I started a new city today on the map with the big crater full of water and I figured I'd give dams another shot. I stuck it at the mouth of the crater and it seemed to settle around 200 MW. Not amazing or anything, but plenty until I get access to solar plants. About half an hour later, my city isn't making enough power. I'd just zoned a few blocks of high density residential, but it still seemed like my power dropped more than it should. That's when I noticed the dam wasn't doing anything. It just stopped. I tried waiting a few minutes at the fastest speed, but nothing happened. That was a nice waste of money on something that basically only turned the river coming out of the crater into a canyon.
Let me take a moment and update you on the status of things, what's going on behind the scenes and what to expect the coming time.
Bugs and issues
This has been an incredibly smooth launch, not only with sales and pickup but also technically. That doesn't mean there aren't problems at hand! We have identified a couple of core issues users are experiencing and are working on solving them ASAP. Please note that we do not promise all these issues will be fixed in the first patch, even though this is our GOAL.
These are the widest, most pressing problems. This is by no means our complete list of bugs/issues, it's simply the ones that are most widespread and important to fix. Please appreciate that we are a small team and need to prioritize, even though we of course aim to fix the smaller bugs too. CO and PDX QA closely monitor our bug forums. If you have posted in there your issue has been noted, even if there's no official response in your thread.
Black screen on start-up
Grey Load/New Game button
Save issues (corrupted saves, saves not saving, cloud not working properly)
Poor performance on high end computers (mostly Linux)
If you're experiencing any of these, please check the Release FAQ Known Issues list, as there are several workarounds posted there. If nothing works either wait for our first patch or contact support.
We're also keeping a close eye on discussions on gameplay related issues. Specifically...
Commercial demand possibly being "killed" by parks and rec.
Potential traffic AI issues/improvements
Cause/effect for workers getting to their jobs
If there are bugs causing these issues, we will of course strive to fix them. In case they are design decisions from CO that the players disagree with; we monitor the discussion and take the feedback into consideration going forward. We understand there's a lot of passion for this game and many of you want to see it grow in the best possible direction - your feedback is highly appreciated - but this does not mean we will "blindly" do everything people ask for. CO are very collected, down to earth developers. Do not expect knee-jerk balance/gameplay changes due to active feedback on a specific topic.
Bugfixing / issues patch ETA
As there have been no extremely pressing issues that need instant hotfixing (as in affecting a majority of players) we have chosen to take our time with the first patch to ensure it doesn't break more than it fixes (so proper QA time). There's currently no ETA for this patch, I will most likely get that today, but you should expect it in a not distant future.
CO are currently fully focusing on solving the core technical issues before we switch to working on the first major content update.
Moo's mod collections (Workshop) now live!
I've started my semi-official curated mod lists on the workshop. They are currently bare bones in content but will be updated pretty much daily. If you want custom content for the game but have no wish to sift through the endless pages of workshop that are already there, please consider subscribing.
Moo's Collection: I Want It All
For users who want as much as possible (still all high quality stuff) when it comes to custom assets. Please ensure you have at least 4gb+ RAM free for the game and generous amounts of HDD space.
We passed 45,000 subscribers this weekend and are now ranked 850 globally on reddit, being the fastest growing non-default subreddit pretty much every day since launch.
Please consider joining this community for an easily digestable news-feed and updates on the goings-on of the other fans.
Other, misc, news / things
We sold 500k+ copies!
We'll be looking for at least one support agent (paid position) from the Cities community this week - more info on this later
There are several competitions going on in the subreddit, check the top bar for more info and prizes!
Thank you so much, everyone, for helping us make this happen. You're awesome.
The DeliveratorSlingin PiesThe California BurbclavesRegistered Userregular
edited March 2015
Well this is awesome. A mod that adds a new type of pedestrian path that is zonable and only allows service vehicle traffic. Say hello to fancy parks and foot traffic only residential districts! Commercial zoning works, but doesn't last because trucks can't deliver them goods to sell. Apparently the potential is there for asymmetrical roads, selective vehicle lanes like bus lanes, and lots of other fun stuff. It's amazing what the mod community has been cranking out in such a short time.
Does Steam Overlay straight up not work for anyone else?
I know that there are some OSX bugs that are best addressed by disabling it...but I'm on Windows and did no such thing. All of the stuff shows it as enabled in Steam, but Shift+Tab (and any other steam shortcuts) straight up do nothing...they still work in other games.
Are you running any other programs that might be interfering with it? I'm not sure why, but things that are fine with most Steam games will disable the overlay on others. I had to turn off, for example, MSI Afterburner (a graphics card utility) in order to get an overlay working with Thief. If you have anything like that, maybe Fraps or something else that can project its own overlay or mess with your graphics card in any way, try turning that off and see if it does anything.
Does Steam Overlay straight up not work for anyone else?
