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Showing results for tags 'demands'.
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CoriBoom Those Stretchy RCI Graph Demand Bars
CorinaMarie posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
Those Stretchy RCI Graph Demand Bars (Being a Comparison of, and a Diagnostic Panel for, the Differences Between Actual and Apparent Visible Demand in the Game's RCI Graph.) Background Some of y'all may have used The C.O.R.I. Reports and the parts of interest for this topic are the Active Demands. I have confirmed the game variables for these are the very same shown in RJ's Census Repository query panel. Namely: game.g_r1_active_demand game.g_r2_active_demand game.g_r3_active_demand game.g_co2_active_demand game.g_co3_active_demand game.g_id_active_demand game.g_im_active_demand game.g_iht_active_demand And those are found in the Lua in entry ca63e2a3-4a5e8ef6-ffbf9ccf of SimCity_1.dat. Initial Observation I noticed that the numeric values for Demand often seem to be significantly different than what the RCI Bar Graph shows. At first I just assumed the known delay of the internal game.g variables updating was out of sync with the chart. However, in a stable city where those are not changing there actually is a difference. In this pic, CB has cropped out the demand info from the repository panel to place alongside the graph: ^ It's apparent that the graph shows completely different values. Like in this example the Actual Demand for R$ is 2,582, yet the graph shows it at around 4,000. So, what's up with that methinks? Investigation After peeking and testing, I found that this discrepancy is deliberate. If we change the Data Graph to have a baseline of zero (by removing the Graph minimum Y value property 0xea4aedc6), it then corresponds perfectly to the Actual Demand values: ^ See how that 2,582 of R$ (and all the others with a number in the repository panel) now match up? Analysis Next I set the demands to a fixed, unchanging amount and CB measured the pixel heights of the Y Axis tick marks and the visible bars: ^ I also altered the scale so they would be multiples of 512 and taller to insure better accuracy. The idea worked perfectly to determine if there was an underlying formula for how much the bars are stretched. That turns out to be: Visible Demand = (Bar Height / (Actual Demand * (Distance per Y Tick Line / Y Tick Value))) * Actual Demand ^--- All parentheses in equation added for clarity. Ofc, this was only the first step since the game doesn't actually tell us the height of the bars in pixels. Correlation By running multiple sets of specific demands and CB measuring the bars to get the Visible Demand numbers, I then used polynomial regression and the best fit was when comparing the natural log of the Actual Demand to the natural log of the percent of the space used by the Visible Demand between the zero line and the maximum Y tick value. CB created a nice UI panel where I could show the correlation between the two sets of data: ^ We've set this to be an override for the Maxis Park Query so it's relatively easy to access anywhere within your city. The upper left keeps the Maxis info for the Monthly Maintenance Cost and the rest is the new data display. Technical Consideration You might notice that the demand for CS-$, CS-$$, CS-$$$, and Agriculture are now included in our query panel. I discovered that one of the built-in Maxis Lua functions allows direct access to the Actual Demand for all 12 RCI types as follows: game.trend_value(hex2dec("2A67A399"),0) -- Low Wealth Residential (R-§) game.trend_value(hex2dec("AA67A3A0"),0) -- Medium Wealth Residential (R-§§) game.trend_value(hex2dec("8A67A3A4"),0) -- High Wealth Residential (R-§§§) game.trend_value(hex2dec("0A67A3A9"),0) -- Low Wealth Commercial Services (CS-§) game.trend_value(hex2dec("AA67A3AD"),0) -- Medium Wealth Commercial Services (CS-§§) game.trend_value(hex2dec("CA67A3B2"),0) -- High Wealth Commercial Services (CS-§§§) game.trend_value(hex2dec("AA67A3B7"),0) -- Medium Wealth Commercial Office (CO-§§) game.trend_value(hex2dec("2A67A3BC"),0) -- High Wealth Commercial Office (CO-§§§) game.trend_value(hex2dec("EA67A3BF"),0) -- Agriculture (I-Ag) game.trend_value(hex2dec("0A67A3C4"),0) -- Dirty Industry (I-D) game.trend_value(hex2dec("EA67A3C8"),0) -- Manufacturing Industry (I-M) game.trend_value(hex2dec("8A67A3CC"),0) -- High Tech Industry (I-HT) With the actual demand info now available for all of them, I wrote some Lua code that can convert the real demand into the Apparent Visible Demand as seen on the RCI Graph. Well, most of the time. (It's not perfect.) The code is also scalable to any other graph Minimum and Maximum (excluding a zero minimum where the graph is already accurate and which would confuzzle the hell out of my code). Caveats: Since the above functions access the current month data the moment the query panel is opened, it can show a different value from what you will see in the RCI graph because said graph only updates once per month. Also, my calculations are not 100% accurate, only pretty damn close, so there can be a few percent of error depending on the particular values of the Actual Demand data. And further, the data in the query panel does not update unless closing it and reopening. (This part is the same as all UI panels which show Lua variable's info including the Census Repository's.) In Game Results Here's a city tile I've been playing for a long while which shows how our new Diagnostic Panel looks in the game and you can compare the calculated Apparent Demand with the Bar Chart: Other Scales Ofc, this wouldn't be of much interest unless it can work with custom content (which it does). Here's the same city while using CAM 2.1.0's demand enhancements: ^ Notice how the game goes extra stretchy for the bars when the actual demand is lower? Look at R$$$ with an Actual Demand of 3,706, but which comes in around 20,438 on the chart. The Attachments Note: Use only one at once! For Vanilla Maxis Replacement: CoriBoom Actual Demand vs Apparent (+6k to -6k ) as Park Query - v1.0.dat As long as you are not using any other RCI Demand Graph override nor any Park Query override, you can drop our file anywhere in your Plugins. For SPAM: Use the Vanilla Maxis Replacement file above. (SPAM does not alter the RCI graph.) Same as above, drop anywhere in plugins providing you have no other RCI Demand Graph override nor any Park Query override. For CAM 2.1.0: CoriBoom Actual Demand vs Apparent (+54k to -10k ) as Park Query - v1.0.dat This one can be placed in your ..