xBlaze89x

Hi All and welcome to my symposium on Education within SimCity 4! We will be covering what drives the education level (or education quotient, EQ) of our sims and its effects on Industrial and Commercial demand (the Workforce Drives). This will also require us to have a look into the residential simulator. Once the mechanisms are established, I will explain the effects of the settings within the base game and present my modifications. These modifications have not been made into a package at this time, but if the community enjoys the results of the modifications I will make it available with a little help. Let's get Started What is the Point of an Education Anyway? As what is generally observed in the real world, the purpose of education within SC4 is to give sims the opportunity to work in higher paying, cleaner, safer, and more engaging work. Or, to look at it from the view of an employer, the purpose of education is to provide a workforce qualified for the jobs available. (Of course, education has many other benefits in real life, but this is as far as the game goes) So, how is this accomplished in SC4? Well it is all to do with the Workforce Drives! The Workforce Drives exemplars are how SC4 generates Industrial and Commercial demand. There is a detailed posting by RippleJet on SC4 Devotion, link here: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=963.0 Here is my Workforce Drives table (slightly modified from CAM1.0 settings to get my preferred mix): Occupation: CO$$$ CO$$ CS$$$ CS$$ CS$ I-HT I-M I-D I-R Wealth Education R$$$ 150-200 70% 10% 35% 25% 10% 100-150 60% 30% 30% 5% 15% 10% 50-100 30% 52% 23% 15% 22% 8% 0-50 22% 60% 10% 23% 10% 15% 15% 16% R$$ 150-200 45% 15% 10% 30% 30% 20% 100-150 22% 38% 40% 15% 35% 50-100 10% 40% 30% 10% 50% 15% 16% 0-50 30% 25% 20% 55% 30% 160% R$ 150-200 22% 53% 15% 23% 22% 15% 100-150 22% 10% 30% 53% 40% 16% 50-100 5% 10% 40% 40% 65% 160% 0-50 50% 115% 1600% From the table, we can see what type of occupation a sim seeks out is determined by their wealth level (R$, R$$, R$$$), and their education quotient (EQ) (0-200) which is chunked into 4 groups. An EQ of 0-50 is EQ1, 50-100 is EQ2, 100-150 is EQ3, 150-200 is EQ4. Uneducated sims (EQ1) seek out I-D and CS$ jobs. As they become more educated and reach higher EQs, they soon demand I-M and CS$$ jobs, followed by I-HT, CO$$, CO$$$ jobs when they reach the higher EQ ranges. As city planners, if we want to control the demand for the various industrial and commercial occupations, our primary tool is to influence the education quotient of our sims. So, How Does Education Work? There are two main factors driving the education quotient of our Sims. There is the Residential Simulator, which controls how the sims education quotient changes throughout their lifetime, as well as their starting values. Then there are the ploppable educational buildings. First, let's talk about the Residential Simulator. This primarily drives education, health and life expectancy, the chance of education and medical strikes, mayor ratings for health and education, etc. We will stick to just the factors that effect our sim's EQ. Residential Simulator education properties hex decimal Average age reset value 0x28 40 EQ Decay n/a 0.2 EQ Reset percent n/a 80 low wealth EQ 0x14 20 medium wealth EQ 0x28 40 High wealth EQ 0x3C 60 low wealth average age 0x19 25 medium wealth average age 0x1E 30 high wealth average age 0x23 35 R$ sims start out in life at age 25 with an EQ of 20. R$$ sims age 30 EQ 40, R$$$ sims age 35 EQ 60. This applies to all newly moved in sims. If some sims move out, and new sims move in, these will be their values. So, what is Average age reset value? Well, when a sim reaches average life expectancy, they are reincarnated! That's right, when the sims living in a residential building reach life expectancy, their age is reset to 40. Furthermore EQ reset percent, 80, means that 80% of the sim's EQ is retained when they are reincarnated. This has some major implications which we will discuss later when we move on to the educational buildings. The remaining variable of significance is EQ Decay, 0.2. This is a decay of 0.2/month, 2.4 per year, 24 per decade, applied to all sims. When we get to the library building this will be important. Testing Environment Before we get into the buildings, I'll describe the simulation parameters. Welcome to the town of Education Test! (creative name, I know) Education Test is a sleepy little town with a fair balance of industry and commerce that can support a residential population of 3,500 with plenty of excess jobs available. Power, water, and refuse services have been provided as well as police and fire coverage. Taxes have been adjusted to discourage all but R$ sims from moving in (A key to proper analysis is to reduce or eliminate as many variables as possible). There are no traffic problems in Education Test. The residential zoning has been sized to fit within the catchment area of the small elementary school. A census facility has been provided for data collation and collection. The town is profitable once the supported population moves in. We start the simulation by plopping our educational buildings in the town square and clicking cheetah speed, running for ~100 years for each test. It takes <5 years for all the sims to move in and from there the population remains stable. Let's have a look at the results: Educational Building Properties Elementary (Primary) School elementary school Effectivenes cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 300 24 384 5 5 0.5 0 0 0 0 500 EQxEffect 120 120 12 0 0 0 0 The Elementary school "Educates young Sims." If by young we mean ages 20-40. I suppose that's fair though considering age 20-30 is the youngest cohort, despite what the population graphs show. Anyway here are the results. I will discuss below. When our new sims move in at age 25, the Elementary school immediately goes to work educating them, and it does a mighty fine job. Within 16 years their educational attainment has peaked at an average of 145. Looking at the