Cities : Skylines

[Angthoron]

There's a mod that lets you manually remove traffic lights. That usually helps a lot.

Other than that? Check where they're actually going, make sure there's neither huge long stretches of road without intersections (forces cims to drive round and round) nor too many intersections, especially with traffic lights. And yeah, the 6-lane roads can be a little special at times, but once you figure out how to split traffic, it gets ok-ish.

 

[Zarniwoop]

So they get confused by the traffic lights? Not too great news for my future megalopolis with New York sized intersections.

Also, what's up with highway onramps only being one lane? Are they better to use vs just linking the normal road directly onto the highway? Because it works fine but using a normal thick road, it seems to create an intersection which becomes congested. However using a tiny single-lane onramp causes that thin section to become congested instead of the highway itself. The traffic calculations are really weird in this game.

 

[Angthoron]

So they get confused by the traffic lights? Not too great news for my future megalopolis with New York sized intersections.

Not confused. It's just the way things get portioned - traffic lights unsurprisingly slow shit down a lot, just like in real life. Basically, in Skylines gridlock is a much more serious thing than in SimCity. Building for grid is building for traffic jams.

Also, what's up with highway onramps only being one lane? Are they better to use vs just linking the normal road directly onto the highway? Because it works fine but using a normal thick road, it seems to create an intersection which becomes congested. However using a tiny single-lane onramp causes that thin section to become congested instead of the highway itself. The traffic calculations are really weird in this game.

Nah, they begin to make sense as you play. I also felt a bit weirded out by all this first, but eventually it clicked.

Try to build onramps on long stretches of uninterrupted road. I know, kinda hard with starter stuff, since you'll have most of your land covered with whatever, but that's their best use. The ramps are best used to funnel traffic *specifically* to the location you want. It's basically a one-way street with no speed limit and easier mechanics. One additional bonus of the ramps is that cars won't join from nearby buildings onto it. Cars have to join from other roads onto said ramp instead, which means that you don't get extra congestion from industrial/commercial/whatever with it. Can be extremely useful if you locate something that takes 60% of your traffic - just use one-way streets and ramps to direct traffic from one zone to the other, then the opposite for return traffic.

 

[baturinsky]

For a game that has traffic mnagement as it's main focus, C:S has quite shitty traffic simulation.

 

[Zarniwoop]

For a game that has traffic mnagement as it's main focus, C:S has quite shitty traffic simulation.

I don't think that's the main focus, but yeah it's shitty. Cities in Motion had it as a main focus.

 

[Angthoron]

I recall raging more than once with that as well.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Speaking of rage, my city suddenly dieded after finally improving traffic due to the games other main issue- electricity.

First off, how retarded is it that you need FOUR, FUCKING FOUR coal power plants for a city of 10000??????? Compounding this is the fact that you can't buy power from neighbours. Unlike Simcity 4, regions don't exist. I upgraded to an oil station, and knowing the problem I had in a previous city with oil/coal supply, I built the power station right next to the highway offramp, making sure the moron truck drivers can't miss it, it's the first offramp and thus the shortest road coming into the city. Each time, the fuel goes down to 0, then it waits a week or 2, then the stupid little truck shows up. In the time the power stays off, huge amounts of residents just GTFO and when the truck arrives, they don't come back. So each cycle I lose a few thousand. From over 10 000 to 7k to 4 and then negative cashflow and bankruptcy downward spiral and there's pretty much nothing you can do.

Why oh why is the power plant behaviour so stupid? Any idiot knows you order more coal when the stock gets low, not when it's finished.

 

[baturinsky]

That's why I prefer Tropico. It has same problems with traffic and coal, but 1) traffic is not what games is about and 2) you can arrest and/or execute those you consider responsible.
Also, Tropico's green power generation is way less OP.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Yeah and in Tropico you can manage an entire country with a whopping population of 50. I want to build huge cities. Like we could do in SC4. Only it should be a lot better now because computers are at least an order of magnitude more powerful than when SC4 came out.

From what I see on the Interwebs, Skylines is really good for building charming little villages and neighborhoods, but not really big cities.

 

[Turjan]

And yeah, the 6-lane roads can be a little special at times, but once you figure out how to split traffic, it gets ok-ish.

