Main features of new Cities Skylines 2

The developers make roadmap in which they plan which game features show us. Developers chose different way how to show us game features than is usual and I think that this way was better than way which chose developers of Victoria 3 last year…

… but stop talking about introduction let’s look deeper on main features which will bring Cities Skylines 2 to our city builders strategy game genre.

Best features of new Cities Skylines 2:

Here are sumarisation of best features of new Cities Skylines by me.

• Completely reworked road system and traffic AI.
• Extended zones to be more specific and mixed zones.
• Deeper city services with upgradable buildings.
• Economy and simulation goes moooore deeper we could affect everything.
• Power is extended and will be more complex to maintain.
• Every citizen will be more realistic and will react better to their life.

Changes in roads / traffic and public transport

In new Cities Skylines 2 is reworked traffic. We know that there will be much better builded-in tools so we doesn’t need traffic mods to organize traffic. From all videos which I seen it’s obvious that traffic will be smoother and more clever.

When you start build new city you will have opened much more roads so you should build more realistic towns from your start and also power lines and water pipes will be inside roads. So there probably won’t be typical problems from CS:1 with not optimal grid.

Also there will be parking lots in base game so no more waiting for this feature. You also could create custom layout of your roads you should remove parking lots in line with grass and trees. Also there will be builded tool for building roundabouts.

What I like is road maintenance factor which will affects ratio how much car crashes will be in your city. Better roads mean less crashes and also if is crash on your road then so we can expect traffic jams waiting to be clear.

In Cities Skylines 2 will be also all main public transport systems which you know. We should expect classic taxi, buses, trams and metro. But also there will be trains, boats and airports. You need to unlock this public transport types and one of milestone is rocket center.

Also there will be important cargo transportation. So building cargo train terminal will be probably important. And also one new feature if you open map tiles to corner then you could create new connection to other towns / highways so maps will be more customable than maps in C:S1.

Changes in city planning

In zones and city planing are also a lot of changes. We get mixed zones which will combine more types of zones in one buildings. This feature will be great in city centers where you need to build commercial and living houses.

Also there are new purple zones which will mean offices. And alo there will be more detailed industry which you could more specialize and also create more space for growing.

But what I really love is difference of zones itself. You should build different houses to boost different group of people. Some young families will be living in small apartments. So you will need more focus on zone types and building zones which are important for your people. Also if people doesn’t earn money to pay rent they will be leaving your town.

Special buildings are also reworked. They will have more direct effects of your nearest building and your districts and that I love. If you pre-order Cities Skylines then you get 9 landmark buildings which will be

• The London Eye
• Notre Dame
• National Gallery
• Grand Hotel
• Botanical Garden
• Näsinneula
• Xi’an Bell Tower
• Sungnye
• National Diet

Deeper city services

City services will work similar like services in Cities: Skylines 1 there are new city service called telecom so you will need to build internet aerials and also there will be new city service focused on welfare.

But what is more important than new services are system which I personally really mis in first Cities: Skylines and which will upgrade buildings. This upgrades allow us to build more realistic services. What will be problematic in long-term with this upgrades are I’ve only seen a few for each building. Anyway, it’s definitely good material for the developers to use in the DLC system. I can imagine some “green” DLC that will add the option of “green” upgrades to all services.

Also I love this feature in which you will “draw” the area in which a given building (industry) can expand and that building starts to build, for example, a landfill or a field on that given site. I like this a lot!

Electricity will work differently. There will be a difference between high voltage and low voltage. You should produce a lot of megawatts but you can’t transport this electricity throw power lines which will be in roads. So you will need to build powerline which will convert your power plants and transformators which will transform electricity to low voltage electricity.

Also in game will be all important sources of energy which you know. What I love is battery stations in which you could storage energy and to use it when you have deficit of them. Also you could connect your power lines to outside map and import/export electricity from other maps.

Economy and production enhancements

Another big change is in economy / taxes and budgets. This game systems goes now more deeper what I love really much. The flow of money will be more realistic in Cities Skylines 2 so we will work with better numbers.

What I love is that you could change of taxes by whole sector (zones) or you could look deeper and change taxes in details. This changes will affect which buildings will be builded in your city. If you decrease taxes on “paper” then in your city will be builder more paper companies because companies will get more revenue from selling it. So you could focus and support business which you need.

As I mention a lot of industry zones (specialized) will be builded in which you drive lines where it could expand and after that you will se something like this. So industry will be more easy to manage and also will be more interesting than just yellow zones.

Production will be also detailed. If you doesn’t produce much materials then your town will be import that resources to your town. We will have this production graphs which will shows how much of resources come from and come where. Probably will be good idea to check this tab and focus on industry which your city need to boost your money.

The complexity of production shows wary well this production flowchart from reddit. In first view is more complex and more specific than production charts of Cities Skylines 1. So we must focus more direction of our town economy.

Deeper simulations

I love new progression mechanics which allows us to focus on aspects of city which we will need. When we will reach milestones we will get more points and we could open specifics services and buildings. So every city will be unique.

Developers said that there won’t be any hard limits and you could have unlimited people in your megalopolis. What I love is details when you could click on any citizen, you should see their lifepath and you should follow them.

Citizens could interact with you by Chirper. Or rather they will communicate with you. They will send you their ideas of what they like and what they don’t like, and theoretically you will be able to respond to that in some way.

What I love is what developer said. We should expect that citizen will react to current state of season and weather. If will be sunny then more people will be in parks. Conversely, if it rains, more people will shop and spend time in the blue zones. We should experience more realistic rush hour traffic and things like that, I suppose if there are some events going on in the city it will work pretty well too. This are great new features!

Maps and other features

Now let’s look on maps and other features which will be included in game. The map in Cities Skylines 2 will be more bigger because map tiles are larger. More about map tiles I’ve covered in map tiles article.

Also there will be seasons and more real weather. Every map will have own climate based location which it simulate. A lot of people hates this weather but I expect that developers will fix some problems which they have now (no snow on trees) but in the end, from my point of view, it’s just a detail.

Game will have great sound on background which will react on in-game activities. And also there is cinematic mode in which you could “programmable” camera and make videos like from helicopter or drone.

More about Cities Skylines 2

Buyer’s guide

Maps