SC4 Devotion Forum Archives

SimCity 4 General Discussion and Tutorials => SimCity 4 General Discussion => Topic started by: mitch on May 26, 2011, 04:46:11 PM

Title: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: mitch on May 26, 2011, 04:46:11 PM
Hey folks,

I've been playing SC for a number of years now and for the first time I've decided to pay more attention to some rural and farming communities. Unfortunately, I'm having some strange abandonment with some of the fields. I currently have the CAM installed as well as some custom agricultural content by some of the creative members of SC4D. I-AG is still quite high. Anybody know how to fix or prevent this from happening?

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg855.imageshack.us%2Fimg855%2F1084%2Fsplainsaug2701306450607.th.png&hash=005ca12dfedcd67aee599af96049a93121ddaf04) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/855/splainsaug2701306450607.png/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

Cheers,
Mitch
Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: dziki333 on May 26, 2011, 05:39:32 PM
It's happen, when pollution is high ("high" for farm).

Here is a fix  :) http://www.simpeg.com/forum/index.php?topic=9415.0



Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: mitch on May 26, 2011, 05:52:06 PM
Awesome!
Thanks for the quick reply!

Cheers,
Mitch
Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: Lowkee33 on May 26, 2011, 05:52:53 PM
@dziki333: Do you mean the Cleaner Maxis Farm Fields download?  This file makes your Maxis Fields clean the air, and also removes the water pollution they cause.  This will make some farms "come back" but not the ones in the picture.

These are custom fields and will not be affected.

The fields on the top might not technically have road connection (though it is clear to us that they do).  Try connecting some streets to the side of those fields.  If the fields come back, then you should be able to remove the streets no problem.

Otherwise, the road there is probably causing those farms to abandon.  Traffic Noise and Air Pollution have negative effects on farms.  Try changing the traffic flow, or perhaps plop some parks in that tile space.

My opinion is that this is Maxis' way of telling us that there is enough traffic that some commercial services can grow.
Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: jmyers2043 on May 26, 2011, 05:56:38 PM
Hey Mitch

The farm fields are dilapidating because of traffic. Traffic has a positive affect on commercial zones. Can have a negative affect on residential zones. Has a real bad affect on rural farmland. I've seen farm fields dilapidate because of pedestrians walking to their farm jobs. The same thing will happen with Maxis vanilla. It's not necessarily the fault of the CAM.  

You'll notice that it affects fields that have props as crops. Texture fields are not affected (like the Maxis pasture grass). So I sometimes delete a farm and hope that a different field grows.

Sometimes upgrading from a street to a road gives you some headroom.

I use rail and set some freight rail stations around and about. So as to funnel traffic into a city or small village where the crops are transported to a neighbor city. Query the road every once in a while. You'll see that fields will start to dilapidate when 225 to 250 trucks use the roads.

There is a freight truck traffic blocker somewhere in SimCity land. Most likely at Simtropolis. You can then prevent too much traffic down a stretch of roads.

You can also set the fields back about 5 tiles from the roads where you have too much traffic. You can plop some irrigation ditches, or sparsely zone some residential between the roads and fields to fill in the empty space.

CAM2 has made some improvements but that's in beta. It about doubles the amount of traffic before dilapidation sets in.

You can use the SPAM. Peg made some tweaks but you can still get crops to dilapidate. Keep in mind that the SPAM is not CAMpatible.  


- Jim

Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: dziki333 on May 26, 2011, 06:03:27 PM
@Lowkee33

These are custom fields and will not be affected.

Hm, for me this works for the custom farm fields too.

@jmyers2043

SPAM and CAM goes well together  :)
Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: jmyers2043 on May 26, 2011, 06:33:31 PM
QuoteSPAM and CAM goes well together

If you mean that it will not cause your game to crash to desktop then you're right. SPAM will throw the RCI demands off kilter. Ask the question - Why do I have 75,000 industrial workers in a region with only one city and 10,000 Sims? The answer will be something like ... Well, they've always been there but have never been counted but now they are. If you like that answer fine. I don't buy it.