map, there are many residences that have reached above 150, putting them at EQ4- these sims could go on to work in I-HT at Andrews Semiconductor, Max's Microchips, or even a nuclear power plant. In fact, they demand it! However that won't last too long. As they lose EQ at a rate of 2.4/year they will soon find themselves in EQ 3, then 2, then 1... So, we ran this test for a 100 years, where is the 2nd generation? Well, they're here, but they don't get educated at elementary school. Remember, sims are reincarnated at age 40, with 80% of their knowledge (EQ) retained. If you look closely at around 75 years, you can see a small dip in the chart, that's when the reincarnation happens and the sims lose 20%. In a stable population where sims are not moving in and out, an Elementary school only works once. It has no effect on subsequent generations as they are aged out of the school's age effectiveness brackets. Maybe you've noticed it yourself, elementary schools in old neighborhoods of a city have few or no students. This age 40 reincarnation is why. Library library Effectivenes cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 250 0.3 512 30 30 30 30 30 25 20 30000 EQxEffect 9 9 9 9 9 7.5 6 The Library "Keeps adult Sims from forgetting their education. EQ Decay sucks 2.4 EQ from our sims per year. The library has a very small EQ boost x Effectiveness at 9 for most age brackets, and this is 9 spread over 10 years, or 0.9 per year. Thus a library will reduce EQ Decay from 2.4/year to 1.5/year, a 37.5% reduction. Since the library on its own cannot overcome EQ Decay, I have run the simulation with an Elementary school and a library. Let's have a look: As with the Elementary School, it took 16 years to reach peak EQ. The library contributed 0.9 per year, adding 14.4 EQ over those 16 years. Thus, the census shows us an average EQ of 160, 15 points higher than the Elementary School result. Furthermore, as the decay is reduced for every age cohort, we can observe the slope of the EQ chart is not as steep. We peak at 160 and drop to ~85 as the first generation is reaching their life expectancy, vs. 145 to 20 for the school alone. That's a loss of 125 reduced to 75. Not bad for $12 a month. High (Secondary) School High School Effectivenes cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 650 24 512 0 0.5 5 2.5 0 0 0 750 EQxEffect 0 12 120 60 0 0 0 The High School "Educates teen Sims." We can see the age brackets are "higher" than that of the Elementary School, with the peak effectiveness centered at age 40. Interesting. Looks like EQ peaked at 159, that's a bit higher than the 145 the Elementary School provided. When did it peak? 33 years. But wait, there's a factor going on here that's more exciting. The chart rebounds at 75 years when the 2nd generation begins. What is the saying? Life begins at 40? Anyways, since the High School primarily educates the age 40 bracket, it is actually effective as a multi-generational institution, unlike the poor Elementary School. However, the second generation's peak is lower than that of the first. Well, let's add a library and see what happens. That's better. Museum Museum Effectivenes cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 450 40 5800 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.75 1.5 3 900 EQxEffect 12 12 12 12 30 60 120 Hmmm, so the Museum EQxEffect is only 12 for ages 20-60, but EQ decay for 10 years is 24. What to do? Yep, this test will need the be run with a library. Ah, and the museum has quite a strong EQxEffect on the elderly, I wonder how that will go? WOW. Bet you weren't expecting that. Simply a museum and a library turned our sims into certified geniuses! Furthermore, they reach their peak EQ at end of life, meaning the next generation retains 80% of a very high EQ. Furthermore, the sims remain in EQ4 from one generation to the next; no change in industry or commercial demand. The coverage area of the museum is 5800 m, that's bigger than a large tile! All of that for $58+ $12 = $70 a month. It only took 70 years... College City college Effectivenes cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 1000 24 5800 0 0.5 1.5 5 2.5 0.5 0 7000 EQxEffect 0 12 36 120 60 12 0 The College "Educates young adult Sims". Age is just a number, right? 50 is young. Like the museum, the college coverage radius is 5800, covering an entire large tile. Let's get to the results. Lowest cost yet for 3,500 sims at $40, and our sims became rocket scientists after 30 years, with EQ peaking at 184 after 40 years. Without a library to help maintain that EQ, our sims did dip to EQ3 later in life, but the next generation came roaring back. Not much else to say here. I won't cover the large Elementary School and large High School. They have the same stats as their base schools, but with extended catchment areas and greater capacities. I also won't be covering the rewards educational buildings University, Major Art Museum, Main Branch Library, Opera House, Private School. Thoughts on this Educational System Whelp. As we can see, practically every educational institution provided will turn an uneducated sim into a certified genius. That's great if our goal is to get to High tech and High Wealth commercial offices as quickly as possible. Furthermore, this process can even be sped up by overlapping the services of multiple educational buildings. If that is your goal, the information above can help you achieve the highest EQ faster, or for less cost, or help you to maintain it between generations. As for myself, I'm looking for a bit more out of the game's educational system. I view the system shipped with the game as far too easy. As mayor, I would like to be able to tailor my city to focus on dirty industry and low wealth commercial services, or manufacturing industry and mid-level offices, or high tech industry and high wealth commercial offices. As hinted in the topic title, I have achieved that through mods. Stay tuned for the next post which will cover that topic. P.S. if you like the educational data map used in the posting, you can find it here:

