Cities Skylines II Announced - Release Date and Pricing

[Samerton 833]

Updates:

Release date announced with second trailer

Pricing and first DLC reveal

Console release date delayed until Spring 2024

 

Paradox Interactive have announced their latest title, Cities Skylines II. It is described in the announcement as the most realistic city builder ever.

Release dates:
- PC: October 24th 2023
- Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 5: Spring 2024

https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/cities-skylines-ii/about

 

[rsc204 21,808]

Lol, so like absolutely nothing shown of the game and not one single bit of information that’s tangible. Sign me up for a pre-order (not).

It worries me they feel the need to show off something that’s clearly not even a video game. It’s like they want people to feel it will be this good, it won’t mark my words. It’s just a bunch of CGI to get people wetting their pants and opening their wallets.

CO - Give me a stable and functioning version of CS and you can have my money. We’ll assuming I don’t need two grand worth of new PC to play it - probably will. But when you literally reveal nothing, it makes me worry you’ve nothing of substance to show off. 

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

3 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Give me a stable and functioning version of CS and you can have my money.

While there, I believe a good option would be for Paradox to just pack all of their ideas into the original game rather than trickle them through a multitude of DLCs that, combined, are more expensive than the original, proverbial, meatless "bone". Money was the major reason why I decided not to buy this game.

But still, I love to read Skylines city journals!  And should any Simtropolites from the Skyline tribe make something valuable out of this new game, I will be there, waiting for your captivating entries.

[Haljackey 17,302]

I've been waiting for a good excuse to get a new PC- this might just be it.

I am ok with no footage in the announcement trailer. SC13 and other games do this a lot. It's more of a PSA to tell us they're working on it.

 

I sure hope they learned a lot of things from the first game. They got their feet wet with Skylines, so hopefully they can build upon it and improve things. I found myself to be quite bored of the game after a while... which is why SimCity 4 is still king in my mind. Will Skylines II dethrone it this time? I guess time will tell.

[Old School 4]

Me too. I have cart on New Egg full of parts but haven't ordered them because I just didn't need a new computer. But now, I mean, of course I need a new computer, its Cities friggin Skylines friggin 2!

[TogaMasterJohn 705]

I have not played Cities: Skylines in what seems like a long time (even though it was just a year ago). After seeing it go on sale during Christmas 2021, I got the base game for next to nothing (less than $10, if I remember correctly). As a huge fan of SimCity 4 and the older titles, I knew that Cities Skylines was going to be different: some areas may be better and some areas may be worse (I will admit that I had somewhat high hopes for it). I finally got around to playing it in March... and I became really burned out and kind of bored with it.

So what did I do? I waited until the DLCs were 50% off (like they were at Christmas). My luck, one week later, it happened. I purchased four DLCs:  Mass Transit, Industries, Parklife, and Campus. I installed them and decided to start a new city. Within less than two weeks (possibly even one week), I was burned out and, once again, kind of bored with it. There needed to be more things... and that is when it hit me.

In order to really enjoy the game, you pretty much need most (if not all) of the big DLCs. And given how much they charge for each DLC, it is really hard for me to want to buy them—especially considering the fact that while some of the stuff in each DLC is neat, they are small and need more features. It was not worth spending $7–13 on them.

It was like The Sims and the many expansion packs that came with each game, except unlike The Sims, at least Cities Skylines was enjoyable! 

Is it better than SimCity 4? To me, heck no. To me, Cities: Skylines is kind of fun and it does have some enjoyable parts to it. In some areas, it is a bit better, but what it lacks in other areas still makes me say that SimCity 4 is the king of city simulation games.

I am going to wait until the game comes out to see if it is worth trying. Cities: Skylines II had better be a lot better if they want my money. For one thing, they better have everything from all of the DLCs in the original game at launch. Second, it better run decently on hardware made within at least the past 5–6 years.

