Delete all metro tunnels

[TheRealRemus]

is there a mod/tool that allows me to delete all my current metro tunnels?
my metro system is a nightmare there are so many lines I cant rework that, Id like to start from scratch, anyone knows a way to do that without having to delete hundreds of tunnel sections manually?
also generally any tipps on metros, shoud I always use 2 lines on the same route? I.E. line one goes form A-B-C, line 2 goes C-B-A?
also should I increase the budget of single lines to increase train numbers or should I just build 2nd or 3rd line that goes in the same direction?
thanks!

 

[Ragga Muffin]

Well there is a "lock" when deleteing trees, im not sure if it works on metros
Aim the very centre at metro and hold and drag, it works wide brush also

 

[Glitcher]

That's easy enough with the Move It mod. Use the Marque Selection option and choose the picker icon in the top-right corner of the pop-up menu to select a segment of metro track. Now when you click and drag over all your city, the marquee will only highlight metro tracks. Click Del to delete all of them at once.

Regarding tips, you don't need two lines that go back and forth between the same stations. Once a train reaches a terminus, it goes back down the same line - ergo, only one is enough. Concerning your entire rail network - not just metro - I find a useful trick is to draw an outline over your city map of where best to place lines, stations and hubs. Mine looks like this:

I did this when my city was really young, that way I could anticipate where I want to place rails and plan my roads and infrastructure around them. The mark of an amateur is lack of foresight with their rail network, which they inevitably shove entirely underground as an afterthought. Don't make that mistake. By planning ahead, you can keep most of your rails on or above ground, which reduces cost and makes it easier to perceive and address congestion issues.

For a functional layout, your metro can either be in a loop or an open line. If your loop is big enough, you should have two metros going in opposite directions down the same tracks so passengers can travel in either direction. Still, I think you should invest in a proper hub-and-spoke model to design your rail network and make use of the game's transport hubs. Hubs are a staple of Mass Transit and Sunset Harbor (although I find Sunset Harbor has more useful stations). If you're set on making an awesome rail network, I also recommend you get the cheap Train Stations pack, since the extra stations give you a lot more flexibility on where to build train and metro tracks.

Overall, try drawing where you want to place your tracks and use your best judgement for an effective rail network. Oh, and do periodic reviews of all your transportion network with the lines overview. If a line has too many passengers waiting at stops, you can increase the number of buses/trains/ferries for that line. If you're really struggling, you can invest in the Vehicles of the World pack, which has additional types of trains with higher capacity than the default ones. You can have metro trains that carry 500 passengers apiece. Doesn't get any fuller than that.

 

[TheRealRemus]

wow thank you this was exactly the information I need!
you could say that im a major amateur, this is my first city which has grown to almost 100K pop and it kind of just happened, I only ever build metros in the beginning and now its pure mayhem.

Spoiler: as you can see here

Its also the first time I went for a nice-looking city, not going for a phoenix look-alike city plan and I'm really happy with the result, but the city must keep growing and so does the metro system.

mapping out the metro plan is a really great Idea, what do you think about this? currently, I have 3400 using the metro and 1000 using busses, I like placing busses from metro stations to schools. Are these numbers way to small for a 100k city? Traffic is at 90% I have only 1 major traffic jam (right beneath the airport the highway exit into the most west city section) and few slightly red roads that go from the eastern city complex to the middle one (I suspect these are citizen which dont use the metro)

Spoiler: city

Spoiler: my megapolis for reference

I appreciate any feedback, thank you!

Edit: Since Im at it, whats the best way to set a connection for my citizen to get to the university campus? does it matter at all since theyll live in the dorms? Can I build my campus in a remote area or should it be next to the city?

