Cities: Skylines 2
Discussion
As the original Cities: Skylines thread has recently had a small resurgence in this dying subsection of the Pistoneheads forums, I thought I'd start a thread for Cities Skylines 2 - set for release on October 24th, 2023.
For those who don't know, Cities: Skylines 2 is an upcoming city-building game that expands upon many of the simulation factors of its predecessor such as simulated city and population sizes, and improved traffic AI and management schemes.
For those sceptible about whether this is the right purchase for you, it will be available at launch on Xbox Gamepass - although the PC release will of course be the preferred way to play.
The developer's feature highlights can be found here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6kotTknxXVTqb6...
Hopefully, this thread can be where PH city builder wannabes can talk about the game, share their thoughts, possible concerns, and then when the game releases, share photos of your builds!
For those who don't know, Cities: Skylines 2 is an upcoming city-building game that expands upon many of the simulation factors of its predecessor such as simulated city and population sizes, and improved traffic AI and management schemes.
For those sceptible about whether this is the right purchase for you, it will be available at launch on Xbox Gamepass - although the PC release will of course be the preferred way to play.
The developer's feature highlights can be found here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6kotTknxXVTqb6...
Hopefully, this thread can be where PH city builder wannabes can talk about the game, share their thoughts, possible concerns, and then when the game releases, share photos of your builds!
Some of the YouTube creators have had early access of a Beta build and released their first videos of the game on Friday 8th - limited to 30 minutes of play and not being allowed to expand beyond Milestone 4. Because of the limitations most of the creator's builds have ended up looking similar but I've seen enough that I love to get me absolutely pumped to play this.
-The road creation tools look incredible - I would typically play the original game without mods (as I feel its cheating) so getting some of these new building options is going to be revolutionary for me.
-The graphics and general art style is beautiful. I love the more realistic look and wasn't keen on the cartoony art style of the original game.
-The scale is much improved. Buildings have more realistic sizes now - both with the increase to 6 tile sizes for zoned buildings and with the much larger ploppable buildings. The modular aspect is also very cool, being able to expand a service. I love the idea of having to plan around leaving space to expand existing infrastructure.
-The general depth that the city management has - much more than the first game. But from what I understand, if you don't like that, you can pretty much leave it alone.
-Choosing an area for your landfill/industry to be in and making it as small or big as you like.
-The way power and water now work, running underground. Being able to export and import electricity and water etc.
Having said that, there are some things I dislike.
-Plain grassy areas look terrible - the texture for this is very ugly and worse than the original game.
-There are no assets! This kills the detailing aspect for me and seems strange that they have gone this way.
-Trees grow - looks like a pain in the arse when trying to plop them down.
-The big modular service buildings are cool, but being so big and detailed from the get-go limits the creativity we had before, for example, my graveyard was not just the building but I'd make an entire area with assets to have my own graveyard. Now it's just one big building with everything done for you.
-Industries seem to have taken a massive step back.
Overall, despite there being a number of negatives I'm pumped.
Ultimately we're only seeing Beta footage so a lot of this may be fixed/changed for the released version.
Plus, the original game has had 8 years of updates and expansion packs - vanilla vs. vanilla, This is a massive step up over the first game and a great base for them to build on over the next 8 years.
-The road creation tools look incredible - I would typically play the original game without mods (as I feel its cheating) so getting some of these new building options is going to be revolutionary for me.
-The graphics and general art style is beautiful. I love the more realistic look and wasn't keen on the cartoony art style of the original game.
-The scale is much improved. Buildings have more realistic sizes now - both with the increase to 6 tile sizes for zoned buildings and with the much larger ploppable buildings. The modular aspect is also very cool, being able to expand a service. I love the idea of having to plan around leaving space to expand existing infrastructure.
-The general depth that the city management has - much more than the first game. But from what I understand, if you don't like that, you can pretty much leave it alone.
-Choosing an area for your landfill/industry to be in and making it as small or big as you like.
-The way power and water now work, running underground. Being able to export and import electricity and water etc.
Having said that, there are some things I dislike.
-Plain grassy areas look terrible - the texture for this is very ugly and worse than the original game.
-There are no assets! This kills the detailing aspect for me and seems strange that they have gone this way.
-Trees grow - looks like a pain in the arse when trying to plop them down.