I know that there are some OSX bugs that are best addressed by disabling it...but I'm on Windows and did no such thing. All of the stuff shows it as enabled in Steam, but Shift+Tab (and any other steam shortcuts) straight up do nothing...they still work in other games.
Are you running any other programs that might be interfering with it? I'm not sure why, but things that are fine with most Steam games will disable the overlay on others. I had to turn off, for example, MSI Afterburner (a graphics card utility) in order to get an overlay working with Thief. If you have anything like that, maybe Fraps or something else that can project its own overlay or mess with your graphics card in any way, try turning that off and see if it does anything.
Hmm...I do use Afterburner, I'll try without it. It doesn't interfere with any other games, which is odd.
Also, I'm starting to get really fed up with the traffic issues. We discussed this pre-launch, but the bug still seems to exist. Here's an example of a highway that's a complete disaster:
The culprit? Everyone wants to go West in that picture, which takes forever because cars on that highway all insist on using the same lane. Why do they do that? Because at the end of the highway, that's the lane they want to be in, so the other lanes go largely unused. As a result, my whole highway system is screwed up. Here's the merge point, note that I'm using the cloverleaf interchange that comes with the game:
It's not just highways either. I have a one-way loop that's 6-lanes wide. It's got ramps to/from a nearby highway, and a cargo train terminal at the end of the loop. The idea was that trucks could get on/off the loop to deliver and go, or go between the train and boat stations without dealing with commuter traffic. Instead, everyone uses one of six lanes. The boat station comes with a two-lane, two-way road which means that everyone now has to compress down to one lane...of course with the pathfinding algorithm that means that they only use 1/6 of the provided lanes, and now whenever someone needs to come in or go out of the boat station, the entire loop comes to a standstill:
honestly the game is good enough in every other facet that I can give the traffic issues a pass, at least for now. I've never met a city building game that doesn't suck at it in some way.
There is a lot more to traffic flow (in real life and the game) then just more and more lanes. If all of the traffic in a given stretch of road or freeway has the same final destination, and there's only one way to get to that destination, then ultimately the ONLY thing that matters is how fast the most constricting part of the traffic flows. As long as that final lane or turn is saturated (such as the ramp in the first pic) it doesn't matter how many lanes are used before that. They could use all six lanes before they get to the on ramp, but if the ramp only supports, say, 40 cars a minute at the speed limit (or whatever the cars are programmed to move at) no amount of lane usage will cure that.
The reason this *seems* to be an issue with the game is that we're all used to real life roads where in almost every situation, all the traffic has different destinations. Lots of people may want to use one ramp but many others don't and will continue on elsewhere.
This is one of the key concepts of city planning/roadway design.
There is a lot more to traffic flow (in real life and the game) then just more and more lanes. If all of the traffic in a given stretch of road or freeway has the same final destination, and there's only one way to get to that destination, then ultimately the ONLY thing that matters is how fast the most constricting part of the traffic flows. As long as that final lane or turn is saturated (such as the ramp in the first pic) it doesn't matter how many lanes are used before that. They could use all six lanes before they get to the on ramp, but if the ramp only supports, say, 40 cars a minute at the speed limit (or whatever the cars are programmed to move at) no amount of lane usage will cure that.
The reason this *seems* to be an issue with the game is that we're all used to real life roads where in almost every situation, all the traffic has different destinations. Lots of people may want to use one ramp but many others don't and will continue on elsewhere.
This is one of the key concepts of city planning/roadway design.
I agree with most of this.
There's a definite problem in that cars which plan on getting off at the next exit are stuck in that traffic though. If there's a huge line in the right lane to get off at Exit 1, and some of those cars are getting off at Exit 2, then you should...get out of the right lane and go around the Exit 1 backup. People do that in real life because it's faster, and they're making that decision point when they hit traffic. The agents in-game don't dynamically adjust their pathfinding based on congestion, which means they'll sit in the right lane slowing down everything for Exits 1 and Exit 2.
The junction will eventually provide a bottleneck, but there's a difference between 6 lanes backing up for a block and 1 lane backing up for 6 blocks.
Also agents refuse to go to the proper exit, instead frequently jamming up exit 1 for no reason instead of getting off at exit 2 which is both closer to their destination and doesn't have any traffic because the path is a tiny bit shorter. Kinda makes most standard highway design really difficult.
Also agents refuse to go to the proper exit, instead frequently jamming up exit 1 for no reason instead of getting off at exit 2 which is both closer to their destination and doesn't have any traffic because the path is a tiny bit shorter. Kinda makes most standard highway design really difficult.
People not using the optimal route? That seems about right. In fact - people lane sitting? Also sounds about right. It might drive you nuts in the game but the traffic behaves in a manner largely recognisable to me
Also agents refuse to go to the proper exit, instead frequently jamming up exit 1 for no reason instead of getting off at exit 2 which is both closer to their destination and doesn't have any traffic because the path is a tiny bit shorter. Kinda makes most standard highway design really difficult.
