Less is MORE! - Starting a Realistic City in Cities Skylines 

This is exactly what I’ve been wanting for so long! I’ve always found starting a city from massive highways systems hardly conducive to realistic city/town growth. Thanks Yumbl!!

This is what City Planner Plays did with Clearwater County. He modified the map before starting to make just a single highway through the map he built on over time, adding highways as he added cities to the map.

The same goes for a town's starting economy. In the game, we always have to build factories at the start of the game, when in reality, towns and villages grew around farming, fishing and forestry, later adding mining. and so on. Always a bit of an immersion-breaker for me.

Your excitement is contagious. Like so many, I get stuck in a "build the population so high that your computer strains to produce 10 FPS" mode. Little River is such a great idea! And C:S has developed in such a way that it's totally possible to create a town like Lancaster, and to enjoy its growth without concentrating on the population number as the end game. Thank you so much for this idea! I'll be watching Little River!

i feel like the mod Realistic Population 2 would work really well here. It essentially adjusts the demand for zoning and other needs to more realistically simulate a population. I currently play with it in my maximum effientcy industry area builds to give me more of a challenge lol. Love the video!

This is not Cities: Skyline! This is poetry! When it is best. The most northern quarter of Sweden had no road network at all 1930. The large Ore mines up there had just a single track railway to rely on. What you present here is a nice challenge for the path finder Thank U🤠🤠

This is so fun. Whenever I start a city I destroy the highway connection and put a dirt road down, upgrading as I grow. It's cool to see that approach on RU-vid instead of the highway start

You hit the nail on the head with this one. I have been wanting to see this for a long time now and I'm hoping you are able to contact the developer of the map. I know it's called "CITIES Skylines", but in my opinion, it just looks more realistic creating small towns and farms. Sometimes they grow and become big cities, but not always. I love this idea.

Thanks, this is exactly what I'm looking for. I would love to see more modified maps like this. I like building small towns and get bored and/or overwhelmed when they get too big. I would also like to see maps that are conducive to building multiple small towns that are self-contained but connected. P.S. Lancaster looks awesome. Yay for Main Streets!

This. So much this. The hardest part for me when I want to find a nice map on the workshop are all the overbuilt highways for what's essentially just a field. And granted, yes they are created wonderfully and there's been a lot of time put into them, but that upfront investment means you also have to match it, meaning you kinda have to build a big butt of a metropolis. I played on a really nice rural map from the UK countryside at one point, sadly it wasn't quite the setting I was going for. However, it gave me the chance to give some history and leftovers to my road system, it was so hecking great! One thing I really do recommend is finding historical satellite imagery of the area you wanna imitate, then stepping back and forward in time, seeing what small changes get made and trying to figure out why. Was there too much traffic? Did the zoning change? Was it diverted to get closer to a highway? The tiny pockets of roads that used to connect are also great places to add in bike infrastructure :3

I one time started a "city" in City Skylines, where instead of making a full big metropolitan area, I started with a series of small towns in different areas on the map. Then as I grew them up, I started connecting more roads together. They also started to expand further out and to touch each other. I never got the map to a one big city, but I wanted to capture the essence of many small towns growing into each other. Complications of the technique: 1.) You have to pay closer attention to your usages (electricity, water, etc.). One small town may need more power, but your power grid will look like it's producing fine. 2.) You have to budget better because all the small towns share one central band account. 3.) You may need to extend some roads further than you want to. To do this, do small roads to be upgraded later (it adds to the realism). 4.) You need to use something like 89 tiles and unlock everything for free, because each town will be developing simultaneously, but also apart from one another.

I havent had the urge to play Cities in quite some time now, but this map... the prospect of semi realistic town development? Sign me up. Time to fire up the ol' Cities again Edit: I just noticed there's a shop near Lancaster called Paws-a-tive Training and I don't know whether I should be ashamed or giggling about that lol

I personally love overbuilding and creating large "racetracks" for people to commute across the city, but I also get the reason why you went this route. The small town charm, stories along the way, strive for realism, and a new way to play is always fun to watch.

That parclo! It's precious! 🥺 Now that you've pointed it out, it does feel like a huge flaw in the game's structure to have every map be so highway-dependent.

