Top 15 Tips for Beginners at Cities Skylines!

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Tips YOU suggested: 1) Use the budget sliders in the early game. You don't need 100% going to power, water, and roads at the beginning of the game. I usually set them to 50% and use dirt roads. Then I raise water and power as needed until they're at 100%. I raise the roads back up to 100% once I start replacing dirt roads with streets. 2) If you have the Industries DLC, I've found that once I get my first industry (farming or forestry) up to a profitable level 2, I generally don't have to worry about cash flow too much as I build out. 3) Natural resources like oil and ore will be gone after a while, if you don't the unlimited resources mode. 4) Another tip. Try to spread your industrial areas to different locations instead of combining them all in one place. This improves distribution of unique factory goods and improves traffic overall as well as gives the city a background 5) There is no right, no wrong, let alone perfect. If it works, it's fine; anything can be improved as long as there's nothing more fun to do. 6) Don't be frustrated by comparing your results with someone else's. Take inspiration from great builds, they are not meant to pull you down. 7) From Captain Ahvious: "It's about the journey, not the target." Enjoy every minute of the game.

[@Skyndel97]

The roads budget slider only works on road maintenance depots IIRC. So early game it doesn't matter if it's on 50%, 100% or 150%. The budget it says next to road budget slider is the whole amount you pay for your road network upkeep cost, but the slider only affects road maintenance depots and how many vehicles they have available. On the topic of budget sliders, put every slider were the explanation involves the amount of vehicles to 101%. The extra 1% gives you one whole extra vehicle (bus/train/metro/industry DLC trucks etc).

[@markhackett2302]

Space requirements for industry DLC is high. It's a bit of a shame that you have to place a main building to get the raw material storage space, but I have found that you can delete the "unused" main building after the Level 1 storage and it remains unlocked. Use them and warehouses set to "zoned area" stuff to reduce how far your trucks have to go. If you only have to export to the warehouse and the warehouse only has a short way to go to get on a highway or cargo terminal, then trucks don't have to move far. Not good that the methods of "Fill/Balanced/Empty" are not only badly, if at all, explained, it doesn't even work reliably, an order can be made off map even if there is plenty in a warehouse and trucks to deliver it. Traffic Manager makes that more reliable, but such mods aren't available on consoles and are not for many people on PC who don't bother with mods, they are, to them, just one more thing that needs to be updated. Parks, University and Industry DLC uses a HUGE amount of free space, and so if you are limited or don't have at least 25 squares in your game and therefore limited in space, don't bother with the DLC, just use specialised industry and paint it in. And even if there is "plenty of space", you can't fit a mine on a mountainside, even if there is plenty of ore, so you have to make enough flat space to put the Industry DLC ploppable on it. IMO resources don't last long enough. You can get oil or ore running out before you get to level 5, and therefore you can't even use the level 5 extractors when you get them. Infinite Resources, especially if you have to get a mod like TMPE, is kinda needed for Industry, which is a shame, running out of resources is a cool mechanic, and irrelevant if you just paint in extractors, because when there is no more to extract, they despawn and rebuild as a refined goods place instead, so running out ONLY matters in the Industry DLC where an extractor has to be moved. If the stuff lasted 3-5x as long, on average, then you get exhausted resources if it isn't deep coloured, so you want those extractors in good places, at least to begin with.

[@ak5h4y79]

Hi guys! I am having trouble with transit lines in my build. I tried moving stops rebuilding the lines. I used the trainstations stations for the metro and trains. Even my bus lines are breaking and i am unable to fix them. If anyone has any idea what the problem might be and how it can be resolved please do let me know here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[@Zyo117]

Changing the funding slider of your roads early game actually doesn't do anything. You can't cut the basic road budget, lol, but later-game it allows you to defund your road maintenance facilities or your snow plows.

[@iancooper7772]

​@@ak5h4y79if you're using the new vanilla quays or large service buildings from parks and plazas get rid of them. They create too many path units, and this is limiting everything else trying to "path" somewhere- hopefully will be fixed in the upcoming update🤞

[@thedocumentaryguycomputers]

Another tip. Try to spread your industrial areas to different locations instead of combining them all in one place. This improves distribution of unique factory goods and improves traffic overall as well as gives the city a background

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Added to the pinned!

[@thedocumentaryguycomputers]

👍 (for engagement)😑

[@DanHeyden7]

So long as there is good (ideally separate) freight infrastructure between industrial zones, it should work okay, but in my experience, it hasn’t worked particularly well to spread out industrial zones. Office parks seem to be a better way to diffuse employment centers and traffic patterns without the hassle of a major shift in freight traffic patterns.

[@thedocumentaryguycomputers]

It is better to have separate inter-industrial highways and split train facilities. Cargo hubs should be implemented into the separate rail corridor. It will help you a lot. Unique factory production should be in the outskirts of the city and all the train and highways should meet. Warehouses should be used. Also use IT Cluster buildings in downtowns to solve not enogh commercial goods problem if you are having that particular problem. I say spreading is better as it tells a story about a particular neighborhood or city

[@lucasbuosi5755]

Im not sure if i agree with this one, i spread my industrial area all over my city, the result was more traffic, a lot more, i think its best to concentrate in one place and build a genius layout.

[@ZedemMonk]

Tip: when an industrial area expands toward residential, commercial zoning can be used as a buffer to keep nearby residents healthier.

[@brianeno608]

That's a classic tip! Tips like these are great for new players, I also recommend for absolute newbies but use roundabouts if you can, saves drivers from stopping at stop lights.

[@rolandcuthbert784]

Only low density. Later in the game I use office zoning.

[@noIDEA33439]

I always do that! Thanks for letting everybody know that, helped me so much with my first cities

[@enricod.7198]

Also changing the type of industry to logging/farming products alleviates issues, same noise pollution but almost no land/air pollution.

[@dpaws6325]

I always fall into the trap of feeling like I have to zone everything. It's a good tip to leave some unzoned space around and detail it - I'm trying to get myself to do more of that. Lately I have been doing school campuses with sports fields and playground and detailing paths and trees. It looks so much better than just spamming them down.

