Where are my residents!!!

[Korot]

Being the monkey I am, I saw and did what others pulled off...

Now I assumed the ColossusAddonmod_1.0.dat, once merged with SimCity_1.dat using DatPacker (With none of the options selected), was to be deleted from the CAM folder and SimCity_1.dat was to replace the original...

It appeared to work, though it didn't cause untold chaos in my region when I loaded it up (Though, just because a few things are...off, namely regional estimates, I'll start fresh with a new region). In fact, my largest city of 3 million had a population boom and otherwise only benefited from the change.

With the doubled capacity bug (seemingly) fixed, and my previous efforts of so long ago to increase maximum demand for High Tech in place, I think I've at last arrived at a time where I feel comfortable going whole hog and creating an entire region of skyscraper cities.

Just to be sure, you did rename your CAM file to something that would load after SC1.dat, right?

Regards,
Korot

[HappyDays]

I did.

Ripple,

[luckrecio]

Very sorry for offtopic, forgive for newbie. Hey, djuice, what do you do that nice window you got there came up?
Sorry again

[RippleJet]

You probably mean the Census Repository?

[luckrecio]

Thanks

[saywhatman]

Ok, so I tried this, prepending a z to the CAM filename and datpacking it with the simcity4.dat file. There was 3 of everything . The NAM had also completely disappeared. I tried to restore the files from the backups i made, but i think something got messed up because now there is two of everything and the NAM turning lanes and commute time reducing measures are gone. Does anyone have a virgin one for me or will I have to reinstall?

EDIT: OH I SEE. When I datpacked the files, i accidentally saved the new simcity4_01.dat file where i backed up the old one 

[saywhatman]

Fixed. I had left the old Simcity01.dat file and zCollossusmod.dat files intact in plugins by mistake. if only i had realized that before i lost all my cities.

[ramseyazad]

I tried this and it seems to have worked - I was ready to start a new reqion because I was bored and frustrated with the way cam worked before.  Although, there are 2 of lots of things, which I can only guess is a by-product of the franken-cam I have created.  Is my sC4 about to explode because of this, or have I done the inadvisable merging of simcity4_01.dat and cam properly, and the doubled items in the menu are just a regular by-product?

[z]

Neither.  My guess is that you have your old copy of SimCity_1.dat somewhere where it's still being loaded.  If so, you want to move it out of the way as soon as possible.

[ramseyazad]

That was it.  I was reading earlier in the thread thinking 'I'm too cool to have made *that* mistake.'  I'm not too cool.  I hadn't gotten around to finding out that it had killed a bunch of cc at that point. But it works great now, so far.   If this is a preview of how the mythical cam 2.0 could work, I'm going to have to start loading SC4 often again.  Having it merged into simcity4_1.dat meant that my duplicate file remover program wouldn't find the duplicate.

[SC4BOY]

Is there any guesstimates based on this rebalancing on when the "doubling issue" works itself out following a "merge fix"? For example say a region with 1 million residents (undoubled) playing with "current" CAM were to be addressed such as z and HappyDays did at what point would the "imbalance" become approximately balanced out.. when the city reached 2million? or am I not seeing this correctly?

Is there a point where the effect becomes "2nd order" where it would approximate a region that had been started out from the beginning with the "doubling fix" installed?

[RippleJet]

"Official CAM 2.0 beta testers" haven't come that far yet...
I'd love to see if you could contribute by testing this out though!

[z]

Is there any guesstimates based on this rebalancing on when the "doubling issue" works itself out following a "merge fix"? For example say a region with 1 million residents (undoubled) playing with "current" CAM were to be addressed such as z and HappyDays did at what point would the "imbalance" become approximately balanced out.. when the city reached 2million? or am I not seeing this correctly?

Is there a point where the effect becomes "2nd order" where it would approximate a region that had been started out from the beginning with the "doubling fix" installed?

Though I can't answer your question directly, not having come that far myself, I can at least say that there is hope for existing regions.  My Chicago region of 7.5 million Sims, which was converted 2 1/2 months ago, works fine, once I made the modifications I described above.  I've only had time to use it for testing, though, so it hasn't grown at all.  My guess (and this is only a guess) is that the more your region grows, the less significant the former doubling effect will be, especially in newly-built cities.  But as RippleJet says, real data about this will have to await feedback from the beta testers.

[SC4BOY]

"Official CAM 2.0 beta testers" haven't come that far yet...
I'd love to see if you could contribute by testing this out though!

