CITIES LARGER THAN 4X4 KM

[bluespottedhorse 49]

Has anyone created cities larger than 4x4 km?

[GlobexCo 33]

I don't think that is possible.

Is against the program...

[bluespottedhorse 49]

Surely, there is a mod for that, someone must have figured it out.

[MattShizzle 11]

Even if they could, most computers probably couldn't handle it. Look how your computer lags on a large tile with decent development. Best way to do it is just use different tiles as different neighborhoods to represent a really big city.

[yamaneko 2]

I don't know if this helps, but every doubling in length means that area quadruples. 

Another thought is that the 4 km x 4 km grid has 65,536 = 2¹⁶ tiles, which is the number of different integers that can be stuffed in two bytes. 

Two ways around...

1.  In parts of metro Chicago, the older areas are gridded with an iron rule:  long blocks are nine lots to the block, eight blocks to the mile including the street.  Short blocks are four lots to the block, sixteen blocks to the mile.  Counting the street as one lot, this makes for 80 squares to the mile, or 3.2 miles (5.1 km) from one end of a large tile to the other.

2.  Build on a large tile, then surround the cities with suburbs that eventually get thrown into the metroplex.  Region play goes much better if you write the names of the associated city tiles down, then work through the list allowing five years to each city that you want to develop.  This scale actually agrees more with the scale of large American cities:  Chicago extends about 26 miles from north to south and 17 from east to west (excluding O'Hare), which is roughly a region.  A medium tile on my scale above represents an area similar to that of Chicago's Hyde Park.  Most of the city's major attractions, its central business, entertainment and shopping districts, and quite a bit of R-2 and R-3 housing at all wealth and prestige levels would be encompassed by a large tile.

(Don't get me started on how all 50 aldermen have final say over their wards' zoning!)

One thing I'll try on my next megalopolis is entering the neighborhood as the city and the city's name as the mayor.  For example

City name:  King's Cross

Mayor's name:  London

City name:  Roppongi

Mayor's name:  Tokyo

City name:  Park Slope

Mayor's name:  Brooklyn  (later changed to New York City)