Low Land Value "Bug" Solved

This guide describes how to fix the Low Land Value "bug" that may be plaguing your city.

If you found this guide helpful, give it a thumbs up, make it a favorite, or share it with others.

Introduction

I stumbled into this "bug" by accident. Googled the problem and read a Reddit post about it back in 2015. Seems it only affected a few people. But the problem never went away as each year more people stumbled into this problem. It appears no one managed to figure out a cause and the solution... until now.

For those who have not experienced this "bug", the symptom is as follows. You load-in a city that was working fine yesterday (or the last time you played it) and today it is plagued by Low Land Value messages. You are pretty sure you did not muck around with any game settings or mods since yesterday (or the last time you played).

The Problem

To reliably produce the dreaded Low Land Value bug, do the following.

1. Turn on mod "Hard Mode".
   
   
   
2. Load-in an old working city map.
   
3. Wait a few in-game weeks (it won't take long). Max out Accelerate Time for quicker results.

The screenshots below illustrate what happened when "Hard Mode" was applied to one of my self-sufficient cities.

The problems started invisibly. Only thing I noticed was that my city's economy was losing money and I couldn't tell why. Then Low Land Value messages started popping up. Only a handful at first.

I was really surprised how quickly my working city became plagued with Low Land Value messages. In less than a month, the city's income took an unrecoverable nosedive. I am not going to bother trying to save the city under this condition.

Why Does This Happen?

This is not a bug, per say. "Hard Mode" increases the cost and reduces the effectiveness of city service buildings (e.g., medical clinics, fire stations, police stations, and parks). In my opinion, it seems to punish you for building fast.

Your old, working city map was not built to deal with the burden of less effective city service buildings. It makes sense that cries of Low Land Value pop up as the simulation goes on. If Low Land Value issues are not addressed quickly, expect the city's economy to take a nosedive into the red.

The Solution

To fix, double-check that mod "Hard Mode" is TURNED OFF; simple enough.


This benefits cities that were not built to handle "Hard Mode".

For the same city shown in the Problem section, this is how the city's economy should be.

This is what the city built not under "Hard Mode" conditions looks like. The city's income is in the green.

And after about a month, things are still looking good. The city's income is in the green. The RCI indicators show sustained demand for Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Zones.

Other Possible Causes

Enabling mod "Hard Mode" may not be the only way to produce the Low Land Value bug. I figure any mod that modifies the game's default settings for various city service buildings is a possible culprit. Heck, Colossal Order tweaking such city service settings in a future build of "Cities: Skylines" can mess with your old working city.

We cannot do anything about Colossal Order tweaking their game mechanics. I am sure they do what they can to balance the needs of players who do not use DLCs and those who do.

That said, we can do something about custom mods. Use mods at your own risk.

I like mods, myself. Some are so useful I (and others before me) am surprised they are not integrated into the vanilla game yet. But I tend to stay away from mods that temporarily alter the game mechanics too much. I like mods that if it makes changes, it makes changes that stick, whether the mod is enabled or not. This is just my personal preference.

I say this not to discourage you from experimenting or using these kinds of mods if that is your preference.

If you enjoy using mods that modify the game mechanics, remember this caveat. With said mods enabled, you are building your city to be DEPENDENT ON THEM. You are potentially setting yourself up for self-sabotage. The more mods you use, the higher the chance of self-sabotage.

If, for any reason, you forget to enable these mods for the map built to depend on them, expect chaos to erupt on said map once it is loaded. It might help to write a sticky note about which maps used what mods so you don't forget.

Even though I use a handful of mods, I enable/disable mods depending on my mood. I do this without thinking how this might affect future gameplay on cities where I did not run those mods. "Fixing" my old working cities devolves into the time-consuming task of enabling/disabling/remembering the right set of mods for these cities to work as they used to.

Mayyyyybe Hard is Good?

Despite the chaos that enabled "Hard Mode" has on cities not built to cope with it, it made me appreciate one thing. If you play a map on "Hard Mode" and successfully grow the city then what you really did was make a city with an ultra-strong economy. If "Hard Mode" is disabled for such a city, its economy will flourish.

City Under "Hard Mode"

Start state of city with "Hard Mode" enabled. The city's income is in the green and RCI indicators are up.


End state of city with "Hard Mode" enabled. After about 2 months, despite the cries of Low Land Value, the economy is still good though income is lower than before. RCI indictators are somewhat up. The strong economy buys me time to appease my cims if I continue to build/manage the city.

Same City Under "Easy Mode"

Start state of city with "Hard Mode" disabled (same time index as above-screenshot "Hard Mode 1"). Economy is stronger as it is making an additional ₡1,400 in tax income.


