Cities: Skylines II News

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Last week was the last written Word of the Week of the year, and we instead wanted to share a short film we're been working on from Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive.

Listen in on our thoughts, hopes, and dreams about the development, the lead-up to release, and finally pushing the button. What goes into all the decisions that come with making a sequel of such magnitude and size?

[h2]Thanks for watching, and Happy Holidays![/h2]

Hello everyone. It’s time for the last patch of the year, and as Mariina mentioned in CO Word of the Week, this one includes both performance improvements and gameplay fixes. We expect that you’ll see the biggest improvements when looking at areas with a lot of pedestrians - yes, they now have level of detail (LOD) models.

Thank you for all the great feedback and the bug reports. We appreciate you taking the time to share them with us, and as always, if you run into any new issues, they can be reported here.

Update 15:35 CET: The patch is now live. Please note it's being rolled out in batches so if you don't get it yet, it's on the way.

[h3]Winter Treat - 2 New Maps[/h3]

• Sunshine Peninsula
  
• Corral Riches

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• Added LODs for characters and selected assets
  
• Optimized geometry layout for all assets
  
• Decreased Virtual Texturing pressure with assets that don't use emissive maps
  
• Disabled VSync for default settings
  
• Disabled volumetric lighting calculations where it was mostly invisible
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Improved lane-changing behavior for vehicles
  
• Fixed: Traffic accidents that last forever (and improved resolution of the accidents)
  
• Improved cargo air transport by:
  
  • Increasing airplane cargo capacity from 50t to 100t
    
  • Increasing airport cargo terminal capacity from 100t to 720t
    
  • Adding all resource types to Airplane Outside Connections
    
  • Not allowing cargo terminals to store garbage resource
• Storage fixes:
  
  • Improved storage buildings to consider both current storage and future storage (to include cargo already on its way)
    
  • Fixed: Cargo terminals import garbage
    
  • Fixed: Companies can buy the input resource from commercial companies
    
  • Fixed: Export can happen when output resource amount is below 0
    
  • Fixed: Resource amount might become negative when transport vehicle loading a large amount of resource (negative amounts reset to 0 in existing saves)
    
  • Fixed: Airport can import goods from Road Outside Connection when there is no air cargo route
• Economy fixes & improvements:
  
  • Replaced money buffering system with a new system that directly deducts the money (city’s income should be more predictable now)
    
  • Fixed: Income awarded twice
    
  • Fixed: Unknown profit during storage transfer
• Fixed: Pedestrian navigation issues with train station’s subway upgrade (requires the building to be rebuilt to take effect)
  
• Fixed: Pedestrian walking through the air between elevated/lowered/raised/tunnel networks and buildings
  
• Fixed: Options search text can overlap with the delete symbol
  
• Fixed: Sometimes pathfinding for resources does not include cargo loading locations
  
• Fixed: Saving and rebooting the game gives extra XP based on the number of residential buildings in the city
  
• Fixed: Four Seasons and Spiderwebbing achievements cannot be earned
  
• Fixed: Pressing "M" while in photo mode removes the UI permanently for that session
  
• Added missing localization for Photo Mode and Options menu
  

[h3]Graphics[/h3]

• Added line color to passenger ships, cargo ships, and cargo train engines
  
• Improved quality of character model variations
  
• Fixed: Visual glitches with metallic/smoothness maps on character clothes
  
• Fixed: Light props on Grand Bridge float in the air after connecting a road
  
• Improved lights on forest machinery
  
• Improved propping for several buildings
  
• Fixed: Spawn point for cargo trucks is not inside the warehouse as expected
  
• Fixed: International Aiport roads are not inverted with left-hand traffic
  
• Fixed: Crosswalk looks broken when pedestrian path bridge is connected to ground pedestrian path through a road
  

It’s time for the last CO Word of the Week this year. Next week we’ll start our holidays and will be away for a few weeks. But before the holidays there’s still time for the last patch, which is planned to go out this week. We will of course have full patch notes for you when it releases, but in the meantime, I can give you a sneak peek at what’s included. On the performance side of things, the patch adds the level of detail models for characters and improves the geometry layout for all assets. This won’t be the last update to performance, it takes us one more step towards our goals.

As promised, we’ve also managed to include a bunch of gameplay fixes and improvements. The patch changes how money is calculated and shown in your city. We hear your feedback and hope these improvements make the budget more transparent and easier to determine what new services your city can afford. We’re grateful for all the feedback you have shared, and we’ll continue to keep an eye on things to understand how things feel after the patch. We’ve also improved how vehicles change lanes, fixed situations where the resource amount stored would end up as a negative value, and added the line color to ships and cargo trains so you can easily see which lines they belong to.

