City Skylines, Building London - Part 5

South West London 2 - From queues to Kew

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4,

After my adventures with TFL detailed in the last blog I was faced with a problem; money was now falling for the first time. My response was to tweak the taxes. Lowering residential tax to encourage more migration into the city and raising the industrial tax to offset it seemed like such a good idea. I was so, so wrong. As I was fiddling with the finer details of my parks I didn't notice the massive downward spiral I'd kicked off. My losses became worse and worse and my population started falling again, was this another death wave? What was happening... a quick check on Brentford nearly gave me a heart attack. It was all gone! The taxes were too high and all the industry had left. With no jobs, there was less incentive for people to move to the city. I adjusted tax rate again but industry returned in trickles. It seems the huge mills and factories I'd developed over decades in-game weren't coming back overnight and my taxes were suffering because of it. The commercial revenue of White City and Oxford Street were keeping me afloat but my huge parks and glut of massive historic buildings left a hefty maintenance bill. 

Despite my economic woes I still had 1 million in the bank. It was a far cry from the 4 million I had had only a couple of hours ago when money felt endless. The economy would need careful balancing from now on. Tough lesson learnt I returned to what had distracted me in the first place: Kew Gardens... 

Kew Gardens as seen from the river 

The famous botanical attraction had been right on my doorstep from the start, lying just south of Brentford but I knew I couldn't do it justice until now. With a range of buildings unlocked including a massive glass pyramid and high-level park buildings unlocked from Hyde Parks increasing visitor count, I set about doing my own creative spin on a London landmark I'd visited a few times over the years. I fenced off the gardens making it an admissions only park but buildings were designed to be roadside. My initial attempt to stick a dirt track that was connected to nothing proved successful until the game punished me for having roads without any police or fire bridge patrolling them... a classic limitation of any city simulator I should have seen coming. I eventually solved it via a creative solution. A relatively hidden underpass coming up in the center of the park connecting it to an off-site police and fire station, itself then connected to waste disposal and other emergency services fixed the issue. There was something amusingly ironic about Kew Gardens being the center of London crime, but it being littered with dead bodies due to no ambulances or morgues was definitely a step too far. 

The main entrance to Kew

 In the end, I was pretty proud of my interpretation of Kew Gardens and the whole Kew area benefited from me spending an extended time this close to the ground. I added Kew retail park and tried to marry up the street layouts as best I could. Lots of Premier Inns appeared which actually looks really cool: another mod I think but I'm not sure which as I've installed so many now! 

A very large Premier Inn as part of Kew Retail Park

Before I finished up I explored a bit further south. As I'd put in Richmond train and underground stations it seemed a shame not to zone it up to give a chance to grow. I'm having a new issue with the city demanding commercial zones but then those areas collapsing through lack of workers. Hopefully it balances out, maybe I need to add more bus routes to enable commuters to get to work? Either way, it didn't stop me building up Richmond high street into a classy shopping/tourist center with the help of the Victorian housing mod again and an old looking European street asset plonked in the middle. Again, a stylistic interpretation of Richmond but one I'm satisfied with. 

Richmond highstreet

South West London is definitely on the build. All I can do now is tamper with public transport, tweak taxes and hope it builds itself up naturally. It's time to turn my attention to central London. Am I up for the task? Find out next time... 

Central London beckons...
 (plus an optimistic interpretation of the BT tower!)

City Skylines, Building London - Part 4

South West London 1  - Trains and terrace houses.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, 

A week's worth of building to share in this blog so it comes in two parts! My London is becoming bigger day by day but as it grows it's becoming much harder to manage. Population decline, economic stagnation, and financial issues all raised their ugly head but despite these challenges there's also lots of progress to share.

Pimlico looking fine! Classy Victoria houses build-up towards London's fancy museum district and Hyde Park

As discussed in the previous blog the Victorian housing mod is really working well. It's so satisfying to see Pimlico and Kensington developing nicely. My need to drive the population up meant I found myself increasingly zoning up these areas for residential building and I almost forgot to add in the museums. Most of the museums I have in Cities look quite modern but I found some European mods which give it a bit more of a Knightsbridge kind of feel with famous European museums standing in for the V&A and Natural History Museums. 

Paddington station and the Paddington Basin yet to be flooded

By this point, I'd unlocked proper train stations so I spent a couple of hours working on the Paddingon area. Not putting in train lines until now presented some challenges and in the end, lots of lines had to be put underneath Shepherd's Bush. Not to worry though as with a few clicks and a relatively cheap outlay, Paddington was connected to the outside world. It puts Crossrail to shame! Soon the tourists quite rightly came flooding in. 

A better view of the London Wetlands Centre with many bridges! 

