The biggest problem with CS2 at this point is that it's been out for two months and still has not gotten a patch that fundamentally solves anything.

[wilcoxchar]

The game released in late October. It's now January. People in western countries usually have holidays from work for a few weeks around the end of December and beginning of January. They did weekly patches for what they could work on and finish quickly before the winter holiday period started, and now as they said in the last Word of the Week, they're starting to work on things again since the holidays are over.

 

[Collector78]

The game released in late October. It's now January. People in western countries usually have holidays from work for a few weeks around the end of December and beginning of January. They did weekly patches for what they could work on and finish quickly before the winter holiday period started, and now as they said in the last Word of the Week, they're starting to work on things again since the holidays are over.

The last patch was from mid December. The next patch will be mid to end January. Please tell me what Western country you are talking about. I really want to live there ;-)

(it makes me fear the Summer holidays....no patches from mid May till mid September?)

 

[anydaytv]

Low rent housing is disastrous, but I'm not having issues with low, medium and high residentials. What are yours?

Residential suitability is a nasty nasty thing that happens over a long long period of time. So if you haven't had your city for awhile, you might not even notice it.
That's kind of the problem.
I have a city I've been running 24/7 for at least a month, and unless you separate your residential with highways, eventually the suitability on the roads will turn red and people will start abandoning your houses. Then, zoning new residential will cause mass abandonment due to people moving around inside your city.

 

[[Delta ²k5]]

The last patch was from mid December. The next patch will be mid to end January. Please tell me what Western country you are talking about. I really want to live there ;-)

(it makes me fear the Summer holidays....no patches from mid May till mid September?)

Well, considering we talk about the most northern part of Europe with currently 6h max (sunset at ~5:30h in Tampere where the developer studio is situated) daylight it's pretty common for them to have longer holidays in winter. Finnish winter holidays on schools alone are from 23th of December to 7th of January.

On top they surely planned some time to monitor the aftermath of the patch to release a hotfix if needed - that's why the last one was mid December.
Now on new year they first need to actually develop stuff to be released as that's not done by snipping fingers, so end of this month seems pretty fair to me.

 

[Krazel]

The game released in late October. It's now January. People in western countries usually have holidays from work for a few weeks around the end of December and beginning of January. They did weekly patches for what they could work on and finish quickly before the winter holiday period started, and now as they said in the last Word of the Week, they're starting to work on things again since the holidays are over.

I think this is a dangerous way to consider the games current state. In all general terms (and in ways explained throughout this thread) this is a very unfinished game that has been released for a quarter of a year. 3-4 weeks off when you have an ailing product is IMO a little careless. And yes, I say ailing because currently there are 300 more people playing CS2 than CS1 on Steam. It is not performing well by concurrent player standards.

They released a small/medium sized patch right before they left for their break, which was IMO careless as it caused another set of unforeseen issues (for example a completely broken economy where you can make 2 million a month suddenly). I believe this was handled poorly. The devs and publishers are coming back to a much more empty (by numbers compared to when they left) game. Let's see how they handle it.

In the December 11th post by CO under the "Performance and Bug Fixes" section, Marlina explained "...the biggest remaining offenders should be sorted out during the spring."

THE SPRING. It makes me believe progress on this will be at a snail's pace. It would be hard to chip away that long as the player base just won't be here for that bloated amount of time. If you're in doubt, look at the threads, forums, discussions, all manner of interactions show an unhappy consumer except for a small amount of people trying to protect massive revenue companies with predatory sales tactics instead of the paying players (which I just can't wrap my head around). Going out of the way to white knight for broken products is strange to me.

 

[wilcoxchar]

The last patch was from mid December. The next patch will be mid to end January. Please tell me what Western country you are talking about. I really want to live there ;-)

(it makes me fear the Summer holidays....no patches from mid May till mid September?)

I would rather want to know in which western country two weeks (December 23-January 7) of either work-provided holiday or an expectation that most people are going to be using vacation time so you're going to be short-staffed during that period is long. Because I'm in the US and that's still the norm for office jobs here.

 

[anydaytv]

I think this is a dangerous way to consider the games current state. In all general terms (and in ways explained throughout this thread) this is a very unfinished game that has been released for a quarter of a year. 3-4 weeks off when you have an ailing product is IMO a little careless. And yes, I say ailing because currently there are 300 more people playing CS2 than CS1 on Steam. It is not performing well by concurrent player standards.

