Cities: Skylines (Steam) - Path units and citizens/vehicles instances maxing out on small pop. modded city

[Sully_Skylines]

Describe your issue
Path units and citizens/vehicles instances maxing out on small pop. modded city

What is your game version?
1.16.0-f3

What expansions do you have installed?


What mods are you using?
Have over 100 mods (too many to list) on my main save, but have also tried vanilla saves, and small amounts of mods and introducing a few at a time with no luck.

I've removed almost all mods except for these limited few as they're needed to make sure my save loads ok. even with these limited mods, the Unit Paths/Citizen instances maxing out error is still happening.

-81 Tiles 2 Testing, Compatibility Report, Game Anarchy 0.9.6, Ploppable Rico Revisited 2.5.3, Network Anarchy, Extra Landscaping tools 1.13.1-f4 fix, Loading Screen Mod Revisited 1.1, Unified UUI 2,2, Ultimate Eye Candy v1.5.2, Tree Anarchy 1.3.6, Theme Mixer 2, MoveIt, More Vehicles, Harmony 2.2.2-0, Advanced Vehicle Options, Broken Nodes Detectors.

It's happening with those mods on my save games (seems like it's happening no matter how little or many mods i have), but if I use the same mods on a brand new game it's not happening.

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
in my save (opened it yesterday first time in over a month) which is a 30k approx detailed city with mods (things have always been fine for over a year and hundreds of hours played)... after a few minutes of opening the save on saturday i hit the Path Units max limit which i had never seen before. this shouldn't be close with a 30k city.

So i've literally been on this for 2 full days now trying to fix and have gotten nowhere, googled every possible fix, so need to ask for help now.

- Within minutes of opening games the path units max limit gets maxed out
- Citizens, Citizen Units, Vehicles and Path Units counts all go up thousands every second when viewing limits
- thousands of cims entering my map from outside connections every second..
- Also, maybe unrelated but have a feeling this is related as linked to citizen instances, but i've noticed hundreds or maybe thousands of seagulls flying above my city.
- maybe unrelated but i also notice if i delete road segments so blocking traffic from entering the city, path units go down (although still stay high), but my population is unaffected, so it still stays at same pop even though no1 can access city - is that normal? i thought it wasn't.

Things i've tried:
Saw an old thread on here and reddit saying it's an issue with P&P large service points and if delete them and use transfer manager to release broken pathing it should fix - this didn't fix. I've also tried going to an old save pre-P&P and it's still happening on them.

I've tried reinstalling the game and tried a vanilla save and this was fine at first... I then opened my save games (multiple saves and tries), then noticed going back into a vanilla save (or just a few well-known mods), it was also happening on the vanilla save then - im just guessing but felt like it became corrupted.

Also tried a save got on the workshop -- it's 45k city, Path units are stable compared to my saves, but at 160-165k path units, which seems very very high. looking at the outside connections, a tonne of people are entering.

Tried broken nodes detector and removing ghost nodes etc - didn't work, and TMPE > Maintenance > reset stuck cims and vehciels. also tried clearing traffic etc with TMPE. Also in TMPE unticked disabled spawning, no effect.

Tried deleting large parts and even the entire of my city, whilst Path units go down, they remain extremely high especially seeing as there's no roads or buildings in my city once deleted.

Tried having just a few mods and reintroducing them, having just 10 or so mods, its still happening.

Probably tried another 20 or so fixes, nothing is working and just really dont want to lose my saves which have put sooo many hundreds of hours into over the course of a year. Hoping someone can help, i've attached output logs etc below.

thanks in advance for helping.

Can you replicate the issue? If yes, please explain how you did it.
It seems to happen on all saves no matter the mods or assets. starting a new vanilla game it doesn't seem to happen, but does seem a little high compared to what it should be.