People not using the optimal route? That seems about right. In fact - people lane sitting? Also sounds about right. It might drive you nuts in the game but the traffic behaves in a manner largely recognisable to me
People behaving irrationally is a cool thing to model, but no one would behave irrationally in this particular way. If anything, 'real incoherent people planning' would be intending to get off at the same exit that everyone else is cramming into, but instead of queuing up with everyone else, they get over one lane, zip up to the exit, and then try to merge ahead of everyone else in line (like a sociopathic goose). If half the agents in the game did that, you'd see more realistic (and infuriating) traffic.
There is a lot more to traffic flow (in real life and the game) then just more and more lanes. If all of the traffic in a given stretch of road or freeway has the same final destination, and there's only one way to get to that destination, then ultimately the ONLY thing that matters is how fast the most constricting part of the traffic flows. As long as that final lane or turn is saturated (such as the ramp in the first pic) it doesn't matter how many lanes are used before that. They could use all six lanes before they get to the on ramp, but if the ramp only supports, say, 40 cars a minute at the speed limit (or whatever the cars are programmed to move at) no amount of lane usage will cure that.
The reason this *seems* to be an issue with the game is that we're all used to real life roads where in almost every situation, all the traffic has different destinations. Lots of people may want to use one ramp but many others don't and will continue on elsewhere.
This is one of the key concepts of city planning/roadway design.
I agree with most of this.
There's a definite problem in that cars which plan on getting off at the next exit are stuck in that traffic though. If there's a huge line in the right lane to get off at Exit 1, and some of those cars are getting off at Exit 2, then you should...get out of the right lane and go around the Exit 1 backup. People do that in real life because it's faster, and they're making that decision point when they hit traffic. The agents in-game don't dynamically adjust their pathfinding based on congestion, which means they'll sit in the right lane slowing down everything for Exits 1 and Exit 2.
The junction will eventually provide a bottleneck, but there's a difference between 6 lanes backing up for a block and 1 lane backing up for 6 blocks.
Of course that's true, but in the pictures above you can clearly see ALL traffic is trying to get off at that exit. The one vehicle that isn't (the green van) is in fact using a different lane.
Also, I know tons of people who get off highways an exit early or exit later and use street roads to get where they're going. Or basically opt out of the highway altogether and just use street roads. None of that seems to be modeled. People generally don't try to take an optimized route based on empty roadways (if they're a resident and are somewhat familiar with traffic patterns). And people actually change routes on the fly if things looks backed up on their current route.
There is a lot more to traffic flow (in real life and the game) then just more and more lanes. If all of the traffic in a given stretch of road or freeway has the same final destination, and there's only one way to get to that destination, then ultimately the ONLY thing that matters is how fast the most constricting part of the traffic flows. As long as that final lane or turn is saturated (such as the ramp in the first pic) it doesn't matter how many lanes are used before that. They could use all six lanes before they get to the on ramp, but if the ramp only supports, say, 40 cars a minute at the speed limit (or whatever the cars are programmed to move at) no amount of lane usage will cure that.
The reason this *seems* to be an issue with the game is that we're all used to real life roads where in almost every situation, all the traffic has different destinations. Lots of people may want to use one ramp but many others don't and will continue on elsewhere.
This is one of the key concepts of city planning/roadway design.
I agree with most of this.
There's a definite problem in that cars which plan on getting off at the next exit are stuck in that traffic though. If there's a huge line in the right lane to get off at Exit 1, and some of those cars are getting off at Exit 2, then you should...get out of the right lane and go around the Exit 1 backup. People do that in real life because it's faster, and they're making that decision point when they hit traffic. The agents in-game don't dynamically adjust their pathfinding based on congestion, which means they'll sit in the right lane slowing down everything for Exits 1 and Exit 2.
The junction will eventually provide a bottleneck, but there's a difference between 6 lanes backing up for a block and 1 lane backing up for 6 blocks.
Of course that's true, but in the pictures above you can clearly see ALL traffic is trying to get off at that exit. The one vehicle that isn't (the green van) is in fact using a different lane.
So how do I fix it? I see two issues: too many cars trying to merge onto that highway, and merges taking too long.
The first I thought I could address. Adding extra ramps isn't a solution, because it's an all-or-nothing thing...traffic only seems to consider distance rather than congestion, and thus a safety valve isn't really an option. People will either all use the new ramp or the old one. Dividing up the traffic burden so that some would take an earlier ramp (Exit 1) or a later ramp (Exit 2) isn't an option. What I ended up doing was building another highway not in the picture, which runs perpendicular to the highway on the left edge of the first image. That highway is a main line into the industrial area where most of those cars are going, and gets used sometimes, but hasn't alleviated the jam.