Yup, lane use gets decided by the roads that diverge from it and, most decidedly, how that 6-lane road ends. I use it rarely, but I managed to have all lanes used. If it just ends on a T intersection with a main destination on one side, you may end up with only one lane used and be better off with a 2-lane road, where at least trucks try to use the right lane.

 

[baturinsky]

If you really want to avoid traffic lights with a six lane you can do it like this

 

[Turjan]

From what I see on the Interwebs, Skylines is really good for building charming little villages and neighborhoods, but not really big cities.

My biggest city in C: S so far has 360,000 inhabitants. Unfortunately, I ran into an object limit at that point. I'm now a bit more picky with placing ploppables and will see how far this takes me. 360k is actually pretty much in the ballpark where my bigger SC4 cities often ended. My largest city in SC4 was 1.1 million inhabitants, but I noticed that I did not enjoy that size, so I usually peaked out somewhere between 250k - 600k.

 

[Turjan]

Also, what's up with highway onramps only being one lane? Are they better to use vs just linking the normal road directly onto the highway? Because it works fine but using a normal thick road, it seems to create an intersection which becomes congested. However using a tiny single-lane onramp causes that thin section to become congested instead of the highway itself. The traffic calculations are really weird in this game.

Obviously, you can also use the three-lane one. You can also combine this with two-lane one-way roads, just make sure that this one does not hit the highway directly (make the last piece three-lane highway). I hope they add two-lane ramps at some point. I noticed that mixing road widths quite often improves traffic flow vastly.

Edit: I obviously like the game. I'm aware of all the warts though. However, my biggest gripe is that stupid object limit. It's like the fist to the face at some point.

 

[Angthoron]

Speaking of rage, my city suddenly dieded after finally improving traffic due to the games other main issue- electricity.

First off, how retarded is it that you need FOUR, FUCKING FOUR coal power plants for a city of 10000??????? Compounding this is the fact that you can't buy power from neighbours. Unlike Simcity 4, regions don't exist. I upgraded to an oil station, and knowing the problem I had in a previous city with oil/coal supply, I built the power station right next to the highway offramp, making sure the moron truck drivers can't miss it, it's the first offramp and thus the shortest road coming into the city. Each time, the fuel goes down to 0, then it waits a week or 2, then the stupid little truck shows up. In the time the power stays off, huge amounts of residents just GTFO and when the truck arrives, they don't come back. So each cycle I lose a few thousand. From over 10 000 to 7k to 4 and then negative cashflow and bankruptcy downward spiral and there's pretty much nothing you can do.

Why oh why is the power plant behaviour so stupid? Any idiot knows you order more coal when the stock gets low, not when it's finished.

This is actually your first mistake. If it's literally next to offramp, and not next to a road easily connected, the trucks won't go there - offramp cannot be directly exited.
Second mistake is building close to the offramp anyway. Offramps will often end up congested with goods trucks and immigrants, and since car movement isn't realistically tied to the passing of time, you can easily end up in a situation where the coal trucks are stuck for a week waiting for that awesome light to change.

Solutions for your situations:
1: Get that traffic lights mod. Make sure that offramp traffic doesn't get stuck for hours at an intersection that only has cars turning right at any time of the day.
2: Remove extra roads so there is no traffic lights anywhere close to the offramps. T-intersections are good enough for this. Or roundabouts, heh.
3: Build the power plant zone so that it has no extra traffic, and that there is a separate highway offramp leading from the highway to the area (and perhaps out of the area as well but that's a lesser concern). Also make sure there's no ton of industry next to it, or anything that is appealing for large masses of traffic, otherwise you'll just have a new congestion there instead.
4: Goods terminals, but that'll create a whole new problem on its own.

I think pretty much everyone runs into the problem you described sooner or later, though, and yeah, it's ridiculous.

Oh yeah, by the way, if you haven't built metro lines yet, I strongly encourage you to. Unlike SC subway, Skylines version of it will actually bring you a fuckton of money.

 

[Zarniwoop]

This is actually your first mistake. If it's literally next to offramp, and not next to a road easily connected, the trucks won't go there - offramp cannot be directly exited.
Second mistake is building close to the offramp anyway. Offramps will often end up congested with goods trucks and immigrants, and since car movement isn't realistically tied to the passing of time, you can easily end up in a situation where the coal trucks are stuck for a week waiting for that awesome light to change.

