Support NeoGAF

[Cute Dragon Here]

Sure, compromises have to be made with agent simulation. But at least they don't all get up and find a random job every day and find a random home to stay in after work as well.

That's actually classic SimCity quirky behaviour, I think - . The CSL method is more realistic, while on the other hand the SC2013 method is lighter in terms of memory requirements and responds more quickly to nearby job vacancies in my experience.

To be honest I find nothing wrong with both approaches, really. It all depends on how the simulation is designed.

Still, you can never argue that there isn't any fudging in both games - both games fudge in one way or another. If SC2013 inflates the population count, then CSL artificially limits the maximum amount of active agents. Both for good reason, I believe.

 

[Kinthalis]

I wish you could overwrite low density zones with high density zones of the same type.

For exemple right now I'm working on replacing my low density residential into high density and I have to dezone everything first.

Small thing

Right clicking will dezone.

 

[Megasoum]

Right clicking will dezone.

Yeah I know that helps a lot but still... Anyway.



Also... I'm only at 18 303 pop but I have over 1 million in the bank... I guess I should spend more? I don't have much demand on the RCI though.

 

[Gummb]

The fact that a lot of people are having issues managing traffic is pretty interesting as this mimics the real world where very many cities have traffic problems. I'm interested to see if I eventually run into traffic trouble, as I have an amateur interest in city planning and I would like to think that I have a good understanding of how cities should be built in order to minimize traffic woes (I'll probably have the same problems as everyone else). Some of the city designs I'm seeing in this thread would exacerbate traffic problems.

This being said this game currently lacks many city features necessary (ie. bike lanes, tolls) to fix traffic problems, so we may be a few patches and mods away from a really complete solution.

And mixed-use planning where business and residential are combined...

An answer to a lot of traffic problems in this game is creating small, local environments where walking makes sense. If you create large residential-only areas or large business-only areas, you're adding a lot of traffic to the road. Same with putting public amenities (schools, hospitals, police, etc.) outside of a local context.

Another answer is creating the right amount of density per use. If you have massive industrial spaces with few outlets, you're going to create congestion. Think smaller and combine the pieces effectively. Or, enhance your industrial spaces with good public amenities as well - large parks and appropriate attractions.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

You should prioritize basic utilities over sprawl at the start. Make sure you coverage can keep pace with your expansion.

1) Setup initial town close to a body of water
2) Connect it to the highway
3) Intake and outtake pumps
4) One Coal Power Plant or two Wind Mills, with power lines to connect (usually at this point I'm at $20,000)
5) You'll have negative income to start but it'll slowly stabilize as people move in
6) Expand as you gain a surplus

The great thing I love about the Money Mods is that you still can go into debt by not being careful. The Money Mods give you a safety net, not the ability to cheat the game.

 

[Deaf Spacker]

Traffic by Deaf Spacker, on Flickr

Does anybody have any ideas as to how I can manage the traffic better here, it's a highway going to the industrial zone and it's getting worse.

 

[Gummb]

Does anybody have any ideas as to how I can manage the traffic better here, it's a highway going to the industrial zone and it's getting worse.

Imagine how you enter and exit a highway in real life. It's usually part of a larger road connection, so you keep going straight and it transitions into a highway. Or, there's usually an on/off ramp you take that guides you toward the highway without having to slow down.

So, your first step is getting rid of that intersection where the highway meets your arterial connector. You might need to rearrange your industrial a bit, but getting exits and entrances that AREN'T at major intersections but instead along other major pathways is important.

Second, get rid of the zoning along major traffic intersections. When loading trucks are entering and exiting the industries, they slow down traffic too, and when there's a fire, you've pretty much cut off THE major pathway for the area.

 

[Tabris]

Create a round about and split it 2-3 ways into the different sections of the industrial area.

