Which Are The Best Vanilla Maps In Cities Skylines & Why?

[Music] hello people and welcome to another city skylines tear video hope you're all having a wonderful day today we're going to have a look at all of the base game vanilla maps check out their natural resources their terrain any kind of quirky or fun features that the map has and how friendly each of these maps are to both beginner intermediate and advanced level players as always these are based on my own personal experience with the game so if you feel i've placed a map too high or too low please feel free to get down in the comments and let me know below however before we start today today's video is sponsored by manscaped manscaped were kind enough again to hook me up with their perfect package 4.0 and i have never been smoother please stop sending me free stuff which includes their lawnmower 4.0 borderless waterproof trimmer their crop preserver ball deodorant and the crop reviver or toner spray also comes with a magic map for easy cleanup and some cute anti-shaving boxer briefs and a little travel bag as well you would like to trim the garden at christmas or indeed know someone who needs to trim their garden for christmas and you can get 20 off down at the link below using my code overcharged it really is a good quality product and makes a great christmas gift for your hairier loved ones thank you so much again for mansky for sponsoring the video otherwise let's get started with the taylor shall we so the first map on the vanilla base game tour list is black woods and this is going to go into a nice healthy 80 for me so black woods is a boreal themed map it has all available outside connections a 69 buildable area and has all natural resources available to it lots of rivers running through this map so if you're a fan of building coastal and having lots of kind of decorated river banks and indeed a shoreline once you get further down at south in this map then uh lots of kind of waterfront opportunities available here in terms of our natural resources it is split pretty evenly across the board there's a nice mix of everything of course safari can be placed manually so you don't really have to worry about that but there is lots of oil some nice air pockets and little bits of fertile land scattered around so you've got access to everything that you want with your terrain heights there's no major gnarly terrain uh it's all pretty flat and you know 69 buildable area is pretty high there is kind of one major peak over here on the east side of the map but everything else is kind of rolling hills and fairly flat nice buildable terrain uh quite beginner friendly starting tile is nice and easy to work with you've got plenty of water from opportunities again alongside some fertile land available immediately to the left side of the highway and the map is also very friendly to 81 tiles if you are going to use that mod which is always highly recommended you're going to get access to a lot of land and indeed access down to the coast as well because if you're sticking with those nine vanilla tiles uh you will straw to get down all the way to the coastline uh without playing with 81 and having some kind of cohesive blowing map space to work with things that you could argue are wrong with the map and this is a recurring theme with all of the base game vanilla maps so just get ready to kind of hear this a lot today the rail junctions are terrible this is really bad this is going to produce so much train traffic of course these can be ripped out and rebuilt to your own desire but for people new to the game they won't really know that so bad whale design and again it's highway intersections not particularly great this is actually a manually drawn cloverleaf if you look at the base game at pre-built one you can see how it differs from this one that's been drawn in by hand so you'll definitely want to be rebuilding your highway and rail intersections in pretty much all of these base game vanilla maps i think if anything looking back in hindsight now it highlights just how much better class loader have gotten at making maps when we compared these ones to the ones that came with light sunset harbour at which we will eventually get to of course and again it's its intersections are pretty terrible but apart from that the map's pretty nice i wouldn't say it's a must play but nice and friendly to beginners you have all your natural resources a nice starting tile some nice friendly terrain to work with lots of waterfront opportunities it's a little bit of a shape like well today's video is sponsored by manscape after all but yeah otherwise blackwood's decent a team up for me next up on the vanilla map to list we have cliffside bay which is our first european themed map of the video and this is going to go into seatia for me so cliffside bay certainly lives up to its name it has some really gnarly high cliffs so if you may be looking to kind of recreate little coastal villages or cliffside towns this map actually might not be a bad shout in terms of its natural resources it does have everything available with lots of chunky kind of all deposits up here in the mountains i imagine these would be quite fun to build kind of a dedicated or quarry build but without the industries dlc it would be quite hard to work with i think would get quite ugly quite quickly but lots of fertile land available especially in and around the starting tile and some nice all deposits up in the mountains towards the east in terms of its terrain it is kind of a mix of everything