Newbie question: how do I "fill" parts of the city where there are no roads?

[The A.W.G.]

Let's consider this as an example:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981718552
I can build houses and shops and industries near the roads but I can't do anything in the middle, leaving a rather large area completely empty. Only way I can "use" that area is by filling it of more roads so I can build other things around them. Even to build a green area, I have to lay down miles of asphalt so I can build gardens and parks close to them.

Am I missing anything? Please consider I'm playing with the base game only.

[LordOmar2]

You can "beautify" it with landscaping.. like paths and trees and props
(if you're into that style of playing)

[MaxFX]

First of all: The six-lane one-way road is completely overkill, and way too expensive for the beginning of the game.

If (for planning purposes) you need a wide road, then I suggest you use the regular 4-lane two-way road, but even that one consumes quite a lot of precious starting money.

My advise: Use the dirt roads in the very beginning of the game.

---

As for filling up the empty spaces; In this case you could use a small road and have it come off of one of the existing roads. It can be a dead-end road, so you don't have to connect it on two sides.

But in the beginning using grids to minimise road-, land-, and utility usage (water pipes and electricity poles) is a good start.

Having a grid with 8 zoning spaces in between the roads is a good option. Don;t make the grids too long though, as this can create issues with certain services.

[MessengerOfRage]

yeah thats how it works.
growable buildings like residential are 4x4 of these zoning squares max and every building needs road accsess.
the green zones themselfes won't build small roads like in simcity, all roads are build by the player. basically they say: "if it's green cims are allowed to make it their private property and build on it"
that's why the game gives us different sized roads.
Use big roads for the main streets, they have a higher speed limit and are thus thus prepared by cims to travel along.
Use smaller roads with lower speed limit as local roads to grant accsess to every single property.
There will still be some akward spaces that you can't zone and like Omar said you can turn them into parks by puting in pedestrian paths (found in landscaping menue) and decorating trees/rocks/benches around those paths.

some ploppable buildings like parks are bigger than the usual 4x4 building and will thus cover some of the unused area.

in triangle or otherwise akward spaces I like to put a base game park, all of them come with some paths and allow you to connect your own paths to them to fill the irregular space.
tbh, I intentionally make akward spaces like this to decorate them because decforating is the most fun part to me.
example base game large playground + some ped paths + trees and bushes
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2799523455

[Simon]

Impressive screenshot. Is that the European content pack or custom assets?

[The A.W.G.]

Originally posted by MessengerOfRage:

decforating is the most fun part to me.

You mean adding trees and bushes one by one at 10$ each? I also like very much to do that (I especially likes to create corners with benches and food carts) but it sounds to me like a "waste" of money/space to fill a large area like the one in my original example like this. I mean, individual trees and bushes won't bring "benefits" to my city, right? So I usually create very boring cities, grid after grid, 90° corners one after the other and yes that's functional but not very funny

[MaxFX]

Originally posted by AWGone:

You mean adding trees and bushes one by one at 10$ each? I also like very much to do that (I especially likes to create corners with benches and food carts) but it sounds to me like a "waste" of money/space to fill a large area like the one in my original example like this. I mean, individual trees and bushes won't bring "benefits" to my city, right? So I usually create very boring cities, grid after grid, 90° corners one after the other and yes that's functional but not very funny

My city is filled with grids, but it's anything but boring (imo).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2826954003
Trees and bushes lower noise polution and they simply look good. In any case, these don't have any maintenance cost to them unlike the six-lane one-way road you've got in a town of less than 1000 cims...

But to each his own.

[LordOmar2]

Originally posted by AWGone:

Originally posted by MaxFX:

unlike the six-lane one-way road you've got in a town of less than 1000 cims...

You're losing your sleep over one random road I've built as an example just to have something to screenshot... man, get over it, you don't have to personally pay for that road XD :Darling: :Darling: :Darling:

You saked for advice.. we gave it. Maybe a bit of gratutude is in order.
If you don't to build a city that looks nice.. ok, your choice.. build a city that races to break all the limits as soon as possible.. what ever is the most fun to you.
In this case.. stick to all right angle grid patterns and enable all the misletones and monuments via options and mods so you don't have to deal with those nbast city services and roadblocks that tend to choke those kind of city builds

Have fun and a.. nice.. day

[MaxFX]

Originally posted by AWGone:

Originally posted by MaxFX:

unlike the six-lane one-way road you've got in a town of less than 1000 cims...

You're losing your sleep over one random road I've built as an example just to have something to screenshot... man, get over it, you don't have to personally pay for that road XD :Darling: :Darling: :Darling:

The headline of your post actually starts with 'Newbie Question:'. So you admit at being a newbie at this game, which is totally fine.

