Cities: Skylines II News

Hi everyone! I hope you're ready for some long patch notes because 1.1.5f1 (also known as Economy 2.0) has a lot of changes for you!

Before we get into all of those we have one important note to add for existing saves: Your city will experience a temporarily increased death rate. Since the dev diary detailing what you can expect to happen with your saves, we have made changes to when citizens die. The changes add more variety so you don’t end up with a very large amount of seniors who all die around the same time. But to prevent these large future death waves, your city will need to say goodbye to some of its existing citizens.

Additionally, we have added a Tile Upkeep cost since the dev diaries, which you will want to keep an eye on, especially if you have used Unlock All or mods to unlock all map tiles. Cities that have unlocked tiles gradually as they become available through milestones are expected to be able to afford the land they own (perhaps with some adjustments to taxes and service budgets), but if your city is still small and has unlocked most of the map, you may want to enable Unlimited Money.

For a quick overview of everything you should keep in mind when loading an existing save, check out this thread.

We also want to thank you for all the feedback and bug reports you have shared. They have been very helpful in making these improvements and fixing issues. As always, we greatly appreciate your reports, and if you have any issues following this patch, please report them here.

We look forward to hearing your experiences with the patch. You're welcome to share your thoughts in this thread, in the main forum, or in the Suggestions section of the forum. Constructive feedback is very valuable to us and we greatly appreciate the time you take to share it with us. Now, let's get to the patch notes.

Remember: A new patch can cause compatibility issues with mods. If you have issues, please disable mods and wait for them to be updated by modders. See this thread for more information.

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[h3]Building Upgrade Rework[/h3]

• More control over upgrades from the Selected Info Panel of City Service buildings.
  
  • All upgrade types can be removed from the Selected Info Panel of a City Service building.
    
  • Sub-buildings can be removed by using the bulldozer as well.
    
  • Sub-buildings can be relocated.
    
  • Sub-building can be turned on/off.
    
  • Sub-buildings can be selected.
• Sub-building upgrades can now be placed freely within a radius limit from the main building.
  
• Updated City Service tutorial.
  

[h3]Economy updates[/h3]

• Government subsidies for the city have been removed to make the economy more challenging and transparent.
  
• Taxes and Services tabs in the Economy panel now unlock at milestone 1 and the Production tab unlocks at milestone 2.
  
• Added “Import City Services” city policy to toggle import of city services from Outside Connections.
  
  • Separate imported service items in the budget panel.
    
  • Outside Connections won't send service vehicles if the policy is toggled off.
    
  • Added imported service expenses for ambulance, hearse, fire engine, garbage, and police. The fee scales with the city's population.
• City Service changes:
  
  • Increased chance of entering and graduating both Elementary School and High School.
    
  • Adults can now apply to High School if they didn’t finish it (1% chance, can apply 3 times).
    
  • Garbage accumulation accounts for students, employees, prisoners, occupants, and homeless people in the calculation.
    
  • Balanced garbage city service upgrades.
    
  • Buildings now pay a fixed fee for garbage collection instead of a variable amount based on garbage collected.
    
  • Adjusted garbage accumulation values.
    
  • Adjusted upkeep costs of most City Service Buildings.
    
  • Wages for city service employees are paid from player money
    
  • Increased electricity import price.
    
  • Increased the time it takes for Ambulance and Hearse notifications to appear.
    
  • Adjusted the Service Fee curves for efficiency and consumption.
    
  • Adjusted water service fees (With old saves the game will force reset the value to the new default position).
    
  • Increased the amount of workers for
    
    • Medical Clinic
      
    • Small Coal Power Plant
      
    • Police Station
      
    • Cemetery
      
    • Fire House
      
    • Landfill
• Demand changes:
  
  • Residential density depends on household wealth and family size.
    
  • Household spawns are based on average citizen happiness, homelessness, tax, available student positions, and available jobs.
    
  • Commercial companies spawn based on household needs, reducing how often the same companies appear in the city.
    
  • Commercial and industrial demand has been adjusted to avoid “Not enough customers” complaints for newly spawned companies.
    
  • Taxes now have more effect on demand.
• Employment changes:
  
  • Workers from Outside Connections no longer pay tax.
    
  • Workers from Outside Connections are not included in population or workplace infoviews.
    
  • Workers from Outside Connections will look for new job more frequently.
    
  • Workplaces in Outside Connections are less desirable than workplaces in the city.
    
  • Only citizens who don't have health problems (such as Sick or Injured) count as valid employable citizens.
    
  • Citizens can only receive unemployment for a limited amount of time. When they run out of unemployment, they will complain about “High Rent” and move away.
    
  • Fixed population jobs & workers amount issue.
• Households & happiness changes:
  
  • Households without adults will now move away.
    
  • Rich households prefer larger homes in attractive neighborhoods (higher land value, good service coverage, etc), poor households prefer cheaper houses and don’t mind services being far away.
    
  • Household needs are calculated based on their spendable money (what’s left after paying rent), so they now spend their money more reasonably.
    
  • Reduced the number of senior citizens moving into the city.
    
