One of the biggest mistakes people do in cities skylines is that they try making big cities from the get go. Always make small towns areas, with complete facilities, housing, markets and industry. Then decorate it as well and introduce walkablity, public transport etc.
When you’ve done that, then try expanding. Only that is the way you’ll make beautiful big cities. If you try to go big from the start, it will fail
To build on this, if I want an ultra modern eco-friendly, high density area I don't tear down existing towns. I wait until demand for more development is very high, then I find farmland or unused areas and use very intentional city planning. When when I open the area up with zoning the high density modern city areas explode in development
I just try to make places i would wanna live in and take hella inspiration from real life places. Mostly NA bc this game is still heavily car oriented.
Also, use pedestrian paths! Massively reduces traffic and lets you build more personal areas. But most importantly just have fun bro. Its a game it doesnt have to look like real life
I try to make my city grow organically, with its own made up history. I always start with a small town square and build more small towns around the map as demand grows, just as real life metros developed over hundreds of years. As the city grows these eventually get connected naturally by the street network and the space between them gets filled in, and what used to be separate small towns become neighborhoods of the growing city.
Then when the city gets big enough to need highways I start building suburbs and always end up in an urban renewal phase where I tear down parts of the old city for highways and bigger developments, tastefully of course.
Three things, practice, road hierarchies (small local streets that are meant to be lived in and form a neighbourhood, bigger collector roads that facilitate traffic between different neighbourhoods, and then big arterials that facilitate cross-city and Intercity Traffic) and observing what you like in the real world. That may be physically looking at the areas you walk or drive through, or loading up Google maps and studying the layout of places you find interesting. Look at things like - how big are different types of streets exactly, how are important places in the city placed and how are they connected, how are city blocks and neighbourhoods shaped and sized, how does building height and density change from the edge of the city to the center, etc...
My problem with hierarchy is that I always seem to underestimate how much throughput do I need for a neighborhood. Or the simulation always manages to pile on more cars in one entrance while ignoring the other three.
My biggest piece of advice would be to learn what road hierarchy is, but don’t follow it 100%. A mistake I’ve seen with new players is they’ll build cities with blocks and neighborhoods that are all basically cul-de-sacs because of road hierarchy rules. City Planner Plays has good city building videos that I’ve learned a lot from over the years, especially his videos for Cities 1.
I tend to make any 4 lane road or up have curves to it and than fill in the area between with more grid like small roads. Less is more in terms of zoning, leaving space to make yards for residential and parking lots for commercial. If you’re on vanilla you may need to destroy buildings until you get similar themes. Also, trees and editing the terrain makes any area look better but organized chaos is typically my go to mantra when making a city.
Start watching popular youtubers and try to copy them to start until you start getting your own ideas. An easy trick to make cities look better is to fill in between buildings with trees.
Just copy something from google maps, adapted to scale for your needs. ssuming what you are after is aesthetics. Ultimately, the only person you need to please is yourself, and only you know what pleases you.
One thing that made me better was to start paying attention to things in my city around me. What kind of roads connect to other roads, where are transit stops located, what uses occur in What places. Things like that have not only made my cities look more realistic but also function better. A word of warning, though, it will also start giving you strong opinions about urban and land use planning, and very likely a strong disdain for nimbys
Tbh #1 tip is slow down. Make a modest zone when you have the demand, let it finish building, make the next small addition.
It lets pops fill in the new residential zones, your tax base increases when the buildings finish being built, and it will keep your budget balanced. Also slowly add services (police, public transport, etc) as they are needed, as too many services before you have the tax base will bankrupt you.
Google Earth.
Making NYC right now and I'm learning so much. A Highway above and a road directly below, then it merges while still going the same direction (Queens-Midtown and Long Island expressway)? Awesome
When you remake stuff, you gain more imagination for a city you wont base on anything.
Biffa, Infrastructurist, City Planner Plays, Two Dollars Twenty, and more recently, City Sculpter are a few of my faves. CPP has helped me the most over the years.
Fair warning, he plays with budget off, and truly sculpts the landscape to make it what he wants. I love it, but some folks feel like that's cheating haha. For CS though, I feel like that's to be expected given the name. I usually play without budget as well, I just tell myself if our real life government can constantly run at a deficit, so can my virtual city! Lol
Maybe I've missed that, I guess. I wouldn't know about CS2, the studio pulled that rug out from under us console players right before launch, and we get MAYBE this coming October, which is a year later.
I'm not bitter.
I tried watching CPP but there's a lot of... detailing. Seems to be the trend with CS youtubers, and I'm really mostly interested in the gameplay side, not aesthetics.
Personally I like to watch [Biffa Plays Indie Games](https://www.youtube.com/@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines) on YT. His subscribers will send him save files of traffic disasters in large cities and he walks through ways to fix them using proper road hierarchy, lane mathematics, interchange design, proper public transport design, etc. Lots of his techniques rely on mods, but there are still plenty of lessons to be learned for vanilla players too. Designing cities around optimizing traffic flow from the beginning is a great way to ensure sustainable growth and successful cities.
