Conquering The Most Painful City Blocks in Cities Skylines 2! 

Since nobody said it but everyone felt it: the editing cuts in the beginning were very appropriate and entertaining 👏

I really like the ‘construction zone’ you made. Sadly the industrial assets so far mostly have tall chimneys spewing pollution rather than small manufacturing industries, that are historical features within cities.

I really like how the mixed zoned buildings fill in the little bit of extra space. I wish the other building would also do that. I'm surprised people aren't talking about this more.

I grew up in the inner city of Boston in the 80s, and when you plopped down those random industries and that stone mining block with the extended fence, it immediately brought me back to what I remember, walking around downtown Boston and my neighborhood of South Boston. It wasn’t uncommon to actually see a random smoke stack, obviously from a different era, mixed in amongst bodegas and mixed commercial buildings, right before turning the corner to a block of row houses - usually with a pub or two sitting at the corner. I absolutely loved how this turned out. Same thing happened last episode with how the train both grew and progressed, and I’m here for all of it. This, to me, is the real spirit of city building games like this. Cities look far more interesting when you understand how they grew initially, smaller city centers and villages that expanded outward, creating infrastructure that didn’t have the benefit of long term planning, but was intended to solve immediate issues. I love all of the Cities creators I follow, but so many of them think it’s the micro-detailing that makes their cities look realistic (which is why they’re all waiting patiently for mods). That’s not it, at all. Realism comes from those macro-details; the controlled chaos of odd road designs, intersections where it’s apparent that the six conjoined roads were all built in different decades and some city planner and contractor had to figure out how to make it work. This has been my favorite series so far. I cannot wait to see what you do with mods when the time comes, because without them you’ve already managed to absolutely nail the spirit and heart of a real, bustling downtown area.

Converting a rail line to a metro line sounds like a great idea

Would love more of these moments at 31:00 where you just stop still for a moment and let the game run at cool intersections. That way we get to see the city doing it’s thing for a bit. Love watching those moments 👐🏼

What a gem of an episode. I always love it when you go rogue with the road layout instead of a boring grid. This is one of the things that makes your cities different from the rest and also what makes them super realistic, even in a vanilla, really limited game at this stage. Also, don't worry about the length, I'm always down for a longer video of yours, it's not like you're spamming us with new videos every day, so we can enjoy it while it lasts!

4:47 that’s a spot for dealers if I ever saw one!

In Newark, NJ there’s a neighborhood named Ironbound, which is a pretty good name for your industrial island. Ironbound Island has a really nice alliteration to it

Love the little Stone industry triangle. Think it could do a lot towards the neighborhood's history/identity. An old industrial warehouse sector being converted into housing. Something like "slabtown" might fit

I wish that the devs tried to make buildings in more shapes to fill the space, rather than just rectangle. I'm not really sure how it would work, but some sort of procedural generation of buildings that can fill irregular spaces. There are a few really famous buildings that wedge between two roads, like the one on times square.

I still love it! The European layout is really thought out and well planned! Especially the big cities like London, Frankfurt, Moscow, and Athens. How can I not love this?

When you're doing the cinematics I would love to see some shots from the pedestrian level, just to see what it might be like to walk through the different neighborhoods

Love it! I've been playing since release and I always learn something new in your videos. Can't wait for 2 videos a week ;)

At about 18:00, why don't you disable right turns on the main road, because otherwise what's the point of a right turn slip lane? 😊

About the stone mining: if it really represents stone mining, it would be horrible. But you said that it represents a building site. And that, my man, is AMAZING!

You’re doing such a good job at building realistic city with just the base game and all your tips are really helpful (the mixed zoning one is game changer)

I love the idea of zoning the industry in with the other zone types, but I feel the smokestacks are a bit too much. Warehouses on the other hand, amazing.

Have you stopped posting?

i really loved how the little pizza sliced looked at around 16:40, reminds me of a lot of places in the UK, the mixed zoning little shops really added to it i think

You know how in the special industry, how you can drag out the land use. It would be cool to have that for zoning.

The SimCity music really is great!

I'm feeling Nickel Crossing for No Name 2. All these 5 way intersections.

For no name 2, Kimberly Hills sounds nice. I love your content, keep up the great work!

Honestly, this is one my favorite episodes you've made. Entertaining and contains a lot of creative solutions. As someone who "plays the game", I like seeing what you do when you don't have mods to brute force a solution. This video also really made me realize how much character you strip from your neighborhoods when you terraform everything perfectly flat.

