Citystate II News

A quick summer patch fixing up what you guys have reported in the last weeks.

• Fixed several issues affecting highway access roads. Highway were being destroyed when surrounding roads were changed. It was not possible to build a highway access if the road was built before the highway.
  
• Blur effect was not turned off after closing the load/save nation menu. [reported by Zaid, Dictator and Rommell]
  
• Improved the computation of the inequality index, especially in cases where the upper class is bigger than the middle class. [requested by Romulo]
  
• The game was in some cases freezing in huge cities that have too few intersections. AI pathfinding has troubles finding a path to its destination when the road network has too many bottlenecks. The lot will now get abandoned (after 5 attempts) instead of freezing the game. [reported by Romulo]
  
• Residential buildings now try to reach up to 5 different workplaces before triggering a "Can't reach workplace" warning.
  
• Retail buildings were upgrading to stage 5 even if the density limit was set to 4 [reported by Dictator and KenanYK]
  
• Lowered demand requirement for office stage 6 from 3000 to 2600. [requested by Omnius]
  
• Lowered value requirement for mix $$$/Office stage from 5100 to 4600. [requested by Drai and Omnius]
  
• Clamped maximum city balance to 2 billion to prevent integer overflow (value was reverting to negative 2 billion) [reported by iaido_warrior and Dictator]
  
• Population in arcologies no longer uses the city schools and hospitals. Arcologies now consume electricity. [requested by Dictator]
  
• Jobs in arcologies were not being added to the total number of jobs available. [reported by Dictator]
  
• Decreased tax income from arcology by 50% (to be in par with middle class tax income)
  
• Nature and ocean ambient sounds were still being played even if the volume was set to zero. [reported by Growler]
  
• Decreased distance at which park sound fx can be heard.
  
• Several mixed use buildings had faulty colliders which prevented warning signs to be displayed and vehicle collision.
  
• The traffic congestion value in stats was displayed in green when exceeding 100%.
  

Update 1.4.2 should come out by the end of September / early October.

[h2]NEW[/h2]

• Added a public pool
  
• Added a wind turbine
  
• Added beach props
  
• Added a tennis court
  
• Added a holodeck building
  
• Added a slider to manually set the exact time of day.
  
• Added arrows above functional road connections.
  

[h2]MAIN FIXES AND CHANGES[/h2]

• Commutes are updated more often and look for closer workplaces in large cities to reduce the chances of "Can't Reach Workplace" abandonment.
  => When working on large maps especially, avoid long stretched building blocks with few intersections, check if avenue and rail tracks intersections appear correctly and do not put jobs excessively far from houses.
• Improved pathfinding. Commuters will choose the road with the highest capacity first, if same capacity commuters will choose the road with the least congestion.
  
• Increased land value propagation around mixed use buildings (has an effect on their own value and security score too).
  
• Increased effect of security and health scores on land value by about 40%.
  
• Smooth terrain mode were creating holes in terrain around roads and buildings. Terrain in default mode was creating holes in-between beaches and buildings. [reported by Rommell]
  
• Increased the speed at which decayed or looted buildings and parking lots are getting rebuilt in large cities [reported by Dictator]
  
• When a mixed use building was transformed into a parking lot, the number of employees was not reset to zero. [reported by Dictator]
  
• Changed the requirement for the silicon achievement to "100,000 jobs in advanced manufactures" (before: 90% of all jobs needed to be in AM). [reported by MagOliven]
  
• Improved the way roads level the terrain. Roads were often built lower than their surroundings. Moreover, at the lowest land height road intersections were not leveled with adjacent road tiles.
  
• When upgrading or downgrading roads, different road styles were getting mixed up around intersections.
  
• Road connection tiles could not be destroyed. [reported by Dictator]
  
• Reworked the system of job sharing across cities. In most situations, cities will now share more jobs.
  => A maximum of 5% of total local jobs can be found in a neighbor city. The higher your unemployment rate the more citizens will try to find jobs outside the city. The neighbor city does not need to have a low unemployment rate to share its jobs. Remember that jobs held outside the city indirectly lower your tax incomes since the hiring businesses are not taxed locally.

[h2]MINOR CHANGES[/h2]

• Max business demand growth increment now set at 100 for population above 2M (before: 54) [suggested by Dictator]
  
• Vacant commercial and industrial lots were shown as residential lots in land use layer [reported by Dictator]
  
• Trees are now getting transparent when the terraforming tool is active [suggested by Omnius]
  
• Corrected all parks cost and capacity tooltips on buttons. Improved data readability.
  
• Fixed car reverse camera and default pitch angle. Improved handling slightly.
  
• Max dollar reserves can now reach exactly 2,000,000 [reported by Dictator]
  
• A yellow warning is now displayed when a police or fire station is working over capacity (instead of when the security score is low). [suggested by Yipei]
  
• Improved scaling of graphs for small values. [reported by Dictator]
  
• Changed Nation view post process effects and sun position.
  
