CO Word of the Week #15

[stumpy2233]

At this stage the devs here feels like that girl that keeps you on the hook.

She promises the date and relations, but never does, yet keeps messaging you sweet nothings.

 

[zeph_42]

At this rate I'm not sure whether to expect the next Game of Thrones book or a straightforward update from CO first

This was the big news you couldn't share last week? More "we'll make good on our promises sometime down the road please just trust us?"

When are you going to treat your customers with the respect of an honest timeline instead of this constant beating around the bush to obfuscate the fact that the whole game, not just the modding beta, is in early access?

 

[lovec1990]

just asking becasue many recent crashes came from people adding invisible paths to growables or placing extra vehicles for decoration. those crashes on vanilla games when unpausing seems to come from the fact that too much was altered while the simulation is paused and once its unpaused, it overloads certain systems.

So try not to build big grids and zone a hundred buildings on it while paused. AFAIK, this has been an issue since last patch and unfortunately, it happens to some players who just pause the game to fix an interchange, which isnt too big of a change in my opinion that it should crash the game.

so what build small part of city and unpause for how long?

 

[JustMePatrick]

You've explained that everything around mod support is "coming soon" and that there have been various "issues". Would you be more willing to dive deeper into help us understand what these challenges are and what state they are in. Also as in state, could you comment if you are about 50% through, 70% through. Where are you at in this process?

 

[TripleAgent]

So instead of the art WOTW that was supposed to be coming as announced in the WOTW two weeks ago and Avanya in the responses ("Sadly, the post from the art team we had planned for yesterday had to be pushed until next week. Sorry for the lack of communication on here!"), we get another announcement about modding with no real new information that we didn't already know? (Modding is delayed, they're trying to push out code mods and PDXmods by the end of March, asset mods are still so hopelessly broken that 5+ months into release we still don't have an estimate besides "another 6+ months", we've heard all of this before and it's frankly concerning that there aren't any new updates on progress.)

That rebuilt communication and trust is going great.

 

[PeanutJuicer]

Did I miss the update for bug fixes that was suppose to be coming out?

Land value bug makes this game unplayable.

 

[mpcamposz]

Let’s discuss the status of the modding support today. The Editor has been in the works and we have shared versions of it with a closed group of a few selected modders for feedback. We are very fortunate to have this dedicated group of people eager to try experimental solutions and voice their opinions on them. Their feedback helps us understand how tools are used and how we can improve them. We have been surprised by the modders so many times in Cities in Motion and Cities: Skylines that we have stopped trying to guess what you might want to do or achieve. It’s much more helpful for us to just ask directly how to support those efforts instead.

Collaboration with the closed group has been going on behind the scenes for months now. Together, we have put a lot of effort towards the beta version of the modding tools, and we really can’t wait to share them with you! We believe modding is a pivotal part of the experience with a Cities: Skylines game and we want to encourage everyone to be as creative as possible.

As we’re preparing for the public release with support for Code Modding and the Map Editor, Paradox is running a broader Early Access for modders and creators chosen from the sign-up earlier this year. This gives creators the early opportunity to give the team direct feedback on using Paradox Mods, the new Modding Toolchain, and the Map Editor. We’re looking forward to seeing their feedback, and having the first Code Mods, Maps, and Savegames uploaded to the platform and ready for you on its release! This is all to support the quest of making sure we have a robust start when the tools are released, and this is a good opportunity to test Paradox Mods as well. We’ll be sharing more information on each part: Paradox Mods, Code Modding, and Map Editing later on so you’ll know what to expect.

I would like to emphasize again that there is still a lot of work still to be done: Asset editing is not in a shape or form to be used as-is. We’ll still need more time to make importing the assets work. The Region Packs teased at the end of last year are bundles of assets of varying sizes and content made by some of your favorite creators from the community. These assets rely on us finalizing the asset editor to a point where we are happy that the import pipeline and saving will be in a future-proof state. This is an ongoing effort, alongside improving the Code Modding and Map Editing based on the feedback we’ll receive from the Early Access and eventually from all of you. We have dedicated devs working on the modding support, eager to tackle bugs and implement improvements, so we’ll keep patching the tools throughout the public Beta phase until we have Modding 1.0 available. Naturally, the work will continue even past that as we receive more feedback and suggestions from you.

The creators and modders of Cities: Skylines brought so much cool and innovative content to the game, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with for Cities: Skylines II. There are already some exciting mods and beautiful maps out there (yes, we see you!) and it will be very exciting to see what you create with the added support!

Sincerely,
Mariina

Announced an announcement for an announcement that said nothing

 

[SoCal Epi]

The WOTW was building us up only to be let down. Just like the release.