Anyway, if it turns out to be lackluster, we still have SimCity 4!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Personally, I thought that the simulation, zoning and building growing, as well as the controls and overall polish of the gameplay, weren't very good in the original. The traffic simulation was fun for a bit, but it was too hard and required too much micromanagement, and you can't get good traffic flow with realistic street layouts, the game forces you into weird Cities Skylines road networks. Being in 3d was fun though (even though my computer couldn't run it very well), and I really enjoyed making actual transit routes.

So the sequel gives me some hope that they'll be improving on the things that I didn't like about the game, hopefully enough for me to like it and get into it.

One thing that's hopeful so far is that, based on what commentators have been saying, this game is being made in Unreal Engine 5, which is very exciting. Unreal Engine 5 has a few features which are really good for city sims. One is that you can use as high poly of a model as you want to, and the game engine will dynamically convert it into a lower poly model based on the view from the camera. Not only will this result in much more detailed buildings, but it will also make it easier to make buildings, because not so much time will be spent trying to do the building in the most efficient way possible. Another feature is raytracing, which will make lighting look much much much more natural and realistic, and also allows for actual reflections, not weird fake smudges, but actual reflections of the surrounding objects. In terms of graphics, right now Cities Skylines is basically running vanilla SC4 in real time (not pre-rendered). With the polygon counts and the raytracing, this has the potential to be like running BATs made in 3ds Max from like 2007-2009 in real time.

If anyone is curious about the graphical capabilities, search youtube for the unreal engine 5 Matrix demo. This game won't look THAT good (although there might be the long term possibility of it), but it will look good. In the trailer, the disclaimer says that it's not actual gameplay, but the footage does appear to be in-game footage using game assets, so depending on your graphics card it could end up looking really good.

[Daeris 1,116]

I'm cautiously optimistic about this upcoming city builder, but I highly doubt it will overtake what I perceive to be the best city builder of all time, SC4 of course. However, I do find it interesting that the trailer seems to talk about the story of a developing city, and the trailer also attempts to show a bit of emotion involved. I think Cities Skylines was an okay game, but I never enjoyed it as much as any of the SimCity series games because it felt more of city simulator, city painter... than an actual city builder. If that makes any sense. Many of you know I prefer to play with a more natural progression to development, so the region takes on a life of it's own. Small villages start near rivers and coasts, then turn into town, then turn into cities, then turn into metroplis, and downtown sectors arise where the demand is. Cities Skylines never really offered that type of progression to me, and lacked the emotion and quirkiness that many games of the SimCity series has to offer. It almost seems to me like Cities Skylines II wants to bring in some of those elements that make the SimCity IP so special, so I can only hope that it ends up being a great game, but it will have its work cut out if it wants to topple SC4 in my book.

[TogaMasterJohn 705]

On 3/8/2023 at 12:57 AM, Jasoncw said:

One thing that's hopeful so far is that, based on what commentators have been saying, this game is being made in Unreal Engine 5, which is very exciting. Unreal Engine 5 has a few features which are really good for city sims.

Cities: Skylines II uses Unity:

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this decision, but time will tell. Newer versions of Unity have gotten better, so it will be interesting to see what the game (and Unity) can do now.

[mosonče 75]

Cities Skylines isn't even a city building game yet they dare to say it will be most realistic one / redefining / revolutionizing genre etc.

It's successor of Colossal Order's bleh series of " Cities in Motion " games duct taped with some city elements (and tycoon) and served in classic Paradox fashion, few hundreds of DLCs by one at a time.

No one actually knows what new game offers as trailer gives zero hint but I'm not much hopeful. Starting from SC 2013, city building genre is headed to wrong direction imo and hope it won't be a lost cause for audience.

[Haljackey 17,302]

 

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Remember that Colossal Order did not expect the epic response to Cities Skylines when they made it. And it was made with 9 people on staff back then. The modding community is as great as this SC4 community which I still consider myself to be a part of. I'm actually looking forward to the sequel.

