Why are tourists not spending in my commercial, within my city? (And discussion of Space Elevator )

[Turjan]

If that is the case then the Eden Project would negate the value of every UB and the Space Elevator because it hard maxes all property value everywhere. Incidentally I had the Eden Project up well before I did my Space Elevator test. The Eden Project is generally one of the first things I do when hitting the monuments milestone since it doesn't actually break any mechanics, just makes everything nicer.

Coming back to this, "city value" is not the same as "land value". The Eden Project maximizes land value. It has an indirect influence on city value by upgrading growables.

However, the UB increase city value simply by their existence. This is the effect of placing nearly 50 "official" UB without any influence on growables in a mature city. Land value went down from an average $50 to $49. City value went up.

The higher city value then yields more taxes (see other thread for image).

 

[Voeille]

I like placing the Eden Project because I like how it reduces pollution. I wish I could edit it in the asset editor so I could remove the land value effect, but it isn’t available there.

 

[benzoll]

"Why are tourists not spending in my commercial, within my city?"
Because they like to go to parks and unique buildings more than to shops, and they are also few.

In my current city, I do not have any monument, but I have many unique buildings (all vanilla, more 20/25 from the workshop) and districts of leisure and tourism, more 2 passenger ports and an airport (I have not train conexion in map) .

Is what there is ..

As for the monuments, I think like @Turjan, they are "official cheats".

 

[28rommel]

NEED ADD'L HELP.
My post assumes that you have also read some of the discussion in another thread with the title "Deeper Economy Management." Here is a link to that thread if you need to read/review it: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/deeper-economy-management.1063363/

Well, I finally reached 90K population and I placed my very first monument .... the Space Elevator.
I also have a total of 12 Unique Buildings (UB's) spread-out around my city. There is also a Train Station, Harbor and an Airport helping to bring tourists into my city. The flow of traffic is very good to great. I believe my public transportation system is working very well, mainly with the use of Metro and Bus Lines. I own the Snowfall DLC, and have also downloaded 2 of the free mini-DLC's titled MatchDay and Peals From The East. I have never downloaded a single mod or any outside assets (but I have personally created and I use some basic assets).

I have allowed my game to play with the Space Elevator and 12 UB's in my city, for about a 1-1/2 to 2 years of in-game time.
But I can not seem to make a profit anymore. I don't know why, and I have tried different scenarios of doing "this," and changing "that" ... but nothing seems to work. If you have read the other thread that I referenced above, you will understand that we came to a general consensus that when a player puts down UB's, the game seems to eventually and "magically" make-up for their high ongoing upkeep expense, and within time you once again start to show a profit. Well, the "magic" seems to have disappeared for me. I'm losing about -6K to -7.5K in weekly profit (a loss).

As you can see from the image below (click on the link that starts with "upload"), I have about 915 "Weekly Tourist Visits." But once again, I want to point to the section titled "Income from Money Spent by Tourists" and you will see that the image shows that tourists are spending about $145 in my "Commercial Zones" and $2,690 on my "Public Transportation." Something tells me that my profitability problem is associated with the lack of tourists spending in my Commercial Zones ( $145 seems extremely low! ). I have seen other players who have a (much) healthier number on this specific line. I have a feeling that because I don't own the AfterDark DLC, that my inability to create specialized "Tourism" or "Leisure" zones, is creating some strange game programming error in generating addl income. Or maybe the fact that combining the base-game programming with just the SnowFall DLC, has created some kind of calculation error(s) in the game code. I just don't know, and maybe I'm "just reaching."

In any case, I would like to post my game here, and would like you to test my game with your specific set (combination) of DLC's you own. The first thing I ask you to do, is to please-please .... load the game and do almost nothing to the game/city for about 15 minutes. By doing so, we can isolate if it is a game programming issue with a player (like me) who only owns the SnowFall DLC. Do nothing to the city, except for minor adjustments to keep the city running (electric, water, etc). After 15 minutes or so, do you notice a weekly profit ? If not, feel free to now do what you want and make adjustments as you deem necessary to get my city in the black.
PS: My electric and water budget is not at 100%, so adjust them up if you need more of either service.

Below you will find the links to two of my saved games.
The saved game titled "54" has the Space Elevator and the 12 UB's in my city.

The saved game titled "55 all UBs" is a city where I placed ALL the UB's and Landmarks (this is a European themed map) in my city, except for the 2 or 3 I have not unlocked yet. The reason I did this, is because in the other thread, we discussed that placing all the UB's seems to dramatically increase your "City Value" which seems to be a key to greater income/taxation. But of course for me, this also did not work.

THANK YOU EVERYONE.

