In Cities Skylines arte two types of residential zones which are low density or high density zones. This zones have some specifics which you must know when you building it. And in todays article we will look on differences between them and how to play with these two types correctly.
How are counted households in Cities Skylines?
Zones affects how many citizens will live in your city. The households are impacted by level of building (higher have more people) and size of zone (bigger is for more people). So important for you is focus on leveling your building. Levels are increase with more services which you provide.
On table bellow you could see how many households you could get when you have higher level.
| Zone | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Level 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Res | ~0.2 | 0.25 | ~0.333 | ~0.375 | 0.4166 |
| Hi Res | 0.6 | 1.0 | 1.33 | 1.5 | ~1.6 |
Second thing which I mention above which affects households is size of your zones. Usually you will build 3×4 or 4×4 so these column will be important for you.
| Zone | Level | 1×1 | 2×2 | 3×3 | 4×4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Res | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1-2 (1.8) | 3-4 (3.2) |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 2-3 (2.2) | 4 | |
| 3 | 1 | 1-2 (1.2) | 2-3 (2.7) | 4-5 (4.8) | |
| 4 | 1 | 1-2 (1.5) | 3-4 (3.4) | 6 | |
| 5 | 1 | 1-2 (1.7) | 3-4 (3.8) | 6-7 (6.7) | |
| Hi Res | 1 | 1 | 2-3 (2.4) | 5-6 (5.4) | 9-10 (9.6) |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 16 | |
| 3 | 1-2 (1.3) | 5-6 (5.3) | 12 | 21-22 (21.3) | |
| 4 | 1-2 (1.5) | 6 | 13-14 (13.5) | 24 | |
| 5 | 1-2 (1.6) | 6-7 (6.4) | 14-15 (14.4) | 25-26 (25.6) |
So if you need boost up your population and attract more people faster then you could build high residential zones which will be in full width and length (4×4) and you must focus on updating these buildings.
Good question could be if you could build only just one type of residential buildings. To response you could build just low res but your city will need a lot of space. If we compare Low and Hi Res we could see that 4×4 on 5 level have around 4x more inhabitant than low res. So if you need bigger population then you will need a lot of buildings.
Where to use low density or high density in Cities Skylines?
Best place where you could use low density residential zones is for suburb of your city. In low density zones live very often families so you must prepare schools and parks in these parts of city. I usually build these zones at the beginning to get my population up and open up those high density zones, and in late game I use this zones on suburbs or some atypical places like a mountain village or a lakeside village.
Is important for you to have good connection from your suburbs to your downtown or your industrial zones. Because population from these zones usually use cars so you could optimize traffic when you have good connection.
On the other side there are high density residential zones. These zones are good for building your downtown. There will probably live more young people with less children. You must focus to provide entertainment, high schools for these people and a lot of work nearby. People living in high density zones in Cities Skylines are higher educated so they need a lot of interesting work.
When you building downtown you need to focus on noise pollution because there will live more pople on one place and high commercial zones are noisy.
