SC4 Devotion Forum Archives

Other City-Building Games => Cities: Skylines => Topic started by: Tarkus on August 14, 2014, 03:31:42 PM

Title: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Tarkus on August 14, 2014, 03:31:42 PM
Paradox Interactive, the Swedish game company behind the Cities in Motion series, announced today at Gamescom that they're making a full-bore city simulator, entitled Cities: Skylines.

The website is here (http://www.citiesskylines.com), and they've posted a preview video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxfeBpagvQw), which makes some not-so-subtle jabs at the new SimCity.

http://youtube.com/v/lxfeBpagvQw

I haven't played CiM or CiM2, but I've heard generally good things about them, and the fact that they aren't going off the deep end with multiplayer stuff like Monte Cristo and later EA suggests that they're focused on getting a good, solid game in place.  The video states that it's of the game in alpha state . . . it looks interesting.  I'll be following this one closely.

-Alex
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Durfsurn on August 14, 2014, 03:40:22 PM
Woah that thumbnail! I don't have time to watch it now but that gets me intrigued. Thanks for posting this or I probably would have missed it!

-Billy

[More detailed reply to come]
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on August 14, 2014, 04:21:17 PM
I've got CIM1 and CIM2, I tend to build cities and play in CIM1 as my computer struggles a bit with CIM2, but if they do half as good a job as they did with CIM1 and CIM2 then its going to be   &dance

and I'm going to need a new computer to play it.

()stsfd()   :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: CahosRahneVeloza on August 14, 2014, 06:23:43 PM
Woah...  :o

This looks like a souped up & improved version of Cities XL.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Tarkus on August 14, 2014, 10:45:48 PM
Also, from the information floating around, apparently, the city tile is 38km x 38km (1444 sq. km).  For non-metric folks (like myself), 38km = 23.56 miles (~555 sq. mi.), and equivalent to a 9.5 x 9.5 large tile region (same area as about 90 large city tiles) in SC4.  I could actually fit most of the county I live in within that area.  Apparently, they're taking a simulation approach more akin to SC4, rather than attempting to duplicate GlassBox, which explains why they're able to go so large.

-Alex
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: CasperVg on August 14, 2014, 11:33:13 PM
Yep, call me hyped. CIM1 and CIM2 were/are both pretty great games, and if they use the same approach for Skylines, it should be a blast.

They say Skylines will be moddable (in the video there's "mod and share online") but I am unsure how far you'll be able to go with that, as CIM1 and CIM2 are notoriously hard/impossible to mod.

For CIM2, basically the only mods that exist are custom maps (which can be created with an in-game editor). Hopefully they'll do a better job on moddability this time (they said moddability was hard because of the game engine (Unity), but then again games like Kerbal Space Program are also made in Unity and are very moddable)
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: cmdp123789 on August 14, 2014, 11:35:42 PM
At the website I read that you can unlock city tiles to expand your city... What does that mean? If this game is moddable.. We could be watching at the real successor of sc4..
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Tarkus on August 15, 2014, 12:00:29 AM
Quote from: cmdp123789 on August 14, 2014, 11:35:42 PM
At the website I read that you can unlock city tiles to expand your city... What does that mean? If this game is moddable.. We could be watching at the real successor of sc4..

Annexation, perhaps?  I actually suggested that to Maxis once it became clear what the situation was with regions and city tiles with SC13.  That actually could have worked well with their multiplayer design (imagine fighting your neighbors to claim certain tracts of land as part of your city).  Obviously, they didn't bite, but perhaps Paradox will--that'd be pretty amazing.

-Alex
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: vortext on August 15, 2014, 01:58:19 AM
Here's an imgur album (http://imgur.com/a/pJgsX) with screenshots, it looks very nice. Also, from their website (https://www.paradoxplaza.com/cities-skylines?___store=eu):

Quote
Main features:
  • City policies: Set policies to guide how the city and districts develop over the course of your playthrough.
  • City districts: Personalize city districts with names of your choice for variety and personality.
  • Road building and zoning
  • Unlock buildings and services
  • Taxation: Fine-tuning the city budget and services and setting tax rates to different residential, commercial and industrial levels and controlling what kind of areas are more likely to spawn in the zoned areas
  • Public transportation: Build transport networks throughout the city with buses and metros
  • Outside connections: Make industry and commercial districts flourish with new customers in the neighboring cities
  • Wonders: the ultimate end-game content that the players strive towards
  • Huge maps: Unlock new map tiles with unique possibilities to expand the city
  • Water flow simulation: Add new challenges to water services.
  • Polished visual style and core gameplay
  • Modding tools: Built in feature designed to encourage creative pursuits.


Note the last point there, Casper.  ;)

All in all this is kinda how I imagined the new Simcity to be.  ::) Consider me stoked, too. Might actually give this a try!
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: CasperVg on August 15, 2014, 02:52:21 AM
Quote from: vortext on August 15, 2014, 01:58:19 AM
Quote
  • Modding tools: Built in feature designed to encourage creative pursuits.

