How do you plan your cities

[canis39 2]

I tend to start with Residential and Industrial at opposite ends of the map...and then just sort of see what happens from there. Commercial gets thrown in wherever appropriate (intersections of big roads, etc). I try to have a "grid" downtown area but that doesn't always work...sometimes the sims have minds of their own, which makes it kind of interesting. To me, it would be fairly boring if everything happened exactly the way I wanted it to.

[fabsies55 5]

firstly its not only americans on this site lol

how i plan my cities and regions is... i don't well for me regions all i do is get a piece of paper draw a whole bunch of random lines that dont cross of course then put in rivers and say where i think i should put mountains. when i do my cities... i dont really do anything i just start puttin in the main roads, rail way and highways everywhere not too much but randomly and then i work with roads and streets from there.

firstly to make your cities more realistic you could get the tree mod thingy that gives you trees on your roads because plenty of streets and roads have trees like that... have plenty of parks and recreation plenty of gold courses soccer fields tennis courts and especially just parks.

also for your actually city with buildings get as many small medium sized buildings as you can, dunno if you noticed but all or most cities have about 1 of 50 buildings being over 30-40 stories so have plenty of small 5-20 story buildings and about 3 or 4 tall ones (depending on the size of your city) even london is like that they have tonnes of small building then the have the big wierd oval one.

so i hope that somehow helps lol

[fabsies55 5]

i read something that reminded me also with your industrial put most of not all but most of your industrial areas near your ports and/or airports in real life you never see industrial right in the middle of suburbs, there are some but most are around ports and stuff so yeah

and in your suburbs etc, put plenty of roundabouts i dont know if in england there is but they're sure is in australia.

[Kahara 0]

you live in australia? is it possible to have a city with no industry, just residential and commercial?

[astronelson 339]

I think it would need mods, but it might be possible. There is at least one CJ on this site that comes pretty close to that goal.

I've tried, but I always end up with massive industrial demand, and a very small population. Then I build a huge amount of farms, and just keep going.

[briantwigley 0]

Well here in the UK there are industrial parks on the outskirts of the cities and Office parks in the suburbs. I have that mod that lines streets with trees too, it is a nice touch. I will post some screenshots of my progress later on.

It is possible to have a city with no industry but a whole region would be very hard. If you used the industry quadrupler mod (I dont use it any more) it would help that a lot.

[zwr100 2]

Originally posted by: fabsies55 also for your actually city with buildings get as many small medium sized buildings as you can, dunno if you noticed but all or most cities have about 1 of 50 buildings being over 30-40 stories so have plenty of small 5-20 story buildings and about 3 or 4 tall ones (depending on the size of your city) even london is like that they have tonnes of small building then the have the big wierd oval one.quote>

If you go to google maps and check out Manhattan where the Chrysler building is located you'll find lots of huge buildings, and  basically a perfect grid (google maps has 3d buildings there and streetview).  That area of huge buildings might translate into a medium city tile if you use block sizes equivalent to the real Manhattan (empire state building and chrysler building can give you ideas for block size).  So I'd say an entire 'city' in the game can and maybe should be pretty much all large buildings not necessarily the largest but you can put landmarks from real cities next to you're grown buildings to see how they compare. (rewards, parks, police stations, schools, transportation etc still break up your big buildings a bit)

I'd say your region should not be all big buildings, but there are cities nestled in mountains where the spread is limited so the growth is very vertical and not sprawling.  Looking at actualy cities and recreating blocks using landmarks sparks my imagination

[goodspeed 9]

i create a circle pattern around the center og my city with high density com and res in the center and lower wealth and densityon the outer areas and ind no the out skirts. i find tis the easiest way to make a effecent transportation system with many bus stops and subways traveling from the center out.

[fivedayrental 0]

I figure out where I want to downtown to be & plan the highway system around that.

[Kahara 0]

I usually plan around highways. If I place them out first say it a giant + shape across the map than I have four quarters to work, say one for industrial, one for commercial and two for residential. After which I add either a grid formation, or just random placement of streets everywhere and fill with zones. Then I cater for electrical and watering need so I place a power station, pumps and water pipes. After that I place in Police stations, Fire houses, schools, libraries, hospitals, health clinics, parks and rewards. Than I watch. (Sometimes I let it sit on cheetah for an hour)