Cities: Skylines

[Chezburgar7300]

I actually thought that Simcity was a solid game. I atleast got 150hrs out of it. The launch was horrible though, thanks to EA and the maps were tiny as hell.

I'm going to get this later today, after I install Elite

It's going at a pesky 200kb/s thanks to ADSL1 speeds. Thanks Aus!

[Thomas988]

I actually thought that Simcity was a solid game. I atleast got 150hrs out of it. The launch was horrible though, thanks to EA and the maps were tiny as hell.

The launch is what totally turned me away from that game and EA entirely. SimCity 4 Deluxe, however, is a classic!

[RAINCRAFTER]

We all hate EA.

[PTNLemay]

but without the grid things and all that,

Thankfully you can still build in a grid fashion using the snap tool. I know a lot of people find strict grid cities to be sterile and uninteresting, but I just love them. I actually was unable to get into Cities XL because it had no grid of any kind. I found it supper annoying how I would try and create straight roads, only to find out 15 minutes later that the 12 city blocks I've built are all off by abotu 2 degrees. Which... way down the road makes a big obnoxious difference. So yeah, big plus on their part for including that in Skylines.

It's very much like the symmetry and part snapping in KSP. Sure, that slight misalignment doesn't look bad now, but add on a dozen more layers and extra stuff on top of it and you'll soon have a very imbalanced rocket on your hands.

[cpast]

I hadn't played Simcity 2013 (I am, however, apparently the one person in the world who kind of liked Societies, although I didn't consider it to be a "real" Simcity game), but I so far love Skylines. Still basically in the grid mindset, and a bit frustrated on how annoying it can be to zone new areas, but overall it's quite fun. Favorite bit: setting up public transit routes, with bus stops that don't require demolishing houses or building anything but a depot (if we could only get on-road subway, that'd be even better, but I can see why it's good to have metro need to build the stop). One of the main annoyances I had with IV was that I couldn't channel sims into multiple modes of transit (e.g. bus to the subway stop, subway to a rail station, rail across the city).

The one thing I'd most like to see is a way to not start from scratch each time. In 4, there was the big city tutorial (medium-sized but unpleasant city, which you could follow the instructions for but which you could also build on to improve), and there was regional demand (i.e. instant mega-demand that let me take a city to like 500k in 40 minutes or so). Managing and improving a big city is different from growing a small town, and I'd like to be able to do the former without really needing to do the latter first. I know Workshop has premade cities, but something officially endorsed would be nice.

Alternatively: Anyone have Workshop stuff to recommend? Particularly something like a medium-sized city that needs to build up and be improved, not built out?

- - - Updated - - -

Thankfully you can still build in a grid fashion using the snap tool. I know a lot of people find strict grid cities to be sterile and uninteresting, but I just love them. I actually was unable to get into Cities XL because it had no grid of any kind. I found it supper annoying how I would try and create straight roads, only to find out 15 minutes later that the 12 city blocks I've built are all off by abotu 2 degrees. Which... way down the road makes a big obnoxious difference. So yeah, big plus on their part for including that in Skylines.

It's very much like the symmetry and part snapping in KSP. Sure, that slight misalignment doesn't look bad now, but add on a dozen more layers and extra stuff on top of it and you'll soon have a very imbalanced rocket on your hands.

The one issue with that is that it can be hard to initially build the grid -- you need to build a road the *exact* right length to be able to make a corner with another road, and it's hard to get the zones to have high efficiency. OTOH, it is making it easier for me to build parks and trees and such, so not all bad.

[PTNLemay]

Well... so much for my praise of their snapping system. This here is EXACTLY what I was talking about: http://i.imgur.com/pW8JpTv.jpg

When you start building (starting at the right side) you think: "Oh great! The game intelligently snapped the road so it runs perfectly parallel to the map's edge. This means I can continue extending the road all along the whole square of the map." Heh... NOPE. You fool, your road actually has a 0.5 degree misalignment relative to the map's edge. So you inevitably end up rolling out of bounds, even though all your roads are otherwise perfect.

