Cities: Skylines Natural Disasters

[catty-cb 4,402]

The next Cities Skylines expansion has just been announced and its going to be disasters

https://www.paradoxplaza.com/cities-skylines-natural-disasters

Quote

Natural Disasters features a catalog of catastrophes to challenge mayor-players everywhere, including planning with early warning systems and emergency routes, devastating and destructive disaster effects, and caring for the populace as they struggle to rebuild. The expansion will also update Cities: Skylines with a new scenario editor and gameplay mode, allowing players to finally win – or lose – the game on their own terms.

not sure I like the sound of "to the day the sky exploded" as a disaster

[ghosty20 150]

Just had a look at the video and read what is coming and it looks like it is going to be a totally, freaking, wicked, awesome addition to the game.

[boformer 3,169]

My view on this: I think the game needs challenges. Random events (such as disasters) are a challenge.

Let's hope that they are extremely well implemented. Maybe they added things like semi-destroyed buildings and networks.

The scenario editor will also add new challenges, which is great!

I would really like to try out the radio system. I wonder if they localized it. Maybe there is a way to add your own music. I'm thinking of something like the radio station in Tropico.

Maybe this DLC will motivate me to start playing and modding again

[ghosty20 150]

3 minutes ago, boformer said:

My view on this: I think the game needs challenges. Random events (such as disasters) are a challenge.

Let's hope that they are extremely well implemented. Maybe they added things like semi-destroyed buildings and networks.

The scenario editor will also add new challenges, which is great!

I would really like to try out the radio system. I wonder if they localized it. Maybe there is a way to add your own music. I'm thinking of something like the radio station in Tropico.

Maybe this DLC will motivate me to start playing and modding again

There is a music mod on the workshop that allows you to add in other music, and if you have access to a audio file converter you can convert mp3, Wav and so on to Ogg format..  But it will be nice to have a proper official version in game..

[mutton noir 170]

I'm not feeling this. Sorry guys but it's not for me.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

let's not forget: HELICOPTERS ARE COMING!! WHOOO

[Avanya 2,605]

I'm positive! Scenarios are something I've missed. Sometimes it's nice with a set goal to strive towards and with this community I'm sure we'll have alot of different and creative ones!

Disasters aren't something I'd usually want to use, but hearing how it's tied to gameplay actually makes it interesting for me. They mentioned in the stream that roads and water pipes can be destroyed by meteors, which can cause a bunch of issues. Depending on how we'll fix that kind of destruction it could be very interesting.

[Darf 1,439]

I personally hoped they would flesh out some more details of this update. I was personally looking for some more quality of life changes than more game modes or new buildings. Nonetheless, scenarios could be an interesting feature. I just wonder how they are going to handle mods and scenarios well. The disasters look great and I might try it for a bit, but IMO more a gimmick or a feature for thos scenarios than a real addition.

[gfvsims 169]

I'm of two minds about this. I probably won't use disasters, at least not often, but I'm sure there'll be a lot of other useful stuff included. I'm looking forward to hearing more details. Thumbs up to helicopters!

[LivingInThePast 364]

Disasters would be really cool to see. The original SimCity 2000 had a wide range of disasters, which I think reflected a lot of actual disasters at the time, whether it be earthquakes (it was California, after all), wildfires (also California), riots (L.A. riots, California again), and the chemical spill (probably actually Houston, where in the 1970s a truck carrying anhydrous ammonia fell off a highway overpass...somewhat accurately reflected in SC2K's "abandoned buildings when the toxic cloud touches them).

I think that a "day the world died" nuclear strike would be unique to see as well, as long as it isn't a random occurrence (that would just be cruel).

To be honest, I was highly disappointed with the way that SimCity 4 ran its disasters. The lightning strikes did practically nothing, there were TWO monster attacks, neither of which were particularly fun (the Autosaurus only lasts 30 seconds), the fire tool isn't as potent as one hopes, and the other four are fairly boring (even the volcano). It would be nice to see floods, because they present a different challenge than fire. Fire you can send your fire trucks to and hope it doesn't get worse (the in-game fires for SimCity 4 were never a huge deal) where as floods you have to evacuate the area, close off roads, rescue people, and hope that it doesn't get worse. You can then also regret that decision to make that depressed freeway the way you did to avoid upsetting property values (hope you enjoy canals).

