GETTING STARTED
Tip #2 -- Editing the Terrain

When starting a new city, you can choose and edit your terrain.  This is an important step and the terrain you choose can really help or hinder the success of your city.

Modifying the terrain after you get started is possible, but it is expensive and will use up a lot of money that would be better spent on developing your city.

Here are a few tips...

• For full points you will need to have a Seaport, so you must have a terrain that has a coast or a river, or both.  Also, residential property values will be higher along the waterfront; which is another item the judges look for.
   
• Coastlines work best for Seaports.  If you want to do a Seaport on a river, the river has to be quite wide (like 8 tiles or so).
   
• Rivers are interesting, and and make for fun architectural details like bridges.  However, bridges are expensive and the river bottom can interfere with water pipes and subways.  If you do choose to have a river, start by developing your city only on one side.   Expand to the other side of the river only after you're city is well established and you have lots of money.
   
• Mountains will complicate your layout, and will drive up how much you have to spend on roads and transportation.  The more level the terrain, the easier it will be to layout your city (this is why land planners love the mid-west!).  You can use the "level" tool to completely flatten your terrain at this point for free.  Leveling at a later time can be done, but it costs big bucks!

Below is a typical terrain I would start with for the Future City Competition...