Maxis Tree and Park Stats

[simcitynate 134]

Greetings fellow Sim Royalty,

My goal is to make any content I download reasonably consistent with the values of original Maxis content. When I acquired a package of trees (girafe folder), I assumed they would be, but after loading them into Leprop recently, to my dismay I discovered they have no effect other than flammability. The one exception was birch trees, which was -2 for pollution. I know Maxis trees are supposed to lower pollution, so I'm wondering if anyone can help me out with the values. I'm also curious about the values for Maxis parks. Most of the parks I've downloaded are by KOSC, who I assume is an expert on the subject and whose configurations are reliable, but I still think it would be useful to know the original statistics for future reference. Thanks. 

 

 

[CorinaMarie 29,568]

Using the Navigator within Reader in the Flora listings, it appears Maxis set theirs up such that the Props themselves do not have any pollution settings. Here's the first one in the list which is a Prop:

^ I've inset the pic so you can see both the properties and the image of the tree at the same time.

Scrolling down further to the Lotted trees and we see the exemplar type changes to Flora and those do have values for pollution:

 

Then a bit further down the clumps (for the God Mode Flora Brush) are also exemplar type Flora and they too have settings for pollution:

In case you aren't familiar with negative numbers in hexadecimal, that 0xFFFFFFFD in the above pic equates to -3 in decimal. It's called a signed 2's complement. When I need to convert between the two, I used the RapidTables Hexadecimal to Decimal Conversion page to see this:

 

So, when looking at various replacement / addon trees, I believe you need to check if you are seeing the Prop or the Flora exemplars.

 

For the Maxis Parks, here's a list @Cyclone Boom made when we were creating our Cori's Parks Aura DataView Mod :

M is the Magnitude and R is the Radius of the Park Effect:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M = 10   R = 10   Open Paved Area
M = 20   R = 80   Ranger Station
M = 25   R = 15   Small Plaza
M = 25   R = 25   Medium Plaza
M = 30   R = 15   Open Grass Area
M = 30   R = 30   Basketball Court
M = 30   R = 30   Tennis Court
M = 30   R = 50   Soccer Field
M = 30   R = 50   Softball Field
M = 30   R = 60   Skateboard Park
M = 35   R = 30   Large Plaza
M = 40   R = 35   Community Garden (All 4)
M = 40   R = 40   Gazebo
M = 50   R = 15   Small Park Green
M = 60   R = 15   Small Flower Garden
M = 60   R = 15   Small Playground
M = 60   R = 30   Medium Park Green
M = 70   R = 30   Medium Flower Garden
M = 75   R = 25   Medium Playground
M = 75   R = 45   Large Park Green
M = 80   R = 10   Beach
M = 85   R = 45   Large Flower Garden

[simcitynate 134]

Wow, thanks so much Cori. Yeah, when I bring up the .dat files for the trees, some have "prop" in the name. Looks like -3 is the proper setting for pollution then. Do you know if the parks have any pollution or water consumption values?  

[Cyclone Boom 16,851]

5 hours ago, simcitynate said:

Do you know if the parks have any pollution or water consumption values?

Cori let me know to say I could answer this one while she's busy with something, so here goes...

Yes, the majority of the Maxis parks have a small negative air pollution effect. A few have a 1 unit of garbage too over a zero radius. The properties appear to scale up based on the lot size, and so a Large 3x3 lot has an increased effect compared with a 1x1 lot. A few of them consume a bit of water too (those gardeners need some for their lawn manicuring task). Then a handful like the Soccer and Baseball fields have a very small power requirement for the floodlights.

I've opened up all 25 of the Maxis parks in SC4Tool and captured the data tables of them to images.

Posting them in the spoiler below:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I'll attach these in a zip archive in case you (or anyone) would like a local reference copy:

Maxis Parks - Data Properties.zip

Hope this helps also.

[CorinaMarie 29,568]

9 hours ago, simcitynate said:

Looks like -3 is the proper setting for pollution then.

That would depend on what you are setting.

In my above pics I only showed one sample of a Lotted tree and one of a Clump of trees (and one prop). Checking again and I see that each of the Mayor Mode ploppable trees are -2 for pollution (that's the 0xFFFFFFFE in the corresponding pic). The Clumps, however, range form -3 to -7 and that varies based on the radius of the clump.

I suspect the clump settings will be in whichever tree controller you use.

[simcitynate 134]

8 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

And I'll attach these in a zip archive in case you (or anyone) would like a local reference copy:

Maxis Parks - Data Properties.zip

Hope this helps also.

That certainly does help, thanks a lot. It's remarkable how much the numbers vary even for similar lots. That's just one of the reasons this game is so wonderful of course. One thing I'm curious about though is, what is the significance of the "high wealth" and medium wealth" fields?

