The No-House Glitch

[jeffryfisher]

Discussed deep in several threads specific to individual maps, the "no-house" glitch is when a map-maker manually places buildings near a city (or town or village), and then when the map is started, that city fails to auto-generate houses (or anything else). The glitch is actually more general than that; placing buildings not near cities can disrupt auto-generation of rural buildings in an entire econ region.

Back in my map-making heyday, this glitch caused me to give up on plopping predetermined buildings, forcing me to skew some industry parameters to almost guarantee that certain important features would generate "randomly" where needed to make a scenario work.

Well, I've recently started tinkering with the Amtrak West map (naming my version "CalTrain"). My aim is to have three major private companies on the map at the start, complete with track and stations. As I was happily clicking away to reserve tiles for the track and stations, a thought hit me: What would happen if I plopped an industrial building inside a city radius and then reserved all the cells under it? Would the auto-generator then steer clear, thus avoiding the glitch?

I'm going to test this hypothesis by plopping a bunch of buildings in various sized settlements and then starting the map a few times to see how often they fail to generate houses. Then I'll set the reserved X's under all of them to see if that cures the problem. If this works, then it opens up some fun possibilities thought long lost

[jeffryfisher]

Sadly, after placing just two ports near two cities, I have discovered that even when I reserve all of the cells under the ports, both cities fail to generate houses (or anything else other than the ports). The reserved cells looked so promising, but alas they're just another mirage. Planting pre-set industrial buildings is hopelessly bugged 

[CrownVic95]

As you said, this has come up before, but I haven't done any testing on it for several years. But my recollection was that I did see growth whereas you said that you did not. But when I noticed this newer thread, I wanted to take a fresh look and see if my memories were valid, or going off the tracks in my old age. 🙂

So this morning I started a new game. RRTII version 1.57ddh, Australia 1850 - WA map. In the editor I had placed a Lumber Mill at Bunbury and a Paper Mill at Augusta. Started the game. As expected, no houses (or any other buildings than the ones I placed) at either Bunbury or Augusta - we've both seen that before. Each of the other similar sized small towns started with one house, as they always do. Played 8 years and saw no growth anywhere - no additional buildings in my towns, anyway. Then, at the start of the ninth year, both Bunbury and Augusta had a new house! And, interestingly, they were the only towns that added housing to that point. I expect to see more housing in the other towns in the next 4-5 years, the way it typically goes.

I wonder what accounts for this observed difference. I assume you're waiting  enough years? I've seen it take closer to 15 (at least with this small map). The 8 I experienced this morning was fast for this map. Anyway, just passing it along for what it's worth.

[CrownVic95]

I re-read your posts and it occurred to me that maybe you're talking only about initial map generation....and not long term growth. If that is the case, then there's no difference to reconcile. Because, yes, placing buildings does kill initial generation of others.

[jeffryfisher]

19 hours ago, CrownVic95 said:

I re-read your posts and it occurred to me that maybe you're talking only about initial map generation....and not long term growth. If that is the case, then there's no difference to reconcile. Because, yes, placing buildings does kill initial generation of others.

Yes, I that's what I must have meant, since I never bothered to play maps where major cities failed to spawn at the start.

I wonder how reserved tiles can keep land clear without spoiling city-spawning, but an industrial building on top of reserved tiles still ruins everything. I really expected my combo to work 

[CrownVic95]

53 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

Yes, I that's what I must have meant, since I never bothered to play maps where major cities failed to spawn at the start.

I wonder how reserved tiles can keep land clear without spoiling city-spawning, but an industrial building on top of reserved tiles still ruins everything. I really expected my combo to work 

I'm afraid I must plead complete ignorance on the subject of "reserved tiles". Don't know what they are or how they're used.

[CrownVic95]

OK, my previous comment can be ignored as I have delved deeper and educated myself.

I had seen those red Xs criss-crossing towns in the editor, but never knew they were called reserved cells or that they could be placed like buildings in the editor. I gathered they were there to keep space open for track through towns, but paid them little attention beyond that.

 

 

 

 

[jeffryfisher]

5 hours ago, CrownVic95 said:

I gathered they were there to keep space open for track through towns

They also hold space for adjoining stations, and if you have a company build a small or medium station in the editor, extra cells will automatically be reserved on either side of it so it can expand into a terminal later.