-The big modular service buildings are cool, but being so big and detailed from the get-go limits the creativity we had before, for example, my graveyard was not just the building but I'd make an entire area with assets to have my own graveyard. Now it's just one big building with everything done for you.
-Industries seem to have taken a massive step back.
Overall, despite there being a number of negatives I'm pumped.
Ultimately we're only seeing Beta footage so a lot of this may be fixed/changed for the released version.
Plus, the original game has had 8 years of updates and expansion packs - vanilla vs. vanilla, This is a massive step up over the first game and a great base for them to build on over the next 8 years.
phil-sti said:
I wonder if Unitys new pay per install money grab will lead to a short delay for this, especially as its free on Gamepass and i'm assuming Xbox have signed a set fee for it.
I think the Unity news has come out way too close to the launch for it to cause a delay - I'd imagine that'd only hurt CS2 more in the long run (theoretically less time for fresh installs before the new charges come into effect).I can see Unity backtracking on this, or at least having further stipulations like excluding GamePass/Charity Bundle installs from the approved list.
Maybe only full-priced purchases are hit with the charge. Sale, pass and bundle sales don't contribute etc.
Really looking forward to this, and it's why I've been delaying replacing my laptop as I wanted to wait for this to be released so I'd have something suitable to run it on. I've seen a few of the YouTube videos released last week and am really impressed with what I've seen.
Definitely agree the roadbuilding looks much better. I've used mods in CS1 to achieve something similar, but it will be much nicer to have it as a standard feature and will hopefully feel a bit more intuitive.
Agree on the graphics and moving away from the cartoony style of the original. If you wanted to aim for realism it was hard to do, without mods to swap out some of the vehicles and less appealing plopable buildings.
Hopefully some of the detailing, trees, plants, etc will be improved between now and the final release as I agree in the original it was a great way of getting creative. I could spend hours trying to detail a woodland stream or rural road.
Really like the look of the progression system on there, building up points to unlock certain features. I tended to get sucked into CS1 with mods and everything unlocked, so looking forward to going back to the vanilla game and working my way through it.
Really can't wait for this, probably the most excited I've been about a new game for a long time
Definitely agree the roadbuilding looks much better. I've used mods in CS1 to achieve something similar, but it will be much nicer to have it as a standard feature and will hopefully feel a bit more intuitive.
Agree on the graphics and moving away from the cartoony style of the original. If you wanted to aim for realism it was hard to do, without mods to swap out some of the vehicles and less appealing plopable buildings.
Hopefully some of the detailing, trees, plants, etc will be improved between now and the final release as I agree in the original it was a great way of getting creative. I could spend hours trying to detail a woodland stream or rural road.
Really like the look of the progression system on there, building up points to unlock certain features. I tended to get sucked into CS1 with mods and everything unlocked, so looking forward to going back to the vanilla game and working my way through it.
Really can't wait for this, probably the most excited I've been about a new game for a long time
The second round of YouTube creator videos were released yesterday.
Another 30 minutes of footage from each creator allowing them to build up to Milestone 8.
It’s looking to be a very different game to the original; and given the lack of detailing options (due to no props), and big modular buildings in the sequel, I don’t feel that each creators cities feel all that different.
BUT, the modular buildings look amazing and the size and scale of them is excellent. Contour lines have thankfully been added for terraforming which was absent in the last YouTube creator video.
Additionally, Colossal Order announced today that the console version has been delayed until 2024.
I commend them for delaying an unfinished product; as it seems to be the norm to release a broken game and incrementally fix it with updates, however I think it’s a little dirty to delay it so close to release. Surely, they knew earlier?
Thankfully, I’m a PC player. Only a few weeks to go!
Another 30 minutes of footage from each creator allowing them to build up to Milestone 8.
It’s looking to be a very different game to the original; and given the lack of detailing options (due to no props), and big modular buildings in the sequel, I don’t feel that each creators cities feel all that different.
BUT, the modular buildings look amazing and the size and scale of them is excellent. Contour lines have thankfully been added for terraforming which was absent in the last YouTube creator video.
Additionally, Colossal Order announced today that the console version has been delayed until 2024.
I commend them for delaying an unfinished product; as it seems to be the norm to release a broken game and incrementally fix it with updates, however I think it’s a little dirty to delay it so close to release. Surely, they knew earlier?
Thankfully, I’m a PC player. Only a few weeks to go!
