My tram-tastic experiment continues. Last time I built up Tramtown into a small city, and had begun the process of bringing everyone together with trams. My plans at the end of the last session were to build a large new residential area on the north bank of the river, to construct a second tram bridge and tram lines to allow people to travel around the whole city with only trams, and to ban cars from all commercial and industrial zones. Step one is establishing the new residential area. I want this new residential area to be right up against the water, and to that end I need to flatten enough ground to have a good collection of houses near the waterfront. Terraforming tools were added in a patch, fairly recently I believe, and this is my first time experimenting with them. It goes very well! Usually when given landscape sculpting tools like this, I'll end up with some really strange results that just don't look quite natural - a sort of uncanny valley effect for terrain. In addition, the slight strangeness usually also messes up whatever I try to build on top, with buildings ending up at different heights and looking odd. This doesn't happen with the Cities: Skylines tools, and through use of the level tool (where you pick a height, and then paint to adjust the land to match your chosen height) I create a pleasant looking space for a riverside neighbourhood. Over the course of the work, I spend more than 30,000 game currency - but for a somewhat mature city that's not too much; my income is about 3,300 per week, which in real terms means that I'll make enough money back for the next stage of terraforming in the time I spend considering what that next stage should involve. It's very relaxing to just sit and watch daily life in your city, and doing so now and then on the slowest speed setting generally gives me more than enough money for expansion. The new neighbourhood (Living Sector 3) is to the west of the bridge, which means a whole lot of infrastructure work. I start with the fun part, building a new tram bridge from the industrial zone. The line will connect Living Sector 3 with the industrial zone and the smaller commercial area to the south (this also means that it shares a few stops with the main line from Living Sector 1). After that, I decide to completely rework the clumsy motorway connections on the north side of the river - instead of two different sets of on/off ramps, both Living Sector 2 and the northern commercial zone will use the same ramps. After that, I add a few more ramps to connect Living Sector 3. The final stage is constructing a new tram depot and lines to serve Living Sector 3. Rather than a single tram line going all the way to the industrial zone, there is an internal line which will take people to a transfer stop where they can get another tram to the industrial zone. I build one more tram line across the motorway so the people of Living Sector 3 can access the northern commercial zone, and that completes a full loop of the city. You can now travel to any quarter of the city using only trams (and perhaps a short walk between stops when switching lines). Next time, I'll be utilizing my recently unlocked power to zone high density residential and commercial to pack more people into my zones, and test how well the tram lines function with a heavier load. I also intend to complete the process of banning cars from the industrial zone, since everyone can get there by tram now.
1 Comment
20/8/2022 05:11:30 pm
hanks for sharing the article, and more importantly, your personal experience mindfudclly using our emotions as data about our inner state and knowing when it’s better to de-escalate by taking a time out are great tools. Appreciate you reading and sharing your story since I can certainly relate and I think others can to
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What's All this then?I like making and writing about PC games - mostly strategy games. Expect after action reports, thoughts about design and gameplay, and maybe even a few prototypes. Archives
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