 

[TheMoon]

Oh man, I cannot wait to jump into this. Not in the budget now but soon. Just looking at the crazy designs (dat 1m city oO, no traffic lights city) on the last few pages triggers the drool ducts

 

[Nafai1123]

My city hit about 35k last night and I must admit, it's a clusterfuck compared to some of the cities I've seen in here. I still love it even with all its quirks.

I've mostly sorted the traffic out. I still have a few intersections in Old Town to work out (since they were built back when I had no idea how to manage traffic). My new industrial area is the shit though. Traffic lights when used correctly do a great job of spacing out congestion.

 

[Megasoum]

So if I start downloading buildings on the workshop to replace the default RCI models, will they start updating automatically in my city or I have to wait for them to upgrade or demolish/rebuild?

 

[RayStorm]

AWESOME MOD ALERT!!!

COMPLETELY rebalances the income/population of low/high density zones, making high density SUPER packed (thereby increasing traffic!)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410344523

Makes some other changes to garbage and income gained, and it should be really nice to now see like 500 workers in a single high res building instead of the wonky vanilla numbers

Finally! Now I only need someone to mod in bigger buildings than 4*4 squares (which apparently equals 32*32m) and realistic building sizes for all buildings and I can be quite happy!

Not really, no. I'd much rather just have an accurate figure without any sort of fudging.

I'd rather have real figures that are also realistic in terms of graphical representation. As such vanilla S:C fails me as much as SC2013. I'd argue, if the whole searching for the closest home/work was not in SC2013 it would fail me less than the tiny numbers C:S shows living in giant appartment buildings.

 

[vityaz]

Like this mod ?
Control Building Level Up

Exactly like that! Question is, will they still upgrade to "high tech" buildings if I set the district as such? high tech are not higher level right, but just another type?

Also, scary with people talking about crashes..

 

[Mengy]

Wow, well after passing 100K people I'm starting to have some real traffic issues, worse than ever before. My trains are backing up all over the place.

I've made a bunch of side rails and crossovers for the trains to switch tracks, even added a couple of train bridges but I'm still getting railroad gridlock, although I did improve it somewhat. I think in future cities I'm going to keep the passenger and freight rail lines separated. Might not be realistic but I like lots of trains running around anyway.

I'm also getting a lot of car and truck traffic, especially here:

It's my own fault, I made a poor layout of roads and now my traffic is suffering for it. I've improved it a bit but I would really need to tear a lot of it down and rebuild to fix it. Which I will do eventually.

In some ways this game is easy and relaxing, in other ways it's very challenging. Either way after 60 hours in a little over a week and I'm still enthralled with CSL.

 

[Tiktaalik]

And mixed-use planning where business and residential are combined...

Yeah I brought up mixed use planning in this old thread where I criticized SimCity 2013 before its release. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=520155

That's a good point about trying to emulate it just mixing commercial and residential more instead of creating massive residential areas. Do Sims in Cities:Skylines hate being next to industrial or will they bear it? Maybe ok if it's business park style stuff?

 

[Cute Dragon Here]

4x4 in CSL equates to 32x32m?

Guess that's why all the buildings feel really tiny. The largest RCI buildings are still really small!

Do you think CSL might actually end up being a looker with an actually dense city, full of skyscrapers, if all the high-density buildings could take up to 96x96m?

Be careful when zoning industrial near residential. Pollution is way more critical in this game I have notices.

 

[Rentahamster]

Yeah I brought up mixed use planning in this old thread where I criticized SimCity 2013 before its release. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=520155

That's a good point about trying to emulate it just mixing commercial and residential more instead of creating massive residential areas. Do Sims in Cities:Skylines hate being next to industrial or will they bear it? Maybe ok if it's business park style stuff?

Mixed-use doesn't really apply that well in Skylines. In fact, it actually has more of an impact in SimCity. In Skylines, as far as I can tell, the people will shop or play at wherever the hell they please. Even places across town. Proximity to shopping doesn't really have much of an impact. It would in a small town, but once your city is over 100,000, they go all over the place.

