Dev Diary: Decorations Patch

[YumiMirah]

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.

it will be random in general. Thats why you need to use another mod in addition to findit that lets you handle color and make it constant same as you plopping them.

 

[Christianhelps]

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.

View attachment 1182501
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!

View attachment 1182502
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!

Thanks team

 

[tom_mai78101]

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?

They already gave you the plans to compensate owners like you who purchased the Ultimate Edition. 3 new DLCs free to those who own the Ultimate Edition, paid for those who don't. The values for these new DLCs later down the road (2025? 2026? 2027?) will be to compensate for your purchase.

You will not get any monetary refunds, according to their announcement.

 

[Caprea.Berlin]

I am still struggling to understand that concept of the waiting list for people wanting to move in my city.

What is with tourist? Do they have a waiting list too? Is this a complete different list to those wanting to move in?

Or are those wanting to move in (but not yet having a home there) blocking the seats on busses and trains and so , and in doing so, do they prevent tourist to move in?

And what if the city does not offer any homes for those on the waiting list for some time? Do those on the waiting list get older while waiting? So if for a long time no one can move in, and if then finally there is place to move in, would those moving in be old? Do put it in another way, have those on the waiting list an age and birth year and are therefore getting older while waiting or do those from the waiting list get their age (and birth year) the moment the move in? I would prefer the latter to be the case.

 

[Darren3331]

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?

See previous updates, we will be compensated....generously.

 

[raf8655]

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.

Can you explain better what you mean by this statement?

Theoretically these 2 CCPs should have already been ready because they were supposed to come out a few months ago, according to the previous release schedules (which then changed). Because it seems a little strange to me that the creators are still working on things that are already potentially ready and therefore only in the finishing phase when they are announced as next releases.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

and therefore only in the finishing phase

It seems clear that these have had to remain 'in the finishing phase' while CO works on things that are higher priority.

 

[jvg]

I noticed that homeless people tend to go to parks, but I haven't seen them entering abandoned buildings yet. It seems realistic; however, building tooltips should provide more information on this.

This 'new' system sounds odd.
It looks like the new implementation is going to fix the issue by removing consequences.

I think if there are a lot of homeless people in parks, these parks should get a nerf to their stats, which would result in fewer people moving in if it happens to multiple parks.

Additionally, when homeless people stay in an abandoned building, it could increase the time it takes for the building to be rebuilt and decrease happiness in the surrounding area, which would also lead to fewer people moving in or spawning.

This information should be displayed when I click on an abandoned building or park, so I can understand why fewer people are spawning.

It would be great to have more district policies, perhaps some subsidies to lower rent, which would be preferred by homeless people.

How does the welfare office play into this? It could have a slider to adjust how much support is provided to the homeless or who gets prioritized.

perhaps, this 'check' that was implemented, could also be adjusted by welfare office. homeless people dont all search for a home in real life i think.

 

[raf8655]

It seems clear that these have had to remain 'in the finishing phase' while CO works on things that are higher priority.

That's exactly what isn't clear. Why do they have to remain in the finishing phase given that they are already ready and have been moved to work on more important "priorities" (of which unfortunately the fruits are not seen)?

I suppose that these CCPs are mainly aesthetic additions that affect the visual variability of the game and do not change at a functional or code level...so I don't understand why their implementation needs to be continually moved given that it would not cost anything functional to the game, in fact I would see them as a panacea, a sort of candy to give to us while we wait for the "bigger priorities" to be resolved.

 

[tom_mai78101]

I noticed that homeless people tend to go to parks, but I haven't seen them entering abandoned buildings yet. It seems realistic; however, building tooltips should provide more information on this.

This 'new' system sounds odd.
It looks like the new implementation is going to fix the issue by removing consequences.

I think if there are a lot of homeless people in parks, these parks should get a nerf to their stats, which would result in fewer people moving in if it happens to multiple parks.

Additionally, when homeless people stay in an abandoned building, it could increase the time it takes for the building to be rebuilt and decrease happiness in the surrounding area, which would also lead to fewer people moving in or spawning.

This information should be displayed when I click on an abandoned building or park, so I can understand why fewer people are spawning.

It would be great to have more district policies, perhaps some subsidies to lower rent, which would be preferred by homeless people.

How does the welfare office play into this? It could have a slider to adjust how much support is provided to the homeless or who gets prioritized.

perhaps, this 'check' that was implemented, could also be adjusted by welfare office. homeless people dont all search for a home in real life i think.

Entering abandoned buildings may introduce unwanted behaviors like a collapsed building killing homeless people living inside them and such.

We will have to wait and see how the new system will work. Especially if it can work with the Bye Bye Homeless mod, or if the mod itself is no longer needed.

I do like how the new implementation will append the residential demands from the homeless to the city residential demands, so that it forces the player to first resolve the homelessness issue within the city before tackling immigration.

That's exactly what isn't clear. Why do they have to remain in the finishing phase given that they are already ready and have been moved to work on more important "priorities" (of which unfortunately the fruits are not seen)?

Assets Importing is a base minimum feature that was planned to be in the base game, before they can move on to work on new features and DLCs. However, technical issues forced them to push the Assets Importing feature to this year's Q3 patch, so this is where we are: The home-stretch of the "finishing phase" of base game CS2, before they move to start work on the big paid DLC 1 (the first big Cities Skylines 2 DLC).

 

[tweety80]

wow, 298 props for free!!
Thanks.

