Everything About Cities: Skylines - Paradox Greets You!

Are there any plans to increase map sizes? Because 6km x 6km (36 km²) is so small. Even my small home town (96k pop.) is 54 km² and about 10 kms wide with all surrounding suburbs/villages. But people will/will try to build huge metropolises, million-sized cities. So how those will find room in 6x6????

 

So in other words, what will be the maximum size of the map?

 

I've just read the dev diary 2 about zoning.

I have to say that I'm slightly disappointed by seeing the way this game is heading to.

A citybuilder IS a very complex game by default, I understand that, in order to get as much buyers as possible, the game needs to be straight-forward, have some sort of restrictions/balance/goals
BUT
as I said in my other post, the key of the longevity of a game is the "experienced" player like you guys developers said you are as well.

An experienced (like the majority of the people here) would like to have the freedom of building what they want and where they want, and to be honest, it is something doable by simpling implement a "Free Build Mode" where you can:

• Unlock all the buildings in the game
• Place the individually

And in general have NO restrictions, then it will be the player's problem if his city is completely unbalanced and lacks of some specific resource, BUT the benefits are immense!
It will give the player the ability to reproduce almost anything he can think of (when mods will come around) but to be honest, without this type of freedom, I'm guessing that (I might be wrong) not many mods will be created.

Again take Cities XL as an example.

Does it have an amazing graphic? NO.
Is it updated often with new version of the game/patched/DLC? NO.

In fact it is a really unstable game, with still many bugs, BUT it has a big community and mods are still developed for this game(!!!).

So the real question is why so many people are stiil playing with this "rubbish old" game?
The answer is (I will never stop to repeat myself) FREEDOM!

And because of that, this game has continued to develop itself thanks to the modders, without a single input from the developers in years!!

Please take this an encouraging feedback, I REALLY want to move away from Cities XL for a new game with better graphic, new features and software stability, but, at the same time, I don't want to give up the basic principles of a "free to build what I dream of" citybuilder like Cities XL.

Please guys, help us move away from the old Cities XL!

 

I agree with you, @Helter_Skelter . Individual placement is just necessary to make one district different from the other. Furthermore it would definitely be an obstruction to only be able to use zoning when you have downloaded a lot of different buildings. Sometimes you want to make a medieval city, sometimes a Soviet village etc.. But you don't want to end up having a medieval house next to a Soviet house. I don't think it should take too long to make an option to turn zoning off and show a list of buildings to choose from. If the game would only be about managing the city, most of the 'creative' people would prefer CXL (hint, hint ). It's not that much work to place all buildings individually. Of course, not all people will use the individual placement, but the ones who do will also need it.

 

@TotalyMoo : What do you mean by "zoning brushes via modding"?

 

I hope you guys will change your mind and introduce a freestyle scenario, even post release would be fine.

To be honest I've seen many people here and in your forum as well asking for it.

Just to clear: let's say I download a couple of low density Asian modded buildings and a couple of (again low dens) Mediterranean kind of buildings.
When I'll use the zoning tool, chances are that I will have those buildings, randomly placed together...

Will it work like this or is there a way to filter the buildings?

 

I'm liking this discussion that's going on, and I peeked at dev diaries, what I thik TotallyMoo mented that by modding people can do different 'zoning brushes' and hook by code only certain buildings to the zoning brush mod - whatever buildings wanted.

If this is correct it's a great way to do packs.

This can be done in CXL too, like Aitotortilla did for German pack.

Of course as it seems in Skylines the brush tool, and different zones, seems super easy to use. And how great that by modding it can be enhanced: New specialized brushes can be introduced.

(I hope..)

 

Thanks @TotalyMoo, that's a bit reassuring. Well I guess I won't bombard you with questions anymore and I'll eagerly follow the development of this interesting game .

Although I still think that the individual placement of buildings is a fundamental feature

 

So in fact you could also just 'zone' a single building? That would be nice, although it would still take a lot of time to change the zoning every time you want to place a new building.

So how about landmarks? Are there any landmarks or blueprints or something similar in the game? Because those should be placed individually, right? It would be weird not to know if you will zone the Reichstag or the Sydney Opera House (unless you edit the buildings used for the zoning, of course - which would be a little bit alternative).

 

Is there still time/room for further development improvement?