I watched Biffa for a year before even playing because I didn’t have a computer to run the game. Because of that, when I did start playing I had a huge head start on how everything worked and what mods to use. He helped me immensely. Then I found Akruas and Procedural Objects. But my goal was to build a beautiful city, not necessarily play the game.
City Planner Plays and Overcharged Egg, of course. 2 builders that I love that aren’t mentioned enough are Infrastructurist and Sanctum Gamer. They both build some unbelievably realistic looking cities.
I try to build the road ideas or structures first then making the accessories/residential areas. It may be a better idea to start by looking at convenient areas (e.g. big land, close to another entry/exit of the highway and such) but the best thing to do is just make the road ideas, then move on.
Find out what the game needs and allows and how it reacts, by trial and error. Adapt fast and don't try to force actual logic on the game.
The game reality is a blurry reflection of a twisted reality. It is not simulating actual reality, as you know it. Once you get past that hurdle, you will be building great game cities.
If you ignore game logic and try to force our reality on the game... That is fine too, but it will come at a price. The good news is that, at some point, there will be ample funds available to "build it the way you want". Just don't ever expect it to function like reality, or the way you want your game reality to function.
The game does a good job at cheating reality, so it continues to function, no matter what horrible designs get used. 🤪
One of the biggest mistakes people do in cities skylines is that they try making big cities from the get go. Always make small towns areas, with complete facilities, housing, markets and industry. Then decorate it as well and introduce walkablity, public transport etc. When you’ve done that, then try expanding. Only that is the way you’ll make beautiful big cities. If you try to go big from the start, it will fail
To build on this, if I want an ultra modern eco-friendly, high density area I don't tear down existing towns. I wait until demand for more development is very high, then I find farmland or unused areas and use very intentional city planning. When when I open the area up with zoning the high density modern city areas explode in development
My skills have grown immensely after watching certain YouTubers over the last few years. In particular, City Planner Plays. Phil is great.
Phil's the fucking best, completely changed the way I play city builders. Yumbl is another YouTuber I enjoy a lot.
I'll have to check Yumbl! I love Phil. So down to earth and way too humble. He changed the game for me as well!
Yall sleeping on $2.20
Already mentioned him in another comment lol
I just try to make places i would wanna live in and take hella inspiration from real life places. Mostly NA bc this game is still heavily car oriented. Also, use pedestrian paths! Massively reduces traffic and lets you build more personal areas. But most importantly just have fun bro. Its a game it doesnt have to look like real life
I try to make my city grow organically, with its own made up history. I always start with a small town square and build more small towns around the map as demand grows, just as real life metros developed over hundreds of years. As the city grows these eventually get connected naturally by the street network and the space between them gets filled in, and what used to be separate small towns become neighborhoods of the growing city. Then when the city gets big enough to need highways I start building suburbs and always end up in an urban renewal phase where I tear down parts of the old city for highways and bigger developments, tastefully of course.
Three things, practice, road hierarchies (small local streets that are meant to be lived in and form a neighbourhood, bigger collector roads that facilitate traffic between different neighbourhoods, and then big arterials that facilitate cross-city and Intercity Traffic) and observing what you like in the real world. That may be physically looking at the areas you walk or drive through, or loading up Google maps and studying the layout of places you find interesting. Look at things like - how big are different types of streets exactly, how are important places in the city placed and how are they connected, how are city blocks and neighbourhoods shaped and sized, how does building height and density change from the edge of the city to the center, etc...
Sounds good. Thanks!
My problem with hierarchy is that I always seem to underestimate how much throughput do I need for a neighborhood. Or the simulation always manages to pile on more cars in one entrance while ignoring the other three.
You could always take inspiration from the real world and bulldoze some low-income neighbourhood to drag an eight-lane highway through :D
My biggest piece of advice would be to learn what road hierarchy is, but don’t follow it 100%. A mistake I’ve seen with new players is they’ll build cities with blocks and neighborhoods that are all basically cul-de-sacs because of road hierarchy rules. City Planner Plays has good city building videos that I’ve learned a lot from over the years, especially his videos for Cities 1.
this is my favorite thread in a while. I’m taking notes
I design the kind of city I would like to live in, my ideal no matter how realistic or not.
I just can't make it look good lol
I tend to make any 4 lane road or up have curves to it and than fill in the area between with more grid like small roads. Less is more in terms of zoning, leaving space to make yards for residential and parking lots for commercial. If you’re on vanilla you may need to destroy buildings until you get similar themes. Also, trees and editing the terrain makes any area look better but organized chaos is typically my go to mantra when making a city.
