Tell me more ×
Arqade is a question and answer site for passionate videogamers on all platforms. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 12 down vote favorite

In SimCity each entity in the game world is called an 'agent', and each agent travels down roads seeking out other entities that require an agent of that particular type. An agent can be anything from the power from your power plant or a Sim travelling to work.

The screenshot below shows sewage:

enter image description here

I have two sewage structures next to each other at the bottom of a low density street and I'm being told that there is not enough capacity to deal with the current level of sewage, however if I bring up the information for the sewage structures, neither of them are operating at 100% capacity - so I'm wondering: does the capacity of the road influence how many agents can travel down it simultaneously?

share|improve this question
I think limiting non-traffic related agents to road capacity would be bad design!! I really think it might be something else that might be affecting you! Though I have no clue what right now. – Samyam A Feb 17 at 7:33
I noticed on watching many youtube videos of the beta, that many players were having power trouble when their power was located on the edge of the map - as though the power agents couldn't reach the far side of the map. Perhaps the sewage pull is also limited in range (I notice your sewage is also located near the edge of the map. Try splitting up the sewage processing and see if that sorts it out. – David B Feb 18 at 2:54
But splitting up the sewer processing means I have multiple regions of the map with high ground pollution, which in turn lowers land value across the map! – kalina Feb 18 at 9:45
3  
Does land value matter when the toilets are clogged? – David B Feb 18 at 18:24
What does your sewage data map look like? – Aaron Kurtzhals Mar 5 at 20:20

1 Answer

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Does the capacity of the road influence how many agents can travel down it simultaneously?

No. Number of lanes and whether there are stop signs or traffic lights only affect traffic agents. They do not affect non-traffic agents.

  • Traffic agents include police, fire, ambulance, garbage trucks, delivery trucks, moving trucks and of course sims driving their cars.
  • Non-traffic agents include power, water, sewage and of course pedestrian sims.

I don't have a good explanation for why your sewage was behaving the way it did, but the behavior described does match the behavior of sewage when there is a sewage deficit.

Normally, sewage processing buildings pulse out a pull to sewage, and the sewage moves one way.

When there is a deficit, the building will pulse out a pull until it has absorbed the amount of sewage it can for that pull, at which point it will switch to a push! Sewage agents will move toward and then away, usually making no progress, and generally accumulating at their current position.

I solved my sewage deficit by plopping a sewage treatment plant. It pulls in the equivalent of 5 basic sewage structures at 4 times the hourly cost - and it solves the ground pollution problem as well.

Power and water agents are absorbed as they pass buildings. While they aren't affected by road capacity, they are affected by passing many buildings. If you layout your city with a powerplant at position 1, it is unlikely that agents will reach buildings at position 2.

-----   -----
|   1   2   |
|           |
|           |
|           |
-------------

Update: There was a sewage issue fixed in patch 1.8.

Fixed a clog in the pipes where sewage would sometimes get backed up and act jittery.

share|improve this answer
When there is a deficit, the building will pulse out a pull until it has absorbed the amount of sewage it can for that pull, at which point it will switch to a push! -> So the problem was that both sewage plants were next to each other, and then second plant was at the end of the road. When the first place reached capacity it 'pushed' the remaining sewage away from the second plant... – kalina Mar 6 at 16:13
@kalina that's as close to sense as I can make of it. You said that both were not at capacity, which seems to contradict it. Also, my two sewage processors were in a similar arrangement and did not block each other (they both went to 100%). – David B Mar 6 at 16:20
Well this could have been a bug in beta - I will retest it on Friday once SimCity is released in the UK – kalina Mar 6 at 16:37

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.