Features​

New Features



Thank you! And sorry for the wait

1. I agree. We don't have these yet and therefore there's no modding support for that either, but this is definitely high on our wishlist.

We hope to see a lot of feedback and ideas on what people actually want to mod and do with game. We will do our best to facilitate to that by improving the modding tools after the release.

2. This is not planned yet, but I'd like to discuss more about this after the release. Please feel free to join the Paradox Forum: co_martsuThank you! And sorry for the wait1. I agree. We don't have these yet and therefore there's no modding support for that either, but this is definitely high on our wishlist.We hope to see a lot of feedback and ideas on what people actually want to mod and do with game. We will do our best to facilitate to that by improving the modding tools after the release.2. This is not planned yet, but I'd like to discuss more about this after the release. Please feel free to join the Paradox Forum: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?877-Modding-amp-Resources Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

Hey, thanks for your support! We're not launching with any kind of disasters beyond the chance of planning your city badly (wink) but this is one of the features we'd love to expand into in the future.

Still, we're mostly holding off on the DLC/expansion plans until we've let players had their hands on the game and given us feedback as to what they miss. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

1. Hobby activities are currently not supported in the game (as in going off to play tennis, golf and the likes).

2. You can import a lot of custom buildings and even try to do a total building conversion if you will and are up to the task. You can also replace existing buildings with custom ones so you can basically have a different police station if you will.

3. Map editor, as the whole game, will be available when released. There is no separate map editor in existence.

4. If you want the deluxe edition the safe bet is to get it online.

5. Savegames can be shared through Steam Workshop and also through the old-fashioned "make a zip and send it to your friend" way. Click to expand...

co_martsu

That's a cool and new idea that we haven't had the chance to think about. The basic idea is that all buildings are built on the side of a road though there are a few exceptions, like the wind turbines. Click to expand...

co_martsu

You are able to adjust the values when importing the asset to the game. Click to expand...

co_damsku

Those will be documented, especially because depending on the asset type or service type, the properties can vary. Click to expand...



1. No problems as the game just doesn't have day/night cycle You can add different colour corrections through modding and why not add one that makes the game look like it's night time.

2. This is not planned, but maybe we'll get the chance to look into this later on. It would be cool.

3. Absolutely! Thanks for our trust and support. I sincerely hope you will enjoy Cities: Skylines! co_martsu1. No problems as the game just doesn't have day/night cycleYou can add different colour corrections through modding and why not add one that makes the game look like it's night time.2. This is not planned, but maybe we'll get the chance to look into this later on. It would be cool.3. Absolutely!Thanks for our trust and support. I sincerely hope you will enjoy Cities: Skylines! Click to expand...

co_martsu

No plans for day/nigh cycle currently I'm afraid. Click to expand...

co_martsu

If it's just for the atmosphere I'm pretty sure this is not a huge task to pull of. The issues arise if you want to affect the behaviour of the people living in the city. Click to expand...

co_martsu

We are currently not planning on implementing the day/night cycle as it's purely a cosmetic feature as the time in the game is abstract. There are other things more important to us that we want to work on. After the release we'll see what the community wants us to work on, but for now it's bugfixing and after the release it's tunnels. Click to expand...



This, the day/night cycle, is an issue we have many times discussed about at the office. Pulling a convincing day/night cycle visually is extremely time consuming, this is not just about moving the light around in the scene. The entire lighting in the scene needs to be able to adapt, the darkness need to be such it does not cause a gameplay handicap, this is likely to involve significant extra work for the artists too with textures and assets so the final conclusion was to focus on the gameplay because with the scope we had for this game, it was one or the other but not both.

There is also the fact that we would like a day/night cycle to be more relevant than just an eye candy, so that it would affect the gameplay as well.