[@KingdomofLuninberg]

I couldn't agree more, i fall into that same trap but the little detailing is really growing on me!

[@TheRevanchists]

I've been doing this for years and it's embarrassing to realize I didn't even notice the problem with this lol

[@herbie_the_hillbillie_goat]

Tip A: Use the budget sliders in the early game. You don't need 100% going to power, water, and roads at the beginning of the game. I usually set them to 50% and use dirt roads. Then I raise water and power as needed until they're at 100%. I raise the roads back up to 100% once I start replacing dirt roads with streets. Tip B: If you have the Industries DLC, I've found that once I get my first industry (farming or forestry) up to a profitable level 2, I generally don't have to worry about cash flow too much as I build out.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Added this to the pinned comment!

[@RevAnakin]

101% is my limit. I find that 100% vs 101% kicks things into high gear without much more $$

[@kgaming7599]

I always do that

[@herbie_the_hillbillie_goat]

@@RevAnakin Thanks for the tip. I'll give that a shot. Does that 1% really make that big of a difference? I never went past 100% myself.

[@herbie_the_hillbillie_goat]

@@kgaming7599 Great minds think alike. 😁

[@hrani]

Just now thought about how rarely I see anyone in SKylines doing underpasses, especially for cars. Here in my city in Finland there are pedestrian underpasses dotted everywhere, but more often than not also car underpasses, going under railways etc. Sometimes even car underpasses to prioritise pedestrians and bikes!

[@annasandell]

The problem with underpasses is that they become a high-risk environment for vulnerable people. Plenty of violence happen in underpasses because they are dark, no one can see what's happening down there and they're a great spot for shady folks to hide from the elements. Now, bridges aren't that great either because people jump poff of them now and then, but at least they are not putting you in the same danger of someone else's violence.

[@hrani]

@@annasandell Our very well lit, wide and airy underpasses are certainly not where I feel unsafe in my city. Grocery store and bar fronts, even bus stops more often, as those are where the Beer Drinking Men sit, drunk and unpredictable.

[@Marc-ps9dn]

@@hrani That vulnerable people concept is more of a North American thing than it is a European thing. (Talking about the phrase not the actual individuals.) I have been to Finland many times and they are quite safe and it's very rare that something nasty happens in those spots. They are well lit, quite large and well thought out (As Finn's are quite industrious.) most of them and to top it off Finland is quite a safe country. I actually myself prefer them as they can be well integrated into the landscape as opposed to unsightly pedestrian overpasses that we have here in Canada. (Not all but some.). Anyways just my take on things as I agree with hrani.

[@hanneken4026]

If an underpass is designed and built correctly, it has not just good lighting but also good sightlines all the way through, so on approach you can already see if anyone is waiting there, and decide if you feel safe going through. It also has to be not too steep to get out again easily for kids and older people (4% to max.6% grade is design standard); and have good drainage so sudden heavy rains won't cause a problem. Newer ones also have sides sloping away from the path to discourage people hanging around - too slanted to stand leaning on the wall, but to steep to sit on comfortably, which also makes them feel more roomy and less claustrophobic. The result of good design is that underpasses aren't especially scary or dangerous places. If they are in your area, your civil engineers or road design department need to be sent on a training course to learn to do better!

[@annasandell]

Good points! Here in Sweden there are some older ones that are worse, we have had rapes and such happening there. :( It's good that they can build them safer though, I'm happy to be reminded of that. ^^

[@LordofSyn]

Tip: Do not be afraid of playing slower, selecting your zoning to make smaller buildings and more modular built areas of the city. Use the policies sparingly until you understand them better. High-rise ban may prevent you from getting skyscrapers but it might fit more into your vision of the city. O7

[@Michealschatbox]

Best advice so far

[@-GH05T-]

I played so slow that at the end of the day i just finish building roads

[@shevanz1589]

This is my biggest issue, too hard too fast. Now I start out with the intention of a small town and slowly building it up. I dont just plan for a huge city, i try to grow it organically like real life. This is a very time consuming way of building a city but lets be honest, anyone who plays city skylines is used to 10 hours of their lifes going by without realisation lol

[@sarsrogo4746]

The pedestrian overpass that you “haven’t seen in reality” are really common here in China and usually the only way to cross busy roads (like city highways).

[@ericsinchina]

Yeah, some of the rules go out the window when a 10 million population makes a medium city.

[@zlamanit]

And it often works very well. Like the Mingzhu roundabout in Shanghai, with escalators and a great view. There are even overpasses that go directly through several buildings, so there is no need to go up or down. And then there are underground passes with whole shopping centres and even a museum.

[@emuannihilator5774]

Greatest tip of all: make sure you comment on every CPP video for the sake of engagement!

[@-GH05T-]

Can i comment to your comment? For the sake of engagement. 😁

[@CityPlannerPlays]

[@eternalcanadiandevyt]

​@@-GH05T- Hopefully my reply to your comment helps with "engagement"

[@mattw783]

I came here just to comment on your comment for the sake of "engagement".

[@-GH05T-]

@@eternalcanadiandevyt 💯👍👍

[@danacollins7594]

One of my commonly used tricks for traffic flow through my industrial areas is to recess my factories and warehouses a few units back from the local roads and build "driveways" using small local roads. This allows some space for trucks to load/unload without blocking traffic and also gives me room for landscaping, which provides more attractive industrial parks.

[@jjbarajas5341]

Ohh neat idea

[@MajorHickE]

One thing I learned from media classes is to save regularly (my teacher said every 15-20mins but this is a game not a work project). Most importantly, if you're going to make a major change, such as redesigning a suburb or redoing your entire downtown grid or transit network, make a new save file *BEFORE* making the change. That way you'll have a backup in the event that things don't go the way you wanted.

