With the Cities Skylines Industries DLC also came establishing a post service for the first time ever in your cities. That is build post shops to handle the local mail while the big central mail sorting centres do that sort the mail city-wide (including receiving/sending mail in/out of the City).
Running the post service is the same as other non-transit city services in Cities Skylines: place down your local post offices followed by central depots/centres in strategic locations (usually next to rail terminals). Rather interestingly your post van will use bus lanes just as any other city service vehicle does (unless banned by the Transport Manager President Edition) but the post truck will not (treated as a freight vehicle).
The Post Offices and Sorting Centre
As well as the standard post office and sorting centre I also got a Parisian version of a post office that fights into tight spaces better than the vanilla game version:
French Post Office
Of course here are the standard versions:
Standard post office
Mail sorting centre
Post delivery run
Zeroing in on a post shop in Prospect District I decided to follow a post van around to watch its mail run. This is what we got:
French Post Office
Standard post office
Okay that did not go very far as the van dumped a pile of parcels at a retail store before returning to the post shop. Let’s try this again:
French Post Office
The van was delivering across Prospect District, Wiri East and Wiri (industrial complex) so good way of seeing the urban form.
I need to place another sorting centre next to Papatoetoe to handle mail over in that part of the city. Otherwise here comes your deliveries by van, truck, rail, sea and air!
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:
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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:
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Some extra transport pictures including TRAFFIC JAM at the toll road:
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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:
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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.
The latest DLC for Cities Skylines comes out on October 23 (October 24 for New Zealand and Australia – time zones) and it focuses on industry. It also focuses on toll roads too so what is this new DLC?
Let’s go to resident Cities Skylines player Biffa for a full breakdown of what the new DLC offers and how it will extend those Urban Geography skills:
I have currently paused San Solaria and San Layton cities as I wait for the DLC to come out and then for the respective mods to be updated. Given industry does play a large roll in my Cities Skylines cities it will be interesting to see how this new DLC will impact the existing cities and my Urban Geography skills with any new upcoming cities as well.
With so much focus on Paradox’s other game Stellaris at the moment the announcement of a new DLC (expansion) for Cities Skylines came absolutely out of nowhere.
Not that I mind nor do I mind it is on the one thing I like tinkering with and the very thing urban designers like Ludo Campbell-Reid tend to avoid 😉 – INDUSTRY
From Paradox:
Mind your business! We’re thrilled to announce our next major expansion, Cities: Skylines – Industries
Cities: Skylines – Industries Inbound on October 23, Along with Synthetic Dawn Radio and New Free Update
Captain your own industry in the newest update for the best selling city-builder from Paradox and Colossal Order
STOCKHOLM – Oct. 11, 2018 – We’re thrilled to announce the next industrial update for Cities: Skylines on PC, Mac and Linux. Industries, launching October 23rd will put one of the game’s three zones in the spotlight for the first time.
To help you get a grip on your industry sector we’re launching a new tutorial series on YouTube with new videos everyday until launch! https://www.youtube.com/user/Paradoxplaza
“With this expansion, players can make more meaningful choices in their cities’ industry by managing their production chains from grain to bread.” said Sandra Neudinger, Product Manager from Paradox Interactive. “The players have been asking for an industrial expansion for a while, so we’re excited to finally offer a full featured approach.”
In one of the most in-depth expansions in Cities: Skylines history, Industry becomes a larger and more meaningful part of the game with this DLC. Players can build unique factories and customize their industrial areas with supply chains for the four different resource types. Well managed industry areas will level up and become more efficient. Aside from production chains, there is a new city service for handling mail and the cargo airport eases import and export of factory goods. There are FIVE new maps, new policies, new city services, new buildings (including resource extractors, manufacturers, warehouses and unique factories) and more.
Key Features:
Make It Happen – Follow your products from harvesting to processing, storage and production, then transport them to commercial zones or export to other cities.
Captain Your Own Industry – Define an area with the industry area tool and place highly specialized industrial buildings to build and manage the production chain from raw material extraction up to final end product. Industry Areas are divided into four types based on the natural resource they are processing: Farming, Forest, Ore and Oil. These areas can level up upon reaching productions goals and staffing requirements.
Build it up, Buttercup – New industrial buildings include Extractors, Warehouse Facilities, Processing and Auxiliary Buildings, Industrial Props and Roads. Unique Factories, such as Food, Toy, Furniture, Car and Electronics produce luxury products, and require a large quantity of workers, water and electricity as well as input from your industries.
Ship It – Manage traffic and logistics with industry warehouses and the use of the new Cargo Services including a cargo airport.