  • Adjusted wealth happiness factor to a reasonable value.
    
  • Low happiness affects the chance a household will move out of the city.
    
  • Households consider the garbage fee when calculating their spendable money.
    
  • Added curve parameter to death rate to smooth the death of senior citizens (existing cities will experience an immediate death wave)
• Production and Company changes:
  
  • Adjusted values for:
    
    • Resource production.
      
    • Resource price.
      
    • Household wages.
      
    • Tax income.
  • Resource price now has two parts, a lower one for industrial processing, and another for commercial companies’ service prices. Customers (households) pay full price, which is both parts combined.
    
  • Changed the workforce needed per unit for resource processing to a preconfigured amount instead of automatically calculated at the start of the game.
    
  • Companies now go bankrupt instead of looking for new locations if their current property isn’t suitable for profit.
    
  • Changed Industrial Manufacturing space multiplier from 1 to 5 to allow more workers per grid so fewer buildings are needed.
    
  • Adjusted office employee amount.
    
  • Adjusted amount of work required per product to decrease city income.
    
  • Adjusted simulated service prices.
    
  • Improved companies to move away not just because of bankruptcy, but also because of the tax rate and workforce factors.
    
  • Rebalanced Extractor Resource greatly reducing profitability.
    
  • Balanced Industrial and Office companies Default Output Amount, Max Workers Per cell, Resources Initial Price, and Work needed per unit. Increased Space multiplier of Industrial and Office zones.
• Rent and Building Level changes:
  
  • Removed the virtual landlord so building upkeep is now paid equally by all renters.
    
  • Added new rent calculation: Rent = (LandValue + (ZoneType
  • Building Level))
  • LotSize
  • SpaceMultiplier.
    
  • Tweaked “High Rent” notifications to be based on the household’s income. Even if they currently don’t have enough money in their balance, they won’t complain and will instead spend less money on resource consumption.
    
  • Building level is now based on whether renters can pay the upkeep fee. When they pay the full fee, the building condition increases by a constant amount, if they cannot pay it, the building condition decreases by the same amount.
• Crime rate adjustments:
  
  • Fixed police service coverage for zoneable assets. The police station will patrol regularly to decrease the crime rate, and all zone type buildings will increase crime rate depending on the police service coverage.
    
  • NA and EU PoliceVehicle02 Crime Reduction value changed to match the NA and EU policevehicle01 value.
    
  • Removed crime scene pathfinding limitation of building's crime rate to avoid all criminals having the same pathfinding result to queue up to do crime.
    
  • Added new crime factor to lower crime probability in cities with larger populations.
    
  • Lower crime recurrence probability due to criminals needing to wait a long while to remove criminal tag.
• Increased the cost of purchasing Map Tiles.
  
• Added upkeep fee for new map tiles
  
  • The 9 starting are excluded and do not have have map tile upkeep fee
• Added option to “Unlock all map tiles” (also disables achievements and the tile upkeep cost)
  
• Increased construction cost and upkeep costs for roads.
  
• Moved upkeep breakdown from Tooltip to Selected info panel.
  
• Reduced the amount of money the player gets back from bulldozing roads and buildings.
  
• Adjusted the max shopping amount of the household from 4000 to 2000.
  
• Adjusted Specialized Industry Unlocking to start from milestone 0.
  
• Fixed taxes being collected after bulldozing the entire City.
  
• Fixed Citizen Wealth Infoview not highlighting households with 'Wretched' wealth level.
  
• Fixed the wrong moving away statistic data being displayed.
  
• Fixed a newly spawned company complaining about a lack of workers.
  
• Fixed commercial zones incur massive amounts of debt for the citizens.
  
• Fixed refund inconsistencies when replacing roads and stops.
  
• Fixed high death possibility issue:
  
  • Fire accidents now will only cause 1% death compared to the previous 50% death of an on fire medium/high density building.
    
  • The building's destruction event will now cause 50% death compared to previous 90% death of citizens who are still in it.
• Fixed Outside Connection workers won't find a job.
  
• Fixed trade cost divided by zero bug.
  

[h3]Modding[/h3]

• Updated mod publisher to use auto login from Paradox SDK.
  
• Updated Paradox Mods to Version 1.5.2
  
  • Added new feature: Mod details will now show what dependencies are installed and if any are missing
    
  • Improvement: When started, it will now try to go online again if being offline before
    
  • Improvement: Change the close X hover effect when using a gamepad
    
  • Improvement: Improve text on empty state when on library or playset details when offline
    
  • Fix: Offline mode will now start with your active playset
    
  • Fixed double back click from following creators view
    
  • Fixed broken bumper navigation when offline and using a gamepad
    
  • Fixed gamepad legend when offline on library or playset details
    
  • Fix: Pressing the B button on a gamepad will now close the Sync modal
    
  • Fixed a warning with font weights
    
  • Fixed a warning with height not being set correctly in scrollbars
• Added support for custom units for sliders used in mod settings
  
• Added support for keybindings for mods:
  
  • Mods can introduce their own input action which are integrated into the game input system.
    
  • Added key binding field to the automatic option which allows mods to provide key rebinding for their actions.
    