The nature of the "Imma go to the closest work sink/shop sink to my house and then come back" AI pathfinding of SimCity, as well as the "prioritize walking if it's in walkable distance" behaviors made zoning commercial among your residential a really good idea, with no drawbacks.


In Skylines, if you have residential next to industrial, then they will get sick from the pollution (unless it's farming or forestry), and they will also hate the noise pollution.

Once you get the Eden Project, however, you don't need to care about either of those things lol...

 

[Gummb]

My biggest problems with the game include the many ways that it reinforces dominant city design theories of the post-WWII era. Here are what I'd want to see expanded on in the future:

1. Streets Are Public Spaces: City streets are among the most expensive public infrastructure to build, but are also the LARGEST public spaces available in our city. Unfortunately, all of that space is relegated to herding cars and busses to and from destinations without nearly enough tools to create streets as true public amenities. This means that a lot of the "fun" in this game is creating beautiful traffic solutions to the massive demand for cars (roads-for-automobiles only). There is no way to create a 2-way street that has parking, street trees, sidewalk but-outs, parklets, bike lanes, street lights, benches, etc. etc.
- Why does street parking disappear the minute you add grass or trees?
- Where are the bike lanes?
- Why can't I set speed regulations?
- Where are fixed-transit-systems like street-cars that help spur economic activity?
- Where is the demand for parking? - if parking is inside the buildings, why can't I set regulations against it or build parking garages?

2. More Sustainable Neighborhood Design Tools: Separating businesses from residences is a dominant zoning regulation that comes from the popularity of suburbs. Originally formed out of a desire to keep residences from the pollution, noise, and other nuisances, major urban centers are embracing mixed-use planning and combining uses to create more interesting and engaging neighborhoods. Additionally, more agency for businesses are residents have create several interesting results in the last 20 years.
- Where is form-based code?
- Where is mixed-use planning?
- Why can't businesses/residences/industries create their OWN electricity with solar panels, etc.?
- Why can't I make entertainment districts with alcohol licenses and incentives?
- Why can't I set pollution (land, air, water, noise, etc.) limits by district?
- Why can't I plan special events for certain districts?

3. A City As Recreation: The game has several options for pre-made parks and I like that it keeps track of where those amenities are and who gains access to them, but the game does a poor job of recognizing when the user wants to create their own park system such as a river-side jogging path, or my own version of Central Park/Golden Gate Park/MAJOR CITY PARK where citizens can have access to an art museum or science museum, etc.
- Not everything should need to be attached to a road! A path should work.
- Need more tools for playground equipment, benches, lights, better paths, more trees, bushes, trashcans, etc.
- I want to create University Campuses... not just a single-building piece of shit.


There are more things I want to say, but I'll stop there for now. I guess I'm afraid that by taking out a lot of these public-based, local-context improving aspects, we're teaching a whole new generation a normative idea of cities as economic/residential/industrial mechas that aren't necessarily FOR PEOPLE or at least for their interests and desire to collaborate and co-exist in fun and engaging environments...

 

[TheMoon]

YAASSSSSSSSSS

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=409855597&searchtext=

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=409737662&searchtext=

I love this way too much.

 

[neoanarch]

Wow, well after passing 100K people I'm starting to have some real traffic issues, worse than ever before. My trains are backing up all over the place.





I've made a bunch of side rails and crossovers for the trains to switch tracks, even added a couple of train bridges but I'm still getting railroad gridlock, although I did improve it somewhat. I think in future cities I'm going to keep the passenger and freight rail lines separated. Might not be realistic but I like lots of trains running around anyway.

I'm also getting a lot of car and truck traffic, especially here:





It's my own fault, I made a poor layout of roads and now my traffic is suffering for it. I've improved it a bit but I would really need to tear a lot of it down and rebuild to fix it. Which I will do eventually.

In some ways this game is easy and relaxing, in other ways it's very challenging. Either way after 60 hours in a little over a week and I'm still enthralled with CSL.

I don't think your traffic is that bad. Have you tried making some entrance and exit ramps from the highway to the closest street?