 

[Ragga Muffin]

i dont know exactly i dont have campus but id expect it to be just a bit of both just like indy dlc
so yes out of town requires a link to get maximum students in uni
Maybe use a metro / mono hub and use a monorail into centre of campus
Id do it just for asphetics even if it wasnt needed

Ive currently got a pop of 65k ish, 2k on trains, 3k on trams, 1k on buses,
I kept my subways as my ace in the hole
No i dont suffer with traffic issues, 85% flow.
And yes if your network was more efficient those numbers would double

Use buses as low res to metro and metro as your trunk
Just like road hierarchy,
A centre piece for centre (CC under ground station) would also look boss

Give us a close in look at that trouble interchange,

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

Edit: Since Im at it, whats the best way to set a connection for my citizen to get to the university campus? does it matter at all since theyll live in the dorms?

I'm not certain how that works, but I don't think they actually live in the dorms. (Or workers barracks from "Industries".) I think they just go there, just like any Campus building with student capacity.

 

[TTJ]

Some experience I have made with public transport in C:S:
- Never place stops too close. Cims will walk nearly one tile length (2km) to get somewhere, so placing stops every 1km is enough. This reduces overcrowded vehicles and makes transport faster.
- Because of that, buses are almost useless. Cims can just walk to a subway or monorail station. Or better: Create fast bicycle roads to bridge even larger distances
- Transport routes should always connect residential, industry and commercial, because cims travel to work, travel to shopping and leasure but never visit each other.

Campuses do themselves not create much traffic. But varsity sports does attract masses of peoples. Make sure to connect them to train stations, harbours etc. to get large crowds transported.

 

[Glitcher]

mapping out the metro plan is a really great Idea, what do you think about this?

Without knowing what type of transport those lines represent, I would say the red lines are best served by buses. I hope that's not all metro, because that's rather excessive. Did you give any consideration to passenger trains (or monorails if you have Mass Transit) or do you just have metro on the brain? Despite TTJ's disparaging view on buses (*cough*), they're best used to serve a local area and connect citizens to different forms of rail. Remember, rail is faster than buses and better served for long distances. A citizen can switch between different modes of transport during a trip. For example, a citizen commuting to work can walk to the bus stop nearest his house, take the bus to the local train station, ride the train to a central hub, swap at the hub for the metro, then ride the metro all the way to work. Just as long as the different lines have connecting stops, citizens can switch transport easily. Keep working at it and see if your entire transportation network fits one large interconnected design.

Concerning campuses, students don't actually live in dorms, they just commute. Since thousands of students need to travel to campuses regularly, I find it best to build them near major transportation hubs to facilitate their commute. Here's a pic of my trade school campus built next to a multiplatform train station. Most of my city's lines go through here:

On a related subject, I see you've made little to no effort to expand your starting highway network. That's another rookie mistake. Highways are invaluable, because their high capacity and speed makes them essential for long journeys. As your city grows, citizens will need to make longer trips, so an extensive highway network is required for that. I can't stress this enough: PLAN AHEAD! Don't just build block after block of zoning and then realize belatedly "Oh crap! I forgot to leave space for a highway/rail/whatever." Make sure your highways act as arterial roads through your city and that vehicles have regular access to them along its length. A simple bridge overpass over a ground highway will suffice:

With good highway and rail design, your citizens will flow through your city like water. One final tip: I notice you have the smoke detector policy enabled. Do NOT use that! It's the single worst policy in the game. It's obscenely expensive for a policy with negligible value. Good fire station coverage can handle any fire outbreak and the stations increase land value around them. Don't worry about fires, just ditch the policy and make sure your fire stations have good road access.

 

[Ragga Muffin]

Some experience I have made with public transport in C:S:
- Never place stops too close. Cims will walk nearly one tile length (2km) to get somewhere, so placing stops every 1km is enough. This reduces overcrowded vehicles and makes transport faster.
- Because of that, buses are almost useless. Cims can just walk to a subway or monorail station. Or better: Create fast bicycle roads to bridge even larger distances
- Transport routes should always connect residential, industry and commercial, because cims travel to work, travel to shopping and leasure but never visit each other.

