How BUILDINGS Work in Cities Skylines 2 - An approach to City Design

➤Welcome to the “Cities Player Plans” video series. Cities Skylines 2 is out and now we must build! But build where? Building placement is a crucial element of the game. Understanding plopping, zoning, and how each building works is also important for making a functional and realistic city. Come see how I build, grow the population, and expand our city!
➤Cities Player Plans Playlist: • Cities Player Plans! -...
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0:00 Intro
1:07 Seeking Inspiration
5:33 Back to the Game
9:51 Basic Education
13:27 Health Does not Always Equal Happiness
16:50 Handling Low Rent Housing
20:41 Mixed Use Zoning
#citiesskylines2 #building #city
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Philanthrope - Serenade chll.to/d81d7f05

[@UrbanPanic]

The whole up-zoning and redesigning as you go feels like the core difference between Skylines 1 and 2 play. CS:1 feels like I'm building a city, while CS:2 feels like I'm growing a city. Changing things around in CS:1 just felt like I was doing something naughty. Now, it's just what the city wants to do.

[@YUMBL]

Totally agree :)

[@KimForsberg]

One of the things a lot of people do "wrong" is that they just paint the whole zoneable areas, usually 6 tiles deep. Often a good house size to zone for is 2x2, 3x3 or 2x3 etc. Not every cim wants to live in or can afford to build in a multi hectare mansion, or in a massive condo building. And when possible, put in some paths to break it up naturally.

[@Griffolion0]

I agree. It can get super tedious to do that, however. I wish there was a zoning option that allowed you to indiscriminately paint a zone and it will break it up for you.

[@Zarosian_Ice]

@@Griffolion0i am used from doing it in CS1, so maybe i'm biased, but i just run a path between the houses to pick what size of buildable lot i want to begin with, then zone the required houses in blocks 2x2/2x3/3x3/3x6 etc, let it spawn in than mass fill the empty homes. it goes quite qujickly

[@dantich8996]

City Player Plans! That got me good 😂

[@dr.pepperaddict8071]

@CityPlannerPlays

[@yondie491]

In addition... "City Player Plans" is great. You don't name your channel that. It's not in the ongoing titles, so no one is confused. It's simply a reference in the description. And on the surface it's 100% accurate. I look at it as a silly lil easter egg for those of us who consume multiple C:S channels (note: you and Diana are my favorites).

[@YUMBL]

Thank you! This is the intended result of invoking CPP :)

[@noahgeerdink5144]

I've lived in Palma for 2 years. So surprising to see it in this series. It's a beautiful city, probably my favourite city in the Balearic islands. However, the traffic is not the best plus it has a lot of deteriorating roads.

[@UnawareBlaire]

This is the most helpful video I've seen so far in explaining the game mechanics. Half of the information you pulled up I didn't know existed and it really helps explain why starting a city can feel challenging. Previously I had the general idea to upzone and that was solving my issues but now I know exactly why.

[@danichfuer29]

Totally agree. Learnt so much in the first one about road hierarchy and now again. Didn‘t know of the commercial and land value overlay to start with …. Great stuff and incredibly well presented, thank you! Looking forward to the next one.

[@EduardLlull]

As a person that lives, and has lived almost all his live, in Palma let me tell you that there is a constraint to have in consideration regarding how near the farm land is to the city center/downtown: we live in an island and we don't have as much land as a continental area. It also affects to the density of the housing, to be able to accomodate more than 400000 people in the available space, the density must be quite high.

[@kristoph17]

Phil probably approves of the nod anyways. You both put out amazing content, I am looking forward to how you plan out the city!

[@ttamdude]

When you were talking about the clinic vs hospital it really hit home how much I wish there was a little more granularity with building upgrades. So like the elementary schools are completely inadequate once you get large scale urban development… being able to organically convert and/or upgrade plopables to keep pace with urban development would be amazing.

[@wouterdesmedt1736]

Thanks for this, really gave me a feel for the mechanics behind zoning. Almost gave up on the game but now I feel more confident I can get a handle on this crucial aspect.

[@Spyblox007]

You are the first person to explain to me why low rent housing always seemed to become abandoned so quickly. Other channels say "place it near the college for students". Had no idea land value still mattered with low rent, or how high the mood debuff was. I'm subscribing.

