Unsteady development?

[bgn 4]

Greetings--

The city I am currently working on, Geckoburg, has a problem with no-job zots. In the last ten game-years, ever since I demolished a couple of I-D factories to widen an avenue, the no-job zots have been cropping up everywhere. It isn't because of traffic, which is relatively uncongested. What's strange is that the buildings don't stay abandoned; they soon get re-occupied a step or two down the income ladder. This may happen several times to one building. Also, when I check the jobs chart, both R-$ and R-$$ keep lurching up and down in alternation; the total population doesn't increase that much. The only thing I can guess is that newcomers (R-$) keep coming to Geckoburg, not finding jobs, and then leaving. But when I look at the statistics, there are still more job positions than there are Sims to fill them. Is it that they aren't the right kind of jobs? What can I do to keep those no-job zots from cropping up so much? Please advise. Thanks in advance.

[Cefien 361]

Well, sims are programmed to be very finicky. They won't travel too far even if you provide them with good roads/avenues, but you still need them though. Even with the NAM istalled your sims will only travel as far as necessary.

Have you tried using rails or subways to connect the residential area and your industrial/commercial areas?

[IAMSHOO 3]

I think you answered your own question. You say that you demolished some I-D to build some avenues; have you tried zoning some more I-D? It seems to me that you do have sims coming and going because they can't find the jobs they want.

[bgn 4]

Have you tried using rails or subways to connect the residential area and your industrial/commercial areas?

It's a very compact city; the residential and commercial areas are intermixed, and the no-job zots pop up all over (though more on the poorer east side of town). And I do have rail; also NAM.

You say that you demolished some I-D to build some avenues; have you tried zoning some more I-D?

Yes, and I got some new I-M. However, my I-D demand is generally negative (I-M and I-HT fluctuate between negative and mildly positive; C and R are positive, though not as much so as is typical for me--I blame pollution)

[Cefien 361]

If your I-D demand is negative, then i suppose your city is educated enough and it required higher level job than the I-D itself, or you already have too much I-D in your city.

C are positive right? Why don't you try zone more Commercials. Positive demand indicated that your city need that kind of development. Also, lay more subway lines and stations will also help your long commute time issue.

How big is your population now?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Remember the rule of thumb ratio of 2 Sims per job. Check your pollution display, and add some anti-pollution elements such as trees, parks and cemeteries. If necessary there are some supplementary air cleaners on the STEX.

What is your EQ?

[bgn 4]

How big is your population now?

About 40,500 Sims. (There are just under 22,000 job positions.)

What is your EQ?

It's stayed at about 120 throughout this crisis.

[Turjan 1,048]

How big is your population now?

About 40,500 Sims. (There are just under 22,000 job positions.)

I'm quite new to the game and, yesterday, I had not quite the same situation, but similar. The medium tile city was stuck at 40,000 inhabitants. and some of the residence buildings reverted to R$. I only had commercial demand, not industrial. I had just installed RTMT and wanted to try it out, so plucked down some good bus coverage in part of the city, including the area with the R$ reversions. The population pretty much jumped to 54,000 as a result, and some of the buildings reverted to R$$. Also, some rezoned commercial areas that never moved finally changed as a result.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

There is a temporary demand increase when you drop in a bus stop. This can be quite beneficial if you can sustain the resulting growth. How are you fixed for parks and plazas?

[Turjan 1,048]

There is a temporary demand increase when you drop in a bus stop. This can be quite beneficial if you can sustain the resulting growth. How are you fixed for parks and plazas?

I try to use them quite regularly, at least the parks (I tend to forget the plazas). I added a medium flower park near those R$ buildings, but only after the reversion had already started.

Nevertheless, I really had a traffic problem. The two avenues that I plastered with bus stops were over capacity. There are other roads that need them, but I have to get the income up for more expenses. I have a train connection in that city, but it doesn't fit demand. Most of those residents that made the wealth jumps back and forth work in the neighboring city, btw. I will watch out whether they will switch jobs to somewhere within the city now, as there are enough, although I might have to add some more between the residential area and the nearest city exit.

Edit: Yes, I plucked some commercial area in the vicinity of the tenements, and it seemed to have attracted workers. No buses there, yet. Demand seems ok, except for R$$$.

The introduction of buses had drastically reduced commute times, and they are used by quite a few residents, even those who still commute to the neighboring city.

Overall traffic still increased, because of the population jump, and it's mostly cars. I should be slowly extending the net.

[Cefien 361]

Try add subways too and connect your residential and commercial area.

[Turjan 1,048]

Try add subways too and connect your residential and commercial area.

So this is one of those games where the solution to every problem is "build another subway" . It makes sense in a way, but the numbers in the game are way off from reality.

The city from above is now at 75,000 inhabitants and has some trouble with commuters to the neighbor city. It's in the center, not in a corner, but traffic on the ramps to the motorway always gives me alerts (see below). Would you tear down a significant part of the city to fix that? It's a medium tile, and I have used about all space it has.

One other question: The monorail seems to stop at every transition-enabled tile, also at stations. This clogs everything up. Passenger numbers are up to 18,000 per station. Does anyone know which parameter determines whether trains stop at a station or those stores underneath?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

One of the tricks you can use is to use terminals rather than stations. To create a terminal, pull a spur off the main line and place the terminal building on the spur. Spurs have no through tracks.

This method avoids counting through traffic as though it was using the station.

[Turjan 1,048]

One of the tricks you can use is to use terminals rather than stations. To create a terminal, pull a spur off the main line and place the terminal building on the spur. Spurs have no through tracks.

This method avoids counting through traffic as though it was using the station.

That sounds pretty good, but uses much space and is a bit fiddly. At least in my case, the game doesn't like to make monorail branch off (it's so bad that I thought you could not make any branches at all for a while). However, the usage numbers are not that much of a concern, as I set them high enough for NAM.

I must not have expressed myself very well, sorry for that. My question went more into this direction: Normal trains don't stop in stations (at least as I can tell from the automata), they just run through or disappear. Passenger exchange is on the fly. Then again, they just pass the stations by, while monorail crosses the tile. I read that monorail should work the same as trains. However, in my game, the monorail automata each stop for several seconds at each station and at each transit-enabled tile (those shops under the track you may be able to see in that image). They also wait before crossing diagonally over streets , but that's short. While I can remove the stores (they just seemed like a fancy idea), the long stops at stations seem to clog up the track. Sometimes, my whole monorail is just red with trains standing bumper to bumper, waiting for stations to clear. It's certainly somewhat more realistic, aside from having the track filled with trains.

Or the tl/dr version: Are monorails (automata), unlike trains, supposed to wait at each station?*

*Just to clarify: the standard Maxis station behaves the same, I tested this.