Building Education & Health Buildings: Big vs Small?

[Psiman 177]

When building a city, I more often build the larger versions of education and health buildings, mainly so I don't have to have an elementary school or small health clinic at the end of each street or so. My city isn't full of skyscrapers, and so the usage/local funding slider for these buildings is low, especially for education buildings which use only a small fraction of their capacity. I suppose if the city had ever got to high-density then it would been good to have had things all ready prepared, so it would be just a matter of adjusting the sliders.

How do you go about building education and health buildings in your growing city? Do you go for the big buildings with their large radius, but little-used capacity, or small buildings, which would be more efficient in capacity used, but have small coverage area and thus require greater numbers? Or maybe a mix of both, in some organised way?

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Mix of both? Yes. Organised? Ummmm.... *cough* *cough* yes, yes, sure. Absolutely.

But seriously, I tend to use small clinics first, for example. I normally go by a cost/patient calculation. I don't remember the exact numbers, but at some point placing a large hospital will provide a higher patient capacity with bigger radius for lower costs than a  few small clinics. It's nice to have a reserve if your city is in the process of growing, too.

With police and fire departments, I ususally go for the biggest one available straight away and will only use the smaller ones to fill coverage gaps. Using large police stations has the additional advantage of making prisons superfluous because the departments themselves already hold enough cells.

However, available BATs may actually cause me to change this pattern. For example, there are some really nice W2W fire departments which I can integrate seamlessly into W2W developments. I could even use them to fill those stubborn gaps where a lot seems to be cursed somehow and just won't grow a W2W building. As long as the spot is suitable, I'll be able to plop down a nice W2W fire or police department there and call it a day. => *THUD* Gap? What gap?

I'm not the super analytical player, as you have probably noticed by now. I go by overall aesthetics first; "beating" the game's internal algorithms and squeezing the optimum values out of everything is not my goal.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

Since I play with a lot of rural areas I tend to go with lots of little clinics and elementary schools with their ambulance and bus funding at zero for the outlying areas. Then where I do have a city I'll toss in a high school or three as well as extend the coverage radius for a select few clinics and schools. I'll add some libraries and a museum. Since I play and grow things slowly, I keep my population in balance so there's no great ripples in the population. In one test I did I showed how a very healthy, stable population with minimal schooling and the all important museum can achieve a high overall EQ.

For fire hazards I use whichever size station is appropriate for its area.

Here's one of my tiles showing the layout I've used.

Health:

 

Fire Coverage:

 

Education:

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

I may start the first year with some smaller buildings (especially if that's all I am allowed), but I rapidly switch to the largest-radius non-cheat service buildings so I have fewer to manage as the population grows and demands slider adjustments.

[Psiman 177]

Here are my education sliders. I'm just using this city for testing now, so they aren't finely-tuned. You can see how low the education sliders have been set, though. I should probably max out the School Bus Budget next time to maximize radius.

Also, is there an easier way of fine-tuning the sliders than dragging them with the mouse? It can take several tries to get the slider to the exact position one wants it. Capacities are so low that the merest fractional movement of the slider can double or treble capacity.

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

4 minutes ago, Psiman said:

Also, is there an easier way of fine-tuning the sliders than dragging them with the mouse?

Afaik, they are just here in the master list and the slider in each building's popup.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

21 hours ago, Psiman said:

is there an easier way of fine-tuning the sliders than dragging them with the mouse? It can take several tries to get the slider to the exact position

Clicking on the building name will center your view there. You can then exit the dialog, open the building and work with a wider slider. I haven't experimented with alt controls for disabilities, but your OS might give you a way to give focus to the slider and then use the keyboard (e.g. arrow keys) to move minimum increments.

BTW, you seem to have 3 museums in the same city when one can cover all.

[Psiman 177]

10 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

BTW, you seem to have 3 museums in the same city when one can cover all.

The Major Art Museum requires 4 museums having been built. I probably bulldozed one during testing.

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

1 hour ago, jeffryfisher said:

BTW, you seem to have 3 museums in the same city when one can cover all.

