Districts

This article is considered accurate for the current version of the game.

District use example

Districts allow the player to designate specific areas of the map for the following purposes:

• Allows the player to name a specific area
• Allows the player to apply district styles to a specific area
• Allows the player to apply policies to a specific area
• Allows the player to apply specializations (Industrial, Commercial, Office, Residential) to a specific area
• Allows the player to see information about a specific area

Without any of these things applied, aside from the district name appearing, a District has no effect on the city. Information about that area is still available.

Creating districts

To create a district, click the Districts and Areas button located to the right of the zoning button. There, the player has 3 choices of brush size, and by using the "Paint District" brush, one simply has to draw the district over the area they wish to cover while holding the left mouse button. The brush auto-snaps to roads and intersections, meaning that drawing individual blocks is relatively easy.

To remove what has been drawn, simply hold the right mouse button and draw to erase, or use the "Erase District" brush with the left mouse button.

To expand the size of a district that has already been drawn, hover the brush inside the district until it is highlighted, then click and begin drawing. Districts cannot overlap, and drawing a new district into an area where another district already exists will remove that part from the existing district and add it to the new district.

The Parklife and Industries Area brushes are also located here, but are not used for districts. They may overlap districts without interference.

Naming districts

On creation, a district will be given an automatically generated name. To rename a district, click on the name of the district, click on the text box of the Info Box that opens, type in the desired district name and hit enter.

District Styles

Main article: District styles

District style selection example

A district can be set to have different styles, for example "European" themed growable buildings on a non-European themed map. The low-density residential buildings from the European Suburbia DLC can also be designated to grow within a District.

District policies

Districts can be subjected to differing sets of policies to the city as a whole.

Once a district has been made, specific policies can be assigned to it by clicking on the name of the district and clicking the "policies" button on the Info Box. This will open the Policies UI to the right of the screen. The options will be mostly identical to the city-wide policy options, however these policies will apply only to the district.

District specialization

Once a district has been drawn, it can be specialized. This is done by selecting the appropriate specialization from the "Districts and Areas" menu at the bottom of the screen and clicking on the district. You can remove specializations using the last tool in each category ("Generic Industry", "No Commercial Specialization", "No Office Specialization", "No Residential Specialization".). Select the tool and click on the District that you want to remove the specialization from. Any existing specialized buildings will disappear, and depending on demand, regrow as non-specialized. Changing specializations will also cause existing specialized buildings to disappear and be rebuilt as the new specialization if there is sufficient demand.

A district may have more than one specialization, as long as they are from different categories. Specializations in the same category are mutually exclusive. (Example: Can't have Forestry and Farming in the same District, but Forestry and Tourism would be allowed.)

In the base game, one of four types of industry can be set to develop in the district, and this allows industry to fulfill production and secondary processing roles of the supply chain. There are advantages and disadvantages to each specialization.

The four different industrial zone specialized district types are:

• Forest industry - This district will cause any industry built inside it to work with timber.
• Farming industry - Agricultural industry consists of farmland and processors of agricultural goods.
• Ore industry - The ore industry mines and processes ore.
• Oil industry - The oil industry pumps and processes oil.

For a specialized zone to be a primary producer of a product, it needs to be zoned in an area with the appropriate natural resource. Otherwise all buildings in the area will be secondary processors of the specified type and will need to import the raw materials from elsewhere. Some secondary processing industry will normally emerge in areas of primary production as well.

Industry outside of specialized zones will be generic industry. Generic industry will not automatically utilize any natural resources present.

In After Dark, there are two different commercial specialized district types:

• Tourism (Commercial) - This district makes money on entertaining tourists during the day.
• Leisure (Commercial) - This district entertains people, especially during the night.

In "Green Cities", an additional commercial specialization has been added, as well as new office and residential specializations.

• Organic and Local Produce (Commercial) - Changes commercial area to consist of buildings like organic produce shops, electric car charging stations and such.
  • Produces 50% of sold goods locally
  • Truck traffic in the area is reduced by 50%
  • Increases electricity consumption by 20%
  • Reduces garbage production by 20%
• IT Cluster (Office) - An office specialization that changes office buildings into high tech buildings.
  • Requires 50% less workers
  • Consumes 30% more elecricity
  • Generates 30% more tax revenue
  • Produces goods
• Self-Sufficient Buildings (Residential) - Self-sufficient residential buildings recycle their waste and produce energy with solar panels and by other means.
  • Consumes 30% less electricity
  • Produces 30% less garbage
  • Generates 30% less tax income

District Information

Clicking on the District name will open the District Info Box. Information about land value within the zone, population and age groups, levels of zoned buildings and weekly tourist visits are all presented here. Options for policies, District styles and Traffic Routes are also located here.