Any tips as to making an aesthetic city with a good highway system?

[w00tleeroyjenkins]

If anybody could link me to guides or workshop items that contribute to both of those things, then that'd help greatly!

[grapplehoeker]

Do you know what you're asking?
It would be impossible to answer simply. Beauty is a personal perception and subjective. Quite literally, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What one may find aesthetically pleasing, another may not.
It is your city and how it aesthetically pleases you is ultimately the only thing that matters.
Additionally, the methodology behind creating any work of art, will differ from one artist to another. So too with city designers. All I could suggest you do is look for inspiration from a variety of city builders and pick from them, ideas that appeal to you.
Watch some of the more inspirational city builds on Youtube such as Yuttho, Fluxtrance or SkyeStorme, to name but a few. You don't have to limit yourself to Youtube vids either. There are some very nice city builds presented in journal format on the Paradox forum.

As to highways... They're just roads. There's a ton of ways to build them. You have to think bigger. Highways are so unimportant, they're irrelevant. You can even build cities without any highway access. But if you do want to use them, then asking for a good highway system implies you need to learn more about road management. Read the guides in the Workshop and then practise different ways to implement them. Don't limit yourself to simply applying them the way everyone else does. Try your own way. See what works and appeals to you.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=689854334
Here's my last city, that is aesthetically pleasing to me. It has many different highway systems. I used 132 different mods and over 1200 assets during the build. It would be therefore too difficult to lay it all out for you here. You'll just have to figure it out. Good luck!

[w00tleeroyjenkins]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Do you know what you're asking?
It would be impossible to answer simply. Beauty is a personal perception and subjective. Quite literally, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What one may find aesthetically pleasing, another may not.
It is your city and how it aesthetically pleases you is ultimately the only thing that matters.
Additionally, the methodology behind creating any work of art, will differ from one artist to another. So too with city designers. All I could suggest you do is look for inspiration from a variety of city builders and pick from them, ideas that appeal to you.
Watch some of the more inspirational city builds on Youtube such as Yuttho, Fluxtrance or SkyeStorme, to name but a few. You don't have to limit yourself to Youtube vids either. There are some very nice city builds presented in journal format on the Paradox forum.

As to highways... They're just roads. There's a ton of ways to build them. You have to think bigger. Highways are so unimportant, they're irrelevant. You can even build cities without any highway access. But if you do want to use them, then asking for a good highway system implies you need to learn more about road management. Read the guides in the Workshop and then practise different ways to implement them. Don't limit yourself to simply applying them the way everyone else does. Try your own way. See what works and appeals to you.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=689854334
Here's my last city, that is aesthetically pleasing to me. It has many different highway systems. I used 132 different mods and over 1200 assets during the build. It would be therefore too difficult to lay it all out for you here. You'll just have to figure it out. Good luck!

Sadly, I've tried at least 10 legitimate times to even start a nice aesthetically pleasing city and have failed every one. I've found that what is shown on YouTube videos seems to be impossible to remotely replicate.

[MarkJohnson]

My advice is don't try to replicate someone else's cities.

Just build and learn the game and how it want you to build. Make a few cities this way, then after you learn you can start adding in things to make it look better. Otherwise you end adding hundreds of items that cause you issue with even building a stable city let alone a beautiful city.

Beautiful cities take hinders of hours or more. I think Grapplehoeker has well over a thousand hours in. Probably closer to 2,000 hours. lol

Just think of it as the tortoise and the hair. Slow and steady winds the race.

Like my pet shop owner says about building my saltwater reef system, "Nothing good happens fast".

[w00tleeroyjenkins]

Originally posted by rmjohnson144:

My advice is don't try to replicate someone else's cities.

Just build and learn the game and how it want you to build. Make a few cities this way, then after you learn you can start adding in things to make it look better. Otherwise you end adding hundreds of items that cause you issue with even building a stable city let alone a beautiful city.

Beautiful cities take hinders of hours or more. I think Grapplehoeker has well over a thousand hours in. Probably closer to 2,000 hours. lol

Just think of it as the tortoise and the hair. Slow and steady winds the race.

Like my pet shop owner says about building my saltwater reef system, "Nothing good happens fast".

Yeah, that makes sense. It's just....I've tried for SO LONG to get at least a start that I'm happy with, but so far, nothing.

