The Way Forward, an update from the team behind Cities: Skylines

[SlyCooperFan1]

Which is of more value than some overpriced asset packs I may not like and music I don't need? More importantly, I could freely choose to spend it how I want.
What's not to understand about these two options being incomparable?

The issue is that partially refunding the Ultimate Edition is a logistical nightmare because of the way Steam works and because of the varied physical retailers involved. It's possible, but I suspect CO may not have the resources required to go through all of those processes (or Paradox may have simply denied them). As a physical Ultimate Edition owner, I wasn't expecting them to figure out any way of monetarily compensating me. I'm glad to see we're getting more content instead.

 

[LordTridus]

Fair enough. I don't find it acceptable — obviously.

A monetary refund doesn't compare to compensation through the distribution of community-made DLCs and music packs that hold no value.

As I mentioned, I have defended them throughout this entire ordeal, and I haven't lodged any complaints since the release. Certainly, I wasn't pleased with the situation, but framing these three community-made packs and utterly worthless music packs as compensation for premium edition buyers is just... I fail to comprehend how this could be remotely considered comparable to a refund. I'm sorry.

From the FAQ it sounds like they can't do a partial refund. That's why they're doing something else.

 

[backface]

Are you seriously considering compensating premium or ultimate editions with digital goods while others receive monetary compensation? This is completely unacceptable! I, along with virtually 99% of others, have no interest in radio stations; they hold zero value. I can't believe this. I was initially excited about this post, but as a premium edition buyer, this was the last purchase I made from your company. I supported you on all fronts until just a few hours ago, but mistreating premium/ultimate editions like this is intolerable. Consider this: you're compensating us with work you didn't even do; it was the community contributors who did. Additionally, upselling music as DLC in today's era is outdated, to put it politely. Personally, I find it insulting to present it as compensation. Like the vast majority, I play my own music in the background. You can't seriously attribute the value you do to these radio station "DLCs". This is absurd! If you were to exchange the three radio stations for three fully-fledged DLCs plus the community packs, then maybe. Even then, it wouldn't compare to the monetary compensation, which allows me to decide whether or not to support your company financially. At this point, I definitely wouldn't. Especially not with this inadequate compensation for premium/ultimate buyers.

Forget about the radios, you are getting 3 Content Creator packs. Beach Properties, can be considered as so.

 

[Hellegion]

Just words. Just like before. Just take a moment to put this behavior into any other situation. "Oh hey babe, I'll never do that again. I'm so sorry. I bought you flowers." Same thing here. The way I look at it, it's just more words that at the end of the day will equate to exactly 0 action. Paradox mis-managed an entire year of game releases and lost money. In turn, they put all of the financial load to "save the year" on the back of a game that wasn't finished. They then proceeded to try to nickel and dime us more with that joke of a DLC. Maybe there should be a company rebrand to Ubidox. My hand to God, I hope that the CEO(s) of Paradox are removed from their responsibilities. How you can be this bad at your job and still be called "Chief" of anything is beyond me. Mattias Lija you have failed your responsibilities to consumers, employees, and stockholders. I cannot imagine you are able to keep your job when almost 50% of stock value has been lost in the past since August. You are no leader, you are a fraud.

 

[MohawkWolfo98]

That's precisely why I pre-ordered it: to support CO and C:SII.

Well, up until now. They lost me with this - unfortunately, for me. There's obviously enough sand on the beach to keep them going, I suppose.

Pretty much this for me. I was an idiot and fully admit it. Never pre-order: I never thought CO of all companies would do such a thing but I ignored the warning signs to a mantra of support.

Feels bad they ended up like the same old exploitative capitalist company.

 

[sys_64738]

That's precisely why I pre-ordered it: to support CO and C:SII.

Yep, same on me.

Okay, I don't mind the UE deal, but that's because I liked CCPs and radio stations in C:S1 and I like the music in C:S2 as well. This means that I'm a bit biased here.

I'm sorry for you that you don't like their proposal, but I can also understand why they can't simply give us 10 Euros or Dollars here. Well, let's hope that they'll come up with an alternative.