[@carstenzimmermann4435]

Outstanding collecting of tipps! The tips that keeps me playing: - There is no right, no wrong, let alone perfect. If it works, it's fine; anything can be improved as long as there's nothing more fun to do. - Don't be frustrated by comparing your results with someone else's. Take inspiration from great builds, they are not meant to pull you down. - My favorite quote from Captain Ahvious: "It's about the journey, not the target." Enjoy every minute of the game

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Those are great! Added to the pinned!

[@apotato5563]

Tips: sometimes a 6-lane one-way road is better than a 4-lane highway. The lower speed allows for better merging and the road has 2 more lanes to distribute. Also if you have merging problems you may want a toll-booth. You'll earn some money and cars will merge better. Don't have parallel bus lines. If you have 2 bus lines both going from a-c coming from the same hub (A) but they take a different route to the let's say point B and next both go to point C with the same route you should make 1 line only go between a-b and the other route do a-b-c. This will save money on busses and make roads less busy. Some DLC buildings don't have a high/low density version. Green cities: green commercial zoning will always be low density. After dark: Tourism specialized zoning is always high density. households does not equal people living there. You should look at age/education and count every number together. That is the amount of people in a house. low density commercial isn't that noisy and can be placed next to residential area's but high density commercial is noisy and should have at least a buffer zone of 4u between residential area's I recommend office as a buffer. Red in the traffic menu means busy not traffic queue's. I have a railway in my city of 500k that's red but every train is going at 180km/h If you are redeveloping and upgrading your low density residential to high density you should keep in mind that high density buildings house about 2,5x the amount of citizens compared to low density. So build more services and shops/work spaces. Planes can fly through buidlings without problems. Make sure you have a good balance between commercial and industry. There is a limit on import of commercial goods so you will always need regular industry. It's fine to have a police station/fire station/hospital next to an arterial. Problems only arise when There is already a bad traffic flow. But keep in mind garbage collectors do make more traffic. commercial zoning doesn't scale to residential (u=zoning unit) Low density comercial=1 worker/u high density commercial=1,4 workers/u Low density res=,7 households/u (1 household is ~4 people) High density-1,7 Households Meaning that you need more units of high density commercial per high density residential than that you need with low density commerical to low density residential 1 commercial zone worker covers about 8 citizens in demand. If you play with day/night cycle enabled you need more power in the evening and morning then compared to day/night. Vehicle speed (KM/H) M=Road maintenance vehicles from the snowfall DLC can boost this road type. Dirt road: 30 M 2 lane road: 40 M 4 lane road: 50 M 6 lane road: 60 M highway on ramp: 80 2/3/4lane Highway: 100 Note: Emergency vehicles go 2x speed limit. So on a highay the'll go 200 Special vehicle speed Tram: 40/50/60 (depends on road used) Bus: 100 Trolley bus: 40/50/60 (depends on road used) Metro: 125 Monorail: 125 Train (Includes TGV/High speed train from vehicles of the world ccp): 150 Train: 180 (When the clock tower from the parklife DLC is placed) Commuter train: 100/120 (Train from Vehicles of the world ccp) 100=normal 120=Clocktower Cablecar:? Blimps:? Helicopter:? Small Meteor:500 Big meteor:500 Ship: 100? Plane: 500? Industries DLC trucks: 80? PC tips for CS: When building a new pc for just CS I recommend a cpu with 6 cores/12 threads and good single core performance. CS can only use 4 cores and 8 threads and the other 2 cores your pc can use for background tasks. Ram: 8GB: enough for cities up to 100K 16GB: minimum for vanilla with all dlc's and ccp's 32GB: recommended for vanilla with all dlc's and ccp's and lightly modded 64GB heavy modded. 128GB Extremely modded but almost obsolete. 6TB Put the XEON W9 down!. A good gpu for cities skylines would be one with 10+ GB of vram for optimal performance. my 3070 maxes out all of it's vram and I play unmodded. CS always page file's so I recommend a SSD. But don't forget that CS 2 probably has an updated game engine.

[@stenchlord]

Awesome video. Even though you've been putting out videos for a while it's nice to know you're acknowledging all the newcomers to your channel who may not be as experienced in the game. Would love to see a video series where you start off with unlimited money and everything unlocked so you could build your ideal map without having to worry about limitations.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Interesting idea. Modded or unmodded?

[@TheRealCandyMan]

​@@CityPlannerPlays definitely modded 😅 Engagement

[@CityPlannerPlays]

@@TheRealCandyMan

[@davidthememer5852]

Modded🫨🫨🫨🫨

[@karalas]

I have to agree very curious about a series with you having no restrictions designing your "perfect" city if you will before the release of 2

[@Dethmakt]

I think an important tip and kind of a note on some other tips is: Find how YOU like to play, CPP loves to make things realistic such as putting water pipes under roads, beautifying areas with landscaping and props and the like, which is amazing and boosts his, and many other players enjoyment, but for some people (myself included) some of that can feel overwhelming and isn't strictly needed for how the game works, if you want to play it and lay pipes across whole city blocks, leave parks as they are and just add a couple paths, do it, your enjoyment should always come first (as long as your city still works!) And don't be afraid to mess around in sandbox or with unlimited money! just because it isn't the base or challenging way to play doesn't mean you shouldn't do it!

[@wearloga]

One of the most important things for new players: pause the game before you start building your first roads. It will take some time to figure out the lay-out that you want to use, don't pay upkeep over the roads during that planning phase, it will save a huge amount of money.

[@rjacobb]

Oh, also, another tip I learned the hard way on Switch. The industrial train stations won't work with roads using dedicated bicycle lanes. After lots of testing, I eventually figured out that prevented traffic from turning into the facilities, which meant no goods to ship nor receive. Being a cyclist myself, I pretty much utilize cycle lane roads everywhere. Except the train stations, where I use maybe trees or something without parking. Similarly, I realized four lane roads have a median, thus traffic leaving a service such as a fire station, they can't cross the median to travel in the opposite direction. This knowledge helps when you notice the building across the street from a fire station is always on fire.

[@simonsv9449]

The smallest city with a metro system is Lausanne in Schweiz, which has 140 000 citizens.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

[@opallise]

Where as my city has a quarter million and barely has busses.