At least I can feel confident that we are not getting treated the way Monte Cristo did us back in 2009 when they invited us into a thread so we can share ideas to them for over a year just to get mostly nothing anyone was asking for. Not even mass transit. And remember Societies and others who wanted to take SC4's crown but just did not listen to the players. And how about Maxis and EA? Not saying some players do not enjoy those games but to me, Cities Skylines gives us many things that was on SC4 players wish list for many years that other city builders failed at doing.

I got to know the staff I can say they are great people and we are in good hands. They embrace modding like no other and we have a city builder that was not abandoned or ruined by the publisher. Many of us got to meet each other in person in different countries in events sponsored by Paradox and CO and some even got hired. How many gaming companies and studios do this?

 

[rsc204 21,808]

5 hours ago, Mr_Maison said:

Remember that Colossal Order did not expect the epic response to Cities Skylines when they made it.

Yes, that's exactly my problem, the success brought them riches they could never have dreamed of. Did they invest a small sum of this into fixing some of the worst game-destroying bugs?, nope they did not. Did they instead then milk their cows with overpriced and continual DLC, which over time brought yet more problems they didn't fix, oh yes they did.

Do you realise the RRP of the game and it's main DLCs (including the fluff like radio stations and a few buildings)? Around the $500 mark!!! Collectively, does that DLC double or triple the content of the game or it's functions? If not, how come is it worth 15 times the price of the base game?
^{Some of us have a limited income and have to consider the value of such things, in such cases it's likely you too would see these DLCs as very poor value for money. For example, I got all but 2 large DLCs in a humble bundle for the minimum amount requested, around 8€. Frankly given how much I've used them, to me they aren't worth much more, I really wanted the Parks one which as the most popular DLC, wasn't included in the bundle. But even if I was to catch it on sale, I wouldn't pay 7,50€ for it, perhaps I'm just cheap? But if it wasn't for second hand bargains and heavily discounted games, I simply would never have been able to be a gamer in the first place, it's ingrained from my youth.}

Just look at CIM and CIM2 reviews, there is a clear pattern from CO and it makes me a little sad, they make a game with so much potential, they get so much right. But you hit a point in each of them where unfixed problems destroy the game experience. CS has the same problem, I played over 300h but then just stopped and I never have any desire to return to it, whenever I do playing quickly extinguishes such desire. If I sound annoyed is not some vendetta or need to publicly shame CO, nor does it diminish that such a small team accomplished something which had so much potential. Sure I get it's not SC4, it's a city painter not a simulator, I can accept all this, even the cartoon graphics, don't care. But when my transport systems stop working, I'm constantly battling the inane way traffic doesn't work, you hit a wall where you realise, something needs fixing because it ain't fun anymore.

In all my years with this genre of games, there have always been two types of game, those which you never stop returning too and those which end up back on the shelf after playing. SC4, along with Transport Tycoon Deluxe are the only two that I keep going with long term. CS has this potential, from everything I read CIM2 does as well, it's so close but just falters at the finish line, I just want that little bit of polish that elevates the game into that elusive long-term love.

But, the fact remains CO did not reward/support their customers when they absolutely had the resources to make it happen. Please explain to me, given their history why any prospective purchaser should believe anything will be different this time around? Even if they get it right day one, there is a good chance they'll just screw it up later and leave things broken.

Next problem, oh I see you are making this for XBox/PS5, crap...
Why is this a problem?, well simply because to buy a PC capable of keeping up with either of these consoles, will cost you at least two grand. Because these consoles are so capable in terms of hardware, you need a really strong many-core CPU and a GPU with a lot of VRAM and very fast file access to keep up. So it's clear already that my PC isn't going to be good enough, just look at almost every PC game recently that was developed for XBox and Playstation in tandem. There is a clear pattern, the PC ports are poorly implemented, poorly optimised and frankly the experience on the consoles tends to be superior with a vastly lower hardware cost.

