Unusable land

[Palmerdale]

One of the things I'm noticing from my initial attempts is that this game has a generates a lot of unusable land. Corners, curved roads and occasionally just the slope of the land makes many bits of the land useless. There doesn't seem to be any way to zone land to use odd corners (a five way intersection, for instance) or traces of land that result from roads intersecting at anything other than 90 degree angles.

This seems to force (or rather encourage) a strict grid system on the cities. Interesting places like the Flatiron building in Times Square can't exist in the game, and it's probably one of the most iconic places anywhere.

Even if I can't designate non-rectangular buildings, I'd like to zone these as parks, without resorting to manually filling the space with trees using the landscaping tool. I'd prefer a simple Park zone that covers an any natural area, maintaining wildlife and natural foliage. I'd rather not micromanage trees in order to fill in a triangle of otherwise unusable land.

Maybe one of the C:S veterans would care to share some hints on making non-grid towns.

 

[metacritical]

buy the Parklife DLC

 

[Chieron]

Minor nitpick: the Flatiron building is on (rather, closest to) Madison Square, quite a bit away from Time Square.

There is enough land for some bits to go to waste, so the grid system is unnecessary. Extreme densities also produce corresponding traffic, which discourages grids again (not unrealistic, given the horrors of Manhattan's traffic).
However, that sad, having non-rectangular buildings would be nice sometimes.

 

[ed anger]

There might be some custom triangular buildings in the workshop (if it’s possible to create)? If not, I’d love to see them.

But yeah, once you start zoning large swaths of high-density you realize that the lost space isn’t really an issue.

 

[Palmerdale]

buy the Parklife DLC

I'm highly budget conscious, moreso than most players. Buying a $15 expansion isn't the first option I look for. Older city building games used all the land. I'm just curious about the design decisions behind this one.

Minor nitpick: the Flatiron building is on (rather, closest to) Madison Square, quite a bit away from Time Square.

Oops. Its been 45 years since I visited NYC. Thanks for the correction. Must be time for the old brain to get a tune-up. Or more medications. Or both.

 

[Turjan]

Cities Skylines Flatiron Building collection

 

[Palmerdale]

Another question related to land. I have 2 roads diverging away from each other at roughly a 45 degree angle. When I try to zone, the grids interfere with each other, causing a lot on useless land. As the roads move further apart, the grid stabilizes, first on the oldest road, then to the other. Is there any way to control which grid is used other than building roads in a specific order? In the (hopefully) attached image, I'd like to continue zoning housing along the road. There appears to be enough space to zone two more 4x4 houses, but the zoning grid doesn't let me zone these.

 

[ed anger]

Whatever road is laid first zones first. You can delete roads, add the new one first and then relay the old one as kind of a kludge fix.

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

Sometimes you can run a path along one road, and then "upgrade" the other road and it will adjust the zoning squares. Zone that and delete the path. Can work in some cases.

By "upgrade", a two way two lane street could get changed to a one way street, and back again.

 

[Palmerdale]

That's a bit of a kludge, isn't it? If you're attaching buildings to a road, why have another road interfere with your ability to put down zones. In effect, it messes up the zones along two roads.

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

That's a bit of a kludge

Pretty much all you're going to get I think. There's no "proper" way to do it that I am aware of.

Maybe with some momentum behind it, CO could be convinced to do something about it.

 

[Turjan]

I think CO doesn't feel like it's a big deal to tear down all buildings along a road for adjustments. In fact, there are no real penalties for it in the game. If you are still conditioned from Simcity 4 or real life, where you have to think long and hard about whether you want to spend the money to tear down someone's property for the changes you want, it's clear you will be hesitant. Here you just upgrade a road and make it wider, leveling all buildings in the process. Suddenly, your 7 long plaza is an exact fit for the new city block. Same with intersections and the zoning there.

 

[MotownCountry]

yeah...it would be night for odd shaped lots.... and houses with LONG driveways, long curvy driveways... or U shaped driveways...