Getting the most out of Policies in Cities Skylines

The core game goal is to grow a city in various dimensions: population, tourists, value, size, etc. As you do this, you have to balance various aspects to ensure that the city doesn't collapse in one or more ways. So the main driver on the player is the need to balance many variables so that the whole city grows and functions effectively. Typically time is not a factor but in several scenarios growth goals need to be achieved within set timeframes and this can require the use of every tool available to succeed. This is a top line number that is an aggregation of all other factors and demonstrates how likely your city is to grow or shrink. Growth can be by new zones being filled or existing zone buildings levelling up. Different zone types are impacted by different drivers to affect happiness. Health determines the birth rate, death rate, lifespan and productivity of your citizens which in turn impacts the functioning of the city. Citizens go through five phases of life (Children, Teens, Young Adults, Adults and Seniors) are affected by different aspects of the city depending on the phase they are in. Health requires medical service coverage to improve and is proactively decreased by factors such as pollution and noise. Level of education has an impact on what jobs the citizen can work in and their wealth level and conversely different types of employers have different requirements so these two need to work in sync with each other. A large part of the city income will come from taxes, and typically residential tax will be the largest contributor. Tax levels also have an impact on happiness and growth of zoned buildings and can be set for each of the 6 different zone types. Lowel level zones tolerate higher tax levels, for example Industry/Comm/Offices 14% at L1, 13% at L2 and 12% at L3. Residential tolerates 14% at L1, 13% at L2/3 and 12% at L4/5. These are the basics needs of all buildings, and different types having different needs. If zoned buildings do not have their needs met they will abandon leading to revenue and population loss. Demand for needs fluctuate due to other factors, and the supply fluctuates due to other factors. The natural cycle of citizens accumulates aspects that need to be addressed to avoid unhappiness and abandonment. These are unavoidable and interplay with other factors to create challenges to growth that must be mamanged. Waste build up creates pollution which in turn makes citizens sick and leave. The Day/Night Cycle, Dynamic Weather, Winter and Natural Disaster options serve to bring dynamism to the needs and behaviour of your city. The first two in particular will see changes in zone needs and tax revenues which adds extra dimensions as you balance services through city growth. While normal maps can see temperatures drop to levels which require heating (anything below 18C), Winter maps take this to a new level as well as add new Weather effects that impact traffic flow more directly. These can all be turned off for a simple, less dynamic game experience. Once your city is beyond a certain size, traffic flow becomes a large consideration as vehicles are required to provide many of the services your buildings need to function. Controlling and influencing traffic is a core strategic lever, both through transportation network design and city layout. Somewhat optional, but the attractiveness of your city provides an opportunity to earn money and drive activity from tourists. Tourists do not live in your city and but they spend money and use your transportation network in different ways to citizens. Managing the flow and amount of tourists is a consideration for city and service design.

Beyond the decision of where to zone and which zone to pick, zoned areas are not directly controllable by the player, so these policies provide a way to influence their happiness and growth.

Happiness and Health of citizens have indirect benefits to your city, increasing productivity, revenue and reducing the need for services. Coarse-grained levers include the respective budget sliders or the constructing of more service / leisure buildings. The first option is city wide and the second option is not useful in temporary scenarios and comes with one off costs. These policies allow different groups of the population to be affected in a more targetted or temporary manner, and in particular Happiness can be used drive zone growth in specific areas of of the city.

Additionally, if the city has a particularly strong focus in one of the Industry, Campus or Pedestrian Areas, which have specific ROI then the policies available to those special areas can be used to target citizens in them. This allows for a more efficient use of funds as those citizens directly generate revenue and Healthier citizens live longer.

Citizens gain education based on time and availability of service buildings but beyond that it is difficult for the player to fine tune. Conversely, employers have different education requirements which can mean that having tools to influence the decision-making of citizens in the city are useful.

Citizens and zones require many services to function. There are times when it would not be appropriate to add a new building and the budget slider can result in waste since it is city wide. These policies allow for tuning either supply or demand of services so that they can be controlled more finely and these changes can targetted to specific producers or consumers in the city.

As the city grows, transport flow becomes a major aspect of the gameplay that needs to be solved for. There are two main side effects of traffic that need to be managed: congestion and noise. Congested roads prevent services and goods from being delivered which leads to flow on effects such as garbage pile up, dead bodies left and crime to rise - the end result of which is building abandonment. Noise has a significant effect on Residential zones, decreasing happiness, health and land value which reduces growth and taxation.

To manage congestion, the primary tools are installing public transport to get citizens out of cars and routing vehicles through higher capacity roads. Noise is managed by reducing large vehicle traffic through areas or choosing lower noise transport options. Citizens and vehicles make weighted decisions on their trip route and modes of transportation. Many of these policies shift those weights to influence that decision-making. There are also a lot of non-policy options to influence them too, some of which are listed beneath.

Since transportation is such a big part of the game, many of these policies work in conjunction with other tools to provide control as the city develops. These tools are:

• Road Hierarchy - road speed is a key decision criteria for route planning
  
• One Way Roads - limiting possible routes helps to shape decision making
  
• Median Roads - roads with medians cannot be crossed when entering/exiting buildings so factor into vehcile routes
  
• Toll Booths - effectively reduce speed to 25 and encourage alternate routes to be taken
  
• Pedestrian Paths and Pedestrian Roads - provide walking routes that incentivise non-vehicle transportation
  
• Bike Lanes on Roads/Bike paths - provide significantly higher speeds for bikes than footpaths or pedestrian paths making them more desirable
  
• Bus Lanes on Roads - doesn't affect decision making but can reduce congestion for Buses
  
• Bus-Only Lanes/Expressways - on permit Buses and Emergency vehicles so allow for dedicated routes
  
• Tram/Trolley Bus Roads - these transport modes require specific roads so their routes can be more directly controlled than Buses
  
• Parking spaces - the availability of parking spaces at the destination can influence a citizen's decision to drive or take other means

Citizens need entertainment to be Happy and increase their Land Value, while Tourism can becomes a significant aspect of a city. Tourists will come to a city if there are transport routes and significant attractions in the city. It can drive revenue without requiring services so these policies that provide levers to influence behaviour.


In addition to these policies, there are many ways to increase entertainment and attract tourists

• Transit connections from outside: Intercity Buses, Trains, Ships and Aeroplanes
  
• Parks, Plazas, Park Areas and Unique Buildings
  
• Tourism Specialised Areas and Hotels
  
• Concerts
  
• Stadiums and Campus Sports
  
• Campus Areas (exchange students)
  
• Campus DLC Museums and the School of Tourism and Travel
  
• Parklife DLC Unique Buildings that boost Tourism