Hi, I'm fairly new to SimCity 4, and I'm having trouble with the grow of a mid-size tile City. Pop is currently 38,000. I installed the census repository vault mod to gather more info, and my residential demand is high, there are plenty of jobs available. However, the population has reached the residential capacity, and re-zoning low and medium residential areas to high does not result in increased capacity. I do have some trouble in a few sectors with no job zots caused by high commute times, but I've added extensive subway and bus stops to the areas (which barely helped). I dislike the performance of the mass transit system though, utilization is extremely low and many stations go unused despite what appears to be logical placement. My budget also took a hit as the stations + tubes are costing 1,700 a month with low ridership- fares are maybe 400. When I use the route query tool on the long commutes, the paths don't appear long to me, similar length paths are shown as short and medium commutes on other properties. I've made some choices that may be limiting factors that I don't necessarily want to compromise on. There is no highway network in this city, I imagine it as a downtown, and Highway will take up too much space. There are 4 avenues that circumscribe the city, and there is no issue with volume. Although some congestion points have appeared and certain street corners where ped traffic, bus, car, and freight trucks interact. I've attached photos of the census, some traffic info and public transit. Please have a look and request more info as needed. My goal is to have the population reach the capacity my commerce and industry can support (52,000) , not have so many vacant jobs (11,000), and eliminate residential abandonment from long commute.

