Languish.org

Quote from: Rex Francorum on February 10, 2015, 11:46:50 PM
Am I the only interested here?

Quoteif you haven't already: try colonial charter for Banished.

Quote from: Tyr on February 11, 2015, 02:25:54 PM
After Cities in Motion 2 I am coloured meh.

Quoteif you haven't already: try colonial charter for Banished.

Mods are starting to appear for Banished?
Sweet :w00t:

QuoteCities: Skylines has broken more or less every single Paradox record so far. Lifetime sales (Magicka) and lifetime revenue (CK2) are left

Quote from: Grey Fox on March 10, 2015, 06:12:50 PM
@Syt, there is already an option for that. It's called Tilt Shift. Turn it all the way down.

Quote from: Solmyr on March 11, 2015, 06:01:50 AM
Btw, are those two ramps that you start with supposed to be one-way? Does it matter what kind of road you connect to them?

Quote from: Grey Fox on February 11, 2015, 08:11:08 AM
Have you tried Banished?

My favorite city builder is not really a city builder : Anno 1701. I just turn off warfare in the settings & play a fun game of putting everything in the right place.

Quote from: Syt on March 12, 2015, 03:02:35 PM
My little town.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 12, 2015, 06:04:45 PM

Quote from: Syt on March 12, 2015, 03:02:35 PM
My little town.

That's one creepy ass looking elevated circle in the middle of the city :lol:  And were it to scale, I'm sure it would be a complete nightmare at rush hour.   :P  Not to mention the ideal Ground Zero for a terror attack.  ALLAHU LET ME OVER DAMMIT

Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 14, 2015, 08:22:45 PM
lol, "European density"  JEW FACTOR FIVE

Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 14, 2015, 04:36:08 PM
Goddamned addictive shit

Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 14, 2015, 08:22:45 PM
lol, "European density"  JEW FACTOR FIVE

Quote from: Tonitrus on March 14, 2015, 10:05:27 PM
Though that leads me to a question...is it possible to massively increase the variety of buildings by importing/creating custom drawn/made ones?  Or is that process/ability limited by the game mechanics?

Quote from: Grey Fox on March 14, 2015, 09:53:11 PM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 14, 2015, 08:22:45 PM
lol, "European density"  JEW FACTOR FIVE

Euros kind have a point tho, every city/town, just looks like America.

Quote from: Ed Anger on March 14, 2015, 08:25:23 PM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 14, 2015, 08:22:45 PM
lol, "European density"  JEW FACTOR FIVE

It'll go well Funk's Industrial hellscapes. THROW ANOTHER JEW IN THE FURNACE.

Quote from: Syt on March 15, 2015, 04:52:09 AM
I love the mod that auto-bulldozes abandoned buildings and buildings that have burned to the ground. :wub:

Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 15, 2015, 03:31:58 PM
Everybody's shit looks better than mine.  SPRAWL COSTS US ALL

Quote from: Solmyr on March 16, 2015, 08:52:21 AM
What is the advantage of building one-way roads instead of two-way?

Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 16, 2015, 09:27:52 AM

Quote from: Solmyr on March 16, 2015, 08:52:21 AM
What is the advantage of building one-way roads instead of two-way?

Flow.

QuoteParadox Interactive and Colossal Order, currently gaming's proudest parents, have today revealed that Cities: Skylines, the critically and commercially acclaimed city simulation game for PC, Mac and Linux, has sold an incredible 250,000 copies, including pre-orders, in its first 24 hours on sale, shattering sales records for every previous game in the Paradox catalogue released within the same period of time.

QuoteGreetings Chirpies!

Let me take a moment and update you on the status of things, what's going on behind the scenes and what to expect the coming time.

Bugs and issues

This has been an incredibly smooth launch, not only with sales and pickup but also technically. That doesn't mean there aren't problems at hand! We have identified a couple of core issues users are experiencing and are working on solving them ASAP. Please note that we do not promise all these issues will be fixed in the first patch, even though this is our GOAL.

These are the widest, most pressing problems. This is by no means our complete list of bugs/issues, it's simply the ones that are most widespread and important to fix. Please appreciate that we are a small team and need to prioritize, even though we of course aim to fix the smaller bugs too. CO and PDX QA closely monitor our bug forums. If you have posted in there your issue has been noted, even if there's no official response in your thread.
Black screen on start-up
Grey Load/New Game button
Save issues (corrupted saves, saves not saving, cloud not working properly)
Poor performance on high end computers (mostly Linux)

If you're experiencing any of these, please check the Release FAQ Known Issues list, as there are several workarounds posted there. If nothing works either wait for our first patch or contact support.

We're also keeping a close eye on discussions on gameplay related issues. Specifically...
Commercial demand possibly being "killed" by parks and rec.
Potential traffic AI issues/improvements
Cause/effect for workers getting to their jobs

If there are bugs causing these issues, we will of course strive to fix them. In case they are design decisions from CO that the players disagree with; we monitor the discussion and take the feedback into consideration going forward. We understand there's a lot of passion for this game and many of you want to see it grow in the best possible direction - your feedback is highly appreciated - but this does not mean we will "blindly" do everything people ask for. CO are very collected, down to earth developers. Do not expect knee-jerk balance/gameplay changes due to active feedback on a specific topic.


Bugfixing / issues patch ETA

As there have been no extremely pressing issues that need instant hotfixing (as in affecting a majority of players) we have chosen to take our time with the first patch to ensure it doesn't break more than it fixes (so proper QA time). There's currently no ETA for this patch, I will most likely get that today, but you should expect it in a not distant future.

CO are currently fully focusing on solving the core technical issues before we switch to working on the first major content update.


