Cities: Skylines (the Sim City we deserve)

[MatskiMonk]

I'm not sure what the menu is, but it's some overlay that Steam puts up, I think it's something like pressing Escape whilst on the main Cities Skylines Menu screen.. or I think it appears when you click to go to the steam workshop from in game... I can't actually remember what I'm doing when it shows up, but I see it every time I play. Hours this session, this month, and total.

I'll figure it out when I get home.

 

[MatskiMonk]

@redhed17

Shift+tab on the main game menu screen.

Top left, 505 hours.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

It also shows up in the Steam library

 

[eran0004]

I decided to do some city planing by drawing on the map in Adobe Illustrator and realised there was potential for a whole new city district as well as an industrial area with optimal access to both the highway and the railroad. In the plan, B = high density residential, C = district center (mixed residential/commercial/services), G = green corridor, H = supermarket, S = light residential, V = village. The red x marks things to demolish.

The industrial area is almost finished (the detailing is remaining). It fits nicely there, and the highway rest area doesn't feel so lonely anymore.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I decided to do some city planing by drawing on the map in Adobe Illustrator and realised there was potential for a whole new city district as well as an industrial area with optimal access to both the highway and the railroad. In the plan, B = high density residential, C = district center (mixed residential/commercial/services), G = green corridor, H = supermarket, S = light residential, V = village. The red x marks things to demolish.

View attachment 919664

The industrial area is almost finished (the detailing is remaining). It fits nicely there, and the highway rest area doesn't feel so lonely anymore.
View attachment 919665

Looking good. I sometimes print my maps off on my A3 printer and scribble ideas on them. By the time I've put them into the game, they are always different!

 

[redhed17]

I love using the auto bridge Mod. It can come up with some crazy things. Normally, on properly designed junctions, it does what you expect though. The bridges are a touch too high, but can be adjusted with the 'Move It' mod I think.

And this one was a bit more elegant. It initially connected each ramp in the centre, but covered the square, so I connected the ramps and deleted the walkways covering the centre.

Putting these about really helps with traffic, as it stops the Cims from crossing the roads at the junctions.

 

[eran0004]

I built the new dense residential area. I named all my districts after characters from The Wire, so this one got named after Shakima Greggs. Inspiration for the district was taken from Sarcelles Locheres, near Paris, and from Handen, in Stockholm. The empty space to the left in the map is going to get some supermarkets.

View from above. In the background is the "green corridor", which separates the district from the industrial area. The angular shapes of the walking paths were taken from Sarcelles Locheres.

I finally figured out how to create good looking rivers in this game! The trick is to build a road to lay out the path that you want the river to follow, adjust the slope with the MoveIt mod and then use the smooth terrain tool to adjust the terrain to the height of the road. When you're happy with the terrain, simply demolish the road and add water.

Oh, and think I hit the maximum of what my CPU can handle. The simulation runs really slow right now, I guess around 10% of normal speed. It's not graphics related, because when I pause the game it responds nicely still. Perhaps it was caused by an unfortunate combination of building 1000 new homes at the same time as the city was encountering a massive death wave? Hopefully it will get better when the city is reloaded.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Satellite view time lapse... 100k to 143k

Cities Skylines time lapse

• MatskiMonk
• May 12, 2020

Click for bigger size.

.. more hassle than it's worth to be honest! Probably need to do it as a video, rather than animated gif!

 

[eran0004]

Good news, after restarting the game the framerate improved. The death wave seems to have been dealt with as well.

I recorded another little video, of a train arriving to the central station.

Satellite view time lapse... 100k to 143k

Cities Skylines time lapse

• MatskiMonk
• May 12, 2020

Click for bigger size.

.. more hassle than it's worth to be honest! Probably need to do it as a video, rather than animated gif!

I'm thinking of doing something similar, but with the map view, since the satellite mod didn't work for me. It's nice to see the development over time!

 

[MatskiMonk]

@eran0004

I use CustomiseIt! Extended, to increase the capacity/speed of crematoriums (and garbage facilities) if I get a problem beginning to spike. I don't like cheating, but it's preferable to just ruining a district by building 20 crematoriums or some such stuff, and it can always be edited back afterwards.

