Upgrades and buyout costs

jpueyo

Hi,

I created upgrades for solar panels installations in my project. Since not all functions have the "solar panel" version I reused some functions. For instance, I used luxury appartments (with solar panels) to upgrade mid-century midlevel appartments (I changed the category and all values of luxury appartments to fit the values of the previous building).

However, when the players performs the upgrade, the buyout cost is considered. The upgrade is only about installing solar panels, the people is not affected, so it makes no sense. How can I prevent that?

In addition the player who owns the building is getting the income of selling the building, but the only difference is that it has solar panels, it's not, theoretically, a new building.

Options I figured it out:

• Set the buyout cost to 0€. Problem: if the building is actually demolished, the buyout costs should be paid.
• Equal the buyout cost and the sell price, so one compensates the other. The result works and only the cost of upgrade is charged to the player. Problem: the players must own the property (I don't want to) and the player watch big numbers of cost and income so it's difficult to figure it out how much the action really cost.

Any other options?

Thank you!

Hansje

Hi @jpueyo ,

I understand what you are saying. I think the solution is to make multiple functions that are used to be the new type for the upgrade.

I think you know how to create new functions but to be sure...hereby the link with wiki info on how to do that.

https://support.tygron.com/wiki/Upgrades#Creating_or_removing_new_upgrade_types

You mention you have used the luxery appartments to make the upgrade for the solar panels because this is not available for all building types. What I would do is duplicate the correct building type and change the roofcolor for the version with the solar panels. In that case you can adjust the function values to the desired numbers and the upgrade does have a visual change. In that case the other types do not have to be influenced and do not have an effect on the scores.

Also now change the costs to the correct numbers.

This is how you can make sure the upgrade can be correct but this does not solve teh problem jet when you want to demolisha nd build a new building. Therefor I would advice to change the function value for the original buildig to buyout costs 0,- so when you change it with an upgrade it is not taken into account.

In the duplicate for the new to construct building higher the building cost so that will compensate for the buyout cost and make sure you connect the correct type to your action menu.

In the dulpicate for the solar panel upgrade change the building cost to a lowe amount because you just make an adjustment, not a new building.

I think this will solve you problem.

If not, please let us know, maybe we can plan a moment for our cunsultency hour and record the answer and post it here.

jpueyo

Hi,

thank you for your comments.

I used luxury appartments and not the same functions because this way solar panels are actually visualized in the 3D world. Changing the roof color is a lost of accuracy in the visualization. I would prefer not to do that.

A solution could be that you implement a solar panel version of all functions. ;-P

Best!

jpueyo

Hi,

I found a shortcut to overpass it. I set the buyout cost and the sell price to 0 and I added the buyout cost to demolition cost for each pair of functions in the upgrade. This way, the players only see the costs of the upgrade and if they demolish the buildin, they pay the buyout costs as well. I can do this, because I'm not interested in sell prices (players don't get incomes when construct buildings) and neither in vacant buildings.

Best!

JPR

Hansje

Hello @jpueyo,

That is a good solution! And thank you for sharing this in our community.

This is indeed a good way to handle the costs.

Hansje

Hi @jpueyo ,

We have new solar panel functionalities on our Preview Server that will become available for all customers in the upcomming Preview release at the end of 2020.

May be it is interesting for you to start exploring these new functions after the release is done.

For now you can already have a sneak peak via this video. This in in Ducth only but may be by watching the video you can get an idea of what the new possibilities are.

Also this wiki link about the attribute actions is relevant for you I think. This is related to the upgrade of buildings to buildings with solar panels. Via this new action you don't have to work with the buyout cost anymore.

Attribute Actions - Tygron Preview Support Wiki

https://previewsupport.tygron.com/wiki/Attribute_Actions

Attribute Actions are a convenient way to be able to add a new or update an existing attribute of a building in the Tygron Platform. By adding the Attribute Action to an Action Menu, the user can directly impact speciffic seleceted buildings without the need to create elaborate upgrade functions or panels.

And we keep you updated about the upcomming Preview Release!