Edit to add: The 2 uploaded saved games are no longer available. Both links deleted below.

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

I have never downloaded a single mod or any outside assets (but I have personally created and I use some basic assets).

It won't get past about 80% loaded for me. Not sure if the "personally created assets" are the cause or not.
It's 54 that I have been trying.

 

[28rommel]

It won't get past about 80% loaded for me. Not sure if the "personally created assets" are the cause or not.
It's 54 that I have been trying.

Fox, I went back into the post (hit the Edit button) and deleted the attached game number 54.
I then reloaded the file, just in case something went wrong the first time.
Try it again for me please.
If that does not work, see if the other file starting with 55 will download for you. This way it might give me/us a clue as to what the issue might be.
Thank you.

 

[Turjan]

Fox, I went back into the post (hit the Edit button) and deleted the attached game number 54.
I then reloaded the file, just in case something went wrong the first time.
Try it again for me please.
If that does not work, see if the other file starting with 55 will download for you. This way it might give me/us a clue as to what the issue might be.
Thank you.

Both files make the simulation fail. It's an "object reference not set to an instance of an object" error. I have all official DLC's that contain game objects. Loading screen mod doesn't list any missing assets (the files don't seem to contain any). I cannot upload my current city for you, as it uses Mass Transit, Green Cities and a few other DLC's extensively.

Just a comment to our current discussion: I don't think the money from the UBs is due to tourists. It's the buildings themselves. They offer lots of jobs by the way. Tourism income never went above 2.5% for me and is usually much lower, so you are right in the expected ballpark. Also, you are swimming in money. If your money dips much below 10 millions, come back and be worried again.

Edit: This post has an ominous number.

Edit2: Just to make sure everything is clean, load the game again with the parameters --noWorkshop --disableMods and save the files again. If that doesn't help, there's the possibility to upload the saves to the workshop and give us links.

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

Loading screen mod doesn't list any missing assets (the files don't seem to contain any).

He did say:

I have never downloaded a single mod or any outside assets (but I have personally created and I use some basic assets).

 

[Turjan]

Well yeah, I read that. However, there's that pesky "object reference not set..." error.
One thing the game really doesn't like is missing network assets.

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

Well yeah, I read that. However, there's that pesky "object reference not set..." error.
One thing the game really doesn't like is missing network assets.

That's over my head.

I just play the game.

 

[28rommel]

... there's the possibility to upload the saves to the workshop and give us links.

OK I was able to save both games on Steam Workshop.
If you choose "SaveGame" and then use the "Sort by" tool to sort the entire list by "Most recent," you should see my two games near the top of the newly sorted list.

I am also posting the Steam Workshop game names and direct links for both games here (I hope I am posting the links correctly, as I have never done this before.) My author name in Steam is Rommel.

54 Lubec http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1283819082
55 Lubec http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1283820829

I hope I did this correctly. Try to download (I think you hit the green Subscribe button) the games via Workshop, and tell me if that works.
I'm sorry my first method to get the saved games to you did not work. I don't know what could be wrong, as I have never downloaded a single mod or outside custom asset.
Thanks everyone for your efforts and advice.

 

[Turjan]

I tried one of the new files, but it's the same issue. You seem to have something in your savegame that makes it impossible to load without having it. What kind of selfmade assets do you use in this city? Missing growables are not problematic. Missing Vehicles sometimes pose issues. Missing roads kill the game.

 

[28rommel]

... Also, you are swimming in money. If your money dips much below 10 millions, come back and be worried again.

I do have tons of cash in the bank. I don't mind losing money from my bank account, that's not my main issue.
Saved game 54 has been playing for about 1.5 to 2 years of in-game time (after placing some UB's and the Space Elevator), and game 55 probably longer, around 3 to 4 years (after placing every single UB and Landmark on the map). And after all that in-game time, I am still showing a Weekly Loss.

So my concern is that being in the red for so long, will not become/turn to a profitable state (no matter how much time passes), and I am worried there must be something else wrong (thus I seek everyone's help and advice).
Turjan ... If you are saying that I need to give it even more time, then that is fine with me and I don't mind bleeding millions more if I need to. It's just that in most of the posts I have seen and read on various threads, others seem to point to turning a profit much faster than this, and that is why I am concerned.

 

[28rommel]

I tried one of the new files, but it's the same issue. You seem to have something in your savegame that makes it impossible to load without having it. What kind of selfmade assets do you use in this city? Missing growables are not problematic. Missing Vehicles sometimes pose issues. Missing roads kill the game.

