The Hiltonian way of expanding

Contributor/author(s): Chris Hilton

Expanding can make or break your city, but it's also the most entertaining part of the game, especially when you succeed. But, sadly, this is where a lot of people make severe errors. Many people do their expanding in large quantities and don't space the sections out. Futhermore, many people only wait a few years before they expand again.

Expanding in this method is prone to many errors. Many times you forget to add enough parks and other beautification buildings in. It begins to look uniform because it is usually a grid of roads, and trees become a rarity. All this leads to high pollution, heavy traffic, and other problems that cripple your city.

When expanding, you should build different neighborhoods separated from each other, each of them with all three types of zoning. The plots of development should be medium-sized, at largest, and ten years should be put in between expansion periods. But most importantly, all the empty space should be filled with trees. Lots and lots of them. Place them on hills. In some sections, put in lakes with light residential on their banks. The excess space also makes it easier to put in transportation later (such as highways and railways), whereas in a big city you'd have to demolish a lot of stuff, and it requires a lot more work.

Bottom line, it looks prettier to you, and that is what is really important. For some examples of this method, download Hiltonian Wonderland and Greenville from the City Center.