Extreme Phantom Slider Issue?

[nickfindley 0]

I'm not sure it's the Phantom Slider as I've seen described here. Here's what happens:

The budget for everything looks normal for a month or two, then suddenly one random educational building will suddenly have a budget of about $2 billion. Moving the slider a little bit gets it back to normal funding, but then all of the other health and education buildings will get set to $0. And then a few days later I get run out of the city with $92 billion in expenses showing up in the budget.

The buildings that are getting the surprise $2 billion are mods that I've used for years with no issue, although I am using a couple of new educational buildings that may have done something weird. But they're never getting the crazy budget increase.

So is this Phantom Slider or some other thing that I have to isolate?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Have you recently moved any kind of facility that features an adjustable budget out of your plugins folder? This is what normally causes the Phantom Slider Bug. Also, which new buildings did you add?

[TownMaster2005 79]

T Wrecks; explain please about moving something out of the plugins folder. I have always been under the impression that doing that would case the game to crash. My experience of the Phantom Slider has been when I go and change something. Did that a while back on a police station that just had some wierd budget things in; and it mucked up the whole region and everything went so wonky I just binned it completely. Removing and replacing lots did not solve the problem at all. Even tried placing different lots is different places and that still would not do it.

This is just to expand my own knowledge of the how the game works and perhaps others will also find it useful to hear from those that know.

  Edited March 14, 2011 by TownMaster2005  

[CaptCity 4,669]

...I have always been under the impression that doing that would case the game to crash.

That is sometimes true if the plugin is removed without deleting the instances where it is used in the game. Deleting those items, running the game for a bit, saving the game without them, and then removing the plugins is safe. The Phantom Slider issue is a case of what could happen if the items in the game are not deleted before altering or changing plugins.

My experience of the Phantom Slider has been when I go and change something. Did that a while back on a police station that just had some wierd budget things in; and it mucked up the whole region and everything went so wonky I just binned it completely. Removing and replacing lots did not solve the problem at all. Even tried placing different lots is different places and that still would not do it.

The Phantom Slider issue can arise if civic structures are changed, added, or removed while another structure of the same type is still in place in the city. The settings become mismatched with what had been saved in the game files, leading to a constant misalignment. This post explains the situation and how to attempt to fix it... (Link)

[TownMaster2005 79]

CaptCity you are a star

Thanks for that. I may actually go back and try that region again. I just never thought of bulldozing the lot and then saving and going back in. I was trying to do it without the in and out and that was obviously not having the desired effect on the save file.

I notice article just talks about schools but I would surmise that it is possibly applicable to all slider type lots.

Take care and once again thanks.

[CaptCity 4,669]

...I notice article just talks about schools but I would surmise that it is possibly applicable to all slider type lots.

Yes, while I have only experienced it with schools and hospitals, I have read where others have had the same issue with all the various slider lots.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

I came across the phantom slider bug for the first time recently when I was lotting some new police stations...

If I did not bulldoze all the old versions of the lots, before I put the new versions of the lot in the plugin folder, yes all the sliders for those lots crashed and burned.

[nickfindley 0]

Found it. It was this lot that was making a mess. I installed it, then built a new city that contained it, then ran the game and freaked out. No moving/deleting/tweaking of plugins in between. Just some unfortunate effects when I adjusted global health and education funding.

[TownMaster2005 79]

Surprising. I have used that lot quite a bit and is one of my favourites and never given me any problems. Use one of the lot tools and check what it is all about. Perhaps something has become corrupted. NDEX's lots have always been very safe to use.