I don't understand parks and leisure, need help.

[fefnir3284]

Do I need different leisures to increase property values? ex: dog parks, carousels, skateparks, etc or is one type fine? Plus actual parks don't have the best entertainment value so why do I see people saying use those when others are better? I googled but couldn't find any good information.
carousels are 150 entertainment 400 radius 150 capacity
dog parks are 150 400 150 as well
plaza w/ trees only 75 400 105
skatepark 125 400 150
japan garden 125 200 150
small park 100 400 75
all others take up way too much space (all of these are 5x5) so what am I missing here?

[Streeto]

It's all one type, the differences are just appearance and names.

Do you want your city to only have one type of park though? Probably not...

Side note: After Dark DLC provides leisure-commercial buildings, which also does the same job as parks, but they mostly only open at night (clubs/bars) and that's when you'll get taxes from them.

Also, what do you mean by "actual parks?" Parklife DLC parks?

[OneJasonBradly]

In the beginning we have a habit of wanting to cram everything as tight as possible, we (or I ) think so small. I too had no idea for the longest time where or why I would use the huge park "Park With Trees". Since then (without ParkLife) I build large parks that contain a collection of those pieces you mentioned above. I now see those pieces as stand alone and as park parts, or pieces.
The larger park assets have usable pathways. I often use them to enhance walking path hubs or collection point. The "large playground" gets used as a walkway all the time in my cities.

This clip was my first attempt of making large parks. The park property is between industry and residential, and contains a few park assets. This park property is also a long pathway accessible to or from many streets. The second half of the clip shows how I used the "Small Park" lol, also as a filter point to other destinations, just like I did with the large playground and that huge "Park with Trees".
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1125748228

[chic.aeon]

In MY mind (we all have our different goals) a city needs greenspace as well as skyscrapers. Since my first steps in Skylines I have worked to keep the folks happy and "happy" often meant plunking down a dog park (the universal fixer of happiness it seems and at a very low cost). Small park, park with trees (big) and plaza with trees are my other go to fillers. I recently garnered the Happy Town award and wasn't even working towards that. There are several of the Parks (original game only) that I haven't used at all --- so to answer your question you do NOT need to use all the parks.

It SEEMS like the parks keep the folks happy and that helps your city grow -- at the beginning anyway. Once you plop down those monuments it is indeed a very different game.

I tend to look at upkeep price as a big part of the value of leisure assets; something you didn't mention in your post. I get very nervous if my cities fall into a negative balance. So that's something you might want to consider and may be the answer to some of your questions.

. Dog parks seem to be the most popular in my cities with lots of cars parked there often. The basketball court is fun and I try to have some of them in city centers so folks can get exercise. Don't forget that industries workers need spaces for breaks too.

[Nite69]

parks and leisure raise the land value surrounding it, it helps boost all the zoning you have

I always use the Japan Garden since its 4x4 and it will fit most places

[fefnir3284]

extra info I forgot. I got the standard game with industrial and green cities DLCs then added on park life and after dark. when I go to place a playground, park, basketball court (or any other item on that list) I see a full map with 'entertainment' values where 80% of my cities is red, 20% blue (guessing the blue was from the dog park, large park, elemental school, high school, and cemetary). I only started doing this when my leisure zoned and tourist zoned areas mass abandoned me. Looked at that map and saw they were in the 80% of the red so wanted to place items but had no idea what to do.

edit: so reading this, in short I COULD just do all carousels (bests stats) and that would work, but as someone posted earlier would I want that as it would be boring. so just do that until I figure out my stuff?

edit edit: i have never been in negative balance or income (that woudl annoy me), im currently sitting at between 7500-17000 (it goes up and down radically for some reason, maybe cause im moving corpses out of my 1st cemetary to the 2nd one as I dont have a crematorium yet and dead people pile up, or cause of the red entertainment zones going 40% abandoned for no reason). Ill place some japan gardens (like the 4x4 despite the 50% radius) or some skate parks (8$ more than dog, but uses 16 less electricity), or carousel (uses $24 more and 16 more electricity but has 25 more entertainment for the same 5x5 vs dog park). this game is big braining me xD

triple edit: do I only need one 100% coverage, or two 100% coverage? What I mean is I could place 2 botanical guardens and cover 85% of my cities or 6 japan garden to cover 100%, or both to get 80% covered 200% and 20% covered 100%? How many overlaps do I need to have everyone in blue? Does 1 go from red to green then the 2nd to blue? I got 100% green electricity, 100% recycling, all tree lined roads (except the bridges, cant update those :*( )

[chic.aeon]

@fefnir3284 even though I know that "poke" doesn't work :D.

I can't comment completely as I only use the main game and GREEN CITIES but as far as I can see making things pretty for YOU (trees and such) doesn't help. raise happiness or land value (maybe some oldtimer can confirm or deny that),

I had 98 percent happy in one city and got the happiness achievement but that was ONLY AFTER PLACING MONUMENTS :D. My current city of 15,000 (new and testing some things and making a walktrhrough) is running perfectly with no issues at all and I have been adding trees and such along the way. Still it is something like 14 percent considered "pretty" LOL and while the sliders say the folk are happy they are not THAT happy.

You can check on the map to see how happy folk are for each category -- like schools, fire, police, parks etc. I use the dog park a lot but just read that the Japanese garden was only 4 x 4 so that looks good too. My "happy award city" had lots of parks, very few landscape added trees. Fire and all the regular services were covered to blue.

Any chance you have some nasty traffic that is making them unhappy? I don't KNOW that would cause a problem but it certainly would in real life.

Those are my only thoughts. Good luck

PS. Honestly I think that I probably had places that were "beyond blue" as I was designing with looks in mind and not being skimpy on the parks and such. You might try adding some unique buildings and see if that helps. Again, I wasn't TRYING for the "happy" achievement, it just happened.

[me22ca]

The Small Park is by far the best value, thought it takes up a bunch of space (both because each one is large and because they're low-entertainment). But they're so cheap that I'll even use them to make a wall between industry and residential.

Otherwise the Bouncy Castle Park is great. Still low-ish upkeep, but smaller with more entertainment provided.

There doesn't seem to be much reason to use a variety, other than aesthetics.