Note that it does still snap roads, but it snaps roads relative to the already present roads. This means that my entire city is perfectly straight relative to itself, but the whole city is off-kilter relative to the map's edge. The ONLY way to fix the problem shown in that screengrab is to either rebuild the entire city and try again (and... again, there's no guarentee you'll get it right the second time because the snap only snaps relative to other roads, so far as I can tell you can't lay down a fresh new road and snap it to the map). Or... you introduce hideous zigzags in the road to move it away from the map edge. Since I can't afford a complete city reconstruction I've been forced to use the later.

[Camacha]

I actually thought that Simcity was a solid game. I atleast got 150hrs out of it. The launch was horrible though, thanks to EA and the maps were tiny as hell.

In that case you are going to find this game amazing. If SimCity did not turn you off sooner or later, this is going to be one amazing rainbow ride.

Well... so much for my praise of their snapping system. This here is EXACTLY what I was talking about: http://i.imgur.com/pW8JpTv.jpg

To be fair, this is not really a problem in the sense that is only is a problem because you feel it is a problem and does not work with your very specific building style. The snapping tool does what it is supposed to do and does it well. If you want to build your squares full to the brim, SimCity style, you are going to need to take precautions. One of those would be to outlay the outside road first, so it spans the full border. That way you cannot get surprised later, though you might still run into issues when you access more plots. Longer lines make for smaller deviations. Another would be just to use roads that do not fully touch the border until you unlock the plot next door.

If you comment is that this is no SimCity 2000 when it comes to snapping, you are absolutely right. Since just a tiny proportion of my roads is straight, I am happy it is not

[cantab]

Good game, and runs well on my system. Sure is a load of complexity, it's a bit overwhelming at times.

My first city has had its ups and downs. Health problems are rampant, which brings me to ask what causes water pollution? I have my water tower in a clean area, but pipes are running through polluted ground, does that pollute the water?

[Camacha]

My first city has had its ups and downs. Health problems are rampant, which brings me to ask what causes water pollution? I have my water tower in a clean area, but pipes are running through polluted ground, does that pollute the water?

I have very healthy citizens, but also never used water towers. Can't you intake water through pumps in a clean spot? Just make sure to dump your waste downstream.

[Xacktar]

Good game, and runs well on my system. Sure is a load of complexity, it's a bit overwhelming at times.

My first city has had its ups and downs. Health problems are rampant, which brings me to ask what causes water pollution? I have my water tower in a clean area, but pipes are running through polluted ground, does that pollute the water?

From what I've learned, health has four main causes for going downhill.

1. You are pumping water downstream from a sewage pipe

2. You are leaving dead bodies in houses too long

3. You have houses too close to ground pollution

4. You have let one of these go on for long enough to start a 'plague' effect where sick people contaminate the people around them.

You might have reached the number 4 point somehow. :/

[cantab]

Looks like 2 and maybe 4 are the large scale issues now. My cemetery has nowhere near good enough coverage.

Frankly, my city - if it can even be called that - is on the edge of doing a Detroit now

And I may already need my first game mod, one to bulldoze abandoned buildings. Because playing Whack-a-Mole with them isn't good gameplay.

[Camacha]

And I may already need my first game mod, one to bulldoze abandoned buildings. Because playing Whack-a-Mole with them isn't good gameplay.

You can leave them, as they will eventually will be repopulated. They do cause land values to fall though. Don't blame the game for your bad city

[CG_Kerbin]

I got it on its relase date and my mod squid farm is the 4th mod on their (it really don't actully like it it looks awsome to go around pre built cites and I like the idea of building cites but the gameplay just isn't fun for me)

[Camacha]

I got it on its relase date and my mod squid farm is the 4th mod on their (it really don't actully like it it looks awsome to go around pre built cites and I like the idea of building cites but the gameplay just isn't fun for me)

I am sorry, I do not understand what you are trying to say.