By the way - I've also found that some crops made from props are more prone. SimGoober Wheat and Corn are usually the first ones to go. SimGoober Tobacco can take a bit more traffic. Not necessarily an answer to your dilemma ... just an observation I've made over time. 

One more observation ... The fields are more prone to turn to crud in large cities. Small and medium cities normally have neighbor connections closer at hand so traffic will not build up as easily.



Good Luck.



Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: Lowkee33 on May 26, 2011, 06:50:01 PM
Quote from: jmyers2043 on May 26, 2011, 05:56:38 PMBy the way - I've also found that some crops made from props are more prone. SimGoober Wheat and Corn are usually the first ones to go. SimGoober Tobacco can take a bit more traffic. Not necessarily an answer to your dilemma ... just an observation I've made over time.

Hmm, do the Wheat and Corn fields have a different amount of jobs than the Tobacco fields?  From what I remember, some SG fields have 3 jobs each.  Say something abandons at 50% occupancy, one field has two jobs and another three, and the occupancy is rounded up.  If the desirability would cause occupancy to drop %50, then the 2 job field would be at 1/2 and abandon, and the 3 job field would be 2/3 (rounded up) and be just fine.  Just a guess at the way it happens...
Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: dziki333 on May 26, 2011, 06:57:18 PM
SPAM will throw the RCI demands off kilter.

There are always some dilemma - mod with some problems or no problems and no mod. I have CAM merged with SimCity_1.dat and zzzSPAM. When I've added SPAM on developed region, RI demands were suspicious. On entirely new region so far it looks good.
Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: mitch on May 26, 2011, 07:43:01 PM
Thanks again for all the help on this;

dziki333- although it didn't help with the dilapidation, the fix you linked me too was awesome in reducing pollution produced by maxis farms

jmyers and lowkee- i think you hit the nail on the head with regards to traffic flow as a trigger. I closely monitord another streetxstreet intersection where traffic flow seemed to fluctuate for some reason. A corner of a particular farm at said intersection would go in and out of abandonment as the truck freight traffic would change form 150ish to over 200 something. I'll give the 5 tile space rule a try when my skills in aesthetics improve drastically &ops.

Cheers,
Mitch
Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: jmyers2043 on May 27, 2011, 06:40:13 AM
Quote from: Lowkee33 on May 26, 2011, 06:50:01 PM
Hmm, do the Wheat and Corn fields have a different amount of jobs than the Tobacco fields?  From what I remember, some SG fields have 3 jobs each. 

I'm not at my gaming computer and can't check which fields specifically. But SimGoober farms have anywhere from 1 to 3 jobs per field tile. All BLS fields have 1 job as are the ones I've done. All the SPAM fields I've looked at also have 1 job.

Quote from: dziki333 on May 26, 2011, 06:57:18 PM
I have CAM merged with SimCity_1.dat and zzzSPAM. When I've added SPAM on developed region, RI demands were suspicious. On entirely new region so far it looks good.

Now that is an interesting solution and the thought had not occurred to me. I'll have to do experimenting and see what process will give the best results. Otherwise, some knowledge of iLives reader is necessary to solve the suspiciousness. Boy am I glad you wrote about your experience.   :thumbsup:   


- Jim


Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: dziki333 on May 27, 2011, 10:26:51 AM

Here is a screenshot: BSC farms without dilapidation, despite of rather heavy traffic.

http://imageshack.us/content_round.php?page=done&l=img27/2213/geo27jul301306515355.jpg&via=mupload&newlp=1


Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: Lowkee33 on May 27, 2011, 12:00:33 PM
Did you plant the seasonal trees like that on purpose?  They should all be the same season otherwise.

Also, when you DatPacked Cam into SimCity, did you change the name of Cam to something like zCam?  Otherwise, you packed SimCity into CAM completely removing it.
Title: Re: Farmland Abandonment
Post by: dziki333 on May 27, 2011, 07:58:23 PM

Hi Lowkee33,

Yes, before packing i changed Cam name.

I made screenshot on a test region - also for testing terrain mods, so maybe testing done this seasonal mess  :-\ I have Your seasonal patch  :thumbsup: