Where are my residents!!!

[dragonshardz]

Wait, so if I were to combine the CAM dat file and SimCity1.dat, there'd be issues, but combine the CAM .dat with SimCity4.dat and I'm good to go if I want to remove the doubled residents thingie?

[RippleJet]

Wait, so if I were to combine the CAM dat file and SimCity1.dat, there'd be issues,

Yes. There is no way you can avoid having issues when half the regional residential population suddenly vanishes (when the doubling effect disappears).

but combine the CAM .dat with SimCity4.dat and I'm good to go if I want to remove the doubled residents thingie?

No, you cannot merge it with SimCity_4.dat. That would not remove the doubled regional residential and workforce capacity, since the RCI exemplars would still appear twice, this time both in SimCity_1.dat and SimCity_4.dat.

[dragonshardz]

OK, thanks for clearing that up. People had been mentioning combining CAM.dat with SimCity4.dat and I was confused.

[z]

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.

This is the first thing I did, as it seemed like a logical and necessary first step.

Check the regional residential capacity as reported by the Census Repository Facility in each city while doing that.

My residential workforce is now half of what it was, or a little over half of the region's population.  There are now also 2.2 million unfilled jobs, whereas this number used to be negative.  But no housing boom. 

At some point residential demand should pick up, when the doubled regional capacity has been wiped out.

It's definitely wiped out.  Maybe I just have to run the game longer?

[RippleJet]

Maybe I just have to run the game longer?

Yes.
Also monitor the long-term regional demand in the Census Repository.
Growth always comes to a halt if the regional capacity is close to the long-term demand.
The long-term demand is the sum of all extrapolated demand from your cities.
In order to increase that, you'd need to run each city for quite a while.

[crushedcar]

Okay, just to confirm what I'm thinking. IF I were to merge my SimCity1.dat and CAM.dat files delete the latter, then play an established region I will have an economic crash as the game rebalances. However, if I start a new region it will develop with the new rules.

I ask because I am tired of having as many jobs as residents as jobs in my region.

[Korot]

Okay, just to confirm what I'm thinking. IF I were to merge my SimCity1.dat and CAM.dat files delete the latter, then play an established region I will have an economic crash as the game rebalances. However, if I start a new region it will develop with the new rules.

I ask because I am tired of having as many jobs as residents as jobs in my region.

You are right, but the economic crash can be resolved, it just takes some time and effort, but it has been done (points to Steve).

Regards,
Korot

[rhythmandjays]

I came across CAM a few days ago and I would like to know how to do this fix. If anyone can show me a thread or shoot me a PM on how to merge those two files, I'd very much appreciate it

[viper0074]

well i am kinda new here (on the forum) got like everything from simgoober , great work and many thanks, as well a bunch of other stuff.and a week ago i decided to go CAM.what should i say the doubling bug , or so its called , hit me.you r talking about merging CAM .dat with SimCity1.dat.how do i do that?with the datpacker?if so , exactly how?

[RippleJet]

If anyone can show me a thread or shoot me a PM on how to merge those two files, I'd very much appreciate it

how do i do that?with the datpacker?if so , exactly how?

First, you need DatPacker 2008.
If you've still got the SC4DatPacker Anniversary version on your HD, please delete it right away.
Due to its sorting algorithm it would unfortunately screw up your SimCity_1.dat.

Then, follow these steps:

• Backup your SimCity_1.dat (it's a file in Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\). Don't tell me afterwards you forgot...
• Create a subfolder called SimCity_1 in your plugins folder (My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\)
• Copy SimCity_1.dat into this recently created SimCity_1 folder
• Copy ColossusAddonMod_1.0.dat (from My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\a_CAM) to this same folder, SimCity_1.
• Rename this copy of ColossusAddonMod_1.0.dat to z_ColossusAddonMod_1.0.dat
• Run DatPacker. Select the folder SimCity_1.dat to be packed. A datpacked file named SimCity_1.dat is created in Plugins_Compressed
• Move this file to Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\, replacing the original SimCity_1.dat which was there
• Please verify once more that you did not leave another copy of SimCity_1.dat in the Plugins_Compressed folder
• Delete the SimCity_1 subfolder that you created in your plugins folder
• Delete the ColossusAddonMod_1.0.dat file in the a_CAM subfolder

[deecee]

okay - i've been following this thread very closely since my resident situation is wacky as well.  so, thank you for the exact steps to follow - i have no doubt i can do them all with no problem cause i use datpacker all the time and have become comfortable maintaining my plugin folders (the plugins i'm playing and the ones that are disabled).  now - my question to you is:

is this safe to do?
will it cause me trouble down the road when the new cam comes out?
do you recommend this method or waiting?
and can you put the two datpacked files back if you decide you for whatever reason like the old set up better?
have ctd's been noted after doing this?

i hate to ask so many questions (especially when i said i only had one )  but i worked super hard to keep my computer pretty clean as far as stuff causing ctd's and i don't want to introduce something new that's going to freak my game out.  let me know what you think.  Thanks! and have a great day.  DeeCee

[Korot]

You've got questions, I've got answers.

is this safe to do?

Yes, as long as you back up your SimCity1.dat file beforehand.

will it cause me trouble down the road when the new cam comes out?

Don't know actually, depends on wether or not the installer will also work with a dat-packed SimCity1.dat. But in that case, just put the old version back in, and you'll be fine.

do you recommend this method or waiting?

Depends, do you want a fix now, or in a couple of months when CAM 2.0 comes out? Remember, no-one knows when CAM 2.0 comes out, so this one is what I advise.

and can you put the two datpacked files back if you decide you for whatever reason like the old set up better?

Yes, you can. You'll get the bug back, but other than that, nothing will (or should...) happen.

have ctd's been noted after doing this?

Not to my knowledge.

