Anyone play Cities: Skylines yet?

[riiga]

Very nice!

[jakeroot]

Very nice!

Thought you might like that .

I completely dumped Photoshop and begin working completely in Illustrator using the provided templates. The output is now much higher quality.

There are only six different sign width presets, so I'm forced to work with those. Still, you can do some pretty cool stuff:

[Ned Weasel]

I just started playing this a few days ago.  I'm kind of late to the party, but it's surprisingly addictive, and now I don't know if I can stop.

[TEG24601]

I have 32GB of RAM but a really good processor and video card. So although 4600+ assets is beyond my recommended amount, it's still more than manageable.

Deleting a bunch of assets over the last couple days has significantly improved my performance. Anyone who knows the Loading Screen Mod will know that this screenshot was taken seconds before the game fully loaded:

I get that quite frequently in both Windows and MacOS.  It seems to be something with the rendering changing, but doesn't affect gameplay.

[vtk]

Anyone know a good way to find all those missing assets reported by Loading Screen Mod?

[jakeroot]

I just started playing this a few days ago.  I'm kind of late to the party, but it's surprisingly addictive, and now I don't know if I can stop.

It's one of those games that can be really frustrating, but if you can (A) keep your head on straight, and (B) find the right mods for you, you won't be able to stop. I've been playing this game pretty regularly since it came out and I've only recently realized how much I truly like it.

I have 32GB of RAM but a really good processor and video card. So although 4600+ assets is beyond my recommended amount, it's still more than manageable.

Deleting a bunch of assets over the last couple days has significantly improved my performance. Anyone who knows the Loading Screen Mod will know that this screenshot was taken seconds before the game fully loaded:

I get that quite frequently in both Windows and MacOS.  It seems to be something with the rendering changing, but doesn't affect gameplay.

Right, definitely doesn't affect gameplay. Still, it is rather peculiar. Though it is a mod loading the game after all, so a few oddities are to be expected!

[jakeroot]

Anyone know a good way to find all those missing assets reported by Loading Screen Mod?

100%. In Loading Screen Mod settings, make sure the option to "save reports to this directory" is enabled. In Windows, go to the directory listed, and you'll see the game begin to generate two HTML files: the asset browser, and asset report, both named with respect to the save you loaded in order to generate the report. Both are helpful for their own reasons. I would recommend using the asset browser. You can sort by many options; I may recommend "status". Scroll to the bottom and you'll see all of your missing assets in orange. You can click on them and see various things: what they are (usually props), their status, a link to the workshop to download that asset, and below that a list of all assets that use that asset (and are thus reporting it as "missing"). You can either (A) download the item using the workshop link, or (B) delete the asset that requires the one you have missing*.

*I think this is the wiser option. This game runs so much faster when you have fewer assets. I've gone from 5500+ to under 3900 the last few weeks, and my loading time has gone from 5+ minutes to about 90 seconds, and in-game, things are soooo much faster. I barely drop below 15 FPS in my city of 100k+, and usually sit around 20-30 FPS.

[jakeroot]

California vibes (minus the Clearview ):

[riiga]

Is making custom signs easy? I haven't looked into modding CSL, but I made some stuff back in my SimCity 4 days which took a lot of work. I've installed a mod to give me some Swedish signs instead of the default European ones for speed limits, etc, but traffic lights and signs on motorways are still the standard ugly ones.

I'm also plagued by TM:PE causing the game to lockup/crash which seems to be this bug. Haven't been able to play for a few days, but looking through the thread I found a debug version that seems to work for the time being.

[jakeroot]

Is making custom signs easy? I haven't looked into modding CSL, but I made some stuff back in my SimCity 4 days which took a lot of work. I've installed a mod to give me some Swedish signs instead of the default European ones for speed limits, etc, but traffic lights and signs on motorways are still the standard ugly ones.

