BSC Farm Issues and Questions

[Shroud]

I reinstalled SC4 last week after putting it down for a few years and discovered all this great BSC, CAM and NAM content. I've got a few questions about the way BSC content works however.

With the CAM installed, it's my understanding that I-R content that is classified as stages 1-3 should be eligible to develop right from the beginning. My issue is that I'm seeing certain fields easily develop right off the bat while other types of lots never show up or show up very infrequently.

In an attempt to troubleshoot this, I cleaned out my Plugins folder, reinstalled the CAM/NAM/BSC essential files and then started to gradually add a few BSC farms. I've added the following:
BMD Med style farms and fields
SG Agricultural Lots
SG Cattle Farm
SG Revised Fields
SG Farm Fields vol 01, 02
and a few others plus all their necessary dependencies listed in their readme files to ensure that brown boxes don't occur.

Here is what's occurring even while zoning 10x10 I-R lots every time.
1) I'm getting at least 50% generic farm fields of Apple/Orange trees or grass which use Pumpkin Acres lots.
2) Many farm fields using the SG wheat and corn lots
3) Occasional farm fields using SG pole beans and rarely peanuts or seasonal flowers
4) Occasional BLS-enabled lots using the BLS corn or wheat lots

My Plugins\BSC\Farms folder has all sorts of lots in it which are clearly I-R stage 1-3 that I've NEVER seen despite testing this repeatedly in a new city/new region.

Example:
a) I-r2_3x3_SG_Rice Farm - never been seen despite seeing SG's corn, wheat, bean, peanut etc
b) Everything in my BSC\BLS folder besides the BLSGA Turkey Farm/Chicken Coop combo despite there being 35 files in this folder.
c) SG Cattle Farm
d) any of the farm content contained in JMeyersFarms vol 01, 02 despite them being installed


Am I mistaken about how often certain lots should be growing since it seems like certain lots always grow at the beginning? Some of this installed content seems to never appear despite being classified as I-R stage 1-3 growable.

[BarbyW]

First of all you do not need both SG's revised Farm Fields and the Vol01 and 02. The revised pack has all SG's fields in so that is the only one of those that you need.
Second, you really should have all the BSC Farm Field Packs: BSC Farm Fields CSX Vol01 and
BSC Farm Fields BLS Vol01 and Vol04. Any of the farm packs can and do use fields from any of the field packs so even if you only keep some farms you should always keep all the field packs.
You should, with CAM installed, get any of the stages 1 to 3 growing equally.

[Shroud]

I guess my real issue is with why certain farms seem to always grow while others, although installed, seem to never grow or only grow 1% of the time.

I have all the farm-oriented BATs that are currently on the LEX (plus some from the STEX which listed themselves as growable) installed in my plugins. When I run a new city within a new region and start zoning agriculture, I either get:
a) non-GLS lot which typical has a Pumpkin Acres lot
b) a GLS-enabled lot which is almost always either the turkey farm, holland tulips, or shannon's flower

Very rarely (maybe 1% of the time) will I see one that appears to be from the Ascheffel Beckdorf farm or the one with the Lemon Trees.

I've never seen the SG Dairy or Cattle Farms, JMeyer's Fraser Tree farm, Pastis Farm, Beet Farm, Willow Tree Farm and so on down the list.

Are certain farms set to only spawn rarely despite being stage 1-3? It strikes me as odd to see certain farm lots always grow while others appear to never grow.

[BarbyW]

Another factor to take into consideration is the zone size that you are using. For farms you need to zone a minimum of two tiles bigger than the farm you want to grow. Also try using the BSC No Maxis files. You can use any of the files in the zip so if you only want to block Maxis farms just use that file.
Which farms have you installed from the STEX? None of the ones on there have updated properties and do not fit into the CAM stats. If you have a mix that may be the problem.

