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[Skux]

Some very useful guides on traffic from Reddit:

Guide from an actual traffic engineer!
http://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkyli...youre_having_traffic_problems_i_feel_bad_for/

Use highways for roundabouts - they don't have traffic lights or pedestrian crossings to slow your flow
http://imgur.com/a/2ySM2

 

[Unai]

why would it not work? People can change bus lines, no?


On another note... I love how I can increase/decrease my transit budget... but... How can I actually tell if I SHOULD?!? I wanna see my public transit load per bus/metro :/ Or am I somehow supposed to draw conclusions from the "car trips saved" number?

Wait, where can I see the information about "car trips saved"? I can't find it.

 

[Grief.exe]

omg this dude made his own bus terminal that's so smart! Even including foot access

this guy too!

I have to build this now!

 

[Fattony12000]

THIS IS SAFE

 

[fader]

THIS IS SAFE

"Chill. I got this!" -Pilot

 

[TemplaerDude]

THIS IS SAFE

Dude your cities pilot test is suicidal.

 

[Avalt]

One of the few things I do not like about this game is its reliance on roundabouts to solve everything..... Most of North America seems to do fine without them but in this game? Good luck!

I want mods that:
1. Synchronize traffic lights
2. Don't change the light from red to green if there are no cars (aka sensors)
3. One that increases the duration of the green light on busy roads...
4. Nerfs the "no traffic lights intersections". Cars should come to a full stop on those or atleast yield. (this would also nerf roundabouts which I'm all for!)

Hell, let me micromanage every intersection light to the most efficient second... I would spend hours on this stuff....

 

[The Real Abed]

This happend in my city.

What exactly was it originally? Why would it make a hole?

 

[Meier]

I had a huge area zoned oil and built up the industry. It's all plastics now and the resources map no longer shows a big black area. Is oil super finite? Almost seems pointless to utilize it since it's not like I saw a huge influx of cash when I had a big oil industry.

 

[OverturePT]

One of the few things I do not like about this game is its reliance on roundabouts to solve everything..... Most of North America seems to do fine without them but in this game? Good luck!

I want mods that:
1. Synchronize traffic lights
2. Don't change the light from red to green if there are no cars (aka sensors)
3. One that increases the duration of the green light on busy roads...
4. Nerfs the "no traffic lights intersections". Cars should come to a full stop on those or atleast yield. (this would also nerf roundabouts which I'm all for!)

Hell, let me micromanage every intersection light to the most efficient second... I would spend hours on this stuff....

Well, roundabouts are more effective. Also, come to Portugal, there's roundabouts everywhere. lol

But yea, I understand that people might want other options, still, roundabouts are amazing if people know what they're doing.

 

[Piecake]

One of the few things I do not like about this game is its reliance on roundabouts to solve everything..... Most of North America seems to do fine without them but in this game? Good luck!

I want mods that:
1. Synchronize traffic lights
2. Don't change the light from red to green if there are no cars (aka sensors)
3. One that increases the duration of the green light on busy roads...
4. Nerfs the "no traffic lights intersections". Cars should come to a full stop on those or atleast yield. (this would also nerf roundabouts which I'm all for!)

Hell, let me micromanage every intersection light to the most efficient second... I would spend hours on this stuff....

Its clearly Scandinavian propaganda. We must resist the urge of becoming converted to the glorious - woops - I mean evil roundabout.

I

 

[The Real Abed]

Maybe let us click on intersections and micromanage what kinds of stops or lights it has. It would be a separate mode in the road menu.

Also, I tried to make a Fused Grid for a new city and they take up so much space. I even tried shrinking it by one 8x8 block. And I don't think the 25 space mod lets you unlock all the spaces for free. If I remember correctly you still have to buy all 25? And I don't want to use infinite money.

 

[Grief.exe]

I had a huge area zoned oil and built up the industry. It's all plastics now and the resources map no longer shows a big black area. Is oil super finite? Almost seems pointless to utilize it since it's not like I saw a huge influx of cash when I had a big oil industry.

