RobertaME

So, I was going to wait until I had more done before starting a development thread, but I decided I couldn't wait. (and discussing it on other people's threads is rude, even if it's a related topic) Back in 2019, I developed a series of mods that built on one another that modified certain power plants in the game. First, it was just a way to make Simmer2's Modular Solar Panels make better use of those gorgeous Inverters and Step-up Transformers that come packed with it. I wrote an LUA script that required you to first build the Step-up Transformer before it would let you build any Inverters, then it wouldn't let you build the PV panels until you built an Inverter. I eventually got it working so that you had to have 1 Step-up transformer for every 16 Inverters and 1 Inverter for every 16 PV panel, so a field of panels with 1 Transformer could have up to 16 Inverters and up to 256 panels. But I didn't stop there... As my understanding of LUA scripting and Exemplars got better, I started working on fixing issues of game balance with the Maxis power plants and a number of power plants that I had downloaded from the STEX and LEX. Many looked great, but didn't balance well when compared to the others and the Maxis default plants. So I started tweaking their Properties to fix them... then writing LUA scripts to more fully integrate them into the game... (advisor comments, technology development chains, building requirements, etc.) and before I knew it I had set things up so that not only were over 40 different power plants available, but they were well balanced compared to one another and were all fully integrated into a (semi) realistic power grid! Then my Hard Drive crashed... ...then I found out that the last six months of backups being done on another PC in the network were corrupted... ...then i found out that SSD drives can't usually get the same sort of data recovery process that platter Hard Drives can get... ...then I threw up my hands and walked away from the game for 2 years. So on January 18th I finally had let go of the frustration and decided to start rebuilding what I had lost. After 10 days re-downloading all my mods, I set to work rebuilding. (thank God for SC4D's Download History that got me all the content I had downloaded from there... the rest of the time I spent trawling the STEX and wracking my brain to remember what I had before) --- GOAL: To completely re-define the Utilities portion of SimCity 4 the same way the NAM team redefined roads. (no pressure!) Note: Having already done this once before, I don't need much help in actually getting it done. Programing and logic paths come easy to me. (I first started programming in 8502 machine language on my old Commodore 128 back in the day... 2 MHZ of fun crammed into 128k of memory!) I'm also a Statistical Data Analyst by trade, (now a stay-at-home Mom) so organizing large data sets is in my wheelhouse, too! The purpose of this thread is that this time I intend to distribute my mod onto the STEX. That means that I'm not just trying to please myself this time, I want this to be something everyone can enjoy. Comments and (constructive) criticism are welcome! If you see somewhere that I could develop further, please let me know! (not a guarantee that I'll implement it, but it never hurts to ask!) --- The Core of the Power Grid mod is Power_Lot_Balance.DAT; a DAT file I made in iLive Reader that replaces a number of LTEXT, EXEMPLAR, and LUA files native to Simcity1.DAT and 33 Power Plant Lots here on the STEX and on the LEX. (full list below) Then I have my custom LUA script that handles lot build allowances based on the criteria I set. Originally I used the BSC Essentials ability to add building counts to be tracked, but this time around I wrote my own, so the BSC Essentials ISN'T a Dependency. (though it should play nice with it) The first step was to rebuild my spreadsheet to compare power plants against one another. In this I am kind of hard-nosed against changes. I made 33 power plants put out by people over the last 15 years plus the 8 default Maxis plants all work together without any one of them being the "obvious choice", making all others obsolete. You have give and take with EVERY plant. Here are the general guidelines I used: 1. Modify the Maxis plants as little as possible - This is more a function of the fact that Maxis balanced them the way they did for a REASON, game balance. I DO make a few fixes as a nod toward reality, but I limit changes to the core 8 plants to things that are NECESSARY. 2. Everything has a downside - Those Wind Turbines are great, aren't they? Yeah... TOO great. So now they have 1/5th the longevity that they used to and require a Wind Farm Maintenance Facility to be built first. They're still "Squeaky clean", and can be placed where there is no road access, but they're expensive and short-lived. 