Help a fellow mayor in financial crisis?

[Devanor]

Hello people. I recently (just yesterday in fact) got myself Cities: Skylines to try something different from all the war and death in Stellaris, and I think I start out well at first, and then... I'm broke. Once I reach a new treshold so I can get education and healthcare, my city ends up broke and my income becomes negative.

So... what am I supposed to do first so I can keep my finances steady? Any tips for stuff I should do or avoid?

 

[metacritical]

zone more, it costs to build roads but zoning is free. reduce the budget of your services, if you don't need to have schools at 100 reduce it to save money.

personally, i would activate the unlimited money mod that comes with the game while you learn how to play the game.

 

[Steve B.]

Build as few roads as possible when you first start your city. One two lane road off the highway and a small area coming off it for residential. Place your industry on the opposite side of the main road and your commercial on the same side with a connection to industry. Don't try to lay out your whole city at once; you'll have plenty of opportunities to do that later when you're rolling in money. You can always tear down what you have already built and build something else in it's place later.

The water and sewage pumps are way too powerful for a beginning city. Cut the budget for them to the lowest setting; they'll still be able to take care of a new city. The same is true for garbage. Opt for wind power at first; it's annoying to keep having to add more of them as your city grows, but they're much cheaper than paying for a too large coal plant.

Lastly, you are not tied to a failing city. If it's not working out, abandon it and start a new one with the knowledge of your mistakes. I hate to disagree with metacritical but I don't think there's a lot to be learned from unlimited money. It will give you greater satisfaction, but you can't learn the game from it. As in life, you learn from your mistakes.

 

[Devanor]

One two lane road off the highway and a small area coming off it for residential. Place your industry on the opposite side of the main road and your commercial on the same side with a connection to industry

This part I don't understand fully: do you mean I should have one area where there's both industry and commerce, and a second one with residence?

 

[ristosal]

This part I don't understand fully: do you mean I should have one area where there's both industry and commerce, and a second one with residence?

He means you should have industrial and residential zones buffered by a commercial zone in the middle, it's a cost-efficient way to start a city. Ground pollution from industry will make citizens sick, but for commercial it's only a negative effect.

 

[Devanor]

He means you should have industrial and residential zones buffered by a commercial zone in the middle, it's a cost-efficient way to start a city. Ground pollution from industry will make citizens sick, but for commercial it's only a negative effect.

So...

[Industrial Zone] === [Commercial Zone] === [Residential Zone]? Or more like a triangle?

 

[ristosal]

So...

[Industrial Zone] === [Commercial Zone] === [Residential Zone]? Or more like a triangle?

Whatever works, as long as residential zones won't get negative effects. Mine often ends up in a more triangular setting.

 

[Steve B.]

Mine is more like an L with industrial at the top, commercial at the bottom left and residential bottom right. But however you choose to do it, you have the right idea.

 

[Devanor]

reduce the budget of your services, if you don't need to have schools at 100 reduce it to save money.

I messed around a bit with budget (reducing water and increasing power), and that helped alot early. I still ended up broke once I reached the next milestone and got fire- and policestations... I suck at these kind of games...

 

[Mahasona]

Have a look at this simple guide

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422074590

Or check out the 'Lets Plays' on Youtube for more help

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

I messed around a bit with budget (reducing water and increasing power), and that helped alot early.

It is important to note that increasing and decreasing the budget does not linearly increase and decrease the service.

Where the two lines meet is 100% budget and 100% service.

Increasing the budget (blue line) increases the service level slowly, and even slower as you continue to increase funding. Definitely diminishing returns. At the maximum cost, you are paying 50% extra (150%) for only 25% more service.

Decreasing the budget (red line) decreases the service level quickly, but slows a bit as you continue to decrease funding. The first small decrease cuts service rapidly for minimum savings. At the minimum cost, you are paying 50% less (50%) for only 25% service.

End result at either end of the scale, you save 50% and lose 75% of the service, and pay 50% extra for only a 25% boost in service. So 100% budget for 100% service is the best cost/service.

That doesn't mean you should never use it, just be aware of what you are getting out of budget changes.

Like Steve B. said, you get a massive amount of water from a water pump. Far more than you need at the start, so reducing the budget makes sense. It's good advice. It doesn't matter that the cost/service ratio sucks, because you are still getting more service than you need for less money. But when you need more water, don't add another pump. Increase the budget. One water pump at 100% funding will produce the same amount of water as 4 water pumps at 50% funding, which means you pay twice as much for the same amount of water.

I recently saw a video (a Mars scenario) where the Youtuber reduced all the budgets, and kept spamming windmills trying to get enough power, without running out of money. Plopping extra schools too. I don't know if he didn't know, or just forgot. (I'm sure trying to keep up commentary in the video is distracting concentration.)

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

I still ended up broke once I reached the next milestone and got fire- and policestations...

Generally you don't need to build police and fire as soon as they become available. Save the money.

You can wait until a building is on fire to place a fire station. Or let it burn, as long as it doesn't spread too much.

I suck at these kind of games...

Don't sell yourself short. Give yourself some time to figure out how the game works.

There are plenty of resources to help:

People on this forum are mostly pretty helpful if you ask a question.

There is the wiki:
http://www.skylineswiki.com/Cities:_Skylines_Wiki

And as Mahasona said, look up youtube videos and guides on Steam.
Just be aware some Youtubers use a lot of mods, look more for the "how to" type as opposed to superdetailers and that sort.

