Suggestion for layouts

[Mikket 5]

Hello again!

I'm back again to request a list of layouts that one can use to mix and match for zoning anything between Medium and High Density. 

Yes, yes, I'm well aware that I could just play the game but my brain just won't stop me from zoning purely squares and becoming a modern day megacity!

What I'm looking for is similar to a topic created years ago called 'How to Diverge Traffic'. Basically layouts that include bus stops/subways/etc for modern day metropolis's. If any of y'all could help out, please! It'd be greatly appreciated. Hopefully other newcomers or returning vets will find such inspiration useful for their cities.

Kind regards,
A struggling mayor

[TheMurderousCricket 5,044]

I think you may well try the excellent and transportation-oriented city journals by our excellent friend @Naomi57, who is really hooked up upon anything related to networks, roads, communication and, as a result, layouts.

 

 

While these city journals use NAM36 which is now outdated, I believe that you can find some interesting information, inspiration and draw conclusions from what is presented in these journals. NAM version does not play such a big role here, because you are asking about the layouts and breaking a grid in your city. Do give them a read. No particular order is necessary.

While there, you may also browse through @EffTheGrid's resources and files.

This member is one of this community's resident experts on breaking the grid patterns by providing buildings and lots that simply cannot be build in a grid-based environment. As such, they force you to think the layout of your city beforehand or at least make some small "disturbances" in the city structure that will allow you to be less dependent on the "standard". 

And last but not least, go ahead and check this sub if you haven't already...

Unfortunately, some of the earliest pictures in this thread are missing or have been lost due to domain/host page changes, but the ones that are there are literally a library of options and ideas that will let more creativity into your town.

Good luck!

[Naomi57 2,985]

On 19/07/2022 at 2:43 AM, Mikket said:

I'm back again to request a list of layouts that one can use to mix and match for zoning anything between Medium and High Density. 

Yes, yes, I'm well aware that I could just play the game but my brain just won't stop me from zoning purely squares and becoming a modern day megacity!

What I'm looking for is similar to a topic created years ago called 'How to Diverge Traffic'. Basically layouts that include bus stops/subways/etc for modern day metropolis's. If any of y'all could help out, please! It'd be greatly appreciated. Hopefully other newcomers or returning vets will find such inspiration useful for their cities.

Hi @Mikket, I well understand the temptation to just zone a massive grid.  It's quick, and repeatable, but it doesn't yield results that I like long term.

What I want from SimCity 4 + NAM, is a city with variety, where each neighbourhood is different.  For me this requires:

1. Some natural features that are retained, or created, with civilisation populating the spaces around and between those natural features.
2. Major and minor highways that make sense from a regional perspective.
3. Strategic placement of police stations, medical and educational buildings.
4. Zoning commercial in proximity to police and traffic.
5. Zoning manufacturing and dirty industry away from the high class commercial and residential zones.
6. Building a broader transport network that makes for the fastest and easiest commutes.  All sims LOVE a fast and easy commute.

Playing SimCity 4, is kinda like an enormous game of Tetris for me, finding the best spot to fit each piece.

By all means, build a megacity grid if that's what you enjoy most.  SC4 is nothing if it's not enjoyable.
You might also like to experiment with a "superblock" structure, if you like grids.

 

Here's another approach, building a series of communities along a highway, with a hierarchy of road types from highway, to arterial, to avenue, to road, to street.

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/760074-how-to-diverge-traffic/?tab=comments#comment-1743535

 

Here's a sample of my own approach for creating variety, using the numbered steps 1 to 6 at the top of this post.

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/760404-can-cap-be-never-hit-by-appropiately-zoning-rci/?tab=comments#comment-1749252

 

The north-south highway is one part of my "Belt Parkway" which runs across six cities so far.

Working around "natural" landscape limitations and a strategic regional transit architecture makes the game more fun for me.

Let me know if you're interested to see zoning plans I tend to use at the local level.  I have lots of "tetris" geometry playing out at every level in my game, deploying various patterns and variations on those patterns at each point, with a focus on land use efficiency, "vanilla" economic gameplay, and urban variety.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,044]

On 15.08.2022 at 11:33 AM, Naomi57 said:

Hi @Mikket, I well understand the temptation to just zone a massive grid.  It's quick, and repeatable, but it doesn't yield results that I like long term.

And and, one has to remember that the more intersections a city has, the more congested it gets.

Which brings me to the next point - grid-based cities are terrific for commercial, glass n' concrete paradises. Certified by yours truly.