Solutions for your situations:
1: Get that traffic lights mod. Make sure that offramp traffic doesn't get stuck for hours at an intersection that only has cars turning right at any time of the day.
2: Remove extra roads so there is no traffic lights anywhere close to the offramps. T-intersections are good enough for this. Or roundabouts, heh.
3: Build the power plant zone so that it has no extra traffic, and that there is a separate highway offramp leading from the highway to the area (and perhaps out of the area as well but that's a lesser concern). Also make sure there's no ton of industry next to it, or anything that is appealing for large masses of traffic, otherwise you'll just have a new congestion there instead.
4: Goods terminals, but that'll create a whole new problem on its own.

I think pretty much everyone runs into the problem you described sooner or later, though, and yeah, it's ridiculous.

Oh yeah, by the way, if you haven't built metro lines yet, I strongly encourage you to. Unlike SC subway, Skylines version of it will actually bring you a fuckton of money.

By "offramp" I actually mean a normal road. The game won't let you build a power station next to an actual offramp or highway, it becomes red and says "Needs to be placed roadside". I never use actual ramps on highways, they are too tiny. The only use I've found for them, after reading your post and others on the Steam forums is to build slipways or whatever they're called, allowing cars to bypass traffic lights if they need to turn, they work great for that. There are no traffic lights, it's a straightforward road past the power plant and back onto the highway.

From what I see on the Interwebs, Skylines is really good for building charming little villages and neighborhoods, but not really big cities.

My biggest city in C: S so far has 360,000 inhabitants. Unfortunately, I ran into an object limit at that point. I'm now a bit more picky with placing ploppables and will see how far this takes me. 360k is actually pretty much in the ballpark where my bigger SC4 cities often ended. My largest city in SC4 was 1.1 million inhabitants, but I noticed that I did not enjoy that size, so I usually peaked out somewhere between 250k - 600k.

Yeah, that is a small number of people, but at least it's better than having 9000 in a city full of highways, 6 lane roads and skyscrapers like I had. Now this:

is a big city. Or region actually. This is the kind of thing I was hoping for. All other modern city builders, including EA's own laughable consoletarded "Simcity" allows you to build tiny towns only. Skylines seems to be better than most of those, at least.

But what's this about an "object limit"? That sounds like the kind of thing that might make me rage again. It should be easily fixable with a mod surely?

 

[Turjan]

I never use actual ramps on highways, they are too tiny. The only use I've found for them, after reading your post and others on the Steam forums is to build slipways or whatever they're called, allowing cars to bypass traffic lights if they need to turn, they work great for that.

Actually, this depends very much on the situation. Sometimes the tiny, single lane off ramp works better than any other solution. For example, a wide off ramp may block the whole highway if traffic backs up. Sometimes, it's better to start with one lane and only widen the end piece to create turning lanes.

Yeah, that is a small number of people, but at least it's better than having 9000 in a city full of highways, 6 lane roads and skyscrapers like I had. Now this: [snip] is a big city. Or region actually. This is the kind of thing I was hoping for.

I love SC4, but I never went for pin cushion cities. You don't even see the roads anymore that way. So I guess, for me, Skylines comes a little bit closer to what I want from a city builder than for you. Variety sucks though. You can't beat SC4 in that regard.

But what's this about an "object limit"? That sounds like the kind of thing that might make me rage again. It should be easily fixable with a mod surely?

No, no mods. You remember the 9 tile limit? That's the reason, so you don't run into hard-coded limits. There are several of those. I remember that, in the beginning, CO argued against people using that 25 tile unlocker, because "around 15 tiles, things happen". They didn't say what, but there's limits directly in the code. There's one for water pipes. Another one limits the agents. If you really suck at traffic and produce some mega traffic jam up to the map border, you may run into that one even with a smaller city. The one I ran into was for ploppable assets. I wanted to plop a park and got the message "the limit for this kind of object has been reached". Turns out it isn't only parks, it's unique buildings, railway stations, and fire stations of all things, basically everything you plop down. You can't play this game without fire stations, or at least it's no fun at all.