3. Everything has an upside - Coal plants suck. They choke up the air like a chain smoker locked in a Datsun. But per megawatt-hour, they're the cheapest electricity you can build... by half or less. They can't provide ALL your power, (more on that in point 5) but they can sure reduce your average cost per MWh! 4. Everything has a use - Every power plant in my list has a niche. Coal and Wood are cheap. Wind and solar are low-impact. Oil and Natural Gas are adaptable. Diesel is compact and doesn't require a grid in place to use. Every plant is priced, balanced, and assigned stats based on the idea of filling a purpose. If a plant can't fill a niche that no other plant can, it's useless and won't be supported. If you think X plant produces too much (or not enough) pollution, or should be cheaper, there's probably a reason why it is the way it is... to fill a niche. If a particular plant or feature would make another plant completely obsolete, it will NOT be supported by this mod. 5. No power Grid can survive on ONE kind of power source - Carrots are great! I love them! I could eat them all day! But humans need a variety in their diet. So too does a power grid. Nuclear, Coal, Waste to Energy, and Geothermal are all what is referred to a "Base Load" plants. They're great for producing LOTS of power and running 24/7, but power grids are delicate creatures. Every watt produced has to be used within a fraction of a second of when it's generated. Base Load plants SUCK at "load following", that is adjusting their output rapidly based on demand. They can sometimes take HOURS to adjust their output to meet demand. Thus, they usually spend all their time running full-out; that's what makes them relatively cheap to operate. They're predictable. Oil and Natural Gas are "Peak Load" plants that are very good at load following, but expensive. Wind and solar are "Intermediate Load" plants; that is they don't load follow, but their output is variable and unpredictable. So if you want to run your city on nothing but wind and solar, get used to seeing "no power" zots. An ideal grid would have no more than 60% of its power coming from Base Load plants, no more than 40% coming from intermediate load plants, and at LEAST 20% from Peak load plants. You NEED Peak plants to fill in the high-demand times. 6. It's called 'Power Grid' for a reason - Power Grid implies more to it than just building power plants, right? You won't be able to plop down a Coal plant as your first building... because first you need a Transmission Substation... one powerful enough to handle 12.5 mega volt-amps. (MVA or kVA, kilo volt-amps... the unit for grid tolerance) Don't have one that large at the start of your game? You could build two 10 MVA Transmission Substations to handle the load... but you still need Distribution Substations in your neighborhoods to distribute the power... and you can't build Distribution Substations until you have Transformers placed to step down the voltage to household levels. Get the idea? 7. Game Balance > Realism > Opinion - See point 4. Also, I am VERY well researched on this subject. I've spent HUNDREDS of hours pouring over government websites, trolling for statistics on power plant efficiency, cleanliness, Capacity Factors, costs, etc. I also have a considerable knowledge base when it comes to physics. Thus, why the Hydrogen Plant is renamed to the Fusion plant... because that's what it is and likely uses deuterium or tritium as fuel shipped from the Moon where it's plentiful. (and why the Fusion plant may require the Space Port as a prerequisite... still up in the air on that one) In contrast, the Solar Thermal Power Plant (the Maxis Solar Plant) should be 100 times bigger to produce that much power... so says math and physics. Either that or it should only produce 50 MWh/month. I compromised and made it cost one tenth as much to build, but produce 1/10th the power. (i.e. $3,000 to build, $100/month to operate, but only makes 500 MWh/month... so ten of them equal the original stats, just using more space) 8. NO POLITICS - I have my opinions, you have yours. Let's keep it that way. The issue of green energy vs. cheap energy is, despite best intentions, a political football. Since this mod is all about power utilities, it's inevitable that someone might try to push their political opinion regarding energy policy on others. Opinions, pro or con, about "Clean Coal", "carbonless societies", "the green mafia", etc. are therefor verboten and will be ignored and/or reported. TAKE IT ELSEWHERE. This thread is open to ANY ideas... but no idea is more "correct" or virtuous than any other. This is a FICTIONAL GAME... it's meant to have FUN. Using nothing but high polluting 28 MW Coal Power Plants in your cities will never cause SimGlobalWarming... and no one is forcing or coercing anyone else to use solar, wind, or geothermal plants if they don't