PS4 - Sunset Harbor Free Content - Death Rate Defect

[Sheller]

When loading a stable city that was created pre-Sunset Harbor, the city immediately experiences a zeroing of the death rate, breaking the city's population distribution and leading to a bulge in seniors.

This event also sees a sudden, otherwise unprovoked population increase take place.

*Early observation upon loading game on PS4

 

[Sheller]

 

[Sheller]

The same city in both graphs. A single tile with no monuments, and good city services coverage.

The longer term graphs are from the time I posted this town

And the shorter term were gathered today after the patch

It's a similar effect that is caused when placing the hadron collider or Education Boost in a large city.

Pre Sunset Harbor


Post Sunset Harbor

 

[Pepe_Silvia]

Same problem on Xbox.

 

[Sheller]

Same problem on Xbox.

I ran a test with a new single tile city to compare, and I think what's taking place is pre-SH cities with good service coverage are having their senior population suddenly extended by ~10 years of cim-life.

I've noticed everything runs as it has when the seniors all have lifespans of about 73 years in a brand new city.

But all the stable cities I load immediately show the senior population as living into their mid 80s.

(The smaller question to answer, does childcare increase the birthrate to counter the bulge of seniors?)
(or how does the mechanic play out over time in a brand new city where seniors gain that decade of life incrementally?)

 

[Pepe_Silvia]

(The smaller question to answer, does childcare increase the birthrate to counter the bulge of seniors?)

I would think it would but we'd have to know how many to add and how long do we wait in between placing them as adding a bunch at once would just be creating a future death wave.

 

[Sheller]

I would think it would but we'd have to know how many to add and how long do we wait in between placing them as adding a bunch at once would just be creating a future death wave.

It won't cause a further death wave, but it does lead to some stabilization, almost flat lined.

It's below where the stable city was, but above where it ends up with no child care added.

I have found today that adding childcare early prevents the problem in new cities where the senior age hasn't crept up.
I still don't know what makes that go up beside elder care facilities, but something present in all my pre-SH cities caused their average age to be in the 80s.

The town I'm doing to show parallel industrial supply lines to a few doubters has a good birthrate with seniors in their 70s, and is as we're used to.