I tried deleting some stuff, but the flag didn't reset. It sucks. There isn't even any warning before it hits. I could still zone and have buildings grow, but the game started behaving erratically at that point.

My farewell image, I guess:

 

[Caim]

So I've finally given this a try. The main problem I'm running into right now is that I don't have enough dumb people to work the farms/factories. Should I just build more low-income residential housing to fix that? Or is there another thing I missed?

Oh, and how do garbage incinerators work? Do I have to build garbage dumps as well and stuff gets moved from the second to the first? Or are the incinerators by themselves enough?

 

[vonAchdorf]

So I've finally given this a try. The main problem I'm running into right now is that I don't have enough dumb people to work the farms/factories. Should I just build more low-income residential housing to fix that? Or is there another thing I missed?

Oh, and how do garbage incinerators work? Do I have to build garbage dumps as well and stuff gets moved from the second to the first? Or are the incinerators by themselves enough?

Either build low-income neighborhoods without necessary schools (though people will travel for schooling, so your city wide capacity has to be lower than the demand) or try to level up your (non-farming) industry which will in turn require more educated and less uneducated people after a certain level.

Garbage incinerators send out trucks like garbage dumps, they'll only collect garbage from dumps if you tell them to be emptied. You can work with only incinerators, but it makes sense to have some dumps as well to handle spikes.

 

[MilesBeyond]

I think at heart I still slightly prefer SC4, but the "Infinite Commute Loop" bug there puts me off enough to spend most of my time playing CS instead.

 

[Perkel]

First off, how retarded is it that you need FOUR, FUCKING FOUR coal power plants for a city of 10000???????

just use mod that fudges up population to sim city levels. so 10 000 will be something like 100 000+
Or you can use real population mod which "fixes" high density buildings amout of people.

Vanilla system is rather good for what it is but imo everyone should install one of two above mods.

 

[Astral Rag]

Cities Skylines: After Dark


Night time is fun time! After Dark is the first expansion to the hugely popular classic city simulation Cities: Skylines. The game expands on the repertoire of features and customizations designed to enhance the thrill as well as maintain the challenge of the city building experience.

Developed by Colossal Order and published Paradox Interactive, the central feature of the latest expansion is the day and night cycle, which alters the approach to managing your city. Will you construct a bustling city that lives and breathes at night or will your city succumb to the perils and misadventures of night life? You’re only limited by your imagination, so take control. The sky is the limit! Find out what life is like in the city when the sun goes down!


Main features:

Day and Night Cycle: Day and night changes in the city and affects citizen schedules. Traffic is visibly slower at night and some zoned areas do not work with full efficiency, further easing the traffic. Service vehicles move around as usual. A free update for all users.

Leisure specialization: Commercial areas can specialize in leisure activities. Leisure areas are especially active during the night, but work like regular commercial areas during the day.

Beach specialization: Commercial areas such as beach bars and restaurants, small marina and fishing tours on the shoreline can specialize in beach activities.

Expanded City Services: Criminals will now be taken to Prison from Police buildings. Taxi service will help citizens and tourists travel around the city. Cargo hubs are harbors that accept cargo trains straight to the terminal. International airport is a huge airport, allowing much more traffic than the previous airport. It has a metro station attached to it. Bus terminal allows citizens to transfer to other bus lines in the terminal building.

New transportation options: Bikes and dedicated bike lanes and bike ways let citizens opt for a faster alternative to walking. Bus lanes can be used to help the public transportation run smoother.

 

[Caim]

Oh sweet, that sounds like a lot of fun! But it will also make the game a bit more difficult. Oh well, looking forward to it!

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

it's about time it becomes difficult. right now the only difficult part is trying to not choke the highway, and that's basically impossible to pull off.

 

[Angthoron]

Yay, a D1P for sure.

 

[Stokowski]

I really want to like this, but the difficulty for me has always been the buginess. I've installed and uninstalled countless times over frustrations of things-getting-fucked-up. The latest attempt brought to light this piece of brilliance, where planes taking off from an airport enter a loop and never leave (not my video) :



Colossal Order really need to sort their shit out first, before expansions/DLCs are seriously considered. "Mods will fix it" is not acceptable.