Campuses do themselves not create much traffic. But varsity sports does attract masses of peoples. Make sure to connect them to train stations, harbours etc. to get large crowds transported.

that 1 k on buses is to my airport/intercity buses/to tram network, its just 4 routes,
the 3k on trams is a citywide tram network, i find it truely funny that it only costs me -2k per tick (its not free - yet), 19 routes
the stops happen on the roads in the res zones and behind the zone near commerse

buses can be used same way, but if you want them in busy areas just "drop off" behind zones from their collection runs
use a small round about/dead end as the stop, then with a path to main road 2-3 squares away
dont try and get buses, trolleys or trams to stop on busy through roads, it wont work
if you want a stop along busy road use dead end stops, they should not force the bus to turn across traffic,
this is not possible to use this as end stop (cause 1 will always turn across)
but is a great way to create a small low dense shoppie and bus stop area (along the trunk that has dense commerse) without trolling the traffic on a major through road

trains carry shed tons quickly for long distances, ive got 4 stations in a ring, 2x routes (normal trains)
when i say trains i include all trains, mono is faster and metro carries more bulk but they all basically do the same job

in my time with CSL, i found;
that trolley buses were just slightly better busses, but i dont think losing the trees on road is worth it for them
all 3 types of trains are amazing,
if you follow the above rules with buses/trolleys/trams they are amazing, if you break rules they do more harm than good
ferrys are average. but if you have water you might as well use it for something,
helis are silly, blimps are even more so, but they can fill holes (cross routes), reach out of town

 

[TheRealRemus]

thank you guys ill implement your tips in my next city

sorry (and thank you) in advance for the wall of text, I just wrote down all the questions and problems I remembered encountering.

I noticed my mistake of not thinking and planning about train lines and highway lanes early but was too hesitant to rebuild it, now its way to late, however, my traffic flow is at 91% so I will not bother in this city. I'm sitting comfortably at 120k cims which is a milestone for me.

Public transportation rose to 5k (1,1k by bus, 3,9k metro) a week where I sadly don't know if its alright or too few for this many cims?

I really enjoyed the concept of building circle districts (which slowly merged over time) which sadly restricted me when it came to placing larger buildings, ill have to adjust that and next time ill utilize more diverse types of transportation (for looks and efficiency). the transportation hubs look really useful when using several types of transportation and connecting them, but they look ugly imo, guess ill have to create a city centre that is dedicated for things like that and then ill probably get used to it haha.


on a different note: Where should I place schools for children? Next to residential zones or in hotspots next to commercial zones? how do children get to school? do they always walk to elementary school, do their parents drive them, can they cycle?
Do cims go shopping after finishing a day of school? or do they go from school --> home --> shopping? Again: place schools next to where cims live or somewhere I wish cims to be, i.e. in commercial zones?

Are there no one way bicycle roads?

how well do cities work with only office zones, with no industy zone?

This brings me to two main problems I faced this run (simultaneously): office zones not having enough buyers, commercial zones not having enough customers.

Since I wanted as many highrise buildings I only used IT-Cluster offices, these do not produce any traffic right? But they provide goods for commercial zones. Are these goods for any type of commercial zone (tourism, leisure, eco, generic) or do they sell only to generic commercial buildings? My offices often complained that they had not enough buyers (commercial zones who bought goods?). Do they not export their goods? (Different User already figured that they teleport their goods, and that they fill up warehouses, which do not empty.)

Some small parts of my commercial zones often cried about not having enough customers, I figured this must be because not enough people got there. (Demand for commercial zones was always high even though many buildings complained about too few customers, so must be lack of connection, right?)

 

[Glitcher]

I noticed my mistake of not thinking and planning about train lines and highway lanes early but was too hesitant to rebuild it, now its way to late, however, my traffic flow is at 91% so I will not bother in this city. I'm sitting comfortably at 120k cims which is a milestone for me.

Public transportation rose to 5k (1,1k by bus, 3,9k metro) a week where I sadly don't know if its alright or too few for this many cims?

