CAM doubled workforce workaround

[Pharaon-Kheops]

Hello Mayors,

Well, we know the CAM comes with an erroneously doubled workforce... In substance, this is not greatly problematic (in fact, it could even be positive, since more jobs=more incomes), but it could lead to two non-negligible issues:

1- the somewhat unrealistic proportion residents/jobs could frustrate the most fanatics of us (yes, I am one of those...     )

2- when version 1.1 will be released, solving this, what will all those jobs become in our CAMv1.0-created cities??? Probably, it will lead to a dramatic demographic push....

So I did look to find a way to avoid these two issues, and the best (I mean.... to my opinion) I found is... jobs storage.
I created a dummy city with an industrial zone, a commercial one and all the facilities they need (power, water, firefighters, parks, police, etc...). This city is adjacent and connected to a named city adjacent and connected to my center city (ie one tile away).
Using the census repository, I regularly let Dummyville develop until it totals jobs equal to half regional workforce and then go back to normal play. That way, my main city is not totally overwhelmed by commerce and industry and, when v1.1 will be released, I will only have to destroy Dummyville...

Some advice for those who want to try it:

- Dummyvile must be "linked" to your "played cities" by a line of named and connected cities.
- You have to open and save every city in the "link line" each time you go to and from Dummyville in order to update census information (this is why i put it only one tile away even though it is clearly ugly)
- I recommend destroying (god mode) and recreating Dummyville each time your population's average EQ reach a step (50,10,150) thus guarantying it will be in correlation with the people's desires.....   

Despite this little flaw, the CAM is unquestionnably one of the greatest addition to SC4, our game will never be the same after it (indeed, SC4+CAM+NAM is definitely  ANOTHER game), and I can't wait for v1.1
Thanks to all the tallented modders who make this game be still alive and challenging despite the years and the birth of his genetically modified successor (didn't like SCS even though I'm a great fan or CoTN)!

[xxdita]

Not sure that this will be an issue. But just to make sure, I'll test compare 1.0 with the latest beta and have a few answers in a bit.

[Pharaon-Kheops]

halving the total regional workforce would definitely be an issue, no? or is there something I do not understand correctly about this point?


PS: I have a city of 370000 hab. currently, with a "dummy" of about 150000 jobs. I would be glad to test the effectiveness of my workaround with the beta if it is possible....

[xxdita]

Halving the workforce WOULD be an issue if that's all that were done. But the regional jobs has also been corrected as well, so if your region is currently fairly balanced as far as workforce/jobs, then this will not be an issue. Any imbalances will stay proportionate. I've had no massive unemployment or over-employment problems.

What you will see is that Stage Growth is now accurate as well, meaning it will be a little harder to achieve the upper levels of CAM, without the double regional capacities. Your "dummy" city is a good workaround for this though, providing the extra jobs within the region to grow the higher stages faster.

[Pharaon-Kheops]

Hum, I feel some misunderstanding, so tell me if I am right:

all I have noticed to be "wrong", using census repository, is that the region workforce is equal to the region population, where it should be about 40 to 60% of it.
This mean that in order for your whole region to develop correctly, you have to supply about twice the number of jobs you normally have to.

If CAM 1.1 correct this, the regional workforce will be halved (almost), so half of the jobs you have in your region will become vacant..

"the regional jobs has also been corrected as well" could you explain briefly the nature of the correction concerning jobs?

[xxdita]

You will see your available jobs go up quite a bit for the region, but these jobs will ignite new Residential growth, and the balance should be the way it was originally intended.
If any workaround is needed for this, it would be a city full of Res, to provide a temporary workforce during the transition.
At the moment, most of my testing is strictly using the beta, in a fresh region.
But I will try coping some cities over to see how they fit into the new beta.

[Pharaon-Kheops]

Yes, that what freightened me.... the potential demographic explosion inducted by the sudden vacancy of half of the jobs...
I think we certainly agree on that point: a city growing too quickly is not good... (as it is in real life, indeed).
Thanks for your answer and for its quickness... And once again, if I could help for bêta test, it would be a pleasure... (I am at home, currently, so even with my 11-months old boy to care of, it let me plenty of time for this sort of things)

[xxdita]

Just checking everything over again, as I had a chance to play for a bit, and the Regional Residential Capacity is still showing as doubled. RippleJet has already gone through the same steps as fixing the Workforce numbers, but we're at this point unable to locate the properties causing the doubled RegResCap. Hopefully we'll get it figured out and fixed for the release, but that's a matter for RippleJet when he gets back to his own hemisphere.

[xxdita]

Sorry for the double post, but I thought this should be noted. When using the upcoming CAM1.1, in order for the Census Repository to reflect accurate numbers, you may have to open each city within a region and save. This is because the information reported is in the sav file of each city, and needs to be updated.