I cannot get my head around this game! Help!

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay.I am rather struggling to make (what seems to me!) much progress with CS, at least that which is not staggering along the castatrophy curve between failure and just-barely-working-but-horribly-inefficient.

I can - about 50% of the time (!) manage to get started without completely tanking everything. But no matter what I do, I cannot seem to get into a position to get anything that is barely above functional (let alone aestthetic!) I picked up Mass Transit today, and having read through The Beginner's Guide to Traffic by brendan.rnp, I attempted to start a new city. My intention eas to slap a crude bit together enough to get pennies rolling in, so that when I bought the second (or third as it turned out) plot, I could then basically sort of start again.

I had carefully gone through and downloaded loads of intersections (including them as in the aforementioned guide) - the function and variance of which seems a) a lot beyond me and b) (when I actually unlocked them in game) extremely expensive).

And I still ended up with a grotty mess.

Horrible starting zone

Overview:

"Proper" but somehow how still horrible newer zone

(And it's taken my all day - most of it at speed 3 - to hit the 4200 unlocks.)

If anything, this seems to have come out worse than my last attempt!

I just cannot seem to get into a good place to start - by the time I fire-fought the initial budget problems, my city is an ugly mess straining at the transport routes and I never seem to ork out how to fix it.

So, either I am a) utterly hopeless, b) approaching this entirely the wrong way or c) totally missing something utterly trivial.

With most other city builders I've played, I can usually find a guide or walkthrough that sort of gives me a basical sort of "block" to build from. I can't seem to find that with CS - whether because I am still too heavily mired in the thinking of Pharoah or Zeus (or Anno!) or my natural proclivity for straight lines and efficiency, I don't know.



So, for those of you who have not been killed stone dead or petrified by that horrible mess - what are the myriad things I'm doing wrong?

(One first obvious question is whether people who do all the prettiest cities and such like in the Post Your City thread bother with a standard unlock game or whether they just use infinite money and everything unlocked or what.)

Any help pointing me towards some up-to-date (and preferably above-basics, since I'm at the point I sort of want to be learning how do Clever Stuff but am hamstrung by the funding) tutorials/guides would be welcome.

Some absolute rigid instructions/numbers might be helpful (like "Aotrs, you inept fool, start by building X length of Y road, then build Z here and here etc...") - might be a little formulaic, but I might feel like I have gotten started...!

 

[Promethian]

So your first picture is obvious. All the traffic bottlenecking through that one spot to get to the highway is brutal. But you seem to have learned that lesson and moved on to better utilizing highways in your later pictures.

So your main problem seems to be you aren't connecting to the highway effectively. Avoid making just straight roads that directly connect to your highway. It makes vehicles slow to much and disrupts flow. Also as a rule you want multiple entrances and exits to your highway so traffic doesn't bottleneck to a single spot. Starting out when you don't have all the road types do an elevated road over the highway and do on/off ramps from it to the highway. It'll handle traffic no problem until you get heavy zoning and you'll have all the road types by that point so you can make something better like the following.

Here is a simple compact highway connect I made: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=937207569

Tear out bits of your highway and put those in. Do it at multiple points for each zone so the traffic has multiple paths in and out.

 

[Vimes]

I have started to watch a series of videos which has helped me a lot......

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRT48VU3K4p25c2TfegdEqjYp1DHnsDyp



My Cities usually implode at around 150,000. Apart from a nuke or two to completely clean them out I generally accept that they are flawed from the start and so restart another map. Generally I'm ok with that, but it is kinda frustrating. Watching those Videos, well at least a few, have helped me to understand how important it is from the start to have some things in place and avoid potential issues, which seem to grow with the City. No doubt there are other guides which could be better, or just different, but I liked the one noted above.

Typically my Cities would end up looking like satellite districts all stuck together without any real connection or flow. They were not bad per se but didn't have a City look but thta of many settlements. Watching those vids and using districts and zoning rules etc has helped.

Good luck

@Promethian - I didn't know that it was you who (same name but I'm a bit slow - lol) made that highway connect, thanks for sharing it I have both of your intersections.

