Department Store mod

[Just Crazy Jim]

A small mod to make the Department Store building more like a real world department store. Tested with versions 1.0, 1.04, 1.05, and 1.06.

Changes: added demand only for toys, furniture, and goods. (I stopped there so it would remain compatible with versions earlier than 1.06)

Demand for Furniture and Toys begins in 1800 to accommodate early availability of those cargoes should you have modified files installed to make the cargoes available before 1880. If you do not, demand for those cargoes will not start until 1880.

Installation:
1. backup your existing DepartmentStore.bca in the Data\BuildingTypes directory.
2. extract the DepartmentStore.bca file from the ZIP archive and copy it to the Data\BuildingTypes directory of your RT3 installation.

Uninstalling:
1. Delete the modified DepartmentStore.bca from the Data\BuildingTypes directory.
2. Move the backup of the original DepartmentStore.bca to the Data\BuildingTypes directory.

A copy of the original is included in the ZIP archive in case you forget to make your own backup.

A Demand Template is also included in the ZIP archive.

[Gumboots]

Ok, how does this affect overall gameplay and industry balance?

[Just Crazy Jim]

From what I have seen, the department store is a rather rare building dropped during seeding. I'm not sure what the specific conditions for seeding a Department Store are, but I have never seen it spawn during pre-play seeding in a city with a star-rating less than 2. Even then, I have seen it appear from normal seeding very rarely, maybe a total of twelve times out of I can't even guess how many runs of various maps, but the number is approaching one hundred runs.

From 1800-1880, unless other mods are in place, it is the same as having 1 vanilla Department Store + 1 Retail in the same spot. Post-1880, unless other mods are in place, it adds a demand for 2 Toys and 2 Furniture per game year, for which there is no precise parallel, excepting customized ports/warehouses.

Does it imbalance the game's economy? No more than a port or warehouse.

Does it drive the prices for the additional cargoes sky-high? Not that I have ever seen.

What I have seen it do in 1.0 through 1.05, in terms of impacting the economy, is difficult to answer in an all inclusive manner. I can't speak for 1.06 which can have specific buildings, like the Department Store, added to the city industries in the editor. Seeding being what seeding is, you spin the wheel of RNG fortune and maybe you never get it on a map, maybe you get it on a map. That being stated, when I have plopped one onto a raw map, it creates a demand equal to that of a port set with the same demands. In all, I would weigh the impact as much less noticeable than adding fertilizer as an output to the Cattle Ranch, Dairy Farm, and Sheep Station, which demonstrated a far-reaching impact on production of Grain, Corn, Rice, and Produce and the industries that process them.

Circling back to the building's rarity. Even though it has a Zero Year start date like the retail, church, etc, there seems to be some condition set in the EXE for it to seed. Or maybe it's simply a rare spawn. But, as far as I have seen it is a very rare spawn and it being such a rare spawn, I'd have to say its over-all impact would be negligible. If there is a negative impact, it's something I have not yet seen. However, RNG being RNG, YMMV during a specific run of a map.

At worst, going into the vapor of theory, it would be no more detrimental than building a Lumber Mill or Tool & Die solely to get Logs or Iron to start walking over the map to a station so you can gather those cargoes for more distant (and profitable) station/industry. A strategy that I use quite frequently.

[Gumboots]

Fair enough. I suppose the demand values can easily be tweaked later if more testing indicates that would be beneficial. I was just thinking that perhaps it could conflict with some existing scenarios that rely on specific ports or warehouses with the same demands (IOW, make goals more difficult).

At worst, going into the vapor of theory, it would be no more detrimental than building a Lumber Mill or Tool & Die solely to get Logs or Iron to start walking over the map to a station so you can gather those cargoes for more distant (and profitable) station/industry. A strategy that I use quite frequently.

There's another dodge you can use. If you have a chain of stations going to where your high demand is, and trains stopping at all stations, then the demand at the second station will take ages to increase to a useful level. So yes, your cargo won't move for ages. However, if you run one train direct from the first station straight to your last (high demand) station in the chain, that will quickly spike prices back at the first station. This is a cheap and effective way of getting the cargo moving, IME.

