Let's talk about the next paid expansion & free patch

[boformer 3,169]

I would like to hear what you would like to see in the next paid expansion and in the next free update. Note that the paid expansion should only contain completely new mechanics, services and buildings, while the free update can also contain improvements for existing features (e.g. seasons, better simulation).

Keep in mind that every paid expansion needs a main topic (like "After Dark" and "Snowfall"), but can also contain separated features like trams, bus roads etc.

Pinging @Azurespecter to watch this

So, here are my ideas:

Paid "Water" Expansion (Price 6€)

• Draggable sea-walls and promenades: These networks would be created like roads, but could only be placed at coastlines. The walls alter the terrain and make the coastline look a lot nicer
• Draggable canals: These networks would work similar to sea-walls (and can be connected with them), and would be placed on flat terrain. There could be different types of canals, like larger ones for cargo ships and smaller ones for private boats, and more expensive canals for inner-city areas which raise the land value. The canals would be filled with "real" water that is simulated correctly. Roads can cross canals just like train tracks.
• Locks for canals: Would be used to connect canals with different water levels. In a way, these would work like dams.
• Different types of smaller harbours/moorings for canals and coastlines: These would be placed along canals and sea-walls just like you would attach a tram depot to a road. Each one would come with its own harbour basin. I can imagine different types:
  • Marina (something better than the After Dark marina) and small private boats using the waterways
  • Cargo Harbor for small cargo ships (for regional cargo distribution)
  • Ferry Terminals (small pedestrian ferries and large car ferries)
• Shipbuilding Yards: A new industry type that can grow along canals and sea-walls
• Selectable Bridges: Like the bridge selection window of SC4, with support for modded bridges
• Tsunami Natural Disaster: This would be a bit more advanced than what you can currently do with mods. When the wave hits the land, it would destroy buildings and trees instead of just flooding them

Paid "Industrial" Expansion (Price 6€)

• Realistic sized farm fields, pastures and plantations: These would not use zones. Instead of that, either something like the district brush or a filler tool would be used to zone the areas. Depending on the biome, there could be different types of crops, trees and animals. The areas would be cultivated by the current (zoned) agriculture buildings.
• Open-cast mines (based on the same system as realistic farms) for coal and ore
• Ploppable underground coal mines: These expensive buildings would be placed manually, with direct rail connection
• Ploppable Steelworks: Needs coal from coal mine (or global market) and ore from ore industry, with direct rail connection
• Off-shore oil drilling rigs: For oil fields in the ocean
• Warehouse Industry: This industry would decrease cargo traffic and increase industrial tax income
• One-way train tracks or dual-way single train tracks: Perfect for industrial and rural areas
• Classification yard for cargo trains
• Larger Industrial Growables: I think especially industry would benefit from larger zones.

Paid "Downtown" Expansion (Price 6€)

• Random Events (sports, politics, festivals) adding new challenges to the game.
• Intersection Editor: You would click on an intersection to configure it. Would incorporate many features of current traffic mods, but also go further:
  • Configure traffic lights & pedestrian crossings
  • Extra turning lanes & restrict turning
  • Intersections which do not break the median
  • Priority signs
  • Cul-de-sacs
  • Mini roundabouts
  • Merging lanes
• New Networks:
  • Compact inner-city highway (with median, no sidewalk, no zoning, intersections never break median)
  • Pedestrian Roads for your city centers, raising commercial attractivity
  • Sunken network types for highways and train tracks (working like canals)
  • Stacked Networks (e.g. train track on road). Ideally this would allow you to stack any networks
• Mixed Zones: commercial+residential and commercial+office
• Larger Residential, Commercial and Office Growables: Downtown needs this!
• Helicopters for police and medical services as well as tourists
• U-Drive mode with missions a la SC4

Complete Building Sets (Price 3-6€)

Although the community is doing a great job, I would also like to see official building packs.

These could be complete sets (growables, service buildings and landmarks), or just growable styles for certain zone types (with buildings for all levels).