Ah, I overlooked that. Sounds great - consider me even more hyped.. :D
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: vortext on August 15, 2014, 05:23:53 AM
Done some more sleuthing. Apparently the 38km square map size was mentioned in a live stream by Paradox (http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/2dkgcv/paradox_interactive_just_announced_a_new_city/cjqedn1). Also, talking about not-so-subtle jabs at the new SimCity.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FTNpm9rS.jpg&hash=9a3e8cec165c2154b0843dc35fa9c089ce76c157)

:D
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: seraf on August 15, 2014, 05:38:18 AM
*watching video* 0:50, what a nightmare  :o


All in all, it looks like another game for transport enthusiasts rather than for those who like to build detailed cities with old and traditional architecture :(
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Bipin on August 15, 2014, 07:29:40 AM
If modding constitutes the ability to import objects from 3dsMax or similar programs, I will mail myself to Paradox Interactive's offices in Sweden, pop out of a box, and proceed to hug everyone.   &apls

EDIT: The chances of those aforementioned modding possibilities are becoming ever more probable. See for yourself:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftardis1.tinygrab.com%2Fgrabs%2F8afcd2507687a3c0eb261f9b7b097b20d43df03461.png&hash=cd7e194d1c47c550c43f5158803178c7a2071293)

I don't know about you, but "extensive" sounds pretty good to me. I can't wait for more details!
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on August 15, 2014, 12:59:49 PM
The forums have just opened for business

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?859-Cities-Skylines&s=f5cb1b85d65de49c22313967d1ad7023

:thumbsup:
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: APSMS on August 15, 2014, 11:30:07 PM
Between this and Citybound (over at Simtropolis), I'm very excited indeed.

Given the prices of the CiM games, it looks like this won't break the bank to get, either. I'm glad some people are seriously considering a serious modern city Sim building game
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: FrankU on August 16, 2014, 03:34:26 AM
Looks interesting for sure!
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: vortext on August 16, 2014, 05:04:11 AM
Quote from: seraf on August 15, 2014, 05:38:18 AM
All in all, it looks like another game for transport enthusiasts rather than for those who like to build detailed cities with old and traditional architecture :(

Keep in mind vanilla SC4 is skewed towards US cities and even than West Coast predominantly (ugh, those palms. . ). It really depends on Paradox' understanding of 'extensive' modding. And in that regard the new SimCity also came with the promise of modding capabilities, too bad pretty much everything of interest was taken off limits beforehand. So. . . we'll just have to wait and see.

That said, I already like the graphics of Cities a lot better.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: seraf on August 16, 2014, 05:47:20 AM
Quote from: vortext on August 16, 2014, 05:04:11 AM
Quote from: seraf on August 15, 2014, 05:38:18 AM
All in all, it looks like another game for transport enthusiasts rather than for those who like to build detailed cities with old and traditional architecture :(

Keep in mind vanilla SC4 is skewed towards US cities and even than West Coast predominantly (ugh, those palms. . ). It really depends on Paradox' understanding of 'extensive' modding. And in that regard the new SimCity also came with the promise of modding capabilities, too bad pretty much everything of interest was taken off limits beforehand. So. . . we'll just have to wait and see.

That said, I already like the graphics of Cities a lot better.

Oh I know that SC4 without CC too doesn't have much to offer, but what I meant was that that with full 3D we can't expect ornate and elaborately decorated buildings. If you look closely you won't see any building that isn't rather easy box with roof or another primitive figure. And I somehow doubt it will change much. I'm not saying it will be a bad game, don't get me wrong. But it probably won't be something that will replace SC4 for me. But like what you said: we'll just have to wait and see.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: feyss on August 16, 2014, 06:15:08 AM
First, thanks for sharing this.  :thumbsup:

The video looks very attractive... but I will play the pessimist guy here: It's not the first time I hear about a city builder project that looks really good on pictures and videos which become totally disappointing when it is released (like the last Sim City or Cities XL...). So I prefer to be carefully this time and avoid false expectations.

Wait & See  :)
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Bipin on August 16, 2014, 07:26:33 AM
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftardis1.tinygrab.com%2Fgrabs%2F8afcd25076b3b71454fa1e8914f1590c5c48a9f0dc.png&hash=12b0e860a5276c2e3b764ce4a3c67dcdf82d3873)

Sounds like some good progress to me!
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: cmdp123789 on August 16, 2014, 09:18:00 AM
Question is.. Wouldn't it be nice if we could somehow take the stuff we already have uploaded and re export it into this new game?

If the game is as moddable as they say, and the map is that big.. I'm pretty sure simcity 2013 won't even appear in the city building category anymore...

I have so much expectation for this..!
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Bipin on August 16, 2014, 10:19:12 AM
Quote from: cmdp123789 on August 16, 2014, 09:18:00 AM
Question is.. Wouldn't it be nice if we could somehow take the stuff we already have uploaded and re export it into this new game?

If you've still got the 3D model for the BAT, that'd definitely be a possibility.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on August 16, 2014, 11:29:51 AM

From memory from a discussion I read on modding in CIM1, CIM1 had solved some of its problems on being able to run a big city by miniaturizing the models used in the game, so if you had a normal sized model that you wanted to include in the game you had to shrink the model down to 1/100 of its original size 
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: xannepan on August 16, 2014, 10:23:17 PM
Looking forward for this game (and keeping my fingers crossed). I bought CIM2, partly because I wanted to support paradox and seeing the potential for itmto become a real city simulation game.

I didn't play it that much mostly because transit simulators are not really my thing. That will definitely change if they make a great city simulator with modding support from the start.

