Cities: Skylines (the Sim City we deserve)

[MatskiMonk]

New computer means I can finally play this... several years after actually buying it.

Can anybody recommend some good mods to help me along the way? Nothing fancy, just anything that makes the QOL easier whilst playing. Any "always make sure you do this" style tips would be appreciated too.

A few below that I'd recommend. What version of the game did you get (i.e. any DLC add ons?)

A Must:

MoveIt
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1619685021

Traffic Manager (Stable)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1637663252

Loading Screen Mod
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=667342976

Preferable:

25 tiles instead of 9

Big City
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1270675750

These two help with more realistic looking roads:

Intersection Marking Tool
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2140418403

Node Controller
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2085403475


Most of the above will have other things you need to subscribe to as well to get them to work.

 

[Liquid]

@MatskiMonk Just the base game. I bought it when it first came out and my PC just couldn't run it so it's sat in my library for years.

Once I get used to the base game I could be tempted by DLC though, sure.

 

[MatskiMonk]

@MatskiMonk Just the base game. I bought it when it first came out and my PC just couldn't run it so it's sat in my library for years.

Once I get used to the base game I could be tempted by DLC though, sure.

I certainly recommend most of the DLC's if you find yourself getting hooked.

I can't speak for the other guys here, but for me, when I first played, my cities were utter rubbish. It wasn't until I saw what could be done (mostly thanks to this thread), that I started to think about what I could/should do better, at that point you start to realise where the limits of creativity are with the basic game, after that, the DLC and workshop assets really begin to appeal.

 

[redhed17]

For me, some of the must have Mods are;

NetworkExtensions2
TM_PE v11.5.0 LABS - A must have to have some kind of control over traffic
Move It - Move things about
Extra Landscaping Tools - More control over terraforming
Fine Road Tool 2.0.4 - Lots of control of road placement
FineRoadAnarchy - Lets you 'muscle' roads and things into position
Measure It! - Enables measuring of things if you need precision for roads
RoundaboutBuilder- Lets you build roundabouts, choosing size and type of road in place of a crossroad
Electric Roads Mod 2.1 - Negates the need for electricity pylons, as the roads transfer the electricity
Node controller V2.2 - Allows fine tuning of nodes on junctions amongst other things

Nice to have Mods;
Automatic Bulldoze v3 and/BulldozeIt - Not sure which one works, or whether both work, but saves you having to demolish abandoned buildings
Automatic Pedestrian Bridge Builder V2.0 [Beta] - Love the bridges, and occasional subways, around junctions
No Radioactive Desert And More! - Doesn't stop the pollution, but stops it looking horrible.
Forest Brush v1.3 - Lots of control over placing trees
Smart Intersection Builder - Allows you to place prebuilt intersections and tollbooths onto existing roads without the need to clear the area before.


There are lots of other Mods, I have just looked and I have 63 installed, but I think these are all the ones that have most impact on the game for me.

 

[Liquid]

I can't speak for the other guys here, but for me, when I first played, my cities were utter rubbish.

I want my crap town to be nuked already.

The dream is to attempt to recreate my hometown (rlp: 15,000) and the town where I live now (rlp: 400,000) but that's a bit pie in the sky until I get to grips with it.

Electric Roads Mod 2.1 - Negates the need for electricity pylons, as the roads transfer the electricity

Will take a look at the others too but this is a godsend.

 

[Samus]

Yup, your first cities are going to be bad. Things will look amateur, you'll almost certainly hit bad traffic and you'll probably run into supply and demand issues with jobs and goods.

But that is a big part of the fun for me, improving your skills and knowledge of the game mechanics as you go, so each city is better than the last.

Before you know it you're researching real world city planning info, getting reference photos of junctions and generally getting lost in building stuff.

 

[MatskiMonk]

There are lots of other Mods, I have just looked and I have 63 installed,

After multiple borked save games, I'm trying to keep the number of mods I'm running as low as I can. I'm down to 30 and I suspect about 10 of them are dependencies.

Will take a look at the others too but this is a godsend.

I tend to use these myself...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=434128379
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=434133827

and if I don't want to keep building power stations or linking up remote locations I treat these like substations

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1566835910

Before you know it you're researching real world city planning info, getting reference photos of junctions and generally getting lost in building stuff.

Yup, road hierarchy is the big one for me.

Also @Liquid ... Paths. That's my tip. Paths. Lots of them, if you can shortcut between areas using a path, do it. Pedestrians will walk quite a long way and they'll walk faster along dedicated paths rather than roadside pavements. Build paths in to your road layouts before you even zone anything. If a cim's route to work is three sides of a square by car, make it one side of a square by foot.

The dream is to attempt to recreate my hometown (rlp: 15,000) and the town where I live now (rlp: 400,000) but that's a bit pie in the sky until I get to grips with it.

You'll want mods like FindIt https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133885971 I actually can't remember what does what, but if you want to recreate something you're going to end up with a lot of assets to manage, I think FindIt2 (as linked) allows for the direct placement of buildings without zoning or leveling.

