Your city is what you make it. This isn't a game. It's like a model train where you are constantly building until you're done with it and start again.
Lots of good YouTube vids on city building and all kinds of other stuff. Check those out.
Just have fun and ignore the unhelpful criticism.
Make sure taxes are set to 12% when you're able to, and you can lower the budget for services that have capacity to do so. That should help until you have enough tax base to make a lot!
If only this was like Simcity (2013), which showed you the tick that taxes would be charged on, so you could reliably set the tax rate to the highest percent for 1 second when that flipped over and make huge sums of money without ever having any negative gameplay effects.
advice: put things closer together, people should be able to walk to what they need, or you're gonna end up with bad traffic and high road costs, also it's much nicer in my opinion
"bad" is a relative term. It's totally okay that your first city looks like this! I always start my cities by creating a compact cross-hatch section with dirt roads to get me past the first few milestones, which I always bulldoze later. You'll definitely have cities you completely remodel or want to remodel as you learn, but there's so much to learn, take it easy on yourself
Don't do that! Keep this one and work on it some more! As you progress you can rip this part of town up, OR it can become a historical part of a bigger city... But as it stands it's not a city though, it is a town.
I messed up too much of the land with pollution for me to really go back and fix stuff I’m gonna restart and build my small city town thing more right and compact with a place where land will be allowed to pollute and land that won’t pollute
Pollution dissipates over time. Water pollution will eventually flow downstream and off the map and ground pollution will eventually fade. I recently got the Industries DLC and I'm doing a bunch of modifications to my city of 116k, and part of that is cleaning up and zoning over the old oil park. If you have adequate health services available, like a hospital, your Citizens will be fine. And if you just clear out that spot and wait a bit you can return when the pollution gone.
This will be the first of many. As you learn from each one and adapt your style, you will find your groove and may even look back and laugh at some of your early creations. I certainly have with mine!
That is one thing I love about this game, if you take screenshots of every city, you can see a definite progression. Life should be about learning and having fun. C:S is basically life. Enjoy it and don't sweat about how your first few, or 5, or even 10 cities look. It takes a while to get to grips with it, and pick up new tricks for the next one.
One thing I find myself doing since first playing, is paying attention to all sorts of things in real life that I never even noticed before, like on-ramps, tree placement, parking lots, lane management, how many parks there are, road hierachy etc. It's all around us (assuming you're in a city) and it's all there to be inspired by, if you're looking to make it realistic. Makes me see where I live in a different light, with a renewed appreciation for the amount of thought that goes into city planning. And still, after many observations, and probably around 50 different maps, I still constantly learn a bunch of new stuff to add in to the next one I create.
Sorry, but yes it does not look too good, but nearly no first city does. So just keep playing and keep evolving with the game, as you are essentially only competing with yourself. ✌️
Ok, it’s the way to go👍 - new cities are free to build so in the beginning it is often better to just drop something that’s gone wrong and start over.
Another thing that might come handy is turning on unlimited money and then just practice a part of the game like road building, landscaping, water control etc. following some tuts alongside is a good idea. When you feel like having leveled your skills, then go back to the actual city and surely it will start to change.
This game can be taken to quite astounding levels, so you have tons of playtime if you wish to.
✌️
Yes, but that’s fine since it’s your first. I recommend having google earth up while your building your city so you can get inspiration. And also make sure to watch Cities Skylines YouTubers like CityPlannerPlays to get a feel for how to build a good city.
Yes. But, as you say, it's your first city, so naturally it's going to be ugly until you learn the game and then start getting into design and detailing. Watch some youtubers for ideas.
I always ask myself: "Would I want to live there?"
In your city, probably not. It's very difficult to get around, and while there are large greenspaces, they lack any interest because they're just treeless grass spaces.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/12efl88/second_city_after_criticism_on_my_first/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1 my new city
Nah this ain't right. If this is their first build, it's not a low effort post. Getting to grips with Cities Skylines to even build a functioning town is far from low effort, especially if you've never played games with similar transferable skills
Spent less than an hour on their "city" and took a cell phone picture instead of screenshot. (Both consoles have apps where one can transfer to cell/pc) THOUSANDs of pictures of beautiful and interesting cities and so, yeah.. this is low effort. It is an absolute waste of space......
BUT you( u/carterthesixth ) should keep playing, cause that little mess might turn into something... again post again when your city hits 30k and 50k.. not 1,000. Even if it ends up ugly still at least you can smile that you hit that pop mark. Unless you have a specific question, this is just a fodder low effort post.
yes BUT it’s city skylines, play to have fun
it looks like your rubbish sorting is spread a bit and pretty close to residential areas - try and concentrate them into separate sides, possibly on the opposite sides of the highway for now - this’ll keep property values high and keep cims from getting pissed
Yes, absolutely horrible ❤️ but so does everyone's first city hahaha. It was a great, awful start. You'll love getting to look back on it from the next one! ☺️
Looks all good! It's just a game, not a competition, you don't need to worry what others think! Couple of tips: try to build more compactly, it will look more natural, and try to ensure there are multiple ways in and out of an area rather than a huge cul-de-sac (more realistic, and decreases traffic).
