The Old Square - Cities: Skylines - Altengrad #2

Altengrad is a Cities: Skylines series where I build a Central European city. The series starts around the year 1920 and slowly advances forward in time, which means the city will naturaly evolve all the way to modern times. The city is not a recreation of any real life city, although the project is supposed to be closely realistic, so inspiration was drawn from various existing cities in Central Europe.
Twitter - / akruasstream
Mod collections: steamcommunity...
#citiesskylines #altengrad
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[@civishamburgum1234]

There is a lack of fountains. They were a necessary part of any city, before there were fresh water pipes around (and for older buildings also afterwards). And wenn the ctiys introduces such systems, they were so proud of them, that they showed of, with elabourate fountains at squares and stuff. You do not see them very much today, because they often got destroyed during WWII and deemed to expensive to reitroduce and they just did not fit the stile of the era. About citydefences. There is to say, that they were a thing till round about the Napoleonic Times, when the introduction of howitzers and the massive expansion of cities plus the introduction of railroads made them useless. While most smaller citys contained theyr medieval defences, until they became comppletely useless, the real rich citys that had a significand growth during the early modern period constructet earth wall defences, that tended to become parkt later on. In border regions there were often systems of forts scattered aournd a city. These were mostly oparated till WWI.

[@juulmoose5763]

Civis Hamburgensis ii

[@aprillvgt]

20:51 Dude on a bike is crazy

[@capt.fuzzball8956]

Look at that madlad go

[@arox4133]

Was about to make the same comment, wild going up the steps.

[@xXrobloxpro123Xx]

and the fact that 3 different bikers did it

[@stefanopiroddi2687]

Love this! Just a suggestion: personally to me the Old Square lacks something. In every great city of Europe the old town square was the seat of the elaborate and magnificent City Hall and a capital like Altengrad should have no less. This still looks like an anymous town square from a random X Mitteleuropean city. You need a building that symbolizes the greatness of the town. Yes you have the high city with the old castle and the cathedral, but that's still not enough! Think about, for the next episodes, how to include a city symbol, a wonder that will one day become the thing that people visit in 21st century... Hope it makes sense!! Keep up the amazing work, it looks tremendous especially the stairs.

[@lorrens3489]

It would be good to have some kind of defense. Maybe something of the WW1 or older. If Altengrad is a city in central Europe in the first years of the XX century, it is a natural to have at least something for the war planes or the cannons and trenches.

[@cammysmith7562]

lorrens34 most evidence of ww1 such as trenches or bunkers were removed as much them had steel re enforcement which was melted down after the war to help rebuild Europe. I would probably say a commonwealth/Entente war cemetery would be the most evidence of a war. Or maybe a trench re creation. Europe wanted to forget the war so removed most evidence of it, it’s very rare to find evidence of battles and defensive lines in cities from that time period. And as for planes they took off from dirt strips most the time.

[@lorrens3489]

@@cammysmith7562 Maybe a reproduction or a Museum. That idea of a Cementery is very good too. I really like this proyect

[@quoniam426]

Last time I was suggesting the remains of a Vauban style fortification for the non cliffy side of the old town.

[@chalibard3826]

A lot of european cities in the 19th century putted down medieval and vauban fortifications. It was not considered useful nor valuable, was mostly unsalubrious and the new urban devloppement of the time took a lot of space. For example Geneva demolished its fortification in 1849. The same year the French government decided that the fortifications of Carcassonne (now in UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.) should be demolished. Haussmann redesigned Paris in 1853 (entire medieval quarters were razed). The presence of fortification would be a sign of lack of money at the time or not worth the effort. WW1 on the other hand was not supposed to last, so fortification were on the spot and not durable as the maginot line 20 years later for example.

[@GustafMedF]

I know that buildings used to be painted in some parts of europe during the 1600/1700. Stockholm even had semi official colours. Like in the year 1699 there was a royal letter that asked the citizens of Stockholm to paint their buildings yellow.