Since I wanted as many highrise buildings I only used IT-Cluster offices, these do not produce any traffic right? But they provide goods for commercial zones. Are these goods for any type of commercial zone (tourism, leisure, eco, generic) or do they sell only to generic commercial buildings? My offices often complained that they had not enough buyers (commercial zones who bought goods?). Do they not export their goods? (Different User already figured that they teleport their goods, and that they fill up warehouses, which do not empty.)

Some small parts of my commercial zones often cried about not having enough customers, I figured this must be because not enough people got there. (Demand for commercial zones was always high even though many buildings complained about too few customers, so must be lack of connection, right?)

That 91% traffic flow seems suspect, but I suppose that would happen if you don't have any factories generating freight. I guarantee traffic won't be that smooth in an industrialized city if you don't have proper infrastructure. To answer your question, it is technically possible for a city to survive entirely without industry, but it's not recommended. You lose out on industrial taxes and products that are taxed along the supply chain. You don't get any tax from importing goods and there's a danger that too many imports will clog up your outside connections. You're already suffering problems with IT clusters complaining about lack of buyers (which I didn't even think was possible), so there is a limit to how much of them you should zone. For now, I recommend you enable the policies "Small Business Enthusiast" and "Big Business Benefactor". These policies double the number of goods sold in low and high density commercial, respectively, which means shops require more goods shipped to them. That should give your IT cluster more buyers. You should leave these policies on all the time, because you get tax for every product sold, which means the policies pay for themselves and boost your commercial development. It's a win-win.

Since this is your first city, I take it you have no idea how the game's supply chain works. I recommend you read this article to clue you in before proceeding. You need a balance of specialized industry (extractors and processors) and generic industry to supply your commercial. I believe the devs said you should build one extractor for every two processors, but anything outside of this ratio will be automatically handled by imports and exports. Basically, you get tax for products that are extracted, processed, manufactured and sold within the city, so you should build a complete supply chain and not just rely on offices. You should frequently check your Outside Connections info view to see what your city is importing and exporting. If you're importing a lot of forestry, build more mills. If you're exporting too much agriculture, cut back on farming. It's simple enough to understand.

Be wary that industry means freight trucks galore, so you need good highways and rail to service them. By the looks of things, you built no train system at all and relied exclusively on metro tunnels for rail. That's exactly what I said not to do. You're severely overdependent on shoving metro underground so you don't have to worry about planning where to lay tracks. You really need to start a new city and practice weaving tracks above ground for citizens and freight. Passenger trains exist, you know! Don't just build metro, metro, metro like your life depends on it. Cargo trains are vital for industry to alleviate traffic, so work on building a good cargo rail system in conjunction with your passenger rail. Trains have congestion problems of their own, but you just need to keep practicing with it to improve.

Regarding education, schools benefit all types of zones, so you can place them wherever you want. Children can walk, cycle, drive or take public transport to schools. I'm not sure if their parents drive them, but it's a moot point. For best results, you should give your schools good connections to public transport (and a bicycle network if possible) for students to reach them. There's no preset order for citizens' journeys. They can go to school, shops, work or parks in any order they choose.

On a final note, you mentioned some commercial complaining about lack of customers. This can happen even under the best of circumstances. As long as it's not widespread, I suggest you just take the hit and let the problem sort itself out.

PS. No, there are no one-way bicycle roads. Can't imagine why you would need them.

 

[TTJ]

I would recommend starting new threads for new questions for better visibility and searching. However...

Replacing industry entirely with IT cluster was the idea of the Green Cities DLC, so it should work in principle. More important is, that you balance your import and export. Currently you seem too export to many goods. That's why buyers are missing. Pimping or expanding your commercial zones is one way. The other is to zone less IT. The Green Cities high density residential buildings also make nice high rises. Maybe you can mix with a few of them (Tip: You can have both specialisations active in one district). In the end your import and export should be roughly the same.

 

[Ragga Muffin]

thank you guys ill implement your tips in my next city

sorry (and thank you) in advance for the wall of text, I just wrote down all the questions and problems I remembered encountering.