[@KimForsberg]

I really like this recommendation of refer to reality when building your cities, or they will likely look and work very unnaturally. Sometimes that's what you want, but often not. I usually bring this up with people building rockets in KSP as well. It's like when people sit down in front of it, all the real world perspective just vanishes and then they wind up building something that would never work in reality, and does not work in the game either.

[@Khotetsu]

Something I've started doing with offices in CS2 is creating little "office parks" around radio towers with a couple small industrial buildings thrown in (just none of those big smokestacks!), usually bordering a pocket of commercial. My dad had a business right next to a cell tower in an industrial park, and the offices give that light industry feel while the actual industry zoning provides some warehouse looking buildings without creating enough pollution to cause problems.

[@boznia456]

A beautiful city to look at exactly what your saying is mississauga ontario, and Oakville ontario, amazingly simple north American layout of suburbs and density populated building around larger avenues. Love the series ❤

[@winddealer1]

Very cool! Love the framework insights, progression path and specific contexts which influence a successful outcome. Wonderful, will take focused concepts and audit my existing growing city and make adjustments where needed. Your content, delivery and format make the top of the "short list" of most valued CS content Gratefully.

[@poporowyo]

City Player Plans is a perfect name for this. City Planner Plays is great, and anyway for cross-pollination of viewers is good for the channels, the players and the game.

[@mpcamposz]

0:39 that made me spill my coffee. You were on the verge of owing me a new keyboard

[@robertrussell1806]

Always love your contant yumbl, you're always thoroughly explaining not only what your doing but the thought process behind it, im loving cities 2 so far but now at 70k pop its like a 50% chance of a crash when i save 😅

[@nilscibula5320]

I liked the series since I saw the first part, but now I'm not liking it anymore, I'm loving it and can't wait for the next video. Great job!!!

[@elguapo42000]

Wow, I didn't know that wind-pollution was a thing in CS2. Great item to point out. Thanks for all the tips!

[@TheMilk899]

Hi YUMBL, just wanted to say thank you. I haven't watched too many of you videos, this one would be my second. In the past I would play a little bit and hit a roadblock in my city, get frustrated and then give up. I'm a little bit on the spectrum, ADHD, extremely perfectionist. I spent a lot of time trying to absorb your ring road video. That video had a huge positive impact on my enjoyment of the game by giving me the tools (e.g. road hierarchy lessons and philosophy) to channel my focus and the chaotic swamp of my mind into something that I could easily absorb and apply with great success. I'm extremely happy with my highway networks now but recently ran into some frustration for building my districts as i've moved from building a great first district into now expanding the city. I'm taking the time to understand this video and hope it can help me get out of my slump. I am grateful for your efforts with these videos and also wished to share how impactful your content has been, at least for me. Thank you. P.S. really enjoy how you give examples using google maps of real world application. That approach has been wonderful as a means to draw inspiration for when I planned out my ring road highway network.

[@YUMBL]

I’m really glad to help! This game and these ideas are worth taking time to learn and share, and I’m glad you to help. More videos to come. Have fun! :)

[@pmnt_]

Cant wait for the sequel Planner Plays Cities.

[@osky3301]

I hope you make this a series about game mechanics, when I first played CS2 I was always confused about how to start planning the city, watching this video really helped to start building.

[@YUMBL]

Thats what this series is :). Ep 1 was starting road layout/road hierarchy

[@fko3143]

Interesting content this game is worth it for the intersection tools.

[@evilotis01]

Cities Player Plans make me chuckle :)

[@DJarr216]

Honestly, Cities Player Plans is just a great name. Like City Planner Plays, you have informative videos. And While CPP is informative about IRL stuff, your CPP series is informative about ingame mechanics. That said, maybe for the sake of avoiding confusing within the Cities Skylines community when both get referred to as CPP , maybe you could name yours Cities Gamer Plans (CGP).

[@tylermartin884]

I have enjoyed these two episodes! Your voice reminds me of Matthew Broderick. Often times I like to imagine Ferris Bueller building a city 😅

[@YUMBL]

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and plan a city once in a while, you could miss it.”

[@ApoNono3891]

Best series name of all time. I love the pun.

[@Boweevel]

Thanks for 'pointing that out!'