 

[vityaz]

Anybody post this yet?

Pretty sweet smaller/rural train station.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=411521749

 

[Gummb]

Yeah I brought up mixed use planning in this old thread where I criticized SimCity 2013 before its release. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=520155

That's a good point about trying to emulate it just mixing commercial and residential more instead of creating massive residential areas. Do Sims in Cities:Skylines hate being next to industrial or will they bear it? Maybe ok if it's business park style stuff?

Oh my god, yessss. Such a great topic.

I've been wanting to create a similar topic about Skylines, because it is very much stuck in the same era, which is incredibly disappointing. I'd love to collaborate on a paper/article or whatever to explore this idea if you're ever interested.

I'm really interested in the way it encourages engineering solutions (better road design, efficient separate uses, etc.) rather than public policy solutions (setting regulations, creative zoning solutions, creating and using public spaces, tools to differentiate districts, etc.) to urban design problems.

 

[chrominance]

My biggest problems with the game include the many ways that it reinforces dominant city design theories of the post-WWII era. Here are what I'd want to see expanded on in the future:

1. Streets Are Public Spaces: City streets are among the most expensive public infrastructure to build, but are also the LARGEST public spaces available in our city. Unfortunately, all of that space is relegated to herding cars and busses to and from destinations without nearly enough tools to create streets as true public amenities. This means that a lot of the "fun" in this game is creating beautiful traffic solutions to the massive demand for roads-for-automobiles. There is no way to create a 2-way street that has parking, street trees, sidewalk but-outs, parklets, bike lanes, street lights, benches, etc. etc.
- Why does street parking disappear the minute you add grass or trees?
- Where are the bike lanes?
- Why can't I set speed regulations?
- Where is the demand for parking? - if parking is inside the buildings, why can't I set regulations against it or build parking garages?

2. More Sustainable Neighborhood Design Tools: Separating businesses from residences is a dominant zoning regulation that comes from the popularity of suburbs. Originally formed out of a desire to keep residences from the pollution, noise, and other nuisances, major urban centers are embracing mixed-use planning
- Where is form-based code?
- Where is mixed-use planning?
- Why can't businesses/residences/industries create their OWN electricity with solar panels, etc.?
- Why can't I make entertainment districts with alcohol licenses and incentives?
- Why can't I set pollution (land, air, water, noise, etc.) limits by district?
- Why can't I plan special events for certain districts?

3. A City As Recreation: The game has several options for pre-made parks and I like that it keeps track of where those amenities are and who gains access to them, but the game does a poor job of recognizing when the user wants to create their own park system such as a river-side jogging path, or my own version of Central Park/Golden Gate Park/MAJOR CITY PARK where citizens can
- Not everything should need to be attached to a road! A path should work.
- Need more tools for playground equipment, benches, lights, better paths, more trees, bushes, trashcans, etc.
- I want to create University Campuses... not just a single-building piece of shit.


There are more things I want to say, but I'll stop there for now. I guess I'm afraid that by taking out a lot of these public-based, local-context improving aspects, we're teaching a whole new generation a normative idea of cities as economic/residential/industrial mechas that aren't necessarily FOR PEOPLE or at least for their interests and desire to collaborate and co-exist in fun and engaging environments...

I thought about making a new thread to discuss improvements to Cities: Skylines along these lines, but abandoned it because I figured the appeal was limited and it was rather long-winded. This is a much more concise and useful post than what I had in mind, and I totally agree with all of the above. I'd add dedicated transit lanes to point #1, and preferably an avenue/boulevard editor where you could create new road types on the fly using a sort of snap-together system where you snap different types of lanes together and then build roads using that configuration.

Another thing I was considering, but am unsure if it would change the character of the game too radically: what if there was a city council, shaped by the neighborhoods you'd built (i.e. a neighborhood that was all high-rise luxury residential would be represented by a right-wing no-taxation representative)? And let's say you had to interact with them in a limited fashion, i.e. get their approval if you wanted to build a massive new metro line or a new parks system. Maybe councillors would complain if you were building shiny new schools in other districts but not theirs. And so on and so forth.