Free Patch

• Improved Zoning system: Maximum growable size increased to 8x8, zone depth increased to 8. Also add buttons to influence the zone depth of new roads. I demonstrated that deeper zones are possible. It would be easy for CO to add them in a way that does not break existing saves. I would also add a mechanic that accumulates similar buildings (right now cities look like a mess), and a mechanic that merges or splits lots on upgrade.
• Parallel Network Tool
• More Statistics and Data Maps
• Better support for maps consisting of multiple smaller towns (Service AI)
• Improved Asset Editor & Modding API
• Optimized asset loading & memory usage
• Better control which workshop assets, styles and vanilla buildings are loaded (per savegame)

I would like to see the following mods integrated into the game:

• Fine Road Heights
• Rush Hour
• Sharp Junction Angles
• Crossings
• Precision Engineering
• Some parts of Traffic++ and Traffic Manager (see "Downtown")
• Some parts of Improved Public Transport (Vehicle selection)
• Road Namer
• Custom Sound Pack Support (Ambient Sounds Tuner)
• Road Texture Pack support (like American Roads, Roads United) - we can now add our own roads with the network editor

[gfvsims 169]

They should totally hire you. Great suggestions!

[Koesj 659]

Yes, all of that, I'll gladly pay full price again!

[Roadman20 601]

All the above mentioned ideas, I'd pay for on release.  These are DLC ideas that make sense along with some of the mods that really need official support within the game.

[Simulanten 681]

This. I wouldn't add a single thing - and neither would I take off a single thing off that list.

Very constructive, very inspiring post.

I really hope CO's ears have defrosted now to be able to hear every single word in your post!

[hbn 244]

Draggable sea walls would be nice. Would make it a lot easier to create promenades, waterfront areas and even riverfront areas without having to terraform, flatten, deal with flooding, and then plopping an array of parks. Selectable bridges would be great as well. Certainly favoured.

With farms, I like the approach Cities XL did (if that game wasn't so flawed). Your farm is a custom size and you just place the points to the map, it auto fills the area you create it in. Farms on this game are too small for the 4x4 max it allows. It'd snap to the boundaries of the road and other nearby areas, only limitation being that it requires access to a road but only on one side.

With roads, although my preferred way of doing it would require a mass overhaul of the traffic and road building system (something which would create a colossal amount of problems, incompatibilities, etc without doing everything from scratch) I would prefer a better method of transitioning lanes and that. With highways, unless you have anarchy/sharp angles and use use the freeform tool to slightly bend the road, you can't get a three lane road to a two lane road on the inside lanes whilst turning the outside into the sliproad... or upgrade the three lane to temporary four lane section just to have a proper sliproad with an onramp. The other change I have would be simpler for them to do which would be to have, on dual-carriageways where a central median is there, to have a the option of a right turn only (left tern if on LHD), which wouldn't require traffic lights on every single junction of that road.

Regards industry, the option for smaller scale, non-polluting industries would be nice. Every single industrial building I've seen generates air pollution. Some cities do have, what could be considered industry, between residential areas or between the city centre/downtown area. They're usually small-scale manufacturing. They might generate noise, might add a slight tinge to the air but don't choke people. They might shorten your life expectancy by a couple of years being next to them, but they don't make people sick on a regular basis. Perhaps industry could be split up into more sections such as other service industries or high-tech industries. Distribution parks generating traffic but also being a bit of a requirement (least more so in large cities) for getting goods to people. Instead of all your units sending out delivery trucks, they send it to a warehouse which sends it out on a big truck or something. High-tech industries producing goods that could raise the quality of life of your citizens somewhat and improve efficiency of your other cities.

Improved path-finding and limits so people don't travel the entire length of town to go to a small, local shop, or a park. Small retail being a requirement in local areas to provide convenience goods. If you live in a big metropolis, you're not gonna travel to the heart of the city for your daily shop. Everyday foodstuffs such as bread, milk, some tinned foods, would mostly come from your local store. Emergency vehicles might require a bit of a traffic overhaul but they should over take other traffic, run lights and drive faster than the speed limit allows when on a call out.

Whilst I'm at it, better timing of transportation, so it calculates the length of the route, how many stops and demand to send out an appropriate number of vehicles, spaced appropriately, rather than a fleet of buses in one long convoy. I know there is a mod that causes them to wait until they're better spaced but it tends to cause traffic issues in the meantime. It should be done before the vehicles are dispatched.