The second issue is the merge taking too long, which is just a shitty part of how traffic works in this game. The second image shows everyone stopped because one guy just had to merge immediately for a reason I don't understand. Anyone already on the highway should see "oh shit there's a ton of cars, let me move left so I don't get stuck slowing down for the merge" but that doesn't happen. People are committed to the middle lane already and refuse to get out, and merging cars refuse to stay in the right-most lane on the highway.
Didn't they say the sold 250k units on launch day?
So since launch they sold another 250k units. Its mind blowing how much this game is selling, and I hope the EA execs are shitting the bed over the demand.
At this rate Colossal Order is going to have to upgrade their chocolate fountain to a platinum plated chocolate fountain.
I also think I need to stop making mixed use urban zoning, since the delivery trucks for the commercial areas creates an unbelievable amount of traffic.
I am hopeful that they will fix how highways work and maybe have agents drive longer distances at much higher speeds instead of always taking the shortest route so stuff like ring roads work. But right now it's all pbbbt.
Guys I'm struggling with the Metro. It keeps showing a disconnected link and I can't see where there is a break in the line, so I just ended up wiping out the tunnel altogether, but there seems to be both people and lines still under ground and no way to get rid.
There is a lot more to traffic flow (in real life and the game) then just more and more lanes. If all of the traffic in a given stretch of road or freeway has the same final destination, and there's only one way to get to that destination, then ultimately the ONLY thing that matters is how fast the most constricting part of the traffic flows. As long as that final lane or turn is saturated (such as the ramp in the first pic) it doesn't matter how many lanes are used before that. They could use all six lanes before they get to the on ramp, but if the ramp only supports, say, 40 cars a minute at the speed limit (or whatever the cars are programmed to move at) no amount of lane usage will cure that.
The reason this *seems* to be an issue with the game is that we're all used to real life roads where in almost every situation, all the traffic has different destinations. Lots of people may want to use one ramp but many others don't and will continue on elsewhere.
This is one of the key concepts of city planning/roadway design.
I agree with most of this.
There's a definite problem in that cars which plan on getting off at the next exit are stuck in that traffic though. If there's a huge line in the right lane to get off at Exit 1, and some of those cars are getting off at Exit 2, then you should...get out of the right lane and go around the Exit 1 backup. People do that in real life because it's faster, and they're making that decision point when they hit traffic. The agents in-game don't dynamically adjust their pathfinding based on congestion, which means they'll sit in the right lane slowing down everything for Exits 1 and Exit 2.
The junction will eventually provide a bottleneck, but there's a difference between 6 lanes backing up for a block and 1 lane backing up for 6 blocks.
Of course that's true, but in the pictures above you can clearly see ALL traffic is trying to get off at that exit. The one vehicle that isn't (the green van) is in fact using a different lane.
So how do I fix it? I see two issues: too many cars trying to merge onto that highway, and merges taking too long.
The first I thought I could address. Adding extra ramps isn't a solution, because it's an all-or-nothing thing...traffic only seems to consider distance rather than congestion, and thus a safety valve isn't really an option. People will either all use the new ramp or the old one. Dividing up the traffic burden so that some would take an earlier ramp (Exit 1) or a later ramp (Exit 2) isn't an option. What I ended up doing was building another highway not in the picture, which runs perpendicular to the highway on the left edge of the first image. That highway is a main line into the industrial area where most of those cars are going, and gets used sometimes, but hasn't alleviated the jam.
The second issue is the merge taking too long, which is just a shitty part of how traffic works in this game. The second image shows everyone stopped because one guy just had to merge immediately for a reason I don't understand. Anyone already on the highway should see "oh shit there's a ton of cars, let me move left so I don't get stuck slowing down for the merge" but that doesn't happen. People are committed to the middle lane already and refuse to get out, and merging cars refuse to stay in the right-most lane on the highway.
Adding extra ramps can actually be a solution, depending on where your traffic is going. So in your example, all those cars are trying to get to a certain area, but are they all going to the exact same spot in that area? Or are some going to a residential zone, while others might be going shopping? If you create routes that are better for each, rather than a single route to get to both, that will divide up your traffic and ease congestion. Second in respect to ramps is that sometimes it's better not to use ramps. What I mean is that to branch from a highway to a road, you don't necessarily need an off-ramp... you can just use another piece of highway that branches off your 'main' highway and then connects directly to the destination (which may be a road or another highway). That prevents everyone from having to squish down to one lane for the transition. It also means you may have to do some interchange designing on your own, since basically everything I've found on the Workshop uses ramps.