Oil does get sucked up very quickly.

Going to theorize here, but all of your oil industrial buildings will go from resource acquisition to manufacturing. When they do this, they require higher levels of education (requires more educated employees to produce a product from raw materials then just sucking it out of the ground) and they import most of their raw materials.

 

[Rentahamster]

Also, I tried to make a Fused Grid for a new city and they take up so much space. I even tried shrinking it by one 8x8 block.

This doesn't take up much space. One block, anyway.

Current state of my city: 204K Each day takes 8 seconds to pass

Staggered grid pattern. Minimizes four way intersections with traffic lights.

Street layout has max density; each inner ring is comprised of two lane streets only to increase traffic flow. Outer ring is zoned commercial 1x1 since it has the highest jobs/cell ratio, inner-outer zone is office to provide noise dampening. Inner block is a mix of residential and office.

I was experimenting pedestrian path placement. Basically while the main boulevards are staggered, the pedestrian paths all form a grid pattern, so walking is easy. I also experimented with elevated paths too, and while neat, they do take up more space that could be used for zoning.

Here is the traffic in each block

Here is a more zoomed out view of the traffic

I made one block a district so you could see how many people are in each block. Around 7k. Now that I've repeated this pattern a bunch, I feel like each block could be larger. It would make more space between each intersection.

 

[chrominance]

One of the few things I do not like about this game is its reliance on roundabouts to solve everything..... Most of North America seems to do fine without them but in this game? Good luck!

I want mods that:
1. Synchronize traffic lights
2. Don't change the light from red to green if there are no cars (aka sensors)
3. One that increases the duration of the green light on busy roads...
4. Nerfs the "no traffic lights intersections". Cars should come to a full stop on those or atleast yield. (this would also nerf roundabouts which I'm all for!)

Hell, let me micromanage every intersection light to the most efficient second... I would spend hours on this stuff....

I agree with all this, but will also note that my city of 95k people doesn't have any roundabouts in it and traffic is decent. There are some hot spots that I haven't fixed (and probably won't fix, I'm trying to tear my city up as little as possible) but no significant issues with garbage collection, healthcare or fire coverage, nor anyone complaining about receiving or shipping goods (does industry actually complain about not being able to ship goods efficiently? I may have just made that up).

 

[manfestival]

so I finally got 19k citizens. Yaaaaay, I really dont have time for video games lately but I am happy I got to this milestone

 

[The Real Abed]

This doesn't take up much space. One block, anyway.

That could be interesting to experiment with. I'd start with one block and expand over time.

But what does the industrial area look like? I'd keep it completely separate from residential and commercial.

 

[Rentahamster]

That could be interesting to experiment with. I'd start with one block and expand over time.

But what does the industrial area look like? I'd keep it completely separate from residential and commercial.

It's a giant block right above the part you can see in the screenshots. You don't even need industrial, though. Offices will fulfill your jobs need just fine, but at 20% less jobs/cell density.

 

[Xcell Miguel]

If you install a building asset and a city loads it in as a building, what happens if you delete the asset later? (Say it's ugly and not up to your standards) Will the game properly just replace it with a similarly leveled asset, or will it completely fuck up your save for no reason? Have the devs taken this into account yet?

I had 400+ assets and my game crashed each time I went back to the main menu, so I decided to remove the 100+ DP's beautification assets as they are just the default ones, edited.

I could load my save, but all the houses/shops using these assets dissapeared, their families too, -4000 citizens, but they started re-building their houses right away.

 

[Unai]

What exactly was it originally? Why would it make a hole?

Well, I had something trigger an error message everytime I loaded my save, so I decided to disable my mods and assets until I found the culprit. The I found that it was some asset, and to tell you the truth I don't remember exactly what, but I think it was a roudabout.

It's funny because the pedestrians keep going throught there and they actually float and go through it like if nothing had happend.

 

[The Real Abed]

It's a giant block right above the part you can see in the screenshots. You don't even need industrial, though. Offices will fulfill your jobs need just fine, but at 20% less jobs/cell density.