The trouble would be making the system fun. Actual city politics is horrific, and even in some sanitized ideal form, city council would take away from the concept of the player as an all-seeing, all-knowing autocrat with sole control over the entire city. But it would be an interesting feedback mechanism--depending on how you design your city, you get a group of councillors with distinct personalities that may or may not agree with your decisions.

 

[Rentahamster]

My biggest problems with the game include the many ways that it reinforces dominant city design theories of the post-WWII era. Here are what I'd want to see expanded on in the future:

While I share many of your same concerns and ideas about the game's improvement, one of the things we need to keep in mind is that this is a game first, and simulation second. The classic RCI conceptualization of urban planning is fairly simple and translates pretty well into gameplay archetypes that can be understood easily.

Adding the complexity of all that while keeping the "game" still engaging and not miring the player in micromanagement hell will be a tough challenge.

 

[Gummb]

I thought about making a new thread to discuss improvements to Cities: Skylines along these lines, but abandoned it because I figured the appeal was limited and it was rather long-winded. This is a much more concise and useful post than what I had in mind, and I totally agree with all of the above. I'd add dedicated transit lanes to point #1, and preferably an avenue/boulevard editor where you could create new road types on the fly using a sort of snap-together system where you snap different types of lanes together and then build roads using that configuration.

Another thing I was considering, but am unsure if it would change the character of the game too radically: what if there was a city council, shaped by the neighborhoods you'd built (i.e. a neighborhood that was all high-rise luxury residential would be represented by a right-wing no-taxation representative)? And let's say you had to interact with them in a limited fashion, i.e. get their approval if you wanted to build a massive new metro line or a new parks system. Maybe councillors would complain if you were building shiny new schools in other districts but not theirs. And so on and so forth.

The trouble would be making the system fun. Actual city politics is horrific, and even in some sanitized ideal form, city council would take away from the concept of the player as an all-seeing, all-knowing autocrat with sole control over the entire city. But it would be an interesting feedback mechanism--depending on how you design your city, you get a group of councillors with distinct personalities that may or may not agree with your decisions.

Ha, that's why I didn't create a topic. I still might.... just to make a point. XD

I also just went back and added "fixed-transit systems like street cars," because you're right, there are much better modes of transportation than buses that can use the street.

I love the city council idea. Even if they don't have any power, having a group of advisors would be cool to present options to you. They could represent different takes on city design. The traffic engineer would give you all the tools for a more efficient road to control larger densities of cars where the sustainability guru would tell to you place your assets at city centers and near residents to decrease car use... stuff like that.

I think that would be AWESOME.

 

[TimeEffect]

^^ I am absolutely wanting more complex mayor managing/micromanagement simulation aspects to the game.

Don't need to make a post on GAF, but the paradox forums is buzzing with like minded enthusiasts giving feedback to make the game more simulation and micromanagement heavy.

They are more critical and point out the glaring simplicities of this game. It's my major gripe too-- game is too simple, easy, and shallow, despite being a pretty fun city builder. I do think half the praise comes from how STARVED fans of the genre are, and most are just happy to see competent developers who have built a promising start to what is hopefully a thriving community of developer/fan collaborations.

 

[Gummb]

While I share many of your same concerns and ideas about the game's improvement, one of the things we need to keep in mind is that this is a game first, and simulation second. The classic RCI conceptualization of urban planning is fairly simple and translates pretty well into gameplay archetypes that can be understood easily.

Adding the complexity of all that while keeping the "game" still engaging and not miring the player in micromanagement hell will be a tough challenge.

I think that's fair, and I understand, but I think it's important to understand that a city will run itself and find a way as long as the necessary pieces are there (the game does a good job of this already). I'm not convinced that micromanagement hell would exist if you added more options while keeping your main tools intact. You're right, it would be a tough challenge to incorporate more ideas.

