How do I think like a city planner?

[GardenData61371]

When i build a city i have literally no clue what im doing. this often causes problems later, especially with traffic. Are there any guides which can teach me how to build like a real city planner?

[Dave]

There are a couple of YouTubers that I watch regularly for their Cities Skylines content. You might find what they have to say helpful.

City Planner Plays
https://www.youtube.com/@CityPlannerPlays

Biffa Plays Indie Games
https://www.youtube.com/@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines

City Planner goes over everything that he's doing, and has a number of series with different cities that he's working on, taking them from beginning to sprawling metropolises. Biffa does similar things, but also does videos where he fixes cities that his supporters have sent into him - including the traffic problems and explains how everything is being done.

I hope you check them out, and find them useful/interesting. :)

(I have no affiliation with either; I'm just a happy viewer of both of them.)

[MaxFX]

Besides the good suggestion made by Dave above, there are some techniques/tactics you can use.

- Road hierarchy: Road hierarchy is where you divide the different roads into categories and use them for different means. I could give a detailed explanation, but there are some good video's about thiss subject for this game. Here's one I like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsaOYqztdEg&t=55s&ab_channel=T4rget

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Public transport hierarchy: Same goes for public transport. You don't have an airport or trainstation for every neighbourhood. But buses often can be found near or in every neighbourhood. Another video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7ZapThULPk&t=25s&ab_channel=BiffaPlaysIndieGames

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Respect the terrain: If you flatten every piece of the map where you build your city, it tends to get very dull. Instead follow the terrain. A winding river, hills and mountains are good examples of this. Don't be afraid to use them or go near them.

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Follow the demand bars. The Vanilla game tends to give you a lot of demand for commercial and industry. But if you don't mind using mods, then I highly recommend using the 'Lifecycle Rebalanced', 'Realistic Population' and 'Rebalanced Industries' mods. These have more realistic numbers to RCI and traffic. Your city will look and feel a whole lot different with these mods!

[Ryan]

+1 to City Planner Plays, they have awesome videos on building cities that emulate real life. Lee Hawkins also has a great series on city building basics.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlxCEclIAFpWTBochAUv00S2iAb2LOz5k

[RPG Gamer Man]

Districting is a good plan for most city planners. For example, zoning certain areas of your city to different industries, tourism, etc.

[Dave]

@GardenData61371: Oh yeah, something I forgot to mention is that Phil (City Planner Plays) actually *is* a City Planner in real life. Since your question in the title is "How do I think like a city planner?", you may get a lot of useful insight as far as that goes. He'll go over why he's doing things in the game and how things would be planned in real life. This doesn't diminish Biffa; he's also extremely good at describing, building, and fixing things within the game. There are other YouTubers out there who cover Cities Skylines, but these two guys are my top go-to content creators for this game. 👍‍ Just a little extra FYI.

[RPG Gamer Man]

Originally posted by Dave:

@GardenData61371: Oh yeah, something I forgot to mention is that Phil (City Planner Plays) actually *is* a City Planner in real life. Since your question in the title is "How do I think like a city planner?", you may get a lot of useful insight as far as that goes. He'll go over why he's doing things in the game and how things would be planned in real life. This doesn't diminish Biffa; he's also extremely good at describing, building, and fixing things within the game. There are other YouTubers out there who cover Cities Skylines, but these two guys are my top go-to content creators for this game. 👍‍ Just a little extra FYI.

Pretty cool a actual city planner played this game. That is great insight. As Dave mentioned, i suggest looking at their videos to get their perspective about the game.

[IvyLeague0815]

I would suggest Overcharged Egg instead of City Planner Plays and Biffa. OE has a "Noob" guide on Youtube that even experienced players will appreciate. He plays mostly vanilla and is very good at communicating his thought processes and rationale. He is also actually good at the game, so that's why I really appreciate his gameplay.

CPP focuses way too much on micro details, often at the expense of the function of his own cities. By the time he realizes there is a problem, he has no idea how to fix it. It's frustrating to watch as an experienced player.

Biffa is a good Youtuber...and that's about it. Not very detail or realism focused, but some people find him entertaining.

