Cities: Skylines (the Sim City we deserve)

[redhed17]

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

Aye, I got the idea of the canals from Biffa's videos. I've got to a point with the map I am on now that it is hard to think of other things to do, and the terrain is pretty flat. I have done pretty much what I can atm, so getting ideas from people's vids is good.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Well, bull dozed a the glitchy sections, rebuilt it, and hooked up some exits and entrances...



Stared at it for ages waiting to check the traffic wasn't glitching out anywhere. I've started building up the surrounding area. Going to try and make it as dense as possible, I've already chucked some industry warehouses around it to draw traffic in!

edit: Just realised I've messed up the spiral to the front left in the video. It's got some two way road in it, and the top layer shouldn't have two exits less than 180° apart, the exit should be linked to the layer below.

 

[TheCracker]

Downloaded this a week or two back, taking advantage of the Playstation Plus Free monthly games offer. Always loved the SimCity games but wondered how well the concept would work on a console/controller combo. Turns out pretty well!

Built my first city not knowing there's a 9-tile limit. The last tile i 'bought' was literally just water... I only clicked on it and subsequently bought it by an accidental click of the wrong button. Found there's no way to cancel/re-sell it, but not knowing about the size limit i thought it wouldn't matter. Two of my other purchased tiles/land packages were predominantly water too, but were useful to link from the mainland to some larger islands. In retrospect tiles further inland would have been more useful. I have now pretty much filled all my available land so with no more available i guess that's that for that particular city! (£3m bank balance. Pop. approx 130k of happy citizens with a couple of problematic industrial areas that are constantly requiring more raw materials and retail areas needing more stuff to sell*)

I've struggled getting roads and rail lines to curve well. I always seem to end up with wonky ones. Is there a trick to getting nice clean curvature?

Is any of the DLC worthwhile?


* it didn't seem to matter what i did to change this - better transport links for workers and import/export of products, close to appropriate raw materials, i still suffered from constant abandoned buildings. Is this just a common feature? I expected some, as is the nature of business, even simulated business, but this seemed excessive.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Is any of the DLC worthwhile?

I personally couldn't imagine how small the game would feel without the DLC now. Some of it adds more than others, and it depends how you like to play the game. Personally for me, Industries DLC has basically become the cornerstone of my city layouts as getting those functioning, with the unique factories requires a sound infra structure. Stuff like Green Cities or even Campus add's a lot of visual differences, but doesn't really change how you layout the town. Mass Transit adds options if you enjoy the logisitcs of people moving, and Sunset Harbour and After Dark just add a bit of strength by filling in gaps.

I've struggled getting roads and rail lines to curve well. I always seem to end up with wonky ones. Is there a trick to getting nice clean curvature?

I don't know on console, it can take a bit of practice to do neatly. Sometimes, even on PC with mods, it can be a PITA.

* it didn't seem to matter what i did to change this - better transport links for workers and import/export of products, close to appropriate raw materials, i still suffered from constant abandoned buildings. Is this just a common feature? I expected some, as is the nature of business, even simulated business, but this seemed excessive.

Are you already using the Industries DLC, or is this with the base industry? Fundamentally both fail to operate smoothly without mods. Though providing the balance of everything is right, and your transport links aren't clogged up, you shouldn't see that many abandoned buildings... not enough raw materials and not enough buyers are common complaints, but shouldn't lead to abandoned buildings. If you look at the outside connections tab, you can see the balance of what you're importing versus what you're exporting, it can help, if you're importing a lot of one type of product, demand should be high within the city for that resource.

 

[TheCracker]

Are you already using the Industries DLC, or is this with the base industry? Fundamentally both fail to operate smoothly without mods. Though providing the balance of everything is right, and your transport links aren't clogged up, you shouldn't see that many abandoned buildings... not enough raw materials and not enough buyers are common complaints, but shouldn't lead to abandoned buildings. If you look at the outside connections tab, you can see the balance of what you're importing versus what you're exporting, it can help, if you're importing a lot of one type of product, demand should be high within the city for that resource.

Just the base game industry i believe.

