Nuclear Steampunk in the 21st Century – with a side of German Zeppelins #CitiesSkylines

Creating a themed city in Cities Skylines

With Grand City of Solaria (see: https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001) I decided to go for a theme. So using some assets and the European Theme I went for a rather interesting blend of: Soviet/British Nuclear Steampunk with a dash of German Zeppelins thrown in.

How did I go? I think we are getting there with mid rise buildings, the massive Tribune, Monorail and of course atomic power – all things theorised in those books in the 1950’s.

In the end though there is something about the massive central Tribune backed by atomic cooling towers with Zeppelins flying everywhere that gives the City a unique feel.

You can see some of the work below.

Getting around the City is straight forward with bus, metro rail, Zeppelin or Helicopter. If Active Modes are your thing there is a network of Bike Super Highways criss-crossing the majority of the City and they are very well patronised. Of course power generation is 100% Green with either Atomic or Hydro Power providing juice to the City.

The question is would I live in this City? I think I would!

One Metro + One Micro District = Another Day in #CitiesSkylines (Grand City of Solaria)

Got to move and house those Cims

Another day and more work to do in the Grand City of Solaria. Recently I did a podcast on Micro Districts and the Soviet Union (see: Micro Districts, the Soviet Union and Modern City Planning). In the most recent streams of Cities Skylines I put the Micro District theory to the test as well as finally building the new Metro system to serve the City.

The following three videos look at where the Grand City of Solaria is or was at as of the 17th June before I started the Harbour District, followed by the Metro being built, and two Micro Districts being laid out.

The Grand City of Solaria as of June 17

The Complexities of Building a Multi Tier Metro System

Building Micro Districts

I did manage to get one of the three Metro Lines working as well. The other two will be done once the Harbour District, and Palpatine Shores are both built up. You might also see the Northern/Southern Lights are enabled when it is night time giving some absolute stunning shots.

Once I have the Harbour District set up I will get some night shots of the Monorail working as it goes through the entire City. The night shots are just stunning.

Next post will cover the Harbour District and Palpatine Shores!

Fixing a City in #CitiesSkylines #CitiesInASnap

Quick fixes vs Big Infrastructure

Over the weekend I was part of Cities In a Snap – a competition hosted by Cazgem where competitors have two hours to either build a City or complete a scenario. In this instance it was completing the Traffic Scenario where you have a limited amount of time to get traffic above 82% and the population above 35,000. This was achieved inside the two hours!.

Below is the entire video (including a couple of interviews with Cazgem himself) on how using quick fixes to restore the traffic and get the population back up.

Not a single six lane highway was built. All that was used was inside the existing road corridors with I think only one or two new 4-lane roads built. Some cycle super highways were also built with transit going in at the end. The point being retrofitting and upgrading Real Life Cities do not need multi billion dollar large infrastructure fixes. The small nimble quick fixes are often more than adequate without degrading the urban environment (in fact the urban environment was improved as the Low Land Value flags disappeared).

Introducing Grand City of Solaria #citiesskylines

A Soviet, Albert Speer, Russian/British Nuclear Steampunk Hybrid mess

Time for a new city in Cities Skylines however, Palpatine City won’t be going anywhere as I will come back to it for more detailing and tutorial content.

This time I decided to run the City known as Grand City of Solaria to a theme and what a mess of a theme it is (deliberate). The city will follow a Soviet post 1945 theme but I am mixing a bit of Albert Speer design, British/Soviet Nuclear Steampunk into the mix as well. By nuclear steampunk it builds on an original idea in the 50 and 60’s that everything would be nuclear powered (including ships, planes, ovens (microwaves are actually nukers) and power too cheap to metre (not sure if it was nuclear cars or battery cars recharged by the grid powered by reactors)) with design blending brutal-ism and late Victorian/Modernism. I believe the Fallout game series might represent this best before the missiles flew.

The map chosen was Elena Fall 1 which allows two cities to be built at two very different heights.

You can see where I am starting the City as well

Laying the foundations

So we started with the nuclear power station, the Central Soviet Hall and its Spires, and the Tribune area. From there the rest of this part of the City will be moulded around them with a second City on the lower Plains to the right.

As you can see I have added 1930’s Zeppelins as sky buses and because they were equally the rage as well as atomic power – the MONORAIL!

I am using the European Theme to control the buildings so 21st Century design buildings do not pop up.

Now I can hear everyone saying ZEPPELIN rides so one Zeppelin and one Monorail ride coming right up:

As for someone wanting to take their dog for a walk? Well this happened – we rode the bus:

The full strim can be seen here:

I strim at least four times a week at https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001

More on Grand City of Solaria soon as I set out the industry and next metropolitan area in the main City!

Welcome to #citiesskylines on Twitch with The Senate

Featured

Affiliate = interactions

Earlier this week my Twitch Channel had hit Affiliate on Twitch. This means you can subscribe, get emotes, cheer for Bits and interact with the City through Channel Points and Subscriptions.

My Twitch Channel including schedule: https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001

An introduction in Cities Skylines and my play style

I usually engage in Macro-Detailing – that is using the Zones and infrastructure to “detail” my city however, more recently I have been engaged in Micro-Detailing or going right down to site level to detail a City with props and decals to make the City look more realistic.

The game uses mods and assets to custom assets to spice up my cities and various themes are used depending on the City.

I also run a Discord which can be seen here: https://discord.gg/pX9emeN

Looking forward to seeing you there. We also play Stellaris from time to time as well.