[@xXrobloxpro123Xx]

how have i missed this gem for all this time

[@dvorapa]

Some comments: - The gate looks weird. Gates weren't so wide in any point of the history I think and if you look closer to some older towns in Europe, you'll notice gates usually make the road even narrower for some meters, sometimes it is also really tough to go through for the modern tram even today (e.g. in Prague). - I like the road from the river, underneath the bridge. I would suggest to connect it to town (perhaps through the gate?) as the access to the town could be controlled easily in the medieval past guarding this moat road, which was popular defense strategy in the past - I absolutely love the car models from Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven game :) and I think they were quite popular in the 20s already, so no problem with many cars to me - I'm absolutely looking forward to the river bridges, mainly the modern ones (as in the 20s so many cubist and functionalist bridges were built) I hope deep inside my heart there are some models for it. Perhaps for bridges more than for buildings, I don't expect there are models for some buildings similar to ones by Kroha or Gočár

[@luishenriquedelima4528]

Hey man, put some classical music on the vídeo, maybe it help to imagine the context. It's an idea but I would love to ear some Bethoveen while you are talking about the city. Forte abraço do Brasil!

[@mydixiewrekd]

Love the Tyn cathedral you put in. It is so beautiful to see in person

[@1297Eman]

Ignoring the ambulances, the level of traffic looks about right for the 1920s. Since this is Central Europe, a point of accuracy could be have left-hand traffic in the early days and switch over in later episodes

[@wenzelrichter8176]

I really like how the lower citypart turned out. In my opinion the height differences pointed out a great szenario ( like the staircase). But i have to say, that the positioning of the palace (not the fortess) is not accurat. I think it would be better to place it in the lower part of the city, e.g. in combination with a french garden. The cathedrale and the fortress are well placed and well detailed. I love your projects :)

[@mekko92]

You have a good point about the palace

[@Akruas]

you described the french aproach to these structures, but that's obviously not the only one, there are many different ways (or motivations) to build a palace, chateaus and other fancy old buildings and what to build around them, I'm going to talk more about it in some future episodes

[@cholizgz9999]

It looks better and better every episode!!

[@jetmatas]

Is this game saved on Steam? I'd love to walk around your city!!! Great job.

[@clarksorenes7106]

WAIT! The first area of Altengrad is inspired by Hradčany, Prague. Hradčany in English means, "Castle District" (just look at alten*GRAD* and *HRAD*čany). I'll just call it "*Castle Hill*" then. Castle Hill has a presidential palace inspired by Prague Castle, has a cathedral inspired by St. Vitus Cathedral, and a royal palace, I can't see any of that in Prague so it must be a once Austrian Noble Palace. The second place of Altengrad is the Old Town Sqaure inspired by the same name at Old Town, Prague. Unlike in Altengrad where Castle Hill and Old Town Square is just right next to each other, Hradčany and Old Town in Prague is seperated by the Vltava River. Both squares has tents and similar looking sizes but I noticed that the Altengrad version has no monument while Prague has the Jan Rus Monument. Right now, Altengrad is inspired by Prague but maybe soon it will include more Central Europe cities like Bratislava. What a great series!

[@JamesKox]

I think the sqaure is more like Malostranska sqaure with tram and bridge tower.

[@kensheestore904]

Very cool

[@plutarchvonpluto6439]

You should use the old towers and stone walls to build more medieval castle ruins, perhaps the ruins of an old keep in the empty space on the hill opposite to the cathedral. Also, if you think that the city is located on a tributary of the Danube, maybe somewhere near Austria, Bavaria, Hungary or Switzerland, consider using white stone walls, columns, statues or even sinking on the ground the old stone castle towers, until nothing is visible but a stone circle on the ground, to build ancient ruins of perhaps an ancient roman border castrum. I would recommend to build it either on the empty space of the hill that's left or better yet on a hole somewhere a bit away from the city, to show that archaeologists are having excavations to find the ancient ruins.