I think one issue is, looking at other people cities on Reddit, that i just have too much industry altogether. I was matching areas on the map that showed as having certain raw materials (good farm land or areas with oil) and covering that whole area with industry-specific zoned areas. Not only does that clog up roads, rail and shipping routes (especially rail!), but it's probably just too much competition. You build a load of industry therefore the game demands more commerce/retail and it just escalates beyond a point where its realistically viable. Trouble is, once you get to that point you already have the citizens required to staff those jobs. You scale down the industry and commerce, you suddenly have sims with no jobs and they leave. You scale down the housing zones to suit and before you know it you're running a budget deficit due to the infrastructure that was needed to support it all.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I was matching areas on the map that showed as having certain raw materials (good farm land or areas with oil) and covering that whole area with industry-specific zoned areas. Not only does that clog up roads, rail and shipping routes (especially rail!), but it's probably just too much competition.

Oil and Farming are the worst for clogs ups in my opinion. I think the city will sustain an excess of industry, so long as it can export effectively. Depends on the map you're using as to how many connections you have, of course, but if the network is laid out well enough, you'd be surprised how much it can take - especially trains. Cargo Airports too are dead easy ways to export, since you basically can't get a log Jam of planes. Worth baring in mind that oil and ore are non replenishing resources as standard. Sooner or later they will run out.

One thing I'd recommend if your struggling to balance the budget. Keep public transport to a minimum. It'll never make you money, and you'd be amazed how far cims will walk if there's good footpaths. As long as your industry traffic us fairly well segregated from main residential traffic, it doesn't matter so much if the traffic in the residential slows down a bit because of less public transport options, you're unlikely to get the same jams as you might get from your farming traffic.

 

[TheCracker]

Footpaths are not something i've really explored or really understand the workings of. I've thrown a couple in just to fill some space and to look nice in an upmarket resi zone, but that's as far as i took them. Don't all roads have pavements/sidewalks anyway? and since you can only effectively zone structures no further than 4 units away from a road i can't see where you'd use paths or cycle tracks to cut down on road congestion?

Things i'm disliking:

• Having to build so many crematoriums.
• The need to build a road for an airport / sea port / train station before being able to build the structure. The amount of time and money i've spend building and deleting roads and rail lines to accommodate the station/port in the location i'm after is a pain. Let me build the building then sort the infrastructure to it afterwards!
• Tourism. Lets you place some pretty impressive structures/monuments to pretty up the place, but you never make back a fraction of what the cost to build and they just sit there like white elephants.
• You always seem to be over building the police and fire departments, but when they're needed their vehicles always take stupid routes. The amount of times i've had one building catch fire and it spreads to an adjoining one only for the fire services to put one building out then bog off leaving the second one to burn to the ground.

Pro Tip:
• Leave taxes at 10% and fund services at 90%. Everyone's happy and with a population over 30k you'll probably never run out of funding.

 

[redhed17]

Footpaths are not something i've really explored or really understand the workings of. I've thrown a couple in just to fill some space and to look nice in an upmarket resi zone, but that's as far as i took them. Don't all roads have pavements/sidewalks anyway? and since you can only effectively zone structures no further than 4 units away from a road i can't see where you'd use paths or cycle tracks to cut down on road congestion?

Things i'm disliking:

• Having to build so many crematoriums.
• The need to build a road for an airport / sea port / train station before being able to build the structure. The amount of time and money i've spend building and deleting roads and rail lines to accommodate the station/port in the location i'm after is a pain. Let me build the building then sort the infrastructure to it afterwards!
• Tourism. Lets you place some pretty impressive structures/monuments to pretty up the place, but you never make back a fraction of what the cost to build and they just sit there like white elephants.
• You always seem to be over building the police and fire departments, but when they're needed their vehicles always take stupid routes. The amount of times i've had one building catch fire and it spreads to an adjoining one only for the fire services to put one building out then bog off leaving the second one to burn to the ground.

Pro Tip:
• Leave taxes at 10% and fund services at 90%. Everyone's happy and with a population over 30k you'll probably never run out of funding.

I've only been playing the game (on PC) for a few months, so am ready to be proved wrong or disagreed with.