Moo's mod collections (Workshop) now live!

I've started my semi-official curated mod lists on the workshop. They are currently bare bones in content but will be updated pretty much daily. If you want custom content for the game but have no wish to sift through the endless pages of workshop that are already there, please consider subscribing.

Moo's Collection: I Want It All
For users who want as much as possible (still all high quality stuff) when it comes to custom assets. Please ensure you have at least 4gb+ RAM free for the game and generous amounts of HDD space.

Moo's Collection: Mods & Functionality
This is the official mod collection for users that want gameplay/UI/experience altering mods.

Moo's Collection: Crème de la Crème
For players that only want the best, high quality, good looking assets and mods available in the workshop.


Subreddit is going STRONG
We passed 45,000 subscribers this weekend and are now ranked 850 globally on reddit, being the fastest growing non-default subreddit pretty much every day since launch.

Please consider joining this community for an easily digestable news-feed and updates on the goings-on of the other fans.


Other, misc, news / things
We sold 500k+ copies!
We'll be looking for at least one support agent (paid position) from the Cities community this week - more info on this later
There are several competitions going on in the subreddit, check the top bar for more info and prizes!

Thank you so much, everyone, for helping us make this happen. You're awesome.

Cheers,
John

Quote from: Rex Francorum on March 16, 2015, 10:07:13 PM
Speaking of highway exits, you can use any kind of road to connect highways to the city. The roads max speed is lower than regular highway ramp's but the traffic can really jam there because they only have one lane.

Quote from: Syt on March 14, 2015, 03:12:57 PM
:lol:

I downloaded a map based on the valley of Innsbruck and started fresh. The highway connection is on the short corner of the starting square, though, but I've expanded to the far side of the river.

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs13.postimg.org%2F666uipopx%2F2015_03_14_00005.jpg&hash=fc2ece75a5e727325046a379f2dc9172ef32ae13)

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs22.postimg.org%2Fpu7dqcqjz%2F2015_03_14_00002.jpg&hash=38947d6465293db4408edee7bcb22054ff605c1c)

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs22.postimg.org%2Fxyfhv3cz3%2F2015_03_14_00003.jpg&hash=1ff898308f878c7e0898c74d11f8fee29f160193)

Quote from: Syt on March 17, 2015, 06:12:02 AM
Last I read they're at 500k.

Quote from: Pedrito on March 17, 2015, 06:34:33 PM
In SimCity 4 I struggled several times to start my cities, L.

Quote from: Syt on March 17, 2015, 06:12:02 AM
Last I read they're at 500k.

Quote from: lustindarkness on March 19, 2015, 03:06:40 PM
I'll have to stay away from it, I'm afraid.  :Embarrass:

Quote1.0.6b - Patch notes
Windows: dependencies to the visual studio runtime have been removed. Addresses the issue where ColossalNative.dll would fail to load for users missing/having wrong msvcrt dlls.
Windows/OSX: fixed an issue where some users would not have permissions to access an user folder
Linux: fixed some cases where the first time launch would show the game half way out of the screen on dual monitors
Linux: various runtime optimizations
Linux: hopefully fixed the performance problems and the log spam, we were unable to reproduce that issue so this is a bit of a blindfolded fix
Linux: added support for $XDG_DATA_HOME. If you are using a custom path for XDG and already played the game on that machine, you will need to manually move the user files from the default folder ~/.local/share/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines to $XDG_DATA_HOME/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines
Mac/Linux: fixed a crash when selecting a building in the Asset importer
All platforms: added some debug info which may be useful when trying to help users in trouble
All platforms: added support for -screen-height & -screen-width and lowered severity of argument error unsupported launch options so they would cause the new game button to be greyed
Modding API: fixed OnCalculateResidentialDemand, OnCalculateCommercialDemand and OnCalculateWorkplaceDemand to call their respective counterpart properly. Also fixed for office buildings calling industrial level up.
nerfed parks decreasing commercial demand
road upgrade tool now works between two-way and one-way roads and right mouse-button changes direction of one-way roads
building effect radius is more accurate
added a Film grain slider in the Graphics options, like for the Tilt shift. (Users with the Disable Film Grain mod subscribed from Steam workshop and enabled will be notified with a "Console warning" when the game start and the game will automatically disable the mod and set the film grain amount to 0 so that no action from users is required apart from closing the Console panel).
added a chirper volume slider in the Audio options
intro screen can be skipped with mouse click or key press
fixed a case where an error would occur if the Source folder was not found while sharing a Mod to the workshop
fixed Publish workshop panel caption to not always show Savegame regardless which asset type was selected
killed the clicking sounds that could be heard on a quiet night during full moon and near the end of the loading screen
buildings uploaded to the workshop will now go to their respective tags automatically. (Buildings already on the workshop will not, we are currently investigating how to make it happen without users having to do anything about it)
fixed holding down mouse button and release over ui keeps some tools active
fixed tooltip stays visible when using shortcut to open area view
fixed parking spaces still working for burned down buildings.
fixed mouse raycast use normal mesh for burned down buildings.
removed airplane engine sound from unlockpanel...
fixed minor text issues in different languages
fixed wrong tree shadow alpha with pollution or water
fixed bulldozeing ship/airplane paths in map editor even when they are not visible
fixed pedestrian bridge color slightly wrong from far distance

Quote from: Pedrito on March 20, 2015, 06:46:56 PM
Is there a "correct" way to manage the transition between a two-lane highway and an urban network? A roundabout is the easiest way, what do you normally do?

L.

Quote from: Caliga on March 22, 2015, 08:21:22 AM
How do you delete a bus route?  I totally screwed the first one I created up and can't figure out how to get rid of it.

