Is the DLC worth it?

[AidanA2828 3]

So, I've heard that there's the After Dark and Snowfall DLC packs. Are they any good and should I get them?

[Cool_Z 1,547]

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

If you have the extra cash...just get them so you can at least have the gems within them like trams and taxis and snow....even if you don't like the majority of the content. Just so you can say you have everything and can get any mod on the workshop.

[AidanA2828 3]

I have a lot of things on my list above that DLC (Kerbal Space Program, Microtransactions in Planetside 2, Portal, Portal 2, etc.) and don't think I'll get them. They just don't seem worth it.

[Judazzz 1,936]

In my opinion the most valuable things are included in the free part of each update: day/night cycle, (still buggy?) separate day/night time budgeting and some new assets for AD, dynamic weather (minus snow) and a few more minor things for SF.
The paid part of After Dark brought a few new game play mechanics like Tourism, Leisure, prisons, taxi's but imo. these seem more tacked on rather than well thought out and implemented. It's all pretty  superficial unfortunately, and I don't think this will ever be addressed by CO (we're already one DLC beyond AD and Tourism/Leisure are still as pointless as they were before).
The paid part of Snowfall is even more meager: trams are certainly nice, but the additional services are just re-skinned existing services and barely have any impact on game play (plop and forget), and snow, although very pretty to look at, is only available for one new map type, which has eternal winter (no seasons).

Personally I have only bought After Dark: wasn't what I hoped it would be, but back then I didn't mind paying for it just to show my support to CO. However, I'm not going to do that for SF, mostly because not much has changed since AD, many issues that affect the core game haven't been addressed, etc. Maybe one day I'll buy SF when it's on sale (or when I need it for mod development), but to be honest, I don't really care for winter maps, and trams are nice but for me at least by no means essential...

Don't get me wrong, it's not that the DLC's have nothing to offer, and if you're interested, by all means go ahead and buy them (don't forget, despite criticism from some, tons of others are having lots of fun with them!), but personally I find the price per DLC too high for what they offer, especially in case in SF.

[Roadman20 601]

I have the same view on the DLCs like Judazz, I thought highly about After Dark since I thought it was going to be a decent upgrade to the simulation but it turned out to be way less than expected and somewhat broken.  Also After Dark should not be bought full price either, but whenever it goes on sale at 50% as it does on a semi-regular basis these days.  

I play the Skylines a lot and I definitely enjoy the game, but Snowfall was not and still is not worth $12.99 when not on sale.  I didn't care for the snow maps, and trams are by no means necessary with all the modded assets to technically emulate a tram network are out there.  Things like road maintenance is just another hearse or garbage truck roaming the roads, the breakdown of roads won't cripple one's network like it should after observing for awhile.

I am pretty critical of the simulation, but it's a justifiable one in my mind.  On the other hand, Skylines is the best city simulation since Sim City 4 came out over 10 years ago and the modding community has been pushing the limits of the game ever since Skylines was released.  I plan to get Snowfall when it goes on sale as well. 

 

[Vals Loeder 27]

When I compare the price of the DLC with the enormous amount of hours of fun I have playing the game it is most definitely worth buying it. They cost me less than an hour of salary so waiting for a price drop is utterly ridiculous.

[Judazzz 1,936]

Presenting personal opinion as fact doesn't change that there's nothing ridiculous about not paying a set amount of money for an item if you think it's not worth the money (and I pay that for the DLC, not the base game for which I've already paid - it's about value-for-money, not my attitude towards the publisher or the game itself). I can easily buy a carton of milk for 50 euro's without denting my finances, yet it would be pretty ridiculous to do so.

[Ltw 401]

In my opinion both After Dark and Snowfall are worth it. Mainly because both expansions are fairly cheap. The expansions add some new stuff that give you more possibilities, but don't expect a lot of changes compared to the base-game. It is very nice to do with bicycle-lanes and trams (I use those features quite a lot in both DLCs) but if you don't miss it you might be disappointed. So have to agree with Judazzz about that.

