real ecomomy mod request

[eloy2030 0]

Hi everyone, this is my first post and already a request (sorry, my bad)

 

well, anyway, i've been playing the game for a while and downloaded tons of mods (increadible job by the modders!) and there is some thing that's been bugging me, and please correct me if i'm wrong (its the main purpose of this thread); the fact that there's no synergy between the diferent industries and between industries the population (and, of course, commercial)... sure all things contribute, but,  as far as i know, you can have an economy without farms, dirty or manufacture industry... or not?

 

What i was thinking was a mod (dont know if its even possible) where the caps where influenced by the fact that thers other industries around. I mean, you would need a chain of goods to get to high tech industries (sure you can have a few by virtualy importing raw goods, but, in the end, it'd get to a cap due to high costs). This way, the concept of specializing your cities would be more than pure cosmetics.

 

Notes: this is just the core idea.

 

*I dont know if this is possible or someone has the time or will to do this.

*I dont have any programing or modding knowledge but i'd be more than happy to help in any way I can (research, discussion, concept developing...)

*If this mod already exists, please link me!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You are pretty much stuck with the algorithms as programmed.  There are a few mods that skew the game in one direction or another, but the basic model is California, Silicon Valley demographics and capabilities.  The programmers wrote what they knew.

 

There are a few bug fix mods including the really big one -- Network Addon Mod (NAM).  I unreservedly recommend NAM 31.2 with a custom installation using the parts you want to use.  You can seamlessly reinstall this at any time to exclude/include features ad libitum.  Neat installer.  Look on the STEX for any mod with the word 'fix' in it to find the others.

 

The most important thing is to read before you implement, and always, always test any new adds while you still remember what they are and why you thought you wanted them.

 

And do remember that this is a GAME, and not a Geographic Information Modelling program.

[eloy2030 0]

thanks Moose, yeah, that's what i thought, but no harm on asking, yeah? 

 

I (thanks anyway) do have NAM which is awasome.

 

I know its a game, but its also a simulator, isn't it? And wouldn't you agree, may it be possible to implement, its an interesting concept? The fact that you must use all the elements in the game in order to achieve higher stages of (in-GAME) development. I think it would be realy fun.

 

Thanks again for your imput.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You are welcome to come join us in the Boomtown discussion, which is about a much more free implementation of a city simulation.

[Indiana Joe 1,752]

You should check out OpenTTD if you haven't heard of it already.  It's an open-source reboot of the Chris Sawyer game Transport Tycoon.  The graphics are heavily dated, but there is a better graphics set currently in development and available in partial completion.

 

If you don't know about it, you use the four big transportation mediums to transport passengers and cargo between cities and industries.  There is a multiplayer mode and quite a few people actually play.  Based on your original post, and the fact that you already like SC4, I think it might appeal to you.

[eloy2030 0]

WOW, huge proyect! Tons to read, I'll have to catch up... 

 

Regarding OpenTTD I've played TT, TTD and OpenTTD since the begining in 1994 when I got the game in a demo from a promo CD (i think). Awasome game and highly addictive. Yeah, I loved it!

 

Thanks!

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Also, as has been written elsewhere in these forums, SC4 "Rush Hour" is a traffic sim, not a complete economic or industrial sim. Therefore, while morning commuters may drive from sector to sector looking for work, freight auto-magically evaporates as soon as its truck or train can reach a border connection. No freight appears in the neighboring sector, and no demand for freight exists 

 

Being a programmer, I am going to poke my head "under the hood" someday to see if there's any way to wedge some freight supply & demand into the transport connections between sectors. Then we'll be cooking with gas 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

By prior agreement, this community does not reverse engineer the program.  Even after all this time, EA will be quite nasty if you get caught.

 

I've been a programmer for over 50 years, and the only tool that you could possibly use on this .exe is a disassembler.  You get quite a mess, but if you want to fool with it, be my guest.  It is written in Visual C++ 6.0.  I did look at this myself, but it isn't worth the effort IMHO.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

I didn't mean to dive that far under the hood, just to the level where NAM and CAM do what they do. I've seen "puzzle pieces" for border-connections, which suggests that it might be possible to mod what data gets handed across borders. If the data can be handed off, and if NAM team knows how to mod traffic, then it might also be possible to spawn freight trucks and trains on the receiving side.

 

I know, I'm dreaming, but I have to look before I give up completely.

[MandelSoft 2,775]

We don't program anything with the NAM (except of the tools to make mods). We only exploit mechanisms already present in the game

[NCGAIO 562]

I think we can put it this way ... SimCity is a simulator that needed to have a goal like a game and this certainly was to get the city evolve and thus the development was based on providing steps to be overcome to achieve this.
 
The freight economic theme like placed in the game only addresses a way to release the "caps"  that restrict growth as well as many other factors  also ie serve to release development .
 
Although there is a section of National Economy in simulators with a property for listing Ids of modifiers demand and others for the  monthly variations it is not used in the game.
 
Like many other things that were left in the game were also discovered by analyze the property files that could even be good indicator that there is something more that could be done
 
.But unfortunately even if there was something also may suffer from the same problem that stalled the use of the discoveries made ​​on the exe   MAC version ie encryption version of Windows  using the SafeDisk which makes the task very difficult.
 
Those interested can read the link below  an interesting topic about a economic model discussed in 2009 on one of the many ideas that swarmed the epoch for a free updating of the simulator.
 
Open source Sim City (Programming) Economy Model
 
Note: Any resemblance to something that was launched currently will have been just a coincidence even  that this phrase seems familiar "So city should not be isolated island like in the SC4" 

[cogeo 960]

Once you have fully understood the demand model, you can mod it in some way to become more "realistic", by editing the RCI-type exemplars (which you also need to merge into simcity_1.dat, to avoid problems like double-count statistics). This is not as simple as it sounds though, some demand types interact one with another, and in a way that it's not always easy to determine. For example, apart from the classic (and easily comprehensible) "Drives" and "Satisfies" demand-type interactions, there is also that "Contributes" one. Does anyone know what exactly this means? I think not, since we don't have the source or some official documents by Maxis. So there is needed a lot of effort and cuation, to avoid making something broken, like making cities that grow (or shrink) continously and indefinitely.

 

The demand model in SC4 isn't perfect. A notable exmple, is industrial cities: if you make a (dirty) industrial city, with a lot of I-D and R$, and provide them good education, demand for both I-D and R$ will start dropping, and the city will start losing population and jobs. More than half of the population will finally be gone, as will do I-D jobs, but no more (new) R$ sims will be entering the city, to take advantage of the vacant housing and the idling industry. This is of course wrong, but I don't know if there's some way to fix this.

[z1 566]

I didn't mean to dive that far under the hood, just to the level where NAM and CAM do what they do. I've seen "puzzle pieces" for border-connections, which suggests that it might be possible to mod what data gets handed across borders.

 

It's not.  Intercity communication is completely locked up in the executable.

 

For example, apart from the classic (and easily comprehensible) "Drives" and "Satisfies" demand-type interactions, there is also that "Contributes" one. Does anyone know what exactly this means?

I used to; I specifically used this property in my fix for the CAM Demand Bug.  If I recall correctly, it has to do with how much that exemplar contributes to the next exemplar higher up in the hierarchy.  At the time, I figured out what it was doing just by experimenting with it and seeing what it did to the figures in the Census Repository Facility.  But that was more than four years ago.