#citiesskylines Micro Detailing. Settling into making the City more realistic – A Preview

Making Palpatine City more realistic

So I have been watching Detailer Supremo Slay3K doing Detail work on his city since the beginning of the year (Slay’s Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/slay3k ). I have never been one for micro detailing owing to patience and to be honest being tad lazy but last night I thought lets spend a few hours doing this – so I did!

The preview:

Micro Detailing is a fine art

Twitch told me I streamed for 3 hours and I did not even finish the roundabout at the Airport. So yep micro detailing does certainly take a lot more time than I would spend macro-detailing (using zones and roads to detail the city at high level). But you can see my first attempt at using Procedural Objects to customise assets for the roundabout.

More can be seen here:

Plenty more to do as I got an entire City to do with just highway signs alone. But am enjoying so will stream it more alongside normal city play.

I stream at https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001

Schedule on the link above.

Progress on Palpatine City AND OUR FIRST TROLLEY BUS #CitiesSkylines

Slowly getting use to the new DLC + Japan Content Pack

After a small interruption on Sunday I have managed to settle back into Cities Skylines DLC + Japan Content Pack with the continued build of Palpatine City. Palpatine City uses the Craters Fall Map that came with the new DLC and is based around a small flat area in the centre of map surrounded by mountains while criss-crossed by rivers.

Crater Falls that will become Palpatine City

It might not look like much land area but that does not mean NOT to use your imagination. So let’s take an initial tour shall we?

I did not have my usual Mods and assets until last night (still do not have my Tram roads yet) so using the Vanilla tools proved to be interesting if not derpy.

But one thing I do love about the new DLC is the transit hubs in which I got two laid down thus far. They being the Inter-City/Metro Bus Hub (thus opening connections with the region rather than rely on an inter-city train station which is both expensive and floods young cities with more tourists than the infrastructure can handle at that time).

I managed to set up a Salmon and a general fishing industry that catches, processes and either sells fish at the market or sells it for export thus generating revenue for the City.

Trolley Buses! I despite not being a fan of them (cheap version of a tram) I decided to build a Trolley Bus circuit to serve the tourist area of Palpatine City.

As of last night this is where we are with Palpatine City:

The City has matured into a nice young town with most amenities now provided for the population. The next phase is to bolster the Industry which still faces strong demand as well as making sure we have workers for the factories, mines and farms. Later on in the week I will be starting on the City Centre, and Metropolitan Airport Complex.

Don’t forget I stream nightly on https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001

Check the Twitch page for scheduled times where I will alternate between Cities Skylines and Stellaris Federations.

The Lock-Down Streams. #CitiesSkylines , Stellaris Federations and Plenty of DERP, and Traffic Jank

Streaming while in lock-down

My Twitch Channel and times I stream at can be found here: https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001

With New Zealand going into lock down as of tonight due to Convid-19 I have decided to up my Cities Skylines and Stellaris Federations streams to 6-nights a week at 7pm. The purpose of the Streams is to give people an outlet to talk, maybe meet others (online) and watch me Derp Cities Skylines as I did earlier this week with the Forestry Industry.

I will continue with Valhalla City even with Sunset Harbour coming out this Friday although given how the Mods always break with a new DLC I might start a new City and run it concurrently with Valhalla.

DERPS

If you are thinking it is 90 minutes of me building a City you might be in for a surprise when the Derps do roll and they do roll in. Such as I spend 90 minutes building a Forestry Industry and wonder why the Furniture Factory was not working. The answer will have you going DERP!

Traffic Jank

If I am not building then I am trying to un-jank my traffic as seen below:

It was fixed in the following stream which I will post next blog post.

So come join me at 7 for the Derps, the Janks, the massive battles and all things traffic in Cities Skylines and Stellaris Federations!

Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001

Building our First-Ever Cycle Super Highway in #CitiesSkylines (and taking a Tour)

Took five years but here I am!

I have played Cities Skylines for long as it has been out – 5 years. Yet while perfecting transit and freight transportation options my active modes planning was no more than painted cycle lanes, the odd separated cycle lane next to trams or disjointed cycle-ways over a motorway.

Well that changed this month with the construction of the first ever Cycle Super Highway in Valhalla City! Following one of the two smaller rivers that run through Valhalla the Cycle Super Highway connects the Airport to the City Centre. The Super Highway also has branches coming off it connecting the different suburbs and towns on the trip to the City Centre itself.

Here is me building the Valhalla City – Airport Cycle Super Highway:

There might be no commentary from me in this clip as I had the mic off and forgot it was off.

But you can see the cycle-way follow a very scenic trip to the City Centre!

Here is a tour of the Cycle Super Highway as well:

I am aware the video might be choppy as Streamlabs does not like First Person very much…..

Not to worry once Sunset Harbour DLC comes out later this week and the Mods are fixed we will be straight back into Valhalla City building even MORE cycle super highways across the City!

You can find me on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001

CITIES SKYLINES HAS BEEN HERE FOR FIVE YEARS? Yeah I have played the game that long! #CitiesSkylines

5 years with this game?

Earlier in the month it was the 5th Anniversary of Cities Skylines. It was also the 5th Anniversary of me playing Cities Skylines and all its DLC’s (expansions) to date as well – tragic I know.

The game and community has evolved so much over the last five years and here is to another five years although I hope we get Cities Skylines 2 by then. Below is a brief highlights video of me playing Cities Skylines over the last five years from Solaria to Valhalla City!

If you want to see me play Cities Skylines live feel free to follow me over on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001