Well I expect I will try it .. however, the issue is "When is the effect = 'CAM2' start?" This could prove to be an extremely burdensome task.. lets say I put the "doubling fix" into a city of 1 million.. in order to "test" it properly I'd have to run the region up to some point TBD (to be defined)... To properly test, it would require 2 runs of the same region .. the "double fix" one and a new region of approximately the same configuration and population to compare it to..

Has anyone defined the questions to ask and the expected answers that would say "ok, these are now equal" or that would say, without a "compare" city that "Hey this is now running "normally".. ie.. how'd I know?

...  My Chicago region of 7.5 million Sims, which was converted 2 1/2 months ago, works fine, once I made the modifications I described above. 

I don't really think you have enough data to say much one way or the other.. have you asked yourself (or even formulated the questions) implied above? If you have, your "tests" would be of interest

[z]

...have you asked yourself (or even formulated the questions) implied above? If you have, your "tests" would be of interest

Yes, those are exactly the questions I've been considering.  I've run various cities in my region for up to 40 years at a time, over the same time period, both with and without the fix.  While population doesn't change, the cities perform identically with and without the fix, as far as I can tell, as long as the changes I described above are made.  My tests included close examination of all the city data aspects that are readily available, so I believe they have some validity. 

[SC4BOY]

..., the cities perform identically with and without the fix, as far as I can tell, as long as the changes I described above are made.

The only changes you mention is reducing taxes and using money cheats.. how can that be "performing the same"?

Perhaps there is more to it than I am seeing.. In my mind "performing the same" means that the two cities have the resonable tax structures, a balanced RCI ratio, balanced demand, etc.. not just that they aren't "precipitately crashing" ..

[RippleJet]

After merging CAM with SimCity_1.dat, you will certainly get a recession in the commercial and industrial sectors, and a residential housing boom.
Thus, one good goal would be to manage to develop the region to a point where the workplace capacity (C+I) has returned to what it was before.
If, at that time, there's positive demand both in residentials, commercials and industrials, I'd say you've reached your point.

[z]

The only changes you mention is reducing taxes and using money cheats.. how can that be "performing the same"?

My goal here was to do something that would allow existing regions to continue to be playable under CAM 2.0.  Over time, as the regions grew, I would expect that the mods you mentioned could gradually be reduced, and possibly eliminated.  We'll have to see.

After merging CAM with SimCity_1.dat, you will certainly get a recession in the commercial and industrial sectors, and a residential housing boom.

I experienced no housing boom; demand for R$$$ continued to be negative at normal tax rates, and demand for R$$ dropped from positive to negative at normal tax rates.

[RippleJet]

I experienced no housing boom; demand for R$$$ continued to be negative at normal tax rates, and demand for R$$ dropped from positive to negative at normal tax rates.

It is quite possible that you would have to play all cities in your region in order to get the correct extrapolated demand out from them to the region.
Check the regional residential capacity as reported by the Census Repository Facility in each city while doing that.
At some point residential demand should pick up, when the doubled regional capacity has been wiped out.

[SC4BOY]

...where the workplace capacity (C+I) has returned to what it was before.
If, at that time, there's positive demand both in residentials, commercials and industrials, I'd say you've reached your point.

That probably sounds like a reasonable guide. I'll probably backup my region and give that a shot.. but I'm guessing I'll have to make significant population gains before this condition is met.. And at the rate I play the region, I'm afraid it will be some time   If I have anything worth stating, I'll post my results.

EDIT: It just occurred to me that this will entail a fair amount of time and attention.. So I may as well ask RJ.. is there any particular conditions you'd like me to document as I go along.. and I'm using the merged  .dat file .. although I also used a modified dat as I had previously integrated the extracheats.dll into it. But if I'm going to spend this time and effort, you may have certain concepts or elements along the "CAM2" line that you'd rather have me use while I'm at it.. let me know if so before I get  far along

.. I would expect that the mods you mentioned could gradually be reduced, and possibly eliminated.  We'll have to see.

Exactly my point.. you've not done enough to demonstrate any success at my stated objective

I experienced no housing boom; demand for R$$$ continued to be negative at normal tax rates, and demand for R$$ dropped from positive to negative at normal tax rates.

Also supporting my statement.. Simply stated, you may have not had the region collapse, but you've hardly demonstrated any objective condition for being equal to a "zero start"