RobertaME

Thank you so very much for your condolences, Cori. It means a lot. --,-'-@ Don't worry about past mistakes. We both made mistakes and it can't be undone. The best we can do is forgive and forget and move on. When CB PMed me to let me know you were back, I just HAD to come and welcome you home! (even though right now my head is full of cotton, hay, and rags due to this stupid summer cold I've got) This is the best news I've gotten in a long while! I'M SO VERY GLAD THAT YOU'RE HOME! MISSED YOU! ::Giant hugs::

Just popping in to say hi. I got busy with RL family stuff (my BD, the 4th, visiting my mother who isn't doing well, and working on a ton of home improvements) and haven't even have time to do anything other than sleep. To top it off, now I have a bad summer cold. :^/ I will get back to work on the v.0.4 release as soon as I can. I just don't know when that will be. (can't think straight with the meds I'm taking to fight this off) I'll take a look at them when I get a chance. Thanks! It is something I considered when I built AMPS, but unfortunately, I can't change the actual demand generated by the simulation. I could artificially inflate the numbers AMPS generates the make it look like there was a higher power demand in summer, but it wouldn't have any effect on things like power station decay and other effects of demand. Good idea, but as @Ulisse Wolf points out, this just isn't practical. Be back as soon as I can when I can think straight and have real updates to report. :^)

Just to update, I haven't been able to work on AMPS the past 10 days due to IRL stuff. :^/ Hoping to get back into it later today. Lots of work left to do and it won't get itself done!

This is the process I've been working on. It's still not functional (likely I have a typo in the code somewhere) but I consider it inevitable now that I'll get the code figured out and it'll be included in the v.0.4 version of AMPS, along with refactoring all buildings so that bulldozing is no longer required. (it eats up a lot of GUIDs though... essentially making the 0xbb35xxxx Instance range all mine) Not making any progress on this at the moment though. (getting ready to help my older son move) :^/ Once I get more free time after this weekend I'm hoping to get back into things and make some serious inroads into the next update. ::fingers crossed:: Thanks for letting me know I'm in the right ballpark! @-,-'---

In order to ensure the upper levels of the grid, the power plants, are fully supported, each part has to be dependent on the parts below it. I'm still working to find a way to force rewards to update on demand rather than just once per month, but in the short term you can pause, save back to the region, then reload the city. Rewards are automatically unlocked if you qualify on initial city load. That way you don't have to wait for a month to pass. I too find it irritating, but actually you CAN and I've done so in testing. Unfortunately it requires that you bulldoze the smaller Transmission Station, save and close back to the region, then reload the city. On reload AMPS will see that you have 20 MVA of Distribution Capacity available and unlock the 20 MVA station. Again, I'm still working to resolve this by finding a way to write a function that forces a Reward check on certain buildings when the function is called. I still have a few ideas how this can be done to try, so hopefully that will be a part of AMPS in the future. At least there IS a workaround for the moment. If this doesn't work in your install, take some screenshots showing that you have the capacity and that the button is still greyed out, along with your list of installed lots and I'll look into the issue further. I asked up-thread for people to submit suggestions for just that sort of thing. :^) There are just SO many options on the STEX that I can't find them all, so suggestions like this are EXACTLY what I want! Thanks! Looks like it would turn garbage into mostly methane, which is then burned in a turbine just like a Natural Gas plant. It wouldn't be as efficient as a W2E plant because there are extra steps and you lose efficiency every time you add steps, plus it would be more expensive to build and require HT industry, but yes... this would be a Peak W2E plant. Due to the way power plants are categorized in AMPS though, it would actually be classified as another kind of Natural Gas plant. Here is the list of all categories that AMPS can support: To keep AMPS from being overly large and taking too many GUIDs, it's limited to a total of 512 supported lots. This required that each type be associated with an energy category; Peak, Base, or Intermediate. (e.g. all Oil or NG plants are Peak, all Coal or W2E plants are Base, etc.) I did set up Block F to allow for "exotic" situations that can't be covered under any of these categories, but I think @Simmer2's Biogas Plant would fit in nicely with the NG plants. I'll add it to the list. Again, thanks for pointing it out! Comments welcome.