[@Zn0ZY]

@@opallise i mean if your citizens are rich to have a car and your city has gread road system, who needs transit am i right))

[@pedrolucena6920]

@@opallise Could be worse, I live in a city (Natal, Brazil) with a 1.5M metro population, with basically no other means of transportation apart from buses. Not to mention that the cheapest car here goes for 27 times the average salary, so most people can't even rely on having their own car

[@StaK_1980]

A rough estimate from my part would put that in C:S to about 14k population (you can easily divide by ten to get the simulated numbers)

[@Meda22]

Great video :) I would enhance “respect the topography” tip by respecting other nature features too - for example forests or fertile lands etc. I think it is worth it especially at the beginning of the game to give a city a bit of unique character and shape.

[@ipwndcancer]

I always found that I ended up doing too much too quickly and chasing an unrealistic result. I've always wanted to build organic, realistic, attractive cities, but I get caught up in the upgrades and stop planning. These are some great tips that I will definitely employ on my next play!

[@Xenon0000000000001]

I'm not sure if this is a good tip or not, but in the early game it can help to leave space in central areas for services with area effects that will be unlocked later. Also, make sure you have some spaces that could fit larger buildings or amenities in central locations. It means you can be more efficient with your services, and avoids costly (and fairly unrealistic) redevelopments. Although, that really goes with the general tip to leave space when building.

[@SoDakJason]

Yeah, I love those little spaces for services. I typically carve out one of my blocks in a neighborhood to serve as a sort of city services campus with fire/police/medical clinic/post office all together. I'll also leave some space available for a park district even if I haven't unlocked them yet.

[@thedocumentaryguycomputers]

Tip : Try to build a ringroad system instead of blastng highways through your city center. Also have decent north-south and east-west collectors so you dont force all traffic onto a single road

[@nobetterthenbob]

My tip would be to always be mindful of trash early on. I can't tell you how many cities I've ruined because I was too busy detailing an area while the entire city is dying from trash build up.

[@rynezuzinec688]

yes, i've found this as i have been first playing the game

[@Marc-ps9dn]

Agreed I had an enormous trash problem until I built the Liberal University that took time to teach the sims to be more efficient with their trash, it was a nightmare. Plus don't place them all in one spot like I did my first time out and in the middle of nowhere as it takes the trucks forever to get to them and it just piles up.

[@CMDR-Cody]

You know it always surprises me how much overlap there is in different fields of engineering. I am a network engineer and transportation hierarchy makes total sense to me because I use the same thought process for designing networks. Another great example is a computer motherboard. Electrical engineering follows a lot of the same principles. Even the human body follows transportation hierarchy. So cool!

[@hplovecraftmacncheese]

I tend to imagine biological systems when I look at roads with main arteries and smaller blood vessels that feed specific areas.

[@305ayeee]

Honestly the best thing I’ve learned over time is that if you wanna build an area and be highly satisfied when it’s done just be patient like you said take you’re time and do something that makes you feel good about your city

[@justinsinke2088]

For the tip of "give your buildings space", the key there is that, even without the 81 tiles mod that I believe is popular with content creators, you have more space than you realize, and you don't need to be super space efficient to reach megalopolis; I hit that final landmark in a build once with multiple squares I'd bought and never built on, and I may have even had squares I hadn't even bought yet because I hadn't developed enough to know where I wanted to expand anymore. For "be patient", I run into this all the time. "High demand" can be deceptive, as it's not telling you that you need to double or anything. Overbuilding and zoning too much at once can actually lead to complications in power, as buildings can potentially crop up anywhere in the zoned area, and if you build over too large an area, you could end up filling the demand and just having small islands of power disconnected buildings in the massive area you zoned out, which both looks kinda ugly and could lead to abandonment and new industrial popping up in other zoned areas without adequate power jumping, rinse and repeat. Zone a bit, let it fill out, see what that does to your demand, repeat until you think the demand is low enough to taste to move on to other projects. For the roads, the colors are what's important. If anything, green is almost "underutilized", brown means "regular use", and red usually means "regular congestion". It's important to look for the red areas and diagnose "is this a problem, or is it just regularly very busy?" as that distinction is very important in knowing when and where to make adjustments to the roads and traffic patterns.

[@markhackett2302]

However 9 tiles wasn't enough with the increased space required for the various DLCs. There just isn't enough room, and you have to generally for most ploppables, have to level the ground out to make them work anyway. Even 25 tiles can be borken for many, if it combines low building area and several DLCs, there just plain isn't space.

[@SoWhiskey]

From my personal experience I could recommend to plan how you want to expand your city in the future using districts. Where will the airport be, where to place a harbour or sport complex and how to design infrastructure binding it together. And most importantly try not to put all industry or commercial in one giant district. Mixed use neighbourhoods works best.

[@sybrandwoudstra9236]

I had the exact opposite experience, where my main city started with me just building something and fixing problems along the way. My planned cities often have much too little car infrastructure.

[@SoWhiskey]

@@sybrandwoudstra9236 I'm trying to optimise the traffic by dispersing places that generate it and just connecting them with core road infrastructure plus one bypass around the city centre and another around the main city. Plus public transport so less private cars spawns on the streets. It really helps me when my city starts to reach the game limits. But I'm a little bit pedantic type of cities skylines player. I just have to have control over everything in my build.

[@sybrandwoudstra9236]

@@SoWhiskey Yes that is a viable strategy. I do plan, but I usually plan too much and then don't react to the problems and just follow my vision. That doesn't work. Spreading things out makes things closer: The house, the store, and the office are then both in walking distance.

[@Pat_Playz]

I'll try and use some of these tips cause I want to restart my city and I'm still trying to learn how to properly make a city

[@-GH05T-]

Don't worry on how to properly make a city. I'll make you my world 😁

[@inyobill]

Be patient, I junked about ten starts before I started feeling somewhat competent.

[@foxgroup23]

If I’m having a stressful day, I always come to this channel. It’s like a stress reliever 🤷🏼‍♂️🙏

[@mrbrick8487]

As a little addition to the traffic flow percentage of tip 15 (yes I know I'm 6 months late to the party, but hey I'm here now): from my understanding the concrete way the game calculates the flow of a certain road is to look at how much of the road is filled from node to node. I always have a number of red spots, especially on roundabouts of places where I've messed around with nodes for one reason or another. Understanding that a red spot is simply a place to keep an eye on and check if the actual throughput is consistent, and that it's not always backed up, is a BIG gamechanger in terms of peace of mind and controlled development of your entire city network.

[@Silvermoonshadow]

"Don't let perfect be the enemy of good" is my favorite Phil-ism. ❤ My bestie and I always say this when we are trying too hard to perfect something.

[@Sander2335]

Have a back/Origin story for your city. A story about how the city was founded or what it focusses on in its development and some important people/families with their story in the city development. It helps with imagining what to develop or improve next in your city and to not get overwhelmed by the milestones plus the things they unlock. it's something I learned from watching the CPP video's, especially the Verde Beach series.

[@TheCatsofVanRaptor]

I love how I know this all, have seen every episode, play every day AND still just watch for the entertainment value.

[@cgtactical6619]

I have thousands of hours in Cities (I used to leave the game running g for days at a time) and still find the video helpful!

[@Dr.pepper-man]

I would also add look on google earth or other websites to look at different road layout to get inspiration. Another tip is to take mental breaks. Creativity isn’t always good when forced so let your mind take the break and start fresh your builds will be much better.

[@dragade101]

Phil, I have seen these tips actually acted upon when you build which is why I understand these tips. To the new player, show them more. Say like you are creating parcels of residential; show how you zoned selectively, after drawing in the fences. (I get this increases the length of the video but it can be more like a picture in picture view which shows the zoning / whatever is behind the scenes)

[@alexhawkhead]

The sewerage one made me laugh - the first city I set up years ago ran my sewerage downstream without realising. It went right along my bougie residential coastline and straight into the city's water supply hahaha. It still cracks me up to this day

[@jedipotater1388]

Tip: Have more than one entrance into your city. It doesn't have to be massive. If your main road breaks, or is under construction, your city still needs access. Another tip: Redundancy in power and water in case of an earthquake, tornado, etc. I also spread my power and water out across the city for this reason too.😊

[@apotato5563]

Me who gets all 5.400.000 m2 of water from 1 coast. 🥴

[@ScooterinAB]

I actually saw one of thoise nightmare intersection pedestrian bridges when I was in Osaka. Aside from cars, I believe it also crossed train tracks, and it connected to a number of large buildings around it without needing to go to street level. SOmething I find is that a lot ot KZbinrs will throw down all of their services into the same area (not unlike the recycle centre example). But I find that distributing services across the city, rather than simply spacing them out, works very well. So instead of having a recycle centre district, you might put two on one side of the map, two in another corner, one in a dedicated industrial area, one by the highway, etc. This means that you don't have all of those trucks, hearses, taxis, and busses generating traffic in a single point, and you don't have those services taking forever to get anywhere because they have to fight with traffic and cross the entire city.

[@markhackett2302]

100 trucks for the recycling centre ultimate isn't enough for most builds you unlock monuments at, though. If trucks from the URC went to the garbage dumps and the local waste centres, you could use the URC instead of the industries' big waste processors.

[@NaughtyShepherd]

PS5 player here, not having the ability to toggle terrain heights when grading is very frustrating. Hopefully CS2 will give us the same UI and options as PC.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

I have been dabbling with the Xbox version that that was my experience, too. Lots of extra clicking and guessing. There are other things better about the PS/Xbox version, but that is a HUGE miss imo. Also disappointed that functionality didn't make it to the remaster.

[@NaughtyShepherd]

@@CityPlannerPlays thanks for the response sir! I’ve watched so many build tutorials, I’m so jealous when one of the steam mods like the grading tool that shows percentages is used… 😫 I want to use the tools I’m familiar with in Autodesk Civil 3D 😅

[@Ri6hteous]

@@CityPlannerPlays what other things would you say are an improvement on console? I’ve just started on PS5 and the first 3 hours has been figuring out the controls. I’m all over the place.

[@munkeltrog0364]

A friend of mine recomended this game, so I tried it. Sadly I went at it totally wrong. I tried to "speedrun" it basicly... What this video made me realize is that you have to take your time. In many ways, it's exactly like Sims4 yet totally different. Thank you! I will retry to enjoy the game in a new world!

[@RailRide]

By my first city build, I had watched enough of these videos to have at least one idea: If there is an intent to put pedestrian paths through built-up areas before paths are unlocked, simply leave the future right-of-ways un-zoned. That way when paths are unlocked, you won't have to displace any buildings (or residences) to put them in-place.

[@DK-zk9lq]

Regarding traffic percentage... sometimes a "low" percentage isn't a problem with your city, but with the map. As the city grows, more and more outside traffic flows through the map and the traffic AI doesn't handle the highway throughput all that well. If there are no major backups in the city, but the percentage is in the 70s% that's not something to freak out about.

[@SoDakJason]

Great video, Phil. I usually find myself scrambling to build residential areas to meet a crushing demand (I suspect this is a knockon effect from using Realistic Lifespans mod, as Cims live longer and thus stay in their homes for longer). One thing I've also been doing lately is changing how I lay down zoning, especially for those residential areas. If I'm using say a 12x12 block size, early in a build I'll zone strips of 2x residential, then a bit later on I change to 3x residential zoning, and later still I'll go to 4x4 zones. I find it helps give a different look from neighborhood to neighborhood and in my mind simulates how older homes tended to be smaller in size than what's built today.

[@justinsinke2088]

Oh, another slightly off topic tip: If you're having trouble getting and maintaining the 20% health for the Lazarus Plaza (people moving out, dying, or getting treated), there's a really easy method for it. When you're ready to unlock it, first save (obviously), then pause and turn off all your water intake pumps that most players I presume use for their water. Then, build an equivalent amount of water towers (or advanced water towers) on polluted ground, such as close to industrial, landfills, or recycling centers, connecting it to your water lines as you should. When you unpause, the entire city's water supply will be instantly contaminated, making every citizen sick simultaneously and dropping your city health to likely 0%. At that point there'll be no way for it to rise above 20% before the timer runs out.

[@simongeard4824]

I hate those "kill the city" unique building unlocks, but yeah... that's an easy one. Nothing tanks your health like hooking up industrial pollution and the sewage outflow to the fresh water intake...

[@serisothikos]

One tip I that I think helped me is to learn how to accept what the network you built is actually doing and respond to that, rather than trying to force it into your vision. For example, if your cims are using a local road as a collector because it just happens to be more convenient, think of it as a collector and adjust your plan appropriately.

[@DanHeyden7]

I wish I had considered Import/Export balance and unemployment rates sooner in my development of industrial areas. I don’t know if this qualifies as a “beginner tip”, but perhaps an introduction to these ideas might help. Love these videos!

[@Torgonius]

Redeveloping is my biggest weakness. I just can't bring myself to do it most times. Getting installed on a beefier pc now, and will force myself to do it next time. Don't think I will ever break my addiction to grids, though.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

I hear you - it's super difficult, especially if you've put a ton of work into an area. And grids are tough to break from because they are so darn efficient, ha!

[@fetacheese25]

Taking it a small amount at a time helps for me. It doesn’t feel like I’m completely wiping out the work if it’s just a few buildings at a time, and if it doesn’t look good, you can just leave it at that. After all, it’s not like whole neighborhoods get demolished and rebuilt overnight, and you can always leave pieces of the original intact. Gives the area a bit more history

[@OG_0494]

When I have difficulty redeveloping what I'll do is not buy the next available tile. I'll save that for a big project I want (new industry area, sports complex, maybe a new park area or college campus) and I'll increase density in existing neighborhoods. If I have low to no demand for industry or commercial, I might take out a block and redevelop it into a recreation space, particularly in tight packed neighborhoods I built to meet demand. I use the population rebalance mod which often means you have no space to build and lots of residential demand. It kind of forces you to redevelop and rethink how you build initially.

[@Aeternum_Gaming]

the more i watch fewcandy, and cpp c:skylines the better at detailing i become. both of you are very skilled city designers with much knowledge to share. thank you for all your great content!

[@JoshColletta]

What you said about the metro unlocking when it does is how I feel about the bus service unlocking when IT does. Much too early in a city's development. I live in a rural area in Michigan where our largest city in the county -- 8,200 people -- has a three-vehicle paratransit service. That's the ONLY mass transit we have in the county, and it doesn't serve the entire county, it only runs within that city's limits, with a weekly trip up to the Walmart in the adjacent city to the north (itself with only about 2,500 people). There've been rumblings about an agreement between the two cities to expand service to cover them both, but nothing official has ever been presented to either city by either city. Ironically, the next county to the west has county-wide paratransit service despite having a smaller population, but still, only about 34,000 compared to our 42,000. So seeing a full-on bus system with fixed routes in a city of only 650 people? Highly unlikely.

[@simongeard4824]

Yeah, given that you can reasonably fit a few thousand people into the starting square, public transport isn't really _needed_ until a bit later. That said, you can't really compare the numbers with reality, since this is a game that considers 100k to be one of the largest cities on earth, and considers a 100 visitors a week to be a busy tourist attraction.

[@shaneintheuk2026]

One tip for new players is to make sure the first intersection on their arterial/collector from the highway is a good distance from the highway. Don’t have a cross roads 5 squares from the highway intersection or you will end up blocking the highway

[@simongeard4824]

Yeah, that's a general part of the roading hierarchy idea... the more traffic the road carries, the more space you need between intersections... they shouldn't be stopping often, but when they do stop, you have a lot of cars backing up. It's also why zoning (especially commercial) along major roads is problematic... every premises is basically an intersection when it comes to vehicles stopping there, and commercial premises create a lot of goods deliveries.

[@annasandell]

My most important traffic tip: Keep vehicles OFF the highways as much as you possibly can. You only want vehicles to choose the highways when they need to go far away, never ever for travelling between two neighbouring areas. So make sure to give vehicles plenty of options for travel that are not highways.

[@apotato5563]

I myself actually do guide vehicles onto the highway. It reduces noise in my residential neighbourhoods and slightly raises the land value. Highways allow for the lowest amount of congestion so why not use it? It also allows for better public transport like busses not getting stuck in traffic or trains not having to slow down at railroad crossings. I mean I used my method on a city of 500K on the Diamond Coast map in the 25 tiles and the only traffic 'Queue' one a highway (vehicles just slow down) Is on a part of the highway where long distance traffic has to go onto one bridge. (The nearest one to the cloverleaf). And in places where there aren't highways traffic does slow down more. I'd say that it's a good idea to have vehicles take short trips on highways. (Although I have overkill public transport and all my private vehicles are tourists leaving the city) So the only traffic I have is really cargo traffic. Which makes more noise so I could be wrong because residential traffic makes less noise and less queue's.

[@aniketgharpure94]

Such videos are worth saving. So as to see them time and time again. Thank you for this and keep making such videos. They are really helpful for beginners like us.

[@inyobill]

1:43: I agree, that interchange might be over-kill at that stage of the game 😐

[@Pat_Playz]

I started dying when I saw the Blackwater Burger on fire at 8:48 with how much of an issue CPP has with fire

[@CityPlannerPlays]

This is the tell that I forgot to turn disasters off, lol!

[@spartanlibertarian520]

It's important to note that vanilla maps can be edited in the map editor. That said, I seem to be unable to do that and nobody at Paradox or Colossal Order knows why.

[@zaneandrejvogel2822]

Been playing Cities Skylines for 5 years now and this advice was still relevant and I learned something new!

[@pierren___]

I noticed that back in the days, in traditionnal architecture the center of attention is not a road cross but a building that is placed in the best place

[@medafan53]

For placed buildings that draw in a lot of trucks. use the T Method; instead of placing the building against a road, draw a new road out of there, add two sections of road onto the end to make a T shape, place the building, then delete the bridge of the T, despite there being no zoneing tiles at the end of the road you will still have road access, for the building, and instead of stopping to turn off the road, vehicles will instead drive directly in, effectively creating a driveway for these high traffic buildings. T4rget used this technique recently in his Curved road only city; kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJzVg3V3h9p0nMU (18:34)

[@JoshuaEBSmith]

CP, I absolutely love what you do and I listen to your channel religiously - but I have to make a suggestion. If you have Green Cities, you never have reason to use a drain pipe. The extra cost from a water processing plant eliminates any brown water issues in the city and keeps the waterways completely clean. I generally run a regional farm of them, and eventually slot the big Waste Management Complex near it for city services. It concentrates the ground pollution but effectively eliminates the water discoloration.

[@tomyrobinson4149]

Thankyou for your tips man. Seeing your video inspired me to play this game again, and finding it even more fun. By doing it slowly, and thinking more immersive like really developing a city, instead of pursuing goals, this game is even more fun now.

[@litomachete]

I've watched your tutorials at least three times, but always down for more! Thanks and keep on keepin on!!

[@RageRaccoon]

Even though I've been playing for years, these are still fun to watch for a refresher.

[@thearisen7301]

A video aimed at experienced players could be good. Like most common mistakes or pitfalls.

[@NikkyElso]

Another thing of you're tight on cash towards the beginning: you can actually forgo a medical clinic early on as long as you don't house people near loud or noxious uses that would make them sick. So the medical clinic is often one of the last things I throw down among essential services

[@apotato5563]

Yeah I also only place the police station when every one in my city is complaining about crime.

[@memediatek]

I can think of a couple small German towns with subway service but it’s usually cut and cover tunnel for trams, not regular metro trains

[@Hobbs2324]

Been playing for years, while these are great tips for beginners, they're still just as good for "veterans." I get caught up with concerning myself with traffic flow.

[@TheBeastmxrider12]

One thing I thought about while you were talking about traffic is the Chicago area. Right were 88 meets 290/294 they have been making crazy structures for the congestion. All while balancing neighborhoods right off the highway. Pretty crazy. Love the vids. Really enjoying the anno playthrough also.

[@MathisBergaglia]

I would say that if you're beginning at Cities Skyline (or even if you already played), you shouldn't try to have THE absolute perfect city, you should just be okay with what you have and it's totally fine if it's not perfect (it's almost better if it has mistakes)

[@WendyMangels-uv9lo]

Another tip, once you unlock crematoriums incineration plants etc. Replace your landfills and cemeteries immediately. That way there won’t be deathvaves due to your cemetery being full.

[@democratsaretrash9366]

I like these small towns and the simplicity. But for me once I start really growing I tend to want to turn everything into a major city and I'm trying to get ideas for what you say to avoid. Like planning a subway early on to have it set up for later. Rail stations, bus stations. So much planning in this game lol. I love it. Just trying to sharpen up planning skills.

[@michaelbowers7912]

What GREAT modern guide and beautiful PHILOSOPHY & APPROACH to Cities Skylines! (I also like the 'pinned tips' especially the one from Captain Ahvious about the "Journey" not the "Destination".) I have always enjoyed the way that you bring a story to each community and I work to do the same in my builds. For me Cities Skylines is a great way to de-stress and set my mind on things other than the stresses of work and home life. (Even decorating becomes a moving meditation) allowing the use of art and intuition. I've been playing for about 3 years....and still have a LONG way to go to be anything like the pro builders on KZbin. BUT I can honestly say that it is a beautiful and rewarding experience. I approach it with a 'ZEN and the ART of CITY BUILDING" mentality. And I often find that that mentality rolls over just-a-little-bit into life. Thanks for all that you do!

[@AlikeRomel]

I think that the metro can be put even in small towns or villages if it is thought as a mode of transport in the regional level if the player has fun to create different villages for industrial reasons (forestry, mining and oil) around a larger city (even if at 7500 inhabitants it is not huge). But the metro is best incorporated by not being underground or above ground at that level.

[@markhackett2302]

Now you can put lines on ground level, the metro is really a light train that takes up space, monorail comes with a road so it doesn't, but metro does take space up. The big probem with ground metro is that you still get lots of noise and level crossings stuff up your traffic, and the tracks just take up a lot of space you could otherwise put houses on. Or you put train tracks there. IMO if metro train tracks and rail tracks were just the same thing (it isn't, right? I've not actually tried because of the time difference you get them), then you would put ground level tracks and later on train stations to make it work faster. As it is, there isn't really any point to metro being ground or above ground level, they only make sense if you stick them undeground, where you don't put buildings.

[@AlikeRomel]

@@markhackett2302 Yes you are right. It takes up space, technically it's similar to trains in terms of technology (depending on the region but in principle it's the same spacing between the rails and either ground or catenary systems for electricity) and it makes noise. But you can easily find level crossings and houses next to the railways or metro when they are on the ground. I think it adds a bit of role play if an old industrial line has been converted back to light rail for example. I'm not saying you have to put them everywhere ;)

[@apotato5563]

@@markhackett2302 I have an overground metro in my city which even has level crossings. It is inspired by the Rotterdam metro/Sneltram (rapidtram) Utrecht-nieuwegein/ijsselstein. Although it does look more like a tram.

[@ericambros]

Anyone else been playing this game for years and still watched this for the sake of consuming Phil content?

[@VaingloriousGaming]

17:48 outdoor temp, nice. (couldn't resist) - but I do think this tip is probably the best one in here. I had to learn that lesson the hard way.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

[@skippymcgroyne]

Practice. Practice emulating content creators to do things that you wouldn't think to do. Practice building a downtown one way, save, then tear it down and build it a different way even if that new way doesn't make as much sense. Practice using mods. It is a rare instance where you can load into a game, plunk down some stuff and it's KZbin-ready.

[@michaelgreenslade7260]

Philip, wouldn’t it be great in city skylines 2 that when laying roads down, “the water pipes underneath the road right where they belong” are done at the same time for a higher cost of course. This would mimic the way that they are actually done in the real world.

[@KaitouKaiju]

They showed that the game does exactly this

[@indilune_]

me with 1250 hours watching anyway

[@CityPlannerPlays]

[@raed8905]

Me, not a beginner, frantically taking notes instead of working

[@jardel1011]

Me reading this comment at work: 💀

[@eternalcanadiandevyt]

Always a great day when Phil uploads.

[@backhandahooker]

Man these are all phenomal tips. Thak you for making this video. Im sure it will help so many people!

[@noamadler4503]

Great video! I liked the idea of the big blocks, reminds me of the idea behind Barcelona's grid

[@DokisKalin1]

Thank you for detailing road hierarchy! My Toronto brain was telling me to load up my arterial roads with development which obviously does not work in this game.

[@Jimmy-Mc]

I've actually seen an underground version of the crazy pedestrian crossing you showed. When it comes to walking and bike paths, I don't think much is off limits.

[@Bunkiiiiii]

13:00 it's also possible to send a tram in a tunnel, I know Strasbourg in France has one deep under the train station (although here the station will be above ground both ends). With TMPE mod you can also increase the speed limit in the tunnel. A longer tram in also suited for this case.

[@bossfight6125]

Bruh, I literally placed my sewage randomly and my City literally turned into Flint, Michigan. Resulting in me biggest screw up and my worst health crisis I’ve ever seen after realizing 60000 people were drinking pollution😂. I thoroughly looked at tips before this video, long before actually, and my new city has since then grown to 120k population with no health crisis. But thanks for this amazing tips and tricks video and I can wait for not only the Hotels and Retreats DLC and the three content creator packs but the free update as well. I can’t wait for what you will build in all three of your cities😙

[@ssicari]

Thanks Phil! I havent played the game in a while, and have just been enjoying your videos for the last few months. For whatever reason this video has gotten me itching to get back in the game and working on my city :P

[@robertszilagyi9145]

I love your videos and the way you tell a story with your cities. I've been going back and watching your oldest ones too, it's interesting to see how much your skill has improved over the years. Bluffside Crossing looks so much different compared to even this demo build.

[@bonke_1172]

Could you continue this as a series please?

[@jedipotater1388]

He does have a build guide series. Overcharged Egg has a great build series as well.

[@EvilAcidUK]

Time to start a new city and apply some of those tips :D

[@teambellavsteamalice]

I expected a tip around planning ahead. I'd definitely want a superb tram-bike network and be prepared for more traffic in general. So having room to widen roads without tearing down too much would be nice. Maybe also just leave empty space for future services, so you don't have to squeeze them in?

[@noobscoopsies1100]

The thing for tips no 7 is, i live and grow up in Bali, and let me tell you its city plaming are HORRENDOUSLY DISATEROUS. And it force me to look for something i never seen to make my city function better, its soo bad that it makes LA looks like a heaven. You can looknit your self at google maps how disaterous the city planing for anything outside of downtown Denpasar the city layout is a mess, Im talking about Industrial trucks going through tight villages corner. No public transportation. Questionable housing position like in a very steep hills. Places like Canggu, and North Kuta had no road hiarchy. Traffic jam were everywhere because heavy duty vehicle are entering small roads that wasnt even fits for 2 car from incoming direction.

[@realherutastic]

My best tip would be that you should consider this game is for AMERICAN cities mostly. I live in Buenos Aires and in general it is very hard to get a citi like mine from the begining because the game is very car-oriented. You CAN do it, but having that in mind has made my cities stop failing.

[@apotato5563]

I have a city where almost every transport line is 100% utilized and most private vehicles are tourists. But yeah true the city is very car centric. Even when every citizen uses your public transport.

[@markhackett2302]

You are most likely to lose the game early on when the profit per week is low but the cost of the buildings didn't come down. Even though you need the buildings, you don't need to start at 100%, go in the budget and dial it down to 50%. For this reason you may decided to not do recycling but garbage dumps, dumps still have the 8 million capacity at 50% of budget, it just makes do with less trucks, and you can see if you're using them all in the dump info panel. Similarly you can see who is in school and dial it down. The big downside to dirt roads is that medium and large roads are one unit wider each side, and so you need a bigger gap. Consider the one-lane medium with central reservation if you are going to put things on roads you intend to upgrade, else you have to move them twice, and you might as well knock the building down and buy a new one for that price. Keeping a clear intersection and using four lane small roads but two lanes at the corners means the extra lane is ONLY used for deliveries. It can be useful. IME most of my use of wide lanes is for this extra lane for deliveries, not for extra speeds.

[@bradleydelay]

Tip number 15: big bite foot lettuce. The last thing you want in your big bite burger is someone's foot fungus, but as it turns out, that might be what you get.

[@JoshuaGanoTyraxLightning]

Lookin forward to the equivalent Vid of this for Cities Skylines 2 down the road. :)

[@upnorthadventures3079]

This is the Bob Ross of City Skylines "Lets add some happy little trees here and there." very cool

[@ItsHusk3y]

A big suggestion for mods, SkyVE is a mod on the workshop that comes with a 3rd party program, it’s brilliant for mod compatiblity and ensuring mods you’ve downloaded haven’t been abandoned / the author has retired. It’s a great tool & I’ve been a massive supporter of it since I started using it

[@TheGamingEmpireYT]

Bro just casually built a whole working city while almost none of us can in a month. Nice videos!

[@apotato5563]

I once had a week off and was motivated to binge built. Got to 300K in 1 month. Then didn't play in it for 7 months. Redeveloped everything and am now at 500K

[@ADeeeeeJ]

Just randomly started playing this game out of bordom and am having surprising fun with it! Dont have anything against the genre, just never interested me before. Anyhow, thanks for the tips video. I learned a lot. Gonna try implementing some of these ideas in my own game 👍