The last two builds I have worked on were based on resource and industry. I open up the map at the start with the 81 tiles option and have all building options available from the start. Then I look for a good place to build an industry. That area is where I actually build a city as it seems logical from a RW perspective. So I wind up with small(er) towns that all feed the main city I plan to create. I haven't taken the step of eliminating the pre-existing highway infrastructure in the manner you're introducing in this video but I think it is a Great idea! On top of that, I'll use the mods Rebalanced Industries, Lifecycle Rebalance Revisited 1.6.4 and Realistic Population 2 2.0.4 that I have just started checking out. They're a very pronisong trio that have already changed my gameplay significantly. That will make for a completely different playthrough. It'll be like playing a new game where I am already very confortable with how it works and already have the achievements unlocked. It should be interesting. I have a feeling that your video may be the catalyst for quite a few reworked maps that have a more basic starting transportation infrastructure. I'm a huge fan of the idea.

I've been looking at making a map akin to that. Your starting tile doesn't have a three lane highway just go straight to it, but rather you start along the single-carriageway road and build with that at the centre incrementally. A road typically goes from point to point, and then a town springs up along it. Rarely has it been the other way around

I don’t know how long you’ve been living in the DC area but it still amazes me to think back on the at grade rail crossing in Gainesville Va until 2012-2013. Like major highway at grade crossing.

I'm also from New Hampshire and I'd say a lot of these interchanges are way nicer than what we actually have 90% of the time, how about a 3-way stop 😅

I love this idea. A few months ago (before I stopped playing for a while), I started doing this with a map I found of Montreal. It had a really nonsensical starting road/train inlet, but the topography was wonderful and (trees aside) accurate. So I did something like this - I build two outer "big" highways, and then a whole bunch of 4-lane national roads to connect everything. Then at a few strategic places I added some 4-lane city streets to connect to a bunch of "towns", . I was inspired by City Planner Plays' Clearwater County map, and am quite proud of it. I ended up building out 3 of the little towns before getting a bit bored with the game (500h in just under 3 months will do that...) and stopping for about 2 months now. But your video is really inspiring me to try to play again on your map now, and go for that small-town feel and the detail. Love the channel Yumbl!

Dude, you put your finger on something that have bothered me for years, but formulating it the way you did was so enlightening... Thank you so much, can't wait to try out your map edit!

Thank you very much yumbl for the map, i did a "stress test" where i built an european city with 200K inhabitants and everything went smoothly (traffic sits at 79-85%) and it has become one of my favorite cities too lol

Love this idea! I don't think it would be as daunting to beginners to start with a smaller road rather than a massive highway.

Originally from Leominster, MA. I have been to and been through Lancaster, NH and it reminds me of the Leominster that I grew up in. Thanks for a trip down memory lane.

This is probably one of the most important csl video made in a long time. The importance of what you did here can not be overstated. I can't tell how many times I started up the game, spent half an hour staring at the 6 lane highway coming into my plot, and then leaving the game without a city. It is amazing how much those highways kills your inspiration.

YES!!! I'd love a series of "starting" maps, that actually feel like "starting!!!

I totally agree with your idea and what you are saying. The towns I've lived in are in England, UK are near a motorway but they are at least a six minute journey out of town, to get to and connected by small roads or a dual carriageway. This idea is spot on.

Riverlands has been one of my favorite maps to play on. Love the road network you designed for that map. I may have to go back and do the same. I’ve always liked the idea of a bunch of smaller communities throughout the map as opposed to one huge city. As always your videos really give me food for thought. I always look at the road networks around me and think about the lessons you’ve taught on road hierarchy and it’s just interesting to see the design and thought (and lack of in some instances) that go into upgrading existing roads and highways. Unlike you, I grew up in a bigger city but have moved to a more rural part of Texas my town has 2 main highways that feed into it. A 2 lane highway and a 4 lane highway. Everywhere I look I see road hierarchy!! Thank you YUMBL, I always look forward to seeing your next videos.

When I start a new city, I really like starting simple. Often the go-to beginning for me is that the location starts as a rest stop by a highway, with some small shops, gas station, etc, and then later expands into an actual city. Sometimes I would leave small imperfections that are left over from the initial development of the area, just to feel more realistic.