[Dave]

@IvyLeague0815:
"Some people find him entertaining." Given that Biffa's got 658K subscribers to OE's 80.6k, I'd dare say it's more than just "some people" who find him entertaining. 😆

With 520k subscribers, a lot of people don't have as much of a problem with CPP's style as you apparently do. I've watched a LOT of his videos, and while he does sometime do what you describe, I haven't seen as often as you seem to suggest that he does. Or as badly. Maybe I just have a better tolerance for it than yo do? 🤔🤷‍♂️

Nothing wrong with liking (or disliking) the content creators that you do. But there are better ways of promoting your favorite(s) than to say, essentially, "These people I don't like suck because {x} but the one I like is good." 😉

They've all got their own styles, and we all like the content creators that we like. To the OP, I say check them out and see which ones *you* enjoy. 👍‍

[GardenData61371]

Originally posted by Dave:

@IvyLeague0815:
"Some people find him entertaining." Given that Biffa's got 658K subscribers to OE's 80.6k, I'd dare say it's more than just "some people" who find him entertaining. 😆

With 520k subscribers, a lot of people don't have as much of a problem with CPP's style as you apparently do. I've watched a LOT of his videos, and while he does sometime do what you describe, I haven't seen as often as you seem to suggest that he does. Or as badly. Maybe I just have a better tolerance for it than yo do? 🤔🤷‍♂️

Nothing wrong with liking (or disliking) the content creators that you do. But there are better ways of promoting your favorite(s) than to say, essentially, "These people I don't like suck because {x} but the one I like is good." 😉

They've all got their own styles, and we all like the content creators that we like. To the OP, I say check them out and see which ones *you* enjoy. 👍‍

I think I've watched dozens of these guides at this point but like with everything in life I can't seem to apply what I watch in game.

[Dave]

I hear ya. I apply bits and pieces that I happen to remember while I'm working on a city. 🤣

[Tsubame ⭐]

Online maps are your best friend.

Browse around and see how different cities around the world are designed.

[Steele]

The problem is you CAN'T think like a City-Planner with this Title because traffic behaves in ridiculous and unrealistic ways. Thankfully CSL2 seems to fix this issue, I hope.

[Sasquatch]

Originally posted by IvyLeague0815:

I would suggest Overcharged Egg instead of City Planner Plays and Biffa. OE has a "Noob" guide on Youtube that even experienced players will appreciate. He plays mostly vanilla and is very good at communicating his thought processes and rationale. He is also actually good at the game, so that's why I really appreciate his gameplay.

CPP focuses way too much on micro details, often at the expense of the function of his own cities. By the time he realizes there is a problem, he has no idea how to fix it. It's frustrating to watch as an experienced player.

Biffa is a good Youtuber...and that's about it. Not very detail or realism focused, but some people find him entertaining.

+1

Those two channels seem to be the go-to. But viewer/subscriber count is NOT the right way to measure the quality of a channel. I unsubbed Biffa and CPP both because there was nothing to learn from them.

My biggest gripe with Biffa, for example, is that he'll title a 45-minute video "Curing World Peace with Taxis" and then taxis will be skimmed over for two minutes somewhere in the middle of the video. So you click on the video hoping to find the answer to your taxi question and instead you get a recap of what he did last video, some work on traffic around the stadium, mowing the lawn at the university, then he adds a taxi stand at the airport before continuing with the last twenty minutes of the video. Little more than clickbait to get views to keep those phat paychecks rolling in. As @IvyLeague0815 says, he's a good YouTuber.

The best thing you can do, honestly, is ignore the bigger channels. Overcharged Egg is a good recommendation. BonBonB has some excellent tutorials. T4rget can show you how to build cities that look like electrical schematics. But there are tons of small, unknown channels out there that have answers to almost any question you might have. If you search for "taxis" you will find dozens of videos on the subject. Many of those will be short and focused specifically on solving a problem.

As I type this, I realize I can't think of a single channel that focuses on the nuts & bolts of building a functional city. Specifically, I mean a channel that puts out videos explaining WHY they do things one way or another.

[buda atum]

I've gone past anyone who cramps the start of their city in one square. It imposes a congested city which is odd when there's a whole 81 tile map.

Spread out is the mantra for my next/last city. Would be grateful if quoted with tubes to watch.

[buda atum]

Originally posted by VR Dog:

The problem is you CAN'T think like a City-Planner with this Title because traffic behaves in ridiculous and unrealistic ways. Thankfully CSL2 seems to fix this issue, I hope.

We build cities. That's a problem. Not many build little villages all over the map then organically grow them. Transport Fever 2 does that I've seen, but despite owning it my CS addiction stops me ever playing it for now.

Village:Skylines wouldn't quite have worked well for sales but there's no reason why it wouldn't play. The vanilla services seem designed for it.