Ideas for realistic city layout development by "house rules"

[whiteboybob 43]

I thought I'd try and make a list of "house rules" for game play to help make a realistic looking city.  This should also add to the complexity and"fun".

 

 

 

First Idea

 

1. For every full square of industry zoned add rail spur access.  Industry loves rail.  This would look even better if you have the single rail option mod.

 

2.

For every 5 full squares of industry zoned add a freight station in the middle.

 

Next Idea

 

Add extra parking lots to every plopped building. whether its civic commercial or industrial.  These buildings are usually lacking in parking, especially maxis lots.

 

Next

when starting a region I always drop a seaport as the first building.  You have to get the supplies in there somehow. I guess you can start with a sim nation connection if you want.

 

Next

Expand the power plants. Adding coal piles to the coal plant and storage tanks to the fuel plants, etc.

 

 

Alright people. What have you been doing to make this game "Sim" better?

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Generally I take a heart for the transport aspect, so I examine real life maps and see what I can implement.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Of late, I have been playing a region with lots of coast line.  So, kind of like the east Maritime coast of Canada, I've been starting new tiles with fishing ports or farming villages.  Industrial, if at all, comes much later and is always related to the railroads.

 

If big cities grow, they get there without much encouragement from me.  The game offers temptations, and one simply resists.

[AcronShinra 60]

What comes to my mind: avoiding overuse of pure rectangular grid zoning; mixing small commercial lots with residential zones and building mall lots on outskirts, eye-candies, I mean a lot of eye-candies, parks, plazas, walls, industrial fillers, you name it; creating green areas: seasonal forests, custom ponds, lakes, rivers.

[anytownUSA 32]

I like to envision my freeway layouts ahead of time.  But first I build only a 2 lane road in its place connecting numerous small towns in my region.  As my towns grow and the traffic between them increases, I upgrade the high traffic roads to freeways with exits where the intersections were.  This helps enchorage me to expand the region before my main city becomes too developed.  And since freeways cost much more to manitain, this makes great fiscal sense too. 

 

I like to build railroads early as well since they're so cheap. 

[Bdub01 201]

In my residential areas I do add several cul-du-sacs with a park or two behind it. Also I try to make my exits and entrances as real as possible with at least two gas stations and a Micky D's every few exits. As well as the other fast food places ie. Wendy's , Arby's, Subway, etc.

[yiplong 1]

My house rule is to not build too many high density commercial or residential buildings. 

[Prophet42 1,500]

For realistic cities I usually try to start with farming communities and then slowly develop them.  Also, as I lay my roads and transportation systems, I usually try to follow the 'lay of the land'.  This usually produces more realistic layouts.  I also do as ROFLyoshi does, and examine real world maps (Google Earth, also) to get ideas on how to layout my cities.  I also try to prevent clumps of repeated buildings.  Some buildings are notorious for endlessly repeating themselves thus producing an unrealistic look (can anyone say the Freytag building).

[whiteboybob 43]

I like nonny moose fishing villages connected by rail. 

 

A side note. If you run rail spurs to your industry and only cross rail with overpasses, the annoyance of building the bridges and fitting puzzle pieces might influence you to go in a different direction.  spreading out your city naturally.

[FreewayofFlight 41]

I like to play my regions like they are 'states' or 'countries'. So in the region I'll have a bunch of small-ish cities (largest single city is 400,000) surrounded my farmland and small towns with highways connecting the bigger cities.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Small towns and cities, with coastal villages or fishing ports make a lot of sense once you've gotten over the idea that a pin-cushion megalopolis is a good thing.  I haven't tried the single track rail option, but I think, if can be mixed with double tracking, it might be ideal for industrial sidings.

[whiteboybob 43]

Small towns and cities, with coastal villages or fishing ports make a lot of sense once you've gotten over the idea that a pin-cushion megalopolis is a good thing.  I haven't tried the single track rail option, but I think, if can be mixed with double tracking, it might be ideal for industrial sidings.

I have used single plus double track in the past.  It worked great for spurs. Im SURE you would too. I dont remember why I dont have it anymore. there might be a conflict with nam 31 maybe idk.