[Sufficient Anonymity]

47 hours in, and loving it

[Superfluous J]

My first successful city used nothing for roads but the basic 2-lane road and the small roundabouts. When people wanted housing, I plopped down a roundabout and made it all residential. When they wanted industrial, I made a similar industrial roundabout. Same with commercial. I also used onramps to connect to the freeway when needed, but that was well after my city was shockingly prosperous.

I bought a neighboring island and stopped the roundabout strategy there to make a sort of Manhattanesque superdense area with a big park. Very cool and I could easily absorb the inefficencies with it. By the time I could build the dense zones and offices, I was raking in several thousand (like, 3 or 4 thousand) bucks a ... day? Week? Hour? I don't know but money was rolling in.

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47 hours in, and loving it

http://i.imgur.com/T5GUzYT.jpg

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

Haha I just looked at your images, I'm on that map!

And I just loaded the game to take a screenshot, and remembered that my computer crashed right as I was quitting playing this morning. I found out because MY CITY WAS TOTALLY GONE. Does this game not incrementally save? What is this, 1997? Oh well, I don't keep cities long anyway and was getting bored with the exercise but still. To have *no* save at all after hours of play is just ridiculous.

Edited March 23, 2015 by 5thHorseman

[cantab]

My city's bus drivers are terrifying! I saw one of them clearly get up on two wheels on the roundabout. Still, the brand new buses certainly seem popular

Anyone know where screenshots taken with F11 (in the game itself) go?

[Superfluous J]

..my computer crashed right as I was quitting playing this morning. I found out because MY CITY WAS TOTALLY GONE.

I just installed my first Steam Workshop mod to keep this from happening in the future. I would suggest to anybody to do the same thing. Random crashes + no autosave = heartache.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=405999555

[cantab]

Drivers, U Mad Bro?

Yeah, my intersections end up looking a bit goofy. Will have to see if they work.

[Red Iron Crown]

^^ I have stared at that image for a solid two minutes and can't tell if it's a brilliant design or a disaster about to happen.

[kmMango]

There is actually something like that here in Michigan, over by Troy.

[HafCoJoe]

"Vroom."

This game is amazing and I'll be streaming it on my channel for a bit I think .

Oh and if you have a few minutes on hand, here's a vid of me slowly filling my dam's reservoir... DAM that's a lot of water...

Edited March 24, 2015 by Avera9eJoe

[cantab]

My intersection previously shown works OK. It's basically a triple roundabout, just looking rather polygonal. On the other hand some of my other roundabouts are really snarling up because the traffic is Doing It Wrong, people on the roundabout stop to let newcomers on and it gridlocks. I need to experiment more, and probably suck it up that buildings nearby are gonna get demolished all the time.

And wow Average, you have some serious mountains! I didn't have anything huge on my map - the one with a round lake half in the starting square - but I did manage to build about a 380 MW dam just downstream of the lake. That let me shut down the coal power stations. Anyone know if polluted land can heal itself, or is it Ruined Forever?

[Nikolai]

Anyone know if polluted land can heal itself, or is it Ruined Forever?

The wiki seems to indicate that pollution can be mitigated with trees, but I have no idea whether or not it can be reversed.

http://www.skylineswiki.com/Pollution

[HafCoJoe]

The wiki seems to indicate that pollution can be mitigated with trees, but I have no idea whether or not it can be reversed.

http://www.skylineswiki.com/Pollution

Yeah w/ pollution I sort of just use mods that make look prettier... One great tip is to set your industry zone to farming, as that doesn't create any pollution.

As to traffic problems, raise your highway up one level off the ground and run off/on ramps every 3-4 blocks along your main roads. This lets traffic that wants to take the highway (I.E. Anyone who wants to get anywhere) get there without greatly affecting the rest of the roads. OH another stupidly awesome method of solving traffic AND making good money is bus routes. If you make the highway the only way to get to your industrial zones from your housing, you can run bus lines all over city from your residential zones and reduce the number of cars on the road while at the same time, making ALL the moneys. My save currently reads €17,000+ on the cash bar.

Oh. And read the "How to traffic" imgur album/guide if you haven't yet.

Edited March 24, 2015 by Avera9eJoe