Cities: Skylines - like Sim City but not ruined

[Flickerdart]

http://i.imgur.com/seDbFbD.jpg

Has anyone else picked this up? It's 30 bucks on Steam, and a very neat city builder. You put down roads and assign zones (residential, commercial, industrial, or office) and then people will come and build buildings. Then you need to put down infrastructure such as electricity, water, and public services so that everything runs smoothly. Little things like traffic management are very important, since a large part of your economy is importing/exporting goods.

It took me a couple of tries to get my city to be sustainable - you don't earn tax income until you have 500 citizens, so I ended up blowing my cash too early. Even after the early part you need to make sure that industrial pollution doesn't overtake your residences, and that you have a good educational system to provide workers for higher-level businesses.

[factotum]

Yes, I've got it--which map is the pictured city in, out of interest? The two I've tried so far are both rather flat. (Largest city so far only has 11k population, but then, I haven't been devoting as much time to them as perhaps I might).

[DigoDragon]

Looks interesting. Like SimCity, but much prettier.

Is there a disaster management as well? I always found it fun to let some catastrophe hit my SimCity and then see how well my infrastructure can hold up against it and save the town from loss.

[factotum]

Game doesn't have disasters in it AFAIK, but the developers are encouraging modding, so who knows? Maybe somebody will put some in.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

My girlfriend and I have been itching for a modern city builder, so once we graduate we are tottttallly getting this. Plus as you well know I'm a huge Paradox fan so.

[Flickerdart]

Yes, I've got it--which map is the pictured city in, out of interest? The two I've tried so far are both rather flat. (Largest city so far only has 11k population, but then, I haven't been devoting as much time to them as perhaps I might).
I suspect it's modded. There are mods that unlock the full grid for construction, maybe there are mountains off to the side somewhere?



Looks interesting. Like SimCity, but much prettier.

Is there a disaster management as well? I always found it fun to let some catastrophe hit my SimCity and then see how well my infrastructure can hold up against it and save the town from loss.
Does "I accidentally built a police station on top of the only power line connecting the city to the coal plant, and now everyone's lost power to everything" count as a disaster? :smallredface:

[Avilan the Grey]

Yeah, this is how you do it!
Suck on that, Maxis and hope you... oh. Sorry (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/04/simcity-developer-maxis-emeryville-closed-by-ea).

[Hunter Noventa]

Looks interesting. Like SimCity, but much prettier.

Is there a disaster management as well? I always found it fun to let some catastrophe hit my SimCity and then see how well my infrastructure can hold up against it and save the town from loss.

Yeah other than having to deal with things like water or power shortages, or waves of deaths (You have to put down cemetaries and and crematoriums, it's an odd thing to include if you ask me), the only real disaster is if you place a Hyrdoelectric Dam badly and flood your city.

But otherwise it's a pretty amazing game and feels just right. More in-depth than Sim City 2013, but not as sterile as Sim City 4.

[AdmiralCheez]

I've been hearing nothing but good things about this game, so once it goes on sale, it looks like I'll be a mayor.

(That is, I'm giving them time to work any bugs out of the system before I get too involved, and not because I'm incredibly cheap, which I'm not. Totally not.)

[DigoDragon]

Does "I accidentally built a police station on top of the only power line connecting the city to the coal plant, and now everyone's lost power to everything" count as a disaster? :smallredface:

I'm going to say yes. :smalltongue:


I like that you can have curved roads. I don't think I've played a city simulator since SimCity 2000, so... I'm behind the times. I should definitely check this one out. Sounds like you can have some fun shenanigans (http://i.imgur.com/oor4J3i.jpg) with it.

[Grif]

I've been hearing nothing but good things about this game, so once it goes on sale, it looks like I'll be a mayor.

(That is, I'm giving them time to work any bugs out of the system before I get too involved, and not because I'm incredibly cheap, which I'm not. Totally not.)

I see I'm not the only one. :smalltongue:

But yes, very positive first impressions from a lot of people. Quite damning for how badly EA messed up SimCity 2013, really.

[Avilan the Grey]

So... dammit... what to name my city?

Geekville?
Geekopolis?

...Decisions decisions...

[factotum]

Surely the geekiest thing to do would be to name it after a really obscure character or location from your favourite series that nobody else likes? :smallwink:

[Flickerdart]

So... dammit... what to name my city?

Geekville?
Geekopolis?

...Decisions decisions...
Given that your city starts out with no schools or work for educated people, that might be somewhat premature. :smalltongue:

[TechnoWarforged]

Given that your city starts out with no schools or work for educated people, that might be somewhat premature. :smalltongue:

You can call it "Mythesis"

Every time someone asked you what you are doing, you can say you are working on your thesis.

Or you could always show your roots and call it "pallet town"



I've finally given into the temptation and got the game off stream. The game feels like what happens when Simcity and Cities: XL secretly had a love child together. It doesn't have the best of both worlds but taken just enough good stuff from both games to make it sufficiently charming.

What annoys me is that the starting area is always the middle edge of the map. You ended up having to spend resource to "stretch" your city so your city could reach that sewage drain at the edge of the map and hopefully you found a nice place to park that power plant so all the dirty stuff stays in one corner.

Maintaining positive cash is also a challenge but currently my humble town is around 3000+ people with $3500 income per week due to just jacking up taxes. I have about $114k in the bank. You might as well call me Rob Ford and accused me of selling crack on the side to supplement the city's budget.

I also find it strange you can't add onramps to your highways even after you purchase new lots. Trying to get Sims to travel across zones without a direct road across will be a challenge.

I see all those beautiful pics of cities on reddit, but yet I'm stuck making Brooklyn like Grid like a city building noob :(

Finally while I like how the bus system works as compared to Simcity 2013 (have you draw the route, instead of having all the buses try to touch base with each bus stop), drawing the route down is hard and one mouse swipe could have your bus route going all the way across town.

Edit: I used to have all these amazing names for cities, unfortunately I used them all up playing Simcity 2013.

Double Edit: Pageup/Pagedown to elevate roads... *smack forehead*

[Hunter Noventa]

Or you could always show your roots and call it "pallet town"


I named my current city Johto and am naming my districts after the towns of Johto and Kanto.

Except the Industrial District. That will forever be the Scrap Brain Zone.

Some people have done crazy stuff with the mapmaker. Like, there's a map that is Macho Man Randy Savage. Another that is Gabe Newell.

[factotum]

Maintaining positive cash is also a challenge...

I also find it strange you can't add onramps to your highways even after you purchase new lots. Trying to get Sims to travel across zones without a direct road across will be a challenge.


I find staying in the black is actually quite easy--certainly a heck of a lot easier than it was in Sim City 4. As for not being able to add onramps to highways, you can totally do that? :smallconfused: So long as you own the tile that contains the highway you can do what you like with it--I've demolished large sections of a pre-built highway in one of my cities in order to add an intersection, for instance.

[Sange]

After hearing lots of positive reviews and watching vids on YT, I bought it and I've gotta say I really like it. The best part is that you can rename everything. Even people.

