Stories 2022-09-02 Mountain Meadows Game-play
2022-09-02T02:07:00Z Started savegame on Mountain Meadows, all outside connections and natural resources, suitable area for building 69%, base theme: european.
Goal is to reach population 100k today as quick as possible while still enjoying the game.
Addons used: 81 tiles, camera position utility, cinematic camera extended v0.5.1, csl show more limits, enhanced outside connections view, extended game options, extra landscaping tools, first person camera, harmony v2.2, hide it, lifecycle rebalance revisited v1.6.4, optimize outside connections, precision engineering, random tree rotation, realistic population 2 v2.0.5, rebalanced industries, roundabout builder, TM:PE stable v11.6.6.3, transfermanager ce v1.8.10, transporttool v2.3.1, ultimate level of detail, unlimited oil and ore, unlimited soil. List updated: 2022-08-27T21:39:00Z
European terrain, sigh. However even though the name sounds really bad (mountain = bad for Cities Skylines building), there is plenty of terrain for me to max out high density residential buildings for our goal.
First used 81 tiles addon to open up all terrain grid tiles for use. TM:PE enabled disable de-spawning, advanced vehicle AI enabled, 50% dynamic lane selection, parking AI enabled more realistic parking. Transfer manager ce, goods delivery options warehouse first, reserve trucks for local transfers 20%, improved inter-warehouse transfers, import/export disabled allow import goods, services prefer local district services, death care/garbage improved all three, general disable dummy traffic, vehicle AI enable garbage and police.
This is my starting setup today.
Turned roads, electric and water budget to 50%, we need to save money.
2022-09-02T02:18:00Z Unpaused the game, lets start this thing.
First save game for Mountain_Meadows_1 file name.
Oops ran out of money, have pretty good coverage for low density residential but unfortunately couple of 4 x 4 zone blocks in industrial area are now without water, oh well, we'll have to wait until first milestone to fix that, my bad.
2022-09-02T02:26:00Z Little Hamlet population 360.
Turned on taxes to 12% for industrial, low density residential and commercial. Purchased elementary school and landfill site.
On this savegame I'm going to test zoning using long roads without "side roads" err dunno how to explain, and use pedestrian walking paths between every two 4 x 4 unit building zone blocks. Err OK screenshot time.
As you can see there is 1 unit empty space between each two building blocks. I don't have the road width correct yet, I think its now 10 unit per err grid guide line, I need to find a way tomake two building blocks - pedestrian path - two building blocks - pedestrian path and two more building blocks before the next "side road", hope that clears it up 
I'll put a screenshot when I nail down the unit measurements for road grid
2022-09-02T02:39:00Z Worthy Village population 750.
Placed fire station, police station and health clinic. Decided not to paint districts because I didn't use them at all in my last savegame, might have been even last two hmm. For what? For who? Forgettaboutit! 
Saved game for Mountain_Meadows_2 file name.
In this savegame I want to do more generic industry, like not try to be stingy with it, just create industry when you need jobs, the office phase comes eventually but it takes so long that you get bored waiting for education to graduate those highly educated folks.
And to state the obvious, I want to reach 100k population as fast as possible.
2022-09-02T02:47:00Z Tiny Town population 1.2k.
Replaced placeholder dirt road arterial and collectors with proper six and four lane asphalt roads. Replaced industrial areas roads with industry road type (small for local and medium for collector). Started to use two lane asphalt roads for residential areas from now on.
Saved game for Mountain_Meadows_3 file name.
2022-09-02T02:54:00Z Finished doing those three pedestrian path lines in the medium size low density residential block, took fucking forever and was painful to do 
Yeah tried and tested, its a no go, way too much work for very little benefit, sure its nice that pedestrians can have better access but where do they need it in residential area anyways, nah man, forget about that shit, just do roads and be done with it.
The thing about long roads is lack of access. For example if there are any traffic and you get a fire which requires immediate response, then its a bad news if you have very long roads fire trucks have to drive back and forth, with traffic its a definite no go, a failure. Sure with absolute traffic gridlock no amount of road access helps, yeah but... yup.
All in all, forget about pedestrian paths with long roads, just do long roads and be done with it, its fine.
On the next low density residential expansion I used this kind of criss cross pattern for road grid, limit 4 way intersections.
2022-09-02T03:03:00Z Boom Town population 2.2k.
Cemetery and bus depot became available in this milestone, cemetery is essential for life heh.
2022-09-02T03:10:00Z Restored budget to 100% which is the normal.
This industrial bus line stop looks goofy but prevents buses making traffic jams blockages on busy industrial road.
2022-09-02T03:34:00Z Busy Town population 4.6k.
Fire helicopter depot became available in this milestone, this is must have to any large city, when you have traffic jams and fires, helicopters are a life savers.
Saved game for Mountain_Meadows_4 file name which is the last of the four rotating file names.
