Ok, so I've put in over 150 hours on Cities Skylines, but I've never shared one of my cities. Until now. My plan is to post an update as the city progresses. I've played a bit on the city already, so we'll get quite a bit of growth in this first post.
Welcome to Victoria.
Here's some background information:
Map - Whisperwood Frontier, with all 81 tiles unlocked from the beginning.
Mods - I have a lot equipped right now, but the main ones that significantly affect things are Network Extensions 2 and Traffic Manager President.
Goal - My intent is to achieve slow, organic growth. As a result, I'll be sticking to low density as long as I think it makes sense, and no new developments on the outskirts of the city will start out as high density.
Inspiration - Pacific Northwest U.S. (i.e. Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle)
Backstory / History
Victoria is situated in a site of military and economic strategic importance during the 18th and 19th centuries. The British built a fort in the region and a small settlement to protect trade; however, the area did not grow much until the 21st century when some developers came along after the town leaders convinced the Canadian authorities to extend a highway from Vancouver.
The Beginning
Here are a couple of images showing the overview of the map when we begin. As you can see, Victoria is situated on one end of a strait, with some flat land around it. There is also a pretty big area on the plateau that is buildable as well as the land across the strait. We'll be building primarily on the same side of the strait before extending across it.
Opening Transit
The external connections include a highway and rail coming from the north, and the ship line runs through the strait (which is very convenient and realistic!).
Resources
There is a lot of forest and ore. Very little to no oil, and a small amount of fertile land. When the developers arrived, there was a small farm (Mill Square), logging camp (Maple Park), and mine (Concord Hills) already established, with generic industry in Victoria itself.
Skipping ahead a little bit (because I didn't decide to do a journal right away and so I didn't take as many screenshots)...
27k residents
In general what I did was I first built a road along the strait. Then I decided that it was logical that a small town would develop in the little bay there (called Oak Park). I also started to do the same along the shore to the northwest of downtown. I slowly started developing those areas then watched traffic a little bit. The residents of Oak Park then started petitioning to have a road built directly from their community to downtown, in order that they didn't have to drive the long route along the strait to get to Victoria, and the result was the angled street.
After Oak Park was successful at getting a new road built, the industry also started to push to have a more direct road built, as traffic was building up at their highway access point due to all the residential traffic coming from Victoria. So that's how we ended up with a direct road there.
Development continued along those main roads, filling in the area southeast of the road to Oak Park first because it's closer to the water. Victoria University opened up where the two main roads reach the main thoroughfare. I'll try and remember to take a screenshot of that area at some point as well, since it looks pretty nice.
A couple of cool parts of the city that were developed at this point include the site of Fort Victoria, which was built into a park, and the passenger harbor / minor league baseball stadium.
Fort Victoria
Minor League Stadium & Passenger Harbor
38k Residents
As the city grew from 27k to 38k, traffic started to become a problem in University Park. A lot of residents were traveling along the angled. As a result, the city built its first public transit system based on the routes that people were actually taking. (side note: this is different from the way I've played recently, as normally I build areas based on a planned idea for the transit whereas this time I am planning to mostly develop the transit system based on actual need. In other words I'm letting the cims travel and then figuring out where it makes sense to put transit)
We now have our first metro line that goes from Oak Park down to the main transit hub in Victoria, following the angled road. We also started a few bus lines that run from the transit hub to a couple of the districts, and a tourist bus that goes through downtown, connects the transit hub to the cruise harbor, and loops through Fort Victoria. A ferry line goes around the city with a few stops. Finally, two train lines were started. One goes to the northwest with a stop in Evergreen Square, and the other heads north with a stop in the industrial area and Oak Park.
Traffic is now flowing at about 85%. I find anything over 80% to be acceptable. If it drops below that, then we need to fix any trouble spots.
Victoria Transit Hub
That's it for now. Any comments, suggestions, etc.?
Welcome to Victoria.
Here's some background information:
Map - Whisperwood Frontier, with all 81 tiles unlocked from the beginning.
Mods - I have a lot equipped right now, but the main ones that significantly affect things are Network Extensions 2 and Traffic Manager President.
Goal - My intent is to achieve slow, organic growth. As a result, I'll be sticking to low density as long as I think it makes sense, and no new developments on the outskirts of the city will start out as high density.
Inspiration - Pacific Northwest U.S. (i.e. Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle)
Backstory / History
Victoria is situated in a site of military and economic strategic importance during the 18th and 19th centuries. The British built a fort in the region and a small settlement to protect trade; however, the area did not grow much until the 21st century when some developers came along after the town leaders convinced the Canadian authorities to extend a highway from Vancouver.
The Beginning
Here are a couple of images showing the overview of the map when we begin. As you can see, Victoria is situated on one end of a strait, with some flat land around it. There is also a pretty big area on the plateau that is buildable as well as the land across the strait. We'll be building primarily on the same side of the strait before extending across it.
Opening Transit
The external connections include a highway and rail coming from the north, and the ship line runs through the strait (which is very convenient and realistic!).
Resources
There is a lot of forest and ore. Very little to no oil, and a small amount of fertile land. When the developers arrived, there was a small farm (Mill Square), logging camp (Maple Park), and mine (Concord Hills) already established, with generic industry in Victoria itself.
Skipping ahead a little bit (because I didn't decide to do a journal right away and so I didn't take as many screenshots)...
27k residents
In general what I did was I first built a road along the strait. Then I decided that it was logical that a small town would develop in the little bay there (called Oak Park). I also started to do the same along the shore to the northwest of downtown. I slowly started developing those areas then watched traffic a little bit. The residents of Oak Park then started petitioning to have a road built directly from their community to downtown, in order that they didn't have to drive the long route along the strait to get to Victoria, and the result was the angled street.
After Oak Park was successful at getting a new road built, the industry also started to push to have a more direct road built, as traffic was building up at their highway access point due to all the residential traffic coming from Victoria. So that's how we ended up with a direct road there.
Development continued along those main roads, filling in the area southeast of the road to Oak Park first because it's closer to the water. Victoria University opened up where the two main roads reach the main thoroughfare. I'll try and remember to take a screenshot of that area at some point as well, since it looks pretty nice.
A couple of cool parts of the city that were developed at this point include the site of Fort Victoria, which was built into a park, and the passenger harbor / minor league baseball stadium.
Fort Victoria
Minor League Stadium & Passenger Harbor
38k Residents
As the city grew from 27k to 38k, traffic started to become a problem in University Park. A lot of residents were traveling along the angled. As a result, the city built its first public transit system based on the routes that people were actually taking. (side note: this is different from the way I've played recently, as normally I build areas based on a planned idea for the transit whereas this time I am planning to mostly develop the transit system based on actual need. In other words I'm letting the cims travel and then figuring out where it makes sense to put transit)
We now have our first metro line that goes from Oak Park down to the main transit hub in Victoria, following the angled road. We also started a few bus lines that run from the transit hub to a couple of the districts, and a tourist bus that goes through downtown, connects the transit hub to the cruise harbor, and loops through Fort Victoria. A ferry line goes around the city with a few stops. Finally, two train lines were started. One goes to the northwest with a stop in Evergreen Square, and the other heads north with a stop in the industrial area and Oak Park.
Traffic is now flowing at about 85%. I find anything over 80% to be acceptable. If it drops below that, then we need to fix any trouble spots.
Victoria Transit Hub
That's it for now. Any comments, suggestions, etc.?
