Welcome to Cities: Skylines The Dev Diaries
These videos are based on the official Dev Diaries that can be found at the
Paradox Interactive forum and I'll include a link to them in
the video description
In this episode we'll be looking at Zoning and you may be surprised to find that this
is arguably the most controversial aspect of
the game
So what's the controversy?, I hear you ask
Well, it's all about control
at one extreme you could allow the player to manually place every building individually
the ultimate level of control but in a large city
a micro-management nightmare
at the other extreme the game allow the player to
zone areas and the game decides what buildings get built
this obviously limits flexibility but removes the management headache
The developers of Cities: Skylines decided they wanted to go with a Zoning approach
I think primarily because Zoning more accurately reflects
real world high level city planning where the city planners lay down guidelines
that the citizens and companies have to work within
but also because they wanted the game to have a progression
when you build a city up and it develops as circumstances change
Image having to upgrade hundreds of buildings manually as the city grows
not fun
But the real center of the controversy is about the exact level of control
we're going to have over the zones and the buildings.
Will we have the flexibility to accurately create our own artistic visions?
Well lets take a look at the mechanics and find out.
First let's look quickly at the Zoning Tools In Cities: Skylines there are three tools
for zoning
The Fill tool lets you zone areas with just one click.
which is handy for filling in things like city blocks
Then there's the Brush tool which allows you to 'paint' zoned areas
and there are two brush sizes for this tool small and large
One tip, the painted area must touch the road at some point or buildings won't spawn
Finally, the Marquee tool allows the player to click and drag an area
which allows you to zone huge areas in one go
very cool
Now let's look at the Zone Types Cities: Skylines features three main Zone
Types: Residential
Commercial and Workplaces
Each of these is divided into two types Low and High density for Residential and Commercial
and Industry and Offices for Workplaces
Note that when you start a city you only have access to
the two Low Density zones and Industry the other Zone Types have to be unlocked
Now you might think only having two densities is going to limit the variety
you can have in your city but, in addition to the densities,
the buildings themselves have development levels
but we'll talk more about building levels later on in this video
The Zone Types also seems quite simplistic Just Residential, Commercial, Industrial
but there is an additional level of control by virtue of Districts and District Policies
So if we take Industry you can, for example, create a district
which you do using a simple paint tool and then apply a Specialization Policy
to make that District specialize in industries like Forestry
or Farming
Oh yes, Cities: Skylines has Farms
Oh and if you want to talk about detail you can even name individual farm animals
Is there going to be a single city that doesn't have a pig named Bacon?
But the big question is just how finely we'll be able tune these areas
So will we be able to create a farming area with say, just fruit orchards?
Right now we'll have to wait and see but I'm sure we'll be covering
Districts and Policies in more detail later in this series
Now let's look at the individual Zone Types starting with Residential
Before we can talk about the details of Residential Zones it's important to understand
that residents in your city have a realistic life cycle
They are born, grow up and eventually die.
The game features several age demographics Kids, Teens, Young Adults, Adults and Elderly
and each age demographic needs to be catered for individually
This is best reflected in something like Education where Kids, Teens and Young Adults
need different types of schools
Residential Zones also have to serve the needs of the specific demographics of your city
Detached houses such as the ones in low density residential zones
appeal to older people and families with kids
whereas High density apartment buildings better serve the needs of younger adults
because of factors like cheaper living costs
Each zone type will appeal to different groups of citizens although
some overlapping does occurs
So Low Density residential buildings are favored by both families with young children
and also the Elderly while High Density buildings are preferred
by young adults but also families with no children
and I'm gonna come out right now and say that the whole life cycle and demographics thing
is fricken' sweetballs!
At last we've got a city builder that genuinely tries to simulate those kind of
real world elements
Low and High density Commercial buildings work in a similar way to Residential
with different demographic groups preferring to use one zone type over another
assuming that both types are available and can be accessed by good road connections
While most of the jobs are in the industrial and office zones
commercial zones also create jobs although their main function is to
accept goods deliveries from local industry and then sell those goods to local residents
The Industrial Zone is the first type of Workplace that you'll have access to
and they create factories of all sizes in line with the demand for jobs
Industrial efficiency is affected by two main factors
First, the quality of workforce ie how well educated the workers are
and secondly, their ability to distribute the goods they produce
so if all the stores and shops in the city have full storages
industry will stagnate until the issue is resolved by either
creating more commercial outlets or providing more connections to the outside
world
Offices unlock later in the game when you have workers who are
sufficiently educated to perform those jobs and though they tend to be
less profitable than heavy industry they have the benefit of creating no pollution
ans so can be placed much closer to residential areas
A quick word about mixed zoning and by that I mean having buildings
which are both residential and commercial like a shop with apartments above it
Now currently, the game only supports this at a visual level
So you will see these kinds of buildings in the game
but they will function as either residential or commercial but not both
However, it worth pointing out that the developers are working to provide
modding support so that this may be available at some point in the future
Fingers crossed
Each zoned building has a level and that level is determined by factors
such as education level, land value and the availability of services
and as the overall quality of life increases so does the building level
Lower level buildings require fewer services than those of a higher level
but they also have a greater negative impact on their surroundings
For example, Low level residential buildings generate
more garbage than higher level buildings
To attain the highest level your buildings will need the very best
services that a city can offer, plus good jobs, shopping and transport options
Commercial buildings work in a similar way to residential buildings
requiring that certain standards are met in order to level up
Level 1 buildings will be things like general stores
while level 3 will be more like designer shops think Regents Street, 5th Avenue or Rodeo
Drive and consequently they will require a more
affluent clientele (that's rich people)
and also better services
And while we're on the topic of Regents Street 5th Avenue and Rodeo Drive
An interesting test of the game would be to see if you can actually create areas
as diverse in terms of looks at those three streets are
So Developers, if you're listening and I have a sneaking suspicion they might
be
try sitting down and creating those 3 shopping streets
how close can you get?
Now it's worth mentioning that commercial and industrial
create jobs of differing education requirements within the same building
Almost every workplace has some level 0 jobs meaning for poorly educated workers
but in order to get maximum efficiency out of
a high level workplace you're going to need employees with high levels of education
Workplaces have similar leveling requirements to Commercial buildings
Land value and services are important to level them up
and educated workers will be needed once they are
But Industry in particular experiences dramatic changes when reaching the highest level
goods produced are of the very highest quality and pollution, which is the curse of lower
level factories, becomes but a distant memory
You'll be able to judge, at least broadly,
the demand for Residential, Commercial and Industrial zones
by looking at the RCI meter but I'm hoping to see a lot more in terms
of analytics as more of the game is revealed
A quick word about City Styles As things stand, the game currently only has
one style of relatively modern looking buildings BUT with the modding support
that will be available from day one I think we can soon expect that to change
with modders adding all kinds of awesome new assets
for us to pick and choose from
I'm personally looking forward to the inevitable Lord of the Rings mod
and I wouldn't rule out future expansions adding additional styles as well
So that's Zoning in Cities: Skylines and I think it's fair to say that
while a lot of what I've seen is truly mouth watering
I'd still like to see a lot more of the details especially when it comes to District Policies
and the precise level of control we'll have over
our zones
I'd like to thank Henkka for putting together the original Dev Diary
and you enjoyed this vid hit the like button or better still, leave me a comment
I'll see you for episode 3 where we'll be looking at Natural Resources