Cities : Skylines

[baturinsky]

I wanna give this a shot but I fear that my lack of imagination will have all of my cities look the same: Square block by square block over and over again.

Plus, it's kinda odd to see such detail to traffic yet there are no parking problems at all.

I used to be unimaginative like you, but then I found out that this game doesn't reward grids. It's unfortunate - my most important part of the city looks like shit with grid structure and the easiest thing to do would be demolish the fuck out of it entirely and remake it with a different layout and more options like rail and pedestrian passes. That's the thing though - I don't think any other city sim so far has actually "punished" you for gridding the fuck out of it. You sort of have to learn to do things differently in terms of transportation.

Grid works, but not for long-range transportation.

 

[Angthoron]

I wanna give this a shot but I fear that my lack of imagination will have all of my cities look the same: Square block by square block over and over again.

Plus, it's kinda odd to see such detail to traffic yet there are no parking problems at all.

I used to be unimaginative like you, but then I found out that this game doesn't reward grids. It's unfortunate - my most important part of the city looks like shit with grid structure and the easiest thing to do would be demolish the fuck out of it entirely and remake it with a different layout and more options like rail and pedestrian passes. That's the thing though - I don't think any other city sim so far has actually "punished" you for gridding the fuck out of it. You sort of have to learn to do things differently in terms of transportation.

Grid works, but not for long-range transportation.

It works, but it's not as spammable as in most other sims.

 

[baturinsky]

 

[Perkel]

Well you don't like 9 tiles ? 25 also feels small ? How about 80+ ?
Now they need to mod map size and # of people living max and you will have full regions as in sc4

 

[cw8]

Began the slow process of downloading POE, went into my city and found my Sims filming Speed 2.

 

[Ulminati]

Well you don't like 9 tiles ? 25 also feels small ? How about 80+ ?
Now they need to mod map size and # of people living max and you will have full regions as in sc4

Need to be able to have different citywide policies for different cities in the region too then. Making each city a district unto itself is a no-go, because then you can't subdivide them to control heavy traffic

 

[Hoaxmetal]

New patch.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/255710/announcements/detail/248036329613498667

 

[cw8]

I heard patch screws up saves badly.

 

[Caim]

Began the slow process of downloading POE, went into my city and found my Sims filming Speed 2.

Looks like Paradox doesn't want to be outdone by the innovations of their competitor Creative Assembly:

 

[baturinsky]

Well you don't like 9 tiles ? 25 also feels small ? How about 80+ ?
Now they need to mod map size and # of people living max and you will have full regions as in sc4

Need to be able to have different citywide policies for different cities in the region too then. Making each city a district unto itself is a no-go, because then you can't subdivide them to control heavy traffic

I don't quite understand the point of Heavy Traffic ban. My traffic is nearly all heavy (or buses).

 

[Dominae]

I was enthusiastic at first, but I've had to shelve the game for now. The "death wave" phenomenon has killed the fun for me, and until they fix it I'm just frustrated.

Watching my population shoot up to almost 100k, then every five years plummet down to around 60k .... complete with me having to manually click-to-demolish nearly every single building in my city (that becomes abandoned due to "no one picked up this pile of stinking corpses") and wait for them to rebuild until the next wave hits is just an exercise in frustration. It cannot be WAD. It completely decimates your City every 5 years regardless of how many "deathcare" facilities you have, as they simply cannot keep up with the demand.

And yes, I know there is a mod that auto-bulldozes abandoned buildings for you, but call me old fashioned - mods should add new playable maps ... or harder gameplay modes ... or nudity or shlongs or something - not just fix silly programming decisions.

 

[Turjan]

That seem to be mostly self-inflicted problems.

There is no need to bulldoze abandoned buildings in this game. I may have bulldozed 5 or 6 abandoned buildings in the time I have played this game so far. Which means that this is a non-issue. I'm not sure who brought this idea up. Probably some SimCity 2013 player.