And on the other side of the spectrum, I hope there's a "drought" scenario where your natural waterways dry up, water becomes a lot more valuable (time to implement some unpopular water-saving strategies), trees die, no one wants to go outside, and your city's flammability just shot way up (which I also lived through).

[Judazzz 1,936]

1 hour ago, gfv1974 said:

I'm of two minds about this. I probably won't use disasters, at least not often, but I'm sure there'll be a lot of other useful stuff included. I'm looking forward to hearing more details. Thumbs up to helicopters!

Yeah, this is my sentiment as well. As a sandbox-type player I doubt I'll have disasters enabled all the time (what fun is it to spend 4 hours of detailing when a random comet destroys all your hard work in 1 minute?  ), but it would be fun to unleash hell on my city every once in a while.
I'm also curious what else the DLC will bring to the table: the previous ones, and especially After Dark, had quite a lot of extra's...

[Roadman20 601]

Disasters were always the fun part to vent frustration upon your disobedient citizens.  Sure, I won't use it much, but like the last two DLCs, there's more stuff in the DLC than just the main theme of it.  Pretty sure the subreddit will be full of new disaster screenshots. Will be interesting to see the consequences between the city and the disaster management with implementation.

With a holiday release date, sounds like it it's going to affect simulation a bit. But if they half ass it like tourism, it could backfire hard.

[OwiHH 240]

lets hope it wont change so much allready working mods!

[Cyclone Boom 16,938]

Sounds promising, I like the idea of city planning to minimise and manage the impact. This actually adds a gameplay element which is indeed very true to real life.

Hopefully disasters don't happen too frequently (maybe use a settings slider), or they can be disabled. I think they should be significant, but rare and varied events. Therefore they'd pose a risk, while not always being an imminent threat. For some natural events, there are distinct early warning signs to enforce evacuation, or other containment measures. It'd also be great if there were indications, but sometimes the disaster doesn't actually happen, or to a lesser extent. For example a meteor missing Earth, or a volcano turning dormant again. That might prevent them being monotonous, while still adding a looming mayoral challenge.

[catty-cb 4,402]

Quote

“Fans of Cities: Skylines will have the chance to overcome everything from massive fires to meteor strikes, and allow their friends to do the same with a new Scenario Mode, where custom challenges can be designed and shared through Steam Workshop," the publisher continued.

Not quite multi-player and I'm also guessing this might be something that could work really well for the ST Challenges

[gfvsims 169]

13 hours ago, LivingInThePast said:

And on the other side of the spectrum, I hope there's a "drought" scenario where your natural waterways dry up, water becomes a lot more valuable (time to implement some unpopular water-saving strategies), trees die, no one wants to go outside, and your city's flammability just shot way up (which I also lived through).

That would actually be really cool. It would add a challenge, without destroying your city (unless it all caught fire, of course). If it didn't rain for a certain number of days and the temperature was high enough, a drought and heatwave could occur. This could also cause Cims to die of overheating (not quite sure how you'd prevent that - free a/c maybe).

[QuantumChicken 82]

HAHAHAHA! Meteors R us! Perfect! I love meteors! I am so looking forward to this apocalyptic xpack.

[OwiHH 240]

Do we get anti-meteor-misslebatterys or launchpads for outta space meteor defensive ? That wouldt be cool - dependency = lvl 5 higheducated, lvl 5 industry in all ressources and some very good firefighters  ;-)

[LivingInThePast 364]

22 hours ago, gfv1974 said:

That would actually be really cool. It would add a challenge, without destroying your city (unless it all caught fire, of course). If it didn't rain for a certain number of days and the temperature was high enough, a drought and heatwave could occur. This could also cause Cims to die of overheating (not quite sure how you'd prevent that - free a/c maybe).

