These are my top 5 tips for creating good looking cities in Cities: Skylines. I hope you find this helps...

PLEASE NOTE: The screenshots included in this guide include my city that was made with a large amount of mods, I'll try to add a collection on steam if you want too see which ones I used, but I have used Theme Mixer 2 and other relight mods for most of the graphical stuff

https://steamproxy.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1899640536

(Theme Mixer 2)

This tip is one more for appeal and uniqueness. Before you start any map, any game, I would always recommend that you closely examine the map, and evaluate your infrastructure. For example, if your map includes a beach, instead of just normally zoning houses in, maybe build a, say, tourist area, and have lots of hotels and night clubs (After Dark DLC). Or maybe try to have a commercial waterfront, and maybe even put some beach themed assets in. I would strongly recommend if you have the Parklife DLC to build some park areas in these unique places as well. This can add a some greenery, increase happiness and in general break the flow of regular zoned buildings.



(A recreational area near the CBD (downtown))

Using real life examples is great if your running low on insparation. What I mean by this is that you should go onto things like google earth and look around cities and see what they have, or maybe try to recreate the style in your city. For example, one time when I was building one of my cities, there was a blank space, I was just going to turn it into a housing area, but I felt creative and decided to go on to google earth and look around my city (In real life), and saw a botanic garden. That got me inspired, and so I turned that blank area into a botanic garden.

Mass Zoning in Cities: Skylines is one thing that I really hate. If you want to make good looking cities in Cities: Skylines, then I massively recommend that you really take your time about what buildings your zoning. If you've ever clicked on a building before, then you would have noticed a little button down the bottom that says "Historical Building". What that means is that the building can still level up, but the physical appearance of it will not change, so if you zone a building that you really like, then I would recommend that you make it historical. I use this all the time and it's really helpful for getting my cities under control and looking good.

Some examples:

1. Low Density main road
Some commercial buildings would good here, but make them historical at level 1 or 2 so they don't get too tall

2. Low Density apartment area
High Density residential buildings would work here, but make them historical at level 1-3 so they don't get all out of hand



(A specifically historical apartment area in my city)

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1658773932

(Historical districts mod, which can easily make all buildings in you district historical with just one click of a button)



If you want to, then you can also do something I call “Specific Zoning”. This is where instead of zoning everything at once, you interdependently zone specific squares, such as a 3x3, or 4x3. These different zoning squares can produce unique buildings that you may not have seen before, and also can leave some room for detailing.

Fences, paths and quays are probably some of the most underrated features in Cities: Skylines.

Fences
Fences are really good for dedicating certain areas, and along the edge of roads. For example, I've used fences before in between highways, around industrial areas and along more rural country roads. You can also do something I like to call "Scattered Fencing". This is where you build fences in segments, and have gaps between. This is great for more rural areas, where you could almost say that the fences where built long ago and have fallen apart.

Paths
Paths are great more for connecting areas, increasing walk-ability and decreasing the amount of traffic in your city. Paths are only 1 unit wide so they can fit in those really awkward tile spaces that you don't know what to do with. I mainly use paths in suburbs between houses to break the constant flow of zoned buildings. Paths are more commonly used in parks from the Parklife DLC.



(A nature reserve in my city)

Quays
Quays are really nice for decorating waterfronts. If your city is built around a river, then why not take the time to draw in some Quays and liven the place up a bit. The vanilia game only allows you to place quays along the edge of water, but with mods you can place them wherever and trust me, you will find that you use them a lot more if you use mods

https://steamproxy.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=650436109v

(Quay Anarchy, which allows you to place quays wherever you feel like it)

The best cities are ones that take time. You can't expect to build a pro style city just overnight, it takes time. I hope you find that if you slow down, and think about your city more, go into planning, your cities will be a lot better. What most new players do I find is that they draw a simple grid a fill it in with zoning. If you take your time and go "Hey, wouldn't it be nice if I added, maybe say a path here? Or some trees?" You'll be shocked how much better your cities are.

Add some personality to your city to make it shine, fill it with uniqueness and make it something different to an NPC style city with just mass zoned high density apartments. Add some trees, add some parks, add whatever you want as longs as it's different.

Experiment, step out of your comfort zone and maybe try to build something different, even if it's just one little thing because that will go so far.

If you slow down than maybe one day you will be able to build something like this:

This tip is probably the most important one for a number of reasons. My most important rule in Cities: Skylines is absolutely NO BLANK SPACES. I see this too many times, people just leaving these massive blank spaces, open gaps in their city with nothing in them. At the very least try to add some trees or something just to break it up. It will look much better, which leads me on to my next point

Every single good looking city ever made in Cities: Skylines has used the Landscaping menu. The landscaping menu is pretty easy to point out, it has a shovel and a lump of grass. If you look around the landscaping menu you should see some buttons for trees, paths, rocks, etc. If you take a minute to explore the menu, and spawn some trees or rocks in, you should discover why I think this is the best tip. Trees can brighten up a city so much more, and make it so much better and unique. It adds colour and brightness to your city.

The landscaping menu also has a spot for raising and lowering terrain, which is useful for building things like lakes, mountains, etc.

Use the landscaping menu, and you'll soon be able to build a city like this:





Use the forest brush mod as well to quickly and easily create forests:

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1658679290

Well, there you go

Those were my top 5 tips for creating good looking cities in Cities: Skylines. I hope you find this helps, and if you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I'll try to respond as quickly as possible.

Your best bet if you have no DLC's is to rely on mods and keep your assets selective. Use the unique buildings menu for parks and attractions, and use pathways, trees and fences to decorate around your city. Add in some tips form this guide where possible, and you should have a good looking vanilla, no DLC city

I highly recommend looking a mods if you haven't already to find some really good assets, decorative features and helpful tools to create your dream city