Airport aesthetics in SimCity 3000

Contributor/author(s): Kyle D.J.

How many major airports have you seen with buildings occupying every single spot of land except the runways? None! But that's the default way SimCity 3000 produces airports. They may be functional for the simulation but their realism is terrible.

This article is for those who want to exercise more control over the layout and visual appearance of their airports. Cost, pollution, or any other factors besides aesthetics are not considered. Using these techniques I created the fully functional airport shown in Figure 1 with minimal effort. These techniques do not require the "Building Plop Cheat".

Observations

I have constructed all possible lengths of runways in both orientations, and here are my observations:

Figure 2: A "runway assembly" (5 tiles long).

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1. The main feature of the SimCity 3000 airport is the runway. This appears as a 3xN rectangle, where N is 5 to 10 tiles. There is a 1xN runway and a parallel 1xN "landing strip", these connected at their ends by "landing strip crosses". Tarmac fills the remaining tiles. For lack of a better phrase, I'll call this rectangle a "runway assembly". Runway assemblies have two possible orientations. See Figure 2.
2. All landings and takeoffs are to the northeast or northwest, depending on the orientation of the runway.
3. Aircraft on the ground move in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise path, depending on which side of the runway the landing strip is located. It seems landing strip location is random.
4. Control towers will only appear adjacent to landing strip tiles. If the runway is 10-tiles long there may be 2 control towers. There will be only 1 control tower for all other runway lengths.
5. The 2x2 hangar buildings will only build adjacent to a runway assembly. Their doors are always on the southeast side.
6. The airport buildings will only build so far from a runway assembly. The maximum size of an airport with a single runway assembly is always the same. For runways with a length of 5, 6, 7, or 8 tiles, the maximum airport size is a 12x16 rectangle (totalling 192 tiles). For 9- and 10-tile runways, the maximum airport size is a 12x20 rectangle (totalling 240 tiles). The longer side of this rectangle is always parallel to the runway. The position of the runway assembly within this rectangle appears to be random (I could not determine a pattern). I have seen buildings appear as far as 7 tiles away from the runway assembly, and sometimes only 2 tiles. The ASCII example below shows one possibility for a 7-tile runway:
7. Runway assemblies will build only so close together. It seems there must be no less than 9 non-runway tiles between the closest runway tiles of any two runway assemblies. The lengths, orientation, or relative positioning of the two runway assemblies seems to be irrelevant.
8. Runway assemblies will not build on top of power lines. All other airport buildings will.

Tips

Figure 3: Controlled runway placement.

1. You can control the placement and orientation of runway assemblies within a large airport zone. Simply enclose the desired 3xN location with power lines (see Figure 3). The runway assembly should appear immediately provided there is road access to the desired runway location. Similarly, you can use power lines as a way to prevent runway assemblies from appearing where you do not want them. I discovered this technique after experimenting with Nate Gehl's article, "Efficient airports and/or eliminating them entirely".
2. You can bulldoze all landing strip and tarmac tiles (the "non-runway" tiles) from a runway assembly and it will still remain "active". Animated air traffic will still use the runway, but they will now taxi over (or through!) whatever you place where the non-runway tiles once were. This amusing activity can create the illusion that aircraft are taxing into maintenance hangars while at the airport.
3. If you bulldoze a runway tile, the entire runway will disappear leaving only the non-runway tiles. This ceases to be an "active" runway assembly. No animated aircraft will use these tiles. These tiles will no longer limit the placement of other runway assemblies. Place another runway assembly nearby and almost immediately you will have 2x2 hangars appearing along the old landing strip tiles if there is space (and replacing the old tarmac tiles in the process). See Figure 4.
4. Try not to let buildings appear at the ends of your runways. It's not very realistic. Instead use creative zoning to keep a few tiles clear at each end of your runways.
5. Feel free to place non-airport items within the boundaries of your airports. Some ideas include police or fire stations, roads, parks, the Military Base, etc. Another idea is to run road tunnels under your runways like some real-world cities.

Technique

Using tips 1 and 3 you can create very large airports that have runways where you want them, and with realistic infrastructure of 2x2 hangars connected by taxiways. This airport will appear much more functional than the wall-to-wall "mini-city" that the game spits out by default. Aircraft will now have access routes to hangars situated far away from the runways (of course you will not see animations for this).

1. Plan in advance where you want your runways to appear. These will be the last items you let the simulation build in your airport. Either leave these areas unzoned, or zone them and cross them with power lines to prevent the runway assemblies from appearing prematurely.
2. Allow the simulation to create runway assemblies near the boundary of your airport. These runways are only temporary.
3. Wait for the auxiliary buildings to appear around the runway assemblies, and then bulldoze the runways to make them "inactive".
4. Let the simulation build new runway assemblies near the inactive ones. Almost immediately 2x2 hangers should begin to appear along the inactive landing strips, provided there is space.
5. Repeat Step 3.
6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 as needed until the entire airport is covered with 2x2 hangars, "taxiways" (the inactive landing strips), and other buildings.
7. Finally, let the simulation build the runway assemblies in the locations you reserved in Step 1.

It is best to wait longer in Step 3 before bulldozing the temporary runway(s). If you progress too quickly, your final airport could have vacant zones that will never build anything. This is because of Observation 6: once a runway is bulldozed, buildings will no longer appear near the remaining tiles unless another runway is nearby. Remember you can always bulldoze an airport building at any time, but if there is no runway nearby you will need to temporarily build one again to get the vacant tiles to fill up.

Have fun creating your new and improved airports!

See also
Efficient airports and/or eliminating them entirely
The lost airports of SimCity
Crossed airport runways
A more aesthetic highway interchange system