[@BapsXD]

London had their underground in the 1863 which was still a steam railway until they decided to build its own power to supply the railway with electricity and was the first line to do so in 1890. When traveling the old parts of the lines you'll see a glimmer of light where the tunals exhausted the steam. Love what you doing man as always. XD

[@shawaam]

That bicyclist at 20.49, what a fucking champ, climbing those stairs with ease.

[@shauntempley9757]

Wellington city in NZ had electric trams in the late 19th century as well. But, after WW2, they switched to trolley buses that ran on the same tracks, right up until the 1990s, when they changed to electric buses, but removed the tram tracks. Even today, some buses that run in the city still use the electric wires the trams used back then. The city has just completed removing the buses. Christchurch in NZ had the trams until the earthquakes a decade ago, as a tourist attraction, while Auckland had a tram that ran from the Museum Of Transport And Technology to the Auckland Zoo just down the road next door, and back as another tourist attraction.

[@molybdane7240]

I was hoping to see some Akruas engineering at work, and I wasn't dissapointed. Keep it up!

[@Manomanali]

I would actually Prefer if the hole series would just be in this Time Period, it Looks was better

[@tommyvercetti9434]

I rarely fully wacth these videos but I always leave them playing on the background to give this man watchtime because his work is goddamn amazing.

[@artofgordo9186]

Your skill in making use of multiple levels is already helping you out here. The stairs and height changes look great in this theme. OOF

[@antoniplebanski1119]

It seems like you are a bit scared to place the bigger trees at this point. Love that videos, thanks for content.

[@HANSS420]

You live in prague ? Me too. Are you czech or ?

[@Akruas]

I do, I am

[@filliphavlik8015]

That moment when you realize that a lot of Czech guys are watching you (including me) btw love this series

[@quoniam426]

@@Akruas Nice accent by the way.

[@gachimuchienjoyer]

Same here lol But I am not actually truly Czech...

[@Der.Preusse]

@@Akruas I was wondering why the whole palace video reminded me so much of Prague.

[@casvermeij8809]

In my opinion this is the first realistic old town i have seen on youtube! so many players do it so wrong, so seeing this is a relief

[@Cryolemon]

Yay, someone who actually puts barriers on the sides of stairs! More seriously, I do like older cities like this in real life. Nottingham in England is the one I have the most affinity with, mostly because I live just outside it.

[@samuel.stelzer]

You can use stains and other decals on decals by playing with the z-axis in MoveIt. Great city! Looks perfectly unorganized!

[@Akruas]

you can't do that, it will look alright from certain angle, but then you move your camera and the decals will start flickering as the game can't decide which decal is on top of the other, move it or procedural objects won't help as decals need a surface to display on, which is the same for both decals therefore it has one Z coordinate, so even the displayed decals have it too, no matter their actual vertical position

[@JukeboxTheGhoul]

Good idea with the side gate, Some medieval castles used to have narrow exits that were far too small for the enemy to attack, they were often up stairways and etc. It would make sense to expand that as time goes on to the 20s. BTW I love your attention to detail!

[@TheRealJulien]

Somebody probably already mentioned it, but looking at the beginning of the video, I noticed that the church/cathedral seems to not only be surrounded by buildings with very little space around it but to also have several buildings attached to its front. I cannot for the life of me recall a single church or cathedral I've been to in Central, Western or Southern Europe that doesn't have its own dedicated square and stands alone, with the portal/front being the most prominent part and thus facing the largest part of the square. Perhaps moving it to face the main square (ideally lining up with the palace) might add some more prominence to the square and justify its size. I would argue that it still needs some more detailing either way, though, cause it looks very empty - benches, statues, fountains, maybe a kiosk or two might help with that.

[@Akruas]

the cathedral and the buildings in front of it are literaly the same one model, because that's how it stands in real life goo.gl/maps/y65CfdN3W98N57VU7

[@kwando472]

@@Akruas It's funny how many people seem to be complaining about stuff in your video, they see this is wrong they see that is wrong they want this added they want that removed. And you are just apologizing to them rats. Be you read some of the tips but please do not care what these nobodies say, your skill in this game is good and as you said in part 1 this is not a real life city.