Attachments File(s) attached

 

[Sully_Skylines]

i've also added some quick videos so you can see the game limits and how quickly things get maxed out (i have sped up the video). And another video which shows the amount of people trying to enter my city, this is one of 4 highway connections, so you can imagine the scale of the people entering the map every second.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Y-i1h25hTOSoMsTAlu51VfmSnoOuZzHY

 

[co_avanya]

When you tested the vanilla save was that with mods in use or without any mods?

 

[Sully_Skylines]

When you tested the vanilla save was that with mods in use or without any mods?

I had to have some basic mods just to unlock milestones and extended managers library to see the limits in vanilla game... but like think maybe 4 or 5 of the most common ones. game anarchy, extended managers etc. but i've tried all sorts of combinations, vanilla, close to vanilla, mods which dont work in my saves, but then do work on vanilla maps. Vanilla is mostly unaffected but when i then went into my save games the error was happening. so i went back into the close-to vanilla save game i made and that had the error, it's like that got infected.

I have a new update also which i am working on at the moment - i've added a new video to this g drive folder. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Y-i1h25hTOSoMsTAlu51VfmSnoOuZzHY

so i downloaded a mod called 'Configure Outside Connections Limits https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=734025380 . through this i can change the values of what can enter and exit on each connection - i changed all these values to 1... some were at default at 500 and 1000. so changing them to 1 citizen can enter at a time - it can control the path units and lower the amount - currently got it down to 40k pathunits with 20k pop. this isn't a fix though, just masking it.

Anyway, through this people are still entering in big bunches of people and vehicles, certainly not 1 at a time as they should - maybe groups of 30,but i can look at them and where they're going... everyone in this group is all going to the same location.... weird. so I deleted the end destination and they all disappeared. but then it kept happening, and some of these assets are vanilla like industries DLC warehouses. so i dont think it's faulty assets, they're just a random end destination.

edit: citizens disappear but vehicles stay in game when you delete end location and the cars all say 'confused' when click on them.

see video, it can probably show it better than i can explain.

but well, this is definitely not a fix right, it's like the new mod is limiting it to 1 person at a time, which does control the path units. but then people are still entering in huge groups like before, and all to same location. urghhh.

thanks for replying.

 

[Sully_Skylines]

I had to have some basic mods just to unlock milestones and extended managers library to see the limits in vanilla game... but like think maybe 4 or 5 of the most common ones. game anarchy, extended managers etc. but i've tried all sorts of combinations, vanilla, close to vanilla, mods which dont work in my saves, but then do work on vanilla maps. Vanilla is mostly unaffected but when i then went into my save games the error was happening. so i went back into the close-to vanilla save game i made and that had the error, it's like that got infected.

I have a new update also which i am working on at the moment - i've added a new video to this g drive folder. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Y-i1h25hTOSoMsTAlu51VfmSnoOuZzHY

so i downloaded a mod called 'Configure Outside Connections Limits https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=734025380 . through this i can change the values of what can enter and exit on each connection - i changed all these values to 1... some were at default at 500 and 1000. so changing them to 1 citizen can enter at a time - it can control the path units and lower the amount - currently got it down to 40k pathunits with 20k pop. this isn't a fix though, just masking it.

Anyway, through this people are still entering in big bunches of people and vehicles, certainly not 1 at a time as they should - maybe groups of 30,but i can look at them and where they're going... everyone in this group is all going to the same location.... weird. so I deleted the end destination and they all disappeared. but then it kept happening, and some of these assets are vanilla like industries DLC warehouses. so i dont think it's faulty assets, they're just a random end destination.

edit: citizens disappear but vehicles stay in game when you delete end location and the cars all say 'confused' when click on them.

see video, it can probably show it better than i can explain.

but well, this is definitely not a fix right, it's like the new mod is limiting it to 1 person at a time, which does control the path units. but then people are still entering in huge groups like before, and all to same location. urghhh.

thanks for replying.

added 'confused cars' video to the link

 

[Sully_Skylines]

i realised you can also lower the outside connections using transfer manager so back using that mod, and using that i took the values down to 0 . so making every connection 0, unit paths drop to 14k for a 16k city. but what i notice from that it CitizenUnits is what stays high.. still 67k citizen units still, so feel like it's these citizen units which is the issue.