Things I liked and didn't like of CIM:
Likes:
- Graphics, realistics (although the colorscheme could be a bit less bland and faded...). No silly childish comic-like maxis buildings.
- transportation graphics (trains, buses, people etc) are really fantastic. It is really great to see a metro stop and load/unload lots of passengers, and see the passengers appearing on the street level again... Fantastic.
- The curve-smoothness and flexibility of laying out road, rails, bridges is AWESOME.
- The micromanagment, up to the level of being able to set bus time-tables (optionally)

Dislikes:
- The user interface.. Hope they invest in that part for the city simulator.
- Never got used to their mouse/keyboard navigation (scroll, zooming, rotating). It is not too bad, but with just a few minor improvements they could be excellent.
- the loading screen... Sounds silly, but I just hated the silly screenshot they display when loading a city...
- the streets look a bit empty and too clean.



I am happy about their approach on the simulator side (although still much is unknown). Maxis made a great conceptual mistake on that part. As a physicist I always compare it to simulating a gas cloud. You don't have to simulate the behaviour of each individual molecule to simulate the properties of a gas cloud.

-Alx








Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Terring7 on August 17, 2014, 12:06:27 PM
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.kym-cdn.com%2Fphotos%2Fimages%2Foriginal%2F000%2F475%2F163%2F1a2.gif&hash=b05ff0ed26f1bbd53b5435cdc1b6a913e603c2e5)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi0.kym-cdn.com%2Fphotos%2Fimages%2Foriginal%2F000%2F718%2F710%2F400.gif&hash=375d14c171e0942c84332e6300c083937979aca7)
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: trabman11 on August 17, 2014, 08:26:25 PM
Well, get ready NAM team ( and other SC4 modders, lotter, batters, and hatters)....destiny has arrived!  :D
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: xannepan on August 19, 2014, 10:38:48 PM
Quote from: Tarkus on August 14, 2014, 10:45:48 PM
Also, from the information floating around, apparently, the city tile is 38km x 38km (1444 sq. km).  For non-metric folks (like myself), 38km = 23.56 miles (~555 sq. mi.), and equivalent to a 9.5 x 9.5 large tile region (same area as about 90 large city tiles) in SC4.  I could actually fit most of the county I live in within that area.  Apparently, they're taking a simulation approach more akin to SC4, rather than attempting to duplicate GlassBox, which explains why they're able to go so large.

-Alex

I don't think it is a 38 x 38 km map size, but a 36 km^2 map size (6x6km)
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Tarkus on August 20, 2014, 01:04:09 AM
That's certainly possible.  The original quotation said 38x38, but something closer to 6x6 sounds more plausible.

-Alex
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Terring7 on August 20, 2014, 02:47:56 AM
Still 6x6 is even larger than the 4x4 tiles of SC4.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on August 20, 2014, 03:25:23 AM
This question was asked over at the Paradox site, and the answer was

QuoteIt's 36 square km, but not necessarily in a 6x6km square. Expansion options are a bit more open

The expansion bit sounds interesting   :)
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: xannepan on August 20, 2014, 09:49:34 AM
I'd be happy with 6x6 km indeed already :)
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: bap on August 20, 2014, 02:54:34 PM
From what I understood at Paradox site, their city region is a 10x10 km square map (100 sq. km) divided into a 5x5 grid of city tiles, each one with 2x2 km wide (same of a medium sized city tile in SC4). The user can choose to play on up to 9 of these 25 tiles. This makes 9/25=0.36, or 36 sq. km as the added size of a user's city "region". This does not need to be a square. The equivalent 36 sq. km area is quite small. In comparison to SC4, it is the same of having a region made of only a large city tile with a single line of medium city tiles on two of its sides. In terms of real world, you would not be able to put even the central region of a city of the size of Paris inside your Paradox region map (straight line from just Bois de Vincennes to Bois de Boulogne is about 14 km). I hope "expansion" means at least being able to play on all 25 city tiles in the region. But even that is small compared to several regions I see people playing in SC4.  :(
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: NCGAIO on August 20, 2014, 03:45:42 PM



AMA announcement - - http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?796367-Reddit-AMA-tomorrow-(20th)-at-21-00-CET&s=2767b93b464d5dd3eb360c3be8418905 (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?796367-Reddit-AMA-tomorrow-(20th)-at-21-00-CET&s=2767b93b464d5dd3eb360c3be8418905)



Recent new thread -  - http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2e3uku/we_are_colossal_order_paradox_interactive_the/ (http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2e3uku/we_are_colossal_order_paradox_interactive_the/)


.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Haljackey on August 20, 2014, 07:32:41 PM
The Reddit AMA in a nutshell




**I know probably can't get specifics, but would you describe this as a more expansive or larger area to build a city on than the (very restricted) tiny room in simcity 2013? I often find that game revolves around tearing down one thing to fix something and causing another problem in the process because of the small room.**


It's a lot bigger. About 36km2. We've optimized the game for cities of that size. BUT - The sweetest feature is that we'll have an option where you can uncouple the limitation and go bigger. but that's up to you and your hardware :)

**Will it feature regions like in SimCity?**

Nope. It's an interesting concept/feature if done correctly though. But we don't expect you to depend on other players/cities in order to build a big sweet city.

There are no regions, but map tiles have attributes like a possibility for a certain outside connection (seaside for harbor, train tracks for train connection) and natural resources. So selecting map tiles to expand to lets you choose what kind of a city you want to play.

**Are there "neighbor" AI cities that offer/request utilities?**

There is an outside world, but it just buys any surplus your city produces and offers resources and goods if your city needs something. To get the highest tax income your city would produce everything itself, but the outside world is there to help you.