Quote from: Caliga on March 22, 2015, 08:21:22 AM
How do you delete a bus route?  I totally screwed the first one I created up and can't figure out how to get rid of it.

Quote from: Caliga on March 22, 2015, 09:20:48 AM
argh... ok thanks.

Quote from: Syt on March 22, 2015, 09:23:17 AM

Quote from: Caliga on March 22, 2015, 09:20:48 AM
argh... ok thanks.

Get the mod that assigns a color to each route - makes it easier.

Quote from: Syt on March 22, 2015, 09:20:17 AM

Quote from: Caliga on March 22, 2015, 08:21:22 AM
How do you delete a bus route?  I totally screwed the first one I created up and can't figure out how to get rid of it.

I think you have to right-click each stop to delete it.

Quote from: viper37 on February 11, 2015, 12:02:42 AM

Quote from: Rex Francorum on February 10, 2015, 11:46:50 PM
Am I the only interested here?

I'm guessing Syt, Tyr and Darth Wagteros might be interested. ;)
http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,11798.msg773316.html (http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,11798.msg773316.html#msg773316)

Not my cup of tea.  The last Sim I played was Simcity 2000 :)

Quote from: Razgovory on March 22, 2015, 09:10:48 PM
My people don't want to move into my town. :(

Quote from: Syt on March 22, 2015, 03:28:38 PM
Carried on a bit.

The city has its unique landmark now:

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs15.postimg.org%2F5zk8l86bv%2F2015_03_22_00023.jpg&hash=d92a3900cac8347546835e2e1dcd694660060aaf)

Quote from: The Brain on March 22, 2015, 08:49:30 AM

Quote from: Caliga on March 22, 2015, 08:21:22 AM
How do you delete a bus route?  I totally screwed the first one I created up and can't figure out how to get rid of it.

Ah, public-sector unions are in. Good.

Quote from: Syt on March 25, 2015, 06:47:06 AM
Cal, there's a mod that re-activates achievements despite playing with mods on.

Quote from: Solmyr on March 25, 2015, 07:30:25 AM
Here's a handy list of various mods, including the achievement enabler: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1012042

Quote from: Sheilbh on March 29, 2015, 07:28:36 PM
Why did I buy this :weep:

Quote from: Caliga on April 02, 2015, 11:31:41 AM
My current city is called Portonovo. :)

Quote from: Caliga on April 02, 2015, 11:31:41 AM
My current city is called Portonovo. :)

Quote from: 11B4V on April 02, 2015, 04:38:17 PM
Is there like crime, eco-terrorist, and/or just your run of the mill terrorists in this?

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 02, 2015, 03:36:02 AM
If you build a reservoir and it takes like a year to fill up, is that good or bad?


Edit: Not a single MW yet.

Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 31, 2015, 01:54:17 AM

Quote from: Sheilbh on March 29, 2015, 07:28:36 PM
Why did I buy this :weep:

Is that an "I'm wasting so much time on this!" :weep: or a "this game is terrible" :weep: ?

QuoteI would assume he makes enough money not to cry over bad games.  :hmm:

Quote from: PRC on April 02, 2015, 02:47:21 PM

Quote from: Caliga on April 02, 2015, 11:31:41 AM
My current city is called Portonovo. :)

Mine is Nova Carthago. :)

Quote from: Tonitrus on April 02, 2015, 06:38:00 PM

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on April 02, 2015, 03:36:02 AM
If you build a reservoir and it takes like a year to fill up, is that good or bad?


Edit: Not a single MW yet.

Don't you have to run water through the dam to generate power? :P

Quote from: PRC on April 02, 2015, 02:47:21 PM

Quote from: Caliga on April 02, 2015, 11:31:41 AM
My current city is called Portonovo. :)

Mine is Nova Carthago. :)

QuoteCities: Skylines is a lovely game; not just because it's a serene city builder, but because it treats its customers like people worthy of trust. You can mod it, you can play it offline, and you can flood your town with disgusting poop water. It's your game, go wild.
It's nice to hear, then, that Cities: Skylines has reached its own population milestone: one million copies sold. It's in impressive total for any game, but particularly one that was only released last month, on March 10.
It's no doubt been helped along by the game's modding community, who have collaboratively contributed over 33,500 new items to the game.
If you're not one of the million C:S owners, maybe take a look at Chris L's review.

QuoteSo what are you getting today?
Over 50 European style buildings
Wall-to-wall buildings enabling players to build those European streets and neighbourhoods
Three new starter maps
Tunnels, one of the community's most requested features
A number of Asset Editor additions including the ability to import custom vehicles
A multitude of smaller cosmetic additions and bug fixes.
Please note:
The European style buildings are a map theme, meaning you will need to play a map in the European biome in order to see them.
Many mods and (some) custom assets will not work with 1.1.0 and will need updating by their author. We have worked hard to cause as few conflicts as possible with popular mods, yet this is a substantial update and with the code & functionality changes some issues have been impossible to avoid. Going forward we aim to find a solution where we can work with our core modders pre-launch to give them ample time to adjust their creations before the public have access.
Our brand manager (the handsome guy you've seen in several videos) has the following to say about the expansion plans for Cities: Skylines.

"Cities: Skylines will continue to follow the traditions set by other recent Paradox releases such as Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV of paid expansions combined with large updates of free content ensuring that all players, whether they choose to purchase the expansions or not, will have plenty of new features to look forward to. One of the major differences, however, between those titles and Cities: Skylines will be that minor DLC updates will be uncommon. The majority of content updates will be significant upgrades and additions.