Fun idea for the naming of city parts: some of the more famous names are inspired by Dutch places, because these places were created when the Dutch owned the city, then called New Amsterdam. Names like Brooklyn, for example, or Harlem, Broadway, etc. all come from Dutch names pronounced the English way: Breukelen, Haarlem, Bredeweg/Breedweg, etc. Maybe this can be seen in New Dollarton too?

Do you plan on continuing/finishing Oceania and Sunset City ? As much as CS2 has potential, I kinda miss the endless creativity you had with CS1 mods.

I love the design of your city! However for that triangle that you made all stone mining, I think a better use of that space would be a part of a university campus

That stone quarry you added at 35:50 reminds me of the cement plants you can find tucked away in CBDs due to all the construction that goes on. It's obviously not the same size but from my personal experience I'm specifically thinking of the cement plant at 120 Claisebrook Road in Perth's CBD. (Plus it serves a similar function in-game due to building upkeep requiring stone!)

Ok no one is going to see this but since you asked for name suggestions: I think instead of Staten Island you should call it "Oakmont"/"Oakmont Island". I got there because you kept calling it 'Stratton Island' in previous episodes and in reference to the Wolf of Wallstreet and Jordan Belforts firm "Stratton Oakmont" I just feel like that Oakmont Island would be a cool 'pop culture' reference to have with the New York theme that you have going atm. Especially since (at least in my head) Wallstreet, coporate finance and certain movies, namely the Wolf of Wallstreet, and the lifestyle portraited in them, are the first things that come to mind when thinking about New York without ever having been there outside of GTA IV :) Anyway keep up the good work! I have really been enyoing your content ever since Sunset City!

I appreciate the rock quarry you put in, reminds me of one of the asphalt quarries where I live, it's right in the middle of medium density housing area.

28:25 THE TORNADOOO🌪🌪🌪🌪🌪🌪

My absolute frustration with the zoning grid has led me embrace throwing a diagonal or big complex curve road through. Your videos have been a big inspiration! Thank you for that 😎

LETS GOOO LAWRENCEVILLE!!! PITTSBURGH BABY THATS WHAT WE LIKE TO SEEEEEEEE!!!! 🖤💛🖤💛

Outstanding tip with using pedestrian paths to sort out the zoning. That's been my biggest issue with the game so far; the inability to choose what roads you want the zoning to occur on.

love the chaotic energy in this one

36:05 it looks like a construction site, as you said. I think it's quite cool actually But the smoke stacks of the industrial buildings are a bit too much imo

since we're going for a New York region vibe, the old rail line might be best converted into a tram/light rail that serves as the backbone of the local transit network, with a metro system serving as a regional connection directly into the city and nearby regional hubs, before turning back. It would do a good job highlighting the issues with the disjointed New York City area transport network, while also providing a level of flexibility with ground-level transport in the game's current build that just isn't currently available with metros.

The rock quarry fits nicely. It reminds me of those places in most large NA cities where a large construction project has stagnated for decades.

Ngl, i was loving the little green area in 17:03. I can imagine a couple of convenience stores around, groups of youngsters hanging out. Maybe even a subway somewhere close by because it's sucha focal point

Hey! Lovely video, you really are able to get the most out of cities skylines 2 so far! Im really looking forward to see more. Concerning the naming of these cityparts I have somethig to contribute: At first I am going to make the assumption that New/Two Dollarton is a english colonial settlement. English colonies teded to imitate life in England, also including place names. (Willis, 2016) In places where a lot of migration from Europe headed to the previous local names were often outnumbered by names of english origin. This also holds true after colonies gained independence, where new settlement were often named after the original colonies in the region. The most popular names in the case of the United States were _Salem, Fairfield, Springfield, Concord, Newto(w)n, Chester, York, Richmond, Greenfield, Milton, Hanover, Farmington, Milford, Deerfield, Spencer, Dover, Lebanon, Oxford, Sharon, Plymouth, Windsor_ and many more. (Leighly, 1978) I think any of them would fit some parts of your city well. Lastly I want to point out that not all english colonies followed this pattern. Colonies in Africa and Asia saw a much more laissez-faire approach to urban planing and naming. (Bigon, 2009) Sources: Bigon L., Urban planning, colonial doctrines and street naming in French Dakar and British Lagos, c. 1850-1930, 2009. In: Urban History, 36(03), 426-448. Leighly J., TOWN NAMES OF COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND IN THE WEST, 1978. In: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 68(2), 233-248. Willis Ian, 'Just like England' a colonial settler landscape, 2016. In: ISAA Review, 15(2), 5-18.