If so, I would like to point out a few things that I think need improvement:

1. The overall look of the game thus far is awfully dark and dreary. For instance; there seems to be a lot of grey, like the roads, the buildings, and even the sidewalks. There needs to be more lighter to lighten up the overall vibe of the game. What happened to white sidewalks? White seems to be the default color for sidewalks. I rarely ever find grey sidewalks walking down the street. Also, it would really add a lot if you could create customization options for sidewalks; like perhaps brick sidewalks and cobblestone among others that could add a lot of artistic touch to certain areas of the city such as the downtown areas. Perhaps also a realism feature that wears out the streets/roads with use, for in real life roads and streets become a lighter shade of grey the more they are used. That would create a more realistic feel to our roads.
2. Perhaps you can add some zoning options to the streets so that buildings can be built on curved and angled streets and roads. Let there be no limits or bounds to what we can do and how we build our city, because there are little to none in real life, why should there be in the game? That would only put limits on the realistic aspect of the game and of our cities, which would practically defeat the purpose of a new city builder since the city builder simulation games already available are limited in the same, and what needs to become more advanced is the realism.
3. We need a tool for natural creation and decoration to improve our parks and streets. Nature and sculpture models add such a decorative touch to our cities and without these options, our cities can look very plain and dull. Decoration and natural creation is essential for city beautification. Perhaps create an option that allows us to align our streets with trees, flower boxes, hedges, street lights, and even sculptures and fountains, and also an option that allows us to choose what kind of these we want to place.
4. Large super-size maps that connect to our other maps/cities which can promote sharing services and resources with neighboring cities and city growth.
   
5. Lastly, customization is everything. We need to make our cities our own and be able to have features that will have our cities stand out from others', features that will have our cities our own unique work of art that can't be replicated or duplicated. Please give us features that will have our cities as a blank pallet on which we can create our own masterpiece that is set apart from others and portrays and reflects our own unique individual artistic style. I don't know how to be more specific; just customization, customization, customization in terms of everything as far as land terrain creation, buildings, decoration, etc. etc.

I am very interested in this project since I am practically fascinated with city building but yet have found too many bounds when it comes to what is already currently available with both Simcity and CitiesXL, although CitiesXL is perhaps the closest thing I could find to meet my needs and interests, however it is plagued with bugs and technical issues that continue to hold me back amongst other limitations that require countless mods to take their place, which can sometimes be a hassle, apparently esp for modders as moding seems to be a difficult and extensive task that requires a lot of time and effort, at least from what I've heard (I myself am not a modder). Because of my interest for customization, I don't necessarily want modding options to be eliminated, however I do wish they would be less needed and that there would be customization features/options that will already be available with the game that will enable us to customize many things without the need for modding. Though CitiesXL had a lot to offer, there's still so much more it could and so much room for improvement that I hope this new upcoming Cities game will cover, which is why I'm very interested and will be keeping a close eye on this project. I had been hoping for a new city builder simulation game that would offer what the other city builder games could not and thus make city building even simpler.
I am aware there seems to be a game development mentality that the first game of a series should have limits and should only be branched out if the game is successful in the market, however do bare in mind that if it has limits, that might be precisely what will keep it from achieving success on the market in the first place, in which case you won't be able to make any sequels because of poor sales, SO PLEASE DO NOT HOLD BACK ON THIS GAME!

Looking forward to seeing more!
Thanx.

 

I'l triple quadraple that. That's an essential feature.

At least it must be in the limits of what SC4 and SC3 gave us with sort building arctitecht tool. I hated some buildings growing over and over again. In CXL a patch where the building is tagged NOZAC prevents it growing in general pool.

 

So aa.. have you thought about, of course too early yet, but, how

the official user community, users interacting and sharing mods (like SC4) had, what's thatplace will be like? Will it be of Colossal Orders or Paradox.

Surely a project, Cities Skylines, this big to aim to overcome the Sim City as the de facto citybuilder on earth, is huge. And the online service must be good, and I suppose cheap too

 

How 'Cities: Skylines' aims to dethrone SimCity
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-09/23/cities-skylines-interview

There are lot's of these in the press. This early. It's going to be amazing buzz when the game is launched, and reported in the press world wide.

edit: note that in the article pics they show the more taller content which they have been hiding a bit.