Saw they had come out but not had a chance to watch any yet... that will be my evening's entertainment
I'll be interested to see more about the modular buildings, they do look great and I hope they might help reduce the need to have quite so many buildings scattered around. Trying to get education, crime, fire, medical, etc coverage across a large spread out city was always frustrating, so maybe this will reduce the need?
Hopefully they'll be adding more detailing options soon (and ideally before the release), given what some of the creators are doing with CS1 I can't see them wanting to go too long before introducing them.
Really need to get thinking about a new PC now. I'm not usually someone who feels the need to play games as soon as they are released, but for this I'm getting a bit impatient
I'll be interested to see more about the modular buildings, they do look great and I hope they might help reduce the need to have quite so many buildings scattered around. Trying to get education, crime, fire, medical, etc coverage across a large spread out city was always frustrating, so maybe this will reduce the need?
Hopefully they'll be adding more detailing options soon (and ideally before the release), given what some of the creators are doing with CS1 I can't see them wanting to go too long before introducing them.
Really need to get thinking about a new PC now. I'm not usually someone who feels the need to play games as soon as they are released, but for this I'm getting a bit impatient
I have to admit, while I am still very excited, I am also a little more cautious now the closer to release we are with more (negative) info dropping each day.
It was announced today that the Steam Workshop wouldn't be supported and that the editor and mods wouldn't be available from launch.
The recent increase in system specification is also frustrating as I bought a new rig specifically for this game - opting for a 4070ti based on the original game requirements. I'd have gone for a 4090 if I'd known the current requirements.
A week to go though!
Like with the first game, I am sure it will expand and improve a lot over time - it's not a "play it for a week and done" kind of game. It's something I'll put hundreds - if not thousands - of hours into.
It was announced today that the Steam Workshop wouldn't be supported and that the editor and mods wouldn't be available from launch.
The recent increase in system specification is also frustrating as I bought a new rig specifically for this game - opting for a 4070ti based on the original game requirements. I'd have gone for a 4090 if I'd known the current requirements.
A week to go though!
Like with the first game, I am sure it will expand and improve a lot over time - it's not a "play it for a week and done" kind of game. It's something I'll put hundreds - if not thousands - of hours into.
TREMAiNE said:
The recent increase in system specification is also frustrating as I bought a new rig specifically for this game - opting for a 4070ti based on the original game requirements. I'd have gone for a 4090 if I'd known the current requirements.
Bloody hell a 4090?! Is there an up to date spec list you've seen? I've got a gaming laptop with an RTX 2060 and it never even occurred to me that wouldn't be enough for playing a city sim.
budgie smuggler said:
Bloody hell a 4090?! Is there an up to date spec list you've seen?
I've got a gaming laptop with an RTX 2060 and it never even occurred to me that wouldn't be enough for playing a city sim.
I've a Ryzen 5/3050 laptop and I'm worried as Collosal Order have basically said "we expect to have performance issues at launch".I've got a gaming laptop with an RTX 2060 and it never even occurred to me that wouldn't be enough for playing a city sim.
And for most of November, I'm going to be away from home.
EDIT: these are the min specs from Steam.
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-6700K | AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2600X
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 970 (4 GB) | AMD equivalent
I think RAM and GPU will be more important than CPU. A 2060 should be OK for 1080p.
Edited by captain_cynic on Tuesday 17th October 09:32
Steam workshop is what made the original. Without it I don’t think the game would have had the longevity and success. It gave the big YouTubers a chance to showcase what was possible, and then everyone else an easy path to try and emulate some of what they were doing.
I remember playing Sim City 4, trying to install mods and assets on that was very convoluted with all sorts of stability issues. CS1 and the steam workshop did away with all that and made it very user friendly.
I get why they want to take it all on to their own platform as it allows cross platform support (although I always think with this sort of game anyone who takes it seriously will play on PC, console versions are aimed at the casual gamer). Hopefully their own mod platform will be up to the task, with an easy way to organise and subscribe.
Saying that, looking at some of the videos kicking around over the last week the vanilla version looks stunning. I won’t be in a position to play the game from launch as I’m holding off on a new PC for a couple of months, but when I do I can’t see any reason to rush into modding, I’ve recently gone back to playing CS1 with no mods and it’s quite refreshing.
