Cities Skylines 2: a phonecall from sweden

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Cities Skylines 2: a phonecall from sweden

Albino Squirrel: Apr 25, 2003; Miosis more like meiosis

adhuin posted:

I have very cheap plots to sell ~~near the river~~ on the exposed river bed. No flood insurance needed (it's guaranteed)

Oh hey, you're building Calgary!

# ? Jun 26, 2019 16:00

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# ? May 25, 2024 04:09

ToastyPotato: Jun 23, 2005; CONVICTED OF DISPLAYING HIS PEANUTS IN PUBLIC

Steam doesn't do a good job in explaining what the differences are between the plain DLC and plus versions. Do the plus versions add anything worth while? For Parks it is only a dollar more so I don't care too much, but Industries is a 3 dollar bump.

# ? Jun 26, 2019 16:17

Issaries: Sep 15, 2008; "At the end of the day
We are all human beings
My father once told me that
The world has no borders"

It includes the themed radio-station, that you can also buy separate.

# ? Jun 26, 2019 16:44

PriorMarcus: Oct 17, 2008; ASK ME ABOUT BEING ALLERGIC TO POSITIVITY

I don't know if Radio Stations are included in the Xbox version but if they are I've never found out how to listen to them.

# ? Jun 26, 2019 18:26

The Real Amethyst: Apr 20, 2018; When no one was looking, Serval took forty Japari buns. She took 40 buns. That's as many as four tens. And that's terrible.

Honestly the radio stations aren't worth it. Music isn't this games strong point.

# ? Jun 30, 2019 21:54

MikeJF: Dec 20, 2003

The Real Amethyst posted:

Honestly the radio stations aren't worth it. Music isn't this games strong point.

It's no SimCity 3000. Now there was a soundtrack.

# ? Jun 30, 2019 21:57

mutata: Mar 1, 2003

The Sim City games, including the most recent one, nailed a mood, personality, and feel that other builders have never been able to approach.

# ? Jun 30, 2019 22:44

The Real Amethyst: Apr 20, 2018; When no one was looking, Serval took forty Japari buns. She took 40 buns. That's as many as four tens. And that's terrible.

If I wasn't on my phone I'd check it out but I'm guessing there's music mods in the workshop.
Alternatively you can just play your own which is what I do.

I generally just have the in game volume barely audible.

# ? Jun 30, 2019 22:48

Popete: Oct 6, 2009; This will make sure you don't suggest to the KDz
That he should grow greens instead of crushing on MCs; Grimey Drawer

mutata posted:

The Sim City games, including the most recent one, nailed a mood, personality, and feel that other builders have never been able to approach.

At first I really liked the newest Sim City game, aesthetically it was on point. Shame about the tiny map sizes and general half baked gameplay.

# ? Jun 30, 2019 22:58

mutata: Mar 1, 2003

I personally even liked the more town-like, street level local problem solving gameplay loops. It just felt like it never went anywhere I guess. It didn't tell a very good story over time with it's design. Moment to moment was cool but hour to hour it burned out quickly.

And yeah. It was too cordoned off. Not organic enough.

# ? Jul 1, 2019 01:13

Duodecimal: Dec 28, 2012; Still stupid

MikeJF posted:

It's no SimCity 3000. Now there was a soundtrack.

Simbroadway pops up in the shuffled hundreds-deep playlist. Time to butt boogie while coding.

# ? Jul 1, 2019 12:34

TigerXtrm: Feb 2, 2019

The Real Amethyst posted:

Honestly the radio stations aren't worth it. Music isn't this games strong point.

I'd go as far as to saying it's the game's worst point.

Together with Chirpy.

# ? Jul 1, 2019 17:45

Kyte: Nov 19, 2013; Never quacked for this

SimCity 3000, 4, Rush Hour and 2013 all in one playlist make for high quality work music.
2013 alone if you need more chill in your life.

# ? Jul 1, 2019 18:32

Minenfeld!: Aug 21, 2012

SC2K has the best. What's wrong with you all?

# ? Jul 1, 2019 19:38

Suspect Bucket: Jan 15, 2012; SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR

The music from the original Sims is also great upbeat building music.

# ? Jul 1, 2019 20:54

ToastyPotato: Jun 23, 2005; CONVICTED OF DISPLAYING HIS PEANUTS IN PUBLIC

I had a mod in Skylines that added in the SC4/RH soundtrack as a radio station and it was glorious.

# ? Jul 1, 2019 22:08

Kyte: Nov 19, 2013; Never quacked for this

Minenfeld! posted:

SC2K has the best. What's wrong with you all?

I've grown tired of the chiptune-y era of music. If they remastered those I'd be all over it.