[simcitynate 134]

7 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

That would depend on what you are setting.

In my above pics I only showed one sample of a Lotted tree and one of a Clump of trees (and one prop). Checking again and I see that each of the Mayor Mode ploppable trees are -2 for pollution (that's the 0xFFFFFFFE in the corresponding pic). The Clumps, however, range form -3 to -7 and that varies based on the radius of the clump.

I suspect the clump settings will be in whichever tree controller you use.

Ok, sounds like I should go with -2 for pollution, as I'm planting trees from the menu in Mayor Mode. Sorry I can't interpret any of the data in the Reader, but do the Mayor Mode trees have a radius? 

[Cyclone Boom 16,851]

2 hours ago, simcitynate said:

It's remarkable how much the numbers vary even for similar lots. That's just one of the reasons this game is so wonderful of course.

Yeah, there are so many variables packed into the simulation.

It is fascinating to see how they interact in various ways, and there is a surprising amount of detail packed in which isn't always observable. I remember our beloved @A Nonny Moose used to say how SC4 is best enjoyed on slow speed and to take in all the animations and witness how the simulation unfolds. I agree with that completely, and it's something I never fully appreciated when getting caught up in wanting a big city developed as fast as possible.

 

2 hours ago, simcitynate said:

One thing I'm curious about though is, what is the significance of the "high wealth" and medium wealth" fields?

For one thing, the wealth controls what type of side grass texture appears when plopping a park alongside a street or road network. For example, a high wealth grass will appear greener than a medium one. Supposedly it's due to a higher grade of grass and fertiliser, along with whatever else those gardeners use.

Here's a few pics...
(Courtesy of Cori who snapped these for me.)

No park:

 

Small park green (medium wealth):

 

Open Paved Area (high wealth):

 

These pics are only a small sample just to show how the park wealth makes a difference. From testing it appears to need zoning adjacent, otherwise this triangular texture doesn't appear. A park by itself doesn't change the grass texture, and so it seems to need the zone there in combination for how it leads to this being shown. Here the zoning is low density and the houses are all R$ as pictured, along a SAM-3 Dirt Road styled street network.

On other networks the wealth type also influences which style of sidewalk will appear (such as concrete or brighter paving stones).

[CorinaMarie 29,568]

2 hours ago, simcitynate said:

Sorry I can't interpret any of the data in the Reader, but do the Mayor Mode trees have a radius? 

Yes. Each one is set to 2 cells radius for the negative pollution.

[simcitynate 134]

7 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

Yeah, there are so many variables packed into the simulation.

It is fascinating to see how they interact in various ways, and there is a surprising amount of detail packed in which isn't always observable. I remember our beloved @A Nonny Moose used to say how SC4 is best enjoyed on slow speed and to take in all the animations and witness how the simulation unfolds. I agree with that completely, and it's something I never fully appreciated when getting caught up in wanting a big city developed as fast as possible.

This really resonated with me. I've often found myself too focused on quickly amassing a large population while not taking the time to really savour the whole process. Sometimes I have to remind myself to take pleasure in watching the city bustle with life and the joys of crafting unique neighbourhoods and commercial areas (industrial sections, not so much.)

I love the idea of a considerable amount of detail not being visible to us. I'd really prefer there be some element of mystery to the game as opposed to getting it down to an exact science, if you know what I mean. As much as I appreciate all the data you and Cori have provided,  I don't really enjoy viewing all the specific values behind every lot. I do so just to ensure I don't give myself an unfair advantage and thereby taint any success I might achieve. I find it to be much more fun if there's some guesswork and risk involved instead of just executing a mathematical formula. Mind you, I suppose you could make a case that the planning of real cities always involves analysis of these same kinds of numerical values and every real city detail can be similarly expressed in mathematics. Nevertheless, just like real cities, I enjoy some unpredictability. Anyway, as you can probably tell, I have romantic notions of SimCity I'd like to hang on to.                    

[simcitynate 134]

8 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Yes. Each one is set to 2 cells radius for the negative pollution.

Well, I'm gonna have to modify quite a few .dat files, some of which are in two cities I've already made. Even if I'm not playing those cities anymore, do you recommend I delete them, or do you think the rest of the region would be fine?

[CorinaMarie 29,568]

9 hours ago, simcitynate said:

Even if I'm not playing those cities anymore, do you recommend I delete them, or do you think the rest of the region would be fine?

The rest of the region will be fine. Keep those others intact.

The only thing which can transfer to other city tiles is the various demand levels, available jobs, and Sims seeking jobs (stated in a generic way rather than mention workforce drives and such). Pollution or lack thereof in one city tile has no affect on any other city tile whether adjacent, connected, or otherwise.