Population Increaser?

[arrchitect 0]

I have a question about simply putting a mod into my game that shows a higher number.(This is for SimCity 4 Delux) I really don't want to physically increase the population of my city - I've just always had a beef with the unrealistic population graph. So i just want an eye-candy number to see for a city.

Example of before: Population 100,000

Example of after: Population 500,000

[Silvally XLR 4]

modding isn't my specialty but you might want to ask over in the modding fourms. they probably know more.

[matias93 7,535]

Yes, is doable, but is the most tedious thing you could imagine, and in any case, the population numbers are already super inflated: I mean, most tiny suburban houses have between 8 to 15 dwellers!

To change those numbers you would need to modify the occupant capacity exemplar of EVERY SINGLE LOT IN THE GAME, including all the lots you download from the internet. And I mean every lot, not every building: if there is a small house that appears on 20 lots, you'll have to modify those 20 lots.

Also, you wouldn't be able to change just some buildings you like and let the rest be: that would break the balance of the simulation and your city wouldn't grow anymore.

In fact, that's the reason nobody has taken the task of reducing the occupants of the existing buildings to a realistic amount: it is a Sisyphean work, as there always be new buildings on the exchanges to be fixed, and users asking why your population mod has broken their game when they use non modified Plugins.

[CorinaMarie 29,868]

The game has an internal variable called game.g_population which it uses to create the total of all the residential @matias93 mentioned. Without access to this calculation the only way would be to increase occupant capacities as he said. In the UI interface the reserved area for this number is represented by #population# with no apparent way to alter the value it displays. I presume internally it just grabs that first variable and shows it.

[rsc204 21,864]

I like to think of it like this, in what way does this mythical figure relate to anything? I mean, this is SimCity, not an actual one, the population is just there as a reference point. It wouldn't make the slightest difference if that figure was 5x larger or 5x smaller, either way, it's never going to be realistic. Because the scale of the game simply isn't a constant, i.e. a single real-world accurate scale does not exist throughout the game and it's content. Many things, for example 4.5m high sims, we made so that they worked or looked better. Remember it's a game, this figure means nothing, unless you decide it does.

[Fantozzi 4,068]

7 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Remember it's a game, this figure means nothing, unless you decide it does.

I like this. Indeed, it's a platform for your fantasy. And so you can prove your imagination - on what knowledge your imagination refers, on what world view it relies. To our view on things to be changed is the best that can happen to us. And we have a thousands ways to see a single thing.  Poor we are, if we can only have a single view, a single opinion.

In the small town where my mother lives, there are so many very old women like her. The husband died many years ago, the children went away. They own a big house all alone living there, no one to phone, no one to talk to. They visit each others in their empty houses. Each house has one single resident.

And at the border of the little village she lives, maybe a mile away from her house, there is a refugees camp, where five people share a single room. 80 people sharing the same space an old widow next to the camp owns.

All this is real. 80 people in a house here, 1 person in a house there. A village formed by widows and refugees. 14000 habitant and a large area, like a medium city, but only single family houses with garden around. And every third or fourth house inhabited by a lonely widow. Prosperity needs space, consumes nature. At the very end - for being alone and lonely inside the well decorated walls.

What means 'growth? If growth means, people get poorer populations density increases. If growth means higher living standards to the people, population density shrinks. No?