Dev Diary: Decorations Patch

[co_avanya]

Hi everyone. We’re back with a development diary as patch 1.1.8, also known as Decorations Patch, is almost ready for you. Yes, it isn’t Detailer’s Patch #2 as this patch is not as big as the last one, but we hope you will still enjoy it. Since we wanted to get the homeless fix out as soon as possible and the decorations menu was ready to ship, we decided to bundle them together, along with a bunch of other bug fixes of course. Today, we’ll go through the new menu, how props work, and what has changed with homelessness. So let’s dive in!

DECORATIONS MENU​

We have been impressed by the creative use of the many props included in the game and when we first started putting Detailer’s Patch together, we knew we wanted to include an official and supported way to access them. For those who aren’t aware, it’s been possible to access and place props through developer mode, but as the name suggests, this isn’t a feature intended for everyday use, and as such can break things. So we’re excited to introduce the new Decorations Menu as part of the Landscaping options bringing you access to many props you can use to decorate your cities.

Add a personal touch to any empty area of your city using the props in the decorations menu

Landscaping now includes 8 new categories packed full of props, from stones in Nature to benches and fountains in Park to crates and silos in Industrial Props. We looked at all the existing props in the game and selected the ones that both make sense and work when placed in game. As an example, we haven’t included props that only make sense when placed on a building, like chimneys or air condition units, as prop placement on buildings is not supported. In total, you will have access to 298 props to decorate any area of your city that needs a little something extra.

Placing a prop from one of the new categories works a lot like placing trees or buildings. They have a collision area based on the item’s size and shape, and just like trees, they can be placed on top of surface areas to create beautiful plazas or manicured gardens. Once placed, they can be selected, moved using the Relocate button in the Selected Info Panel, or removed using the Bulldozer. And perhaps best of all, props are free to place as they are decoration items that don’t impact the city - well, besides making it look cool of course!

Create plazas, parks, gardens, back alleys, or more using props and surfaces

HOMELESSNESS​

Now, let’s talk about homelessness in the game. When citizens lose their homes, either because they cannot afford them or because they get destroyed, they become homeless. If they can afford it, they will leave the city, and if they cannot, they will find temporary shelter in your city’s parks or abandoned buildings. This is where they tended to get stuck, unable to find new homes or leave the city. Patch 1.1.8 contains a series of fixes to make sure those homeless households have a chance to get back on their feet.

Previously, we had a random check for whether homeless households would look for suitable homes in the city. This has been removed so with patch 1.1.8 homeless will always try to find a suitable home in the city. But that in itself isn’t enough, it requires homes for them to move into, and that those homes are not filled by newly created households instead of the city’s homeless population. To ensure this, homelessness now affects demand in two ways. It causes fewer new households to spawn while increasing the demand for high density residential housing.

Depending on how many homeless households your city has, it may take a while before all of them get back on their feet or find their way out of the city, but you can help the process along by fulfilling the demand for residential zoning and providing public transportation out of the city, such as intercity buses or trains.

That brings us to the end of this development diary. We hope this has given you some idea of what to expect for the next patch, and we will of course release the full patch notes when patch 1.1.8f1 goes live. We’re excited to see what you create using the Decorations Menu, so don’t hesitate to post screenshots (and tag us on social media if you do) showing off your creations!

 

[co_avanya]

Great stuff! Is there any more news on the asset creator?

Nothing concrete we can share yet, but it's a high priority for us. We'll let you know as soon as we have news on the situation.

 

[SimNationJan]

Can you say whether Find It and Plop the Growables will work along the new prop menu?

It is impossible for us to predict if they will work with the new prop menu, but we are sure the mod authors will have an update ready asap.

 

[co_avanya]

hey @co_avanya. If I'm a mod developer, how can I sign up for beta releases of the game to keep my mods up to date?

We're not currently adding more people to the group, but send me a DM with a link to the mod(s) you've worked on and a little intro about yourself/why you'd like to join and how we can best reach you. Then I'll make sure you'll be considered when we do look at adding new people again in the future.

I don't get your design decisions. Not at all.

Homelessness should increase the demand for residential buildings in addition to the demand already existing. But in contrast, you let fewer people move into our cities???
About the "Previously ... " I will even not comment at all.
And why homelessness should increase the demand for high density buildings isn't completely clear either. Look at the highlighted part of the quote.
If, for whatever reason, a low density building was destroyed, wouldn't one expect that the former residents would want to move into another low density building?

