A large but inversely power inefficient incinerator...

[allan_kuan1992]

Did the title sound confusing? Well... the problem I have right now is certainly more so.

I recently took one of Simgoober's models (Hardun Heavy Metals) and converted it to a large incinerator via SC4 Plugin Manager and then edited it in Reader with custom-set values:



However... the strange part comes when I try using it in-game. Theoretically as the amount of trash increases there should be an increase of power. This works in the Simgoober SmogBusters incinerator that I used and had intended to replace. In this particular case however the power supply drops as trash volume increases. As an example, when the incinerator was burning say 200 tons of garbage the power output was somewhere near 3000, but jack up the tons of garbage to 4000, and the power is now 100. >.<

I've tried to analyze both files to find differences that might cause issues...


(This is the SmogBusters incinerator.)

But I don't think I can find it yet. So... can someone help me find the solution to this puzzling bug?

- Allan Kuan

[RippleJet]

But I don't think I can find it yet. So... can someone help me find the solution to this puzzling bug?

Nothing I could find either...
You might want to try with smaller values first, e.g. quadrupling up on the ingame plant's waste capacity and power generated and see if that works as intended.

The ingame plant's capacity is 50,000 and power generated 5,000.
Your plant's capacity is now 960,000 and power generated 614,400.

You might want to keep the relation power generated per waste capacity closer to 0.1.
614,000 = 0x96000... maybe the intention was to have that as 96000 = 0x17700?

[allan_kuan1992]

No... i actually had the intention of a highly uprated capacity on the plant because of the assumption that today's plants are more efficient in producing electricity. I guess it's way too excessive however.

I'll scale it down and see what the results are.

- Allan Kuan

[allan_kuan1992]

okay... I tried it again, but I forgot the result... I'll repost a little later.

The stats this time resemble the SmogBusters but with most capacities uprated by a factor of 16. The exception is the garbage capacity, which was scaled at 20. Pollution effects were also moderated to an extent as I found a pollution value higher than 60 to be a little extreme. Power, on the other hand was scaled lower than 0.1 (it was more like 0.6) from the trash factor as I decided to take into account recycling.

EDIT:

In an attempt to understand what is happening I decided to open up the query while playing and recorded a whole pile of info. That is attached below.

- Allan Kuan

[RippleJet]

The power generated might actually not be directly dependent on the amount of waste burnt.

The maximum power output is given by the Capacity property in the building exemplar,
but depending on the power usage in the city, and the power produced by other plants, it seems like the output varies...

Do you have any other power sources in this city?

[allan_kuan1992]

I have several of Zero7's heat and power co-generation plants in the extreme east end of the city... (these do not process garbage)

I don't think the instability is related to power demands and supply... the SimGoober incinerators if full produced the max load of electricity, but for this one... the table shows garbage collection reaching 10997 tons in some places, which is the larger incinerator maximum... and even then the power supply slowly drops and is not at the 60000 that I think I set for the plant (trash capacity is at 1000000 I think). Power demand in the city is also pretty stable... in fact I haven't encouraged a lot of new development to occur over many years.

- Allan Kuan

[RippleJet]

One possible explanation might also be the fact that utility capacity and usage are saved in the savegame. If you change the capacity of such a building, without bulldozing them first, you might get the phenomenon normally known as Phantom Funding Sliders Bug, only in this case there's no slider to adjust...

In order to isolate the problem, the best test would probably be to plop your plant in a new city, that hasn't had any other power or garbage facilities before. Then see if the power output goes up and down there as well, when the city grows and garbage production increases.

[allan_kuan1992]

I am aware of the phantom slider bug... however the facilities were only created recently and there weren't any historical versions. (If you look at another thread I had asked for a large incinerator... and then I decided to invent a solution myself... of course things haven't been working however >.<)
- Allan Kuan