2.0 pollution problem?

[Board_Marshal 104]

If you've been following my CJ of Rusted bridge I've pretty much been documenting every step of it's development.  Below are pictures of my pollution maps pre 2.0 and post 2.0.  ~6 months have gone by between when the first pic was taken (pre 2.0, I've played some since then) and the second (post 2.0 which is today).  I actually have fewer industrial buildings in the second picture post 2.0 than I did 6 months prior in game.  Within an in-game day following 2.0 patch nearly 8k of the ~50k residents have left and I have mass abandonment due to the sudden pollution.  My city only has 5-6 medium industrial buildings, a trash burner, and a coal plant with cleaner upgrades.  Anybody else experiencing this?  I thought pre-2.0 had over amplified pollution and it was supposed to corrected (reduced from the double "reflection" impact).

 

-Pre 2.0

 

 

-Post 2.0

 

 

Edit: Now I'm down to 35k residents, a loss of ~15k 2 in-game days post 2.0.

[beatle 24]

I've been reading elsewhere (Reddit) that people have been seeing the same problems with pollution, that its worse.  I am wondering at this point if the patch did anything at all.  I don't really see much of a difference with my city.  

[Hypochondriac 0]

I've been reading elsewhere (Reddit) that people have been seeing the same problems with pollution, that its worse.  I am wondering at this point if the patch did anything at all.  I don't really see much of a difference with my city.  

 

I've noticed a difference, though not sure if it was the patch or a random bug just going away. Before the patch my city stopped exporting sewage, and was having huge issues with water and power despite both being in abundance. These problem showed up randomly. Now after the patch things seem to be working they were before they went to hell. I haven't checked my air pollution map. Will get back to you when I do  

[Board_Marshal 104]

I've been reading elsewhere (Reddit) that people have been seeing the same problems with pollution, that its worse.  I am wondering at this point if the patch did anything at all.  I don't really see much of a difference with my city.  

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/1cwt97/air_pollution_is_still_being_recycled/

 

Yes it appears I'm not the only one to have a deadly pollution cloud descend upon their city.

 

On the bright side my school bus and student agent movement behaviors seemed to have improved.  I couldn't get ~300 students to attend a school and <100 people went to my college.  With no changes all of the students are enrolled and my college is up to ~175 students/day.

 

I've been reading elsewhere (Reddit) that people have been seeing the same problems with pollution, that its worse.  I am wondering at this point if the patch did anything at all.  I don't really see much of a difference with my city.  

 

I've noticed a difference, though not sure if it was the patch or a random bug just going away. Before the patch my city stopped exporting sewage, and was having huge issues with water and power despite both being in abundance. These problem showed up randomly. Now after the patch things seem to be working they were before they went to hell. I haven't checked my air pollution map. Will get back to you when I do  

 

 

I had 4 sewer pipes with 2 maxed and the overflow went to the second two which were at ~half capacity each.  Post 2.0 all are at max flow.  Mind you this city has (had) only 50k residents and they remain almost maxed at 42k residents.

[Cob92 360]

Had the same thing happen to my casino city; it pretty much cancelled out the casino fixes because the magic pollution cloud drove away all my medium wealth tourists.

[arbogli 26]

Lovely, don't you think?.... they solve one issue and they create a dozen new.... this game is not even a beta, this looks more like an alpha.

[Sager_Nvidia 0]

oh my gawd, cannot not even get a city started up with all that pollution

 

[Cityfern 5]

A number of possible explanations are:

1. In both those photos, there appears to be an issue with your sewage.  If that is the case for too long, and the pipes remain backed up, then it results in ground and air pollution (same goes for rubbish).  
2. The wind direction changed and blown the pollution from the bottom right corner over the rest of your city?
3. Maybe the fix for the air pollution means that the air pollution from a neighbouring city (assuming there is one) is now blowing over this city, as originally intended.

It may be the case that all of this is wrong, but at the first sign of problems a lot of players of this game put their hands up and claim that the game is bugged or broken, rather than looking for a reason and solution.

[morriswalters 16]

Well now maybe not.  I have a city that is 38 game years old and all of a sudden I have sims dying like flies and germs all over the place.  This despite having 4 wellness vans and using solar power and  sewage treatment plants.  I spend a lot of time cleaning up after deaths.  Her might check that he doesn't have fallout.