Expansion to north side of collector road is ready for residential buildings, now we just wait for life finding its way...
2022-09-02T04:08:00Z I was ignoring RCI info bar view now, just eyeballing demographics addon's "Employment & Workplaces" dialog statistics. Currently workers vs jobs are all below one hundred percent except well educated it amazing 267%, which is 764 workers and 291 jobs.
2022-09-02T04:10:00Z Big Town population 7.5k.
High density zones, metro, incineration plant, university and large warehouse are now available.
When placing university I remember why I HATE european theme, some of the european buildings are all messed up sizes, cant fit into normal road grid, drives me crazy
2022-09-02T04:46:00Z Small City population 11k.
This milestone gives us cargo train station and two good policies. Activated small business enthusiast and big business benefactor policies.
Build cargo train terminal for some hauling of raw materials and goods.
Next there was a slight problem with industrial area buildings "level up" and then requiring "educated workers" which I don't have that many, two buildings actually got abandoned because of it. Buildings level up because I placed fire house, police station and cargo train terminal there. Apparently train terminal gives big level up boost.
Dunno man about realistic population addon, it is cool by the numbers, but these problems with uneducated people are just... ouch. In base game all you need is residential and some industrial and your city is living just fine. Realistic population 2 causes extreme hardship for the education levels, it kind of feels that you never have all of them enough heh.
2022-09-02T05:14:00Z Lunch break, will leave game running in 3x time accelerations speed after checking vitals and saving game first.
2022-09-02T05:41:00Z Feeding time is over, lets finish this city.
Okay nothing happened while I was eating, good. RCI info bars is 0% residential, 50% commercial (as always) and 90% industrial. Even though city needs jobs, there is not enough workers for industrial educated / well educated levels, which sucks.
Hmm next time I need to avoid putting cargo train terminal right next to industrial site before I have enough workers which are required in the "level up" buildings.
Moved police station from industrial area to the new residential area, hopefully that would keep buildings not leveling up.
2022-09-02T06:31:00Z Big City population 17k.
Crematorium, large water tower and advanced inland water treatment plant are now available.
I was away from computer for restroom trip plus some extra chore, game was running in 3x speed and as city grew there was not a death wave but still bunch of dead people and those caused several abandoned buildings on high density residential zone, sigh. Well OK my fault as I left game running unattended.
Now purchased all the new goodies that came with last milestone and we are good to go again.
2022-09-02T07:14:00Z Grand City population 22k.
2022-09-02T07:32:00Z Capital City population 36k.
Cargo harbor is now available.
2022-09-02T08:56:00Z City progress was really slow, decided to do something, added bunch of low density commercial buildings to industrial area so vehicles don't have to drive out of the area to deliver goods which we already export just a bit over 400 (units?). Now used the pedestrian path thingy for better access. I mean why not.
I want more!
2022-09-02T09:44:00Z Added more and more, now outside connections exports for goods are 45, which is nice and balanced.
2022-09-02T09:52:00Z Colossal City population 48k.
This milestone gives nuclear power plant and cargo hub (ship + train terminal).
2022-09-02T10:35:00Z Okay I'm done with this big commercial zone next to industrial one, I'm way too scared of adding more stuff to it, I mean the commercial zone gets traffic from the industrial buildings, nothing is put on highway outside connection or elsewhere in the city, well perhaps private cars driving there to shop but I got two metro lines and big whopping bus line so it should be good.
But man its a big commercial zone heh.
Outside connection goods exports are now 40, so somewhat OK balance.
2022-09-02T11:08:00Z Lunch break, game will run 3x speed while I eat.
2022-09-02T11:35:00Z Feeding time is over, last part of todays game-play starts.
Alright lets focus all our energy now to grow that population, would be awesome to finish this savegame tonight, 4hrs 5min to go ...
2022-09-02T11:39:00Z Metropolis population 70k.
Passenger train station is priceless nearby your high density residential zoning area, its awesome, all those people could have clogged the roads with private cars otherwise...
Do not underestimate the importance of intercity bus station, train station or passenger ship harbor... when you are expanding your city rapidly.
2022-09-02T13:51:00Z Megalopolis population 90k.
Last milestone... now we are only 10k away from the big one hundred...
Now this shits crazy, yo!? 
Low density commercial area attached to our industrial area, trucks and vans bring goods from the "factories" directly to the shops, no traditional travel required. Citizens are brought in for shopping trips with buses and metro.
It works amazingly well.
I did know about this previously and in lesser scale I did similar thing, but it was one or two commercial buildings among huge industry blob, this is the other way around and I do believe now is the right way of doing it; less industry more commercial.
2022-09-02T14:31:00Z Hooyah! We have reached our goal, population 100k yeah buddy! 
Man this is awesome, started savegame today and finished it the same day, just great!
2022-09-02T14:33:00Z Saved game and shutdown Cities Skylines with smile on my face heh.