Which structure is the most efficient to educate your sims?

[sloppet 3]

i have placed many schools (elementary, high s., librarys etc. etc.) in my city and now after over 260 years i have a EQ = about. 190-195 in a city with over 420,000 .... so i think that when you'll start with good education for your sims it'll bring good effects in the future ....

[jacqulina 162]

very intresting to read

[simmax 0]

Well, the thing is that when I placed a high school ALONE, there were a few students. I'll try it again, though. You made an interesting point, spenik.

[simmax 0]

I have made additional tests.

1.

I have built a city of 330-ish people (up at the top of a mountain-but this doesn't matter). I have attracted as many R$$$ as I could because $$$ sims are, on average, older than $/$$ ones. It's normal.
Of course, my health care was perfect, so life expectancy reached the game maximum of 99 years.
Then, I built a high school. I knew that there were a few 11-20 and 21-30 people left. Although I had never built a primary school, THEY WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL. And their EQ rose, while the EQ of the older folks wasn't affected.

2.

Ten years later, the youngest sims were 21. I plopped a university. I had 5 students . And there came the surpise : the EQ of the whole population increased, although at a VERY SLOW RATE : 4-5 units in 5 years. Of course, my zoning was over - the increase didn't come from new zones.

3.

Antoher 10 years later the youngest sims were 31. I plopped a high school. NOTHING happened. I plopped an elementary school along with the high school. STILL NOTHING.
Conclusion : only the young sims can go to school, and they can go to high school/university even without any basic knowledge. Spenik, I guess that 16 people wasn't enough to have one student AND that these 16 ppl were too old anyway.

4.

Then, I plopped a library, and, 2 years later a museum (I demolished the schools).
They were efficient. The two together were actually extremely efficient : the EQ reached 60 in 5 years for a cost of a few

[ILL Tonkso 1,239]

 

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[spenik 0]

I see, older sims don't hit the books unless they went to school as kids.

Old people learn at libraries and museums, gotcha.

So lirary coverage is not so effective for young sims, but quite good for older sims?

Iwould also like to know if young sims will go straight to a univercity, born nerds...

Thanks for the test data Simmax

[simmax 0]

Date: 3/19/2005 11:45:53 AM
Author: spenik
I see, older sims don't hit the books unless they went to school as kids.


Old people learn at libraries and museums, gotcha.


So lirary coverage is not so effective for young sims, but quite good for older sims?

quote>

You got it!
Concerning children going to university, I don't know - I'll test it right now!

[simmax 0]

The answer is.......... Yes!! Universities have an influence on children, but they have more influence on adults older than 30. This is weird, but true.

[Meg 368]

Date: 3/30/2005 9:10:34 AM Author: simmax The answer is.......... Yes!! Universities have an influence on children, but they have more influence on adults older than 30. This is weird, but true.

quote>

According to the Prima Guide, the younger generations aren't necessarily born infants, that we are to think of them as being whatever age they are when they leave their parents' basements.

[simmax 0]

This would explain everything, then!

[Cjah 15]

Thats kinda wierd...

So one kid could go to school at age 15 and the other at age 20 and so forth....It sounds like there are no laws that say 5 years olds must attend school.Then that screws it up and must sims go to kindergarden when there like 15!I wonder...If the game got a tweek or some kind of mod that could make all sims go to school when there kids and do the grades at normal ages....

 

Well that might make it easier to understand how to attemp to get high EQ cities....

 

Like if it were normal it would be simple...

 

Start with Elmentary.Then 5 or 10 years later put a high school.Then 10 years later add a collage and libary....Then mess with museams and opera halls...

 

That sounds much easier and it would work!

 

Now wheres that mod?

[simmax 0]

Good idea, but it would make the EQ rise much slower, for each structure would affect only one single age group. Remember that most small or medium cities don't last more than 50 or 60 years. With the current system, the EQ sky-rockets in 50 years. With what you suggest, it would have reached an avergae level by year 50, as only those below 50 would have had a proper education.

With the current system, it's not that hard to reach a high EQ. I have suggested a few combinations on the previous page.

[mikeld 4]

great gif btw anyway. I always seem to have 51 to 60 as the age group that is tyhe main group in my cities...in all 8 of them ! and the others are low why is this. Anyway if so I should just invest in liubraries and museums. Also is this becaiuse 50 to 60s like my city set up so they move in or because ive set up mor emuseums so they stay or thrive dont know. Surely they must die or move tyo next age bracket and the 40 to 50 must get bigger soon hmm

[mikeld 4]

sorry it should be the 60 to 70s get bigger soon as thats what the age bracket 50 to 60 will become soon. Is there a bug in deluxe version on school systems and age brackets as i only attract or get 50 to 60s everywhere

[simmax 0]

If you only have old folks, it is probably because your city is a R$$$ city! There is no such thing as young R$$$ (well, yes, I suppose there is, but in a very limited extent).

[Compromise 1]

Intresting expirement.

It will certainley help maximise EQ's of cities.

[ephorex_77 0]

I hope that this'll help me educate my city faster. In my small cities (low density), the residents take forever to educate...and then they start to die off due to the lack of new residents .