Then there is our old friend Unity...
I tried before to explain why using a generic game engine is very bad for a game like a city simulator. Yes, if it were in Unreal Engine 5, we COULD have nice ray-tracing effects, but that ignores a very big elephant in the room. Unreal's engine was conceived originally for FPSs, although it is just fine with many action/adventure titles and other genres too. But, a simulation that relies heavily on algorithms to handle the various things running in a city, no neither Unreal nor Unity were really intended for or are very good at either. It's a niche genre and so these licenceable game engines are never going to be the best fit, which means compromises for the game itself. Again I admit that it took a lot of skill for the team at CO to create what they did under Unity in the first place, I also get why they don't want to make their own engine, it's very expensive. Sadly though, to really make a game like this, you need the backbone (game engine) to be focused properly on the task at hand for optimal results. I mean you could use a unicycle to deliver food as a courier, but it's hardly the best way to go about things.

Here's a wonderful pie in the sky thought I often have, what if CO could licence the GlassBox engine from EA, you know the one created to power SC2013. Yes, I'm sure that EA would never let a competitor use their engine, but then again licencing fees = money, EA likes money and they aren't doing anything with it. Update that engine with some optimisations to cover technological changes since, you've got a proper solid base for a city builder. Yes, you'd need to fix it too, SC2013 was hideously broken, so many things didn't really work. But, graphically it's very capable though and under the hood it was designed for city simulation. Given 10 years of hardware updates, I'm sure you could break through the small cities problem quite easily now, at the cost of supporting older systems.

I dunno, I've played a lot of games, worked in the industry for one of the largest publishers/developers and have a decent technical knowledge with some experience of coding. Perhaps I've missed some reality that would make this infeasible, but I really think GlassBox got a very poor rep and that it has serious potential. Nya, it's Unity again and like I said, I'm really just fantasising here anyway.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

6 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Yes, that's exactly my problem, the success brought them riches they could never have dreamed of. Did they invest a small sum of this into fixing some of the worst game-destroying bugs?, nope they did not. Did they instead then milk their cows with overpriced and continual DLC, which over time brought yet more problems they didn't fix, oh yes they did.

Do you realise the RRP of the game and it's main DLCs (including the fluff like radio stations and a few buildings)? Around the $500 mark!!! Collectively, does that DLC double or triple the content of the game or it's functions? If not, how come is it worth 15 times the price of the base game?
^{Some of us have a limited income and have to consider the value of such things, in such cases it's likely you too would see these DLCs as very poor value for money. For example, I got all but 2 large DLCs in a humble bundle for the minimum amount requested, around 8€. Frankly given how much I've used them, to me they aren't worth much more, I really wanted the Parks one which as the most popular DLC, wasn't included in the bundle. But even if I was to catch it on sale, I wouldn't pay 7,50€ for it, perhaps I'm just cheap? But if it wasn't for second hand bargains and heavily discounted games, I simply would never have been able to be a gamer in the first place, it's ingrained from my youth.}

Just look at CIM and CIM2 reviews, there is a clear pattern from CO and it makes me a little sad, they make a game with so much potential, they get so much right. But you hit a point in each of them where unfixed problems destroy the game experience. CS has the same problem, I played over 300h but then just stopped and I never have any desire to return to it, whenever I do playing quickly extinguishes such desire. If I sound annoyed is not some vendetta or need to publicly shame CO, nor does it diminish that such a small team accomplished something which had so much potential. Sure I get it's not SC4, it's a city painter not a simulator, I can accept all this, even the cartoon graphics, don't care. But when my transport systems stop working, I'm constantly battling the inane way traffic doesn't work, you hit a wall where you realise, something needs fixing because it ain't fun anymore.

In all my years with this genre of games, there have always been two types of game, those which you never stop returning too and those which end up back on the shelf after playing. SC4, along with Transport Tycoon Deluxe are the only two that I keep going with long term. CS has this potential, from everything I read CIM2 does as well, it's so close but just falters at the finish line, I just want that little bit of polish that elevates the game into that elusive long-term love.

But, the fact remains CO did not reward/support their customers when they absolutely had the resources to make it happen. Please explain to me, given their history why any prospective purchaser should believe anything will be different this time around? Even if they get it right day one, there is a good chance they'll just screw it up later and leave things broken.

