Recommended
I got the new Industries DLC for Cities Skylines as soon as it came out earlier this week. For a teaser on what this new DLC you can see the trailer below:
As with any new DLC the mods that I use always break and we have to wait for updates. Rather surprisingly the only mod that did break was the Transport Manager – President Edition and even then that was minor (the toll booths wouldn’t charge the traffic going through them). So I was able to load the game up straight away with a new map and start delving into this new content and the resulting game play style.
For those wondering where San Layton City is, I have put the City on hold until the Transport Manager is fixed as the City is very reliant on it. Once the mod is fixed I will be retrofitting the City to incorporate the Industries.
In the meantime it is time to create a new city with one of the new maps.
Introducing Manukau
I loaded up one of the new maps from the Industries DLC and named it Manukau (named after the core urban area for Southern Auckland the place where I reside).
Let’s take a look at the new map:
The map Manukau is on is one with a major river and several secondary river with major hill ranges at the back end of the map and the ocean at the front. The buildable area is low at 60% but it was also very rich in natural resources needed for industry. And of course motorway and rail connects are plentiful.
Without further-ado lets get building:
One motorway connection, a roundabout with spurs for latter development, and a 6 lane avenue heading into the area where the city will start its life. Looking at that picture above the farming and ore industry will be to the right and the first residential and commercial areas to the left. The rail line is at the top of the picture allowing me to get inter-city connections straight away.
Now for some Industries road/engineering porn with one of the new features in the DLC: concrete roads:
Of course one of the new features that came in the (free) update was TOLL ROADS! Yes sir I can now charge my cims and freight traffic a toll to use my roads. So that is what I did on the two entrances leading in Manukau River Town and Wiri:
At the moment the toll is $1 for cars and $2 for trucks.
INDUSTRY!
To start with I began with farming and ore. The reason being that your starting City needs food and the coal fired power station needs ore (I won’t build the nuclear station just yet as that would be overkill). The forestry (wood) is on the other side of the map so unless I plant trees en-mass this early on for now we will be importing wood for the beginning stages of the Manukau.
Let’s check out the beginning of the ore industry and the rail terminal:
As I said earlier I am using a 420MW coal fired station until the City is big enough to handle a nuclear power station. As for the mine? It is an underground mine so the foot print is small.
Farming!
The particular area where Manukau was founded is rich in natural resource for farming so what do we do? We build farms consisting of: cows, sheep, pigs, fruit trees, wheat, corn, cotton and whatever they grow in the glass house.
Of course this is where supply management comes into play. I have a bakery that produces pastries for the initial stages of the City. For the bakery to work I need Animal Products and Flour. To get Animal Products I need animal farms which need crops for them to feed on. For flour I also need crops as well. Just to make it more fun you need silos and warehouses to store raw products, intermediary products or the finished product ready for distribution. In times of shortages those same storage facilities are needed to store the imported materials.
The good news is my bakery is able to produce those pastries, the bad news? Flour is constantly short but that is owing to not enough workers or workers barracks to house the workers. So next time I load the game I will be building more residential areas.
Let’s take a look at the farms and bakery:
The Real Time mod means Industry does not work at night (at this point in time) so it makes logistics just that more interesting. And yes your value-added products do make the City money!
As for where the industry is:
And now for some logistics stuff:
Some extra transport pictures including TRAFFIC JAM at the toll road:
At the moment there is only one junction to the motorway. But I have laid down three more spur roads that will also connect up to the motorways as well giving more connection options. And yes they will be tolled!
Finally some urban shots of Manukau River Town:
If you are up to handle ever more complex supply management chains from raw materials to unique factories including ship yards and food factories then I do recommend the Industries DLC.
If not then the free update that included Toll Roads will even have the most urban of urbanists rubbing their hands at the toll booths going CHING with all the traffic passing through them.
Hopefully will squeeze some game time in this weekend to allow further work on the farming industry.
Ben's Cities 
Reblogged this on Talking Southern Auckland and commented:
A brief review as I grapple Industrial supply management chain, toll roads and new urban geography forms in my latest city – named after my home: Manukau
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