Absolutely love this map idea. I was playing around in the map editor a while ago after watching Clearwater County and thought I should make something similar; like a very "toned down" city start with only national roads. I got way too "in my own head" about it, thinking "who would want this?", but this video here just might have rekindled some motivation!

This was the first time I’ve watched one of your videos, and I swear, you turned around with the wizard hat at the beginning, I had my hand on the scroller to skip past what I thought was another RAIDS shadow legends ad lmao. Awesome content

This makes soo much sense! The town I was born is called Breda..., and it is named after a ford in the river Aa > Brede Aa (which means wide Aa), which became Breda. It all stared with a sand path to the widest and lowest crossing! No highway! :D

Started on this map yesterday, love how it plays. I've done simaler using the map editor mode but only ended up with a basic map so to play this way on a pre made map really makes a difference. Thanks mate.

Great work! I usually play like that, downgrading all the roads and start slow. Can't wait to see your city grow

I’m so glad that someone finally addressed this. I’m from a similar town as yours in the south where I have to drive almost 2 hours to connect to a major highway (95). I love the idea.

The almost seemingly mandatory highway interchange has always bothered me in C:S. It's like staring at a blank canvas with a huge Bob Ross style mountain already on the canvas. It is a great start in the sense that it has a connection to something familiar--but it limits everything (especially if the player is starting with the default 70k). Anyway, thanks for the video--another great one.

You should really check out Lee Hawkins' "Reddington" series on his RU-vid channel (and he's got some early releases episodes on Patreon as well). He actually started with one of the DLC maps (I honestly can't remember which one ATM) and as part of the first and maybe second episodes completely removed the highway system and replaced it with dirt roads. Basically he started back in the 1800s and he's building up slowly overtime with a full backstory and everything. I am definitely going to check out your Little River map though. I actually did something similar with one of the original maps, replacing the highway with a 6-lane national road and then built off of that instead of the highway.

This is exactly how it is in my country El Salvador, just regular “Carreteras” with roundabouts and most interchanges aren’t enormous, amazing video!!

Absolutely amazing - its just so different how I have played before, a real test and really made me think and plan compared to what I did before. Love your work mate and videos a real joy to watch :-)

Here I am watching a video nerding out about intersections and playing city skylines when I hear "Lancaster, NH". As a person who grew up in the white mountains and worked in Lancaster/Jefferson... what a small world.

I've played with this idea a few times myself, and it always feels like the game is fighting me all the way, in every function of the game it reflects it's name, "cities" and "skylines". There's a few youtubers out there who have done a good job at mixing cities and smaller towns, and those are definitely my favorites to watch because you can tell how much consideration for realism they have. Looking forward to see your approach!

I really feel that small town vibe, my city is just big enough to be labeled as such and it's impossible to organically grow a city like that in vanilla, especially because I'm in Europe!

Now do every single map please. Seriously: this is my number one pet peeve. It's why I was so sorely tempted to download City Planner Plays' new map despite not wanting to follow along with him on the exact same map. Having just a regular highway road rather than a giant interstate is so much better for starting a city.

I LOVE this! As a person from Australia, I'm accustomed to travelling through small towns where the main connection is a 'national road' - a two-lane, two-way road, and there's no intersection or bypass at all, you just drive straight through the town while reducing speed. It always struck me as odd that when you begin a new town in CS that you are essentially forced into building a major arterial road that is off the main highway. I will definitely be trying this out and/or modifying my own favourite maps to scale down the roads :)

Yes please! I am excited to give this map a try! Love the idea of creating a story/history! I'm thinking about giving this a go, and posting the results over time for you!

Had to add a new comment regarding this map. IT'S FANTASTIC! I've been playing on it since you put it out and have been having a great time...flow mechanics and pacing are way better and much more organic when not fighting the freeway flows constantly. This was a complete win.

Thank you so much! What an amazing idea and inspiration! I instantly downloaded the map from the workshop, gonna start a new city on it RIGHT NOW!

i’m so excited i found your channel. i’ve been trying to do something like this on console for ages (with varying degrees of success)

just new to the game for over a couple of months now and I must say, your videos are awesome and informative!

