Cities: Skylines

[Peeble]

If any of you bought SimCity 2013, you know how much of a disappointment it was. Well Cities: Skylines is coming out on March 10th, made by Collosal Order (Devs of Cities in Motion) and published by Paradox Interactive. This game is essentially SimCity: The Good Version. I'm pretty hyped.

[video=youtube;aqQ0fNy0KZU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqQ0fNy0KZU[/video]

 

[Shilka]

I already pre-ordered this one

And yeah, this game is already being described as 'what simcity should have been'.
Was actually preparing a post about this one already, I'll hit you up with a bunch of technicalities soon...

 

[Kenadian]

I talked a few people into buying SimCity which not only made me feel guilty for doing so but also stupid for supporting EA. If you've ever wondered why I hate them so much this is one of the bigger reasons.

I'd love to play this game because it does look awesome! I LOVE the fact it's being touted as "What Sim City should have been", great marketing!!!

I'll let you guys be the judge and buy based off your feedback but I'm not pre-purchasing that's for sure.

 

[Daunt]

Yeah my fiance and I both were so excited for sim city and man was it terrible. I was part of that launch fiasco. But even getting past that, the game itself was an incredible dud... It's actually the reason why when my fiance was excited for the sims 4 (she owns all the past sims and expansions basically) she waited, tried it out, then decided to skip it. Another EA franchise that went back multiple steps...

Thanks for posting this!! There's hope! I'm hoping the new Roller coaster tycoon is also going to be awesome!

 

[Daunt]

P.S. This is exactly the sort of thing we should be showcasing on the blog, even for a small write up. Spreading the word or showing off games someone might not know are out there.

 

[JohnnyK]

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2x4mf9/we_are_colossal_order_the_team_behind_cities/

 

[Kenadian]

P.S. This is exactly the sort of thing we should be showcasing on the blog, even for a small write up. Spreading the word or showing off games someone might not know are out there.

Have at 'er

 

[Kitlope]

Might have to give this a go, just about time to buy a new gaming laptop.

 

[Shilka]

This game sure has a lot of pro's over Simcity, I'll name a few;

• A lot more surface area to build on; Simcity city maps are 4 sq. km. In City Skylines a map consists of 25 squares of 4 sq. km (+ additional borders that can't be built upon). You start with one square, then according to population growth you get granted additional squares, that you can pick yourself adjacent to your existing one(s), up to 9 squares, so a city map is 36 sq km at it's fullest. However, modding maps allows for using all 25 tiles (100 sq km). Keep in mind though that 9 tiles is the optimal limit for recommended specs, so if you mod for more tiles you need a beefy pc, or keep building density down.
• A lot more realistic traffic. Where in Simcity traffic races by, you have realistic traffic flow now, including all problems that might arise from that. The experience of the devs with previous city games shows in for example making bus routes etc.
• More road options, multilane options, elevated roads, pedestrian walkways and beautified roads but especially one way traffic, allowing for making complex interchanges and allowing for a deep design of traffic flow. Also, you can change any of the pre-existing highways when they are within your city tiles. Add to that that you can upgrade roads to wider types without manually demolishing first. Widening a road will demolish existing development, yet the zoning will stay triggering new development instantly again.
• More visual clues, next to the realistic traffic you will also see the effct of pullotion, where heavy pollution will discolor grass, and even kill off trees making them lose their leaves, as well as your sewers turning rivers into sh*trivers. High winds are visible in treemovement.
• More data available, for example, citizens will age, have children and there are several age groups (children, teen young adult, adult, senior), with their own types of education, preferences etc. People will also move to a larger house when they get children, gather wealth etc.
• Dynamic hydrophysics; water actually flows from high to low. In the editor you can place watersources, basicly the spring of a river, and water will flow down naturally or through riverbeds you manually created beforehand. Wastewater will flow down with the river, and you also have a dam available to be placed in rivers (make sure not to flood your town in the process though). Strength of watercurrents will be automatically calculated, waterfalls are also possible.
• Beautification micromanagement; next to placing existing parks, you can also plop down loose props, ranging from sidewalk texture to lose streetlights, trees and benches. great for filling in those spaces inbetween buildings.
• Ingame editor where you can make your own park lots using the ingame props. There also will be several mod support programs like map editor, lot editor, building importer, as wel as steam workshop to get other people's creations.
• Districts; you can assign districts, check data per districts, and also assign policies to certain districts only (policies can be set city wide too though), allowing for more micromanagement.
• You can rename everything, from districts to bussinesses to people to pigs on a farm.
• Range of services depends on infrastructure. You're fire station will have better coverage when placed next to a 6 lane road then when placed in a small rural road area.

