Are plazas and promenades ok?

[captclaw]

I have avoided it because of mixed reviews and i saw that people had problems with it.
Is it ok now or are people still having issues with it?..

[chic.aeon]

I took a chance and had a good install. I ran Glary Utilities before installing and turned off other programs before the install.

I can see why the reviews are mixed. Lots of things I really like -- as in the new assets. The open air bus "terminal" is a favorite along with the food truck plaza. There are some new buildings like high school and public service buildings which would be good for large cities (I am at 200K ish). There are some new metro stations also. Granted many of these are likely similar to some mods, but if you shy away from mods because of the "mod issues' then these are good and look good.

I like the new buildings style and since I never really liked the default buildings it is a plus for me. Green Cities buildings still work fine. I didn't need to start a new game. All good.

I "think" the person that said all there houses disappeared may have meant that the houses he was use to are gone. I haven't looked but in the video I watched you could switch between house style within the game. That was apparently a beta and I don't see that, but a note came up on the screen saying you could choose styles within the manage.

But in the changeover to the new style I lost my much used favorite tree. It is still in the menu and the icon is the same but the oak has become something else. I am living with that. A small thing.

It does seem to have some bugs here and there and hopefully those will be fixed. I still after several hours have no trucks working in the first supply buildings. This might be because I have recycling and organic produce as part of the district plan. Everything is working fine. Just odd to see that.

I made a new plaza area (this would be the third) and each time I tried to populate it with zoning a whole section of another one had the houses disappear. I tested this three times to make sure and yep. I lost like 20K people. When I took the same start file and DIDN'T make it a plaza district everything worked fine. So something seems wrong there.

I have some office plazas and a residential plaza working fine after a couple of days. The commercial one seems like it will be trickier to keep going and doing well. It seems like it would need to be surrounded by other populated and busy areas or their wouldn't be enough business.

I am on Windows 10 BTW. I don't know what those with problems were using. Good luck. I LIKE it, but it was a bit frustrating at first. Watch some tutorials to get the basics down.

EDIT: I just went and looked at the content manager and MY only choice besides what I have is European. So it looks like the ability to switch housing sets didn't make it into the public release OR "I" have a problem :D/

And coming back from some more city managing I remembered a very frustrating "bug". The pedestrian area remaps itself often (like when you are first setting it up and again two days later. Mine are all rectangles -- or at least were drawn that way but the very quickly and repeated get bulges or indents and are nowhere near rectangles any longer. I fix them. I fix them. So far I haven't had any major issues but THAT is annoying.

And -- I saw my Oak tree for a minute today. I plopped down ONE oak tree and then it was gone and I had a birch tree in the menu. The oak tree remained. SO VERY ODD.

[captclaw]

Wow comprehensive answer :), thank you.

[chic.aeon]

Yes I do do that LOL. It appears that the oak trees have been replaced by "large bushes". Both are "better" I agree, just sort of shocking not to be able to find your favorite tree. Aside from the constant redrawing of the ped areas by the game engine (yes constant for me) I am doing well. Definitely like the assets and the ped areas cut down a lot on traffic which is a bonus. Have fun.

EDIT. FINALLY figured out the tree confusion. Looks like the options for trees changes from time to time like the variations on the new buildings. Whew.
Also important to note that you can use the new "row house" buildings in areas OTHER than ped districts. I really like those new styles.

[Sol]

Here are the problems I have found:
1. Mail is not collected in pedestrian zones. Post trucks can't go on the roads and always skip over the service points which don't seem to collect mail.
2. Paid Park Gates and other things can't be built along the Pedestrian Roads. So you have to have segments of "real roads" leading into the area, then become pedestrian road versions.
3. This "real road" spot (or wherever they exit this area to) will become a problem place where lots of pocket cars spawn.
4. It's clear by the implementation they are supposed to be a small area special neighborhood. Large zones are cost prohibitive as the pedestrian areas are very expensive. And made clear by all the buildings you cannot put on a pedestrian road.