I busted PHYSICS DEFYING MYTHS in Cities Skylines!

We're back in Cities Skylines (City Skyline) engineering a way to bust or accept various physics defying city building myths in Cities Skylines. Busting MYTHS in Cities Skylines!
LINKS!
PATREON: / realcivilengineer
MERCH: www.realcivilengineer.com
MEMBERSHIP: / @realcivilengineergaming
REDDIT: / realcivilengineer
TWITCH: / realcivilengineer
PADDY (MY DOG): / @paddytheapprentice
STREAM ARCHIVE: / @realcivilengineerarchive
PLAYLISTS!
MINI MOTORWAYS: • Mini Motorways
INFRA: • INFRA!
DORFROMANTIK: • Dorfromantik
CITIES SKYLINES - ENGITOPIA: • Cities Skylines - Engi...
KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM: • KSP
POLY BRIDGE 2: • Poly Bridge 2
HYDRONEER: • Hydroneer
VARIETY PLAYLIST: • VARIETY PLAYLIST
Epic Game Store Support-A-Creator Code: RCE
(In connection with Epic Games’ Support-A-Creator Program, I may receive a commission from certain in-game purchases)
#realcivilengineer #mythbusters #CitiesSkylines

[@itsnotjustme]

17:29 people are generally preferring to walk along the scenic route instead of driving at all. You might need to make the scenic route a highway or some other road that doesn't have a sidewalk

[@kaizoc5314]

The cars are turning into the first road they drive past, you can see the ones coming from the left take the scenic road while the ones coming from the right pay the toll.

[@kelvin1316]

Or make it a park and charge them as well!!!!!

[@Linkbond]

One thing I know about the AI in this game is that if the road is too long, after a certain point any car on it just poofs and disappears from existence.

[@theoneandonlyrY]

Also the game is programmed to where AI traffic will choose the shortest way to their destination even if it is congested

[@volundrfrey896]

You mean in real life? As a car guy(TM) there's few things better than driving through lovely scenery.

[@danielsime911]

The fire helicopters are like elephants. They can smell where the water deposits are and will dig into the soil to get them

[@UtopssAKAPJ]

who do you think is flying the helicopters 😁

[@pauldomorev2918]

Noice

[@ZOMBiFOX13]

Elecopters

[@shadyone6620]

I feel like that point where the fire helicopters picked up water is the "zero coordinate" of the map, its very center. I think that devs coded helicopters to fly to the map center if thay cannot find waer source.

[@secretjameser]

I agree

[@archerelms]

Can someone check if that is the zero point? I wanted to see him dig a hole there to see if there's somehow water under the ground, even though that seems unlikely. Or to see if removing that ground made the helicopters go elsewhere

[@solarzone7247]

or maybe the game just sets that as the default location; in JS, you get can get things like "undefined", which when converted to numbers gives 0.

[@secretjameser]

@@solarzone7247 which would return the zero point. That sounds correct

[@UtopssAKAPJ]

My throughts exactly, was going to comment that, then saw your comment 😎

[@mindopolis6089]

Fun fact: Instead of using water put out fire, sand is also a good way to put out fire

[@secretjameser]

I forgot about that

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

And its the optimal way when its an electrical fire or an oil fire Seriously Never add water onto that. It will go badly

[@fiscalgoose7664]

So will dirt and gravel and flour

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

@@fiscalgoose7664 NO

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

HEY FOR ANY WHO DO NOT KNOW NEVER CHUCK FLOUR ONTO FIRE IT WILL EXPLODE! FINE POWDERS OF ANY KIND IS A VERY GOOD EXPLOSIVE!

[@ruleofthree1733]

The only reason why they are taking the toll over the free road is because of the way the cars are coming in. If you rewatch the video, you'll notice all the cars coming into work are coming from the right side of the street...closest to the toll. The few that did take the free route came in from the left side of the road

[@brianharrington2014]

i noticed this as well

[@FindingGreenOS]

However the cars coming back chose to ignore the longer route that was closer and drive through the toll.

[@merlinbotha363]

I like to think for the toll/scenic road myth that the local government thought it would be a good idea to build the spaghetti route , and then needed the toll to cover it costs

[@cosmicrayabsorber]

You do like to think... perhaps too much

[@1z34t7]

Myth idea: poonami can stop a tsunami

[@albro666]

Yes

[@sainaparbin5389]

Water and poop are same thing with different textures in this game

[@nyscersul42]

I swear this has already been done?

[@yks1111]

@@sainaparbin5389 so?

[@sainaparbin5389]

@@yks1111 i am telling just fact

[@atomic...]