[@TheElegantMammoth]

I am a simple creature - i see yumbl vid, i like

[@Helioscore1]

City player plans is a great joke/series name. Keep it. lol

[@jeramiahcoffey103]

The YT algo must be broken because I had to scroll down a couple inches to see this vid. YT should know this shoulda been front and center for me.

[@YUMBL]

Brutal. It didn’t even show it to my personal account. Some topics just don’t do as well 🤷‍♂️

[@Strothy2]

Here is a fun drinking game, with water, of course, take a sip every time he says - this will change over time - I'm not married to that idea

[@YUMBL]

As long as the point that cities aren’t about permanence got across ;)

[@Zarosian_Ice]

Please, if you ever figure out how to deal with low rent housing let me know, it's the only thing i can't seem to figure out... I will zone them, they will fill up to full, and than out of nowhere it goes and fully abandons... I don't understand how to keep them happy, or what even drives them... I am also trying to deal with the "small homes" debuff in high rise, i think that's just a debuff in general based on how rich someone is? (afluent people wanting larger homes etc.?) Edit: Should've kept watchuing for the low rent res housing haha, that made a lot of sense, i thought i always placed it outside of low land value, but i suppose, i initially did (or thought i did) and than raised the land value accidentally by adding services etc.

[@YUMBL]

Hope this helps!

[@dr.pepperaddict8071]

From an author that's had writers block for years... Thanks for breaking the wall.

[@maoschanz4665]

iirc there is a tiny walkable historical district in dubai, it's a little north at the mouth of the river

[@YUMBL]

Ah, Al Fahidi. Very cool! Its rather far from the areas tourists seem interested in, but I’m also glad wasn’t paved over.

[@tylerphuoc2653]

@@YUMBL The early Islamic sites being paved over are in the most danger in Saudi Arabia, since the government there is motivated to build Las Vegas-like Hajj accommodations to address Muslim tourists coming in (despite the these early Islamic sites being integral to the history of the religion itself)

[@YUMBL]

Preserving history is important. Adapting and changing a place over time is also important. Theres certainly a balance to these ideas, but paving over holy sites sounds unacceptable to me.

[@tylerphuoc2653]

@@YUMBL I mean, same. It seems like such a hypocritical thing to condone if you claim to be ultra-devout to the faith, like if German developers supported by the Christian Democratic Union wanted to pave over that All-Saints Church that Martin Luther nailed his parchment to

[@avaviel]

You can export poop. So, my first goal is an outside connection. Then, you can sell water as well.

[@jell0goeswiggle]

Does the park outside the low rent housing not affect the land value too much?

[@YUMBL]

I haven’t checked how much the park might increase land value. Its all just a balancing act and they tend to become abandoned because of the small home happiness penalty.

[@JonathanPeel]

It is a funny joke :D I am looking forward to the next one...

[@adamraksi1222]

For me it's very strange to hear downtown and highrise buldings together. Eastern and Central Europe tends to have the downtown as a historical city center with mid-rise buildings and have one or more dedicated districts for the high-rise buildings.

[@YUMBL]

It all depends on the age of the city. And in the US cities trend somewhat newer ;)

[@toddkirch613]

So do you put zoning on the arterials?

[@YUMBL]

Yes. I recommended zoning offices on the arterials in the video.

[@nicesickmusic]

bob ross of cs2

[@Dallas1460]

👍

[@wetfutzi]

City player plans, nice pun.

[@KamalSingh-ny9vw]

Idk what bugs the low rent housing to abandoned everytime i zone the low rent housing it tells me small housing everytime happiness is full idk

[@YUMBL]

Is their rent too high from being in a high land value area? Check the land value. You probably need a denser zoning

[@shaneintheuk2026]

I love the idea of “densifying” 😂

[@YUMBL]

We’re very bad at it in the US. AND its a real word!

[@shaneintheuk2026]

@@YUMBL okay I’ll believe you. I wasn’t taking the mick, honest. 😂

[@YUMBL]

This guy 😂

[@janremongalura5713]

IF and its almost impossible....I would like to create a new city with sensible road layouts like those in Europe. Also without "skyscrapers".

[@tmkongen]

Placing commercial near low residential doesn't seem to work well after a while. Always ends up with "High Rent" issues...