Introducing the beta release of what I'm calling the Education Realism Mod (ERM) Education Realism Mod (ERM)(BETA).zip The mod been thoroughly tested in the above test city and has also been running for several days in another 100,000 pop city trouble-free. The civic buildings match the modifications in the above post, except for the museum, which has been modified to have the same radius and capacity as that of the college per @Jasoncw's feedback. Museum Effectiveness cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 250 1 5800 1 1 1 1 2 3.5 3.5 7000 EQxEffect 1 1 1 1 2 3.5 3.5 The folder consists of the modified civic buildings in ERM_Base_Buildings.dat and 8 versions of the modified residential simulator. There are four versions with differing levels of inherited knowledge as detailed below: ERM_Residential Simulator_20.dat - EQ Reset percent = 20 ERM_Residential Simulator_40.dat - EQ Reset percent = 40 ERM_Residential Simulator_60.dat - EQ Reset percent = 60 ERM_Residential Simulator_80.dat - EQ Reset percent = 80 Thanks @matias93 for the feedback . Choose to install only one of the residential simulators based on the response curve you prefer. There are also CAM 2.1 compatible copies of each simulator choice that are fully tested with CAM 2.1 installed. If you have CAM 2.1 installed you should use one of these, as there is another property within the residential simulator modified by CAM 2.1, the Life expectancy to workforce % curve, which the CAM 2.1 compatible versions preserve. The files should be placed in the Plugins folder below CAM 2.1 Also, it must be noted that in existing cities, the educational buildings that will be modified by this pack should be deleted before installing this mod, to be re-plopped after installation (I've heard if this procedure is not followed it may cause the "phantom slider bug") If you have any questions or feedback after install please reply to this thread.

That's fair. Truthfully I decreased the radius of the museum because in my 100,000 population city its capacity of 900 was already overwhelmed. Decreasing the radius was a way to limit the number of visitors. I could increase the capacity instead to solve the issue. Another factor to consider will be the monthly budget cost. I'll play around with it.

Oh, another thing to note is that the sums of the demand table are greater for the low EQ sims than the high EQ sims. This means it is somewhat easier to get (the low tier) businesses to grow while the sims are uneducated. It will become more difficult when they reach high EQ due to the demand table and due to the more difficult to achieve desirability factors for high wealth businesses.

Difficult to answer, it depends on what the modder did. Would have to analyze the mod files with Ilive's reader or similar. The sims will become over-educated, but they will work in what jobs are available. However, the demand for dirty industry, manufacturing industry, and low wealth commercial services will wither while demand for high tech industry and high wealth commercial offices will grow. In most cases the factories and commercial buildings will upgrade accordingly -although- dirty industrial areas won't upgrade to high tech industry because high tech industry hates pollution. The consequences to the player are that if you want to develop more dirty industry or manufacturing industry, low wealth commercial services, you won't be able to because the sims living in the city don't want those jobs anymore. You may experience abandonment of certain job sectors to an extent due to the shift in demand, although sectors such as dirty industry tend to be quite robust and somewhat immune to this. Yes, with the education buildings in place and covering all residential areas, after 25 or so years all the demand will have shifted to high tech industry and medium and high wealth commercial services and offices. None of the lower and mid tier services and industry will grow in the city any longer. Demand can be attempted to be altered to an extent with taxes, but if the sims demand 0 manufacturing industry for example, lowering that tax rate to zero won't make any more manufacturing industry show up. This shift in demand tends to make the game more difficult as sims get more educated as well, as high wealth commercial and high tech industry are more sensitive to desirability factors and thus more prone to abandonment. Example: a crime is committed close to an area these businesses exist, they may move out. That won't happen with the lower tier businesses. We can look at the census data for one of the high EQ outcomes I posted above: We can see that the demand for dirty industry and manufacturing industry are both negative; no more of these industry types will grow unless we destroy the schools to bring the EQ back down, even if we zone for more of them in the existing industrial areas. However, the existing industries of 1,992 ID and 454 IM aren't moving out. We can also see no high tech industry and no High wealth commercial offices are growing in my city, even though there is demand for it. This is due to the available existing zonings are in areas undesirable to them (due to pollution). However my sims are not moving out of their houses, they continue to work in the jobs they are now over-qualified for. None of this is really a problem per se, you can match your play style to how the game works. However, if you want to have the control to develop a manufacturing focused city, which requires some education but not too much, you really can't do that without adding education buildings to raise the sims EQ, then deleting them before the EQ gets too high, and so on. The goal with my mod is to fix that and have maintainable education levels across the range of EQ, to better match real life and make the game more interesting in my opinion.

