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NAM and commute time levels

Started by b22rian, August 12, 2008, 04:01:08 AM

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b22rian

Hi all..

I have a question for someone out there.. maybe not the easiest one to answer but here goes...

    I'm currently using the april 08 nam.. and using traffic sim B on hard difficulty in my cities..
My largest city which has now grown up to over 750 K is finally starting to get some congestion problems
.. which I'm not complaining about.. its to be expected in a city this large I would say..

Anyways my question is related to the little suit case icon which pops up.. I realize sometimes this can also
indicate inability to find jobs for that wealth class.. But looking at the routes , I'm thinking in my case its related
to the commutes becoming long.. Also I've noticed when the little suit cases pop up abandonment is not far off
unless you do something about it.. Ok now when you query a building i see that there can be 3 levels of
commute length, which im sure most of you know..short, medium, and than long..

My question is .. does the suit cases when relate to longer commutes indicate sorta a 4th class of commute one
may term "very long".. and than you can expect abandonment shortly.. ?..

..or does the suit cases simply pop up if a "long commute" situation .. persists for awhile.. and than you can expect abandonment to follow..?

I guess another way of asking my question is.. if you see some long commutes when your querying some of
your residences but without the suit case icon , can you have that without necessarily having abandoment
always being the end result ?? ..and than of course if a suit case follows your in trouble at that point ??

Thanks. Brian

j-dub

Well, when the suitcase comes up, instead of the car, you may see this eventually. "abandoned due to commute time" That may be because your Sims go to another city for work, but takes forever to get out of the city, even though your networks may still have the green light, like in my case. So even though I am not experiencing jammed up side streets, I have to improove the network with a higher speed limit to ensure faster travel. You could try the abandonment dilapidation mod from Simtrop that prevents abandonment all together, because realistically sometimes your stuck in the big city.

b22rian

Thanks for your quick reply J- Dub...

In some cases i do have the same problem as you.. I checked a few out and sure enough they were going off
to another city for work.. Although there were the usual reasons of congestion and just not finding any more jobs
that close also.. But pretty much I agree with what you said, once you actually see the suit cases you don't have
long to wait for abandonment.. it seems to follow fairly fast !  Although  so far i just have a few building here and there that are popping up like
that so far.. And for me at least , its one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game that you  have to diagnose
and analyze routes and transport paths  and than make the necessarily changes to improve them..

So for me Ii don't see it as a problem yet i suppose , at least until i were to see a big population drop on
account of it..

Ill try to re phrase my original question another way..

Are really the only 2 allowable commutes in the game , medium and short ?
and if u query and get long commute , unless you do something to drop it back to medium or short, people will
be soon moving out.. ?

Or is it ok to just sorta treat buildings with long commute as just longer commutes and their fine just as long as
you dint see a long commute and a suit case icon ? LOL
So 3 classes of commute to being acceptable without abandonment, say short , medium and long..
and maybe buildings with long commutes and suit cases might be extra long commute , and
not being acceptable ?

Thanks, Brian

z

#3
Hi Brian,

The "long commute" time may be stable or may not be; it depends on many things.  Some buildings may stay in the "long commute" class for an entire game; others may move quickly to abandonment.  Still others may move from long to medium or short commutes.  In general, it's not necessary to do anything just because a building has a long commute, unless others around it are becoming abandoned.

As for the suitcase, it first pops up if, at the end of a traffic simulator run, the simulator isn't able to find jobs for the minimum number of Sims required to keep a building occupied.  If you query a building right after a briefcase pops up over it, you'll see that it's still occupied, though.  If the next time the traffic simulator runs, it's able to find jobs for the minimum number of Sims required to keep the building occupied, the briefcase simply disappears.  Otherwise, the briefcase remains and the building is abandoned.  After some relatively short period of time, the building becomes totally dilapidated, and the briefcase disappears.

It's good to keep in mind what the maximum commute time for your simulator is.  For Simulator A, it's 8 1/2 minutes each way; for Simulator B, it's 12 minutes each way.  These numbers follow straight from the internal Maxis documentation.  This may seem like an awfully short time, but remember that even a large tile is only 2 1/2 miles long on each side.  But still, these numbers may be cutting things a bit close.  And if you start getting more congestion, you increase commute times, and some Sims are no longer able to get to their jobs.  That's most likely why you're getting abandonment.  It sounds like you've takent the Hard version of Simulator B as far as it can go in your city, and it's time to move to the Medium version.  You'll still have congestion, but your abandonment problems will be eased.

b22rian

Hi Z..

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions..

Since Ive posted the questions, my city as its continued, to grow has bore out what you just explained..
Some of the buildings are able to hang "with long commutes" other will go to abandonment..
And also a long cummute is ok still , not always leading to a suitcase and than abandonment..

I suspected also what you explained, that the suit cases are much related to finding jobs also.. So what sometimes
helps if i see an area where you have more than 1 or 2 suitcases, i will decided to zone a new work area maybe a
little closer to the problem area.. and this definitely helps !

Your also right about me taking the difficulty setting (at least for my traffic network design abilities).. about as far
as i can go with it,, (mott's sim B- Hard ).. and ill have to give in at some point (swallow my pride  ;D ) and go to medium difficulty...

I will tell you i'm one of these people who likes to set personal goals..And one goal i made was I wanted to try to
make it to a million in population on a large map using the  hard difficulty setting.. So right now Ive gotten as high as a
population of 815 K in this city,, so I may try to hang in here a little longer to see if i can make my goal of a
million populous before i have to go to medium..difficulty .   &apls

Thanks, Brian

b22rian

Quote from: jplumbley on August 17, 2008, 05:18:08 AM
You could always do what cities in real life are already starting to do.  Due to the strain and enviromental hazards heavy traffic creates on networks, cities are now trying to becomemore green via using  more mass and/or zoning to allow jobs closer to home.  The days of the suburb are numbered.

Your quite right J.P.  ...

as the game as become more difficult and a struggle, there are more options presented to you really of how your
city will evolve next, as you deal with the increasing number of problems a larger metropolis presents to you..
i'm really enjoying playing with my largest city more than ever still..

Brian