Building A Skyline From Scratch

[Haljackey 17,241]

Yup here we go... a series where I build a city in Cities: Skylines!

 

 

For the uninitiated: This series is inspired by my 'Building A City From Scratch' video series for SimCity 4.

 

My early release playthrough of the game: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

 

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3Yl0lRNSH1gVh1WCJXp2UTlg9-MwucVs

 

My personal review of the game will be coming.

So far I have 0 mods installed. Can't gaurantee that will be true throughout the life of this new series.

 

 

Pics from this part: Click for full size!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Haljackey 17,241]

Part 2 now available!

 

Working on building interchanges on the new highway and expanding my city south of the river.

 

 

Some screenshots: click for full size!

 

 

 

[Haljackey 17,241]

Part 3 is out now!

 

Here I deal with traffic congestion (already?) and extend the city north!

 

 

Screenshot from the part. Click for full size!

[iviaarten 533]

hehe, traffic, the end boss of any city builder Enjoying the video's Hal. Thanks.

[89James89 1,169]

I need to properly watch these Hal but I think form the screens the city looks lovely and as always your transport networks look really nice.

 

I'm also not to sure why this isn't get more comments espicially given the amount of time you put into the videos and all, still hopefully it'll pick up.

 

CHeers

 

James

[PhatHead 247]

Looking  really great!   Makes me wish I had the game,  yesterday.   lol.    I can't wait to get it.     Keep up the great work.

[zimmie 521]

I never really comment on them, but I have been watching your vids forever - SC4 and now this game anyway. I've always enjoyed them, a man after my own heart, coming up with traffic solutions, retrofitting, etc, best part of a city builder imo.

 

 

On another note this pic reminded me of something that i did today. I don't know if it's just news to me but I built a 3-way road intersection just like this one directly under an overpass by accident. I haven't tried a 4-way yet.

 

 

 

Amazing the flexibility the roads and highways have out of the box. But I wish they had some transition pieces for the highway , 2-lane highway (for rural highways or ramps) along with 2-lane split to two single lane ramps, 4-way split to two 2-ways, merge lanes etc. It's a shame, seems like that stuff is kind of trivial compared to what they've already done but sorely needed.

 

 

EDIT*** sorry, i'm terrible at texting my thoughts - I meant lanes where i was saying 'ways', 4-lanes to two 2-lanes, etc.

[iviaarten 533]

Amazing the flexibility the roads and highways have out of the box. But I wish they had some transition pieces for the highway , 2-lane highway (for rural highways or ramps) along with 2-lane split to two single lane ramps, 4-way split to two 2-ways, merge lanes etc. It's a shame, seems like that stuff is kind of trivial compared to what they've already done but sorely needed.

 

I'm missing the 4 way and  2 way as well, but you can emulate the 2 lane rural highways pretty well with just using ramps. Here's some examples:

 

 

Can even get some pretty decent turning lanes if you combine them with 2 lane one-ways.

 

 

Anways, going to watch the 3rd installment of building a skyline from scratch before I go to bed

[zimmie 521]

here's what I was talking about, i didn't even think to try it, happened accidentily.

 

[iviaarten 533]

Ow Haljackey, I like your city, but I must say you were making me cringe with your on and off ramps at your river parclo's.

 

The reason you were getting terrible traffic problems here is not the lack of lanes (although adding that little bit of 3-way helps because you're creating turning lanes. It's mainly that you have between 2 and 4 intersections VERY close together. As you can see in your video, the traffic coming off the offramp isn't flowing through a green light. Instead, they wait for the car in front of them to clear the 8 meter section. So each car completely stops at the green light. When you removed one of the intersections, and gave some more room between the on and the off ramp, the flow had dramatically increased.

 

If you want to keep it sort of compact, create a single intersection by using a pice of 2 or 4 lane 2-way street, and connect the on and off ramp to that, or just space them apart more.

 

Hope this helps I understand it's hard to focus on stuff like this when recording video and talking and playing at the same time.

[Haljackey 17,241]

Replies:

iviaarten: Hi there! Thanks! The traffic in this game seems like it will certainly be challenging. Looking forward to tackling it!

89James89: Well this is a video series, I don't really expect many comments here on ST but I wanted to for sure share it with this community! Besides, this is a much better place to add pics and additional info compared to the Youtube video description and comments! Glad you are enjoying it so far!

PhatHead: Thanks! I would certainly recommend getting the game.

zimmie: Hehe, hope you like them! Commenting is certainly not required but it does help me know who is watching and what/why they may be watching for.
-Traffic will certainly be a challenge, I look forward to tackling it!

iviaarten (2): Looks good but a little too complicated in dense urban settings. Cool workaround though!

iviaarten (3): This game is new to all of us. One thing I learned is that it doesn't like closely spaced intersections. I will likely adapt to the game's simulation aspects over time!