# ? Jul 1, 2019 23:15

ToastyPotato: Jun 23, 2005; CONVICTED OF DISPLAYING HIS PEANUTS IN PUBLIC

I really like adlib sounding MIDI music, but the SC2k soundtrack just hasn't aged well for me. It still feels nostalgic, but I never find myself actually wanting to have it on for very long, compared to other MIDI soundtracks from the early/mid 90s.

# ? Jul 1, 2019 23:21

nrook: Jun 25, 2009; Just let yourself become a worthless person!

"Ah, I love the SimCity soundtracks", I said, hoping the conversation wouldn't reveal that I just listen to ElectriCITY on repeat for hours at a time

# ? Jul 2, 2019 01:19

Red Bones: Aug 9, 2012; "I think he's a bad enough person to stay ghost through his sheer love of child-killing."

Once my dad got annoyed when I told him the jazz he was listening to on the radio sounded like simcity music, not understanding that it was a compliment.

# ? Jul 2, 2019 07:46

MikeJF: Dec 20, 2003

SC4 and Rush Hour soundtracks were great, but honestly I didn't think they were quite as good as SC3k.

MikeJF fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Jul 2, 2019

# ? Jul 2, 2019 08:08

ToastyPotato: Jun 23, 2005; CONVICTED OF DISPLAYING HIS PEANUTS IN PUBLIC

I didn't get SC3k until a few years ago so I never really got the chance to become familiar with the soundtrack. I did have it added to C:S though and I agree it was also a nice fit. I keep forgetting that I have SC3k tbh.

# ? Jul 2, 2019 16:40

TorakFade: Oct 3, 2006; I strongly disapprove

TigerXtrm posted:

Mass Transit - Adds monorails and poo poo, gently caress yes.

Park Life - Actually makes non square empty space useful for something. Custom parks that influence the areas around them. gently caress yes.

Industries - Actually makes industry interesting to mess with, even if you probably need mods to fix the terrible traffic and money balance. Big yes.

Campus - I don't own this and haven't played with the features either. The education overhaul is part of the free stuff in this expansion. Up to you if you care about the paid stuff.

Green cities - Essentially useless. It has some cleaner waste and power buildings, but does nothing that mods haven't already done or do better.

How about After Dark? It got good reviews back then, apparently

I want to get in after years of knowing this game existed but being too lazy to bother, and it's hard to determine if base game would be ok, or maybe just the "starter pack" of base game, After Dark and Mass Transit, or if I should go all in and get that + Park Life and Industries too?

I'm more interested in reliving my SimCity fantasies from when I was a kid and make pretty cities, rather than a full on grognard accuracy game of build-the-perfect-road-network if that helps

# ? Jul 6, 2019 17:22

HopperUK: Apr 29, 2007; Why would an ambulance be leaving the hospital?

TorakFade posted:

How about After Dark? It got good reviews back then, apparently

I want to get in after years of knowing this game existed but being too lazy to bother, and it's hard to determine if base game would be ok, or maybe just the "starter pack" of base game, After Dark and Mass Transit, or if I should go all in and get that + Park Life and Industries too?

I'm more interested in reliving my SimCity fantasies from when I was a kid and make pretty cities, rather than a full on grognard accuracy game of build-the-perfect-road-network if that helps

The base game is fine if you just want to mess around. You won't be thinking 'ugh it's so bare bones' or anything, we all had a good time with it when it came out. If you don't want to plunge in with the big layout of cash, just grab the base game and see how you find it.

# ? Jul 6, 2019 17:32

Bold Robot: Jan 6, 2009; Be brave.

TorakFade posted:

How about After Dark? It got good reviews back then, apparently

I want to get in after years of knowing this game existed but being too lazy to bother, and it's hard to determine if base game would be ok, or maybe just the "starter pack" of base game, After Dark and Mass Transit, or if I should go all in and get that + Park Life and Industries too?

I'm more interested in reliving my SimCity fantasies from when I was a kid and make pretty cities, rather than a full on grognard accuracy game of build-the-perfect-road-network if that helps

Start with the base game. The amount of content added by various workshop mods absolutely dwarfs the official DLC, none of which has been very good.

# ? Jul 6, 2019 19:12

Ms Adequate: Oct 30, 2011; Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling

Bold Robot posted:

Start with the base game. The amount of content added by various workshop mods absolutely dwarfs the official DLC, none of which has been very good.

Counterpoint: They gave us trams.

# ? Jul 6, 2019 19:19

duffmensch: Feb 20, 2004; Duffman is thrusting in the direction of the problem!

And disasters (especially if you grab the Ragnarok mod)

# ? Jul 6, 2019 19:33

Ms Adequate: Oct 30, 2011; Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling

Hahaha one time Ragnarok wiped out my entire city minus about four houses and the turbines up on a mountain, it owns.

# ? Jul 6, 2019 20:18

TorakFade: Oct 3, 2006; I strongly disapprove

In the end, I got the New Player pack + Parklife because I like parks and 27� isn't that much for the game.

