Figured out why/how the city responds to your actions ...

[unmerged(722772)]

Was puzzling over why certain areas of my city were downsizing; tall tenements and office blocks downgrading to small buildings and houses, and yet other areas of the city where I'd laid transport were not downsizing at all.

I initially thought it was due to the economy; I was in the middle of a large period of negative growth when I first noticed the downsizing.

However, the economy soon picked up, positive growth returned, yet those areas that downsized did not recover, they remained suburban.

Suddenly it hit me, the ONLY areas that had downsized were the ONLY areas where I'd built bus or trolley-bus routes. The areas where I'd built trams and metro stations had not downsized at all.

Arguably, this makes sense. Buses, with their inherent lower capacities, are better serving areas of sparse population. Trams and metros, with higher capacities, are better serving urban areas of high population.

The fact that the city responds to the type of transport you build is ... interesting ... and some would say a bit arse over tit - surely transport would naturally be built to suit the environment, rather than the type of environment changing to suit the transport provided.

But anyway, glad I've figured this aspect out - it was bugging me.

Now I need to find out if installing a tram or metro in a purely suburban area will manifest urban growth.

 

[mackintosh]

I hope it's a bug, rather than a "feature", because if it is a feature working as designed, it would be a very questionable design decision. I can understand development ceasing or regressing slightly due to economic downturn, but regression due to a particular type of service being provided doesn't make any sense. Capacity isn't the obvious answer - you can always bring on larger buses, increase frequency and have multiple lines, etc. - just like in the real world.

 

[The_13th_Ronin]

I sincerely hope that's not true!

I never really see new houses grow in the campaign... How are you supposed to encourage growth?

 

[Lord Vetinari]

Ok, I mainly use metros and trams so, if that's true, may city may be immune to downsizing; however I do have a couple of bus lines, right downtownm and nothing really bad happened. At most, areas served by the busses stayed the same, while areas served by metros or trams grew faster. Over all, my town is booming with high rise buildings, even in places where there were small houses at the beginning.
I did notice one thing though: areas that were already built change less than areas that grew around the roads I layed myself.

 

[shi4stone]

Glad that more people are finding out this problem, sure to bring the Dev's attention.

I did some experiments and confirmed that buildings in bus line coverage always downgrade, no matter the economy or how good the bus service is (biggest busses, frequent departure, multi-line coverage). And the same area covered by tram network with the smallest tram capacity never downsize. So really, i doubt this downsize has any thing to do with the service capacity.

Did not try trolley bus though. But then if it has the same effect i would suspect it has something to do with the stops, since bus and trolley uses the same stops. On the other hand, tram has no negative effect on the city, not sure if there is any positive one though.

 

[Smaen]

This needs to change! It's just stupid designing!

 

[Deville]

I heard from someone from the alpha that the dynamic city feature wasn't working properly for them. I'm not sure if he meant this behaviour or something else, but I could imagine that the downgrading was the problem.

 

[The_13th_Ronin]

Glad that more people are finding out this problem, sure to bring the Dev's attention.

I did some experiments and confirmed that buildings in bus line coverage always downgrade, no matter the economy or how good the bus service is (biggest busses, frequent departure, multi-line coverage). And the same area covered by tram network with the smallest tram capacity never downsize. So really, i doubt this downsize has any thing to do with the service capacity.

Did not try trolley bus though. But then if it has the same effect i would suspect it has something to do with the stops, since bus and trolley uses the same stops. On the other hand, tram has no negative effect on the city, not sure if there is any positive one though.

But... But... I can't have trams connected to everything! My buses are the go between that cover all the gaps my trams miss!