Cities: Skylines (the Sim City we deserve)

[redhed17]

I've just ordered another 16Gb of RAM to make a total of 32Gb for running Cities Skylines. I got the mod that monitors the game loading and it was going into the red and nearly hitting the full 16Gb of RAM before starting, so I thought I would double it and give it a bit more space.

 

[redhed17]

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

With the washed out look, sandy/dusty ground and the blocks that 'people' are living in, it reminds me of Spain on a scorching hot day.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I've just ordered another 16Gb of RAM to make a total of 32Gb for running Cities Skylines. I got the mod that monitors the game loading and it was going into the red and nearly hitting the full 16Gb of RAM before starting, so I thought I would double it and give it a bit more space.

I've been looking at a new PC. Kind of used Biffa's set-up as the benchmark, then dialled it back quite a bit, still looking at about £1760 including VAT. Yikes. Don't want to build it myself so I appreciate that adds to the cost.

 

[redhed17]

I've been looking at a new PC. Kind of used Biffa's set-up as the benchmark, then dialled it back quite a bit, still looking at about £1760 including VAT. Yikes. Don't want to build it myself so I appreciate that adds to the cost.

Building a computer is easy, but I understand those that don't want to do it. I did it with my first PC because of a lack of money, and once you do it once, spending extra for someone to put it together is not worth it. I'll save the money. Saying that, I did buy a system from a chap on a photography website because what he was selling was such a good price. I only have the case left from that computer.

Biffa's system is a monster when I totalled up what he has, and understandable why his game looks so good graphically, and how smooth it runs.

£1760 should be a pretty good system. All my computers over the years have been less than half of that, with adding the odd bit extra as with the memory I am getting now.

What are you getting?

 

[MatskiMonk]

Building a computer is easy, but I understand those that don't want to do it. I did it with my first PC because of a lack of money, and once you do it once, spending extra for someone to put it together is not worth it. I'll save the money. Saying that, I did buy a system from a chap on a photography website because what he was selling was such a good price. I only have the case left from that computer.

Biffa's system is a monster when I totalled up what he has, and understandable why his game looks so good graphically, and how smooth it runs.

£1760 should be a pretty good system. All my computers over the years have been less than half of that, with adding the odd bit extra as with the memory I am getting now.

What are you getting?

I think I'm savvy enough to put it together myself, I've upgraded pretty much every element of my PC's in the past... however, what I can't be bothered with is the troubleshooting if there's bugs, and I've had that before too.

I'm looking at the following;
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU + Corsair H80i V2 Hydro cooling
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz RAM
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER GPU
Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE Board
512GB SSD for installs, 6TB Seagate HDD for storage.
550W PSU, SB Audigy RX Sound card (not necessary but I want options)
errmm... Blu-Ray/DVD Writer, Wifi card, case is nothing special... Operating system etc.

edit: It's not a done deal to be honest, it's a lot of money to spend and there's other things I could do with spending it on.

edit 2: Yesterday I found out Microprose are making a follow up to B-17 Fly Fortress, this new one is designed for VR, and I'd quite like to be able to run that.

 

[redhed17]

I think I'm savvy enough to put it together myself, I've upgraded pretty much every element of my PC's in the past... however, what I can't be bothered with is the troubleshooting if there's bugs, and I've had that before too.

I'm looking at the following;
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU + Corsair H80i V2 Hydro cooling
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz RAM
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER GPU
Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE Board
512GB SSD for installs, 6TB Seagate HDD for storage.
550W PSU, SB Audigy RX Sound card (not necessary but I want options)
errmm... Blu-Ray/DVD Writer, Wifi card, case is nothing special... Operating system etc.

edit: It's not a done deal to be honest, it's a lot of money to spend and there's other things I could do with spending it on.

edit 2: Yesterday I found out Microprose are making a follow up to B-17 Fly Fortress, this new one is designed for VR, and I'd quite like to be able to run that.

Looks nice. Should make the game run pretty smooth. I have a lot less powerful system, and the game runs pretty well for me, and should hopefully have enough RAM to not freak me out when it is loading tomorrow or the next day. Not sure I would go water cooling with some of the vids I have seen over the last few weeks, but it should be quiet unless the GPU tries to take off.