really it has some very high mountains uh to its south and its west and a ton of coastline to the north and the east with some nice flat buildable space and knocking about in the middle of the map so its terrain is probably leaning more towards the intermediate level but a beginner can certainly get on board with this one as well its starting tile is nice and easy to work with again we have fertile land available immediately as the highway enters alongside some forestry and its terrain does immediately start sloping up in the top right corner of your starting tile up onto this first cliff face but some nice waterfront opportunities super easy flat buildable land starting titles fine the map isn't massively friendly to 81 tiles the only thing you're really unlocking is a lot more really hilly mountainous terrain and a ton of coastline so not the best map for 81 tiles in terms of kind of map quirks or something to take note of again we're working with quite a short internal connection line the highway enters here and then leaves immediately this is the only highway in the map and at the rail that just runs parallel to it do have some rather nice uh kind of valley vibes sat in here as well as the highway and the whale pass back through this space so some nice opportunities here but the the hills are just very rolling very difficult to build on so if you're looking to kind of create those grand metropolis cities cliffside bay definitely isn't the map to do it on uh the terrain just doesn't lend itself that well to it but for me it's definitely not one of the must plays in the base game vanilla map it's relatively limited internal connections you have to build out a lot of your own highway infrastructure which isn't necessarily a bad thing but for beginners it could be and it's somewhat unfriendly terrain it brings this down into a seated map for me next up on the vanilla map to list is diamond coast and this for me just about falls into must play so diamond coast is our first tropical themed map on the list and a little bit of overcharged egg trivia i believe this was the first map i ever played when i first got the game back in 2015 so maybe this is why it has a little bit of a soft spot for me but it is very beginner friendly and 81 tower friendly to have a little glance on natural resources again everything is available lots of all up near the mountains and towards the shoreline and some oil deposits just south of the starting tile mixed in with some forestry so everything is within reach within a couple of tiles of you starting the map in terms of its terrain again very beginner friendly lots of nice flat easy to work with space along the coastlines with the higher peaks knocking about towards the east and the south of course which will only be accessible with 81 tiles anyway so super easy beginner-friendly map and there's also some nice islands in the north as well as i mentioned the map is very friendly to 821 tiles you're going to unlock more flat land alongside some more mountainous terrain if you're feeling a little bit daring then you can go ahead and get involved with that some things to note about the map again i've already mentioned these islands off of the coastline you've got a really nice sandy beach here in the north to work with some very nice kind of beach tourist opportunities here you would imagine there's some nice rock detailing in the river as it flows down uh into the estuary so quite like this again the things that are crap about this map are all its connections this is awful to look at it's just it was really really badly done um again it's got one of these hand-drawn clue leafs in just just bad it's really really bad and nope there's more of this junk happening here as well and it also happens with the rail connection here too it's you know glide crazy yeah crazy whale connections so you know this is all stuff that can be changed i kind of feel a little bit cheeky for bringing them up score down because of this kind of stuff but i think it has to be mentioned so you know it's it's connection to junkie you definitely want to rebuild your own for which there are videos on the channel to help you do so and again really small rail junctions this is screaming for train traffic to build up around here as your train network gets gradually busier but lots of highway connections lots of rail of course you get access to air and sea as well in this map uh it's just generally a nice looking map easy terrain to work with some nice peaks nice bays nice waterfronts beginner friendly eight to one tile friendly i have time for diamond coast it's going to go as a must play for me next up we have foggy hills and this is going to go into middle of the road bt for me so foggy hills is another european themed map very similar to cliffside bay and it's going to fall middle of the road because it's not a bad map but it's not a great map so which is the definition of middle of the road i suppose i really really think about it but it's just a bit underwhelming i think it's the the take-home point does have all connections and all resources available alongside a 74 buildable area which is one of the highest in the base game we'll have a look at those natural resources we have some nice pockets of ore and oil pretty much right next to each other alongside some spatterings of fertile land in between its terrain again is pretty beginner friendly there are some higher hills but no real mountains here it's all kind of fairly flat land that base themselves around the rivers so its landscape is