Slow game + Space elevator spewing out thousands of tourists non-stop

[PhilH]

So I hadn't played Cities for months and restarted playing in my old 400k city. For some reason, my Space Elevator is spewing out thousands of cims, causing major taxi traffic jams.

I know this is caused by a mod or combination of mods. When I disable "Rush Hour", the spawning stops... but I need that mod otherwise all of my commercial buildings get abandoned because they have no customers or something. "Rush Hour"s "fix commercial demand" fixes my abandonnent problem, but I can't find any setting that would boost tourism there?

I posted in the "Rush Hour" mod discussions but I figured I'd post here too as it's more read.

Any ideas? Is it because I also have the Time Warp mod? I know they're known to conflict with "events" but I have events turned off anyway.

Thanks. For now I've just turned off my Space Elevator building, temporary fix. I haven't been bothered to start a new map to test yet. Let me know if you have something similar!!

[grapplehoeker]

The base game's mechanic is sound.
If you use mods that alter the game mechanic then you're on your own. Mods should compliment your actions. They shouldn't be used as a replacement for incompetent city management. They're not supposed to fix anything, just optimise. So, when you start expecting to use a mod to compensate for another and another and another... you spiralling into chaos.
Use Rush Hour, but use it when you have already mastered the game and are able to deal with the challenges Rush Hour brings. It's not supposed to make things easier. It makes it harder.
I would be willing to bet you have overextended yourself with commercial if you were lacking customers to begin with.

[FroschGames]

My space elevator does that too, without having "Rush Hour" installed. But right next to the elevator, there's a Metro Station and a local train station, so most of the Cims leaving the space elevator take the metro or my inner-city train (S-Bahn, as we call it in germany). Make sure you provide enough public transport.

[PhilH]

Thanks to both of you. I also have a metro station right next to my Space Elevator, and many tourists go there (but many also use a taxi).

As for Grapplehoeker, I 100% agree with you. This current city is one I started just for fun, several months ago. I had no money/everything unlocked and used it as a testing sandbox. It's also the first city I ever built, and I know its filled with issues. If you want more details, originally the problem was that commerical didn't have enough stuff to sell. I built a ton of industry/road networks, and then all the commercial started getting abandonned because of lack of customers.. I'm not exactly sure why but this city is filled with issues, I'll restart it if I want to play the game properly.

But once again, you are 100% correct and I shouldn't have to use a mod to fix my bad planning. Thank you for your comment!

[PhilH]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

I would be willing to bet you have overextended yourself with commercial if you were lacking customers to begin with.

Your message inspired me to deactivate Rush Hour so I did. I just had almost all my commercial buildings despawn, and I don't care, I'll fix it myself. Thanks for the motivation, I'm gonna try to make a working city instead of fixing it with mods!

However, even without Rush Hour I still have my space elevator spewing out a million people. Maybe it's normal behavior actually. It's just creating traffic because the people coming out of the elevator spawn "pocket cars" and there are SO many they jam the road.

[MarkJohnson]

The space elevator is suppose to have huge demand. It reports almost 2,000 tourist at all times. You need to make a special area for the space elevator to handle all of the tourism. It is a PITA to work around. But is can work if you plan for it.

I suggest making it work when the city is in chaos, then it will be easier to plan for. Nothing like learning from your mistakes. Be prepared for a lot of bulldozing!

[PhilH]

Ah, that would mean my game is NOT bugged and my playing is -- as expected. Thanks!

I shall then move my space elevator. Since my city is now in total chaos after having most of my commercial abandoned, it's a perfect opportunity to test my skills with the elevator. Thanks!

[MarkJohnson]

I forgot to mention I don't use mods. So your issues may be normal.

[PhilH]

Oh thanks, that means it almost has to be normal. Awesome!!

[grapplehoeker]

Use the RCI meter as an indicator of what is possible to zone, not what you must zone.
When you start allowing the RCI meter to dictate to you what you should build, you lose control.
Stick to your city plan as the city creator and force it to your will ;)
All cities only require a small commercial district and you only need as much generic industrial to supply it. To balance them it is better to monitor the trade overlay (outside connections) than the RCI. Ideally you want no goods imports and no goods exports (magenta).
Use the same principle for the amount of specialised industries to supply the generic.

[PhilH]

Thanks for the advice Grapplehoeker. True, when I designed this city I was always building what the RCI said, I wasn't thinking of it as "what I can build".

Currently I have 0 demand for R/C, but very low demand for industry. It's probably going to stabilise once the "shock" of loosing most of my commercial buildings passes.

Honestly I think I built WAY too much commercial/industry to start with. My population is 450K now though and the game is starting to slow down considerably on my rig. The city is a mess and I should start a new one, but I'm having fun fixing it. The rail network is awful and backed up, probably causing some major delays with industry not being fulfilled on time.

[PhilH]

Guess what: disabling "Traffic Manager Président edition" fixed everything. My city used to slow down like crazy after a few minutes of gameplay (frame rate fine, but slow-motion) which would be fixed by saving the game. After saving it would be fine for a few minutes.

I was thoroughly enjoying the "lane connector" tool but I guess my CPU just can't handle it in a city this large. I prefer dealing with the quirks the game has (and getting smoother gameplay) over getting precise control BUT having degrading performance.

Now I'm happy to be manually fixing and debugging my city, using the built in tools and my brain (over cheating it with mods).

So once again, disabling mods fixes stuff. Thanks for all your input people! I don't think I need further advice, I just wrote all this down to assist anyone searching the forums with a similar issue.