Guides
Town to City Layout Guide: Warehouse Placement, Road Strategy, and District Design
Quick Answer
Town to City layout key rules: never cluster all warehouses at the station — distribute them across districts. Upgrade roads for worker speed. Use the Connections viewer (click any service building) to find and break bad connections that are blocking nearby houses from service. Design your city as overlapping warehouse cells, each serving one neighborhood.
Town to City’s grid-less building gives you complete freedom, but that freedom hides a specific logistical challenge: the Connections mechanic. Every service building has a limited number of connection slots, and those connections determine which houses are actually being served — not just which ones are within visual range. Understanding this is the difference between a city that runs smoothly and one where isolated pockets of citizens stay unhappy despite being surrounded by shops.
Last checked: May 15, 2026. Core layout mechanics are stable from Early Access into the 1.0 release. The tourism system adds hotel and landmark placement considerations covered in the Tourism Guide.
Quick Answer
Design your city as overlapping logistical cells. Each warehouse is the center of one cell that serves the houses and shops within its range. As your town grows outward, add new warehouses to create new cells rather than extending your single early warehouse’s range. Click service buildings to audit their connections whenever happiness drops in a specific area.
The Distributed Warehouse Network
The single most important mid-game layout concept in Town to City is the distributed warehouse network.
| Approach | What happens | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| All warehouses near station | Delivery workers must travel long distances to outer districts | Slow deliveries, shop stockouts, unhappy citizens |
| Distributed warehouses per district | Each area has a local warehouse with short delivery paths | Fast deliveries, consistent shop stock, happy citizens |
How to implement:
- Your first warehouse: near the station for receiving goods.
- Second warehouse: placed near your first expansion district (about 150–200 meters from the first).
- Third and beyond: continue as you open new residential areas.
Each new warehouse creates an independent logistical cell. Citizens in the new district get local service without depending on the station warehouse.
The Connections Mechanic: Your Most Important Troubleshooting Tool
When citizens are unhappy despite being near service buildings, the Connections mechanic is usually the cause.
How it works:
- Each service building (food stalls, clothing shops, schools, etc.) has a limited number of connection slots.
- Houses within range compete for those slots.
- Closer houses typically get priority.
- A house that is blocked from a connection is not being served — even if it visually appears within range.
How to diagnose:
- Click on a service building in the problem area.
- Look at the connection lines that appear — they show which houses the building is currently serving.
- If nearby houses have no line to this building, their slot is blocked.
- Click to manually break connections to distant or well-served houses.
- The freed slot will reassign automatically to underserved houses nearby.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Specific house shows food red despite nearby stall | Stall connections full | Click stall, break a distant connection |
| Newly built area has low happiness | No warehouse coverage | Place a new warehouse in the district |
| Happiness good near station, low in outskirts | Workers travel too far | Add mid-district warehouse + road upgrade |
| School shows available range but houses still unschooled | School connections exhausted | Add another school or break unused connections |
Road Upgrade Priority
Worker speed is determined by road surface. Upgrading roads multiplies your warehouse capacity because the same number of workers can make more deliveries per minute.
| Road tier | Worker effect | Upgrade priority |
|---|---|---|
| Dirt paths | Slowest | Starting only |
| Stone roads | Moderate speed boost | Upgrade main arteries first |
| Paved roads | Fast | Priority for high-traffic routes |
| Premium roads | Fastest | For your town center and market districts |
Rule: Upgrade roads before adding more workers to a bottlenecked warehouse. Faster roads often resolve the bottleneck without the population cost.
Where to upgrade first:
- Station to town center artery — the highest-traffic route.
- Warehouse delivery paths in your densest districts.
- Tourist routes after 1.0 (hotels to landmarks — tourist satisfaction benefits from smooth travel).
Social Class Zoning
As your city grows to include Artisans and eventually Bourgeoisie, dedicated class zones prevent needs conflicts and optimize service coverage.
| Class | Housing type | Needs to serve nearby | Ideal placement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workers | Standard houses | Food, apparel, decorations | Any district; most flexible |
| Artisans | Artisan Residences | Food, apparel, luxury, housewares | Mid-zone with access to workshops |
| Bourgeoisie | Opulent residences | All needs + public services (Library, University, Cathedral) | Scenic area with full service coverage |
Key insight: Do not mix Bourgeoisie residences into a Worker district and expect all happiness to stay high. The Bourgeoisie will pull unhappiness scores down because their more expensive needs go unmet. Build dedicated high-end districts instead.
