Cities XL

Perhaps the most dirty and dreaded form of industry in the game. The pollution powerhouse of just about every city simulation game…. Heavy Industry.

Heavy industry is just a fancy way of saying dirty industry. Unfortunately it’s a necessary evil, even in the game world. In Cities XL it’s more than just a stepping stone – if you plan to have manufacturing or high-tech industry, you’ll need the raw materials that heavy industry provides.

Build these factories far away from civilization if you can. The pollution expands/spreads, and there’s little that can be done to reduce it. There are very few buildings that will tolerate the pollution spreading towards their area. In fact, the only ones who don’t mind the permanent clouds in the sky tend to be other polluters such as the manufacturing industry, power plants, garbage dumps, and oil rigs.

Heavy industry comes in 3 different types – essentially a low, medium, and high density. The first two create smaller buildings, while the high density has a slightly larger tile size.

Where should they go? You probably want all the big polluters packed into a corner somewhere, or with their own dedicated section. Either the corner of the map, or an edge is generally the best place, because part of the pollution will run off the map. Make sure they have access to freight lines running out of your city – generally if they’re near the edge they’ll be near a road running out, but if you’ve placed them towards the middle of your city for some reason, make sure there’s clear roadway going out (or better yet, access to a harbor).

Even though you’re going to want to keep these away from residential, don’t forget that workers still have to travel to work! Ensure your road network is up to the task.

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Heavy Industry Chart

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Suggestions and Notes

• Put these near the edges of your map when you can. That way, half the pollution radius is outside your city land.
• If you’re loaded with money and want a green city, consider buying Heavy Industry tokens from the marketplace instead of building heavy industry yourself.
• Even 1 heavy industry building will cover a huge area with air pollution although it’ll be light. Multiple buildings in the same area will simply make the pollution more heavy/dense and create a thick cloud.
• If forced to put heavy industry near residential, try to put it near the Unqualified residents – those with a lower pay-grade tend to accept pollution a little more than the rich.