Elder care

[eskie227 1]

So I decided to use one of the slower aging mod to soften those cyclical die offs that occur, especially when you're getting established. And it does work, with far fewer calls for hearses. But I noticed an odd scenario in my latest town.

 

I finally got a reasonably well laid out town up to 275K population. Unlocked all sorts of stuff, including the Hadron Collider. Turned it on, and lo and behold, all my office space went straight to level 3 in no time, along with commercial. With a tax base of no more than 10% on any area, lots of policies and bonuses to businesses in districts, and I was still running a surplus of $40 to 450K a week. My overall happiness is never below 95%.

 

However, my percentage of employment kept dropping. I'm down to the mid 50%, but no one is complaining. No one is moving out. Land values are all maxed out. So I start to look at my individual buildings, and discover most of my high density residential is elderly. Which presents a few issues. First, when they start dying, I'm screwed with a ton of dead bodies to pick up. Second, my population will tank.

 

But my real question is, do the elderly work in this game, or are they retired? Because if my employment percentage is low because half my population is old, that's understandable, but probably undesirable, as the elderly are still consumers shopping and supporting my commercial zones. And if I turn off the slow aging now, I'll have probably 40,000 dead withing a month, an there aren't enough cemeteries and crematoria that could handle the catastrophe. Anyone with any insights into the age issue in the game?

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Yes, the elderly are retired. It would be nice if there was a way to stagger their deaths through variable life-expectancy in the mod you use. It would also be nice if there were retirement homes to plop that elders would move to if given the chance. Retirement homes all grouped in one small area serviced with a ton of crematorium and a few cemeteries would greatly help with preventing the apocalypse of dead bodies.

--Ocram

[iviaarten 533]

Yep. The slower aging mod will only delay the 'massive death wave effect' if you still zoned large chunks and grew quick.

 

Evil solution: Find a place where the majority of people are seniors. Cut off their water, hook up a separate water system for that area, and feed it poop water. Kill off some seniors, wait for the hearses to do their job, reconnect to the normal water supply, and move on to the next area.

 

Am I going to hell now?

[eskie227 1]

Nah. That's actually an intriguing solution. And as I still need to complete the 1,000 abandoned building challenge, it might just be a way to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

[Mystrelia 57]

@iviaarten, LOL

 

I also use that mod because one of the things I learned in my early playing was too much death too fast is a really, REALLY bad thing. So far (and I'm several years into the game) I've managed to go through several death waves and keep my head above water on the labor front. Then last night as I played the Cims in the first apartment buildings started aging into Seniors. Now they make up 17% of my population.

 

First of all, don't panic and start zoning a whole bunch of residential at once because you're going to find yourself in the same situation a few years from now. Take it nice and easy. Also, do you have a university? I find frequently when I'm having minor labor shortages just waiting a little while will release a new set of graduates into the job market and that helps level things out.

 

I know there's some kind of award for having a certain number of Cims live their entire lives and die in your city but I also know that sometimes I have to and do make some tough choices. One of those tough choices is to boot some of the seniors right out of town. I'm not keen on doing this to apartment buildings but I do occasionally check on the light residential zones and if I have a bunch of houses with only seniors living in them, I will bulldoze at least some. This does two things: One is that it displaces some of those seniors and the other is that it brings in a few uneducated Cims which are good for the labor pool.

 

Another way is to look around your city and find areas with low-level residential that can be upgraded easily with things like parks and possibly bus routes, the type of things which aren't going to cut into your already struggling workforce. You do have to be careful not to accidentally upgrade a bunch of businesses and offices in the process. I did that JUST about the time I was getting things evened out. I'm down 200 workers again.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Yep. The slower aging mod will only delay the 'massive death wave effect' if you still zoned large chunks and grew quick.

 

Evil solution: Find a place where the majority of people are seniors. Cut off their water, hook up a separate water system for that area, and feed it poop water. Kill off some seniors, wait for the hearses to do their job, reconnect to the normal water supply, and move on to the next area.

 

Am I going to hell now?

The things I here players come up with is sometimes hilarious. Evil but practical. They're just caught up in an unfortunate circumstance created from the mayor's need for taxes in the beginning. Time to pay the pauper! Death spiral or lose your soul.

 

I learn to play by reading posts like these. That's why I'm growing my first city very very slowly even though the game is REALLY tempting me to start spamming residential so we can get that next milestone. I need trains.

[Mystrelia 57]

I think it is tempting to build out fast and I'm holding myself back right now from zoning a bunch of residential at one time to fill the employment demands. I zone a bit, let the game run and concentrate on something else for a while, let the numbers have time to settle then zone a little more. I do find the mods I'm using to slow things down help make for more relaxing game play for me and that's something I need.

 

I've noticed a real pattern of feast or famine in this game. Sometimes I end up with housing evolving all at once and get a huge surplus of unemployment so build up to accommodate for that. Then the senior rash hits. Now if I could just coordinate with the waves things would be more stable.

[eskie227 1]

@Mystrelia, you sound familiar. Have we posted on another forum?

 

But yes, it's hard to find the right balance for the timing building out. I just started on an expansion of my current city, and in a new tile I laid out several grids for housing and one for industry. I built in all the support, utilities, some small parks, transportation and whatnot, then zones in my industry and only 1/3 of the residential. As the first residential grid filled up, I zoned the second, and will get the third one done in a while. I'm hoping that it help smooth things out by phasing in my new zoning, although I do like to have that area of the map already laid out and supported before actually allowing expansion to proceed.

 

I finally broke the 300K population ceiling on this town, so I'm really trying to avoid any fatal errors this far into it.

[Mystrelia 57]

@eskie: I deny all existence of knowing anyone, ever, from any other forum. Ever.

 

Three hundred thousand. Wow! Yeah, I'd want to be careful too, although it seems to me the more population you get the easier it is to rip stuff out and rebuild it. I do so enjoy ripping things out and rebuilding. I just wish the bulldozer made a more satisfying sound in this game--such a pity too since bulldozing is free. I LOVE the bulldozer in SC4.

 

I've been a slacker, haven't played Skylines yesterday or today--not enough time yesterday and today too side-tracked with other stuff. Of course my city sitting there in the throes of senioritis is making me itch to get back to it.