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We are very close to release day! In this development diary I will show you how I myself would use Mass Transit to transform a city I have built earlier. While you can of course start with an empty map, I am always excited to create things that enhance existing cities and give new ways of playing in your old cities.

This is my city, naturally called Colossal City. Working nicely, lots of different zones and public transport. What could I add? Well, first of all I want to see if I can make my busiest intersections better with stop signs and adjusting traffic lights. The roundabouts are my first concern, as they usually benefit a lot from some traffic rules.

A couple of clicks later my roundabouts now have some stop signs and traffic looks like it is doing better. Some of my main roads are priority roads and occasionally I’ve removed traffic lights from intersections that have a lot of traffic going in only one direction.

stop_sign_toggling_02.png

Stop sign at the roundabout in Colossal City


Then on to public transportation! I have a very good spot for a Blimp or a Cable Car line. This is an industrial area which needs workers, but also needs to send out trucks with the materials they produce. Getting less private vehicles on the roads will leave more room for the trucks and make the area run better. I choose Cable Cars, as they are a bit cheaper and don’t need as much space.

connecting_cable_car_to_industrial_area.png

Cable Cars taking citizens to work in the industrial area

Now my Cable Car line is up and running, supplying the industrial area with employees. I want to find more places where new lines would help a lot, so I’ll use the Traffic Routes info view together with Traffic Congestion info view. With Traffic Congestion info view I will locate one of the busiest streets in the city. Then I switch over to Traffic Routes and select the street. Now I can see recent trips made through the street.

It looks like much of the traffic comes from this residential area and goes to my biggest industry area. So that will be where I build my line, despite having already the Cable Car line, as that doesn't seem to be enough. I want it to be a Monorail line, because Monorails are cool and I don’t have one yet. Also the Monorail carries large amounts of people, and this is one of the key routes in the whole city, so it will definitely be busy. So Elevated Monorail it is!

connecting_city_with_monorail_01.png

Probably the coolest monorail line ever, running between elevated roads and on top of roads!

I placed my Monorail to run partly on top of avenues, because I had some conveniently placed. I’m expecting a busy line, so I will have many stations to get citizens as close as possible to their destinations. The line is not very long, but I can extend it if I see that it needs more length or it is not used much.

As the traffic is now pretty much under control, I will construct a new area, as the demand for residential has risen. Here the new visual road building aids come to play. I want a tight grid with no free space between the zones. The “ghost” roads tell me where existing roads would continue, and the dots give hints for optimal placement to get the zoning grids to match.

So there it is! My old city, but tweaked with new things. Still the same city, but in many ways much better than what it was. The traffic flows smoother, there are more public transportation options and a new area build faster and more efficient than before. There's still many places where toggling traffic lights on or off could help, some stop signs here and there, and I think I do need that Blimp line still.

Have you got plans on how to develop your cities further? Do you have the perfect futuristic city for a monorail line, or a city built on islands that will have many excellent spots for ferry lines? Show them!


Cheers,

Karoliina
Lead Designer of Cities: Skylines
 
A couple of clicks later my roundabouts now have some stop signs and traffic looks like it is doing better. Some of my main roads are priority roads and occasionally I’ve removed traffic lights from intersections that have a lot of traffic going in only one direction.
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Here the new visual road building aids come to play. I want a tight grid with no free space between the zones. The “ghost” roads tell me where existing roads would continue, and the dots give hints for optimal placement to get the zoning grids to match.

I am a bit concerned about how these new features will impact savegames obtained with widespread mods already offering the similar features.

I am particularly concerned about "Traffic Manager: President Edition", "Network Extensions 2" and "Precision Engineering". Could you please clarify on this point?
 
Well, one more day. Steam says 23 hours to go.

I think in the end, while I will be disappointed in some things that we did not get, that I will still enjoy and be pleased with what we did get.
 
Looking forward to this!

Well, Ferries will be cool, and I kind of like the execution of the monorail (still think it needs to be compatible with tramways) plus the museum buildings! And the free stuff is awesome!

inb4 whinging about Yield signs.
 
Making my older cities better is something I did not think about in the first place, now Mass Transit starts to making sense... But I really hope we'll get something new with airports, metro & subway, and changeable bridges soon.
 
I'd still see that you change the cable cars so that the cabin always hang down horizontally from the wires. The current implementation just looks so stupid!

And the ferries, while they seem to be built to go both ways, in the preview videos, they still turn around at the end stations, which also looks very ugly. I'm really not sure if I will by it, even though I would love to get the cable cars, but current implemenation....
 
I actually already know where to put the ferries and the cable cars in my city. Both will come in handy.
I'm going on a trip tomorrow (timing is everything I guess). and I hope that everything will be working when I will be back again.

But yeah, it would look much better if the cable cars actually hung straight down, as I have already said before, and the ferries really are two-way models that should not have any need to turn.
 
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I am a bit concerned about how these new features will impact savegames obtained with widespread mods already offering the similar features.

I am particularly concerned about "Traffic Manager: President Edition", "Network Extensions 2" and "Precision Engineering". Could you please clarify on this point?

LinuxFan (author of TMPE) said he will continue to support TMPE. If you're worried about TMPE's stop, priority, and yield sign compatibility with COs addition of stop signs, he said this recently:

"Both priority sign systems will at first stay seperate. I know it's not the perfect outcome in terms of user experience (because there will be essentially two features that let you do similar things) but it's currently the best approach regarding performance considerations and mod intercompatibility (I would make TMPE incompatible with mods like "Sharp Junction Angles" for example and that is unacceptable). However, within the next weeks I am going to try to find a better solution. Until then you can use both CO's and TMPE's priority sign features concurrently."

Network Extensions also said they will continue to support their mod as well. They also said in regards to roads being added by CO that their roads will just be duplicates to the ones being added by CO and that you can use both CO's and NExt roads concurrently or just disable individual NExt roads that have been duplicated.

As for precision engineering idk but pretty sure if it isn't updated someone else will take it over.

No need to be worried :)
 
"Both priority sign systems will at first stay seperate. I know it's not the perfect outcome in terms of user experience (because there will be essentially two features that let you do similar things) but it's currently the best approach regarding performance considerations and mod intercompatibility (I would make TMPE incompatible with mods like "Sharp Junction Angles" for example and that is unacceptable). However, within the next weeks I am going to try to find a better solution. Until then you can use both CO's and TMPE's priority sign features concurrently."

Network Extensions also said they will continue to support their mod as well. They also said in regards to roads being added by CO that their roads will just be duplicates to the ones being added by CO and that you can use both CO's and NExt roads concurrently or just disable individual NExt roads that have been duplicated.

As for precision engineering idk but pretty sure if it isn't updated someone else will take it over.

No need to be worried :)

Don't get me wrong, I am aware that modders are making a great job in preparation to the new DLC and I am very thankful for that!

I wonder how the concurrent priority features will stay separate without conflicting, but I trust the author of TMPE!
Having duplicate NExt road types will be a mess for already existing cities, but at least it won't break savegames.
I agree Precision Engineering is a minor problem.

On the other hand, I forgot Transport Lines Manager in my list. I have just read that it has not been updated for the DLC and will be discontinued by the original author. That's bad news. :( Someone will probably take over, but it will take some time to have it running with the DLC.