[@primeautism]

I can't belive that I didn't find your channel earlier, you're doing an amazing job! And trust me, it's hard to make me subscribe to someone. Keep up the good work man, I consider this type of content much more interesting than the challanges, the challanges become boring fast, this type of content never bores you. Have a fantastic day!

[@ceckataceckata5357]

Hi, the squares should have fountains and a monument of a king or some sort of a column with a fountain and benches around it.

[@quoniam426]

Medieval squares were often the commercial heart of the city, they often had a big roof structure called a Halle in French. Most of bigger cities halles have disappeared, you can see those in smaller regional towns with most of their medieval assets intact and of course, there was a point of water source nearby so a fountain or a well should be next to it. Monumets to kings are more recent.

[@fandabb]

dude this is legit the coolest project i ve seen yet. wanted to do this for the longest time, since i was always missing proper old town in my cities. btw: mas i cesky divaky :)

[@rv3rb232]

Great video! Perhaps you could add some static people props in the market square to make it look more busy ,considering markets during early 20th century towns and cities were usually the only major meeting place for people

[@dyn_sh0tix]

Very Nice and Great Job dude! Keep this up 👍🏽👌🏽

[@F1CKS]

Nice man! This looks already phenomenal!!! Great work love the new series :P

[@Hugo-hf4mp]

You could put some bigger trees in the oldtown because they will be much older and if you are designing the outer parts and surroundings you could look at the german region of lusatia! But I have to say great work man... Keep it up on this level :)

[@amenemhatsonbef]

Another nice episode, really love this series. Church of Our Lady before Týn is nice eye catching monument in the city. 👍🏻🏰❤️

[@zilloe5357]

Love your videos man! Keep it up!

[@RedVelocityTV]

By far the best city builder out there. Inspirational stuff

[@brazilgaming]

WHOOO!!! NEW EPISODE!

[@azgamers]

I think the City needs a fountain in the square and maybe some Great War memorial near the Palace , and great work by the way I'm excited for the rest

[@Wizzkid9000]

The gateway reminds me of one of my favourite cafe's in the middle of York, England. Though, would be awesome to have a road like the Shambles in your city :D I wonder if your rebuilding efforts could reflect the Blitz and aerial bombardment of cities like Coventry, Dresden and Cologne.

[@KyNYC212]

Just started binging this series!!

[@Xdeathsrain]

I know it's supposed to be located in central Europe, but some Amsterdam inspired architecture would be dope. I find it highlights the waterways strongly. The water front would have been a hotspot of activity for industry especially, a ferry mod would be interesting too if it were time appropriate.

[@janures5302]

Good luck with the project!!

[@quoniam426]

Often when old fortifications become useless but the place is still being used and the town develops, those old walls were used as quarry supply for the newer buildings.

[@rijul3044]

Hey akruas, you should really consider using these 1900s cobblestone roads: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1729876865&searchtext=paris+1900 I think they'd fit the theme of your city really well, but just my take. Love everything you're doing btw, and super excited for this series!

[@clibfilm]

Hey i really love this project, i can suggest the cities of Dinkelsbühl, Rotenburg ob der tauber and Heidelberg too look at for some great inspiration on medieval old town centers ^^ I think the city still needs a majestic town hall but maybe this will be build in the following episodes

[@silent6sniper]

You are living in Prague? So, are you Czech then? If yes, kudos to your accent and English.

[@Makrelacz]

Usually you can recognise Czech from a mile by his accent. With Akruas I was thinking that I can hear a Czech or Slovak accent but it's so subtle that I thought I must be mistaken.

[@silent6sniper]

@@Makrelacz Exactly!

[@falcomalko5938]

He’s said he’s Czech in a comment on the previous video

[@silent6sniper]

@@falcomalko5938 okay, thanks, I didn't notice.

[@ryudrago1787]

Is coming out as a very lovely city, such nice Mitteleuropean vibes, keep it on!