I noticed my mistake of not thinking and planning about train lines and highway lanes early but was too hesitant to rebuild it, now its way to late, however, my traffic flow is at 91% so I will not bother in this city. I'm sitting comfortably at 120k cims which is a milestone for me.

Public transportation rose to 5k (1,1k by bus, 3,9k metro) a week where I sadly don't know if its alright or too few for this many cims?

I really enjoyed the concept of building circle districts (which slowly merged over time) which sadly restricted me when it came to placing larger buildings, ill have to adjust that and next time ill utilize more diverse types of transportation (for looks and efficiency). the transportation hubs look really useful when using several types of transportation and connecting them, but they look ugly imo, guess ill have to create a city centre that is dedicated for things like that and then ill probably get used to it haha.


on a different note: Where should I place schools for children? Next to residential zones or in hotspots next to commercial zones? how do children get to school? do they always walk to elementary school, do their parents drive them, can they cycle?
Do cims go shopping after finishing a day of school? or do they go from school --> home --> shopping? Again: place schools next to where cims live or somewhere I wish cims to be, i.e. in commercial zones?

Are there no one way bicycle roads?

how well do cities work with only office zones, with no industy zone?

This brings me to two main problems I faced this run (simultaneously): office zones not having enough buyers, commercial zones not having enough customers.

Since I wanted as many highrise buildings I only used IT-Cluster offices, these do not produce any traffic right? But they provide goods for commercial zones. Are these goods for any type of commercial zone (tourism, leisure, eco, generic) or do they sell only to generic commercial buildings? My offices often complained that they had not enough buyers (commercial zones who bought goods?). Do they not export their goods? (Different User already figured that they teleport their goods, and that they fill up warehouses, which do not empty.)

Some small parts of my commercial zones often cried about not having enough customers, I figured this must be because not enough people got there. (Demand for commercial zones was always high even though many buildings complained about too few customers, so must be lack of connection, right?)

ive had not enough buyers for office before
I think of it likes they still selling stuff but it just doesnt need trucks
You can increase demand by growing??

You will always need indy, just to be self sufficient for the amount of commerse you have
I use a lot of decentralised commerse and indy, like town inside a city, local shoppies for res
In a large well educated city. Indy 4.0 would stop you needing so much space for indy, frieght trains,
In a city that size you shoud be farming its own food, cutting wood, fishing (because)
i actually like your city, its interesting, circle thing comes with issues
No need for so many policys,
dont start again, dont be scared to knock, you have your basic shape and people moved in.
Now go and make that idea work

Im doing a stream in next couple of days, look out for it
10 hours of me detailing airport, been putting it off for ages

 

[Glitcher]

Replacing industry entirely with IT cluster was the idea of the Green Cities DLC

What? No, it isn't. Where did you get that idea from? That's like saying organic shops are meant to replace vanilla shops. That's not how the game works. IT clusters fill a niche role by having offices supply a small amount of generic goods, but they were never intended to replace industry.

dont start again, dont be scared to knock, you have your basic shape and people moved in.

Actually, he should start again. No one gets their first city right, and its clear from his layout that it's too late to implement an extensive highway and rail network. Players' first city is always a learning experience, now he can move onto a more serious effort with his next one.

 

[Ragga Muffin]

Actually, he should start again. No one gets their first city right, and its clear from his layout that it's too late to implement an extensive highway and rail network. Players' first city is always a learning experience, now he can move onto a more serious effort with his next one.

Interesting idea,
Id just tear up huge swathes of city, knowing it would grow back.
The "donkey work" of milestones is done already
Then what ever he does no matter how destructive. it will be in an established city, so it will imediately grow up

 

[Glitcher]

Interesting idea,
Id just tear up huge swathes of city, knowing it would grow back.
The "donkey work" of milestones is done already
Then what ever he does no matter how destructive. it will be in an established city, so it will imediately grow up

Except that it's not just a matter of infrastructure, there's also the issue of getting all types of industry in place. To include that and connect it to a citywide highway and rail network would involve bulldozing half the city. There's no way to predict how that will upset the current balance when the city's goods are dependent on IT clusters. Plus we have no idea where his resource deposits are. His major residential blocks could be sitting on a vital oil field for example. There are just too many variables, too many unknowns and too much risk to consider what you're suggesting. Better to just start a new city.... it's easy enough to gain milestones as it grows.

