I feel ______ about current the state of the game.

[MohawkWolfo98]

And even trash cans are rendered inside... :d

I know it’s a meme, but I do like that some bits of CS2 show that developers did want to dedicate their passion towards CS2 in the tiny details. It’s what I like seeing in such games even going back to SC4, like how high crime areas had graffiti over them.

 

[ArtPTarkovsky]

Citizen Design: They all look awful and their animation is also awful. When you claim to have a 'realistic' city builder, then you should have proper looking

I can't find the source to this information but i'm positive I saw hints of it somewhere in official publication. I think it was a YT video about the citizens and they deleted/republished: They outsourced the citizens design, probably so they could reach the release window.
This explains the complex teeth, fingers and the miss matching design

 

[Potoroo]

I can't find the source to this information but i'm positive I saw hints of it somewhere in official publication. I think it was a YT video about the citizens and they deleted/republished: They outsourced the citizens design, probably so they could reach the release window.

Was it this perhaps?

POPUL8
This is where Popul8 comes into play. We partnered with Didimo, who created the Popul8 character design software that perfectly addresses our design needs: Create a lot of varied characters quickly and easily. We had our own art style for the characters and for this, Didimo created a base mesh to represent that style. With this external tool groups of citizens could easily be created for different seasons, age groups, and jobs, and then these could be imported into the game.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/behind-the-scenes-5-citizen-characters.1602554/

 

[ArtPTarkovsky]

Was it this perhaps?

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/behind-the-scenes-5-citizen-characters.1602554/

Exactly, thank you very much.

 

[vipsnicegameplay]

I feel just sad about current the state of the game.​

 

[TetraDax]

I know it’s a meme, but I do like that some bits of CS2 show that developers did want to dedicate their passion towards CS2 in the tiny details. It’s what I like seeing in such games even going back to SC4, like how high crime areas had graffiti over them.

It's both ways for me, because on one hand you are absolutely right, but then they turn around and completely forget to add any details into the game that would make the cities feel alive; like cims using parks or amenities, firefighters doing their thing, cims on the beach - All of which were present in the first game and a huge part of why it felt so charming.

 

[MohawkWolfo98]

It's both ways for me, because on one hand you are absolutely right, but then they turn around and completely forget to add any details into the game that would make the cities feel alive; like cims using parks or amenities, firefighters doing their thing, cims on the beach - All of which were present in the first game and a huge part of why it felt so charming.

Absolutely so, I believe I wrote about this in the past. There are so many little things that have been lost or not added that judging at the pace, would take years to add if at all. The biggest one is Cims at Parks for me, it made the city feel alive like in SC4.

But when I sometimes see these little titbits it’s almost an ache or at least an acknowledgment that someone in the team does care about the details, or maybe what it might have been.

 

[UsmanSyed]

The thing is when the game launched, it was no where in state to be released. I felt it was not even in beta stage, but in alpha or early alpha. CO and Paradox thought that in few months time, they would be able to resolve these issues and fix the bugs & tweak few things and game would be near the state when CS1 was released. But that did not happen and they were unable to achieve it, and the main blow came when it got delayed indefinitely for consoles.

Right now, its almost been a year since the game has been released, yet asset editor and the mods are not working, people are upset at the bugs that exist, performance has improved but no where near it should be and there are many issues that are yet to be resolved. It could and would improve with time, but I just don't see the lasting power the original CS had with this game. Time will tell.

 

[ToudCS]

I agree with OP in general. I also purchased UE and I am very pessimistic. But my concerns are not mainly about the bugs or if the game will be shelved due to some reason as suggested by some people in the posts.

My main concern is that the game is BORING! and I don't think it will change. Because the game designer wanted to give us a 'very realistic' city builder.

Usually, trying to achieve realism in game is a trap because most of the time, you cannot build something very real. But you still force it so you end up something broken, uncanny and/or very boring. A bit unrealistic but still fun is easier to achieve.

For the 'realism' of the construction aspect of the game, I can say that the only mentionable 'fun' thing (that is also different or improved from CS1) is building roundabouts. I can talk about more details on this but it's not the main point I'd like to say here.

