airport should be somewhere on flat land
#What's the best location for...
little vine
pearl mango
I'd say that all of them should, but Airport is most important
junior kernel
city center: near water, perhaps at the head of a peninsula (ex: boston)
airport: close to the city but minimal noise pollution (again boston)
high density: kind of in an area that lore wise was underserved, close to the city (ex: canary warf london, south boston waterfront
actually, boston could be used for a lot of these examples
i would note how the runways in boston are kind of angled to cross over the least amount of homes
obtuse matrix
A lot of this depends on the background you want for your city. Was it originally settled because it had easy access to water and trade routes (lake, harbor, or river), was it established because of a university or unique industry, or did multiple smaller cities grow and merge into a larger one.
The original city center would most likely be located near a primary water source because it gives easy access to trade during early settlement. You also want to think about a nice large public space at this point as well, like Boston Commons, San Franciscos Union Square, or Hyde Park in London.
Your high density area can either form naturally out of the original city center or you can create a separate outlying area (think La Defense in Paris)
As for your campuses, it depends on if you want it to be incorporated into the middle of the city or located on the outskirts. Depending on the geography, you could locate it near a valley. You could also pair it up with a farm if you wanted to give it the allusion of an ag-based college.
Your industries and major warehouses also tend to locate near your airport and major highways and ports to give easy access to freight movement.
foggy egret
What he said
Although I would add that parks can be virtually anywhere in (or around) a city (although what they look like will differ based on where they are)
And while less likely campuses can also be on more hilly terrain. Since they're usually relatively walkable this may add some complexity in the planning tho
junior kernel
campuses are usually pretty close to the city, like across the river like u of penn and mit
foggy egret
There are some exceptions to that as well, in those cases there's usually good public transit tho
Or they're pretty specific/specialist (a military campus for example)
obtuse matrix
Campuses could also support small towns like Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire. There colleges way on the outskirts like Thomas Aquinas College between Santa Paula and Ojai, CA. Or ones embedded within the City like UCLA or USC. Really it depends on the lore and design you are wanting.
thick stone
I definitely recommend exploring different cities around the country/globe that inspire you. Check out what they did and try and dissect why it is that way. You can learn so much just by looking at google maps!
When I plan a city, I pick a location in the world to gain inspiration from. Look for patterns of how they do things and mimic that while making it your own. This little trick has significantly improved my builds, understanding of terrain, and help create connections, history and ties for you city to the real world.
little vine
campuses are usually pretty close to the city, like across the river like u of p...
In Europe, they are mostly new outside the city.
Ofcourse with airports inside the cities exists, Berlin had 5 inside the city (Templehof, Gatow, Tegel, Staaken, Johannisthal) but nowadays has Schonefeld.
Hong Kong airport isnt inside the city but on artificial island close to city and its connected by metro...
High Density zone in europe mostly exists somewhere near big avenue, on area that was formerly industrial and later redeveloped (f.ex. Berlin Potsdamer Platz (former wall), Zagreb Radnička (slaugther house), probably La Defense)).
Parks: you have variants but usually you have 1 big park near center and then many of smaller ones and of course it depends on topography of the city. Paris has 2 big parks on outside areas of the city and jardin des tuilliers.
Berlin has multiple big parks (former Templehof airport (400+ha), Tiergarten (400+ha), Treptower Park, Jungfernheide, Grunewald and many forests...). Zagreb has part of Park of Nature north of it and 300ha park Maksimir(that was made when Zagreb had 15k ppl and is big as Central Park in NYC).
livid heron
tbh i would probably try avoid this, if you make 1 tile of industry, good luck managing the traffic 😂
maybe green cities or something could fit this treatment better
livid heron
DLC generally makes less traffic for me, since the buildings are bigger
fervent meteor
I recommend them to be near the city but on the outskirts by the suburbs, I recommend it to be on a natural flat island, or just a flat area in general, with highway afess
junior kernel
lots of cities have kind of an industrial district