Town to City Hub: Tourism, Layout, Logistics Planner

Town to City’s 1.0 release is live on Steam, and the best route still starts with a city that works before it welcomes tourists. Use the board above to score happiness, warehouse coverage, hotel space, landmark chain, service readiness, and road pressure. Then open the Route Workbench, Tourism Readiness Check, Warehouse Diagnostic, Food Chain Triage, or 1.0 Request Router based on the weakest part of the save.

Last checked: May 29, 2026. Town to City is live in its 1.0 release on Steam. Tourism, hotels, tour routes, farms, warehouses, and food routes should be checked in the live build before relying on exact values, but the route logic here is ready for current saves.

Quick Start

1. Survey the map before placing anything — identify a central, open area for your town nucleus.
2. Connect station → warehouse → stalls → houses in a cluster at that center.
3. Build a Research Center immediately and assign workers to it.
4. Place decorations alongside food stalls — decorations fulfill a happiness need directly.
5. Keep happiness above 60% to sustain new family arrivals.

Use the farming guide if food stalls, fields, warehouses, or happiness are shaky. Use the tourism readiness check only when your city is stable enough to consider hotels. Use the layout guide when the board points to warehouse distance, service connections, or road bottlenecks.

Start With These Tools

Tool or guide	Use it when	What it protects
Hub Readiness Board	You need one read on whether the save is ready for tourism	City state, happiness, warehouse cells, hotel space, landmarks, and services
Route Workbench	You are drawing or fixing one hotel-to-landmark route	Request matching, route recipes, appeal packs, blocker diagnosis, hotel size, and a copyable build order
Tourism Readiness Check	You are deciding whether hotels should start now	Wait, test one Inn route, or expand tourism
Warehouse Diagnostic	Warehouses, roads, or services are bottlenecking growth	District type, current symptom, service connections, local warehouse cells, and road fixes
Food Chain Triage	Food chains, fields, worker routes, and warehouse supply feel unstable	Empty stalls, worker pressure, warehouse overload, new housing, and tourism food drain
1.0 Request Router	You want the feature tracker before rebuilding	Rocemarée, hotels, routes, Lighthouse, Obelisk, requests, Art Atelier, save checks, and route workbench links

Guide Map

Guide	What it covers	When to open it
Beginner Guide	First hour, station lane, warehouse coverage, food stalls, Research Center, decorations, and 60% happiness	Before the first Hamlet push
Tourist Routes	Hotel-to-landmark route scoring, saved route presets, Rocemarée, Lighthouse, Obelisk, ruins, services, and route failures	When the route itself is the problem
1.0 Update	Tourism launch prep, hotels, new map checks, save planning, and live-build verification	Before starting a 1.0 save or after opening an older town
Farming Guide	Fields, warehouses, food stalls, workers, happiness, and tourism readiness	Before adding hotels or a new residential district
Layout Guide	Warehouse placement, distributed networks, road upgrades, social class zones	When planning expansion or fixing bottlenecks
Tourism Guide	1.0 hotel and tour route system, tourist happiness, new quests	When a stable mid-game town is ready for visitors

How Town to City Differs From Other City Builders

Feature	Town to City	Traditional city builders (SimCity, Cities: Skylines)
Grid	None — fully free placement	Grid-based
Building penalty	Free to move any building at any time	Demolition costs
Disaster system	None	Fire, crime, floods, etc.
Focus	Happiness, community, aesthetics	Traffic, budget, services
Social classes	Workers, Artisans, Bourgeoisie	Single population type
Tourism (1.0)	Tour routes, hotels, landmarks	Present in some; varies

Town Progression Stages

Stage	Population needed	Happiness needed	New content unlocked
Dwelling	Starting	—	Basic houses, station, warehouse, stalls
Hamlet	50	60%	Apparel needs, Tier 2 Research, Mayor’s Home/Requests
Village	120	60%	Luxury goods, Butcher, clothing stores, new shops
Small Town	Higher	60%	Artisan class, advanced workshops
City	Further	60%	Bourgeoisie class, opulent residences, advanced services

The 60% Happiness Rule

Citizen happiness is the core resource of Town to City. The most important threshold to understand:

Happiness level	What happens
100%	Citizens highly productive — multiplied income and Research Points
60–100%	New families keep arriving; positive growth
50–60%	Growth stops — new arrivals pause
Below 50%	Citizens begin to leave

Happiness is raised by satisfying needs (food, apparel, leisure, housewares, public service), adding decorations, and building luxury goods. It is decreased by overcrowding, high taxes, and unfulfilled class needs.

What the 1.0 Tourism System Adds

The 1.0 update turns your city into a visitor destination. The tourism system introduces:

• Rocemarée: A new campaign map with two monumental ruins and three hotels for tourists
• Hotels: Build from small boutique stays to large luxury resorts, serving tourist visitors
• Landmarks: Lighthouse and Obelisk monuments, ruins, civic buildings, and attractive districts that contribute to route appeal
• Tour routes: Plan routes that guide tourists between hotels and landmarks
• New jobs and requests: Tourism and Bourgeoisie work, town hall jobs, and 11 new requests
• Art Atelier and beach decorations: Late-game decoration and scenic tools for stronger visitor areas

Tourism pairs well with happiness optimization — a more beautiful and service-rich city also generates higher tourist satisfaction.

When To Add Tourism

City state	Tourism move	Why
Happiness below 60%	Wait	Visitors will not fix a city that cannot keep residents growing
One warehouse serving too much town	Fix layout first	Hotels add jobs and movement to an already weak route
Research Center is late	Build research before hotels	Unlock pace matters more than visitor income early
Districts are stable and decorated	Start one modest hotel route	A small route teaches tourism without overbuilding
Luxury or landmark district is ready	Build a stronger hotel loop	Existing appeal makes tourist income easier to test

Common Early Mistakes

Players new to Town to City frequently make layout decisions in the first few minutes that slow the entire run:

Mistake	Why it hurts	Fix
Building the town center next to the train station	The station area is for logistics, not residential. Cramping your town here limits expansion.	Survey the full map first and claim a central, open area for your nucleus
Building only one warehouse	A single warehouse creates constant distribution bottlenecks as town grows	Plan for distributed warehouses across the town as each district forms
Ignoring the Research Center	Research Center is the fastest path to new building types and upgrades	Build it in the first session and assign workers immediately
Placing decorations only when needed	Decorations directly raise happiness — placing them reactively means sustained periods below 60%	Build decorations alongside food stalls from the start
Expanding population before happiness is stable	Each new family that arrives demands happiness be above 60% already	Confirm happiness is stable at the target stage before triggering the next growth tier

Happiness Optimization Checklist

Use this before each major population push:

• Average citizen happiness is above 60%
• Food stall coverage is within reach of all active residential areas
• At least one decoration cluster exists near each residential cluster
• Apparel needs are covered if population is above Hamlet threshold
• No active negative modifier is pulling happiness below the target
• Workers are assigned to Research Center (Research Points fund upgrades that enable better happiness buildings)

The jump from 60% to higher happiness tiers is not just comfort — happier citizens generate more income and Research Points, making every subsequent expansion move faster. Investing in happiness first pays a compound return that cost-focused play misses.

Sources

• Town to City on Steam
• Gematsu — Town to City Launches May 26