• Stimulants and Dietary police didn't have a description. [reported by Dictator]
  
• Increased number of occupants for low and middle class stage 5 and 6 buildings. [reported by Dictator]
  
• Fixed more faulty props positions on RCI buildings.
  
• Building multiple universities was not increasing the university capacity if we did not reopen the city [reported by Romulo]
  
• Fixed a missing tooltip in the census tool for universities. [reported by Romulo]
  
• The ocean sound effect was turned on and off too abruptly.
  
• Fire trucks were not responding to fires if triggered by a helicopter crash or a riot.
  
• Changed zoning tool tiles color to be more distinctive.
  
• Increased (negative) effect of slums on police and fire service usage.
  
• Road intersection in "T" were not allowing cars to turn in all available directions forcing commuters to make detours. Pedestrian crossings were also missing.
  
• Removed several debug log entries that were unnecessarily allocating memory.
  

[h2]What's next?[/h2]
I have a long list of small features and new buildings I'd like to add to the game but nothing super game changing should be expected at this point. The next update should arrive by September but small patches can still be released during summer.
If you want to report any bug or anything 'unpolished' please let me know:
=> https://discord.gg/h3f4WJR
=> [email protected]

Many thanks to Dictator and Omnius, you guys have been continuously reporting bugs almost since launch and after each patch, your expertise is greatly appreciated, thank you!

A quick patch fixing a list of bugs (for once there were not so many of them and nothing major) and a short note to talk about the future of the game.

[h2]Fixes and Changes[/h2]

• Mixed use zones had a reduced security rating [reported by Aarki]
  
• Slums had a hard time finding a spot to spawn.
  
• Cleaned up debug texts in old census tool [reported by Omnius]
  
• The new census tool was not displaying the correct icons for mixed use buildings.
  
• A stage 2 mixed use building was offset. [reported by surreal cactus]
  
• Reduced airport immigration capacity (-25%). Reduced base immigration flow (-15%).
  
• The airport capacity was inaccurately retrieved to compute the bonus on immigration.
  
• Fixed a rare missing road tile
  
• Fixed a clipping issue affecting bridges and the new cliffs.
  
• Corrected and added various prop and car positions on lots. (does not apply to anything built before this patch)
  
• Reduced car engine volume. Removed gear change FX. [suggested by Elhoim]
  
• The mayor's car was turning left slightly in a straight line. Improved car handling and follow camera angle. [reported by BiOxYdE]
  
• The custom density button for mixed use zone was bugged. [reported by BiOxYdE]
  
• Pollution from congested road now start to be emitted at 80% usage (before 100%). Maximum pollution now clamped at 320% usage (before 200%).
  
• Updated news priority hierarchy. The conservatives will not congratulate you that much anymore.
  
• Slight update of post process effects.
  
• Traffic congestion number in stats was never green even when very low.
  
• The StateCopter was spawning on a road just after taking the mayor's car for a drive.
  

I've received 2 reports pointing at issues with rail tracks but I was not able to reproduce the bugs on my end. This might be related to compatibility problems with older versions. I advise to zoom in when building rail tracks, so you can make sure the tracks have no holes and that intersections are built correctly.


I often don't take the time to thank or respond to each of you personally for your feedback and bug reports, you guys have been very responsive, your help has been decisive in fixing and developing Citystate. Thank you!

As some of you know my family and I will be relocating back from Asia to Europe in just a few weeks and so the rate of updates is expected to slow down during summer. I should still be able to put out a small update just before leaving. Besides, 2 other bigger updates are still on my roadmap but with no definitive release date.
This fall it'll be a year since the game initially released and at that point I'll have to decide whether I should work on additional content for Citystate II or if I'd better start working on a new project entirely.

[h2]NEW[/h2]
Mixed Use Zones
We can now build mixed use lots. Work similarly to the classic RCI zones and have 4 stages. Developers can build 2 types: a mix of retail jobs and middle income housing or a mix of office jobs and high income housing. Since they require two types of demand, mixed use buildings are a bit more
difficult to grow. They also require higher land value than other buildings.
Mixed use buildings generate 50% less traffic. They can only be zoned once you have at least 3500 middle class citizens.
Added 26 mixed use buildings (heights range from 16m to 200m). Each building can spawn in 2 color variation.


Added a car driving mode "Grand State Auto".
Vehicles, buildings and roads have collision boxes. The player's car can be damaged. Comes with 2 camera positions (press "C"). The mayor's car can be driven as soon as you build your first road.


Added a Stadium (16x16, bigger than the university!). Unlocks with at least 150,000 middle income citizens.


Added a Museum. Unlocks when you have 40,000 upper income citizens.


Added 6 new maps (New Coastal and New Valleys). All come with large and truly flat areas that are easily buildable. Elevations are more detailed and realistic (heightmaps are taken from modified real world data instead of being computer generated).


Redesigned the upper UI and added 3 new categories: Leisure, Mixed Use Zone and Transport. Moved the census tool next to the news headline.

