Gameplay question on Buildings-Lots-Stages

[kodlovag]

Hy everybody,

I have two questions. It would require long testing for me to find the answer, but maybe somebody already knows it. So I'm asking first then act...

1.
I have two buildings (A and B) with the same stats. Building A grows on 1 lot, while building B grows on 5 lots. All lots have the same stats. Will building B grow 5 times more often than A, or equal number of A and B will grow?

2.
Grow stages start at specific region-wise populations, and the percentage of Stage X buildings(?) must grow are given for population ranges. For example if I have 659 R$$ residents in my region, the simulator will balance them to 45%/40%/15% for stages 1/2/3. Are these percents valid for a) Number of lots, b) Number of buildings or c) Number of residents in Stage X buildings?

I downloaded W2W buildings and I would like to collect them into custom tilesets, and I need these information to better balance the tilesets. Then Maxis buildings can be safely ignored.

If you know how the game works, please help me.

[cogeo]

First of all, lots don't have "stats" actually, the parameters you can set for lots are the growth stage and the zones types it is allowed to grow on.

The number of occupants (residents or jobs) highly determines the likelihood of the grow/building to grow. For a given growth stage, buildings with a high number of occupants - esp if the lot size is small - are much likely to grow like weeds, taking over the city, while buildings with a low number of occupants will be much less likely to grow. So the number of occupants must be in accordance with the growth stage and lot size. Many Maxis buildings grow on two kinds of lots, a lower-density bigger lot and a higher-density smaller and higher growth stage lot. Eg mansions may grow on stage-1 4x5, stage-2 4x3, and stage-3 3x3 ans stage-4 2x3 lots.

All other parameters being equal, bulding B would be more likely to grow I guess, but I may be wrong. Not sure if the percentages concern the number of buildings/lots (these are 1:1 anyway) or the number of occupants, but I think the former is the case (I have been able to cram most of my R$ in high-rise tenements in a 35,000 res city). However there are many other factors that control development, not just growth stages and population. most notably:
- Demand: if you don't have strong enough demand you won't get higher densities.
- Zones' density available: higher-growth-stage lots require medium- or high-density zones to grow.
- Land value and Desirability: even mid- and high-rise tenements require fairly high land value and desirability to grow. To get them, you must have elementary (but not necessarily high) school and hospital coverage, some (but not many) parks nearby, and peferably a msss-transit station (eg busstop).

[kodlovag]

Thank you for the help.

I'm using SC4 PIM (=X-Tool?) to balance the occupants, lot sizes and stages. The first question was related to variety. (Same lot stats means equal size and stage.) But if building B will grow much more frequently, I must delete some of its lots or make new lots for building A. Otherwise I might damage the variety.
Meantime I reread the Prima Guide, and I found the development order of operations:
- Selecting the most desirable area
- Selecting a lot size
- Selecting the highest possible stage
=> The building is determined.
It means that building B will grow more often.

Question 2. How the game development simulator does select buildings to grow? This is from Chapter 11 - Development in SC4 Prima Guide:
Buildings for that developer type are limited to
the specified percentages and the developer
simulation works to maintain the balance. For
instance, when you cross the R§ 857 population
threshold, your Stage 1 percentage should be
45—too high for the new threshold. Until that
drops to 30 percent, no more Stage 1 buildings
will be constructed. Until the requisite balance
(30/45/25) is established, only Stage 2 and 3
buildings will be constructed.
and
The current population dictates which building stage will be constructed. The simulator
selects the largest size permitted under the stage limit. This choice is guided by the stage
proportions, as the correct balance between sizes must be maintained. For example, if there
are already the maximum percentage of Stage 3 houses and not enough Stage 2, a Stage 2
building will be developed.
This sounds like a strict rule. But if I'm looking at the percentage table, it is clear that the game favors high-rise development (except for CS, where Stage 1 is favored why?). And I would like to build a huge region based on low and mid rise buildings. A rural region with medium cities. I just hope, this rule is not so strict. I think many people are successfully building rural regions. Well, I still have the possibility to mod those tables.
The other confusing thing is the Stage X houses/buildings, because stages are related to lots, and the stage - building relation (as you already mentioned) is not always definite.
So question 2 is still not clear for me.

[cogeo]

If the A and B buildings (and their lots) are quite similar, you can turn them into building families and use them as such, in the lots, ie both buildings would be able to grow on all lots (just like Maxis has made the ingame buildings and lots).