[Cash on Wheels]

From what I have seen, the department store is a rather rare building dropped during seeding. I'm not sure what the specific conditions for seeding a Department Store are, but I have never seen it spawn during pre-play seeding in a city with a star-rating less than 2. Even then, I have seen it appear from normal seeding very rarely, maybe a total of twelve times out of I can't even guess how many runs of various maps, but the number is approaching one hundred runs.

From 1800-1880, unless other mods are in place, it is the same as having 1 vanilla Department Store + 1 Retail in the same spot. Post-1880, unless other mods are in place, it adds a demand for 2 Toys and 2 Furniture per game year, for which there is no precise parallel, excepting customized ports/warehouses.

Does it imbalance the game's economy? No more than a port or warehouse.

Does it drive the prices for the additional cargoes sky-high? Not that I have ever seen.

What I have seen it do in 1.0 through 1.05, in terms of impacting the economy, is difficult to answer in an all inclusive manner. I can't speak for 1.06 which can have specific buildings, like the Department Store, added to the city industries in the editor. Seeding being what seeding is, you spin the wheel of RNG fortune and maybe you never get it on a map, maybe you get it on a map. That being stated, when I have plopped one onto a raw map, it creates a demand equal to that of a port set with the same demands. In all, I would weigh the impact as much less noticeable than adding fertilizer as an output to the Cattle Ranch, Dairy Farm, and Sheep Station, which demonstrated a far-reaching impact on production of Grain, Corn, Rice, and Produce and the industries that process them.

Circling back to the building's rarity. Even though it has a Zero Year start date like the retail, church, etc, there seems to be some condition set in the EXE for it to seed. Or maybe it's simply a rare spawn. But, as far as I have seen it is a very rare spawn and it being such a rare spawn, I'd have to say its over-all impact would be negligible. If there is a negative impact, it's something I have not yet seen. However, RNG being RNG, YMMV during a specific run of a map.

At worst, going into the vapor of theory, it would be no more detrimental than building a Lumber Mill or Tool & Die solely to get Logs or Iron to start walking over the map to a station so you can gather those cargoes for more distant (and profitable) station/industry. A strategy that I use quite frequently.

This thread

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1552


Someone goofed and deleted its setting in the .bca footer. Therefore the DS will not seed properly. If your run a hex file compare with the retail store and the DS at the bottom the values should be 0A not 00.

Those sliders for municipal buildings in the 1.06 editor do nothing. They have no impact on seeding whatsoever. Even if it is 100%!

[Just Crazy Jim]

Fair enough. I suppose the demand values can easily be tweaked later if more testing indicates that would be beneficial. I was just thinking that perhaps it could conflict with some existing scenarios that rely on specific ports or warehouses with the same demands (IOW, make goals more difficult).

I was uncertain about the impact in specific scenarios, I certainly haven't played every map in the archive. That's why I went the extra yard and added a back-up copy of the vanilla DepartmentStore.bca to the archive as "insurance".

There's another dodge you can use. If you have a chain of stations going to where your high demand is, and trains stopping at all stations, then the demand at the second station will take ages to increase to a useful level. So yes, your cargo won't move for ages. However, if you run one train direct from the first station straight to your last (high demand) station in the chain, that will quickly spike prices back at the first station. This is a cheap and effective way of getting the cargo moving, IME.

Good to know. I'll be sure to use that in the future.

Someone goofed and deleted its setting in the .bca footer. Therefore the DS will not seed properly. If your run a hex file compare with the retail store and the DS at the bottom the values should be 0A not 00.

I had noted the differences between the Retail.bca and the DepartmentStore.bca. I never tried changing the values as you did, but it makes sense that that portion of the file controls the seeding. But, other have saying it is an integer, PJay's note on BCA files only describes that section as a collection of q3 dates. After reading your post in the linked thread, I am guessing that since 0a 00 00 00 = 10, that would be 10% - so since a0 00 00 00 = 160, then that would be 160%. IOW, a whole lot of retails on the map :D

Those sliders for municipal buildings in the 1.06 editor do nothing. They have no impact on seeding whatsoever. Even if it is 100%!

Ah. I wondered about that. I'd tried the 1.06 sliders for municipal buildings and never seen any effect demonstrated, but I chalked it up to RNG. Thanks for clearing that up.