want to. Let's keep it sane, people. --- So here is a list of features once development is completed: - Require transformers, substations, and other ancillary buildings to build most power plants (except generators that are MEANT to operate independently) - Require balancing your power plant types (Base Load, Intermediate Load, Peak Load) in realistic terms - Build a chain of developing technology, such that you can't build more advanced plants (clean coal, solar, geothermal, fusion, etc.) until you meet certain criteria - Add to the existing lots to broaden options (e.g. add some kind of power storage lot to mitigate the limitations of Intermediate Load plants, etc.) --- Dependencies: Ideally, none... or rather just one... a lot set that provides transformers, substations, etc. to create the grid with. (I personally prefer Simmer2's SM2 Power Pack) Since I STINK at any form of art, my ability to create actual unique buildings and props is somewhat on the order of a blind woman with severe spastic seizures. Stick figures are high art for me. I can push bits around... that's all. (luckily, I'm REALLY good at pushing them around and making them obey me!) --- List of supported Power Plants: Creator Original Name New Name Generators (Diesel and Natural Gas) Pegasus Diesel Generator 1.8 MW Container Diesel Generator Colyn CSX Mini Power Plant RH 945 KW Diesel Generator Colyn CSX Mini Generator 240 KW Diesel Generator Andreas Roth Power Generator 180 KW Natural Gas Generator Simmer2 SM2 Mobile Power Generator L 120 KW Mobile Diesel Generator kaos78414 Generator 50 KW Diesel Generator Wind Maxis Wind Power Plant 1 MW Wind Power Plant deadwoods Power-producing Windmill 5 KW Wooden Wind Generator Natural Gas Maxis Natural Gas Power Plant 6.5 MW Natural Gas Power Plant dk1 Methane Power Plant 3.5 MW Natural Gas Power Plant dk1 Methane Power Plant 2.4 MW Natural Gas Power Plant dk1 Power Plant 2 MW Natural Gas Power Plant dk1 Power Plant 1.3 MW Natural Gas Power Plant Waste to Energy Colyn CSX LSU WasteTech RH 45 MW Waste to Energy Plant Maxis Waste to Energy Plant 9 MW Waste to Energy Plant mrbisonm Waste to Energy Plant 4.5 MW Clean Waste to Energy Plant Geothermal Pegasus GeoThermal Power Plant 10 MW Geothermal Power Plant Simmer2 SM2 Geothermal Power Plant 8 MW Geothermal Power Plant Pegasus Geothermal Power Plant 4 MW Geothermal Power Plant Mathe Man Geothermical power station 2 MW Geothermal Power Plant Solar Maxis Solar Power Plant 2.5 MW Solar Thermal Plant Simmer2 SM2 GE Solar Power Plant 533 KW PV Power Plant 1dera3 Solar Station 50 KW Remote PV Station Simmer2 SM2 Modular Solar Panels 1X1 36 KW PV Panel Set Coal/Wood Cat fan Coal Power Plant 28 MW Coal Power Plant Maxis Coal Power Plant 10 MW Coal Power Plant shoRt-mAn123 S.M. Power Plant 6.5 MW Coal Power Plant Shy Dude Chicago Union Station Power Plant 2 MW Coal Power Plant carrot1984 Medium Clean Coal Power Plant 25 MW Clean Coal Power Plant fukuda Lignite-fired power plant 20 MW Clean Coal Power Plant SimGoober Hardun Coal Power Plant 10 MW Clean Coal Power Plant shoRt-mAn123 Small Steam Power Plant 3 MW Wood Pulp Power Plant onlyplace4 Wild West Power House 1 MW Wood Power Plant Oil BIWDC SC2k Oil Power Plant 30 MW Oil Power Plant Maxis Oil Power Plant 15 MW Oil Power Plant mrbisonm Nexis Emergency Diesel Power 4.5 MW Oil Power Plant Fission BurroDiablo Nuclear Plant 1.2 GW Fission Power Plant JPouX Close-to-water EDF Nuclear Power Plant 112 MW Coastal Fission Plant JPouX Mainland EDF Nuclear Power Plant 112 MW Inland Fission Plant Maxis Nuclear Power Plant 25 MW Fission Power Plant Fusion Maxis Hydrogen Power Plant 75 MW Fusion Power Plant --- Details: All power plants are divided up into one of four main types any one of four categories. Types: Base Load, Intermediate Load, Peak Load, & Generators (Generators are technically Peak power plants, but don't require Support Equipment to build or use) Categories: Clean Power Plants, Petroleum Power Plants, Carbon Power Plants, & Other Power Plants (Other is anything that doesn't fit in the first 3) Support equipment is broken down into one of three categories. Transformers, Distribution Substations, Transmission Substations, & Electrical Features. (Features are anything that don't fit the first 3 categories, like Inverters, power banks, etc.) The mod goes in the My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins folder in a sub-folder titled "ZZZZZ AMPS". This ensures it runs last after all other mods. This is important because it replaces certain Exemplar and LTEXT files from Maxis and all of the above lots. This allows full integration into the game, allowing new advisor comments to be made to include hyperlinks, etc. It also uses new custom queries to advise you on load balancing, etc. One Maxis LUA file currently overridden (this will probably change to a new kind of override before release so it doesn't