Annoying problem - trying to narrow it down

vab423 · March 22, 2007, 11:51:30 AM

I'm trying to create an R$ city as the backbone for my region's workforce. I have only provided water (for high and medium density growth), Maxis default hospital, Maxis default large elementary school and Maxis default fire station. I have the city hall fixes by Mrtruesage. I'm using NAM, CP's terrain/tree mods and Peg's water mod. I do NOT want an educated population but something is making the city EQ rise. The school's only been in place for about 10 or so years (no ordinances enacted either) but the EQ is now at 80 and climbing. Andreas said it's possible that custom lots could be tweaked to provide an EQ boost and now I'm on a mission to find it. I'm hoping to narrow it down so I'd appreciate any feedback as to whether or not a particular creator or lot would be causing this. This is my list of custom content (BSC creators only). If anyone sees someone's name who may have modded this additional benefit into one of their lots, please let me know. I've tried to narrow the list down to lots I remember seeing in this particular city.

Serkanner (Power warehouse)
Don Miguel (R)
JBSimio (Chalfonte)
Deadwoods (Aussie retail series, servo series, small shops)
Jenp (London Terraces)
Jmyers (small commercials)
Mattb (R - Sydney Terrace)
Simgoober (R & C)
Spa (CS)
Tag_One (R)

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Serkanner · March 22, 2007, 12:18:00 PM

Its the city hall "mod" you are using that is causing this.

vab423 · March 22, 2007, 12:42:24 PM

Thanks!!! You rock!!!!

edit: So, just out of curiosity, how do you know? That was the first thing I looked at last night but didn't see anything that looked related to education level?

Serkanner · March 22, 2007, 01:41:34 PM

Quote from: vab423 on March 22, 2007, 12:42:24 PM
Thanks!!! You rock!!!!

edit: So, just out of curiosity, how do you know? That was the first thing I looked at last night but didn't see anything that looked related to education level?

I am actually not to sure anymore about my first statement. After having a second look at the building examplars I am not sure anymore. The other buildings, especially growables, are not usually having education properties in their examplars. The BSC buildings you mentioned I just know they don't have any.

Are you sure you don't have overlooked a school building? A library, a museum? I suggest you have a look in that city again and double check your education facilities.

BarbyW · March 22, 2007, 01:51:23 PM

To keep a city as an R$ you shouldn't give them ANY education at all. A large elementary school will cover a large area and so affect many of the sims. If you want to educate a small % of the population then use the small school and keep it's coverage only to the ones you want educated.

Colyn · March 22, 2007, 02:05:06 PM

You could also tax the c**** out of the R$$ and R$$$ and provide a neighbour city that can handle the richer Sims ... that way the SIMS will go as they upgrade ... always providing your city with brand new dumb sims.

vab423 · March 22, 2007, 02:27:49 PM

It might not be a BSC lot, that's true. I have other lots to check also, but I had to start somewhere. The only reason I'm looking at growables is because I truly don't have any custom plops that would obviously cause the problem (except for the city hall). I know it's not a school because I have no custom schools in my plugins folder. Actually, the only custom civic building I have in my plugins folder is PK Very Large Fire Dept. (and I haven't used it).

I'm looking at the city right now and I'm stymied. SimGoober's Central Train station, Jeroni, Andreas and Peg ploppable trees are the only custom parks I have. In fact, in the whole dam city, I only have one "real" park, and it's the Maxis 3x3 green park. Serkanner's Power Warehouse (nice one, by the way, Serkanner - I like it a lot). Default water towers, default church, default graveyard, Simgoober & Deadwood bus stops .... that's it for plops.

Guess I'll take the school out and see how much that decreases the EQ.

edit: well, I took out the elementary school and let the game run for another almost 20 years, til a dam fire broke out, the EQ went down by half. So I will take out the school to keep the R$ oppressed and continue my search for what's bumping it up.

Barby & Colyn, First I feel bad about not giving them *anything* and yes, I've set the taxes about 2% higher than $, maybe I'll try increasing them even more. All they're doing right now is complaining, but they're not going anywhere. I can only play 2 real cities at a time (my brain doesn't multitask well in this regard), so the increase in EQ is lowering the demand for ID and IM and I'm not yet ready to deal with I-HT and CO$$-$$$ yet.

I'll keep doing research. As long as I know I'm looking in the right direction, I'm sure I'll find the culprit eventually.

Thanks everyone.

jmyers2043 · March 22, 2007, 02:55:31 PM

Hello VAB!. I've not done anything special to my small shops, other than a few have a NIMBY affect, which would not raise EQ.

Colyn · March 22, 2007, 02:59:41 PM

Without any malice on my side ... take a look at the PEG plop trees ... if I remember correctly they have Landmark and Park values and they run on a Parent Cohort ... check JR's too.

Colyn · March 22, 2007, 03:01:26 PM

Some of the Plop trees also have Cap relieves and Demand satisfiers ... these things will draw R$$ and R$$$ without taking EQ into calculation.

vab423 · March 22, 2007, 04:33:42 PM

Thanks, I'll check the trees. But to clarify, I'm wondering more about why my Sims' EQ is rising without any visible education. Sorry if that got lost in all of this. Running off to check the trees now.

Well, not just yet ... because I just had a look at life expectancy and it, too, is climbing with only one default Maxis hospital. With only one hospital and no ordinances, is it normal for the life expectancy to go from 60 to 70 in 10 years? And in case I didn't mention before, EQ went from about 45-50 to 85-90 also in that 10-year period.

Katten Gustaf · March 22, 2007, 08:12:27 PM

Hello Vab. I don't think it is a mod causing this but rather the way the game works, everything described sounds pretty normal to me. A school and a hospital shoud make the area desirable enough for some medium and high wealth deployment, and give you a decent rise in health and education levels.

Just to be sure, I made a game experiment to test this; No plugins of any kind were used during the experiment.
I laid out a small city in a empty region, provided it with power, water, a landfill and a hospital. I ran the game and built a large elementary school when it became available at the begining of year two, after what I left it runing on it's own until year ten. All housing had acces to both the hospital and school.
After ten years the EQ had climbed to 100 and life expectancy was around 70 years. R$$ and R$$$ grew really quick, three high wealth houses poped up in the first year, before I even built the school!
It looks like this is normal, and if it's a entire quad you want to rid of R$$ and R$$$, I'm with Colyn on simply taxing them out of town.

A pic of the city and the education and health graphs if your interested.

vab423 · March 22, 2007, 10:11:52 PM

Hi Katten, thanks for the response (nice avatar, btw) and thank you for taking the time to test your hypothesis. Maybe I've played so long with custom content that I never realized that a simple elementary school would make EQ rise so much. I thought about removing the hospital and the elementary school but I'm starting to like the way this city is turning out so I guess I'll start another R$ city and not provide any amenities.