End state of city with "Hard Mode" disabled (same time index as above-screenshot "Hard Mode 2"). After about 2 months, the city's income is still holding at around ₡17,000. RCI indicators are stable; they look exactly like they were in "Easy Mode 1". And no more cries of Low Land Value! Phew!

Last Thoughts

Perhaps there is a practical use for learning to play and to be successful at "Hard Mode" after all. :) "Hard Mode" cities should be resistant to any negative effects introduced in future game updates; more so with "Hard Mode" disabled. I think I will play more "Hard Mode". If I am successful, it certainly won't hurt my cities.

If you found this guide helpful, give it a thumbs up, make it a favorite, or share it with others.

[Purzify]

Thankyou! I accidentally had this enabled when I enabled all my mods again, thanks!

[C*O*R*O]

Part 5 of 5

I kept playing Appletown after i reached the goals, and kept developing it into the once beautiful city it was...


There are many ways to play this game, but something that is sure is that if it had all the bugs people thinks it has, it would not have the fan base and the success to after 6 years still be around.


Please, please, help others discover the joy of actually playing the game as the strategic advanced chess thing it really is, do not fuel misconceptions.

Your post read by an intelligent people shows some kind of reverse psicology but you know the world is full of sheep who are unable to read between lines.

they will think its a bug and you shown them the fix... (Enabling or disabling a feature for those who have mastered traffic and the base simulation to enjoy some new challenge)


In retrospective i should have realized i need to make this a post...

Sorry for spamming your comments. Hopefully this message gets across some.

[C*O*R*O]

Part 4 of maybe 5 or 6

Each week the bank was getting 30 to 50 k in tax revenue.

Which i used for parks and plazas, replacing the sewage by cleaner options, adding a few HD zones to reach the 35k population.


It took me only 28 game weeks to reach the milestone, and there was almost 1 million in the bank by then, there were no mayor modification to the city.

I then for some reason checked my mods... and realized it was on hard mode.


Some solve it with blimps and roundabouts. The most popular youtube solution is to dezone all industry and demolish all roads to make the traffic disappear... yes those get you results... but what is the satisfaction in that?

[C*O*R*O]

Part 3 of maybe 4

The main pointer was that once you fix traffic above 80% the city produces a fortune in taxes and you are literally rolling in money (My highest week was 70k profit)

i looked at the topography map and the lines showed me where the real road layout must have been.

I then decided to restart and try to win the scenario by restoring the city and avoiding removing any of the high level building existing.

It was an added challenge (I still had not realized i had also hard mode on) i fixed the highway, made the connections to roads and neighborhoods that the topology suggested where missing, unpaused and traffic immediately went to 87% i then received the 300k and used some for raising land value before it became a problem by adding bus lines and made a metro line going all across the city.

[C*O*R*O]

Part 2 of (maybe ) 3
It is surprising that people believes that developers refuse to solve bugs, their silence is golden, they laugh secretly hoping for people actually finding the way the game was intended to run instead of fighting the simulation trying to make it do what we want.


The first time i experienced your bug, was i think the traffic scenario that comes with mass transit, i think the scenario enables hard mode (although it might have been me inadvertently) and i failed the population milestone and i was finding the game particularly hard to play.

I stubbornly insisted, loaded a previous save, checked what i could have addressed earlier (The low land value early signs) analyzed the map layout which makes no sense at all until i realized there must have been an initially thriving city there which was sabotaged to make the scenario hard.

[C*O*R*O]

Thanks for your reply, i was thrown off by what seems click bait of which internet has too much.

I find sad that half the mods in the workshop solve problems that are actually features of the game.

And all is is reinforced by a community that grew on titlebait and linkbait youtube videos creating wrong expectations and making believe that disabling game features is the only way to play, or even worse predicating the only way to play is the one they have found.

Part 1 of 2

[Haverstash]

Some people see a "feature" that goes against their expectations as a "bug". This guide was written to clarify what the "bug" is and how to "solve" it in my small attempt to reset people's expectations.

I agree that this game is a complicated simulation that requires study and patience; something not everyone may be accustomed to for a game. I believe all in-game "problems" can be solved; just requires study and experimentation.

[C*O*R*O]

Why do you call a BUG something that it is a feature...

Solving the Hard mode problems you created by enabling hard mode is easy: either disable hard mode and play in easy mode...

Or use the millions anyone can achieve playing easy mode and enhance the services of your city...


People playing this game are always complaining about the game bugs, if they took time to understand the game they would understand why the developers wont fix what people calls bugs...

This is a fairly complicated simulation game that people keeps looking as a traffic jam game because they don't know how to play it.

Watch less famous youtubers... the ones that teach how to enjoy this game with no traffic issues and discover the complication of achieving proper balance for the Cims well being.

Sorry..

[enzo50667]

wow

[Mikaure]

+1