  • Added built-in conflict detection between the game bindings and mods bindings based on action usage.
    
  • Added warning sign next to each binding which has conflicts.
    
  • Added main menu notification if a mod has a key binding conflict.
    
  • Added support for 3 different types of actions: press (1 button), axis (negative and positive button), vector (up, down, left, right buttons)
    
  • Added the ability to set separate keyboard key and gamepad button for one action.
    
  • Added the ability to use built-in and write custom processors and interactions for actions.
• Fixed issue where downloading a certain number of mods in a specific way resulted in a crash to desktop.
  
• Fixed a bug where SettingsUISetterAttribute could not use private methods and properties
  
• Fixed installing notification getting stuck when downloading a mod failed.
  
• Updated notification texts.
  
• Updated "mod loading error" dialog to show the error.
  
• Fixed issue with mods not loading if playset was changed using the web version or there are mod updates.
  
• Fixed some cases when mods are not loaded or "enabled code mods are changed" notification does not appear.
  
• Fixed "mod page" and "disable" buttons being visible on mod loading error message box with local mods.
  
• Fixed endless "mod loading..." notification if mods failed to load.
  
• Fixed Unity installation not being found if the game is running on a different account than the one who installed Unity
  
• Fixed issue where modding toolchain install/uninstall warning dialog overflows when the list of dependencies is long by making the panel scrollable
  

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• UI performance optimizations for the economy panel.
  
• Other UI performance optimizations with audio bindings, rendering, cursors, and updating panels.
  
• Performance optimization for Chirper panel.
  
• Optimizations for particle effects.
  
• Optimizations for audio memory usage.
  
• Optimized placement to improve FPS when placing complex buildings or roads.
  
• Fixed job-finding performance issue when there were no available workplaces and no employable workers, causing endless job pathfinding queries which heavily affect the performance.
  

[h3]Fixes & improvements[/h3]

• Unity update 2022.3.29f1
  
• Fixed a crash to desktop when using the quick load function while relocating and rotating a building.
  
• Fixed a crash to desktop after deleting Train Station with a broken Subway connection and trying to place new subway tracks.
  
• Fixed crash to desktop in SetupFindHomeJob
  
• Fixed crash to desktop caused by removed renter.
  
• Fixed crash to desktop when resizing oil extractor area so that some pumps get deleted
  
• Improved likelihood of household members traveling together as a group.
  
• Improved hue, saturation, and randomness values of tree leaves.
  
• Improved collision radius for BirchTree, PineTree, and SpruceTree to better match the visual empty space. The bushes etc. can now be propped closer to the trees.
  
• Improved citizens and delivery vehicles pathfinding to take building construction time and path duration into account to avoid arriving at construction sites.
  
• Ambulances transport some patients in emergency mode (randomized with health level).
  
• Lowered building fire spreading probability to other buildings.
  
• Changed default glass material from tinted brown to non-tinted.
  
• Updated EU and NA theme icons.
  
• Improved wealth info view color and citizen wealth state parameters.
  
• Fixed wealth info view color not matching household wealth, changed it from household member based wealth to household based wealth.
  
• Improved Airport development tree node icon.
  
• Adjusted XP values for low construction cost building.
  
• Fixed depots so trains/subway can now only drive through them by using dedicated by-pass track (the track without “No Track Connection”).
  
• Fixed Several Signature Buildings don't get occupied (must be rebuilt for the fix to take effect)
  
• Changed signature building info view color priority higher in RCIO infoviews
  
• Fixed Ludo Square and Cane Residences signature building bonuses to be more consistent.
  
• Fixed issue with some settings not getting saved.
  
• Fixed achievements progression on saves that have used mods not being disabled.
  
• Fixed specialized industry main building missing.
  
• Fixed Forestry and Ore Industrial Storage yard props not showing.
  
• Fixed farming extraction area color so it’s visible on fertile land with the info view open.
  
• Fixed crematorium sub-building car access when snapped to the main building. Main building or sub-building(s) need to be moved/replopped for this to take effect.
  
• Fixed specific situation causing taxis from Outside Connections to get stuck for a long while.
  
• Fixed wrong passenger count/capacity displayed for personal cars that have a trailer attached.
  
• Fixed driver not included in passenger count and capacity for personal vehicles.
  
• Fixed vehicles driving through parking facilities or transport stations without intending to use their services.
  
• Fixed citizens parking their cars at public transport stations without the intention to board a transport line there.
  
• Fixed traffic jams occurring inside Parking buildings.
  
• Fixed airplanes driving through the runway without landing at the airport.
  
• Fixed issue where fire engines are unable to react to and extinguish the additional buildings from the specialized industry areas
  
• Fixed Garbage Trucks collecting garbage outside their operating district if their way goes through different district.
  
• Fixed resource piles on spawnable storage yards not instantly updating when delivery truck unloads cargo.
  
• Fixed trucks keep going back and forth between commercial and industry.
  
• Fixed commercial companies accidentally exporting goods to other companies.
  
• Fixed broken pathfinding warning after rebuilding destroyed service building that has extension upgrades.
  