I only have about 8 custom assets I use.
4 of them are variations of a custom roundabout I use as my on&off ramp for highways.
The other 4 are custom roads using the new Road Editor sub-program. The roads are mainly just changing one aspect in the details, and that is turning a 4-lane 2-way road so that vehicles can cross the median and go in the opposite direction (by ticking-on the "Cross Center Lane" option for this road). I then save it and use it. It allows vehicles to cross the center divider and make a right turn into a structure and when leaving the structure, they can turn left. This way vehicles (mainly service vehicles) no longer have to search for an area to make a U-Turn to go in the opposite direction.

Do you think it's this basic change to this 4-lane 2-way road that is the problem?

 

[Turjan]

Any missing road kills the game, no exceptions (this is why, if you use workshop roads, you should always keep a local backup of the file in case the creator throws a hissy fit). If the roundabouts are just using normal roads, they are fine, but the changed roads have to be present. Just attach your changed roads here.

Regarding the money issue, I have the feeling the game zones in onto some new target sum. If you lose money for many years, it gets leveled at some point.

 

[28rommel]

Any missing road kills the game, no exceptions (this is why, if you use workshop roads, you should always keep a local backup of the file). If the roundabouts are just using normal roads, they are fine, but the changed roads have to be present. Just attach your changed roads here.

Then that must be it.
In the past when I saved a game with just the custom roundabout(s), others were able to load and play the game with no problems. Probably, as you say, they are made from using normal roads (and they are made from just generic road selection). But my custom roads came into existence, just (more) recently, with the game developers giving us Road Editor.

Is there an easy fix to this, so that everyone can then download the games? What do you suggest?
Changing all the road on my map to just basic is one way, I guess, but that would take quite a-bit of time. And I'm concerned that if I even miss one little, tiny section using the upgrade road tool, then we will be back to the same problem.

 

[Turjan]

Just give us your four custom roads, whichever way you want to do this. If that error message about a highway tunnel is also concerning one of your roads (doesn't necessarily have to be), please don't forget that one either.

 

[28rommel]

Just give us your four custom roads, whichever way you want to do this. If that error message about a highway tunnel is also concerning one of your roads (doesn't necessarily have to be), please don't forget that one either.

Yes, there is one custom highway tunnel where I just changed the ongoing upkeep expense. The regular upkeep was too expensive, and I thought I could save some money by changing it.

But anyway, how do I get the roads to you/everyone? I have never done that before.
Do I do it the same way that I saved my game to Steam Workshop? Except I save the asset(s) to Workshop?
There should only be about 4 to 7 custom road assets that I have (I guess that's not too many).

 

[Turjan]

Yes, you can either upload them to the workshop as you did with your savegames, or you attach them to this thread. You can find them where your saves are (in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\Assets) Just to give you the list:

Unknown prefab: Cheap Hwy Tunnel.Highway Tunnel0 [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Road CCL.Medium Road Slope0 [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Road CCL.Medium Road Tunnel0 [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Road CCL.Four Lane Road CCL_Data [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Road Trees CCL.Four Lane Road Trees CCL_Data [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Tram Tracks CCL.Four Lane Tram Tracks CCL_Data [Serialization]

If you decide to upload them to the workshop, you can even add them to your savegames as required items. I don't think this is necessary if you just expect people from this thread to subscribe to your savegames though.

 

[28rommel]

Unknown prefab: Cheap Hwy Tunnel.Highway Tunnel0 [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Road CCL.Medium Road Slope0 [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Road CCL.Medium Road Tunnel0 [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Road CCL.Four Lane Road CCL_Data [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Road Trees CCL.Four Lane Road Trees CCL_Data [Serialization]
Unknown prefab: Four Lane Tram Tracks CCL.Four Lane Tram Tracks CCL_Data [Serialization]

Post 1 of 2.
I want to first say that from your list (above), I do not have item 2 or 3 as a personal custom road asset (I never created those, and they don't exist in my Content). But from the description you posted, I figured out that item 2 says "Slope" and item 3 says "Tunnel." So what I can guess/ascertain, is that I used my personal custom road asset number 4 listed on your list, and I must have used it to "slope" the road going downwards (hitting the page down key) and then I also used it for straight-away "tunneling" (underground).

So what I did (just in case it may create any further issues) is that I went back into both saved games, and I deleted the portions of custom road that I used for downward sloping and tunneling, and replaced it using the generic Four Lane Road. (There were only 2 very small portions of road slope and tunneling where I used this in my entire city, so it was an easy fix. I just hope I got them all.) I then resaved my games with these adjustments.

Anyway, I then deleted the older/prior saved games in the post above, and I also deleted the saved games in Steam Workshop. I then re-uploaded both files in the post above and in Workshop. So all the new upload game saves, everywhere, are current.

(Now read Post 2 or 2, in the next post.)