 

[akeela84]

That's not even that bad.. considering you are still having 457.040 units left to reach the maximum Citizen Units.
The biggest game break would be the 81-tile mod.. which it seems like you are using.
This game is not meant to be played with 81-tiles unlocked.

 

[Sully_Skylines]

its only that number when i put all the values down to 1 or 0 on transfer manager, when they're on default settings for example when i load a game, there's thousands of citizens spawning every second. within minutes it hits the pathunits max limit in seconds. i've also tried multiple saves without 81 tiles.

 

[Sully_Skylines]

its looking at that number in comparison to the other numbers on the photo which i was trying to highligh...

- path units max out within minutes
- use transfer manager to not let in any vehicles or sims to the map - unitpaths stabalise (just using this as temporary to diagnose the issue)
- notice in comparison to other figures shown in image above was highlighting why that number remains high when all the others are low - like 67 citizenunits in comparison to 20k citizens.
- but the problem remains, load game, pathunits max out in seconds. game is spawning endless amounts of citizens/vehicles many of which are trying to go to the same place.

 

[Sully_Skylines]

this is what i get minutes after loading a game. 20k population...

EDIT: just tried removing 81 tiles mod again and seeing if issue remains, and it does.

 

[akeela84]

its only that number when i put all the values down to 1 or 0 on transfer manager, when they're on default settings for example when i load a game, there's thousands of citizens spawning every second. within minutes it hits the pathunits max limit in seconds. i've also tried multiple saves without 81 tiles.

Disabling/uninstalling mods won't work properly as you already have used some mods on those save games. If ever you should only test on a completely new city.

 

[Sully_Skylines]

tbh this issue isn't to do with 81 tiles, it's more of a traffic/citizen/spawning issue.

 

[co_avanya]

Unfortunately, removing a mod doesn't remove the effect it has had on a save, which in this case makes it harder to diagnose the issue. I've seen a few cases of this, all with a lot of big mods in use, which makes it hard to determine if this is a mod issue or not.

Do you have more versions of your save? Would you be able to go back and check older versions of it to see if it also has this issue happening?

 

[Sully_Skylines]

@co_avanya yep i've got 79 versions of my saves over the course of a year, i can go back to saves which haven't been opened in 1 year and it happens on them... i can remove all mods except maybe 10 or so to allow game to run, and it still happens...

Is there anything in output logs which would highlight whats causing so many citizens to spawn every second? or do you know someone who i could ask? i'd happily pay someone to look into it if it means not losing 1 year of work.

 

[co_avanya]

Hmm, so the issue is new but also affecting older versions of the city, but other cities you create or open are not affected. No wonder you've been chasing this for a while, it's hard to pin down. Unfortunately, nothing in the log sticks out, however, I'm not familiar enough with how the mods work to tell if they're showing any indication of what's causing this.

Looking at the mods you tested with, I'd recommend you try loading it with the bare minimum of mods. So 81 Tiles 2 Testing, Loading Screen Mod Revisited 1.1, More Vehicles, Harmony 2.2.2-0, and whichever mod you use to check the limits. Leave the simulation running for 5-10 min (more if it runs slowly) as removing Ploppable RICO is bound to cause some chaos, which will take a little while to stabilize. Are you still seeing a very high number of path units in use?

 

[Sully_Skylines]

@co_avanya yes it's a very strange bug, so bizarre, and after searching every reddit, forum and thread i can find, there's nothing quite like this out there like this. still haven't fixed, or even located the issue yet, but there is a little progress, and there's a few potential suspects.

Yesterday a friend put me in touch with Chameleon TBN who has kindly now offered to look into it with me, think after 3 days of trying on my own with no success need someone more knowledgeable than myself with these type of things. So we spent a few hours yesterday evening trying a few things but still no change. But i do have tests to do after work tonight which may pinpoint prime suspect number 1. but until these tests have been done can't confirm if it is that.

