"Inner Space V" — Building a Roundabout Park and More [Cities: Skylines Farewell Project]
This 5th episode of Inner Space explores a virtual "Bay City" and bids farewell to the original Cities: Skylines software.
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00:00Hello DP community, and welcome to another episode of Innerspace.
00:06Today, we pick up exactly one year since the topic of Innerspace 4, namely City Skylines.
00:13My foray into CS was indeed so late that the software is about to begin its journey into obsolescence.
00:20City Skylines 2 is coming out in the fourth quarter this year, and wow, does it look fantastic.
00:27Feeling like someone who arrives at a party when coats are being returned to the guests,
00:31I really wanted to squeeze in one more go with the soon-to-be classic, City Skylines.
00:37Last year's Groveland Heights project was my first and only experience with the game.
00:42The purpose of this second and final city was to explore new assets and new approaches to modeling a much larger city space.
00:51So please join me as I lead you on a virtual dawn-till-dusk visit of Bay City, with its sprawling seacoast, rivers, and ample green space.
01:02Last year's Groveland Heights was a single-tile city with a population of 10k.
01:08I had to unlock four tiles for this project, but density-wise, Bay City is really a three-tile city, home to a population of 30,000 residents.
01:19So everything I want to show you today is stuff that wasn't part of last year's city.
01:24We'll begin by visiting the college campus at 8am.
01:28Then we'll head to Sunset Beach at 10am.
01:31While there is plenty of coastline, my decision to develop a beach only in the eastern corner is tied to the city's water system.
01:39You see, freshwater is sourced in Riverside District, and treated wastewater is dumped downstream near the Harbor District.
01:47So water pollution is higher along the western and central coastlines.
01:51At noon, we'll zoom in to Bay City Heights and its unique roundabout park.
01:57The latter is something I had never seen other CS creators explore, and it was probably my highest design priority.
02:03I really wanted to see it work.
02:062pm seems like a good time to visit the zoological park.
02:10At 4pm, we'll head back to the coast to visit the harbor.
02:14Once there, it's an easy trip to the Bayview Commercial Plaza.
02:18And we'll end the day at Ocean Park, partly to enjoy the evening fireworks.
02:24Oh yes, 8 o'clock classes are a real thing.
02:27We're traveling on Shoreway Drive, which passes the front entrance of Bay College.
02:32You can see the campus up on the right.
02:35Right across the main entrance, on the left here, is a monorail station.
02:39Groveland Heights had a city university, which was just a large building that you plop down like any other common asset.
02:46But this campus add-on is like a game within a game.
02:50Campuses are designed and developed gradually.
02:53As the school levels up, more buildings become available.
02:57Although it does have three dormitory buildings, I'd say Bay College is on the smaller side.
03:02And its layout is no doubt influenced by the many urban campuses I've experienced in my own life.
03:09Varsity sports is a fun component of the campuses in Cities Skylines.
03:14The Bay College baseball team has a stadium, which isn't technically on campus, but is an easy 10-minute walk.
03:21There are actual games, and whenever the home team wins, the city is awarded cash.
03:27But after a loss, it seems the residents get pissed off and irritated.
03:32Ah, it's a perfect day to cut classes.
03:35From campus, we can walk to Powell Station and take the monorail along the coast right to the beach.
03:45Last year's city had only buses and the underground metro lines.
03:49Bay City has two parallel monorail lines.
03:53One servicing the coast, the orange line, and one servicing the inland neighborhoods, the blue line.
04:01Such beautiful weather today. We picked a good day for the visit.
04:07As usual, the beach is jumping.
04:11My vision for this beach was very clear from the outset.
04:15I used pedestrian zoning for the actual beach space.
04:19You can even rent a cabin here for a more rustic experience.
04:23The main strip, Beach Avenue, is the divider,
04:27with the hotels and shops set off on their own road, aptly named Hotel Drive.
04:33By the way, if you do visit Sunset Beach, I can recommend the Jens Hotel.
04:38It's highly rated on TripAdvisor.
04:41Now, the question is, where did this come from?
04:44Because normally what you see are hotels and shops lining the main strip.
04:49But I have scattered memories of a place like this,
04:53where the main strip was conspicuously open, uncluttered,
04:57and all the hotels were set back on side streets.
05:01I can't be sure, but there might be some influence from my Florida spring break days.
05:07If you know of a real beach with a similar layout, please leave a comment.
05:14Bay City Heights is the largest and oldest district, for this is where the city began.
05:19You can see the World Highway connection at the bottom.
05:22While predominantly a residential community,
05:25it does have pockets of commercial and government buildings,
05:28such as the city's first public library and clinic.
05:32Bay City Heights, and the bulk of its business sector,
05:35are served by Main Street, running north-south,
05:39and Center Boulevard, running east-west.
05:42Today, there are plenty of low-density and high-density businesses,
05:46as well as high-rise condominiums.
05:51Bay City Heights is most famous for its huge roundabout park.
05:55Roundabout space is traditionally decorated with grass, bushes, or the occasional statue,
06:01but Bay City converted this one to a bona fide park,
06:05complete with food stalls, restrooms, and playgrounds.
