Official Paradox Interactive - Cities: Skylines Discussion

[Pat]

CS looks nice and would love to try it out

[APSMS]

Honestly the nightlights look a bit dull and disappointing. Looks like the residents hung some beige semi-transparent sheets of paper on their windows. It looks okay from a distance, but up close it's not great.

This is true, but think of how SimCity 4 nightlights looked when the game came out. They were pretty lousy, simply light maps pasted over the building models, or something to that effect.

Now we have advanced lighting and things like DarkNite to spruce it up, and wow what a difference it makes. Perhaps C:S will never get quite that far due to the computational limits of a full-3D engine, but I suspect that if the files and processes are made available to modders, some improvements can be made over the next few years that will allow the game's appearance to be more lifelike and detailed.

At the very least, I am hopeful with Paradox Interactive's attitude toward the community and their apparent willingness to make as much of the game available to modders as possible. I get the impression that they try, which is more than what we seemed to get from EA/Maxis when SC2013 came out (though to be frank I have neither game, C:S or SC2013).

[CasperVg]

Hmm, you're right. It's easy to forget sometimes how much 10+ years of modding improved SC4. And yes, it's quite amazing to see the modding possibilities that Paradox/Collosal allow. It's virtually limitless and that's great. I must admit I enjoy playing C:S with mods like Traffic++, etc. a lot

[JoeST]

I've also been very much enjoying C:S in the last few weeks, been having a lot of fun playing the vanilla game and have tried a few of the current selection of mods but there's none that are really *necessary* for me yet. TBH I'm hoping for eventually some AI mods which take over things like planning and structuring mass transit routes, because currently that's just a total pain and effort. It'd be nice to be able to see traffic levels in underground pipes (more obviously?) and more options for roads and such, along with some way of tweaking currently in-place overpass columns without having to redraw the whole thing, what with the columns getting unnecessarily in the way of other things. Also being able to upgrade road-sizes on one side only, so as to protect whatever is on the other side from being demolished. Over all though the game is very enjoyable and I'm pretty addicted tbh XD

[mgb204]

I think the most important part of this is that CO recognised the desire for a proper night mode and have then made this a priority update which will be free for all. It would have been very easy to charge for such an update knowing how popular this feature was, potentially fragmenting the user base. Equally they could have stuck to their original argument that this was simply not considered a high priority for making the game fun.

So despite any quality niggles when it's released, what we now have is proper night time support for all users at a reasonably early stage in the games life, this is the groundwork to ensure good compatibility and quality can be realised in the future. This is one of those things that the later you leave it, the harder it is to get most content compatible, so for me it's a big for listening to the community and adding this hugely requested feature so soon.

[CasperVg]

Having quite a bit of fun building a city on this custom map:

[catty]

   looks really good and a very realistic and natural layout   

[manga rivotra]

This is an amazing picture 

[Jespernilsson]

Beautiful!

[Pat]

Oooh wow that is stunning!

[carlfatal]

Wonderful overview! 

[CasperVg]

A different shot from that city, showing the transit hub..

[Vizoria]

Nice, very nice!

[Jespernilsson]

Keep them coming SC4D! Been waiting for you guys to work your magic on this game.

Yes, I'm looking at you David. 

[dedgren]

I'm just going to close my eyes for six months and check in with C:S again then.  I can do fun things with it, especially in the area of roads, but the game is 5% worthwhile and 95% potential right now.  I think the community and the developer, given some time, will sort that situation out.

In the meantime, I'm thinking that it is a timewaster.  A beautiful one, and clearly "the next big thing," but it's just not there for me yet, in that it only has a small fraction of the richness that is SC4.  Scale is just one of the major problems right now.  Six months from now my guess is that a lot of this sort of stuff will be addressed.

OK, I said that on March 30th.  And then I cheated.  I didn't wait six months.  I waited five.

I'll move my worthwhile/potential assessment to 80% worthwhile and unlimited potential.  That's because of a) developer attitude and b) moddability.  I've remarked elsewhere that Colossal Order might not have realized how wide it opened this game up to the custom content community.  There are incredible things being done.

So I've started a city journal.  You can take a look at it here [linkie] if you would want to.  Yes, it is at Simtropolis.  What does that mean?  Nothing, as far as I am concerned.  To me, SC4D is and will always be an SC4 site.  If there is truly some interest in having me port posts over here, feel free to let me know, but I don't want to just butt in as if I would feel some sense of entitlement.  Please do comment wherever you wind up seeing it, though.  I miss hanging around with so many good friends.

Back to the March post- I said that C:S is "clearly the next big thing."  If anything, I am even more convinced of that now.  The next six months to a year will tell the story.  If upcoming updates continue to add good new content and expand the game's scope and depth, Cities: Skylines is SC4Next, end of story.  If those updates, though, start breaking important mods with regularity and just seem calculated to churn the game for a few more bucks in profit, that will not be a good thing.

So we'll see.  Things are looking pretty good right now, though.


David

[Jespernilsson]

Oh God he's creating a journal for C:SL! 

David I'll never forget reading through that massive 3RR thread. I'll be watching your new journal with great joy!

[Girafe]

First I am glad you are back with an MD

Regarding the fact that it s on ST and not here. I don t see any issue. ST has done the choice to expand to other city builders. This choice was not (yet) done here. I think if there is a demand for that, the board will look at opening new sections. Moreover I think you will reach an higher audience there for C:S. So this choice has sense.

I checked a little bit C:S, there was many points I liked like the freedom for the ways. But these crappy textures and poor 3D made me stay on SC4. But I strongely believe that something nice can be done with medium poly 3D and harder work on the textures...

As you said, let s see what will happen in the future.
Wish you good luck with this project 

[SuperMessi]

First I am glad you are back with an MD

Regarding the fact that it s on ST and not here. I don t see any issue. ST has done the choice to expand to other city builders. This choice was not (yet) done here. I think if there is a demand for that, the board will look at opening new sections. Moreover I think you will reach an higher audience there for C:S. So this choice has sense.

I checked a little bit C:S, there was many points I liked like the freedom for the ways. But these crappy textures and poor 3D made me stay on SC4. But I strongely believe that something nice can be done with medium poly 3D and harder work on the textures...

As you said, let s see what will happen in the future.
Wish you good luck with this project 

Well I tend to agree with you, but I also have to say that the graphics have become a little bit better as time passes.

[BlasterNT]

With all the custom assets, mods, and patches, this game is starting to seriously catch up in terms of graphics:

[vortext]

That looks splendid indeed. 

And I've to admit I've seen some seriously awesome pictures on reddit as well. Though the dinky toy cars are still a bit off putting. That and the lack of seasonal flora. .