Getting Started

Back in the days of SimCity 4, I came across a wonderful city journal describing the natural development of a city, entitled CSG Design's Natural Growth.  It made for a much more entertaining and realistic looking city and I decided to try that style of design in the new Cities:Skylines.  The following series of posts will, I hope, provide an interesting story and inspire you to try this style of design in your cities.

So how do you create a "natural growth" city?  

First, be prepared for it to take a while.  It's very easy to plop down straight lines and grids and zone whole swaths of land.  But that's not how cities normally grow.  If you're willing to take the time, I think the results can be very rewarding.

So, here are the rules that I follow (largely taken from CSGDesign's post linked above):

1)  Plan generally, not specifically.  For example, it's fine to think that, "Hey, that shoreline will be a really popular place for housing" or "That area might make a nice State park", but don't plan down to the the level "This area is going to be my central business district, and those two blocks will be where the train station goes, etc."

2)  Have an in game reason for the things you do.  It doesn't necessarily have to be good, but there ought to be one.  For example, maybe the owner of a large piece of property has died and his heirs are selling off the property to be developed.  Maybe a new natural resource has been discovered and the property owners want to make a lot of money by selling off their land.  Maybe there's a holdout who isn't going to sell for any reason.  Make something up, and have fun with it.

3) Act like a developer, not a planner.  Planners make nice straight lines.  Everything is neat and tidy.  And boring.  Developers and builders do the real work.  And they do it as cheaply as they can.  So don't bulldoze 4 highrises to put in a new highway interchange...bulldoze some lower density housing somewhere else.

4)  Start small, and grow slowly.  Your Central Business District?   It's probably just a centrally located intersection to start.  Your roads?  Start them as gravel, upgrade as traffic demands.  Housing?  Starts with isolated housing and as the city grows, start introducing subdivisions, one at a time.

5) Work only small areas at a time.   Like above, build out a couple of blocks, or a subdivision.  Then move on somewhere else.  Come back and check on it later.