Functional Parking Lots Question

[simster007 370]

I never understood in what way the capacity of functional parking lots affects the game. Can anyone explain that to me? Does the number of sims travelling there count as job? My Sims are using them but I can´t see them travelling any further, they just travel there and travel back home in the evening. I often use them nearby stadiums airports etc.

Could it become a problem if they run over their capacities?

After some fiddling withe different lots I like these very much but I realized that they show the MAC transit station capacity bug which means their capacities are <10 and they run vey quickly on + 1000´s %:

I know how to fix this bug but as there are many different sizes (set A-D) I would like to avoid that fix if not necessary.

Anyhow I´m interested in knowing about what´s going on with these capacities....

[rsc204 21,808]

Are you using the Mac version of SC4?, if not any such modding errors just get ignored anyhow.

I recently uploaded a set of modifications for some other parking garages, rather than go over it again, I'll quote that post:

On 02/03/2022 at 3:01 PM, rsc204 said:

I prefer the approach of making only certain pieces of modular sets provide positive effects, rather than every one. Likewise you might *think* each piece is a functional Parking Lot, but in-game it just doesn't work that way, in fact Parking is rarely used by Sims just generally. With all this in mind, I've made the following tweaks to the original sets:

• I've removed the TE and Parking functions from all but the Entrance Pieces. Each entrance now provides for 5,000 or 20,000 capacity (2 / 8 level), you can of course use multiple entrances if you want more capacity from the whole facility. I've also 'improved' the TE settings to modern standards, but don't expect miracles since Sims generally don't use Car Parks without the 'Park and Ride' option from the TSCT switched on.
  Note, this really isn't for everybody and is a drastic change in how the game functions, so I'm not saying you should rush out to switch that on, I don't use it myself and the one time I tried it, I found it wasn't for me very quickly.

In short the capacities are of the car park, but sims don't really use parking so it's all a bit useless frankly. Giving a car park jobs is another thing altogether and yes indeed sims may be inclined to park where they work. But any jobs at the car park don't really reflect the intended function of one, which is for sims to use it en-route to another form of transit. I.e. a parking garage near a big station.

As such I'd consider Car Parks as little more than Eye Candy in practical terms.

[simster007 370]

32 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

Are you using the Mac version of SC4?, if not any such modding errors just get ignored anyhow.

yep, I am.

 

33 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

As such I'd consider Car Parks as little more than Eye Candy in practical terms.

So do I.

My question was and is still: do these functional lots have any effect on the game, would you in my case "debug" them or just live with it?

I played around with some parking lot sets (PAENG paid parkings/ KOSC etc.)  but as far as I know most sets are functional (at least the bigger lots they contain). I would prefer them to be totally eye candy, so in the modular parts of this set I would use the non funtional entrances, which the developer uploaded. I just find it very picky to build big parking areas out of that modular lots.

[rsc204 21,808]

Since you are using the Mac game, you'll want to correct all the Rep values to 0 at the very least, this is what leads to problems. Although unless you are running an out of date build of SC4 for Mac, rather than math errors, you'll probably find such values cause the game to crash when selecting the pieces. More about that problem here, should you need it.

You basically just need to remove all the TransitSwitchXXX properties from the Buildings Exemplar, that will remove any parking function. Likewise you should remove any Occupant Groups that are no longer relevant, there may be some others I'm forgetting. There are a whole bunch of other things you could also change, based on preference, from zeroing costs to use of water/power and pollution effects. If you compare the functional to non-functional lots from the set I modified, it should serve as a good example of the relevant Properties and values for each type of lot. If making big changes, ensure you remove all instances of the unmodified originals from your save files BEFORE you starting using the modified ones too.

[simster007 370]

thx for your as always very detailed info! I´m still runnning the 32bit Steam Version as I´m worried about the problems when switching to 64bit on a mac like you described.

3 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Since you are using the Mac game, you'll want to correct all the Rep values to 0 at the very least, this is what leads to problems.

That was the plan....

I just would like to double check if I understood everything right: Using lots with this Rep bug in any value of the exemplar will force the 64bit Mac Version of the Game game to crash?

