Industry occupancy problems

[Puravida 1]

Hi. I have a problem with my high-tech industry.

Why is my high-tech industry only at 50% occupancy? there is still a high demand for high-tech industry and enough unemployed citizens. got the pollution down. my commute time is 65.

what am I doing wrong?

[Prophet42 1,501]

How is your mass transit system? Do you have plenty of bus stations in you residential and industrial areas? Your industry will improve if your sims can get to it easily. Also, you can try to do things to improve the desirability in your industry sectors (like adding parks).

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Is it at 50% occupancy? Or is it at 50% of the potential job offer, but these 50% are fully occupied? How exactly did you check?

[Puravida 1]

my mass transit system is good. but could try the parks/plaza? what is best?

there are for an example 90 jobs avalible, but there are only 53 employed, but there is a high demand for high-tech. and it is all my hightech industry that is like that :/

[Puravida 1]

Ok it worked instantly when I placed some plazas thanks for the help

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Then you didn't have an occupancy problem at all. You had a desirability problem.

When you query that industry and it says something like "I-HT: 53/90",

- this does NOT mean that it offers 90 jobs, and

- it does NOT mean that 53 out of these 90 jobs are occupied.

That's a common mistake, and Maxis did a good job at not including such crucial info in manuals/tutorials.

What the query actually means when it says something like "I-HT: 53/90" is:

- in a theoretical ideal state (=perfect desirability), the facility could offer a maximum of 90 jobs, and

- given the current desirability, the facility can only offer up to 53 out of the theoretiocally possible 90 jobs.

What it absolutely doesn't tell you is actual occupancy. This is something you find out using the route query on the building. It will tell you how many workers actually commute to the building.

This is why I gather from your description that your problem was not related to occupancy at all, and that's why I asked how you came to this conclusion. You didn't answer that question directly, but this is what I extracted from your post.

[Puravida 1]

ahh ok you are absolutely correct thankyou very helpfull

[raynev1 1,886]

T Wrecks ; That was very helpful , thanks .

I learn something new everyday.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

You're welcome.

I really don't understand why Maxis/EA wasn't clear about this. Of course it is only natural to assume what you did - that 53/90 means an occupation of 53/90. That this isn't the case , and how you determine actual occupation, is something that should have been featured very prominently in the manual and/or in the tutorial cities.

I mean, it's not just a tiny inconvenience with numbers. It's important to know when you build up your city! The situation in this thread was, in fact, a more harmless example. What makes things much worse is that the nominal job capacity of a building will be substracted from the current demand, i.e., an I-HT facility with 100 theoretically possible jobs will reduce I-HT demand by 100, independently of its actual occupancy. This way, you could build an entire industrial area (with all the related powering, watering, police/fire coverage, garbage disposal, and infrastructure costs!) until your demand is totally drained, even if not a single Sim actually works there. This is where good transportation planning will help you...

As you see, these are key elements of the simulation, and yet few people are aware of them - and you really can't blame them for that.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Everyone at Maxis probably thought that ratio was 'instinctive' and didn't feel it needed further documentation. This is what happens when programmers work on something for several years. They forget what the layman's view of such things is likely to be.

[Keterex 0]

What the query actually means when it says something like "I-HT: 53/90" is:

- in a theoretical ideal state (=perfect desirability), the facility could offer a maximum of 90 jobs, and

- given the current desirability, the facility can only offer up to 53 out of the theoretiocally possible 90 jobs.

What it absolutely doesn't tell you is actual occupancy. This is something you find out using the route query on the building. It will tell you how many workers actually commute to the building.

What makes things much worse is that the nominal job capacity of a building will be substracted from the current demand, i.e., an I-HT facility with 100 theoretically possible jobs will reduce I-HT demand by 100, independently of its actual occupancy.

Wow, Thanks for that info! That goes a long way to explaining some of my city problems.

[cogeo 960]

My 2 cents:

- How about your R demand? Do you have high unsatisfied R (esp R$$) demand? This may mean lack of workforce. If so try growing some more R buildings.

- There is a known bug concerning employment of R$$$ sims in I-HT. More info in

- You should not have unemployed sims. How did you get the demand to grow R areas then (if you don't have the jobs)? Unless you have installed some demand mods (which cause imbalances in demand, and therefore I strongly recommend against), your sims should have been able to find jobs, in the same city or another. Do you have unreachable workplaces maybe? Power plants, which most players prefer to place at the corner of the map do offer jobs (except for the windmills), so they need to be connected to the R areas. But even if they are connected, your sims may not be able to get there due to high commute time (exceeding the set threshold). If you have such buildings check them with the route query (to see if your sims really work there). Install NAM if you haven't already, it increases the threshold (and don't worry about "realism", it's totally unrealistic that sims can'r commute 4km away). Inaccesible buildings may also be the result of poorly designed connections, for example one-way roads, avenues without a return path, or highways with exit ramps at the one side only. That is, your sims should be able to both get there (morning commute) and return home (evening commute). Take a look and Also tollbooths and RTMT stations can block the buildings behind them, and to make things worse, commercial buildings don't even display the no-access zots. Check the RTMT documentation for workarounds, if you are using such buildings.

And you were right about plazas, I-HT must be treated as CO, they need plazas, no pollution, no garbage and no crime.

[7238320 77]

TWrecks and cogeo, thank you so much for your insights into the game's 'mechanics'!

(All of a sudden things are making sense.)