Going forward, we will focus on giving away the main features for free and improving the modding tools, while also selling major expansions around new mechanics. But we will also continue to offer free content such as new buildings and road types."

Full patch notes for Cities: Skylines 1.0.7 - 1.1.0

Features & New
New: European theme added
New: 72 European buildings in the European theme
New: Support for corner and adjacent buildings in the European theme
New: 3 maps added with European theme (Cliffside Bay, Foggy Hills and Grand River)
New: Tunnels for roads and rail added
New: Metro tunnels can be built at different levels
Options: V sync option added
Options: Invert Y mouse axis added

Editor & Modding
Launch options: added -noWorkshop to disable Steam workshop
Asset editor: Increased limit for bridge pillar count
Asset editor: Hedge added to residential props
Asset editor: Added custom vehicle importing
Asset editor: Added the ability to set custom thumbnails and tooltip images for all types of assets (in the save panel)
Asset editor: New editable properties exposed
Asset editor: Added ability to inherit building unlock milestone from template
Asset editor: vehicles have a Steam tag "Vehicle"
Asset editor: Fixed cut off text and missing spaces in the Properties box
Asset editor: Water Service buildings can now have proper pipe connections
Asset editor: Custom harbors and cargo harbors are now usable in-game
Asset editor: Custom airports now get visited by planes, like an actual airport
Asset editor: Fixed issue where some custom assets could not be loaded in-game after editing
Asset editor: Fixed missing texture for landfills
Asset Editor: Fixed a rare issue where holding and releasing the mouse button would not be recognized
Content manager: Introduced a new layout
Modding API: Added OnEnabled/OnDisabled support for IUserMod. Called everytime a mod is becoming active or inactive
Map editor: Fixed issue where users could place a water source outside the map area
Map editor: Fixed free camera hotkey not working

Bugfixes & Misc
Linux: support for JPG workshop previews added
Linux: users can now use numpad-Enter in-game
Linux: Fixed rare issue where users crashed due to a faulty asset
Fixed issue with 1x1 buildings "disappearing" when zoomed out too far
Fixed several localization issues
devInfo.txt is no longer needed
Achievements are now properly localized
Small contrast changes in some information windows to improve colorblind accessibility
Fixed issue where some elevated roads became immune to interaction
Metro and train lines now properly update when changed
Cruise ships no longer travel over land :'(
The 2x2 OreCrusher now has a purpose in life
Ireland is properly represented on the Union Jack
Cursor no longer disappears when you press Esc whilst rotating the camera
Adjusted upkeep cost of some roads to the one displayed in their tooltip
People no longer die when your city is at 0 population
Fixed an issue where right clicking a button would highlight it incorrectly
Fixed an issue where free camera mode was not enabled after viewing milestones
Fixed an issue where changing language in-game would not change language for some menus
Fixed an issue with mouse button key bindings
Fixed an issue where the options menu would not be closed properly by hitting the esc key
Fixed an issue where temporary save files would sometimes be visible
Fixed an issue where roads would snap to inaccessible sections of hydro dams
Fixed a graphics issue where text would sometimes be corrupted at the bottom of save and load menus
Trees in terrain heights view should now have the proper colors for their elevation
Fixed an issue where users could elevate the height of gravel paths, even though they could not place them
Fixed a minor graphical issue in the content manager
Fixed some text alignment problems
Text references to left and right mouse buttons now take left-handed mouse settings into account
Added confirmation prompt for Reset Unique Buildings

Quote from: lustindarkness on April 14, 2015, 02:10:49 PM
I am so tempted to buy this game in hopes I can play it on my laptop at the lowest settings.   :frusty:

Quote from: Syt on June 08, 2015, 10:23:22 AM
I'm not sure. If you say "may", though, you "may" want to hold off till you have a better computer.

Have you checked http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri ?

QuoteCrime, Clubs And Beach Bars: Cities Skylines – After Dark

Delving into the glamour, glitz and grime of nightlife, Cities: Skylines' first expansion, After Dark, introduces revamped crime mechanics, specialised commercial areas, beachfront entertainment and a day/night cycle. We've been looking at the expansion in the company of developers Colossal Order.

What do you give to the game that has everything?

Nobody – developers Colossal Order included – would argue that Cities: Skylines contained every feature that a citybuilder could possibly need, but the robust modding support and creativity of the community have led to a metropolis of new content. From a first-person viewpoint to plant you in the head of your citizens to thousands of new buildings, Skylines has received a great deal of support from its many modders.

The first expansion, just announced by Paradox, seeks to expand the game in ways that the modders can't. Going by the name After Dark, it adds a day/night cycle and new zoning specialisations and services to take advantage of the nightlife. Along with the expansion, Paradox and Colossal Order will be releasing a free update that brings some improvements to the base game. The free update will include the day/night cycle itself, allowing you to see your cities glowing in the dark, but the extra features that take advantage of the small hours are only available to those who pay for the DLC. The price, we're told, will be around the same as a a "regular Paradox expansion". Think Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV DLC, which generally ranges between £4.99 and £9.99.

When the sun goes down, people who live in real cities tend to hit the town and spend all of their hard-earned on overpriced fizzy lager. Then they fall over and someone steals their phone. That seems to be the case in Cities: Skylines as well. The new leisure specialisation for commercial zones sees them cluster with bars, nightclubs and casinos. They operate as ordinary commercial properties during the day and experience a boom in business at night. While profitable, the bright lights of leisure districts create new problems for your consideration.

Traffic is the primary concern, just as it is one of the primary concerns of the city as a whole. Leisure zones attract an increased flow of citizens at night, which can create temporary bottlenecks and change the pattern of traffic around the city. Instead of travelling to work and then back to their houses, with an occasional detour to the park, citizens will now require access to work, home and leisure, using different routes at different times.