Always enjoy the SC4 music. Great video.

i personally love all the detail.. keeps me engaged

looking great, really well done, you indeed did conquered the blocks

You could call no name Covington. I’m from Cincinnati and it remind me of the city across the river

I would like to see more old brick houses and businesses that’s what I love about NY

Keep up the great work. Love this series!

Watching this is so helpful and entertaining as someone who is still trying to figure out how to best use what the game developers have given us so far.

Another great video as always, just got a suggestion regarding the train line near the new large junction with the bridge and stone mine, where u could extend the other half of the double track up to the bridge to make it into a small siding.

Y'know.... When there are significant construction plans for a neighborhood, it's not that uncommon to establish a local concrete yard to cut down on mixer truck traffic. Having driven mixer trucks, I can say that the structures for the rock quarry are pretty similar. Yes, the neighbors are likely to complain about the noise and dust, but it fits your ongoing narrative even better than the awkward triangle where you placed it.

Said it before but if you want further examples of roads that are all over the place, check out Boston, Cambridge and Somerville in Massachusetts - we got some real funky intersections.

I think the best name would be just "New Dollar". It's simple but still honours the original intent. Plus it feels like an almost realistic name for an American city, like out of Red Dead Redemption or something.

i like how kind of vast & unique this city looks doe.

This was coll. But a city make of Hexagons blocks much more amazing

Terraforming some hills into the construction site to make it like rubble piles may help 👍🏻

The new area could be called Durham- I got this idea from the UK which has a small city with the same name. It's an old industrial city which is slowly starting to crawl into the 2020s with new infrastructure being built. This place reminds me of it as it seems quite decripid with the still-in-operation industry you have added. Similarly, the real life Durham is quite dingy due to a lack of investment in the North due to the North-South divide.

I could watch you detailing for hours

I think to make it more realistic, you should put agriculture farms/pig farms/grazing grounds on all the empty land on the island. It's very normal that the city expands into these animal farms first.

For what it's worth I get wanting to edit them down shorter, but I really think that a lot of what you were doing was experimenting with different ways to get the engine to do what you wanted (esp. with zoning) and just showing you going through the process was helpful. A lot of it you kind of just have to see someone fiddle with to understand how to get it to work the way you want. Anyways, I enjoyed it!

As someone who lives in a industrial zone, I do hope you keep on sprinkling areas with some industrial buildings.

2 VIDEOS A WEEK?! OMG CAN'T WAITT

Snoozy Hill for "No name 2" :D !!. Love your work mate! very entertaining!

"Pretty peachy down here." CASUALLY STARES AT TORNADO-

Maybe you could is stead of stone mining do livestock farming in the triangle because it dousn't need fertile land. I also think it had a nicer main building and texture for the fields. Hope you see this and I can't wait for the next part of the series.

Around 21:15, I noticed that you used the bulldoze tool when removing a lot of trees. You can delete multiple trees with the Tree Brush by selecting Multiple Trees Tool Mode and disabling same trees (the one with Square Icon) in Snapping.

I love the detailed zoneing! Though I can see how it would quickly devolve . GL try to take it down a notch :P

SimCity 2013 OST do be the city building OST, so good!

I love how industry was added in little pockets at the end of the video. I do this in my city too, I just wish there was more control over what type of industry spawned. I don’t want smoke stacks around my residential and commercial areas. I want to keep that for the industry parks on the outskirts of town.

10:00 A roundabout? In America? Are you crazy? Half of them would drive straight through it! 😂

No Name 1 should be named The Station, in memoriam to all the victims of The Station nightclub fire

Interesting you brought up converting rail lines into metro... In Jersey city, that's exactly what they did! They converted old freight lines into a N-S light rail metro line that runs from North Bergen into Bayonne!

The little section that you liked with the smokestack building, as a nod to Bergen, you could call it something like Bergdale or Berg Dale; as it forms half of a man-made valley to the train line. Also happens to be my name. But.. you do you - I'm sure you'll choose a great name. In terms of the video length - I like the longer form, it feels like you complete more. It seems like you're starting the episode with an intention, I think worrying too much about the timeline might force you to rush decisions, and I don't get that vibe you'd be happy to not let perfection being the enemy of "good". City Planner Plays (Phil) goes pretty hard on the video planning micro and testing before recording - this niche has been filled, maybe you could take some inspiration but still have your organic, artist vibe. Working with tools that you have at your disposal in vanilla CS2, it's tough to get what you're after, and showing that struggle makes you relatable. Getting two videos a week would be great, I wouldn't be upset with two 40+ minute videos - but if two shorter videos is truly your goal, then maybe make your video goals smaller. Perhaps write the goal down, then tasks required for that goal then get a feel if it's going to be too long or not. If that feels a bit to micro to you, then just go with your normal swagger - I'm certainly down with it, but if the enemy for you is the editing time on long recordings, then just expanding on your recording intention with sub-tasks before recording might result a slightly shorter more focused raw recording. I also have no idea what I'm talking about.

