How does "chance" work?

[Carl]

As per title; how does the "chance" parameter for citybuildings work? For instance, what would chance=100, chance=50, etc, mean?


The reason I ask: today I coded three very similar buildings which all have "chance=50", and yet the first of the three seems to appear around ten times more often than the other two.

[Combuijs]

I did wonder myself and got an answer: http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=6316

So, if your similar buildings have the same building_time, chances are not what they seem.

Using different building times, there is 50% chance a building appears in a city, 50% chance it does not appear.

[Carl]

Thanks, Combuijs. So is the explanation for (e.g.) residential buildings broadly similar? Are buildings grouped by passenger-level for this purpose?

[prissi]

No, each building is loooked at from time to time when a city grows. Then it can be either renovated or a new building is constructed. Thus the older building have looked at more often => thus they are in the center => they are renovated more often (higher level). Apart from that, industries, com and residential building try to be next to each other.

[Carl]

Thanks, Prissi.

[Roads]

It's not really hijacking the thread if the original question is answered and you move to a similar topic is it?

What about historical buildings?  What I mean is this:  There are obviously many talented artists in the Simutrans family but some appeal to my taste more than others.  Occasionally I see a building that I just love and hate it when it disappears.  Would it be possible to say it is a "historical site" and keep it on the map?  I tried using the sign tool but got the message that this building is owned by another player in both player mode and god mode.

[Combuijs]

I don't know what you mean with "sign tool". There is a possibility to buy a house in a city. You pay for it once and you pay maintenance costs. From then on the building can not be removed anymore except by you. Dependent of the pak you are playing you can find an icon ("buy house") for it somewhere in the toolbars.

[Roads]

Thank you!

My expectation when I posted this was something like, "well, maybe sometime in the future or you can do so and so."  I never expected instant gratification but that is exactly what I got.  What you suggested works perfectly. 

By "sign tool" I mean the icon that lets you place a sign.  I use it, not for a sign, but to keep the landscape, i.e., trees - to keep the AI from building over the trees I want to keep.

[Roads]

Combuijs, just wanted to say thank you again because this has added a whole new dimension to the game for me.  A new challenge in the game is to make the cities look different and that is, to some extent possible, because of the varied architectural types I've seen so far.  Hopefully the artists have picked up on this idea as well, or maybe just an individual proclivity for certain types...

The Spanish/Mediterranean stuff looks great in the desert and the wooden stuff looks great in the hills...