To complicate matters, they're also more likely to use public transport at night rather than designated themselves as dangerous drivers. Trains and buses are an option but taxi services will also be included in the expansion. Rounding out the improvements to transport are bicycles, which can be restricted to dedicated cycle lanes, and multi-purpose transport hubs. For the latter, think of the train or metro station within an airport or the rail connections to a cargo harbour. The multi-purpose buildings mean that you won't have to plonk two buildings side by side if one is large enough to contain both functions. And it means that citizens won't have to walk out of an airport and straight into the train station next door.

Tidier cities should result, aided by bus terminals that connect multiple routes within one building, and the other new specialisation: commercial beach properties. As well as entertaining the plebs, shoreline activities perform a far more important function; they make cities look prettier. No more tiny buffers of land between a residential zone and the sea and no more disconnect between the water and the land. As marinas, fishing tours, beach bars and restaurants are constructed, there should be a natural fit between shore and city.

Returning to nightlife, there is the issue of the bad behaviour that a night on the fizz sometimes causes, as well as the less desirable activities that occur under the cloak of darkness. Crime is an issue and the way Skylines handled it was an issue for Colossal Order.

The developers weren't satisfied with the policing systems in the base game so as well as introducing a cyclical rise in criminal activity during the night-time phases, they've introduced jails. Now, police will actually travel to the location of a crime, collect the criminal and take that criminal to a jail. That'll feed into traffic flow again – if the police can't reach the scene, they can't do much about the crime – but sirens will presumably clear a path in most situations.

Jails will fill up, however. As soon as modders add Iso-Blocks, and they surely will, it'll finally be possible to construct a Mega-City One, complete with entire neighbourhoods set aside for the housing of the criminal population.

Any excuse to revisit Skylines – our inaugural game of the month in April – is fine by me and After Dark seems like a strong expansion. Watching cities light up as the sun goes down taps into the hypnotic quality that comes from observing the flow of digital life, and the ongoing work going into the underlying systems is more than welcome.

QuoteAfter Dark is the first expansion for Colossal Order and Paradox's well-received citybuilder Cities: Skylines [official site], and is focused on tourism, leisure and neon-lit night skies. It's out today, and here's what I made of it.

What could have been a goodwill-killer has turned into yet another poke in the eye for EA's approach to ill-fated SimCity. Cities: Skylines had flung the doors open to modding from day one, and by now it's unbelievably simple to render the entire game essentially unrecognisable, and massively improved, with a just a few clicks. With all this free stuff raining down, what possible point would there be in a paid add-on?

SimCity was a walled garden in order to ensure it could subsequently be nickel and dimed in the manner of The Sims, but first Skylines expansion After Dark proves that philosophy was misguided. It neither interferes with nor is undone by the legion of mods, but instead identifies and fills holes in its central simulation, thus improving the game as a whole.

In a world where game add-ons so often mean #content, DLC with a real purpose stands out a mile. It's trying to do a whole bunch of things to the parent game, not just cram in a few new policies and some pretty night-time buildings.

First and foremost of these changes is intended, I think, to address Skylines' major shortcoming, which is that for many folk it wore thin after they'd built their first couple of cities. Expanding, at least in the middle stretch of a game, became too much about repeatedly zoning new areas and connecting up water pipes, rather than exciting escalation.

What After Dark does is offer alternative goals – different ways of expanding, with their own big-building pay-offs. And, most importantly, the option to build a very different type of city, regardless of how many official and unofficial buildings you might have stuffed into it. Though we get some lovely neon lighting to look at, After Dark is not really concerned with the pleasures and sins of the night, but rather on making your city more flexible.

Colossal Order achieve this by fleshing out what was perhaps the weakest part of their game's simulation – commercial zones. These primarily retail areas weren't anything to really care about, and had nothing of note to finesse. Efficiency of placement brought in more cash, but there wasn't really a way to make them reflect your city's ethos in the same way that tweaking policies and districts for residential and industrial areas did.

Now you can manually tag Commercial zones to be Tourist or Leisure districts, which leads to new types of automatically generated buildings and super-structures in either case, with an emphasis on plenty of colourful night-time lighting. There is perhaps a little bit too much thematic crossover between the two district types – tourists want leisure – but nonetheless you're likely to find yourself building new, discrete zones which ultimately make your city look more dramatic as well as making you far more thoughtful about how and where you place commercial zones.

Without specifically planning too, I ended up with a marina area on one side of town, designed to meet my residents' shopping and consumption needs, and a Magaluf-like high-rise hotel nightmare not too far from the airport on the other side of town. While in reality each of these would be horrifying troughs of binge drinking, here they're about bright lights and big money.

Where airports, mainline trains and cruise ships had previously been late-game fripperies I'd stuck in because I could, now I was trying to place them as soon as possible in order to feed endless visitors into my hotels, beachside restaurants and jetski rental shacks, and to watch those areas rise sky-high in response. My poor residents got short thrift, just sardined into the centre as and when I needed more staff for my vast tourist-trap.

Nothing I'd done or even planned was particularly different from what I had in vanilla Skylines, but I wound up feeling profoundly different about my city. I didn't much care about its attractiveness, or about the quality of life of its residents: just about whether those tourists were piling into my airport and harbour. Though the space was the same, my city felt so much bigger because it had these new areas. Expansion wasn't about spread, but about creating districts with specific purpose. More things to thinker with, in other words.

I've said somewhere before that Skylines is refreshingly non-capitalistic compared to SimCity: it's more about the pleasure of tinkering than the hamster wheel pursuit of cash. After Dark, by contrast, turned me into a money monster. I had to feed the beast, rather than just placing something big as a reflection of being on an even keel for a while.

