It has been over 15 years...

[TimW]

... since I last played a city simulator. I played SimCity for C64 from 1990 to 1992, Windows from 1992 to 1994; SimCity 2000 for DOS from 1994 to 1999, then the Windows version of that until about 2001; and SimCity 3000 from from 2000 too 2002. What inspired me to purchase and play "Cities: Skylines" was seeing some of the city creations, junctions, and seeing the land as a canvas and the cities as its paint. I bought "Cities: Skylines" over an Halloween sale on Steam and spent a good part of November learning the ropes as well as from some mistakes I made early on. I now present to you the region of "Wayne". Those of you who are famliar with a certain part of Michigan will understand the pattern of the district names I gave.

Overview from the start of my session a few minutes ago. That empty portion in the middle is reserved for a future highway:

A zoomed-out view of the same area:

I have not bought some land yet even though I have been able to do so:

Zoning:

City during the daytime after adding some roads and a residential area along the river:

Here is where I started the city. I started with an orderly grid. As I grow, I want to have more of a design flow with the river:

I would like some advice from veteran players on design, play, as more importantly: Which slot of land to buy next.

 

[TimW]

The expansion of Wayne has begun. I decided to work towards the initial entrance of the city by purchasing the map tile there and adding a whole new residential district there. I also started work on expanding the highway system. The highway will not go to pre-built junction on the other side of the map: It will go in a direction where the grid lines with the river. It is between there and the small area where the downtown area will go.

 

[TimW]

I finally built that motorway through the corridor. Unfortunately, the impact was larger than I thought it would have been even with the reservation. It took trial and error to not on ly position the first bridge but also to position the second span.

One of the consequences of the main road drag (I call it "Woodward Avenue") is the heavy traffic on the bridge. This necessitated a second bridge as a relief route.

The second bridge did help with traffic relief. I noticed that the traffic is coming from the west side of the motorway, which means there will be a bridge on that side and much larger growth. The city of Wayne is experiencing growing pains with traffic and sanitation while trying to keep up with incinerators and landfills. In the high-density section, I managed to put a large park in the middle of an office building complex.

 

[TimW]

I purchased more land and completed the motorway. I would like to make that interchange a nice neat turbine. I also expanded the high-density area. The Campus Martius district is now a fully shopping district with a park and some leisure. The education system saw some expansion with the addition of a university, which forms the cornerstone of the low-density Dearborn district (The real Dearborn, Mich is has Ford Motor Company HQ, test track, two museums, and the Dearborn campus of University of Michigan). The south motorway has two exits heading into the city while the newly-completed link motorway makes a relief junction into both sides of the city.

The sewage outflow pipes have been replaced by sewage treatment plants. I have a problem with trash collection even though there is plenty of landfill and incinerator capacity. I also recognize that traffic is a large issue as the motorway near Dearborn district consistently has congestion going far back. I recognize that mass transit will have to be upgraded.

Needed:
1. How to deal with uncollected rubbish despite having more than enough capacity.
2. Make the motorway junction near Dearborn into a full turbine interchange and have precision.
3. Proper mass transit routing
4. How to make a truly leisure-specialized district

 

[TimW]

Happy Belated New Year! There has been more expansion. I developed a district called "Southfield", which is to the north motorway. I also gave the low-density residential area of it an American subdivision feel. That map tile is now nearly developed. I would to put the Modern Art Museum in the Campus Martius disctrict, which will be the city's downtown and key entertainment district. I put two sports venues next to each other in the south. When the city hit 36,000, the harbour became available. Dearborn is also filled in and there has been some westward expansion from there. Additionally, the River Rouge district has been converted from industrial to office and the fossil fuel power plants are gone! It is solar, wind, and trash that powers the whole area. My goal will be to fill in the Southfield-Northville tile then expand to where I have the harbour.

 

[Mr. Capiatlist]

Haha. Seeing this for the first time. Great to have a fellow Detroiter here (east sider, don't judge too much ).

 

[TimW]

I am from Flint, MI but the Detroit area has far more district naming opportunities. Thank you for replying!

 

[Mr. Capiatlist]

I am from Flint, MI

Meh. Close enough.

 

[TimW]

The entire north end has been filled in. I have been maintaining a high-educated populace and putting in parks. I purchased land to the east and the west of the center when the need arose installed a nuclear power plant, and removed all of the fossil-fuel plants.

To the left is a seaport along with a small expansion over a hill.

Finally, the bustling downtown:

The city also now has a rail station with outside connections and quick access to downtown. I will need to plan some type of a rail depot at the port along with tracks dedicated to freight. I have also considered a tram system on main roads.

 

[MotownCountry]

Haha. Seeing this for the first time. Great to have a fellow Detroiter here (east sider, don't judge too much ).