The third picture shows a problem with cargo delivery, which is also pretty straight-forward to get around. First, don't zone directly around your cargo train/ship yard. Second, use one-way roads so that trucks are only trying to get in and out of the yard from a single direction, keeping things flowing by getting rid of trucks trying to turn left and right into the loading areas. Ideally, you want them all to make a right turn in and right turn out. In my latest city where I learned this lesson, I actually created a direct connection from a highway, to a one-way road, to the ship yard, then back onto the road and directly onto the highway. There is a massive flow of trucks going through there but they never have to queue up in a way that blocks the highway. It was an 'ah ha!' moment for me.
Guys I'm struggling with the Metro. It keeps showing a disconnected link and I can't see where there is a break in the line, so I just ended up wiping out the tunnel altogether, but there seems to be both people and lines still under ground and no way to get rid.
er Metro should be the easiest transport placement to deal with. Go into Metro transport menu then select bulldoze and take out your tunnels. Then reselect the tunnel builder and let the cursor snap to the ends of the metro station tunnel, then just drag the tunnel over to the next station and let it snap to that. Move over to the other end of that station, and draw a tunnel between it and the next station and so on. Until you draw a tunnel back to the first station.
Then just create routes between your stations, making sure to close the loop by reselecting your first stop marker. The trains themselves can go forwards and backwards so your tunnel layout doesn't really matter, but you do need to loop back to the start on the route marker to make the route complete - the trains won't just hit the end of your route and then go back the way you came. So if you want a train to travel through, and stop at, 5 stations on the way across your city and again on the way back, you will need to create stops at each station twice in the order it should stop there.
Steam / Xbox Live: WSDX NNID: W-S-D-X 3DS FC: 2637-9461-8549
There is a lot more to traffic flow (in real life and the game) then just more and more lanes. If all of the traffic in a given stretch of road or freeway has the same final destination, and there's only one way to get to that destination, then ultimately the ONLY thing that matters is how fast the most constricting part of the traffic flows. As long as that final lane or turn is saturated (such as the ramp in the first pic) it doesn't matter how many lanes are used before that. They could use all six lanes before they get to the on ramp, but if the ramp only supports, say, 40 cars a minute at the speed limit (or whatever the cars are programmed to move at) no amount of lane usage will cure that.
The reason this *seems* to be an issue with the game is that we're all used to real life roads where in almost every situation, all the traffic has different destinations. Lots of people may want to use one ramp but many others don't and will continue on elsewhere.
This is one of the key concepts of city planning/roadway design.
I agree with most of this.
There's a definite problem in that cars which plan on getting off at the next exit are stuck in that traffic though. If there's a huge line in the right lane to get off at Exit 1, and some of those cars are getting off at Exit 2, then you should...get out of the right lane and go around the Exit 1 backup. People do that in real life because it's faster, and they're making that decision point when they hit traffic. The agents in-game don't dynamically adjust their pathfinding based on congestion, which means they'll sit in the right lane slowing down everything for Exits 1 and Exit 2.
The junction will eventually provide a bottleneck, but there's a difference between 6 lanes backing up for a block and 1 lane backing up for 6 blocks.
Of course that's true, but in the pictures above you can clearly see ALL traffic is trying to get off at that exit. The one vehicle that isn't (the green van) is in fact using a different lane.
So how do I fix it? I see two issues: too many cars trying to merge onto that highway, and merges taking too long.
The first I thought I could address. Adding extra ramps isn't a solution, because it's an all-or-nothing thing...traffic only seems to consider distance rather than congestion, and thus a safety valve isn't really an option. People will either all use the new ramp or the old one. Dividing up the traffic burden so that some would take an earlier ramp (Exit 1) or a later ramp (Exit 2) isn't an option. What I ended up doing was building another highway not in the picture, which runs perpendicular to the highway on the left edge of the first image. That highway is a main line into the industrial area where most of those cars are going, and gets used sometimes, but hasn't alleviated the jam.
The second issue is the merge taking too long, which is just a shitty part of how traffic works in this game. The second image shows everyone stopped because one guy just had to merge immediately for a reason I don't understand. Anyone already on the highway should see "oh shit there's a ton of cars, let me move left so I don't get stuck slowing down for the merge" but that doesn't happen. People are committed to the middle lane already and refuse to get out, and merging cars refuse to stay in the right-most lane on the highway.
Solutions:
More local connections so people aren't funneled through one place to get to a large area.
A different interchange design that allows for a higher-speed transfer in that direction.
The distinct minimization of all intersections. If there is an intersection, it's either a residential area or it connects into a roundabout; otherwise everything connects to a roundabout or has a bypass. The number of elevated pedestrian walkways so they don't clog up traffic on roundabouts, the turbine highway interchange, barbell interchange.
It's just extremely efficient about getting people around with minimal stops/clogs.
It's pretty much all about having the fewest intersections as possible. That's why the grid system is so horrendous, it's 4 way traffic lights every 100m. Even if you're the only car on the road you'd still have to stop for red lights.
