Time for the second Race Day Dev Diary from Tantalus! Today, we pull our motor race cars into the pit lane and cover the other types of events that can be held using the new Race Day Expansion. Parades, Running Races, and Bicycle races can all be held using the new Event Parks and Event Roads.
To establish a route for your events to be held on, first, we should identify a start and finish point within the city. The Start-line Park will be the main building and starting point for parades, running races, and cycling races. Once you are satisfied with the start, a Finish-line Park can then be built where the event route will end.
Event Road and One-way Event Roads can then be built between the parks, or you may upgrade the path between them to Event Roads.
Event Routes can be built through established areas of cities.
The Start-line Park will look and function as a regular park when there are no events, Setting Up, In Progress, or Packing Up. Citizens can also walk through its perimeter as a pathway or shortcut.
The Start-line Park is your public space that can be transformed to host 3 main event types: Parades, Running Races, and Cycling Races.
Event Routes will affect the traffic of your city when there is an active event. Event Roads will be closed during events, so it’s important to mitigate the effects on your city when planning an Event Route through it.
It’s a good idea to check the new Races and Parades Info View to see if any buildings have “no event access”, meaning that services cannot reach them when an event is in any of the active phases.
Races and Parades Info View shows which buildings will not have service access during an event.
Buildings that cannot be accessed by services during active events will be displayed in the Info View as black in colour, with the event access icon above them. To resolve this, it is possible to build an alternative access, or utilize the new Alley road-type as a lower impact way to allow service vehicles to access buildings while an event is active.
Because active events will disrupt normal traffic, it can be a good idea to allow alternate routes or build Event Routes that do not divide districts completely.
When scheduling an event, frequent disruptions to traffic can be avoided by hosting fewer annual events on each route. The length of the route will also increase the duration of disruptions.
It is encouraged that Event Routes are built through areas with existing tourism or attractiveness, to draw more spectators and tourists to increase ticket sales.
There are several stages to each event with varying impact to the city’s normal traffic routes.
Setting Up
During this phase, Event Roads are closed and vehicles are discouraged from using Event Roads to reach their destination. Road blocks are placed across the intersections to Event Roads. Citizens and tourists will begin to congregate along the Event Route and at the Start line Park and Finish-line Parks to spectate the event.
In Progress
The Event is Active and there is no access to the Event Road for normal traffic. Services will also not be able to reach any buildings along the Event Route that do not have alternative access.
Packing Up
The event has now concluded and the participants and/or competitors leave the event. Services will still not be able to reach buildings that have their access blocked by the adjacent event route being used. Traffic will be allowed to resume as normal after packing up has completed.
Inactive
There are no events in any of the three phases above. Barriers are removed, and traffic is normal across Event Roads.
Parades
Parades can bring celebration to your prized city, drawing local spectators and tourists along the event route to enjoy the fanfare. There are 5 possible tiers of Parade, increasing in grandeur and variety of entertainment, but also expenses will increase on this scale.
Your citizens will line up along the sides of the parade route and watch the parade as it goes along, so make sure that you get to a good spot fast!
Running Races
Running Races and Fun Runs can also be held from the Start-line Park. This type of event will have your city's athletes or fun runners run the distance between your Start and Finish lines.
Cycling Races
Competitive or novelty Cycling Races can showcase a faster race between your citizens. How fast will your citizens pedal?
Motor races on Event Roads
Motor races can also be held on Event Roads! A Race HQ is still required, but part of the track can be built or upgraded to Event Roads, meaning that when a Race is not active, normal traffic can use the roads. Be careful when planning a circuit through your city to ensure that buildings along the route have alternative access for services. Also, keep in mind that the more laps your race event has, the longer traffic will be disrupted!
Thanks for reading! In the next update, we will showcase the free content that will be released alongside the new Race Day Expansion. We have a new Fence Tool, Billboards, and an all-new Info View to share. See you then!
Tantalus