Cities XL includes a number of decoration areas, which work on the freeform filler principle. This means that the area will automatically fill the entirety of an empty space, no matter what its form.
All decoration areas are found in the Decorations>Areas Construction menu. To build an area, you have two options:
1. Find any space, enclosed completely (or almost completely) by buildings and/or roads.
2. Define the space yourself. The easiest way to do that is to use roads to enclose a space in the form you want. Later, you could even buldoze the roads and leave only the new decoration area!
Whenever you click the desired button, you will see your marker changing to reflect the new filler. Hover it above the desired space - you'll see colored dots defining the future area. The color will tell you when it's OK to place the area. The automatic filler mechanics lets you create from very small to very large areas, filling neatly almost every possible empty space in your city, no matter if it's square, round, a strip or a labyrinth between buildings.
All areas have a small positive effect on the Environment in their vicinity. It is speculated that the effect varries according to the type, but it also definitely varies according to the final size of the area - the bigger the size, the better the effect. Still, it comes nowhere near the Landmark effect of special buildings or Cultural Leisure buildings. Also, note that every area is maintained by the city, and the size of the maintenance fee depends on the size of the area.
There are 6 main types of decoration areas:
- Posh Urban plaza area. A 'fancy' downtown plaza, containing fountains, statues, etc. It is the most expensive area.
- Wooded park area. This is the basic decoration area, comprised of grass and trees. It is also the cheapest area.
- Modern plaza area. Almost the same as the Urban plaza, slightly different object collection.
- Market place area. This area presents a bustling conglomerate of stalls and ambulants, selling fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, it doesn't act as a shop, it just has a positive environmental effect.
- Construction site area. This area is meant as means to mark a location for future expansion - it is littered with construction materials, so it's not exactly a decoration, and has no environmental effect.
- Urban plaza area. This is a walkable public plaza area, containing benches, trees and other objects.
There are also decorative plazas in each of the three original Content Packs - Americas : Exotic Plaza, European : Medieval Plaza and the Asian : Chinese Plaza. They are found in their respective Pack menus.
Note that areas will also be automatically placed in all empty space between the buildings, when you use the Free zone tool. These areas, however, have no environmental effect, they are simply decoration. All residencial zones are filled with wooded parks, all commercial and office zones are filled with plazas, and industrial zones are filled with a unique filler, featuring tanks, power generators, etc.
| Areas |
|---|
| Posh Urban Plaza Area * Urban Plaza Area * Wooded Park Area * Market Place Area * Modern Plaza Area |