[@YUMBL]

Thats when you need to up zone to something denser. Your city core has probably expanded and property value has gone up.

[@tmkongen]

@@YUMBL Yeah but I want to keep all the small houses lol :p

[@YUMBL]

The small houses deserve to be farther away from high value areas if they want to pay a reasonable price! There is so much space for them away from downtown

[@KimForsberg]

Buildings? Where we're going we don't need buildings!

[@terrydactyl2077]

I guess Nth America is more like here in Australia where you have to go out of your way to see proper food production farms. You’ll see cows and small farms. Lots of paddocks in the outer parts of towns. (Small towns different story). But the only time I’ve seen large food production farm land is from a plane and on long drives. Was crazy to see those farms so close to a huge city there in Europe.

[@matthieucastellan]

I need to see a featuring with adam something

[@christianbass10]

Aren't office areas build noise?

[@YUMBL]

I dont think so

[@PHunter79]

Gonna start a series called Player Plans Cities 🤣

[@watchthe1369]

The Picasso of road grids.......

[@redrh1]

What map is this on?

[@YUMBL]

I dont recall the name. Mountains on one side, and a single river leading to the sea on the other.

[@TehSmokeyMan]

Wait.... I'm confused😋 Cities Players can Plan Cities too?😆

[@timposter]

Where on a scale from Palma to Dubai would you rate Zurich, the city I live in?

[@YUMBL]

Zurich is stunning. Someone said Palma has terrible traffic so if Zurich is somewhat better it may win. Plus bonus points for Le Corbusier being represented. I’m glad he didnt design Zurich ;)

[@EurocatGames]

This is directed at the game, not YUMBL. He's the bomb! Now, 2-3k inhabitants and already seeing towers in the city? Really! I came from a town of 6k and there wasn't a tower around. Maybe the population metrics need a little help from the programming side. Just sayin'.......

[@TheTaxxor]

I don't like the logic of the low rent appartments. I mean people, especially singles, want to have a cheap home with low rent, you give it to them and then you have to provide them with all kinds of luxury to keep them in there because they have -16 due to their homes being too small? That's what they wanted is it not? Why don't they at least get +10 for low rent in exchange?

[@YUMBL]

I wouldn’t call any of the services or park “luxury”. Basic needs for someone in a small apt really. And that small room better be within range of somewhere worth going!

[@TheTaxxor]

@@YUMBL still think that the low rent should mitigate the small homes malus. After all you get what you pay for. Unless it secretly already does that and it would be like -25 otherwise.

[@yondie491]

I hope you don't mind clarifying... regarding the "towers" that you keep referring to when up-densifying your downtown commercial area (starting around the 16 minute mark) are you referring to the "small apartment buildings"? You repeatedly say "towers," implying that they're referred to, in game, as towers. Apartment buildings are, of course, not referred to as towers. Yes, they're taller buildings than the row houses, but personally I wouldn't remotely call them towers. If anything, they're tenements (which become nicer apartment buildings in the future), though obviously with Low Rent Housing that's not what I'd choose to call Small Apartments. Yes, the names of the buildings in downtowns of cities are often "Namehere Towers" and I'm *guessing* that's what you mean. But I'm not aware of anywhere in-game that they're referred to as towers. There *ARE* special buildings named towers, however. So... I'm pretty sure you mean the Medium Density that the game labels as "apartment buildings" but you never actually call them that. Am I correct or is there something I'm missing?

[@YUMBL]

You have inferred my meaning correctly. The mid density apartment buildings certainly tower over their rowhouse counterparts, but I was probably not specific enough. They were the only tall(er) building unlocked at the time, so I didn’t think much of it.

[@yondie491]

@@YUMBL oh entirely fair. I'm just a very literal person, and you have a tendency to refer to everything else by their in-game designation. I was *pretty confident* I knew your meaning but I had to check, just in case there was yet another thing that I could learn from you about the game. So of course by all means don't change your terminology. I like it and I'm sure most people automatically understood. I just had to ask, and ty kindly for the response! Note: Speaking of learning things from your videos... I was unaware of the "I" key. I *despise* certain aspects of the visual interface (the color scheme, such as white-on-white, and the lack of pertinent information, such as wind direction in certain interfaces, or clearly visible roads when placing electrical lines)... so thank you for that!