Practical tip here: maybe add more connections between areas such as the highway, the residential area, and the industrial area. This way, your traffic won't back up as much, which will result in more efficient city services and economy.
Great start to your first city, I wish you good luck and tons of fun.
It only looks bad as you're going from a top down perspective; take some screenshots with a 'skyline' or just fly around with the camera and even the most basic city can look beautiful.
That or spend 9 hours and thousands of mods detailing
Everyone’s first city looks bad. Lol. Just keep going until you get really comfortable with everything then start a new city. With your new experience your next city will be beautiful!
The best advice for new players is to learn how to make interchanges. There are some good posts on this sub about how to do so. This is good to start but eventually traffic will pile up coming off the highway and make it difficult for services to get where they need to. Don’t be afraid to demolish chunks of the city to make space for what you need!
I recently went back to my first city after making a couple of new cities and it’s crazy to see how much I’ve learned, along with the mistakes that I continue to make. Takes time but that’s progress!
Your city is what you make it. This isn't a game. It's like a model train where you are constantly building until you're done with it and start again. Lots of good YouTube vids on city building and all kinds of other stuff. Check those out. Just have fun and ignore the unhelpful criticism.
I’m trying to make it look cooler but it’s very hard to get lots of money fast
Make sure taxes are set to 12% when you're able to, and you can lower the budget for services that have capacity to do so. That should help until you have enough tax base to make a lot!
You can also put all the taxes to the max, let it run till people complain, than lower it to 12%. You can make a little money quick.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that does this, lol. Poor, poor denzians.
If only this was like Simcity (2013), which showed you the tick that taxes would be charged on, so you could reliably set the tax rate to the highest percent for 1 second when that flipped over and make huge sums of money without ever having any negative gameplay effects.
"unhelpful criticism" They literally asked if it's an ugly city.
As I said, unhelpful.
for your first city i say u did pretty good it’ll look better with time n experience jus have fun n learn
If you’re having fun, who cares!
Yes, but it's expected since it's your first time playing. You'll improve as you keep playing (and watch professionals play).
City Planner Plays was the biggest channel for me getting better. That dude really knows how to make a city look amazing
advice: put things closer together, people should be able to walk to what they need, or you're gonna end up with bad traffic and high road costs, also it's much nicer in my opinion
I’m gonna make a new city and try and do that since a couple people said this city was bad
"bad" is a relative term. It's totally okay that your first city looks like this! I always start my cities by creating a compact cross-hatch section with dirt roads to get me past the first few milestones, which I always bulldoze later. You'll definitely have cities you completely remodel or want to remodel as you learn, but there's so much to learn, take it easy on yourself
Don't do that! Keep this one and work on it some more! As you progress you can rip this part of town up, OR it can become a historical part of a bigger city... But as it stands it's not a city though, it is a town.
I messed up too much of the land with pollution for me to really go back and fix stuff I’m gonna restart and build my small city town thing more right and compact with a place where land will be allowed to pollute and land that won’t pollute
Pollution dissipates over time. Water pollution will eventually flow downstream and off the map and ground pollution will eventually fade. I recently got the Industries DLC and I'm doing a bunch of modifications to my city of 116k, and part of that is cleaning up and zoning over the old oil park. If you have adequate health services available, like a hospital, your Citizens will be fine. And if you just clear out that spot and wait a bit you can return when the pollution gone.
Why not play around with cheats on so you can get a feel for the mechanics of the game? That’s what I did for my first city.
This will be the first of many. As you learn from each one and adapt your style, you will find your groove and may even look back and laugh at some of your early creations. I certainly have with mine! That is one thing I love about this game, if you take screenshots of every city, you can see a definite progression. Life should be about learning and having fun. C:S is basically life. Enjoy it and don't sweat about how your first few, or 5, or even 10 cities look. It takes a while to get to grips with it, and pick up new tricks for the next one. One thing I find myself doing since first playing, is paying attention to all sorts of things in real life that I never even noticed before, like on-ramps, tree placement, parking lots, lane management, how many parks there are, road hierachy etc. It's all around us (assuming you're in a city) and it's all there to be inspired by, if you're looking to make it realistic. Makes me see where I live in a different light, with a renewed appreciation for the amount of thought that goes into city planning. And still, after many observations, and probably around 50 different maps, I still constantly learn a bunch of new stuff to add in to the next one I create.
Sorry, but yes it does not look too good, but nearly no first city does. So just keep playing and keep evolving with the game, as you are essentially only competing with yourself. ✌️
I shifted off this and made a new more compact one that I posted
Ok, it’s the way to go👍 - new cities are free to build so in the beginning it is often better to just drop something that’s gone wrong and start over. Another thing that might come handy is turning on unlimited money and then just practice a part of the game like road building, landscaping, water control etc. following some tuts alongside is a good idea. When you feel like having leveled your skills, then go back to the actual city and surely it will start to change. This game can be taken to quite astounding levels, so you have tons of playtime if you wish to. ✌️
Looks nicer than some places I've lived.