**So, it will be like other titles, where you develop just one big city? Or there are districts, or something like that?**


There are districts that you can set yourself and set different policies in the districts to make them be different from each other.

**Will there be any agricultural building/zoning options? If I wanted to make a small town with farm land surrounding it, would it be possible?**

Totally possible. Agriculture is in the game.

**This question is regarding how you plan on making cities feel like they are living in breathing. For example, in SC4, the NIMBY/YIMBY system was pretty powerful and made the city feel alive. For example, you could make buildings historical, or buildings would become abandoned if there were too many NIMBY's in the area, or the economy was bad. Furthermore, streetscaping would change based upon the wealth level of the neighborhood. I realize this is a somewhat complicated question, but what mechanics do you have in place to make cities in this game feel like they are living and breathing?**

Buildings level up, becoming more fancy. There's also low density zones for making places look more like suburbs and high density for creating a city center. It is possible to for example have an area of low level high density buildings that can look like a ghetto next to a city center of high level high density buildings. Abandoned buildings are there, and you can leave burned down buildings on the map if you like.
There are also little things, like if garbage collection facilities are overburdened, the buildings start to pile full trash cans on the curb. Or the fact that when the ground gets polluted around an industrial area, the trees on the ground become dried up and brown.
We really want the world to feel alive and are making many neat details to tell you who lives where and how they are doing!

Cities is built on Unity in the same way as CiM2

**So when you say hardcore, how hardcore are we talking? What kinds of things can we expect that will make this a truly immersive sim in terms of city building and city feel?**

Somewhere between SC4 and Cities XL? We don't want to go overboard and Dwarf Fortress it - but still allow depth. We expect modders to do really, really hardcore stuff. Depending on what people ask for we're shift post release content/feature in that direction. We are aiming to make a game that is easy to learn but has depth for players who really want to delve deep into optimizing the city. It's not so much the difficulty of the game, but the amount of things you can tweak in your city.

**As Cities Skylines follows Cities in Motion, how extensive will the transit infrastructure options be? E.g. dirt roads, streets, roads, one-way roads, avenues, highways, underground/elevated roads, trains, subways, monorails, maglev, ferries, helipads, various sized airports, etc...**

The only ones we don't currently have from your list are underground roads, monorails, maglec, helicopters and airport sizes, so I think we have a pretty nice amount of options! The different road types are very flexible and work for different things, I made a gorgeous and well working roundabout yesterday using the highway road type.

**Is there a option of naming and renaming streets? (at best, given evry a estate a number/adress - maybe automatically?**

At the moment there no street names planned. City districts can be created and named, and each building has a name automatically generated.

**Can you please explain a bit more what you mean with modding support? Will we (the community) be able to create and load own 3D-Models?**

Yes, actually, with specially designed tools :) We will reveal a bit more on the exact nature of the modding tools later, they are still in development. So, we are looking into that, but here is also where we really hope the community will go at it. The game will ship (according to plan) with built-in tools to import 3d objects, and to be able to share them easily on Steam Workshop.

**Will there be landmarks (Ie famous like the Statute of Liberty or Eiffel Tower)?**

What kind of city builder would it be if we didn't?

**Will there different road types (american, german, english etc) just like in City xl?**

We don't have roads divided by geographical location, but there is a nice selection of roads, like decorated versions with lower noise pollution of each type, highways and special highway ramps.

**How much will the game cost or what price range are you aiming for?**

We're looking at starting at $29.99 - that's HALF of some other management games. But we'll likely have some kind of Digital deluxe edition, or even a super collectors edition (if there's interest) - is there? No Early access. It'll be around $29.99 - half of some other management games ;)

**This question is regarding parks. I think giving players robust tools for placing parks really can add realism to a city. For example, fountains, plazas, zoos, bike paths, and trails are typically found in real life cities. Will this game offer players multiple types of parks?**

Yes! We are working on a tool that actually lets you create unique parks with the game assets and place those. There are also pre-made parks, naturally. We want to give the player room to be creative with parks, just having the same few types is too boring!

**Are there plans to generate in-game maps using external map data (e.g. OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, etc)? Most of us love the idea of running our own home towns.**

As the basic goal in the game is to build a city we haven't planned that you could generate in game maps (road networks etc). However with the map editor you'll be able to create a landscape of your choosing to start building the city on. Importing a height map makes the landscape pretty realistic starting point.

**Would someone who was bored with Sim City a long time ago actually enjoy this game?**

For the record. I played and enjoyed the latest Sim City about 6 hours. We're building a game you can play for 600 hours.

**Will the game have regions like SimCity 4 and what will be the maximum city size?**

The map consists of tiles. Each tile is 2 km x 2 km and one city can have nine of those. You get to choose the tiles from 25 tiles on the map. The area is all seamless so you can have a pretty huge city! There are no regions, but there is a world outside the map that buys excess goods and ships resources if your city needs something.T he maximum city size is 9 map tiles, one map tile is 2km x 2km. You start with the first one and then get to unlock more land for your city.

**Will there be other types of transport than metro and buses? In DLC?**

When the game comes out there will be airplanes, trains and ships for outside connections. Currently buses and metros are only planned for inner city transport, because we felt having two options for transport on the roads might be a bit too much. Maybe later then, I love trams ;D

**Will there be beautification options for roads? i.e. having a garden along the middle of an avenue, having a street lined with trees, etc...**

Yes, there will be plenty of options for different road types.