\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\a__CAM\a__Core folder. It doesn't technically need to override any CAM exemplars, but that's a good place to put it. The only consideration is to not be using any other Park Query override. For XX_Turbo: zCoriBoom Actual Demand vs Apparent (+52k to -10k ) as Park Query - v1.0.dat This one is a slightly special case inasmuch as XX_Turbo includes an override for the RCI Demand Graph, but it is not consistent with the maximum enhanced demands it sets. (The settings allow up to +52,000, but the graph has a maximum of 50,000.) This causes the bars to go above the top line like this: Our file therefore includes a modification to set the top of the graph to 52,000 so it looks like this: By default the installer for XX_Turbo places the XX_Turbo.dat file in ..\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\xxdita_bsc folder and ours needs to go in the same place. (If you've moved their mod to some other location in your Plugins, just search for "XX_Turbo.dat" and add our file there.) For the Radical RCI demand/graph mod: This one sets all the Demands to a Maximum of 65,536 and does not vary. We didn't make a Query for this since it would show the same numbers in both columns. For my 40_MZ v0.01 - Demands Graph Increased Height (to 9000).dat: This seemed like a good idea at the time when I didn't realize changing the scale only stretched the RCI Graph bars rather than showing some new, hidden demand. Simply remove the file if you downloaded it then use the appropriate file attached above. Tweaking for Any Other RCI Demand Graph Range Since we don't know if there are any other Custom graphs, here's how you can modify the attached Vanilla file to work with other Heights. Download the Maxis Vanilla file attached above and open it in Reader 0.9.3. What you are looking for is entry ca63e2a3-4a5e8ef6-f8b44574 which is the Lua code. The only two things which need to be revised are in this top section: ^ Notice the two variables: cmMaxGraphYTickValue cmMinGraphYTickValue Change the cmMaxGraphYTickValue to match the maximum demand the mod you are using can have and change the value of cmMinGraphYTickValue to match the minimum demand. Arbitrary Example: If you happen to have a mod which uses, say, a range of 24,000 to -12,000 then the changes would look like this: Apply the tweaks and save the file. It's a good idea to alter the file name so it reflects the range you've set. Conclusion Nothing in the attached mods change any demand settings nor alter gameplay in any way. Our new Diagnostic Panel simply provides detailed info about the Actual and Apparent Demands for peeps who might be curious. Appreciation Special thanks yet again to @Cyclone Boom for all the technical help measuring the data bars in graph after graph, fine tuning of all the pics, proofreading, and final post layout polishing.- 11 Replies
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Why the ticker message? I will try looking at population graph. PAK is heavily modded. I think I found the problem.... is there no way to fix it? reduce sim health?
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Since I started playing again I have four cities in my region. It's coming along quite nicely. So, for the first time since I have been playing sim city I want to start a new series of cities in another area of my region. I was wondering, if I do that do the new cities start out basically brand new with no demand and one has to work their way up again or does one get the demand from the other cities even though they aren't connected? Because if not, I'm thinking I would like to have different areas in my region, one farming, one more industrial, the one I'm working on that's more commercial, and then have some sea side cities with beach casinos and ocean ports. Maybe sometime in the future to connect them all in one massive region. But if the demand is already across the board it kind if defeats that purpose.
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The topic of RCI DEMAND is one the sprawls quite A LOT; I've read plenty of them to tackle some issues when I play this game. However, the profundity of the RCI system can usually come up with a variation of issues and problems -- some which are hardly addressed in posts. I'm not some kind of veteran but I'm playing Simcity casually to an extent, and till this day, I can't find ways to understand why my demands flourish, then suddenly die and kill my city, and so on. Is there any comprehensive guide around with a explanations to the most intricate part of the system? In one example, i have skyrocketing demands for Medium commercial services and offices. Zoning them however eventually plops High Wealth commercial districts that eventually get abandoned. How are you supposed to deal with these ambivalent issues without harming your high wealth population or so? I'm left with a ridiculous unemployment crisis because of my inability to resolve this. If no guides are to be found, then let's not hesitate to turn this post into a personal troubleshooting, hints and tips post. Thanks!
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Version 1.0
14,743 Downloads
A real unique Reward BAT building (reward menu) that is truly conditional on your city. The Census Repository Facility plays a key role in keeping track of your census data (Pop Stats) and your City CAPS; there is no other (hand crafted) Query like it. Use this facility to maximize your City demands. If you get one BAT building this year, you must get this one! as even Your sims will wait in line to be counted. Updated: includes a no conditional SC4Lot file
