aesthetic tips?

[jaunco]

I see beautiful cities in the captures, however I only get to make perfectly square cities. I feel like minecraft when everyone makes complex houses and mine is a giant square. I don't know if it will help, but can you give me advice on how to make a city that looks good?

[Imhotep]

I'd say work with the terrain and avoid unrealistically steep roads. Following this rule will lead one away from a rigid grid, since that's only realistically feasible on a very flat and level map.

[MaxFX]

Use the terrain as your guide.

- I like a good river. Place quays along the shorelime of that river, and then build roads parallel to these quays. Same tactic with a lake.

- Use the 'Terrain Height' info view, and build along areas where the land has a steep incline.

- Build your arterial roads in long stretches. Mostly straight, but curved where necessary. Connect them with collector roads.

- After this just fill in the gaps. Doesn't matter if you use a grid, The overall aesthetics are fine.

Example: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2748478150

[sethtriggs]

You can also browse things like Google Earth and look at satellite photos. See how real cities organize (I think a lot of the design assumptions C:S uses are from Western Europe so look there too). You can do some very nice things even just using roundabouts and minimizing the number of intersections on your major roads (4- and 6-lane roads). Use fences along those and you can profit greatly.

You can even use dedicated transit roads (like tram tracks) with parks along the way. Use those spaces on your arterials for services too and you can have very pleasing results!

Here's one I did in my current city.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2750370679

[Catratio]

I look at Google maps and lots of the residential neighborhoods look like capillaries, nerves, or tree roots, basically they just branch out with tendrils, so I try to mimic that look with my suburbs and keep the grid for only the main downtown center, and even then for just a few blocks. I see a lot of pro builders on youtube trying to maximize use by zoning every square possible. I think this is unrealistic because outside for the city center most towns have lots of open spaces between buildings or between buildings and roads, so I like leaving a lot of gaps and filling them in with trees.

Here's an older city I did showing it sort of, lots of dead-end cul-de-sacs, and curvy streets for the residential areas.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2114165334

My current city I tried this radial design since I wanted this neighborhood to be built around the central clock tower.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2741625810

[jaunco]

thanks for the tips

[ebrumby]

FewCandy and Overcharged Egg both have great series on YouTube that show how to build and decorate beautiful cities. You might like to watch a few.

[jaunco]

thanks

[hjo]

don't forget Captain_Ahvious on YT, if you want to get away from boaring grids.
https://youtu.be/6eOsZDQMqJU could be a good start for an organic road layout

[waynel140]

Learn to use the freestyle road building tool. It takes some time to learn, but once you do, click on terrain map and follow the lines. Don't be afraid to screw up and leave it. Makes things more interesting. If you do go on Google maps and look at places, you'll see plenty of those. :)

[jaunco]

thanks