This kind of grinds on me a bit.
I'm not here to white knight for anyone, but I feel like people keep bringing up this point more than late night comedy shows share the same jokes.
It's just inaccurate, and I'll tell you why:

First, City Skylines has always been increasing in player count since it was released, and finally peaked off at the release of CS2.
Second, it stands to reason that people who play or have played CS don't exist in a vacuum cut off from CS2.

Cumulatively, there are now more people playing both games than there ever was before, with less people playing CS1 than CS2.
So a large portion of the existing playerbase preferred switching to CS2 and purchases not showing up in the "currently playing count" are like landmines, they could come up at any time.

So, any way you want to slice it, the community is bigger now than it ever has been.
Edit: If you want to accuse them of splitting the fanbase, then yeah, maybe you'd have a point there.

 

[Krazel]

This kind of grinds on me a bit.
I'm not here to white knight for anyone, but I feel like people keep bringing up this point more than late night comedy shows share the same jokes.
It's just inaccurate, and I'll tell you why:

First, City Skylines has always been increasing in player count since it was released, and finally peaked off at the release of CS2.
Second, it stands to reason that people who play or have played CS don't exist in a vacuum cut off from CS2.

Cumulatively, there are now more people playing both games than there ever was before, with less people playing CS1 than CS2.
So a large portion of the existing playerbase preferred switching to CS2 and purchases not showing up in the "currently playing count" are like landmines, they could come up at any time.

So, any way you want to slice it, the community is bigger now than it ever has been.
Edit: If you want to accuse them of splitting the fanbase, then yeah, maybe you'd have a point there.

Look, I appreciate your opinion but it's factually inaccurate.

Here is the data. You can see that as of this week more players have played CS1 than CS2. The daily player base for CS2 has dropped dramatically over the last couple of weeks. I suppose you can make the argument that some of the base has gone back to original game, but I assume many others have moved to different games. And even still I find it hard to think that's good for their business. New DLC will come out for the new game, not the old one.

The idea that you said "there are now more people playing both games than there ever was before, with less people playing CS1 than CS2" is completely false. There are 80,000 less people playing than in late October...

CS1 actually has MORE players than CS2 right now. That is not a good thing for a new product no matter how you slice it. How can you spin this in a good way?

So I would research before you type. I'm no late night comedy show host but, "Good night, Folks!"

 

[anydaytv]

So I would research before you type. I'm no late night comedy show host but, "Good night, Folks!"

Oh no! Check it out! My favorite D&D game of all time has fallen off!

See? I can do it too. In marketing it's called a "sales surge".

 

[Skeksis25]

Oh no! Check it out! My favorite D&D game of all time has fallen off!

View attachment 1072109

See? I can do it too. In marketing it's called a "sales surge".

It's quite disingenuous to compare the trend of a finite single player game months after launch to a simulation game. They are different genres. A game like BG3 will understandably have large chunks of people moving on after they finish the game. A game like CS2 is not supposed to be a "Beat the game and move on" type. Losing the amount of players it has is a genuine concern and you can't just brush it off like that.

 

[anydaytv]

It's quite disingenuous to compare the trend of a finite single player game months after launch to a simulation game. They are different genres. A game like BG3 will understandably have large chunks of people moving on after they finish the game. A game like CS2 is not supposed to be a "Beat the game and move on" type. Losing the amount of players it has is a genuine concern and you can't just brush it off like that.

Well, BG3 is not strictly a single player game by the way, but that's sort of besides the point. We could sit and write dissertations about whether or not a D&D game or a city builder has deeper long term playability, but that all sounds pretty nebulous to me.

I assure you, I'm not in any way being disingenuous by saying that the numbers you're seeing don't ascribe the meaning you think they do. Those sort of statistics exist independently of the game's issues.

 

[wilcoxchar]

I think this is a dangerous way to consider the games current state.

So it's dangerous to consider that developers are human beings with human needs and human labor conditions and to acknowledge that a well established work holiday period because of said human needs and labor conditions exists.

I'm not sure I want to know how you treat people you work with.

 

[akrobby907]

So it's dangerous to consider that developers are human beings with human needs and human labor conditions and to acknowledge that a well established work holiday period because of said human needs and labor conditions exists.

I'm not sure I want to know how you treat people you work with

I know there is still a base of players out there that play and enjoy the game. Yes, there are things that need fixed. The company said they are going to work on them when they are back from break. They said the blog would take a break until January 15th, but that was just the blog, we don't know about the rest of the staff. This forum isn't very active. Just like the steam forum, the ones that do nothing but denigrate have chased off everyone else. It's a shame.