 

[Mdizzl3]

No update then? No timeline? No explanation as to why the asset packs can just be baked into the base game? We already have assets in the game, why do we need the modding tools to be finalised to add these additional ones?

Also no explanation as to why it is taking so long since we were told it would come a matter of weeks if not days after launch. And yet here we are months and months later with no release date

 

[DanielR80]

It was poorly conveyed, but last week was probably holidays in CO, this delay of information wasn't because of some big reveal like people (rightly) anticipated.

No, there was no holiday. Those aren't "unexpected things [that] pop up"
And yes, they promised "a little something else" for today, both found here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...nt-seems-to-be-chaotic.1626231/#post-29436964
Instead we got more of the same old

 

[pedro_pujols]

We’ll be sharing more information on each part: Paradox Mods, Code Modding, and Map Editing later on so you’ll know what to expect.

Once again, it's disheartening to hear empty word from you. It's quite astonishing how we're repeatedly asked to wait for information, only to receive nothing in return. Today was the anticipated day (you asked us for weeks ago) for us to receive at least some concrete details, we are not even asking you to release the features now but at least concrete info about them.

Additionally, there was no mention of the art team, a topic you were supposed to address last week, but there has been any post about it, not just last week but also this week. Again, more lies.

We’ll be back next week with something different: words from the art team!

 

[MayorWanze]

so what build small part of city and unpause for how long?

there isnt really a rule of thumb for this because i assume it also depends on how big your city already is and on what kind of system specs you are playing. i wouldnt advice in general to zone too much while the game is paused becasue it can have other negative gameplay implications.

for example, if you zone a whole block of medium or high density at once, you can easily create over 1000 households or places to work. especially in smaller cities, that will drag a massive traffic jam throughout your city from people who want to get there.

i also think, if you zone a whole clock of commercial, the simulation has some trouble applying some variety to the companies that will move in because they move in at the same time instead of one after another.

so i usually zone one lot at a time and especially in the early game, zone smaller lots.

Personally, if i come into a situation where in the past i would have paused the game, i just slow it down to 1/8 sim speed instead but that is only possible if you use the dev tools i think.

but it might also be possible with using the vanilla photo ui because you can adjust the simulation speed to up to 8x as well but i never actually tried if you can also use it to slow it down below 1x.

 

[Palimphread]

So, the headline on this WoW is "Status of Modding".
Well, after reading the article i have just one question left:
What is the status of modding?

 

[CensoredLOL]

How were the buildings that are in the game designed and implemented if you didn't have an editor?

Why is it so hard to use that as a baseline for asset creation?

Do the massive delays with releasing the editor come from coding Paradox Mods (instead of just using Steam Workshop), or are they with the editor itself?

 

[HarryBotter]

Maybe they distribute multiple articles throughout this week to introduce ? ?

 

[TripleAgent]

How were the buildings that are in the game designed and implemented if you didn't have an editor?

Why is it so hard to use that as a baseline for asset creation?

I've asked that question on here probably a dozen times since release and I've never gotten an answer besides something along the lines of "those assets are intended to be mods inside the PDXMods ecosystem" which ignores the question of why those assets can't be repurposed using PDX's own model importing tools? It seems to me they would use those tools for the DLC that they've been developing, why not use it for these asset packs?

 

[Eddieg1340]

Nice write off sadly some wont be able to enjoy modding since game constantly crashes to desktop

Same problem here

 

[tom_mai78101]

Maybe they distribute multiple articles throughout this week to introduce ? ?

Sounds like it. Don't know, to be honest. The wording is ambiguous.

 

[lovec1990]

there isnt really a rule of thumb for this because i assume it also depends on how big your city already is and on what kind of system specs you are playing. i wouldnt advice in general to zone too much while the game is paused becasue it can have other negative gameplay implications.

for example, if you zone a whole block of medium or high density at once, you can easily create over 1000 households or places to work. especially in smaller cities, that will drag a massive traffic jam throughout your city from people who want to get there.

i also think, if you zone a whole clock of commercial, the simulation has some trouble applying some variety to the companies that will move in because they move in at the same time instead of one after another.

so i usually zone one lot at a time and especially in the early game, zone smaller lots.

Personally, if i come into a situation where in the past i would have paused the game, i just slow it down to 1/8 sim speed instead but that is only possible if you use the dev tools i think.

but it might also be possible with using the vanilla photo ui because you can adjust the simulation speed to up to 8x as well but i never actually tried if you can also use it to slow it down below 1x.

so would just not pausing it and keep it at normal speed fix my issue?

 

[carlosdels22]

Cool, but... There are still many people who can't play in a satisfactory way. Between all that, what about game optimization? How is it? Has it already been forgotten?