[Avilan the Grey]

After hearing lots of positive reviews and watching vids on YT, I bought it and I've gotta say I really like it. The best part is that you can rename everything. Even people.

Number Six: Where am I?
Number Two: In the Village.
Number Six: What do you want?
Number Two: Information.
Number Six: Whose side are you on?
Number Two: That would be telling. We want information… information… in formation.
Number Six: You won't get it.
Number Two: By hook or by crook, we will.
Number Six: Who are you?
Number Two: The new Number Two.
Number Six: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are Number Six.
Number Six: I am not a number! I am a free man!
Number Two: [laughs]

[TechnoWarforged]

This game is addictive as well. It's literally "I'll do a few more adjustments.... Oh **** it's 4 Am!"

At my peak I'm earning 15k a week. Now I'm down to 7k because I purchased a few landmarks, two ports (cargo and passenger) I also revamped and build a highway across my city so my expense skyrocketed. Also building highways is annoying as hell. I figured out how to build ramps but you have to attached it to your highway at certain areas and pray you have room to fit everything and attached to the road.

Forest industry is OP and highly unrealistic. It causes no pollution so much that I have highrise parked side by side with industrial zone and nothing happens. However they generate high traffic, requires high water and electricity usage. They also caught on fire a lot. I was really expecting the zone not to change much and everyone to turn into a lumberjack.. but it looks nothing like that.

I also zoned a farming industry right in the middle of my city... I was careful trying not to cross any pipes but I did caused a Walkterton, let my citizens drink pig-**** water and got them all sick. It's okay Sims have no souls anyways. Also I was using dirt road for that zone (because farmland uses dirt road in real life. Again it's nothing like that and while farming zone uses less traffic then forestry industry, those big trucks carting cows and chickens still needs to move around...

Both Farming and Forest industry generate little pollution. However your city still needs some general industrial zone so they can produce goods for your commercial zone.



I got subways and buses but very few people taking them. The most used subways station got 210 person per week. my elementary school/high school is in the red, but somehow most of my industry workers are overeducated.


I think there's progressively more elements kicking in as your city increased in level:
Until recently most of my industry are always shutting down because they lack workers... howevery right after my city hits 36k all my industry filled up but there's chirpers chirps about unemployment.

In general stuff like fire coverage, crime, and health coverage is simply solved due to how OP Police/Fire/Hospital have such huge coverage.

Traffic however is what I spend most of my time tackling. At my peak I 've used 6 lane one way street and the road is still packed. Again I solved most of my problems with building a Highway.

One thing I missed about Sim city (at least up to Simcity 4) is how water generate high land value. All my buildings around the coast is pretty low value while the centre of my downtown core is full of beautiful skyscrapers.

Nothing is more fun them flooding your city by building a hydro dam. Your zoned buildings will stop working and stop giving you tax dollars, but your landmarks, parks, utilities and road still work! Cars can move underwater and this gives me a idea on building roads and then flood the area. Also ships can go over Dams!!!


So I think I got a theme in my city going. I renamed my city Centralia PA. My giant forest industry/residential zone as Aokigahara Forest, My Suburb "Whitechapel", My coastline area "Hashima Island", My old industry area "Silent Hill", and the inner city area "Racoon City." I'll need another area called Pripyat, but not before calling my main hospital Hellingly Hospital

[Flickerdart]

I finally got fed up with the massive red traffic you get on your main street, bought the highway, and nuked the access way. Now there's a hideous intersection type thing for the industrial zone, and another for the residential zone. I think eventually I'll want to build highways around the entire city, with ramps leading down into the separate sections.

[factotum]

I'm building a new city where I'm thinking about traffic from the get-go. Means I have a lot of unused space around certain roads because I plan to upgrade them at some point and need the room; just spent around $50k putting a highway across the middle of my starting tile. The plan is to have a three-level road system: the highway is the main route, then we have large feeder roads joining into that, and finally smaller roads filling in the space in between.

Highway junctions can be a pain, yes, but you have to bear in mind that real-life road planners have that issue too--it takes an enormous amount of room to put all those roads in. I had a real issue with a large roundabout I placed at one end of my city to act as the main highway junction there--in order to get all the roads to fit I had to kink one of the highway lanes around the edge of the roundabout, and then both the links from that lane to the roundabout enter and exit on the wrong side of the road! Fortunately that doesn't matter in Skylines, but in real life that junction would no doubt be a massive accident blackspot.

[DigoDragon]

Nothing is more fun them flooding your city by building a hydro dam. Your zoned buildings will stop working and stop giving you tax dollars, but your landmarks, parks, utilities and road still work! Cars can move underwater and this gives me a idea on building roads and then flood the area. Also ships can go over Dams!!!

That is funny. :)

Odd that the beach-front property isn't valued more. In my state anything along that coastline tends to be real pricy and upscale... at the same time destroyed easily when a hurricane comes through. :smalltongue:

[factotum]

I recall that having trees around used to increase land value in Sim City 4--it gave you an incentive to leave trees when placing zones and to plant new ones. Don't think Skylines does the same, unfortunately, trees appear to be purely decorative.

[Flickerdart]

I recall that having trees around used to increase land value in Sim City 4--it gave you an incentive to leave trees when placing zones and to plant new ones. Don't think Skylines does the same, unfortunately, trees appear to be purely decorative.
I think you have to put in the special trees (parks or tree-lined roads) to increase property values. Regular trees are just markers for "there is wood resource here."

[TechnoWarforged]

I think you have to put in the special trees (parks or tree-lined roads) to increase property values. Regular trees are just markers for "there is wood resource here."

The Trees/Grass Roads adding land value is just a byproduct of reduced Notice pollution. Apparently green stuff can soak up noise.

Try not to destroy your Hydro Dam. I blew mine up and when I rebuilt it it only produced 24 watts of power instead of 300+. I think the water pressure in that part of the River is gone forever. It also causes a tidal wave into the center of the city and basically rerouted traffic. I think the Sims are set toward a pattern and disabling the zones just forced them to work at new zones... the reset is interesting because I think overall it made the city more effective and my city increased in population and income after the flood. Maybe God had the right idea all along.

In other news Pripyat has a Nuclear power plant now. It's very fitting.

[GloatingSwine]

fun shenanigans (http://i.imgur.com/oor4J3i.jpg)

I am p. sure that's the motorbike level from Bayonetta....

[t209]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9n1BPu2fGQ
And he polluted a river, dammed a river, and flooded a neighborhood.

[factotum]

I think you have to put in the special trees (parks or tree-lined roads) to increase property values. Regular trees are just markers for "there is wood resource here."

The game does give you the option to plant your own trees that are not part of a park, though, but as I said earlier, I think they're purely decorative and have no gameplay effect. Unless regular trees act to block noise in the same way the "official" tree-lined road does?

