How do you plan a city for future growth?

[NiftyDolphin]

So I've bought C:S and played it some, but I just can't seem to make a link between the starting city and the grand cities with complicated highways and metro systems I see here. What's the best way to make sure that your city is future-proof? How do you create a starting city that you can grow? It's really keeping me from enjoying the game more, so I'd like to hear some tips.

 

[FoodyBorris]

I build one district at a time. As the game goes on I can become more focused on what I need next from a district and where it should go. My first few districts will always be a bit "olde towne". And sometimes I make dramatic changes and demolish large chunks of districts. By growing one district at a time you can spend time making sure the city is balanced. So after the first few cities, and once there's enough population and money flowing in, do a commercial districtit, then an office district, then a resi district, then an industry district of some type, then repeat. At some stage you'll have enough districts that you do the big planning stuff, such as rail loops and road loops all the way around the city. But it should be fairly obvious when to do these when you get there.

Or if you really want a planned city, go for infinite money and everything unlocked and spend ages laying out the ideal city. But even with all the money, it doesn't mean the city will "work".

I also like to try and think of a little back story for a district. This can influenc the policies and the name of the district. Having your own name helps on remembering what they're about. So you might have high density residential but ban high-rise buildings and have the recreationl policy, but in next to the see and call it Malibu, etc

Either wat, good luck and enjoy!

 

[CocoCincinnati]

Sometimes I'll turn the money and building cheats on just to do a planning phase where I lay out the city I want or at least the CBD portion of it and build it down towards a suburb at the initial starting point for that map. I don't spend too much time on it or even let the game run much other than to test a few things, I use this just to get an idea of what I want to eventually see. Then I turn the cheats off and start over, this time building it in reverse. Just remember the best laid plans change when the first car is started.

 

[Myquandro]

I plan every district on its own and built one district at a time. Also I leave enough space around each district to lay down wider roads and/or rail. I determine early on where I want my city center to be and I will leave that free for the first part until my city gets big enough to built most monuments and special buildings as I generally want those in that area.

If you want to see how I'm doing it you could take a look at a City Journal I'm keeping. I post it year by year to get a good overview of the growth, this shows how I planned it and how it expends instead of just seeing a finished result.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/city-journal-green-estuary.850590/

 

[kosh22]

Just be organic. That's how real cities evolve.

 

[towerbooks3192]

So far here is what has been happening to me. I will appreciate tips on how to get that mentality where I absolutely have to stick to building a grid-like network instead of using the curved road features:

First I go by demand and kinda make some grid like networks of roads and zone RCI. As my town grows and services unlock, I usually plop up services in the middle of residential (for school/medical) and fire coverage on Industrial. once I got a set of zones going on, I expand the main road as needed and zone more areas towards a certain direction. Then I observe what problems would arise and build accordingly. By then I will have traffic problems so I try to reroute roads and expand on the old dirt tracks I used and turn them to main roads, add some new stuff like bus service and train service/etc. I usually just see what problems occur and move areas around as needed.

 

[Gilga]

Personally i build different areas as they are different towns (different districts), but first I accumulate money leaving the first district stable for a while (just at 2k population you can just raise your funds up to a couple millions), then I try to grow them separately. During time they will eventually merge in one big city in a natural way. I found this method the best for me to make realistic cities.

But you can simply start the first and grow it adding neighbors during time.

Just find the way that you prefer.

 

[bluespottedhors]

You can only plan so much! In the real world city planners have to exercise balance and cost. Planning too far into the future is costly and a city planners can only do so much. All cities start out as villages but most villages don't end up being cities. In our case, we can make any village a city because everything is fictitious...it's a game. The fun of creating a city is one doesn't really know what your city will need or look like when your population gets really large. I personally always strive for realism so if you do also you just need to google any city to see how they look and handle their traffic and attractions. The bottom line - cities grow, change, so the best tool in the modern world is...a bulldozer.

 

[JerkyJerry]

So I've bought C:S and played it some, but I just can't seem to make a link between the starting city and the grand cities with complicated highways and metro systems I see here. What's the best way to make sure that your city is future-proof? How do you create a starting city that you can grow? It's really keeping me from enjoying the game more, so I'd like to hear some tips.

