Stories 2022-09-02 Pine Rivers Game-play
2022-09-02T23:20:00Z Started savegame on Pine Rivers, all but ship outside connections and natural resources, suitable area for building 84%, base theme: boreal.
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
Oh man what a crap looking terrain with swampland, guess the author meant it as a river but it looks like swamp, it strategically surrounds the starting grid too, sigh. Its going to be horror to build large city on that hmm.
I'm considering whether I should take extra landscaping tools and edit elevations to remove all the swamp crap, hmm. Decided against it, at least in the starting grid you got plenty of space to build, it gives me time to think.
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.
Turned roads, electric and water budget to 50%, we need to save money.
This is my todays starting setup. Not sure how its going to go as there are some heightmap elevation, on top of strategically placing swamp around this grid, author decided to place the grid into one of the few hilltops.
2022-09-02T23:34:00Z Unpaused the game, lets start this thing.
First save game for Pine_Rivers_1 file name.
2022-09-02T23:43:00Z Little Hamlet population 500.
Turned on taxes to 12% for industrial, low density residential and commercial. Purchased elementary school and landfill site.
I really don't like this terrain, its not the worst I've seen but the whole starting grid hilltop and swamp land surrounding it just puts me off so bad.
2022-09-02T23:53:00Z Worthy Village population 1k.
Same as last savegame decided not to create district because "for what". Placed fire station, police station and health clinic.
Saved game for Pine_Rivers_2 file name.
Funny side stats info, I should probably eat days first meal always before starting a new savegame because in the beginning especially in the first two three milestones its hands on constant taking care of the city and growing it. Yes at some point you get to that boring low density residential growing part where you are just sitting, waiting and yawning while game does its thing, but overall the beginning phase is really hectic. I might in the future on these last few terrains left to play-through get full morning chores done before launching the game so I can have some un-interrupted game-play fun 
2022-09-03T00:04:00Z Tiny Town population 1.6k. And with this milestone I am leaving game paused in the milestone achievement menu dialog and go get myself a days first meal
2022-09-03T00:34:00Z Feeding time is over, lets back to build this city.
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 Pine_Rivers_3 file name.
2022-09-03T00:43:00Z Restored roads, electric and water budget to 100% which is the normal.
2022-09-03T00:56:00Z Boom Town population 2.8k.
Cemetery and bus depot became available in this milestone, cemetery is essential for life heh.
2022-09-03T01:42:00Z Busy Town population 5.5k.
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. Two lane road with trees, this is my go-to local road, starting using it now and when time comes, will upgrade existing dirt roads with this one. Oil industry specialization available.
Saved game for Pine_Rivers_4 file name which is the last of the four rotating file names.
2022-09-03T02:03:00Z Ran into first swamp river location when expanding residential area. Did a quick landscaping fix for that location but now I just have to steer clear of those stupid swamps.
2022-09-03T02:27:00Z Big Town population 8k.
High density zones, metro, incineration plant, intercity bus, university and large warehouse are now available.
2022-09-03T02:43:00Z Small City population 11k.
This milestone gives us cargo train terminal, train station (passengers!) and two good policies. Activated small business enthusiast and big business benefactor policies.
Trains have arrived. Passenger train station and cargo train terminal, brings in new citizens and raw materials for industry. Good stuff.
Now we are in the phase where we just grow the city like mad men. Sure there are some buildings to get access to like crematorium etc, but nothing that would change how the city works fundamentally. I never used those airports to their full capacity and never even tried the airports DLC so dunno about those. So yeah, lets spam that high density residential and get to our goal 
2022-09-03T03:06:00Z Big City population 17k.
Crematorium, large water tower and advanced inland water treatment plant are now available.
New folks coming in using passenger train station, awesome
I believe this was mentioned in the previous terrain story game-play, but passenger train station, intercity bus station and ship passenger harbor (if train and ship is available) are absolutely essential tools for a city to grow fast with high density residential zoning, otherwise the private cars of citizens moving in absolutely cripple the traffic.
2022-09-03T03:29:00Z Grand City population 22k.
2022-09-03T04:07:00Z Capital City population 34k.
Passenger and cargo harbor is now available, passenger is a must have for incoming citizens. Unfortunately this swamp terrain doesn't have a ship outside connection.
2022-09-03T04:35:00Z Need to take a quick break.
Saved and paused game.
2022-09-03T05:46:00Z Back, now we continue pushing this story terrain game-play marathon through
2022-09-03T05:58:00Z Colossal City population 46k.
This milestone gives nuclear power plant and cargo hub (ship + train terminal).
Upgraded public transport system a bit, new metro line looping from residential to commercial to office and back to residential. A big loop.
People like to shop, eh?
2022-09-03T06:40:00Z Saved game and now its my lunch break, will leave game running in 3x speed, hopefully nothing breaks.
2022-09-03T07:02:00Z Feeding time is over, back to city things.
2022-09-03T07:48:00Z Metropolis population 70k.
2022-09-03T08:22:00Z Megalopolis population 85k.
And that was the last milestone. Now a small hop to our goal, lets get it done.
2022-09-03T08:54:00Z Yes! Another terrain savegame done, reached 100k population 
And with that I'll switch over to chill mode, have two Beavis and Butt-Head S09 episodes to watch, cant wait heh.
2022-09-03T08:57:00Z Saved game and shutdown Cities Skylines, this savegame is done for now.