Microprose, now there's a name from the past. I had Railroad Tycoon, and I think Formula One Grand Prix on the Atari ST.

I only found out yesterday that they are bringing out Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 remade in Sept. I loved those games on the Playstation. Two games for the price of one.

 

[eran0004]

I built the first of many small villages that are going to cover the island. Got a pretty nice Mediterranean countryside vibe, I wouldn't mind having a little cottage here

^ Some premium seaside residences overlooking the beach.

^ "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender". The old WWII coastal artillery battery is now a museum open for tourists.

Oh, and I made a little experiment that confirms that Windows does indeed include the colourblind filter when it takes a screen capture.
This was achieved by taking repeated screen captures of the same image:



So in the future I should make sure to switch off the filter.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Still got a way to go before it's full...

Most of the tiles still require some development.

 

[redhed17]

I think I'm savvy enough to put it together myself, I've upgraded pretty much every element of my PC's in the past... however, what I can't be bothered with is the troubleshooting if there's bugs, and I've had that before too.

There is something to be said for getting someone to fix make your computers for you!

I received the 16Gb of RAM I ordered yesterday. One of the sticks seemed slightly curved, as they were posted in a plastic 'box' containing the two stick of RAM in a slightly padded envelope. I put the RAM in, and the computer started as normal, logged in, and then the computer crashed to blue screen. Started again and then got continuous beeps.

Took the RAM I already had out and with just the new RAM, restarted, continuous beeps and the computer kept closing and restarting. If I tried to shut it down by holding the power button, it tried to start up again when I let go of the button. So, tried each stick one by one, and one stick is causing the problems, and the other is fine. I'll have to ring them tomorrow to organise whether to send one or both sticks back to be replaced.

Tried Cities Skylines with the extra working stick, so 24Gb, and the first person view seemed a bit jerky. Not sure whether that is because the dual channel aspect of the RAM may no longer be working because there is an odd number of RAM slots or something else.

Pita when something just doesn't work as it should.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

I think I'm savvy enough to put it together myself, I've upgraded pretty much every element of my PC's in the past... however, what I can't be bothered with is the troubleshooting if there's bugs, and I've had that before too.

I'm looking at the following;
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU + Corsair H80i V2 Hydro cooling
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz RAM
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER GPU
Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE Board
512GB SSD for installs, 6TB Seagate HDD for storage.
550W PSU, SB Audigy RX Sound card (not necessary but I want options)
errmm... Blu-Ray/DVD Writer, Wifi card, case is nothing special... Operating system etc.

edit: It's not a done deal to be honest, it's a lot of money to spend and there's other things I could do with spending it on.

edit 2: Yesterday I found out Microprose are making a follow up to B-17 Fly Fortress, this new one is designed for VR, and I'd quite like to be able to run that.

I would recommend getting RAM that's at least running at 3200 MHz. Ryzen CPUs run faster with faster memory (memory that's at the same speed as the Infinity Fabric to be precise)

As seen here:

 

[MatskiMonk]

I would recommend getting RAM that's at least running at 3200 MHz. Ryzen CPUs run faster with faster memory (memory that's at the same speed as the Infinity Fabric to be precise)

View attachment 937050

As seen here:

Thank you, this is useful information.

edit: Upped the RAM speed, changed the cooling and spec'd a more powerful PSU and an X570 board... build cost is now £1950 ... that's my budget for Daytona in January gone. Need to think about this.

 

[eran0004]

I took a closer look at the available loans in Cities Skylines. They are:

Silver Sunset Bank
Amount: 20,000
Payment Plan: 52 Weeks
Interest: 5 %
Weekly Cost: 403.85
Total 21,000 c

Global Credit Inc.
Amount: 60,000
Payment Plan: 260 Weeks
Interest: 10 %
Weekly Cost: 253.85
Total 66,000 c

Pyramid Capital
Amount: 200,000
Payment Plan: 520 Weeks
Interest: 15 %
Weekly Cost: 442.31
Total 230,000 c

These loans appear to be annuity loans (the payment plan has a fixed periodical cost). The interest is calculated as (Total / Amount) - 1, so I converted it to the equivalent annual interest, and got the following:

Silver Sunset Bank: 9.66 % per year
Global Credit Inc.: 3.86 % per year
Pyramid Capital: 2.86 % per year

The equation is: A = S*p/(1-(p+1)^(-n)), where A is the weekly cost, S is the amount, p is the periodical interest (in this case interest per week) and n is the payment plan. Using the bisection method it's then possible to solve for p. Finally, p*52 gives the annual interest.