Homelessness does indeed increase demand for residential in addition to the demand that already exists. The limit ensures that homeless people can actually get a home in your city at some point before they die as large/attractive cities could end up with a huge "waitlist" of people wanting to move in. That limit does not affect demand negatively.

Great news, thanks ! So, there is still in plans detailers patch 2? And second question, DLCs Modern architecture and Urban Promenades are still planned for 3Q 24'?

We still have the wishes for detailing features, but we'll have to see how things turn out. Perhaps they'll end up in a larger patch, perhaps they'll end up coming in bits like how we added the Decorations Menu in this one.

As for the Creator Packs, I don't have an update on those as we (Colossal Order) only handle the implementation. But I'm sure we'll all get an update on them once it's ready.

Amazing!!!!!

Do you have news about enabling mods on Nvidia GeForce Now? I can't wait for this

No update on this yet I'm afraid, but NVIDIA and Paradox are working to find a solution.

Thank you for the update. Did I miss the release date of this or is there not one confirmed yet?

It isn't out yet but you can expect it soon. ^^

Would it be possible to add a surface painter with procedurally generated prop placement? It would be a great addition for those who would like to place additional parks and plazas here and there without spending so much time on finding and placing the right props.

Suggestions like this are always welcome, though I would recommend also posting it in the Suggestions subforum. This allows other people to join in and share how they'd like to see it/how interested they are in such a feature and it makes it much easier for us to find the discussion/comments again in the future. ^^

 

[co_avanya]

So many questions! I'll try to get through as many as I can now.

Is there a fix for the editor in this patch where you can't save or edit the climate on custom map? Have created a new map but unable to change the default weather as it won't save in the editor.

My tropical island just off Indonesia doesn't look right when its covered in snow for months

No update to the Editor in this patch, and our top priority for it right now is to finalize the asset importing pipeline, so we can support custom assets. But we plan to continue to improve the Editor throughout the game's lifetime.

Hello @co_avanya
Thank you for the news - I'm looking forward to see the whole changelog on release

Do you by chance know if the fix for homelessness does also fix tourists not moving in, or is this another independent topic which still needs to be addressed? My outside connections could make use of more people

The issue with tourism is a different beast and something we're currently looking into. So no fix yet, but we'll keep you posted.

How about animations that come can use for these props in parks etc? Without them being used, the city feels lifeless.

We have a bunch of wishes for improving visuals, but I'm afraid we don't have a timeline for them yet.

If I have the Bye Bye Homeless mod, and remove it, will it break my game with this new patch?

Quick disclaimer: I'm not familiar with the code of Bye Bye Homeless, so this is a better question for the mod's author. From what I understand, the mod checks the homeless population regularly and then removes excess homeless households in the city. If that's all it does, your city should be fine to remove it, but I'd recommend saving as a new file just in case, so you have a back up of the city.

Will rocks and boulders from the new decorations tab be able to be placed underwater?

I hope yes because it will make it easier to make realistic creek and lake areas.

Not everything in the Nature tab can be placed underwater, but boulders can.

If they can afford to leave the city, then they will

Does that mean a bus line with a ticket prize of zero will help?

Problem, that bus also brings people into the city. And I think there is no way to make the fare for going out to zero but a normal prize for going in.

Yes, a free intercity bus can help get the homeless people out of the city.

How will the decorations menu handle different color variations of the same prop? Problem with current FindIt mod is, that color is randomized, so when you place table with four chairs, every chair may have a different color.

Prop colors are randomized when placing the prop. If you're after a specific color, you can place a bunch and then move the ones with the color you want into place while bulldozing the rest.

That's great news!

However, is there any plan to compensate those of us who purchased the Ultimate Edition of Cities: Skylines 2? While refunds have been issued for the Waterfront DLC to those who bought it separately, what about those of us who paid for the Ultimate Edition?

This was covered in The Way Forward FAQ:

I have bought the Ultimate Edition, why do I not get a refund but compensation?​

Distribution of the included Expansion Pass across digital and physical storefronts creates complexities that makes it impossible to execute refunds. We realize that this is far from ideal, especially given the dedication shown by those of you who have stayed with us since launch. We are committed to repaying that loyalty, and therefore we will compensate you by adding three (3) new Creator Packs and three (3) new Radio Stations to the Ultimate Edition, which will total around 39.99 USD in added value. This solution hopefully ensures that you, as an Ultimate Edition purchaser, feel you receive fair compensation.