Roundabouts shouldn't operate on a box junction principle. I know roundabouts are just one way roads built in a circle in the game but small roundabouts are difficult because traffic doesn't enter until the section is clear. Real world roundabouts aren't as stop-start as that.

Better distinguishing of rail services as well so you can designate a central station for your regional/national outside connections, rather than it just choosing a random station to stop at, just so you don't have to split your rail network so drastically.

I'd imagine the compact inner city highway would look somewhat like the three lane expressway, except the path is removed and replaced with a hard shoulder, the middle has a barrier in it and the intersections are handled more like the highway.

Streets and roads. Roads would provide higher throughput of traffic, streets would be more desirable in residential areas with an automatically lower defined speed limit. I'm thinking more on how SC4 used these better. Roads with a non-parking option that doesn't require a verge. Might negatively affect house values not having street parking, but would allow traffic to flow more freely. Some other road options to be added. This regards trams such as on the dual carriageway you have the tram on one side, and a one-lane two way road on the other side, or having the tram run properly in the median as well. Option to build a station at the side and off the road or a ped-mall tram option as well. The latter could be handled like a road but with restricted access for pedestrians only. I've noticed with the tram stops on the road, the platform is incredibly narrow. Perhaps better support for zoneable pedestrian areas as well.

I would like more W2W buildings that aren't in the European or New York style. They could range from traditionally Victorian, Georgian and Edwardian styles to more common brutalist, or modernist styles. In the UK it isn't uncommon to see an array of different styles built wall to wall.

Those really are the only things I'd add to the above. I'd be happy to pay DLC price for them to be added.

[hitzu 139]

Also an idea:

Square and Park making on situ

Basically a set of precize tools like ped paths/service roads of various width, pavement brush, separate driveways, single track tram lanes, draggable fences, crowd spawns and attractors, props and some buildings like kiosks. I know that most of it is avaliable in asset gallery, but it would be cool if players could make their own custom recreational areas of custom shapes and sizes. Perhaps it could be some sort of Theme Park DLC.

[boformer 3,169]

Interesting news: It looks like hints of a "water" dlc were found in the snowfall code, namely:

Sea-walls

Canals

Quays

All of those seem to work like roads. Let's hope that they will not remain dead in the code, like subcultures and events...

[Koesj 659]

YES.

[hitzu 139]

3 hours ago, boformer said:

Interesting news: It looks like hints of a "water" dlc were found in the snowfall code, namely:

Sea-walls

Canals

Quays

All of those seem to work like roads. Let's hope that they will not remain dead in the code, like subcultures and events...

Before C:S was released they made an AMA on Reddit and I asked Co_Martsu about canals and that stuff. She said that they will definitely think of it and it seems they actually did.

[Roadman20 601]

It would be interesting to see how they expand on water.  Although the only reservation I have is their early water assets were hard to place and particularly small for what they should be, especially the marina.

[Kaputnik 27]

I'd love a large scale (paid) DLC which focuses on networks and infrastructure.
The biggest problem with doing this as paid content is compatibility, so I'm not sure which parts would have to be free and/or part of the paid expansion.

I personally don't think the most detailed micromanagement tools belong in the base game - I'd focus more on "smart" automatic functionality and leave manual control up to mods.
This includes lane/traffic light management, crossings, fine road heights, precision engineering and public transport detail management.

Most of the stuff here has already been mentioned.

• Modding support for other draggable networks, with access to straight/curve/freeform/snap.
• Improved service AI and coverage rules (Severity based, prioritize local > district).
• Stackable networks
• Dynamic pillar placement (shift pillars to the nearest compatible spot).
• Smoother and more flexible network slopes.
• Tunnels and ditches, not as a function of network building but as a separate tool.
• Merging lanes
• Priority roads
• "Smart" support for smooth off/on-ramps, for example if intersection angle is < 30 degrees, create smooth ramps with markers and don't break median (or center line).
• "Smart" roundabout system with priority and split connections.
• Seawalls/canal walls.
• Modular train stations/airports.
• Bridges turn into drawbridges if low enough and crossing a ship route.
• Modular power stations and garbage disposal centers (connected landfills/incinerators/recycling centers)
• Native, district policy-based support for oversized/deeper zones.
• New large industrial and commercial buildings.
• Growable area fillers for industrial, with some logic that makes it likely that every other industrial plot would be filled with these.
• Concrete/rubble texture brushes (yes I'm going on about these).