[midagedgamer]

http://i.imgur.com/seDbFbD.jpg

Has anyone else picked this up? It's 30 bucks on Steam, and a very neat city builder. You put down roads and assign zones (residential, commercial, industrial, or office) and then people will come and build buildings. Then you need to put down infrastructure such as electricity, water, and public services so that everything runs smoothly. Little things like traffic management are very important, since a large part of your economy is importing/exporting goods.

It took me a couple of tries to get my city to be sustainable - you don't earn tax income until you have 500 citizens, so I ended up blowing my cash too early. Even after the early part you need to make sure that industrial pollution doesn't overtake your residences, and that you have a good educational system to provide workers for higher-level businesses.

Your money is absolutely worth it for C:S

Plus, they have day 1 mod support which is great.

[Grif]

Question for those who bought the game. How heavy the requirements are? My PC currently can run Europa Universalis IV at speed 3 comfortably or Borderlands 2 at medium settings. Will it be enough to run this game?

[DigoDragon]

Try not to destroy your Hydro Dam. I blew mine up and when I rebuilt it it only produced 24 watts of power instead of 300+.

Dang, that a big deficit in power o.o


I am p. sure that's the motorbike level from Bayonetta....

Never played Bayonetta. Didn't know there were motorbikes.

[factotum]

Question for those who bought the game. How heavy the requirements are?

I've played Borderlands 2 on my ancient heap of garbage (3-core 3.1GHz AMD CPU, Radeon 5770 graphics card) and Skylines runs absolutely fine, at least up to a city size of 11,000 citizens--haven't got one bigger than that yet due to restarting too much.

[TechnoWarforged]

Question for those who bought the game. How heavy the requirements are? My PC currently can run Europa Universalis IV at speed 3 comfortably or Borderlands 2 at medium settings. Will it be enough to run this game?

http://www.gameplayinside.com/strategy/cities-skylines/cities-skylines-game-performance-review/

Hope this helps.


Edit: Also I can't seem to build any smaller Parks. The only small sized one I got was the Japanese Garden... then I quit and the then after the patch the Japanese Garden disappeared from both my build menu and all the Garden I built in my city also disappeared... :(



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9n1BPu2fGQ
And he polluted a river, dammed a river, and flooded a neighborhood.


Take that lowly peasants! They serves to swim drown in brown goo.

[Flickerdart]

Question for those who bought the game. How heavy the requirements are? My PC currently can run Europa Universalis IV at speed 3 comfortably or Borderlands 2 at medium settings. Will it be enough to run this game?
It's a Unity game, so the requirements probably are not that high.


http://www.gameplayinside.com/strategy/cities-skylines/cities-skylines-game-performance-review/

Hope this helps.
Hm, that's interesting. If it runs on the SP2, then my SP3 should be able to handle it no problem, making this game an excellent choice for gaming on the go - especially since it doesn't need a keyboard. It doesn't look like dumping settings to minimum really does much to the graphics, but the frame rate boost is nice.

[Avilan the Grey]

I've played Borderlands 2 on my ancient heap of garbage (3-core 3.1GHz AMD CPU, Radeon 5770 graphics card) and Skylines runs absolutely fine, at least up to a city size of 11,000 citizens--haven't got one bigger than that yet due to restarting too much.

My computer is odd. It's old, but powerful for it's age... And most games it can play well on mid to high settings. Notable exception is Dragon Age inquisition that just don't run, at all.
However, it does struggle with this game for some reason, the highest speed is barely faster than the slowest speed but stuttering (slowest speed is smooth).

[TechnoWarforged]

The Holland Land Reclaimation project:



http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd228/lonewanderer666/The%20Holland%20Project%205_zpsqbmxu2au.jpg (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/lonewanderer666/media/The%20Holland%20Project%205_zpsqbmxu2au.jpg.html)

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd228/lonewanderer666/The%20Holland%20Project%206_zpszrd8dz1g.jpg (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/lonewanderer666/media/The%20Holland%20Project%206_zpszrd8dz1g.jpg.html)


The Cars actually won't go into the bridge if the water is too deep, but Parks works even when it's fully underwater.

What I did was build a dam blocking the water from going into the bay and then start building when the water level drops. It's tricky thou because the water level will not rise up back to where it was initially.

[snowblizz]

The Holland Land Reclaimation project:

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd228/lonewanderer666/The%20Holland%20Project%206_zpszrd8dz1g.jpg (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/lonewanderer666/media/The%20Holland%20Project%206_zpszrd8dz1g.jpg.html)


The Cars actually won't go into the bridge if the water is too deep, but Parks works even when it's fully underwater.

You must be saving a fortune on park waste clean up costs! :smallwink:

[DigoDragon]

The Cars actually won't go into the bridge if the water is too deep

I guess your citizens are that afraid of big bridges? Can you build tunnels under the water?

[factotum]

I guess your citizens are that afraid of big bridges? Can you build tunnels under the water?

The only tunnels in the game, AFAIK, are those for metro lines--you can't just build a road through a mountain and have it automatically bore a tunnel as it goes. Which is kind of a shame, would be cool to have underground roads in a city!

[Flickerdart]

The only tunnels in the game, AFAIK, are those for metro lines--you can't just build a road through a mountain and have it automatically bore a tunnel as it goes. Which is kind of a shame, would be cool to have underground roads in a city!
Gotta leave some stuff for the expansion pack. Do you think they learned nothing from Maxis, or how Paradox handles their own games?

[Seerow]

Gotta leave some stuff for the expansion pack. Do you think they learned nothing from Maxis, or how Paradox handles their own games?

I read an interview saying they meant for tunnels to be a core feature, and once it's done they will likely be released as a free DLC. Though they do of course have plans for expansions.

[Avilan the Grey]

Tunnels will indeed be free. Something else, too, but I don't remember what.

[Leon]

Whats its difference from Cities XL?

[factotum]

Whats its difference from Cities XL?

Well, it's a decent game for a start. :smallsmile:

[GungHo]

Whats its difference from Cities XL?

It has a soul.

I realize that seems like a flippant response (and it is), but as I've said before here and elsewhere, Cities XL was created by people who considered city planning to be Serious Business with No Fun Allowed(tm). It's not as bombastic and gamey as something like Tropico or even Sim City 2000 (no aliens or giant robots), but it doesn't take itself too seriously. Not yet, anyway.

[Flickerdart]

How early do you guys start building traffic solutions? My first few towns (I usually realize I screwed up around that stage and start again) I just put down small roads everywhere, but lately I've been trying to plan ahead by putting down highways. This ended up screwing me over since the fire department couldn't figure out how to find the power plant. Is it best to just usurp the plot of land the highway is on and then use it as the central artery for traffic through your city? Should I wait until I can build highway ramps in order to avoid intersections on my big roads?

[Avilan the Grey]

I think having played Cities in Motion helps with the traffic.

Also, layout is the key. Roundabouts are good. Having industry connected as directly as possible to the highway is even better. One way streets are almost always preferable.

