Multiplat Cities: Skylines II

[dwwaino]

I'll definitely be getting ultimate.

 

[Balony_pony16]

I just got a gaming laptop for the first time in 10 years. Def getting skyline 2...but is the first one worth playing these days? If not, and recommendations for PC games of recent'ish years?

 

[dwwaino]

I just got a gaming laptop for the first time in 10 years. Def getting skyline 2...but is the first one worth playing these days? If not, and recommendations for PC games of recent'ish years?

CS1 is fantastic, especially on PC with mods, but there are some DLC that would be considered essential and at this stage I wouldn't be dropping too much money on it with CS2 just around the corner. It's regularly on sale on Steam if you're ever desperate enough to want to play it and grab some DLC (I think most of them go for less than $10 when on sale). Otherwise just hold on until October.

 

[dwwaino]

Some really cool info about traffic AI in this week's update. Not as many reveals as last week's but still interesting.

The most important takes I can see is traffic will calculate alternative routes if one way is congested. There will be accidents that need to be cleared that will impact congestion. Improved calculations and actually taking advantage of multi-threaded CPUs now will increase performance and allows the removal of the current agent cap.

Now waiting for creators like Egg and Biffa to create a video digging into it deeper. Though Egg said last week he was going on holidays so we might have to wait a bit for his.

Cities: Skylines II Feature Highlight #2: Traffic AI - Paradox Interactive

Paradox Interactive is a world leading PC games publisher known for games such as Cities: Skylines, Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings.

www.paradoxinteractive.com

 

[Balony_pony16]

CS1 is fantastic, especially on PC with mods, but there are some DLC that would be considered essential and at this stage I wouldn't be dropping too much money on it with CS2 just around the corner. It's regularly on sale on Steam if you're ever desperate enough to want to play it and grab some DLC (I think most of them go for less than $10 when on sale). Otherwise just hold on until October.

Cheers, yeah I might just wait for CS2 so I’m fresh on this game style to sink hours into it. Probs play Cub 6 or railway empire in the meantime… or something similar

 

[dwwaino]

Creators like Biffa and Egg clearly received the videos earlier as their videos were up within minutes of the release. The other giveaway is Biffa is watching an .MP4 and not YouTube.

Biffa seems to be breaking down the videos a bit better than anyone else and there is actually some really cool info in here. Not sure in the dev diaries if they've left the spreadsheets open on second monitors on purpose but some clever community members have managed to zoom in and clear up the text.

Things I noticed that he didn't mention were the traffic info overlay actually showed the traffic volume at times of day and when showing the accident with the car on its side the little white car's reflection is clearly shown on the parked van.

I really like the new calculation of travel cost as when expanding your city and building new regions you can factor in public transport to your CBD from the outset (so the opposite of western Melbourne).

I'm sure we'll see it in time but still everything shown has been on flat or terraformed land. I really want to see what buildings and roads on uneven ground will look like. Can we get more life like hillside development? Will nice road grids have crappy buildable squares due to uneven terrain?

 

[cats2rise]

Stupidly thinking maybe I'll hold out and wait a year for the first big bundle, or at least until the first big steam sale.

No doubt that thought will last 25 minutes once the game is released

 

[dwwaino]

Next week is buildings and zoning which will finally hopefully answer my most burning question: what will zoning on uneven terrain look like? Will it go with the terrain or will there be huge unsightly tearing again?

 

[dwwaino]

The start of the week is actually something worth looking forward to now with these weekly updates. Was hoping we'd see a bit more about zoning logic, like what happens on curves or uneven terrain. I'm sure we'll see that in time. Anyway, signature buildings sound cool and will be neat mixing with regular zoning. Also love how there is more diversity in not only zoning types but the buildings that spawn themselves.

 

[cats2rise]

Towers etc and blah blah blah but did I just see an oddly shaped farm field just drawn?!?

If so

 

[dwwaino]

Yep, it looks like you can draw the fields then plonk your roads and industry buildings inside them. Makes it look much more organic.

 

[cats2rise]

Yep, it looks like you can draw the fields then plonk your roads and industry buildings inside them. Makes it look much more organic.

So many little things are going to make this game great.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

So I am by no means a knowledgeable/experienced/good player. I played a chunk of the first on PS5 and really enjoyed it, but constantly hit a point where my city was basically unplayable because of poor traffic management. I couldn't fix it myself (and to be honest didn't really know what the issue was), and every time I Googled looking for help/guides, the answer was "yeah download this mod" which was obviously not possible on PS. So while I'm sure me not knowing what I was doing was a big contributor to the traffic issues, it seems like part of it was the game's mechanics, too.

My question is if there is anything in what has been revealed thus far that seems like it will change/improve that part of the game?