 

No conflict..  Its in the NAM 31. I just reinstalled it. works great.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Also think about real life cities. Why are they there, as opposed to say, 50 miles to the north? Many large cities start in their location for particular reasons. Here are some examples.
 

• Highest navigable point on a river (London)
• On an easily navigble yet sheltered bay (New York, Sydney)
• On a hilltop, for defense (Athens, Rome)
• On easily defendable islands (old part of Paris, Stockholm)
• Mountain pass, which facilitates trade (Arthurs Pass)
• A purpose compromise as a political capital between two competing cities (Frankfort, Canberra)
• A junction between two major rivers (St. Louis)

These will hopefully give you some answers to think about when deciding where your city will go.

[.anonyman 28]

If the goal is realism, then here's a basic rule.

 

Plan according to the landscape first and the road network next. Over the centuries, roads don't move around like streams, forests and buildings do. A well-planned basic road network can be upgraded and the surrounding zoning can be changed again and again as needed. 

 

 

 

[Janbiya 71]

There are three things that are always very tempting and very easy to overbuild in SimCity 4: Transportation networks, commercial zones, and medium/high density. I find that when I abstain from zoning those things in newly developed areas and focus on upgrading transportation infrastructure as need demands it, I end up with something that looks a lot more like real life cities at the farthest zoom and in the region view. Or at least real life western hemisphere cities. If you're going for more of an Old World look, medium density in the urban outskirts is more common there.

 

The other big key I've found to creating more realistic cities probably doesn't bear mentioning to most on this forum, but I'll say it all the same: Lots and lots of mods. Downloading lots by the gigabyte does massive amounts to reduce the normally inevitable repetitiveness of large cities. Most SimCity buildings are idiosyncratic looking enough that having a handful close to each other can completely spoil any sense of photorealism, so this one is important.

[whiteboybob 43]

How bout this for another "rule" ? If you do zone high density, keep it to one 3x3 lot of C or R per 10k population at the city center.

[larryparadise 10]

How bout this for another "rule" ? If you do zone high density, keep it to one 3x3 lot of C or R per 10k population at the city center.

 

that's a good one...would you use that rule for medium density too? i always run into problems zoning medium density residential and usually get abandonment problems.  plus i hate the way it looks when all the medium density stuff gets built together...i haven't really been in a city where there have been blocks and blocks of completely commercial activity.

[whiteboybob 43]

 

How bout this for another "rule" ? If you do zone high density, keep it to one 3x3 lot of C or R per 10k population at the city center.

 

that's a good one...would you use that rule for medium density too? i always run into problems zoning medium density residential and usually get abandonment problems.  plus i hate the way it looks when all the medium density stuff gets built together...i haven't really been in a city where there have been blocks and blocks of completely commercial activity.

 

Well of coarse its up to you. I dont find the medium a problem. it only gets 4 or 5 stories tall.   TIP: try just zoning your medium density along your main thoroughfares. instead of whole neighborhoods.

[larryparadise 10]

thanks!

[flatron 83]

Another rule could be: Try to build a city as it might have develloped through the centuries: Start with the historical core, add railways and roads, then, add 19th. century devellopments like factories, medium density residential areas and schools, a hospital, courthouse, theatre, early office buildings, areas with mansion like high wealth residences,..., by that time, the area between the main railway station and the historical core might have become what geographs call the "City" or CBD, and street cars are the most important means of transport. Later, the automobile comes in and has a huge impact: Motorways are built, there is a need for parking garages, suburbs are built. And some time later, the people realize that functional segregation doesn't really work, which results in new mixed use areas in the agglomeration. By now, the city has usually swallowed neighbouring villages and towns.

[Dannibee 138]

I was thinking that if we comprised a set of rules together for realistic city building we could start new regions and compare with other people in a kind of game. My personal rule is no water until populations hits 40,000, then you can start zoning the medium density.

[flatron 83]

40,000? whoaw... none of the (RL) cities around me has more than 20,000 inhabitants, but all of them have "medium density", even the small town(2900inh.) where I live has w2w-buildings and apartment blocks...