There are also some limits and cons;

• The maximum of inhabitants is one million people. Keep in mind though that every citizen is fully simulated, not only datawise (age/education etc), but also visually, every one in your city can be seen leaving their house, and take their car/bus/subway/train/plane to work/shopping/leasure etc and back again, or go on foot. They even sometimes have to park further down the area when all nearby parking spots are taken up near their home.
• No trams, there is subway/metro though. (next to busses/rail/trains and regular traffic)
• No tunnels, but devs confirmed they will work on these later, (wether as patch or dlc I'm not sure)
• As far as I've read there are currently no disasters/events. Wether this is bad or good I'll leave up to you. Might be worked upon later.
• The maximum size for zoned lots is 4x4 tiles. This looks a bit odd at times to see a 1 family suburban house take up as much space as a huge residential tower. Not uncommon in city builders though.
• Somewhat cartoonish style. Might not be a problem for some, and to counteract, there are 3 building styles available (can't be changed mid-map though)
• No day/night cycle, no weather.
• No regions. The size of cities makes up for this though, and surplus goods can be exported, and stuff like resources (oil etc.) can be imported from the 'outside'.
• No multiplayer

Release date: March 10 2015


System requirements:

Minimum:

• OS: Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.0GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+, 3.2GHz
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: nVIDIA GeForce GTX 260, 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD 5670, 512 MB
• DirectX: Version 9.0c
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Hard Drive: 4 GB available space

Recommended:

• OS: Microsoft Windows 7/8 (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-3470, 3.20GHz or AMD FX-6300, 3.5Ghz
• Memory: 6 GB RAM
• Graphics: nVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, 2 GB or AMD Radeon HD 7870, 2 GB
• DirectX: Version 11
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Hard Drive: 4 GB available space

 

[Daunt]

Great overview shilka. You had me at one lane roads. Amazing sim city didn't support that....

I think not having a day night cycle is a good thing. Kinda. Simcity got to be too... unrealistic with its cycles and such. Like it was difficult to simulate rush hour when it lasted no more than a few seconds or so... then again I'm not sure how this will simulate rush hour when there are no hours... and quite frankly I am not sure what the point of traffic would be if it doesn't simulate work hours and such.

Still very excited.

 

[Shilka]

Couple of screenshots to sweeten the pot:

 

[Shilka]

Press embargo has been lifted, so lots of 'press' streaming the game on twitch now for those of you interested:
http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Cities: Skylines

 

[Peeble]

I just got my press copy, I'll be streaming the game tomorrow if anyone's interested: http://www.twitch.tv/peebletheory

 

[Shilka]

Awesome! I'll see if I can catch you stream, because watching some of the other people stream makes me cringe at times, lol.

 

[Peeble]

Awesome! I'll see if I can catch you stream, because watching some of the other people stream makes me cringe at times, lol.

I've put about 4 hours in and I don't think I'll be much better

 

[Shilka]

Well, at least you've played a city builder before ( I assume)... I've seen streams where 'the rpg guy' plays the game, and his road systems looked like someone juggled a bowl of spaghetti, lol. Most of the youtubers aren't doing much better, I'd like having their saved games as a 'fix this city' scenario
Let us know when you start streaming!

 

[little P]

I just got my press copy, I'll be streaming the game tomorrow if anyone's interested: http://www.twitch.tv/peebletheory

Nice, I'll be tuning in

 

[Peeble]

Going live!

 

[little P]

Groovy t00ns *wiggle dances*

 

[Shilka]

That was a fun stream, liked how your city suddenly choked in its own success when the roads went clogged, lol.