this good stuff. However, all my schools are funded enough for the students they have. My population fluctuated so much that i had to put a fair number of large elementary and high schools up and when things settle down for a while, I have schools that only need something like 20% capacity so I only give them 25% or so funding. I'm not sure how to balance this out so they stop complaining... or is i tsomething i dont need to worry about.

[heitomat 156]

Well, you don't actually "need" the smaller versions. E.g. a small library could easily be demolished after placing a main library in your city, given that the larger library covers the area where the small library used to sit. With this perspective in mind, the smaller versions can be viewed upon as "starters", to get your education system, healthcare services etc. up and going before your city can afford to replace them with larger facilities.

On the other hand, when considering realism, it is common to have smaller schools, a local branch of library services, a local clinic etc. in different areas of the city (where people live). I'm not sure whether or not such local services increase the overall desirability of an area in game, but in real life they sure would.

As for your school -> college -> university question, this doesn't mean that you don't need them all. Like in real life, they educate sims of different age. If you pay attention to the queries of the different educational buildings, you'll most probably notice that at first, the number of pupils at your elementary schools are high, while the other buildings barely have students at all. After a few years, this shifts. The population actually becomes older, and carry on to college, then university. It's actually quite a sophisticated game, this.

Use your data views to determine the demography of the different areas of your city, and provide the education services needed. Also, remember to keep feed your elementary schools with young pupils by allowing for new residential development in these areas, and adjust the budgets (or the school bus funding) to prevent throwing money away.

Your advisors may keep chewing on your back because there is a gap in your educational system, e.g. you don't have a college. It could also be that the sims feel that the "local" school, library, hospital etc. is too far away from their neighbourhood (as mentioned above, considering what it's like in real life). Anyway, after adjusting the funding sliders, always give the simulator some time to adjust to the new situation. Especially the educational advisor seems to be hard to please..

I'm sorry about the wall of text, but I hope you found this somewhat helpful.

[Pengwuino 2]

Thanks, I prefer walls of text The thing about the college and university thing, like i said earlier, when I deleted the college, it seemed like the university scooped up all of the city college people so it feels like the city college is siphoning off instead of acting as a stepping stone to the university.

So considering all that you have told me, would it make sense to zone areas of town with no elementary or high schools? So that the area is less desirable for poor sims and more desirable for rich sims? That is, if my goal is to move the two away from each other so I can deal with their needs separately. Would the sims that become educated grow up and move to the better side of town after becoming educated?

I've noticed that even though i have 0 gaps in my educational coverage, I always have these bands of mildly poorly educated sims. I have my areas zoned out in squares and it seems the top and bottoms of the squares (with the government bulidings at the center) aren't that well educated (and yes, the busing does reach every one of them). Is there anything to say about this?

[TheKebab 1]

From what I know, you should keep every stage in your educational system. The university is basically the large version of the city college, just like there are large/main versions of the other services. Afaik, the large versions also have some efficiency advantages over the smaller.

The reason to why your sims at the edges of the coverage circles are less educated is simple. Describing the coverage as a perfect circle is misleading, it is more like a gradient, the coverage gets worse the closer you come to the outer edge. This can be fixed by either overlapping the coverage among the buildings, or increasing ambulance/bus funding so that no homes are too close to the outer edge.