Cities:Skylines Reveal trailer

[blade52x]

Simcity has nothing on this game.

 

[Zepher]

you have a backwards road section on the lower left circle.

 

[blade52x]

Derp. I was wondering why half the clover was getting traffic when this bridge was backed up on both sides. Now its fixed. And so mesmerizing to just sit there and watch the cars zooming around it.

 

[aeonrevolution]

Call the ambalamps!

Aqua City?

 

[harsaphes]

Guys any tips for making good looking circles? It's driving me crazy.

 

[Monkey34]

Some crazy on/off ramps there

 

[FrEaKy]

Some crazy on/off ramps there

Actually looks good to me, very well laid out.

Reminds me of a Boston rotary. BRING IT ON!!!!!!

 

[Alyosha]

I've never played a "Sim City" style game before but picked this up to play with my kids. They love it so far but I'm terrible at it. There are going to be lots of scrapped cites while I figure out how to play intelligently.

 

[lilbabycat]

I've never played a "Sim City" style game before but picked this up to play with my kids. They love it so far but I'm terrible at it. There are going to be lots of scrapped cites while I figure out how to play intelligently.

Once you figure out how to keep everyone happy your city will start to get big, then you'll find the real game's core, which is managing traffic. It all comes down to traffic. Be ready to bulldoze, often.

You can save yourself some heartache by downloading several intersection sets on the workshop. For new areas, try to pre-plan routes. Industrial areas will eventually need dedicated roads to get to the highway, sharing them with commercial/residential will end in massive roadblocks.

 

[collegeboy69us]

Loving this game, it's a steal at 22 dollars (what I paid)

I'm great with the budget, power, water, all that jazz... i suck so much ass though with proper road building and train transport, I need to read some guides and start a city from scratch my 2 square city is a traffic nightmare right now.

 

[polydiol]

I'm hoping traffic gets patched soon - I noticed it tends to have issues very similar to the last sim city.

 

[Milkman128]

but at least traffic is actually functional. I recall simcity had way more traffic issues. I recall watching firetrucks getting stuck as 2 departments responded to a fire and they permanently cut each other off as the city burned.

I'm about 20 hours into this game and all my traffic issues are my own ineptitude.

I feel like subways help but I haven't tried a controlled scientific test.

 

[Seelenlos]

Traffic is my biggest problem as well. A post I saw this morning with some info that might be worth looking into.
http://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkyli...raffic_management_simulation_gaming_the_game/

I've played with less intersections and dead ends and they do seem to help. Also having one way roads coming off and onto the highway seemed better. But I do have one spot that uses one way coming off the highway and it is backed up all the time. But haven't had time to clear some intersections away from it so who knows.

 

[MrGuvernment]

I caved in last night, i bought it....

WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!!

 

[aeonrevolution]

Someone made a 20k pop city with zero traffic. He laid more pedestrian sidewalks than was right to be sane, haha. Cims LOVE to walk if you just give them the route

 

[DPI]

Former SimCity artist is modding buildings into Cities: Skylines

http://www.pcgamer.com/former-simcity-artist-is-modding-buildings-into-cities-skylines/

For all of SC2013's faults I kinda liked it's art direction. It was like a lego city together with the tilt shift effect. I guess former Maxis employees have afternoons free now that EA canned them.

 

[Spewn]

Former SimCity artist is modding buildings into Cities: Skylines

http://www.pcgamer.com/former-simcity-artist-is-modding-buildings-into-cities-skylines/

For all of SC2013's faults I kinda liked it's art direction. It was like a lego city together with the tilt shift effect. I guess former Maxis employees have afternoons free now that EA axed them all.

One thing I did like from SC2013 was the modular buildings, being able to socket-in the upgrades you wanted or needed for your city in its current configuration. It wasn't *all* bad, but like you've said before; It was built on-top of a simulation that was deeply flawed and it didn't take long to see through the facade and realize that. Combine that with a maximum city size that almost everyone(everyone who didn't work for EA, that is) agreed was much too small and, well, you don't have a very good game on your hands.

