Insufficient Imports

[nicky9499]

I only recently got back into CS and this time trying a tougher flavor with no despawn, realistic pop and rush hour. Everything's good (no traffic problems, high PT usage, low unemployment, healthy RCI demand, zoning is balanced) except there's a perpetual shortage of imports.

Industry is complaining not enough raw materials, I can't keep a fossil fuel power plant or boiler going for more than a week and commercial is getting abandoned left right center. Demand means they're replaced quickly but I don't want a city full off revolving-door low-level businesses.

Infrastructure is as good as it gets this early in the game (rail and direct highway connection, no congestion of course). I've tried running it for a period of time with despawn just in case for some reason travel times were too long but there's no difference. Even tried the import values tweak and set them all to a million to no effect. IIRC I once saw import at ~14k but now it's hovering between 1-2k.

What gives?

 

[cRAGGLE]

Got harbours?

 

[nicky9499]

Not yet, I haven't built to the coast from the starting tile yet. It can't be that though, what about maps without a sea connection? I noticed just now that when first loading the save the imports will rush in (peaked at 16k) and drop off after an hour or so of real time and complaints start coming in again.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

can you lower your tax rates?

 

[nicky9499]

They've been at the default 9% since forever. I have tried the efficient industry policy on and off to no effect.

 

[ristosal]

Would you have the chance to comfortably test this without mods? If the game works fine without them then one of the mods is probably breaking the game.

 

[nicky9499]

That might mess things up considerably I expect. There are several major mods in use including realistic population, traffic president, network extensions, improved public transport and metro overhaul. Are there any other workarounds to "force" imports? There is an unlimited goods mod that I'll try as a last resort because it takes away quite a bit of realism.

 

[Kymbo82]

This is a problem with the game. I had one port and it was packed with boats and trains, so I built a second port. Now there isn't as many boats or trains going to them, however the boats now travel between each port.

The game doesn't allow you options to control what the ports, airports etc import or export. I wish I was able to click the port and make it purely in export port or an import port. An internal port (so only boats from the other port in the city can travel to the other port) or an external port!

This is where the game lacks user input, just like industry - it makes things for what purpose. As much as people didn't like sim city 5, I believe it nailed the used of industry as it allowed you to create a production line from the oil or minarials you took out the gound.

 

[MarkJohnson]

It just sounds like you've overloaded your city. That is the problem with mods, they alter the game, even worse is when you use a mod to fix an issue instead of figuring out the issue and make it work right.

If you're having shortages of imports, then it is usually freight overload. You sound like you have very large areas of industries in several location. This causes a ton of traffiic and the vehicle limits in this game are the lowest at 16k. When reached it prevents vehicles from spawning.

Check your info views and look at outside connections overlay map. It will show you your imports/exports.

You shouldn't be exporting anything as it has no benefit and hurts your vehicle limits.

You shouldn't be importing goods (purple) as they are created by generic industry.

Watch your specialized industry as you only need a small amount.

Keep specialized industry close to generic industry so they can have a short delivery distance.

Post a save game link and we can get a better look at your city in motion and offer more specific advice.

 

[nicky9499]

Just for posterity's sake in case anyone stumbles upon this while facing a similar situation, I've fixed it.

It turns out the map creator used one-lane highways as the edge connections, perhaps to reduce intercity traffic or something. I upgraded the inbound roads to 4-lane (any larger would trigger the "not connected" icon) so that more incoming traffic could spawn.

Imports peaked at 37k shortly after and stabilised around 20k. City is growing with no issues now.

 

[MarkJohnson]

Great. Nice job figuring it out. It can be frustrating trying to figure out user generated content errors.

Hopefully you remebered to contact the map author of his mistake so others don't have this issue.