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Cities Skylines just turns into "transportation mode simulator" for me. Still fun, but it is not the same thing.

piperswe 3y ago
It makes sense, given that its developer also developed Cities in Motion 1 & 2, which are _especially_ transportation mode simulators.
spideymans 3y ago
What’s worse is that CS is a transport simulator that’s heavily biased towards cars; to the point where every new game starts off with a giant unsightly freeway in the middle of your town. I hope CS2 is more agnostic on transport mode. It would be nice to be able to create genuinely car-free cities in the game.
- Gigachad 3y ago
  That was my problem with the game as well. You don’t really have all that much freedom and there isn’t that much emergent behaviour. You just replay the same road builder scenario where the only interesting part is designing intersections. I’d love to see a city builder game with an extremely powerful policy builder feature. Let me design new rules and see how the city responds. For example, let me implement congestion charges on roads, even if it’s just a text input with its own DSL like you have with minecraft command blocks. Then you could really break out of what the developers designed and start actually doing simulations.
  - Stevvo 3y ago
    Cities skylines has the policy builder feature like you describe. One of the policies you can implement is congestion charges. You can set the policies city-wide, or in certain districts. In the latest builds with the newest DLC, you can even ban cars completely with pedestrian only districts/roads.
    - Gigachad 3y ago
      Huh interesting. I haven’t really touched it since 2016 so it’s probably different now.
- kmeisthax 3y ago
  Imagine a city builder where you can't convincingly recreate the rebuilding of Tokyo after WWII This message brought to you by the "BreadTube[0] but its for cars[1]" gang [0] A segment of very left-wing, libertarian-leaning YouTubers named after The Conquest of Bread. [1] AKA Adam Something, Not Just Bikes, and a few other channels
- bombcar 3y ago
  CS gets way closer to "car free" than anything but the original SimCity (where you could just use rails instead of roads everywhere) - you need to use the Parks and paths and some pretty sneaky design, but you can get upwards of 80% using walking/transit. Takes a lot of work, however, and some mods.
- sidewndr46 3y ago
  I actually found it the opposite. The more I intelligently laid out alternative transport the more that it got used, lessening traffic. But yes, the default mode is to just optimize traffic everywhere.
- Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
  It's possible to make a car-free city in CS. It just can't start as one.
nextaccountic 3y ago
There's a Tropico game, I think it's Tropico 4, that is very realistic in that you don't need to literally make roads and asphalt all the things, and roads don't need to be car-centered; you just make buildings and people will walk, and you add a road network to make things more efficient, but it isn't required Also curved roads and buildings don't need to be right besides the road, etc. Sim City 4 is more like a suburbia simulator imo
- bombcar 3y ago
  I want free-form zoning, where it's not tile based; CS can do something kinda like it but it's still just tiles in the end, with empty space between. Emergent paths would be fun, too; if you don't make the sidewalks and paths good enough, people start cutting across empty areas.
  - distances 3y ago
    Free-form city blocks is also high on my wishlist for C:S2. Without it you can't make convincing European style cities.
    - textide 3y ago
      Soviet Republic: Workers and Resources has this. It is an incredibly deep city builder and sim with very well modeled systems. The realistic mode requires fuel for vehicles and workers for construction. You don’t simply plop buildings down or define zones that magically fill in.
      - sidewndr46 3y ago
        It sounds like it is biased towards micromanagement, but still might be tons of fun. Thanks for the recommendation.
- gdprrrr 3y ago
  There's also Foundation, a medieval city builder that works like this.

It makes sense, given that its developer also developed Cities in Motion 1 & 2, which are _especially_ transportation mode simulators.

spideymans 3y ago

What’s worse is that CS is a transport simulator that’s heavily biased towards cars; to the point where every new game starts off with a giant unsightly freeway in the middle of your town. I hope CS2 is more agnostic on transport mode. It would be nice to be able to create genuinely car-free cities in the game.

Gigachad 3y ago
That was my problem with the game as well. You don’t really have all that much freedom and there isn’t that much emergent behaviour. You just replay the same road builder scenario where the only interesting part is designing intersections. I’d love to see a city builder game with an extremely powerful policy builder feature. Let me design new rules and see how the city responds. For example, let me implement congestion charges on roads, even if it’s just a text input with its own DSL like you have with minecraft command blocks. Then you could really break out of what the developers designed and start actually doing simulations.
- Stevvo 3y ago
  Cities skylines has the policy builder feature like you describe. One of the policies you can implement is congestion charges. You can set the policies city-wide, or in certain districts. In the latest builds with the newest DLC, you can even ban cars completely with pedestrian only districts/roads.
  - Gigachad 3y ago
    Huh interesting. I haven’t really touched it since 2016 so it’s probably different now.
kmeisthax 3y ago
Imagine a city builder where you can't convincingly recreate the rebuilding of Tokyo after WWII This message brought to you by the "BreadTube[0] but its for cars[1]" gang [0] A segment of very left-wing, libertarian-leaning YouTubers named after The Conquest of Bread. [1] AKA Adam Something, Not Just Bikes, and a few other channels
bombcar 3y ago
CS gets way closer to "car free" than anything but the original SimCity (where you could just use rails instead of roads everywhere) - you need to use the Parks and paths and some pretty sneaky design, but you can get upwards of 80% using walking/transit. Takes a lot of work, however, and some mods.
sidewndr46 3y ago
I actually found it the opposite. The more I intelligently laid out alternative transport the more that it got used, lessening traffic. But yes, the default mode is to just optimize traffic everywhere.
Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
It's possible to make a car-free city in CS. It just can't start as one.

nextaccountic 3y ago

There's a Tropico game, I think it's Tropico 4, that is very realistic in that you don't need to literally make roads and asphalt all the things, and roads don't need to be car-centered; you just make buildings and people will walk, and you add a road network to make things more efficient, but it isn't required Also curved roads and buildings don't need to be right besides the road, etc. Sim City 4 is more like a suburbia simulator imo

bombcar 3y ago
I want free-form zoning, where it's not tile based; CS can do something kinda like it but it's still just tiles in the end, with empty space between. Emergent paths would be fun, too; if you don't make the sidewalks and paths good enough, people start cutting across empty areas.
- distances 3y ago
  Free-form city blocks is also high on my wishlist for C:S2. Without it you can't make convincing European style cities.
  - textide 3y ago
    Soviet Republic: Workers and Resources has this. It is an incredibly deep city builder and sim with very well modeled systems. The realistic mode requires fuel for vehicles and workers for construction. You don’t simply plop buildings down or define zones that magically fill in.
    - sidewndr46 3y ago
      It sounds like it is biased towards micromanagement, but still might be tons of fun. Thanks for the recommendation.
gdprrrr 3y ago
There's also Foundation, a medieval city builder that works like this.