Yes, you're absolutely correct. An excellent suggestion.

Hi, I assume you have power, water, and garbage facilities. If not, start there. Education takes 16 years to reach full effect for elementary school, but it is not needed for dirty industry. What is the age of your city? how long has it been running? Do you have any mods installed that may be effecting demand? If you post some of your maps and graphs from the data views, that will make it easier to diagnose. (power, water, garbage, traffic, education, health, RCI)

I reviewed the changes to the residential simulator included in CAM 2.1, the SC4devotion forum concerning it and the CAM 2.1 manual. CAM 2.1 does not address or fix the findings I have presented. There are no modifications to the education buildings in CAM2.1 that I found in the .DAT files included, and the modifications to the residential simulator concerning education are only that low wealth sims start with an EQ of 10, medium wealth start with an EQ of 15, and high wealth start with an EQ of 20 (vs 20, 40, and 60 for the base game). That won't address the reincarnation issue that obsoletes elementary schools, and it will only lower the peak education reached for each school with the base settings by 10 for low wealth sims in the first generation, a minimal impact. It will have no effect on subsequent generations.

Okay, on to Modifications The target is to achieve a balanced educational system that gives greater ability to control the level of education reached by our sims. Additionally, there is a desire to have the system better align with education in the real world. Lastly, it should inspire the use of the full suite of educational institutions provided, to enhance the challenge and the fun. First, let's take a look at the Residential Simulator education properties old values new values hex decimal hex decimal Average age reset value 0x28 40 0x19 25 EQ Decay n/a 0.2 n/a 0.1 EQ Reset percent n/a 80 n/a 20 low wealth EQ 0x14 20 0x14 20 medium wealth EQ 0x28 40 0x28 40 High wealth EQ 0x3C 60 0x3C 60 low wealth average age 0x19 25 0x19 25 medium wealth average age 0x1E 30 0x1E 30 high wealth average age 0x23 35 0x23 35 Let's get this out of the way first. The reincarnation system was likely designed with the idea of creating stability from one generation to the next, but it is highly flawed. After one generation in a no growth city, the average age of the populace permanently shifts from age ~40 to ~60. Even in a growing city, established neighborhoods experience the same effect. While this sort of effect can be seen to an extent in certain cities in real life, it is not to the level experienced in game. If I were in the room when the game designers made this decision, I would advocate for a different approach. Rather than dealing with sims passing on with the reincarnation mechanism, simply move in new sims to take their place. In most cases, I believe that's how it works in reality, no? How many people go on to inherit and live in their family homes vs. moving into vacancies at young age? Since we cannot change the base code of the game and only have the parameters to tinker with, we can do the next best thing. The average age reset value has been modified to age 25, the same age as when the low wealth new sims move in to newly built properties. But how to deal with the inherited knowledge of these young reincarnated sims? Well there is not a perfect solution available. If we leave this value at 80%, then the subsequent generation will receive a massive head start in EQ and be at EQ4 in no time, if they weren't already. However, if the value is set too low, the reincarnated sims will be handicapped vs. newly moved in residents. I settled on an EQ Reset of 20%. This means if a sim reaches life expectancy at EQ100, they will be reset to EQ20, so they will have the same age and EQ as a newly moved in R$ sim. If they have a lower EQ at end of life, the next generation will have a small penalty they need to overcome, likely meaning the educational system in the city needs an upgrade. If they an EQ higher than 100 when they reach old age, that will actual provide a boost to the next generation. Since EQ200 is the max, the next generation could start off with an EQ as high as 40. Cities with robust educational systems will have an easier time maintaining high