[Turjan 1,048]

Well of coarse its up to you. I dont find the medium a problem. it only gets 4 or 5 stories tall.

 

 

There are lots of 8 stories tall medium density buildings in the basic game already, and they grow in regions with relatively low population. I'm also slightly annoyed if I see these high Borg cubes come up between the row houses, like "Somers Place" or some of the "Small Condos".

 

Some of the medium density buildings (especially R$$$ ones) are 13 stories tall.

[whiteboybob 43]

I usually jack the taxes up for the R$$$ to 12 or 15% to discourage mansions. Maybe thats why I dont usually see the tall buildings. I'll make a neighbor my R$$$ area.

 

ps. Im going to be starting a City Journal in a few days using these "rules". if anyone is interested. "Tanglewood Springs"

 

EDIT:  I accidentally combined two separate thoughts into one statement. Forget the tall part.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The way to discourage mansions is to zone so as to disallow them.  For ordinary res. areas I zone lots manually at 2 x 1.  This gives closely packed neighbourhoods with streets only two grid squares apart.  No mansion can grow on these.  When I want one, I simply zone a 4 x 4 and you will eventually have one. 

 

I generally keep all my taxes parallel except for I-Ag (7%) and I-D (20% after year 3).  I tend to lower all other tax rates as the profit spread increases, but I generally don't go lower than 7%.  I use decrements of 0.2 - 0.5% as the spirit moves me.  This tends to keep demand fairly constant as long as you don't over-zone.

[Priyon 16]

As I love anime, I modified the game so that it can simulate only Japanese-style cities (especially Tokyo), or anything that comes close to it. As a result, the 'house rules' I use are different from normal city-building concepts that apply on conventional cities in the game.

 

Firstly, Expressways and the Metro (Highways and Elevated Rails/Subways respectively) are the main modes of transport among districts and zones. The cities I build are sprawling, covering nearly all of the region. Traveling on the roads and avenues means long traffic jams and it takes DAYS to go somewhere using them. So the expressways and metro are primary inter-city modes.

 

The house rule here is that I make the cities so that nearly all the people use those modes of transport instead of roads, even if the destination is just behind their houses. It is realistic, since Tokyo is famed for the metro and expressways, and most of the traffic that wants to get inside the city uses them, rather than the web of roads.

 

Secondly, suburban residential areas are divided and separate. Every suburban zone has about 60-70 lots (and most lots have about 3 houses each) and a network of streets. Each lot is almost always three-tile long, since the Japanese houses by SOMY and many others fit into those tiles. A road completely surrounds the whole zone from outside, since the road is square. To make it even more realistic, I add parks to each of these zones.

 

Thirdly, the biggest rule for creating realistic cities is to have at least 50% of the area as suburbs, which lie on the outskirts of the city.

 

Then, my rule is to use only European style architecture, because only that has any resemblance to Japanese architecture.

 

Encouraging bus travel is a rule that applies on ALL realistic cities built in SC4, whether or not Japanese-style. So I keep bus stops all around, and encourage their usage by enacting that commuter shuttler service ordinance.

 

Another big house rule I always make is to create closely-packed cities. This means making small lots that don't have parking space. Tokyo is very closely packed and parking space is at premium.

 

And of course, I have many many more house rules for realistic cities...will post more if I have not already bored you guys.

[Srawldaddy74 17]

I love this topic thought I was the only who has evolved in to a uber-micro manager of visual city layouts.  I have for a year now started my cities with future infrastructure in mind.  So that means if it is on a coast and will be a seaport city then rail has to be built first.  Nothing like building a city and having to work in your rail later.   I layout the town square for the historical core.  Almost all of my cities that I build lately have a historic section and a new CDB with all of the office towers. 

 

Next consideration is I will only have 1 large city per region.  Depending on the map I am using its usually the seaport city.  I guess growing up on the east coast thats where the majority of the large cities are so its more realistic to me.   When I say large I mean multiple CBDs with tall gleaming towers.  For the most part I am partial to mid sized cities and I like to grow them to about 100,000 then I try to slow growth down.  Like I said I try to manipulate the downtown area to a vision in my head.  So If you can imagine the average American city of 100-150K thats the size of the CBD I strive for.  Of course if it is growing really well I let it get a little bigger but I dont not encourage it.  It has to happen on its own; organic growth.