The patch also includes a little holiday gift in the form of two new maps that were the result of internal testing of the Map Editor. There are still a few things missing from the Map Editor for it to be fully functional, like proper preview images showing off your amazing new maps, but we’re making good progress. I can’t wait to see what kind of maps you create! In the meantime, here’s the brief I gave the designers for the new maps based on some feedback we’ve gotten:

Land of the Eternal Sun
As the name suggests this area basks in the glory of the eternal sun. With literally no rain and steady warm temperatures this is an ideal choice for those looking to build with minimal input from the seasons.

Flatland
Hills, slopes, mountains? No thanks, I'd rather stay leveled. No need for contour lines on this land!

To my great disappointment, the designers changed both the names and the descriptions of the maps to “better fit the existing style” of the game. So Sunshine Peninsula and Corral Riches are the names of the new maps when you start a new game. Let us know what you think about them!

And then, as promised, let’s go over what our plans for Cities: Skylines II in 2024 are:

Modding
Bringing the mod support to the game is a high priority. This includes the map editor, code modding support, and the asset editor. The asset editor is the part that is most behind the schedule, but we will continue to work on it in January. We’ll be releasing Development Diaries related to the modding, and run an early access program for modders to try the tools before their release. Check out the previous WoW to sign up if you haven’t already!

Consoles
The console versions of the game were delayed and we’re working hard to get the performance and the stability up to par so we can bring the game on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The console versions will also have the modding tools (minus code modding) present on release so the players on console will also be able to create maps and add custom assets.

Expansion Pass
The DLC production is currently on hold and waiting for the higher priority work to be completed, but progress has already been made on the first Asset Pack, Content Creator Packs, and Radio Stations. CCPs are of course created by some of our favorite content creators in the community and the content for the radio is produced by Paradox.

Performance and bug fixing
While we’ve progressed quite a bit on the performance and bug fixing we’re still not satisfied and will continue to improve the quality of the game based on our internal findings and your bug reports and crash logs. To be honest, this is work that we’ll continue throughout the lifetime of the game, as I believe there’s always something we can improve upon, but the biggest remaining offenders should be sorted out during the spring.

Your suggestions/feedback
We'll be taking your suggestions and feedback on board regarding new content, features, and quality-of-life improvements that are not classified as bugs. Your feedback matters and we’ll be drawing inspiration from it for the lifetime of the project, just like we did for Cities: Skylines, so let’s keep the discussions going!

That is the current list of priorities we’ll have in 2024, though we will of course continue to keep an eye on your feedback and adjust our priorities as needed, especially when it comes to performance. We hope to bring you the features and missing platforms as soon as possible, and we’ll announce timelines as we get closer to each release so keep an eye on the CO Word of the Week in the new year for the latest news.

Next week there will be something to round up the year, but this little blog is taking a break until January 15th. I wish everyone lovely holidays and I look very much forward to getting back to work in the New Year!

Sincerely,
Mariina

Last week in my comments on the forum, I tried in my very (and sometimes too) direct way to say that we made different design choices with Cities: Skylines II compared to its predecessor, and we understand that some may prefer one over the other or wish we had gone in a different direction. My poor choice of words did not make it clear that this of course does not apply to any bugs or issues you’re experiencing with the game. Naturally, this led to frustration for a lot of you, and I apologize for this. We know that we still have a lot to do before Cities Skylines II meets the performance standard and polish we are aiming for and that you expect, and you can be sure we are hard at work to reach these goals.

One of the best parts of Cities: Skylines is its active community. As devs we want to be present on the forums, listening to the feedback and answering questions. Our goal is to create the best city builder ever made, and your feedback is extremely important to us in reaching that goal. All of us in the community have different personalities and cultural backgrounds, our preferences and opinions vary and priorities differ. We know as devs we can’t please everyone, but each and every one of you makes our community richer. Cities: Skylines II is about creativity that can spark interesting conversations and new ideas. The community, and modding, are what make a Colossal Order game! And I promise, we’re working as fast as possible to get the modding support into the game.

In the meantime, we released gameplay bug fixes last week. Most notably we touched upon mail service and storage transfer, and fixed bugs related to the pathfinding. You can find the full patch notes with all the fixes here. All the fixes for the simulation may require a bit of time to take effect. However, please report if you still experience the issues and we’ll take a look!

The next patch (the last one this year) is coming out next week before we start our holiday break on the 18th of December. The patch will have the performance improvements I mentioned previously and the gameplay bug fixes we can manage to squeeze in. The focus is on the characters and a dentist has been consulted. There will also be improvements in the level of detail models for selected assets, as well as geometry improvements for better performances and reduced memory usage. Asset-related work will continue next year, but we should already have a good amount of improvements ready before the holidays.