This is a choice, not a mandate: making phalanxes of hotels that spread and improve is an alternative (or additional) way to max out wealth, landmass and access to monuments. If you want to make a more residential and/or industrial city, you still can. You can do both, in fact, if you have the will and headspace to (and if you're doggedly sticking to building options only unlocking when you hit population milestones, but at this point I'm starting new games with everything available from the off). I enjoyed building philosophically different cities: where once I was building Chicago or Boston, now I was making Vegas and Saint-Tropez.

Well, sort of. Skylines' greatest problem was always its somewhat anodyne appearance, and that hasn't changed dramatically here. Some of the new night-time scenes, festooned with neon and uplighting, are spectacular, and make the game look better than it ever has before, but it all still feels like a melding of US and Euro architecture with all the edges filed off. I'd love for a future expansion to really focus on tweaking and honing your city's aesthetic, to truly reflect different cultures and architectural styles, but then again the modding community's made great strides there already.

Trying to cram in ever-more detail, now that we've got zoos and casinos and beach volleyball courts in there alongside everything else, is showing up the limitations of the engine too (or, at least, the limitations of just how much it can be reasonably expected to render at once). Seeing a cuboid polar bear or volleyball players who look like they fell out of a Quake 1 mod doesn't really create the I-made-this excitement, but instead faint deflation. Skylines was always better at buildings than lifeforms, but with After Dark's focus now being on things lifeforms like to do rather than simply where they live, work and die, the cracks are a little more obvious.

Long-standing irritations, such as the endless busywork of waterpipes, finickity pylon placement and opaque traffic problems, haven't gone away (and, indeed, the provision of utilities remains Skyline's least interesting aspect), but this is really an expansion concerned with filling holes and expanding possibilities, not rethinking the foundations.

It does that very well, both by giving me new objectives and by making more of underplayed features – the novel but hitherto slightly pointless district system also gets new purpose, thanks to the big effects of the Tourism and Leisure concepts.

I'm not sure I'd go all the way to saying After Dark is essential, given I saw every new feature and building it offers within the space of a single (if intense) day's play, but I think it's about as a good an expansion as we could have wished for from Skylines. There's also a whole bunch of smaller new features I haven't mentioned, such as bus and cycle lanes, taxi services and prisons (intended to reflect rising crime at nights, though honestly this wasn't something I noticed so long as I was sufficiently zealous about police station placement) and different taxes for night-time businesses, and while none of these are revelatory, combined they feel like a substantial box of new toys.

Best of all, After Dark is a true companion piece to all those wonderful mods, not a misguided attempt to replace them. If anything, we'll end up with new mods designed to take advantage of After Dark – famous hotels and seafronts, gaudy Vegas strips and maybe even some more convincing zoo animals.

After Dark is, I think, the best possible outcome for Skylines: successfully sticking its hand out for more cash but doing nothing to puncture goodwill in the process. Cue more swearing at EA HQ, perhaps.

QuoteTraffic is an important thing in any city. Traffic and winter is a whole different challenge! For Snowfall, we wanted to make sure there's something new affecting traffic. We settled on to two major things: snow on the roads and road maintenance. While the snow plows will be discussed later, this text will shed some light on what else is new in the game.

The road maintenance service, unlike the snow plows, is available on all maps. What the maintenance service does is that it gives some extra care to roads, allowing vehicles to travel on them faster. Normal roads in normal condition are fine and good, but with a road maintenance service covering the city streets, the traffic can get an extra boost from higher maximum speeds on the roads. The boost a maintenance truck gives fades away with time, but if the service covers the city well, the trucks travel to boost the roads that have the least boost left on them. Road maintenance can be used with the snow plow services, so that boosted roads don't suffer from snow as fast as non-boosted roads.

Then the thing many people have been waiting for: trams! They are something we have been planning for a long time and finally get to share with you. Trams operate on tracks and reside in a tram depot when they are not on lines. The basic principle is much the same as with buses: the budget defines how many trams are available in the depot or depots, and the vehicles are divided between lines depending on line length. Longer lines get more vehicles than shorter lines. To get more vehicles, increase the city budget for the service. Trams need to be able to reach the line from the depot, so you may need to lay some extra tracks to allow trams to get to lines further away from the depot.

To build tracks, you can upgrade/downgrade existing roads to versions with tracks, or build new roads with tracks. There are both regular two-way roads and one way roads with tracks. As a finishing touch, tram tracks have overhead wires.


To give the trams some advantages over buses, tram tracks can also be built as standalone versions with no road beneath them. The standalone tracks are very handy for getting your trams to avoid busy intersections or streets known to be crowded. Stops can only be placed on roads and pedestrian pathways, but the standalone tracks allow for nice little detours to keep your trams free from traffic jams.

Trams have a higher passenger capacity than buses (20 for buses, 30 for trams), but also have a little higher upkeep costs per distance traveled, about 15% more than for buses. For best results, trams should be used as short inner city lines, and buses and metros can handle longer distances. Trams do not benefit from road maintenance boost, but also are not hindered by snow.

To get the winter theme really going, we have done lots of variations of existing buildings. This means your city does not need to have palm trees waving in the snow storm, or citizens hanging out on piers in the freezing cold. Things like flower pots are modified to fit the winter to keep the city looking consistent. Some buildings are only available to players who also own After Dark, but many are variations to the base game ones. My favourites are the agricultural buildings on fertile land, which are greenhouses on winter maps. You will also see many new parks that fit winter time better than the default parks.