So although the game makes it appear as if Silver Sunset Bank has the best deal (5% interest), the annual interest suggests that it's actually Pyramid Capital's loan that is the best. At least if you intend to invest the money to generate growth. If it's just for luxury consumption (e.g. building yet another fancy monument) then Global Credit Inc. is probably the best as it has the lowest weekly cost.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I took a closer look at the available loans in Cities Skylines. They are:

Silver Sunset Bank
Amount: 20,000
Payment Plan: 52 Weeks
Interest: 5 %
Weekly Cost: 403.85
Total 21,000 c

Global Credit Inc.
Amount: 60,000
Payment Plan: 260 Weeks
Interest: 10 %
Weekly Cost: 253.85
Total 66,000 c

Pyramid Capital
Amount: 200,000
Payment Plan: 520 Weeks
Interest: 15 %
Weekly Cost: 442.31
Total 230,000 c

These loans appear to be annuity loans (the payment plan has a fixed periodical cost). The interest is calculated as (Total / Amount) - 1, so I converted it to the equivalent annual interest, and got the following:

Silver Sunset Bank: 9.66 % per year
Global Credit Inc.: 3.86 % per year
Pyramid Capital: 2.86 % per year

The equation is: A = S*p/(1-(p+1)^(-n)), where A is the weekly cost, S is the amount, p is the periodical interest (in this case interest per week) and n is the payment plan. Using the bisection method it's then possible to solve for p. Finally, p*52 gives the annual interest.

So although the game makes it appear as if Silver Sunset Bank has the best deal (5% interest), the annual interest suggests that it's actually Pyramid Capital's loan that is the best. At least if you intend to invest the money to generate growth. If it's just for luxury consumption (e.g. building yet another fancy monument) then Global Credit Inc. is probably the best as it has the lowest weekly cost.

Damn the banks!!!

 

[eran0004]

I returned to the city and made some changes to the central blocks. I found a nice looking library on the workshop (I believe it's from Finland), but it has an odd shape so it was hard to find a good location for it. Tried three different locations, each change costing me 5000 of my hard-earned credits. In the end I found the perfect place though, so it was worth it. In the process I shuffled a lot of things around and found a good spot for the St. Priaulx Cathedral.

^ The main entrance to the library, next to the city hall park. The big sculpture thing is a prop and not part of the library asset.

^ The big windows of the library offers a panoramic view of the port and the ocean.

^ Between the park and the sea I placed some historical buildings. The round classicist building is Rotonde de la Villette from Paris (you can find it in the workshop), originally a toll station but here I imagine it's some kind of concert hall or theatre. Behind it, a medieval fortification that now serves as a tourist trap. I'm going to place a walking tour around this area at some point. Not sure if I want to keep the sewage treatment facility right next to it, perhaps it would be better to move it somewhere else and put something with a less provocative odour in its place.

^ Every respectable island needs a supermarket or two, and this was the perfect location for it. The building to the right is from the Japanese content creator pack.

^ The skyline as it appears from the highway.

 

[eran0004]

I noticed that a lot of children were walking to school, which gave me the idea to create a school bus line. It seems to mostly be adults using the line, but since their taxes are pretty much financing the line I think it's only fair to allow them to ride along. I recorded a video of the bus line, this time from a roof view. I think it works better than the driver's eye view.

Also came up with a name for the island, it's now called Atlandia.



P.S. The bus stop that might look like "Taliban Street" is actually called "Caliban Street". Just in case the font doesn't really make that clear...

 

[MatskiMonk]

Rockwood passed 250,000 citizens last night. This last 15,000 has been quite slow and getting demand has been getting quite difficult. The city is in good shape happiness and services wise, traffics fine and employment is very good... but I still have to keep taxes at 9% or below or demand literally disappears. I've got loads of infrastructure put in but not zoned it yet because my demand gauge is empty.