• Fixed mail getting stuck due to heavy traffic at the cargo terminal by adding a trip needed buffer amount as another cost in resource trade pathfinding.
  
• Added a penalty for resource pathfinding when the cargo station has more requests or sent out most of the vehicles.
  
• Fixed Water Tower’s viewing upgrade not providing entertainment.
  
• Fixed Hospitals and Clinics not refilling their pharmaceuticals storage
  
• Fixed cargo train terminal left and back paths not connecting to roads too
  
• Fixed City Policies not clearing properly and carrying over between different save game loads
  
• Fixed The Deep End achievement not unlocking at exactly 200000 loan
  
• Fixed citizens stopped finding jobs when unemployment was high
  
• Fixed high unemployment rate issue by adding variety to the citizen education levels when spawning
  
• Fixed population infoview jobs didn't match workplace info view's data
  
• Fixed discrepancy in workplace count by excluded the Outside Connection workplaces from population's calculation
  
• Fixed DateTime overflow error by reducing the max starting year for a map to 3000.
  
• Fixed floating prop issues with Deuclidia Apartments, Nuclear Power Plant and Technical University.
  
• Fixed hotel renter deserialization bug causing unknown mayhem for tourist / hotel logic.
  
• Fixed tourists with "Leaving the city" status not leaving the hotel.
  
• Fixed Parallel and grid roads misplace connected road lane.
  
• Fixed Roundabouts disappear when connecting roads at a certain angle.
  
• Fixed track slope causing tight curve warning / no connection when built a certain way.
  
• Fixed connection notifications with buildings over a train truck tunnel.
  
• Fixed net-tool replace mode is enabled when no compatible assets exist.
  
• Fixed destroyed buildings still create Noise Pollution.
  
• Fixed 'No Pedestrian Access' warning appearing for Medical University after adding Extension Wing upgrade
  
• Fixed issue where the cost of purchasing multiple map tiles varied depending on the order in which the map tiles were selected
  
• Fixed workplace links in citizen Selected Info Panel not working when the workplace was a service building.
  
• Fixed screen resolution set in the launcher right after the game launch not being applied.
  
• Fixed all overlay shaders broken when using dynamic resolution scaling.
  
• Fixed minor inconsistencies with infoview coloring for cables/pipes/lot for buildings under construction, destroyed or otherwise without mesh.
  
• Added secondary infoview background color so that roads don't disappear on terrain.
  
• Improved RCIO tax statistic colors to correspond zone colors
  
• Removed car paths and parking on NA_MixedRight01_L1_4x6 (and L2) and NA_MixedLeft01_L1_4x6 (and L2) to prevent pathfinding fails due to how the buildings can spawn
  
• Several improvements and fixes for controllers:
  
  • Added more controller hints.
    
  • Improved options navigation with controller so that moving between page content and search is consistent when tabs or advanced options are visible
    
  • Improved multiline text to be focusable so that scrollable panel can scroll to it while using a controller
    
  • Fixed navigating with the controller over an upkeep section required multiple up/down presses on the controller.
    
  • Fixed options menu controller navigation issues when "Show advanced" toggle is present.
    
  • Fixed not all locked toolbar items were focusable with the controller making it impossible to see the conditions to unlock a given feature.
    
  • Fixed requirement tooltips for placing a building not updating properly when moving the building with a controller
    
  • Fixed an issue with controller that it was impossible to scroll to the end of the building info panel list if the building did not have any upgrades
    
  • Fixed tooltips not rendering properly on top of the controller hints.
    
  • Fixed issue with opening mods UI profile page with gamepad
    
  • Fixed issue where names of tabs inside the City Services panel cannot be accessed when using a controller
• Fixed building effects not rendering correctly in the UI.
  
• Fixed a bug where placing a road could cause tooltips to jump between their target positions
  
• Fixed building effects when viewing detail tooltip where placing a building could overlap with building icon
  
• Fixed options slider field slider position not updating properly if its value was changed outside of the options menu - ie. changing radio volume in radio panel
  
• Fixed issue where closing citizen lifepath detail view the list would not re-focus on the last focused entry
  
• Several fixes for UI interface scaling when using bigger text size.
  
• Fixed UI disappearing on some tutorial step transitions.
  
• Fixed UI disappearing on closing signature building unlock dialog.
  
• Fixed options description not changing after scrolling certain dropdown lists.
  
• Fixed loading warning popup staying on top of the frozen/busy state of loading screen and not fading out.
  
• Fixed non-centered error message in Paradox Account -panel.
  
• Fixed Paradox account link button overflowing in various languages.
  
• Fixed Economy budget panel overlapping text in some languages.
  
• Fixed tooltips rendering outside of the screen.
  
• Fixed edge case of quitting the main menu or starting a new game by opening the pause menu from the button in the upper-right corner while using map tiles view.
  
• Rebalanced all citizen audio volumes.
  
• Fixed cemetery sounds not playing.
  
• Fixed audio source position that was not correctly set for multiple assets:
  
  • Fixed sounds of Residential Signature Buildings play even if buildings are not functional
    
  • Fixed sound effect of navigating through the Main Menu is almost inaudible
    
  • Fixed Overground Parking's upgrade does not add new sounds
• Keybinding:
  
  • Block all actions while listening for key press when the rebinding process is ongoing.
    