Tip #1
Love the dozer! It is a fact of life at one point or another in all cities growth. From New York to Rome to Los Angeles and every city in-between they have all at one time or another removed roads, added highways, removed highways, added freeways, filled in swamps, raised roads, moved buildings, removed neighborhoods, changed this and then changed that. Don't be married to a single idea or preconceived notion of what your city has to be or become. Let your creative juices flow and let the city & the map take you to where you will end up.

Tip #2
Build slowly. Cims that move in at the same time will die at the same time. Therefore if you have 10k cims move in on a particular week they will all die the same week. You will want to have $$$ in the bank as well so building slowly at first (at least) will allow you to build up those cash reserves in the event you enjoy a hiccup or two along the way to building your mega city you will have the $$$ to hold you over until you get things back and going in the proper direction.

Tip #3
Watch other mayor's videos on the youtube. Take a day or two and just watch what others are doing and why. You will learn a lot and be less frustrated in the end as you can dodge a lot of pitfalls.

Tip #4
Tourism does not work on any level. Don't try it. It will be an epic fail. Hopefully a fix is in the works but as of today tourism is a no go.

Tip #5
It is a game with many levels. One of which is progression. You progress from a dump to incinerators from a cemetery to crematoriums. You don't need to have both dumps and incinerators for example to have your city function just fine. You can have them both if you like however it is not mandatory. Unlocking one aspect of the game may allow you to discontinue what you have used in the past which sometimes is more beneficial to larger cities.

Tip #6
You will find conflicting advice on this forum and a lot of it. Sometimes it is best to PM someone who you think is knowledgeable and ask that person a question in private so you are not bombarded with responses that will pull you in different directions.

Tip #7
Why do you feel you need complicated highway systems? My current population is 680k and I have two highways; one south to north and the other west to east and they meet somewhere in the middle. You can however make them as complicated as you want but IMHO simple is much better. I know I see those megalopolis highway systems as well and think, not for me. Others however love those interchanges and highways and on and off ramps. That is one of the beauties of this game not every city has to be one way or another to work.

Tip #8
Future proof? Unlocking all 25 plots (via mod) is your best place to start. Having the extra space allows you to do so much more with not only regards to growth (that is obvious) but for the look and feel of the city you want to build. The vanilla version of only 9 tiles I would not recommend for a larger city build.

Tip #9
How do I create a starting city that I can grow? By using the above 8 tips.

Tip #10
There are some that will say that mods are a must have to grow your city into mega status. Others try it in vanilla only as they either don't want to download a mod for security reasons or feel that mods are cheating. You will have to choose which ones fit your needs if any. That is personal choice.

Have fun!

 

[FoodyBorris]

JerkyJerry speaks very well!

Maybe one final point to add to their list - part of the difference in how people play depends on what they want from the game. Some might be focused on how much $ per tick they can earn, or the density of population. For me, I'm looking at trying to get varied visuals from the city.

Isn't it fun that we've got a game with so much potential!

 

[Rottenflesh]

I don't plan for anything, I build it then see what happens then I fix it or try to fix it. If I can't fix it I bulldoze it and do it over until I get what I want. I just have one little hang up...I'm a gridder o.0 Some of the people playing this game really have what it takes to make great cities ie...real looking or a place that I'd like to live in. That's the best part of this game you can make it the way YOU want it.

 

[ivmichael]

What's the best way to make sure that your city is future-proof? How do you create a starting city that you can grow?

Some great tips and ideas already posted, the one I would add is: Always leave lots of space, don't try and cram things too close together or into a tight grid/right angled format (Real cities aren't like that anyway) Later you can add transport corridors with rail, busways, express ways and move things around much better. Although with rail the way it is at the moment I tend toward the Busway option for mass transit it works very well combined with loads of footpaths - it's great how far the little ant people will scurry!

 

[NorthStars]

I agree with many of the ideas expressed above. My two cents to add... a couple of people have mentioned the idea of "organic" growth. Totally agree... and for me, that means I don't allow myself to make big plans. I have a general idea, such as an area that's about to experience growth, but I don't build it all up at once. I add small pieces here and there. Once in a while I zone several blocks all at once, just like a new subdivision that is being built. But I always leave holes for services or new roads or pathways to be created. Whenever a new service or connection is needed in the area, I try to use those spaces rather than bulldozing. Most importantly of all, although I try hard to make it all look as nice as possible, my golden rule is that I never re-do anything entirely just to make the new product look good, unless it makes sense in real life.