Probably would cause more people to use hospitals. It could also have an economic dampening effect, as no one wants to go out to bars and outside entertainment when it's 90° F (32.2° C) or higher at night.

[MisterBlueStar4 1,004]

Just looked at the trailer.it's sure going to be epic destroying your city unless you don't want it to be up in flames,become a site of a meteor shower,and/or a city that looks like there was a war there.

[Turjan 1,048]

This looks like an interesting add-on, but let's see how they implement it. I hope they don't forget something simple, like a switch to turn it off. This is a feature for more basic play cities, not one where you spent weeks on detailing stuff. I will gladly try this out on my biggest city though, which is close to a vanilla state.

I'm just a bit worried, given how the Snowfall extension was treated, that some of these features will be implemented in the most uninteresting way. Like those emergency warning buildings. I hope it's not like with many of the other services that you spend 10 minutes on covering your city with them and then gladly forget about them from that point on. Or worse, they are that obtrusive that you hope that someone quickly finds a solution to make them disappear from sight.

But who knows, maybe they get it right this time.

[mutton noir 170]

I can see Fluxtrance, Keralis and Skyestorme being really excited about disasters! 90 episodes and counting on the London build a meteor strike will be really welcome! I'm hoping that the other as yet unspecified new content will be more practical and useful in ehancing gameplay. There does appear to be a pattern established where CO introduce half baked ideas/concepts then fail to follow through- canals/quays/snowfall/match day. The basics are in place now please  develop to achieve potential CO

[hbn 244]

As nice as natural disasters sound, I'm not sure I'll be too eager to wreck havoc upon my cities which have had so much time and effort going in to.

[Turjan 1,048]

15 hours ago, hbn said:

As nice as natural disasters sound, I'm not sure I'll be too eager to wreck havoc upon my cities which have had so much time and effort going in to.

Your saves are yours. If you don't like the outcome of the disaster, just revert to an old savegame. At least that was the SC4 way of doing this.

[LivingInThePast 364]

I think that they have the chance to make riots a bigger deal. There could be two variants, a small localized riot/civil unrest event that can be quelled quickly without much help (or damage), or a bigger riot if the conditions are right (with a random number generator to "start" it). It would be a bit like Prison Architect...the music kicks in, and you have to mobilize your riot police to disperse the crowd. As things get worse (you can have multiple areas break out in violence), there will be "no-go" areas for fire departments as your city burns to the ground.

Finally, you might be able to use military force. SimCity 2000 gave you this if you lacked police stations or if you had a base, but here such a thing is highly discouraged. At that point, the riots will surrender as tanks roll down your street and use lethal force on rioters, but at that point, the affected parts are in ruins, a population exodus begins, and demand for RCI (or whatever) will plummet and stay that way for some time.

Another disaster that can work is Industrial Explosion. This requires a plant that deals with explosives like ammonium nitrate, petrochemicals, or fireworks. It may be triggered by fire or could be a random event. This is another "big problem" (conversely, the Nuclear Meltdown is far more constrained with no "RIP Headphone Users" explosion, only resulting in the condemnation of surrounding land, if that), it will basically send out a massive shockwave like an earthquake, but unlike earthquakes, they aren't detectable.

Detectable disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes) will be able to allow the Mayor to select an option to Evacuate the City. At that point, the Cims will head for the doors, whether it be highway or inter-city mass transit. All lanes but one turn contraflow, so the wider the highway the better. Depending on the way your city is built, it may take a while for the city to evacuate. Do it too early (say if it's a false alarm) and your approval rating takes a massive hit. Do it too late (while people are still on the streets) and your approval rating takes a slight hit. Do it right, and enjoy a better approval rating as well as an extra bonus.

[QuantumChicken 82]

I hope for nuclear armageddon! I love big, explodie bombs!