But again... cities are cool again for the first time in generations and I want to see more of those cool aspects shine in the way we imagine cities in games.

If I REALLY wanted to get into micromanagement hell, I would include race and class into the mix and add stats to track how mixed income, diverse your cities/neighborhoods are. Now THAT would be awesome. I would also track the relocated individuals when you destroy their houses due to new projects.

 

[chrominance]

While I share many of your same concerns and ideas about the game's improvement, one of the things we need to keep in mind is that this is a game first, and simulation second. The classic RCI conceptualization of urban planning is fairly simple and translates pretty well into gameplay archetypes that can be understood easily.

Adding the complexity of all that while keeping the "game" still engaging and not miring the player in micromanagement hell will be a tough challenge.

Yeah, this was one of the things I was grappling with when trying to decide how I would implement mixed-use planning. Like, what do you select in game? RCI zones and then "mixed-use commercial/residential," "mixed-use commercial/industrial," etc.? Is that really much better? Actual mixed-use specifies at least proportions, and often types of use as well--for example, for a big condo project, you might see "three storeys of retail plus twenty storeys of residential," or "ground-floor restaurant and two storeys of apartments." That kind of granularity would be difficult to cope with on a city-wide basis. And then I was trying to decide if it would really have a material impact on the game, if all it really means is a) some buildings look different and b) some buildings have both residents and workers. If the impact of the change is just "oh traffic gets slightly better because worker and resident spots are more thoroughly mixed together," that represents a failure in my opinion.

I still want to see mixed-use zoning in some form because it's how cities are built (and how cities evolve!) these days, but I haven't figured out how exactly it should translate into game systems.

 

[Jintor]

Anyone have any advice using train lines? Can't see the point currently when metros will suffice. (If metros become unbugged, of course)

 

[Gummb]

Yeah, this was one of the things I was grappling with when trying to decide how I would implement mixed-use planning. Like, what do you select in game? RCI zones and then "mixed-use commercial/residential," "mixed-use commercial/industrial," etc.? And then I was trying to decide if it would really have a material impact on the game, if all it really means is a) some buildings look different and b) some buildings have both residents and workers. If the impact of the change is just "oh traffic gets slightly better because worker and resident spots are more thoroughly mixed together," that represents a failure in my opinion.

I still want to see mixed-use zoning in some form because it's how cities are built (and how cities evolve!) these days, but I haven't figured out how exactly it should translate into game systems.

I guess I imagined a paint system where you painted residential over commercial to create a new color (i.e. RCI = Primary colors, mixed = secondary colors).

Potential benefits of mixed-use:
- Greater density
- More efficiency in public utilities and amenities
- Lessened traffic
- Happier citizens
- Happier commercial (people live where they work and purchase)
- Better nodes for public transportation
- Increased land value
- More demand for similar locations

 

[Meadows]

Very sorry if this has been asked before, but are there any good guides to building cities? I didn't see anything on the OP.

Thanks!

 

[dejay]

All the talk of micromanagement is cool, but it has to be tempered with the economic reality of development costs vs market size (how big is the city micro-management niche and will they buy the DLC enough at a certain price point to justify the man hours?). Some stuff would be easy, some not so much. The other thing is, everyone who wants to delve deeper has their own priorities of what they want to see.

For instance, I'd like to see full tech trees unlocked at certain time periods like sim city, with period and geographical based models that don't get upgraded very quickly, so that a row of worker terrace houses built in Sydney in the 1920s stay there if they're left alone, but their proximity to the city centre increases their value so that they become yuppie cottages.

I wouldn't expect assets to be made for everything, but if the framework was there, modders could develop lots of models for different areas and time periods if there were enough of them interested.

Anyone have any advice using train lines? Can't see the point currently when metros will suffice. (If metros become unbugged, of course)

Train look cooler on top of the ground. Also freight, but you don't want to mix freight and passenger lines.

I think they're more relevant when you have 25 tiles unlocked and you're moving people long distances. My airport is an example; it's over a tile away from anywhere else.