Found a quirk of the new process: If power is converted to Peak by power storage (as is done here by @Simmer2's Tesla Powerpacks) the query for power plants that are having their power converted to Peak shows reduced (or no) power or capacity used. I'll have to rework the variables that the queries use to make them still show their usage with power conversion in place. Progress continues... slow but sure. :^)

For anyone interested, here's the new equations for Grid Balance with Power Storage integrated into the equations instead of established with a set of If-then statements beforehand: -- The main load balancing equations including adjusting power loads based on the presence and quanitity in MWh of power storage lots grid_logic_var.MWH_DEMAND_TOTAL = (game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_DEMANDED,0) + game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_EXPORTED,0)) -- The sum of city Power Demand and Power Exports grid_logic_var.MIN_P_POWER = (math.ceil((game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_DEMANDED,0) * grid_logic_var.P_MPERCENT) + game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_EXPORTED,0))) -- At least 20% of Demand plus all exported power MUST come from Peak Load power plants, rounded up to the next whole number grid_logic_var.MAX_I_POWER = (math.floor(game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_DEMANDED,0) * grid_logic_var.I_MPERCENT)) -- The maximum Intermediate Load power equals 40% of Demand rounded down to the previous whole number grid_logic_var.GEN_I_USABLE = (math.min(grid_logic_var.GEN_I_POWER,grid_logic_var.MAX_I_POWER)) -- The lesser of generated Intermediate Power or the maximum Intermediate Power allowed grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_I_CONVERT = (math.min(grid_logic_var.BATTERY_POWER,grid_logic_var.GEN_I_POWER - grid_logic_var.GEN_I_USABLE)) -- Unusable Intermediate Power converted to Peak is the lesser of the Battery Power or generated Intermediate Power minus Usable Intermediate Power generated grid_logic_var.USABLE_I_CONVERTED = (math.min(grid_logic_var.GEN_I_USABLE,grid_logic_var.BATTERY_POWER - (grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_I_CONVERT + grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_B_CONVERT))) -- Usable Intermediate Power converted to Peak is the lesser of Usable Intermediate Power or Battery Power minus the sum of Unusable Intermediate Power converted and Unusable Base Power converted grid_logic_var.ALL_I_POWER = (grid_logic_var.GEN_I_USABLE - grid_logic_var.USABLE_I_CONVERTED) -- All Intermediate Power available is the lesser of generated Intermediate Power or the maximum Intermediate Power allowed minus Usable Intermediate Power converted to Peak grid_logic_var.USED_I_POWER = (math.min(grid_logic_var.MAX_I_POWER,grid_logic_var.ALL_I_POWER)) -- The amount of Intermediate power used is equal to the maximum I power alloawable or all I Power produced, whichever is less grid_logic_var.UNUSED_I_POWER = (math.floor((grid_logic_var.ALL_I_POWER - grid_logic_var.USED_I_POWER)+0.5)) -- The Intermediate Power Produced that cannot be used or sold, rounded off to the nearest whole number grid_logic_var.MAX_B_POWER = (math.floor(math.min(game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_DEMANDED,0) * grid_logic_var.B_MPERCENT,game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_DEMANDED,0) - (grid_logic_var.MIN_P_POWER + grid_logic_var.GEN_I_USABLE)))) -- The maximum Base Load power equals 60% of Demand or Power demand minus the sum of Intermediate power you are using and the minimum Peak power you MUST use, whichever is less, rounded down to the previous whole number grid_logic_var.GEN_B_USABLE = (math.min(grid_logic_var.GEN_B_POWER,grid_logic_var.MAX_B_POWER)) -- The lesser of generated Base Power or the maximum Base Power allowed grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_B_CONVERT = (math.min(grid_logic_var.BATTERY_POWER - grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_I_CONVERT,grid_logic_var.GEN_B_POWER - grid_logic_var.GEN_B_USABLE)) -- Unusable Base Power converted to Peak is the lesser of the Battery Power minus Unusable Intermediate Power converted or generated Base Power minus Usable Base Power generated grid_logic_var.USABLE_B_CONVERTED = (math.min(grid_logic_var.GEN_B_USABLE,(grid_logic_var.BATTERY_POWER - (grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_I_CONVERT + grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_B_CONVERT + grid_logic_var.USABLE_I_CONVERTED)))) -- Usable Base Power converted to Peak is the lesser of Usable Base Power or Battery Power minus the sum of Unusable Intermediate Power converted, Unusable Base Power converted, and Usable Intermediate Power converted grid_logic_var.ALL_B_POWER = (grid_logic_var.GEN_B_USABLE - grid_logic_var.USABLE_B_CONVERTED) -- All Base Power available is the lesser of generated Base Power or the maximum Base Power allowed minus Usable Base Power converted to Peak grid_logic_var.USED_B_POWER = (math.min(grid_logic_var.MAX_B_POWER,grid_logic_var.ALL_B_POWER)) -- Base Power used equals the maximum Base power allowed or all B power produced, whichever is less grid_logic_var.UNUSED_B_POWER = (math.floor((grid_logic_var.ALL_B_POWER - grid_logic_var.USED_B_POWER)+0.5)) -- The Base Power Produced that cannot be used or sold, rounded off to the nearest whole number grid_logic_var.ALL_P_POWER = (grid_logic_var.GEN_P_POWER + game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_IMPORTED,0) + grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_I_CONVERT + grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_B_CONVERT + grid_logic_var.USABLE_I_CONVERTED + grid_logic_var.USABLE_B_CONVERTED) -- All Peak Power available is the sum of Generated Peak Power, all Imported Power, and all Unusable and Usable Intermediate and Base power converted to Peak grid_logic_var.USED_P_POWER = (math.min(math.max(grid_logic_var.MWH_DEMAND_TOTAL - (grid_logic_var.USED_I_POWER + grid_logic_var.USED_B_POWER),grid_logic_var.MIN_P_POWER),grid_logic_var.ALL_P_POWER)) -- Peak power used equals the greater of Power Demand plus Exports minus the sum of Intermediate and Base Power Used or the minimum Peak power required or all Peak power produced, whichever is less grid_logic_var.UNUSED_P_POWER = (math.floor((grid_logic_var.ALL_P_POWER - grid_logic_var.USED_P_POWER)+0.5)) -- Peak Power Produced that is not being used, rounded off to the nearest whole number grid_logic_var.SHORT_P_POWER = (math.max(grid_logic_var.MIN_P_POWER - grid_logic_var.USED_P_POWER,0)) -- Peak Power Shortage equals Peak minnimum required minus Peak used (positive integer only) grid_logic_var.BAT_UNUSED = (grid_logic_var.BATTERY_POWER - (grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_I_CONVERT + grid_logic_var.UNUSABLE_B_CONVERT + grid_logic_var.USABLE_I_CONVERTED + grid_logic_var.USABLE_B_CONVERTED)) -- The amount of Power Storage unused equals Battery Power minus the sum of all Unused and Used Intermetiate and Base Power converted to Peak grid_logic_var.I_PERCENT = (grid_logic_var.USED_I_POWER / math.max(grid_logic_var.ALL_I_POWER,1)) grid_logic_var.B_PERCENT = (grid_logic_var.USED_B_POWER / math.max(grid_logic_var.ALL_B_POWER,1)) grid_logic_var.P_PERCENT = (grid_logic_var.USED_P_POWER / math.max(grid_logic_var.ALL_P_POWER,1)) grid_logic_var.DEMAND_PERCENT = ((grid_logic_var.UNUSED_I_POWER + grid_logic_var.UNUSED_B_POWER + grid_logic_var.SHORT_P_POWER + game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_DEMANDED,0)) / math.max(game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_DEMANDED,0),1)) -- The ratio of the sum of Unused Intermediate Power, Unused Base Power, Peak Power Shortage, and Power Demand to just Power Demand (i.e. the percent of power demand that should be increased to cause brownouts) It really is a more elegant solution than the old method. If anyone sees any issues with the logic or ways that it could behave unexpectedly, please let me know as this will be what's in place in the next update.