Finally, I can build small but decent-looking villages. My CPU does not allow more than 100K citizens, so this change is very nice.

 

[jvg]

Entering abandoned buildings may introduce unwanted behaviors like a collapsed building killing homeless people living inside them and such.

We will have to wait and see how the new system will work. Especially if it can work with the Bye Bye Homeless mod, or if the mod itself is no longer needed.

I do like how the new implementation will append the residential demands from the homeless to the city residential demands, so that it forces the player to first resolve the homelessness issue within the city before tackling immigration.

1 maybe its not realy unwanted, i mean, it should decrease hapiness. (they should already enter abandoned homes if i understand correctly from the op)
2 the mod removes the simulation completely, i dont like that.
3 to append the homeless directly from the demand seems like a quickfix to me, no real simulation happening right?
we will see..

 

[ProfessorHornbuckle]

So...I have to say, honestly, I don't understand the positive response to this.

Two months ago we were told repeatedly that there'd be enough time to do any fixes needed before the team went on break. Well, the homeless bug happened, and then the team went on break without fixing it. One month ago the team came back to office, and in that time there's been zero official word on the bug besides "We're looking into it".

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.

Which means you did actually have insight on the homeless bug but were keeping it under wraps because you knew it wouldn't be out until this patch was finished. Why could you not simply tell us "We have a fix for this, but it won't roll out until the next patch"?

And on top of that...a month in office, two months since the last patch, and all we get out of it is a hotfix we were promised would be viable to pump out and release two months ago...and...a feature almost every single player was already using, either via dev tools or mods. And the feature isn't even as good as it is with mods (or the built in, pre-existing dev tools) because the actual options for what you can use are limited, and there's no search bar. So the mods, and dev tools, are still the best way to use this content.

If you implement mods or debug content as actual content- you have to do it better than the mods did, otherwise it's just development time you could have spent on something else that isn't finished with the game, like citizen animations, or parks, or tourism, or snow cover. Why spend dev time repackaging a feature players already use, and repackage it in a way that isn't even as good as the ways we already use it?

In essence, in two months time since the last patch, you've released a hotfix- late- and content we already had, repackaged with fewer features than were already available. And then in the comments, it's the same song and dance of

"When is X?"
"We have nothing to say about X yet but will let you know."

The CCPs that are due in Q3, i.e. by the end of this month? "

We don't know."

The asset editor, which was supposed to be "coming soon" after launch? "We don't know."

The second detailers patch? "We don't know."

I don't think that's something to celebrate. Personally I think it's a distressing sign that this game's development is still going way too slowly. I'm waiting for the inevitable announcement that the CCPs are delayed- again. Please tell me they are not delayed again. Those of us who bought the Ultimate Edition are really struggling here with how little of the content we're owed we've actually gotten.

I hope the rest of the bug fixes are at least substantial enough to justify lumping the homeless fix into another patch instead of simply releasing it.

 

[safe-keeper]

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

 

[LAH0ARS007]

FINALLY! It is about time you updated the game....

 

[dj97]

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!

It would've been nice if these props actually provided a function.

 

[ToudCS]

It would've been nice if these props actually provided a function.

yup. At least some of them like bench for randomly sitting when someone is passing by.

 

[Fampa]

So...I have to say, honestly, I don't understand the positive response to this.

Two months ago we were told repeatedly that there'd be enough time to do any fixes needed before the team went on break. Well, the homeless bug happened, and then the team went on break without fixing it. One month ago the team came back to office, and in that time there's been zero official word on the bug besides "We're looking into it".

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.

Which means you did actually have insight on the homeless bug but were keeping it under wraps because you knew it wouldn't be out until this patch was finished. Why could you not simply tell us "We have a fix for this, but it won't roll out until the next patch"?

And on top of that...a month in office, two months since the last patch, and all we get out of it is a hotfix we were promised would be viable to pump out and release two months ago...and...a feature almost every single player was already using, either via dev tools or mods. And the feature isn't even as good as it is with mods (or the built in, pre-existing dev tools) because the actual options for what you can use are limited, and there's no search bar. So the mods, and dev tools, are still the best way to use this content.

If you implement mods or debug content as actual content- you have to do it better than the mods did, otherwise it's just development time you could have spent on something else that isn't finished with the game, like citizen animations, or parks, or tourism, or snow cover. Why spend dev time repackaging a feature players already use, and repackage it in a way that isn't even as good as the ways we already use it?

In essence, in two months time since the last patch, you've released a hotfix- late- and content we already had, repackaged with fewer features than were already available. And then in the comments, it's the same song and dance of



The CCPs that are due in Q3, i.e. by the end of this month? "

We don't know."

The asset editor, which was supposed to be "coming soon" after launch? "We don't know."

The second detailers patch? "We don't know."

I don't think that's something to celebrate. Personally I think it's a distressing sign that this game's development is still going way too slowly. I'm waiting for the inevitable announcement that the CCPs are delayed- again. Please tell me they are not delayed again. Those of us who bought the Ultimate Edition are really struggling here with how little of the content we're owed we've actually gotten.

I hope the rest of the bug fixes are at least substantial enough to justify lumping the homeless fix into another patch instead of simply releasing it.

Totally agree

 

[Fampa]

Why are people happy about this? One month and we get this? The game is filled with bug and horrible pergomance. And no word about improving simulation speed. No word about turism bug. No word about anything. It looks like there is one person working on this game right now and not a team of people.

 

[Clemcy]

Love it