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Topic Title: Tips and Tricks on your Initial Road Grid Topic Summary: City Planning starts here..... Created On: Nov-02-2009 08:02 PM Status: Post and Reply |
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#1639401
Nov-02-2009 08:02 PM
So I heard someone recently say that the biggest planning phase when you start a new city is before you lay your first road. I would like those of you with huge cities that look amazingly well structured - how do you lay your road grid? |
#1639418
Nov-02-2009 08:16 PM
| I call it "Expert Mode". I haven't tried highways, but I have a grid like system of small and large avenues that form neighborhoods. I'm going to adjust it for high density structures, but even then, they can fit within the grid I create. |
#1639446
Nov-02-2009 08:53 PM
| it unlocks all buildings from the start, so what he is saying is he starts with the roads he wants |
Cities XL Wiki http://citiesxl.wikia.com/ |
#1639452
Nov-02-2009 08:57 PM
| for an quick example just leave plenty of room take this page for starters http://www.simtropolis.com/cityjournals/index.cfm?p=view&id=1010&page=3 also skip to page 5 for the large interchange made of ave's, this is where i plan a Highway cloverleaf, with the introduction of a highway i will have more then enough room to placing them, then put supporting roads around it |
| Cities XL Wiki http://citiesxl.wikia.com/ |
#1639565
Nov-02-2009 11:15 PM
| Question - you wrote this on that page:
"The city console has already approved a 6 million dollars to go towards adding a addition 4 lanes to Highway 55 " Is that just you pretending, or is there some actual budget approval process that I am not seeing in the game? SB |
#1639614
Nov-03-2009 01:24 AM
Why plan that well? A real city is a work in progress, with the infrastructure of the past not anticipating the needs of the present, and the present not anticipating those of the future. I think doing without planning for the future more than a minimal amount adds to the realism and challenge. But that's just me, and I guess off-topic of the actual question if you want to be strict about it.  |
#1639633
Nov-03-2009 02:21 AM
| Expert mode feels like cheating to me. =/ I like bulldozing everything to fit in new stuff.  |
#1639637
Nov-03-2009 02:41 AM
Expert mode feels like cheating to me. =/ I like bulldozing everything to fit in new stuff. Exactly! And old town centers makes perfect spot for a new BP too! |
| Toothpaste, Mayor, Cities XL Ima total n0b that cant zone right. |
#1639640
Nov-03-2009 02:58 AM
| AGREED that expert mode feels like cheating. I think it is. No city starts with skyscrapers. It grows from tiny little caveman huts
I dont know guys. I have seen some pretty beautiful cities and they were definitely planned out. When I have tried to "Wing It" ... I always ended up with a complete disaster of a city. Maybe i just suck at it, but mine end up looking like a crinkled piece of wadded up dirty paper. Some of these other cities I see look like artwork. That has to be planning. SB |
#1639651
Nov-03-2009 04:15 AM
I like to go with minimal planning ahead. Results in much more natural and organic looking cities. This is rather easy when dealing with small towns and cities, but obviously gets more and more difficult the higher your population becomes. I don't really know about cities beyond the 100,000 mark (i don't get much time to play, and am a fan of smaller cities). For example, my latest creation, Crastmuth. In the first screen, you can see the town from above. Already you can see the lack of a conventional grid layout. This was all developed with very little planning and purely for the needs of the time and near future, alot like real life. When i started the map, i built a small avenue through from one side to the other, which you can see going along the lake front and through the centre of town. As it got bigger, i built the ring road in anticipation of more people wanting to get to their jobs, which at the time was the farming industry, the largest source of jobs in town. As the city marched South, another avenue linking off from the ring road was created to cope with the traffic. Eventually traffic got too crippling from the Southern Suburbs, so the Bay Bridge was built, necessitating the demolition of some houses. As heavy industry developed further in the North-East, two avenues were built to link it up to the ring road, one going one way and one the opposite. As strain reached catastrophic proportions on the ring road, a cross town tunnel was built, requiring the destruction of more houses. This still wasn't enough, so the large bridge structure you can see was built, with one of the original avenues demolished and rebuilt so it could run in between them. However, alteration of traffic flow to allow for more efficiency has resulted in the cross town tunnel becoming useless, and i'm undecided as to whether it should be rebuilt or completely demolished. In the second screenshot, you can see where the heavy traffic flow is and get a clear picture of the city layout. In the third, a nice scenic picture of an organic city. Beyond 100,000 population though, i imagine things are going to have to start to change a bit. But that's all part of the fun! |