replace a Maxis core file) is ID: CA63E2A3-4A5E8F3F-FFB0A8D0 that is used to define certain constants. It's also used by BSC Essentials to add more building counts for use with automata managers using the "track_buildings =" function. Rather than take a chunk of their IDs, I created my own. I am using the Occupant Group 0xBB350000-0xBB35020F since it's not used anywhere that I can tell. This lets us use the Rewards features to limit construction to lots you have ability to build. (I also included the BSC code, which is harmless if you don't need it and vital that it be included if you do) The new Occupant Groups are broken down as follows: 0xBB350000-0xBB35000F = Individual Generator Lots (eg. Pegasus's MTP Diesel Generator is 0xBB350003) 0xBB350010-0xBB35001F = Individual Transformer Lots (eg. KloudKicker's custom 250 kVA residential transformer lot is 0xBB350012) 0xBB350020-0xBB35002F = Individual Distribution Substation Lots (eg. Simmer2's SM2 HV Transformer lot is 0xBB350020) 0xBB350030-0xBB35003F = Individual Transmission Substation Lots (eg. Takingyouthere's Transformer lot is 0xBB350030) 0xBB350040-0xBB35004F = Individual Electrical Feature Lots (eg. Simmer2's Solar Inverters from his Modular Solar Panels set is 0xBB35004F) 0xBB350050-0xBB35005F = Individual Clean Intermediate Load Plant Lots (eg. the Wind Power Plant is 0xBB350059) 0xBB350060-0xBB35006F = Individual Clean Base Load Plant Lots (eg. Pegasus's GeoThermal Power Plant is 0xBB350063) 0xBB350070-0xBB35007F = Individual Clean Peak Load Plant Lots (eg. the Hydrogen Power Plant is 0XBB350070) 0xBB350080-0xBB35008F = Individual Petroleum Intermediate Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB350090-0xBB35009F = Individual Petroleum Base Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500A0-0xBB3500AF = Individual Petroleum Peak Load Lots (eg. the Oil Power Plant is 0xBB3500A1) 0xBB3500B0-0xBB3500BF = Individual Carbon Intermediate Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500C0-0xBB3500CF = Individual Carbon Base Load (eg. the Coal Power Plant is 0xBB3500C9) 0xBB3500D0-0xBB3500DF = Individual Carbon Peak Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500E0-0xBB3500E4 = Individual Other Intermediate Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500E5-0xBB3500E9 = Individual Other Base Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500EA-0xBB3500EE = Individual Other Peak Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500F0 = Used on all Generator lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F1 = Used on all Transformer lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F2 = Used on all Distribution Substation lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F3 = Used on all Transmission Substation lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F4 = Used on all Electric Feature lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F5 = Used on all Clean Intermediate Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F6 = Used on all Clean Base Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F7 = Used on all Clean Peak Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F8 = Used on all Petroleum Intermediate Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F9 = Used on all Petroleum Base Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FA = Used on all Petroleum Peak Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FB = Used on all Carbon Intermediate Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FC = Used on all Carbon Base Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FD = Used on all Carbon Peak Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FE = Used on all Other Intermediate Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FF = Used on all Other Base Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500EF = Used on all Other Peak Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB350100-0xBB3501FF Same as above, reserved for Small Power Plants that do not require a Transmission Substation, only Distribution Substations and Transformers 0xBB350200-0xBB35020F Used for special building tracking, such as for tracking the number of Front Offices on the map to prevent having more than one All original files are also using the Instance ID series "BB35xxxx", which is also to the best of my knowledge unused by anyone. --- In order to simulate grid imbalance when you don't have enough Peak load-following power sources, LUA code will increase power consumption grid-wide until brown-outs occur, proportional to the imbalance, in much the same way the the Power Conservation Ordinance works, only in reverse. This is perhaps one of the most difficult goals to implement and may take some time to work out. The other parts of the mod are relatively easy and I had working flawlessly 2 years ago. :^/ --- 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!

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.

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

That's fine. No dependencies is nice, but not necessary by any means. I just know that for some people seeing a long list of dependencies can sometimes discourage downloading. @Kloudkicker's list is about as large as I think is acceptable. (of course, more dependencies often means nicer looking... so...) Some ideas: -Under @Kloudkicker's transformers, there are only Street TE lots. It might be a good idea to come up with other TE versions. (500 or 1,500 kVA Commercial Transformers in the median of an Avenue or alongside Roads, etc.) I know TE lots can't grow adjacent to them, but that issue exists for NAM TE lots as well and people figure ways around it. (putting them on side streets, making sure the adjacent lots have a tile touching non-TE network tiles, etc.) -Several people expressed concern about the negative Park and Landmark ratings of higher-rated Transformers and Substations. Perhaps a series of grid lots with parks and plazas already built in around them. Just keep in mind that such lots should be just as large and cost as much as though the player had placed the parks/plazas separately. (i.e. a 3 MVA Industrial Transformer that normally takes up 1 tile and would require 4 Small Plazas and a Playground to cancel out the negative effects should be a 3x2 lot and would cost §575 to build and §51/month instead of §125 build and §1/month to have no negative park/landmark rating , etc.) Looking forward to what you come up with!

More like an alternate set to @Kloudkicker's or @Simmer2's sets. The way I set up AMPS, it can support multiple sets with the same stats. It's not that I don't like the existing sets... I do... but I know my opinion is not the only one that counts. Also, having one set that includes all Hard Requirements (a full set of transformers, substations, and transmission stations) would be convenient for new adopters. (especially if they have few or no dependencies) I'd be more than happy to help categorize them! I may not be able to draw or do much of anything artistic, (including making lots) but I know electronics! :^Þ

Thanks, @Cyclone Boom. I'm sure he loves that he and I are here and in the cities we built together forever. :,^) (PS, if you get a moment, I sent you a PM @--'-,---- )

I have an unusual request. @Skyroguen was my brother who died of a sudden stroke. We loved playing this game together and he pushed me to make AMPS. I would love to know he's immortalized in the game somewhere. I would like to volunteer @Skyroguen for membership. Name: Skyroguen Gender: Male Sign: Scorpio If it somehow is possible, I'd like to be next to him in the list. Name: RobertaME Gender: Female Sign: Cancer I know you have only my word (and this post) that he is my brother and that he's no longer around to give his consent, so if it's just not possible I understand. (it's disappointing, but totally understandable) If that's the case, then I withdraw both our names. (if he can't be there with me, it just wouldn't feel right) Thanks for understanding.

That's unfortunate. :^/ That's sub-optimal. :^( In an ideal world? Have the AMPS Front Office lot's Power Consumed Property be variable so it increases load when there's unusable Base or Intermediate Load or a Peak Load shortfall to cause brownouts. It's the perfect solution because increased load shortens the life of your power plants and IRL excess B or I Load above Demand actually does cause stress on the grid, shortening power plant life. Same goes for insufficient Peak Power. It would also be fairly low-impact on computation cycles. That's actually less of a concern. As it stands right now I can get the Power Demand from the game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_DEMANDED,0) variable. If I can figure out a way to get a Dummy Ordinance to adjust demand based on grid_logic_var.DEMAND_PERCENT only once a month or so so it doesn't lag the system, I can just divide G_POWER_DEMANDED by the same ratio to get raw demand. It requires that I rewrite the load balancing equations using a new variable: grid_logic_var.MWH_DEMAND_RAW = game.trend_value(game_trends.G_POWER_DEMANDED,0) / grid_logic_var.DEMAND_PERCENT It will introduce small rounding errors, but it should work. (grid_logic_var.DEMAND_PERCENT can never be less than 1, so if there's no unusable power and no Peak shortfall, you're just dividing by 1) Actually coding all those changes to use a new variable though will take time and patience. Thanks for looking into it, though. It's appreciated!