**Will there be any future tech within Cities Skylines? E.g. fusion/microwave power plants, fully automated cars, personal air cars, arcologies, etc...**

The game timeline lets you go a little bit into the future, so there are plausible inventions like a fusion power plant.

**Coming from a transport focused playstyle, have you decided on whether you'll be keeping the same depth there? Or will you be making sure that players don't have to play a whole game (and spend their time managing it) within this game?**

Transportation is made lighter and more streamlined, since Skylines in not about it but rather the cities. We do have many options, like planes, trains, metro and buses, but you don't have to go to ticket prices or setting schedules.

**Will there be hand-made buildings or they will be procedurally generated?**

The buildings are handmade with love from our talented artists!

**Will it be possible for citizens from one town travel to another for work? So you could have a suburban area in one zone and people will commute to work in the main metropolitan city in another?
Will be there be a way to fill in oddly shaped gaps between buildings/roads with grass or pavement? I loved this feature in Cities XL.
Is building stuff zone-based (like Sim City), or you choose what to build and where (like Tropico), or somewhere in between?
The trailer looks fairly grid-based. Will you be able to rotate buildings/zones, and how flexible is rotating (ie: can rotate 45ยบ like in Tropico, or free rotate)
Take your time with the game and make it the best city sim ever, I'm looking forward to it!**

Lets see if I can answer all of these! Citizens work only inside your city. But with the large map size you can have smaller cities on the same map. I like to do a suburb, then a city center and a industrial area separately. People move around the map and you just have to make sure to have good highway connections between your towns. You can place decoration items freely. We want to help fill the odd gaps, so our grid system is made to not create many gaps and the decoration tools that are still being worked on will help with fixing the few there will be.
Building is zone based, except for city services. Basically you mark zones for residential area, commercial area, industrial area and office area, and place things like hospitals, schools and police stations yourself. Building roads creates grid. The roads themselves are not ties to a grid, so you can place the roads in any way you want, including curved, and plop buildings next to them. Thank you, we are very proud of the game and want to make it great!

**Currently, There're no Linux/SteamOS in the system requirements on the game's Steam page. Will these operating systems be supported at launch (or later)?**

Linux/OSX will be supported!

There's many different road types: small, large, decorated version of each, highway, highway with noise barriers, gravel road... Transportation is streamlined from CiM 2, so the tool for making lines is easier and faster to use and no timetables or ticket prices need to be set. The timetable depends on how much budget you give to transportation: the depots get the amount of vehicles they can with the money and divide the vehicles to lines based on line length. You get income from tickets.

**How extensive and detailed will the taxation/ordinances/policies go?

I know it sounds like a weird question, but the big things that SC2013 and SCS needed was the schtuff that SC3000 and SC4 love to use: charts and graphs.**

Taxation and budget are all there, how much you want to fine tune it is a bit up to the player. Policies is something we are really sinking our teeth into, and hope to be able to deliver toons, from the really important like industrial policies, to the more mundane like pet ban.

**In Cities in Motion 2 you employ a brush style to determine fare zones - will this concept be implemented in Cities:Skylines? In particular for zoning, parks/greenspace, and identifying cultural / business centers?**

Yeah, this is done via the district tool where you can zone your city in different districts and set local policies and specialisations.

**I've never played any of your city games, although I've thought about it quite a bit and I really enjoyed SimCity even though lots of people hated it. Will I love this game? Can you explain some of the similarities and differences between this and SimCity?**

You are talking about the newest SimCity, right? Skylines takes inspiration from earlier SimCity games, so it's a bit less casual than the newest one and has more micromanagement, thought some of the optimization is optional so player who just enjoy building can play it "lightly", without going into all the details.

**Will it incorporate some kind of CiM public transport system or will it be more in the line of 'place bus stops in places and buses find their own routes'?**

The player is allowed to make bus lines by placing drops and drawing lines, but the vehicles go to the lines automatically from their depots.

**Are buildings dependent on lots (a polygon) or do they grow dynamically based on zoning? If dynamic, can roads expand lanes and not require the building to be destroyed?**

Buildings do have lots, but there are buildings of all lot sizes so there won't be any weird looking empty space left. If you upgrade or downgrade an existing road, the zoning is preserved but if the road size changes, buildings are automatically destroyed (only zoned buildings! You can't accidentally destroy for example a hospital) and new ones spawn.




I'll be watching this one. Looks like a mash-up of all kinds of city builders and simulators out there. Could be awesome.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: figui on August 20, 2014, 09:54:09 PM
i'll be looking for more news about this promising game!
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: xannepan on August 20, 2014, 10:08:26 PM
I took part in the AMA. I must say I am really looking forward to this game!

Besides Halljackey's overview there is a lot more information on Reddit.
Some things to really look forward to, and some (slight) dissapointments, and some wait-and-see. For example:
There won't be any day-night cycle, but it is not clear if that also implies no night view mode that you could manually switch.

There won't be any weather and climate options from start. (Hinting towards and expansion pack)

They are still looking into wall-2-wall building placement. (Would be my biggest dissapointment if there was none)

They seem to be working on river/seawalls

Limited terraforming in game, but there will be a map editor

Nature beautification is on their agenda, ponds, waterfalls, streams and lots of different trees are there. They were excitee about my suggestion to add animals and ambient sounds.

No trams from start (DLC)

36km^2 regular map size, but unrestricted depending on your hardware.
Single city tiles are 2x2 km^2 but as you play, other (including direclty neighbouring) tiles (max 25) will be unlocked, so you can make a huge city without seams. Sounds a great approach to me.

