Best location for offices

[DaveParker 0]

Apologies if this is already covered elsewhere. I'm wondering what other people's opinions are on whether offices are best located on the outskirts of a cities XL city, somewhere around the middle of the map or somewhere else.

The game seems to encourage them on the outskirts as they are heavily dependant on passengers and its the outskirts that have the highest passenger numbers, created by the citylinks.

To get the same passengers in the center, wide roads and / or an airport are required. Are there any advantages in having offices in the center? Is it mostly for ease of commute?

I haven't really tried the approach of putting them on the outskirts so has anyone experimented with both and found one approach to be better than the other?

[Asheroo 53]

I'm quite annoyed at the passenger services requirement in the game. The offices in the game require good passenger services, so around the outside of the map or near an airport or such are the best options.

With my city, my businesses right in the CBD (right in the centre of the map) were having major problems because of the passenger services requirement. At one stage, about 1/2 of the businesses there were bankrupt. I have a "pretend" highway, using my trick of using the one-way avenues and bridges, that goes into the CBD, though because of the CXL engine it doesn't help as much as the normal highway option, so that may be one reason why my passenger services may not be as good in the centre as it should be. But, my solution was to simply build a tunnel going from right in the centre of the city all the way to the nearest city link, and it worked so things are back to normal.

Anyway, to those who suffer from the same thing, that's my advise, build a tunnel going from the city all the way to the nearest city link on the edge of the map.

[lucytash 0]

"Anyway, to those who suffer from the same thing, that's my advise, build a tunnel going from the city all the way to the nearest city link on the edge of the map"

This sounds like great advice but I've spent hours trying to build tunnels - even watching you-tube clips & I just cannot manage it! I get green but as soon as I click, it goes to red.

Please tell me what I'm doing wrong!

[Asheroo 53]

You just need to really be careful with tunnels and bridges. Make sure it is just the right slope so it can quickly go under enough in a short distance to go under the buildings and roads, but not too steep. Sometimes when at first you build a slope and it's ok, when you build the next section it may alter to flow better with the tunnel, so just watch out. Also, make sure you have the "curved" road option on so it doesn't have that "interchange error".

It does take a little while until you finally get the tunnel working, but once you've got it, you have a great addition to your road network.

[lucytash 0]

Originally posted by: Asheroo

You just need to really be careful with tunnels and bridges. Make sure it is just the right slope so it can quickly go under enough in a short distance to go under the buildings and roads, but not too steep. Sometimes when at first you build a slope and it's ok, when you build the next section it may alter to flow better with the tunnel, so just watch out. Also, make sure you have the "curved" road option on so it doesn't have that "interchange error".

It does take a little while until you finally get the tunnel working, but once you've got it, you have a great addition to your road network.quote>

Many thanks ASheroo for your speedy reply. I'll go & try again - after I've read your fantastic Rooleyson Journal.

[Tuesday 0]

Hmm...that doesn't sound good. I prefer to build more a nucleus city with one main CBD (usually central), rather than an LA "slapdash" approach (no offence to any LA folks, of course).

Maybe the new bus service and future train services and subways will fix this anyway.

[soltangris 42]

Yes, that's my opinion as well. The mass transit options, especially trains, should provide much better freight/passenger capacities to areas away from the edges/city links. I think that's what MC have in mind. Well, it definetily makes sence in the real life.

[DaveParker 0]

Are there any downsides to putting all the offices / business hotels near the citylinks other than it being unrealistic?

[Ocram's Razr 963]

No downsides. Farmland is usually in the middle so I rarely put Downtown in the centre.

[Stef42 0]

In most cases I'm building the offices at the borders of the maps as close as possible to a city link.

Its a bit frustrating that when you build a road which goes through the map, the indicator goes yellow at the center, aldo there are no other connections...

[masochist 111]

I know they aren't popular, but freeways help immensely with this. I have a freeway that runs all the way almost to the edge of the map, but then turns into a small avenue for the city link (saves about $95,000 or so). The freeways are all green until the very center of the map, THEN they start degrading to yellow (but there's nothing there right now, so I'm find with it). The offices that are about 1/4 the way into the map all have green roads to feed off of.

[Cob92 360]

Freeways are pretty much necessary for a central CBD. Unfortunately, the bridges are broken. I actually scrapped one of my cites because, after demolishing some 100 buildings to put the freeway in, I got an "Invalid Junction" error trying to cross the bay.

[Asheroo 53]

@ Cobhris96 - That's why I avoided using the normal game freeways and came up with the idea of using the avenues and making them one way and then making a freeway out of that. It then allows for some great custom interchanges, only problems are that intersections are created when it connects to a pretend on/off ramp (though it still flows smoothly, but may congest traffic quite a bit, but that's usual in life), and because of that, passenger services are unable to reach central areas.

With the tunnel going from the city centre right to the city link, it avoids all the suburban traffic so the services go direct to the city. This way, the CBD and the area around should have better passenger services so the offices will be able to survive. If I didn't discover this trick, Rooleyson would be dead by now.

This is how much room (length wise, I'm yet to develop the area around) the tunnel should take up...

This is a map of the tunnel set up, from the CBD to the nearest CityLink...

[Tuesday 0]

So, when I eventually get round to playing this...

If I start off my city, building from the very centre of the map and outwards I'll encounter problems with passengers? Are everyone's cities heavily built up round the edge of the maps?

[Mastaflex 0]

Originally posted by: Tuesday

So, when I eventually get round to playing this...

If I start off my city, building from the very centre of the map and outwards I'll encounter problems with passengers? Are everyone's cities heavily built up round the edge of the maps?quote>

When you get the opportunity to build a large airport, all roads in your city get a huge boost to passenger services.

My city here has a very dense CBD, but all roads within are green for passengers(thanks to the airport). Freight is almost null except for the fringe areas around the core but then again offices don't require freight. This is also a old pic of my city and I have developed the CBD even more now and had to build a second airport on the other side of the city for more access.

[Tuesday 0]

Excellent screenshot, Mastaflex. What approx population had you reached by that point? And how many citizens do you have now?

[Mastaflex 0]

Originally posted by: Tuesday

Excellent screenshot, Mastaflex. What approx population had you reached by that point? And how many citizens do you have now?quote>

In the screenshot I have just abit over 1 million population. I now have 1.8 million and the highrises have almost doubled in the downtown core, also because of this I had to demolish the expressway leading from the airport to the city and replace it with a highway for better traffic flow; you can't see it but the road that runs along the airport goes to my main industrial and manufacturing area, making a lot of traffic both ways and can put a hamper on passenger services if too clogged up.

[Sainty 0]

Here is my passanger overiew with CBD marked in blue. Even if its not placed in the center of the map, its still not very close to the edge of the map. At the same time I have traffic problems on my main roads which chokes the passanger flow to the center of the map. I think that once the buses are out, the passanger will flow further into the center thx to less traffic jams. At the same time maybe even buses will work as airports and give the passanger flow another push.