However, I also see paying for the DLCs as a way to support CO. For me that's also an investment in the base-game and free updates. CO deals with suggestions from the community quite well in my opinion (I know this is somewhat disputed, but as a SC4 player my values about that might be a bit different since EA didn't care about that at all). However, CO is also a company that wants to make a profit, thus I could imagine that they would discontinue free updates if they don't make any money from the game anymore. Furthermore there has been a free update recently that adds waterworks, terraforming and some other cool stuff. I don't know whether they would do that if they don't have paid content in order to compensate for that.

Concluding, the DLCs are worth it imo, basically because they aren't very expensive and because I want to support further development of the game. However, if you don't miss any of the features in the paid DLCs at all, it might be a waste of money (it would be a little bit too crazy to pay for something you don't use at all). Thus, if the features are appealing to you I would suggest to buy it. You can also buy one of both off course

[Vals Loeder 27]

On 4-4-2016 at 1:42 PM, Judazzz said:

Presenting personal opinion as fact doesn't change that there's nothing ridiculous about not paying a set amount of money for an item if you think it's not worth the money (and I pay that for the DLC, not the base game for which I've already paid - it's about value-for-money, not my attitude towards the publisher or the game itself). I can easily buy a carton of milk for 50 euro's without denting my finances, yet it would be pretty ridiculous to do so.

If the shoe fits.

[idcaf 65]

Oh, this topic reminds me of the good old days, when we used to wonder if Rush Hour, (sadly the only expansion pack) for Simcity 4 was worth it or not.

It cost as much as a regular expansion pack would and only brought ferries and monorails worthy of mentioning and all this uproar was had on forums because apart from things, that should either absolutely be in the game already and things that sort of didn't matter for the most of us, didn't bring anything amazing to write home about.

I find it fascinating, how time heals all these wounds and how people seem to forget that all the city builders from simcity 4, SC2013, C(X)XL, to Cities skylines apparently don't make a spectacular impression on the public reception when it comes to expansion packs/additions. 

Ofcourse I would say that, if you're not blown-away by the actual original game you probably shouldn't buy the quite expensive DLCs, but the whole situation makes me wonder, if there's something special and specific about city-building games, that their developers just cannot come up with a well-recieved expansion pack. 

[Mister Giggles 310]

Expansion packs, classically, pushed out components that were originally intended for the base game but were not completed by the release date.

In this sense, Rush Hour was no more or less egregious than countless expansions to come out before it. Whether or not the price tag was worth it, it was essential to actualizing the vision Maxis had in mind when they began programming the game.

[Ltw 401]

On 8-4-2016 at 0:03 AM, idcaf said:

Ofcourse I would say that, if you're not blown-away by the actual original game you probably shouldn't buy the quite expensive DLCs, but the whole situation makes me wonder, if there's something special and specific about city-building games, that their developers just cannot come up with a well-recieved expansion pack. 

I think a difficulty for the designers of city-building games is the fact that you can't change the game that much. Off course there are lots of improvements to be made (even though many of them have been taken care of in the latest patches) but I could imagine that it would be more difficult to do that. I think it is more difficult than for instance making an expansion pack for a race-game or shooter, in those expansion packs you could just add some tracks and levels and the buyers will be happy (probably). However, games like The Sims also have a lot of expansion packs and even though the problem seems to be similar these packs are quite popular. Those expansion packs come with a lot of new items which makes it 'value for money'. And this makes it difficult for CO to come up with nice expansion packs. They kind of focus on new buildings (like for instance the jail in AD and several buildings in Snowfall) but many people feel like it is not worth the money because you're done with it after you've placed it.  We are kind of spoiled with all the great content in the Workshop so adding buildings in paid expansion packs seems to be kind of useless. Don't get me wrong, there are other great things in the expansion packs that were a reason for me to buy it (tourism, bicycle lanes and trams for instance) but they could get more out of it if they would focus on those additions in my opinion.