 

[muttonnoir]

Don't be so hard on yourself! Practice makes perfect! Each new city build will bring you further experience, improvement and refinement of your gameplay. It is good to look at YT posts but remember many of those guys have endless hours experience playing city builders/sims,Also many are playing heavily modded games which drastically alters player experience. Many focus on aesthetics and couldn't care less about running a financially viable city while the reverse is true for others. You might want to try creating a narrative for your city- basic background/history etc. Start on paper- create a basic layout and plan expansion in stages- having this basic framework can really help get established. You needn't stick rigidly to the plan- keep it flexible- think and respond to the changing situation and any great new ideas that come to mind. Don't be afraid to reconfigure/redevelop areas as you see fit. Use real life situations and model them in your game. You might want to look closely at your own hometown/city and recreate it trying to improve known problems. It's important to note that a successful viable economic city might not look particularly nice! It's all a balancing act and very subjective! Just enjoy!

 

[Aotrs Commander]

So your first picture is obvious. All the traffic bottlenecking through that one spot to get to the highway is brutal. But you seem to have learned that lesson and moved on to better utilizing highways in your later pictures.

Yeah, that first bit was deliberately crude - I was trying to make a small area that would fund a steady stream of money so I coulc do a better job later (my first city did a better job than that!) That, as they say... Did not work!

So your main problem seems to be you aren't connecting to the highway effectively. Avoid making just straight roads that directly connect to your highway. It makes vehicles slow to much and disrupts flow. Also as a rule you want multiple entrances and exits to your highway so traffic doesn't bottleneck to a single spot. Starting out when you don't have all the road types do an elevated road over the highway and do on/off ramps from it to the highway. It'll handle traffic no problem until you get heavy zoning and you'll have all the road types by that point so you can make something better like the following.

Here is a simple compact highway connect I made: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=937207569

Tear out bits of your highway and put those in. Do it at multiple points for each zone so the traffic has multiple paths in and out.

Righto. Ta.

So - and I appreciate this is a stupid question - I connect the ends (L and R) into the main highway and then connect offshoots to the roundabout? The next stupid question is, what roads do I lead off that with?

I have started to watch a series of videos which has helped me a lot......

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRT48VU3K4p25c2TfegdEqjYp1DHnsDyp

I found the first one of those last night myself, actually! For a kick-off, that showed he was expanding WAY faster than I was managing, I think that I definitely need to follow the example and raise my taxes!

I'm gonna watch another one or two, I think, turn off a fair few of the legions of intersections I subscribed to (de-clutter things a bit) - excluding Promethian's pair - and then have another stab.

 

[JohnA45]

Aotrs Commander - Everyone's advice here has pretty much said it all, but just remember: The main thing is that your industry and commercial need a lot of access to the highways and to each other. Utilize cargo trains as well...one near industry and one near commercial. Try to turn off traffic lights in areas where they block the flow and add stops on the smaller roads that enter. What I have found to work out best is to zone industry-highway-commercial-highway- residential. Give the people plenty of fast roads to get to each area but also try to keep your citizens out of their cars with lots of public transport and pedestrian walkways that brings them to the hubs. The new traffic overlays really help you to see where the "cims" want to travel and where the industry is going. Using this you can adjust accordingly.

Also, from the look of things you make plenty of money, if you are in the green things are good so don't sweat it too much. The games AI is set to make traffic a nightmare and I have made huge cities, but even my best traffic still had red zones and I almost have played this game daily and for the last two years.

 

[Aotrs Commander]

Here is a simple compact highway connect I made: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=937207569

After an afternoon of fracking around with themes and LUTs, I finally came to make a start... And that intersection does not show up in game. It appears in the content manager, but not in-game - or on the aset editior, which I tried. Your other one does, but despite being subscribed (and it being set to "on") that one doesn't. (CS has been restarted several times over the course of the afternoon, so it's not just that...) Any ideas? Not compatible with Snowfall maybe...?