These new additions to the game are available in the paid expansion. We feel they give a lot of new possibilities to handling roads, traffic and public transportation. I can't wait to see all the cool tram systems you will be building!

QuoteIn Snowfall, the difficulty heats up when the city cools down, thanks to a new in-game temperature reading that will have residents bundling up for warmth when the weather outside is frightful. Cosmetic weather, composed of rain and fog, will be added to Cities: Skylines as part of a free update, along with other features to be announced soon. Players who own Snowfall will get to face new challenges such as ensuring that their city infrastructure can handle seasonal heating demands – and, when the snow starts falling, that the roads can stay clear. New snowplow services will be required to prevent traffic from freezing in place, while new all-weather trams and expanded public transit options can help residents and visitors alike get around town – and visit the new winter parks and landmarks available in Snowfall.

Snowfall will include:

Now is the Winter of This Content: Rain and fog for existing maps, plus a new "Winter" map theme with snow and all of its challenges
The Streetcars You Desire: Expanded public transportation options, including easier management of existing lines – and Trams, a new system demanded by fans
World Warmth, Too: Cold weather increases demands for electricity, unless new water-based heat systems are in place
Plowers to the People: Build a snowplow depot to keep traffic flowing during winter weather, and employ new road maintenance systems to keep your streets in shape
New Chirps: #yeahthereare

QuoteRejected Expansion Names for Cities: Skylines - Snowfall

An interesting tidbit about game publishing is that naming stuff is *hard*. You need something unique, that fits with your brand and that also passes legal. Sometimes we have brainstorms about the expansion names to determine what to call a product. Here's the more or less serious names that didn't make the cut for Cities: Skylines - Snowfall
Winter is coming
The Coolest Expansion
Scandinavian Spring
There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather (Just Poor City Planning)
Snow, Saunas, and a Doughnut Truck
The Coldening
Out Cold
Ice Ice Baby
Pulka Polka
Do you know Jon Snow?
All yogurt is frozen
Ice Snow What You Did There

Quote from: Tyr on May 10, 2019, 01:32:59 PM
I hope when a sequel finally comes they'll allow for European-style cities rather than restricting us to American-style.

Quote from: garbon on May 10, 2019, 02:27:39 PM

Quote from: Tyr on May 10, 2019, 01:32:59 PM
I hope when a sequel finally comes they'll allow for European-style cities rather than restricting us to American-style.

They've had Euro style buildings for quite some time and allow for alternate side driving. What else are you looking for?

Quote from: garbon on May 10, 2019, 02:27:39 PM

Quote from: Tyr on May 10, 2019, 01:32:59 PM
I hope when a sequel finally comes they'll allow for European-style cities rather than restricting us to American-style.

They've had Euro style buildings for quite some time and allow for alternate side driving. What else are you looking for?

Quote from: Syt on May 11, 2019, 06:56:30 AM
Tyr does have a point - a lot of European cities have pedestrian areas in the center, usually shopping streets of some sort. Skylines doesn't really have that unless you use mods.

Quote from: Tamas on May 11, 2019, 07:29:28 AM

Quote from: Syt on May 11, 2019, 06:56:30 AM
Tyr does have a point - a lot of European cities have pedestrian areas in the center, usually shopping streets of some sort. Skylines doesn't really have that unless you use mods.

But that's because cities are very old, isn't it? If you designed a modern city from scratch with current know-how, you'd not do so with maze-like tiny streets.

Quote from: FunkMonk on May 11, 2019, 07:59:43 AM
A game in which you build and govern a city over the course of a thousand years would be pretty cool.

Quote from: Tamas on May 11, 2019, 07:29:28 AM

Quote from: Syt on May 11, 2019, 06:56:30 AM
Tyr does have a point - a lot of European cities have pedestrian areas in the center, usually shopping streets of some sort. Skylines doesn't really have that unless you use mods.

But that's because cities are very old, isn't it? If you designed a modern city from scratch with current know-how, you'd not do so with maze-like tiny streets.

Quote from: Tyr on May 10, 2019, 06:22:29 PM
That just gives you American style cities with a few old looking buildings about.

No, far more what is needed is a city game where it is viable to build a non-car focussed city. And not just as a hacky challenge. But as part of the way the game actually works.

Quote from: Syt on June 17, 2023, 04:59:34 AMI think getting European cities "right" is a bit difficult, anyways, since very few modern cities here were built on empty fields but rather grew over centuries (still waiting for a game to cover that ... heck, even a US city from 1700s frontier settlement to modern metropolis would be cool).

Quote from: Syt on June 17, 2023, 04:59:34 AM:

Unfortunately for Josq it still seems to create mostly North American looking cities. :(

I think getting European cities "right" is a bit difficult, anyways, since very few modern cities here were built on empty fields but rather grew over centuries (still waiting for a game to cover that ... heck, even a US city from 1700s frontier settlement to modern metropolis would be cool).

Quote from: Josquius on June 17, 2023, 02:48:09 PMBut even without the historic angle being able to make proper city centres would be nice. The game actively punishes you for putting shops next to housing which is silly.

Quote from: Syt on October 16, 2023, 03:18:46 PMhttps://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/updates-on-modding-and-performance-for-cities-skylines-ii.1601865/

Mods will only live on Paradox's mod thingy, not the Steam Workshop. Official explanation is that this way mods will be available to both console and PC players.

Quote from: Syt on October 16, 2023, 03:18:46 PMhttps://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/updates-on-modding-and-performance-for-cities-skylines-ii.1601865/

Mods will only live on Paradox's mod thingy, not the Steam Workshop. Official explanation is that this way mods will be available to both console and PC players.