Yeah, it's pretty easy. I use these signs, and place them using Procedural Objects. This guide has links to .psd files that you can download and edit (or, like me, convert to .ai files) and then export as PNGs that can be added as a texture to those linked signs (Procedural Objects immediately asks for the texture for the signs when you go to place it). It's a very robust and thorough guide. It's actually quite simple. Hardest part for me was changing the scale of my pre-made sign elements that I use in the 'redesign this' thread to be larger. But it's not impossible.

You will want to use "Hide it!" to disable the game's built-in highway signs, assuming you don't use another pre-made highway from the workshop (as I do).

I'm also plagued by TM:PE causing the game to lockup/crash which seems to be this bug. Haven't been able to play for a few days, but looking through the thread I found a debug version that seems to work for the time being.

I use TM:PE v11.5.0 LABS. It seems a bit more stable, strangely.

[Ned Weasel]

It's one of those games that can be really frustrating, but if you can (A) keep your head on straight, and (B) find the right mods for you, you won't be able to stop. I've been playing this game pretty regularly since it came out and I've only recently realized how much I truly like it.

I haven't gotten any mods yet.  It's not frustrating in the way other games are frustrating, although I'd like to find a strategy to keep people from abandoning buildings.  The method for building overpasses is not at all intuitive, and I didn't even know it existed at first.  I created several traffic problems by building at-grade intersections on my main highway until I finally said, "There has to be a way to just make a simple overpass!"  Anywho, I think I finally solved all my traffic problems!  The roads seem hugely overbuilt for a city of not quite 50,000, though.  And why doesn't a game that takes place in the 21st Century have ETC?*  I had to tear down one of my toll plazas, because there wasn't a way to get it to stop causing congestion.  (Actually, I just looked it up, and there's a mod for ETC.)*  Also, I keep accidentally breaking my bus lines, and it takes me a while before I remember to fix them, but nobody seems to notice. 



How's this for a newbie?

*Edit: ETC is available as a policy, but not a type of toll booth. At least I finally found it.

[riiga]

Yeah, it's pretty easy. [...]

Thanks for the handy guide! I'll look into it!

I use TM:PE v11.5.0 LABS. It seems a bit more stable, strangely.

I was using the labs version until it broke, but I found a workaround in the Github thread I linked. It seems to only affect Linux for some reason. 

How's this for a newbie?

Not bad! The areas inside the houses look a bit empty on the left island though.

Here's another attempt at using Node Controller and Intersection Marking Tool:


And this was my city yesterday:

[Ned Weasel]

Not bad! The areas inside the houses look a bit empty on the left island though.

Thanks!  It's more filled in now.  I just wanted to get the arterial road layout down first.

Here's another attempt at using Node Controller and Intersection Marking Tool:

I love how smooth you made everything!

[JoePCool14]

California vibes (minus the Clearview ):

Jake, your signs are fantastic. This is the exact kind of thing I've wanted to do in Skylines since the day the game came out. In fact, I wanted to do this sort of thing long before Cities came out. If my computer can handle it, I'm absolutely going to give it a shot. But I'm definitely not using Clearview.

[jakeroot]

California vibes (minus the Clearview ):

Jake, your signs are fantastic. This is the exact kind of thing I've wanted to do in Skylines since the day the game came out. In fact, I wanted to do this sort of thing long before Cities came out. If my computer can handle it, I'm absolutely going to give it a shot. But I'm definitely not using Clearview.

Cheers. So much Clearview hate 😥

But I agree, yes, it's definitely one of those things that I've avoided doing, but have always wanted to. Now they've made it stupid easy. I just wish we could get a few more sign sizes. The one in the above photo is the tallest it gets (although it gets much wider or narrower if you wish), as the textureless signs are based on California guide signs.

[Ned Weasel]

Well, just for the sake of showing my progress without mods, I grew my city to a population of 123,000 and maxed out my available land area, and it still won't let me annex more. Yeah, I probably could be more efficient with my land usage, but it's not easy to solve all those traffic problems without building ridiculously huge interchanges. If you look closely, you might be able to find my crappy DDI, but more importantly, I de-cloverleafed my pre-made cloverleaf, which should be one of those random achievements that you praise for, if you ask me.