I've not placed some of the monuments on the map because I hate the look of them, but I'm wondering if they're required to keep demand alive in a city that's more spread out and probably higher population than the vanilla game is designed to run.

Currently my three Campuses offer free tuition, but with low taxes and massive losses from public transport, I might have to start charging for those. My industry is running at 150% and that just about keeps me at breakeven (As a thought, I'd love to be able to increase public transport fares.... some of my main metro lines are rammed, but still don't make money!). I've started building more Industry for Export, since that's plateaued around 22,000 tonnes also, but as soon as I did that I then had a 4 hour session fighting with rail-tail-backs and road junctions being overwhelmed... I'd never built the road or rail networks for more than one loop for internal demand, and one loop for external demand... adding to it now certainly seems to have tipped it over the edge.

Also noob tip/rookie error for those using the MoveIt mod... if you reprofile a railway junction and the rails disappear, trains won't use it. Not sure how I've fluked this in the past, since I didn't realise it was the case, but I'm positive it was part of the reason one of my new rail cargo terminals wasn't taking any demand from one side of the map.

Predictably, my PC is running like a dog at 250,000. Load up time is back up to around 5 minutes, takes 10 seconds to unpause, and scrolling around the map has become quite frustrating since the refresh rate is quite bad now... infact it's VERY annoying when it's an accidental mouse scroll.. normally takes about 4 attempts to focus on a specific district.

I think originally I'd aimed for about 500,000 population, but I don't think I'm going to get there without just dumping a tonne of high density grid, realistically I think I can build one more main industry area for each type, maybe a couple of districts per area, and get to about 350,000. It will be a trudge.

Second noob tip/rookie error... Save files can get big, if you regularly hit quicksave (as I do, for fear of the PC falling over), it's easy to rack up Gigabytes of redundant saves.... makes sense to delete some from time to time!

I think for my next project I'm going to go back to something smaller, but if I do this, I'm really going to want to create my own assets, and it's been about 3 years since I've used blender... so that could be a learning curve.

 

[eran0004]

@MatskiMonk Blender became more user-friendly after version 2.8, so it might be worth getting into asset creation.

I think the tricky part will be to make something look nice, but without deviating from the look of the rest of the game.

And as a side note, I wish the developers would revisit the assets from the base game and bring them up to date. They look incredibly unrealistic compared what they have achieved with the DLC assets.

 

[MatskiMonk]

@MatskiMonk Blender became more user-friendly after version 2.8, so it might be worth getting into asset creation.

I think the tricky part will be to make something look nice, but without deviating from the look of the rest of the game.

In terms of using Blender, I think I'd be okay with building the mesh, it's more everything that comes after that, I haven't done much/any texturing, and then there's making it functional in game.

I'd base it on the look of a certain town. I think my home town would be a sensible start. Finger in the air guesses say I'd be looking at about 100-120 house models and maybe 30 different industrial units to cover 90% of the area of the town. Then a bunch of (20-30) unique buildings for the town centre, and the local centres... as an example, my local store is part of a complex containing a car park, a pub, the store, a chip shop, a chemist and a doctors surgery. Ideally, it'd be able to create a single asset that would be functional in these respects.

Resolution is a question though. There's some great assets in the workshop, but they're clearly designed for people running high end PC's, and going for highly realistic finishes. I've zoomed in on some of the buildings in my city, and I think some of the later DLC buildings are a good benchmark.

And as a side note, I wish the developers would revisit the assets from the base game and bring them up to date. They look incredibly unrealistic compared what they have achieved with the DLC assets

Yeah, stuff like the space elevator and such really stick out for me though.... they just don't work at all visually. I've been thinking about trying to burying them underneath other things by manually placing assets over the top of them. Many of the stock buildings don't look right either. I think this is a reflection of the developers under-estimating what they'd created simulation-wise originally, and just pitching it in the wrong place. C:S2, will no doubt be firmly grounded in reality if they've paid even the slightest bit of attention to what the Mod community has done.

 

[redhed17]

Rockwood passed 250,000 citizens last night.

Predictably, my PC is running like a dog at 250,000. Load up time is back up to around 5 minutes, takes 10 seconds to unpause, and scrolling around the map has become quite frustrating since the refresh rate is quite bad now... infact it's VERY annoying when it's an accidental mouse scroll.. normally takes about 4 attempts to focus on a specific district.