very beginner friendly but i think we can all agree just by taking a look at this map here is it's just a little bit underwhelming it doesn't really have much going for it in terms of landscape it again it still harbors the problems of all of the vanilla maps of terrible internal intersections both on the rails and on the highways and again some more of this rail junk happening here as well again i'm not bringing the score down because of it but i think it is worth mentioning alongside some more uh inefficient hand-drawn at cloverleaf interchanges here as well the riverbanks do have this very kind of high nasty slope on them which i'm not a huge fan of it does make building around them quite awkward i tend to terraform a lot of that height away so it's a little bit closer to the water and then your coastline here this is actually uh c this is where your ships will come and go so any kind of cargo airports or harbours will have to be located around this end of the map so yeah foggy hills it's a nice beginner map if you're looking for something quite easy and unintimidating in terms of its terrain it's okay but it's certainly nothing to write home about either next on the tier list is grand river and this again is going to fall a middle of the road b tier alongside foggy hills so grand river is another european themed map it has an 84 buildable area which is one of the highest in the vanilla base game it has all available outside connections however it has no oil at all within the map so if you're looking to create all refinery you will not be able to do it on grand river without better landscaping tools let's have a look at what resources it does have it does have some rather large uh oil deposits in the south to the south of the starting tile and plenty of little spatterings of fertile land and lots of natural forestry as well if you want to get involved with that in terms of its terrain super super beginner friendly which is really what keeps this middle of the road uh it's starting tile here is really quite interesting you have two highway connections within the starting tile and a nice big waterfront to work with as well if you want to get involved in some riverfront builds then you have the option immediately from the start another extremely friendly map to 81 tower mod if you want to go ahead and get access to the whole map you are actually unlocking more flat easy buildable land so you'll definitely want to 181 tiles with this it doesn't suffer as much of the problems as the other vanilla maps do in terms of its connections they do still have a little bit of junk but they're not quite as bad as the ones that we've seen today but that's really down to the fact that there's only two interchanges on the map and these are just the kind of a base game at t or y interchanges so you kind of avoiding that problem because of that but kind of like foggy hills it's just a little bit underwhelming there's nothing wrong with it there's nothing particularly amazing about it lots of super flat very easy buildable land for people new to the game not playing with any kind of really harsh terrains here and there's also some of these little kind of trench warfare details that we get on some of the maps as well these are like um machine gun nests or anti-aircraft guns by looks of it i'm not entirely sure but you know it's always nice to have a little bit of detail on this right you can you can make something out of that if you want a little bit of a park or a tourist attraction now you can think outside the box but grand river nice beginner map friendly to 821 tiles no oil is a little bit of a drawback and you know no particularly outstanding uh geological features i keep it middle of the road seat here for me next up we have green planes and this for me is just about an eight-year map so green planes is another boreal themed map it has all its connections and all of its outside resources available alongside a 74 building area which is fairly high all of the oil deposits in this map are located against the water we have kind of three major ones and then there's some all deposits up and around the mountain ridges and alongside the oil industry as well and some fairly small amounts of fertile land although some of it is directly at near the starting tile according to terrain heights we have lots of nice flat buildable space in the middle and some nice interesting mountain ridges and basically on all four points of the compass to the north west south and east and some nice bodies of water flowing through this map as well including a coastal area which is where your ships will arrive and a nice lake over in the east as well in terms of kind of interesting map features you do have some more of these little castle detailings up over here which is always nice let's kind of work with those if you wanted to and the mountain ridges are actually really nice looking this map kind of has some murky coast vibes it's almost like a poor man's murky coast on the campus dlc uh it's not a bad map certainly beginner friendly and i have to mention again the absolutely hideous internal interchanges here this is so bad this is terrible this is this is awful um probably what keeps out of moss play again intersections aren't particularly great and also i've noticed over on this side of the highway here you're kind of zooming down like look how janky this has been drawn in you can even see the clipping where it's come through of course this can be fixed with mods and redrawing in your own highways but it's expensive to do