I don't have any death waves either. That happens if you level large swathes of the city and rebuild everything at once. For instance if you bulldoze all abandoned buildings .

 

[Turjan]

I don't quite understand the point of Heavy Traffic ban. My traffic is nearly all heavy (or buses).

It's quite handy. For instance, I had those trucks with logs from my forestry industry cross through one of my central commercial districts, more or less completely blocking a roundabout. Heavy traffic ban made sure that only the delivery vans and trucks go there, and the log trucks take the motorway. I also doubled up a large street with heavy traffic with an elevated street of the same type. The trucks didn't use it though as it was a few meters longer and nominally the same speed as the old street. A small patch of "heavy traffic ban" on the lower street took care of this. I also built a new road bridge between two residential areas with maximally medium roads. As it was a shortcut for trucks, the bridge got a heavy traffic ban.

It's really useful.

 

[baturinsky]

Hmm, so it only affects transit transport? Hmm, interesting... Though, my jams are not in commercial or residential anyway. I have jams mostly near train stations and on highways (because of the traffic going to train stations).

 

[Data4]

Hmm, so it only affects transit transport? Hmm, interesting... Though, my jams are not in commercial or residential anyway. I have jams mostly near train stations and on highways (because of the traffic going to train stations).

Are your Residential/Commercial districts and Industrial districts on opposite sides of the freeway? If so, make parallel exit ramps, with the ramp entry to R/C first in sequence. Then put a heavy traffic ban on that ramp. I was thinking of trying that myself, but I've been doing a bunch of KSP this evening and can't be arsed to fire up Cities right now.

EDIT: This is assuming you're referring to cargo train stations and your jams are mostly caused by trucks.

 

[Turjan]

Hmm, so it only affects transit transport? Hmm, interesting... Though, my jams are not in commercial or residential anyway. I have jams mostly near train stations and on highways (because of the traffic going to train stations).

Well, the jams in my game happened when the commercial delivery traffic met the industrial traffic that hauled basic products to manufacturing industry or city entry/exit points (freight stations, cargo harbor). The logging trucks were easy to see, but basically all semi trucks belong into this category. They don't have any business in commercial districts, but they will drive through those if they lie on their way.

Placement of freight stations can be tricky. I will try next to place them into the industrial district in a way that the traffic avoids left turns.

Up to now, I managed to solve all traffic problems. I know I have a problem in the very center of downtown, because I wanted to have this big boulevard there. It's a deep red in the traffic view, but at the moment, it's still flowing. I hope it won't get worse when I extend the city to the other side. I'm still mostly just using 6 to 7 tiles. In the end, there's always the possibility to just replace some commercial areas with offices and move the commercial stuff somewhere else.

My first use of the "heavy traffic ban" was this area:

I know you are not supposed to build roundabouts like this, but I liked the look and wanted to keep it. Semi trucks were driving from left to right and completely clogging up that roundabout. The ban solved that. The small delivery trucks like the one at the bottom are still allowed. There is some risk of an economic dip if that happens to be the busiest freight route, as it was in my case . It evened itself out after a while.

Keep in mind that you can also make very small special purpose districts like this one:

It's just that short stretch of road and is supposed to force the trucks on the elevated road.

 

[baturinsky]

I try to build self-sufficient districts with own industry and own cargo station each. Except, all of them except the biggest (Bottom centre) are specialized industry, which makes a big flow of goods soth to north. Also, often factories use station on other side of city instead of nearby. Maybe I should swith ore and oil industry to general goods too.

I have noticed that cars prefer highways and one-way streets, even if it means somewhat longer route. Or maybe they factor in max speed. So, if you build a highway around your downtown it may take care of transit traffic.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Which map is that?

 

[Turjan]

Or maybe they factor in max speed. So, if you build a highway around your downtown it may take care of transit traffic.

They actually do exactly this. If there is a way around the city on a motorway, they will use it. I have a few motorways in my city:

I may move the one in the lower right closer to the river. The main traffic relief came from moving most of the industry out of the inner city and having freight stations for goods deliveries close to commercial areas.