So at this point, as much as I would like to see a day/night cycle in the game, I do believe it has been the wisest choice we could make to focus on what matters most to make a good foundation for a city builder. Maybe in the future we will get to add it ourselves, or maybe not. I just work here In the meanwhile, a good news is that we do not bake/precompute any lighting so it is possible for modders to come up with some pretty nice things without instantly hitting a wall and that the entire set of game assets need to be remade. co_damskuThis, the day/night cycle, is an issue we have many times discussed about at the office. Pulling a convincing day/night cycle visually is extremely time consuming, this is not just about moving the light around in the scene. The entire lighting in the scene needs to be able to adapt, the darkness need to be such it does not cause a gameplay handicap, this is likely to involve significant extra work for the artists too with textures and assets so the final conclusion was to focus on the gameplay because with the scope we had for this game, it was one or the other but not both.There is also the fact that we would like a day/night cycle to be more relevant than just an eye candy, so that it would affect the gameplay as well.So at this point, as much as I would like to see a day/night cycle in the game, I do believe it has been the wisest choice we could make to focus on what matters most to make a good foundation for a city builder. Maybe in the future we will get to add it ourselves, or maybe not. I just work hereIn the meanwhile, a good news is that we do not bake/precompute any lighting so it is possible for modders to come up with some pretty nice things without instantly hitting a wall and that the entire set of game assets need to be remade. Click to expand...

co_martsu

Water towers work anywhere so no water map planned as the ground water is not simulated to avoid other issues (trying to add tunnels to the game!). Tourists will visit commercial sites and tourist attractions but there's not a specific hotel building where they would visit. Beach is not a thing on it's own, but requires buildings or at least pedestrian streets or footpaths. Click to expand...



The game does not include a story/scenario/quests mode. But I personally hope it will happen at some point because I do like the idea co_damskuThe game does not include a story/scenario/quests mode. But I personally hope it will happen at some point because I do like the idea Click to expand...



Adding new transport types with new navigation areas is not presently supported by the official modding API (one might take up the challenge and succeeds but it won't be a walk in the park). We will in the future be adding new transport types, but at this time, I do not know which those would be. We will also of course consider the possibility to make it easier to mod those, but I unfortunately don't have a road map to give you co_damskuAdding new transport types with new navigation areas is not presently supported by the official modding API (one might take up the challenge and succeeds but it won't be a walk in the park). We will in the future be adding new transport types, but at this time, I do not know which those would be. We will also of course consider the possibility to make it easier to mod those, but I unfortunately don't have a road map to give you Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

Not at launch, no. Click to expand...



Visually it would be great to have mixed zoning, especially in European cities but gameplay-wise it is a bit tricky thing to do since there are the different zone demands and sometimes you might have more demand for commercial or residential but since the mixed zone builds both at the same time there would be half-empty buildings until at some point someone might move in. I'm not saying it is impossible but at the moment the zoning is most clear when the zone types are clearly separated from each other. While I can't promise you this will be implemented, I'm sure we have it on the wishlist HenkkaArtVisually it would be great to have mixed zoning, especially in European cities but gameplay-wise it is a bit tricky thing to do since there are the different zone demands and sometimes you might have more demand for commercial or residential but since the mixed zone builds both at the same time there would be half-empty buildings until at some point someone might move in. I'm not saying it is impossible but at the moment the zoning is most clear when the zone types are clearly separated from each other. While I can't promise you this will be implemented, I'm sure we have it on the wishlist Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

That's one of the features/additions we've personally been very interested in adding, so perhaps! Click to expand...

Current Feature Questions

co_damsku

With the Map Editor, you can easily create a map where the water will go all over the place when you go in-game. In-game, the dams can at time cause temporary floods which at worse will make people move away, but currently, the focus of the water simulation is about the water pollution. Disaster-like kind of flood is something we hopefully will bring to you in the future ! Click to expand...



Nope, right now they are contained to the affected building.