Next problem, oh I see you are making this for XBox/PS5, crap...
Why is this a problem?, well simply because to buy a PC capable of keeping up with either of these consoles, will cost you at least two grand. Because these consoles are so capable in terms of hardware, you need a really strong many-core CPU and a GPU with a lot of VRAM and very fast file access to keep up. So it's clear already that my PC isn't going to be good enough, just look at almost every PC game recently that was developed for XBox and Playstation in tandem. There is a clear pattern, the PC ports are poorly implemented, poorly optimised and frankly the experience on the consoles tends to be superior with a vastly lower hardware cost.

Then there is our old friend Unity...
I tried before to explain why using a generic game engine is very bad for a game like a city simulator. Yes, if it were in Unreal Engine 5, we COULD have nice ray-tracing effects, but that ignores a very big elephant in the room. Unreal's engine was conceived originally for FPSs, although it is just fine with many action/adventure titles and other genres too. But, a simulation that relies heavily on algorithms to handle the various things running in a city, no neither Unreal nor Unity were really intended for or are very good at either. It's a niche genre and so these licenceable game engines are never going to be the best fit, which means compromises for the game itself. Again I admit that it took a lot of skill for the team at CO to create what they did under Unity in the first place, I also get why they don't want to make their own engine, it's very expensive. Sadly though, to really make a game like this, you need the backbone (game engine) to be focused properly on the task at hand for optimal results. I mean you could use a unicycle to deliver food as a courier, but it's hardly the best way to go about things.

Here's a wonderful pie in the sky thought I often have, what if CO could licence the GlassBox engine from EA, you know the one created to power SC2013. Yes, I'm sure that EA would never let a competitor use their engine, but then again licencing fees = money, EA likes money and they aren't doing anything with it. Update that engine with some optimisations to cover technological changes since, you've got a proper solid base for a city builder. Yes, you'd need to fix it too, SC2013 was hideously broken, so many things didn't really work. But, graphically it's very capable though and under the hood it was designed for city simulation. Given 10 years of hardware updates, I'm sure you could break through the small cities problem quite easily now, at the cost of supporting older systems.

I dunno, I've played a lot of games, worked in the industry for one of the largest publishers/developers and have a decent technical knowledge with some experience of coding. Perhaps I've missed some reality that would make this infeasible, but I really think GlassBox got a very poor rep and that it has serious potential. Nya, it's Unity again and like I said, I'm really just fantasising here anyway.

Wow...CIM and CIM2 have nothing to do with Cities Skylines except they are made by the same developer. CO now have 30 staff members so a lot has changed. Please name me a game with 0 bugs and issues? How easy do you think it is to re-write an entire game code based on an old version of Unity? $4.99-$14.99 is overpriced? You speak as though CO are on EA levels or something intending to exploit and do harm to the base and it's just not consistent with reality. If not for the modding community SC4 would've been dead long ago because EA destroyed the franchise. Tell me you would play SC4 pure vanilla?  What I'm saying is in the case of Cities Skylines, the City Builder community is in a good relationship with developers. And being a creative sandbox game, many aspects of enjoyment are subjective. The game for the most part just like every other city building game will always be what we make of it. Though with some limitations, it's nice to have a company that supports our efforts no?

[mosonče 75]

Fun fact : I play SC4 pure vanilla

It took a decade for EA to consider a successor game for SC4 because it has a smaller player base in comparison to other genres and needs to justify investment for a giant game company. I do agree with rsc204 that Glassbox wasn't bad at all, just had to take limitations of the era into account. There are several videos at GDC where they explain their decisions such as small plot and lack of microsimulation, it's a combination of limitations and EA pushing features that will supposedly be a cash cow that led SC2013 to its doom.

After SC2013 unfortunately exploded like a super nova or Alderaan , there were indie or small company attempts trying to rely on the hype. CO was smart enough to jump on the train but I still think it's a poor and misdirected attempt.