 

[baturinsky]

Which map is that?

Two Rivers. It's the only one without sea access.

 

[baturinsky]

Or maybe they factor in max speed. So, if you build a highway around your downtown it may take care of transit traffic.

They actually do exactly this. If there is a way around the city on a motorway, they will use it. I have a few motorways in my city:

I tend to leave space around major road, mostly because I fine-tune roads around them a lot. Also, think fourlanes, sixlanes and roundabouts are not very effective, espcecially with current traffic AI.

I may move the one in the lower right closer to the river. The main traffic relief came from moving most of the industry out of the inner city and having freight stations for goods deliveries close to commercial areas.

Do you import consumer goods? Or do you mean oil/ore/forest/food things? I don't quite understand raw resources system. Oil and minerals in ground run out very fast. Forest and crops are renewable, but farms and forestries still import a lot of some shit for some reason.

 

[Turjan]

I tend to leave space around major road, mostly because I fine-tune roads around them a lot. Also, think fourlanes, sixlanes and roundabouts are not very effective, espcecially with current traffic AI.

Four-lane roads are really only for spots with light traffic. They don't have enough capacity for heavy traffic, and they sport traffic lights. I use them mostly as major arteries in quiet residential areas. Six-lane roads on the other hand are pretty good. Services make left and U-turns on them. Just keep the stretches long enough so you do not need many lights. One-way roads lead to great traffic flow, but you have to make sure the ways for your services don't get too long.

Do you import consumer goods? Or do you mean oil/ore/forest/food things? I don't quite understand raw resources system. Oil and minerals in ground run out very fast. Forest and crops are renewable, but farms and forestries still import a lot of some shit for some reason.

Yup, there's a lot of stuff coming by train, truck and ship into my city. I think the farms are visible on the image above (a big patch just left of downtown), and I still have some forestry near the river and in the upper left area, but much less than originally. I have ore industry. I don't have coal or oil on the current 9 tiles. I know that farms needs fertilizer, and you would be able to produce it yourself with (I forgot which) oil or coal industry.

Forestry was the major traffic hassle in my city. Ever since I replaced most of it by offices, the city traffic became pretty quiet. I just didn't like that most of it didn't find workers most of the time. The farms seem to be better off, which is probably due to their central location.

 

[Dominae]

That seem to be mostly self-inflicted problems.

There is no need to bulldoze abandoned buildings in this game. I may have bulldozed 5 or 6 abandoned buildings in the time I have played this game so far. Which means that this is a non-issue. I'm not sure who brought this idea up. Probably some SimCity 2013 player.

I don't have any death waves either. That happens if you level large swathes of the city and rebuild everything at once. For instance if you bulldoze all abandoned buildings .

I wasn't bulldozing the first few waves, I'd just let them reset when new families moved in. Sadly, the sheer volume of abandoned buildings started to drive down property values and cause non-residential nearby to complain and abandon too.

Here is the current graph of my last functioning City (I lost two saved cities with the recent patches, they toasted my saved games) ... I'm not sure how to pull out of the death-wave-spiral.

Things I've tried:

- Ignore it. (It gets worse as time goes on)
- Bulldoze it. (Failed experiment; but it did save the commercial zoning that was starting to drop off due to reduced land values)
- Drop 10x more Crematoriums than seems necessary to pick up the dead (this SHOULD work, but it seems the hearses will often spawn and drive past buildings that require death-pickups and go three map tiles away to pick someone else up ... I think the AI doesn't prioritize closest targets well)
- Avoid zoning much new residential in the hopes it smoothes itself out .... as seen here, this didn't work for this City.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

There are mods for that.

 

[baturinsky]

You can temporarily increase health care funding to increase the number of hearses. Also, it's good to have many cemetries - their upkeep is relatively cheap, they provide a lot of hearses and a big buffer, and they increase land value and service coverage.