Steam / Xbox Live: WSDX NNID: W-S-D-X 3DS FC: 2637-9461-8549
+3
Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Wish we could designate stuff like two way stop signs
It's pretty much all about having the fewest intersections as possible. That's why the grid system is so horrendous, it's 4 way traffic lights every 100m. Even if you're the only car on the road you'd still have to stop for red lights.
2 lane one ways don't have stop lights. So if you do grids in a standard us city alternating one way pattern you will have no stoplights. I do hope they mess around with the 4 and 6 lane roads to make them more useful, because yea lights do terrible things to them.
Oh man, regarding traffic, I remember Simcity simulated real life assholes: So you have a 3 lane highway, and you'd have people queuing up on the rightmost lane to get off the highway, but then some agents would actually use the center lane, and then try to merge in the rightmost lane once they were almost at the exit, cutting off everyone before them, and they'd be blocking the center lane as well. It was hilarious and infuriating at the same time.
Edit: Ha! I knew it, I still have a screenshot, look at these jerks:
Oh man, regarding traffic, I remember Simcity simulated real life assholes: So you have a 3 lane highway, and you'd have people queuing up on the rightmost lane to get off the highway, but then some agents would actually use the center lane, and then try to merge in the rightmost lane once they were almost at the exit, cutting off everyone before them, and they'd be blocking the center lane as well. It was hilarious and infuriating at the same time.
It's pretty much all about having the fewest intersections as possible. That's why the grid system is so horrendous, it's 4 way traffic lights every 100m. Even if you're the only car on the road you'd still have to stop for red lights.
On the other hand the grid system is perfect for minimizing road maintenance (repairs, streetcleaning etc) while maximizing commercial/industrial utility (both in terms of the amount of surface but also navigation). It's just not good for handling dense traffic or travelling quickly.
As such a good city consists of blocks broken up by trafficlanes built for handing more traffic.
Many modern cities also feature smaller roundabouts on mid-sized intersections (ones that don't have a ton of traffic, but even so are sufficently trafficed that you need some sort of intersection management) that can smooth traffic flow.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I've had traffic issues with the grid system as well, but one thing that has been working for me at the moment (I'm only at about 4k population, so its still starter)
I've done the alternating 1way 2lane roads on the main axis and I've used 2way roads on the perpendicular axis. It's kept traffic flowing pretty well, and it lets my services keep their wide range. If I went 1way 2lanes all over, it cuts fire services range by more than half...
As for highway traffic, I've started using elevated highways, and the ramps on right and left sides of highways, which kick traffic to its intended areas. Heavy traffic towards the industrial sector on the left exit and residential/low commerical on the right exit helps to split up those lines.
Posts
I'm done with dams until they get fixed.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
Greetings Chirpies!
Let me take a moment and update you on the status of things, what's going on behind the scenes and what to expect the coming time.
Bugs and issues
This has been an incredibly smooth launch, not only with sales and pickup but also technically. That doesn't mean there aren't problems at hand! We have identified a couple of core issues users are experiencing and are working on solving them ASAP. Please note that we do not promise all these issues will be fixed in the first patch, even though this is our GOAL.
These are the widest, most pressing problems. This is by no means our complete list of bugs/issues, it's simply the ones that are most widespread and important to fix. Please appreciate that we are a small team and need to prioritize, even though we of course aim to fix the smaller bugs too. CO and PDX QA closely monitor our bug forums. If you have posted in there your issue has been noted, even if there's no official response in your thread.
If you're experiencing any of these, please check the Release FAQ Known Issues list, as there are several workarounds posted there. If nothing works either wait for our first patch or contact support.
We're also keeping a close eye on discussions on gameplay related issues. Specifically...
If there are bugs causing these issues, we will of course strive to fix them. In case they are design decisions from CO that the players disagree with; we monitor the discussion and take the feedback into consideration going forward. We understand there's a lot of passion for this game and many of you want to see it grow in the best possible direction - your feedback is highly appreciated - but this does not mean we will "blindly" do everything people ask for. CO are very collected, down to earth developers. Do not expect knee-jerk balance/gameplay changes due to active feedback on a specific topic.
Bugfixing / issues patch ETA
As there have been no extremely pressing issues that need instant hotfixing (as in affecting a majority of players) we have chosen to take our time with the first patch to ensure it doesn't break more than it fixes (so proper QA time). There's currently no ETA for this patch, I will most likely get that today, but you should expect it in a not distant future.
CO are currently fully focusing on solving the core technical issues before we switch to working on the first major content update.
Moo's mod collections (Workshop) now live!
I've started my semi-official curated mod lists on the workshop. They are currently bare bones in content but will be updated pretty much daily. If you want custom content for the game but have no wish to sift through the endless pages of workshop that are already there, please consider subscribing.