Taking a break from AMPS for a bit to work on a side project, reworking the Educational lots and integrating a bunch of STEX schools, libraries, museums, and colleges so they're balanced against each other. (I used to have a TON of schools, all with different stats to fill niche uses before the Great HD Crash of 2019... finally getting around to reinstalling them and don't like that some of the lots I like have "cheat" costs or EQ) While I was at it I decided to try my hand at @memo's Opera House Fix method that doesn't require bulldozing. (which is actually quite elegant) If it works out I MAY implement it in AMPS, at least for the default 8 Maxis power plants, so it can be adopted more easily. (no promises) If I do it though, it would make cities made with the current Beta version subject to the "Phantom Slider Bug" and require bulldozing (or to be more cautious, scrapping the entire city) to upgrade to the Beta version 0.4. Not sure if it's worth it at this point or not... feedback on the issue would be appreciated. Anyway, while I was making thousands of changes to Building Exemplars, it occurred to me that there WOULD be one way I might bite the bullet and buy a copy of the v.1.1.641 from GOG... if someone made a DLL that would allow the values in an Exemplar to read LUA global variables. So many cool things could be done if you could make Exemplar Properties variable based on LUA calculations. THAT would make the hassle of upgrading and reinstalling worth the effort. (it would solve the issue of making AMPS enforce load balancing by causing brownouts if you have insufficient Peak power) So @Ulisse Wolf and @Null 45... is it possible?

You are correct, I misread it. Apologies. However, dirty plants already create tons of air and water pollution, so they don't really need yet another downside. Regarding T21 transformer assignment, wealth level should in fact change not only density of transformers, but type as well. Low wealth lots should have 25 kVA power poles while a Middle or High wealth street would need 50 kVA pad transformers once the total of §§ and §§§ population reaches 1,000 sims. (not even sure how you could have it even know how many §§ and §§§ sims there are in a T21 Exemplar) The same would apply to Commercial-grade transformers, using 500 kVA units at first and then upgrading to 1/3rd as many 1,500 kVA transformers once the total of all Commercial Services reaches 1,000 jobs. The other thing to keep in mind is that each transformer costs §1 per month in maintenance... which could add up to quite a bit if they're on every street, road, and avenue and placed without the player's control. You can end up paying for far more transformers than you actually need. It's an interesting concept, however all that on top of it needing a DLL to even work (estimates based on network tile count wouldn't work) makes it just too much work for too little benefit. That having been said, if someone wants to take the concept and make their own mod that does this, by all means go for it! Just remember if you use the back-end code or assets from AMPS, it needs to be CC BY-NC-SA licensed. UPDATE: I'm still stress-testing AMPS in my own region. One thing I noticed is that there's an issue with PV Panels affecting the Independent Solar Power Plants count. I'll have to work out a better formula to account for the fact that PV Panels can either be Generators or Small Power Plants depending on whether you have a Step-up Transformer or not. (it gets weird when you have both) I've been especially conscious of the negative Park and Landmark effects and watching to see if they cause abandonment. So long as I put sufficient green space where it's needed, it doesn't seem to be an issue. If it were possible I would make the effects tied to a global variable that could be tweaked. Unfortunately, that's just not possible given the way Exemplars work. :^/ Thank you all for your feedback and ideas! They are very much appreciated, even if I disagree. (nothing wrong with a little healthy debate, so long as it doesn't get political)

Just curious... is there a way to count the number of props in a city? I ask because to implement such a process, the AMPS code would need to know the number of each transformer prop in the city to run the computation of how much power the city can manage... and I don't know of a variable in SC4 code that counts props. This was also the issue with the idea of doing the same with rooftop PV props. Even if you were willing to accept the chaos that would ensue from uncontrolled rooftop PV usage, there isn't a way (currently) to count the number of panels installed around a city... so no way to compute how much Intermediate Power would result from it. If you have an idea how this could be done, I am more than willing to listen and consider it... I'm always open to new suggestions! :^)