SimCity's AI, a big problem

[arbogli 26]

Hi guys... after a whole day not being able to play more than ten minutes one of my cities today I tryed again... and it finally worked! But now I have another problem.... My Sims are stupid (even more) than usual... just watch the video and you'll understand me.

Now I have problems like this in many parts of my city.... how the hell can I avoid this? Everyday is a challenge with this game, and not a good one.

[Buggi 684]

LOL

 

Sorry I had to laugh, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. If Maxis were a child I would scold them for being so terrible and failing kindergarten five times.

[arbogli 26]

You are welcome to laugh... I do it too instead of cry.

[mekane 5]

i actually like the game, but that was bout the funniest thing ever lol.  i like the dog comparison - chasing its own tail like.

 

on the bright side, at least the traffic flow was pretty good, just one quick stop they had to take

[Cyclone Boom 17,016]

I must admit, that's pretty hilarious! Clearly the no 'U' turn law isn't present in SimCity.
 

[arbogli 26]

You know... they like stupid thing, like this other one I have in the same city:

 

 

Why the hell they go there is there is nothing!! And they use a road to nowhere... I believe that this is intentional or I can't explain it ()

[mekane 5]

I'm guessing what is happening actually makes some sense.

 

1a 1b 1c

=======

2a 2b 2c

 

 

cars coming from the left all want to go to house 1a, since its the closest open house.  since its an avenue, they must U-turn to get there.  Once that house fills up, the next closest house is 2a or 1b, so they all head there instead, but that requires going around the loop again.  once those are filled up they must go to 2b and 1c... which would also require continuing around the loop... etc...

 

this is why avenues are not always better than normal roads.  

 

road planning is very tricky right now, and i'm not sure most of us have stumbled upon the best designs yet.

[Frode789 70]

Road design is tricky because simcity AI is stupid and nothing like in real life.

[arbogli 26]

I'm guessing what is happening actually makes some sense.

 

1a 1b 1c

=======

2a 2b 2c

 

 

cars coming from the left all want to go to house 1a, since its the closest open house.  since its an avenue, they must U-turn to get there.  Once that house fills up, the next closest house is 2a or 1b, so they all head there instead, but that requires going around the loop again.  once those are filled up they must go to 2b and 1c... which would also require continuing around the loop... etc...

 

this is why avenues are not always better than normal roads.  

 

road planning is very tricky right now, and i'm not sure most of us have stumbled upon the best designs yet.

 

I could be agree if I didn't have the same issue in the previous image, the is nothing to visit: no commerce, no houses, no industry... is just an bridge to nowhere without exit and they still keep doing the same thing.

[AshTym 31]

There's LSD in the town's water supply.

[bifordus-maximus 16]

I have had similar probems when placing a highschool on any type of corner AND having a recycling center with many trucks. At some point in time the school buses and recycling trucks WILL somehow get stuck in front of the highschool and be unable to move locking up traffic everywhere. I ended up having to destroy the highschool and replace it but not before my Nuclear powerplant had a meltdown becuase no one had gone to school since the buses were not moving and education levels had dropped. Happened to me twice in two different cites before I learned my lesson... partially. Also Recyling centers eventually lead to doom.

[Titan 8]

Going to the first open house is flawed design. Going to the first open job is flawed design. I can see why this was done. It's pretty simple to compute. That being said, I feel it's a lazy way of handling the AI. This should have never made it to live servers. Why they made the AI all go to work at exactly the same time is another mystery.

 

I'm not a programmer, but there are some very interesting videos on youtube that attempt to explain why this is happening and how it can be fixed. I just hope they don't insist on using this system forever. It needs to change. Quickly.

[Mayor_of_London 2]

You know... they like stupid thing, like this other one I have in the same city:

 

 

Why the hell they go there is there is nothing!! And they use a road to nowhere... I believe that this is intentional or I can't explain it ( )

 

They want to take in the awesome view, clearly. 

[morriswalters 16]

I have two recycling centers, a high school, an elementary school, and a university, trash haulers, buses, streetcars, and no traffic problems.  That particular city is at least 12 game years old and 230K population currently.  I don't suppose that it has occurred to anyone that nuclear power failing so easily is a design choice to support the political leanings of the designers and not a problem with traffic and education at all.  I have to ask of the picture, why would you do that?  It's like a lobster trap, designed to do what it is doing.

[mekane 5]

You know... they like stupid thing, like this other one I have in the same city:

 

 

Why the hell they go there is there is nothing!! And they use a road to nowhere... I believe that this is intentional or I can't explain it ( )

 

They want to take in the awesome view, clearly. 

 

i'm not sure on that one - unless perhaps there's some reason they cannot U-Turn at that mustache-like intersection? and so are forced to go on those roads?