that and a lot of people won't necessarily know the best way to go about doing that so it brings it out of must play because of all this and also um it's somewhat severe kind of cliff detail in here as well where you've just got these very sharp drop-offs right next to the highway and again the highway continues to to hold this junk here it's very rollercoastery so it's internal connections are really quite ugly uh for green planes but it's starting tile here you've got a lot of nice space to work with and the map is very much friendly to 81 tiles you're going to access all of these higher peaks alongside the edge of the map but for the most part you're going to be building in and around the middle which is nice and flat you've got resources to play with waterways so you can definitely get some nice ideas going in green planes the thing that keeps out of that must play category for me is it's really badly drawn in internal connections again they can be changed but this one requires a lot of work because the highways are just so janky like they really haven't been factored into the terrain you definitely won't move it or to just rip all of this out flatten it with the level terrain tool and redraw it in yourself it's not going to affect traffic flow but from an aesthetic point of view it's pretty nasty so yeah it's just about an eight here for me probably more leaning in towards the beater side but green planes if you want all of your connections available with some nice martinis terrain some bodies of water to play with it's not a bad map it's gonna go into eight here for me next up we have islands and this for me is gonna go into an atia so islands is a 60 buildable area map it falls under the temperate theme and has all available outside connections and all available resources in terms of those resources you're going to get some nice oil deposits along the actual islands themselves alongside some more on the inland and some in the coastline with some spatterings of fertile land and a nice chunk of ore up towards where the mountain ridges start to rise up in terms of its terrain it is very friendly to beginners you're only really dealing with some more severe mountain peaks in the east and the south but even then they're still easy to deal with there's no kind of really gnarly kind of higher terrains happening here starting tail again is nice and easy to get to grips with you do have some fertile land immediately available alongside some forestry stuff and again another vanilla map that is extremely friendly to 81 tiles mod you can be gain access to all these lands out in the east and a lot more coastline if you're looking to build something coastal and then this is a fantastic map to be doing so again i will just mention it it does suffer from at the vanilla intersection at designs here it's not particularly amazing or pleasing to look at but it is quite a a nice looking map you've got some kind of lakes or bays here to play with that all spill out into this uh very kind of grand coastline you've got some nice kind of long thin stretches of land out in the water so chance is to generate some slight manhattan vibes here if you wanted to go down that route or you could take them kind of touristy or keep them natural now it's a very interesting nice looking coastline to be working with i don't think it's quite up there with diamond coast but certainly not bad there are some things i definitely don't like about this map and this is how the rivers have been terraformed i understand that it is descending here and you can very clearly see where they've mapped out those uh terrain layers so the water can flow down but it leaves the riverbank is very high and exposed and not all of them are like this you know these ones over here are okay just just about anyway so yeah it it's river terraforming is a little bit nasty i'm not a huge lover of this but that'll differ for a lot of different people some people might like this gorge vibe it's not really for me there aren't too many detailing features that come with this map you get some of the kind of classic uh older abandoned factories but the rest of the map is kind of yours to play with the flat terrain where it is flat is nice and easy to work with for beginners and the peaks aren't particularly too intimidating you can definitely get on board with building some stuff up there if you wanted to maybe a little kind of observatory or get your castle up on one of these peaks right and then there's lots more land up against the rivers nice and easy for beginners to be playing with this sort of stuff so the one thing that kind of ruins islands to meet this particular movie here just with the way it's been terraformed and i think it would have been nice if it kind of followed you know these gradients over here are supposed to go in like this one but it can be terraformed away with a significant amount of work and of course you want to rebuild all of your intersections both whale and highway nice and friendly to beginners friendly to 821 tiles you've got all your connections all your resources just some weird terraforming keeps out i must play for me but otherwise islands is a good map next up on the vanilla map tier list we have lagoon shore and this for me is going into a very high atia so lagoon shaw is a really interesting and quite quirky looking map and it has all available outside connections all available resources has a 56 buildable area and falls under the tropical theme taking a look at those natural resources we have a absolute ton of natural