CAM/posts/4
Now, this test is dedicated to you, Barby:
Farming Industry
Still using the same city, I replaced the medium density industry zones with agricultural zones:
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/7740/stages915test3dr1.jpg
For this experiment I changed the "Stage # vs. Size" in the Industrial Resource Developer Exemplar to get the following table:
| Regional Jobs | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 | Stage 4 | Stage 5 | Stage 6 | Stage 7 | Stage 8 | Stage 9 | Stage 10 |
| 0 - 99 jobs | 100% | |||||||||
| 100 - 199 jobs | 50% | 50% | ||||||||
| 200 - 299 jobs | 33% | 33% | 34% | |||||||
| 300 - 399 jobs | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% | ||||||
| 400 - 499 jobs | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% | |||||
| 500 - 599 jobs | 16% | 16% | 16% | 16% | 17% | 17% | ||||
| 600 - 699 jobs | 14% | 14% | 14% | 14% | 14% | 15% | 15% | |||
| 700 - 799 jobs | 12% | 12% | 12% | 12% | 13% | 13% | 13% | 13% | ||
| 800 - 899 jobs | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 12% | |
| 900 - 999 jobs | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% |
...and so on.
The 15 farms I set up for stages 1-15 were all 2x2 in size and offered jobs accordingly: 32,36,40,44,48,52,56,60,64,68,72,76,80,84,88
Everything started out normally, a few farms, commercial services and residential houses appearing. However, I didn't get any farms higher than Stage 1 to develop. Even when reaching the build-up as seen above, with a farming population exceeding 1000, every single farm was still at Stage 1 (although Stage 10 should have been surpassed already)...
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/3038/stages915farms1qe6.jpg
At that stage I had to check all my modds and farming lots/buildings to track down the error, but didn't find anything. Instead I replayed with a slightly different configuration, leaving the medium density industry lots, allowing ID to grow too:
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/9822/stages915test4ko2.jpg
This changed everything. ID developed first, but soon after that the first farms appeared, this time starting at Stage 2! The stages were rapidly traversed and when the ID job count had reached 1,500, the first Stage 15 farms developed:
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/2844/stages915farms2hc6.jpg
I quickly realized that the farming stages become effective, not based on the number of agricultural jobs in your region, but rather on the number of dirty industrial jobs :o
After this I changed the "Stage # vs. Size" in the Industrial Resource Developer Exemplar to be identical to the one I had for dirty industry:
| Regional Jobs | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 | Stage 4 | Stage 5 | Stage 6 | Stage 7 | Stage 8 | Stage 9 | Stage 10 |
| 0 - 499 jobs | 100% | |||||||||
| 500 - 999 jobs | 50% | 50% | ||||||||
| 1000 - 1499 jobs | 33% | 33% | 34% | |||||||
| 1500 - 1999 jobs | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% | ||||||
| 2000 - 2499 jobs | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% | |||||
| 2500 - 2999 jobs | 16% | 16% | 16% | 16% | 17% | 17% | ||||
| 3000 - 3499 jobs | 14% | 14% | 14% | 14% | 14% | 15% | 15% | |||
| 3500 - 3999 jobs | 12% | 12% | 12% | 12% | 13% | 13% | 13% | 13% | ||
| 4000 - 4499 jobs | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 12% | |
| 4500 - 4999 jobs | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% |
...and so on.
After this the stages in ID and IR developed simultaneously, starting from Stage 1 and going all the way up to Stage 15:
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/2640/stages915farms3xc1.jpg
When all farming lots had developed we had the following distribution:
31 farms of Stage 1 12 farms of Stage 2 13 farms of Stage 3 5 farms of Stage 4 1 farm of Stage 5 8 farms of Stage 6 9 farms of Stage 7 8 farms of Stage 8 29 farms of Stage 9 15 farms of Stage 10 6 farms of Stage 11 2 farms of Stage 12 0 farms of Stage 13 0 farms of Stage 14 22 farms of Stage 15
The development was less evenly spread out compared to what I've experienced with the other developer types. One reason to this is probably that farms don't develop (upgrade). Thus, the Stage 1 farms that developed early in the game didn't go away and in the end lots of Stage 15 farms developed, since the demand was always there (stupid Sims without schools want to become farmers). I cannot however say why Stage 9 developed more than the others.
This gives some feedback to the way SC4 functions today too... in order to get the stage 3 farms (Pedriana) to develop, you need to have a regional ID job count of at least 2,447. This might, at least for me, explain why I never had problems with the repetitive appearance of Pedrianas. I always tax out my ID from my region ;D
I'll leave it to others to consider whether this is as intended or whether Maxis made a programming error...