Rewrote the road construction tool entirely. More beginner friendly, adapts to almost any combination. Adjacent tiles now updates automatically when destroyed. (does not apply to avenues and highways)

New terrain blocks and new cliffs. Less cubic looking.

[h2]BUG FIXES & CHANGES[/h2]

• The screen was in some cases not being displayed fully with black bars on the sides. If you were affected you might need to open the city, go back to Nation and reopen it. Changed the way the last camera position is saved. [reported first by Be Kind]
  
• Industrial and Commercial buildings were still counting walking commuters as if they were using cars. Improved road usage computation.
  
• Changed GDP computation. Is lower with lots of low income citizens, higher with lots of high income citizens.
  
• Built and unbuilt map tiles in Nation view had different coast lines.
  
• Trees are now hidden when bulldozing too. [requested by Yannis]
  
• Moved randomize city name button to prevent tooltip from overlapping.
  
• Abandoned buildings were not displaying reason of abandonment in the new census tool.
  
• Required land value and demand were not reset in the new census tool if the building was abandoned or transformed into a parking. [reported by Feywild Shaper]
  
• The new census tool can now displays the reason why a vacant lot is not getting built and the citizen commuting distance.
  
• Changed the computation of the park score, now "Parks & Leisure". Increased the effect of quality of life on immigration.
  
• Reduced default speed of immigration in small cities.
  
• Graphs for education, health, religion and others were not properly scaled. [reported by dictator]
  
• Fixed a couple of typos. Fixed image compression issue for the intro credits. Fixed university requirement not turning green. [reported by Omnius]
  
• Changed the initial cost of dollars, now only based upon the exchange rate. Increments of 20k. [suggested by Omnius]
  
• When the Nation's data is missing or corrupted the game will now redirect you directly to the Create Nation screen. In some case the missing data was freezing the game. [reported by Dan R.]
  
• Boats were unable to navigate close to the edges of the map, creating internal errors that might have led to more lag. [found thanks to Feywild Shaper]
  
• Achievements could only be unlocked in a specific order. For example, you could not unlock Futurologist if you never unlocked Capitalist Overlord. This is just because of crap code, was not intended.
  
• The futurologist achievement was waiting for 19 buildings to be unlocked instead of the existing 18 and could therefore never be triggered. [reported by Feywild Shaper]
  
• Max immigration bonus from airport connection is now 100% (before 4000%).
  
• Immigration effects for Least Advanced Countries were always 0% (UI only).
  
• Icons in immigration panel were not matching texts [reported by Romulo]
  
• Education yellow warning was disregarding high schools current usage [reported by Romulo]
  
• Max demand growth step increased to 52 for all business demands (before 28) when population is above 1M [requested by Dictator]
  
• Maintenance cost of pedestrian walkways increased to $5 per tile to match with parks costs. (Cost is added to transports, not parks)
  
• The effect of ports and airports capacity on inflation was erroneous [reported by Jacob BD and Omnius]
  
• Births from arcologies were incorrect and were messing up the global birth rate.
  
• Births from slums were not counted.
  
• If the economic freedom index exceeded 100, the government label was missing. [reported by Dictator]
  
• The new census tool was sometimes showing health and education numbers for commercial buildings.
  
• Replaced a track that was triggering a copyright claim on youtube [reported by OverchargedEgg]
  
• Fixed a new memory leak related to terrain updates!
  
• Leveling terrain could spawn grass underwater. Terrain modifications above ground now preserve existing vegetation correctly.
  

Fixed the infinite city loading screen:
If you were switching from a standard size map to a large map Nation the cities were created using the wrong terrain data.
Or, if at the moment of opening the city the highlighted city in the Nation view changed
In most cases the cities could not be loaded back. If you try to open these cities with the new patch the city will not load.

[h2]CHANGES[/h2]

• Zoning 3x wide lots only: Push Alt to enable when zoning. [requested by Bioxyde]
  
• Water and power small bottom arrows are now colored yellow or red when approaching insufficient production.
  
• Changed the usage of ports. Instead of the sum of exports and imports, only the difference between exports and imports is now taken into account. [requested by Omnius]
  
• Increased the exports from advanced manufacturing by 16%.
  
• The UI in Nation view now displays the current number of jobs actually shared with neighbors instead of the number of jobs that "can" be shared. [reported by Omnius]
  
• Fasten terrain rendering.
  

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]

• Pushing Ctlr and Shift was always triggering the zoning click sound FX.
  
• The dollar reserves was not reset when creating a new Nation [reported by SetArk]
  
• Street lights FX were abnormally small.
  
• Asphalt roads did not have foundations on slopes.
  
• Improved the lot terrain leveling. Picks average height to better match the height with the road in front. This prevents some "no road access" issues too.
  
• Light density had no cost [reported by Dictator]
  
• Corrected PT-BR translation [reported by Romulo]
  
• Added missing texts in the new census tool (land value and demand requirements to level up).
  
• Alert messages were appearing and disappearing too quickly.