This is exactly the style of game play that I've always hoped pretty much all of the city builders would do. I seem to drop them because they move to fast from getting started to major metro area. Thank you for making this, I love the concept and the philosophy behind it. I look forward to seeing what you do with it in future streams.

This is great and right up my alley! I did a No Highway City Series and now I have a Trains Only City! I always thought that the blank map with just highways looked weird to an extent and that the first settlers into an area probably first arrived by a train or horse and carriage and not by highway. The overuse of highways leads to more traffic congestion in a sense. I believe building up from small to large is the right way to start but something i did learn from my No Highways is that sometimes the game mechanics can limit you and also over building too fast can also be more than the game can handle. Hopefully with my new city having a good infrastructure right from the start will help. Thanks will be watching!

Thanks for this, I really appreciate this way of thinking. It reminds me of the way I play. On new maps, the first thing I usually do is unlock all tiles and replace the highways with a 4 lane national road from edge to edge without any junctions or interchanges and the just organically branch out from there.

Great video Yumbl! Reshaping the approach is easily my favorite aspect of your content. A map founded on this sort of philosophy is what many people, including myself, have been looking for for a long time. It feels much more natural and comparable to real cities than the game typically starts you with. Thanks for the video!

So i downloaded you map and it was so much nicer starting on it and didnt feel like i was forced to use the highway connection that usually are there, nice job, make more.

This is phenomenal, thank you so much! I really enjoy these kinds of maps, and you've done a great job with your expertise on intersections and road hierarchy. Looking forward to building this up organically, cheers.

Thank you so much for the new map. This is exactly what I have been missing and gives me another reason to spend hundreds of ours on a new city. I have been wanting something that I could spend extra time downloading assets and using the 100s of roads I have downloaded instead of just jamming in 4 to 6 lanes. Can't wait to find time to build on this.

It's an interesting take, a different way to look at the game. However, I find myself a little bit concerned as to how CS will actually handle it. I am particularly concerned with how the game is going to handle the problems of spawning incoming traffic and handling outgoing traffic. Will a busy enough development lead to the edges of the map basically failing? I do see that a player could upgrade the highway and road network within the 25 squares over time as needed, but it might fail pretty hard if the connections outside of those squares cannot handle he traffic. The other thing I thought of is that you may want to try using something like the Realistic population mod, so that you could better define the population density within the town. One of the issues of sprawl in CS is that commercial buildings are often quite large but have few actual workers. The same with homes, they often build small apartment block type things that only have 3 or 4 people living in them total, which makes little real sense. So perhaps it would be worthwhile to consider the implications of setting the buildings inside the developing area to be more realistic in population and whatnot. Overall, this is an interesting idea. A different type of starting square and access might be very interesting to see.

I've played Cities for years and have watched a lot of your vids. This idea blew me away!!! Now I have to subscribe. Bravo

What a fascinating and great approach to a new city start! All your points are… well they’re on point!

That is so cool!!! It’s been a while since last time i played cities skylines but I’m definitely gonna start playing on this map. I’ve always had trouble starting a city because of the problems you’ve mentioned in the video. I think it gonna be a lot easier to start a city on your map. Great job 👍

never thought of this but it looks like I needed this all along, thanks for the video

Thank you for this video. I built a city of 400.000 and enjoyed dealing with problems as they came up but now I am totally burned out and ready to do a build like you are starting!

Love it. I grew up in New England have been wanting to design a build around that area. Looking forward to what you develop :)

I'm stunned the game doesn't start like this. Also, "Hi!" from Manchester, NH!

This is exactly what i needed for my european old town start. Thank you Yumbl!!

it's great to watch people that likes to create cities like I do. I never considered to create a RU-vid channel, but I decided to o it whenever CS2 release to share my creations too. Channels like this are a great inspiration. In my case, I do something similar to this, because I never liked the idea of starting a city directly from a big highway connection. What I use to do it's independently the inicial tile, but to create a 2 way single lane road to the corner of the map. and I start to build several small towns and once each start to grow, in some moment they join together in a single city. and the big downtown will be the central tile.