Moo's Collection: I Want It All
For users who want as much as possible (still all high quality stuff) when it comes to custom assets. Please ensure you have at least 4gb+ RAM free for the game and generous amounts of HDD space.
Moo's Collection: Mods & Functionality
This is the official mod collection for users that want gameplay/UI/experience altering mods.
Moo's Collection: Crème de la Crème
For players that only want the best, high quality, good looking assets and mods available in the workshop.
Subreddit is going STRONG
We passed 45,000 subscribers this weekend and are now ranked 850 globally on reddit, being the fastest growing non-default subreddit pretty much every day since launch.
Please consider joining this community for an easily digestable news-feed and updates on the goings-on of the other fans.
Other, misc, news / things
We sold 500k+ copies!
We'll be looking for at least one support agent (paid position) from the Cities community this week - more info on this later
There are several competitions going on in the subreddit, check the top bar for more info and prizes!
Thank you so much, everyone, for helping us make this happen. You're awesome.
Cheers,
John
Although once you figure out how to use the curved road grid making neat circles isn't really hard.
I hope you saved space for the Shatterdome.
you are a god.
Are you running any other programs that might be interfering with it? I'm not sure why, but things that are fine with most Steam games will disable the overlay on others. I had to turn off, for example, MSI Afterburner (a graphics card utility) in order to get an overlay working with Thief. If you have anything like that, maybe Fraps or something else that can project its own overlay or mess with your graphics card in any way, try turning that off and see if it does anything.
Hmm...I do use Afterburner, I'll try without it. It doesn't interfere with any other games, which is odd.
Also, I'm starting to get really fed up with the traffic issues. We discussed this pre-launch, but the bug still seems to exist. Here's an example of a highway that's a complete disaster:
The culprit? Everyone wants to go West in that picture, which takes forever because cars on that highway all insist on using the same lane. Why do they do that? Because at the end of the highway, that's the lane they want to be in, so the other lanes go largely unused. As a result, my whole highway system is screwed up. Here's the merge point, note that I'm using the cloverleaf interchange that comes with the game:
It's not just highways either. I have a one-way loop that's 6-lanes wide. It's got ramps to/from a nearby highway, and a cargo train terminal at the end of the loop. The idea was that trucks could get on/off the loop to deliver and go, or go between the train and boat stations without dealing with commuter traffic. Instead, everyone uses one of six lanes. The boat station comes with a two-lane, two-way road which means that everyone now has to compress down to one lane...of course with the pathfinding algorithm that means that they only use 1/6 of the provided lanes, and now whenever someone needs to come in or go out of the boat station, the entire loop comes to a standstill:
http://i.imgur.com/4jZvqLy.jpg
It's so beautiful.
The reason this *seems* to be an issue with the game is that we're all used to real life roads where in almost every situation, all the traffic has different destinations. Lots of people may want to use one ramp but many others don't and will continue on elsewhere.
This is one of the key concepts of city planning/roadway design.
There's a definite problem in that cars which plan on getting off at the next exit are stuck in that traffic though. If there's a huge line in the right lane to get off at Exit 1, and some of those cars are getting off at Exit 2, then you should...get out of the right lane and go around the Exit 1 backup. People do that in real life because it's faster, and they're making that decision point when they hit traffic. The agents in-game don't dynamically adjust their pathfinding based on congestion, which means they'll sit in the right lane slowing down everything for Exits 1 and Exit 2.
The junction will eventually provide a bottleneck, but there's a difference between 6 lanes backing up for a block and 1 lane backing up for 6 blocks.
Nice, but too much road surface in a lot of that.
People not using the optimal route? That seems about right. In fact - people lane sitting? Also sounds about right. It might drive you nuts in the game but the traffic behaves in a manner largely recognisable to me
People behaving irrationally is a cool thing to model, but no one would behave irrationally in this particular way. If anything, 'real incoherent people planning' would be intending to get off at the same exit that everyone else is cramming into, but instead of queuing up with everyone else, they get over one lane, zip up to the exit, and then try to merge ahead of everyone else in line (like a sociopathic goose). If half the agents in the game did that, you'd see more realistic (and infuriating) traffic.
Of course that's true, but in the pictures above you can clearly see ALL traffic is trying to get off at that exit. The one vehicle that isn't (the green van) is in fact using a different lane.
The first I thought I could address. Adding extra ramps isn't a solution, because it's an all-or-nothing thing...traffic only seems to consider distance rather than congestion, and thus a safety valve isn't really an option. People will either all use the new ramp or the old one. Dividing up the traffic burden so that some would take an earlier ramp (Exit 1) or a later ramp (Exit 2) isn't an option. What I ended up doing was building another highway not in the picture, which runs perpendicular to the highway on the left edge of the first image. That highway is a main line into the industrial area where most of those cars are going, and gets used sometimes, but hasn't alleviated the jam.
