Hi 
I'm a big fan of construction and management games in general and have been playing SimCity 4, Cities XL, SimCity 2013, and also the Cities in Motion series of course.
I'm really excited about Cities: Skylines, and I have high hopes for it, especially since we haven't had a greta city builder in a while.
Watching the Twitch gameplay video, I noticed that the roads seem to come straight out of... Cities in Motion 2.
While that's a great thing, as CS will probably have the best road-building tools of any city builder (especially the sheer ease and enjoyment of building expressways), but some the problems that roads had in CIM2 might carry over.
Now I know CS is meant to more accessible to more players and less a transport simulator and more of a city builder, so I'll try to keep my suggestions appropriate.
Below you'll find my ideas and suggestions, in which I aim to remove some of the problems and improve the tools, while still keeping roads as simple and easy to build as now.
ROAD INSPECTOR
Clicking on a stretch of road, or alternatively clicking with a 'Road Upgrade' tool like in SimCity, opens the Road Inspector window.
Below all the other necessary information/data/stats, the Road Inspector shows a representative top-down graphic of that stretch of road, divided into 3 parts:
#1 Lane styles
Distribution of lanes
Parking spaces
Bus lanes
#2 Median styles
Decoration variations (e.g. grass, trees, concrete, asphalt)
#3 Sidewalk styles
Decoration variations (e.g. suburb style, city style)
Clicking on each part of the graphic cycles through all the possibilities.
These possibilities are in ghostly white to show that it isn't completed yet.
Players can click the 'Confirm' button to purchase the option or 'Cancel.
Example
I've got a 4 lane avenue, with 2 lanes on each side, a centre median, and sidewalks.
Clicking the lanes graphic cycles through different variations, like 2+2, 1&P+1&P.
Clicking the median graphic cycles through grass, concrete, barrier etc.
Clicking the sidewalks graphic cycles through full pavement, pavement+grass, pavement+trees etc.
JUNCTION INSPECTOR
Clicking on a junction, or alternatively clicking with a 'Road Upgrade' tool like in SimCity, opens the Junction Inspector window.
Below all the other necessary information/data/stats, the Junction Inspector shows a top-down graphic of that junction, which can be #1 or #2 depending on the type of junction.
If merging/splitting, transitioning from one road type to another, one-way road or expressway:
(Basically, any time a junction needs road markings)
#1 Actual junction
Possible variations
If at-grade intersection of multiple roads:
(Basically, any time junctions don't need road markings like box junctions)
#2 Short stretches of road just before the actual junction
Direction of road arrows
Clicking on each part of the graphic cycles through all the possibilities.
These possibilities are in ghostly white to show that it isn't completed yet.
Players can click the 'Confirm' button to purchase the option or 'Cancel.
Example #1
An expressway merges from 3 to 2 lanes.
Clicking on the transition graphic cycles through 2 possibilities.
One gives priority to the outer 2 lanes with the innermost lane merging in and the other gives priority to the inner 2 lanes with the outermost lane merging in.
Example #2
There's a classic 4-way intersection.
Clicking each graphic of the road arrows on the little stretches of approaching roads just before the actual junction cycles through all the possible directions of road arrows.
BENEFITS & ADVANTAGES
#1 Clutter-free menus
This approach should clear up clutter by only having the basic road types in the menus, and leaving the other options to the Inspectors.
New players can build roads as simply and easily as now and don't have to bother about the more advanced options, while more experienced ones can make use of the advanced options.
It's even more useful when expansion packs, DLC, and mods add content in the future.
#2 Expanded possibilities
The Road Inspector collects all the different variations and options of each road type, in effect modularizing it, so players can customize roads exactly as they want it without having to stick with presets.
When expansion packs, DLCs, and mods add content in the future, all the individual pieces can be interchangeably used.
Because the direction of road arrows can be changed in the Junction Inspector, more advanced junction designs and slip lanes can be made.
Expressway slip roads can also be made since the transition between different numbers of lanes can be configured.
#3 Better-looking transitions
Currently, there's no transition from one road type to another - it's just a blank piece of road with no markings.
I think this looks especially ugly on expressways.
The Junction Inspector should solve this problem with road transition textures and props.
#4 Proper merging and splitting
In this screenshot, on one side 4 lanes branch out into 2 lanes each, and on the other side 2 branches of 2 lanes each merge into 4 lanes.
On both sides, all the arrows are pointing straight.
Yet, when the lanes branch out, traffic flows perfectly with 2 lanes going to each branch (there's even a car changing lanes early to get on the correct side), but when the lanes merge, there's a bottleneck because each branch doesn't stick to its own 2 lanes (the cars will try to use any of the 4 lanes).
I think this should be fixed - and the Junction Inspector might help by running through all possible options and concluding that there's only one, and so there'll be proper pathfinding.
Thanks for reading, and though it might be a little hard or too late to implement, I hope at least some of the ideas catch the eye of the developers!
If I have time, I might do a mockup of how the Inspectors might look like, but I don't think it's too hard to imagine, and if I have any more ideas, I'll post them here too.