[Cityfern 5]

Well now maybe not.  I have a city that is 38 game years old and all of a sudden I have sims dying like flies and germs all over the place.  This despite having 4 wellness vans and using solar power and  sewage treatment plants.  I spend a lot of time cleaning up after deaths.  Her might check that he doesn't have fallout.

 

Is this a single city in a region?  It was my understanding that pollution from neighbouring cities was supposed to effect neighbouring cities, but I have seen no evidence of this to date.  It may be the case that the "update" has effected this.

[CosmicSpeed 28]

This is quite funny.

 

We have issues when the game runs as it is released. We make our cities as best we can. They give us a patch, something we know will change the game. Gamers are pissed patch changes game.

 

I know, I know, it should work the first time, the patch should do what it claims. Yes, yes.

 

But maybe the OLD cities arent registering because they were made in a way that is now not very functional. Old layouts will need to be modified and revised.

 

This is FUN to me. It presents a challenge!

 

I know I have different ideals about this game than many here but the 2.0 patch has not garnered any ill will from me.

[xdsxblazinxdsx 2]

Yea that's just great. I haven't played since update but I did have a city with no industry and only roughly a 140k low mid and high pop. Clean power and sewage. And people were complaining of air pollution so I watched data view and in the middle of the map at random times I would get a really dark cloud of heavy pollution. Was hoping this would be fixed. Traffic is low because I have to trick traffic into flowing a certain way because they are not smart enough to use alternate routes. I know this has been said many times before but I'm starting to feel cheated.

[Board_Marshal 104]

Here is the ground pollution map pre-2.0 and it's always been isolated.  There is only 1 other city in the region and it's about 20k in size with about 50% more industry than in Rusted Bridge, so about 10 industrial buildings.

 

 

-Post 2.0

 

No change in ground pollution, very isolated.  Again, I've only got 5-7 industrial buildings and if that's enough to disease a whole city then that's a problem.  Wind blows along the border from the industrial sector to the river, hence the reason I've not built anything on that part of the map.  I've watched the sewage maps and they pipes are flowing although near capacity but they do not back up.  I've been chronicling this city here for weeks and pollution or sewage or germs has never been a problem for the city:

 

https://community.simtropolis.com/journal/4344-now-who-here-likes-a-good-story-about-a-bridge-sc2013/

 

This post wasn't about ill will or "brokenness" or any of that, just wanted to know if anybody else was seeing the same issue post patch.  I'll pretty much have to destroy and remove the entire industrial section if this is the way it will be but I don't want to necessarily do that if I don't have to. 

[DVDGuy 16]

Oh crap, I better not load my new electronic city in Twain then. If 7 industrial buildings can do that, I don't want to know what the 4 processor plants and 4 CE factories I built will do (in addition to about 5 high density industrial buildings).

[Board_Marshal 104]

Good, I'm not just seeing things.  Heavy pollution blowing across a map for no reason shown by this guy.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgn12DaKL5s&feature=youtu.be

[morriswalters 16]

 

Well now maybe not.  I have a city that is 38 game years old and all of a sudden I have sims dying like flies and germs all over the place.  This despite having 4 wellness vans and using solar power and  sewage treatment plants.  I spend a lot of time cleaning up after deaths.  Her might check that he doesn't have fallout.

 

Is this a single city in a region?  It was my understanding that pollution from neighbouring cities was supposed to effect neighbouring cities, but I have seen no evidence of this to date.  It may be the case that the "update" has effected this.

 

I had emptied the other two cities in my region earlier and this city had about 70 k.  I have now deleted everything inside all three cities in my region, roads, everything.  There are nothing there.  I can tell you that pollution spawns out of the ground, in circular areas.  when two circles overlap than pollution strengthens.  I'm going to watch for a few game years.  Currently what I am seeing is enhanced pollution.  I post again.

[Board_Marshal 104]

 

 

Well now maybe not.  I have a city that is 38 game years old and all of a sudden I have sims dying like flies and germs all over the place.  This despite having 4 wellness vans and using solar power and  sewage treatment plants.  I spend a lot of time cleaning up after deaths.  Her might check that he doesn't have fallout.