::groan:: No big thing. I just know having only 1 Street lot is very limiting to where pole-mount transformers can be placed. The stats they have are exactly realistic. My late brother worked at the gigafactory, so he knew the details extremely well. I have toyed with the idea of making them store 10x as much power as normal per acre though, since many other lots (especially the Maxis lots) are "size compressed". (for example, the AMPS 2.5 MW Solar Thermal plant should be 10x larger than it is, which is actually scaled back from the Maxis default where it was 100x smaller than real life for its vanilla power output) Thoughts on this are welcome. None directly supported, no... but I left room in the code tables to add up to 32 supported Hydroelectric plants; 16 below 8 MW (Small Hydroelectric Plants) and 16 at or above that rating. (Large Hydroelectric plants) Suggestions welcome! Absolutely! It wouldn't even be that hard... it could be BATed as a small structure with large water tanks on the lot and big electric pumps/turbines. The size of the tanks will determine just how much power the lot can store. (small lots with small tanks could only store some power, large lots much more) I can do the math on what each lot should be rated, but you do not want me trying to BAT it myself! :^Þ (I tried BATing once... it was pathetic and ugly... I have zero art skill!) Anyone want to have a go at it? Adding AMPS support to it is super easy for me! @Kloudkicker: BTW, since AMPS Beta is now up on the STEX and mostly stable and working, feel free to add the AMPS Mini-banner to your supported lots. (your Transformer Lots, Wind Farm Maintenance Facility, and Substation and Transmission Station re-lots) Progress update: Still working on getting the PV Panels to count right. I can't figure out a formula that is dynamic enough to account for all potential permutations and combinations of PV Panels as Generators, as Small Power Plants, and still keep support for Independent Solar Power Plants. :^/ I'll get it, though... I'm determined! I do have a working version of the change to the Power Storage rework to convert unused power before trying to convert used power, though. It will be included in the next update. :^) I have yet to even begin switching AMPS over to @memo's method of overriding lots... and I'm not looking forward to the amount of work that entails. :^( Comments welcome.

As stated in my AMPS Development Thread, I've been working on a new balance to the education buildings in SC4, including some STEX education lots. I took what @xBlaze89x began last August in the On Education in SC4 discussion and built on that. (so it's highly recommended that you read that thread first to have a baseline understanding of my discussion here) I tried different combinations of the "School EQ Boost" property and the "School Effectiveness vs. Average Age" property, as well as the Building SchoolK6, Building SchoolHS, and Building SchoolPrivate "OccupantGroups" property values. (0x0000150F, 0x00001510, and 0x00001514 respectively) What I discovered is that student enrollment is entirely based on the "School Effectiveness vs. Average Age" property and the "School EQ Boost" property value has no effect on it. What am I talking about? I mean the actual number of students that each school enrolls. For example, the standard Elementary School has the value of 5 for the 20 year age bracket, 5 for the 30 age bracket and 0.5 for the 40 year old age bracket. These values are multiplied by the "School EQ Boost" property to determine the amount of EQ increase that is applied to each residence in its range of effect over the decade of each age bracket. In @xBlaze89x's first Elementary School example, a default EQ Boost of 24 with 5/5/0.5 Age brackets results in an EQ peak of 152. This is backed up by the following math: School EQ Boost = 24 per decade Age 20 Effectiveness = 5 (in effect for 0.5 decades as new Sims start at age 25 and age out of the bracket at age 30) Age 30 Effectiveness = 5 (in effect for 1 decade as they age into it at age 30 and age out of it at age 40) Age 40 Effectiveness = 0.5 (in effect for 1 decade as they age into it at age 40 and age out of it at age 50) Therefore: EQ after 25 years = 20 Starting EQ + (24 EQ x 5 Eff x 0.5 decades) + (24 EQ x 5 Eff x 1 decade) + (24 x 0.5 Eff x 1 decade) - (24 Degradation/decade x 2.5 decades) = 152 Of course, this is ideal math for low-wealth Sims, but it is reflected in @xBlaze89x's example where "there are many residences that have reached above 150", so it's reality checked. When I tried to re-balance the schools for my own uses, I decided to reduce starting age for ALL wealth groups to 20 years instead of 25, 30, and 35 for §, §§, and §§§ respectively. Furthermore, I made ALL wealth levels begin at EQ 20, kept the 0.2 EQ degradation per month, changed the Average Age reset value to 20 years, and lastly changed the EQ reset percent to 25%. The reason for these changes was that I created an Excel table that let me plug in various education buildings with varying "School EQ Boost" and "School Effectiveness vs. Average Age" properties and could show me how a residence would change their EQ as they aged. This let me run several hundred permutations and combinations of configurations in just a few hours. (I'm a retired Statistical Data Analyst, so this is all well within my wheelhouse) In my final balance, I settled on the following Educational parameters: Elementary* | EQ Boost- 40 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 1, 30+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: SchoolK6 High School* | EQ Boost- 40 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0, 30s = 1, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: SchoolHS Schoolhouse1 | EQ Boost- 80 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.5, 30s = 0.5, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: SchoolPrivate Private School* | EQ Boost- 90 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.5, 30s = 0.5, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: SchoolPrivate College* | EQ Boost- 40 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.2, 30s = 0.2, 40s = 0.6, 50+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: College University* | EQ Boost- 60 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.1, 30s = 0.1, 40s = 0.5, 50s = 0.3, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: College Community Library2 | EQ Boost- 6 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.5, 30s = 0.5, 40s = 1, 50s = 1, 60s = 1, 70s = 1, 80s = 1 / Occupant Group- Building: Library Branch Library* | EQ Boost- 12 / Eff. vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.5, 30s = 0.5, 40s = 1, 50s = 1, 60s = 1, 70s = 1, 80s = 1 / Occupant Group- Building: Library City Library3 | EQ Boost- 18 / Eff. vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.5, 30s = 0.5, 40s = 1, 50s = 1, 60s = 1, 70s = 1, 80s = 1 / Occupant Group- Building: Library Main Library* | EQ Boost- 24 / Eff. vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.5, 30s = 0.5, 40s = 1, 50s = 1, 60s = 1, 70s = 1, 80s = 1 / Occupant Group- Building: Library Art Gallery4 | EQ Boost- 10 / Eff. vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.25, 30s = 0.25, 40s = 0.25, 50s = 0.25, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum Observatory5 | EQ Boost- 20 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.75, 30s = 0.25, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum City Museum* | EQ Boost- 30 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.5, 30s = 0.25, 40s = 0.125, 50s = 0.125, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum National Observatory6 | EQ Boost- 35 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.75, 30s = 0.25, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum Major Art Gallery* | EQ Boost- 40 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.25, 30s = 0.25, 40s = 0.25, 50s = 0.25, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum Broadway Theater7 | EQ Boost- 5 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.25, 30s = 0.25, 40s = 0.25, 50s = 0.25, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Opera Opera House* | EQ Boost- 10 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.25, 30s = 0.25, 40s = 0.25, 50s = 0.25, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Opera 1 Schoolhouses educate all Sim youths and are considered a K-12 education building; based on JBSimio's Lil' Red Schoolhouse and PEG's MTP Old School House) 2 Community Libraries are small single-tile structures that only can hold 7,500 books (based on gshmails' Rural Small Library in their Complete Rural Set) 3 City Libraries are bigger than Branch Libraries but still much smaller than a Main Library and can hold 100,000 books (based on DK1's Library lot) 4 Art Galleries are museums with local art with interest only in a small area (32 tile radius; based on gshmails' Rural Community Gallery in their Complete Rural Set) 5 Observatories are museums dedicated to science with city-wide coverage but providing EQ bonus mostly in the early ages (based on gshmails' Observatory lot) 6 The National Observatory is the science equivalent to the Major Art Museum with slight lower EQ bonus but more EQ in the early ages (unknown author) 7 Broadway Theaters are similar to the Opera House and a prerequisite to them (based on Cyclone Boom's Maxis Cultural Theater in the Comprehensive Opera House Bug Fix) * All other types are based on the Vanilla Education buildings of the same name The reasons for these values was to make adjustments easy. Assuming no degradation, an Elementary School would improve EQ by 40 points... same for a High School or College... and 80 EQ for a Schoolhouse over its 2 decades of use. (the same as the combination of an Elementary and