EQs, but not nearly as easy as it was in the base game settings. (I did play around with the idea of all new and reincarnated sims starting at EQ0, but the simulations didn't prove too promising. I think it could work with more tweaking though.) What impact do these changes have? The main thing is that the Primary (Elementary) education school works the same for each generation, not only the first. Every generation will go through the same cycle of beginning at a low EQ and learning as they age through each educational institution. Is there a catch or a downside? Yes. When a neighborhood all reaches life expectancy around the same time, there will be an 80% drop in EQ, and it will take 25-40 years to return back to the same EQ through educating the young sims that replace them. There are ways to mitigate or eliminate this issue though, which I will discuss at the end of the post. (Some may not even see it as an issue, as it raises how dynamic a city is with shifting job demands. Also, established businesses in the game are quite sticky. Demand can drop quite a bit without businesses moving out. EX. tax on dirty industry can be raised to 15% and demand for I-D can be -6000, yet the established I-D will almost never move out unless they are forcibly removed by bulldozers) There is still EQ Decay to discuss. The game sets this to 0.2 per month, meaning in 20 years sims lose 48 EQ if they're not being actively educated. 20 years drops a 197EQ (EQ4) sim to 149 (EQ3). Over the course of a 40 year career, the sims drop two entire EQ levels. Let us think of the four EQ levels as corresponding with educational levels in real life. EQ1 (0-50) is no Primary education. EQ2 (50-100) is Primary (Elementary) education. EQ3 (100-150) is Primary (Elementary) and Secondary (High School) education. EQ4 (150-200) is Primary (Elementary), Secondary (High School), and Tertiary (College) education. So if a sim achieves a college level education, after 40 years they have dropped to an elementary level. That seems excessive. I have halved this value from 0.2 to 0.1, so in 40 years they will drop 48 EQ or one education level. Educational Building Properties Onto the institutions that educate our sims. In the base settings, primary, secondary, and tertiary educational buildings all achieve a peak EQ near to or over 150, the EQ4 threshold. We have just discussed that this level should correspond to graduating from all three education levels. Ideally, each primary, secondary, and tertiary school should raise EQ 60 points, just a bit more than the minimum for 1 EQ level. Elementary (Primary) School Base Stats elementary school Effectiveness cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 300 24 384 5 5 0.5 0 0 0 0 500 EQxEffect 120 120 12 0 0 0 0 New Stats elementary school Effectiveness cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 300 8.5 384 5 5 1.1 0 0 0 0 500 EQxEffect 42.5 42.5 9.35 0 0 0 0 The EQ boost has been lowered to achieve a target EQ of 60. The effectiveness for the age 40 bracket was about doubled to stall the effects of EQ decay until after that age. Results High (Secondary) School Base Stats High School Effectiveness cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 650 24 512 0 0.5 5 2.5 0 0 0 750 EQxEffect 0 12 120 60 0 0 0 New Stats High School Effectiveness cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 650 8 512 0 2.5 5 0.5 0 0 0 750 EQxEffect 0 20 40 4 0 0 0 The EQ boost has been lowered to achieve a target EQ of 60. The effectiveness for the age 30 and age 50 bracket have been swapped to move the EQ effect earlier in life and allow EQ decay to take effect sooner. Results College Base Stats City college Effectiveness cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 1000 24 5800 0 0.5 1.5 5 2.5 0.5 0 7000 EQxEffect 0 12 36 120 60 12 0 New Stats City college Effectiveness cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 1000 8 5800 0 0.5 1.5 5 2.5 0.5 0 7000 EQxEffect 0 4 12 40 20 4 0 The EQ boost has been lowered to attempt to achieve a target EQ of 60. 