It's a game almost wouldn't be wrong if labeled as CIM3 , ok it might be closest thing for some to a city building game but for me it's no way near even (now ancient) SC4, I can also relate to the fact that they need to target a wider audience to justify investment or simply to earn more money but " that's not the way " leading to a watered down sandbox version of a proper game.

Maybe we do represent a negligible percentage of customer base but I'll not apologize for standards SimCity once set.

 

8 hours ago, rsc204 said:

SC4, along with Transport Tycoon Deluxe are the only two that I keep going with long term

It's sad that Railroad Tycoon II isn't there ( and Capitalism Plus although another genre )

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

Personally it is too early to judge CS 2 . The trailer is just CGI just to create an inflation of hype. 

But according to news CS 2 will use Unity again which is the worst game engine in the world. It made more sense to use Unreal Engine which is more efficient at these things despite being a game engine born for FPS.  Surely in the case of a city builder it would make more sense to develop a new special game engine that allows you to perform more specific operations. Glassbox is an excellent game engine that only requires modifications to keep up with the times and is able to be more efficient than Unity. 

Another aspect to consider if the basic CS2 will have all the contents of CS1. It seems like a steal to me that I have to spend the money to buy the DLC again which are ultimately the same DLC I paid for CS1.

Simply the city builder genre that we know no longer exists and is just a city painting to create the worst & best mental perversions on urban planning all accompanied by a trivial difficulty just to attract social media and make more money

[Dutchdragon 74]

Looks like the same old city builder concepts wrapped in better graphics. 

One thing has never changed since the original SimCity: you HAVE to start with dirty power, automobiles and American-style zoning systems. This is far from how most cities have grown throughout history. The city you're building is just a colony of the modern world, never a settlement that has evolved over time. Nothing illustrates this better than Cities Skylines forcing you to connect to a highway right from the start.

I'd love to see a city builder where you can start by building a village with farms, no modern infrastructure and barely any specialized zones. It should be fun to gradually unlock these and actually develop a historical core with more modern neighbourhoods around it. Or you could go Corbusier and wipe the whole core out, whatever. Alongside this option, there could be a sandbox mode where you start like you do in SC and CS, with all the older tech at your disposal as well.

CS2 definitely won't be this city builder. Judging from the otherwise beautiful trailer it's all skyscrapers and busy roads again.

[Googlefluff 55]

A few points:

1. CS is an indie game built by a very small team who could not predict where it would go, and is now 8 years old on a very strained engine. The base game has severe limitations which could not be overcome without fundamentally rebuilding the core mechanics—not something you can just do with patches. It needs a sequel, the community has been clamouring for a sequel, and now we're getting a sequel.

2. The meat-and-potatoes expansion packs (*8* years of slowly accumulated content remember) make up less than half the combined cost of DLC and go on sale all the time, along with the base game. They're nowhere near as predatory as the likes of EA. Supporting a game for almost a decade, adding features, expanding the dev team, and working on a second game behind the scenes is not free. See point 1 for why the base game is feature limited, and at least wait for CS2 to see if they pull a Sims and make you pay for everything again, bearing in mind that dynamic seasons and disasters are all but confirmed already.

3. Switching engines completely would not be a good move. Their entire team is made up of Unity devs and that skill does not just carry over. Switching to Unreal would mean throwing away everything they've learned in the development of CS1, would be way more resource-intensive for the company, and open the door for new mistakes and unforseen problems to make it in and put CS2 in the same boat as CS1. Building a bespoke engine is simply not within the scope of a company the size of CO. All the while, newer versions of Unity are perfectly capable of solving the problems CS1 has. Is it ideal? No, but it makes practical sense and doesn't at all mean CS2 will have the same technical limitations.

Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly frustrated with CS1 by this point. It has really big problems and misses the mark on a lot of what made SC4 great. But we should at least understand why and give the sequel a chance to make up for it before we start going so hard on it. CO has been good at listening to feedback, hired a bunch of modders, etc. They were openly disappointed when they couldn't add seasons despite trying, and now the sequel will have them. This is not a company that doesn't care/isn't trying. I just say give them a chance and judge CS2 on its merits once we see it.