The second issue is the merge taking too long, which is just a shitty part of how traffic works in this game. The second image shows everyone stopped because one guy just had to merge immediately for a reason I don't understand. Anyone already on the highway should see "oh shit there's a ton of cars, let me move left so I don't get stuck slowing down for the merge" but that doesn't happen. People are committed to the middle lane already and refuse to get out, and merging cars refuse to stay in the right-most lane on the highway.
So since launch they sold another 250k units. Its mind blowing how much this game is selling, and I hope the EA execs are shitting the bed over the demand.
At this rate Colossal Order is going to have to upgrade their chocolate fountain to a platinum plated chocolate fountain.
I am hopeful that they will fix how highways work and maybe have agents drive longer distances at much higher speeds instead of always taking the shortest route so stuff like ring roads work. But right now it's all pbbbt.
Adding extra ramps can actually be a solution, depending on where your traffic is going. So in your example, all those cars are trying to get to a certain area, but are they all going to the exact same spot in that area? Or are some going to a residential zone, while others might be going shopping? If you create routes that are better for each, rather than a single route to get to both, that will divide up your traffic and ease congestion. Second in respect to ramps is that sometimes it's better not to use ramps. What I mean is that to branch from a highway to a road, you don't necessarily need an off-ramp... you can just use another piece of highway that branches off your 'main' highway and then connects directly to the destination (which may be a road or another highway). That prevents everyone from having to squish down to one lane for the transition. It also means you may have to do some interchange designing on your own, since basically everything I've found on the Workshop uses ramps.
The third picture shows a problem with cargo delivery, which is also pretty straight-forward to get around. First, don't zone directly around your cargo train/ship yard. Second, use one-way roads so that trucks are only trying to get in and out of the yard from a single direction, keeping things flowing by getting rid of trucks trying to turn left and right into the loading areas. Ideally, you want them all to make a right turn in and right turn out. In my latest city where I learned this lesson, I actually created a direct connection from a highway, to a one-way road, to the ship yard, then back onto the road and directly onto the highway. There is a massive flow of trucks going through there but they never have to queue up in a way that blocks the highway. It was an 'ah ha!' moment for me.
er Metro should be the easiest transport placement to deal with. Go into Metro transport menu then select bulldoze and take out your tunnels. Then reselect the tunnel builder and let the cursor snap to the ends of the metro station tunnel, then just drag the tunnel over to the next station and let it snap to that. Move over to the other end of that station, and draw a tunnel between it and the next station and so on. Until you draw a tunnel back to the first station.
Then just create routes between your stations, making sure to close the loop by reselecting your first stop marker. The trains themselves can go forwards and backwards so your tunnel layout doesn't really matter, but you do need to loop back to the start on the route marker to make the route complete - the trains won't just hit the end of your route and then go back the way you came. So if you want a train to travel through, and stop at, 5 stations on the way across your city and again on the way back, you will need to create stops at each station twice in the order it should stop there.
Solutions:
More local connections so people aren't funneled through one place to get to a large area.
A different interchange design that allows for a higher-speed transfer in that direction.
I, uh, *ahem* well I have to change my pants now.
My favorite realization:
The distinct minimization of all intersections. If there is an intersection, it's either a residential area or it connects into a roundabout; otherwise everything connects to a roundabout or has a bypass. The number of elevated pedestrian walkways so they don't clog up traffic on roundabouts, the turbine highway interchange, barbell interchange.
It's just extremely efficient about getting people around with minimal stops/clogs.
2 lane one ways don't have stop lights. So if you do grids in a standard us city alternating one way pattern you will have no stoplights. I do hope they mess around with the 4 and 6 lane roads to make them more useful, because yea lights do terrible things to them.
Edit: Ha! I knew it, I still have a screenshot, look at these jerks:
So real life then?
On the other hand the grid system is perfect for minimizing road maintenance (repairs, streetcleaning etc) while maximizing commercial/industrial utility (both in terms of the amount of surface but also navigation). It's just not good for handling dense traffic or travelling quickly.
As such a good city consists of blocks broken up by trafficlanes built for handing more traffic.
Many modern cities also feature smaller roundabouts on mid-sized intersections (ones that don't have a ton of traffic, but even so are sufficently trafficed that you need some sort of intersection management) that can smooth traffic flow.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I've done the alternating 1way 2lane roads on the main axis and I've used 2way roads on the perpendicular axis. It's kept traffic flowing pretty well, and it lets my services keep their wide range. If I went 1way 2lanes all over, it cuts fire services range by more than half...
Interlinking bus terminals have helped as well.
horrible asci visual.
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As for highway traffic, I've started using elevated highways, and the ramps on right and left sides of highways, which kick traffic to its intended areas. Heavy traffic towards the industrial sector on the left exit and residential/low commerical on the right exit helps to split up those lines.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN