Stories 2022-08-10 Murky Coast
2022-08-10T23:06:00Z Started savegame on Murky Coast, all outside connections, suitable area for building 71%, base theme: boreal.
Goal is to reach population 100k today as quick as possible while still enjoying the game.
Addons used: CargoHoldFix, ExtendedGameOptions, Harmony, RealPopRevisited, RoundaboutBuilder, ShowIt.
Only slept 4hrs last night, dunno if I can go without a nap today, but lets get started and see how it goes.
First screenshot right away, our starting setup before even unpausing the game.
On my previous terrain savegame (Marin Bay) I cheated by using single unit square residential zoning so one house is created there taking literally no space. Reason is real population addon limits only 1 or 2 households into one big 4 x 4 unit grid area, which is huge waste of spaces compared to default game settings.
2022-08-10T23:15:00Z Little Hamlet population 460.
Alright taxes, lets start to make some money 
2022-08-10T23:20:00Z Worthy Village population 900.
2022-08-10T23:21:00Z And now its time to grab a days first meal, most likely will trigger next milestone while I eat but yeah.
2022-08-10T23:25:00Z Tiny Town population 1.4k.
2022-08-10T23:28:00Z Have food in my plate here but gotta do couple of more zonings as we ran out of space, time is money baby!
2022-08-10T23:39:00Z Boom Town population 2.4k.
2022-08-10T23:52:00Z Feeding time is over, back to Murky Coast.
Yeah as suspected couple of milestones reached while I was shoveling food to my piehole, OK we continue. A lot of residential demand right now, good.
Did first save game for Murky_Coast_1 file name.
Moved my operation to another tile with more flat space in it.
Dunno about new savegame starts when using real population addon, the author himself suggested that new savegames without milestones "unlocked" addon should use single unit square zoning to save real estate space. That is true, these 4 x 4 unit square single houses which only have one or two households take SO much space. But I feel extremely dirty and cheaty if I use the 1x1 midget house zoning, yeah it works, it gets you the high density zoning milestone quick, but... yeah... 
I must say, waiting here especially on terrain that has water and mountains which prevent easy expansion of your residential zones, that 1x1 unit zoning becomes pretty good idea... I mean its not cheating, you are just using the game.
Overhead view of zoning. Yeah as I said, this will take a while doing these normal zoning sizes. I think the small 1x1 unit squares build faster, hmm.
2022-08-11T00:20:00Z Busy Town population 4.6k.
Added heavy vehicle ban on PMC Residential 1 and 2 districts, then created PMC Industrial 2 district in the north, away from others.
I would like this city design to be more spread out, connected with six lane roads or even highways as with the 25 terrain grid tiles you can have pretty decent size (Cities Skylines wise) cities done.
2022-08-11T00:52:00Z Yawn waiting time. Yeah I have made my decision... with real population addon I am from now on going to use the 1x1 unit square zoning until I reach big town milestone which gives us high density zones. There is just no point of artificially drag a savegame duration any longer than necessary.
2022-08-11T00:54:00Z Big Town population 7k.
High density zones, metro, incineration plant and university are now available.
2022-08-11T01:01:00Z Small City population 9k.
This milestone gives us cargo train station and two good policies. Activated small business enthusiast and big business benefactor policies.
2022-08-11T01:09:00Z Big City population 15k.
Crematorium, large water tower and advanced inland water treatment plant are now available.
2022-08-11T01:13:00Z Grand City population 18k.
2022-08-11T01:21:00Z Capital City population 28k.
Cargo harbor is now available.
Saved game for Murky_Coast_2 file name.
2022-08-11T01:30:00Z Colossal City population 38k.
This milestone gives nuclear power plant and cargo hub (ship + train terminal).
2022-08-11T01:46:00Z Metropolis population 55k.
At this point I felt kind of bad, I had zero "care" for this city, I was just aiming for my goal to reach the 100k population, I did this by spamming high density residential 4 x 4 unit square zones with offices in a chess board pattern, this way office zone 4 x 4 has jobs and residential 4 x 4 right next to it provides the workforce. Yes technically this does work in Cities Skylines, but overall I would say its highly unrealistic and stupid looking way of doing things.
I am ashamed of myself for doing this, heh...
Maybe its my 4hrs sleep or lack thereof, or that I've just played too much Cities Skylines, these stories tell the tale, its been several days straight in 17hrs/day gaming, eventually it gets to you, too much is too much even for the hardcore guys like me. Everyone breaks at some point.
2022-08-11T02:00:00Z Megalopolis population 70k.
This milestone allows us to buy all the terrain grid tiles, so I did.
Saved game for Murky_Coast_3 file name.
Somehow this savegame makes me feel like I breed huuuumaaans, heh, humans are like a cattle to me, I'll just make those roads, assign high density residential zones and there you go, you just got bred in a lab 
Uh, kind of difficult to explain what I mean. Guess its the box grid style road network and those tightly packed buildings there, hard to say.
Created harbor cargo hub thingy, dunno why its not like I get any use of it, lets call it "looks nice" heh.
We need more high density residential, almost at the goal population, just needs a last push heh.
2022-08-11T02:29:00Z Okay hit 100k population, "whohoo", I guess.
Yup got not much enthusiasm for this savegame. BTW saved it for Murky_Coast_4 file name, at least got the full four rotating file names now heh.
Hard to say why I had no interest in this one, most likely just bored and lack of sleep I guess. Anyways managed to bag another terrain savegame, one notch into the old pistol grip.
2022-08-11T02:32:00Z Saved game and shut down Cities Skylines, now I need a break at least tv show/movie duration, maybe a nap too.