What is the new content added to the Ultimate Edition?
The new content that we're adding to the Ultimate Edition will be three (3) new Creator Packs and three (3) new Radio Stations, which will add up to around 39.99 USD in added value.

What is the difference between Ultimate and Premium edition?
The Premium Edition is the physical box version of the Ultimate Edition.

A full month passes with no hotfixes, and then this post- where it's implied you had already fixed the bug, but decided to roll it into a patch with other fixes, and with the decorator stuff.

It's the other way around. The Decorations Menu was ready for release and therefore added to the patch containing the homeless fix, along with the rest of the bug fixes in this patch.

View attachment 1183218

Is it just me, or is this a cim with a dog head in high-heeled sneakers flipping someone off ?

I'm 90% sure she's taking a selfie. xD

Ok, fair. Asset Editor / Importing has no estimate time, but at the time it was written back in June, it was implied that in Q3, we will have a patch of some kind. What we can't confirm back then was whether Asset Editor / Importing will be ready by then. Or how large the Q3 patch will be.

@co_avanya Was the original Q3 patch planned to be larger than v1.1.8, but then things happened and v1.1.8 came as a result?

In Upcoming patch & content we talked about 2 patches, one before the summer lock and one after. These patches were Economy 2.0 (before the summer lock) and Detailer's Patch #1 (planned for after the summer lock). But as Detailer's Patch #1 was finished before we started our vacation, it was decided to release it right away.

Will we have some flexibility when placing down these decorating assets? Or will we still have to use anarchy? Regardless I am happy that they are being added into the game. I know we have mods like find it that give the same feature, but I prefer to have these options baked into the main game. Now if we can get a prop line tool I'll be even happier.

The props all have collision based on their geometry, so you won't be able to overlap them or place them on top of/inside buildings. So it really depends on how you'd like to use them, but I personally find the collision in Cities: Skylines II much more flexible than what we had for props in the original Cities: Skylines.

Hello! Hope you all enjoyed your much-deserved breaks!

I'm trying to understand the logic of how this works ...

If the cim household couldn't previously afford to remain in their home, they would become homeless...

Subsequently ... they remained in the city because they also couldn't afford transportation out of the city ...

So ... with those two givens in mind ... when I satisfy demand for high density residential housing--which typically has higher land value (and thus higher rents) than low or medium density--how will a homeless cim or cim household be able to afford moving into this newly available housing when they couldn't previously afford to remain in the housing they already occupied and/or couldn't even afford mass transit out of the city?

Just trying to square this circle here.

Thanks for all the work you are doing! Can't wait to play with the props!

The higher the density, the more people share the rent. That means effectively a lower rent and less impact on each household when the Land Value is high.

quick follow-up ... pre-patch (post Economy 2.0) my impression was that the huge numbers of criminals was a side-effect of all the unresolved homeless cims. Is there a new mechanic being introduced to rectify this or are we assuming that, as homeless cims leave the city or find new housing and jobs, the numbers of criminals will sort itself out on its own?

Some of the saves we looked at had high crime due to the high homeless population, so things should at least improve. But we'll monitor the situation and bug reports to make sure there isn't a separate issue with crime that needs investigation.

 

[co_avanya]

Sorry to disappoint, but homelessness is not fixed. Now I have some homeless who are normal and leave when they need to. And I still have other homeless who just stand around on the sidewalks or in parks. Those abnormal homeless are occupying jobs, so the normal homeless leave the city when they can't find a job. My population has crashed 20,000 in two hours of play.

Sadly, the Bye Bye Homelessness mod is presently inactive, so the game is unplayable until homelessness is actually fixed.

If you haven't already, we'd really appreciate a report with your save attached (ideally saved with the camera pointed at the stuck homeless people so we can easily find them). You can add to this existing report so we have it all in one place.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/homeless-still-stuck-on-streets.1702157/

The homeless reduce to a relatively low percentage in my city, perhaps a couple of percent of population, but they then remain at that level. So many of them are wealthy - perhaps they are professional beggars? - perhaps they love the lifestyle? or, heavens forbid, perhaps the game logic is flawed?

It's expected that cities still can (and likely will) have some homeless remain. If you're still seeing wealthy homeless people, please add them to followed citizens and make a report on the bug forum with the save attached, so we can look into why they're retaining that wealth status.

Cities: Skylines 2 - Bug Reports

forum.paradoxplaza.com