3D Building models are based on FBX Format. They consider bringing out the detailed specs for custom content a bit before release.


Well that's all i can remember for now.
AMA is still open today by the way

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2e3uku/we_are_colossal_order_paradox_interactive_the/?sort=top







Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on August 21, 2014, 03:31:13 AM
Quote from: xannepan on August 20, 2014, 10:08:26 PM
I took part in the AMA. I must say I am really looking forward to this game!...

I saw your posts   :thumbsup:  must admit if it had been any other software company making a new city builder game I'd be taking everything they say with a grain of salt, but I was on their forums when they were designing CIM1 and then again for CIM2 and I've got to admit I have a lot of confidence that whatever they come up with is going to be great, may not be quite what we were dreaming of, but we will be able to build cities

()stsfd()
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: noahclem on August 21, 2014, 05:12:32 AM
This game looks more and more exciting! My interest is definitely piqued.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: FrankU on August 21, 2014, 05:16:31 AM
Yes, promising indeed.

One question: what about sea levels? Will it be possible to have several water levels at the same time? Lowest one for sea, higher ones for canals, rivers, lakes? And waterfalls in between?
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: sunv123 on August 21, 2014, 05:55:26 AM
The amount of hard work going into the game and making it as enjoyable as possible is mind-blowing. :o I'll be watching and by the way it's going right now, it'll be a must-get on my list.

Quote**Would someone who was bored with Sim City a long time ago actually enjoy this game?**

For the record. I played and enjoyed the latest Sim City about 6 hours. We're building a game you can play for 600 hours.
:D
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: FrankU on August 21, 2014, 07:10:50 AM
Quote from: sunv123 on August 21, 2014, 05:55:26 AM
The amount of hard work going into the game and making it as enjoyable as possible is mind-blowing. :o I'll be watching and by the way it's going right now, it'll be a must-get on my list.

Quote**Would someone who was bored with Sim City a long time ago actually enjoy this game?**

For the record. I played and enjoyed the latest Sim City about 6 hours. We're building a game you can play for 600 hours.
:D

Oh, yeah, I read that.
I have been playing SC4 for at least 6000 hours, so there is still a challenge for them!   :D
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Bipin on August 21, 2014, 11:14:06 AM
I'm really excited with how modding will be handled in this game. I had asked Paradox/CO staff on a few occasions about modding. Their answers have basically surmised to a wide array of aspects can be changed, and there will be two or three tools available to facilitate this, should the game stay on schedule. The first tool is, as Xannepan had said, a FBX importer for externally created 3D assets. The response was slightly confusing, but it sounds like there will also be a tool for creating assets in-game, if you aren't comfortable with 3D modeling in Google ketchup, Maya, 3dsMax, Blender etc. Nonetheless, there will at least be a tool for creating park assets in game. It seems like you'll be able to design a layout for a park in this tool using pre-made and probably imported assets too. This predefined layout will then be used as blueprints to fill whichever areas you demarcate as green-space. The third tool will be for creating mods that don't have to do with 3D assets; (ie. money mods, terrain texture mods, not houses and offices). EDIT: There will also be a map editor.

Overall, this is very exciting. I think we've already been promised/seen evidence of more of our wishes being implemented at this stage than we ever did before Sim City 2013's release.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on September 05, 2014, 02:14:14 PM

Interesting article in Eurogamer entitled "Cities: Skyline is out to satisfy where SimCity couldn't"

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-09-04-cities-skyline-is-out-to-satisfy-where-simcity-couldnt

()stsfd()
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on September 19, 2014, 02:38:55 PM
Great Interview with Mariina Hallikainen CEO of Colossal Order   ()stsfd()

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-F-vj2LVT8
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: joshua43214 on September 19, 2014, 05:23:49 PM
It certainly looks promising.
Shame they went with 3d rendering though, I would probably be happier with 6 zoom levels and 8 viewpoints, similar to SC4's setup.

It will also be interesting to see how the building leveling system actually works out for modders. I doubt porting all the fine work from the LEX will really be as simple as they are implying because of it.
No in game terraforming is a bit of a game breaker for me as well. Some of their screen shots make me think "you guys need a slope mod, and some terrain work."

I found it rather interested how they carefully avoiding any comparison to SC4. I did the SC2013 Beta, and felt no need to even check to see if the game got improved by modders later. It was clear that game had failed out of the concept box. CS seems to have the right concepts. Hopefully it ends up well implemented.

I expect I will buy it just to encourage them and others to keep trying.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on September 25, 2014, 04:53:20 PM
OMG a waterfall   &dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8PPSeBo_4&feature=em-subs_digest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8PPSeBo_4&feature=em-subs_digest)
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Sim.Rico on September 25, 2014, 05:33:15 PM
Quote from: catty on September 25, 2014, 04:53:20 PM
OMG a waterfall   &dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8PPSeBo_4&feature=em-subs_digest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8PPSeBo_4&feature=em-subs_digest)


WOW! I know what I want for my birffday
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: compdude787 on September 25, 2014, 09:01:48 PM
Quote from: catty on September 25, 2014, 04:53:20 PM
OMG a waterfall   &dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8PPSeBo_4&feature=em-subs_digest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8PPSeBo_4&feature=em-subs_digest)

Those devs have such a sense of humor though!! Either way, it's shaping up to be a really nice-looking game!
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: CahosRahneVeloza on September 26, 2014, 02:28:04 PM
Here's hoping they'd also include a suitable Agricultural component to the game as well. We all don't yearn living in the big city after all :)
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: vester on September 26, 2014, 02:48:58 PM
The stream from Paradox from the other day:
Cities Skylines - Roads, Zoning and Basic Infrastructure (http://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive/c/5183437)
Its starts at 14:36 and ends at ~1:20:00
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on September 26, 2014, 05:03:04 PM
Quote from: CahosRahneVeloza on September 26, 2014, 02:28:04 PM
Here's hoping they'd also include a suitable Agricultural component to the game as well. We all don't yearn living in the big city after all :)

Well they did in CIM1, I had (and still do have) farms all over the place, the pigs and cows were always very law abiding and used to stick to the footpaths when they escaped.