 

[muttonnoir]

Persevere, it's a pretty straightforward game. Once you "crack the code" you will see the money pouring in. The secret in the beginning is PATIENCE- don't rush to build a full range of service buildings- let the game "tick over" and build up funds - play a long game!

 

[Promethian]

Are you building more than one of each service? When starting out you don't have that luxury. You have to accept you can't get perfect coverage. Don't worry about fire stations letting things burn down (as an example). The coverage is just its specialty effect (lower chance of fire starting for this example) and its effect on property values. They will send fire trucks anywhere that has road access. Same for the rest.

Eventually you'll be able to get full coverage of everything. Once you have all/most services unlocked you can get buildings to upgrade (by providing services) which pay more taxes.

 

[28rommel]

Are you building more than one of each service? When starting out you don't have that luxury. You have to accept you can't get perfect coverage. Don't worry about fire stations letting things burn down (as an example). The coverage is just its specialty effect (lower chance of fire starting for this example) and its effect on property values. They will send fire trucks anywhere that has road access. Same for the rest.

Eventually you'll be able to get full coverage of everything. Once you have all/most services unlocked you can get buildings to upgrade (by providing services) which pay more taxes.

Agree.
From the very beginning reduce your power and water budget to 50% (lowest amount possible). Then keep it at a point that is slightly/moderately more than what your city requires, at any given time. Monitor your water and power because you will need to constantly increase it to keep up with demand as your city grows. Increasing power and water in 3-to-5% increments is good/acceptable (this way, you aren't going to the budget every 5 minutes or so).

Then when you decide to finally add fire/police/medical, always build only one structure, and start it off at 50% budget (again, lowest possible). When you notice a lot of those notification/trouble icons on your map, of one particular type, then slightly increase the budget for that particular service (maybe in 10% increments). Don't panic if you just see one, two or three of these icons, that is normal. Only "react" to correct the issue if you notice a handful of the same icon (but also consider the advise in the next paragraph).

Also take notice that these notification/trouble icons have two stages of severity. If you click on a building with an icon, you get an info window for that structure, and you will see the trouble icon defined (spelled-out) for you in words. The background color behind this wording will first be a brownish color, which means it is only a level one issue (don't panic at this level). After an additional amount of time, if the issue is not resolved, this background color will change to a brick-red color which is a level two issue (now monitor and execute a plan of attack). If the problem is still not resolved after some time as a level two issue, then your structure is penalized (usually it is abandoned or it burns down) or there is some other consequence towards your city. Note that the background color directly in the icon itself, will tell you if it is a level one or two issue (not all the icons, but I think most of them do this).

And as Fox above has indicated, it is usually never a good idea to have your budget above 100% for that particular service, unless you do it for a quick short-term solution (an emergency). So, once you reach 100% and you need more of that particular service, then add/buy another structure (one only). After placing this new structure you can then usually lower the budget for that service slightly (to 70-to-85% or so). Then after growing your city more and more, you will eventually reach 100% once again ("rinse and repeat" the process).

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

Another thing, you can turn off service buildings like fire and police to save money in a crunch. Turn them back on if there is a fire or lots of crime. Be aware, services help the surrounding buildings level up (and pay more tax), so that "happiness" is provided as well as firefighting and crimefighting (and other services).

 

[Promethian]

Another trick for shifting your profit margins in the early game is specialized industry. Specialized industry cannot upgrade so you can short it on services. This means specialized industry starts and stays profitable with minimal investment .The only services absolutely needed is fire. Industry has a high baseline chance to burn and you definitely don't want there to be a long drive for the fire engines.

 

[28rommel]

Promethian's comment directly above, reminded me about another "financial trap" that many people get caught in : Policies.
Some of the policies have a financial cost attached to them, and this can drain your weekly income. So be careful which one's you choose and how you apply them. This is especially so, early on in the game.

For example the "Smoke Detector Distribution" policy applies a cost per every building in your city or district (₡5/week/building). So regardless if the "building" is on a large 4x4 sized lot, or one that is on a tiny 1x1 lot, you get charged the same for that single building. By the way, I find that the Smoke Detector policy is not really necessary, especially when applied city-wide. Once you have your fire department in place, they usually can do an adequate job of controlling any fires that may arise.

 

[Promethian]

and you just reminded me of a policy trick to increase revenue. Big business benefactor, small business enthusiast and industrial space planning increase industry production and make commercial sell more. When these policies are active you make a lot more money off the relevant zones. When they unlock I often straight up double my income with a few clicks. The downside of this is they increase traffic. Proper planning and some well placed cargo transport can take care of this.

 

[MN121MN]

I usually play around with the fiscal policies of the city. If you're strapped on cash and RCI demand is high, you could try increasing taxes a little it to offset the costs. However, don't increase tax for the sake of balancing your budget. Reinvest the earnings into roads to build more zones. Then, you can reduce the amount of tax a little to increase demand back up.

There is also a strategy to zoning. My strategy might be different than others, but in general Residential > Industrial > Commercial. This is because, industry generally requires lots of workers. Therefore, after you build the first R, I and C zones, you'll want to build more R zones. C zones should expand close to the expansion of R zones. I can survive off exports alone.

On the strategy of having I == C == R zones, the reason is to reduce the need for medical services, since the pollution can kill cims. However, for more advanced builds when, you can, for example, separate your industry is like this I == (huge swathes of forest blocking pollution from reaching your other zones) C == R. Then, you'll want to mix up C and R zones a little, so as to make C a little more profitable.