Well, I've built two cities : the first one was a horrible gridlocked hellscape that made me sick to my stomach, I'd have to tear it all down and rebuild.

So I started the second one, and it became a slightly less horrible and slightly less gridlocked hellscape because I used a bigger roundabout at the exit of the starting highway, left more space overall and upgraded all main roads to 6-lane roads, but apparently I still had too many intersections. Also, I did forget to account for bike/pedestrian paths along roads and now I can't figure out how and where to put them, also how do I see if my nice mass transit buses are working or not? Do citizens take them, and are they happy with the route? Where should the lines "go"?

Oh dear. I really really need an intermediate-level guide, but all I can find are either "stupid" guides (make sewers downstream of water pumps, make powerplant, zone a little at a time, profit, DURRR) or ultra in-depth guides on how to make the perfect 5-story-high intersection of 3 highways with 20 onramps which is way beyond what I need right now - which is, how to arrange services, districts and roads in a way that covers all my city and without causing immense traffic, how many schools should I have, etc

also, I'm not sure I like this "milestones" thing. Great as a "tutorial", but after a couple cities made now when I start a city I'd just like to lay down the groundwork already without having to unlock everything bit by bit

edit: this is my first, extra-gridlocked city:

as you can probably imagine, northernmost part is industrial, landfills and other polluting poo poo, then a buffer of commercial around the roundabout /highway exit and residential all the way south of that.

this is the second, slightly better city:

here we have industry on the left, commercial in the center, residential on the right. I tried to be more careful with road placement and made bigger roads "around blocks" with small ones inside blocks, if that makes sense. It works a lot better at this small scale, but I guess once I start growing, even those 4-lane and 6-lane roads are going to get clogged. Should I put more roundabouts? Separate districts more?

Btw is there any point to making "mixed" districts, say an offshoot from a main artery with a couple blocks of commercial, one of industries, and 6-7 blocks of residential for example? Or is it better to make huge industrial / commercial / residential zones only? Also how do I properly use one-way roads?

And last one, I'm checking the mods in the workshop and in the OP (many are not up anymore though), but I'm overwhelmed. Where should I go to get some extra buildings / different-looking buildings?

Sorry for all these stupid questions

TorakFade fucked around with this message at 10:14 on Jul 8, 2019

# ? Jul 8, 2019 08:55

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Has anyone tried Islanders yet? It's like $5 on steam right now, Kotaku gave it good marks

https://kotaku.com/islanders-is-almost-the-perfect-city-building-game-1833729123

Mostly top marks on steam reviews too, but this lot is a bit more refined in their tastes in city builders than the unwashed masses

# ? Jul 8, 2019 10:10

Chikimiki: May 14, 2009

TorakFade posted:

In the end, I got the New Player pack + Parklife because I like parks and 27€ isn't that much for the game.

Well, I've built two cities : the first one was a horrible gridlocked hellscape that made me sick to my stomach, I'd have to tear it all down and rebuild.

So I started the second one, and it became a slightly less horrible and slightly less gridlocked hellscape because I used a bigger roundabout at the exit of the starting highway, left more space overall and upgraded all main roads to 6-lane roads, but apparently I still had too many intersections. Also, I did forget to account for bike/pedestrian paths along roads and now I can't figure out how and where to put them, also how do I see if my nice mass transit buses are working or not? Do citizens take them, and are they happy with the route? Where should the lines "go"?

Oh dear. I really really need an intermediate-level guide, but all I can find are either "stupid" guides (make sewers downstream of water pumps, make powerplant, zone a little at a time, profit, DURRR) or ultra in-depth guides on how to make the perfect 5-story-high intersection of 3 highways with 20 onramps which is way beyond what I need right now - which is, how to arrange services, districts and roads in a way that covers all my city and without causing immense traffic, how many schools should I have, etc

also, I'm not sure I like this "milestones" thing. Great as a "tutorial", but after a couple cities made now when I start a city I'd just like to lay down the groundwork already without having to unlock everything bit by bit

edit: this is my first, extra-gridlocked city:

as you can probably imagine, northernmost part is industrial, landfills and other polluting poo poo, then a buffer of commercial around the roundabout /highway exit and residential all the way south of that.

this is the second, slightly better city:

here we have industry on the left, commercial in the center, residential on the right. I tried to be more careful with road placement and made bigger roads "around blocks" with small ones inside blocks, if that makes sense. It works a lot better at this small scale, but I guess once I start growing, even those 4-lane and 6-lane roads are going to get clogged. Should I put more roundabouts? Separate districts more?

Btw is there any point to making "mixed" districts, say an offshoot from a main artery with a couple blocks of commercial, one of industries, and 6-7 blocks of residential for example? Or is it better to make huge industrial / commercial / residential zones only?