Boformer added a new topic in which he makes some suggestions about how the next expansion packs should look like. The suggestions Boformer is making are great, those expansion packs are quite focused on the limits of the game and don't add in things I didn't really want or didn't even think about. Luckily there are some things of this list that are already implemented but we will have to wait till the future and see what happens.

[ghosty20 150]

I find both DLCs very good as they add some really neat options that do actually expand on to the original game.. The one bit I do like is the trams they make designing a city very interesting which is how it should be, but would like to see more options for tram roads though..

[Macronomicus 128]

Even if there was little I wanted in the DLC, I would get them, I love supporting a good thing, and I think the makers, modders, users, of this game are fantastic, I am please to support in any way that I can.  Paradox made the choice of giving all customers the biggest features in free updates, and then offering DLC sprinkles on top, I am impressed by that generosity, and I didn't even look what was included before I bought the DLC lol.  That said I cant imagine not having them, the trams, tourism and other goodies are cant do without for me.

[cmdp123789 710]

Well, to be honest, we have to make a clear difference before we continue the argument:

People buying the DLC to suppor CO: Well, in this category, we should all thank them. It is because of them that the developer keeps posting upgrades and release new content. I'm sure that with no one buying DLCs and supporting the developer.. well we have the simcity 2013 case. On the other hand, look at the difference between the DLCs that CO is putting out and the ones Maxis did.. London pack? Paris pack? vs After Dark and Snowfall.. and don't get me started on the futuristic crap they called expansion.

And then the people that will only buy it on a sale or once the price goes down: They are awesome too! But they have different limitations, sometimes being money, sometimes they feel like it's not enough, and heck, sometimes they just think it's not worth it because it is not what they expected.

But at the end of the day, it is important to draw that line. Personally, I buy every single one of them just because money is not a problem, and I enjoy the game so much that I honestly don't mind paying them and making them want to continue working on the game. Is that a logical decision? No.. but that's me.

Now, you wanna buy the expansions? go ahead, you are gonna have fun with them, but, are you getting great things out of them? Well that's just a matter of taste.

[Supernia 17]

I don't even have Snowfall, and if you're like me, I don't like night without some control, so I said no to both.

[BryanChung 7]

I skip on Snow Fall because I don't like snow. Not that I don't enjoy playing with snow, but my country SINGAPORE just don't have snow. Hehe

[boformer 3,169]

On 8.5.2016 at 6:05 PM, BryanChung said:

Not that I don't enjoy playing with snow, but my country SINGAPORE just don't have snow

Use your imagination! In this game it could have snow

 

[Ltw 401]

On 8-5-2016 at 4:07 PM, Supernia said:

I don't even have Snowfall, and if you're like me, I don't like night without some control, so I said no to both.

There are two mods that improve the game greatly and also help fix the flaws/annoying parts of the game:

• Rush Hour: This mod makes travel-patterns of citizens more realistic, which means that citizens are going to work/school/other events at normal times. This creates a rush hour and also means that the streets are less busy at night. This mod makes everything much more realistic and also means that day-night (and the day-night sliders) make more sense.
• Time Warp: This allows you to set the time at any time of the day. Usually I don't do a lot with that (a lot of times I have things to do with for instance the transportation-screen or other screens that aren't affected by night) but when I do need to build things at day I can change the time, which is quite convenient sometimes.

These two mods improve the game a lot in my opinion, which is a great thing about the workshop. Things you don't like about the base game you can just solve by using mods (most of the times).

[YP Justice 0]

Even though my country SINGAPORE does not have snow, Snowfall and After Dark are worth buying as they give additional public transport options. After Dark gives me taxis, bicycles, cargo hubs, bus stations, while Snowfall gives me trams.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

After Dark is worth it. Snowfall is situational.

[csSniper 1]

No DLC is worth it.  That said I went on to buy After Dark Mass Transit and Industries any way.  That said some of the DLC's are SO NOT worth it that I bought three when I could have got all of them at once for free.