On the gameplay side, we’re looking into the airports having problems with the export and we are working to fix some statistics. We have received reports of more stray dogs, now at the train stations. I can’t believe how terrible the citizens are at taking care of their pets! While I won’t promise we’ll have all of the dog-related issues fixed before the holidays, we are aware of the poor pups being left behind and will make sure their owners learn responsibility eventually. Please keep the feedback and the bug reports coming, we’ll go through all of them!

In the next CO Word of the Week, we’ll go over the final patch of the year and what we plan to work on next year.

Sincerely,
Mariina

Hi everyone. We have a new patch for you today with a bunch of fixes and improvements for the game. Thank you for all the reports and feedback, it's very much appreciated, and thank you for your patience while we've worked on these fixes.

We'll continue to work on both performance improvements and gameplay issues, and if you run into any issues with the game following the patch, please report them on our support forum here:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forums/cities-skylines-2-bug-reports.1162/

[h3]Gameplay fixes[/h3]

• Mail fixes:
  
  • Fixed: Citizens do not have destinations in their Selected Info Panel when Sending Mail
    
  • Fixed: Post van not delivering/collecting mail from target building if the path accesses the lot in a specific way.
    
  • Fixed: Post van failing to collect mail from building if it's also delivering mail to the same building at the same time.
    
  • Fixed: Post sorting facility is unable to export global mail
• Storage transfer fixes:
  
  • Adjusted industrial companies' production efficiency to produce more products to increase good exports.
    
  • Adjusted storage companies spawning, storage companies will spawn less than storage capacity demand to increase goods export.
    
  • Fixed vehicle state that isn't exporting showed as exporting state
    
  • Cargo Stations like harbors, and train terminals will have a low stock amount at 100t, the terminal will import around 30t each time the current amount is below 100t.
    
  • Cargo Stations like harbors, and train terminals will have an export threshold of 200t, the terminal will export around 30t each time the current amount is above 200t.
    
  • Storage companies will spawn less than the current producing capacity to increase export (does not affect existing storage companies in the city)
    
  • Improved pathfinding to include storage & cargo stations as valid import candidate targets
• Improved moving in pathfinding. This prevents citizens from reserving homes from disconnected buildings (Or moving into the city at all if it's not connected to an outside connection).
  
• Increased pathfinding penalty for illegal pedestrian crossing
  
• Fixed: Several instances of vehicles getting stuck
  
• Fixed: Roads shown as inaccessible in Build menu can be used when the player has low budget
  
• Fixed: Hydro power plant output increases with simulation speed
  
• Improved water flow update when terraforming
  
• Fixed: Progression XP is not awarded for constructing Signature Buildings
  
• Fixed: Coal power plant does not import resource from nearby harbor
  
• Fixed: Citizens are shopping in industrial zones in factories instead of commercial zones
  
• Fixed: multiple issues related to constructing multilevel roads, elevated roads over water or bridges
  
• Improved elevated road construction (Not actual bridges) to require more pillars
  

[h3]Graphics fixes[/h3]

• Improved terrain smoothing for networks and large buildings
  
• Fixed: Forward road arrows on building lots incorrect for left-hand traffic.
  
• Fixed: Trees sticking out of the river in the main background image
  
• Fixed: Dam (net-part only) facing the wrong way when using left-hand traffic
  
• Fixed: Buildings missing road arrows and some other props depending on the selected theme
  
• Fixed: International Airport missing bus stops when using the North America theme.
  

[h3]UI fixes[/h3]

• Improved Selected Info Panel and Infoview panels to scale with text scale
  
• Improved sorting of households:
  
  • Citizens sorted by age in household/single-family home Selected Info Panel sidebar
    
  • Households sorted by member count in building Selected Info Panel sidebar
• Fixed: Pressing "M" while in photo mode removes the UI permanently for that session Still happens, we'll continue to investigate this issue.
  
• Fixed: Customer Info view for low customers terrain color inconsistent to the terrain color of other RCIO Info views
  
• Fixed: UI forwardRef error which was appearing sporadically when loading a save
  

[h3]Other fixes[/h3]

• Fixed: Now They're All Ash Trees, Out For a Spin, The Size of Golf Balls, Groundskeeper, Up and Away achievements, and Four Seasons achievements
  
• Fixed: Prefabs not unlocking correctly
  
• Fixed: Cinematic camera data is not resetting when loading a save or starting a new one
  
• Fixed: Object base mesh not visible if the main object is out of camera viewport
  
• Fixed: Forestry Area's Forest Forwarder was not playing the engine sound
  
• Increased all emergency vehicle siren sound distances
  
• Improved cached progress for Achievements
  
• Added 2 new steps to Education tutorial
  
• Added missing translations
  
• Optimized XP calculations
  
• Improved error and crash reporting tools