Go Postal – Boost your citizens’ well-being with mail delivery and collection services. Post sorting facilities handle mail between outside connections and the post offices, and new Post Van and Truck vehicles enable the carriage.
Wonk Hard – Three new Industry Policies and four City-wide Policies, including Workers’ Union, Sorting, Tolls, Wi-Fi, Logistics, Work Safety and Automation.
Five New Maps – Rich in natural resources, transportation options and industrial opportunities, these new maps have all the right stuff.
Four new hats for Chirper!
But wait! There’s more! Coinciding with the Industries expansion, Cities: Skylines is getting a new radio channel and a free content update.
….
The free update coming alongside Industries will introduce toll booths (and road tolls, naturally), which will slow traffic’s roll a bit, but generate extra income for the city. Players will also get the option to mark zoned buildings as historical, preserving their style, and the ability to create custom name lists for citizens, districts and spawned buildings.
Okay you had me at toll roads (finally)! KIDDING, toll roads and more expansive industry no doubt will already keep me ticking along this time with freight (as well as passenger as normal)
Of course there will be run through of the new DLC before it released in just over a week
The New CSL Map Viewer has been excellent in not only showing the layout of my cities and the transport modes but also where I have holes in the transit system.
So guess what I will be doing? NEW BUS NETWORKS!!!!
Yesterday while having family dinner in West Auckland I was pondering to myself I wonder what it would be like to have my Cities Skylines cities printed in 3D?
While for a large City that might end up very expensive to do (especially if in HO Scale (1:87) or even N Scale (1:148)) although the educational benefits would be tremendous. I also thought what about in straight 2D maps? The Cimtographer has been broken for a while but I did find a new one this morning from Japan – the CSL Map View.
The CSL Map View in short takes a snap shot of your entire City region including topography and transit systems and turns it into a very easy to read map you might find in just about any decent city with decent Wayfinding (ironically Japan). With the options of transit stops…
I have been a bit busy on the Urban Geography in real life side of the ledger meaning not much time with Cities Skylines at the moment.
However, I have managed to squeeze a few hours in there and there and have continued to work on the Downtown District.
The two cruise ship terminals have also finally started attracting cruise ships into the City now meaning more tourists and more revenue.
I also had to replace all my substations after an asset swap in the STEAM Workshop caused the deletion of the old model that I was using. No matter all the substations are replaced and power is flowing back into the City from Nuclear City!
With Downtown established and maturing I will turn my attention to Sheffield Square as well as connecting the City Centre up to the International Airport with heavy rail (it already has a monorail line running through it.
Social Planning has become a main stay in Cities Skylines since the Real Time Mod went live and has been constantly updated. You are no longer just focusing on the physical Geography but now the Human Geography as well.
Biffa has started a series with the Mod so I will link that up very soon if you want to see how the mod works.
Today’s video comes from Cities Skylines player and Vloger Sam Burr from Brisbane on the topic of: Social Planning:
I was at a talk on how Japan under takes its urban development and how that development is heavily focused around its transit system. There is an article that goes into this at depth which can be read here: TOKYO’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING STRATEGY: BUILD, BUILD, BUILD
Build, build, build – the name of the game in Cities Skylines until your PC caps out from Memory use. But in doing all that building you are also undertaking social planning at quite a large…
Auckland Transport Executives and the Chair again prove that they are talk and no action when it comes to the livability of a City especially its City Centre. The latest from AT in regards to Customs Street having busses removed to improve the flow of cars through a core City Centre area made me shake my head at the minimum. Greater Auckland were not impressed either:
A phrase that sends shivers down my spine "buses will be removed to improve traffic flow"https://t.co/nQoWqvQfvj
To turn Customs Street into a 6 lane car sewer will sever Britomart and the Ferry Terminal from Queen Street and the core of the City Centre that follows Queen Street to uptown. Thoroughfare traffic should be using the motorway network and Grafton Gully if people need to get from east Auckland to the Harbour Bridge and vice versa. Customs Street would become an excellent transit mall for busses and maybe Light Rail linking Britomart to Symonds Street, Fanshawe Street and the Light Rail Lines heading to Wynyard Quarter and the North Shore. Speaking of which where is 6 lanes of Customs Street cars meant to go when part of it and Fanshawe Street will reduce those lanes to make way for Light Rail.
Again Auckland Transport Executives not exactly thinking nor seeing the value of Integrated Planning.
Cities Skylines Urban Design Offers Lessons
While marco-level planning is what I usually do it does not mean I am going to skimp out in creating quality public spaces for my Cims and the tourists. And of course the City Centre is the prime public space.
