Good evening, Kibitzers. I’ve been preoccupied lately, to the point where I’m drawing a blank on diary topics. I’ve been busy with classes, grading, writing, and the usual stuff. And then...some other stuff, too. I thought I’d write a little tonight about my latest obsession—and method of escapism. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve started playing the game Cities: Skylines, and to say that I’m addicted might be a bit of an understatement.
I was actually introduced to Cities: Skylines here on Daily Kos, when Wisper wrote about it back in January 2016 (doesn’t that seem like a fucking lifetime ago?). Check out Wisper’s diary for more on the game.
As soon as I saw the game, I knew I needed to find a way to play it. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been obsessed with city-building simulation games. I played almost every game in the Sim City franchise, and I only stopped when I developed my equally intense obsession with The Sims (I’m all about the simulation games, as you can tell). But there were always limitations to the Sim City games—even as a kid, I envisioned the kind of city-building game I’d like to play, which far exceeded the technological capabilities of the early games. Cities: Skylines is pretty much the game I dreamed about way back then, and I’d love to travel back in time and show the above game trailer to young Chrislove. We’ve come a very long way since Sim City 2000, which is the first city-building game I played:
Recently, I bought a new MSI gaming laptop with the primary intention of playing The Sims 4 more seamlessly. My MacBook could play the game, but since I have all of the expansion packs, it was getting very laggy. I went with a pretty high-powered laptop because I was also leaving open the possibility of playing other games—such as Cities: Skylines, which would definitely not play on my MacBook. After a few days of using the new laptop to play The Sims 4, I decided to download Cities: Skylines and give it a try. Let’s just say that I haven’t touched The Sims since—nor have I slept very much. In all, I’ve spent over 30 hours on the game so far, which given my schedule and workload in real life, is quite ridiculous. But far from being an impediment to living my life, Cities: Skylines has provided a much-needed creative outlet and form of escapism. There is no Trump in my city simulation, nor is there primary pie-fighting. (There is traffic, though—more on that later.)
So, about the game, if you’re interested (if you’re not, see you in the comments). When you first start the game, you choose where you want to build your city from a diverse variety of maps. You then name your city, and you are given a square of land (you can purchase more squares later to expand your city) with a highway connection to the outside world. What happens after that is completely up to you. I’ve always had a fondness for riverside cities surrounded by mountains, so I chose a map with a river running through the middle of it with mountains on all sides. I’m always indecisive when it comes to naming my cities, so I usually go with female names that sound like they could also be city names—typically names of important women in my life. I named this city Sharon, after my mom (and after the city in Pennsylvania).
The first order of business is building a road from the highway connection. Then, you need to decide how you’re going to power your city (coal is really the only viable option early in the game, but I’m pleased to say that Sharon is now almost completely solar-powered). You also need to build water and sewage pumps and lay down pipes. The last thing you need to do after establishing your electrical and water infrastructure is create residential, commercial, and industrial zoning (only low-density at first, but high-density residential and commercial will be available later). Here is Sharon before people started moving in:
This is before I figured out how to take good screenshots, so you can see all of the game controls.
And here is Sharon after reaching a population of 1,000:
Industrial zone not pictured—something you learn pretty quickly is that placing industry too close to the main part of the city will result in terrible pollution levels (no duh).
“Downtown” Sharon
Over time, Sharon continued to grow pretty naturally, following the contours of the river. At population 3,000:
Downtown Sharon looking more “downtown-y.”
The thing that makes Cities: Skylines so much fun (and realistic) is that you can’t plan too much. As your city grows—just as in real life—it will go through growing pains, and you’ll have to figure out how to deal with problems. That’s all part of the experience. Traffic will increase (oh lordy will traffic increase), pollution may become more of an issue, and there will be more demand for new residential, commercial, and industrial zones. Or, as was the case in Sharon, maybe your coal plants will catch on fire:
This disaster was one for the Sharon history books. This is when I decided to start transitioning to cleaner energy.
