Helpful/Useful Information - Guideish

[+Guest mazer327]

Hello all,

Well, it has been a very long time since I have contributed anything here to simtropolis, but rest assured I am here quite often looking up what's new on the site!  At any rate, I have come back lately b/c of Cities XL and I have noticed a bunch of members are having troubles just like they were when SC4 first came out.  I have been doing lots of experimenting with the game and learning a lot as I go.  Had everything from a city that went broke at 50k to a city that has crested 1 million citizens.  (No Grids!!!)  As a result, I thought I would share a few things that have really helped make a difference in the game for me.

Making Money:

I hear lots of people having trouble with this, and rightfully so!  Cities XL uses a completely different system from SC.  I am not going to get too complex into this system, but I will give you some of the major points to be aware of instead.

A - Perhaps the most overlooked/misunderstood part of the game is the freight and passengers area.  This is CRUCIAL to your city.  Offices DEMAND you have passengers in order for them to make profit.  The same goes for retail and business hotels.  Any industry DEMANDS you have freight to make a profit.  (This excludes farms, but not silos!)

You can get an overlay of the passenger and freight flow in your city by clicking on the economic overlay, then passengers or freight.

B - Both passengers and freight are influenced by your inter-city connections.  This means anything from roads to expressways to highways to airports and seaports will boost your freight and passenger levels.

If you put your offices and business hotels on a section of road that has a green passenger rating, the office or hotel will make maximum income. (Or near it)

C- One common misconception is that business hotels must be next to your offices.  Let me tell you now this is NOT THE CASE!  I have had business hotels on the opposite end of the map from my offices making 100% income.  The only thing that matters is that you have the hotels, and that they are placed on green passenger areas.  Also, I found the high-tech hotel to be the most profitable.

Using these simple rules, you can easily make the income in your city much higher than it was before.

Inter-City Links:

A - Each board edge allows multiple city links to be made.

B - You can make one for different types of road - IE- You can make an expressway link, and right next to it a highway link.  Since they are different types of roads, you can have more than one right next to one another. (Can only be done with a road and a fast lane.  IE - A simple road and a highway.  An expressway and a highway.  It is not possible to do a road and an avenue for example, or an expressway and an avenue.)  An easy way to find out if you are able to put another link is to select the type of road you wish to use, then look at the edge of the map.  Anywhere you see purple you may build a link.

C - If you want to maximize links, place them as close to the edge of the purple (close to the other existing links) as possible.

D - The only limit on how many you may have of the same type is the number of them you can stack on the edge of the map.  Each new link will add more passengers and freight.

E - Keep in mind that the bigger the road, the more passengers/freight it will carry.  The bigger roads cost more to maintain so be sure you use only what you really need.  IE - Simple roads are fairly inexpensive to connect, but a highway will cost you 100k each turn to keep.

City Buildings/City Services:

I hear lots of people complaining about how their city has horrible education levels, or leisure levels.  Just recently I have been able to turn this around, and even though I am not 100% certain this will work for everyone yet, I can say this has worked for me.

A - What I have done is decided to lower the number of facilities I use, and place them more strategicly.  I have been placing the city buildings like schools, fire, police, leisure, etc right next to the elites and executives.  It does not seem to matter to the qualified and unqualified workers how far they have to drive to get to a school for example, as long as they have one.  The execs and elites seem to be a bit more picky.  If you place these services next to them, you need less of them, and they seem to be happy with them.

B - I always build the most expensive leisure I can.  The best by far I have found is the rotating resturant, but you don't get that until much later unless you have expert mode turned on.  That said, I had a bowling alley providing enough leisure for a city of over 50k.  Currently I have 4 leisure buildings in my city and it's providing enough for almost 400k citizens.

C - When you place a building that provides a city service, be sure to place that building on a major road, or as close to a major road as possible.  It does seem that access to the facilities makes a large difference, so keep this in mind when placing!

D - One other thing I have found is if you place the city service buildings BEFORE you place the zones for residential, when a residence is built it starts off with a green rating on the services.  If you build the services AFTER you place residential zones, the residents will need to take some time to get the full benefit of the service.  As a result, try to plan out your zones before placing them and put the services down first.

Trade:

Lots of cities have issues with their upkeep.  (The cost per "turn" for your city expenses.)  Using the above mentioned system you can cut down on your need for city services, but that doesn't necessarily help with overall money flow.  To help keep your upkeep low, don't be afraid of using the trade system!  Lots of players will sell utilities for CHEAPER than you can produce them!!  How is that even possible!?!?

A - Well, it's possible due to some of the buildings you get after your population unlocks them.  These include special buildings like refineries, silos, and waste incinerators. (Buildings specific to a certain utility and unlocked in the utility section.)  There are also special office type buildings you get later on that boost production of each industry by 35%.  As a result, players with larger cities are able to produce more using less money.  BE SURE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS!  If you can get fuel for 35C instead of the 50C it would cost in just upkeep alone, you already saved 1,500 bucks each "turn".  That doesn't even count what you saved in not having to build the zone, not to mention the extra pollution, traffic, etc it causes.