I want my crap town to be nuked already.

Well, if you download the Natural Disasters pack, you can hit it with a meteorite.

 

[eran0004]

My curve design agonies are over! There is a new mod coming that allows you to write and run python scripts within the game. I just did a beta test by running my curve design script and it works like a charm!

 

[redhed17]

I used to use the underground power lines for close gaps, (and pylons for longer distances) and still do for things away from the now 'electric' roads. You just have to remember that you have used them, as sometimes you try and rebuild and it says you can't, and you can't work out why until you release there is an underground power 'node'.

 

[eran0004]

On the PS2 version of SSR11 you can see a big ferris wheel in the background. I thought that would be a good location for a park. First I made an amusement park, but I quickly realised that I would prefer to have a zoo instead.

Below is the city map. I started to prepare for expansion to the north by building a new grid. To the west of that is where I'm planning for the industrial area to be, with good access to the railroad. I also built a new monorail line to the zoo and created a bit of a monster interchange to try to make some sense of the inner city highway system.

 

[Samus]

Heads up console players, the DLC is on sale again at 50% off including for the first time, Sunset Harbor.

 

[eran0004]

Here is the Special Stage Route 11 bus line. It looks pretty cool to be racing against the monorail line on the main straight, take note of that please Kaz

 

[Samus]

Looking great @eran0004 , always amazes me what you can do with this game even vanilla if you have a bit of imagination, but with mods there really is almost no limit.

I grabbed Sunset Harbor and also the little European Suburbia pack last night. So tired of the default low density residential and these look much better. Designs are nicer without any gaudy bright colours and most of them have dividing hedges, so they look more realistic in that sense as well.

Sunset Harbor seems like a bit of a weird mix of things but the inland water stuff I'm looking forward to use, no rows of those huge water treatment plants on the riverbank any more. Not done much on my new City that I spent hours terraforming, just a bit of a scruffy junction and the starts of Suburbia.

Funny though, with someone mentioning just getting the game earlier I went and looked back at my first big city (70,000), which was probably my 3rd or 4th City overall. Think I've definitely got a bit better!

 

[eran0004]

Yeah, European suburbia is a nice collection. I can recommend the university city pack as well!


Here is one of my earliest builds, if I built this today I would probably just replace this chaos with a pair of roundabouts

 

[eran0004]

In preparation for the new industry area, I built a second cargo train station to serve that district. Not sure how well it will deal with the traffic since there is only one way in, but hopefully the roundabout is big enough to handle it. I might add a second connection if I can find a good location to cross the tracks.

Across the tracks from the cargo station is the old locomotive halls, now serving as a railroad museum.

Also, the Python mod is now public, although only for Windows: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415465635

 

[Darla Starch]

I am slowly (and I mean SLOWLY, the complexity is something else considering my last city building game I played for any appreciable bit of time was Sim City 3K Unlimited) coming to terms with the game. Playing with ALL THE CHEATS, sole main mod is the BigCity 25 tiles mod.

>TFW your absurdly fiddly driving road is so absurdly fiddly it breaks the fabric of reality

 

[Samus]

In preparation for the new industry area, I built a second cargo train station to serve that district. Not sure how well it will deal with the traffic since there is only one way in, but hopefully the roundabout is big enough to handle it. I might add a second connection if I can find a good location to cross the tracks.

Across the tracks from the cargo station is the old locomotive halls, now serving as a railroad museum.

View attachment 995973

Also, the Python mod is now public, although only for Windows: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415465635

Looks nice and tidy. Since the south entrance looks to be lower ground anyway have you considered lowering the roundabout and the first section of the exit roads so that you can have a railway bridge level with the land over the north exit, instead of the crossing? Might help a bit with the traffic not having to stop.

 

[eran0004]

Looks nice and tidy. Since the south entrance looks to be lower ground anyway have you considered lowering the roundabout and the first section of the exit roads so that you can have a railway bridge level with the land over the north exit, instead of the crossing? Might help a bit with the traffic not having to stop.

Thanks I tried lowering the roundabout but the terrain around the waste collection building didn't like that very much. I suppose I could plant some trees to make it look better though.

My curve script is going to be included with the Python mod soon, so I took a couple of promotion pictures

 

[eran0004]

I ended up lowering the roundabout and dragging the road underneath the railway. It turned out better than my previous solution, but I had to shuffle some warehouse buildings around to make it work.

The inner part of SSR11 has been quite difficult to fill, mostly because of the slope of the terrain. I think I found a good use of the land now, by turning it into a very green and lush park. It's a pretty interesting contrast, since it's surrounded by concrete and motorways.

There was also a difficult patch of land next to the central station. I wanted to turn it into some kind of monumental public space and opted for a Japanese temple area, with inspiration from Tokyo. I covered the roads with a tile texture to make the area look a bit nicer. Again, an interesting contrast here with the railroad running directly over this area.