56 is close enough, right? Results Library Base Stats library cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 250 0.3 512 30 30 30 30 30 25 20 30000 9 9 9 9 9 7.5 6 New Stats library Effectiveness cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 250 0.1 512 15 15 15 60 60 30 15 30000 EQxEffect 1.5 1.5 1.5 6 6 3 1.5 Park Effect 60 over 30 tiles Landmark Effect 20 over 15 tiles Since EQ Decay was reduced from 0.2 per month to 0.1, it follows that we should reduce the power of the library, lest it become too effective. I still want it to slow EQ decay, not eliminate it, although it is marginally more effective than the base library for ages 50 and 60 when considering the 50% reduction in EQ decay. Also, originally it enhanced the elementary and High Schools a bit too much, so I reduced the age weights for ages 20, 30, and 40. It only provides a small boost now. Finally, I gave the library the same landmark and park effects as a Medium Park Green. In real life libraries attract residents. Museum Base Stats Museum cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 450 40 5800 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.75 1.5 3 900 12 12 12 12 30 60 120 New Stats Museum Effectiveness cost EQ boost radius age 20 age 30 age 40 age 50 age 60 age 70 age 80 capacity 250 1 512 1 1 1 1 2 3.5 3.5 900 EQxEffect 1 1 1 1 2 3.5 3.5 Park Effect 25 over 25 tiles Landmark Effect 60 over 15 tiles Okay, it was obvious from the base museum results that this building was too overpowered, so I nerfed it. Rather than the museum covering the whole map, it has the same coverage area as that of the library. In the base version, it took uneducated elderly sims and turned them in EQ4 geniuses. Now, the building is only slightly more effective than the library on the age 70 and age 80 cohorts. How to compensate for such a loss of power? Well, I lowered the cost to match the library, and since the radius is also reduced to that of the library, it costs a similar amount to fund, between $20 and $40 a month for 3,500 sims. I also gave the museum the same landmark and park effects as a Medium Plaza. In real life, museums are often used to draw demand to an area. Effective use of the modified Educated System Now that each educational primary, secondary, and tertiary institution contributes a bit more than one EQ level to a sims knowledge, we have great control over what final EQ level our sims achieve. An Elementary (Primary) School will achieve an EQ level of 2 (50-100) prior to EQ Decay. Adding a High (secondary) School will achieve an EQ level of 3 (100-150). The addition of a college will achieve an EQ level of 4 (150-200). Libraries and museums will slightly boost the target EQ level and delay the effect of EQ Decay, so sims will stay at or near the target EQ level until much later in life. Let's take a look at the performance of standard combinations of schools. Elementary (Primary) School, High (Secondary) School, Library and Museum Sims reach EQ level 3 (100-150) at around 20 years and maintain it for the duration of their lifetime. Without the library and museum, they would drop to EQ level 2 (50-100) some time before their death. Elementary (Primary) School, High (Secondary) School, College, Library and Museum Sims achieve EQ level 4 (150-200) and maintain it throughout their lifetimes. Without the library and museum, they might drop to EQ level 3 (100-150) some time before their death. Okay, but what about the Massive EQ drop experienced at Death?? That can't be good! Well, as mentioned earlier in the post, there is a way to mitigate this problem. When developing the city, the city planner should ensure that there is a healthy mix of ages within each school's neighborhood. The following example was made using an Elementary (Primary) school, High (Secondary) School, and a library. Smoothing was achieved by filling the neighborhood within the school's radius in 1/3 increments. At 0 years the entire neighborhood was allowed to grow. At 13 years 1/3rd of the neighborhood moved out (via bulldozer) and new sims were allowed to move in. Again at 26 years, a different 1/3rd of the neighborhood moved out and new sims were allowed to move in. This rather cruel method is not the only choice, there are more humane ways to achieve similar results if desired. In most cases, since cities are grown and developed over time, there is likely a healthy mix if ages present already and this micro-management won't be necessary. However, if viewing the Education chart is showing massive swings, we know what to do. Elementary (Primary) School, High (Secondary) School, Library smoothed