As for the modding scene for Skylines, I'm extremely excited. It's only been out for a short time and there are already mods addressing some of the issues with the UI and the way you build your city and roads. Yesterday I picked up a mod that lets you "upgrade" between normal and one-way roads and also re-orient your one-way roads to go the other direction(rather than having to bulldoze and re-place). So many good mods for a game that's been out just a few days is very promising. I look forward to seeing just how far modders can take this thing!

 

[Skripka]

I've never played a "Sim City" style game before but picked this up to play with my kids. They love it so far but I'm terrible at it. There are going to be lots of scrapped cites while I figure out how to play intelligently.

Playing with infinite money mode is a nice tutorial into the game.

Also hop on Steam there are some mods that fix some odd game behaviors. For example cities produe an astronomical amount of garbage...landfills all fill up and then you keep have to build more and more until the incinerator is available. There's a mod to cut garbage production by citizens to 1/4. Because needing 10-15 landfills plus half a dozen incinerators for a city of 10,000 is kinda silly IMO.

Also JMHO...but the game starts in year 2015. Why on Earth are the only forms of power available coal and wind? There's a mod to make a "lead-cooled fast reactor" available from the start (has a huge startup cost, and fairly low monthly cost for a load of power)

Note that with any mods, you don't get achievements...which is silly if all you do is add a few spare assets (infinite money I could get no achievements on), there's a mod for that too.


Game behavior thing I discovered last night...increasing the funding % in the Budget over 100% gives you more of the given asset. For example overfunding power, increases power production, overfunding education increases school capacity, overfunding waste disposal increases available garbage trucks and waste capacity...and so on.



Give this game another month and there will be a huge modding scene. It is already quite good.

Once you figure out how to keep everyone happy your city will start to get big, then you'll find the real game's core, which is managing traffic. It all comes down to traffic. Be ready to bulldoze, often.

You can save yourself some heartache by downloading several intersection sets on the workshop. For new areas, try to pre-plan routes. Industrial areas will eventually need dedicated roads to get to the highway, sharing them with commercial/residential will end in massive roadblocks.

Yea thing is...almost all moderately large to huge cities suck at traffic. And only cities with subways really address this, but you need a load of stations and route. Even re-engineering 1-lane roads to make them larger (2-lane, 4-lane etc) does not fix traffic problems IRL. There have been a load of real life mathematician and statistics studies that have concluded this of late.

One thing I dislike about roads...is that you *MUST* pay attention when building one-way roads/highways where you click from and are going to....otherwise you'll never realize that you built a highway segment going the wrong way-until you zoom in close enough to see the lane arrows. Would be nice if building a highway you built both directions at the same time (like SC2K/3K)

 

[schizrade]

Yea thing is...almost all moderately large to huge cities suck at traffic. And only cities with subways really address this, but you need a load of stations and route. Even re-engineering 1-lane roads to make them larger (2-lane, 4-lane etc) does not fix traffic problems IRL. There have been a load of real life mathematician and statistics studies that have concluded this of late.

One thing I dislike about roads...is that you *MUST* pay attention when building one-way roads/highways where you click from and are going to....otherwise you'll never realize that you built a highway segment going the wrong way-until you zoom in close enough to see the lane arrows. Would be nice if building a highway you built both directions at the same time (like SC2K/3K)

This is very true. Managing the movement of people and assets through a city is the main focus of planning. Always has been. Cars, busses, trains, light rail etc are all potential choke points to clog up the gears of a city. LA is always reworking their freeways, rail and busses to better adapt to the needs of the people that inhabit the region. Trains having to stop more for right of way, add another track. Cars cramming up at interchanges? Rework the interchange to make it less lane changes to hit your connecting freeway. (think center exits)

Always a challenge. Wait until the NAM team makes their mod for this. It will open the options wide.

 

[LeviathanZERO]

The mods, THE MODS!
This game has been out for a weekend and already we have auto demolish fire and abandoned buildings, modify any road to one-way or two-way, auto empty cemeteries and landfills and 4K resolution. I can't imagine what we will be able to do in a year! This game is too amazing. I have a serious addiction going on here...

 

[Skripka]

This is very true. Managing the movement of people and assets through a city is the main focus of planning. Always has been. Cars, busses, trains, light rail etc are all potential choke points to clog up the gears of a city. LA is always reworking their freeways, rail and busses to better adapt to the needs of the people that inhabit the region. Trains having to stop more for right of way, add another track. Cars cramming up at interchanges? Rework the interchange to make it less lane changes to hit your connecting freeway. (think center exits)

Always a challenge. Wait until the NAM team makes their mod for this. It will open the options wide.