  • Added the ability to reset key binding to the default.
    
  • Added controller button icons to key binding options.
    
  • Added support for rebinding some specific tool actions and camera rotation
    
  • Added batch rebinding option which allows changing multiple keybinds without receiving the "cannot be rebound" error
    
  • Fixed controller hint when two direction action has bindings when one direction has binding with modifier and another one without modifier.
    
  • Added auto-detect for keyboard layout. Keybinds are converted to the current layout and keep their physical location (for example, WASD key bindings on French keyboard will be shown as ZQSD). It converts only Latin-based layouts, while US international layout is used for other non-Latin-based layouts.
    
  • Fixed building Selected Info Panel not opening when the Info Panel option is assigned to the Right Mouse button and disallowed the same key being set for Info Panel and Cancel actions.

[h3]Known issues[/h3]

• Medical clinics not refilling their pharmaceutical storage is fixed, but with old saves you might need to wait longer to see it to recover because the resource could become negative. As a workaround, you can destroy and rebuild the building.
  
• With old saves, the water budget is reset to the default 100% value.
  
• Existing saves may experience a death wave if they have a lot of senior citizens, however, we’ve made changes to avoid these in the future.
  

Hello Mayors,

We are happy to announce that we have now passed certification and are ready to publish the Economy 2.0 patch on Monday, June 24, at 10:00 CEST.

The reason the submission process took a bit longer than expected was due to some last minute fixes that were implemented early this week, which make us more confident in the release. We would like to send an extra thank you to our amazing beta group, who have been very helpful in the feedback process.


These sorts of patches require a lot of testing, and whenever something pops up, our developers investigate why that issue occurs and then implement a fix before the patch is re-submitted and tested again. That loop sometimes continues for longer than expected, especially in cases like this, where a small thing can have a ripple effect, as the patch affects multiple parts of the simulation.

Tomorrow is a national holiday in both Finland and Sweden, but on Monday, we are back again, ready to share the patch with you. Even if we are closing in on our summer release freeze, we will have enough time to have proper post-patch support in case we missed something critical.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

The patch for Economy 2.0 will be one of our biggest to date, and that also means that there will be many changes in how the game functions, especially with the economy.

We are now close to releasing the Economy 2.0 patch! The final checks are being made before we push the buttons, and it might be in your hands already tomorrow. Before the patch is released, though, we wanted to share a list of things you might encounter while loading up your saves after the Economy 2.0 patch; this post should explain in advance how your previous saves will be impacted so that there won’t be any surprises.



We have already published two Developer Diaries about what the Economy 2.0 patch contains. If you want to read them, you can find them here;

DD#1 - https://pdxint.at/3R8OSRY | DD#2 - https://pdxint.at/3yF8RBr​


[h2]SAVES​[/h2]

• Saves from before the economy rework will still work but may require a transition period. This extensive rework will affect how the simulation runs and impact the saves you have been building on when the patch goes live on Patch Day. Read below on what takes time to take effect.
  

[h2]MODS​[/h2]

• With the new patch, there are no guarantees for modded saves; you will have to check for updates or instructions from modders.
  
• Mods affecting the simulation are likely impacted by the update.
  

Mods have to be updated to work with the new version of the game and its new functions. Please be patient with the modders that make the mods you love, and while some mod creators have been given Early Access to the patch to be able to update their mods, they might be unable to update them immediately. Please don't hound mod creators to update their mods; if they're able, they will update them as soon as they are able.

If you want to play the game without mods while you wait for mods to be patched, you can use a new playset empty of mods or temporarily add --disableModding to the game's Steam launch options to disable all mods.

[h2]WHAT WILL CHANGE?​[/h2]

[h3]By popular request, we're making the game less easy:[/h3]
Government Subsidies are removed, and City Service upkeep costs are increased.
[h3]Are you relying on external City Services?[/h3]
Cities relying on external services need to enable the Import City Services policy to continue using neighboring city services, which now come with a fee.
[h3]Upkeep Cost for Tiles[/h3]
Tiles now have an Upkeep Cost, and if you have many tiles unlocked you will notice a major change to your budget. If you’re struggling to balance your budget after the patch but want to keep playing on the same save, we recommend enabling “Unlimited Money” in your saves Map Options. If you start a new map and enable the new Map Option "Unlock All Tiles", the tiles won't have an upkeep cost, and you won't have to pay 22,000,000 per month.

