The small town edges towards breaking even: two grain and two vegetable farms, a post office with mailboxes across town, lower residential taxes and water fees, sound barriers along the highway, a Shiroku district with policies, a seaside signature apartment building and a cliffside park — up to Busy Town, milestone 7.
What happens in this episode
Shiroku is a small, more or less Japanese-style fishing and beach town built from the buildings available at the time. Japanese houses weren’t in the game yet, and I wanted to replace buildings once they were. The goal of this episode: expand the town, grow the residential base and finally break even. The game crashed five or six times, probably because of the mods.
How it was built
Farms to feed the town
The natural resources view shows fertile land at the edge of town. There are no rice farms, so grain is the closest thing to rice fields. In the end there are four farming areas, two grain and two vegetable farms, placed with Anarchy so the fields can follow the national highway. A tip for placing farm buildings: start from the right side of the building, looking down from the top in the right direction. Then the production panel shows enough surplus everywhere except vegetables, which may be seasonal.
Mail, taxes and fees
Residents asked for better mail service, so a post office goes in with mailboxes spread through town, so nobody has to walk far to drop off a letter. Residential tax comes down to 13%, office tax goes up, and the water fees turn out to be far too high, so they’re lowered. Garbage costs nothing at this point.
Sound barriers and more zoning
Noise from the highway keeps bothering residents. Trees don’t help in Cities: Skylines II, so sound barriers go along the highway and the fields, but not everywhere, because they can’t be placed on every road. More low-density homes, some commercial and a couple of offices bring the budget close to break-even.
The first district
The town gets its first district, named Shiroku, with policies: energy consumption awareness, recycling, parking fees and speed bumps. The heavy-traffic ban stays off, because heavy traffic has to run through town. One service building nearly sent the budget into the red, so I took it out of service right away.
A signature building and a cliffside park
The first signature building, a large seaside apartment block, goes near the water, with the land around it de-zoned and given a footpath and large trees. Pedestrian crossings and parks raise demand, and a cliffside park takes shape with a lawn texture copied using the picker, evergreen trees and bushes.
Busy Town, milestone 7, unlocks ore mining, gated communities, large roads and parking areas, and 11 development points, with trams and a welfare office on the list. The town felt finished for now, so the question at the end was where to go next: the islands, the west of the mainland, or a mountain town. The answer came in episode 6.
Video chapters
- 00:00Where Shiroku stands
- 04:09Grain and vegetable farms
- 08:16Mail service, taxes and water fees
- 12:31Sound barriers and more zoning
- 17:13The first district and its policies
- 22:01A signature building by the sea
- 26:08A cliffside park
- 37:43Busy Town — where to expand next?
Clicking a chapter starts the video above at that point.
FAQ
How do you stop losing money in a small Cities: Skylines 2 town?
Grow the residential base, add some commercial and office zoning, lower fees that are set too high (water fees were far too high here), and use farms to cover local demand. Watch services you can't yet afford — one new building briefly pushed Shiroku into the red.
Are there rice farms in Cities: Skylines 2?
No. For a Japanese look the grain farm comes closest to rice fields.
Do sound barriers help along highways?
Yes — trees don't reduce noise in Cities: Skylines II, so sound barriers along the highway and fields are the main tool. They can't be placed everywhere, though.