[2020] how do styles work ?

To use a style in your city, you will first need to paint a district over the area, that should have the style applied. Then you select the district and can pick any available theme for that district. The game will then try to pick only the buildings in the style for that whole district - but if there are no residential buildings in a style (which is the case with Modern City Center for example), then it will select any of the available buildings to make sure buildings spawn.

You can also create your own styles. This is done in the Content Manager before loading a save. First you go into Styles to create a new style and name it. Once you've done that, you can go through your buildings and add them to the new style you created. You cannot add default buildings to a style, only workshop buildings. And you cannot edit the styles that come with the game, like the Modern City Center style.

You don't need to paint a district in a city first. If you want to make your own style, you can start by doing that in the Content Manager, before you even load your city. :)

I'm just gonna add some screenshots showing how to make a style and add buildings to it. It's a little easier to explain with arrows pointing to the different buttons. ^^

In the Content Manager go into Styles and make a new Style (if you haven't already done that ofc).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2196013334

Click the box to give it a name so you know what it is.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2196013354

Then go into the Assets category to find the buildings you want in the style. Under each building, click the Add to style... dropdown menu and check the style or styles you want the building in.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2196013395

Once you've done that, you can add the style to a district in your city. :)

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If you ever need to see what buildings are in a style, you just go to the Styles category and click the little arrow for the style.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2196013415

That opens this menu, where you see all the buildings in the style. You can also remove buildings from a style here if you change your mind. :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2196013443