[rsc204 21,808]

No need for anyone to get their panties in a twist, it’s almost as if you can’t state valid criticisms? I wrote what I think and I know I am not alone in this. I don’t care what a developer is limited by, that’s their problem as a business. Mine as a consumer is what I want to spend my money on, if they have truly fixed CS, I’ll buy the sequel. They don’t have a good track record.

BTW, what I always loved most about CS is the transport aspect, building interconnected systems and watching cims use them, very pleasing. Until it isn’t when things stop working, which they do. If you want my money this aspect of the game is for me critical because if it worked, by goodness I’d not still be playing SC4.

Why people need to rubbish SC4 or valid complaints to get their message across I’ll never understand. Games don’t exist in a vacuum, developers aren’t friends, they are business that can make tons of money. If you want to consider a developer as anything else, prove that making your game work is priority #1 when the money absolutely was there. Could they have fixed everything, maybe not but that’s the definition of a flawed product. Literally by design it can’t do what it is supposed too. If this wasn’t a game I could get my money back under those circumstances.

In short I really want CS2 to address these issues and be a great game, I’m just sceptical because adding paid DLC you are making a profit on unlike patching bugs, is NOT supporting your game, it’s milking it for cash.  

[Turnstyled 486]

I'm not here to compete and I'm certainly not here to rubbish SimCity 4. I'm just here to do what's right for me. All my life, I've struggled with my mental health and while I'm currently in a place that's as great as it's ever been for me, I still struggle. I made a post about my feelings regarding Cities: Skylines II, which you can read here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/11q3qv2/im_looking_forward_to_cities_skylines_ii_i_have/

What I failed to convey in that post is that even if things aren't threatening to me, they're what I refer to as "commercialist nonsense." That's not my personal ideology. It's just that most things out there are not fulfilling for me. That was a real struggle for me in school. I talk about how I "survived" the Pokémon craze and the Macarena. Pokémon, being what I described in my Reddit post as "fiction," goes beyond just beyond unfulfilling for me. It's very frightening to me. SpongeBob SquarePants was something that was very disturbing and frightening to me and believe me, my mother tried to buy Harry Potter books for me so that I could be a little happier. You can imagine how difficult the current discourse on the Internet is for me given all that I just described.

Of course, the crazes were unmanageable for me because the flocks of people with their fixations was terrifying. I'll just say that I had to leave my school when I was nine years old and that I didn't have a chance of ever making it through Kindergarten to 12th grade.

Before I had to leave my school, SimCity 3000 was something that really meshed with me.  I am really looking forward to Cities: Skylines II. I have hopes that it can offer me what SimCity 4 and Cities: Skylines could not offer me. No, I'm not looking for a computer game to be the solution to all my problems. That would be ridiculous. I'm just hoping that the game, its ongoing development, and its community's creations can be fulfilling enough that I don't have to spend my time looking into what disturbs me, frightens me, and is very unfulfilling to me.

Ultimately, it's my time and my money, so I'm certainly not here to argue, either.

[kschmidt 6,164]

Cotyskylines2, hope it will not be with outrages system spec. Win 10/11 minimum. What's clear it will never beat SimCity 4, custom content is just to lpw to be of any value. City simulation, basic game mechanics interessting somulatong a real city,loke City in Motion. CSKL 1 might be more populair still. City State 2 might be another contender to conscider. This might be another game wich be released with a more futuristic user base not for today. Greatest disadvantage for these cloud games be the vunrable online safety of gameplay. Gamers will not fall for another series of DLC chained extension packs, some should be oncluded,some absolete.nLittle choice what to install or not might be better. We have see more detailes to judge how great this new version will be !