 

[28rommel]

Here is a simple compact highway connect I made: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=937207569

Promethian,
I have a similar custom highway-roundabout that I created and use for my gaming. But if the terrain is not completely flat, I have a hell of a time trying to place the custom asset. I first must do some sever landscaping before the game will allow me to place it.
Do you have the same problem when trying to place your Overhighway Roundabout ?
Is this a common issue everyone must deal with ?
Are there are cheats or advice you have when this ?

 

[Teldaril]

This happens when slopes are very steep. These steep slopes work on perfectly flat terrain (like in the editor) but nowhere else. Make the ramps longer with less slope and it should work.

 

[Promethian]

Promethian,
I have a similar custom highway-roundabout that I created and use for my gaming. But if the terrain is not completely flat, I have a hell of a time trying to place the custom asset. I first must do some sever landscaping before the game will allow me to place it.
Do you have the same problem when trying to place your Overhighway Roundabout ?
Is this a common issue everyone must deal with ?
Are there are cheats or advice you have when this ?

Yah its a common problem. Incidentally the roundabout asset I share I can fit in a lot more places because it is so compact. Most of my assets are bigger. However if I cannot place it where I want and I don't want to terraform its really easy to just make it manually. Just connect 10 unit 90 degree arcs for the roundabout. Then run the highway under or over it. Finally connect the on/off ramps which if you made the roundabout right will have snap points to just the right spots.

 

[Promethian]

After an afternoon of fracking around with themes and LUTs, I finally came to make a start... And that intersection does not show up in game. It appears in the content manager, but not in-game - or on the aset editior, which I tried. Your other one does, but despite being subscribed (and it being set to "on") that one doesn't. (CS has been restarted several times over the course of the afternoon, so it's not just that...) Any ideas? Not compatible with Snowfall maybe...?

My asset uses the 3 lane highway. It'll be greyed out before you unlock it. That is the only reason I can think of that it wouldn't appear if you are doing everything else right.

As for how to connect to it. My favorite method is a one way that goes straight out from it with one ways leading off every 20-30 units. Make roads on both sides of it but don't zone directly on the one way, I usually change it to a 3 lane highway type so it doesn't create zoning of its own. Create exits to the highway on either side of the asset or run onramps to the roundabout.

 

[28rommel]

OK.
Thank you Promethian and Teldaril.

 

[Aotrs Commander]

Well... I did a fair bit better this time, but...

Traffic in the first section is still a horrible mess I have no idea how to fix (but that sort of goes without saying).

But the satelite bits are better, and I've not even totally gridded them...!

(Dunno why I bothered with all the effort mucking around with a theme, given the winter theme is so snowy, none of tweaks are visible anyway...!)

My asset uses the 3 lane highway. It'll be greyed out before you unlock it. That is the only reason I can think of that it wouldn't appear if you are doing everything else right.

Never showed up, even greyed out (unlike your highway crossover, which appeared and worked as normal). The overhighway just doesn't appear.

Here you are - showing the screen showing it's enabled (preportedly!)

An the intersections UI, showing it not there (note lack of scrolling arrows).

I'm running Precsion Engineering and a couple of other similar mods (daylight and such, which I'm not even using!), but I wouldn't have thought they wouldbe interfering. Your guess is as good as mine then. Dangit.

 

[Promethian]

Well thankfully its easy to recreate. Part of why I share it is because it is so simple. Highway crossover is super complicated but its actually less useful. You can't connect anything except at the specific points. You can connect to the roundabout any way you like.

As for traffic problems in your newest pictures. You are giving them only single paths to the highway so all the traffic is taking it. You need multiple paths to the highway. That way the traffic will split up.

 

[Teldaril]

Regarding the traffic:
Where do you have the problems?
Your industrial area becomes large. I guess it is all generic, thus it needs to import all the raw material and there is no cargo train terminal either for import/export nor for distribution to your commercial.
There is nearly no use for a lot of highway access when you start to learn how to use the railroads and ships to transport the materials and goods.

 

[ristosal]

At the highway interchanges in the original area, make perpendicular roads pass directly under/over the highway. Right now you're basically forcing a lot of vehicles make unnecessary detours and u-turns, especially industrial trucks