 

[eran0004]

Seems like 50'000 citizens is just about what my computer can handle before before it becomes Glitch City.

This happened to the terrain while I was building a new residential area:

So I decided to start on a new project, and make it small-scale. I'm thinking maximum 10'000 citizens. I started creating the map (because most workshop maps have massive highway connections that doesn't really make sense for this project). The terrain is pretty much done and the rivers are work in progress. In the north there is a mountain range and the town and villages will be located in the valley below. From the north end of the map to the south the elevation change is about 1000 meters.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Seems like 50'000 citizens is just about what my computer can handle before before it becomes Glitch City.

This happened to the terrain while I was building a new residential area:

Ouch, was that just a visual thing or was it actually affecting the environment like that?

Rockwood 2 just passed 150,000. The slow down is bad, but nothing's glitching, and I could probably turn the TM11 AI down a bit since traffic is not a problem.

 

[eran0004]

Ouch, was that just a visual thing or was it actually affecting the environment like that?

Well I’m not sure exactly how the game works, but it seems to me like the map has a heightmap, and then as you place roads and buildings on the ground it adds deformation on top of the heightmap (which allows the terrain to go back to normal when you demolish a road or a building). I think it was these deformations that glitched out.

 

[Touring Mars]

Some mega-impressive designs/screengrabs in this thread... 👍

I downloaded this from PS Plus, having nearly bought it in the past, but I figured it would be a disappointed and/or a colossal waste of time.

I must say, however, that it is very enjoyable thus far... and very, very close to Sim City 2000 which I used to love on the PC.

It is not too difficult, but there's a few things I don't quite get... and yet, for the time and effort I am prepared to put into it, I think the balance is just about perfect... relaxing yet rewarding and strangely (OK, hugely) addictive.

I had a bad experience with a Sim City clone that was free on the iPad, but it turned out to be a horrible money-grabbing piece of crap that you could only progress in through cash purchases and some serious grinding... it should have been fun, but it quickly became hugely frustrating. This, however, is a very pleasant antidote to that - and I'll definitely buy it if/when my PS Plus runs out.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I had a bad experience with a Sim City clone that was free on the iPad, but it turned out to be a horrible money-grabbing piece of crap that you could only progress in through cash purchases and some serious grinding... it should have been fun, but it quickly became hugely frustrating. This, however, is a very pleasant antidote to that - and I'll definitely buy it if/when my PS Plus runs out.

If you get hooked on C:S, it can end up getting expensive too! First there's the DLC's... then there's the new PC...

but there's a few things I don't quite get...

Such as?

 

[Touring Mars]

If you get hooked on C:S, it can end up getting expensive too! First there's the DLC's... then there's the new PC...

Such as?

Mostly road and rail connections at the moment, which can be pretty awkward and/or hard to understand... but it's pretty good fun trying to figure out how to make elegant and/or realistic structures from the tangled mess that I inevitably have to start with.

I also discovered the alternative camera views last night, and the fact that you can walk or even drive (albeit horribly) through your city, which is a very nice touch. The cinematic view is a lot of fun.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Rockwood V2 is at 198k citizens and the frame rate is smooth as a dalek falling down the stairs

Anyway... spent about an hour adapting a junction to serve a local community. It joined a North/South highway to an East/West Highway that only ran off to the west. It's a good junction from the workshop that handles large amounts of traffic well... but I had to add on/off ramps to serve the district to the left... then I carried on the East/West lanes to the east...

It's too big for what it does, and unnecessarily complex.. but the crux of it might be worth adapting in other junctions. The stack roundabouts in the centre each serve a different purpose, and are only fed by/feed the roundabout on the ground to the left. One tier handles traffic feeding out, the other only handles traffic feeding in... so each roundabout is 1 on, 3 off... it'll handle a lot of traffic...

.. just wish I could smooth out the lumpy ramps.