Sincerely yours,

Kschmidt

[Allen Thomas Pinckney 4]

If Cities: Skylines 2 doesn't have all the features from SimCity 4 like Medium Wealth Commerical/Medium Wealth Residential, Car Accidents/Riots, Neighbor Connections as well as Trading from other cities like in SimCity 2013 which let's be honest it was a train derailment when it 1st camed out, then it's not worth it in my opinion. I still play SimCity 4 to this day w/CAM & NAM.

[Daeris 1,116]

On 3/11/2023 at 5:45 PM, Dutchdragon said:

Looks like the same old city builder concepts wrapped in better graphics. 

One thing has never changed since the original SimCity: you HAVE to start with dirty power, automobiles and American-style zoning systems. This is far from how most cities have grown throughout history. The city you're building is just a colony of the modern world, never a settlement that has evolved over time. Nothing illustrates this better than Cities Skylines forcing you to connect to a highway right from the start.

I'd love to see a city builder where you can start by building a village with farms, no modern infrastructure and barely any specialized zones. It should be fun to gradually unlock these and actually develop a historical core with more modern neighbourhoods around it. Or you could go Corbusier and wipe the whole core out, whatever. Alongside this option, there could be a sandbox mode where you start like you do in SC and CS, with all the older tech at your disposal as well.

CS2 definitely won't be this city builder. Judging from the otherwise beautiful trailer it's all skyscrapers and busy roads again.

Haha, yes this is my play-style.

If a city-builder focused on this type of theme, it would probably immediately become my favorite city builder of all time. SC4 is the greatest city-builder that gives the players the tools to play with this natural development. Cities Skylines is pretty, but was always just a skyscraper simulator to me. Now, of course I DO hope CS2 incorporates this option to play with natural development. They did drop a few hints in the trailer that suggest they may give a few options. They talk about the city having a story. Story = progression, change, development. So that's a key word to hold out hope on if you're a fan of natural development playstyles. They also show a couple shots on the outskirts of town looking in, which is promising. Also, it's pretty clear they are trying to instill emotional connection to the city into the game. Will it all pan out? I'm not sure, but I definitely hope so. If I had to place bets, no, I would say nothing will top SC4 for a long long time still. I think modern city builder games just don't cater to the type of fans that want natural progression over time. A city that takes on a life of its own.

[rsc204 21,808]

The problem with this 'natural growth' idea, especially spanning different times in history, it that in hugely increases the developer's workload. Assets for every time period alone are going to add a sizeable cost/time penalty and when it comes down to it, most players simply don't care about it either.

It's the same reason why so few games have alternative paths or endings, it's a lot of effort to actually implement them and time and time again when it was done, it's clear that the majority of players simply don't notice or care about it as a feature.

Can we all remember that video is nothing but sheer marketing fluff and buzz words... literally they have told us nothing, they want to make you 'feel' like it resonates with you as an idea, that's manipulation frankly. I want to SEE what I might be getting and have DETAILS to judge whether this is exciting to me or not, rather than start using powerful imprecise words to IMAGINE things.

[Daeris 1,116]

I agree it's more work on assets, absolutely. I just think the city-builder modding community is a healthy and active community, especially when it comes to models. So ultimately, the developers really just need to build the natural progression mechanics into their game, release it with some assets for each period, but then let the modders jump in and grow the asset pool.

[Donib11 0]

This is extremely exciting news, can’t wait!

[iminhere 3]

I'm disappointed that they didn't went with Unreal Engine. But I'm still excited.

[Propfam 2,288]

On 12/3/2023 at 5:45 AM, Dutchdragon said:

you HAVE to start with dirty power

At least you can start with wind right away in SC3k, SC4, and C:S, or choose the correct period (not 1900s) in 2k.

[Propfam 2,288]

On 10/3/2023 at 9:05 PM, Haljackey said:

 

Ah Adam again

[gviper 922]

Looking at jumping into the franchise with this one. Though I hope the graphics are a bit better than what I saw in C:S. Been quite a while since I've played the genre. Love SC4, but I finally wore myself out on it. Though I certainly agree with RSC204: I won't jump in til I see what it REALLY has to offer.