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Residential Average Income + Demand - Weird!

Started by itsbernie81, June 01, 2009, 07:22:56 AM

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itsbernie81

PS: apologies in advance.  I posted something similar in Simtropolis as this board was down earlier today.  Sorry if you have seen this twice!

Hi there,

First and foremost, thanks to the BSC team for CAM.  It has basically changed completely the way I play SC4 and has made the development of large, sustainable cities with no unemployment a lot easier.  It seems to me that the CAM does so by significantly boosting the demand for commercial and industrial development (or perhaps repressing residential development).  Whatever it is, SC4 with CAM makes the game much more enjoyable.

However, after playing the game with CAM for a few weeks now, I have noticed some strange developments.  I am not suggesting that CAM caused them, though I would be interested in any comments and suggestions:

    * Big drops in resident average income each time I load a city.  A typically established city in SC4 with a reasonable mix of citizens of the three wealth types, in my experience, has an average income of about 70,000 simoleons.  Recently, I have noticed that when I load my cities, the average income halves immediately.  And it continues to halve again every time I load.  This is not accompanied by a change in wealth type distribution (i.e. the change in average income seems to have no correlation with the composition of wealth types).  This has obviously been triggered by something only recently as I have been playing with CAM for a few months now and this has not affected my cities during the early stages of the region's development.  For the record, my largest city, with a reasonable mix of citizens of the three wealth types, has an average income of 10,000 after successive falls.  Not sure whether this is relevant, but I have a severe imbalance in my workforce vs. available jobs.  A substantial number of buildings are without workers.

    * Sudden changes in demand.  In my biggest city, I noticed something extremely bizarre.  I have been building that city (without building up its neighbours) for several sim decades.  One time, I load the city, and residential demand suddenly plummets.  I am used to this happening when I play neighbour cities that may absorb too much demand, but this is a case where I have not touched the neighbour cities for years.  The residential plummet was immediate.  My city lost 70,000 (about 10% of its population) overnight.  Since then, it was been struggling to grow smoothly (as it usually does under CAM).  After a few wild swings, it has recovered the lost population, however.

And on a totally different (and I know, sensitive) topic unrelated to CAM, I have also seen the first sign of the so called "Prop Pox", though I want to note something.  It should not be called "Prop Pox".  Model files are affected too.  I have seen props go missing, as well as entire SC4Model files.  One of my Maxis industrial buildings has suddenly just gone.

Best regards,
Bernie

tag_one

The sudden drop in resident average income sounds familiar. I experienced it as well. I had two big drops and when I loaded the city the next day the resident average income grew as dramatically as it dropped. As it didn't affected the demand I scratched my had and continued playing.

itsbernie81

Good to know I am not alone!

Unlike your experience, however, tag_one, the res avg income didn't surge back up.  It grew slowly (as it would normally, as though no sharp drop occurred).
I have a very poor city filled with skyscrapers supposedly inhabited by wealthy sims, next to many empty office buildings.

RippleJet

The tax income is a function of the property Building Value and Tax Rate.
Thus, a sudden drop in tax income, without a number of buildings being bulldozed,
would only indicate that a large chunk of buildings have suddenly become abandonded...

That is most probably connected to the sudden changes in demand you've experienced,
and that in turn is probably caused by the doubled regional residential capacity and workforce that CAM causes,
which again explains the imbalance in workforce vs. available jobs and buildings being without workers.

The prop pox issue most certainly does not affect buildings, unless they are buildings as props.
Ingame (industrial) buildings are most certainly not props though...

Would you have a picture of that issue, and maybe post that in the prop pox thread?
The prop pox and CAM are at least not interconnected... :)

itsbernie81

Thanks Ripplejet :)

I thought it may give you more insight into the issues above if I posted some screenies.

First, the demand situation in Central, the biggest city.  I actually loaded and played each of the neighbouring cities and made sure there was surplus residential demand that was unmet in the hope it would boost residential demand in Central.  To my shock, it got WORSE!?  A few substantial large commercial buildings sprung up in the meantime and the residential demand picked up a little, though it is still deep on the negative side.


Here's an illustration of the sharp falls in res avg income.  You can see the fall each time I loaded Central for play.  It does not recover sharply as tag_one reported with his cities.


Here's the stats from Central to the extent that helps.


And here's the prop pox example from a neighbouring city called Sylvestro.  See how Dead Forest Paper has 2x4 squares which seem to be missing almost all of the props (or perhaps models?) If this is worth posting in one of the Prop Pox threads let me know.  It is pretty mild Prop Pox.  I think it has not spread further as far as I can see (I hope!)


Thanks again,
Bernie

tag_one

Here's my resident average income graph:


I can't remember if I changed anything in the tax rates. Probably not, but I don't know that for sure. Anyway it didn't had any influence on my cities behavior and demand.

RippleJet

Ahh, sorry... I thought you were talking about the tax income... &ops
The average income (or salary) is a function of education and wealth.
This is shown only in the graphs, and isn't used anywhere in the simulator.

Such a sharp drop happens without the CAM as well,
when the eldest population dies and is replaced with young, uneducated sims...
Youngsters have a pretty poor income... ::)

The incomes are set in the Demand Simulator:


Education
        R§       
      R§§       
     R§§§     
0-50
17,000
25,000
45,000
51-100
19,250
31,250
108,750
101-150
21,500
37,500
172,500
151-200
26,000
50,000
300,000

New young sims, replacing old sims having an education close to 200 when they are dying,
have the following education when moving into town, as given in the Residential Simulator:


Wealth:
    R§   
    R§§   
    R§§§   
Education:
20
40
60

itsbernie81

Thanks Ripplejet  &apls What a fountain of knowledge!

I am looking forward to the residential demand being rectified in CAM 2.0!