Cities Skylines Beginner Guide

Cities Skylines Beginner Guide

This game received numerous expansions in the past and we were learning how to apply changes after each DLC. Now we can say that this is an established game and I decided to summarize my experience in this Cities Skylines beginner guide

My blog is full of City Skylines tips so I tried to put recommendations that weren’t mentioned before. So, let’s go for Cities Skylines beginners guide

How to Start in Cities Skylines

You should dedicate some time to thinking about how to start Cities Skylines game. Being familiar with all the available districts, industries and so on you can create a strategy for city building and expansion. Your Cities Skylines city planning can be based on land types. For example, you may want to reserve a seashore for a cargo harbor, it will require good wide connections and you won’t be placing residential areas next to a noisy port. Such key points may include deposits of raw materials for industries, rivers, forests, and outside connections. Use a sheet of paper to create a raw plan of districts and key roads, railways, etc. Thanks to such Cities Skylines planning you won’t find yourself in the situation when you have no clean waterfront for a marina or a leisure district because your shore is covered with sewage and ports.

More Cities Skylines starting tips on strategic planning can be found here.

Cities Skylines Starting Layout

Here are some City Skylines tips for beginners on how to organize the Cities Skylines beginner layout:

• At first, you will be able to build only low-density districts. Do not expand to some attractive places with high land value in the beginning. It’s better to preserve such areas for high-density districts.
• As in the beginning, you are pretty poor, try to use as fewer service buildings as possible and reduce funding right away.
• In the beginning, you may want to build a coal electric station. Don’t place residential areas next to it. The best options, in the beginning, are industrial and commercial zones. Or you can build it far away but in this case, you will have to spend more on roads.
• Find the best place for your sewage. Consider flows in the area to avoid turning your waterfronts into shit rivers. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be too far from your first districts because you will spend too much on pipes.
• I prefer water towers to get water for my citizens. Pumps require waterfront and may be poisoned with crap from sewage. Always remember to keep your water tower away from industries and electric stations.
• Don’t overuse terrain. Keep in mind that you may improve your existing districts by providing more services. There is no sense to have huge low-density districts at the beginning of the game. Think about building parks and schools for your existing areas.
• Draw a plan of what should be where in your future city.

These are the Cities Skylines tips gained from my personal experience.

Cities Skylines How to Get Skyscrapers

Many people are puzzled about how to get skyscrapers in Cities Skylines question. Indeed, we can say that skyscrapers are implied in the game’s title but it’s not clear how to get them. In fact, you can get those only in high-density office zones and commercial leisure districts. Something similar is possible in residential areas from Green Cities DLC but they don’t look like skyscrapers.

Сities Skylines How to Make Farms

Many players want to have countryside in the suburbs of their cities. To do this, it is nice to get a dirt road surrounded by fields with crops. This can be achieved by placing agricultural industries and choosing the right type of farming production. More info on industries can be found here.

Сities Skylines Parking Lot

It’s hard to imagine a modern city (especially, an American city) without parking lots. Unfortunately, game mechanics don’t include parking as a separate feature. However, there is a way to get parking lots without any mods. The healthy food commercial districts from Green Cities DLC include a parking lot among 1×1 assets. You just need to wait for it to “grow” in the needed place and make it a historical building.

Cities Skylines Why Is Everyone Sick

Players often struggle with the occasional sickness of citizens without obvious reasons. In most cases, the real reason is water pollution which is hard to track. Usually, it’s some source of pollution that expands to your water tower which can be located far from the building with sick citizens and that’s why it’s hard to detect. Check out all your water sources and find out if there are sources of pollution nearby and move the water tower away to some clean area.

Control Tourist Entry Points

Tourists are very useful for your city but also they may trigger some traffic issues. Thus try to establish control over their flow. To do so I create special entry points which are supported by public transportation with extended capacity. It’s easy not to miss it when we’re talking about an airport or a passenger port. However, if you like placing a lot of railway stations then you may miss forbidding all the stations to accept tourists. As a result, these stations may start accepting tourists in unexpected parts of your city. To avoid this try to accept tourists only at specialized points.  

Increased Funding for Service Buildings

Many players think that by increasing funding they will make a police station or a hospital covering a bigger area. However, this will only lead to an increased number of service vehicles. This means that for example, a cemetery will be able to launch more simultaneous processes of taking over a dead person thanks to more hearses. At the same time, more service vehicles mean more traffic. So one of the useful Cities Skylines tips for beginners would be to keep in mind how it works and use it carefully to avoid traffic jams.

Public Transport Stop Increases Happiness

Do you remember those smiley faces when you were creating a new bus line? Yep, bus stops are a service and by placing public transport lines you can boost the growth of your district. Don’t forget to do this properly.

Learn more about bus lines here, get some public transport and traffic City Skylines beginner tips and figure out how to fix traffic issues.

Cities Skylines Beginner Tips on Parks

To unlock all items for each park you need to turn one park of each type into a 5-star part. Thus, your first park of each kind should become successful which means you need to make it interesting for your people. The best way to do this is to locate a part of the route of your citizens. For example, it may lay between your high-density residential area and a commercial zone. If your walking paths are placed correctly then pedestrians will go through the part and it will be leveled up. The next park of the same kind may be arranged however you like.

I hope you enjoyed this City Skylines beginners guide