What to do when custom buildings grow too much?

[Spamoidutout 124]

Hi everyone.

I've got one question about SC4 bats.
What do you do when some custom bats grow too much? (I'm certain you know how infuriating it is when you find a nice looking bat and once in your plugin folder it grows absolutely everywhere and ruins your city)

What's the easier way to fix that? (Apart from bulldozing, of course).

 

Secondary question, it probably involves modifying lots... if we do so, is there a need to bulldoze every instance of the building already in a city or is it ok to leave them?

 

Thanks for your future replies.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

It'll be a similar concept as used for Go Away Wren! on the STEX which says: "This mod is designed to reduce the repetition of Wren Insurance in your city's skyline by making it more equal to other buildings of a similar size."

So, for your custom building that is growing too much, it'll need edited. Prolly the Capacity Satisfied property, but wait for confirmation on that from the experts.

[Spamoidutout 124]

Right...  the Go away Wren mod must just modify the capacity of all the Wren Insurance lots...

BTW is there a good way to determine said capacity? I guess it must take into account the capacity of the buildings of the same category.

Edit: I wonder why nobody ever made a "Go away Reflect Systems"? It grows a bit too easily too.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

6 minutes ago, Spamoidutout said:

BTW is there a good way to determine said capacity?

While I've not yet altered one that grows so enthusiastically, I believe most peeps us the Filling Degree in PIM-X to adjust that.

 

7 minutes ago, Spamoidutout said:

I guess it must take into account the capacity of the buildings of the same category.

Prolly they compared similar sized buildings and then made a good guess for the change. Or used PIM-X if that was available then.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Download more lots so your planners have more choices.

Set your styles to change every year. Don't zone too much in any one year.

If a building is set to grow during every style, then edit it to grow in only one.

 

[rsc204 21,808]

The root of all such problems is a lack of suitably sized similar lots to compete with a given lot. The simulator works out which Growth Stage, Density and Capacity it needs to grow, it then will select randomly from any matches. Those that grow uncontrollably like Wren Insurance, generally sit in a very small pool of options.

The best solution IMHO, is to expand the pool with custom content. @madhatter106's Commercial content is simply excellent, it fit's the game style perfectly and was focused on relieving repetition from the base game, I'd start there.

[xxdita 1,097]

It's likely going to be easiest to use PIMX to identify the offending lot. While you're at it, find any other lots that grow at that stage & size, to compare capacities. 

For instance, in CAM, Colt Tower grows on a 3x3 lot at stage 6 CO$$$ and has less capacity than the other Maxis buildings that fit that description, so is likely to grow much more often than the others. 

I would suggest using Reader to edit the capacity values, as it is generally easier that way than via PIMX for existing buildings & lots. PIMX will want to create a new lot if you try to edit anything. 

Filling degree in PIMX can never be exact, and many buildings just use the standard value of 0.5 anyway, instead of a closer approximation of the actual building's volume within the box. 

[cogeo 960]

As @rsc204 mentioned above, it's about what buildings and lot sizes are available for each given growth stage. And yes, Wren is a primary example, because it's relatively large building, with a fairly high number of jobs and a variety of lot sizes, including 2×3 and 3×2 ones. And as it is $$$ and stage-8, once grown it will never be upgraded to something else (unless of course bulldozed, destroyed by fire or abandoned and redeveloped), as there exists no other lot of higher wealth or growth-stage.

Another known "pest" is Chalmers Co, a CO$$$ building with 61 jobs, NY style but grows under all tilesets, accommodated in a multitude of lot sizes. Having a relatively high number of jobs for its stage, it usually grows in large numbers (at least in my cities), but as it is a small one it is finally replaced by something bigger. It's quite frustrating though. Like what @madhatter106 did for small/medium CO$$ offices, I made 3 BATs to compete with this, and included them in the same building-family, so it can grow in the same (Maxis) lots. I haven't released them. Here is a pic:

The white square building at the top-right corner is Chalmers, while the one next and the other two on the opposite side are mine. You may have noticed that the lots are the same (the one at the corner is different, but uses the same building family). Should I had not made them, they would all be Chalmers.

And of course, then there is custom content. Many good BATters have made and released excellent BATs, but often paying very little attention to proper modding. Many have unbalanced stats and cause problems in gameplay, like growing too easily or too little to not at all, being unable to be upgraded, offering very few or too many jobs for their stage, consuming too much or too little power or water (or not at all), paying too high or too low taxes, etc etc. Therefore I always check and review custom content's stats before installing them. For example, @ILL Tonkso 's content is almost always badly modded, and the lotting work is almost inexistent, having just the lot textures. Apparently he didn't like modding/lotting work; he should have rather found someone who does and team-up. Another example coming in mind is NDEX Richmand Complex. It's a large (actually two) CO$$$ tower, with a large number of jobs, in a 4x4 lot. But... it is stage-5! As a result, it can easily overtake your city. It should obviously be stage-8, at least for the A building (the B one could be stage-7, but it could very well be stage-8 as well).

So, if you get some buildings/lots growing too much, my suggestion is install custom content of similar sizes and stats, but always check them before installing, if they are in line with the Maxis (or CAM, if you have installed it) stuff.