The skyline, as seen from across the water:

 

[eran0004]

The Intersection Marking Tool mod got an update. Now you can create pavement and grass in 3D, it's great for decorating roundabouts!

 

[Darla Starch]

(yet another stillborn city and more evidence why I should never be allowed to design one IRL)

"So, how dangerous do you want your commute to your small borderline-mountain town to be?"
"YES."

 

[eran0004]

The industrial expansion continues, this time with a quarry/mine. This one is pretty modest in size.

Next to the mine I built a tailings dam. It's not just for the looks, I also dump the mine's sewage water in it. Because the dam covers a large area, the ground absorbs enough water that there is no flooding.

On the other side of the hills I built an industrial area to process the ore.

And next to the industrial area I built a small mining town. The idea here is that the mining company bought some land and created this town in order to let the workers live nearby. The mining company also sponsors a minibus line going between the mine, the town, the industrial area and the city center.

Some ground level views of the mining town. I mostly used the buildings from the European Suburbia pack, they look perfect for a housing project like this.

From the playground next to the school you get a pretty spectacular view of the skyline.

View from the main street.

Situated along the main street is the local gas station and grocery store. In the background you can see one of the minibuses arriving from the mine.

 

[eran0004]

I started on a new project, to build the village I live in, in 1:1 scale
From Lantmäteriet (the Swedish mapping authority) I managed to obtain a heightmap as well as a map of roads and major power lines. Unfortunately it seems like I didn't calibrate the heightmap properly, as the heights appear to be scaled by a factor of around 1.5 - 2. Perhaps there are some settings I missed somewhere.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I've not posted here much in a while. I've been working on my main map a little, but I don't much like it! Think I might need to get back to basics!

 

[eran0004]

I fixed the scale of the heightmap, now it looks just like home

...except for the lack of trees. I calculated that if I want to cover 60% of the surface with forests, I should place the trees around 30 meters apart. That way I shouldn't hit the tree limit. Does anyone have any experience with the tree brush mod by the way? Is it possible to specify how densely you want to pack the trees there?

 

[MatskiMonk]

That way I shouldn't hit the tree limit.

I can't check at the moment but I think there are some half decent trees on the workshop that are props which can be turned into PO's to avoid the limit.

 

[redhed17]

I fixed the scale of the heightmap, now it looks just like home

...except for the lack of trees. I calculated that if I want to cover 60% of the surface with forests, I should place the trees around 30 meters apart. That way I shouldn't hit the tree limit. Does anyone have any experience with the tree brush mod by the way? Is it possible to specify how densely you want to pack the trees there?

Tree Brush or Forest Brush? I like the Forest Brush as you can alter the strength of the brush, along with the size of the brush, and the type(s) of trees. :-)

Unfortunately for me, my version of it has stopped working on the city I am playing atm. It's worked fine for over a year that I added the mod. I haven't added any new mods, just a few new assets. Can't be bothered to mess about trying to track down the cause the problem.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Quick vid of where my town is at the moment... 2nd half shows some ugly stuff like the train line that I put in which needs lots and lots of terra forming, and the service-cube neighbourhood I need to keep business from complaining about workers!



... there's a lot I don't like about it to be honest, which makes the slow going not much fun, and much of what you see here is not finished.

edit: Yeah the video is free hand camera movement, so apologies for that. Also, you can see the framerate counter in the top left. This is with lots of settings maxed and lots of LOD distances turned right up.. so it gets pretty choppy.

 

[eran0004]

Tree Brush or Forest Brush? I like the Forest Brush as you can alter the strength of the brush, along with the size of the brush, and the type(s) of trees. :-)

Unfortunately for me, my version of it has stopped working on the city I am playing atm. It's worked fine for over a year that I added the mod. I haven't added any new mods, just a few new assets. Can't be bothered to mess about trying to track down the cause the problem.

Yeah the forest brush sounds like a good tool for the job. Strange that it stopped working though, not sure if I dare to subscribe to it. I see a lot of people on the Steam workshop had the same problem.

@MatskiMonk That looks really good! Sure, a lot of stuff is work in progress, but the finished areas are top notch 👍

 

[MatskiMonk]

a lot of stuff is work in progress, but the finished areas are top notch

Ta. I'm mostly disappointed because I can't get it to look like I see it in my head. This I think comes down to assets (and lack of skill)... getting a suitable blend of assets that look like they belong in the same kind of town in the same kind of region, but just from different era's is tricky... on close inspection I don't think my map holds up that well.

On the tree limit, I'm not sure if my suggestion holds up, looking at it, I've not actually handled trees that way. Nearly all my hedges are PO's generated from a prop though. This helps me not have to worry about the prop limit, and also allows me to change the proportions of them, and distort the shapes to look more 'wild'. I'm 90% sure the same would work for prop based trees, but a quick look on the workshop reveals there aren't really many prop trees at all - I'm sure there were more.