I've started putting paths in to encourage the Cims to walk rather than drive. The Cims will walk quite far, but they are also as likely to pull a car out of their pocket. Make walking as easy as possible, especially through large blocks of buildings.
Crematoriums should depend on your death rate. Normally a new separate area will need Health, Fire, Police, Elementary and High schools to make the Cims happy. Park/leisure assets also give them a boost.
It is a bit of a pain to have the Fire Dept's not acting as you expect. As soon as I have enough money I have got into the habit of putting in the Fire Response Helicopters to more quickly get to fires. Not sure if that came with any specific DLC.
I wouldn't bother with tourism until you have quite a large and balanced and stable city. Oh, and have some money in the bank too.
The sweet spot for Tax is 12%. That is as much as the Cims are comfortable paying without complaining. You can lower it to encourage Cims into the city, but you can ramp it up for short periods in cash is running low though.

Things may be different for the console versions. I also have quite a few DLC and Mods, which make it quite a different game from what I have seen. I watched some of a video on YT the other day that was a Live Stream on the official Cities Skylines YT channel, starting a city from scratch, and using a pad looked quite cumbersome. May be worth a look though.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Footpaths are not something i've really explored or really understand the workings of. I've thrown a couple in just to fill some space and to look nice in an upmarket resi zone, but that's as far as i took them. Don't all roads have pavements/sidewalks anyway? and since you can only effectively zone structures no further than 4 units away from a road i can't see where you'd use paths or cycle tracks to cut down on road congestion?

Obviously the benefits vary depending on your city layout. If you're simply doing a grid of low density stuff with all the residential, industrial, commercial and office in big clumps the benefits are less. Fundamentally, if cims can only walk along roads, then they may as well drive, footpaths should be used as shortcuts. In principle they allow you to maintain a hierarchy of roads, but still allow quick access for pedestrians from one area to the next. Where a car may have to go local>collector>arterial>collector>local to get from A to B, a footpath can join local to local, or collector to collector (for example), without altering your traffic flow (like turning a local road into a main thoroughfare because you just gave trucks a shortcut too.

Like I say, it varies depending on how you lay things out, but for me, in an organic looking city, they're an absolute foundation element. I build roads, then I build footpaths, then I zone. It's especially important (imho) around public transport hubs like stations or metros.

Also, I think about real life... if I walk to work via roadside paths only it's a lot further than following footpaths.

One of the DLC's gives you zonable footpaths too.

Not sure if that came with any specific DLC.

Natural disasters.

Having to build so many crematoriums.

Big population increases lead to death spikes further down the road. I find avoiding zoning big areas of residential in one go helps smooth the death spike.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Another quick note about the use of footpaths; the 'speed limit' for pedestrians on dedicated Footpaths is 0.4. For roadside footpaths/sidewalks, it's 0.25, so pedestrians can get where they're going quicker on a dedicated footpath even if the route is the same length as walking along the road.

This came to light in the latest episode of CityWokCityWall's Mars colony build.

 

[eran0004]

Another quick note about the use of footpaths; the 'speed limit' for pedestrians on dedicated Footpaths is 0.4. For roadside footpaths/sidewalks, it's 0.25, so pedestrians can get where they're going quicker on a dedicated footpath even if the route is the same length as walking along the road.

This came to light in the latest episode of CityWokCityWall's Mars colony build.

Nice! I didn’t know that

 

[eran0004]

My new map became an island map. mainly for two reasons:

1. It will be interesting to have all external transport rely on ships and planes.
2. Having ocean on all sides = less land area to decorate.

If the shape of the island looks familiar it might be because it's based on a heightmap of Guernsey, although I have changed pretty much all of the terrain features.

Update: The map is complete and I have officially started to build the city. Being an island map, everything starts with the port.

 

[VXR]

I've just dropped £79.99 on PSN for the complete DLC bundle. Seems steep, but each season is £33, plus other cosmetic bits and I couldn't wait for a sale.

I'm going to attempt to terraform an island, although it won't look as good as the one above!

 

[MatskiMonk]

My new map became an island map. mainly for two reasons:

1. It will be interesting to have all external transport rely on ships and planes.
2. Having ocean on all sides = less land area to decorate.

If the shape of the island looks familiar it might be because it's based on a heightmap of Guernsey, although I have changed pretty much all of the terrain features.

View attachment 934204 View attachment 934205 View attachment 934206 View attachment 934207

Update: The map is complete and I have officially started to build the city. Being an island map, everything starts with the port.

View attachment 935186
View attachment 935185 View attachment 935184 View attachment 935183

Looking good!

Is that a functional 25 tile map or have you gone to the full 81 tiles?