Regards,
Korot

[deecee]

You've got questions, I've got answers.

Regards,
Korot

Done.  I'll let you know how it turns out and thanks!  DeeCee

[deecee]

Done.  I'll let you know how it turns out and thanks!  DeeCee

hello - so i played a bit on an old region - sorry i don't have any before-datpacking population stats - and i have negative demand for every job category and r$ and r$$ are maxed out and r$$$ is about 3/4's.  is this expected?

i have to say - these conditions don't worry me much because unfortunately none of my cities are good enough that i've grown real attached to them or would freak if i lost them.  so i'm really just curious if others who've done the cam datpacking have had the same kinda outcome on an existing region.  i'm going to go start a new region and see what happens!  thanks, DeeCee

[xxdita]

Negative demand can happen for a lot of reasons. Check your taxes, and the parks & services you're providing, as well as the Caps reported by the Census Repository v3 (if you dont have it already, it's on the LEX, just search for RippleJet under creator).

CAM shouldn't present many new problems, as long as you've only got CAMpatible buildings in play. But it may exasserbate problems you already had in the city/region.

Make sure you read through the other CAM threads... there's a lot of interesting information regarding Stage Caps and such, to help you as you make the adjustment to CAM.

[deecee]

Negative demand can happen for a lot of reasons. Check your taxes, and the parks & services you're providing, as well as the Caps reported by the Census Repository v3 (if you dont have it already, it's on the LEX, just search for RippleJet under creator).

CAM shouldn't present many new problems, as long as you've only got CAMpatible buildings in play. But it may exasserbate problems you already had in the city/region.

Make sure you read through the other CAM threads... there's a lot of interesting information regarding Stage Caps and such, to help you as you make the adjustment to CAM.

hey there - i did the steps to combine and datpack the SimCity_1.dat and ColossusAddonMod_1.0.dat; do you think my negative demand has anything to do with that?  there was a previous ripplejet post that i just read that said "After merging CAM with SimCity_1.dat, you will certainly get a recession in the commercial and industrial sectors, and a residential housing boom" which is EXACTLY what's happened to me!  so - looks like i should get zoning for a bunch of residential.

thanks again, DeeCee

[xxdita]

Yup, that too... and I think most importantly, make sure you go into each of your cities and let them play for about 10 years or so, without doing much of anything, so that you can see the full effect of the damage, and then deal with it head-on.

[cboss2]

First, you need DatPacker 2008.
If you've still got the SC4DatPacker Anniversary version on your HD, please delete it right away.
Due to its sorting algorithm it would unfortunately screw up your SimCity_1.dat.

Then, follow these steps:

• Backup your SimCity_1.dat (it's a file in Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\). Don't tell me afterwards you forgot...
• Create a subfolder called SimCity_1 in your plugins folder (My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\)
• Copy SimCity_1.dat into this recently created SimCity_1 folder
• Copy ColossusAddonMod_1.0.dat (from My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\a_CAM) to this same folder, SimCity_1.
• Rename this copy of ColossusAddonMod_1.0.dat to z_ColossusAddonMod_1.0.dat
• Run DatPacker. Select the folder SimCity_1.dat to be packed. A datpacked file named SimCity_1.dat is created in Plugins_Compressed
• Move this file to Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\, replacing the original SimCity_1.dat which was there
• Please verify once more that you did not leave another copy of SimCity_1.dat in the Plugins_Compressed folder
• Delete the SimCity_1 subfolder that you created in your plugins folder
• Delete the ColossusAddonMod_1.0.dat file in the a_CAM subfolder

Hi

I followed these steps recently through suggestion of xxdita to "properly" setup CAM. However, after doing exactly as listed above, I logged in-game and noticed that all my Mayor-mode and even God-mode "buildings" icons were doubled. Instead of having one icon for Roads, for example, I would have two Road icons right next to each other, two Street icons, two Avenue icons. Not every icon was like this, but almost 80% of them were doubled. It didn't seem to affect actual gameplay at all, but the menus were very congested and it seems odd enough that it would happen to begin with. I did not leave the old file traces in any plugin folder, as others had done. Which is why this is even more weird for me.

Thanks in advance if anyone has an idea on what went wrong?

Edit: Tried re-packing a third time for the charm just to ensure I really followed every step and did not leave any extra files. Still shows most icons doubled. Very odd.
Edit2: I hate bittersweet moments: I figured out why my icons continued to be doubled. In Step 1 when you make a backup of SimCity_1.dat naturally you would rename it to something else, as to not let the game load it. Well, it seems that regardless of what you rename the file to, the game will continue to load THAT file, over the new "SimCity_1.dat" if the original dat remains in the root folder.  It seems that the game doesn't care if it's renamed; it will continue to load it. I moved the file into "C:\Program Files\Maxis" instead of "C:\Program Files\Maxis\Sim City 4 Deluxe\" and loaded the game up and the problem was fixed. No more doubled icons. 

Sorry for making such a hasty post to my problem. I was having it last night, but didn't spend much time trying to solve the issue until this morning. Hopefully my trial and error may help another who is experiencing a similar issue.

[Korot]

Reading your last two edits, I conclude that the game reads all .dat-s in your C:\Program Files\Maxis\Sim City4\ folder, and pending on what loads last, will use that information. However, icons and such have the same bug as the RES simulator, they can't be overridden, instead, they supplement each other.

Regards,
Korot

[SC4BOY]

The names of files are absolutely irrelevant to Simcity.. It LOOKS at EVERY file and processes EVERY file that has the proper structure that is in the plugins folders. The only way you can avoid this is to MOVE the original FILE to an "originals" folder or whatever OUTSIDE the plugins folders. Many people have fallen into this trap over the years (for example renaming a file "xxx.bak" or whatever.. does no good)