Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
SimCity or Cities: Skylines?
MightyUnclean
Member EpicPosts: 3,531
In 30+ years of computer gaming, I've never tried a city builder. I guess I'm due. What do you guys recommend for a total novice, SimCity or Cities: Skylines? Since I'm new to this, an in-game tutorial or process that eases me into the game would be a big bonus. Thanks for any advice!
Comments
Apart from SimCity 2000, which you might be able to find on GoG or a NES emulator or something
The best part about these games is that they truly are sandboxes. If you mess up a section of your city, well you can bulldoze shit down and re-build as long as you have the funds to do so.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
Don't worry about the complexity. Is it complex? Yeh, but you are eased into it.
Your city has "levels", determined by your population. So, when you first start, you'll only be able to build very basic roads and then zone residential, commercial and industrial, as well as basic utilities. The only complexity at this point is how you lay out your roads - do you go for straight roads, or go for bendy roads? It's a purely aesthetic choice.
Then, when you hit 500 residents, your city will level up. You'll start unlocking police, firestations, health and education.
With each new milestone, you'll unlock either new types of buildings (like mass transport) or higher versions of buildings (like primary school -> secondary school -> university).
As with most city building games, the hardest thing is getting your transport links working properly. Sims aren't particularly intelligent so generally just drive everywhere, so traffic jams are common and figuring out how to relieve them can be difficult. But, also not necessary - you can just leave jams in there.
As someone else mentioned, creativity is a big part of these games. When I started in Cities: Skylines, everything I built was laid out in a grid, it was functional but boring. The more I played, the more I experimented with curved roads, elevations, theming zones etc. So, my current cities will have "downtown" areas with big skyscrapers, beach-front commercial zones, large forestry zones out in the countryside etc. These are less efficient but look better and that gives me pleasure.
What you will find, as a newcomer, is you'll have a desire to constantly restart. You'll play for a few hours, reach maybe 5000 or 10000 population but your city will look like crap. My advice would be to just stick it out on your first playthrough - you can always delete parts of your city and rebuild it to look nicer. Once you've reached a population of about 50,000, you'll have basically done everything and so you can then restart and put into practice everything you've learnt.
Then, it's modding time!
You mentioned a video where the guy messes about with traffic lights for ages. Thats a mod, you don't mess with traffic lights in the base game. I have the traffic lights mod and it can be great, allowing you to setup intricate flow systems so that traffic never stops.
I also have some other recommended mods - one that allows you to purchase and build on all 25 map tiles (normally restricted to 9), another than allows tweaking / adjustment of every object, allowing you to get perfect curves and elevations everything (definitely one for perfectionists). Beyond that, I mostly stick to new buildings. I use about 250 new buildings / roads in my game. Some are "boring" - new models for basic residential, commercial and industrial buildings for example (I love some of the forestry buildings you can get), some are more interesting - I can build Stark tower for example. I also make a lot of use of pre-built road intersections, particularly small roundabouts and large freeway intersections, as it just makes building road networks a lot easier.
I only really have 2 main criticisms of the game:
1) Maps
The maps that come with the game are pretty dull. They are all very flat, usually with a river or two passing through them and maybe some nice beaches. They aren't very inspiring once you've learnt how the game works. Luckily, there is a map builder, even if it is a bit awkward to use. What I tend to do is download maps from the steam workshop and then tweak them to my own needs - I love a tiered city with waterfalls, beaches, forests and usually a few mountains that I can put tunnels through.
2) DLC
I don't like DLC at the best of times, but the DLC for Skylines are quite pricey and don't really offer you that much.
I do hope you enjoy the game, I personally believe it's a great one. I would also recommend, every once in a while, to turn off the UI and just enjoy the view. I love building up a massive skyscraper area then turning off the UI and just positioning the camera in amongst the skyscrapers. Can get some really pretty views, especially if you leave the day/night cycle running - sunsets seen through skyscrapers are nice!