[superjaberwocky 1]

I don't know if anybody else has pointed this out or not, but the Prima strategy guide lists the age groups affected by each education building. They are very similiar to the results posted here already, if I remember correctly. I'd put them up here, but they're at home and I'm at work.

[FavreKev04 13]

Huh, I never even thought of this tuff befor. I knew just to put in schools and a libary. Some of this stuff expensive for your city but now I'll take the risk so I can get rich people. Well thanks for this data now I know what to do.

[BBGun06 0]

One of the problems you may be having is that the age listed for a house is the average age.

For instance, a hous has four people in it: two parents, age forty; and two kids, age ten.  The average age is 25.  The house produces two elementary school students. This is why 20-30 year olds go to school.

Also, when a house grows old, the parents die and the kids live on. the average age for the house goes down. maybe someone can find out what the new age is.  Maybe if the is no health care, the parents die at 40 and the kids are 20; and if the parents die at 60 then the kids are now 40?

You can have young rich people when the parents die. All of my MySims get rich, complain, then die. their kids are still rich and complain just as much a their parents!

I'm rambling, so I'll stop now

[mayormot 4]

At which difficulty level (Easy, Medium, Hard) was this test conducted? Looking at the rate of EQ gain/loss on your graphs and the fact that an elementary school raised EQ to 80, I'm going to guess "Easy." Am I right?

The difficulty level influences the rate at which Sims lose EQ, and also controls the maximum EQ provided by each school type. It doesn't surprise me that on "Easy," libraries and museums would seem useless. At that difficulty level, schools have been so "boosted" that you've almost eliminated the education system entirely - one elementary school and the University reward is all you'll ever need.

If you guys really want to know what all those educational buildings were intended to do, take the training wheels off and test on "Hard." It's what the game was designed and "tuned" for (and the only level there was in SC4 Vanilla). "Medium" doubles the effects of educational buildings, so you won't need a high school. On "Easy," a Sim walks out of elementary school with a city-college education!

I'm off to do some tests myself to prove it; will report back in a few hours. But I can tell you from experience right now, since I always play on "Hard," that a new immigrant Sim will start with 20 EQ points, and lose it all in 10 years if there are no educational buildings. An elementary school only raises EQ to 20 and no further.

--

EDIT: OK, I did a test run on Hard.

With no educational facilities, Sims started at 20 EQ and dropped to zero in 8 years.

Adding an elementary school raised the EQ to 30 after 30 years, then it leveled off. It looked like it was trying to get to 40 EQ, but Sims dies and were replaced before it could ever get there.

High schools raised EQ to around 60 after another 30 years. Again, it looked like it was trying to go higher, but population turnover would not let it.

Adding a City College raised EQ to about 105 after 40 more years, then it leveled off.

Adding a library increased EQ by about 20%.

Adding a museum increased it another 10% or so.

These effects took 10-20 years to be fully realized.

Interestingly, according to the "education by age" graph, any Sim who made it to age 81 gained 1 EQ per year until they finally died at age 90. The wisdom of age, perhaps?

[mightygoose 92]

i think there was a graph around showing the eq effect of all the educational structures and it showed the max acheivable eq was 450... this was with all of them working perfectly lol

[Bones1 96]

Yeah, I posted a graph in another thread somewhere. However, the vertical scale didn't represent total EQ achievable, it was just a relative scale. I think the max EQ a sim can get to is 200.

[newyorkstate 6]

Wow! Unbelievable!

[mikemac 0]

This a great experiment! Very interesting. It would be very unfortunate to go to primary school at 65 and die b4 getting to high school! LOL

Keep up the good experiments guys.

[RiverCocytus 0]

Use SC4Tool and you can look at all of the educational facilities. The 'ages' shown are a little funky, they start with 20 (instead of 0.) But it will give you an idea of what is going on. You -don't- need all of the educational facilities, and in fact an education level above about 80 is kind of overkill. However, high education helps offset dilution. Combine health with education for best effect, I think.

Try just doing libraries, a museum and a city college. You might be surprised at how effective they can be. They're just overall a lil bit slower to raise your EQ overall than other facilities.

Key is; manage costs. leastaways, that's how I look at it.

Also, there is a natural EQ decay. Health might decrease this by making sims live longer.

[Constantina 5]

Even with default structures, I could know what education I was providing residents if I had custom made schools. I'd like to make a point that the education they provide is influenced by ordinances and funding.

[RiverCocytus 0]

very true, cons. Also, keep in mind that the 'most efficient structure' depends on the layout of the city and the ages of the residents in various areas. In a new city in my CJ, Barton, my first residents were there for awhile before education (try 20 years or so) so were older; they didn't get an elementary school. The areas nearby did (where new residents came in) and combined with a well placed library and museum my education levels were rising quite steadily.

Recently I have come to realize the beauty of the 'Resident Average Age' data view. Combine its use with 'education level' and others to maximize placement plans.

[Kippis05 2]

Constantina makes a very good point. Proper education facilities for corresponding age groups is essential. And to keep your older sims sharp, build libraries and museums to remind them how important education is

[Goldfish4209 9]

This is a great experiment, but you forgot a variable, simmax. These experiments were conducted at different times, and sims will be of different age. Therefore your results can't be that accurate. Still, great experiment.