And nope, fire trucks work automatically. totalymooNope, right now they are contained to the affected building.And nope, fire trucks work automatically. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

There are two parts to this: 1) There is a sea level that you can set in the map editor. 2) There are water sources/spawners that you can place in the map and create lakes and rivers with them that are on different altitudes. You can make a lake that is on top of a hill and then carve a river bed from the lake so that the water flows into the sea and so on. You can even make two separate lakes and have a river flow from one into the other. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

There are various beautification tools in the game. You can naturally place parks and create more parks of different sizes in the asset editor. You can also place trees of various kinds if you like to amp up the backyard or the areas between houses. You can also build two different kind of pedestrian paths: gravel and pavement and you can also create pedestrian only bridges with these tools. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

It depends on the type of beautification. Pedestrian paths can create shortcuts for cims, trees generally look nice in the backyard and so on and the larger parks and plazas themselves look really nice and boost the land value and happiness. Parks and plazas cost different amount depending their size and description, pedestrian paths also cost to build and trees cost a little to plant. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

First question: Yes. When you see a parked car, you can click it and it pops open an info panel where it says to whom the car belongs to. And when you click the name of the cim, the camera will focus on that cim.

Second question: While "small" feature in itself, it will require UI work and so forth but I'd say it isn't totally impossible. Not high on the "wanted features list" but not completely out of the question. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

I'm not 100% sure since I've been recently involved with making graphical assets and haven't had so much to do with testing, testing, testing on long runs and there is the constant balancing and adjustment going on so things can change more or less but from what I've gathered the car is tagged to the person and disappears when the person departs this reality to the next. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

Every upgrade is related to the lot size and house type (low res, high res, low com, high com and so on) and a building upgrades to a higher level building that is on the same sized lot i.e. a 4x4 lowres1 will upgrade to a 4x4 lowres2 and a 3x3 highcom1 will upgrade to a 3x3highcom2 and so on. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

There are small residential buildings as well as small commercial and industrial/office buildings. Residential, commercial and office buildings are just small buildings while industrial 1x1 buildings are usually large storage tanks and similar smaller industrial units. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

Yes and you can also use the pedestrian paths and other beautification items to create interesting variations into the city blocks. Click to expand...

HenkkaArt

You can connect 8 roads to one junction. I just tested it and indeed if you build a regular 4-way junction, you can build another four roads to that junction between the already existing four roads. And these roads can be of any size that we have, from small roads with 2 lanes to large roads with 6 lanes, in any combination. Click to expand...

co_martsu

1. You can modify them, just make sure there is a connection to the outside world.

2. Not currently, hopefully in the future.

Rail, ships, airports. Sure, but you have to have a connection at all times. Click to expand...

co_martsu

No, it doesn't. The success of the commercial areas is depended on the amount of wealthy customers (citizens and tourists). Click to expand...

Check out the Hard Mod that is available at launch. If it's too easy still feel free to make an Even Harder Mod. Click to expand...

co_martsu

It does increase, but luckily with a mod you can have unlimited money Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

Not currently, no. But you can draw them side by side which would have the same functionality (except that you manually have to define policies for each). Click to expand...



You can force them all to drink polluted water, for example TotalyMooYou can force them all to drink polluted water, for example Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

This is an older screenie, even has the old UI, but there is still not a crazy asset variation. You won't see something this intense in the current game, we have several hundreds of different buildings.

Compared to some other big budget city builders we don't have the same extreme variation, no. Click to expand...

co_damsku

The time is not at scale with the real clock. Essentially, what you would do within a day is spread over several "day". Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

Not at launch, no. They mostly complain and then move to another city. Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

Nope, you need at least one outside connection for the simulation to work. Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

You can follow Cims around but not in "head level", you're still a bit above them. You can mark a car and have the camera go after it automatically. Click to expand...

co_martsu

The dams can adjust to almost any river, so they can be rather big. I guess the examples you have seen have been from smaller streams. Click to expand...

co_martsu

I see what you mean there. Unfortunately creating lakes is not possible with the current dams as they easily cause a flooding issue. We'll be looking into improving the water behaviour in the future though! Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

So far cougars and deer, and buffalo, but not sure if they are in that biome. Click to expand...

co_martsu

Unfortunately as a small team the amount of content is something that we can't compete with. However as the land value increases there is more variation in the buildings. Click to expand...



