Cities : Skylines

[Zarniwoop]

Anyone still playing this, or did they manage to sink a promising game with two lackluster expansions?

Nope, they sunk the game with utterly shit traffic AI and insanely tiny limits.

 

[MilesBeyond]

I dunno. I'm torn. I said earlier in the thread that SimCity 4 is generally more enjoyable to me, but that Cities Skylines is my goto just because designing regions with the Infinite Commuter Bug in mind is a huge pain in the ass, and that remains true.

That being said, I think Zarniwoop kinda hit the nail on the head. I was really pumped about the traffic AI and city limits when it first came out, but that's only because they were so much better than SimCity 5. Overall, they seem to drag the game down. Transportation in general can be a bit more micro-manage-y than what I usually enjoy. I mean, it's cool to be able to map out your own bus and subway lines and schedules, but I wish the game was better at doing that automatically for when you place a new neighbourhood and can't be bother spending thirty minutes manually linking it with the rest of the transit network. Roads definitely require a lot more pre-planning than what I can really enjoy. It's definitely the sort of game where you're much better off spending some time designing your city before you even start the game.

I honestly just think the agent system is a bust. It was a cool idea, but in practice it doesn't really add a whole lot to the game, while making planning a bit more tedious and severely limiting the size of your cities. I'm hoping that when (if?) the next gen of citybuiliders comes out, they'll move away from it. The "glorified spreadsheet" method that was Simcity 1-4 was plain and isn't exactly an exciting promotion point, but it worked.

 

[Stokowski]

I rather like the agent system as a base for how such simulations operate. But to support large scale city-building then the agent granularity will probably have to become coarser; ie, instead of 1 agent per resident, 1 agent per this-clump-of-houses. Has any company really tried that yet?

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On another note: the thing that really pisses me off about C:S's traffic simulator is that emergency vehicles are treated the same as ordinary vehicles. No overtaking, or taking priority at intersections, etc. Just ambulances and fire trucks sitting behind everyone else in the fucking queue at a red light. Grrrr.

 

[Turjan]

I rather like the agent system as a base for how such simulations operate. But to support large scale city-building then the agent granularity will probably have to become coarser; ie, instead of 1 agent per resident, 1 agent per this-clump-of-houses. Has any company really tried that yet?

That's basically what C:S does. The agents get gradually phased out, which is the reason why traffic management gets easier the larger your city is. Parts of it become very quiet.

On another note: the thing that really pisses me off about C:S's traffic simulator is that emergency vehicles are treated the same as ordinary vehicles. No overtaking, or taking priority at intersections, etc. Just ambulances and fire trucks sitting behind everyone else in the fucking queue at a red light. Grrrr.

Yup, that's an issue. It's the main reason why you have to fix all traffic problems and can't just leave it at the horrendous traffic situation that is normal for larger cities.

 

[Mazisky]

This game is good but the art department is really shit, the buildings look all samey and unispired......

Simcity 2013 was really shit but the art department was really nice and enjoyable

I have to wait a city builder with both fine art and gameplay

 

[LESS T_T]

Natural Disasters will add a series of city-destroying emergencies to Cities: Skylines, which can occur unexpectedly during the game – or be manually triggered by mayors seeking a challenge or some sort of gruesome, vindictive pleasure. Buildings and infrastructure will be destroyed, fire can spread across locations, and countless lives may be lost unless players implement the right emergency plans and responses and keep an ear on the new radio alert system. Fans of Cities: Skylines will have the chance to overcome everything from massive fires to meteor strikes, and allow their friends to do the same with a new Scenario Mode, where custom challenges can be designed and shared through Steam Workshop.

Natural Disasters will include:

* Deep, Impactful Gameplay: Keep your city going through the devastation of several possible doomsday scenarios, from towering infernos to the day the sky exploded

* With Great Power Comes Great Response Abilities: Plan for, and respond to, disasters using early warning systems, countermeasures, and new disaster responses such as helicopters and evacuations – finally, a Paradox game where “Comet Sighted” actually means something

* Radio Saved the Video Game: Citizens can go Radio Ga-Ga with a new broadcast network, helping to rapidly spread evacuation warnings and emergency alerts – or simply relax to new in-game music stations

* An Objectively Good Feature: Scenario Mode allows players to design custom game objectives, including custom starting cities, win conditions, time limits, and more – and share scenarios to Steam Workshop

* Chirpocalypse Now: Heck yeah, new hats for Chirper

Natural Disasters will be available for Cities: Skylines players on Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs this winter.

