I didn't want to be sitting in an apartment by myself all the time so I did a lot of research on how to make friends before moving.
I found the study from my previous post was a good start. I decided I needed to be in area of the city where a lot of people my age with similar backgrounds lived based on the proximity factor.
I also decided I needed roommates based on all three factors. I ended up moving into an apartment with two roommates who seemed nice when I met them.
After living together three months, my roommates and I were consistently hanging out inside the apartment and doing activities outside the apartment.
After six months, I would say we were friends.
I became friends with another person my age down the hall from our apartment. I happened to see him go into his apartment a couple of times previously. I knocked on his door and introduced myself. Fortunately, we had similar interests, hung out again and again, and became friends over time.
I repeated that with another person across the hall who one of my roommates had already become friends with. I also ended up meeting my fiancée on the elevator in my apartment after I mentioned the weather to her.
From my two roommates, the two people living in apartments nearby, my new girlfriend at the time, along with a person I met at my work orientation who lived nearby, I was introduced to probably over a hundred other people. Some of whom I became friends with. And I'm excluding other friends I made at work, through activities, and social gatherings etc.
By 2017, when I left the city, I had a close circle of maybe ten good friends, and an extended circle of thirty friends. It ended up working out well.
From the research I did and my own personal experience, I don't completely agree with the rest of the advice from the comments. I've seen similar comments on other forums before.
If there is more interest in what I've learned, I can continue. Any specific or personal questions, please email me (in profile).