B - Check out this post by Nezroy for more info about trading.  It's called the "Resource and Trading Guide - Just the Basics" post.  It has some useful information in it!

Retail:

Lots of people seem to be having issues with retail.  I have found (somewhat of) a solution to this.  

A - When you place retail, be sure to place it next to elites/executives only.

B - Do not over populate with retail or all of your retail will be in trouble.

C - I use ONLY single plots for retail, and I try to scatter them a little bit.  That said, you don't need much.

I recently started a new city on expert mode.  I have 4 high-density retail plots in the city, and the city is around 400k population.  The people do not really complain that much about retail, and most of the city is dark green with only the elites in light green.

Bridges and Tunnels:

These can be tricky, as many times you will get a message saying it's an invalid connection - or something to that effect.  I have found a way to get around this issue.

A - What I do is build the tunnel or bridge how I like it.  I place the bridge/tunnel, and then extend the road on flat ground out just a little past the end of the bridge/tunnel.

B - I then use a dirt road to "cut" across the bridge/tunnel road.

C - Next I delete the road that extends past the dirt road, leaving the tunnel/bridge, the short extend out from it, and the dirt road.  You are now able to place a normal road to the bridge/tunnel road without having any connection issues.

D - After placing the road, simply delete the dirt road to finish your project.

E - Also, keep in mind the bridge/tunnel tool costs more upkeep than the road tool.  Be sure to replace any bridge/tunnel sections of road that are on flat ground and not needed with regular roads using the process described above.

Conclusion:

Using these tactics/strategies, you should be able to be much better off in your city.  Any time you need more money, just build more offices or industry and back it up with some residentials.  Be sure to place your buildings wisely, and get the most out of them!!

As I think of more stuff I will come back and update this page.  I will also come back and look for comments/questions.  I probably can't answer them all, but can answer quite a few of them, or at least try my best to.

- Mazer

PS - Hi Dirk!!

Edited for updated content

[Kingdom of Hispania 4]

GREAT!!! Thank you for these advices, it seems that there's more in Cities XL than meets the eye

[Rik81 0]

Very nice!  Thank you so much.  Wish I had read all of this BEFORE starting my "Planet" city.  Oh well, I can always DELETE it and start over.

A question:  We always have to start with one  "City Link".  Does each board edge only allow a single Link to be placed?  That appears to be the case.  My city is only a little over 5k presently and I am already getting static about needing more freight and/or passenger access.

2nd question:  The "bridge" tool, doubles as a "tunnel" tool by default of the terrain, is that correct?

[+Guest mazer327]

Originally posted by: Rik81

Very nice!  Thank you so much.  Wish I had read all of this BEFORE starting my "Planet" city.  Oh well, I can always DELETE it and start over.

A question:  We always have to start with one  "City Link".  Does each board edge only allow a single Link to be placed?  That appears to be the case.  My city is only a little over 5k presently and I am already getting static about needing more freight and/or passenger access.

2nd question:  The "bridge" tool, doubles as a "tunnel" tool by default of the terrain, is that correct?quote>

1 - Each board edge allows multiple city links to be made.  You can make one for different types of road - IE- You can make an expressway link, and right next to it a highway link.  Since they are different types of roads, you can have more than one right next to one another.  An easy way to find out if you are able to put another link is to select the type of road you wish to use, then look at the edge of the map.  Anywhere you see purple you may build a link.  If you want to maximize links, place them as close to the edge of the purple (close to the other existing links) as possible.  The only limit on how many you may have of the same type is the number of them you can stack on the edge of the map.  Each new link will add more passengers and freight.  Keep in mind that the bigger the road, the more passengers/freight it will carry.  The bigger roads cost more to maintain so be sure you use only what you really need.  IE - Simple roads are fairly inexpensive to connect, but a highway will cost you 100k each turn to keep.

2 - Yes, the bridge/tunnel tool is the same.  The tool knows if you want to make a tunnel if you hold shift and pull the mouse towards you - or down - and a bridge if you go away from you - or up.

Let me know if you have more questions!

Edit: Updated original post with new information.  Thanks for the question!

[masochist 111]

Excellent thread! I was personally having trouble with retail, but I'll try your suggestions and see if they work.

By the way...what's the name of your 1,000,000+ city with no grid, and which planet? I might come out for a visit

[+Guest mazer327]

Hi, thanks for the support! 