 

Is this a single city in a region?  It was my understanding that pollution from neighbouring cities was supposed to effect neighbouring cities, but I have seen no evidence of this to date.  It may be the case that the "update" has effected this.

 

I had emptied the other two cities in my region earlier and this city had about 70 k.  I have now deleted everything inside all three cities in my region, roads, everything.  There are nothing there.  I can tell you that pollution spawns out of the ground, in circular areas.  when two circles overlap than pollution strengthens.  I'm going to watch for a few game years.  Currently what I am seeing is enhanced pollution.  I post again.

 

 

I'll keep an eye out for an update but I suspect something is wrong in the code.  It will be difficult to manage healthcare costs if this is working as designed.  Plus the rate I have to bulldoze buildings because of abandonment is out of control, much higher than before, yet citizens move right back in only to leave again.  /sigh.

 

"built 3 cities after the patch yesterday.... all 3 got to 80-100k population before * tons of problems happened

Pollution problem as everyone has been stating

Abandon Buildings problem (Im talking every 1-2 minutes there are 20-30 abandons)

Tourism and Casino's still fluctate too much .... went from 20k profit in one casino .... then about 20 minutes later it was toast at 15k negative..... how??? NOTHING changed..... but maybe its also pollution"

 

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/1cwt97/air_pollution_is_still_being_recycled/

 

"Same here, seems to be worse after the patch. I have air pollution appearing out of nowhere, a whole lot of it. I have about 10LD and 2MD industrial buildings, but the winds lead the pollution to the sea. High air pollution is just appearing right on top of my residential area. Population is about 12k."

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/1cwkne/post_your_simcity_20_problems_here_heres_my_list/

 

"Pollution from the region being magnified. New town, 4k population, 55 people in the clinic. -thehybridfrog"

 

 

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9462475.page

 

" massive air pollution spawning out of nowhere ruining your city ...yes SPAWNING you can literally watch it pop out of nowhere in the data overview.  In a city with 0 industry and 1 oil power plant with advanced burners placed at the leeward side of the map...and for neighbour it cant be that hes causing it."

 

"I have some industial buildings in my City with the normal Air Pollution. But i get alot more Pollution from the other side of the Map where the wind is coming from polluting my residential buildings and even open places where i didnt build anything."

 

"I would add the new Pollution Problem here.

I did get Pollution from outside the City borders with no other City in the Region.

As reading a bit here in the forums it seems im not the only one with this Problem. "

[Freeze01 1]

For me it looks like the wind changed direction in my region... highly annoying.

[morriswalters 16]

It's beginning to look like poor housekeeping on Maxis part.  Nothing ever seems to reset.  I have cleared all my maps of everything.  I have cleaned up almost all ground pollution.    On a map where I never had any industry at all, I have light pollution.  On a map where I had oil drilling I have moderate pollution.  On a map where I had industry I now have no pollution except that from a small patch of fallout.  Pollution spawns from the ground and this can be demonstrated.  It's not blowing in off the map.  It looks like the regional mechanics making it happen.  Once started it apparently never stops.  The degree of pollution in each of my cities in the Trinity region varies by the age of the cities.  My first city is clear.  My second city is light and my last city moderate to heavy.  All the cities are planted with trees.  I have water usage on maps where there are no users.  The main data panels are loaded with phantom numbers which are unconnected to anything in the game.  It seems that the developers have no mechanism for cleaning up if you start anew on a old map, An interesting note the wind direction appears to be to the north east on my region, Cape Trinity.  And I believe it may be so everywhere.  The pointer when you right click to move using the mouse is a compass.

[eburress 267]

I created a new city in a new region...the only city in that region...with wind power, etc and there's ridiculous air pollution seemingly coming out of thin air for no apparent reason.  

[Cob92 360]

I have a sneaking suspicion that pollution is just spawned based on some number related to the total emissions of the region. Phantom pollution happened even before this patch, where you would have a city upwind of all the industry and would still get polluted, making the whole wind mechanic useless.

[Party Pandas 0]

I seem to be getting the exact same situation. 20k population minimal mid-tech industry downwind with no other cites in the region and my city is flooded with air pollution and germs.

[Bibor_Kiraly 21]

I played two pre-patch cities today and i cant reproduce this problem. both cities are heavy polluters too.

