Happy New Year and Decade everyone. How was everyone’s break and Decade 3 of the 21st Century kicks off.
Last night I held my first stream for 2020 in which I again managed to set a portion of my City on fire (meaning I need more fire choppers). Also trying to get on top of the high residential demand sounds like an average day in Auckland with no matter how much residential zoning I put down it is never enough.
Below is yesterday’s stream per Facebook:
Stream times
Stream times have changed. They are on Twitch and Facebook are continuing Mondays and Fridays with Monday adjusted to 12:45pm New Zealand Time and 7:30pm on Fridays with Sunday 7:30pm also added. You can catch my streams here: https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001
Day 1 and already having to adjust bus frequencies
After some glitches with Twitch I finally got streaming and recording. In the stream I noticed a sea of people heading to a bus station even though it has just opened 5 hours earlier.
A highlight from today’s stream with PEOPLE USING TRANSIT – GO FIGURE:
Already I had to increase frequencies on one bus route and will be watching another carefully as it hits 85% occupancy utilisation. Also a summary of thoughts on urban geography and future streams (see: https://www.twitch.tv/palpatine001/ )
The full one hour video will be up Friday morning.
We also reach Auckland Transport how to build a 24/7 transit system
Last night I ran the second test Twitch stream of Cities Skylines and Grand Manukau/Layton City. The focus was the Zones around the main City Centre as I prepare to bring the game off Pause and get the simulator going again.
We managed to crash the game in First Person Mode in the end but for the rest the mechanics of the Stream have been ironed out including background audio.
The streaming where we have MARCH OF THE ZONES:
March of the Zones
At the beginning of the video I was also setting down transit lines and setting the budgets. Or rather teaching Auckland Transport how to build and run a 24/7 transit system that runs frequencies no more than every 20 minutes but usually every 5-10 minutes. None of this half hourly or hourly stuff Auckland Transport likes to do and call a frequent bus service!
Finally before the game crash I go down to first person view and some of those towers are HUGE.
Stream Times
Summer Time (October-April):
Friday: 8pm (GMT+13)
Monday: 10am (GMT +13)
Winter Time (April to October)
Friday: 7pm (GMT+12)
Monday: 10am (GMT +12)
Thursday and Saturday streams might happen occassionally
I have set my Twitch Account up and the first test was complete. Still somethings to work through like the mic vs the background music but otherwise most of the Gremlins are sorted.
The test stream at 45mins long
These streams will be unscripted but I will follow a basic order in what will be done for each respective stream.
Stream times will be:
Friday from around 7:30pm GMT+12 (GMT +13 Between October and April)
Monday from around 10am GMT+12 (GMT +13 Between October and April)
A concept I developed in Cities Skylines that I advocate for out in the real world is the Urban Islands. Urban Islands are where transport infrastructure, water or Green Belts break up the urban mass of a City giving an island effect. However, for Urban Islands to be Urban Islands one little feature needs to happen first – and that I explain in my first video here:
City Building and Urban Islands
In Part Two I zoom into the new Trade School then take a tour on a couple of the buses:
If you would like to know more about Urban Islands and other Urban Geography concepts I study and advocate for (including dual core cities) give me a yell in the comments below.
In the mean time Shop Safe!
Transport Line Manager in use
I realise in Part Two the Cities Skylines video was rather loud. I will make sure the volume is down on the next stream.
Urban Development in full flight in Grand Manukau/Layton Cities
After some path finding issues with the transit system and realising you can not start a Metro Line at a “deactivated” station (a station that has been built but not online to receive passengers) I got some good old fashioned urban development underway in Grand Manukau/Layton Cities.
The objective this week was two-fold:
Establishment of the Ore Industry
Continued residential expansion to support a City Centre and the new Industry
So the Ore Industry has been established and is functioning well while Parnell and Franklin District have both come on-stream.
At the moment I am in Expansion Mode – that is pretty much cookie-cutter standardised urban development through the Twin Cities and Urban Islands Urban Geography concepts. This is because the major infrastructure is already laid down from the earlier Planning and Building Mode thus all that is happening is existing infrastructure is simply being extended rather than adding entirely new Lines and so on. The other mode is Consolidation/Mature Mode where I have stopped expanding the City and am going through the existing urban area either upzoning or optimising the infrastructure for efficient operations.
Let’s Ride the Metro
So to start the videos off today we get to ride the newly expanded Metro Line 1:
Let’s ride Metro Line 1Transport Line Manager in use
Checking Out the Ore Industry
I built some Ore Industry – this is how it went:
Ore Industry – after a quick ride on the Metro
And finally a look at the new urban areas of Parnell and Franklin District. Also a final drop down to First Person mode to see the Downtown and LOTS OF TREES!
Bus lane woes, logistics and a new urban area
Next week we are traffic problem finding and bringing online another heavy rail line to help remove some of the road congestion. Also more urban expansion and the placement of the Lemonade Factory in time for Christmas!
After the issues with the Mods things got back on track. So here we are with this week’s stream a tad late – but it is here.
This week I focus on building the Downtown, the East End, and the first ever Metro line for Grand Manukau/Layton Cities. Layton City Downtown is a Tourist area while the East End is a Leisure area, which is controlled using the game’s District commands. As usual the first video is also of the Q+A from questions that come up from the previous week’s thread.
Lets dive in shall we?
Let’s Get Building in #CitiesSkylines Part 1. Q+A and Intro
Let’s Get Building in #CitiesSkylines Part 2 – Building the Downtown.
Let’s Get Building in #CitiesSkylines Part 3 – On the Metro
I must say the Metro Overhaul Mod gives beautiful renders. I used the Classic version rather than the Modern version for the Metro line. However, other Lines as they are built might be the modern version.
Next week we continue with City building as I continue to extend the East End and Watson Heights. I will also start laying the infrastructure down for the Ore Industry as well.
UPDATE: The conflicting Mod that was causing issues with the subway system has been disabled. This allows me to start building the subway system for Grand Manukau/Layton Cities. The rest of the videos should be up tonight.
Not everything goes to plan when recording your weekly video or when trying to trouble fix the fault causing the delays in the first place.
Unfortunately we have a few minor setbacks this week as the subway stations in Cities Skylines are not working properly (they are appearing half raised out of the ground) and to make things more fun Steam is not working so I can not contact the Content Maker to get some troubleshooting done.
In the meantime I did get the introductory video underway on what I do have planned for the series this week. We are looking at three sets of urban development across Grand Manukau/Layton Cities.
For more I explain in the video:
Normal Transmission Will Resume Shortly
Once the subway station issues are fixed I will get the rest of the videos up.
Thanks everyone and as they say in the transit industry – we apologise for the inconvenience!
In today’s episode we look at how the data sets available in Cities Skylines and how they can be used to either fine tune a City or how it can be planned ahead.
Also included today is the Q+A session. If comments are left in the blog or YouTube videos about an episode I will do my best to answer them. This week’s Q+A looked at street design and an apparent focus on cars and buses.
Without further ado lets tuck into this week’s episodes:
Q+A – 20.10.2019
Using Big Data – Part 1
Using Big Data – Part 2: Using Data to fix a traffic problem (or did I make it worse)
Next week using the data sets I will continue expanding the Watson Heights Metropolitan Centre. Also MOAR HOUSING!
Ben's Cities 