High School combined) Therefore EQ Boost for these schools was set to 40 and the sum total of their "School Effectiveness vs. Average Age" was always equal to 1. During testing however, I found a major flaw with my buildings... the number of students was EXTREMELY low... like a few dozen for an Elementary School in the middle of a busy city of almost 100k Sims. Also, I had assumed that Private Schools would draw off students from the Public School pool, reducing the demand on Elementary and High Schools... and it did not. Lastly, some of my schools seemed to attract no students at all, even though they seemed to satisfy demand for that school type. That's when I realized that the "School Effectiveness vs. Average Age" was the value that determines how many students a building attracts. (and therefore costs to operate) Examining Elementary Schools in Vanilla, the sum total of all their "School Effectiveness vs. Average Age" values equals 10.5... which is roughly the percentage of Residential population within their area of effect that would be added to the student population in a vanilla Elementary school. After testing I verified this to be the case by making Elementary Schools only provide 3.81 "EQ Boost" but have a "School Effectiveness vs. Average Age" of 10.5 for the 20s and 0 for everything else. Suddenly the Elementary Schools had the correct number of students based on the area they covered, roughly equivalent to the number a vanilla school would have. Regarding the Private School problem, it seems that Vanilla Private Schools do not draw down the number of enrolled students from the Public School system at all, but are an entirely different set of children that weren't going to Public School to begin with. Since I was remaking the Maxis Private Schools into a Charter School, (§ and §§ Sims only) Military Academy, (§ and §§§ Sims only) and Prep School, (§§ and §§§ Sims only) with each having its own unlock requirements, (and a completely new UDI mission to unlock the Prep School; Get Little Binghamton to School unlocking the Charter School and Study for Profit unlocking the Military Academy) and none requiring the others as a prerequisite, I needed them to actually draw down Public School enrollments. In testing I discovered that you can give a school both the SchoolK6 and SchoolHS Occupant Group values and they will in fact act like both. Solving the last issue, some schools not working at all, I determined that each category of school building type had its own minimum value, below which it wouldn't be recognized. After some searching I found the "School Capacity Chunk Size" property in the Residential simulator Exemplar (6534284A-E7E2C2DB-69189C84) with values that corresponded to the minimums I had determined experimentally. (500 minimum for Elementary Schools, 750 for High Schools, 1,000 for Private Schools, 1,000 for Colleges, 10,000 for Libraries, 300 for Museums, and 1,200 for Operas) Lowering these values didn't seem to have any other effect than letting me create smaller Schools, Libraries, Museums, and Operas, so I set the values as follows: All Schools & Museums = 75 / Libraries & Operas = 1,000 (0x0000004B,0x0000004B,0x0000004B,0x0000004B,0x000003E8,0x0000004B,0x000003E8 in Reader; order is K-6, HS, Pvt, Col, Lib, Mus, Opr) That led me to the following table of Educational Parameters: Elementary* | EQ Boost- 3.81 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 10.5, 30+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: SchoolK6 High School* | EQ Boost- 5 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0, 30s = 8, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: SchoolHS Schoolhouse1 | EQ Boost- 4.32 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 10.5, 30s = 8, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: SchoolK6 and Building: SchoolHS Private School* | EQ Boost- 4.87 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 10.5, 30s = 8, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: SchoolK6 and Building: SchoolHS College* | EQ Boost- 4 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 2, 30s = 2, 40s = 6, 50+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: College University* | EQ Boost- 4.62 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 1.3, 30s = 1.3, 40s = 6.5, 50s = 3.9, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: College Community Library2 | EQ Boost- 0.182645 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 0.5, 30s = 0.5, 40s = 1, 50s = 1, 60s = 1, 70s = 1, 80s = 1 / Occupant Group- Building: Library Branch Library* | EQ Boost- 0.36925 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 16.2, 30s = 16.3, 40s = 32.5, 50s = 32.5, 60s = 32.5, 70s = 32.5, 80s = 32.5 / Occupant Group- Building: Library City Library3 | EQ Boost- 0.553875 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 16.2, 30s = 16.3, 40s = 32.5, 50s = 32.5, 60s = 32.5, 70s = 32.5, 