 

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Part 4 now out. I start building transit lines and I also expand the city size!

 

 

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Pics! Lots this time! Click them for full size!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mymyjp 1,052]

This looks very beautiful and well laid out.

[Haljackey 17,241]

Reply:

 

Mymyjp: Thanks! It's about to get a whole lot bigger!

 

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I'm combining parts 5 and 6 into this post as I ran into an issue recording part 5. I'll link it but I think I set my bitrate a bit too high to improve quality... The recording derped and what I was left with was actually the lowest bitrate possible.

 

In terms of size, part 5 was a dismal 351MB, whereas part 6, where I drastically up the quality, was 32.9GB

 

 

Anyways in these, I start work on a huge highway around my city.

 

Part 5 (watch if you're hardcore)

 

 

Part 6 (watch this one)

 

 

 

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Pics from the two parts:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also tried the dynamic resolution mod at 300%

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Those highway intersections are so smooth!

[Snugies 91]

I don't think the Cims are advanced enough to understand these collector lanes things...is it just me or does haljackey have an obsession with the 401 and collector lanes?

[YUUU 65]

That looks very good!  actually they will use collector lanes because you force them to do so to get at the exit....

[copper121212 23]

I don't think the Cims are advanced enough to understand these collector lanes things...is it just me or does haljackey have an obsession with the 401 and collector lanes?

As someone who loves highways of course he is going to want to create the grand daddy of them all!

[Paulobergonci 673]

Dayum, that highway is sexy!

[Vitoraju 675]

Magnificent highways Haljackey!

[IL. 1,043]

[Hamish 1,369]

Hey, just noticed this journal. The images are great! I'm trying to watch all the videos, but these will supplement them if I don't manage to watch a part or two. The highways look good, I love the flexibility of this game!

[Haljackey 17,241]

Replies:

Ln X: Well, compared to other creations I've seen, yes. I think I have too much RHW inspiration from SC4 lol

Snugies: I've seen them use it, heck even the trailer for the game has a C/E system on one of the highways.

YUUU: Thanks! Hopefully they will use it properly!

copper121212: Haha, well I am definately inspired by it!

Paulobergonci: Sexy? Interesting description for a road but I am glad you like it!

Vitor13: Hey, thanks a lot! Glad you like the highways!

IL.:

Hamish: Thanks Hamish! Thats why I wanted to find a place to add pics from the series. Liking the game so far!

 

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Part 7 is out now! In this one, I am preparing for further expansion of the city. I also experienced my first crash/freeze of the game so I lost some footage. At least I know I can't use certain mods with it while recording!

 

 

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Pics: Click them for full size!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snugies 91]

Seems like to get a proper curve you got to make sure the dotted line is at a right angle.

[schooner2 2]

Great videos and pix!  This game is a highway builder's dream come true (although it could still use some refinements)!

[Mymyjp 1,052]

two words: massive and impressive..I cannot imagine the amount of time (and yes, frustration) you have to invest just to make the curves right...I do hope either the developers or our modding community comes up with proper ramps *sigh*...would be so nice.

 

Anyhoo...excellent job as always.

[iviaarten 533]

Now THAT is an interchange! Great to see you're coming to grips with the road building tools. Looking amazing.

[Vitoraju 675]

Its roads are so wonderful as those you do in SimCity 4! good job!  

[Haljackey 17,241]

Replies

Snugies: Ya I'm still learning how to make proper curves, but I like the realism improper curves bring as well.

schooner2: Haha, thanks! Yep, its sure fun to make huge highways. For out of the box gameplay they trump highways outa any other game I've played!

Mymyjp: Count up the length of all the videos and you got a number. It's a labour of love, and I'm glad you enjoy it! I am having a lot of fun making them!

iviaarten: We're all newbies at this game, but after some trial and error things will improve. Glad you like all the infrastructue thus far!

Vitor13: Thanks! Yes my experience in SC4 is helping me a lot in this game, but there are certainly a lot of contrasts between the two. They both have their strengths and weaknesses but I like both of them!
 

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Ok it's time to expand the city. Got the infrastructure in place so I just go for it in this part. The city is really starting to come into it's own. Hope you enjoy it!

 

 

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Pics from this part. Click em all for full size!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[zimmie 521]

Looks like a Haljackey city even in a completely new game.   As a side note, select a tree then use the (+ / -) keys to activate and/or change the size of the tree brush.

[Ksr15 2]

Hey Haljackey, one thing that bothered me in both my game and  a bit is that stupid deathcare. not to say that you're a bad player, but you might wanna start building some more graveyards if you'd like more people to move in. also, one more thing you might not know: those districts can be used to change what type of industry you have. if your city has lots of oil, create a district that specializes in oil. same with farming and forestry. those specialty districts make you lots more money, or so I've heard. btw, it looked like you could use a bit more of industrial, but I know you've got plans for that