I'm using CAM 1.0

I've taken on the monumental task of recreating Chicago in SC4, and have come across another hurdle. First off, I want to Thank @Ulisse Wolf for pointing me in the right direction to completing Diagonal bridges using RHW viaducts. It's allowed me to complete the Chicago Skyway bridge over the Calumet River! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Now for the hurdle I came across: Where I-94 intersects with Stony Island Avenue, there is a need for an E2-Inside ramp. Please have a look and let me know if I am missing something IE an existing ramp works for this. If I am correct that an E2-Inside ramp is needed for this and if any of the team has a small amount of bandwidth, could this be put out as a quick patch? I think it should involve taking the E2 ramp as a starter and swapping the yellow and white outside lane lines, plus reversing the pathing.

How difficult is it to modify the stats of existing Maxis Lots? I'm frustrated by the inaccurate (and inadequate) low power stats of the Maxis power plants, and after searching the STEX, I'm not satisfied with the results there either. I'd like some powerplants that don't change the game balance e.g. have the same cost per MWh as the originals but produce realistic amounts of power so a medium to large city doesn't require multiple power generating stations. I found this on the STEX: and it's close to what I want but although the generation was scaled up the cost was not scaled linearly. Thanks!

Are Diagonal neighbor connections possible? I can't get the flex NC to click over the highway. I'm too close to the edge of the map to add a curve to transition to straight.

Gotcha, the intersections will function though? I can live with it if it's cosmetic only.

I've been attempting to build a diagonal viaduct using RHW-6s that is at L2 at the waterfront. Using DBE to drain the water, I wanted to do an on-slope transition from L2 to L4 via the L0-L2 diagonal onslope FHT. Is this possible? If not can the support be added?

Looks Great! I can't get smooth ramp transitions to road networks, also no signalized intersections. Also working on diagonals is tough\\\\\\\\\\

Does the FHT diagonal only work with L0 to L1? No matter how I try, I can't override it to convert RHW-6S L1 to RHW-6S L2.

I think we can close this thread. After keeping R-$$ at a 8.5% tax rate for a couple years the population began consistently adding 2,000-3,000 every 3-5 years. I'm now at 88,000 population.

Wow okay, the tax rates matter a lot, which doesn't quite make intuitive sense. Why would 50,000+ people want to move in at 10% tax and then the next 10,000 refuse? I lowered the tax rate from 10-7% all else equal and my pop when from 56,000 to 63,000 in a matter of months. The interesting thing is putting the rate back to 10% only 1,000-2,000 people moved out so now I'm at 61,000. This in turn boosted demand for more businesses and helped my budget. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks Lucario, I was out of town a few days so a bit slow to reply. I'm happy to note that since my first post I have increased the city population from 36,000 to 56,000, mostly from re-zoning large patches of low res to medium (the small patches I re-zoned previously didn't grow, it seems the game wasn't interested unless it had a lot to choose from) and neighbor development. This City is in a mid-sized plot so I'm not sure what a normal fully grown Population would be, but I'd like to reach 85,000 for the major league stadium reward. It would seem possible since I have 5 res high rises already that hold 2500-3000 sims. I'll address the bullets one by one: Neighbor connections. I have developed to neighbor cities of 18,000 pop and 12,000 pop. Both are connected by Avenue and the 18k city also has a subway connection. They have Mostly industry and res with ~20% commercial. Both have I-HT parks since the main city has more sims applying for HT than can be supported (over-educated). The main city is 80% commercial/20% industry mostly I-HT. Taxes, I have lowered them at times to encourage growth of I-HT, CO$$, CO$$$ with success, currently I have 10% on all res, 9% on CS, 8% on CO, I-M 10%, I-HT, 9%. I did play with lowering res tax after reading your post and it does increase demand, however my budget won't allow me to keep them low permanently. Imbalance between jobs and educational requirements. Yes, this has been a problem. My EQ is 190+ as I have schools, libraries, college, university, museums, major art museum, main branch library. Building the neighbors as mostly I-HT industrial parks helped a bit I think but I do have slight issues of abandonment due to long commute times. I guess the subway line between cities just isn't fast enough or doesn't cover enough jobs. The commercial job mix seems pretty accurate according to the census, I have 5,000 I-HT commuters though. Highest capacity/hierarchy transportation network between neighbors: Avenue and Subway. I'll try the ground highway stub. On subway I'll try adding more stations in the neighbors near the I-HT jobs. One thing that worried me with the neighbor connections is there are sims flowing both ways and stress the transportation. Reward buildings I've unlocked and built: Marina, Country club, radio station, TV station, small INTL airport, Convention Center, Opera House, Stock Exchange, University, Advanced Research Lab, Disease research center, Main branch library, major art museum. No Garbage problem, I have waste to energy incinerator. I also have water treatment plant, and air pollution is low nearly everywhere. I'm on to reading the tutorial Mr_sim!

Some parks, schools and hospitals are maxed. I even have museums, college, university, advanced research lab, libraries. The education quotient is 185. All caps are <6% except farming which is 100%. I am totally zoned at this point and have some high density zones. I've been re-zoning from light to medium but when I do I don't see them developing. Sometimes I will bulldoze and the same low density buildings will come back.