I don't play city skylines, but I came up with a probably crappy myth but Myth, a series of smaller dams produce more power than one massive dam.

[@abidingknack7013]

Yes :)

[@masonyoung1502]

Myth idea: sewage outlets generate water. For instance if you were on engitopia and removed all natural water sources, because you get your water intakes from filtered poo water, would there be a net gain, a net loss or a net zero change in water in the map.

[@stevewithaq]

With the shorter scenic route it looks like all the drivers coming from the right take the toll road, and all the drivers coming from the left take the "scenic" route. It's just that the way you laid it out, more drivers are coming from the right. So I think you just proved that drivers take the first route they come to (that isn't obscenely long, of course.)

[@mclegos814]

Can you do: can you make a completely working underground international airport? Or how about an underground boat dock. That would be cool.

[@kyokazuto]

Unfortunately I think it's not even possible to build anything underground except roads or rails..

[@mclegos814]

@@kyokazuto I meant buil an overhang or roads all over it. For the airport just flatten land, build roads and boom. Airport in a chasm.

[@Gottaculat]

Somehow, I imagine the spiral wall was supposed to have a much bigger radius than what you did... Like, big enough to go around a proper city, not a couple landmarks.

[@TheGreatDrake]

Yeah I would see it not so much as a spiral but have it so the opening is on one end of the map on the beach and the water has to travel to the other end before it moves further inland where it than goes to the other end and repeats.

[@jcmilleker5449]

*MattDonalds

[@teddypgray]

16:05 right here you can see that the arrows are telling the now to come in, it's a turn into the other road. Change the arrows and the outcome may be much different!

[@morgan0]

a couple ideas to test, do vertical roads change the distance services cover, and can you use that to make citizens think they’re covered but they’re basically not? can you make police use a toll booth to get into and out of the police station and can that cover the police budget costs? also i think there are mods or assets that let you raise the toll amount higher

[@Llew70]

I like this question... Now I have ideas for my own cities. I'm wondering if police, fire, ambulance, death, and garbage services that use city budget can pay tolls to offset some of the maintenance, or do those funds cancel out. Very nice!

[@XBOXGTDSMCR]

Myth or question: will drivers take the long scenic route or will they take 20 toll booths in a row to get to work kind of expand on the toll booth idea put back to back toll booths in a long scenic route and see if that does anything

[@jonahwolfe3396]

Here’s a myth: If there are no roads connecting houses to jobs will people walk to work? Maybe if you connect it using pathways?

[@katanah3195]

Yes, they will. Spiffing Brit proved that by setting up a park with a ridiculous amount of park gates and charging people obscene amounts of money to walk to work and school, with no option to drive, only the option of walking via the park.

[@Donkey114]

You should set up a lot of boat routes on top of the tsunami and see if the boats will go through

[@VinayVarsani]

You can definitely protect a city with layers of dams that are powering the city. Like 2 at a minimum. "You can power a city with dams protecting it from a tsunami"

[@DarvakSondrath]

If you raised the terrain a bit more, you could have made the dam high enough to stop the tsunami. Also it's hilarious that his idea of a scenic route is a rollercoaster roadway.

[@nyscersul42]

The reason your cars can drive vertically, is because the vehicle is moving along a spline, which is a game dev term for a bezier curve, used to create the roads. The vehicle then does not need to calculate anything complex, and instead of simulating wheels, friction, or all the other car related stuff, it can be simplified into solving a set of quadratic equations, which computationally is far easier. In laymans terms, "It runs on a simple mathematical rail."

[@tigrecito48]

heres another myth.. apparently if you build enough nut bushes on your city limits it lets you build beyond the boundaries and also all your inhabitants start line dancing

[@thereddalek7282]

With the 2nd scenic route, the cars werent randomly choosing one or the other, they went into the that they got to first. The cars from the left went on the scenic route and the cars from the right went on the toll. Maybe having a longer road on both sides of the toll would see some different results

[@Riqu213]

I must admit, I was a bit disappointed you didn't say "Coming soon, Tornado-nado T-shirts." lol Great work again. You make games I have no interest in playing seem unbelievably fun.

[@SymbioteMullet]

And the T in T-shirts stands for tornadonado

[@juances]

May as well try digging a hole and see if a "buried" wind turbine still gets wind? Same with solar power plant when put in the shade.

[@Ndw1995]

Some ideas for the next videos: Every inch of roads = toll booths And flooding the map and making massive efficiently shaped archipelagos with a bridge network connecting them

[@nameless5413]

didn't Spiffing Brit already do that one?