Ironically...my state capitol has one of the premier urban planning college degrees in the USA. Which is funny considering what a brainfuck the city is in terms of layout:

-Putting the Capitol Building (a skyscraper) in the middle of residentials (which are now in the seedy part of town)
-Re-engineering traffic flow in downtown a maze of one-way streets that clog and don't let you go where you want
-Probably more streetlights than people inside the city limits
-Not enough parking for even the downtown employees nevermind patrons of eateries/theaters/arenas etc. and then there's the NCAA div 1 university itself that makes it 20x worse wrt parking.
-City bus service that is utterly worthless to try and get anywhere in a reasonable time
-Putting downtown bike lanes in the middle of one-way streets that make running it a suicide gauntlet from diagonal parking and turning city buses.


Maybe that is why the degree program is so good...they use the city as an example of what never to do.

 

[rsbennett00]

Ironically...my state capitol has one of the premier urban planning college degrees in the USA. Which is funny considering what a brainfuck the city is in terms of layout:

-Putting the Capitol Building (a skyscraper) in the middle of residentials (which are now in the seedy part of town)
-Re-engineering traffic flow in downtown a maze of one-way streets that clog and don't let you go where you want
-Probably more streetlights than people inside the city limits
-Not enough parking for even the downtown employees nevermind patrons of eateries/theaters/arenas etc. and then there's the NCAA div 1 university itself that makes it 20x worse wrt parking.
-City bus service that is utterly worthless to try and get anywhere in a reasonable time
-Putting downtown bike lanes in the middle of one-way streets that make running it a suicide gauntlet from diagonal parking and turning city buses.


Maybe that is why the degree program is so good...they use the city as an example of what never to do.

One thing that real cities have to contend with that we don't, is the department of commerce, or equivalent entity. I see this mostly in downtown areas, the owners of commercial businesses want more traffic lights and want them timed so that traffic is stationary as much as possible to get the most visibility, which is just a nightmare. The DoR and DoC are constantly at war and if you ever have the chance to attend a public meeting, it's some of the funniest shit in the world.

 

[Skripka]

One thing that real cities have to contend with that we don't, is the department of commerce, or equivalent entity. I see this mostly in downtown areas, the owners of commercial businesses want more traffic lights and want them timed so that traffic is stationary as much as possible to get the most visibility, which is just a nightmare. The DoR and DoC are constantly at war and if you ever have the chance to attend a public meeting, it's some of the funniest shit in the world.

Never considered that part.

I'll openly admit...being caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic downtown has never changed my eating habits downtown. I go to wherever I can walk eat and walk back in an hour. Simply finding parking (and then paying bending over and $1/hour for it), is enough to make me want to avoid downtown like the plague.

 

[aeonrevolution]

So, after being able to make stupid big cities I am moving on to re-creating my area I live in by using Google Maps. So far I just have the basic roadwork laid off I-70 on the west side of St Louis.

I think the hardest part is going to be finding a zoning map that works with Google Maps. Does anyone know sources to find this?

 

[lilbabycat]

You go to http://www.google.com/mapmaker and choose "browse" which brings up different types of places, so you could filter out where Police, Hospital, Fire, and certain amenities are.

I did some more googling and found this neat site, which does simcity zoning for chicago:
http://secondcityzoning.org/

What is this?

2nd City Zoning is an interactive map that lets you:

find out how your building is zoned
learn where to locate your business
explore zoning patterns throughout the city

To make Chicago's zoning code digestible by humans, we took inspiration from one of our favorite games: Sim City 2000. It started with the color scheme: green for residential, blue for commercial and yellow for industrial. (This oversimplifies things a bit, read the full story.) From there we got a little carried away. Graphics, sounds, music, oh my.

Like all Open City apps, 2nd City Zoning is entirely open source and built with open data.

So with some work you might be able to get exactly what you want.

 

[harsaphes]

Per my previous question..is there a more precise grid system for measuring things out? It's so hit and miss to me now.

