The patch for Economy 2.0 will be one of our biggest to date, and that also means that there will be many changes in how the game functions, especially with the economy.

We are now close to releasing the Economy 2.0 patch! The final checks are being made before we push the buttons, and it might be in your hands already tomorrow. Before the patch is released, though, we wanted to share a list of things you might encounter while loading up your saves after the Economy 2.0 patch; this post should explain in advance how your previous saves will be impacted so that there won’t be any surprises.



We have already published two Developer Diaries about what the Economy 2.0 patch contains. If you want to read them, you can find them here;

DD#1 - https://pdxint.at/3R8OSRY | DD#2 - https://pdxint.at/3yF8RBr​

• Saves from before the economy rework will still work but may require a transition period. This extensive rework will affect how the simulation runs and impact the saves you have been building on when the patch goes live on Patch Day. Read below on what takes time to take effect.

• With the new patch, there are no guarantees for modded saves; you will have to check for updates or instructions from modders.
  
• Mods affecting the simulation are likely impacted by the update.

Mods have to be updated to work with the new version of the game and its new functions. Please be patient with the modders that make the mods you love, and while some mod creators have been given Early Access to the patch to be able to update their mods, they might be unable to update them immediately. Please don't hound mod creators to update their mods; if they're able, they will update them as soon as they are able.

If you want to play the game without mods while you wait for mods to be patched, you can use a new playset empty of mods or temporarily add --disableModding to the game's Steam launch options to disable all mods.


Government Subsidies are removed, and City Service upkeep costs are increased.
Cities relying on external services need to enable the Import City Services policy to continue using neighboring city services, which now come with a fee.
Tiles now have an Upkeep Cost, and if you have many tiles unlocked you will notice a major change to your budget. If you’re struggling to balance your budget after the patch but want to keep playing on the same save, we recommend enabling “Unlimited Money” in your saves Map Options. If you start a new map and enable the new Map Option "Unlock All Tiles", the tiles won't have an upkeep cost, and you won't have to pay 22,000,000 per month.


There will be a Death Wave in your city lasting about 1-2 in-game months. The older your citizens are, the more severe it will be. This is because we want to vary the age at which citizens can die to avoid future death waves - but it will take a while as the Grim Reaper usually doesn't get so much paperwork all at once.
Expect a negative money trend initially, but tax income may offset new costs after recalculations. If your city struggles financially, consider increasing taxes, reducing service budgets, or temporarily turning off buildings to save costs.
Companies need time to adjust production and employee numbers, potentially increasing unemployment.
Demand adjustments may occur quickly, affecting demand bars, so don't be surprised if they are very different from before the patch. Increased industrial manufacturing space may drive up residential demand unless there are already job-seeking workers.
Don't be surprised if this new calculation causes citizens to seek different housing types or relocate after the patch.
These calculations should help citizens afford preferred housing, reducing "High Rent" notifications over time.
Persistent "High Rent" notifications even after an extended period of playing? This may indicate unemployment issues. Ensure citizens have jobs to pay rent.


We value your opinion on the development of Cities Skylines II and have, along with this patch, created a survey where you can add your opinions, concerns, and suggestions about Economy 2.0.

Once the patch is out, you can find this survey as one of the Tiles in the Cities: Skylines II Launcher!

Welcome back to the second dev diary detailing the changes coming in the next patch. If you missed it, check out the first part here. Today we are covering a few important changes not directly related to the economy and we’ll go over what you can expect when loading up your existing cities.

Let’s start with Rent. Most likely you have run into complaints of “High Rent” in the game, so let’s talk about it. To complement the Land Value changes in patch 1.1.0f1 in March, we have tweaked how Rent works. First of all, we removed the virtual landlord so a building’s upkeep is now paid equally by all renters. Second, we changed the way rent is calculated. For those interested, the calculation looks like this:

Rent = (LandValue + (ZoneType * Building Level)) * LotSize * SpaceMultiplier

This of course affects the “High Rent” notifications you may have encountered, but we’ve tweaked those directly as well, so they are now based on the household’s income. That means that even if they currently don’t have enough money in their balance to pay rent, they won’t complain and will instead spend less money on resource consumption. Only when their income is too low to be able to pay rent will they complain about “High Rent” and look for cheaper housing or move out of the city.