Can you really avoid using industrial? Wont the game complain and refuse to want more residential or something until you fulfill it? I thought that's how the old games used to work.

I had 400+ assets and my game crashed each time I went back to the main menu, so I decided to remove the 100+ DP's beautification assets as they are just the default ones, edited.

I could load my save, but all the houses/shops using these assets dissapeared, their families too, -4000 citizens, but they started re-building their houses right away.

That's good. At least normal buildings just disappear. Still, it's something that can become a problem quickly.

Well, I had something trigger an error message everytime I loaded my save, so I decided to disable my mods and assets until I found the culprit. The I found that it was some asset, and to tell you the truth I don't remember exactly what, but I think it was a roudabout.

Why would removing a roundabout asset ruin the city file? I would think the game would simply place all the road pieces down as if you were doing it manually. Why would they have a reference to a mod object? That seems silly.


I'm gonna start my new city. Really hope to see a bunch of Hermanos and Bluth's stands appear soon. I really need to get traffic right this time.

 

[Jimrpg]

I've only played for an hour last night...and in that hour I ran out of money and the whole town was basically dead. I spent too much on roads and deleting stuff. Looking forward to starting again tonight on a much smaller version and protecting my money a bit more carefully.

One of the things that irked me being a civil engineer are the water and sewer pipes. I get that they combined them so you don't need to take up two blocks width (one for each) plus not having to lay both means it's more gameplay friendly. However in the real world, it's unrealistic to have the drinking water pump next to the sewer outlet (even if it's upstream). It's also unrealistic to have the sewer outlet connected to the water pump in any way. Also if the city is in modern times there really should be a treatment plant to treat the water prior to releasing it back into the river. (Maybe it gets unlocked later?) if not It should be assumed that septic tanks are in all the homes so that the discharge is not black when it goes back into the river. Black colored water looks like raw sewage going back into the river.

Also their description of all their items gets a bit confusing (maybe it's a regional/cultural thing). They call the sewer discharge/outlet pipe a water drain pipe when it would be easier to call it a sewer pipe to avoid confusion. Drains should be left for storm water drainage.

These issues don't have any impact on my enjoyment of the game. Just things that could be designed better.

 

[Rentahamster]

Can you really avoid using industrial? Wont the game complain and refuse to want more residential or something until you fulfill it? I thought that's how the old games used to work.

Yep. They don't provide anything that you can't get from somewhere else. The yellow industrial bar isn't a need for "industry", per se, it's a need for jobs. Jobs can come from anywhere that provides it, even commercial buildings. That's why offices fulfill the I requirement too. They just create a lot of jobs.

If you don't have any local industry, your commercial buildings will import their goods from outside.

 

[Crispy75]

The rivers should be deeper, but it's a good looking map!

edit: Oh you should fix this.

Multiple fixes and tidyups now done, including the very scenic Santa Cruz Highway up through the valleys.

The highway intersections are sub-optimal, but if the real Santa Cruz can manage with them, then so can players

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=409673826

 

[-bakalhau-]

Well, my city is sort of collapsing at 180k population. So many abandoned buildings in my old downtown region. No real indication as to why either. I guess I just didn't organize/plan it well enough -- maybe not enough connections to industry for goods or something. Guess it's onto city 3 now. Going to try to be more creative with it.

Can agents move house within a city? Like, for example, moving to another house closer to work?

Just asking because it's probably not this, but my first thought was lower rent outside downtown (downtown can be where land value might be the highest), alongside reduced commute times.

 

[Ayt]

Anyone have any ideas how to make a Train station that is raised above the ground (for pedestrians) in a mod?

Unfortunately you can't.

 

[Skyzard]

28 hours in, most of the intersections aren't even my own design. What I've got to show for it so far:

 

[Enzio]

Can agents move house within a city? Like, for example, moving to another house closer to work?

Just asking because it's probably not this, but my first thought was lower rent outside downtown (downtown can be where land value might be the highest), alongside reduced commute times.