[@TheWhiteTrashPanda]

@@nameless5413 idk if he did toll roads specifically, but he did it with foot traffic via amusement parks between the residential and commercial zones.

[@TheWhiteTrashPanda]

You can't do literally every inch of road (maybe with anarchy). You have to have short sections of road in between each toll booth and you can't build on the side of toll booths (again, maybe with anarchy). I'm working on putting in as many toll booths as possible in my city

[@nameless5413]

@@TheWhiteTrashPanda "Tolls Only" it was called i think. it has been a while since i saw it so i do not remember weather it was only roads or walkways

[@TheSamuraiTortoises1]

1:27 " Because the game simulates it more like water" - Matt, 2022

[@MarkWiseTechno]

17:15 "I feel like you could massively, massively abuse that." Another perfectly balanced game with no exploits

[@RichardWinskill]

"I feel like you could massively abuse that," says a man who's apparently never seen Spiff doing just that ;)

[@HarshMelon]

Watching the traffic made me realize how much I miss Infraspace. Please play that again soon! G Wagon, G Wagon, G Wagon!

[@Gottaculat]

14:43, * ahem * Welcome to the Chicago area. When I first moved to Chicago, tolls were $0.40 per toll. I remember my dad asking me to hand him a quarter, nickel, and a dime on many occasions. Last time I saw the tolls, they were something like $2 per toll if you have the I-Pass, and I think $4 per toll if you didn't. Literally highway robbery, as a single commuter can easily pass through 6-10 tolls each day commuting to/from work, and then they have the insane gas prices and property taxes on top of it (the house we had about 15 years ago was $10K/year in property taxes alone). Took me 15 years to save up enough money to move to another state, and it was worth every penny. I swear, the Chicago toll system uses the money to build more tolls and pay corrupt construction unions to work at a snail's pace. Took the city 4 years to redo one 6 lane 4-way intersection. Where I live now, the city built not only a new 6 lane 4-way intersection, but also a quarter mile long bridge over a river leading to it in the span of 2 years, so don't give me that shit people always gave me back in Chicago that "roads are complicated and take time." Complicated? Indeed. Take a long time? Not that long. People forget our interstate system didn't exist prior to WWII. It certainly takes engineering, but 4 years to do one intersection half-assed? That's just corruption. Seriously half-assed, like sidewalks that lead nowhere, like they just decided "fuck it." Wanna see? Here's the GPS coordinates you can plug into Google Maps: 41.82895999918561, -88.10543902096882 I fucking hate the Chicago area so much. Best view of that city skyline is in the rear view mirror, disappearing over the horizon forever.

[@ClairvoyantTruth]

For the tolls, the cars were taking the first turn on their route, you will need to try with the toll road being the second intersection, first long path, which they drive by, then the toll road.

[@TheGreatDrake]

Yeah I noticed all the cars that took the scenic route the scenic route was the first turn to their destination they came to it just happened that there was less traffic in that direction.

[@Chaz_137]

i love the way RCE makes the smallest spiral on the planet making it useless to try

[@libbybollinger5901]

I think it’d be interesting to compare that spiral with a control, where the landmark is just as far from the tsunami but w/ no walls, because it does seem like the tsunami lost quite a bit of height/power.

[@SocialMedia-yp8wj]

What if you make an entire episode (or a mini series) on building a city in City Skyline from the ground up without infinite money for the sole purpose of circumventing a mega Tsunami. Would be interesting to see a financially feasible way of stopping that.

[@alinecruz3079]

Engitopia! Engitopia! I need more poocano I’ve been a fan since the very beginning I need it!

[@murdermachine347]

Myth: A tiered set of dams getting progressively smaller will provide the power and consistency needed to power the city. Maybe add trenches on the sides so water can flow back out to sea instead of around the sides of the dams?

[@seantaft3853]

Just for the LOLs, I want to see what happens when a Tornado hits Architect Hill. Those abominations of God have had it too good.

[@crewcrew1015]

I love your Cities Skylines videos so much! Especially since your voice is always so calm whenever you're explaining things hahaha, but I'd love to see you play The Wandering Village!

[@blackdogsoares]

All of your stuff with cities skylines is pure gold !

[@valecasini]

5:05 the chilliest "Boosh" of Matt Channel History XD

[@arbiter11171]

What I’ve learned: if it’s useless, it was made by an architect. If it’s practical, it was made by an engineer. If it ignores reality, it was made by a scientist’s “ideal system”.