For the 'realism' of the graphics, they tried to do something that looks more real (than CS1) for the buildings, people, cars etc, with the expense of taking the fun out of it. But they ended up delivering meh looking and very boring graphs. This problem also got magnified by the poor optimization during the game launch. Some examples:

• Night: Is there anyone who enjoys the night in the game? I cannot built anything or I cannot enjoy just looking at the city because I don't see anything. It's real, ok, but it's very boring. And as far as I know they still didn't fix or even address this. So when I was still playing the game, I turned the night off. And this is a very simple thing that they didn't care to implement, because, they care more about realism than fun.... Or their idea of fun is extremely different than mine
• Citizen Design: They all look awful and their animation is also awful. When you claim to have a 'realistic' city builder, then you should have proper looking citizens. They also don't match with the rest of the art style. They really look like an after-thought.
• Backyard of the houses or the farms... No comment.

For the 'realism' of the simulation aspect, again they tried to do something very realistic. As far as I understand, the game simulates every single citizen and then the rest is built around it. But they could never do that properly (in the realistic way) they wanted. And even if they did, it wouldn't be that fun. Because REAL LIFE IS NOT THAT FUN . And this implementation results CPU problems when your population becomes bigger. So the game becomes slower and unplayable, and again 'kinda' real but very BORING.

For example, it would have been better if they do a bit higher level simulation like this:

• calculating how many people should do what and how long in one building. And then from there, assigning the tasks to random individuals in this building... This would still feel like a proper simulation but with much less CPU demand in bigger cities. See it's not exactly like real life, but you wouldn't know the difference anyway.

Same goes with the cars and citizens. They tried to make them too realistic with them breaking the rules, last minute lane changing etc. But when you check the game to see how cars actually behave, they start as very realistic, then they just stop acting real. They are in a deadlock, and they don't try to get out of that situation. Realism is only there to create problems, but not finding a solution.

Also, music and radio station is not up to CS1 quality. And it really bothers me. In CS1, the radio stations and the stupid commercials were really fun. In CS2, they are cringe and too repetitive. Of course this can easily be fixed, but I don't see that vision.

Ok this post is getting longer than I anticipated I can pinpoint so many other issues that gives me the reason why I think what I think. But I think in general, whoever did the 'game design', they did not do a good job (being generous here). And the whole game design needs a big change if this game will become something good at some point. And I don't think that will happen, because then it'll be a different game.

So I am sad

EDIT: I also have similar thoughts about the supply chain simulation. It's boring, it doesn't have any impactful gameplay effect.

I can 100% agree with all of this. The problem is not too few buildings etc. It's unplayable. The simulation doesn't work. That's not how a city builder works.

 

[Fampa]

I can 100% agree with all of this. The problem is not too few buildings etc. It's unplayable. The simulation doesn't work. That's not how a city builder works.

What do you mean by simulation not working?

 

[ToudCS]

What do you mean by simulation not working?

Everything in 2 seems random. When a vehicle stucks in a traffic jam for too long - it often disappears so as not to cause a problem instead of looking for a solution. A vehicle has difficulty getting there, so it disappears so as not to create too much of a traffic jam. A tram waits 2 seconds too long at a pedestrian crossing, so it disappears and pedestrians have to walk from there. This does not allow for any sensible public transport to be done. Bouncing cars, crossing solid lines all the time (in reality, 30 drivers in a row never cross a solid line during 10 minutes of random observation). There's no simulation in the CS2. There's no simulation in the CS2. Everything seems to be a nice artificial model, where everything happens for no reason, just to look nice at first glance and to not to cause a problems to the algorithm. It only pretends to be a simulation.

 

[raf8655]

I feel worse and worse, as widely predicted and written here on the forum in the past, the situation continues to be disastrous, and it's been 1 year now!

 

[vipsnicegameplay]

I think one of the mainproblems is the "zoomout" compared to CS1.
It looks so empty. There less Probs, no decoration and everything became hugely expensive (I like that, because it highers the difficulty)
-> But there is like zero options to Improve.
All you can do is Terraform.
Since modding in CS2 became a thing again, I'm running the game with over 70 Mods.
Otherwise it's like "unplayable for more then 30 hours".

co pls, we all want a good citybuilder.
I would also be ready to buy every DLC (Like in previous) again, but it has to add "something more special then like some probs for 10€"

I'll keep looking forward

 

[raf8655]

The main problem is that at the moment, and 1 year has passed, those who bought the Ultimate Edition have suffered a scam.