Besides rent, households and companies need to pay for the building’s upkeep, which in turn affects the level of the building. When they pay the full upkeep fee, the building condition increases by a constant amount until the building levels up and the tenants start paying towards the next level. Similarly, if they cannot pay it, the building condition decreases by the same amount until it’s in such poor condition it collapses.

BUILDING UPGRADES UNLEASHED
From zoned buildings automatically leveling up to the City Service building upgrades you choose and place manually. While this update doesn’t directly relate to the Economy 2.0, it shares the same patch and deserves a little spotlight. Gone are the days when you had to bulldoze the entire building to remove, or just move, an upgrade. Now, all upgrades can be removed by selecting the building, finding the upgrade in the Selected Info Panel, and clicking the bin icon.

Deactivate or delete Extensions or relocate Sub-buildings through the Selected Info Panel

For sub-buildings, there’s even more control. They can also be removed using the bulldozer, you can pick them up and move them, or turn them on and off as needed. Moving them is particularly handy now as they don’t have to be placed in connection to the main building. As long as they are within the predefined radius and have pedestrian and/or road access, they will work like before. Sub-buildings like the Elementary School Playground just need a pedestrian path connecting them to the rest of the city, while sub-buildings like the Bus Depot Extra Garage will need road access to function. We’re excited to see how you take advantage of this new freedom in your cities, so don’t hesitate to tag us on social media if you’re showing off screenshots.


Now you might wonder how all of this affects your existing cities, so let’s get the most obvious question out of the way first. Saves from before the economy rework still work, though we expect they will have a transition period as the simulation adapts to the changes. When it comes to modded saves, we can’t make any guarantees, but keep an eye out for updates or instructions from the modders. Mods that affect the simulation are likely to be affected by the update.

When you load up your city (and unpause) there are a few things you should keep in mind. With Government Subsidies removed and City Service upkeep increased, the cost of running your city just increased. If your city relies on ambulances, hearses, fire engines, police cars, and garbage trucks coming from Outside Connection, make sure to enable the Import City Services policy in the City Information panel, but don’t forget that your neighbors charge a fee to help you out. All this is expected to create a negative money trend, but depending on your city’s finances, your tax income might be enough to offset the new costs once the calculations catch up. If you’re struggling for money, don’t forget that you can increase taxes, reduce service budgets, or temporarily turn buildings off to save on their upkeep cost.

Demand adjusts quite quickly, so don’t be alarmed if some of your demand bars empty or fill up when you start playing. With the increase in industrial manufacturing space, your industry will be on a hiring spree that’s likely to drive up your residential demand - unless your city has workers already looking for a job. We recommend giving it some time though as companies (commercial, industrial, and office) readjust their production and employee numbers to be profitable, which we expect will overall lead to an increase in unemployment in your city.

With the new calculations for residential density demand, your citizens may also start looking for different types of housing or move around the city. Thankfully, the new calculations for rent and resource consumption should help them afford the type of housing they prefer, and we expect most (if not all) of your “High Rent” notifications will disappear after letting the simulation run for a while. If you keep seeing these or they start to come back, then make sure to check your unemployment and provide citizens with jobs so that they can pay their rent.

With time and some tweaks, your existing cities should adjust to the changes, so you can get back to realizing their full potential. And as always, don’t hesitate to ask for help if you encounter any situations you’re unsure of how to handle and report any bugs you might run into here[forum.paradoxplaza.com]


Before we finish for today, we’d like to share our plans going forward. We will of course follow discussions and read feedback you share as you play with these changes. We’ve done extensive testing to get the changes as balanced as possible, but we know that some tweaking will likely still be necessary once you all start sharing your experiences.

We’ve already started work on the next major patch which we hope to have ready for you in Q3, and we want to give you a little sneak peek at what you can expect. As previously mentioned, we want to expand the service import to bring you more control. We’re also looking at what we can improve in the UI and how the game relays information to you, so you have everything you need to solve issues in the game. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Are there any issues you’ve struggled to solve in your city? Any information you have been looking for but weren’t able to find?