I am from Flint, MI but the Detroit area has far more district naming opportunities. Thank you for replying!

shoutout to my fellow michiganders! i'm a downriver rat! heheheheh

 

[TimW]

Wayne finally hit the population of 70,000. I celebrated that milestone by buying the NW tile and erecting an Airport there. I started expanding towards there as well before saving. On my next session, I was greeted by a citywide low land value. Almost all of my districts dropped about 10-15 in value immediately, which started a vicious cycle. At last save, the population dropped to 65,000 and is on the decline.

What can be done about the land value problem? I have parks EVERYWHERE. What am I missing?

 

[swemale]

Wayne finally hit the population of 70,000. I celebrated that milestone by buying the NW tile and erecting an Airport there. I started expanding towards there as well before saving. On my next session, I was greeted by a citywide low land value. Almost all of my districts dropped about 10-15 in value immediately, which started a vicious cycle. At last save, the population dropped to 65,000 and is on the decline.
View attachment 234419 View attachment 234420 View attachment 234421 View attachment 234422

What can be done about the land value problem? I have parks EVERYWHERE. What am I missing?

To many parks???

 

[TimW]

It is hard to believe it has been more than a month since my last post. Yes, the city of Wayne did recover. I focused my expansion to the northwest sector. In the upper left portoin, you can see the highway stub I made to mark future growth. The regional airport is just north of there.

Here is a close-up of the area slated for expansion. My goal is to round that out before looking to the south and east sections.

A close-up of a park near the train station:

Finally, an area I have not built up because I want to mark a highway at about this location. It will link these two highways in here together.

Soon, I will have another set of screens available to show that northwestern expansion.

 

[TimW]

Here is that update I promised! This is the remainder of the northwestern corner being filled out. At this point, my goal was to hit 90,000.

This area is just to the south of the Livonia district. The original plan was to make this all industrial but my demand showed a need for something else:

One of my previous showed a park in darkness. Here is that same spot during daylight. Because of some bad planning, I had to elevate the road over the tracks, which made some land unusable. I decided to do some landscaping there.

Goal reached!

Here is the completed 3x3 of the initial city:

I have a highway link planned for the blank area just southeast of Campus Martius. It will be part of a beltway system. The place between Dearborn and Westland has an interchange that I have planned to finish up to have four directions in full service.

1. Is there a mod I can use to make this into some type of a PDF road map?
2. What is the name of the driving mod as I would like to see what it is like from a ground standpoint?

 

[TimW]

Wayne's eastward expansion began with the purchase of the last NE tile followed by a layout of major roads along with access to one of the two motorways. I divided the road to prevent traffic backups. This is slated to become a major industrial hub. This also marks my attempts to use some mod tools to make more precise interchanges.

Here is the nearby grid being filled in and after it has been zoned:

At the end of that session, I started initial layout of an eastern link that would take pressure off the motorway in the center of the city.

Last night, I spent the better part of a half hour learning how to make a semi-precise turbine interchange. The end result is farm from perfect but it is a start:

After that, it was laying down some of the framework for major road connections. This highway is going to meet the other one to the north and will be the first phase of a beltway system.

Once the beltway is complete, the city will be filled in and the outside perimeter will be a trail system. After that, Wayne is going into what I call a "suspend" state: It will be saved and I may touch it later. As for my next city, there is one other thread I started in these forums.

 

[TimW]

Phase I of the Wayne Beltway system is now complete:

As a bonus, I built the International Airport. The original plan was to have it south of the city, but the land was too steep for it. The next step is to fill in this land and turn to expand south.

 

[TimW]

I am putting Wayne on hold for a while. The next city will be a divided city with very limited and asymmetrical access between the two halves. Each side will have their respective infrastructure, methods of governance, and development patterns. Now for a name for it.

 

[Anvar74]

Like your City.

You were asking what the Ground Camera Mod is, the main one that most people use is First Person Camera which I would recommend.

 

[TimW]

A month and a half later, I made some improvements. I have been filling out the northeast. After some work, I opened up the land to the south with Phase 2 of the beltway. The next portion will meet another highway in the north. The highway between Westland and Dearborn will be extended to this as well.

Here is my second attempt at a turbine interchange:

 

[TimW]

Wayne has been expanding in both land and population. I am used to filling in everything with minimal thought, which is something that I am trying to break. This section north of the international airport is showing it.

That road has finally been extended to that airport and the corresponding highway interchange has been updated:

After this, I did some serious district consolidation. This would also free up some names. Then came a project I have been wanting to do: Extend what I call the Southfield Motorway to the southern portion of the beltway. Although I paused the simulator, I decided to attack it like a highway project: Close down some roadway and rebuild some bridges. One of my requirements was minimal disturbance of the surrounding area.

It starts with utilites relocation and closing off the road:

That green space between the highway and the electricity lines held the highway and a road crossing.

It also took some planning to extend the highway where I wanted to. Here is the completed Southfield extension and its connection to the South Line:

This area will undergo development shortly. Olympia will have a leisure focus.