-catty

Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: JoeST on September 27, 2014, 02:09:02 AM
dang, they seem to be doing a great job, I'm liking it more and more
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: art128 on September 27, 2014, 07:59:41 AM
Quote from: JoeST on September 27, 2014, 02:09:02 AM
dang, they seem to be doing a great job, I'm liking it more and more

And I'm in the total opposite. On the paper it looked nice, but the more and more pictures I see makes me think this studio will not get my money.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi39.servimg.com%2Fu%2Ff39%2F17%2F19%2F01%2F77%2Fzukmxf10.jpg&hash=5a55c0824a3e9e10b48c7db98044f399f8d7c991)
source (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?802148-Airports-in-Cities-Skyline&s=25da8e721edb80ef00d0b782b871ca1b)

I'll not even start to say what is wrong with this airport.

And also from what I've seen in videos, it seems the map will be seriously small. It seems the map can be extended like in City life? That sounds good but not enough to make me want this game..  &mmm

Honestly, all I see is a SC13.5 .... Hoping we will be able to fully mod it like for Simcity 4.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: vortext on September 27, 2014, 08:22:58 AM
Quote from: art128 on September 27, 2014, 07:59:41 AM
I'll not even start to say what is wrong with this airport.

What, you don't like trees on the taxi lanes?!  $%Grinno$%
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: joshua43214 on September 27, 2014, 10:06:07 AM
Quote from: vortext on September 27, 2014, 08:22:58 AM

What, you don't like trees on the taxi lanes?!  $%Grinno$%

Lol, I don't like trees that wave back and forth like weeds in a Sponge Bob cartoon, I thought I was going to get motion sick watching them flop around.

I know the game is still in alpha, but I'm with art128, it is looking worse and worse the more I see of it.

There are some things I really like about it, and I will probably still buy the game just to encourage studios to keep working on the genre.

Unless they actually make good on the promise of it being very mod friendly (which I do not believe for a moment), it will just be an upgrade to SC 2013. The game will need to be completely overhauled by modders to not be a cartoony eyesore. But, if they make good on modding, add in-game terraforming (lack of is a deal breaker for me), then this could be pretty awesome.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on September 27, 2014, 10:29:31 AM
Quote from: art128 on September 27, 2014, 07:59:41 AM
...it seems the map will be seriously small. [/s] It seems the map can be extended like in City life? That sounds good but not enough to make me want this game..  &mmm...

According to what I've been reading, the game will ship with a standard map size and if your computer can handle it you can opt to increase your city size by "buying" more land next to your city.

QuoteLol, I don't like trees that wave back and forth like weeds in a Sponge Bob cartoon,

And I'm with joshua43214 on the trees they just look weird when they move.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: wallasey on September 27, 2014, 11:35:06 AM
Bit concerned to see the taxes aren't looking at the building wealths. I think I may be an anomaly due to the fact that I build UK cities with the crampt inner city terraces...then middle class suburbs ect. I control this with the wealth taxation...and that works great!

Don't know how I will be able to continue building my UK inspired cities in Cities: Skylines.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: vester on September 27, 2014, 12:28:39 PM
Quote from: catty on September 27, 2014, 10:29:31 AM
Quote from: joshua43214Lol, I don't like trees that wave back and forth like weeds in a Sponge Bob cartoon,

And I'm with joshua43214 on the trees they just look weird when they move.

The trees are just working models and will not move as much in the final game.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Kimchi-san on September 27, 2014, 03:56:23 PM
Hmm, it looks interesting but I do agree that the games doesn't seem to fit my taste. The no-terraforming is a deal breaker for me as well. I'm personally following Citybound at the moment and I'm leaning towards it at the moment. Too me this looks like a somewhat spin-off but I'll keep following to see if there will be any developments or changes. At the moment I find it hard to believe about the 'mod-friendly' statement as well, but we'll see. I'll wait and watch before I bite the bullet.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on September 30, 2014, 10:16:13 AM
They have posted their first Dev Diary

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?1986-Cities-Skylines-Dev-Diary-1-Roads

Mind you they have a weird sense of humour when it comes to some of the vehicles   :D

EDIT:   ()stsfd()

QuoteRight/Left side traffic
This has been a feature that has been requested from the time when the Earth was still a young planet drifting in space in the early years of the solar system. I am happy to announce that in Cities: Skylines it is possible to determine whether the traffic is right- or left-handed. In Cities: Skylines one of the key points in road building and the behavior of vehicles was to make it possible to change the side of the traffic easily. Instead of complex, hand-crafted animations for public transport vehicles and such all is handled through code which gives a lot more freedom compared to manually animating each vehicle to work with both right- and left-handed traffic.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on October 09, 2014, 01:37:59 PM

Dev Diary 2 on Zoning has been posted

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?2004-Cities-Skylines-Dev-Diary-2-Zoning

Its also been posted here with some questions and answers

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?804803-Cities-Skylines-Dev-Diary-2-Zoning&s=75ee72b89615aa00146669a64a173615

Makes for interesting reading   ()stsfd()
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: joshua43214 on October 09, 2014, 07:22:34 PM
Thanks catty. The folks over there are being much too polite and not asking hard questions lol. It's almost like they are afraid the game will vanish if they ask tough questions.