 

[redhed17]

Rockwood V2 is at 198k citizens and the frame rate is smooth as a dalek falling down the stairs

Anyway... spent about an hour adapting a junction to serve a local community. It joined a North/South highway to an East/West Highway that only ran off to the west. It's a good junction from the workshop that handles large amounts of traffic well... but I had to add on/off ramps to serve the district to the left... then I carried on the East/West lanes to the east...

View attachment 925656

It's too big for what it does, and unnecessarily complex.. but the crux of it might be worth adapting in other junctions. The stack roundabouts in the centre each serve a different purpose, and are only fed by/feed the roundabout on the ground to the left. One tier handles traffic feeding out, the other only handles traffic feeding in... so each roundabout is 1 on, 3 off... it'll handle a lot of traffic...

.. just wish I could smooth out the lumpy ramps.

You certainly like your mad junctions MatskiMonk.

 

[Darla Starch]

Now THAT'S a proper junction, got your circle on a circle and everything.

 

[redhed17]

WARNING, it's a long one.

Some of the first person view videos show the camera position above the vehicle or person, yet the mod I have seems to have the PoV inside the vehicle, and I can't see a way to change the PoV. I'm using a mod called 'First Person Camera_ Updated'. Are people, like eran, or anyone else using something different?


I struggled with the scenario I was doing again much more this time after my OS and game upgrades, and took way more messing about to get the traffic under control. There seemed to be random waves of traffic for no particular reason this time. And a small change seemed to generate way more traffic than the first time I did the same scenario.

I think I am over the hump now, and the city is making money and pretty stable. I think the first time I succeeded at 199 weeks out of 300. This time it took 204 out of 300. The first time seemed more attractive than this time sadly. Hard to be as imaginative the second time, and I didn't want to try and copy the first time I did the scenario, though there are some similarities.

One trick I did this time and last time, was to have an area with 3-4 sports arenas, as while they cost, when the team wins, there is a lot of money coming in in one go. There were a few times when the money was getting very low because the city was grinding to a standstill, and haemorrhaging money, that a sports win came at the right time.

I know some don't play the game in the same way, and play the game as a virtual sandbox with unlimited money to design a city, but at the moment I am starting with a scenario, and then if I like the landscape, and what I had did to win the scenario, I carry on.


Something that seems to have changed with Universities, after the upgrades. And I noticed this after re-watching a video, possibly by Biffa, about making University zones to check. Previously, when the University upgraded to the top level 5, and I think becomes 'Prestigious', it would not lower the level, but since the upgrades to the game I have done recently, the levels will drop if the numbers of students go down. I have three University's atm, for a population of about 150k, and whilst they have all reached the top level 5, they are varying between levels 3+4 because the numbers vary. But at least by reaching level 5, all the assets are unlocked.

Sorry for the long post, but I couldn't get to sleep. No doubt if you have got this far, I have helped with any similar problems you may be having.

 

[eran0004]

Rockwood V2 is at 198k citizens and the frame rate is smooth as a dalek falling down the stairs

Anyway... spent about an hour adapting a junction to serve a local community. It joined a North/South highway to an East/West Highway that only ran off to the west. It's a good junction from the workshop that handles large amounts of traffic well... but I had to add on/off ramps to serve the district to the left... then I carried on the East/West lanes to the east...

View attachment 925656

It's too big for what it does, and unnecessarily complex.. but the crux of it might be worth adapting in other junctions. The stack roundabouts in the centre each serve a different purpose, and are only fed by/feed the roundabout on the ground to the left. One tier handles traffic feeding out, the other only handles traffic feeding in... so each roundabout is 1 on, 3 off... it'll handle a lot of traffic...

.. just wish I could smooth out the lumpy ramps.

Those interchanges should be preserved as a work of art!