I remember playing Sim City 4, trying to install mods and assets on that was very convoluted with all sorts of stability issues. CS1 and the steam workshop did away with all that and made it very user friendly.
I get why they want to take it all on to their own platform as it allows cross platform support (although I always think with this sort of game anyone who takes it seriously will play on PC, console versions are aimed at the casual gamer). Hopefully their own mod platform will be up to the task, with an easy way to organise and subscribe.
Saying that, looking at some of the videos kicking around over the last week the vanilla version looks stunning. I won’t be in a position to play the game from launch as I’m holding off on a new PC for a couple of months, but when I do I can’t see any reason to rush into modding, I’ve recently gone back to playing CS1 with no mods and it’s quite refreshing.
captain_cynic said:
budgie smuggler said:
Bloody hell a 4090?! Is there an up to date spec list you've seen?
I've got a gaming laptop with an RTX 2060 and it never even occurred to me that wouldn't be enough for playing a city sim.
I've a Ryzen 5/3050 laptop and I'm worried as Collosal Order have basically said "we expect to have performance issues at launch".I've got a gaming laptop with an RTX 2060 and it never even occurred to me that wouldn't be enough for playing a city sim.
And for most of November, I'm going to be away from home.
EDIT: these are the min specs from Steam.
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-6700K | AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2600X
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 970 (4 GB) | AMD equivalent
I think RAM and GPU will be more important than CPU. A 2060 should be OK for 1080p.
Edited by captain_cynic on Tuesday 17th October 09:32
I'm sure I'll be fine with my 4070ti, but longer-term with a few DLC packs and mods etc I'm a little concerned I'll need more oomph.
As it was on Game Pass, I played a bit tonight as I loved the first one.
Disappointed.
Even with a 4090 and 5800X3D, it looks rougher than a badgers arse and while the framerate was smooth enough, it visually just felt like an early beta of what it should be.
I think I'll leave it 12 months and see what it's like again then.
Disappointed.
Even with a 4090 and 5800X3D, it looks rougher than a badgers arse and while the framerate was smooth enough, it visually just felt like an early beta of what it should be.
I think I'll leave it 12 months and see what it's like again then.
Griffith4ever said:
Reviews are saying the same - poor close up textures on low density buildings, parking lots etc, and it grinds to a crawl as your pop gets high. They really have shoved this one kicking and screaming out the door.
As is almost always now - wait, get it cheaper once fixed.
First Forza Motorsport and now this, it's been a bad month for games. I suppose this is the devops model for games, rush it out then fix it later.As is almost always now - wait, get it cheaper once fixed.
CharlieCrocodile said:
Griffith4ever said:
Reviews are saying the same - poor close up textures on low density buildings, parking lots etc, and it grinds to a crawl as your pop gets high. They really have shoved this one kicking and screaming out the door.
As is almost always now - wait, get it cheaper once fixed.
First Forza Motorsport and now this, it's been a bad month for games. I suppose this is the devops model for games, rush it out then fix it later.As is almost always now - wait, get it cheaper once fixed.
I'm getting good performance so far.
I'm running a 4070ti with 64gb of DDR4 and a 13th gen i713900k.
I have all settings on high, with v-sync, dynamic res., depth of field and motion blur all turned off and I'm consistently achieving 60fps+ although am only running on 1080p.
It's so poorly optimised though - a friend on the same settings with almost identical PC is getting half that!
It feels like a totally different game to the first one.
I feel like a fish out of water!
I'm running a 4070ti with 64gb of DDR4 and a 13th gen i713900k.
I have all settings on high, with v-sync, dynamic res., depth of field and motion blur all turned off and I'm consistently achieving 60fps+ although am only running on 1080p.
It's so poorly optimised though - a friend on the same settings with almost identical PC is getting half that!
It feels like a totally different game to the first one.
I feel like a fish out of water!
I picked it up on CD keys to save a few quid compared to steam.
I would agree with what others have said. Its been delivered a little too soon. There is still work to be done to improve the performance and visuals. I will still play it and have a mess around getting a feel for the differences between it and CS1.
I look forward to the future when the game is patched and user mods/workshop is developed.
I would agree with what others have said. Its been delivered a little too soon. There is still work to be done to improve the performance and visuals. I will still play it and have a mess around getting a feel for the differences between it and CS1.
I look forward to the future when the game is patched and user mods/workshop is developed.
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