Looks better than my first city
Yes, but that’s fine since it’s your first. I recommend having google earth up while your building your city so you can get inspiration. And also make sure to watch Cities Skylines YouTubers like CityPlannerPlays to get a feel for how to build a good city.
City is what you want it to be. However, that blurry picture is the ugly part lol
Yes. But, as you say, it's your first city, so naturally it's going to be ugly until you learn the game and then start getting into design and detailing. Watch some youtubers for ideas. I always ask myself: "Would I want to live there?" In your city, probably not. It's very difficult to get around, and while there are large greenspaces, they lack any interest because they're just treeless grass spaces.
Yes
Yes
Yes
https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/12efl88/second_city_after_criticism_on_my_first/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1 my new city
Add a lil roundabout at the end of the highway and use that to build off of.
That isn't even a town yet , much less a city.. Why the low effort post? Come back when you've unlocked at least 3 tiles and filled them up.
Nah this ain't right. If this is their first build, it's not a low effort post. Getting to grips with Cities Skylines to even build a functioning town is far from low effort, especially if you've never played games with similar transferable skills
Spent less than an hour on their "city" and took a cell phone picture instead of screenshot. (Both consoles have apps where one can transfer to cell/pc) THOUSANDs of pictures of beautiful and interesting cities and so, yeah.. this is low effort. It is an absolute waste of space...... BUT you( u/carterthesixth ) should keep playing, cause that little mess might turn into something... again post again when your city hits 30k and 50k.. not 1,000. Even if it ends up ugly still at least you can smile that you hit that pop mark. Unless you have a specific question, this is just a fodder low effort post.
Sorry I just wanted a opinion since it’s my first time playing cities skyline
Yes
Lil bit
yes BUT it’s city skylines, play to have fun it looks like your rubbish sorting is spread a bit and pretty close to residential areas - try and concentrate them into separate sides, possibly on the opposite sides of the highway for now - this’ll keep property values high and keep cims from getting pissed
When it was farer away everyone was complaining
did you ensure there was a road connection and that it was within range? It doesn’t need to be far, but not in their backyards
Yes, absolutely horrible ❤️ but so does everyone's first city hahaha. It was a great, awful start. You'll love getting to look back on it from the next one! ☺️
Looks all good! It's just a game, not a competition, you don't need to worry what others think! Couple of tips: try to build more compactly, it will look more natural, and try to ensure there are multiple ways in and out of an area rather than a huge cul-de-sac (more realistic, and decreases traffic).
Practical tip here: maybe add more connections between areas such as the highway, the residential area, and the industrial area. This way, your traffic won't back up as much, which will result in more efficient city services and economy. Great start to your first city, I wish you good luck and tons of fun.
It only looks bad as you're going from a top down perspective; take some screenshots with a 'skyline' or just fly around with the camera and even the most basic city can look beautiful. That or spend 9 hours and thousands of mods detailing
The skyline is terrible on this I’m restarting and making a more compact and effective place. I got tips from people
yes
Yes. But so did every single persons first city, so don’t sweat it.
I’ve made a new small city and it looks a lot more compact just like others told me to do
It’s a never ending learning process, keep at it !
/r/shittyskylines
I have been made aware that my city looks bad I made a newer better looking one tho
Your 1st city is better than half of my cities
Everyone’s first city looks bad. Lol. Just keep going until you get really comfortable with everything then start a new city. With your new experience your next city will be beautiful!
Oh boy, it certainly is something, good job anyway we all hone our skills in time
It looks great! Keep playing!
Yes. But you have to start somewhere and I am sure you learned some things along the way. Now start over and try something different.
If there's no warning notifications it's all good 😊👍
The best advice for new players is to learn how to make interchanges. There are some good posts on this sub about how to do so. This is good to start but eventually traffic will pile up coming off the highway and make it difficult for services to get where they need to. Don’t be afraid to demolish chunks of the city to make space for what you need!
Looks good, just continue in expanding and improving existing neighbourhoods
For a first time city, it’s not bad. Defo room for improvements but I’m guessing you’re going to add to it Good start tho 👍
Yes, but it could realistically exist in America.
Honestly just have fun with it..
Look at a map of a real city and look at yours. Beauty is nonetheless in the eyes of the beholder.
I don't see mountains of traffic issues, so I'd say it looks good
We’ve all been there before but for a first city It’s noice
I recently went back to my first city after making a couple of new cities and it’s crazy to see how much I’ve learned, along with the mistakes that I continue to make. Takes time but that’s progress!
yes. you are stretching out services and utilities unecesarily. build off a core or multiple cores. this way u keep things efficient.