As for the lumpy ramps, they could be caused by these things:

1. The height of the nodes are not following a smooth slope. Fixed by “aligh slope” of the MoveIt mod.
2. The ramp does not have a continuous curve over the node that is lumpy. You can see this by selecting the two segments ending and starting at the node and checking if the straight lines that indicate the ending/starting tangent of the two curves point in the same direction. If not, select one of the segments and adjust the shape of the curve until the tangent is aligned with that of the other segment. (This lumpiness happens because if the curve is not continuous the game interprets the node as an intersection and makes the slope = 0 over the node. Incidentally, it seems to be a similar algorithm that caused all those crazy lumpy tracks of the GT6 course maker before they fixed that problem.)
3. Some nodes are spaced too close to each other. This problem is most common at the beginning and at the end of the slope. The further the distance between the nodes, the smoother the ramp. At some point graphical glitches will appear though, so don’t take it too far.
   
4. The road type is changing in the slope. If you use one segment as “elevated” and the next as “bridge”, the game can’t make the slope smooth between them (again interpreting the node as an intersection). The same happens if you change from, for example, a one lane ramp to a two lane highway. You might need the Fine Road Tools mod to change the road type (i.e. elevated/bridge).

@redhed17 If it’s the same mod that I use you should see a small camera icon in the top right corner. Clicking there should give you some options. I will check the name of the mod I’m using though and see if it’s another one.

 

[redhed17]

@redhed17 If it’s the same mod that I use you should see a small camera icon in the top right corner. Clicking there should give you some options. I will check the name of the mod I’m using though and see if it’s another one.

Thanks eran.
I go into the options and it says the keys for zooming in, zooming out, etc, but the keys don't do anything. Unless I am missing something glaringly obvious. Which could be happening.

As an aside, I also got the Japanese Pack. I set up a square with a small park with the drive in restaurants, noodle bars etc around the outside. They were very popular virtually instantly. And that was with a bit of space to the populated area too.

The out of town bus option of Sunset Harbour doesn't seem to bring too many buses in though.

 

[MatskiMonk]

You certainly like your mad junctions MatskiMonk.

The No Pillars Mod is my best friend!

Something that seems to have changed with Universities, after the upgrades. And I noticed this after re-watching a video, possibly by Biffa, about making University zones to check. Previously, when the University upgraded to the top level 5, and I think becomes 'Prestigious', it would not lower the level, but since the upgrades to the game I have done recently, the levels will drop if the numbers of students go down. I have three University's atm, for a population of about 150k, and whilst they have all reached the top level 5, they are varying between levels 3+4 because the numbers vary. But at least by reaching level 5, all the assets are unlocked.

I'm not sure about this, I've definitely seen them go back down, but my trade school is 'prestigious', and the bars that show the ratings have disappeared. But I agree with you on the sports thing... the venues do provide a welcome boost.

I know some don't play the game in the same way, and play the game as a virtual sandbox with unlimited money to design a city, but at the moment I am starting with a scenario, and then if I like the landscape, and what I had did to win the scenario, I carry on.

My personal preference, is to start with unlimited money, but then turn it off once I've placed down a decent amount of services. The Industries DLC makes making money easy, though admittedly, I use the option that means Ore and Oil don't deplete. Typically, I'll let my bank balance climb to 3-4 million, then I'll turn taxes right down to promote demand.... when the banks empty, but 'em back up to about 10%. I tried the demand master mod, but it just messed up my commercial buildings with loads giving the uneducated workers warning and going abandoned after in massive numbers.

The out of town bus option of Sunset Harbour doesn't seem to bring too many buses in though.

What's you city attractiveness and tourism like? Do you have 'After Dark' DLC?

As for the lumpy ramps, they could be caused by these things:

Thanks, I'll work through those things. Sometimes Moveit smoothes them out nicely, but often, it makes the spot where the node is flat, instead of sloped.



Anyhow:

Rockwood at 200k.



City attractiveness 86%
Traffic 82%
Ground Pollution 2%
Average land value 54¢/m²
Import/Export ratio (excluding mail): 49/17698 tonnes

 

[redhed17]

City attractiveness 86%
Traffic 82%
Ground Pollution 2%
Average land value 54¢/m²
Import/Export ratio (excluding mail): 49/17698 tonnes

Hi MatskiMonk, where in the game did you find these numbers?