[TechnoWarforged]

How early do you guys start building traffic solutions? My first few towns (I usually realize I screwed up around that stage and start again) I just put down small roads everywhere, but lately I've been trying to plan ahead by putting down highways. This ended up screwing me over since the fire department couldn't figure out how to find the power plant. Is it best to just usurp the plot of land the highway is on and then use it as the central artery for traffic through your city? Should I wait until I can build highway ramps in order to avoid intersections on my big roads?

After a few fail start with me running out of cash, I figured out that cash is more important then anything else. With sufficient cash you can just fix any problem via bulldozing and rebuilding new zones. Traffic problems alone will not kill your city and burning down your power plant is just plain bad luck (should switch to Hydro power plant ASAP anyways... until you can get Nuclear Power Plant. Althought I suspect that your power plant isn't connected to your fire station via roads at all.

However just using small roads in all zones is just bad idea. I usually start visualizing how my city will look, reason where the traffic is, and just adjust on the fly when unseen consequence occurs. For example the road that connects your industrial zone to your residential zone should be a large road because people will travel between those two areas to get to work. I mix my commercial/office zones with residential zones so there's less commute. Finally having public transportation between major area helps a lot. I'm kinda learning as I go along and I just figured that you can use subway/bus with the same principle... subways for Cims to travel between zones, and buses to travel within the zone.

Also your first on/off ramp connecting to your city will always be packed with traffic... I'll consider using a roundabout there and also have separate hwy exit/entrance for your industrial zones so trucks can move in and out of the area away from where all the cars are.

My city is about 50k+ population.

[factotum]

Highways with junctions are better than six-lane roads, so you're better off leaving the highway where it is and improving your connections to it. As far as I know there's no particular reason why the highway on/off-ramp has to be an "official" ramp, though--I tend to use two-lane one-way roads for the greater traffic capacity unless I'm just trying to join two highways together, when the reduction in traffic speed would be a big issue.

If your fire department couldn't find the power plant then you're missing a road or an onramp somewhere--it's very easy to do that and build a highway that goes nowhere and thus doesn't get used by traffic!

[Avilan the Grey]

Highways with junctions are better than six-lane roads, so you're better off leaving the highway where it is and improving your connections to it.

Just like you never delete a railroad track unless you have the money to rebuild it to your liking, the same goes for highways.

[Flickerdart]

Highways with junctions are better than six-lane roads, so you're better off leaving the highway where it is and improving your connections to it. As far as I know there's no particular reason why the highway on/off-ramp has to be an "official" ramp, though
I'm not talking about editing the highway, I'm talking about spreading across it and using bridges to connect my city halves, and then developing along the highway with ramps leading into the city's districts.

As for official ramps, do highways automatically not have intersections? I tried replicating highways before I could build them using the six-lane roads, but with intersections every time there's an on or off ramp, it all goes so slowly.


After a few fail start with me running out of cash, I figured out that cash is more important then anything else. With sufficient cash you can just fix any problem via bulldozing and rebuilding new zones. Traffic problems alone will not kill your city and burning down your power plant is just plain bad luck (should switch to Hydro power plant ASAP anyways... until you can get Nuclear Power Plant. Althought I suspect that your power plant isn't connected to your fire station via roads at all.
This was way before hydro was available, unfortunately - and I never build cities where parts are unconnected, the firetrucks just took a long route I guess.

[TechnoWarforged]

This was way before hydro was available, unfortunately - and I never build cities where parts are unconnected, the firetrucks just took a long route I guess.

Hmm that's interest... as far as I know any vehicle will always take the shortest route to their destination. That's why there's traffic jam in the first place. Otherwise traffic will be evenly spread out. Part of my kinda wish the AI on traffic would apply some fuzzy logic so that say 80% of the time they'll take the shortest route while the 20% will take alternative route.

But anyways
1) the Firestation maybe too far away from your power plant and didn't get coverage
2) Your fire truck is stuck in traffic and can't get to the burning power plant. That happens to me once but with Garbage trucks... all 19 of them are stuck in one straight line on a street while the garbage keeps piling up in the city.
3) you build your power plant in a one way street ... so your fire truck has to take the seemingly longer route, or worst your power plant is in the middle of two one way street both going outward so the truck can't get in.

Either way I tried to move horrible stuff like power plants, garbage incineration, and landfills away from my population and have separate entrance/exit.

[Flickerdart]

Hm. What's the best street to use for one-way? There doesn't seem to be any stage between the basic 2-lane road and the 6-lane superhighway.

[factotum]

As for official ramps, do highways automatically not have intersections? I tried replicating highways before I could build them using the six-lane roads, but with intersections every time there's an on or off ramp, it all goes so slowly.


Intersections are not a thing on a highway no matter what type of road you join to it--the highway is always straight through and traffic will never need to stop while on it, unless a queue has backed onto the mainline due to inadequate roads elsewhere. Any other type of road will end up with traffic light intersections, as you discovered; plus, the speed of traffic on a six-lane road is considerably lower than on a highway.

[Flickerdart]

Has anyone gotten a "gc context thread" error that causes game crash? It just scythed down my city of 15,000.

[TechnoWarforged]

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd228/lonewanderer666/Bad%20Taste_zpskwynblnw.jpg (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/lonewanderer666/media/Bad%20Taste_zpskwynblnw.jpg.html)



Hm. What's the best street to use for one-way? There doesn't seem to be any stage between the basic 2-lane road and the 6-lane superhighway.

I usually use one way street as a way to control the flow of traffic. For example I have a roundabout for an onramp... I want one road to be strictly the exit while cars will use a road later on to get back into the roundabout to get on the highway... So I use one way street for that road and cars can only exit that way.

[Zyzzyva]

Just bought it! Looking through the thread, it seems my Sim City 2000 skills are probably serving me poorly... Are you telling me that tiling this



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is not the recipe for a perfect, utopian megalopolis in this game? :smalltongue:

[factotum]

You may have actually hit on the worst possible layout in Skylines...er, yay? :smallsmile: The residents will be complaining about the pollution and noise from industry (plus a bit of noise from commercial) and the traffic to all those separated industrial zones will clog up every road in the system before you hit 10k population. Other that that, should work swimmingly!

[Flickerdart]

Just bought it! Looking through the thread, it seems my Sim City 2000 skills are probably serving me poorly... Are you telling me that tiling this



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is not the recipe for a perfect, utopian megalopolis in this game? :smalltongue:
There is precisely one advantage to doing it that way - when citizens go to work in the morning, they are not going to be clogging up a few key intersections, but instead place pretty even load on your roads. But in general you'll want to keep your residential zones as large as possible. I like to use commercial spaces as a buffer between residential areas and noisy, polluting, traffic-heavy industrial zones.

[GungHo]

Just bought it! Looking through the thread, it seems my Sim City 2000 skills are probably serving me poorly... Are you telling me that tiling this



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is not the recipe for a perfect, utopian megalopolis in this game? :smalltongue:

Who wants to be the residents sandwiched between two industrial zones? I mean, I know people do that (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_Park,_Texas), but I sure wouldn't do that.