Scenario editor is free for all players.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Finally I can bring down Obama's America.

 

[Angthoron]

Wow, finally something.

 

[Caim]

What, no Biblical disasters while having to balance the spiritual needs of your citizens while at the same time making sure that you keep religious unrest, violence and/or cleansing in check?

Really missed the mark there, guys.

 

[Night Goat]

Fucking finally.

 

[Mazisky]

Instead of random theme expansions they should add more assets and buildings in order to give cities a more varied, warm look instead of bland 10 mirror buildings straight-in-line hospital town look

 

[Night Goat]

I think disasters are something this game needs, we need something to keep the game interesting after your city has a stable income and happiness and you're just watching the population counter slowly increase.

 

[Turjan]

Instead of random theme expansions they should add more assets and buildings in order to give cities a more varied, warm look instead of bland 10 mirror buildings straight-in-line hospital town look

That's really something they shouldn't waste any time on. There are thousands of very nice buildings available on the workshop.

Let's see how they implement this. The radio network thingy sounds like a pain in the ass. Another thing you have to paint once over your city.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Are you still locked into perpetual winter if you want snow?

 

[Leechmonger]

* Chirpocalypse Now: Heck yeah, new hats for Chirper

Uninstalled.

 

[Mr. Pink]

a year later and i'm still butthurt about the agent limit. my 1m cities look totally deserted.

 

[Alienman]

Never thought it worked like that. My biggest city is only 50k, but it looks like Hong Kong. Guess I have to expand until shit normalize.

 

[Turjan]

Traffic gets slowly phased out. The ratio of actually simulated agents to total agents decreases along some kind of curve. I would say that up to around 250k, it still looks halfway decent, above that, the areas of the city that you are currently not working on get noticeably quiet.

So yes, growing a city is a way to deal with traffic problems, after you get over the hill. You may start downgrading parts of the road network. Also, the Network Extensions Project gives you some nice roads without traffic lights, which helps a lot even without any further traffic mods (just disable those roads that need Traffic++).

 

[Turjan]

Did I hear "paid mods"?

STOCKHOLM - August 24, 2016 — Paradox Interactive, a publisher that knows how to commune with its community, today announced the first downloadable content (DLC) for Cities: Skylines to feature creations from one of the game’s talented modders. The best-selling city-building game Cities: Skylines has been modified and built upon by aspiring architects, artists, and designers worldwide since its launch in 2015, with over 90,000 pieces of community-created content now available on Steam Workshop. Paradox will soon publish its first official DLC featuring exclusively assets created by a community contributor, and share the benefits from the pack’s sales with the content creator.

The first pack, titled “Content Creator Pack: Art Deco,” will include a selection of Deco-inspired buildings from community creator Matt “Shroomblaze” Crux. These buildings are new and original creations created by Crux, exclusive to the Art Deco pack, and Crux will receive a share of revenue from their sale in addition to an initial payment from Paradox to cover the cost of production. Other community creators will be highlighted in upcoming packs planned for the near future.

“After over 3,400 hours in Cities: Skylines, it’s wonderful to have my own buildings become part of the game’s landscape,” said Matt Crux, the modder behind the Art Deco pack. “Because the Art Deco era is so highly regarded as one of the best building styles of history, I think it needs to be represented as such. I made the suggestion to Paradox Interactive and they allowed me to come up with the buildings of my choice. I’m eager to see what the rest of the community thinks of them.”

Content Creator Pack: Art Deco will be available for Cities: Skylines players next week for $4.99 . For more information on Cities: Skylines, please visit www.citiesskylines.com/.

More info and pics here: https://www.paradoxplaza.com/cities-skylines-content-creator-pack-art-deco

 

[Alienman]

I was waiting for this. Paradox CEO has nothing against mod dlcs.

 

[Stokowski]

15 buildings. Are you shitting me?

 

[Turjan]

15 buildings. Are you shitting me?

It's Paradox, the peddler of DLCs that contain a few flags or some portraits.

 

[Makabb]

Skylines runs like shit, unity is cancer

 

[Angthoron]

Skylines runs like shit, unity is cancer

There's a workaround for that. But yeah, Unity is what it is.

 

[Makabb]

Natural disasters coming in a few days