__


Rockwood V2 has stalled at 235,000 citizens. Since Biffas recommendation of the Improved Transfer Mod, my industry is functioning a lot better, and I'm making loads of money, however, I have to drop the taxes right down regularly or else demand sits at Zero for all RICO

 

[Sureboss]

@MatskiMonk You've managed to build some accurate British roads there, filled with potholes a swel

Well, bull dozed a the glitchy sections, rebuilt it, and hooked up some exits and entrances...



Stared at it for ages waiting to check the traffic wasn't glitching out anywhere. I've started building up the surrounding area. Going to try and make it as dense as possible, I've already chucked some industry warehouses around it to draw traffic in!

edit: Just realised I've messed up the spiral to the front left in the video. It's got some two way road in it, and the top layer shouldn't have two exits less than 180° apart, the exit should be linked to the layer below.

With those junctions have you been given the freedom of Milton Keynes yet?

 

[redhed17]

Still been working on my current city, South Fairfield, following on from a scenario I completed. Currently at around 170k, but it's getting to the point that if I make any changes the speed of the game is starting to be affected. I've tried to pack in as much as I can though. I have a Zoo and Amusement park on the island. I have three Universities, they hover between level 4 and 5. I have the Fishing, Forest area, Farming. Helicopters routes, Metro routes 49 bus routes. I've used the Trams and Monorail in previous city's on this map, but for some reason I don't think they would fit in in this one.

It is weird, as the way I have been playing lately, I decide to do a new area and focus on that, after doing that for a couple of weeks on different areas, and not really looking around the city as everything has been stable and running, I went to an area and suddenly lots of tower blocks where there were houses before.

The only thing that I have problem with is if I put cargo of any kind, rail or air, it just gets rammed, and I think the main thing is that trains or planes leaving are hardly filled most of the time which just backs up traffic in no time, and it takes ages to try and sort it out afterwards. I think I saw someone mention a Mod to address this, but I'll see if it does the same thing in the next city I start from scratch.

From this

To this

I like the way it looks at night.

 

[eran0004]

Looking good!

Is that a functional 25 tile map or have you gone to the full 81 tiles?

The landmass covers about 15 tiles, the rest is ocean. Technically you could buy those tiles and reclaim the land from the sea, but I think I will mostly stick to building my city on the available landmass. My computer doesn’t like it when the cities become too big anyway, so it should be a nice limit to stick to those tiles.

Of the 15 tiles, around 4-5 tiles is occupied by the mountain, so there is around ten tiles to build in.

Right now I have around 2000 citizens and a fish-based economy that just started to turn a profit. I’m not playing with unlimited funds this time, it’s more fun that way.

And the port is really busy, it’s great to see

 

[MatskiMonk]

I think I saw someone mention a Mod to address this, but I'll see if it does the same thing in the next city I start from scratch.

There is a Mod, but I'd focus more on the layout of the rail cargo terminals, and the location.

This kind of scene is quite common on my map

8 trains within the one shot, but this rarely backs up. I have the same issue in terms of load though, the trains are rarely above 50% full, if that. <20% is most common. But so long as they don't have to cross oncoming tracks to get on or off a mainline, and they've got space enough to stop without blocking anything, it keeps ticking over. Never put a cargo terminal on a main line, always have it on a spur, and always give yourself space around it to create a traffic sponge, and have a dedicated entrance and exit to a highway (always making sure that traffic entering and exiting the cargo station doesn't have to cross itself. In an ideal world, build one air and one rail at the same time, so at least they don't all swamp one terminal.

And the port is really busy, it’s great to see

You should name it St. Priaulx Port... a play on St. Peter Port and a tribute to Guernsey's most famous racing driver

 

[redhed17]

There is a Mod, but I'd focus more on the layout of the rail cargo terminals, and the location.

This kind of scene is quite common on my map

8 trains within the one shot, but this rarely backs up. I have the same issue in terms of load though, the trains are rarely above 50% full, if that. <20% is most common. But so long as they don't have to cross oncoming tracks to get on or off a mainline, and they've got space enough to stop without blocking anything, it keeps ticking over. Never put a cargo terminal on a main line, always have it on a spur, and always give yourself space around it to create a traffic sponge, and have a dedicated entrance and exit to a highway (always making sure that traffic entering and exiting the cargo station doesn't have to cross itself. In an ideal world, build one air and one rail at the same time, so at least they don't all swamp one terminal.