[kosh22 4]

Going to the first open house is flawed design. Going to the first open job is flawed design. I can see why this was done. It's pretty simple to compute. That being said, I feel it's a lazy way of handling the AI. This should have never made it to live servers. Why they made the AI all go to work at exactly the same time is another mystery.

 

I'm not a programmer, but there are some very interesting videos on youtube that attempt to explain why this is happening and how it can be fixed. I just hope they don't insist on using this system forever. It needs to change. Quickly.

 

Totally agree. This one factor is why congestion, school attendance, refuge colleciton, mass transit etc etc utterly fail in the simulation.

  I have to ask of the picture, why would you do that?  It's like a lobster trap, designed to do what it is doing.

You do that to show that the AI is flawed.

[nataniels3 61]

That is really annoying with specializations. I built a processor factory and a recycling plant for alloy. The recycling trucks deliver at the end of the day and follow each other down the road. Thus, my recycling plant is closed more often than not and I have to import alloy. But, when I imported alloy for my processor factory, various businesses in the city took it, so I have to import more alloy. The trucks also take the most idiotic paths. My refinery and processor plant are 1 block away from each other yet the trucks will drive several blocks west and then turn. This game needs a dispatch system.

  I don't suppose that it has occurred to anyone that nuclear power failing so easily is a design choice to support the political leanings of the designers and not a problem with traffic and education at all. 

That is probably right. Notice that the wind blows 24 hours a day and never changes. I'm sure its the same for solar. Look out for global warming in the next patch.

[morriswalters 16]

Don't look for intelligence where there is none.  There is an algorithm.  The intelligence or the lack thereof is in the designers  ability to make the algorithm work well enough for the players to be able to use it. They have fallen short.  It does some things very well and others less well. And if you fool with it it can work.  It will not keep you from doing things that make it not work.  So until the designers get smarter you have to supply the intelligence that they didn't.

[parenzo 4]

You know... they like stupid thing, like this other one I have in the same city:

 

 

Why the hell they go there is there is nothing!! And they use a road to nowhere... I believe that this is intentional or I can't explain it ( )

you forgot to mention u deleted other part of the road just before taking screen.....

  Edited March 30, 2013 by CaptCity  
Edited... Direct comments to the topic, not other posters.

[arbogli 26]

You know... they like stupid thing, like this other one I have in the same city:

 

 

Why the hell they go there is there is nothing!! And they use a road to nowhere... I believe that this is intentional or I can't explain it ( )

you forgot to mention u deleted other part of the road just before taking screen....

The avenue ends there because you can see a part of an old dump and I was waiting until all the trash get incinerated to don't get all the land pollution. First point. The secon one is even easier: There is only a bridge to  nowhere just because I use to plan my city in my head and then I go slowly building the design when I have the money, but when I was going to connect the bridge to the rest of the city I saw this that shows clearly how bad works the AI and that's what I posted here. 

  Edited March 30, 2013 by CaptCity  
Edited... Direct comments to the topic, not other posters.

[Srafty 7]

it seems vehicles attempt to re route a split second after they encounter anything that slows them down.. this can be as little as 1 car going past them at a T intersection...

to test this watch your garbage trucks head up a dead end dirt road, as they head back out, you should notice that once they get to the intersection, every truck that has 1 car go past them on the main road will cause them to do a uturn, effectively making every second garbage truck do blockies.

 

the same thing is happening in the picture above, a line of vehicles has headed down the street, they all wanted to do a Uturn as it would be the shortest route. some managed to Uturn, while others couldn't instantly get in the left lane so they proceeded straight ahead (reroute), upon getting back to the intersection where the remaining vehicles are still attempting to Uturn they also get blocked (for a split second) so they turn right (reroute) then once again they end up back at the same intersection and it all becomes one big fiasco. originally they all just wanted to Uturn where the bridge joins to the avenue. Alot of the time this causes them to bug out and just stop at the intersection.

 

as for the ones doing loop the loop in that video i have seen this with police vehicles once, everyone of the said "presuing criminal" however there was no criminal even on the map, a game restart seems to be the only way to fix this.

 

 

P.S as for why they even headed down that way, it would help to know what type of vehicles they where and a picture of the full city as this was happening to have any idea, most likley they where trying to head somewhere and the above phenomenon caused them to head this way. imho this game should of been called "cascade traffic simulation"

[matthewcornish 5]

I'm getting a little fed up with the way vehicles are handling path finding. For example this fire engine: 

And this ambulance, which having picked up an injured sim couldn't work it's way back to the neighbouring city it came from: 

[Srafty 7]

@matthewcornish, the fire truck cannot get to the house. from that video it is clear that there must be a rule stating that they are not allowed to stop on an intersection.

 

err and the ambulance drive obviously needs a new GPS