So We Had a Chat with Colossal Order & Paradox About Cities Skylines 2

Let's talk about the meeting that myself, Biffa Plays, City Planner Plays & Overcharged Egg had with Colossal Order & Paradox about Cities Skylines 2. I think you'll find this one very interesting! In attendance were:
Luca Kling (Business Manager at PDX)
Sebastian (Producer at PDX)
Mariina Hallikainen (CEO at Colossal Order)
Hans Zenjuga (Creative Director at Colossal Order)
Many thanks to CO & PDX for organizing this very informative and productive meeting :-)

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👁Series Mods & Assets Collections & Playlist:
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👓OTHER PLAYLISTS:
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- Cities Skylines - Final City (Vanilla 2023):

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- Cities Skylines - FIX YOUR CITY

#biffaplays #pdxmods #CitiesSkylines2

[VerTk]

if the simulation, the core game, is not fixed, no matter how many assets and detailing mods are added, the game will continue being a great-looking city painter, not a city simulator

[mechtechpotato]

I am glad that the Paradox team is engaging with the community to get the game into a state that it should have been in when it launched, and not just shutting down the studio. *Cough cough* take two *Cough chough*

[adarkerstormishere]

It's weird seeing rooftops and trees covered in snow but vacant lots and backyards devoid of it.

[aboriani]

I had CS:1 sitting in my library for a couple of years, but Biffa's city fixing videos are the reason I reinstalled CS:1 and for whatever reason, I was addicted like never before. To see him dealing and fixing with the same troubles I was running into in my own cities, made me want to get back into the game and test all of his ideas (yeah LANE MATHS, I'm looking at you). And then other youtubers came with their ideas, I learned about road hierarchy, how to build crazy interchanges that ACTUALLY made a difference in overall traffic, I learned how to use rail to move and spread goods to the rest of my city, the traffic mods, the assets... It was a sandbox where you could TEST your creativity rather than a simple city builder.
And then CS:2 came along and NOTHING of the above makes a difference. You cannot test stuff, because you can hardly fail. It doesn't matter if a major intersection is clogged because the industry is going to function as nothing happened.
CS:2 reminds me of one of those strange dreams, not a nightmare, not a pleasant dream either, where anything makes sense, you think you are controlling the story of it, but in the end it just a distant mix of memories of your past experiences stitched together by a sleepy brain.

[nealjroberts]

Thank you kindly.
It sounds like a productive meeting. Especially as they included people familiar with both city painting and city building styles of play.

[Ketraar]

Games are hugely complex and while I understand Biffa's "priority" as someone that does a lot of city landscaping, I hope Colossal Order doesn't get the wrong impression that the management part of the game is less important. Personally much rather have their focus be in game mechanics then assets. Sure assets are great to make beautiful cities, but I need the management side much more and CS2 has a lot of potential on that side that still needs a lot of love. I guess this is where it gets hard, as everyone and their dog may have slightly different consideration what they think is important.

I'd argue that the simulation part, which includes the challenges mentioned in the video about traffic and production chains, etc. are crucial for the city build part. But again I recon my manager heart bias.

[der.Schtefan]

It's so sad. In 2013 they rescued us from the Sim City 5 debacle, just to become the villains themselves, in the very same way.

[Chartranos]

What I understand listening to you is that they are doing the research work that they should have done way before starting development.

[Zemalf]

Now that you listed the things, I realized why I didn't feel like playing CS2, but loved CS1 - traffic and solving traffic challenges. That's it. My cities look the same, I rarely detail anything, I just make them functional and optimize traffic (including pedestrians and cyclists, and public transportation). I get the fulfillment from having "perfect" traffic in a city of cims. When CS2 gives me that feeling, I'll be playing it.

[dpaws]

I agree with the traffic fixing and turning vehicle despawning off. It's one of the things I really enjoy in CS1. I'm glad you brought that up.

[TheAurgelmir]

The biggest setback I think the sequel had was indeed in the parks. You'd think they'd pick back up the idea of parks being zones from the first game, and improve on it. Instead we are back to "square"
Heck, the "industries" things you can draw out. They are a good basis. Just let us populate those with special buildings inside it more. To make it look like it's not just a ground texture.

[JenMaxon]

Interesting Biffa - I'm indeed hoping that the game is going to improve like CS1 did. Thanks to you, Egg and CPP for doing the interview

[nicrademeyer]

Thank you agreeing to take part in this, it is good to know knowledgeable people took part in it. One thing to add to the list, while fixing the zoning, add the tool to manipulate zoning as well (Same as in CS1), basic add/remove/one side/both sides.

[TheAurgelmir]

To be fair. It was - for me at least - mods that made C:S1 fun playing. Which is why I find it odd that they didn't go through the most popular mods on Steam Workshop and go "okay, let's make sure these are part of our base game"
And then also include at least the highlights of the expansions from the original game. Like industry. The current C:S2 industry feels like it's a placeholder for something they'll sell us down the line... at least C:S1 industries was "something" that felt intentional at release.

[salty]

IF there was one fix Paradox could make immediately for me it would be to have my cims use my parks. Play soccer, run the track, bring their dogs, walk through the plazas, watch a show... instead the only activity is a trash can fire and some

[dandomine]

They should have a mode where stuff costs as much as in real life. So to build a mile of highway, you'd have to spend 5 million credits... I'm sure this will be quite the challenge.

[BootedTech]

I'm waiting for node controller, and traffic manager. Intersections in this game need a mod to not only make them look better, also to build a better traffic network. I hate seeing vehicles travel in one lane and then switch the other lane right before they make a turn. It ends up with all vehicles doing this blocking both lanes when they cant turn.

[Nicuju]

Thanks for the update on whats going on Biffa.

[charlesingram]

You just reminded me of something else. So the crosswalk situation. The remove crosswalk function removes crosswalks from an entire half length of a road if done at a junction, removing the crosswalk at the other end removes crosswalks from the entire road, then you cant place a crosswalk in the centre because the remove crosswalk function overrides you trying to. This is because the node lengths are now longer so you physically cant in built up areas remove crosswalks from junctions and have the crosswalks in between junctions like you would have sometimes irl. This is a simple fix just allowinjg path crosswalks to override the remove crosswalks function, or somehow make the remove crosswalk function only remove the crosswalk itself instead of banned the entire road from having them.

[Leon-zcef]

I'm posting this with no hate and please take it as the constructive observation it is intended to be.

I bought, pre-ordered, CS2 because you, and CPP, were so positive about it in the build up to its release. There was no indication despite hearing how you'd got to experience the game play ahead of times of the problems we've since had. While I'm sure there are lots of very valid reasons for this, the state CS2 was shipped has in my eyes tarnished yours and CPPs impartiality of the game and while I really do appreciate your content and the updates in this video I hope you can see how their delivery or lack of, undermined your status as a brand champion of the game. I really do hope that the game improves so I can feel you're more than a paid voice piece. (I use that phase very loosely but hope you understand where I'm coming from. To give a little more insight, recently you played Manor Lords. Before the CS2 release just watching you say it was good would have been enough to toggle over to the Steam store; this is how much I valued your opinion. This time I spent several hours looking for other creators to see if they'd had the same opinion of the game as you before buying it.