Best regards,
sys

 

[Musbyte]

That;s cool and all-but while "content creators" may be the front facing ambassadors of the game, they tend to have very high end systems and their play style is generally made for an audience, and might not be the PC system, play style or city goals that individual players might do when they fire up the game. Please consider that.

This is a complaint we continue to hear in spite of the long ago published system requirements and ongoing advice about not playing the game on inadequate PC's. I sincerely hope that C.O. will continue to concentrate on tweaking, and not degrading, just to satisfy poorly equipped machines. I admit that the game is more demanding than the requirements published, but there's a lot we can do with in the graphic options settings. Not pointing you out, but It has become very clear that even players with GTX-4070's, 4080's and even 4090's are not bothering to set them proper and continue to gripe.

 

[Smikkie]

Thank you, been waiting for a long time to hear a good genuine apology and seeing some changes. You're making good decisions right now, keep it up! Looking forward to more quality of life changes and optimization in the future

 

[sys_64738]

Just words. Just like before. Just take a moment to put this behavior into any other situation. "Oh hey babe, I'll never do that again. I'm so sorry. I bought you flowers." Same thing here. The way I look at it, it's just more words that at the end of the day will equate to exactly 0 action. Paradox mis-managed an entire year of game releases and lost money. In turn, they put all of the financial load to "save the year" on the back of a game that wasn't finished. They then proceeded to try to nickel and dime us more with that joke of a DLC. Maybe there should be a company rebrand to Ubidox. My hand to God, I hope that the CEO(s) of Paradox are removed from their responsibilities. How you can be this bad at your job and still be called "Chief" of anything is beyond me. Mattias Lija you have failed your responsibilities to consumers, employees, and stockholders. I cannot imagine you are able to keep your job when almost 50% of stock value has been lost in the past since August. You are no leader, you are a fraud.

Maybe.

I'm willing to take the risk - once! But I can understand anyone who doesn't.

The next weeks will tell.

Best regards,
sys

 

[Ekim101]

Which is of more value than some overpriced asset packs I may not like and music I don't need? More importantly, I could freely choose to spend it how I want.
What's not to understand about these two options being incomparable?

They would actually "save" money if they refunded me $10 instead of providing $40 worth of digital goods. Wouldn't that be beneficial for them?

Okey let me tell you my few. I use a picture for this.

I bought a cake with 6 pieces for 6 € at once. Other people bought every piece single and payed 2 € for each piece.

Now the owner says 1 of the pieces will be available for free to everyone and the people who bought all pieces at once will keep the free piece and get 6 additional pieces.

Sounds like a win even if there maybe was a small piece I don't wanted.. it's for free as a gift... I don't loose anything.

I personally can live very good with this. And I also don't care much about the radio stations. Never bought one for CS1. And the creator content I usually always bought, so I'm sure I'll be compensated fairly

 

[flyingdutchman99]

See, this is exactly what many of us were waiting for. A clear action plan of how you will keep the ship from sinking. It sure took its time, but I'm glad you guys finally owned up to the mistakes you made. Makes me hopefull for the games future.

 

[KingHenryVIII.]

The issue is that partially refunding the Ultimate Edition is a logistical nightmare because of the way Steam works and because of the varied physical retailers involved. It's possible, but I suspect CO may not have the resources required to go through all of those processes (or Paradox may have simply denied them). As a physical Ultimate Edition owner, I wasn't expecting them to figure out any way of monetarily compensating me. I'm glad to see we're getting more content instead.

From the FAQ it sounds like they can't do a partial refund. That's why they're doing something else.

Forget about the radios, you are getting 3 Content Creator packs. Beach Properties, can be considered as so.

Yes, that's why I mentioned that I would prefer to receive compensation in the form of three official DLCs and three creator packs, rather than the current compensation they're offering.

I would also be content with just three official DLCs. I don't need any creator packs, as I can supplement my experience with mods, and I certainly see no value in music that I usually turn off, as do most of the player base, because I prefer to listen to my own music that doesn't repeat every three songs.

The most concerning aspect is that they are using community creators' work as compensation. I fail to comprehend how this isn't a red flag for you all.

 

[Dushess]

Reminder: the game is still in terrible technical condition, but called release. What do you think, how much it will take to fix at least core issues (cat.A) with some part of smaller problems (cat.B)?