 

[aeonrevolution]

Okay, so going ultra realistic just isn't feasible then, ha. I'll have to stick to the basic roadways being the same and base the zoning off general knowledge of the area.

 

[UnknownSouljer]

I'm not super familiar with Saint Louis so I can't help you there, but I don't know if it's a good idea to post a location that says "Home" on it anywhere on the internet. Unless of course that isn't your actual home, but you do have a G-maps screen cap...

 

[aeonrevolution]

Ehhhh.....I'm not too worried about people from this site.

 

[lilbabycat]

Ehhhh.....I'm not too worried about people from this site.

In all honesty, you should be. Just think if that hacker guy from house of cards (also one of the weird incest dudes from Always Sunny) was on here?

 

[rsbennett00]

In all honesty, you should be. Just think if that hacker guy from house of cards (also one of the weird incest dudes from Always Sunny) was on here?

Meh, unless you are a facebook boycotter like myself, anyone can find where you live.

 

[rsbennett00]

Never considered that part.

I'll openly admit...being caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic downtown has never changed my eating habits downtown. I go to wherever I can walk eat and walk back in an hour. Simply finding parking (and then paying bending over and $1/hour for it), is enough to make me want to avoid downtown like the plague.

Good to hear that you aren't one of the sheep susceptible to these heinous practices. I travel the country with my job so I've seen a lot of downtowns. With some of them there's a specific subtle street that has the lights timed so that people in the know can travel faster than everyone else stuck on "Main" streets.

 

[Tup3x]

Someone made a 20k pop city with zero traffic. He laid more pedestrian sidewalks than was right to be sane, haha. Cims LOVE to walk if you just give them the route

I have about 32K pop and I basically have zero traffic issues. I have made sure that walking is good alternative though. Also more lanes is not necessarily better if there's traffic lights.

 

[Droc]

Very impressed so far.
I just wish it had a zoning tool like cities XXL has where you draw the border and it makes the most of the area with crescents and such, it looks natural.
Skylines runs excellent though

 

[blade52x]

I just broke 60K population and traffic is not a big issue for me either. But I've probably spent as much time optimizing traffic routes as I have actually laying out the city. Areas have been completely bulldozed to make for better traffic routes - but it all grows back quickly. Having good traffic is actually quite rewarding as it makes death care a lot easier, and allows you to place landfills and incinerators way off to the side.

 

[cageymaru]

Former SimCity artist is modding buildings into Cities: Skylines
http://www.pcgamer.com/former-simcity-artist-is-modding-buildings-into-cities-skylines/

I guess that if you can't beat them then join them.

Oh yes, and according to that article City Skylines hit 500K in sales.

 

[Thuleman]

I just broke 60K population and traffic is not a big issue for me either. But I've probably spent as much time optimizing traffic routes as I have actually laying out the city. Areas have been completely bulldozed to make for better traffic routes - but it all grows back quickly. Having good traffic is actually quite rewarding as it makes death care a lot easier, and allows you to place landfills and incinerators way off to the side.

Pics or it didn't happen!
... and yes, once I hit 2M in cash I dezoned everything and started over, though I am not convinced that my current grid layout is a good option, the are just too many intersections in a grid layout.
Also, tunnels, where are the tunnels? I want to put vehicle traffic underground. Lastly, where are the big Interstate pileups when it gets foggy, and where's the fog ....

 

[lilbabycat]

I stayed up all night reading up on mods.

One guy made some new road types, based off the pedestrian paths, that allowed for more "neighborhood" looking roads. He posted his source and others will be looking into making other new road types, such as "Bus/Service Vehicle Only" lanes.

I also suggest loading up on the different building variations that people put up that aren't unique buildings. They simply get put into the list of possible buildings that can spawn in their respective zone type/size, which means once we load up on a couple hundred of them, every building in your city will eventually be "unique".

 

[MrGuvernment]

well my 860M stuggles a bit with the game at 1080, not as smooth as i like, so trying to work around that. I got alot of work to do to really get into this game, been so long since i played SimCity 3 even.

 

[FrEaKy]

well my 860M stuggles a bit with the game at 1080, not as smooth as i like, so trying to work around that. I got alot of work to do to really get into this game, been so long since i played SimCity 3 even.

Yeah, my 970M does the same thing, if I drop everything to Medium, it speeds right up.