Mass Exodus!!! *o_O*

[wa1ker00 0]

I was playing SC4 the other night (no RH) and I had a decently sized growing city with about 28,000 citizens. I was making a couple hundred $$ ever month and had about $75,000 in the bank. Life was looking good in Miltonberry Heights. Then I noticed my coal power plant was degrading in quality and needed replaced. I paused the game and bulldozed the decrepite plant and then the entire map flashed up with "no power" signs. I didnt' care because the game was paused so I placed my new powerplant and unpaused the game. The "no power" signs stayed up for what seemed like ages and EVERY SINGLE PERSON moved out of my city. I went from 28,000+ citizens to zeo in a mater of 2 months. My ENTIRE city turned black as if a plague had befallen my people. Nobody moved back, even after trying to lower taxes, bulldoze the trashy stuff. Within a matter of less than a year I went from $50,000 to approx. -$64,000 through all my attempts to salvage my city. I eventually got REALLY pissed and invoke the old testament wrath of god on them. Needless to say I got out marshmallows and watched the sucker burn. Anybody else have any stories of SC4 sadness?? P.S. What in God's name happened to my city?????

[rubberduck 3]

Unfortunately you should have built the new power plant before bulldozing the old one...I'm not sure if it's possible to get those residents back, but just keep trying to rebuild the city. The black buildings are a sign of abandonment and is not reversible (as far as I know)...so you may have to demolish the abandoned buildings.

[wa1ker00 0]

I set loose all forms of the wrath of god on that city. I had a robot walking through a volcano with a tornado in the background. Needless to say I've moved on and have definitely learned my lesson from that experience.

[rubberduck 3]

Glad to hear it...

[spa 970]

Abandoned buildings can get their residents back even after they're emptied if there is sufficent demand and the area is desireable.... I guess it doesn't much matter given that you've razed the place but in the future it is possible to salvage things.
 
As for the power plant problem that causes this I don't know what to make of that. In cities of mine that get built up I tend to end up with just one spot where the powerplant is. When it comes to replace it, I demolish it and build a new on the spot. Never had any troubles ever.

[ProudElm 0]

im playing sc4 +rh for a while now, and i never had te replace a poweplant, only build more... how many years can a powerplant last anyway??

[spa 970]

It depends on the plant. I have noticed that the game's hydrogen plant doesn't last very long at all. If you haven't been replacing your plants than you probably have ones that are producing little power and are costing a lot of money. If you click the query tool on the plant that stats will come up.

[ProudElm 0]

im using only coal plants.. getting bored with my citys fast, so they never get verry old.. but when my powerplant maxes out, i build a other one and so on. so i am maximing power. also i keep the budget for them, so power/cost ratio is alway optimum

[Peorth 17]

What probably happened with wa1ker00 was simply a break in his power distribution grid. Sims will abandon buildings if there is no power for a certain period (I think this is around 2 months). If no power zots persist, you have to check all your power lines since NPZ's never persist for months. One way to easily do this would be to use the Power map. Furthermore, instead of razing the city you can just quit the game and reload the city (assuming you had the foresight not to save during the NPZ period). Persistence of NPZs during a reload will certainly mean you have a break in your power grid.

[DaMaster_architect 0]

I was about to say too what peorth said: Isn't there a break in your power line? Maybe you accidentally demolished some power poles while demolishing your city.

[newyorkstate 6]

What a tragedy, people probably got fed up reading by candlelight!