Last, but definitely not least, the art team has been cooking up some new free buildings for you all. We appreciate each and every one of you for sticking with us and giving us a chance to make Cities: Skylines II what it can and should be. Your patience and support mean the world to us and we hope the new service buildings and vehicles can serve as a token of our appreciation. Thank you for being a part of our community!

A sneak peek at some of the new service buildings and vehicles you can look forward to

Hello again! We are back with another development diary. This time we look at the economy re-work or as we like to call it “Economy 2.0” set to release within the upcoming two weeks. You’ve shared a lot of great feedback with us, from bringing bugs to our attention to sharing how you feel while playing the game. As we went through your feedback, it became clear that certain systems, particularly the economic simulation, weren’t transparent enough and didn’t allow you enough control over your city. We felt this was important to improve, so for the past few months, we have overhauled several systems based on your feedback.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of these changes, we want to thank you for the detailed and constructive feedback you shared. It really helped us understand what issues you experienced, what information you lacked, and how we could improve things. We look forward to hearing your feedback following these changes so we can continue to work on improving Cities: Skylines II and make it the best it possibly can be.

Alright, let’s get to it! Our goal with Economy 2.0 was to make the systems more straightforward and responsive, so you can make more meaningful choices and have more control over the various gameplay aspects. This means fewer safeguards and automated systems that work invisibly under the surface and an increased level of challenge. We still aim for the game to be playable without paying too much attention to where and how money and resources flow in the city so new players have a chance to succeed, while still leaving room for experienced players to benefit from optimizing their city. We’ll get into the details below but to give you a quick overview here are the major changes of Economy 2.0:

• Government Subsidies have been removed to make the economy more challenging and transparent
  
• Importing City Services from Outside Connections now has a toggle and a fee
  
• City Service Upkeep costs have been increased
  
• Calculations for Demand have been improved
  
• New calculations for rent and household spending allow citizens to afford to live in Low Density Residential
  
• The production chain has been rebalanced to bring tax income to a more reasonable level

A key point in the feedback we received was that the game didn’t challenge many of you when it comes to managing the city’s finances. Striking the right balance is hard. We want new players to be able to dive into the game while still providing players from Cities: Skylines or long-term fans of the city-building genre a challenge. We introduced Government Subsidies in Cities: Skylines II to act as a helping hand as your city got established, allowing them to scale with expenses. But they also removed agency and consequences from the game. Why build a city with a well-balanced economy if the government will cover all the expenses of your Utopia?

We considered several approaches to Government Subsidies but in the end, we decided to completely remove them from the city budget. This puts you in full control of your city’s finances and gives you a reason to consider what you spend your money on and when. It will be up to you to create a profitable city, and when you succeed, you get to take all the credit. If you struggle to get the hang of it, the in-game tutorials are there to help you out and the tips can always be accessed through the Advisor (the question mark in the top-right corner of the screen). And of course, you can always ask us or your fellow players for help.

MONEY
Money makes the world, or in this case the city, go round. In Cities: Skylines II, money circulates both within the city and in and out of the simulation through money sources and sinks. We work with 4 entities in Cities: Skylines II:

• You, the player/the city
  
• Households
  
• Companies
  
• Abstracted investors

Each of these has ways they can gain or lose money, some of which are preset and automatic, some of which are within your control. Below we have a quick overview of these to give you a sense of how money flows in your city, and how you can affect it.

CITY SERVICES
As you can see, City Service construction and upkeep, along with roads of course, are where most (if not all) of your money goes. In Economy 2.0 we’ve rebalanced the costs of City Services which includes a significant increase in the upkeep costs. Our goal here is to give your choices more meaning as your city grows. Is your city’s economy strong enough to afford a University or will you have to increase taxes to pay for it? Can you afford to improve the city’s mail service to make citizens happy or will that have to wait until your economy is more stable? These are the kinds of questions we hope you will be asking yourself as you play with the update.

But services aren’t just available locally in your city. Your neighbors can provide you with garbage trucks or ambulances from Outside Connections if your city isn’t quite able to provide those for your citizens yet. With our initial design, the only cost of importing services (excluding Electricity and Water and Sewage) was the time it took the service vehicles to arrive and perform the needed tasks. Economy 2.0 changes that by adding a fee for importing services, which scales with the city’s population.