 

[TheRealRemus]

Thanks again guys, I absolutely did not know about the exact mechanic of the Industry supply chain. I've only been using specialized industry, wood, farming and iron (until exhausted).

The premise of my city is "green city", reduce pollution to a minimum. which is why I have so many policies (bikes, smoke detectors, no combustion, only electric cars, etc etc.) and thats also why I didnt want any generic industry (or oil) as they produce lots of pollution. In fact Glitcher is right half of my city is sitting on my oil deposit

According to the wiki owning no generic industry means that commercial buildings import everything? and my Industry exported everything? Currently, the city needs 23k import and provides 17k export .__.

Spoiler: import/export

I dont really understand this, Mail is both my biggest import and export? does this matter like at all? apparently, all my commercial zones must be supplied by my IT clusters alone, because they export a big chunk (big parts of my IT-clusters are highlighted in purple)

Its funny to me that I make it look like this is my first town, last time I played was just so long ago, 2019 when campus DLC dropped though as I said Ive never been this far into the game

In case you are wondering why I chose to build a circle like city, I got inspired by StarWars/Stellaris planet cities:

Spoiler: just look at it

thank you all and see you around when I have questions about my next project

 

[Ragga Muffin]

Any indy you build after the Eden project is clean
I also have no idea what truely goes on with export/import
I just give a best guess and if im wrong i guess i guess again

 

[Glitcher]

The premise of my city is "green city", reduce pollution to a minimum. which is why I have so many policies (bikes, smoke detectors, no combustion, only electric cars, etc etc.) and thats also why I didnt want any generic industry (or oil) as they produce lots of pollution.

An altruistic goal, but I don't think it's in the best interests of your economy. Pollution isn't inherently bad, just as long as it doesn't creep into your residential areas.

I'm not sure you're aware of this, but noise pollution can be just as deleterious as air pollution, and it's far more widespread. I recommend going into the options menu and assigning keyboard shortcuts to important info views like noise pollution so you can monitor it regularly. Just as long as your homes aren't deep in the red, you're good.

I dont really understand this, Mail is both my biggest import and export? does this matter like at all? apparently, all my commercial zones must be supplied by my IT clusters alone, because they export a big chunk (big parts of my IT-clusters are highlighted in purple)

That seems like an insanely high amount of mail you're importing and exporting. How many post offices did you build? Can you show us a screenshot of your city with the mail buildings highlighted? You shouldn't be swamped in letters.

I'm actually surprised you're exporting a significant amount of goods with no generic industry. I didn't think IT clusters could overproduce to that extent. There are also some things about your city that confuse me. How can you be exporting oil when you said you don't have any oil industry? You also mentioned warehouses, which means you have Industries DLC. You can't supply your unique factories without all types of industry, including oil processors like petrochemical plants. Did you actually build those or did you forgo industry areas entirely?

I'm not sure if IT clusters interact with warehouses because they don't have freight trucks. But if your warehouses are filling up and can't empty, something is obviously wrong. Maybe if you share your .crp save file, I can inspect your city in more detail and figure out exactly where the problems lie.

Any indy you build after the Eden project is clean

Uh.... that's not how the Eden Project works. I built it in my previous city (which I immediately regretted because it's OP), and from observation it looks like it reduces pollution from ploppable buildings. Zonable buildings still produce the same pollution as before. A mild warning to @TheRealRemus: Monuments are fun and all, but they can completely break the balance of the game. Why bother building schools when the Hadron Collider can do everything? Personally I prefer playing without monuments for a more rewarding experience.