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cxl_screenshot_crastmuth_forums.jpg (208 KB) |
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cxl_screenshot_crastmuth_forums2.jpg (217 KB) |
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cxl_screenshot_crastmuth_goodevening.jpg (133 KB) |
| Wacka wacka wacka. |
Edited: 11/03/2009 at 04:28 AM by El_Presidente
#1639680
Nov-03-2009 08:00 AM
Can you use expert mode online? I haven't even looked at that option - where is it? It seems like expert mode should be renamed easy mode? |
#1639777
Nov-03-2009 11:07 AM
| Expert mode is generally for experts. It is recommended that players make at least 60K per time cycle before they turn it on. That means that they already unlocked 1/2 of everything anyways. If you play 1 city through without expert mode, then do another after you make 60k a tick, then you should have the experience to start with expert mode. |
| Always do your best and you will always better than the best in my eyes See my SimCountry! It payed for full membership to on October 12 (cheaper than CitiesXL Planet Offer with much more micromanaging, in a different way). I will form a federation or common market with you if you ask kindly. |
#1639927
Nov-03-2009 04:34 PM
| I use a city "block" as my measuring unit. A 3 x 3 block of low or med density will take up the same space as 2 x 2 high density, so I think it's the optimal unit, as you can start with a 3 x 3 donut with a park in the middle and bulldoze later and fit a 2 x 2 high density later. My first city I made most of my grids with simple streets, with the occaisional expressway running through. This time I've done a little differently. I never put two simple streets beside one another. I use a large expressway - simple street - small avenue - simple street - large expressway and then repeat. It ensures citizens never have to go more than a block either way to get to at least a small avenue if not a full expressway. I'll try to get a screenshot when I get home (posting at work!) |
| Cities XL: Planet Pollux Cities: Madison City Lee Farms Cherokee Mills Patrigrad Mason Plains |
#1639949
Nov-03-2009 05:02 PM
| I use blocks of 3x6 low/medium-density blocks with parks in the middle that I upgrade to 2x4 high-density blocks. I try to continue with the roads that go up through the farms to be the parallel. This means that all my farms are 12 units (240 meters) wide with the length being whatever is needed to make a 100% size farm. I then destroy the first farm and make another country road that runs perpendicular to the first roads. I have a picture for one of my only instances (it is from the demo because I will not install CitiesXL until I upgrade). |
| Always do your best and you will always better than the best in my eyes See my SimCountry! It payed for full membership to on October 12 (cheaper than CitiesXL Planet Offer with much more micromanaging, in a different way). I will form a federation or common market with you if you ask kindly. |
#1640389
Nov-04-2009 07:50 AM
I like to go with minimal planning ahead. Results in much more natural and organic looking cities. Beyond 100,000 population though, i imagine things are going to have to start to change a bit. But that's all part of the fun! I actually started in the same map (my city is called Amrava), but I did a huge mistake in the beginning: I placed the industrial area much to close to the agricultural area, so, I am not producing as much as possible. Therefore, I grew the city to over 650.000 inhabitants and opened a big CBD in the north, to sell office production. And now I am carefully moving the industrial area away from my agriculture. It's quite a project :-) Especially as air pollution is hard to control when you have a significant amount of industry. There are even some suburbs where the residents are heavily affected by the pollution. So, I have to complete some projects in that respect. And to answer to the thread title: yes I had a plan - but poorly excercised in some respect: - agriculture was given by the defined areas - the old city centre is west of the farming land and ends at the lakeside. - I placed the elites along the lakeside - I create shopping areas in every city quarter (to serve approx. 100.000 inhabitants) - I boosted the office areas to be able to sell overproduction and try to place them in every city quarter - I placed the high tech industry far off the other industrial area near the lake side and near the houses of the elites - I try to create bigger roads as transit routes and connect those transit routes with other big roads. But if you take a look at Amrava, the traffic problem is serious. Well there need to be some mass transit, definitely |
#1640838
Nov-04-2009 11:56 PM
| One trick I do is to use dirt roads to mark out future highway right-o-ways. |
#1640985
Nov-05-2009 03:41 AM
| I guess I just assumed with some of these cities that they just HAD to have sat down with a canvas and draftsman tools to have an end result as awesomely structured as they have. THe roads on some of these cities are just downright ARTWORK.
Take a look at DarkPrince and his city Siekielo or whatever. You might have to just search DarkPrince then find the one resembling that name. That city's road structure is downright sexy... -SB- |
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