[h2]THIS TAKES SOME TIME TO TAKE EFFECT​[/h2]

[h3]Death Wave[/h3]
There will be a Death Wave in your city lasting about 1-2 in-game months. The older your citizens are, the more severe it will be. This is because we want to vary the age at which citizens can die to avoid future death waves - but it will take a while as the Grim Reaper usually doesn't get so much paperwork all at once.
[h3]New Budget Calculations[/h3]
Expect a negative money trend initially, but tax income may offset new costs after recalculations. If your city struggles financially, consider increasing taxes, reducing service budgets, or temporarily turning off buildings to save costs.
[h3]New Production and Employment Calculations[/h3]
Companies need time to adjust production and employee numbers, potentially increasing unemployment.
[h3]New Demand Calculations[/h3]
Demand adjustments may occur quickly, affecting demand bars, so don't be surprised if they are very different from before the patch. Increased industrial manufacturing space may drive up residential demand unless there are already job-seeking workers.
[h3]New Residential Demand Calculations[/h3]
Don't be surprised if this new calculation causes citizens to seek different housing types or relocate after the patch.
[h3]New rent and Resource Consumption Calculations[/h3]
These calculations should help citizens afford preferred housing, reducing "High Rent" notifications over time.
[h3]Do you still have "High Rent" notifications?[/h3]
Persistent "High Rent" notifications even after an extended period of playing? This may indicate unemployment issues. Ensure citizens have jobs to pay rent.


We value your opinion on the development of Cities Skylines II and have, along with this patch, created a survey where you can add your opinions, concerns, and suggestions about Economy 2.0.

Once the patch is out, you can find this survey as one of the Tiles in the Cities: Skylines II Launcher!

Welcome back to the second dev diary detailing the changes coming in the next patch. If you missed it, check out the first part here. Today we are covering a few important changes not directly related to the economy and we’ll go over what you can expect when loading up your existing cities.

Let’s start with Rent. Most likely you have run into complaints of “High Rent” in the game, so let’s talk about it. To complement the Land Value changes in patch 1.1.0f1 in March, we have tweaked how Rent works. First of all, we removed the virtual landlord so a building’s upkeep is now paid equally by all renters. Second, we changed the way rent is calculated. For those interested, the calculation looks like this:

Rent = (LandValue + (ZoneType * Building Level)) * LotSize * SpaceMultiplier

This of course affects the “High Rent” notifications you may have encountered, but we’ve tweaked those directly as well, so they are now based on the household’s income. That means that even if they currently don’t have enough money in their balance to pay rent, they won’t complain and will instead spend less money on resource consumption. Only when their income is too low to be able to pay rent will they complain about “High Rent” and look for cheaper housing or move out of the city.

Besides rent, households and companies need to pay for the building’s upkeep, which in turn affects the level of the building. When they pay the full upkeep fee, the building condition increases by a constant amount until the building levels up and the tenants start paying towards the next level. Similarly, if they cannot pay it, the building condition decreases by the same amount until it’s in such poor condition it collapses.

BUILDING UPGRADES UNLEASHED
From zoned buildings automatically leveling up to the City Service building upgrades you choose and place manually. While this update doesn’t directly relate to the Economy 2.0, it shares the same patch and deserves a little spotlight. Gone are the days when you had to bulldoze the entire building to remove, or just move, an upgrade. Now, all upgrades can be removed by selecting the building, finding the upgrade in the Selected Info Panel, and clicking the bin icon.

Deactivate or delete Extensions or relocate Sub-buildings through the Selected Info Panel

For sub-buildings, there’s even more control. They can also be removed using the bulldozer, you can pick them up and move them, or turn them on and off as needed. Moving them is particularly handy now as they don’t have to be placed in connection to the main building. As long as they are within the predefined radius and have pedestrian and/or road access, they will work like before. Sub-buildings like the Elementary School Playground just need a pedestrian path connecting them to the rest of the city, while sub-buildings like the Bus Depot Extra Garage will need road access to function. We’re excited to see how you take advantage of this new freedom in your cities, so don’t hesitate to tag us on social media if you’re showing off screenshots.


[h2]EXISTING CITIES[/h2]
Now you might wonder how all of this affects your existing cities, so let’s get the most obvious question out of the way first. Saves from before the economy rework still work, though we expect they will have a transition period as the simulation adapts to the changes. When it comes to modded saves, we can’t make any guarantees, but keep an eye out for updates or instructions from the modders. Mods that affect the simulation are likely to be affected by the update.

When you load up your city (and unpause) there are a few things you should keep in mind. With Government Subsidies removed and City Service upkeep increased, the cost of running your city just increased. If your city relies on ambulances, hearses, fire engines, police cars, and garbage trucks coming from Outside Connection, make sure to enable the Import City Services policy in the City Information panel, but don’t forget that your neighbors charge a fee to help you out. All this is expected to create a negative money trend, but depending on your city’s finances, your tax income might be enough to offset the new costs once the calculations catch up. If you’re struggling for money, don’t forget that you can increase taxes, reduce service budgets, or temporarily turn buildings off to save on their upkeep cost.

Demand adjusts quite quickly, so don’t be alarmed if some of your demand bars empty or fill up when you start playing. With the increase in industrial manufacturing space, your industry will be on a hiring spree that’s likely to drive up your residential demand - unless your city has workers already looking for a job. We recommend giving it some time though as companies (commercial, industrial, and office) readjust their production and employee numbers to be profitable, which we expect will overall lead to an increase in unemployment in your city.

