A lot of Custom content not growing

[metmascot31]

So I've downloaded a lot of custom growable content.  In particular I downloaded all of simgoobers commercial packs, and i've been excited to start seeing department stores and restaurants and things pop up in my suburban communities.

However, im getting the same few lots pop up all the time.  circuit city, ace hardware, and toys are us pop up like crazy and almost NOTHING else pops up.  I actually do get a rather wide variety of restaurants but i only get the same 10 or 12 and considering that there are more than that (40 i think?) it's annoying.  but as far as mid lever commercial service i get almost exclusively the same few lots, and they are dominating my cities - ive tested this over a number of cities and i've been zoning lot sizes of all different types.  I'll demolish the lots and they will just grow back again!  it happens almost exclusively with commercial service lots.  it gets to the point where 5 circuit cities will grow next to each other and 5 toys are us's will be across the street.  since they are part of simgoobers pack, i don't understand why this is happening.

this is bumming me out because i think i have hundreds of different other lots, at least 200 of which are simgoober's, which i like a lot.

can anyone tell me why this is happening or how to make it stop?  it's rather annoying lol

[Panda_Power]

Yeah I get this sometimes too and it's so annoying and so unrealistic! I'll zone a piece of land and suddenly all of the same building grows! I wish there was something built in to the program that would tell it not to grow the same building in the same zone or in the same area up to X number of miles etc.

**Edit** It does seem to be commercial all the time with mine too. In my current city I zoned a medium density piece of land and 30 Murphy's Cosy Bars grew! I love the building, but 30 on the same plot of land...not so much!

[wes.janson]

It all depends on the growth stage/size of zones. Try holding down the ctrl button while zoning for the proper sizes. You also might not have the demand for whichever growth type that certain lots require.

[jmyers2043]

There is some information in this thread that may be helpful to you. You'll discover as you read through the thread how important it is for content makers to 'populate' their buildings properly and choose the correct growth stage.

http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4441.0

My suggestion is for you to do one or two things. You may want to alter the growth stage of that particular building up one stage. You may need to download more similar buildings. This second option is the best way I've found to deal with buildings that act like weeds.

[Panda_Power]

Thanks for the info, it did help and also thank you for your mods! I've added a lot of your farms to my game because I'm really into creating rural cities and your farms are superb! I've also got your low wealth commercial buildings too because I use the Maxis blocker and low wealth commercial are hard to come by, so thanks for those!

I used the PIM-X tool to compare the Murphy's bar, which is a C$ building, to one of your C$ buildings and the capacity satisfied figure was very different, but then I'm not sure if that's because it's a bigger building and in that case would be reasonable....although 279 available jobs in a village pub seems a bit much! The capacity satisfied for most of the other C$ buildings ranges from around 30 to 50.

**Edit**
Do you think I should change the cap. sat. to a lower figure of around 35 or should I change it to a C$$ building and keep the cap.sat.? I just remembered that this building is also offered as a reward, so I might just delete the growable lot file and keep it as a ploppable reward.

[jmyers2043]

Hey Panda

but then I'm not sure if that's because it's a bigger building and in that case would be reasonable

You are correct. The jobs of a building are always determined by the size or volume of the building. As are other things such as power and water consumption. The download has two lots. One is a stage 2 and the other is a stage 3. 

You can probably up the growth stage to 3 and 4 and that should lower the frequency of growth as there will be other buildings of equal or greater size which the game engine can or may prefer to choose.

On the other hand - Calgraphix bats are always very beautiful and I like to admire them in the game in special locations. Such as Murphy's Bar near a harbor where the sailors hang out ... or at a cross road in a small village among some farms - a kind of Inn in the country. You may get more enjoyment from the bat if you make it into CS$ plop lot with jobs. The Xtool will probably assign similar number of jobs (depending on the fill factor you use). 

Good Luck.

Jim

[Indisguise]

When demand hits for growth the game picks the most advantagous building to grow for the demand, get city with high demand and the best lot grows and grows and grows, sometimes cause its a weed lot.


A weed is  a lot not modded correctly  by accident or on purpose (((coughcoughancienthistory-don'tgotherecoughcough))) to the stats of the other buildings in the same catigory, so it will grow more often cause it the best stats to fill demand, choking off all other lots so they never show up, Ussually this is in the CS area because of it high demand specially in the lower and middle stages with out water.

Only thing I found that works is when have a few lots of roughly the same stage and mod them to the exact same stats as each other, say 4-10 in each stage and wealth type, ((eg when you dowload a McD's also grab a  KFC, BK, Wendys and A&W, Dominos, this will create more variaty in  the chioce of the simulation on average. Even small variations in the stats, speacialtly in capasity and lot worth can make some lots almost always appear and making some never appear.


other option is to create a specialty city or mop up city with no RES off to the side to soak up demand in a region, open the city and set tax rate to be fabourable to the type you want to get rid of, run the simulator for a while to soak up demand. When you return to your "showcase" or main city your playing slightly raise tax rates in the same catigory and demand for that type will drop and for the most part stay lower as the simulation realizes theres already a lot of the wealth type  in the neighbourhood city and no res in the city to fill it, any time in the future the same catigory starts to become a promblem, stop save and return to the mop up city and run the simulator for a time  rince and repeat rince and repeat. As your main city expands move the mop up city further and further away. This also gives you the advantage of haveing a city with so much cash when you get to develping the city as a showcase city, you able to build and zone the city of your dreams without the use of any sort of money cheat 

[xxdita]

You also have to realize that even though buildings may fit on the same lot size, and be in the same growth stage, not all of these buildings are going to be the same size. So even if they are all given a proper filling degree in PIMX, there will still always be weeds growing in your cities.

Even if every BATter agreed to a uniform LOD box for each lot size, and every building was ran through PIMX and given the perfect mathematically derived filling degree... you're still gonna have weeds. 

If what you want is to balance a particular lot's growth, then you will need to adjust the capacity to be similar to other buildings that don't grow as frequently. If using PIMX, just adjust the filling degree a bit until you get numbers you like. Just make sure you don't bump the lot into the next stage, unless you want it to grow much less often.

[Panda_Power]

Thanks for all the advice and info....really helpful! Now whenever I see buildings cropping up too often I'll know what to do.