[Shroud]

Another factor to take into consideration is the zone size that you are using. For farms you need to zone a minimum of two tiles bigger than the farm you want to grow. Also try using the BSC No Maxis files. You can use any of the files in the zip so if you only want to block Maxis farms just use that file.
Which farms have you installed from the STEX? None of the ones on there have updated properties and do not fit into the CAM stats. If you have a mix that may be the problem.

Using the Stop-I files from the BSC No Maxis Mod got rid of the Pumpkin Acres fields finally. Thanks.

I'm running a test city which is full of 54 10x10 zoned Agricultural Lots. 10x10 should easily allow most of these farm lots to grow based on the size listed in the individual lots filenames(I-R2_3x2.....). Is it necessary for the lots to be within certain folders or are they only required to be in Plugins for them to work properly?

[BarbyW]

As long as they are in pkugins they should grow. If you were to zone a variety of sized blocks you might get more variety too as the bigger the zone the bigger, the basic farm lot that is likely to be used by the simulator. By zoning some at 4x6, 6x4, 6x6 etc the bigger farms won't grow and you should get a variety of the smaller lots like the IR3 Willow Tree.

[Shroud]

Well I've been experimenting with them a bit today.

Plugins\BSC\Farms\BLS\I-r2_2x1_BLSGA_Turkey_Farm seems to be chosen almost every time when a new farm lot is grown. Nothing with a larger footprint (2x2, 2x3 or larger) is ever chosen as the anchor lot for a farm section. Removing this lot from the plugins folder completely appears to allow for a more diverse set of farms to occur during gameplay. Unfortunately I have no knowledge as to what the underlying mechanism is that determines which farm lot is chosen.

[florin.petrescu]

Hello.
I've noticed that the last post in this topic is 2 years old , but i am having the same " problem " as Shroud .

I have installed a lot of farms and farm crops plugins from BSC ( great work by the way ) : SimGoober farms, JMeyer farms vol. 2, Diary Farms & tabacco series  with all dependencies required + prevent_I_r_Lots.dat .
Every one of them works fine when tested alone , but when all plugins are installed there is a lack of diversity and it's very frustrating.

If Simgoober's farms are installed , JMeyer's farms will not appear.
If I don't use Simgoober's farms,I'll only get ONE JMeyer's  farm ! a single farm from all vol 2 and that's it.
I've tried with CAM ,no CAM , big zones, small zones...nothing. I am lost. 

I am using SC4 Deluxe Edition , and I am testing the farms in an empty region with one town of 2500 sims.

Where and/or what am I doing wrong ?

Thanks in advance ,
Florin.

[SecretHandshake]

Yes, same problem for me. It seems that the BSC Farms & Fields are so interconnected (I actually lost track several times with the lists of dependencies within dependencies) that the whole BSC website becomes one huge borg of a download for the sake of a few farmers (just stating facts). From moderator responses, I get the impression that even they can't sort it all out. It's a shame really when such quality ends up shooting itself in the foot. I'm currently sticking to SG Farms in one plugin folder and JMyers Farms in another. Limiting, but it WORKS! 

[Lowkee33]

I have had the same trouble.  The problem is the setting "Building Value" located in the Building exemplars.  You will need Ilive's Reader to see that setting.  Among other variables, the game uses this one to determine what building to build.  Value is good.

SG farms seem to range around 800-1000.  Jmyers farms are closer to 400-500.  I would imagine that making these numbers equal for all farms will solve this problem.

My solution was far less advanced, but also used the reader.  There is a setting that determines the minimum slope a building wants to grow on.  Setting this number to 255 makes the building not grow.  This is a good stat to change because most buildings will have it set to 0, and thus it is easy to change back, and changing the stat has no effect on farms that have already grown in game.  By setting every farm to 255 except the one that I want to grow, then quitting, changing stats, I can make each farm grow when I want it.  By messing around with road access and plot size I can get pretty good results as to where as well.

Here is a link to Ilive's Reader.  You will need to login to the LEX to see the download link.