Thank you YUMBL 🙏 I also tried doing this type of thing, where I took a small highway and made it go for a bit, until I began my town, just to make it more realistic :)

This is awesome! I’ve done a couple experiments like this converting vanilla maps as well. Being able to progress through time with the development of all route systems seems like a much more natural way to develop and play the game

I love this idea, and I tried to create my own version! I grew up in Ripon, Wisconsin (pop 7K at the time). Our main street is the convergence of state highways 23 and 44. The city's centerpiece is a Mill Pond (common in Wisconsin towns), but I found that CS's terrain mesh resolution is too low to create a realistically-sized Mill Pond, or the creek that feeds it (womp womp). Having a rail connection that goes through the center of the starting tile was also key for me. The little town of Ripon (est. 1849) got its railroad just 5 years after rail mania hit Wisconsin in 1851, and while the original network is significantly diminished, Ripon's railroads are still utilized for freight traffic to and from a factory depot that would fall within the range of a CS starting tile (less than 800 meters from the city center), as well as a grain depot at 1.5km from the city center (adjacent to the starting tile). My map tried to simulate an 1850s start. The roads through the region are dirt, and I've included period-specific train depots for freight and passengers, as well as a wind-mill (which produces small amounts of electricity, water, and sewage capacity), to approximate the conditions around the town's founding. Of course, there was no electricity or sewage, but it was necessary to satisfy the needs of the depots. Ultimately I was unhappy with my creation because I couldn't recreate the Mill Pond, and I wasn't able to scrape together enough of the right custom assets to properly progress from the 1850s to the present day. I like the way you've done this: creating rural infrastructure without the complication of the time element that I was going for.

would be really cool to do a train start, like two train lines that cross and one or two country roads with a mod that starts them at really low traffic until your city gets large. a train station on each forming the first main street, and extending outwards naturally. and then as the city gets larger, moving the tracks above or under ground so the city is less divided, and adding more rail for transit

BEAUTIFUL !!! can't wait see you to start the series 🥰😍☺

Subscribed and downloaded! I hope to see what you plan to do with this map in the near future. I think the best way to play this map would be with no starting tile; just have the map wide open. That way one could start little towns all over the place and allow them to grow into each other organically. I've also always lamented that trains are available right away. That seems, to me, to be a very realistic way many people arrived in early settlements. I guess I'll be playing with '81 tiles' and disabling achievements!

Thanks for taking the liberty to try something new, just following your heart. This is exactly how I play. Franky speaking, I cannot even understand what "complete" is supposed to be. Watching clips is my way of gathering ideas and you, Sir, are very inspiring. Thanks for constantly showing new aspects of this GOAT game.

Another great video and I am so excited to see you explore the type of city build that fascinates me. I have just finished a city on the original of this map and it is truly beautiful. I wish I had had your version as it’s perfect for my style. There are some UK maps like Midsommer that are highwayless but they are hard to find. I hope you build a city on the map and turn it into a series. I’ve been interested to see Biffa moving his output to new areas because he’s done traffic to death. I guess you could end up in the same position as there are only so many intersections possible. I really look forward to seeing what new direction you choose to go in.

FINALLY THE WIZARD HAT, I honestly thought that's how you actually looked until I saw these new videos with the face reveal narratives beforehand. Really loving the new content these days. :) I've always taken issue with how cities start with the highway interchange and see players ask "what is the best city entrance" when in reality, cities just kind of are integrated with the surrounding landscapes and there is no one way in or out. I like that you're addressing this from a realism standpoint.

This is something I’ve always disliked with skylines. You did this so perfectly! Please make more maps like this and maybe you can have a map pack for a new era of cities skylines. It’s nice when a city starts with this and can be a multi year project that Grow’s from small town to metropolis! This is my favorite video of yours

I love this and I love that you have the same view as myself (and obviously from looking at 5 days of comments so far) that the game needs to be more organic. Being from a small countryside town in the UK I also have done the exact same thing to maps and change the gigantic interchanges and highways severing maps in half. This video alone has resparked my desire to play C:S again!

This is perfect. I really like the concept of starting small and growing into what you want. I will be taking a look at using this map or at least the idea.

This is seriously cool, i would love to see a series with a map like this!

This is 100% what I've been looking for!! Now, I wish we had a SimCity 2000 style building through history so I can naturally have medieval buildings and streets that will form an old city center as time moves on.