 

[Snowwie888]

@co_avanya yes it's a very strange bug, so bizarre, and after searching every reddit, forum and thread i can find, there's nothing quite like this out there like this. still haven't fixed, or even located the issue yet, but there is a little progress, and there's a few potential suspects.

Yesterday a friend put me in touch with Chameleon TBN who has kindly now offered to look into it with me, think after 3 days of trying on my own with no success need someone more knowledgeable than myself with these type of things. So we spent a few hours yesterday evening trying a few things but still no change. But i do have tests to do after work tonight which may pinpoint prime suspect number 1. but until these tests have been done can't confirm if it is that.

I have the same issue appearing on my games (known on YouTube just as "Snowwie"), and from what I noticed and also the contacts I had with "Sleepy" the modmaker of Transfermanager CE he traced the problem back down to the Pedestrian Area mod, the thing you said about the service building, he mentioned that one of those buildings creates a certain loop that keeps on adding more path units. Whether this is really the case I still have to try, on a new map, totally NOT using the Pedestrian Area DLC (which is a shame). I also noticed that you use the More Vehicles mod, which might be also a reason you have more path units taken. 4 times the amount of vehicles trying to find their way. I am not sure if you have the "Rebalanced Industries mod" so that goods are not needlessly being transferred from one part of the city to the other. A possible solution could be to divide your city in such a way that goods are simple not ABLE to get to other parts and places of export are not too far from the edge of the map. The mod "More Citizenunits" also create more pathing. Older metro stations (the shorter ones) can create vehicle bunching and because of that I still use the "Improved Public Transport 2" mod and not it's FIX, because the FIXed version does not allow making a choice of vehicle. In the case of metro's I noticed that (longer) Airport Express Metro's are going into your regular tube, and if you still use some older metro stations these can become stuck. Since I am still in the process of thinking about a new city I cannot tell if these option would work for you, but you are already in a situation you could try them.

 

[easymoney123]

Hi! I am so thankful I found this post, as I had not been able to find anything remotely close to this and my particular problem...ever!
My particular problem has to do with the citizen instances limit. The citizen unit # goes quite high as well but takes more time and I can reset it by toggling the "clear all traffic" button in TMPE. The Citizen Instances also resets, but climbs quickly to around 45K , stays around that for a while then climbs again steadily to reach the maximum of around 65K.

This is what I'm looking at....any idea what I can do to remedy the sitch and bring my Citizen Instances down to more manageable levels or is this normal for the amount of citizens in a city this size??
Any Help or insight would be so so appreciated !!!

 

[Sully_Skylines]

Hi! I am so thankful I found this post, as I had not been able to find anything remotely close to this and my particular problem...ever!
My particular problem has to do with the citizen instances limit. The citizen unit # goes quite high as well but takes more time and I can reset it by toggling the "clear all traffic" button in TMPE. The Citizen Instances also resets, but climbs quickly to around 45K , stays around that for a while then climbs again steadily to reach the maximum of around 65K.

This is what I'm looking at....any idea what I can do to remedy the sitch and bring my Citizen Instances down to more manageable levels or is this normal for the amount of citizens in a city this size??
Any Help or insight would be so so appreciated !!!
View attachment 950500

yes this could be the same error... whats your cities population? what do your outside connections look like? are there hundreds or thousands of citizens/vehicles entering your outside connections every second? i haven't managed to fix mine yet, but still trying

 

[easymoney123]

yes this could be the same error... whats your cities population? what do your outside connections look like? are there hundreds or thousands of citizens/vehicles entering your outside connections every second? i haven't managed to fix mine yet, but still trying

After further investigation I believe the problem may trace back to one of the bus lines or tram lines in my city not picking up passengers properly. the game has been running at speed that cannot be changed for a while and that may be part of the issue. I'll have a closer look and try and find where exactly this is happening.
My city pop is roughly 84K but the total # of citizens listed in Extended Manager is 142.5K not sure why there's a difference but alas.