(As it is, City Planner is almost worse than the built-in editor: harder to see categories, harder to know what an element is!)
Some simple (?) suggestions to make City Planner far more helpful. Suggested with an eye toward practical implementation:
Thicken the color edges by 2-3 pixels (at least in storage), and have a color key available to show the categories of items.
Mark the buildings that do/do-not require roads.
Consider changes to the labeling: hide labels that say nothing (e.g. 1x1 roads say "G..." or "P..." which isn't helpful) while still keeping the mouseover info.
Have at least two additional sorts/groupings available for stored items:
By category (current)
By Building Group (eg Statue of Honor + Road to Victory; all Celtic Forest buildings; Terracotta Vineyard buildings; etc)
By Aspect Ratio low-to-high or reverse (eg Animal Crossing (6 x 3 = 2.0 aspect) at the top, square things in the middle, Ferris wheel at the bottom)
Consider sorting the Filter By-Size (it's random now), using apect ratio + size. (primary key aspect, secondary size)
NOTES:
Building Groups has value because we always have to keep those in mind when arranging a city.
Aspect ratio has value because we like placing narrow edges along roads, and like to group buildings by long side length.
(As it is, City Planner is almost worse than the built-in editor: harder to see categories, harder to know what an element is!)
Some simple (?) suggestions to make City Planner far more helpful. Suggested with an eye toward practical implementation:
NOTES: Building Groups has value because we always have to keep those in mind when arranging a city. Aspect ratio has value because we like placing narrow edges along roads, and like to group buildings by long side length.