I often do this and adjust each of their sliders downward. This way I have some more jobs available. (And the little Sims need not drive clear across the countryside to view the latest fossilized Simosaur toenail on display.)

[Psiman 177]

I presume the museums have to be in the same city, rather than regional, to get the Major Art Museum. I was playing in a one city-region, anyway. One could always bulldoze museums after getting the Major Art Museum, but that would seem to against the spirit of how it's intended to work.

@CorinaMarie Did you not mention in another thread about there being something wrong with vanilla Small Health Clinic? If so, what is it?

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

9 minutes ago, Psiman said:

@CorinaMarie Did you not mention in another thread about there being something wrong with vanilla Small Health Clinic? If so, what is it?

Yes. The jobs are borked. There are like 3 vanilla lots that have the same number of jobs for two different wealth levels and so the game doesn't recognize the higher one. It's the same reason there is the I-HT fix.

[Psiman 177]

7 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Yes. The jobs are borked. There are like 3 vanilla lots that have the same number of jobs for two different wealth levels and so the game doesn't recognize the higher one. It's the same reason there is the I-HT fix.

Oh, is there a mod that fixes it?

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

7 minutes ago, Psiman said:

Oh, is there a mod that fixes it?

I'm not aware of one on the STEX, but you can have the one I made for myself. It's a bit top heavy from what Maxis intended, but I like it cause it lets me get some low density mansions in my rural communities with:

• 1 R$ Job (receptionist)
• 3 R$$ Jobs (nurses)
• 4 R$$$ Jobs (doctors)

Medical Clinic Jobs Fixed.dat

[Psiman 177]

13 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

I'm not aware of one on the STEX, but you can have the one I made for myself. It's a bit top heavy from what Maxis intended, but I like it cause it lets me get some low density mansions in my rural communities with:

• 1 R$ Job (receptionist)
• 3 R$$ Jobs (nurses)
• 4 R$$$ Jobs (doctors)

Medical Clinic Jobs Fixed.dat

Thanks. What are the other two vanilla lots?

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

1 minute ago, Psiman said:

Thanks. What are the other two vanilla lots?

Solar power plant and I'm not sure of the other, but it's in my notes somewhere.

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

Found it: Nuclear Power Plant is the other one.

[Psiman 177]

Thanks. I'll have a look at them in Reader.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

There is a mod out there, though. Here's the link to one that combines several of the fixes.

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

1 hour ago, T Wrecks said:

There is a mod out there, though. Here's the link to one that combines several of the fixes.

Cool. I wasn't aware of that site.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

21 hours ago, Psiman said:

The Major Art Museum requires 4 museums having been built. I probably bulldozed one during testing.

Aha, that's why I've never been offered the Major Museum. Of course, I've never needed one either (my region is still sprawling horizontally, not so much vertically yet).

[monkeywater 910]

22 hours ago, Psiman said:

Oh, is there a mod that fixes it?

 

[Silur 3,308]

Hi, CorinaMarie.

I don't remember or never knew... Please, suggest which tool gives a detailed view of the panels?

Thanks.

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

Hiya, @Silur

Open the budget panel (click Simoleon symbol), then click Health and Education, and then click the Eyeball beside the one you want to see (Health or Education).

 

Also works for Fire Dept and Police Dept under Public Safety Department and for Power under Utilities.

[Silur 3,308]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

Open the budget panel (click Simoleon symbol), then click Health and Education, and then click the Eyeball beside the one you want to see (Health or Education).

Oh, Thank You very much!!!

[Terring 6,476]

It depends. For small villages I'll go with small buildings. For larger towns I'll go with larger buildings. And for large cities I'll go with either the City Facilities Central or its smaller brother.

[RobertLM78 1,598]

I grow larger, dense, cities and personally, especially after several initial years of having a zillion Large Medical centers and Large High Schools, prefer using things with higher capacities than the vanilla versions.  For example:

 

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=680

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=681

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=682

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1919