And much, much more...

[Roadman20 601]

To be honest, out of all the "detailed micromanagement tools" Fine Road Heights needs to be part of the base game.  The vanilla 12 meter height increments are incredibly funky and any interchange one saw before that mod was in place looked pretty ugly.  It may not need to be a fine as FRH makes it, but the increments need to be smaller.  

The brief time I had FRH deactivated while troubleshooting, it was a nasty reminder of what interchanges would look like without it. 

[hitzu 139]

Also there should be no flat parts in between two stretches of slopes. I hate bumpy-lumpy slopes.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

With the industrial expansion, I'd be happy with farms, forests and quarries that are built like they are in Cities XL but if you manage to do it like Borformer suggested, I'd be even happier. I would also like to see ore and coal become unique/separate resources.

 

Less important:
The ability to add new resources in mods using official tools would be great as well. Personally, I would like to see plastic (made from refined petroleum), paper (created from garbage at recycling centers and forestry factories), sand, glass (refined sand), bauxite, aluminum, precious stones, gems, precious ore, precious metal, steel (made from coal+iron), computers (glass+precious metal & plastic+aluminum+steel), jewelry stores (which bring in a ton of money and attract wealthy shoppers), and electronic stores (which bring in tons of money and attract all kinds of shoppers).

[TekindusT 3,809]

On the "Downtown" DLC you've left a thing I consider a key feature in the regular city-building: petitioners, counselors, lobbies, pressure groups, strikes, shady agreements (like in SC3K or Railroad Tycoon), the possibility of corruption, even agricultural shortages, city-wide events, congresses that put a strain on the tourism facilities... what we had in SC4 and especially in SC3K. If the political management of the city was limited in SC4, it is non-existant in C:S, and sometimes, when you're way out of the red, it feels like a race against time to urbanize the whole map. Some depth in this field is, IMO, inherent to the city management and it lays very behind in C:S.

[DiArmada 16]

Free Patch Suggestion

the option to duplicate bus stops on the opposite side of the road, therefore creating a busline for both ways.

 

when a busline is completed the busses only go one way. It's not that hard to create the second line yourself but it would be handy if there was an option to do that automatically.

[_Michael 2,681]

I really think this idea should have been included in the Snowfall DLC, but here goes.

Paid "Ski" Expansion (Price £3 - 5)

• Draggable Lifts: Not just the regular ski lifts, but also large and small gondolas, button pulls and cable car networks should be included.
  • A defined top and bottom station, with the pylons and cables forming between the dragged network.
  • Restricted curves
  • dynamic, i.e. people are on moving lifts
• Draggable Runs: A network that can be dragged. Doing so would piste that part of the mountain, place signposts at junctions and nets at the end of runs for slowing purposes.
  • Skiers and snowboarders would also be visible on the runs.
• A variety of associated buildings: 
  • Ticket booths
  • Restaurants
  • Rental shops
  • Cafes, etc.

I think I've covered most things. Let me know if i've missed something.

[hitzu 139]

@michae95l hotels also

[Azurespecter 506]

Always listening =) thanks for the ping. I know CO has some neat stuff planned next, but they're also very open and versatile to what the community wants. I'll be sure to pass along these great ideas.

I was also quite impressed with your work on modding the zone sizes. Perhaps it's time to take another look at it. No promises though, it's not my decision.

[Koesj 659]

I know your intention is in managing our expectations, but on the one hand you've got the dev CEO referring to publisher decisions being outside their realm just now on Reddit, and right here is someone looking like they're doing the opposite. If you were students if mine I'd scold you for not owning up 

Thanks for listening anyway! Like I said in another thread, we hit you because we love you.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I would like to see custom Cim creation finally make it in game. And we can set them to districts and events....like put some bush people out in the forests or let a population reflect a certain district. They also need umbrellas

[boformer 3,169]

On 21.2.2016 at 1:46 PM, DiArmada said:

Free Patch Suggestion

the option to duplicate bus stops on the opposite side of the road, therefore creating a busline for both ways.

when a busline is completed the busses only go one way. It's not that hard to create the second line yourself but it would be handy if there was an option to do that automatically.