[Zyzzyva]

Oh, I know: it's just in Sim City lazy layout works: I'm sure Cities is way more advanced. Also my city teeters perpetually on the edge of bankrputcy, and I ruined a freeway by wiring a residential street directly to it.

I love this game.

[DigoDragon]

You could try building your zones like onions-- an outer RES ring, a middle COM ring and a core of IND. The nicety of this design is that having several onions beside one another means residential only touches residential. Not too sure how traffic will work, as I don't have the game and thus am playing entirely on the realm of theory.

[Flickerdart]

Traffic should work pretty well - most of your traffic jams are going to be from heavy industry trucks gunking up every road on the way to the industrial zones, and if those are the zones that are adjacent to the highway access, they won't be messing up the streets further in. This does create some potential issues with garbage truck access, as well as school/park/etc placement.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Freaking map with a 3-way highway is messing up my traffic flow. I wanted to make a separate ramp for industrial trucks to bypass the main road into the city straight to the industrial area, but it only works for on of the highways, I need to make a second weird overpass thing to let the other highway bypass to the industrial zone.

[factotum]

You could try building your zones like onions-- an outer RES ring, a middle COM ring and a core of IND. The nicety of this design is that having several onions beside one another means residential only touches residential. Not too sure how traffic will work, as I don't have the game and thus am playing entirely on the realm of theory.

Traffic will be the issue there--you really need to separate the industrial traffic which is entering and leaving your city from internal city traffic as much as possible, or else things will get bad. If you had a highway running through the middle of your "onions" which offered direct access for the industrial zones then that might work, as Flickerdart says.

[snowblizz]

This is on Steam sale now. I'd like to hear ppls opinions now it's been out for awhile.

Could do with some SimCity replacer.

[Aotrs Commander]

Query, then:

Standard version, deluxe version (is the soundtrack up to stupendously good levels to be with an extra £3.50 (since I'm probably unlikely to use the monuments) or standard + After Dark (which is not on sale)?

What would be recommended?

(I am leaning towards either just standard or standard + After Dark, but some thought from people playing would be helpful.)

[AdmiralCheez]

If you like city building games, this is one of the most fun ones I've played, and if there's something you want to change about it, there's a lot of mods for it. Soundtrack is good, but not something I'd specifically listen to outside of the game.

Haven't gotten After Dark yet, so I can't really comment on that.

[Aotrs Commander]

If you like city building games, this is one of the most fun ones I've played, and if there's something you want to change about it, there's a lot of mods for it. Soundtrack is good, but not something I'd specifically listen to outside of the game.

Would you reckon the After Dark expansion would be adding too much at once for a newbie (to S:C but considering the city-builders I've played over recent years have been things like Tropico 4, Anno 2070 and Pharoah/Zeus/Emperor - and a cpuoe pf hours fiddling with SC2000 'cos it was free earlier this year and the first PC game I ever had), or should I just go "hay with it" and jump in at the deep end?

[AdmiralCheez]

Would you reckon the After Dark expansion would be adding too much at once for a newbie (to S:C but considering the city-builders I've played over recent years have been things like Tropico 4, Anno 2070 and Pharoah/Zeus/Emperor - and a cpuoe pf hours fiddling with SC2000 'cos it was free earlier this year and the first PC game I ever had), or should I just go "hay with it" and jump in at the deep end?

Like I said, I haven't gotten around to it yet, so I don't know for sure how the new mechanics will work, but the base game is simple enough that I would just jump in with it if sounds like something you'd be interested in. I know I was wishing for day/night stuff playing through it the first time.

Edit: Actually, I've been looking at it some more (at work, so still haven't been able to buy it), and if I'm reading it right, all the new features are integrated perfectly into the existing features, so there should be next to no difficulty in jumping right in. All that matters is whether or not you want the ability to build tourist attractions.

[snowblizz]

It looks a bit odd, there's long list of stuff that seems to be fixes but is listed as "paid content" and then a bunch of fixes available in After Dark...

Can't figure out if it's DLC or patch or odd mix of both.

[TechnoWarforged]

I got the After Dark expansion. The biggest thing is really the two new commercial district and then Day/Night cycle. The game really hasn't changed that much.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

The Day/Night cycle itself is in a patch, you get it whether you buy the expansion or not. I know this because I don't have the expansion, yet I have day/night cycles in my game.

[Aotrs Commander]

After some consideration, Idecided to spring for the base game plus expansion (it's not like I've spent much on games this year and I suspect it might well last me longer than Grey Goo's 18 hours for for 2/3rds the price...!)

[factotum]

The Day/Night cycle itself is in a patch, you get it whether you buy the expansion or not. I know this because I don't have the expansion, yet I have day/night cycles in my game.

Out of curiosity, is that purely a graphical effect? I believe that in the full After Dark DLC things change at night and you have to build your city to take account of that--e.g. tax from your commercial and industrial districts largely disappears, hardly anybody travels on the metro and bus, etc. Does that still happen at night without the DLC?

[Aotrs Commander]

Out of curiosity, is that purely a graphical effect? I believe that in the full After Dark DLC things change at night and you have to build your city to take account of that--e.g. tax from your commercial and industrial districts largely disappears, hardly anybody travels on the metro and bus, etc. Does that still happen at night without the DLC?

Bear in mind I played it for like, fifteen minutes yesterday 1, so I may be completely wrong, but the impression I got from reading the patch notes is After Dark is sort of akin to something like Pillarof Eternity's White March. The paid content has a load of news stuff, but the base game gets a big patch to bring it in line; in C:S's case, it was beause they have a big modding community and they wanted the minimum amount of hassle for people to re-tool the mods for the day/night thing.



1My plan had been to start it off and then go play KotR 2 for a few hours (because in playing the KotRs I had honestly forgotten how absorbing they are) while it downloaded in the background (as KotR 2 itself took AGES), but that didn't seem to work as well as it might, though by the time I stopped it was like two inthe morning so S;C actually downloaded very quickly...

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Both are inspired by their publisher, Paradox Interactive's approach to DLC, which is "we give you a whole pile of free new content in a patch, and in return enough of you buy the paid content that we can keep people working on this project."

[Aotrs Commander]

Both are inspired by their publisher, Paradox Interactive's approach to DLC, which is "we give you a whole pile of free new content in a patch, and in return enough of you buy the paid content that we can keep people working on this project."

It's by far a better approach than most.

[AdmiralCheez]

Okay, I actually bought After Dark now, and I spent most of today playing it. So, yeah, I guess it's pretty good. Even if it does just add a few items, I really like that I can make a tourist-y area of my city with hotels and nightclubs.

Although apparently all my tourists want to do on vacation is work out.

I count at least six gyms in this photo alone, total of 12 on that street.
http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/ae340/adamsm90/2015-10-31_00004.jpg

[snowblizz]

Although apparently all my tourists want to do on vacation is work out.
I count at least six gyms in this photo alone, total of 12 on that street.

Always bothered me a bit about these games. They should vary the business/industries maybe a bit more. While you can get certain "districts" it just breaks immersion when there's 25 fastfoods restaurants wall to wall.

[AdmiralCheez]

Always bothered me a bit about these games. They should vary the business/industries maybe a bit more. While you can get certain "districts" it just breaks immersion when there's 25 fastfoods restaurants wall to wall.

Yeah, that does seem to be a fault of the game. Luckily, increasing the variety of buildings is one problem that can be fixed through mods. I just kinda wish they had more in the base game, so we can avoid having a "Gym Street" situation.

[snowblizz]

Yeah, that does seem to be a fault of the game. Luckily, increasing the variety of buildings is one problem that can be fixed through mods. I just kinda wish they had more in the base game, so we can avoid having a "Gym Street" situation.

Not even sure it's a lack of buildings per se. In SC4 I'd see it a lot even though there should have been enough variety.

Always got the feeling there's something off with the game engines' ability to randomize.

[AdmiralCheez]

Maybe it's just a weird bug in the random building selection algorithm? It can't be that hard to fix, but then again, I'm not a programmer.

[snowblizz]

Dunno. But it's starts out much more varied and then it sort of starts to congregate a certain type. At least that's how it feels to me.
Not sure if and how much the player's policies impact at that. On stuff like industry, sure, where policies block certain branches, and the make-up of population "forces" eg lots of high-tech industry.

But I agree, a game where players can add content should be better equipped to deal with it.

[AdmiralCheez]

I'm not sure if the billboards and advertising signs are run by the same code, but I know that they have a similar problem, where everything in a five block radius is advertising burgers. Then again, that might just be an intentional joke on the current state of advertising in general.

[DigoDragon]

I'm not sure if the billboards and advertising signs are run by the same code, but I know that they have a similar problem, where everything in a five block radius is advertising burgers. Then again, that might just be an intentional joke on the current state of advertising in general.

I've seen companies buy billboard space in clusters around here in central Florida, so this is a bit more believable than Gym Street. :3

[AdmiralCheez]

I've seen companies buy billboard space in clusters around here in central Florida, so this is a bit more believable than Gym Street. :3

I was driving up the east coast last year, and saw a billboard for the same place every mile for a hundred miles in each direction. Probably not quite as clumped, but I'd imagine it's something the burger place would do if they could.

[factotum]

I reckon the developers know they have a good game on their hands when the only thing people can find to complain about is that there are too many duplicates of the same shop on one of their streets. :smallbiggrin:

[turbo164]

I got it on sale this weekend, and while I'm definitely enjoying it (SimCity 2000 was the last citybuilder I put much time in), I do have a few things to complain about other than Gym Street :P

1. Trains.
-My population is over 100,000. The last few times I checked my train passengers, they were: 0, 35, 133, 28. Seems rather not worth the space/money/noise at that point. (similarly, I have never seen the Airport bring in more than 37 people).
-Every minute or so, the game dings to remind me that I have an incomplete Train route from the train station that wouldn't allow me to build rail tracks on empty level ground to complete the route that it won't let me delete even after bulldozing both train stations that were a part of the route.
-Cargo train seems to work fine at least.

2. I had a University burn down that was touching a fire station. The fire station had a simple right-turn to reach the university, in a Greenish-Yellow traffic zone. Many other buildings have burned down, but they were typically less expensive and/or further away and/or in red traffic zones because as this was my first city I had not yet researched the ways to creatively glitch your roads with bulldozers to remove the traffic lights that apparently bork over the driver ai.

3. My first map was on a non-river tileset. Water waste (even from treatment plants) seems to expand infinitely in all directions. Not seeing any "stock the ocean with tilapia" option so I assume in a few more centuries I'll have to abandon the coast entirely and stick to water towers.

4. After seeing some of the Unique unlocks, I threw together another city called "Crudhole" to satisfy the "have lots of trash" and "spread plague" type buildings. The Courthouse for whatever reason was extremely glitched; I kept the Crime meter open for TWELVE WEEKS during which it never dropped below 54%, but the "stay above 50% for 5 weeks" stayed at 0/5. I afk'd to do some laundry and stuff, came back over 3 ingame years later, crime was at 58%, still 0/5 weeks passed, and no Steam achievement for "stay above 40 for 2 years." I quit the game, logged on a few hours later, Courthouse was magically unlocked (but no Steam achievement).

5. Death Spikes. Is it too much to ask for citizen lifespans to be 3+1d6 years instead of 6 on the dot? :S Yes, Tweeter, that probably is a dead body next door. #shutupalready #realism

Still, it's fun, and there are probably mods that fix a lot of my above complaints.

[snowblizz]

I had a corpse in the elementary school. I do not want to know how that happened. #waytooreal

[Knaight]

I was driving up the east coast last year, and saw a billboard for the same place every mile for a hundred miles in each direction. Probably not quite as clumped, but I'd imagine it's something the burger place would do if they could.

There's a hotel/truck stop/something in Wyoming that has billboards all over the entire state, so I find this believable as well. You can't go five miles without a giant "Little America" billboard popping up over the highway.

[AdmiralCheez]

I had a corpse in the elementary school. I do not want to know how that happened. #waytooreal

Some questions are best left unanswered. Like how I keep seeing corpses at the same nightclub every night. Pretty sure there's a serial killer there, but the Mayor's office is too afraid to launch an investigation.

[Grif]

How graphically demanding is this game?

[Aotrs Commander]

How graphically demanding is this game?

The min specs say it can run in Win XP and a 512MB graphics card at minimum, so not especially. I could theorhetically easily run it on my XP drive (though I have my win 7 drive specifically for new games).

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

It is fairly demanding though.

[Flickerdart]

Yeah, as a rule you should never trust minimum specs.

[factotum]

I think you can probably trust the minimum graphical specs for this one--the game looks good, but isn't cutting edge by any means. I suspect the CPU is going to be the main limiting factor because it has to run the AI for all those people, trains, cars etc.

[Grif]

Okay, so I played for a bit. Seems to run okay up to 5,000 citizens. Haven't tested it any higher yet.

Few comments:
- Locking services, road types... even zone types behind city size strikes me as really... strange. I want to plan ahead with bigger roads, not stuck to using single lanes until I get around to upgrade them. This may be my experience from SimCity 4 talking, where it isn't unusual to just open with one of the bigger roads for inter-district traffic.
- From the last point, traffic management seems more important than RCI.
- It is very pretty. I can get used to just watching the city tick.
- Money seems rather tight, though it isn't that hard to earn it either. Just requires a lot more zoning than I'm used to.
- District zoning is awesome and I wish I had it before.
- Why is my city constantly on fire? :smalltongue:

[Flickerdart]

Curiously, all road types but one (single-lane road) are locked until you put down a road. My first move in a new city is usually to put down the minimum length of road, demolish it, and then build normal roads.

[factotum]

As with all things, I believe there's a mod you can install which unlocks everything from the beginning of the game--I saw NerdCubed play the game with such a mod installed, but I can't remember what it was called.

[Tokay]

As with all things, I believe there's a mod you can install which unlocks everything from the beginning of the game--I saw NerdCubed play the game with such a mod installed, but I can't remember what it was called.

I'm pretty sure that option is actually in the base game. The game basically comes with some "mods" created by the developers (unlimited money and all achievements unlocked if I'm not mistaken).

[snowblizz]

I'm pretty sure that option is actually in the base game. The game basically comes with some "mods" created by the developers (unlimited money and all achievements unlocked if I'm not mistaken).

I'd say so, it just "advertised" them on the loading screen. Don't think outside mods can do that.

[Grif]

More comments since I played quite a bit more tonight:

- Finally accessed high density zones. It is just as it says on the tin. Am a little annoyed I had to grow my town this big to get them though.
- Traffic is quickly becoming a hassle to manage. I may need to replan my city a bit better. I do like how services are dependent on how well you manage traffic. I had several buildings burn down at my outskirts because the fire engines were snarled in traffic. That also does mean the large version of the police, fire and health facilties respectively isn't as attractive as I thought it was. Bigger coverage doesn't beat multiple small stations in a low-density city. That may change once I start zoning in high density RCI.
- Still haven't unlocked trains, ports or airports. :smallannoyed:
- Game needs more decorations. I want my city to look pretty, damnit.
- Specialisation seems to rake in quite a bit of cash early. I should have used them more.

EDIT: The only thing I truly missed from Sim City 4 (and 3!) is the ability to make deals with neighbouring cities. Having to manage garbage is a pain when you can't incinerate them as fast as they're coming in.

[turbo164]

- Traffic is quickly becoming a hassle to manage. I may need to replan my city a bit better. I do like how services are dependent on how well you manage traffic. I had several buildings burn down at my outskirts because the fire engines were snarled in traffic. That also does mean the large version of the police, fire and health facilties respectively isn't as attractive as I thought it was. Bigger coverage doesn't beat multiple small stations in a low-density city. That may change once I start zoning in high density RCI.

- Still haven't unlocked trains, ports or airports.


I've definitely noticed that too. Having twice as many places to send fire engines from seems much more useful than having extra engines that can't actually reach anything in time.

My airports continue to bring in 0-33 tourists per week which by no means pays for their weekly upkeep. :/ Passenger trains have been similarly useless, but cargo ports and cargo trains have both brought a noticeable number of trucks, happy to pay those guys.

[TechnoWarforged]

Protip: There's two building unlock that you should do before your city gets too big: The 50% crime rate and then 50% unemployment rate. It's harder to do and more crippling to attempt in a larger city.

[mythmonster2]

Protip: There's two building unlock that you should do before your city gets too big: The 50% crime rate and then 50% unemployment rate. It's harder to do and more crippling to attempt in a larger city.

Or you could just do what I did and make another city just for the purpose of getting those negative achievements, since they do carry over between all cities. Slumsville is coming across very nicely!

[snowblizz]

Well I'm a numpty.

Been wondering why I can't get any finer control of the zoning tool. Only to find it's because I'm using it in "fill" mode. And I didn't notice the other "brush options".

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, Bonyville has hit 5000 people... Traffic problems seem to be light (possibly because I've gridded city construction and the industrial areas are just off the highway, but probably more my luck than judgement), but I've just put a couple of bus routes in. I did try short stretches of bicycle path and footways down the side of my blocks but I don't think that's had an appreciable effect; I suspect they'd have to be joined up to do anything.

[factotum]

Well, Bonyville has hit 5000 people... Traffic problems seem to be light

You won't really know how bad your traffic setup is until you hit 10-15,000 people. That's when traffic issues will start to really bite.

[Grif]

You won't really know how bad your traffic setup is until you hit 10-15,000 people. That's when traffic issues will start to really bite.

I was lucky in the sense that I didn't grid too hard, so my traffic was actually spread out all over the place except for the usual bottlenecks at intersections. May consider rezoning as I go on though, since now I'm beginning to develop the skyscraper core of my city.

[snowblizz]

I'm a bit curious about the interplay between highways and other roads. Is there any differences with running a highway into a large 6 street vs using the ramps? Been trying to siphon off some traffic before the "city entrances", been making some interesting palm shaped highway accesses.

"Cleverly" positing the industry close to the initial highway access has created some wonderful choke points, 6 lane city roads be damned. And for some odd reason only going *in*.

I'm also having trouble weaning myself off the Simcity style of building. No need for rectangular blocks and you can make housing areas, like suburbs it's probably not gonna be a "waste" of space. This game feels a bit larger than SC, though I may be mistaken there.

Still struggling with the setting up metros and stuff, moving those stations is a hassle. And then they break the metro lines. On that subject, is there anything that shows how well lines are used? Would be nice to know and see if making changes make it better or worse.

Stuff I miss from SC4, the ability to see *why* a certain chokepoint is a chokepoint. Where does traffic come from, and where is it going. Is there something like that?

And why oh why must everything be connected to a road. Why can't I have a park in the middle of a residential zone?

[Grif]

On that subject, is there anything that shows how well lines are used? Would be nice to know and see if making changes make it better or worse.


On the transport layer (the information one, not the one you get when trying to plop new lines), you can click on the individual vehicles serving the route to check how many people are using it weekly. You can also colour code your lines there. Weird, I know, and I'm hoping they put this in a more accessible place in a future place.

My metro was able to get up to 500-600 people/week, so that might be your baseline for a well-used line.

[Storm Bringer]

got this about a week ago, and managed to get a city of 15,000 going on the Islands map.

my comments:

some of the base assumptions in the game strike me as very.....American. While things like the buildings all looking generically American are inevitable, things like rail transport being a tertiary system for passengers strike me as slight odd (compared to England or a lot of Europe, where it is arguably the second biggest system for passenger movement after road).

my single biggest gripe is the lack of underpass/overpass options. If i want to run a major motorway between two zones, currently I either have to have a bazillion junctions that slow down the though traffic, or force all the cross traffic to get onto the motorway (again causing traffic jams). what I want to do is run cross roads between the two zones that don't intersect with the motorway, so the local traffic can cross without getting in the way and the though traffic can speed on to its destination.





My airports continue to bring in 0-33 tourists per week which by no means pays for their weekly upkeep. :/ Passenger trains have been similarly useless, but cargo ports and cargo trains have both brought a noticeable number of trucks, happy to pay those guys.

stupid question, but have you linked your public transport together so the air passengers, now on foot, have access to busses/metro/rail links into the city?

I've already commented on the games car centric thinking. I don't know if this is a game abstraction that happens to be easier to model, or weather it reflects the car culture of some parts of America (I'm told that their are parts of the US where the norm is "one car per adult", whereas I am used to "one car per household". #)

[Grif]

my single biggest gripe is the lack of underpass/overpass options. If i want to run a major motorway between two zones, currently I either have to have a bazillion junctions that slow down the though traffic, or force all the cross traffic to get onto the motorway (again causing traffic jams). what I want to do is run cross roads between the two zones that don't intersect with the motorway, so the local traffic can cross without getting in the way and the though traffic can speed on to its destination.


Have you tried PgUp and PgDwn? They allow you to build under/over passes.

[snowblizz]

On the transport layer (the information one, not the one you get when trying to plop new lines), you can click on the individual vehicles serving the route to check how many people are using it weekly. You can also colour code your lines there. Weird, I know, and I'm hoping they put this in a more accessible place in a future place.

My metro was able to get up to 500-600 people/week, so that might be your baseline for a well-used line.

Ooooh, kay.. yeah that wasn't particularly convenient, how is this not a breakdown in the info window. And it's click on the route, not the vehicle. Does tell me how many car trips I've saved.
I have a city of 20kish ppl and run ~1770 ppl a week in the metro, but that's 5 lines.

On that subject, will the ppl be smart enough to take a bus get off at a metro station and take the metro and vice versa. Or switch metrolines. It sorta looks like it but I dunno. With how important traffic is, it's kinda sparse on info.

[Storm Bringer]

Have you tried PgUp and PgDwn? They allow you to build under/over passes.

*checks game*

I widthdraw my complaint, though I think it ss a pity I could not find this out in game, as Its not listed in the keybindings nor have I seen a tooltip about it. .

[snowblizz]

*checks game*

I widthdraw my complaint, though I think it ss a pity I could not find this out in game, as Its not listed in the keybindings nor have I seen a tooltip about it. .

I found out because the game told me about it. But I don't know what the triggers is. Somewhere early on when plodding around with roads it popped up.


Keep getting tripped up by having to always draw the roads in the "correct direction" though. Really hard when you are trying to do some roadshenanigans.

[Flickerdart]

How practical would it be to build up a new city every time you get an unlock tier? So you start out with essentially a small-town build, then when you unlock high density zones and buses and all that jazz you just make a bunch of highway and start from the ground up with a better road system.

[Grif]

I found out because the game told me about it. But I don't know what the triggers is. Somewhere early on when plodding around with roads it popped up.


Keep getting tripped up by having to always draw the roads in the "correct direction" though. Really hard when you are trying to do some roadshenanigans.

It's listed under the question mark "help" button on the bottom left. That's how I found out most things in game actually.


How practical would it be to build up a new city every time you get an unlock tier? So you start out with essentially a small-town build, then when you unlock high density zones and buses and all that jazz you just make a bunch of highway and start from the ground up with a better road system.

Given that you're earning mad dosh by then, easily doable. Just need to do it in stages, and maybe have a healthy bank account before doing so.

[turbo164]

Keep getting tripped up by having to always draw the roads in the "correct direction" though. Really hard when you are trying to do some roadshenanigans.

With the Build Road options open, on the left there are icons for "build straight road" "build curved road" etc. One is Upgrade Road. With that highlighted, you can right-click a one-way segment to reverse the direction.

[snowblizz]

How practical would it be to build up a new city every time you get an unlock tier? So you start out with essentially a small-town build, then when you unlock high density zones and buses and all that jazz you just make a bunch of highway and start from the ground up with a better road system.

Should be. When the city grows you unlock additional zones, so you can essentially start afresh in these.

[turbo164]

So um, found out one of the reasons I keep having so many lethal fires.

I unlocked the Fusion Reactor monument.
Built a road out from an industrial area, stuck the plant there, and a fire department on its left and its right (having had a University burn down before while touching a fire department, I didn't want to take any chances with a million-dollar building that powers over half my city)
I start bulldozing Coal/Wind/etc power plants when suddenly my available power drops a huge amount. Fusion plant is on fire after less than a week!
I scroll over to it. Left fire department, trucks in use: 0. Right: 0.
Approximately 3 weeks pass. Both fire departments send zero trucks.
Finally a fire truck from who-the-heck-knows-where comes out of a traffic jam, sprays water for 5 seconds, power plant burns down, fire truck disappears.

So. Apparently when a building catches fire, instead of choosing the closest department to send a truck, it randomly chooses a department that is theoretically in sorta-green range and all of the other departments ignore it? I assume crematoriums, clinics, police etc work the same way. Which means overlapping coverage is bad.

Sheesh.

[snowblizz]

Which means overlapping coverage is bad.

Sheesh.
That's not be good.

Had a cascading sickness/death wave hit me. Somekind of water pollution I think thanks to doing stuff with dams I shouldn't have. Waterflow changes, who knew? First time I loaded. Now the last time I decided to heck with it, I'll start out with new people. Cost me a mill due to loss of revenue, but trying to catch up with thousands of sick when the normal rate is in the hundreds, no thanks.


Anyone know of a simple way of trawling through mods? I'd like to find something like double spaced railways or something but the Steamworkshop is hell to trawl through.

[Flickerdart]

I started a new city yesterday, with one goal: no traffic lights. Everything is a one way street, and I've even managed to keep things to one roundabout up to Boom Town. The only drawback is that placing schools is really hard, since range is pretty unpredictable...

[snowblizz]

Does any one know if there's a working train/metro intersection available.

Double double space rail track? I've overloaded my rail-network with goods. Would like something like highways but for trains. Can't lay nice parallell railways, not that I manage with highways either admittedly.

Also I'm looking to bridge some water with metro trains. Other than diggin via China?

Oil/ore seem rather pointless. By the time the area develops it's already sucked it dry and I'm choking with imports.
Is there any way to get a better picture of what the issues are. I'd like to know if having 2 cargo train stations (extraction/manufacture) say would work. Or am I simply running into problems with the limited resources (one area produces but also uses the resource). Or if cargo stations do anything at all really. And has anyone ever made a cargo station with more than one track? Only passenger stations seem available?

Finally installed Traffic++ and trying some stuff to sort a multilayer metro.

Other must haves? In my defence the Workshop is atrocious to navigate and find stuff in.

[Flickerdart]

I got into this again, knocked out a Metropolis after two abortive attempts:

On a map without a flowing river, my initial sewage drain poisoned my water supply.
On a map with a river, I put a dam in it and accidentally flooded my financial district, causing me to lose all my money.


Not long after Metropolis tier, my unemployment suddenly spiked - we're talking a jump from single digits to 50%. I suspect it was because my citizens got too educated (curse you, Hadron Collider!) and refused to take factory jobs. So I decided to grab all the Unique Building unlocks that I could, and promptly deleted my entire police force and incinerators, dropped residential taxes to 1%, and cranked commercial taxes to 29% to keep that unemployment strong. Turns out that with 3 million cim-bucks in the bank, it doesn't really matter what you do. Crime at 67%? Unemployment at 60%? It'll take years to bankrupt you.

Now all I have to unlock are the Plaza of the Dead (3 full cemeteries is hard!) and the Official Park, Business Park, and leisure and tourist zone buildings.

Also, my traffic is still horrible.

Has anyone played around with the snow DLC?