Hard coded buildings

[coruscate]

I think someone needs to put together a faq (I'm not volunteering).

*ahem*

So we know from the 1.6 makers that the power plants are hard coded, you cannot make another building generate power.

I can also tell you for a fact that the recycling plant is hard coded to eat Waste even if you artificially evaluate it at 100k a car (I did, in the CTY file) and it transforms 2 of those into 1 metal/plastic/paper. It doesn't become unprofitable unless you lower the amount of expensive waste cars it uses.

The Department store & Bauxite mine, and perhaps any building that was originally not intended to transform, for some odd reason, have high overhead and labor, you have to have them transform on upwards of 9-10 loads, even if it's into an extremely profitable load, before the game will let you make a profit.

Ignore all that, see below...

So far the Toy Factory has resisted all my efforts to skin it, trying to do so will wind up with a building that always builds itself below ground level the way the pier will sit a mile above the water if you make a different building out of it.

If anyone else has anything to share, please do so.

[coruscate]

I just discovered why it was so hard to make the casino and the attraction profitable... it's the price. The price determines what a building's overhead and labor is!!!!!!! The higher the price the harder the building has to work to make money.

That being said I just turned the casino into a 3 million dollar making business. It costs you about 25 million to buy a profitable one and about 5 million to make one.

I think everyone can live with that. Just updated it... five minutes from posting this message.

[nedfumpkin]

The Windmill generates electricity, and I am thinking that it can be converted into an industry that generates power. As it stands it just produces a small amount, but I've yet to try out my theory.

[coruscate]

New info: buildings using the port.bty file can only produce or transform 1 cargo, they cannot demand only or transform two materials into one material. You can write it into the BCA, the game won't crash but the transformations and demands won't take place. However the minute you give it a regular BTY, BAM, they happen.

[coruscate]

Alright, well I made the shipyard profitable by having it produce waste, here's the kicker, I discovered that the buildings placed on the water that are not the port act funny as far as being supplied for transformations, the source and or the station has to be right up in its face for it to function. Mind you, it was in a flat envirornment where it was the only building so perhaps being in an area where products it needs are around may change things.

[coruscate]

Okay I figured out EXACTLY why my water buildings sometimes acted up and why the game gives editors so much of a fit when placing ports and water buildings.

Up to now I bet most of you thought like me that whether a port can be placed depends on how flat it is. Yet if you pankcake an entire coast, ports will only show up on certain area. Why is that?

When you turn the cargo overview mode on, you will notice that the demand squares end at any water point. After building an unprofitable shipyard, I hit shift E and manually removed the water, guess what? It went active! Why? Because it went from being in an unlit portion of the coast to a lit portion. For some odd reason, dertain areas of coast stay highlighted while others don't. So when editing coasts you want ports on, try to line up the sand with the squares from the demand overview, same with placing any shipyard or fishing pier, make sure you place it in an area that's highlighted by the overview map, otherwise demands and transformations won't take place. Items that are straight generated will move without help.

[Stoker]

There are some maps with ports placed inland-on rivers-not "water"-do the makers paint "water"- place the port- then paint it back to land?

[JayEff]

I just discovered why it was so hard to make the casino and the attraction profitable... it's the price. The price determines what a building's overhead and labor is!!!!!!! The higher the price the harder the building has to work to make money.

That being said I just turned the casino into a 3 million dollar making business. It costs you about 25 million to buy a profitable one and about 5 million to make one.

I think everyone can live with that. Just updated it... five minutes from posting this message.

Four things affect a building's profitability, and you have named one of them:
1) the price of the building, because of its impact on overhead
2) the price of demanded / consumed cargo
3) the price of the supplied / manufactured cargo
4) the number of swaps per year.

If you want to make money with an electric plant, place it on a cheap coal cargo stream. Oil is usually more expensive.

[coruscate]

There are some maps with ports placed inland-on rivers-not "water"-do the makers paint "water"- place the port- then paint it back to land?

Just switch to overview mode and make sure the port is in one of the colored demand / supply blocks. If not, adjust your painting.

And thanks for the help Jay.

[JayEff]

It just occurred to me that freight travels over lake and ocean, as long as there is a port at each end of the trip. And if the cargo flows, then there must be a demand gradient. And so the demand must exist on the water, but it is hidden from view. BTW, I know from experience that this is true for territories - they exist underwater.

[Grandma Ruth]

There are some maps with ports placed inland-on rivers-not "water"-do the makers paint "water"- place the port- then paint it back to land?

Yes, this is what I've just done with Hamburg, which is in real life a river port that is regarded as a sea port because the ships can get out to sea easily down the river estuary. The river estuary on the RT map is a river that gets bigger as you get nearer the sea, then at the end it's overlaid with sea and segues out into the ocean. If I was at home I'd post a screen shot.