[Ned Weasel]

I finally started playing with mods.  "81 Tiles" is pretty important, because it doesn't seem very feasible to grow your city much larger than about 150,000 with only the 9 tiles the game normally gives you.  Also, the game appeared to be missing hotels and truck stops, but fortunately, there are fixes for that, too.

[vtk]

Umnodded game has hotels in tourism-specialized districts

[johndoe]

You guys make it look so good!  Decided to fire it up over the weekend - still sticking with good ole vanilla.  My roundabout was struggling, so I made it two way traffic

[vtk]

That big rock looks quite wet. Is flooding an issue?

[Ned Weasel]

Umnodded game has hotels in tourism-specialized districts

From what I can tell, it looks like you need the After Dark expansion to get tourism districts.

[vtk]

Oh yeah, that sounds right. When I got the game, I also got After Dark and Snowfall at the same time, so I've never played without those EPs.

[jakeroot]

You guys make it look so good!  Decided to fire it up over the weekend - still sticking with good ole vanilla.  My roundabout was struggling, so I made it two way traffic

Lends some credence to those crazy British traffic designers with their two way circuses.

This is one thing I have not done in a very long time. However, I did many years ago create a roundabout that I converted to two-way traffic for the exact same reasons. It actually worked surprisingly well.

[X99]

Umnodded game has hotels in tourism-specialized districts

From what I can tell, it looks like you need the After Dark expansion to get tourism districts.

Even then, all of the AD hotels are 20-story towers squished into a 4x4 zoning. Modded hotels are more accurate to the US, with two and three story hotels that take up an average 14x6 zoning space.

For my Rapid City build, those modded hotels are a requirement, as there isn't a single 20 story building in the city. Even the Alex Johnson, the tallest building in RC, is only ten stories tall.

The last time I played C:S, I attempted to finish the 900 block of downtown between Main Street and St. Joseph. I finished it, then proceeded to crash my GPU- and therefore my entire computer- when I tried to angle the camera downwards to take a look at it. If I post any more screenshots of that build, they probably won't have anywhere near the same image quality as my previous photos, since I'm clearing out all of my graphics mods except DR and ULOD to try and prevent another crash.

[Ned Weasel]

You're gonna need some mods. I currently have 85 mods installed, and I use every one of them.

Some of my favorites:

- Fine Road Tool: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=651322972&searchtext=
- Traffic Manager: President's Edition: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=583429740&searchtext=

These links no longer work.  What do those mods do, and are there updated equivalents?

I have one gripe about something that irks me, although it doesn't have a negative effect on gameplay.  I think someone already pointed out that the ramp geometry is very unrealistic, and yeah, I agree, but I can live with it for now.  But here's what irks me: the way expressway* ramps converge and diverge is very inaccurate.  The game treats them as turns when they should be splits and tapers.  I can deal with this for diverging movements, because the way it's handled kind of makes sense when you think about it, even though the way it's represented is wrong.

But I hate the way this works for converging roadways.  When you want to widen a ramp, your only choice is to upgrade it to a three-lane expressway* roadway, assuming you still have adequate space.  When a three-lane expressway* roadway merges into a continuing three-lane expressway* roadway, it's treated as an uncontrolled three-lane right turn.  Well, as I probably should have predicted, this leads to accidents, but instead of the accident causing a traffic jam where emergency vehicles have to come respond to the scene, the vehicles just go right through each other, because I guess every Cities: Skyline city is actually Pleasantville, where there are no toilets, because nobody ever has to use one.

Without a better tool for converging expressway* roadways, I guess my best option for achieving more realistic interchange design is to taper the three-lane roadway down to one lane in advance of the convergence.

*The game calls them "highways," but as roadgeeks, we know full well that the term is useless when describing road typologies, so I'm using the term "expressway" because the game allows you to put at-grade intersections on them, even though they work better when you design them as freeways.