forestry but of course this can be removed or added at will and some nice deposits of oil clustered around alongside some ore and the fertile land mixed in mainly all around the center flatter parts of the map which is fine night makes it nice and easily accessible it seems it's terrain definitely one of the more interesting terrain maps here uh we have some larger much larger peaks over to the west and some really nice beginner friendly flat buildable land within the rest of the map basically because the rest of it is at all water we do have some small little islands orbiting off the mainland but you will need the eighty-one town mod to get access to those so popping eight to one tar mods gives you access to all of this stuff over here so lots of nice building opportunities and the map again is another tropical one so it has all these really nice white sunny beaches which is really cool and one thing i like about this map that the developers have gone to kind of an extra effort to put in this bit of detail is that there's all these what you would imagine would be volcanic craters or you know old dormant volcanoes knocking around and they've done some out here in the islands as well you know you can definitely tell this has kind of like a volcano vibrate and that's going to sit just off the shoreline so that's kind of cool i like that and then you imagine this was some kind of you know enormous volcano that's blown its arse out as it's done one of its eruptions and it's now just kind of an old dormant mountain and what happened to mount st helens right kind of blew its side out and doesn't really look like a mountain anymore so i kind of appreciate that little layer of detail and kind of lure behind the map right i think that's pretty cool but lots of nice flat buildable space nice bodies of water to play with around here as well you probably want to terraform this to get anything serious around the edge of it but not too bad his coastlines are great really nice this map probably does have some of the worst vanilla junk you're ever likely to see so so bad really really horrific here and with the way that the highways have been drawn you will definitely want to redraw these it just gets worse as you go further down just look at this which is so bad really is absolutely terrible um you know for these highways to come stuck with the map it's not good is it this looks like someone's just figured out how to use the elevation step tool and just gone ham and and yeah it's it's not nice so i'm very you'll definitely want to rebuild this highway and if you're playing with 81 tiles because you won't actually get access to it without that mod so uh yeah something's a factor in the map otherwise lagoon sure really nice uh interesting landscape nice tropical theme i really appreciate the uh terraform detailing with the kind of old dorm volcanoes as well but super nice map strong 80 for me next up on the vanilla mate list is riverrun and this is going to go into a middle of the road bt for me so riverrun is another boreal themed map and it comes with all outside connections and all natural resources it boasts a 76 buildable area and a lot of that buildable area is very friendly to beginners taking a look at our natural resources map we have a nice split of everything pretty much all across the board it's nice and evenly spread there's lots of oil and all patches knocking around and some nice patches of fertile land as well although it should be noted that the resources aren't anywhere found outside of the 8 to 1 tower radius so that's a little bit annoying you'll probably have to play with better landscaping tools if you want resources out there so something to note with 81 tiles in terms of its terrain again the middle or very flat around the rivers and lots of high peaks towards that eight to one tar radius if you're going to be playing with the mod again just taking a quick look around it does suffer from the usual vanilla junk but otherwise it's a pretty calm forgiving nice boreal themed map its rivers are nicely terraformed which of course we've learned today is always appreciated you know this is much more my kind of river the building city skyline so i appreciate their terraforming here and there's lighter bits of kind of map detailing with rocks and kind of old broken walls flying up the hills and whatnot so you've got some nice map detail in there so yeah it's just kind of a chill nice easy to build on bore wheel map nothing to take it higher than a seat but nothing to drag it further down than that either you just fancy a nice chill boreal city then river run could be for you but c2 for me next up is sandy beach and this for me goes into a must play so sandy beach is a tropical themed map with a 63 buildable area and has all outside connections and all natural resources available taking a look at those natural resources there is all available within the starting tile and then there's patches of oil over in the east and then while splattering all dotted around the map mainly near the mountains and look at the terrain super super beginner friendly there's a whole mix of terrain here you've got some really nice flat plains there's rivers there's coastline some hillia terrain something more mountainous super beginner friendly map sandy beach and generally like diamond coast it is just a really nice good looking uh map to play on lots of nice coastline opportunities here again with this white sun coming in with the tropical theme so just really nice landscapes to be playing with and again