I'm a big fan of construction and management games in general and have been playing SimCity 4, Cities XL, SimCity 2013, and also the Cities in Motion series of course.
I'm really excited about Cities: Skylines, and I have high hopes for it, especially since we haven't had a greta city builder in a while.
Watching the Twitch gameplay video, I noticed that the roads seem to come straight out of... Cities in Motion 2.
While that's a great thing, as CS will probably have the best road-building tools of any city builder (especially the sheer ease and enjoyment of building expressways), but some the problems that roads had in CIM2 might carry over.
Now I know CS is meant to more accessible to more players and less a transport simulator and more of a city builder, so I'll try to keep my suggestions appropriate.
Below you'll find my ideas and suggestions, in which I aim to remove some of the problems and improve the tools, while still keeping roads as simple and easy to build as now.
ROAD INSPECTOR
Clicking on a stretch of road, or alternatively clicking with a 'Road Upgrade' tool like in SimCity, opens the Road Inspector window.
Below all the other necessary information/data/stats, the Road Inspector shows a representative top-down graphic of that stretch of road, divided into 3 parts:
#1 Lane styles
Distribution of lanes
Parking spaces
Bus lanes
#2 Median styles
Decoration variations (e.g. grass, trees, concrete, asphalt)
#3 Sidewalk styles
Decoration variations (e.g. suburb style, city style)
Clicking on each part of the graphic cycles through all the possibilities.
These possibilities are in ghostly white to show that it isn't completed yet.
Players can click the 'Confirm' button to purchase the option or 'Cancel.
Example
I've got a 4 lane avenue, with 2 lanes on each side, a centre median, and sidewalks.
Clicking the lanes graphic cycles through different variations, like 2+2, 1&P+1&P.
Clicking the median graphic cycles through grass, concrete, barrier etc.
Clicking the sidewalks graphic cycles through full pavement, pavement+grass, pavement+trees etc.
JUNCTION INSPECTOR
Clicking on a junction, or alternatively clicking with a 'Road Upgrade' tool like in SimCity, opens the Junction Inspector window.
Below all the other necessary information/data/stats, the Junction Inspector shows a top-down graphic of that junction, which can be #1 or #2 depending on the type of junction.
If merging/splitting, transitioning from one road type to another, one-way road or expressway:
(Basically, any time a junction needs road markings)
#1 Actual junction
Possible variations
If at-grade intersection of multiple roads:
(Basically, any time junctions don't need road markings like box junctions)
#2 Short stretches of road just before the actual junction
Direction of road arrows
Clicking on each part of the graphic cycles through all the possibilities.
These possibilities are in ghostly white to show that it isn't completed yet.
Players can click the 'Confirm' button to purchase the option or 'Cancel.
Example #1
An expressway merges from 3 to 2 lanes.
Clicking on the transition graphic cycles through 2 possibilities.
One gives priority to the outer 2 lanes with the innermost lane merging in and the other gives priority to the inner 2 lanes with the outermost lane merging in.
Example #2
There's a classic 4-way intersection.
Clicking each graphic of the road arrows on the little stretches of approaching roads just before the actual junction cycles through all the possible directions of road arrows.
BENEFITS & ADVANTAGES
#1 Clutter-free menus
This approach should clear up clutter by only having the basic road types in the menus, and leaving the other options to the Inspectors.
New players can build roads as simply and easily as now and don't have to bother about the more advanced options, while more experienced ones can make use of the advanced options.
It's even more useful when expansion packs, DLC, and mods add content in the future.
#2 Expanded possibilities
The Road Inspector collects all the different variations and options of each road type, in effect modularizing it, so players can customize roads exactly as they want it without having to stick with presets.
When expansion packs, DLCs, and mods add content in the future, all the individual pieces can be interchangeably used.
Because the direction of road arrows can be changed in the Junction Inspector, more advanced junction designs and slip lanes can be made.
Expressway slip roads can also be made since the transition between different numbers of lanes can be configured.
#3 Better-looking transitions
Currently, there's no transition from one road type to another - it's just a blank piece of road with no markings.
I think this looks especially ugly on expressways.
The Junction Inspector should solve this problem with road transition textures and props.
#4 Proper merging and splitting
In this screenshot, on one side 4 lanes branch out into 2 lanes each, and on the other side 2 branches of 2 lanes each merge into 4 lanes.
On both sides, all the arrows are pointing straight.
Yet, when the lanes branch out, traffic flows perfectly with 2 lanes going to each branch (there's even a car changing lanes early to get on the correct side), but when the lanes merge, there's a bottleneck because each branch doesn't stick to its own 2 lanes (the cars will try to use any of the 4 lanes).
I think this should be fixed - and the Junction Inspector might help by running through all possible options and concluding that there's only one, and so there'll be proper pathfinding.
Thanks for reading, and though it might be a little hard or too late to implement, I hope at least some of the ideas catch the eye of the developers!
If I have time, I might do a mockup of how the Inspectors might look like, but I don't think it's too hard to imagine, and if I have any more ideas, I'll post them here too.