Also how do I properly use one-way roads? Sorry for all these stupid questions

As I recently started playing this game as well, I'd also be more interested on the answers to your post!

One thing I could gather was that apparently making one way roads helps with traffic congestion. Just right click with the upgrade tool. Roundabouts should help too, but the ones without traffic lights can only be had with mods.
Another thing is that it's better for industrial districts to have dedicated roads, because the trucks clog up traffic a lot.

Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference in making huge single districts or mixed districts, except for the pollution and extra traffic (see above).

Hopefully someone more experienced than me can chime in and correct my post!

# ? Jul 8, 2019 10:14

Less Fat Luke: May 23, 2003; Exciting Lemon

Vanilla has the junction editor now where you can remove traffic lights and toggle stop signs so I don't think you need a mod for roundabouts anymore AFAICT.

# ? Jul 8, 2019 10:18

Koesj: Aug 3, 2003

Hadlock posted:

Has anyone tried Islanders yet? It's like $5 on steam right now, Kotaku gave it good marks

https://kotaku.com/islanders-is-almost-the-perfect-city-building-game-1833729123

Mostly top marks on steam reviews too, but this lot is a bit more refined in their tastes in city builders than the unwashed masses

It�s a solid, buck-an-hour puzzler which you can �beat� over a couple of days. After that, ymmv. I had a neat sunday afternoon playing around with it.

# ? Jul 8, 2019 10:48

TorakFade: Oct 3, 2006; I strongly disapprove

Chikimiki posted:

As I recently started playing this game as well, I'd also be more interested on the answers to your post!

One thing I could gather was that apparently making one way roads helps with traffic congestion. Just right click with the upgrade tool. Roundabouts should help too, but the ones without traffic lights can only be had with mods.
Another thing is that it's better for industrial districts to have dedicated roads, because the trucks clog up traffic a lot.

Yeah I know how to make one-ways, just wondering where, when and why should I make them

I'm on lunch break right now and reading up on real-life traffic problems and solutions, and I can't stop thinking about how to make my cities better (I work in logistics so supply chain, traffic management, optimization etc are kind of my daily bread, and the reason I also got Industry just now :v:

)

Daaaamn it, I can already see the hours go down the drain. Any must-have mods on the workshop?

# ? Jul 8, 2019 12:24

Mayveena: Dec 27, 2006; People keep vandalizing my ID photo; I've lodged a complaint with HR

For mods: https://youtu.be/Ew5VhtFrfR8 Biffa is a longtime player and these are the mods he recommends.

# ? Jul 8, 2019 13:32

TorakFade: Oct 3, 2006; I strongly disapprove

Mayveena posted:

For mods: https://youtu.be/Ew5VhtFrfR8 Biffa is a longtime player and these are the mods he recommends.

Nice, thanks.

So in the end I basically grabbed all the major DLCs (except snowfall and natural disasters since meh, and campus since it is not on sale) because

# ? Jul 8, 2019 14:15

Suspect Bucket: Jan 15, 2012; SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR

When you're just starting out, a one way road into and then out of your industrial areas is a good way to keep traffic manageable. Keep truck traffic away from residents. Make a dedicated garbage area for landfills and incinerators that is away from the industry, and will not get stuck in industry traffic. Don't forget to plop way more cemeteries and crematoriums then you think you'll need, corpse cascade is real and not fun.

Move It and Fine Road Anarchy are a must for making good looking and realistic slipways, road merges, ect.

Download lots of parks. My favorites are baseball and football feilds, smaller basketball and tennis courts, and PARKING. Nothing ruins my immersion more then no parking. Once you get more comfortable with the game, RICO and prop plops will take over your life. My personal challenge now is to get canals looking good, and simulate part of the Intercostal Waterway. It's also fun to design idealized low cost housing blocks.

Suspect Bucket fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Jul 8, 2019

# ? Jul 8, 2019 14:35

dogstile: May 1, 2012; fucking clocks
how do they work?

This game not making me require a ton of parking is my biggest complaint tbh.

# ? Jul 8, 2019 15:23

um excuse me: Jan 1, 2016; by Fluffdaddy

donoteat01 talks about parking in cities, stating there were laws mandating a rediculous amount of spots per person at one time, but are now archaic due to public transportation. You need parking, but not vast wastelands of it, unless you're designing around cities built 30 or so years ago.

# ? Jul 8, 2019 15:27

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# ? May 25, 2024 04:09

Suspect Bucket: Jan 15, 2012; SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR

Fortunately, Cims love to bike and walk, and will happily take the lovely senic paths you lay out for them. My beachfront promenades are very popular, and it makes me happy to see Cims bustling about on them. Meanwhile, IRL the only way to make people walk is to eliminate or centralize parking.

# ? Jul 8, 2019 15:36

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