Then there are the problems with the game, for those who prefer the simulation side it is full of bugs that are still unresolved; those who prefer the detailer side, like me, I like playing sandbox, there are many problems and horrible graphic details (textures of trees, bushes, terrain, horrible roads, rain that falls horizontally, snow that doesn't fall on some things, terrible antialiasing, no unfortunately I found MODs that solve antialiasing and general quality problems like with CS1, etc.); the cities are empty in spirit, there are people but there is no one in the parks, there is no one on the sports fields, there is no one around the school, the firefighters, doctors and policemen are not there, etc. ...Plus there are still no assets MODs and CCP, of which we have no news... and the disaster continues to perpetrate.

I'm very angry and frustrated because I wasted my money, but above all I can't have fun with the game that it could have been and that they made me delude myself about, I don't have the much desired game in my hands.

 

[vipsnicegameplay]

The main problem is that at the moment, and 1 year has passed, those who bought the Ultimate Edition have suffered a scam.

Then there are the problems with the game, for those who prefer the simulation side it is full of bugs that are still unresolved; those who prefer the detailer side, like me, I like playing sandbox, there are many problems and horrible graphic details (textures of trees, bushes, terrain, horrible roads, rain that falls horizontally, snow that doesn't fall on some things, terrible antialiasing, no unfortunately I found MODs that solve antialiasing and general quality problems like with CS1, etc.); the cities are empty in spirit, there are people but there is no one in the parks, there is no one on the sports fields, there is no one around the school, the firefighters, doctors and policemen are not there, etc. ...Plus there are still no assets MODs and CCP, of which we have no news... and the disaster continues to perpetrate.

I'm very angry and frustrated because I wasted my money, but above all I can't have fun with the game that it could have been and that they made me delude myself about, I don't have the much desired game in my hands.

Co should notice your reply.
Perfectly summarized

 

[raf8655]

Co should notice your reply.
Perfectly summarized

I think maybe they saw something, unfortunately I've been writing the same things for months now.

Basically I believe that they don't give a damn about the launch of the game they made and the mockery towards us, since our money is already in their pockets anyway. They probably started to understand something, or at least to realize the mistake they had made and that one day it could turn against them, when they released the disastrous "Beach DLC"... the public response was objective, unanimous, a very loud disaster, which led them to change some things. But unfortunately for us, for our entertainment, to date there is still practically nothing good to hold on to, to hope for.

The biggest and most unapologetic disaster remains that of the lack of asset MODs, fundamental for a game like this, fundamental for the history of CS.

 

[instantrice]

I felt hopeful seeing the progress towards improving this game since its launch last year. However, my game started crashing with no errors or indications as to what went wrong, I lost a day troubleshooting it, and reinstalling to resolve the issue has deleted all of my saves (which were backed up in Steam Cloud, which now says I'm storing 1 byte of data for CS2). I'm realizing now I spent $100 and about 200 hours of time to do unpaid QA work and have all my progress erased.

 

[ProfessorHornbuckle]

Really have to wonder what it is the community manager does during the months long periods of no community management. Do they also work on the game in some capacity? I feel like if my job was community expectation management and I was not given any freedom to communicate for a month straight i'd go crazy.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

Do they also work on the game in some capacity?

Yes, one of their Forum badges is 'CO Dev'

 

[co_avanya]

Really have to wonder what it is the community manager does during the months long periods of no community management. Do they also work on the game in some capacity? I feel like if my job was community expectation management and I was not given any freedom to communicate for a month straight i'd go crazy.

I can answer this. While I do spend time testing the game and just getting familiar with it, I don't work on it directly the way our artists or programmers do. I assist the designers by gathering and compiling feedback from all of you - here on the forum, on social media, from emails we receive, from our modding beta group, and (when I can fit it into my schedule) the Cities: Skylines subreddits. I maintain our community wishlist and try to understand the reasons behind different wishes. As an example, when we put together free assets, like those in Detailer's Patch #1, I'll compile a list for the team of things that are often wished for in the community, which could fit the scope we're looking at.

So while there are periods where I can't share any news with you, there's still lots for me to do. Of course, it's always fun to share good news, but I also really enjoy compiling data for the team, and that's what all feedback is, good or bad. Community management can have its frustrating moments (like any job), but I'm lucky that it's a really good fit for me, and I generally really like what I do. ^^