06:09It was the government's campaign to unveil the space as lookout park,
06:14because the pedestrian walkway affords such impressive views of the city, even down to the coast.
06:20But many of the city's parents insist the real reason for the park's name
06:25is one has to be on constant lookout from all the surrounding traffic.
06:30In fact, the government already determined that drivers are more alert when driving on a roundabout,
06:36and the park has natural collision avoidance.
06:39Huge-ass rocks!
06:42So, contrary to all the snarky moms, no one has ever been struck by a vehicle.
06:48At night, the park is usually home to teenage gatherings.
06:52No one under 20 calls this place lookout park.
06:56In their vernacular, it is affectionately known as make-out park.
07:02If you're on the eastern side of Bay City Heights, you're close to the city's zoological park.
07:07It's on the smaller side, but there are enough walking paths and animal exhibits
07:12to spend 90 minutes, two hours, if you have lunch here.
07:17There are three facilities for which I didn't have enough space.
07:21Elephants, sea life, and rhinos.
07:24But this condensed layout showcases what a nice asset the zoo park is.
07:28For example, I like the animal animations that are visible in the open enclosures.
07:35As we move to the main entrance on Center Boulevard,
07:39this first green building is the Monkey Palace.
07:49If I were to enter here, I think my natural inclination would be to do a clockwise walk,
07:55so I would first end up at the bison enclosure.
08:05Moose and reindeers.
08:11And then we have a little structure for tarsiers.
08:19And this large house is for insects, amphibians, and reptiles.
08:25I really like this giraffe enclosure, and it just so happened
08:29that the terrain was elevated here, so it ended up on a hill and it worked out.
08:36Flamingos.
08:40This is the side entrance on Lewis Street,
08:42which is right next to one of the Bay City Heights neighborhoods.
08:48And a rather large building.
08:50And a rather large birdhouse, and right behind it, the antelope enclosure.
08:58It may seem counterintuitive, but when we're at street level,
09:02I often have no idea where I am.
09:04When you design and micromanage a world in games like SimCity or Cities Skylines,
09:10you are spending so much time in god mode, looking down upon the city space,
09:15that street level can feel like foreign land.
09:18For example, right now I'm not sure where we are,
09:21but I can tell you that we're driving to the harbor as the afternoon winds down.
09:28Constructing a harbor space had its pros and cons.
09:32First, it's quite lively, boosting the movement of both tourists and commercial goods.
09:39Bay City's harbor shares pedestrian zoning,
09:42Bay City's harbor shares pedestrian zoning with the adjoining Bayview Plaza,
09:47so there's lots of foot traffic in this area.
09:54Visitors are drawn to the multi-level market hall,
10:00and to the magnificent observation tower.
10:06However, I am not a fan of the sloppy ship animations.
10:09I hope that ship traffic behaves more realistically in Cities Skylines 2.
10:15The harbor also nearly destroyed the local road traffic.
10:20When I originally introduced the cargo port,
10:23there was a traditional road and street system in place.
10:26Nearly all of the offloading cargo vehicles would set off for this intersection,
10:32which then crippled the neighborhood's traffic.
10:35It was pretty bad.
10:36So bad, in fact, that I had to design a new service expressway just for the cargo port.
10:45You'll notice that Bayview Industrial Way is completely inaccessible to local area traffic.
10:53All cargo vehicles must use the service expressway
10:57and then drive to a later exit to access specific neighborhoods.
11:07In the real world, I suppose this would be a crazy expensive and outlandish traffic solution,
11:14but it was a solution that worked for Bay City.
11:17Traffic in this general area still tends to be heavy, but it's no longer dysfunctional.
11:26From the harbor, one can take a leisurely stroll into Bayview Plaza.
11:32Vehicle roads and streets give way to spacious sandstone walking paths
11:37that are lined with trees, art exhibits, shops, and modern rising buildings.
11:42This is probably the number one regular destination for both residents and tourists.
11:48Bayview Plaza is the city's commercial and office epicenter,
11:52so people come here not only for work,
11:55but to enjoy the seaside, sunsets, and scattered attractions.
11:59For the city's elite, there are also a few luxury apartment towers
12:03with views well worth the rental costs.
12:06As you can see, there is a dedicated bus route servicing the entire plaza.
12:11There is also a monorail station on Shoreway Drive that serves both the plaza and the harbor.
12:17Bayview Plaza was designed for commuting,
12:20but for those who must drive in, there is a multi-level parking garage right across the entrance.
12:29Those screams you hear are the screams of thrill and fun at Ocean Park,
12:34which connects with Bayview Plaza. Indeed, seaside is where it's at in Bay City.
12:40Ocean Park is effectively an extension of Bayview Plaza,
12:44so pedestrian traffic can, and often does, flow between these two sections.
12:50While the public is free to enter Ocean Park, as we're about to do now, the rides are not free.
12:56To get the most out of the park, one must pay at the main gate and get their hand stamped.
13:01Definitely pay the admission fee to enjoy the newest attraction, the Derrick Death Drop.
13:07Let's swing over to the main gate side and wrap our city tour from there.
13:26♪