That's an interesting thought. I'm actually not sure.

But, my city was literally hemorrhaging citizens at a -10,000 rate. My income went from +30-40k to -80k.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Can agents move house within a city? Like, for example, moving to another house closer to work?

Just asking because it's probably not this, but my first thought was lower rent outside downtown (downtown can be where land value might be the highest), alongside reduced commute times.

Pretty sure young adults will eventually move to their own places to start families.

 

[Smiley90]

That's an interesting thought. I'm actually not sure.

But, my city was literally hemorrhaging citizens at a -10,000 rate. My income went from +30-40k to -80k.

not sure, but I DO know that children of a family will move out and seek new residence once they become of-age.

 

[Broder Salsa]

THIS IS SAFE

Yolo

 

[The Real Abed]

Yep. They don't provide anything that you can't get from somewhere else. The yellow industrial bar isn't a need for "industry", per se, it's a need for jobs. Jobs can come from anywhere that provides it, even commercial buildings. That's why offices fulfill the I requirement too. They just create a lot of jobs.

If you don't have any local industry, your commercial buildings will import their goods from outside.

I tried this. But it keeps begging for Industrial and won't build anything on the Commercial land. Or if it does, it does it slowly because the blue bar is nonexistent.

Also, I'm trying my hand at the example above. It's working out pretty well:

(Note that the outer edges are empty in many cases because that's where the commercial is and it just doesn't want to build. I can't wait to get offices. Maybe something will actually build.)

Though I forgot to plan my industrial ahead for wider roads. But so far it's working fine. We'll see as I expand out. I actually had to take out a loan just to buy a new windmill at one point because for once I was low on money.

I too have set each block as a district and name them with alphabetical names. Like hurricanes. Except with names that sound like neighborhoods instead of human names.

 

[Meier]

How exactly do the bus depots work? I built a 2nd to try and increase the size of my fleet, but the 2nd depot only has 10 buses in use compared to 77 from the first. I've got so many lines with people waiting out the wazoo at stops but the buses are constantly full and aren't adding further buses to the routes. What can I do?

 

[spiritfox]

How exactly do the bus depots work? I built a 2nd to try and increase the size of my fleet, but the 2nd depot only has 10 buses in use compared to 77 from the first. I've got so many lines with people waiting out the wazoo at stops but the buses are constantly full and aren't adding further buses to the routes. What can I do?

Increasing the transit budget increases the number of buses and trains. You can actually make do with one depot. The buses will stay on the route once it departs from the depot, so they just need to travel once from any depot to their route.

 

[Jintor]

1) Light management/turn only lanes etc. need to happen. I feel like I shouldn't need to fear lights as much as I do. I don't particularly mind using roundabouts because I like curved cities, but this is ridiculous.

2) Industrial buildings eat resources up way too fast, like within a year you can completely deplete a resource. Not only that but their field of consumption is ridiculously narrow so you basically need to place your industry right on the field and raze/replace every few weeks unless you want to rely in imports.

3) this game is like crack. help me. helppp meeeeeeee

 

[Rentahamster]

I tried this. But it keeps begging for Industrial and won't build anything on the Commercial land. Or if it does, it does it slowly because the blue bar is nonexistent.

Also, I'm trying my hand at the example above. It's working out pretty well:

(Note that the outer edges are empty in many cases because that's where the commercial is and it just doesn't want to build. I can't wait to get offices. Maybe something will actually build.)

Though I forgot to plan my industrial ahead for wider roads. But so far it's working fine. We'll see as I expand out. I actually had to take out a loan just to buy a new windmill at one point because for once I was low on money.

I too have set each block as a district and name them with alphabetical names. Like hurricanes. Except with names that sound like neighborhoods instead of human names.

I mean that Commercial can fill a demand for jobs, but it won't appear unless you have actual commercial demand too. If you have industrial demand and no commercial, then your only option is to build industry or offices.

Be mindful of how many intersections you generate with that setup. In each block, I only had one two way two lane street connecting it to the major roads because it generates traffic lights. Any other street I had connecting the inner block to the outer block was an inward facing two lane one way street since that doesn't create traffic lights.

 

[-Deadpool-]

2) Industrial buildings eat resources up way too fast, like within a year you can completely deplete a resource. Not only that but their field of consumption is ridiculously narrow so you basically need to place your industry right on the field and raze/replace every few weeks unless you want to rely in imports.

Yeah this is crazy.

My oil fields industry that I was all excited about was basically useless in about 16 months or so.

 

[Jintor]

Do buses actually return to the depot at all? Feels like they just go spinning on their line forever.

I mean I wouldn't put it past the CiM team to have snuck a full game of transport tycoon in on the sly, but I doubt it.

 

[Rentahamster]

Do buses actually return to the depot at all? Feels like they just go spinning on their line forever.

I mean I wouldn't put it past the CiM team to have snuck a full game of transport tycoon in on the sly, but I doubt it.

I dunno, I've never observed one doing that when in normal use. Only when I deleted a line.

 

[Facism]

Any good videos for planning zones and roads at the beginning of the game?

 

[Jintor]

Oh DP's assets are just edits? Hmmm. Maybe I should get rid of them. They're okay though and my game seems stable...

 

[Rentahamster]

Former SimCity dev makes another asset

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410142828

4x4 commercial building

His Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gula?ty=a

 

[TimeEffect]

Do buses actually return to the depot at all? Feels like they just go spinning on their line forever.

I mean I wouldn't put it past the CiM team to have snuck a full game of transport tycoon in on the sly, but I doubt it.

Depots only send busses out (like if you raise your budget, you raise the # of busses doing routes, and these extra busses come from the depot).

They dont actually return to the depot. They follow your route line endlessly, and depending on your budget, several busses ride the same line.

If you reduce your bussing budget, some of them will go back to the depot. The depot just acts as an unlock requirement/deployment station, that's all.

 

[strata8]

I've uploaded my first custom map. Feedback very welcome

It's the shoreline and valleys around Santa Cruz, California. I've included the local highways and railway in as accurate a location as I could manage. Lots of fast flowing rivers in this one, so the potential for hydrodynamic mishaps is high. Enjoy!

I really like this one, looks very realistic.

 

[Jintor]

Depots only send busses out (like if you raise your budget, you raise the # of busses doing routes, and these extra busses come from the depot).

They dont actually return to the depot. They follow your route line endlessly, and depending on your budget, several busses ride the same line.

If you reduce your bussing budget, some of them will go back to the depot. The depot just acts as an unlock requirement/deployment station, that's all.

So there's basically zero point placing the depot near a bunch of connections really

 

[Rentahamster]

So there's basically zero point placing the depot near a bunch of connections really

Yep. Bus stops matter. Depots, not so much.

 

[spiritfox]

So there's basically zero point placing the depot near a bunch of connections really

It'll get new lines up faster, but yeah. That's something I want them to bring back from CiM.

 

[Smiley90]

I asked this before, but has anyone figure out a way to tell whether you should increase your bus budget? look at how many ppl are waiting for buses? Check the car trips saved stats? I'm clueless

 

[marvelharvey]

I wonder why they chose the name Skylines? There's very little skyline-related gameplay within. Cities: Traffic seems far more apt.

 

[scurker]

So I spent the last hour and a half trying to analyze my traffic. Most of the city was okay, but my industry area was quite horrible. I hadn't planned it out very efficiently initially and there was a lot of build up on the main road from the highway.

While doing so, one of things I noticed is that cargo stations always seem to load and unload from the same direction. To be most efficient, you want your traffic coming from right to left facing the cargo station.

Apparently I had a one-way street going the opposite direction from the above picture, and it was causing cargo traffic to back up because entering/exiting trucks were crossing over each other's paths. This probably would happen for two way streets as well, but I converted the one-way to the opposite direction (as seen above) and traffic started to flow a lot smoother.