I think originally I'd aimed for about 500,000 population, but I don't think I'm going to get there without just dumping a tonne of high density grid, realistically I think I can build one more main industry area for each type, maybe a couple of districts per area, and get to about 350,000. It will be a trudge.

Is this with the new PC?

 

[MatskiMonk]

Is this with the new PC?

Ha, no... I've not decided on that yet... but these problems are part of my motivation for wanting to get a new PC.

 

[redhed17]

Ha, no... I've not decided on that yet... but these problems are part of my motivation for wanting to get a new PC.

Phew! I thought if you were struggling with the spec of PC you mentioned, there was little hope of ever going large.

 

[eran0004]

Made some progress on the marina area. There is a marina asset on the workshop that uses the new fishing industry mechanic to spawn sailing boats and yachts. Pretty neat!

 

[MatskiMonk]

250k satellite screenshot....

 

[eran0004]

Decorated the area next to the marina. Most of it is pretty steep hills, so it was a challenge to make something interesting out of it. One end became a botanical garden and the other became a premium office space (perhaps for some offshore bankers?). Most of the leftovers just got filled with trees.
The island has now got a population of 7300.

 

[redhed17]

I started a new scenario, one that I have done before, San Cobre, but it is turning out very different from the last time. This is the first time I've gone three squares wide rather than an 'L' shaped layout of squares. There has been some little things I have liked so far.

I think this Bus and Metro station came with Sunset Harbor and is the first time I've used it. The Metro underneath is a cross orientation, and the Cims have to come to the surface to change lines. I like that the Buses go to the back to pick up the Cims. It would be nice to have a better view of the waiting for them buses, but I like it.

Bus and Metro station

I got the latest update to the Pedestrian Bridge Builder that I saw Biffa use a few weeks ago, and it makes some nice layouts with the option of the inner circle. on the bridge on the right roundabout. The height is now adjustable before you build the bridge, but I still like it a bit lower than the lowest setting. Great Mod though.👍

I wanted a retail park type area, and so placed three mall type assets. I put in a huge area for parking, and though I thought I may have done it too large, it seems to be working out just about right. There are the Chinese food assets across the road, so they may also be adding to the need for parking. Once I have beaten the scenario I will try and beautify things up a bit more.

 

[MatskiMonk]

So, owing to massive procrastination over the work tasks I should really be completing, I though I'd start chucking together a model for an asset.

Decided to go with Sketchup rather than Blender at this stage, aiming to keep things as simple as possible, and I don't think I need any of Blenders features at this stage. Began making a model of my local centre, what's pictured actually contains a Doctor's surgery, a chip shop, a chemist and a Tesco express store. I had considered this to be no more than 30 mins to get it this far... turns out the geometry of the building is much more varied than it appears at ground level.. so this is a couple of hours work... and is obviously a work in progress. There's a pub to be put on the site too.

... it's not supposed to be super accurate, it's more than representative, and at this stage, until I get my head around the subsequent stages, I don't want to invest that much time in it. Once the pub is done, I'll add a few recesses for windows and doors, and that's as much detail as I'll put in the mesh. The rest can be textures.

 

[eran0004]

There's a nice new mod on the workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2140418403

Intersection Marking Tool. It's basically an easy way to draw lines in intersections. Below is an example of what it does.

Before:

After:

 

[redhed17]

There's a nice new mod on the workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2140418403

Intersection Marking Tool. It's basically an easy way to draw lines in intersections. Below is an example of what it does.

I saw that on Biffa's latest vid. Looks like there are lots of options.

 

[eran0004]

I built a small village up in the mountain and a small town a bit further down. I ran out of naming ideas so I decided to just use Gran Turismo original tracks and let Google translate them to French. So behold, the town of Forêt-Profonde (Deep Forest) and the village of Montagne d'Essai (Trial Mountain)

I started making the village, and then realised that it was too far from the city for all the service vehicles to cover the area, so the reason for building the town was to create a service hub for the village. The village has a helicopter route to the port, partly because it's so remote and partly because it's awesome to see the helicopter fly through the valley

 

[redhed17]

I watched a great drive through video today by two dollars twenty. He's built a very nice looking city. 👍