Cities XL Starter Guide

[007 0]

Cities XL Starter Guide, by 007 (aka jackmap)

Here are some basic key concepts about creating your first city in Cities XL (in no particular order). More to come with your suggestions - tell me what you think!

> >

1.      Do

a.       Start out simple

                                                              i.      The problem with many city builders today (including myself at times) is that we expect to start from the top and not work from the bottom up.

1.      The reality is that we must work very hard to make our cities high quality masterpieces.

                                                            ii.      Always start with low residential and low industry.

1.      Doing this provides you a start for you city and can always be changed over time…

a.       This way, you are guaranteed not to fail right from the start.

b.      Use the trade function

                                                              i.      This is crucial to making money.

1.      I’ll admit that I was not originally planning to use this feature, but when I started using it, I made a lot of money

2.      The more you have of a resource, the better you will be when trading.

a.       For instance, I had excessive farming so I was able to trade farming for cash and make a lot of money.

3.      Increasing your production, on the same deal can help as well.

a.       You can make a lot of money off the same deal (or others) if you have a lot of it so get trading!

c.       Place hotels on busy intersections

                                                              i.      This is great not only for providing jobs, but for achieving income as well.

1.      The more traffic there is, the better the chances are of gaining higher income.

d.      Provide services to the citizens when needed and/or if possible.

                                                              i.      If you have enough money in the budget, then provide services for your citizens, this can lead to better satisfaction and can even cause more citizens and jobs to want to reside in your city.

e.       Balance your types of workers and job markets

                                                              i.      This helps to maintain enough jobs for the right amount of workers.

                                                            ii.      An unbalance can lead to obvious disastrous results.

f.       Plan your city carefully

                                                              i.      Where you start your city can determine how successful your city will be.

                                                            ii.      Try to start your city where all of the resources are.

1.      That way, you can get as many of the resources that you need when you need them the most.

                                                          iii.      Take care where you place certain zones.

1.      For instance, “…make sure you don't go building you downtown right on top of your only oil field or only farm land.” (jeremy12)

2.      Do Not

a.       Go directly to commercial

                                                              i.      If you need to do so, then place a small amount only.

                                                            ii.      Over populating commercial may increase your expenses and lower the commercial value/reputation of the city.

b.      Ignore your income vs. expenses

                                                              i.      This is the most common mistake that people make when building a city.

                                                            ii.      If you don’t have enough income and decide to jump to making all of these expensive buildings, then you are sure to go bankrupt fast.

1.      Doing this guarantees an instant failure in a city.

c.       Put high density buildings first

                                                              i.      This may not seem like a big deal, but if there are too many people and not enough jobs, then it becomes a problem.

                                                            ii.      This applies to Expert mode only…

d.      Disorganize your zones

                                                              i.      This isn't really a big deal, it just makes it easier to locate zones when you need them.

1.      This is optional and is used for organization purposes only.

> >

Contributors

Jeremy12

[jeremy12 0]

on the lines of 1.F i plan my cities to just border the resources areas like farming oil and water, make sure you don't go building you downtown right on top of your only oil field or only farm land

[CLR95 11]

Awesome! Thanks for doing this! (even though most is just common sense if you've played the Simcity games.) But great for newcomers!

Maybe some of the newbies would like some suggestions about road networks....?

[007 0]

Thanks for the feedback!

[james7 0]

I will definitely use this guide when making my city. Thanks! =)

[soltangris 42]

I would add something about freight and passengers:

-Always, if possible, place your offices and industry along the biggest roads possible, and also connect them to the nearest possible city link. If that link is too far away, make another, closer one It's well worth the extra expense because this provides good freight/passenger services which in turn maximises the profits>taxes.

[bluetooth 0]

Good guide, but I don't agree with you on not building high density buildings. I always start building high density offices and I believe it's the best way to make money in the beginning. With high density offices I can easily get  a monthly profit around 30 000 in less than half an hour.  That's good money when I start developing resources. Developing resources is really expensive and it takes a long time before it's profitable so you need a good economy to start with.>>

[beachfrontproperty 0]

ty this helped

[fx2050 0]

good starter guide

be even better if can keep adding some stuff im sure more key points for all to know

and as for trade every time i look i dont have enough tokens. have to try again on a new city

[oosul 0]

thanks !

cant wait to implement in 2011!

[City Planner 121]

Are you that are trading in CXL09, using the cheat menu to adjust Omnicorps buying and selling prices?

I can't see how you could make a profit from things like fuel, water, electricity at the prices that Omnicorp pays, it seems to me from what I figured out a couple days ago that it costs more to produce the three resources than Omnicorp is willing to pay, so until Cities XL 11 comes out in a couple days and we can trade between our own cities, I just don't see how people are using trading with omnicorp to make a profit unless they are adjusting the prices that Omnicorp is paying and buying resources at.

I also watched many Cities XL 09 videos (planet offering) on youtube where people didn't understand the price conversion rate from tokens to cash income, and took deals from Omnicorp, but then later on checked their expense report (the highest expenses in the city) and found out that what they were selling to Omnicorp was costing them greater than what they were being paid for them.

I'm hoping that we will be able to trade straight across to our own cities in 2011 for resource to resource (i.e. City A trades 1 electricity to City B for 1 water), that might make it a bit better and then we can live on the tax money alone.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

I actually made a succesfull city with the vanilla CXL09 starting with High Density. It's just very careful placing the buildings. Just place very few buildings, just enough to keep your budget stable. After a while, you can just build your city more easily. But yes, building a city starting with HD is quite challenging...

[Jesse Swiss 6]

we will be able to trade between cities in CXL 2011

[Barzarel 0]

Been looking for a real good guide for this as i thought the tutorial didn't really fill out many the most important aspects of Cities XL, but wondering is there anything you could say sorrounding Traffic Logistics because it often seem to be one my major struggling points, with red like trafic areas, seems no matter how i structure it i can't seem to find a effective setup to relive it.

[snick25 384]

Public Transport plays a key role, as well as upgrading your roads (e.g. replacing a small avenue with a large avenue). If you want more help, I would recommend going to http://xlnation.net/.

[0ri0n1 1]

good guide, thanks

I would like to know more about traffic

I'm not sure how to place the roads efficiently

with all the different type of roads available.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

XLNation, Cities XL Wikia, and YouTube have good guides. Also, this is a very old thread.

Enjoy the game!

--Ocram