 

[dwwaino]

So I am by no means a knowledgeable/experienced/good player. I played a chunk of the first on PS5 and really enjoyed it, but constantly hit a point where my city was basically unplayable because of poor traffic management. I couldn't fix it myself (and to be honest didn't really know what the issue was), and every time I Googled looking for help/guides, the answer was "yeah download this mod" which was obviously not possible on PS. So while I'm sure me not knowing what I was doing was a big contributor to the traffic issues, it seems like part of it was the game's mechanics, too.

My question is if there is anything in what has been revealed thus far that seems like it will change/improve that part of the game?

Some popular modders have been employed by Colossal Order and some popular mods appear to be built into the base game this time. This looks like it includes most stuff that traffic manager covered in CS1. However in saying that traffic shouldn't be an issue anyway even with large cities if you built it correctly and used correct road hierarchy. There are heaps of tutorials on this sorts of stuff but it didn't really come naturally to me until after a couple hundred hours.

One of the best ways I learnt was building along with one of the popular content creators.

 

[dwwaino]

What a way to promote your game - weekly videos covering different aspects of the game almost right up until the launch.

Nothing too different from CS1 here except I like how services reduce the chance of hazards rather than just being there to respond to them. Also the scale of the buildings like fire, police and waste water looks way more realistic. New addition of internet and coverage. Drawable landfill too. Looks like we're getting lots of drawable areas in CS2.

 

[dwwaino]

As an electrical worker myself I love the small update to power by stepping down the HV supply into usable LV. Also interested to see how they implement how much power lines can carry.

Ground water looks like a cool update too as it makes ground pollution more of a thing and will impact how you plan your city.

 

[dwwaino]

Maps up to 5 times bigger!

 

[BallaratBulldog]

Looking good. I think I will get the base game and see if they list ports and bridges separately later on.

 

[dwwaino]

Happy Tuesday.

One day/night cycle = 1 month
12 day/night cycles = 1 year

They apparently play out long enough but no too long that you will feel bogged down in a season.

 

[dwwaino]

Oi, it's Tuesday.

CS2 is going to have a much steeper learning curve than 1 as the economy is much more complex. Managing your economy is going to play a big part and the game simply isn't going to be the same city painter as the first game was. Some people are split on this as they just want to make pretty cities, but I'm in the camp that wished the first game was a little more difficult because making money was too easy. In 2 companies manage their own income and you can help or hinder by taxes or policies. They employ and level up based on surplus income.

I'm getting really excited for this. With the much bigger map we now how the ability not just to make a massive, rolling metropolis, but instead I'm thinking of the idea of a main built up CBD with smaller towns sprinkled around. With the increased map size you can create little stories of why that particular town exists which helps you build it rather than just mindlessly zoning. Maybe you want a town that exists because of some dedicate industry in that region.

 

[sataris]

Oi, it's Tuesday.

CS2 is going to have a much steeper learning curve than 1 as the economy is much more complex. Managing your economy is going to play a big part and the game simply isn't going to be the same city painter as the first game was. Some people are split on this as they just want to make pretty cities, but I'm in the camp that wished the first game was a little more difficult because making money was too easy. In 2 companies manage their own income and you can help or hinder by taxes or policies. They employ and level up based on surplus income.

I'm getting really excited for this. With the much bigger map we now how the ability not just to make a massive, rolling metropolis, but instead I'm thinking of the idea of a main built up CBD with smaller towns sprinkled around. With the increased map size you can create little stories of why that particular town exists which helps you build it rather than just mindlessly zoning. Maybe you want a town that exists because of some dedicate industry in that region.

First thing i'm building is Sex Island

 

[dwwaino]

Some pretty big gameplay reveals this week. There is a fair bit going on with passive and active XP and points and stuff, but the simplest explanation is unlocks aren't exactly tied to milestones like the first game. When you plonk a service you unlock that service tree and you can then unlock things at your own pace. XP isn't directly tied to only population growth either.

 

[Ry009]

Just watched the last two videos. Love the Economy tab. Building dashboards for work, cool to play around with the finances and decision making on a granular level.

Love the development trees which look like they operate similar to a RPG.

Really excited for this now.

 

[dwwaino]

Just watched the last two videos. Love the Economy tab. Building dashboards for work, cool to play around with the finances and decision making on a granular level.

Love the development trees which look like they operate similar to a RPG.

Really excited for this now.

It's looking a lot more simulation which I think will be good because as much as I love CS1, sometimes it's not very stimulating due to being very easy.

I also like how you can unlock things in the order you wish rather than having some design in your head locked behind arbitrary population milestones.

 

[dwwaino]

Wake up, it's Tuesday.

This is one of my favourite updates to 2 so far I think. The sims live much more personal lives compared to CS1. They actually have real and individual needs which will change how you plan your city. Biffa explains this really well as he has been playing the game so I'll include his video too. Also creators are allowed to start releasing CS2 content on September 8 so that will be cool to start seeing less curator content.