I have actually deleted that city, along with quite a few others!  (Bummer we can only have 5 on the planet mode...hope that changes when I subscribe.)  That said, I have one that is close and is not a grid that I have not deleted yet...hehe.  The name of it is Meha, it's around 700k citizens, no grids.  I am currently working on Metropolis of KDK, which is a tribute to my cat.  It's got around 400k people in it now and was my first attempt at going expert mode from the start.  That said, I'm ready to demolish it and start over, lol.  Another city bites the dust.   All of my cities are on Prospero, so feel free to look them, or me up!  100% of my cities are non-grids, since I personally hate grid cities.  Metropolis of KDK was the first I started messing with roads a lot, and looks pretty nice, but it's traffic is horrible going to the industrial sector.

I'll post some screenshots of it here in a few mins.

Edit: Here are some screenshots.  Nothing great, but it's something.  As of time of the picture, the city has just over 440k people.

A shot of the city from the bay - https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/mazer327/cxl_screenshot_metropolisofkdk_4.jpg

A shot down the highway in downtown - https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/mazer327/cxl_screenshot_metropolisofkdk_9.jpg

A view of downtown looking towards the industrial sector - https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/mazer327/cxl_screenshot_metropolisofkdk_7.jpg

Industrial sector, with some crazy bridge work - https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/mazer327/cxl_screenshot_metropolisofkdk_10.jpg

[Rik81 0]

Originally posted by: mazer327

Originally posted by: Rik81

Very nice!  Thank you so much.  Wish I had read all of this BEFORE starting my "Planet" city.  Oh well, I can always DELETE it and start over.

A question:  We always have to start with one  "City Link".  Does each board edge only allow a single Link to be placed?  That appears to be the case.  My city is only a little over 5k presently and I am already getting static about needing more freight and/or passenger access.

2nd question:  The "bridge" tool, doubles as a "tunnel" tool by default of the terrain, is that correct?quote>

1 - Each board edge allows multiple city links to be made.  You can make one for different types of road - IE- You can make an expressway link, and right next to it a highway link.  Since they are different types of roads, you can have more than one right next to one another.  An easy way to find out if you are able to put another link is to select the type of road you wish to use, then look at the edge of the map.  Anywhere you see purple you may build a link.  If you want to maximize links, place them as close to the edge of the purple (close to the other existing links) as possible.  The only limit on how many you may have of the same type is the number of them you can stack on the edge of the map.  Each new link will add more passengers and freight.  Keep in mind that the bigger the road, the more passengers/freight it will carry.  The bigger roads cost more to maintain so be sure you use only what you really need.  IE - Simple roads are fairly inexpensive to connect, but a highway will cost you 100k each turn to keep.

2 - Yes, the bridge/tunnel tool is the same.  The tool knows if you want to make a tunnel if you hold shift and pull the mouse towards you - or down - and a bridge if you go away from you - or up.

Let me know if you have more questions!

Edit: Updated original post with new information.  Thanks for the question!

quote>

That was quick!  Thanks.  I guess my problem was I was trying to stick the same kind of road at the same side.  I will go and try with a different type of road.  I'm guessing "farm" roads would not be useful as a link???

[+Guest mazer327]

That was quick!  Thanks.  I guess my problem was I was trying to stick the same kind of road at the same side.  I will go and try with a different type of road.  I'm guessing "farm" roads would not be useful as a link???quote>

Not really.   I normally try to use small avenues, large avenues, and expressways.  Expressways are great if you can afford them.  The highway is amazing, but hard to justify the 100k upkeep cost for.  The most common I use is expressways.

[Rik81 0]

I wonder if they (MC) made a recent change?  I just tried extending a "different type" of road.  It did put some "purple" along the edge of my original Link, but not CLOSE to it.  I will have to move my new road some distance away to extablish a link on the same side.

[+Guest mazer327]

Originally posted by: Rik81

I wonder if they (MC) made a recent change?  I just tried extending a "different type" of road.  It did put some "purple" along the edge of my original Link, but not CLOSE to it.  I will have to move my new road some distance away to extablish a link on the same side.quote>

I should probably clarify - Different types of road meaning highways/non-highways.

[Rik81 0]

My initial road was the infamous "simple road."  I was trying to lay the small avenue along it.

I am thinking in the future the small avenue would be the way to start (assuming it's alive on start-up.

[+Guest mazer327]

Yeah, when I play in non-expert mode, I start with the small avenue.  It's a good start, but I normally replace it or add to it with a large avenue when I am able.

[nezroy 0]

I don't know if this forum allows advertising of our own posts (couldn't find relevant info), so I hope this isn't violating any terms. Anyway, this post inspired me to finish the basic resource and trading guide I had been working on, which includes info on resource management and trading for newcomers that isn't necessarily obvious from doing the tutorials or looking over the manual. It's the "Resource and Trading Guide - Just the Basics" post.

[+Guest mazer327]

Updated the page to include a link to your post in the trade section.  Thanks!

[JakeMD 107]

Thanks for the info! (kinda a bump, sorta.. )