[MarkJohnson]

Don't worry about the start. Just keep pushing past that. I end up redoing my city several times before I finish. It gets constant restructuring.

I'm sure all cities start off not looking like anybody wants. There seems always better ways to do things.

try for 9-tiles full completely. Don't focus on what it looks like, just that it's crammed packed full. Up close it may not look as pretty as it does further away.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery-

[grapplehoeker]

This should help you learn to get started. Read the guides, learn what you need to build a successful and profitable city first. When you can do that, you can concentrate on the design and appearance.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422074590&tscn=1472527127

[w00tleeroyjenkins]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

This should help you learn to get started. Read the guides, learn what you need to build a successful and profitable city first. When you can do that, you can concentrate on the design and appearance.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422074590&tscn=1472527127

I tend to build with infinite money.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by HeySamz123:

I tend to build with infinite money.

Until you learn the mechanics of the game, using unlimited wealth is likely to run you into unlimited problems due to ignorance of how the game works.

[w00tleeroyjenkins]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by HeySamz123:

I tend to build with infinite money.

Until you learn the mechanics of the game, using unlimited wealth is likely to run you into unlimited problems due to ignorance of how the game works.

I have learnt the general mechanics? I didn't just start playing.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by HeySamz123:

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Until you learn the mechanics of the game, using unlimited wealth is likely to run you into unlimited problems due to ignorance of how the game works.

I have learnt the general mechanics? I didn't just start playing.

After 81 hours of play, you're asking for a good highway system. That sounds to me that you haven't learned enough yet.
You also stated that you had problems starting. Did I misread that? Or did you not express yourself correctly?
If you have problems starting a city, my guide and the guides it refers to will help with that.
If you meant something else, then please elaborate.

[w00tleeroyjenkins]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by HeySamz123:

I have learnt the general mechanics? I didn't just start playing.

After 81 hours of play, you're asking for a good highway system. That sounds to me that you haven't learned enough yet.
You also stated that you had problems starting. Did I misread that? Or did you not express yourself correctly?
If you have problems starting a city, my guide and the guides it refers to will help with that.
If you meant something else, then please elaborate.

I meant that I had problems starting a city that looked good. I can actually start a city, but can't seem to start one that is going in an aesthetically pleasing direction.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by HeySamz123:

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

After 81 hours of play, you're asking for a good highway system. That sounds to me that you haven't learned enough yet.
You also stated that you had problems starting. Did I misread that? Or did you not express yourself correctly?
If you have problems starting a city, my guide and the guides it refers to will help with that.
If you meant something else, then please elaborate.

I meant that I had problems starting a city that looked good. I can actually start a city, but can't seem to start one that is going in an aesthetically pleasing direction.

Ah ok.
Start with an idea, then make a plan, to make that idea a reality.
Think of it as a sculpture. It's going to look like a rough block of stone for a long time before you finally get to your finished polished work of art.
Take my last city as an example. You can read the journal of how it was put together here and I explain my reasoning, planning and objectives for the build.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/project-yy-phase-one.913037/

[w00tleeroyjenkins]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by HeySamz123:

I meant that I had problems starting a city that looked good. I can actually start a city, but can't seem to start one that is going in an aesthetically pleasing direction.

Ah ok.
Start with an idea, then make a plan, to make that idea a reality.
Think of it as a sculpture. It's going to look like a rough block of stone for a long time before you finally get to your finished polished work of art.
Take my last city as an example. You can read the journal of how it was put together here and I explain my reasoning, planning and objectives for the build.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/project-yy-phase-one.913037/

Ah, I see. I did mean something a little bit different, however; I'm looking for a way to have a portion of said city be detailed with intricate systems and such, not an appealing look from faraway or an interesting road pattern spanning the whole city. Look at Screenshots and Artwork if you don't know what I mean.

[maculator]

Just play the vanilla game without unlimited money and do things slow. I tend to screw up if I rush. Just slowly expanding always thinking a few steps ahead makes your city develop naturally.

[w00tleeroyjenkins]

Originally posted by maculator:

Just play the vanilla game without unlimited money and do things slow. I tend to screw up if I rush. Just slowly expanding always thinking a few steps ahead makes your city develop naturally.

But playing in vanilla makes it really hard to make detailed, intricate cities.