80s = 32.5 / Occupant Group- Building: Library Main Library* | EQ Boost- 0.7385 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 16.2, 30s = 16.3, 40s = 32.5, 50s = 32.5, 60s = 32.5, 70s = 32.5, 80s = 32.5 / Occupant Group- Building: Library Art Gallery4 | EQ Boost- 1.67 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 1.5, 30s = 1.5, 40s = 1.5, 50s = 1.5, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum Observatory5 | EQ Boost- 3.25 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 4.61, 30s = 1.54, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum City Museum* | EQ Boost- 4.88 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 3, 30s = 1.55, 40s = 0.8, 50s = 0.8, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum National Observatory6 | EQ Boost- 5.69 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 4.61, 30s = 1.54, 40+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum Major Art Gallery* | EQ Boost- 6.67 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 1.5, 30s = 1.5, 40s = 1.5, 50s = 1.5, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Museum Broadway Theater7 | EQ Boost- 1 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 1.25, 30s = 1.25, 40s = 1.25, 50s = 1.25, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Opera Opera House* | EQ Boost- 2 / Effectiveness vs. Average Age- 20s = 1.25, 30s = 1.25, 40s = 1.25, 50s = 1.25, 60+ = 0 / Occupant Group- Building: Opera Here's how this looks in a city with 94,106 Residents (25,720 §, 50,924 §§, & 16,288 §§§) grown naturally over 33 years. (i.e. actually playing the game and growing the city organically and on budget) This school is located in a newer part of town as the city grew toward the shore. A school for a small subdivision that covers a large area with sparse housing. The city's main High School located near the older west side of town. Covers most of the city. The newest High School on the far eastern shoreline. The Charter School on the far western edge of the city in the oldest part of town. The residents here have mostly aged out of Elementary Education. The Military Academy is located near the Industrial sector with mostly low-income housing but reaching in far enough int town to catch some high-wealth residents as well. The Prep School is located right in the middle of town near the highest wealth houses with lots of middle-class houses to the northeast and northwest. The Cathedral of Learning is a University created by Xyloxadoria and works exactly the same as the vanilla University with the stats listed above. The Main Library is in the middle of downtown and is the only library still in use. (all others having been demolished) The Major Art Museum is near the Library and, like the library, is the only Museum in town. The Opera House is across the street from the Art Museum and is the only Theater in town. (the Broadway theater having been demolished) Here is the chart of EQ growth over 33 years, topping out at about 145 stable. (it peaked briefly at 158 until I had to rezone some older buildings that were degraded) Here is the Education Map indication the relative positions of each structure and relative EQ of the residents. It's not as highly scientific as @xBlaze89x's insightful analysis, but then it didn't have to be because that's already been done. I wanted to see if my new balance worked as intended in the most meaningful way... within an active game with budgets to balance, Sims to satisfy, etc. (i.e. a real-world test) I did "cheat" a little in that I used the U-Drive It missions to unlock many of the buildings early, but since that falls within the game's parameters to start with, I don't feel it falls outside my testing parameters. For anyone interested in looking at my work, here is the mod I'm using: Education Rebalance.zip Note that it contains a modified version of the AMPS_Core_Files.dat file since I have yet to implement @CorinaMarie's solution to modifications of the _constants.lua (CA63E2A3-4A5E8F3F-FFB0A8D0) and a few of my unlock requirements necessitate adding buildings to the "track_buildings" table, so if you are running AMPS this has to replace your existing AMPS_Core_Files.dat file in the zzzzz_AMPS folder. (whether or not you are running AMPS, the update is harmless to your existing install) Of note, I have used @memo's process for creating changes to existing lots that does NOT require bulldozing prior to install. Any education lots you have in existing cities will continue trucking along just as they always have. If you already have the ModPacc Zero Opera House Fix, this will work seamlessly alongside it (and is in fact required if you want the Broadway Theater and later access to the Opera House) and bulldozing those structures after install will NOT affect your city. (I've done it several times in testing with no Phantom Slider Bug or other negative results) Comments and discussion welcome, as always!