Beautification as a Layout Layer
In Town to City, decoration placement is part of layout design — not an afterthought. Decorations have direct happiness effects and apply a beautification score to adjacent houses.
| Decoration strategy | Effect |
|---|---|
| Trees and parks near every residential cluster | Fulfills decoration need + applies beautification score |
| Street lights on all roads | Functional and happiness-contributing |
| Buffer parks between commercial and residential | Mitigates implied noise/proximity negatives |
| Flowers in context-aware positions (windows, walls, water) | Higher beautification score for same item count |
Density rule: As you build multi-floor houses to increase population per area, add more park space proportionally. Dense neighborhoods without green space generate overcrowding unhappiness that overrides other gains.
Trait-Based Micro-Zoning
Citizens with Traits — special preferences that give +20% happiness when fulfilled — are a layout asset if used correctly.
| Trait type | Best placement |
|---|---|
| Loves trees | Near a park or forested area — even in a low-service location |
| Loves market proximity | Near your main commercial street |
| Loves plaza decorations | Near your town square with banners and flags |
Move Trait families to locations that match their preference (M key). This frees up prime service-rich locations for non-Trait families who need every advantage.
City as Overlapping Cells: The Master Layout Model
The cleanest way to think about mid-to-late Town to City layout is a cellular model:
- Station cell: Warehouse near station. Serves 10–15 early houses and your first stalls.
- Expansion cells: One new warehouse per new district. Each cell is self-contained — houses, local stalls, and direct worker paths within the cell.
- Overlap: Adjacent cells share some buildings (schools, churches) at the boundary to avoid duplication.
- Roads: Major roads connect cells; internal paths handle within-cell traffic.
This structure allows you to expand any direction by adding a new cell without reworking existing districts.
Layout Troubleshooting Checklist
| Problem | Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distant area stays unhappy | Add warehouse to that district | Check road upgrade | Audit connections for each service building |
| Happiness good except one cluster | Click problem house — check which need is red | Find the serving building — click it for connections | Break unused connections to serve the blocked house |
| Workers always out of stock | Warehouse understaffed | Road too slow for delivery range | Consider splitting into two smaller warehouse cells |
| Town expansion slows down | No room near station | Add a new cell in the open map area | Upgrade main artery road first |
How This Connects to Other Guides
| Question | Guide to open |
|---|---|
| How do I start the first layout correctly? | Town to City Beginner Guide |
| How does the tourism system fit into my city layout? | Town to City Tourism Guide |
| Where is the full game hub? | Town to City Hub |
Sources
FAQ
How should I place warehouses in Town to City?
Use a distributed warehouse network instead of clustering warehouses near the station. Your first warehouse goes near the station, but as your town grows, place additional warehouses in each new district. Each warehouse creates its own logistical cell — a service range covering nearby houses and shops.
Why are some houses in range of services still unhappy in Town to City?
This is caused by the Connections mechanic. Each service building has a limited number of connection slots. A house can be within visual range but unable to get service if all connection slots are taken by other houses. Click the service building, view its connections, and manually break connections to distant houses you want to redirect.
When should I upgrade roads in Town to City?
Upgrade roads as soon as you can afford it in mid-game. Workers travel on roads to make deliveries, and faster roads mean more deliveries per unit of time — effectively multiplying your warehouse capacity without adding workers.
How do I design districts for different social classes?
Workers need basic food, apparel, and decorations. Artisans need all of that plus luxury goods and housewares. Bourgeoisie need luxury, public services, and opulent residences. Build dedicated zones for each class with the appropriate services in range, rather than mixing all classes in one area.
Can I move buildings freely in Town to City?
Yes — press M at any time to move any building to a new location at no cost. This applies to houses, shops, warehouses, and decorations. This is one of Town to City's core design features — you are expected to reorganize and redesign as your town grows.
