City Layouts

[cubsfan0624 0]

I need help making a good city layout for a new city

Please share your city layout ideas and pics of your cities!

[Frankie_Grove 33]

well, there are several ways to lay out the city to begin with. I usually plan way ahead, leaving area for future highways, try to have a central avenue or road, then use grids, grids are a good way to start....use these grids until you become a little bit more experienced at city building, then you can consider expanding to diagonal roads and streets, or more complex plans. Ultimately, the city layout is up to you though...remember that

[deandnor 0]

Eh, I just lay out my city as it happens, no real thought to it.

[thundercrack83 0]

I would suggest looking at any of the city journals that are on this site. You can find a million different ways to plan and build your cities, and you can learn all kind of tricks that can be helpful with all aspects of the game. Good luck!

[hamsterTK 93]

I make a downtown and then transit corridors radiating from it with nodes of concentrated density along them. It may not the best, but I like it

Of course I do a CJ so those cities the layout is purely aesthetic

[cubsfan0624 0]

thanx everyone for your replies

i'll check out the CJs and see what their layouts are

i'd also like it if some people posted some of their pics

[football_fever 6]

I definitely second what thundercrack83 said. You can find hundreds of different setups. From nice urban setups (AK's CJ, Aqua Vista) to beautuful rural or forest setups (Green Depra, Paradise Falls) to limited or non-functioning Eye candy/story setups (Run for your life, Crystal City) and everything in between. Don't let anything stand in the way of your creativity. The best thing about this game, in my opinion, is the limitless variations that you can create. Complete open-ended creativity.

And also, take a look around the STEX if you haven't already. It can be intimidating since there are so many pages of things to go through, but it is worth it. The best cities have loads of custom content from the STEX or other sites. Take a look at what the top uploaders have done (like equinox and simgoober) and then if you get any other ideas, type it in the search box to see what there is. I always type in the partial name of what I'm looking for (like water instead of waterfall), just to look and see what else there is. I always find something that I didn't know I needed...sorry...I know that's not what you were asking about, but I hope it helped anyway

[mizellchris 0]

i need help for a good city layout

[MrFingers 0]

I find i have to stop myself from planning and just start laying things down, otherwise i have a 10k pop city with the transport system for a 1 million one. start with the central place (there are many ways to have a town center, be creative) and then start building from there. most things in the game can be modelled from real life.

[cubsfan0624 0]

thanx again for all of your ideas
i just have a question.

for a town center, should there be lots of 6x6 plots of res. and com. surrounded br roads?

all comments and pics are welcome

[bakercity 270]

I usually lay the roads, streets, ect out first then I lay my commercial and then the residential. Lastly, I lay my industrial. Usually, My cities are in grids with some diangles and my rails are laid out very last.

[MrFingers 0]

actually cubsfan you can be alot more imaginative than that... try just a rail station, or an irregular shape, or a couple large parks/plazas, etc.

don't be afraid of diagonal avenues, those zigzag edges are actually very useful for things like parks, police kiosks, bus stops, subways etc, and they are excellent for directing traffic because sim pathfinding uses the shortest path and that can be ambiguous with right angles, but a diagonal creates a definitive shortest route. i generally dont make roads or streets diagonal, but thats just me.

sim city is very personal and very creative. i suggest just planning your center and then letting it flow from there. patience is essential  

also important to remember anything you build can be deleted, so what you do at the start is not going to bound you.  but it should help you find direction.

I will post a few pictures i think, just give me a bit.

[MrFingers 0]

ok so here's a brief illustrated start.

This is the map, I have another already partially developed city to the south.  I will ignore this when I conceptualise the city.  normally that island would be an attractive place for my start, but it is too small for my tastes so i will start next to it on the river bank and use the island later for something like wealthy housing etc.

here all i did was extend a rail line from the border up (to gain perspective) and set a center.  im not going to lie, i counted how many squares are in that center (6x8) so i could ensure it would fit large buildings perfectly, but it's honestly not necessary to do that.  i only did it because im still not comfortable with totally letting go.

here i pulled the rail line across and put a station on the center.  I find rail lines are very influential to development in the real world, and i put them down early so i can replicate that.  rail is also by far the best transport (with buses).  notice my road leads to nowhere, it is absolutely essential you do not let a minor road short cut a major one, that is a guaranteed problem in this game.

and here i have continued in the same fashion.  notice im not afraid of diagonal avenues.  notice i am not letting my roads short cut my avenues.  notice the plenty of gaps i have left, i will use them later for all manner of things (civics, parks, etc)  also notice how my rail line as begun to play a role in forming my city.

i hope some of that helps.  remember all of this is very personal.  it might be good to copy someone to start with, but you will quickly develop your own techniques.