Large roads will still be seen but they will not be running through the guts of the City Centre but rather forming the border with smaller 4 lane roads feeding into the guts of the City Centre from the 6-lane roads and then the 2-lane roads, shared streets, lane-ways, transit malls and pedestrians malls forming the interior network.
You will see 4-lane roads running through the City Centre but these roads will often contain one or more of the following:
bus lanes
Light Rail
Cycle ways
This allows transit and service vehicles to have continued access to core of the City Centre as people, goods and even the trash have to be moved around (and out of) the City Centre.
But I am not going to put large 6-lane road or the huge 12 lane road right through the middle of my City Centre as it would split it in half causing severance (and a tonne load of noise)
If you are wondering about this 6-laner that has two bus lanes with that runs right by the Central Station there is a reason why I have done this. First of all a large 12-platform heavy rail (with subway underneath) station to place it in the middle of the City Centre would sever the place even worse than the 6 or even 12 lane roads. So in this instance the station sits on the southern border of San Layton City Centre to which (and keeping consistent with above) a large road forms that norther border of said City Centre. Remember heavy rail is bringing in commuters from longer distances so to travel within the City Centre itself you have:
Subway
Bus (hence the bus lanes)
Cycleways
Monorail
Light Rail
All which are less space intensive!
In any case this is the urban geographic layout of San Layton City – to which I will be focusing on the City Centre:
San Layton City is a dual-core City with multiple satellites all connected by either road or some form of transit (usually rail).
If you are wondering what the following picture and subsequent pictures like it are this is the closest I get to a Shared Space:
While these are pedestrian or transit malls:
Right without further ado here is 9am Sunday morning in San Layton City Centre:
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Monorail does look quite Gotham:
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Street Trees do wonders:
And now for Central Station and some big roads – oh and a sky cafe. You can also see the monorail running through the City Centre as well:
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And now the main road that connects the City Centre up to the Satellites further east. Centre Bank is the main leisure area on the other side of the rail station:
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Finally the second bit minor City Centre – Washington Heights and how that is built around a bus station. Again the larger roads form the boundaries with smaller roads often transit malls or shared spaces forming the interior network :
This is how you outlay your City Centre. Not with big 6 lane car sewers but with public spaces and extensions of living rooms using shared spaces, pedestrian and transit malls and of course transit lanes!!!
Even 9am on a Sunday the City Centre is teeming with Cims!
There are several ways I like to keep my cities green in Cities Skylines:
Power production will often come from low-carbon emitting sources including hydro or nuclear. I do use the Waste to Energy Incinerators that produce small amounts of air and ground pollution but they make up no more than 1% of total power production
Recycling centres and recycling is a must
EV cars are encouraged city-wide
Mass deployment of mass transit
Street Trees
Urban Forests
Green self-sustained residential buildings in some Districts
Okay that was a few more than several 😉
The big two pollution emitters are power production and transport (followed by heavy industry). Heavy industry pollution is handled by urban forests and the Filter Waste policy meaning factories have to filter their sewerage before it heads out to the sewerage plants. This leaves power production and transport.
Power production
I follow what I preach when it comes to power production for a City. So if I say I believe in 100% (or near to it) Low Carbon Power Production then I follow through into Cities Skylines:
For San Layton City:
1,449MW of power is produced as electricity coming from:
1,254MW (or 86.6%) coming from two nuclear reactors
80MW from Geothermal
50MW from incinerators
65MW from on and offshore Wind turbines
400MW comes from Geothermal based bores sent through to the City as District Centralised Heating (steam or hot water)
Using electricity map (and assuming the incinerators let off as much as a biomass plant) the carbon output is: 37g/CO2/Per KW or 98% low carbon – same as France as of writing this post
As you say when I say Green I do Green!
As for transit I invest in most modes depending on the Geography of the City. Patronage is about 50% of the population (using transit) with more using cycling. Given San Layton has two Cores connected by heavy rail and monorail with urban islands coming off of them (surrounded by pasture or forests) that are interconnected also by all forms of rail and bus it is quite easy to move around the city without the need of a car – even going to the industrial complexes.
And yes my transit system runs 24/7 on an integrated fare system. Quite interesting to see even the big 135 bendy busses straining to keep up with passenger demand at 3am in the morning of a Saturday or Sunday as the night owls like to party.
I have updated the domain name for Ben’s Cities from wordpress.com to Ben’s Cities.blog as well allowing for video content to be put to this blog. Of course the upgrade also means more space for lots more Cities Skylines photos as I have a wee back log of photos to upload and share on San Layton City.
Again thank for your support on all things Cities Skylines and as San Layton City (and others) continue to evolve.