For example, I recently needed to build a major expansion line to my rail network, adding a north-south link between my newest suburb and the downtown. The perfect way of doing it would have been to bulldoze a path through my existing neighborhoods, or to level my north-south highway and re-lay everything to make the rail line more intentional. However, realistically, that project would have been too expensive in real life, so even though I had more than enough money in the bank, as you see in the picture below, I built the line in the most sensible place (between the highway and the existing developments) without bulldozing too much. Then I tried to do some landscaping/treeplanting around it. The result is that it looks a bit too jammed up in there, but I feel like that's the kind of "organic" look that I WANT. It's real... city planners usually attempt to create new things with the least disruption/cost to the existing city and its residents, while still creating something nice. The result isn't perfect, but it's REAL. My city's planners are only allowed to bulldoze as a last resort, and I love the type of appearance I get from that.

 

[Shiggs]

one thing that helps me is using some pre-built interchanges, or roundabouts, stuff that will look good and let the traffic flow for a long time to come early and often... That way I don't have to spend as much time bulldozing and changing things when the city does inevitably grow around it. It can be pretty expensive using all the nice big roads and intersections, but it saves time when I don't have to go back and bulldoze... as much.

 

[Myquandro]

I've seen some people here say "organic growth" and although I agree with this that doesn't mean that you build one road at a time or all the roads curved. If I look at RL cities, what I see are cities that are organically grown, but still have very distinct districts/neighborhoods. Most of the old city centers are fully organic, but once you get to the expansions of the 90's cities started to build area's at once, some smaller then others, but almost always complete area's.
The latest expansion in my city is a huge one which add a third of the cities population and almost half of the cities area in about 15 years, all planned. Cities do grown organically, but that doesn't mean they don't plan entire districts at a time.

 

[TotalyMoo]

I try to mentally plan where I want to put big roads and intersections, and then after that just let it evolve naturally as I build things and they make sense.

Also don't be afraid to demolish, re-plan or re-localize areas.

 

[Myquandro]

That might actually be the most important rule of all. Be okay with demolishing everything you've built. Remove that district, rezone those block, create space for that wider road. There is almost no city here in The Netherlands (and it's the same all around the world) where no building has been demolished for something new, whether it was a wider road a bigger roundabout, a bigger tower or a completely new residential area. Nothing is permenant and you're citizens won't have a problem with it and neither should a mayor.

 

[Stuaz]

I do it in stages, its very very very rare that I would lay out a large road network all at once, the only roads I do lay in advance will be Highways. I also use off ramps as one lane high ways in the early days (and only upgrade them as and when needed (sometimes never!)). The same with intersections, its rare I will plop down a massive cloverleaf or other large intersection if I am not planning on building on all outputs at that time. I tend to create my intersections from scratch, starting basic and then as the city grows and more areas are added I will upgrade them which can mean demolishing and creating that intersection from scratch.

My current city for example is around 150k cims and I have had to add express lane highways on the main highway as the volume of traffic is just to high and so I needed to bypass intersections.

I also use the 25 tile mod (but not unlocked at the start) so once that is unlocked I will often then build up a town or industry area off the highway away from my main "city" and then eventually via urban sprawl they will join up.

I actually quite like having to "upgrade" intersections as cities grow and demand increases and solving those issues. I don't really like using massive 6 lane roads right away even if I know 'eventually' there will the demand, it just looks so empty

 

[Greygor69]

I try to mentally plan where I want to put big roads and intersections, and then after that just let it evolve naturally as I build things and they make sense.

Also don't be afraid to demolish, re-plan or re-localize areas.

Have you shared any of your early cities on the Workshop. I love a challenge of trying to "Fix" a city

 

[TotalyMoo]

Have you shared any of your early cities on the Workshop. I love a challenge of trying to "Fix" a city

Hue, huehuehue. No. I'll never share my shame.