While I'd been wanting to build south of the river for a while it was mainly economic stagnation that drove me south. I found my population wasn't growing very well, it, in fact, started to drop but following along with Doctorbenjy's series meant I knew what was going on: 'Deathwaves'. The first residents of my city were now dying off, the initial boom of those early Chiswick and Shepherd's Bush residents all moving in at once meant a sudden spike in death rates. While this petered out, the stead flow of death was now really slowing down the cities growth. Building up Wandsworth and Barnes was my attempt to keep the growth alive. It was also proved a great opportunity to try another themed mod; British Terraced Housing. It took a while to master these smaller buildings but as much tighter streets took shape it really started to give the different areas of London their own feel. I'm never going to get every area or detail right but it was satisfying to see the contrast. 

An overground train parked at Wandsworth Town station 

The traffic issues alluded to in the previous blog turned out to be much trickier to resolve  than I imagined. Despite completely rebuilding the Chiswick roundabout area and routing a few huge underpasses under the city I was still finding that the M4 as your only real entrance into London via road is a very bad idea. In hindsight placing all my industry right next to it was also a poor idea as lorries, tourists and prospective residents got caught up in massive jams. It's a problem I don't have the skills to resolve and is in large part down to geography; the game won't yet let me unlock more parts of London to build on so I'm stuck with the M4 for now. 

How does real London solve this problem? Trains! Trains and tubes, so for the time being all I can do is try to provide plenty of other ways for my fictional Londoners to get to work. A massive overhaul of the underground network was in order. I built out the District and Piccadilly lines. Due to this scale not being 1:1 ratio, some difficult decisions came into play; what stations work approximate with their real position and with my population needs and layout? The answer led to some slightly wavy lines which are recognisable if not exact. For example, my Piccadilly line looks something like this: 
Covent Garden - Green Park - Hyde Park Corner - South Kensington - Earl's Court - Ravenscourt Park - Chiswick Park - Acton Town - Ealing Broadway - Boston Manor. 

Connecting up the train lines also required some bending of the truth, or bending of the lines as the case may be, so that Paddington looped down into Brentford and then over the river to Putney and Wandsworth Town. The result was successful: 416 residents and 483 tourists traveling via train per week. 1768 residents and 393 tourists on the underground and a further 1,589 residents and 194 tourists using the bus network. 

The District and Piccadilly line extending outwards. In orange our above ground stations all linking up...

With TFL well and truly up and running it was easier to get around London, many hours of work was worthwhile but financially I was paying the price! More on that next time... 

City Skylines, Building London - Part 3

West London - Westminster, Hyde Park and fancy buildings

Part 1, Part 2

With the last couple of days playing Cities I have been tackling some of the more famous parts of London. The risk of accidentally building on Hyde Park ground meant I had to bite the bullet and build it. Naturally it was a massively enjoyable time sink. The Serpentine was dutifully bridged although it doesn't look particularly majestic... perhaps something to fix later. Laying out the paths and adding other little details was really fun. Seeing the little smiley faces appear after dropping in toilets and cafes was pretty addictive. When people like what you're doing green smiley faces appear above their houses, this subsequently creates a tiny dopamine rush... 

The thing that makes my citizens most happy is when London FC win a game of Football. London FC plays at Stamford Bridge but sadly I can't find a way to name them Chelsea. Stamford Bridge being the major stadium I've built leads me to the awkward and unplanned circumstance of Chelsea FC (London FC) being my Cities preferred team, something to tweak later perhaps if possible... or maybe first come first served? 

I found someone had made a model of the Albert Hall so I put that down and before I knew it I was marking out Green Park and St James's Park... oh the hell with it, in went Buckingham Palace and Westminster too! I chose to leave most of central London for now, but it throws up the most central question I was wrestling with; how to make the buildings look more... Londony? 

Hyde Park and the Albert Hall, in the distance Westminster with Oxford Street slowly growing up behind Marble Arch

I didn't mind Shepherd's Bush and Chiswick looking quite American but could I really build up historic areas like Chelsea, Kensington and Westminster to look like modern American suburbia? Once again the Steam Workshop provided the answers, the modders for Cities make this game! It took a bit of fiddling but before long I had Victorian Housing popping up all over. 

Victorian Houses looking suitably Londony 

With Chelsea, Fulham and Kensington growing nicely I decided to turn my attention, properly for the first time, to the south side of the river. Learning from Hyde Park I built up the London Wetland Centre first. It was one of the places I really wanted to visit when I lived in London but never did. The Nature Reserve option from the Parks DLC made it look really good, I mixed in some zoo and park buildings giving it that Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust feel. 