[Mewds45 132]

On 9/12/2016 at 5:15 PM, LivingInThePast said:

I think that they have the chance to make riots a bigger deal. There could be two variants, a small localized riot/civil unrest event that can be quelled quickly without much help (or damage), or a bigger riot if the conditions are right (with a random number generator to "start" it). It would be a bit like Prison Architect...the music kicks in, and you have to mobilize your riot police to disperse the crowd. As things get worse (you can have multiple areas break out in violence), there will be "no-go" areas for fire departments as your city burns to the ground.

Finally, you might be able to use military force. SimCity 2000 gave you this if you lacked police stations or if you had a base, but here such a thing is highly discouraged. At that point, the riots will surrender as tanks roll down your street and use lethal force on rioters, but at that point, the affected parts are in ruins, a population exodus begins, and demand for RCI (or whatever) will plummet and stay that way for some time.

Another disaster that can work is Industrial Explosion. This requires a plant that deals with explosives like ammonium nitrate, petrochemicals, or fireworks. It may be triggered by fire or could be a random event. This is another "big problem" (conversely, the Nuclear Meltdown is far more constrained with no "RIP Headphone Users" explosion, only resulting in the condemnation of surrounding land, if that), it will basically send out a massive shockwave like an earthquake, but unlike earthquakes, they aren't detectable.

Detectable disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes) will be able to allow the Mayor to select an option to Evacuate the City. At that point, the Cims will head for the doors, whether it be highway or inter-city mass transit. All lanes but one turn contraflow, so the wider the highway the better. Depending on the way your city is built, it may take a while for the city to evacuate. Do it too early (say if it's a false alarm) and your approval rating takes a massive hit. Do it too late (while people are still on the streets) and your approval rating takes a slight hit. Do it right, and enjoy a better approval rating as well as an extra bonus.

Pretty good idea, would love to see the traffic if you tell them to evacuate. 

[simfanheatermayor 17]

I'm anxious about this add-on. More content for the game is just what we need.

[LivingInThePast 364]

Basically, I hope the disaster list is similar to SC2K's:

Chemical Explosion - Functionally combines Chemical Spill and Earthquake, with a giant explosion.

Chemical Spill - Usually happens in roads in areas with high industrial usage, a toxic gas cloud spreads across the city, killing vegetation and causing buildings to abandon. Will dissipate.

Drought - Natural waterways dry up, water becomes a lot more valuable (time to implement some unpopular water-saving strategies), trees die, no one wants to go outside, and your city's flammability just shot way up. A slight economic effect as no one wants to go to outdoor restaurants or theme parks when it's super-hot.

Earthquakes - Shakes up city, damages building, causes fires through broken gas mains.

Fire - The main base disaster, can happen anywhere.

Floods - Evacuate the area, close off roads, rescue people, and hope that it doesn't get worse. You can then also regret that decision to make that depressed freeway the way you did to avoid upsetting property values (hope you enjoy canals). Floods can also cause property values to become nearly worthless.

Hurricane - Functionally combines tornadoes and floods.

Riots - One of the worse disasters, see my description above. Thankfully rather rare.

Tornadoes - Destroys building and trees with high winds.

Volcanoes - Not a random scenario, causes major air pollution, fires, earthquakes, and other nasty stuff.

UFOs - Not a random scenario. The UFOs will cause fires or do other weird stuff.

The Day The World Died - Not a random scenario. Will destroy most buildings and wipe out most of your populace. Useful in post-apocalyptic settings.

[Turjan 1,048]

We already have a list of the disasters that have been implemented so far from CO word of the week #21:

• Meteor strike
• Thunderstorm
• Sinkhole
• Tornado
• Earthquake
• Tsunami
• Forest fire / fire spreading

Note the last point: fires will be spreading in your city now. This may also influence how you plant trees, as fire spreads from tree to tree, and forest fires can only be fought by helicopter.

There was a (somewhat rambly) Twitch episode last week, mostly about the scenario editor, and you could have a short glimpse at some of the new services. However, you get the relevant info about the scenario editor in Dev Diary 2: Scenario editor. One snippet from the Twitch episode: damaged buildings can be repaired. Note that in the episode only the meteor strike works properly.