altough i defintely love the video i also love seeing the dumbells in the background of the facecam :)

Jefferson Park Chicago is like this. I hate every minute of it. I've never made so many 340 degree turns in all my life

Name suggestion for the second skyline area: Stavanger. Since the road layout is inspired by Bergen in NJ which is named after Bergen in Norway, this area also might be named after a Norwegian city. Stavanger is known as the oil capital of Norway (wiki says so), so you could place some oil refineries nearby to give a little nod to that.

There are few New Jersey Transit light rail lines that are a mix of modern light rail, old streetcar paths, and subway terminals.

Love the SimCity Music !!

loved the meta opening xD

I think that No Name 2 could be something like Nickel Bank (as in the riverbank)or Nickelson

You know, I think I could listen to SIM City 4 music for the rest of my days

The “construction site” reminds me of Boston Sand & Gravel which is stuffed between the railroad tracks and interstate right before you get into the North End of Boston

The layout of No name 2 reminds me of the Kensington/ Fishtown section of Philadelphia. Those could be a good name for the city. Or you could call it Richmond, after a street in that neighborhood, playing into the money inspo names.

Done a quick scroll and haven't seen anything mentioning "developer mode". If you have already seen comments on it, sorry for the skipping record in the jukebox but googling "Cities Skylines 2 Developer Mode, (for instructions) and enabling it of course, gives you a lot of game altering stuff but the main kick for the detailers is the add objects menu. I believe the "Surfaces" in that menu will really help you fill those gaps you might wish were filled in better. It's like surface painter but with nodes..surface nodes? idk. Hope it helps 🚕

It might make sense to play a little bit of whack-a-mole with the industry in the city to get fewer/no smoke-stacks next to residential buildings, otherwise you're going to have a big pollution problem. Also, watch out with larger industrial buildings, eventually you may have a ground pollution problem.

One of the things I was really hoping for in CS2 was smarter zoning procedures- so that curved roads and non-90deg blocks would fill in more realistically. The need for rectangular blocks of exact grid dimensions seems like something that needed to be overhauled 😢

For one of the names you could use Hersheyville after Hershey Pennsylvania.

Actually, I really like the small plots of industrial you placed in that city... Makes me think the game needs a separation of industrial zones into heavy industry (what it is now, heavy pollution, air pollution) and light industry: lighter ground pollution, no air pollution, so things like mechanics, scrap yards, all the little gross bits you still expect to see in the middle of a developed city. Maybe even gas stations should move there from commercial

Pockets of industry are awesome

You’ve got to call the area behind New Dimesburg “Nickleback”.

You can actually use the foliage brush tool, select the button next to snapping to allow all types of foliage you can right click to remove all trees and bushes!

with all the advancements they seem to have made to core mechanics in CS2 its surprising to see zoning is still locked to this 90degree grid system

The smoking factory next to the buildings reminds me of my home town and living area where there are reserve powerplants that burn oil for electricity and heat if there is a malfunction in the power grid or deficiency in power.

going with the dollar/currency theme, I propose No Name 2 be called "Maloti". Maloti is the mountains in the Kingdom of Lesotho and the name of the currency there (The currency there is called "Loti" as is the mountain, but the plural of Loti is Maloti ). Since No Name 2 is on a hill, I think it would be fitting. (Edited for self fact checking)

Poplars can fit in pretty much anywhere and it looks like spruce

Love it.

Surely there is a way for the devs to add corner buildings that can fit nicely in corners other than right angles, like some procedural building that has a different angle depending on the road layout, it just looks awful having these judge stupid gaps if the corner isn’t perfectly 90°.

For a NYC inspired build I really wish we got wilder building shapes, ones with curves or those crazy angles akin to the Flatiron but we still have to wait for the equivalent Steam Workshop and a new PO mod 😢

Maybe instead of the Stone mining you can use the space for a bus Depot or taxi or pedrstrian bridge across to the university...

Your city truly looks more realistic compared to other online videos on Cities: Skylines 2

With industry, I agree with putting some warehouse like ones in the city, but the chimneys are a no for me