With the new calculations for residential density demand, your citizens may also start looking for different types of housing or move around the city. Thankfully, the new calculations for rent and resource consumption should help them afford the type of housing they prefer, and we expect most (if not all) of your “High Rent” notifications will disappear after letting the simulation run for a while. If you keep seeing these or they start to come back, then make sure to check your unemployment and provide citizens with jobs so that they can pay their rent.

With time and some tweaks, your existing cities should adjust to the changes, so you can get back to realizing their full potential. And as always, don’t hesitate to ask for help if you encounter any situations you’re unsure of how to handle and report any bugs you might run into here


[h2]WHAT’S NEXT?[/h2]
Before we finish for today, we’d like to share our plans going forward. We will of course follow discussions and read feedback you share as you play with these changes. We’ve done extensive testing to get the changes as balanced as possible, but we know that some tweaking will likely still be necessary once you all start sharing your experiences.

We’ve already started work on the next major patch which we hope to have ready for you in Q3, and we want to give you a little sneak peek at what you can expect. As previously mentioned, we want to expand the service import to bring you more control. We’re also looking at what we can improve in the UI and how the game relays information to you, so you have everything you need to solve issues in the game. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Are there any issues you’ve struggled to solve in your city? Any information you have been looking for but weren’t able to find?

Last, but definitely not least, the art team has been cooking up some new free buildings for you all. We appreciate each and every one of you for sticking with us and giving us a chance to make Cities: Skylines II what it can and should be. Your patience and support mean the world to us and we hope the new service buildings and vehicles can serve as a token of our appreciation. Thank you for being a part of our community!

A sneak peek at some of the new service buildings and vehicles you can look forward to

Hello again! We are back with another development diary. This time we look at the economy re-work or as we like to call it “Economy 2.0” set to release within the upcoming two weeks. You’ve shared a lot of great feedback with us, from bringing bugs to our attention to sharing how you feel while playing the game. As we went through your feedback, it became clear that certain systems, particularly the economic simulation, weren’t transparent enough and didn’t allow you enough control over your city. We felt this was important to improve, so for the past few months, we have overhauled several systems based on your feedback.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of these changes, we want to thank you for the detailed and constructive feedback you shared. It really helped us understand what issues you experienced, what information you lacked, and how we could improve things. We look forward to hearing your feedback following these changes so we can continue to work on improving Cities: Skylines II and make it the best it possibly can be.

Alright, let’s get to it! Our goal with Economy 2.0 was to make the systems more straightforward and responsive, so you can make more meaningful choices and have more control over the various gameplay aspects. This means fewer safeguards and automated systems that work invisibly under the surface and an increased level of challenge. We still aim for the game to be playable without paying too much attention to where and how money and resources flow in the city so new players have a chance to succeed, while still leaving room for experienced players to benefit from optimizing their city. We’ll get into the details below but to give you a quick overview here are the major changes of Economy 2.0:

• Government Subsidies have been removed to make the economy more challenging and transparent
  
• Importing City Services from Outside Connections now has a toggle and a fee
  
• City Service Upkeep costs have been increased
  
• Calculations for Demand have been improved
  
• New calculations for rent and household spending allow citizens to afford to live in Low Density Residential
  
• The production chain has been rebalanced to bring tax income to a more reasonable level
  

[h2]THE ECONOMY[/h2]
A key point in the feedback we received was that the game didn’t challenge many of you when it comes to managing the city’s finances. Striking the right balance is hard. We want new players to be able to dive into the game while still providing players from Cities: Skylines or long-term fans of the city-building genre a challenge. We introduced Government Subsidies in Cities: Skylines II to act as a helping hand as your city got established, allowing them to scale with expenses. But they also removed agency and consequences from the game. Why build a city with a well-balanced economy if the government will cover all the expenses of your Utopia?

We considered several approaches to Government Subsidies but in the end, we decided to completely remove them from the city budget. This puts you in full control of your city’s finances and gives you a reason to consider what you spend your money on and when. It will be up to you to create a profitable city, and when you succeed, you get to take all the credit. If you struggle to get the hang of it, the in-game tutorials are there to help you out and the tips can always be accessed through the Advisor (the question mark in the top-right corner of the screen). And of course, you can always ask us or your fellow players for help.

MONEY
Money makes the world, or in this case the city, go round. In Cities: Skylines II, money circulates both within the city and in and out of the simulation through money sources and sinks. We work with 4 entities in Cities: Skylines II:

• You, the player/the city
  
• Households
  
• Companies
  
• Abstracted investors
  

Each of these has ways they can gain or lose money, some of which are preset and automatic, some of which are within your control. Below we have a quick overview of these to give you a sense of how money flows in your city, and how you can affect it.



CITY SERVICES
As you can see, City Service construction and upkeep, along with roads of course, are where most (if not all) of your money goes. In Economy 2.0 we’ve rebalanced the costs of City Services which includes a significant increase in the upkeep costs. Our goal here is to give your choices more meaning as your city grows. Is your city’s economy strong enough to afford a University or will you have to increase taxes to pay for it? Can you afford to improve the city’s mail service to make citizens happy or will that have to wait until your economy is more stable? These are the kinds of questions we hope you will be asking yourself as you play with the update.

