Introducing XX_Turbo

[xxdita]

Coming soon to the LEX

Ever wanted to know exactly how high your RCI Demand could go? Ever thought Cheetah speed just wasn't fast enough? Or Have you ever wanted the elusive SOMY Stage 10 IHT's to grow?

Introducing XX_turbo, a mod that allows for all the above.

This mod expands the RCI Demand Graph, from -10,000 to 50,000. It also increases the maximum growth rate to 52,000, in order to speed up the game a bit, provided you have enough demand, and the ability to handle it all. And to get your cities started faster, Initial Demand for R$, CS$, ID, and IR has been boosted to 500 each, to start out with a little more oopmh.

And now for what I'd expect to be the most frequently asked questions:

Q: Will this make my cities grow faster?
A: No. This is a mod, not a cheat. All of the other normal game mechanics still apply. But, if you'r city has the demand, and you're able to keep up with it, xx_turbo will allow it to grow faster. (OK, with the increased Initial Demand, I suppose it's a tiny little cheat... but not by much.)

Q: Do I have to have CAM for this to work?
A: No. XX_turbo, although designed to push CAM to it's limits, is also compatible with the Vanilla (boring) version of the game. It should be noted however that you may experience more immediate abandonment issues with Deluxe/Rush Hour, if you aren't able to deal with the possible explosion in growth. CAM has safeguards in place to prevent this, although it's still a possibility.

Q: So is this a patch for CAM?
A: Nope. CAM 2.0 is still under development. However, this mod will allow for larger buildings to grow, including the SOMY IHT Stage 10's, and a few more I'm working on. (I've recruited some professional help. Don't worry, I'm not opening a lotting thread anytime soon.)

Q: What if I don't like it? Will removing this mod mess up my city after I've saved it?
A: Nope. You can just delete it, and return to your normal, slow, boring life. Your city will return to its normal growth rate.

Q: But this is only for people that want a ton of skyscrapers, right?
A: Nope. More than anything, this mod is designed for people that don't have a lot of time to sit and watch their cities grow for hours on end. It can be an excellent tool for testing nearly anything ingame as well, allowing you to spend less time testing, and still come away with the information you need.
   You can still create any type of city you want, just zone for the level of growth as you normally would. The normal Demand Caps are still in place as well, so your cities will only grow to the extent that you've provided for.

Q: So who else could benefit from this mod?
A: Aside from developers, beta-testers, people with limited time to play, and anyone that's been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, I'd recommend it for
   1) anyone who feels the need for more challenging gameplay. As your cities grow faster, every flaw of your Mayoral style will be exasserbated.
   2) Anyone working on a MD that finds themselves spending more time with the game on pause, as they meticulously design every last detail of their cities, or writing the next chapter of the saga. Now you can spend more time focusing on the parts of the game you really enjoy.
   3) And yeah, ok, if what you really enjoy is building giant Metroplises, with tons of skyscrapers, cramming as many Sims as you possibly can into each city tile, then you should seriously give this a try. Srsly.

Much thanks go to CasperVG, for helping me extensively test this mod. And of course to BarbyW & RippleJet, for far too much to list.


Any questions or comments? Operators standing by...

Now in the hands of the scrutineers...

- Nate

[morcup]

Fantastic concept.  Is there a release date anytime soon?  I'd like to try this mod out on my region; the CAM just wasn't working out for me but I do miss having the larger range of demand.

[MandelSoft]

Please, don't bump old threads. There's been no reply since November 2009.

[xxdita]

Correction: there was never a reply, only the initial post. So I say it's about damn time somebody bumped it.

Truth of the matter is, serious testing has been delayed. And the one person who could simply look at the file and say "yeah that oughtta do it" has been too busy to bother with it.

Thank you for your interest though, morcup, it is greatly appreciated.

[sim-al2]

Some other people would be interested in experimenting too...

[xxdita]

Ok then, if anyone would like to help take Turbo out for a test drive, send me a PM. I need to know if you're using Vanilla RH, CAM 1.0, or CAM Datpacked. Not that it really matters, as it should work in any situation, in theory and on my computer at least.

It's already in an installer, ReadMe included as well. No particular modding knowledge is needed, just the ability to install turbo & fire up the game every so often, then let me know the difference between before & after.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

- Nate

[sim-al2]

Here some interesting data. Unfortuneltly I don't have a comparison but you all should still find the demands... interesting Looking at the numbers, if I hadn't zoned everything first, sims would be building the second the zones were layed down!



Look at the population! Sure grew up faster than my other cities!



Must zone for higher density in this one...



The demand for low wealth is through the roof, literally!

I noticed in small cities I'm getting absolutely crazy demands for I-R that don't seem to go down much as you can see.

Note that the first and last cities are connected to each other and only the other. The middle city is on the other side of the region. The residental city has about 49,000 sims and 18,000 commercial jobs. The industrial city has 49,000 jobs in it as of now.

And this only took a 2-3 hours to do (I think)...

Sorry 'bout taking so long. I got distracted...

[xxdita]

sim-al2, looks like you're having fun with my little mod eh? I thank your for the first official report!

It would be interesting to see pics of the Census Repository Query (v3 from the LEX), so that I know for certain just how much growth is happening within the 3months & 1year time frames, and the CAMelot Counter query (I forget if you're using CAM or not) but from the looks of things, your cities are taking off quite nicely.

So, your first impressions? Is it more challenging to keep up with the growth at this rate? You think it's fast enough???

[sim-al2]

*Goes off to find where the Counter went to*

Yes I'm using CAM. And I'll try growing a bit more naturally then a grid.

[xxdita]

So after two years of false starts... I think I've finally got it right.

XX Turbo now on the LEX

[ScottFTL]

I'm glad to finally see this released.  Congrats!   

[travismking]

me thinks your link is wrong mate should be this one

http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2462

edited, thanks! - Nate

[Terring7]

I also test it, a little different. I select some towns and re-zone all commercial areas, from low density to high. In many of them, Sims almost immediately construct even small skyscrapers!!
Good job xxdita

[vortext]

Still a bit confused about this mod.

During testing I discovered that when xxturbo is used in combination with the cam and the bsc maxis blocker, the blocker doesn't block anymore 

So is it safe to leave out the cam and still get cam buildings stage 8+ to grow? And can I also keep on using the 'promote biking' & 'census' options that came with the cam?

[vortext]

nevermind, fixed the order in which plugins are loaded and now it works flawless