I've only just been able to start up the game and try and compare, but I can't find anywhere obvious to get those statistics.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Hi MatskiMonk, where in the game did you find these numbers?

I've only just been able to start up the game and try and compare, but I can't find anywhere obvious to get those statistics.

They're not listed in one place like that, but they're under the various modes on the vertical toolbar.

It's possible some are DLC specific, I can't remember what came with what.

 

[redhed17]

They're not listed in one place like that, but they're under the various modes on the vertical toolbar.
View attachment 926170
View attachment 926169

It's possible some are DLC specific, I can't remember what came with what.

Ah, OK. I thought it may have been that or a specific page or mod.

It would be nice to have data like that in one place though.

Thanks for replying.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Ah, OK. I thought it may have been that or a specific page or mod.

It would be nice to have data like that in one place though.

I'm 98% sure there is probably a mod out there that does.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Working on a new junction... It's effectively a roundabout with 12 exits and 12 entrances along with North-South and East-West bypasses.

The four spirals are actually one continuous two lane road. Using the spirals means the total length of the roundabout is LOOONG, so the entrances and exits can be spaced far apart, but the foot print is probably smaller. It might not actually be smaller - I could make it smaller, but it took so ******* long I didn't feel like doing it again. As it is, the effective circumference of the round about is.. ahem.... π18+((2π10)*4) = 307 units .. to get the same from a conventional roundabout it would need to be 98 units across.. as it is here, it's 34 units... in terms of area, that's 1156 square units instead of 9604 square units --- which makes it quite efficient.. or, my maths very sucky. Assuming the vino hasn't messed up my calcs, it's still a bit of a misrepresentation.. the minimum distance between consecutive exits/entrances on my junction is 15.7 units (the max is. ((π10/2)+(π/18/4)+(π10/4)) = 37.9 units. On a 98Ø roundabout, all could be evenly spaced at 25.6 units... so depending on traffic flow, it may or may not work better though it still takes up an eighth of the space.

Don't actually have anywhere in my big city to put it yet. Last time I built something with this foot print in the editor I was never able to place it on the map because of terrain warnings despite having levelled the area. The two roads a crossing at each corner will be smoothed and angled so there's a road heading in/out every 30° ideally.. we'll see.

edit: In the asset editor I've constructed it using the no pillars mod. I've found that manually adding pillars in the editor doesn't bring them into the game with the junction... not sure where the glitch is.



Recent screen shot, approx 215k citizens.

 

[redhed17]

Impressive again MatskiMonk. 👍 Will you ever need 12 lanes coming together, and even if you did, is it something that would be wise to do! I think this is something that needs building around rather than finding a space for it to go.

I watched this vid by Overcharged last week and he demonstrated a really good tip which I had not come across before. He was making a medical area for his city, and said that he wanted a certain type of car park with charging points in. He said he has done it many times before, so it may be well known to many. You set up an areas for a car park and then zone it, and give it the Green Cities specialisation from the Green Cities DLC I think, and the plop down 4x2 commercial zones, and then keep deleting until it gives the car park you want, and the make it 'Historical' so it doesn't change. I tried it on my current city, and although it seemingly took awhile longer for me to get what I wanted than Overcharged Egg, I'm very happy with the results. You can see it in the link above at 8:15 if you're interested.

Here's what the charging parking lots look like for those that have not seem them before. I think I went a bit OTT but I like the look of it. It is nice to see the Cims using the charging points too.

And here it is at night.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Will you ever need 12 lanes coming together, and even if you did, is it something that would be wise to do! I think this is something that needs building around rather than finding a space for it to go.

Think you hit the nail on the head here. It's a bad idea, it won't fit, and even if it did, I can fit it in...

.. which I did anyway... but alas... it glitches to **** when placed on the map...

.. always happens when building stuff in the editor first You can see it's added in the pillars that weren't there when creating it, but its basically smashed the spirals down into one layer.

Here's what the charging parking lots look like for those that have not seem them before. I think I went a bit OTT but I like the look of it. It is nice to see the Cims using the charging points too.

Looks good, tried Biffa's canal technique? Seems to work!