Avoid making new "shortest path" roads since that's the direction your Sims will want to take by default. I may not have the perfect spacing here, but that's the general idea. In order to drive to work the sims will avoid driving on all those side streets and basically FUNNEL them towards the avenues. The reason I say this is the job requirement for Commercial and Industry High Density buildings is much much larger and will wreck your city if you're not prepared for it. Stick with Medium (or Low) Density roads. If a sim can WALK to a local shop, he won't have to drive, and we all know traffic is the bane of everything negative in this game. It's important to mix your commercial and residential together closely. It was enough to get this much roadwork down. This is my first time doing this from the start so I hope it goes well!īefore this point I took out 3 $25k loans. It basically involves a lot of T intersections and L-shaped roads to get the main traffic on your avenues and avoiding the side roads. Okay so for this plan I'm using a road layout system of Halby on YouTube. Just remember to get power, water, and enough road area for initial RCI. If you have a grand plan in advance regarding road layout, you can afford the hit in your monthly income since early on you will have NO service expenses so income will flow fine. Speaking of funds, do NOT be afraid to take out all 3 loans. Either you can plan out and place your cheap roads first, then destroy roads later, or just slowly expand based on your funds. There are two ways to go about this like you said. In my case its north towards my highway, meaning my industry/dirty polluting things will be at the top. Note this direction because you want to place industry down wind and inital water away from that industry. Second, look at the direction of the wind. If you were disappointed in SimCity 5, you will probably find Skylines very satisfying.First thing is to draw your main avenue out. Many of us were disappointed at the rollout of SimCity 5, not only because it was plagued with problems, but because the actual gameplay seemed like a setback from SimCity 4.Ĭities: Skylines, on the other hand, is a worthy heir to the title.
But in the two weeks since the game’s release, there are already thousands of user-created mods and assets available for download. I haven’t attempted to do any of this myself, but I have downloaded several mods and assets (buildings, parks, interchanges, and the like). The other feature is that the game is set up for modding and asset creation. This is important, since hydro power in the game depends on the strength and volume of water. The editor is extremely detailed, especially with regard to mapping water, which really acts like a fluid.
The first is the ability to make your own maps through a map editor. There are two additional features that really put this game head and shoulders above the SimCity franchise. If only it was this easy to see data in real life! The individual fire stations are shown in light purple, and every building is colored based on its fire risk. The screenshot above shows fire protection coverage.
Here’s the fire coverage map.Īlso like in the new SimCity, Skylines has great data visualization tools. That’s not part of the simulation.ĭata views are well-designed. You won’t see a sea of parking surrounding big-box retail uses. Of course, even when you try to build suburban-style development with far-separated uses, the buildings in the game are largely urban-format, with facades built right up to the sidewalk. That sort of development pattern does make a difference, because the sims in the game will walk or take transit when that’s the best mode, and will drive when things are too far. If demand warrants, I’ll sometimes sprinkle office in as well. When I build a neighborhood, I invariably put a commercial zone in the center, surrounded by residential. However, it is possible to create mixed-use districts. While most cities in the real world have residential or office over retail, Skylines (and SimCity) still only recognize single-use zones. Unfortunately, like the city-builders that have come before, Skylines does not have a mixed-use zone. The residential and commercial zones have a low-density and a high-density variant. In addition to the traditional SimCity set of residential, commercial, and industrial zones, Skylines has added an office zone to the mix, which allows you to provide jobs for educated workers. Like other city-builders, Skylines includes zones. The game has zones for residential, commercial (retail), industrial, and office.