nicely terraformed rivers big fan of these again has to be said does suffer from the occasional vanilla junk but nothing that you can't change for yourself but i'm a huge fan of this map really nice i can actually see myself going back and playing this one it's uh it's really nice maybe in a live stream one time we can check out sandy beach but uh very nice map and if you are using this as something of a i only have the vanilla maps players guide you know what map is the best you're gonna have a good time on sandy beach lots of options here and it's a must play for me next up we have shady strands and this for me is going to go into a very strong atia the shady strands is another temperate themed map with a 57 buildable area and has all available outside connections and all available natural resources taking a look at those natural resources there's some nice pockets of oil along the coastline and some decent pockets of all update the mountains so plenty of awkward opportunities if you're looking to do something with the industry's dlc it's terrain again really friendly to beginners has lots of flat buildable area and some higher mountains if you want to start playing with some different terrain heights and it's slight and tile again super flat and has fertile land and forestry available as you'll start in industry areas in terms of friendly friendliness to 81 tiles you're not really unlocking that much extra it's mostly water that you're gonna be getting so unless you're gonna be doing a ton of terraforming to kind of reclaim that land then not massively friendly to eight to one tall but you do get some lands out in the east and the west and up in the northwest as well but otherwise shady strands it's a decent map it's going to be an at for me it's essentially the temperate version of river run i think it was but it just bumps it up the extra tier because it's landscapes a little bit more interesting it has i think nicer rivers as well and you kind of have these two big masses of of ocean as well so you can get some really nice kind of port and you know kind of waterfront downtowns in this map so so it's slightly more interesting landscape brings you up to 80 for me if you're looking for a fun temperate build and shady strands could be for you last but certainly not least is two rivers and this to me is gonna fall a middle of the road beta so two rivers is a temperate themed map with a 78 building area it does not have a sea connection so you will not have ports or cruise liners entering the city so that's kind of unfortunate again like the other one it does bring its score down a little bit and it has all available natural resources taking a look at those natural resources we have fertile land within the starting tile and then there's plenty of oil on this map mainly up against the water and then some oil deposits up near where the mountains start to rise up it's terrain extremely beginner friendly the only downside to beginners with this map is you won't be playing with the c connection so a little bit unfortunate but lots of flat easy to play with land and some higher peaks if you're looking to get involved with those however in order to get to those peaks you will need the 81 tarmod which this map is relatively friendly to you're just getting access to more of these open flat planes and a few more of these peaks dotted around right on the edge of the map very much like river run it's just a very kind of safe vanilla temperate map landscapes aren't particularly anything interesting but it just kind of lives up to its name it's two rivers it's just a nice flat temperate plane to go and play with nothing particularly wrong with it does suffer of course again from the old vanilla junk but nothing that can't be changed there's a nice body of water here as well a little lake so a little lakeside town going but yeah it's just a very safe temperate version of river run to be honest it's nothing to write home about certainly nothing to bring it above beats here and definitely nothing to bring anything lower than that so nice safe healthy middle of the road bt for me okay guys that is gonna do it for today i want to thank you all so much for watching if you've enjoyed the video likes comments and shares below really help me out if you'd like to help support the channel through our links down to instant gaming and patreon below and you please watch if you haven't enjoyed the content today please feel free to leave a dislike as well quick thank you again for all the support on these two videos the public transport runs over a hundred thousand views now which is crazy thank you so much for that really appreciate that support in terms of the rest of the maps we will now move through by dlc ranking them they're just based on their expansion release apart from i think it's natural disasters and industries or something only brings three maps so we'll do those two together and a huge thank you again to manskate for sponsoring the video if you are looking to pick up a gift for your for your hairy loved ones then do check out their products they are decent and uh it does help support me so thank you very much if you do end up using my code otherwise we'll shut up and we'll leave it there thank you all so much for watching and as always enjoy the rest of your day [Music] you

Channel: OVERCHARGED EGG

Views: 34,620

Keywords: cities skylines, tier video, overcharged egg, vanilla maps, base game map

Id: PqOc62xkYMQ

Length: 32min 16sec (1936 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 02 2021