Check the latest videos from PDXCON and that's WYSISYG level footage. We have a fairly large amount of models but not the crazy numbers some of our big competitors have right now TotalyMooCheck the latest videos from PDXCON and that's WYSISYG level footage. We have a fairly large amount of models but not the crazy numbers some of our big competitors have right now Click to expand...

co_martsu

You can create custom interchanges in the asset editor. Also ingame, but the nes made in the editor are reusable.

You can influence the routes people take by placing the zones and buildings in a smart way as offering optional routes or only one if you wish. Click to expand...

co_martsu

The houses can be from 1x1 to 4x4 cells and somewhere in between. Of course leaving some room for bigger roads in the future would be smart and shows that you are able to think ahead. I applaud your observational skills! Click to expand...



All buildings that are zoned develop confined to the 4 wide grid TotalyMooAll buildings that are zoned develop confined to the 4 wide grid Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

Yes, people keep their home, job, family etc. so they are persistent and simulated as entities. They change homes if they, for example, think the land value is too low and there's new residential zones developing that better fit their taste. Same with job, they usually keep the same job until they are overqualified. Click to expand...

co_martsu

To make it possible to simulate individual citizens they lock down their path when they leave. However they try to avoid traffic jams after one has appeared somewhere in the city. Click to expand...



Monuments are late game super buildings. They are often associated with powerful stats like raising land value a lot or attracting tourists, but they also come with a secondary - even more valuable - boon. That is the unique bonus they bring to the game.

So for example a certain monument can completely fill the city's need for electricity, or remove all ground pollution.

I'll let CO take the latter part of your question, a bit technical for me TotalyMooMonuments are late game super buildings. They are often associated with powerful stats like raising land value a lot or attracting tourists, but they also come with a secondary - even more valuable - boon. That is the unique bonus they bring to the game.So for example a certain monument can completely fill the city's need for electricity, or remove all ground pollution.I'll let CO take the latter part of your question, a bit technical for me Click to expand...

TotalyMoo

No, that's a unique building. They "only" add land value, happiness and attract tourists. Click to expand...