Quote from: Josquius on October 16, 2023, 04:46:35 PMMy prediction, this does not last long.
The convenience of steam worshop is something people have grown used to.

QuoteWill mods be supported on console?
Yes! Asset Mods will be available for Console users. Due to restrictions code mods are not possible on Console

QuoteTips: Our Guide to Optimize Performance

QuoteI saw a restaurant in my city. I zoomed in and was reading the menu on the window with my 1070 ti. Most of my three hours with the game so far has just been looking at all of these new assets. They are quite detailed imo.

Quote from: garbon on October 26, 2023, 05:29:52 AMJust saw someone post this on p'dox forum.

QuoteI saw a restaurant in my city. I zoomed in and was reading the menu on the window with my 1070 ti. Most of my three hours with the game so far has just been looking at all of these new assets. They are quite detailed imo.

Is that true? Feels like and odd choice given that even their life simulator (Life By You) doesn't appear to be going for that level of detail.

Quoteapparently one of cities skylines 2's many performance issues is that it uses high poly models for each of the thousands of people walking around your city. including their individual teeth

Quote from: FunkMonk on October 27, 2023, 09:52:44 AMSounds like a great game that was certainly ready to have a public release

Quote from: Jacob on October 27, 2023, 01:55:49 PMGame dev is such fun  :lol:

Quote from: Syt on October 27, 2023, 02:27:09 PMSitting on the other side of the equation for the past few years, having to manage user expectations, struggling against deadlines, wrangling external teams to deliver something that fits our requirements, and seeing all the things that could be improved in the product if only you had the time in money, I have become a lot more sympathetic to the developers/producers point of view. -_-

Quote from: Syt on October 27, 2023, 02:27:09 PMSitting on the other side of the equation for the past few years, having to manage user expectations, struggling against deadlines, wrangling external teams to deliver something that fits our requirements, and seeing all the things that could be improved in the product if only you had the time in money, I have become a lot more sympathetic to the developers/producers point of view. -_-

Quote from: Syt on October 28, 2023, 01:03:41 AMNot game dev but product manager for our company's backend software for managing the franchise network data, reporting etc.   Kinda stumbled into that because they needed someone with strong knowledge of our business processes for the project. :P

QuoteLast Monday I said we would be taking a break from these weekly posts due to the lack of concrete news and that we would come back when there's something to share regarding updates to the game. On Tuesday I received a call from Sweden. It seems there was an overwhelming amount of feedback from you wanting to hear from us developers weekly. Thank you for all the lovely messages, we really appreciate it!

QuoteDear Cities fans,

We see and understand the disappointment many of you have expressed after the release of Cities: Skylines II and the recent release of Beach Properties. We asked for your patience and support, and you've shown those. In return, we let you down. We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form. For all this, we are truly sorry. When we've made statements like this one before, it's included a pledge to keep making improvements, and while we are working on these updates, they haven't happened at a speed or magnitude that is acceptable, and it pains us that we've now lost the trust of many of you. We want to do better.

The very first thing we're doing is to compensate those who purchased Beach Properties. We will change the pack to be a free addition to the game, refund it to the extent possible, and provide additional content within the Ultimate Edition. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to offer refunds for Ultimate Edition buyers. This is due to the distribution of the Ultimate Edition across digital and physical storefronts, which create significant complexities for executing a partial refund. We realize that this is far from ideal, especially given the dedication those who have stayed with us since launch have shown. We are committed to repaying that loyalty, and therefore, we will compensate Ultimate Edition holders by adding 3 Creator Packs and 3 Radio Stations which, together, sum up to a value of USD 39.99. This solution hopefully ensures that you, regardless of purchase method, feel you receive fair compensation.

Looking ahead, we also want to make immediate and meaningful changes in the way we approach the game's development and our communication with you. Firstly, this means a complete focus on improving the base game and modding tools, and secondly, we want to better involve you, the community, as we choose our priorities going forward. We will focus on additional free patches and game updates in the coming months before Colossal Order spends time on new paid content, resulting in a move of the Bridges and Ports Expansion to 2025. In addition, the aforementioned Creator Packs are being produced independently, and will not take any focus away from the work on improving the game. To make sure we focus on the right things, we're putting together an advisory meeting, where a small group of player representatives, together with Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive, will discuss the development plan for this year. The people in this group are chosen for the size of their following within the community to represent as many people as possible. The teams from Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive will provide them with full transparency and answer any questions and critiques voiced. Our hope is that together with you, our community, we can make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes we have made in the past and bring this game into a bright future.

We also want to address the pending Console release. As you know, our plan was to release in Spring of this year. We have been hesitant to communicate an actual release window because of the uncertainty we are facing, and to not make further promises we might not be able to keep. We have been struggling to get Cities: Skylines II to the necessary level of optimization for a console release, but are now hopeful that an upcoming build delivery in April will demonstrate sufficient progress for us to progress with a release candidate, and then a release build targeted for October. Before we have seen and evaluated the progress made in these builds however, we will not be able to confirm the release date, and even then, some uncertainty always remains. Our ambition is to deliver the experience that you all deserved at launch, but it will take time. It's important to note that the team working on the console release operates separately from our PC development team, so it will be progressing without splitting our focus or time. In closing, we want to reaffirm our dedication to making Cities: Skylines II the best city builder it can be. We appreciate your support and feedback, and hope we can regain your trust going forward. It's our responsibility to earn it, and we hope these actions are a first step in the right direction. We are deeply grateful for your continued passion for our game. Please stay tuned for further updates on the game and the refund process, and thank you for being a part of our community.

Sincerely,
Mariina Hallikainen, CEO, Colossal Order
Mattias Lilja, Deputy CEO, Paradox Interactive