That introduction… “Hi, didn’t see you there”. Instantly became my favourite RU-vidr

love it!...great idea.. it's always a pain in the arse to start a new map.. this seems, as you so.. SO much more organic.. thank you!

Thank you for doing this! I've been thinking about how most map starts are overbuilt and unrealistic. I would love to play this map.

I've enjoyed playing on a map of Bornholm, an island in the Baltic sea: It's got the real national roads already present, but only that. You can build small villages at the interceptions, build up towns around where the natural resources are. That and playing with the heights. If you want inspiration you can also look at the google maps of the place. Sadly I later found that the bridge coming into the island is bugged and doesn't quite let cars in properly and personally I like to have rail connections to the outside. It takes a really long time to unlock the rail to cargo ship building.

I've always tried to do this idea using my second home town as a basis, under 20k population, built up around a paper mill as its only real industry, lots of farming and forests around. Every time I just end up with a massive ballooned city trying to support that, it never actually works out lol. Hopefully this series goes better!

Yo I’m so excited for this series can’t wait to see more episodes!

This is why I always use the 81 tile start. It makes more sense. I create one main road from the highway to a coastline or area suitable for a city center and start there, and eventually build my way up to the freeway. By then I have an organic-developed downtown that naturally forms

Great video, I have been thinking about such a thing for a long time but in the end never have done in on a scale that you've done. i will definitely try it out

thanks so much for this map. i've played hundreds of hours of cities, but no map has clicked quite like this one. it's the first time i've managed to reach megalopolis.

I’m also from a small New England town, and it does make me sad that Cities doesn’t focus on creating builds like these, because I can’t easily make something that I truly want to make. Glad you’re doing this though, reminds me of home!

I love this! I’ve always struggled with starting with a Highway

this is great, nice to see a map with smaller roads as a start point as most would be IRL

Your excitement about this map and about Lancaster somewhat feel so emotional

One thing I've done is start new small towns as I opened up new tiles for purchase. Grow slow and expand them towards each other over time and taking advantage of the natural resources nearby as a basis for the town's founding. I've found it kinda simulates that over time growth, expansion and development of the decades.

What you're describing is exactly the way I play the game. I've used the Building Themes mod to help create era specific themes, which update over time. It's a nice way to give the game a feeling of history. Using the 80 Tiles mod, I'll even rip out all of the highways and rail and put them in only as necessary, starting with dirt roads and working up to whatever is needed by the individual towns (I build multiple towns / cities per map).

Looking forward to see how the city grows, I really like the idea of a simpler road system start could even leverage the starting rail as a way to limit raod traffic from out of town a bit.

Man, love the idea. I always thought that 6-lane highway to the center is so unreal. At least here in Spain we don't have highways through the cities (only in large capitals), but national roads are outside cities and towns.

It is coincidental that you made a video on this. I have only had this game for a few months and had been watching City Planer Plays series on Clearwater County. When starting out he had modified the map to have more appropriate roads. I thought that made a lot of sense so I started looking for maps of that style but did not find anything. I startled converting a fall themed map I saw you play on over to have National Roads as opposed to the Interstate highways. The synchronicities of life are strange. I enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work.

I'm actually doing a small version of this in Storm City, in building up my forestry industry. Instead of racing it up from one to five stars, I built out a ton of infrastructure around it - a camp, a small rail depot, walking paths, and a lot of detailing everywhere. My one star forestry ended up looking like a rural country lumberyard. But as it grows from a little country lumber mill into a major industry, things will get upgraded, especially in the camp. Primitive conditions will give way to much better ones, and eventually the camp will become a town the same way that that little industry will become a major one. Some old stuff will remain, like the lumberyard, and just become integrated into the industry. It tells a story, rather then just plopping a bunch of assets down and waiting for the stars to appear. And it will hopefully make for a great video!

Hey Yumbl, great idea for a new map! I've recently been asking myself this same thing and struggling with how to actually implement it into the game. Im from a more rural area of CT, do alot of back roads driving through CT, Mass and NH. The town you are portraying is exactly the type of places I see all the time here. Youve done a great job mortifying this map and hope to see more videos from it!

What a fantastic idea. This is one of the things I love about Cities:Skylines -- so many different approaches to gameplay. My next game is going to be "Lancaster"!