Welcome to the CO Developer AMA transcript! This has almost all of the questions answered by our beloved Colossal Order team on the recent Reddit AMA. I have excluded repeats, easily found Q&A, and unecessary banter.Be prepared, as there is a lot of text! I suggest using search features (CTRL + F) to find specific things. Colossal Order and TotalyMoo replied over 300 times in this AMA! Incredible =)Hi! thank you for the great developing work and for the awesome presence here on reddit, on the forum and on facebook: you guys really know how to make your fanbase loyal and happy.First question. Rivers in this game are really awesome but to give a more realistic urban feel to our cities I think that it absolutely need various type of sea walls (classic, modern, industrial, dock like, suburban, etc..). as Sea walls (but that's just my example) are not only buildings but interact with the complex water dynamics in the game will the players be able to make them via modding tool?to make my question less specific and more general: what type of modding will be easy for the players to do (buildings obvously but at wich level of funcionality?) and what other kind of modification will be kept for DLCs in future?second question: do you have something planned in future for those people who would like to recreate huge and massive regions without having the need of having each cims simulated? there will be somewhat the possibility of change the fact that every single cim is simulated and "scale up" the game for bigger and more populated regions?Hey guys!I love the look of the game, and can't wait to get my hands on it when it releases. Just wanted to say that I don't really have any questions, but I was a SimCity (newer version) player and I did enjoy it, but I'm looking forward to your game for a little more realism in the simulation!I guess a question would be...any disasters that could either be modded in or will be included stock? I always loved destroying everything in SimCity when I wanted to start over hahaThanks!1. Can we mod in some hobby activities for our cims into the game?2. Can we mod a total new design like japanese style?3. Can we use the map editor pre-release?4. Can we buy the deluxe edition just online?5. Are we able to share SaveGames only with friends and not for all? Or maybe just with Steam groups?Thanks for your great work so far!! Do you plan to have residential and commercial buildings not attached to road in the future? I'd like to see a big plaza (not for cars) and in the middle of it there would be some residential, but mostly commercial buildings.For custom assets we create, how do we define the impact it has on the game?Thanks! Is there a list of properties available, or can that be added to the WIKI?1) I read about "problems" with day/night cycle and your reasoning about it, but would it be still possible to add night time as toggleable option in the future? (or at least via Steam Workshop as some fanmade mod?)I think your game looks pretty great and it would be awesome to be able see your city at night (and without night, street lamps are kinda ... unnecessary)2) Do you plan "multi-layer" buildings as were in SimCity (2013)? (like you have Hospital for 500 you add another building to the back and boom, you have Hostpital for 800 without building new one)3) Do you think I made sensible purchase buying Cities:Skylines Deluxe edition?I think I remember reading that there is a plan in place to add a day/night cycle. How soon after release do you guys plan on implementing it? Will it come along with the tunnel and European buildings updates? Or are you planning on releasing it separate of those?Thanks for the response! Is it something that will be able to be modded in? Or is it too much of a core gameplay element to be modded?day/night cycle question...Wouldn't it be easier to implement this sooner than later so that modders wouldn't have to go back later and update their buildings to account for nighttime cycles? This seems like the longer it takes to implement the worse the situation would get?Thanks for your work. Your game looks great.I asked this on forum too,but I would love to have an answer from the devs.Are you going to add a water map when placing a water tower? Something similar with wind map for wind turbines. Secondly,will citizens/tourist use hotels and beaches?Will there be any kind of story mode or quests for you to do other than support your citizens needs for housing?Take for example cities in motion. You have quests to do while being free to do what ever the fuck you want. I can't wait for release lolI saw a nice skyscraper with a helicopter pad on top in a random picture or video once. It would be a fun thing to actually have a helicopter fly from and too the airport at times. Transport for the richest of the rich tourists/businessmen/women. Would such a thing be possible?Are there bicycles? Bikes and protected/separate bike infrastructure are increasingly an important part of city movement, especially in Europe and North AmericaOne feature I've always wanted in a city sim:Mixed UsedBasically every urban environment ever and pretty much all buildings with exception of single homes, the first few floors will be retail then the higher floors will be commercial, residential or sometimes both. It basically ruins every sim game for me that you can't do that. It's like the all exist in communist Russia where everything gets partitioned into it's preplanned government approved zone.Are there any plans to ever implement a feature like this?Are there any plans for implementing a weather system? What about seasons?Hello there!I would like to now more about how far can we play with water mechanics, for example, it is possible to cause a mayhem with player induced floods?Thanks for being awesome devs!Will fires spread between buildings? Do you have to manually direct fire trucks to fires?Is the water height static (i.e. the same over an entire map), or can water height be assigned dynamically in the map editor?I would like the