 

[PedsNotCims]

Which is of more value than some overpriced asset packs I may not like and music I don't need? More importantly, I could freely choose to spend it how I want.
What's not to understand about these two options being incomparable?

They would actually "save" money if they refunded me $10 instead of providing $40 worth of digital goods. Wouldn't that be beneficial for them?

The viewpoint is entirely your choice and I cast no aspersions on it. Simply pointing out that the refund is $10

 

[tamsi99]

Dear Paradox team,
finally, you got it. Thank you!

Appreciate the professional communication and the acknowledgement of having missed out on the real priorities in the past around 4 months. This gives me some hope that maybe towards the end of this year we might have a game for which I might find the motivation to re-start playing.

CS2 has the potential to be a wonderful city builder, please listen to us and make the right decisions to bring that potential to light. Fingers crossed for all of us.

 

[MohawkWolfo98]

Yep, same on me.

Okay, I don't mind the UE deal, but that's because I liked CCPs and radio stations in C:S1 and I like the music in C:S2 as well. This means that I'm a bit biased here.

I'm sorry for you that you don't like their proposal, but I can also understand why they can't simply give us 10 Euros or Dollars here. Well, let's hope that they'll come up with an alternative.

Best regards,
sys

I’m just worried that Paradox thinks it’s worth $40(!!) for a few content packs and radio stations. For that amount of money, I expect things like actual, fully baked in gameplay mechanics. Even the EU4 DLCs, which many argue is way overpriced for a few mission trees, are half the cost. It shouldn’t be worth near that amount, especially radio stations. Spinning it as a $40 saving feels slightly misleading (not criticising you btw , just Paradox things)

$40 can buy you a brand new game like Workers and Resources. Even the Sims 4 had expansion packs more worthy than that! The price gouging is worrying and not worth it. I do appreciate its free stuff, this will have a negative impact long term with the price of future DLC.

 

[TripleAgent]

If CO/PDX wants to be transparent then can you finally tell us the technical reason behind why asset importing has been totally unworkable since before launch? We keep being told for many months that asset import is the biggest issue preventing us from having asset mods, Creator Packs, Region Packs, etc, but we still haven't been told what the issue actually is. There's plenty of theories about what the issue is (one popular one I've heard is it can't automate LODs), but we don't actually know anything about it. Maybe having a few more specifics about technical issues would at least assuage people that would prefer informational explanations to broad statements about trying to do better that have been repeated for months.

 

[Jonesyriffic]

Finally, an announcement full of humility and transparency. This would have solved the 'toxicity problem' a lot sooner if you had said this a while back.

Thank you.


My only feedback at this stage is that I worry about the Advisory Council - or whatever terminology you're using.

YouTubers are typically NOT representative of the player base and how they play the games. The likes of Biffa were supposedly involved in pre-alpha and alpha phases, and we are where we are today.

I can't say I'm full of confidence that community influencers (let's be honest, that's who you're talking about) will be able to give feedback that represents the feeling of the wider community and effects positive change on gameplay and the game itself.

 

[Warfororks]

My biggest concern has always been “well what if they just abandon the game?” So seeing affirmations like this that double down on continuing to work on the game are really good.

Beach properties was just such a unique phenomenon… what content was there was good, but I think people rightfully wanted more or a price 70% lower, and as so many got it included in the UE, the review score just sunk to the bottom. I was very close to not recommending it too, but that’s moot now.

Yet for all the criticism, I must say I was taken a bit aback looking at paradox mods and seeing the top mods had 100k+ subscribers. That’s a lot more people than frankly I’d be expecting to still be interested. There’s a good fan base here, there’s still ample opportunity to deliver good fair updates and be rewarded with good fair profits down the line.

Good luck, hope to hear more soon.

 

[maarten_714]

Thank you for this! I think people will truly appreciate this!

One more thing I would like to add to all of this.... In the future, try to keep anything that is needed to make a MAP within the free patches. DLC can contain all the new features, all the new buildings, as well as new road upgrades (bike paths?), etc etc...... but leave things like trees and boulders out of any paid for DLC. At least, as best as possible. Basically, get to a situation where no one is denied playing a map due to lack of content.