[AtkinsSJ_ 7]

At the moment I've been experimenting with my style a bit, tending to start off with rural development. But my favourite designs are to have a road or rail line connecting two or more of the neighbouring cities and develop around the crossroads; or to start with a roundabout of large park with a road around it, and develop radially, in my residential areas.

[waway625 72]

this is my usual layout for major cities

yellow = major avenues and highways

red = elevated rail

green = regional railways system

i usually have a circumferential avenue that defines the boundary of my Central Business District, outside it, is another major road that for minor commercial services

for this city, i started with an old city (the lo rise buildings near the marina, then developed a major road to the financial hub

looking at the circumferential roads, the inner circumferencial avenue sets the limits of the hihg density area, between the inner and the outer circumferential road is the medium density zone, whiule outside the outer circumferntial road is the low denisty area

for the elevated railway (since i dont use GLRS as its just recent that i learned how to lat them out, lols) the elevated railway defines the boundary of the Dense district with one line cutting across it

the regional railway system, on the other hand snakes through the city center

[SpecialEddie 3]

Grids, grids, grids, lalalallala. 

Btw, nice city waway625. Very nicely planned out.

[Studly Urban Planner 0]

Your city reminds me alot of the city I live in, Jacksonville, Florida.

[Tazdude93 0]

Your city reminds me alot of the city I live in, Jacksonville, Florida. quote>

I used to live in Jacksonville until I moved to Orange Park.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Er, the original poster's been inactive for three years.

Though this thread still has a number of valid ideas...

[leemonk 0]

the posts look great.

But.... don't all those large roads cost lots of money when a town is just developing?

Lee

[leemonk 0]

the posts look great.

But.... don't all those large roads cost lots of money when a town is just developing?

Lee

[AirAron32 1]

Where do you get those roads with a bigger exit to the intersection? Sorry. I cant explain it well.

[starrdarcy 4]

Hey, cubsfan0624

I see you are looking for an answer to a popular question, i think the initial planning that you do while starting out your city generally dictates how your city will look in the future. Though the one thing i see many members doing here is planning out everything, right down to highways and districts. IT is okay, however it should be known that placing highways and avenues when no sim has set foot in your city is well... kind of unrealistic, unless you are in Dubai or some other instant city.

Grids will also be your guidelines to work with, however if you take a look at some of the city journals out there, you will see some of the amazing work done to make cities less gridded. Check out the ol' edmonton city journal, it has been around for a while, and the author has done some sweet work doing this.

-Darcy Cardinal

[MTCmayor 0]

I like the city of Clarkstown (see the image)

[MTCmayor 0]

I like the city of Clarkstown (see the image)

[Streetwise 3]

I usually prepare the terrain first, then start with a power station, maybe a water tower (depending on whether or not I'm using a money cheat), and a few industrial zones. I place a few light residential zones a short ways away from the industrial ones, leaving space between industrial and residential zones for future commercial zones or trees.

As developement proceeds, I begin to place parks, ponds/streams, and create fused grids, like thus:

ssssssssCGCsssssssssss

sRRRRRRGGRRRRRRRR s

sRRRRRRGGRRRRRRRR s

sRRRRRRGGRRRRRRRR s

ssssssssCGGCssssssssss

where s=street

             C=coal-du-sac (There's a mod for this)

             G=Green spaces (Parks, trees, playgrounds, ect.)

             R=residential zones 

Mind you, this is a crude (but hopefully helpful) example.

BTW, cubsfan0624, welcome to ST! Enjoy the game and the site

[padwan 0]

In your city centre, zone 8X8's and/or 4X8's so that you can get the big 4X4 buildings later on in the game. It starts with a simple 4 way avenue intersection, then build out from there. Cluster your commercial at the centre, surround with residential. If you look at most north american cities, downtown usually has a central rail station, beyond which, is usually devoted to industrial sectors. Downtown also has a lot of avenues leading out towards the suburbs, and connect to expressways. Start small, then rezone (densify or swtich zone types) as your city grows out. It's important to mix high density commercial and residential - if you only have commercial buildings downtown, your sims will complain about commute times and gradually, your city centre will die. Mixed use neighbourhoods with commerical zones along the main avenues, mixed residential/comercial on the side streets with good bus access is key to a vibrant city - just like in real life!

Good luck!

[JGENEAU 0]

Hey There:

I saw this post and thought I would attach some images of my cities...IF I am in the wrong section, let me know...this is my first post.

[JGENEAU 0]

And another...

[JGENEAU 0]

And another one...