 

[Gr8one]

Hit 300k in my first city, the dystopian metropolis I call Derpville. I'm the mayor of a city full of gridlock, listening to the echo of sirens as my industrial districts burn, and dealing with the dawn of the dead overloading my my crematoriums, i decided I needed a break. So.... I took a vacation to somewhere sunny! Its got a lot of water and some nice vistas, I call it the Butt Kraken Isle.

Maps called Kiin's Landing and I wanted to share some pics with the sun shafts mod running and a few of the workshop assets i have loaded.

Spoiler

First time uploading images here. My apologies if I muck this up.

 

[EatinOlives]

Well something certainly weird happened. My traffic was getting a little iffy in a few spots where I use six-lane avenues as "mini-highways", so I paused the game and did a massive overhaul where I upgraded my main avenue into a major highway, doubling its capacity. I made an overpass in places where the traffic was tricky and connected the highways with off-ramps to let people to and from the new highway.

Clusterfuck ensued. I don't know how, but traffic actually got worse than ever before. Within minutes everything got backed up and everything got gridlocked. No service vehicles like hearses or garbage trucks got anywhere and everything went to shit.

Reverted the saved game back to my pre-highway-"overhaul" and traffic isn't nearly as bad? I'm confused. I'm not saying I don't suck at building a highway system, but it actually seems as if there were double the cars after I built my highway system. It seemed like the problem wasn't that my highway system was poorly designed so much as the game spammed so many vehicles it would've made any road system fall to its knees.

So I kept the decidedly smaller capacity avenues and there's way few cars. I don't know how or why this works, but I'm going to defer the explanation to the Cities: Skylines Gods and just move on.

 

[TheMoon]

Hit 300k in my first city, the dystopian metropolis I call Derpville. I'm the mayor of a city full of gridlock, listening to the echo of sirens as my industrial districts burn, and dealing with the dawn of the dead overloading my my crematoriums, i decided I needed a break. So.... I took a vacation to somewhere sunny! Its got a lot of water and some nice vistas, I call it the Butt Kraken Isle.

But now I wanna see what Derpville looks like!

 

[Sober]

What kind of micromanagement are we talking about here? I guess the RCI-style city builder is really, really small in that scope. I mean, other than CitiesXL, did the SimCities even model a supply chain like C:SL does? (industry having to export its goods to other facilities/commercial locations).

I mean right now industrial generates traffic for the sake of generating traffic and the supply chains/resource production+manufacture is really surface level? How deep are people wanting it to go? Like the old Caesar/Pharaoh/Zeus-style games where you need to balance everything precisely?

And how precise does individual agent tracking have to be? I don't know if we can get Tropico-levels of detailed, can we?

There has to be a happy medium somewhere that's more than just traffic/commute management (more would be nice) but not overly impossible to manage? We'd still have to work with averages because of the numbers being handled, not discrete actors like a Tropico or something, although yes, I would love to see more detailed population demographics and social friction, etc. But it shouldn't go overboard for people who just like to play city builders like zen gardens. (discounting 'just mod it out!')

 

[Smiley90]

Mirror's Edge mod too cool

(not on the workshop yet )

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

Well something certainly weird happened. My traffic was getting a little iffy in a few spots where I use six-lane avenues as "mini-highways", so I paused the game and did a massive overhaul where I upgraded my main avenue into a major highway, doubling its capacity. I made an overpass in places where the traffic was tricky and connected the highways with off-ramps to let people to and from the new highway.

Clusterfuck ensued. I don't know how, but traffic actually got worse than ever before. Within minutes everything got backed up and everything got gridlocked. No service vehicles like hearses or garbage trucks got anywhere and everything went to shit.

Reverted the saved game back to my pre-highway-"overhaul" and traffic isn't nearly as bad? I'm confused. I'm not saying I don't suck at building a highway system, but it actually seems as if there were double the cars after I built my highway system. It seemed like the problem wasn't that my highway system was poorly designed so much as the game spammed so many vehicles it would've made any road system fall to its knees.