The Reservoir Lagoon in the London Wetland Centre, some Barnes houses in the distance with Hammersmith Bridge

West London is really starting to take shape now, but with increasing population comes new problems, one that is all too familiar to real-life Londoners: traffic jams! I've heard traffic management is one of the biggest challenges of this game and by the looks of Chiswick roundabout, it's one I'm going to have to wrestle with next time...

Chiswick Roundabout jammed up... 

City Skylines, Building London - Part 2

West London: football, parks, and incinerators 

Part 1

It has been a quiet Monday night but a couple of hours show some progress. I actually started using Parklife DLC (I know I should have waited for a steam sale but I'm hooked) so I spent a while sorting out Ravencourt Park, Bishops Park and the weirdly large Homefield Recreation Ground. In went Craven Cottage and Stamford Bridge. I also made Brompton Cemetery a significant feature and put some of my first high-density housing in there. 

Passing the 12,000 mark on population meant that incinerators were now available so one went up near Wormwood Scrubs, one in Brentford and one just over Wandsworth Bridge. 

Tomorrow I definitely want to fill in Hammersmith and possibly Kensington then I can either:
A) Build Wandsworth to establish myself south of the river.
B) Develop out east so I can put in Westminster Palace and Big Ben.
C) Make a start on Hyde Park!

We will see... 

City Skylines, Building London - Part 1

West London: Chiswick and Shepherd's Bush

After watching Doctor Benjy's brilliant Cities Skylines series I felt the itch to play it for myself. I wasn't really aware the game existed, even though everyone else seems to be, but had been looking for a city sim after reminiscing about Sim City, Caesar III, and Emperor Rise of the Middle Kingdom - all games that consumed many hours of my childhood. If Benjy was building New York then I figured I'd build London! I've just moved from Deptford to Birmingham so it seemed like a good send-off to the city. 

The first job was to spend 4 hours stripping back my laptop, which involved deleting so many files as well as some help from AVGTuneUp (13+GB of junk!)... next job was buying and installing the base game. A sensible person having never played Cities before would have just played with the game to learn the ropes but I was insistent that my first project would be London. My prayers that someone had already made a London map were answered by Skye Storme who has made a brilliantly scaled an accurate base map and a time-saving list of London based mods and assets! Once all these were also installed and after 3 crashes and buying some DLC I was good to go. 

The map loads up all the way over in the west, mainly due to Skye's bias towards the west but as I plonked down awful junctions and accidentally built a lot of very US looking buildings I quickly realised it was a blessing. By the time I get to my beloved Aragon Tower, I'll actually be a competent Cities player! Two restarts due to bankruptcy later, I had built a financially stable Chiswick. The focal point of the city is the Chiswick Roundabout and having figured out how to name roads I was more proud of my dodgy looking M4 than I should have been. 

As seen below Brentford has been re imagined as an industrial wasteland but if it's any consolation I did squeeze in Griffin Park so Brentford FC at least have their moment in the sun as London's only football club. 

City Skylines is like the old city simulators refined, a simple game tuned beautifully. The detail is breathtaking but never overwhelming, so long as you keep water, electric, waste and taxes balanced you can't go too wrong. There are little bars that tell you when to 'zone' areas for residential, commercial and industrial so once you've got a good balance of that to you're free to play however you want. You can mark out custom bus lanes, mess with traffic, name hospitals and fiddle with dog parks to your heart's content while most stuff ticks over on its own. 

As the little blue bar was telling me my city was desperate for a serious commercial zone I decided to spend my Sunday afternoon building Westfield shopping centre - unlike Brentford and Chiswick I'd actually spent some time in the Whitecity/Shepherd's Bush area. As Westfield built up I got distracted building a massive residential zone in Shepherd's Bush (see below). Some of the road names are right and it's roughly accurate but as the scale isn't exact it's more of an artistic impression of London... The culmination of all these new people meant I unlocked hospitals, so Hammersmith/Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital becomes my first of many hospital zones nestling just below the currently empty Wormwood Scrubs. 

With the sun setting over west London and outside the window in real life it should have been time to wind up but not without starting a bit of the famous underground network. Tube station mod at my mouse tips I plonk down four central line stations; Shepherd's Bush, White City, North Acton and Hanger Lane. The later creating the strange new district of Hanger Hill, my attempt to get people to actually use the damn line... Hanger Hill contains one office block (occupied by an accountant) and a large IKEA because what bigger draw is there than IKEA! Sadly it only coaxes 2 people onto the underground, the rest use their cars. Hopefully these Londoners will learn to love the underground like real Londoners do (love/hate) or perhaps my mod is broken... 

There is just enough time to start on Fulham before I log off for the night. Fulham Palace goes in with Bishops Park but for now Craven Cottage can wait... Fulham FC and Chelsea FC will arrive tomorrow!