This sounds like it could be done by a mod. It's actually a really nice idea!

2 hours ago, Azurespecter said:

Always listening =) thanks for the ping. I know CO has some neat stuff planned next, but they're also very open and versatile to what the community wants. I'll be sure to pass along these great ideas.

I was also quite impressed with your work on modding the zone sizes. Perhaps it's time to take another look at it. No promises though, it's not my decision.

It would be great to get some feedback on this until april. I don't want to spend time developing a mod when CO is adding it officially. Please.

[Azurespecter 506]

9 hours ago, Koesj said:

I know your intention is in managing our expectations, but on the one hand you've got the dev CEO referring to publisher decisions being outside their realm just now on Reddit, and right here is someone looking like they're doing the opposite. If you were students if mine I'd scold you for not owning up 

Thanks for listening anyway! Like I said in another thread, we hit you because we love you.

The context of that Reddit post is referring to announcing stuff that they're working on, which is definitely in the realm of Paradox's marketing team (which I"m not a part of).

So our statements aren't contradicting at all. CO is working on new stuff, and they're also looking into some changes/improvements. I just can't give you specifics though. Sorry!

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

On 2/21/2016 at 7:46 AM, DiArmada said:

Free Patch Suggestion

the option to duplicate bus stops on the opposite side of the road, therefore creating a busline for both ways.

 

when a busline is completed the busses only go one way. It's not that hard to create the second line yourself but it would be handy if there was an option to do that automatically.

 Do you know we can make a bus line to run on both sides of a 2-way road? They will find the shortest loop to go back onto the same road on the return trip. I just place a stop at opposite each other on all 2 -way roads like in real life. If this is not what you mean, I'm missing something here.

[Darf 1,439]

A Cities: Skylines "World" expansion.

• Instead of loading one savegame the game consists of several regions.
• Each region consists of regular saves, which are the same as they are now.
• Each region is saved in a region map, there's no realtime data transfer between regions.
• Regions are updated once they are saved and outside connections in the normal game are calculated based on the saved state.
• Air and water connections can be used to trade between regions and can be set in regionview.
• Regionview can be shared with friends and they can occupy a region. Interaction is minimal though, the only interaction is made when a tradedeal is made and when a region is saved. Numbers of immigrants and tourists are calculated upon city save.
• mod requirements are set in the regionview and are synchronized between players.
• Other players can visit eachother cities to take a look based on the save state and events in stadiums and such are based on regions.

[DiArmada 16]

@boformer: if somebody hasn't already made a mod it would be nice to see it in one of the next official patches.

@Mr_Maison: are you talking about a single line? if so then it's quite a long line, isn't it? so far I've created two lines with stops opposite of each other. the second line goes in the opposite direction ofcourse.

 

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

6 hours ago, DiArmada said:

 

@Mr_Maison: are you talking about a single line? if so then it's quite a long line, isn't it? so far I've created two lines with stops opposite of each other. the second line goes in the opposite direction ofcourse.

 

Yes, a single line. No need to make 2 for the same route. Place stops along the line going in one direction to where you want the line to terminate. At that last stop, place one opposite (across the street) and you will see the route calculate to loop back (you may want to create an intentional cul-de-sac if the loop is too long). Then continue placing stops in the opposite direction until you are across from the first stop. Then complete the line with the first stop and you will see another loop created for the bus to return. It's basically like real life bus routes. You don't see a different bus line servicing the opposite side of streets...it's usually the same line. Very efficient for your Cims too.

Don't worry about the length of the line, The buses will not get tired

[mrsmartman 200]

Perhaps they should do transport stuff first, and other things in between.

[Msprintz 25]

I'm definitely intrigued by the idea floated for an industrial dlc, with larger industrial structures connected via rail from the get go.  Yes it's nice to see current industries ship their goods by truck to the train depot, however a coal mine doesn't generally do that in real life, nor does a steel mill in most instances.  I'd be in all favor of such if the developers were to pull off a dlc like that.  Beyond that the water expansion idea also sounds nice, and would be an interesting concept beyond the mods currently in use.  I'm sure the developers are taking heed at mods and discussions here so some of these ideas are sure to make it into one of the expansions sooner or later.