I actually registered and tossed in my 2c. worth. Hopefully they will respond. They are getting far too much enthusiastic gushing in exchange for being pretty vague about some key details.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on October 10, 2014, 02:14:42 AM

Read your post   &apls

You haven't got an answer yet unfortunately, I must admit when they talk about "leveling up" a building I kind of assumed it would be something like some of the buildings they have in CIM1, with those you have one building that you can plop but when you did each time it would be a different colour and if you looked at the file it contained more than one model of the building each a different colour, I'm guessing you could use the same principle to have the building change to look better or worse ...

that's just a guess and probably completely wrong.

-catty
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on October 19, 2014, 11:01:44 AM
Quote from: joshua43214 on October 09, 2014, 07:22:34 PM
...I actually registered and tossed in my 2c. worth...

Have read the rest of your posts    &apls   its a pity you haven't got an answer from one of the developers ...
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on October 22, 2014, 08:29:19 PM
I've posted this information about farming over at CB, so before I forget I'll post it here as well

;D

QuoteThe spawning system of zoneable buildings (this includes farmlands, too) is designed to work best with lots the size of 4x4 and smaller. This is partly due to the freeform nature of the world and the way the game tries to fill the zoneable areas most efficiently. Therefore having larger spawnable buildings could lead to them spawning rarely due to their size as the game would try to find suitable locations for them to spawn and at the same time make the areas so that there would be as few left-over cells between the different buildings as possible. However, we are talking about the possibility to remove the fences between the different farm plots to make it visually more appealing.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: Nexis4Jersey on November 03, 2014, 03:50:49 AM
I'm watching this game closely.....abit disappointed with the farms hope they expand them.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on November 03, 2014, 09:35:30 AM
Quote from: Nexis4Jersey on November 03, 2014, 03:50:49 AM
.....abit disappointed with the farms hope they expand them.

I think we all are, but at least they are doing farms, animals and also forests   :)

Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: CahosRahneVeloza on March 02, 2015, 10:28:11 AM
Just had to necro on here because you people definitely need to share your opinions regarding multiplayer gaming and how it can potentially ruin this upcoming game.

Seriously, a lot of the people posting on these two threads...

http://steamcommunity.com/app/255710/discussions/0/610573751157797940/

http://steamcommunity.com/app/255710/discussions/0/610573751152060412/

...need to hear the opinions of people from a bigger City Builder genre community as SC4Devotion, Simtropolis and Simpeg.
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: threestooges on March 02, 2015, 11:17:32 AM
=============
While I'm pleased to see some discussion going back in this board, particularly with the release of this game coming up in a couple weeks, I'd ask that the discussion stay productive. Prompting discussion about how something would specifically ruin the game is largely unproductive. If you all have ideas about whether it's something you would like to see or prefer not to see, that's fine, as well as if you have ideas for how to implement certain aspects. As with any thread here on SC4D, intentional flaming of a topic is frowned upon.
=============

For my part (having gotten the formal admin-y thing above out of the way), I think, as long as there is a stand-alone single player option, a multiplayer experience that was apart from that could prove interesting. It's something we've seen several city building games try with varying degrees of success, but one that none of them have really seemed to nail down. Simulating a market economy is an interesting concept, and having real players engaging in it adds that much more realism (but it's nice to disconnect from that now and then for some basic, fundamental single player city building).
-Matt
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on March 02, 2015, 12:21:38 PM
Quote from: CahosRahneVeloza on March 02, 2015, 10:28:11 AM
......need to hear the opinions of people from a bigger City Builder genre community as SC4Devotion, Simtropolis and Simpeg.

One of the Paradox Account Managers is active and posting in this topic over at Simtropolis

http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/64798-what-do-you-want-in-cities-skylines/page-2#entry1553962

and if you look at their last youtube video or the modding guide they put out recently, sorry I'm at work so I'll just give you the link to where I last posted this information

http://www.city-builders.info/cb-groups/item/16-cities-skylines-group

I'm reasonable confident that anything they come up with, will be a vast improvement on SimCity 2013.

-catty
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: catty on March 04, 2015, 03:46:47 PM
Copied from Simtropolis and posted by Paradox

QuoteWe're hosting a quick model contest with some nice prizes involved! It's being hosted on our forums, but we certainly want all of you amazing Simtropolis people to show us what you can do!

Here's a link to the contest page:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?840333-Custom-Building-Competition

And a link to the discussion page:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?840335-Grand-CBC-discussion-thread

Hope to see your entries!

:)
Title: Re: Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines
Post by: threestooges on March 04, 2015, 06:40:08 PM
Thanks for that Cathy!

That said forget the copy paste. If you all are interested in discussing the game, have a look at this new thread here (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16889.0). We were fortunate enough to get in conversation with one of the community managers with the game. Feel free to voice your thoughts with someone who has their finger on the pulse of the game.
-Matt