But services aren’t just available locally in your city. Your neighbors can provide you with garbage trucks or ambulances from Outside Connections if your city isn’t quite able to provide those for your citizens yet. With our initial design, the only cost of importing services (excluding Electricity and Water and Sewage) was the time it took the service vehicles to arrive and perform the needed tasks. Economy 2.0 changes that by adding a fee for importing services, which scales with the city’s population.

Now, we can’t add a fee and not give you a way to avoid it, so we have added a new City Policy called Import City Services. It works as a toggle: When it’s enabled your city can and will import services that are lacking in your city, and when it’s disabled, which is the default, your city relies on what’s available locally. In its current form, it’s an all-or-nothing toggle, but we are considering expanding the service import to give you more control. What do you think, any particular direction you would like us to take? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

City Policies can be found by clicking the City Information button next to the demand bars


[h2]LIFE IN THE CITY[/h2]
While we call this systems rework “Economy 2.0” it affects more than just the economic simulation. To complement both the changes to the financial side of the game and the improvements to the Land Value system in patch 1.1.0f1, we’ve made improvements to Demand, Rent, Education, and Citizen Happiness. These changes affect your citizens’ lives, and how and where they choose to live.

DEMAND
Most noticeable are the changes to how Demand is calculated, allowing it to be more responsive and more accurately reflect the state of the city at any given time. Residential demand has been expanded so the desired density is tied to the size and wealth of households. On average low density residential is the most expensive type of housing as a single household is responsible for the building’s expenses (paying Rent and Upkeep), while residents in medium and high density can split the costs. When wealthier households move into the city, the demand for low density increases, and when citizens with lower wealth, such as students, want to move in, the demand for high density goes up. Similarly, families will want more space, preferring low or medium density homes, while singles are perfectly happy with the smaller homes found in high density apartment complexes.

The type of households that spawn are determined by the average citizen happiness, homelessness in the city, the residential tax rates, available education spots, and open job positions.

Turning our attention to commercial demand, it’s now more closely tied to what households need. The more households consume, the more demand for commercial zones you’ll see. We’ve tweaked the household need for shopping, forcing them to pay rent and consider the garbage fee before going shopping. Furthermore, we have also tied the types of companies that can inhabit commercial buildings more closely to the products citizens consume. This means you’re less likely to see a bunch of the same companies spawn as the simulation seeks to provide a more varied selection of products for your citizens.

Both office and industry demand have been adjusted to a more reasonable level to match the other zone types, and their interactions with commercial have been strengthened, so you can produce what your shops need locally. Additionally, industry now has more workplaces so you can satisfy the demand more easily.

EDUCATION AND WORK
We’ve made tweaks to education before, particularly to encourage more teens to go to high school, but we didn’t quite reach our goals, so Economy 2.0 includes further improvements to the education system. Children always go to elementary school if the city has one with available student spots, while teens have a high chance of going to high school. Some will still choose to work, especially if no school is available, but you should see more teens in high school. We’ve also improved the chance they graduate from both elementary and high school, and for those adults who didn’t get their high school diploma, there is now a chance, albeit low, to apply to a high school with available student spots so that they can graduate.

Teens and adults can both join the workforce if there are suitable jobs for them. However, if they have health problems, such as being sick or injured, they don’t count as employable citizens and will need to recover before they can work. They may find work in the city, if any job positions with their skill level or lower are available, or they may resort to finding work in a neighboring city, though working in Outside Connections is less desirable with this rework.

If they cannot find work, they become unemployed and receive unemployment from the government. However, this option is only available for a limited time, so if you don’t provide them with suitable jobs, they will eventually have no other option than to leave the city as they cannot pay their rent.


[h2]BUILDING A BUSINESS[/h2]
Your city consists of more than just citizens though, many businesses make it their home too, and demand isn’t the only thing we tweaked for commercial, industry, and office. Let’s take a look at what else has changed, starting with production. You already know the basics: One or more input resources are processed and turned into a more refined product, which requires both workers and time. Higher education level workers do this more efficiently (they work smarter, not harder), and each product has a certain amount of work needed to produce one unit. Previously, the game calculated the amount of work needed at the start of the game, but we have changed that to a preconfigured amount to make the game more predictable and allow us to fine-tune things. Additionally, we have adjusted the amount of work needed to produce a single unit for all products reducing the overall production, which in turn reduces the company profits, and by extension, the amount of tax you can collect from them.

But that’s not all. The price of resources has been adjusted as well as how it’s calculated. It now has two parts: A discounted price paid by industrial companies when they purchase materials for their production, and a normal price for commercial companies to purchase the goods. The two prices are then combined into one as they’re sold to consumers, allowing everyone to profit (hopefully, at least) from the sales. But don’t worry about the consumers, we have also increased the wages companies pay so the citizens can afford both their homes and the resources they need.

Alright, that was a lot of information! With that, we’ll end today’s dev diary, but don’t miss part 2 coming next week where we look at Rent, Building Upgrades, and what happens to existing cities. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts on what’s to come. Any changes you’re particularly excited about? Any that leave you with questions? Let us know in the comments below.