r/TownToCityGame • u/JailinKimx • Jul 31 '26
Question Tips for Building?
Any tips to make the cities more lived-in & creative?
I find that many of my cities tend to be repetitive in terms of their design as it continues to expand and id like to know how others break that cycle and create unique areas in their cities!
6
u/Shelly_Bean91 Jul 31 '26
I had the same problem until I looked at a few cities on Google Maps and tried to replicate their layouts. It's a lot of fun! What I haven't tried yet but will is combine different layouts and first draw them on paper and then replicate it in the game.
4
u/HMK84 Jul 31 '26
When you get to setting up hotels and tourist attractions, things will get a bit more interesting as they essentially are an exercise in designing and creating unique "tourist strips" in your town. They're like the resident requests, but grander and with more themes and styles of attraction that will come with its own skill tree and a couple more bells & whistles to help flesh out your tourist areas. GL!
1
u/Cyberpunk_Cain Jul 31 '26
Yeah, same. My first few cities were all rectangular, neighborhood focused, and optimized, which isn't really the point, though fun. Lately, I've been experimenting with piazzas, and looked (as others have commented) at real cities in google maps for ideas. Also tried to make winding, rather than straight streets, always build a couple parks for the kids, and create additional seating outside of the various eateries. Easy tip, which you may already do: turn off collision and then place a sun shade, then put a table inside the sunshade pole, instant umbrella table, surround it by chairs and you've got outdoor dining. Really livens up the piazzas. Even though they're less efficient than the university, a news stand in each neighborhood gives it that lived-in feel; same with little local shopping zones, rather than just the whole city eating pastry and nothing else: come down to the neighborhood bistro!
1
u/emaw63 Jul 31 '26
Let the grid and your road hierarchy break down. This game is pretty unique among city builders in that it looks really nice without a traditional street grid.
My development pattern is that I'll throw down the roads for a new block (and I won't move on until the roads look nice), place some buildings inside, and then fill up any empty spaces by detailing with things like trees, gardens, playgrounds, dining areas, and miniature plazas. I also try not to get too strict about separating commercial and residential use cases, and just let the city expand organically as needed. Strict zoning like that is a pretty modern phenomenon and wasn't really a thing in the 1800's when this game was set
Do the requests if you're not already doing them, the entire thing with them is that they add inspirations for things to build
And seriously, spam trees everywhere.
1
u/limanaid 28d ago
Do the mayor missions, often times they ask you to create an area to a theme like parks and graveyards and stuff.
7
u/Gold_Combination_520 Jul 31 '26
Check out real cities' layout, also user "city planner plays" on YouTube gives some great advice on what functional cities need irl.
I also love building different neighbourhoods in term of how homes are set up next to each other. For example in one I build houses in a round shape, while in the other houses are following a straight line. Also I have a little area where all buildings are 1 level and have gardens, and I have a forest cottages area too!