[@RJ_Eckie]

This series just brings the biggest smile to my face. Absolutely delightful

[@captaindelta43]

This video gives PTSD to all highway engineers who use, to say the least , lot of maths and that to make the roads suitable .

[@SirSteel.]

Obviously those vehicles had a very experienced engineer, also known as their mayor, matt.

[@hory-portier]

I mean, since the tsunami hit the dam, it can power the city almost until it's end of existence. Don't mind the short lifespan of the city. That's the minor detail you shouldn't worry about.

[@Blackend16.61]

I wonder if the architects living on poocano would be safe from a tornado up there? Worst comes to worse they all survive.

[@chewygoesroar1097]

Nice unintentional strongest shape at 11:01 with the two lakes and tornado 🤣

[@WheezyCyclist]

build the tesla valve on the river section of the Tsunami map, that way it can function as designed by allowing the river to flow when there is no tsunami , but stops the incoming wave

[@GoodMorningButch]

Your tsunami videos are always my favorite

[@artrixgaming4694]

you should do some more engitiopia vids by the way i love your vids and i watch them all the time and makes my engineer dream feel more possible

[@stegosaur9812]

love these videos

[@TheCup51]

16:10 but if you will place like 15-25 tolls in one road, and set price to full price, they will choose long route, then pay all this tolls.

[@ItsUrakam]

Never gets old

[@classydemongaming847]

Cheers from canada matt, much love and keep on being amazing!

[@janekk8]

There is a myth which says that if you build the Architects' City on the shoreline, tsunami wave will be disgusted and won't touch the city

[@evileqwine6106]

Myth idea: Matt cannot make a city skylines video without tsunamis.

[@IamHattman]

I think the spiral could work, it just needed to be bigger and loop around one or two times more

[@Keef_DGAF]

Matt the last test, what if you hooked the megadam up to water-suckers so they only power on by the dam. Does it produce enough charge in that instant to suck up the tsunami? I mean if you put a bunch of them equalling up to the amount of power produced.

[@TechBaffle]

16:04 I did a massive detour vs. toll booth (at max price) and to begin with they took the toll booth, but surprisingly the massive detour highway (that went around the whole city, no stops) got really busy. I think it would have been fairer with two highways - so I'll have to try that one.

[@xxSeanVxx]

Omg the reveal for the scenic route with the wobble sound and everything had me dying.

[@tonik2229]

i want an hour long version of this

[@Nomiswelt]

Myth: People will walk across the entire map if they have no alternative. Just build an industrial and commercial zone three tiles or so away from the housing and connect them only with a foot path.

[@torchhead1643]

7:36 if I understand correctly, what is happening is that they are either collecting water from the 'ocean' below (just like every game, the ocean is underneath the terrain anyway). Or there was a lake before and they're just spawning the water out of thin air.

[@jeweljose1340]

keep up the good work.

[@ThursdayNext67]

Is it possible to build a city where all roads are roundabouts? Love to see that tested

[@FoxBoi69]

can you build an entire city below sea level and have dams act both as protection from the sea water and also as power generation? water pumps for drinking water would be down after the dams.

[@HDTomo]

Myth: a wedge twice as big as the oncoming tsunami can stop it Myth 2: 1 wide 4 long residential makes the most efficent city (build with 1 tile gaps and when its built fill the betweens) Myth 3: tornados are all the same size no matter the severity

[@squidcaps4308]

There are raise/lower elevation, pick elevation, ramp and.. SMOOTH.. The spikes happen if you don't smooth huge elevation chance, which in turn means you needs a few "pixels" of width for narrow stuff. Easiest way to get minimum width is to first make a wide damn, put the flood walls on top, then flatten everything around the flood walls back to the ground level. The flood walls will keep their height and they are the minimum width that the game engine can do. Then pick the SMOOTH terrain tool and apply on top of the flood walls. Even a bit of smoothing will get rid of all artifacts. Then remove the flood walls. You also get straightest lines and smoothest curves this way. The best part is that you can now also put a road on top of it, since the flood walls are exactly the minimum size feature that the terrain can really support. The spikes are an artifact that is caused by extrapolation, if you look closely you can see the mathematical curve shoot up, overshoot and come back down. We need more points for that curve so that it does not overshoot but starts to behave more like an interpolated curve. Smoothing does just that, it lower the amplitude of the changes and for that, it has to do the right calculation that also fixes the spikes.. The problem usually is that to get a good effect, the brush touches the peaks, and we want to reserve just enough peak data to retain the terrain shape we wanted. Flood walls locks those values. Of course, this might remove some fun as the shapes after those steps does look at least somewhat realistic...