ability to have terrain features such as elevated lakes and waterfalls.Hi. First, I would like to congratulate you for your work. I have some questions of general interest:We can fill the free zones between buildings selecting the style (park´s, sidewalk´s, etc) like in Cities XL?Does beautification cost anything? Does it have any happiness effectsDoes a car still belong to a citizen even if they aren't in it? In other words, can you click on a parked car and see the citizen that is going to return to it?Related question, will there in the future be a way to bookmark a citizen?Follow up: What happens to a citizen's car when they die? Does it disappear or does it become abandoned on the side of the road indefinitely?Hi there! This might be a silly question, but do plots that contain a lot of small buildings turn into one large building as the property values go up? You know, like how four low rent residentials can turn into one mansion in SC4?Are there some 1x1 buildings like a small garage?Great. That means we even can fill the smallest spot with buildings.Hi, I got a small question. How many roads can you connect with one junction? In simcity (2013) it is limited to 4. I like to have a junction where 5 or 6 roads end/cross, so is that possible?Really looking forward to this game!Highway connectionsI've noticed maps in Cities: Skylines require a mandatory highway connection. This was one of my perks about SC2013 as they were unrealistic, so I've got a few questions about them:1. Can they be moved to a custom location, or are they in a fixed, unmovable position?2. Are they able to be modded, such as cosmetic changes?3. What if you don't want a highway connection; can they be swapped for other forms of transportation (e.g. roads, rail)?I'm not sure whether or not this has been answered anywhere - does the success of commercial buildings depend on nearby traffic (more traffic = more customers) ?Or is it just that having them on the way to work means that the, uhh... Cims... will not have to go too far out of the way for some shopping?How hard is the game? Many city building games are too easy as you can build whenever and you will always go positive. Is there difficulty setting?Is the cost of unlocking plots of land a flat cost, or does it increase with each unlocked plot?Will there be districts inside districts? E.g. inside Manhattan there are Lower Manhattan, Soho, Harlem, etc..Hey guys, looking forward to the game! Is there a way to kill off cims? I'd like to create a "last man on earth" scenario in a major city, just to see how he copes with it. His glasses may or may not break.I really want to buy this game, but there's one thing that make me hesitate.Take this screenshot as an example.That building with the red billboard on the roof appears in the screenshot ten times, just rotated. The brown horse-show apartment building is there, cloned over and over too.That screenshot's from a dev blog, but will the final release have the same limited number of assets?How the day pass for cims? When they go to work?When do they go shopping?They do all their stuff in the 10 seconds days?Will there be protests, riots and looting in the game if you're citizens aren't happy?Can I delete the outside roads to the city (connections to freeways/trains), thereby trapping unruly citizens in my city?Hi, will there be the possibility to drive into our cities ?Are all dams going to be those dinky small ones we have seen, or I could build a massive one between canyon walls and make an artificial lake behind it like if I had the Hoover Dam?Will they fill the area behind them into a reservoir? Like, does the outflow of the dam is on the top, so I can let the river stop flow for a while until there's a lake behind it?Because I kind of worry I will build this, have the massive dam, and the water starts being pumped across the dam before it fills (In the streams it kind of looks like the water flow goes underneath it, rather than on top).An option to close the dam would be cool.Essentially, I want a city built in front of this giant thing.Can we know , what sort of wild animals can we find in the jungle?I noticed during several videos showcasing the game that a lot of the zones have very repetitive buildings. Will this be addressed in some way? Or are you just leaving that for modders.One of my favorite things to do in city simulators is designing the roads, except I often find you actually have little control over the actual traffic, short of making bigger roads where it is busy. How much control will I have over roads (can I design my own interchanges)? And how much will I be able to influence the routes people take?I noticed from videos that when upgrading roads, they will take up 2 additional grids on either side, which means the optimal set up of 8 grids between blocks would be lost.Should I leave 2 grids in between zones (so 10 grid between blocks) to future-proof my city? Or do higher-density buildings develop on zones that are less than 4 grids deep?Will probably get lost in the shuffle and/or reveal me as an ex-Sim City player, but will the people in the game have a sense of persistence? If someone lives in a home, leaves for work, will they return to that home, and for how long, and based on what conditions? I'm just curious because that affects our ability to develop out from neighborhoods - for transportation, etc.AI Pathfinding - How do the cims choose their routes? Do they lock in their path to work at the beginning, or do the cims dynamically update their route during their drive? For example, if they get stuck in traffic on a highway, are they smart enough to take the nearest off-ramp and instead travel via a side road?How do monuments work? Do they just attract tourist or do normal citizens come to visit them? Do they employ the cities' citizens? Can we make monuments in the asset creator and make a strip of casinos like Las Vegas?By monuments do you mean buildings like the Eiffel Tower in the deluxe edition? It would be great if you could list the ones in the game.