Sharon continued to grow, and I tried my best to get away from the standard grid street layout when I could. I’ve watched a lot of Cities: Skylines videos on YouTube, and you can always tell the difference between American and non-American players based on whether they revert to the boring grid layout. I can’t help it, as you can see. Anyway, looking back at early screenshots, the city’s growth is really something to behold. That is one of my favorite parts of city-building simulation games—looking at change over time.
This is when I figured out that I could take screenshots without the game controls getting in the way.
Looking a lot more like a real downtown.
This is only scratching the surface. There is a lot more to the gameplay than just watching the city grow. As “mayor,” you can control the budget, taxation levels, and various other policies (including the legalization of weed—it’s legal in Sharon, by the way). You’re also responsible for things that seem so basic you don’t even realize you have to deal with them until your citizens remind you—such as garbage collection and building cemeteries (if you don’t, the dead will literally rot where they are). There is an overwhelming number of tools to view general happiness levels across the city, land values, traffic levels and patterns, education levels, health, fire safety, crime rates, the list goes on and on. All of the above items are influenced by decisions you make, from education policies to where you decide to place fire and police stations to how you design the city’s roads. There are natural resources you can allow industry to exploit, such as oil, ore, and forests. Oh, and Cities: Skylines is so detailed that it actually tracks every single individual citizen—you can click on a person in the city, and it will tell you who they are, where they work, how educated they are, etc. The amount of omniscient control you have over the city is both incredible and aggravating at times. There is a lot to know, and you learn as you go—and you will fuck up, many times. Again, part of the fun (or frustration) is trying to fix problems as they occur. As irritating as the game can be (I’ve screamed obscenities at my laptop many times while playing), there is really no “game over” fuckup—you can always fix it. Sometimes you just have to go to bed and tackle it in the morning.
Traffic belongs in a category all by itself. Traffic in Cities: Skylines is the bane of my fucking existence. I think it would be accurate to say that I spend about 75 percent of my gameplay time trying to figure out how to make traffic flow more efficiently. And it only gets worse as your city grows, particularly in the commercial and industrial areas. I’ve built train lines, bus lines, roundabouts, spaghetti junction interchanges, the list goes on—and traffic just keeps getting worse. I think about it so much that when I’m sitting in Houston traffic, all I can think about is how I would try to fix it if I were playing Cities: Skylines.
Sharon’s first roundabout—the first of several.
I do love a good roundabout.
This kind of a traffic backup makes my blood pressure rise, especially when the dumbfucks insist on only using one of three lanes.
I thought I was being clever by building a bus route over a cloverleaf intersection, leading directly into the industrial area. This did fuck-all to reduce traffic.
Traffic be damned, Sharon continues to grow. This is the last screenshot I took from the air, at population 45,000 (which, in Cities: Skylines terms, is a pretty large city):
Downtown is becoming a little more impressive:
I love how “alive” the city is when you zoom in.
This is a new entertainment/nightlife district I added downtown that I’ve called the “Hamilton District.” I love how it looks at night.
I’ve also started to expand into the nearby hillsides. There is now a separate community on the outskirts that I’ve named “Holly Hills.” It even has its own downtown and industrial areas, so it almost functions as a separate city. Aside from downtown, this is my favorite part of Sharon, especially for its great views of the main city—this is where I would live.
A nighttime view from the highest point of Holly Hills. That large house on the curve would be mine.
Sharon has its share of problems, but the city has come a long way in the 30-plus hours I’ve spent building it. One last nighttime overhead view (I love the nighttime views in the game):
So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. I’m still in the process of learning, and I have a long, long way to go. Now I’m itching to get back to it. I have a few ideas for traffic that almost certainly won’t work, but I have to try.
If you’re interested, here is a tour of a massive Cities: Skylines city from somebody much more talented than me:
What do you want to kibitz about tonight?