 

[Collector78]

I would rather want to know in which western country two weeks (December 23-January 7) of either work-provided holiday or an expectation that most people are going to be using vacation time so you're going to be short-staffed during that period is long. Because I'm in the US and that's still the norm for office jobs here.

In Europe (except The Nordics perhaps) few companies close completely (as far as I know only some production companies close for one week). Children are off for two weeks, so indeed several people are taking one or two weeks of holidays as well.
There is absolutely not a single (mid or large sized) IT company that closes it doors for two weeks, let alone not doing a single bug fix for four (to six) weeks. What customers would accept such a contract? It's just us, silly players, who accept it.

 

[dan1979]

When comparing the amount of assets and functionalities provided on the C:S1 base game of the first release version with the C:S2 base game there are more assets and features available on C:S2 already. C:S1 did also not provide a way to place props at the beginning (some proof from 2016 https://steamcommunity.com/app/255710/discussions/0/352788917748873201 - the original "more beautification" mod needed to place props has been removed since). "City painting" was also just as hard in the beginning and took around a year to develop as mods came out.

Why would you compare CS1 2016 base game to CS2 base game in 2023?

No one has played that 2016 version since 2016. Things have moved on, new things are supposed to be better than old things.

 

[BoraBora]

I would rather want to know in which western country two weeks (December 23-January 7) of either work-provided holiday or an expectation that most people are going to be using vacation time so you're going to be short-staffed during that period is long. Because I'm in the US and that's still the norm for office jobs here.

CO closed for 3 weeks, not 2. In my western country, even the little kids don't have a 3 weeks christmas holiday.

 

[anydaytv]

CO closed for 3 weeks, not 2. In my western country, even the little kids don't have a 3 weeks christmas holiday.

Little kids don't have a family to provide for and CO isn't located in your country?...

Listen, the thought process of trying to get the employees of a company you feel wronged by to start cleaning dishes just isn't constructive.
Yeah, the game has major issues. No argument here.

There's no quick fix for the perceived slight against you.

I have to say, this is literally the first game community I've ever engaged with that expected employees to come in and work because the company they happen to work for may have wronged someone. It's kind of shocking, actually.

 

[elektrizikekswerk]

There is absolutely not a single (mid or large sized) IT company that closes it doors for two weeks, let alone not doing a single bug fix for four (to six) weeks. What customers would accept such a contract? It's just us, silly players, who accept it.

Most IT companies don't do games. The chances that a game developer receives a call from a gamer (ie customer) stating that if the software does not work in 2 hours they will lose millions are rather slim.
Granted, such extreme cases are very rare, but I guess you get the point.

I'm working in such a company. Our product development basically stops entirely in this period of the year. Sure we keep our support up and running as there may be urgencies that require immediate action to prevent loss of lots of money but this is a scenario a gaming company simply does not have. Maybe some customers will be unhappy but financial damage (on the customer's side) or worse, damage to health and life, are not to be expected if a gaming company doesn't do anything for a few days.
It's not silly, it's reasonable.

 

[BoraBora]

Little kids don't have a family to provide for and CO isn't located in your country?...

It's still 3 weeks, not 2 and no, it's not common for a company to close for 3 weeks at Christmas like you pretend, whatever the country. BTW, kids, even teenagers, have more holidays than workers, everywhere in the world so this comment about providing for a family makes absolutely no sense.

I have to say, this is literally the first game community I've ever engaged with that expected employees to come in and work because the company they happen to work for may have wronged someone. It's kind of shocking, actually.

Replace "game community" by "market" and "may have wronged someone" by "have sold 1+ million copies of a bug-ridden, unblanced and underperforming piece of software to their customers, without even official modding support". See? In the real world, this backlash isn't shocking.

 

[ClemiMD]

Look, I appreciate your opinion but it's factually inaccurate.

No, it is not. Your graphic shows some peak number of players. If you have a look at the general average players over the last months, you will see that the player base of CS1 has dropped by >5k and the average number of CS2 players is a bit higher.

However, the figures suggest that this month's player numbers will be below those of CS1 - the first time since the release of CS2.

But that doesn't mean anything - it's the same with every game. If the number of players in CS1 comes close to the pre-CS2 level again, then we can discuss it again.

Everyone should draw their own conclusions from statistics, but please use the appropriate data.
Look into the statistics of any game; the number of players shortly after release is many times higher than some months later.