So the chances to run into that issue when updating the Gameand playing my existing region(s) are quite high, because nobody knows which lots could be affected?

This issue is not limited to transit enabled lots, but many of them are affected because of that SC4 Tool?

Fixing just the Transit Switch Entry Cost and Transit Switch Traffic Capacity Rep Bug to get the lots standard capacities could lead to more problems even on my 32bit Version?

You would recommend removing more functions as you described above?

That leads me to a new question just in case: Do you or anyone else can recommend series of non functional parking lots in different sizes?

4 hours ago, rsc204 said:

If making big changes, ensure you remove all instances of the unmodified originals from your save files BEFORE you starting using the modified ones too.

Thx for the reminder, I already plopped a few ...

[simster007 370]

Ok, just to let you know: I´m still interested in getting answers to my questions.

But: please don´t take them to seriously , it isn´t an important issue and i do not want anybody here to waste much time on it. it´s just parkings......

I decided to forget about the configurated lots as functional lots. Especially with this set the modular packs allow to build whatever you want wile being just eyecandy, and that´s what i´ll go for in future. Will take some time but that´s SC4 .......

Anyway if you would like to answer my questions especially concerning the rep bugs and 64bit MAC os Version just by: right or wrong I would appreciate that, thx

[rsc204 21,808]

When a computer stores data, it is usually necessary to define a 'type' for that data, which in turn will dictate which values would be valid or otherwise. It's a bit complex, but if you look in Reader you'll see each value or property has such a Data Type, only those which use Float32 and that also only contain a single rep (or value) are affected. So whilst that covers more Properties that the specific ones mentioned, the problem has only been seen in the very specific Properties mentioned.

Specifically for the TransitSwitch properties, in the 32-bit version, if the Rep is incorrect then the station will have a fraction of it's intended capacity, i.e. it just doesn't work well. Whereas if you have the 64-bit version, the game will CTD when you try to place any lot with the error in your game.

Those lots/mods where the same Rep error occurs, but for Properties other than the TransitSwitch ones, won't cause any effect when running the 32-bit edition. But, if you have the 64-bit version, you won't even be able to load a city, the game CTDs loading one if such a file is present in Plugins.

However, in both cases the error in the files is essentially the same and if you have access to Reader on your Mac, then it's really easy to fix them. How many you find really depends on what content you use, certainly your experience would likely be easier with the 32-bit edition. If you are able to prevent your Steam version upgrading, then there may well be something to keeping the old version. I'm running Catalina, so never had the 32-bit version myself, but from all the reports around here, it doesn't appear the 64-bit version has included any improvements. In theory the new edition would allow the App to access more RAM, but frankly that's probably not an issue, since you don't actually need more RAM for such an archaic game.

On 21/10/2022 at 8:07 PM, simster007 said:

Fixing just the Transit Switch Entry Cost and Transit Switch Traffic Capacity Rep Bug to get the lots standard capacities could lead to more problems even on my 32bit Version?

No, it's a good idea if you can because those stations will work as intended and have the correct capacities. As mentioned, the other issues don't really affect 32-bit users, hence it all came to light after the release of the update.

On 21/10/2022 at 8:07 PM, simster007 said:

You would recommend removing more functions as you described above?

In terms of functionality, simply fixing any incorrect Rep Counts is sufficient. I went further than that because I was making alterations to an existing set to release for others to use, but one could say it's overkill. Ultimately the properties used and values too, completely define the costs and benefits/negatives of any given lot. I wanted to make larger changes there because I prefer the way I modded them, but it's not like there is a right or wrong answer for which way to do it, just different approaches.

[simster007 370]

@rsc204: Many thanks for your as always very detailled and informative answers. It underlines my decision to stay on the 32bit version for now. I use steam just for SimCity and work always offline. Also I have a copy of the 32 bit version on my several backup disks.

I agree totally with you that it is always better to work with properly modded or "repaired" lots, so my decision in this case is as described above to cancel working with functional parkings as they do not have a reasonable positive effect on the game. I gonna switch on eyecandy...

thx again