[@AllenorLP]

Old Baroque or Renaissance Palaces are usually used as Universities. I don't know if it's possible to designate it as University, but if it is, that would be a great thing

[@l.namedcomrade6568]

Вау, просто шедевральная работа! Я был в одном Британском городе под названием Уорик и там такая же инфраструктура, отличное видео.

[@olavc.oevele1902]

I absolutely love your project. It just looks gorgeous. I already have decided which house I'd want to live in. It's the one behind the choir of the church. Watching your build a tiny detail did continue to bugger me. I know from my home towns here in Germany that there were and are lots of little gaps between the historical houses. In German they're called "Traufgasse" ( de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traufgasse ) and they were the subsurface sewer and drainage system. With the upcoming of canalization and rain gutters in the late 19th and early 20th century they sometimes vanished but when I walk german towns today these gaps are still existing. Maybe that can be a little inspiration to further up your historicalness. Keep on the beautiful work and create me some nice neighbourhood behind the church.

[@ozkroca9003]

That guy riding his bicicle upstairs like it's nothing, tho...

[@ciolek101]

Building s beautiful city in this game is just getting the best assets and then placing them where they look the best

[@Lea-bn6rg]

i didn't know why this was reminding me a lot of prague until you mentioned you lived there. beautiful city but public bathrooms aren't free

[@YuryPozdneev]

It's absolutely amazing

[@kaeganlagerquist1694]

This is like Minecraft but on a more major scale

[@darthkarr]

some good cities to look at are places like potsdam, dresden and the like.

[@flameoguy]

I like the progression of this city!

[@rodrigomahfuz]

Amazing! Your builds always surprise me

[@stanislavivball]

I so like it! I dont know the reason, but you... disable infinity money, going city to profit when the city will have a modern suburbs?

[@blanco7726]

Idk if you’ve actually done this, cuz I’m commenting at the start of the video for fear of forgetting this by the time I finish watching, but think about tiny alleyways as well. Especially if you’re building a historically medieval town, its common to see small alleys between houses, going from one road to another , often going up/down the hill also.

[@blanco7726]

Also I think most open spaces inside blocks of houses are converted into sort of yards instead of just growing trees inside

[@ponurywojtek616]

Few suggestions: -you can add a WW1 memorial or cementary -little bit more churches or some monastery -later down the series add some XIX century fortifications (smth like that www.poznan.pl/mim/turystyka/en/festung-posen-fortress,p,37,3382.html) -if the city is old enough you can add some stones as a ruins of Roman aqueduct or triumphal arch -you can add a big park that envelopes part of medieval walls that was not destroyed

[@FlorentPlacide]

You are really good ! This looks amazing :)

[@maarten9844]

Again a nice video! Keep up the good work!

[@NetPyrat]

This could be in northern Bavaria or Czech Republic. Really nice.

[@Davetheslave3]

Magnificent. How did you get people to use the stairs? Is there an invisible path there?

[@Akruas]

yes, it is shown towards the end of the timelapse, I first put a vanilla pavement elevated path and then switch it for the invisible one (which is also narrower so it fits better)

[@Davetheslave3]

@@Akruas Perfect, thanks!

[@stalfithrildi]

This is beautiful. Thank you

[@jerrell1169]

Thank you for this, it has inspired me to work on my own Eastern European city from the 1920s onward

Thats amazing! Are you planning publicate mod-pack for Altengrad on steam?

[@taylorbenz627]

since there's an abnormal amount of cars, you could maybe have some kind of old car plant in or near the city to explain the abnormal amount of cars in the region for the time, since the game spawns a lot of them.

[@thespicypolitician8905]

May I recommend a good tram mod for the time period. Mekarski double decker tram by Rev0 and Gèze. It is nice looking and would go perfect with the theme of a old city right now.

[@quoniam426]

Mékarsky was a compressed air powered tram in Paris. It replaced the steam trams but got replaced very quickly by electrically powered trams because compressed air becomes useless in case of a leakage. Frequently trams were blocked on the lower side of a ramp because of a leak in their compressed air tanks or in their pipes.

[@tjadam6664]

Fucking hell, this looks crazy good

[@frankiehackett8091]

Love this so far!

[@jezusbloodie]

Couldnt you use something like an invisible model for the ambulances or something?

[@10hawell]

The buildings were more colorful and balls to the walls than today, with time, people stripped of ornaments because they were too bourgeois and now when the original facades are restored, people think that it's fantasy. Do the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the renaissance palace and make some urban axis such as the Saxon Axis in Warsaw.

[@tulipanimation8364]

Yes, new episode

[@strata1769]

Too dope!!

[@maybemen8874]

Palace can be a town hall or something like that

[@filipkaspar9685]

Wait you are from Prague in Czech Republic ?

[@Akruas]

yes

[@filipkaspar9685]

You are the best

[@filipkaspar9685]

You have really good patient

[@archivek4]

The city started to look like Praha. Maybe in the future you will add district looking like Bratislava or Budapeszt or Warszawa.

[@bobjill835]

Can the royal family still exist as this would be interesting to see how different the old royal district is to the modern banking centre and the offices

[@saxo9266]

please i beg you, tell me the mods you use at 3:28 moving and readjusting buildings, i tried to subscribe to your mod collections but my game keeps crashing

[@Akruas]

Procedural Objects mod.

[@hristohristov3878]

Where I live ( in Plovdiv Bulgaria ) we have an old town, the town is build on a hill where in 1 century BC was a old roman fortress and some of the revival houses are build directly on the top of the ancient roman walls and gates. If you want check it out - just google or youtube - Old town Plovdiv. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Town_(Plovdiv)

[@hristohristov3878]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/%D0%A5%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D1%80_%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%8F.JPG this is great example.

[@neilerator]

What mods do you use besides the obvious ones (move it, find it, prop it up) ? How can you zoom in so much and what would be some general tips for starting with detailing ? I know, many questions, but I´m starting with detailing and want to build an European city myself but I fail to realize the images I have in my head for my city in the actual game

[@Akruas]

detailing is all about trial and error, download all kinds of props and decals and just experiment, zooming is the camera positions utility, check out the steam link in the description for my mod collection

[@Wizzkid9000]

*Yes, Historical buildings were very colourful, even castles would have been a brilliant white once upon a time i.e. the White Tower (Tower of London). I have seen historic examples of red, blue, white and black building colours which are very pretty.

[@Maulo93]

I really liked the crazy red shirted cyclist going up the stairs

[@DaviChaves89]

don't forget football fields and basketball courts

[@piettepeniez]

Prague 2.0?

[@NiklasPoller]

To the Question about coloured Buildings.. my Grandpa is from Lanskroun, and he lived in a pink painted house which was pretty old. Soo I guess some were painted

[@gudnisnaer8171]

A ww1 memorial would look good

[@friend_qqqqq3709]

in the 1920s there would have been some early modern architectural experiments. bauhaus and especially art deco

[@EmilyeikxieuehfjfkdhwkxJfbxkx]

Georgios Papadopoulos the Greek President in 1970-1973

[@gabmen15]

Could you share your PC specifications? My game takes 120 minutes to load the map. :( Great series by the way.

[@МаксимХижняков-л9х]

He looks so beautiful

[@luckypunch8774]

By bike up the stairs? Need to try.

[@YFedecs]

Why is the cathedral entrance/front blocked by other buildings?

[@quoniam426]

It is Our Lady of Tin in Prague, it was build behind a row of building in the Old City square because there were no space and perhaps other reasons.

[@magicalninja777]

should the market square to be on the opposite side of the city from the river? considering that that would have been the fastest means of transport in the medieval era

[@jonia7519]

I would like to see more narrow streets and alleys. Old town alleys and streets were usually biult with handcarts and horse-carriages in mind, not cars with multiple lanes and sidewalks. Then again, CS is kinda limiting in that aspect.