[@majuuorthrus3340]

I can't help but feel this game is a form of enrichment aimed at potential supervillains to prevent them causing trouble.

[@ThePoxun]

I noticed at 17:04 there were a lot of people walking to work... is the same true for walking through a park where they will pay to go through a park over a slightly longer walk? Also road speed might have some impact as they favour faster roads over slower and the toll road speed is likely faster than the alternate road...

[@AndiNordsee]

17:15 You could also abuse that by having no road at all between the residential and working area. Just footpaths with a lot of park entrances on it. You can force people to pay hundreds of bucks just to get to work :)

[@tomejkol1]

If an engineer did that he would be an ABSOLUTE ARCHITECT.

[@pixelnobs]

16:52 You should've made it a highway because they all just decided to walk to work.

[@jannikf2504]

At this point I watch almost every new video as it comes out. Might as well subscribe

[@Eagle-rv3iy]

I don't know about you but where I'm from maximum grade on highways is 6%. I don't think that meets best practices

[@tyleranderson4834]

I like your Videos of City Skylines, I find them interesting.

[@adamcurtis8754]

I have nightmares where I'm driving up roads that keep getting more vertical . . .

[@Karagianis]

I think the Tsunami dam is what the Mythbusters would call, Plausible. It's technically true, but completly impractical.

[@Zeonlousy]

Lets goo...

[@crimsonharvest]

If you want a reason to revisit the dam idea, what happens if you put several parallel / concentric dams in the way of the tsunami

[@baragon023]

I dont play this but want them to fix the water physics simply for Matt's videos.

[@queeramalgams]

I appreciate the animation colour is still blue but could the fire helicopters be picking up sand to put fire out?

[@Chosen1Creator]

Myth: A city with the zones separated can still function if there are passenger and cargo airports connecting them.

[@AllDayBikes]

14:36 Our bridge toll in real life near me is between $1.25 - $13.50 depending on axle count, so not even close to evil yet haha

[@egg-roll8968]

The fact he completely failed to see he made a pedestrian happy community once he trimmed the longer road is hilarious. A better test would have been both roads no sidewalks.

[@jmm1233]

the developers really made the waves as accurate to reality as possible

[@Real_Claudy_Focan]

Matt ! Never see a dam this large ? Go check the "Afsluitdijk" (in the Netherlands) It's a 32km long dyke !! (edit ; it's a dam apparently) Also, the "Delta Plan" (Delta Works) which is a serie of MASSIVE dams, sluices, locks, dykes, levees, and storm surge barriers ! Delta Works is truly a wonder of ENGINEERING ! You need to make a Bridge Review™ of it ! (maybe visit it with Paddy ?) These works are larger than the Tames Barrier !

[@b8nnytez]

Myth idea :- Can you create a super poocano from the normal poocano, by making it a lot bigger, and somehow sealing the top with rock, then steadily increasing the pressure of poo inside the sealed poocano, leading to an eventual huge eruption, complete with Diarroplastic flows?

[@barrybend7189]

Myth: helicopters can't put out fires in crevices.

[@Dave-yp7vz]

In cities skylines there are two things possible: 1, every ship/car driver is a pro at doing it 2, cars and ships were made by engineers

[@anewbimproves5622]

I seem to remember Spiffing Brit saying that citizens have unlimited money to use on commutes, so they don't care about toll roads and just go the fastest route.

[@asee381]

Matt: "As we learned before, fire helicopters will pick up sewage to put out fires. They even chose the sewage over the fresh water..." Me: "What. The. Fuck."

[@lucash8234]

Fun as always, Matt.

[@patrickhodson8715]

I think it would be really cool to replicate the double-slit experiment on the tsunami map

[@Monody512]

You might even be able to power a time-traveling car with the *1.6 gigawatts!* produced by that dam. :)

[@MatsuikoAkira]

"You can massively abuse that" *Spiffing brit tolls only video flashbacks*

[@tamaraleejemimamartin5337]

My idea: you can make a massive subscribe sign using only roads and buildings

[@amysteele2488]

The long scenic route: The world's first free roller coaster for cars

[@TuongDai252]

Disasters don't affect waterways. Therefore ships, cargo ships, and ferries will work normally. But I'm curious, can you use many rows of super water pumps (like 5 rows or greater) to prevent tsunami. I mean, Matt used those things to dry a whole ocean so they should be able to suck the tsunami, right?

[@captainsnekk]

Myth: windmills can make water spin around

[@Nefirim]

RCE ->14:42 The spiffing brit: *HOLD MY TEA CUP*