Another area that I'm working on is the behavior of Power Storage lots. Currently they convert Intermediate Power to Peak power until there is no more Intermediate power to convert, then converts Base Power to Peak. The new process will convert Unused Intermediate Power to Peak first, then Unused Base Power to Peak, then Used Intermediate, and lastly Used Base Power. The reason for this is that in one of my test cities I had a glut of Base Power from some Geothermal plants, but I was also producing about 10% of my power with 2.5 MW Solar Thermal plants. I couldn't use @Simmer2's Tesla Power Storage Packs to actually use my wasted Base Power because it was converting the usable Intermediate power first, so I'd have needed a TON of power Packs to actually be able to use all my Base Power. In reality the batteries would be used to smooth out ANY overage to cover later shortages first before looking to reduce Intermediate Power. Comments welcome. Edit: Started the new topic.

Just an FYI on where things are at right now: I'm still working on a better implementation of the PV Panel count process so that it doesn't leave odd figures in the Independent Solar Power Plants section of the main query. I still haven't hit on just the right formula to resolve the issue. I have also decided that the v.0.4 version WILL include @memo's recommended modding process to eliminate the need to bulldoze all power lots before installing AMPS. This will be a MAJOR undertaking and will take some time to implement, (I haven't even begun the process yet) but I think it will be worth the effort. In the mean time I've been doing a deep-dive on education and how the various Building Exemplar properties affect different parts of the EQ process. I think I have it pretty much nailed down now and will be posting up my findings in a new thread Soon™. Comments and questions welcome, as always!

Can you be more specific as to which messages cause the bug? Are they the advisor messages of the availability of new power plants or grid features? Which ones? What version of AMPS are you running? What lots are installed in your game? Which lots are in use in the city in question? The more info you provide, the more likely I can identify the issue. :^) Thanks for the feedback! I look forward to more details.

I have the LUA skill, but I lack on the C++ side. (my last encounter with that language group was C... not C#... not C+... C... and it was for all of a week when I was a teenager :^Þ ) AFAIK , so long as the function is created before it's called, you can have the function defined in the same LUA it's called in. LUA is parsed top-down, so you would just have to make sure to define the function before you call it lower down in the LUA code. AMPS creates the function run_grid_balance_variables(ret_type) after creating the variable tables and then calls that function in the Reward code that follows, all in the same LUA, and again in the UI LUA that runs after the Code LUA. I can't see why it would be different for the defining of sc4game.<group>.<function> methods. I hope I understand your thoughts correctly. I'm not a professional programmer. I just have a highly logical mind and numbers like me. 8^)

As a matter of fact, I used the data from that thread to re-balance my educational buildings. I took a few hours and wrote some formulas in Excel that let me see the degradation graph based on real-time changes to each building. The new values make it so if you want Sims with a 200 EQ you need the best of all education buildings: Elementary, High School, University, Main Library, Major Art Museum, and Opera House. (alternately you could have one of the Private Schools, a University, Main Library, Major Art Museum, and a Broadway Theater and you don't need the Opera House) Anything less than that will result in less EQ. You can still get over 100 EQ with only an Elementary, High School, and Library though. (how long it stays above 100 EQ depends on how good a Library you have) I based occupancy levels on the size of the buildings. (shown in the Sqrs column) Just a little side project. :^Þ