Looking for a mod...

[bigchief]

Looking for or Requesting a mod, or Requesting instructions on how to do this, if it is even possible.

I did not post this in the stickied thread about looking for mods, because I am not sure that one exists for this, and I have done extensive searching to find such a mod.


The problem is abandoned buildings.  I am building a large city, which is developing very quickly, but I am currently getting many residential buildings that are "abandoned due to commute time".  I have read hundreds of threads about the causes of this, and I am slowly making corrections and the problem is getting better.  The main problem is that some of these buildings are abandoning before they can become dilapidated, so finding the buildings is very difficult, unless I want to click on every building in the city.

First, I will rant a little.  I am a veteran of strategy games, and I have been playing strategy games for many years.  I first played Sim City on SNES, in the early 1990's.  I have also played other games that Maxis was involved in, including Sid Meier's Simgolf, for which I did a little modding.  Civilization 3 remains one of my favorite games of all times.  Every Sim Strategy game has had its flaws, and every game has added frustration to the players, supposedly for the sake of realism.  In this game, it is abandonment.  In Civ3 it was pollution.  Sid Meier finally understood that this is not fun for players, and he used the quote that was something like "pollution has become a game of whack-a-mole", which is not fun to the players.  In this game, the whack-a-mole is with the abandoned buildings.  I picked up this game recently to see if I would still like a city building game, and if I would be interested to buy the new game, which will be coming out soon.  I have been having much fun with the game, except for the abandonment problems.

Now that the mini-rant is over, this is what I am looking for in a mod:  I have searched every way I could think of, and I suspect that I have not found a mod for this, because there is not one available.  It is possible that I am not using the correct terms when searching, or that it is located in a long lost and probably abandoned website.  I want to be able to highlight the abandoned buildings, so that they can be found easily.  It would be nice to be able to see these building highlighted in the glowing green, such as it does with schools when you view education in the data views.

Is there a mod for this anywhere?  And, if there is not, is this something which is possible to do?

Thanks,
Chief

[jmyers2043]

My approach to abandment is to manage taxes, amenities, and education.

R$$ abandonment? I increase R$$ taxes incrimentally until R$$ stop moving into town, totally stop. I then play the game normally but keep an eye out for R$$ development. I will decrease R$$ taxes when I see a large number of R$$ Sims move into town despite higher taxes and when I see that the homes do not abandon.

Same thing for R$$$ - only the time line is longer. It is a bit of a challenge to slowly increase the R$$$ population of a 250K+ city. Decrease taxes by two clicks, R$$$ Sims move in and abandon? Increase taxes again. The city is not ready. Wait. Decrease taxes again. Abandon, yes, no? They eventually come and stay for me.

I know, we all want to have pretty cities with gleaming skyscrappers right away. There is a mod somewhere (probably the STEX) the prevents the building from turning to crud but it will still be abandonded nevertheless. I don't use it, I don't know the name, but it has been around for donkeys years.

Good Luck - Jim

[mrbisonm]

The mod that Jim mentioned is called the Abandonnement Mod, which you can find here:
http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/21351-abandonment-dilapidation-modd-1-2/
Good luck!

BTW, the best and probably the only way to get the Sims stay in their homes is to make sure to supply them what they want, such as jobs, parks, protection and services and transportation means (busses, trainstations and Subways.


mrb

[Andreas]

Jim mentions some very good points here. The game is designed in a way that R§ buildings are slowly upgraded to R§§ and R§§§ if the conditions are favourable (land value, amenities, protection and services etc.). Now while this is generally a good thing, and will bring you more money (taxes), the richer sims become rather picky, esp. when looking at the transportation system. R-§§§ sims will use their cars for commuting almost exclusively, so the best method is to keep the R-§§§ population on a low level, and trying to provide jobs that are not too far away from the residential areas. The Network Addon Mod (NAM) offers a huge number of options to tweak your transportation network, and also allows you to use a custom traffic controller which is fine-tuned to prevent abandonment much better than the Maxis settings. Eventually, good city planning and careful tax adjustment are the main keys in order to create a balanced, well-working city, though.

[bigchief]

Thanks for the replies!  And, also, thanks for the link to the mod.  I downloaded that mod earlier today.  It is not really what I am looking for.  I have a much better understanding of how all of this works now, but I still have not found the mod I am looking for.  I am beginning to think that no such mod exists, and it is probably because it is not possible to do it.

I am slowly correcting the abandonment problems, and I am doing it slowly because I have a very good city and region going now, and I don't want to destroy all the work I have already done, and I don't want to start a new game.  I am still having abandonment, even though it is improving, and from what I understand, I will probably still have some abandonment at some times in the future, even if I manage my city as well as I possibly can.

The mod that was linked in this thread, seems to be a good mod, but what I am looking for is something that will highlight or help me to find the buildings that are currently abandoned.  As far as I know, the only way to determine if a building is abandoned is to click on the building, and learn about the abandonment from the info popup about the building.  It is much easier to guess that a building is abandoned if it is black and dilapidated, however, many of my buildings are being abandoned before they become dilapidated.  I will have buildings that are less than one game year old, and they look just as they did when they first rose up from the ground, yet they are abandoned.  I want to be able to know where these buildings are located, without having to click on every building.

And, since I am posting again, and the original post contained a mini-rant, I would like to add a little more of a rant about this abandonment:  Until my last session of playing, I only had one city in the region with residential buildings.  Since a Region in this game is your entire world, what happens to the people that abandon these buildings?  There is not another city for them to move to, and there is not yet another location in their city for them to move to.  I noticed that earlier, when I was having mass abandonment, that the population would decrease when several buildings abandoned at the same time.  I guess they moved to another player's region, because there is no other place for them to go in my region (world), but since I am not actually connected to any other regions, I can only think of one logical reason for the population to drop when a building is abandoned.  It is only logical as far as the computing is concerned, because it certainly is not logical when applied to real world situations.  My Sims are committing suicide, rather than drive a few extra minutes to work.  I know life is difficult, and probably more so for a simulated puppet being controlled by a computer player, but is it bad enough that you would commit suicide because your commute time is a little long?

[Diggis]

Your region isn't the whole world, just your domain. There is a greater sim nation out there where people come from and in back to.

[whatevermind]

My Sims are committing suicide, rather than drive a few extra minutes to work.  I know life is difficult, and probably more so for a simulated puppet being controlled by a computer player, but is it bad enough that you would commit suicide because your commute time is a little long?

Have you seen how Sims drive?