best way to start a city?

[minetime43]

so i stated a city and failed couldent even figure out how to even power a pump or get sewage working

[SoulStrikerXV]

Start small, a couple blocks off the highway. make sure your industry is buillt away from your residential. Most of your money will be spend on the first power plant and the water pumps, and power lines to connect to them.

[Metacritical]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n5S7BjZUo0

not the "best way" but this episode will show the basics of starting a new city.

[MarkJohnson]

At the start, just pause the game before doing anything as you have a small budget.

Then select the two lane road and make a huge rectangle at the starting highway. Start with one side and go directly to the far edge (leave 1 full blue bar for room). Then down one full block. (the blue line marker that appears. Then go to the other edge (leave 1 full blue bar for room) Then back down another block. then back to the other side of the starting highway. Just stop about 1 full blur bar away from the highway road. Then click it down, the lay the last short piece down. Sometimes the two highway roads don't align properly. This way makes everything in alignment.

Then plop a sewage drain downstream as far as possible. Then plop a water pump upstream as far as possible. Then connect the two together with water lines, then connect the two together with power lines.

Now run the water line to the rectangle road you made and run the water pipe across the front so it covers both of the roads completely. Then run the power lines up to road and stop just outside of the zone squares.

Then plop a coal power plant nearest to the highway entrance side. This will allow coal trucks to bring fuel to the power plant quickly with the least delay. Then run the power line from the power plant to the water pump or sewage drain pipe. Whichever is closest. Make sure to place the powerline along the zone squares. You should be able to buttress the lines right next to the zone squares without covering them.

Now you should have around $15,000 left over.

Unpause the game and hopefully you get no messages and everything is connected properly. If you get any flashing avatars on the map or things aren't lit up, then pause right away before your money gets used up from maintenance costs.

Fix everything then unpause and start zoning. It is a good idea to place industry near the coal power plant as trucks can get to industry right away.

Hopefully that was clear.

Here's a little video I made for someone else. Maybe watch it first to see how I did it. This is just a start and nothing set in stone. It's just a quick start to get you familiar with the game. I don't recommend to build as many roads as I did. You don't want to run out of money as you will have to start over if anything goes wrong. But don't worry if your money goes in the red if everything is OK. Say no to the bailout as it will disable achievements. Just click cancel and it will go green when you get enough building to grow.

It's about 17 minutes long. watch it first to give you a better idea what I'm talking about. You can click the gear in the video and have it play back at x2 speed. Then it will only be 8 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhP4rPrVWck&t=565s

[Ferdiepip [NL]]

Keep some space free to expand the highway later

[DarkMachine]

Try to experiment around and place your utility works (power, water) as close to your residential and commercial zones as possble without drastically affeting those zones land value.

A common newbie mistake is that people tend to build too many unnecessary excess infrastructure like roads, power grids, water pipes and so on too quickly in the game. This can be a major dent in your city expenses that would quickly put your coffer in the red at the end of the month.

[untmdsprt]

I start my cities off in square blocks and try to give residential a 2:1 area over the commercial and industrial. I tend to delay any services such as schools until there is a great need/want for them.

As for water pipes, try not to build as much as possible in the beginning, but rather build right before you zone for something new.

Also, make sure you have enough power before you zone or you'll be hurting to save enough money to build more.