But when I see that, and I see that you're building roads like that, I tend to give you my advise/suggestion on it. Obviously I did not know you built that road for the sake of making a screenshot, though I have my doubts on that explanation...

That said, you asked for advise, and you got some advise. What you do withthat advise, and how you play this game is entirely up to you.

[MessengerOfRage]

Originally posted by Simon:

Impressive screenshot. Is that the European content pack or custom assets?

thank you!
it's whatever I can get my hands on so mostly custom assets but I use the content creator packs too.
in this screenshot are buildings from:
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1085961865
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=517812411
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2043566547

Originally posted by AWGone:

Originally posted by MessengerOfRage:

decforating is the most fun part to me.

You mean adding trees and bushes one by one at 10$ each? I also like very much to do that (I especially likes to create corners with benches and food carts) but it sounds to me like a "waste" of money/space to fill a large area like the one in my original example like this. I mean, individual trees and bushes won't bring "benefits" to my city, right? So I usually create very boring cities, grid after grid, 90° corners one after the other and yes that's functional but not very funny

yes and no.
sometimes it's one by one like big trees in a park
but i also use tools to add groups like lines of bushes or circles of flowers.
for bigger areas I usually copy around groups of trees to fill the space.

10$ each... I turned m game into a sandbox, I don't care for costs, I care for looks.
even in vanilla, as a city grows you will be swimming in money to afford deco.
you are right, as long as the cost of a couple trees is a consideration to your budged you should grow your city first and decorate later.

"benefits" apart from looks? next to nothing...
everything that counts as a tree (bushes, grases, flowers) has a very tiny effect on sound pollution. the effect is unnoticable in single trees, but cushioning the railline/highway with 2-4 squares with of trees will dampen it's noise pollution a bit letting you move your residential 1 or 2 squares closer without them suffering ill effects.
if you want to be super space effective you'd rather fill that space with offices, the don't suffer from noise pollution and are quiet themselfs, you won't get the 1-2 extra squares of res but get 3-6 extra squares of offices.

[OneJasonBradly]

Originally posted by AWGone:

Let's consider this as an example:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981718552
I can build houses and shops and industries near the roads but I can't do anything in the middle, leaving a rather large area completely empty. Only way I can "use" that area is by filling it of more roads so I can build other things around them. Even to build a green area, I have to lay down miles of asphalt so I can build gardens and parks close to them.

Am I missing anything? Please consider I'm playing with the base game only.

No, you are not missing much. For the most part everything needs a road connection except trees, props and such.
Personally I use those as perimeter roads or the block shape and design within the shape.
a little bigger though.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=661101159
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=861201003
Having said that I to this day have a small area of my city with those types of wasted areas.
Over the year I been trying to invent a better place then what I built long ago here. Looking closely you can see all the weird shapes and in a few of then I came up with an idea of some kind to fill the void I left behind.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981827213
The traffic view to see better my first attempt to step out of the grid habit. I had less than 30hrs exp when first built.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981827294
The zoning view
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981827368

[buda atum]

If you had Parks and Plazas I'd have suggested a park, but you don't have DLCs and that six-lane one-way road off a highway, and your about 40 hours played, and despite your protests, makes me have to suggest Biffa, and City Planner, on Youtube.

[Dave]

I think you meant "City Planner Plays" for that last one. But I agree, I very much enjoy both of those YouTubers (Biffa and CPP) for their Cities Skylines content a lot! 👍‍

[buda atum]

Originally posted by Dave:

I think you meant "City Planner Plays" for that last one. But I agree, I very much enjoy both of those YouTubers (Biffa and CPP) for their Cities Skylines content a lot! 👍‍

Yeah, that's the one.

[WhiteKnight77]

What I would suggest is to watch this video by Overcharged Egg on how to start a city and learn a bit about road hierarchy and getting a good start without going broke or bankrupt. This method does not require any DLC and works on any map, even though he is using a DLC map. I have gone through all of my cities and reworked many of them so that they have this entrance into my cities.

While you have made the above screen as an example, you really do not want to zone anything along large roads (any road above 4 lanes) as once you do, especially if it is commercial, trucks delivering goods will cause serious traffic issues.

Watching videos from Biffa, Overcharged Egg, CPP and a few others will help you get a grasp of what you need to do. I have an city where I went and redid many of the roads due to traffic issues (and using lots of generic and specialized industries) and was able to get a handle on many of the traffic issues that I caused early on. These screens are an example of how rebuilding a city can help. This is one of my first cities.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2667736310

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2667753368

[MaxFX]

That one-way six-lane road, that one-way six lane road, that one-way six-lane road...

You know; I couldn't get ANY sleep last night. Untill I started counting lanes instead of sheep. Worked like a charm.