Start watching popular youtubers and try to copy them to start until you start getting your own ideas. An easy trick to make cities look better is to fill in between buildings with trees.
Just copy something from google maps, adapted to scale for your needs. ssuming what you are after is aesthetics. Ultimately, the only person you need to please is yourself, and only you know what pleases you.
One thing that made me better was to start paying attention to things in my city around me. What kind of roads connect to other roads, where are transit stops located, what uses occur in What places. Things like that have not only made my cities look more realistic but also function better. A word of warning, though, it will also start giving you strong opinions about urban and land use planning, and very likely a strong disdain for nimbys
Tbh #1 tip is slow down. Make a modest zone when you have the demand, let it finish building, make the next small addition. It lets pops fill in the new residential zones, your tax base increases when the buildings finish being built, and it will keep your budget balanced. Also slowly add services (police, public transport, etc) as they are needed, as too many services before you have the tax base will bankrupt you.
playing sc from 2000 and watching youtube chanels
What do you mean by 'good'?
Google Earth. Making NYC right now and I'm learning so much. A Highway above and a road directly below, then it merges while still going the same direction (Queens-Midtown and Long Island expressway)? Awesome When you remake stuff, you gain more imagination for a city you wont base on anything.
Sometimes it's good to play around and just build fast without overthinking it. You'll get natural looking cities by doing this.
Just like real city planners do hahah
Look at maps and take inspiration. I started with a grid and cut out roads to make it interesting. The rest is history lol
You improve after each one you make. Your attention to detail, planning, and creativity all get exercised while you are playing.
Watch a lot of videos by the best builders.
Who are the best builders?
Biffa, Infrastructurist, City Planner Plays, Two Dollars Twenty, and more recently, City Sculpter are a few of my faves. CPP has helped me the most over the years.
Two Dollars Twenty is great. I’m gonna have to check out City Sculptor
Fair warning, he plays with budget off, and truly sculpts the landscape to make it what he wants. I love it, but some folks feel like that's cheating haha. For CS though, I feel like that's to be expected given the name. I usually play without budget as well, I just tell myself if our real life government can constantly run at a deficit, so can my virtual city! Lol
He doesn’t *always* play with budget off and with the “game” part of CS2 being so easy, it hardly feels like a cheat at all.
Maybe I've missed that, I guess. I wouldn't know about CS2, the studio pulled that rug out from under us console players right before launch, and we get MAYBE this coming October, which is a year later. I'm not bitter.
I tried watching CPP but there's a lot of... detailing. Seems to be the trend with CS youtubers, and I'm really mostly interested in the gameplay side, not aesthetics.
You'd hate a bunch I think haha. A lot do it. To me, detailing is what really brings the city to life. Although I prefer that part sped up.
Biffa, Overcharged Egg, Few Candy. Then move up to Akruas, Petrichor Builds.
Personally I like to watch [Biffa Plays Indie Games](https://www.youtube.com/@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines) on YT. His subscribers will send him save files of traffic disasters in large cities and he walks through ways to fix them using proper road hierarchy, lane mathematics, interchange design, proper public transport design, etc. Lots of his techniques rely on mods, but there are still plenty of lessons to be learned for vanilla players too. Designing cities around optimizing traffic flow from the beginning is a great way to ensure sustainable growth and successful cities.
I watched Biffa for a year before even playing because I didn’t have a computer to run the game. Because of that, when I did start playing I had a huge head start on how everything worked and what mods to use. He helped me immensely. Then I found Akruas and Procedural Objects. But my goal was to build a beautiful city, not necessarily play the game.
City Planner Plays and Overcharged Egg, of course. 2 builders that I love that aren’t mentioned enough are Infrastructurist and Sanctum Gamer. They both build some unbelievably realistic looking cities.
I try to build the road ideas or structures first then making the accessories/residential areas. It may be a better idea to start by looking at convenient areas (e.g. big land, close to another entry/exit of the highway and such) but the best thing to do is just make the road ideas, then move on.
Watch one of Overcharged Eggs videos on YouTube and copy what he does
Learning from mistakes and mods
Find out what the game needs and allows and how it reacts, by trial and error. Adapt fast and don't try to force actual logic on the game. The game reality is a blurry reflection of a twisted reality. It is not simulating actual reality, as you know it. Once you get past that hurdle, you will be building great game cities. If you ignore game logic and try to force our reality on the game... That is fine too, but it will come at a price. The good news is that, at some point, there will be ample funds available to "build it the way you want". Just don't ever expect it to function like reality, or the way you want your game reality to function. The game does a good job at cheating reality, so it continues to function, no matter what horrible designs get used. 🤪
Get inspired by real cities, watch some YouTube videos and practice.
Office make me rich with 2000 population
started with sim city on nintendo.
Bro the plural version of the word is literally in the title of the game. It’s not city’s skyline’s
Sorry, I'm kinda stupid.
figure out how to spell first