 

Residential area I handle as realistic as possible.  I do like to switch things up and make each city unique but for the most part I have the mostly suburban type city the mixed/industrial city and the urban American northeast small city. 

 

If I have freeways, expressways and urban spurs I try to make them realistic.  Such as having bypasses and loops.  Also the urban spur that is trenched through downtown and the ever important airport spur.  If I choose to put a mall in the city then it has to be accompanied with the associated commercial stores; such as fast food joint, hotels, gas stations and office parks.

 

For the most part I try to stay pretty conservative unless I need to level the global commercial demand with a large city which is usually the case since I build small to mid sized cities that are all connected.   Perhaps I will show some pictures of my micro managing ways if this topic lives long enough.

[Srawldaddy74 17]

There are three things that are always very tempting and very easy to overbuild in SimCity 4: Transportation networks, commercial zones, and medium/high density. I find that when I abstain from zoning those things in newly developed areas and focus on upgrading transportation infrastructure as need demands it, I end up with something that looks a lot more like real life cities at the farthest zoom and in the region view. Or at least real life western hemisphere cities. If you're going for more of an Old World look, medium density in the urban outskirts is more common there.

 

The other big key I've found to creating more realistic cities probably doesn't bear mentioning to most on this forum, but I'll say it all the same: Lots and lots of mods. Downloading lots by the gigabyte does massive amounts to reduce the normally inevitable repetitiveness of large cities. Most SimCity buildings are idiosyncratic looking enough that having a handful close to each other can completely spoil any sense of photorealism, so this one is important.

 

Yeah I know what you mean.  I just bulldoze those buildings when they start growing.  Especially when I have crafted my historic small town core just the way I like it.  I have about half gig in BATs and mods.  So when those maxis repeaters start popping up I get really annoyed and chop them down.  I only plop when there is a specific look I am going for and when I do it is only a landmark version.  NO job plopping for me it ruins gameplay.  I have found that since I have played the game like this it is much more enjoyable almost like an artform than just playing a game or simulation.  Ok that sounded a little cheesy but I find the experience more satisfying now instead of just tryiing to build out the whole region with all skyscrapers....

[whiteboybob 43]

Alright. Here is another technique Im trying and it seems to be working pretty good.

Say you are building a road from A to B. Normally you go around big rock formations for realism. My Idea is try plopping rocks randomly with quick mouse sweeps so it looks like this.

https://i1364.photobucket.com/albums/r729/Rob_Hurin/e3541795-09f9-4b6c-98c8-7606bf60b991_zpsfe4feb8b.jpg

Now draw in the road to the other building.

https://i1364.photobucket.com/albums/r729/Rob_Hurin/a6a2edfe-b288-4857-9236-314621bfb110_zps84a4f4f4.jpg

OH NO! there is a boulder in the way. go around it.

https://i1364.photobucket.com/albums/r729/Rob_Hurin/0a86775e-a7cb-4415-b6c9-e4ea699d804c_zps02f5e4f7.jpg

Now we have just added a couple random turns in our road. you can go back and touch up the rocks or remove some or whatever depending on your landscape requirements. I personally left a few in cause im building a city in a rocky area.  Some sims are gonna have a huge builder in their back yard.

ps. just be careful not to overdue the rocks.

 

I went back and changed a straight boring road to this using the "random rock plop method."

[Turjan 1,048]

I usually jack the taxes up for the R$$$ to 12 or 15% to discourage mansions. Maybe thats why I dont usually see the tall buildings. I'll make a neighbor my R$$$ area.

 

That's probably a good idea, although there are also low wealth highrises in medium density, but not as egregiously off what you would expect as with R$$$. I think this here is the most ridiculous R$$$ example, a stage 5 medium density building with 31 stories and 586 residents:

 

 

When I first saw this, I thought I had zoned wrong.