So I kept the decidedly smaller capacity avenues and there's way few cars. I don't know how or why this works, but I'm going to defer the explanation to the Cities: Skylines Gods and just move on.

When you unpause, all vehicles that were on deleted roads fly to your new roads. They can also stop and act weird for a little while as they figure out their new route based on road changes, which can lead to instant traffic congestion. Try deleting your roads, unpausing so that traffics snaps to surrounding roads and wait for it to clear before rebuilding. Or perhaps your new system was just inefficient; hard to say.

 

[orborborb]

The only things that stand out to me as "missing" from the base game are tunnels, which are apparently coming soon, transitioning metro lines between above and belowground, and better tools for creating public spaces like plazas and parks that aren't just plopped down "special" buildings. Public spaces should be MORE spatially flexible than zoned buildings, not less! Custom footpaths and individual tree placement is great but not nearly enough.

 

[Jintor]

Zonable parks plz

Adjust park budget to vary its effectiveness and vary the growables that pop up

Settings like 'urban park', 'national park', 'botanical gardens', 'basketball courts' etc.

 

[Tiktaalik]

For instance, I'd like to see full tech trees unlocked at certain time periods like sim city, with period and geographical based models that don't get upgraded very quickly, so that a row of worker terrace houses built in Sydney in the 1920s stay there if they're left alone, but their proximity to the city centre increases their value so that they become yuppie cottages.

That's a very cool idea. It would be interesting to play a game where the upgrading of buildings is more of a conscious, and possibly controversial decision.

 

[EatinOlives]

When you unpause, all vehicles that were on deleted roads fly to your new roads. They can also stop and act weird for a little while as they figure out their new route based on road changes, which can lead to instant traffic congestion. Try deleting your roads, unpausing so that traffics snaps to surrounding roads and wait for it to clear before rebuilding. Or perhaps your new system was just inefficient; hard to say.

Oh, I can try that most definitely. Yeah, I paused everything and let all the cars floating while I re-did my roads, then unpaused it all at once.

I'll try that again and post pictures of the before-and-after if the gridlock still happens. If it happens I guess I'm to blame (which based on the amazing road systems I've seen posted wouldn't surprise me...).

 

[Poodlestrike]

Zonable parks plz

Adjust park budget to vary its effectiveness and vary the growables that pop up

Settings like 'urban park', 'national park', 'botanical gardens', 'basketball courts' etc.

A sufficiently large/well funded basketball court zone should turn into a sport stadium.

 

[Jintor]

oh damn, there's an ALDI growable?

can't believe i'm searching for commercials to jam into my game lol. all about dat context

 

[TheMoon]

oh damn, there's an ALDI growable?

can't believe i'm searching for commercials to jam into my game lol. all about dat context

Well, this is one of the incredibly few games where they would actually make sense or enrich the experience in some ways.

 

[PodcastFips]

I've been reading this thread for quite some time now without posting anything, so I just wanted to thank all of you for the great pictures in here. I really love seeing all the different creations

 

[Gr8one]

But now I wanna see what Derpville looks like!

It's actually kinda dull looking. Its relatively flat, and high density everything leads to a lot identical skyscrapers. The map is always cloudy and foggy too which adds to the drab scenery. To manage traffic I have a whole spaghetti network of frontage roads, I hadn't learned the ways of the roundabout until my 9th map tile, but they worked. it's really smoggy so the sun shafts mod is useless but here's some pics anyway,

 

[Sober]

Zonable parks plz

Adjust park budget to vary its effectiveness and vary the growables that pop up

Settings like 'urban park', 'national park', 'botanical gardens', 'basketball courts' etc.

Nah, just want puzzle pieces to fit with pedestrian pathways.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

I love that The Motherland Calls statue.

 

[TimeEffect]

Again: why does my incinerator not send out all harbage trucks! ? Why does it struggle to get past like 4?