[Board_Marshal 104]

I played two pre-patch cities today and i cant reproduce this problem. both cities are heavy polluters too.

 

It is very strange because there are reports like yours where it's not a problem (old and new cities) and reports similar to mine (pre and post 2.0 cities).  Its frustrating because I've so little information available to understand why which leaves me totally helpless and unable to play a city I've been playing solidly for weeks, even got #1 on Ben's Top Ten.  Now when I load it up I just watch pollution loom all over the city, rising out of the ground, never blowing off map, not blowing onto the map either.  There's no traffic to speak of either.  Even the opposite corner of the map where ~10 high wealth homes are has bad air pollution.  Very frustrating.

[tnobles 38]

Started a new city away from any regional city connections. At some point, I think medium density was starting to upgrade, I checked the air pollution and it was as you described (heavy and getting heavier). I then went nuts (poor mouse) planting forests. Right now there is zero pollution, totally white except in industrial area. There are four pre-patch cities. I'll check them out, probably tomorrow.

[Board_Marshal 104]

Started a new city away from any regional city connections. At some point, I think medium density was starting to upgrade, I checked the air pollution and it was as you described (heavy and getting heavier). I then went nuts (poor mouse) planting forests. Right now there is zero pollution, totally white except in industrial area. There are four pre-patch cities. I'll check them out, probably tomorrow.

 

Unfortunately the city tiles, already being as small as they are, I can't leave space open just to plant trees for when medium density buildings pop up.  Trees won't plant in most areas if there are zones and roads so given that pollution is growing (uniformly) out of the ground across the entire city map I can't see how tree chronic tree planting will be helpful/effective/fun.  Crazy clicking my mouse to plant trees across the map while simultaneously bulldozing the buildings which are now abandoning at an astonishing rate leaves little time for either enjoyment or relaxation.

[spoetnikstraat 0]

same for me to new 2 !! new city in the region so no neighboring citys polution in my casino city after about 20 k people ... everybody sick.... nothing i can do about it .... so E.A what are you gonna do about it?

[Board_Marshal 104]

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9463073.page

pg.5

"Chris (on twitter) says they are following this issue. It's on AnswersHQ as well, especially in the Feedback thread."

 

http://answers.ea.com/t5/Miscellaneous-Issues/Pollution/m-p/1059844/highlight/true#M71825

 

So I guess it's being looked at.  Hopefully we'll hear something, either WAD or fail, still nice to have an answer at some point.

 

Also, it seems that there is a threshold trigger that sets off a "pollution bomb" after which things get impossibly dirty.

 

Edit:
There isn't any way to bypass the germs/air pollution problem.  We've all found work-arounds to deal with some of the weird mechanics of this game but there's no way to handle the pollution problem.  I'm really bummed I can't play my city since doing so would cause more harm than good.  I've had a lot of mixed feelings about SC2013 but spent a lot of time playing and having a good time anyway.  This is disappointing.

[tnobles 38]

 

Started a new city away from any regional city connections. At some point, I think medium density was starting to upgrade, I checked the air pollution and it was as you described (heavy and getting heavier). I then went nuts (poor mouse) planting forests. Right now there is zero pollution, totally white except in industrial area. There are four pre-patch cities. I'll check them out, probably tomorrow.

 

Unfortunately the city tiles, already being as small as they are, I can't leave space open just to plant trees for when medium density buildings pop up.  Trees won't plant in most areas if there are zones and roads so given that population is uniformly growing out of the grown all across my map I can't see how this will help.  Plus crazy clicking my mouse to plant trees across the map and bulldozing the quickly abandoning buildings leaves little time for either enjoyment or relaxation.

 

Isn't my idea of how to play the game either, just curious what trees would do. Most of the forests have died and still no pollution, though. Maybe planting forests before the map gets saturated with buildings will cure this [bug].

[jrbaytown 2]

I believe 2.0 caused the problem.  I've created a couple of new cities since 2.0 and both have flopped because of the pollution.  The problem starts almost immediately after I begin playing, and with only one city in the region, I know it isn't coming from other sources.

 

I opened a city that hadn't been played since 2.0, and there was no pollution.  Within a few minutes it spiked dramatically and population began to die and buildings were abandoned. 

 

It really hasn't been any fun for me since 2.0 because of this.  I hope it's fixed soon.