This time I am not having trouble with the trains backing up, rather the road traffic the cargo stations, or the cargo airport generate. If some trains and planes are leaving without waiting to be filled up, @5-20%, even with loads of supply, the traffic just backs up.

As I said though, everything is running pretty steadily traffic wise for me, so I'll leave well alone on this one.

I saw a video from Biffa this week where he said he had been having problems with his system and went from 8k assets to 2.6k assets. Be nice to have a system that got anywhere near that number. His city's do look so nice. A lot is down to design too, which is the area I can at least improve upon. I priced out his system just to get an idea of cost and it was eye watering. Good luck to him though, 👍 the tool he needs for the job.

 

[eran0004]

I bought the parklife DLC, because I felt like the island needed some nature reserves. It's pretty good, I already built one nature reserve over by the lake/canyon and a small park in the city center in front of where the city hall is going to be.

Population is now 2500 and the city is generating about 2000 cells (apparently that's the name of the currency in this game) in profit every week.

^ The main roundabout. The road at the bottom of the picture comes from the port and the road at the top is a part of a future main road that is going to run along the coast. The road to the left leads to the city center and the road at the top right leads to the new nature reserve.

^ The city center, with the new park and a hotel. The road between the park and the hotel is going to be the shopping street. The city hall will be placed in front of the park, at the bottom of the picture.

^ The new nature reserve is covering the lake, the canyon and a hill overlooking the lake. Beneath the waterfall there is a viewing platform and although it's a pretty long hike from the main gate (you can see the path continuing on the other side of the lake) it seems popular.

 

[redhed17]

The colours in your pics looks a touch odd to me eran. The 1st pic looks OK, but the 2nd pic starts to look a bit odd in the colours of the cars and the tower block. In the 3rd pic the water just looks weird to me, more turquoise than blue. I know that it is a desert setting, with bright sunlight, but it doesn't look right with reds and blues.

Maybe it is my monitor, but I don't think so.

 

[eran0004]

The colours in your pics looks a touch odd to me eran. The 1st pic looks OK, but the 2nd pic starts to look a bit odd in the colours of the cars and the tower block. In the 3rd pic the water just looks weird to me, more turquoise than blue. I know that it is a desert setting, with bright sunlight, but it doesn't look right with reds and blues.

Maybe it is my monitor, but I don't think so.

There is sand under the water and it’s pretty shallow so that probably explains the turquoise.

I’m running my computer with a colourblind filter as well, perhaps that is interfering somehow.

 

[VXR]

After about 5 false starts this weekend, I've taken a very slow approach to making something with the feel of South West England. Starting with the off-highway area which is where my power supply will be. Just trying to dress the landscape with fences and such to mimic the usual development work around industrial parks.

I also have a cycle path along the riverside area, leading down from the highway to the lighthouse area. Only going to be a modest town on either side of the river, with the odd village popping up around a lot of farm land.

Basically, I'm trying to blend the typical out of town leisure and retail spaces with the tight-knit small coastal towns I've grown up in and around in Devon and Cornwall. Anyone familiar with this area might see a bit of Looe and Teignmouth for example.

 

[eran0004]

This is the size of the city center. Everything else is going to be low density, and it's probably not going to extend much further. Instead I will make some small towns and villages scattered around the island.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I’m running my computer with a colourblind filter as well, perhaps that is interfering somehow.

My colour vision is terrible... perhaps that's why your cities often look so good to me

 

[eran0004]

I'm making so much money right now. I have invested in a high school, a community college, a brand new shining hospital and even a bus line.

I recorded a part of it and made a video. Added a few sound effects as well

 

[MatskiMonk]

I'm making so much money right now. I have invested in a high school, a community college, a brand new shining hospital and even a bus line.

I recorded a part of it and made a video. Added a few sound effects as well

Video is Private.

 

[eran0004]

Video is Private.

I was sure I changed it before sharing, but I guess not. Now it should work.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I was sure I changed it before sharing, but I guess not. Now it should work.

The ride through St. Priaulx Port was fun

 

[VXR]

Decided I'm going the gaming PC route for this game, probably going to be my Christmas present.

I only want to game in 1080p and use UK assets, so from what I've read, a 4gb 1060 with 16gb RAM should be more than enough.

Until that time, I'm persevering with the PS4's limitations.