Now, we can’t add a fee and not give you a way to avoid it, so we have added a new City Policy called Import City Services. It works as a toggle: When it’s enabled your city can and will import services that are lacking in your city, and when it’s disabled, which is the default, your city relies on what’s available locally. In its current form, it’s an all-or-nothing toggle, but we are considering expanding the service import to give you more control. What do you think, any particular direction you would like us to take? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

City Policies can be found by clicking the City Information button next to the demand bars


While we call this systems rework “Economy 2.0” it affects more than just the economic simulation. To complement both the changes to the financial side of the game and the improvements to the Land Value system in patch 1.1.0f1, we’ve made improvements to Demand, Rent, Education, and Citizen Happiness. These changes affect your citizens’ lives, and how and where they choose to live.

DEMAND
Most noticeable are the changes to how Demand is calculated, allowing it to be more responsive and more accurately reflect the state of the city at any given time. Residential demand has been expanded so the desired density is tied to the size and wealth of households. On average low density residential is the most expensive type of housing as a single household is responsible for the building’s expenses (paying Rent and Upkeep), while residents in medium and high density can split the costs. When wealthier households move into the city, the demand for low density increases, and when citizens with lower wealth, such as students, want to move in, the demand for high density goes up. Similarly, families will want more space, preferring low or medium density homes, while singles are perfectly happy with the smaller homes found in high density apartment complexes.

The type of households that spawn are determined by the average citizen happiness, homelessness in the city, the residential tax rates, available education spots, and open job positions.

Turning our attention to commercial demand, it’s now more closely tied to what households need. The more households consume, the more demand for commercial zones you’ll see. We’ve tweaked the household need for shopping, forcing them to pay rent and consider the garbage fee before going shopping. Furthermore, we have also tied the types of companies that can inhabit commercial buildings more closely to the products citizens consume. This means you’re less likely to see a bunch of the same companies spawn as the simulation seeks to provide a more varied selection of products for your citizens.

Both office and industry demand have been adjusted to a more reasonable level to match the other zone types, and their interactions with commercial have been strengthened, so you can produce what your shops need locally. Additionally, industry now has more workplaces so you can satisfy the demand more easily.

EDUCATION AND WORK
We’ve made tweaks to education before, particularly to encourage more teens to go to high school, but we didn’t quite reach our goals, so Economy 2.0 includes further improvements to the education system. Children always go to elementary school if the city has one with available student spots, while teens have a high chance of going to high school. Some will still choose to work, especially if no school is available, but you should see more teens in high school. We’ve also improved the chance they graduate from both elementary and high school, and for those adults who didn’t get their high school diploma, there is now a chance, albeit low, to apply to a high school with available student spots so that they can graduate.

Teens and adults can both join the workforce if there are suitable jobs for them. However, if they have health problems, such as being sick or injured, they don’t count as employable citizens and will need to recover before they can work. They may find work in the city, if any job positions with their skill level or lower are available, or they may resort to finding work in a neighboring city, though working in Outside Connections is less desirable with this rework.

If they cannot find work, they become unemployed and receive unemployment from the government. However, this option is only available for a limited time, so if you don’t provide them with suitable jobs, they will eventually have no other option than to leave the city as they cannot pay their rent.


Your city consists of more than just citizens though, many businesses make it their home too, and demand isn’t the only thing we tweaked for commercial, industry, and office. Let’s take a look at what else has changed, starting with production. You already know the basics: One or more input resources are processed and turned into a more refined product, which requires both workers and time. Higher education level workers do this more efficiently (they work smarter, not harder), and each product has a certain amount of work needed to produce one unit. Previously, the game calculated the amount of work needed at the start of the game, but we have changed that to a preconfigured amount to make the game more predictable and allow us to fine-tune things. Additionally, we have adjusted the amount of work needed to produce a single unit for all products reducing the overall production, which in turn reduces the company profits, and by extension, the amount of tax you can collect from them.

But that’s not all. The price of resources has been adjusted as well as how it’s calculated. It now has two parts: A discounted price paid by industrial companies when they purchase materials for their production, and a normal price for commercial companies to purchase the goods. The two prices are then combined into one as they’re sold to consumers, allowing everyone to profit (hopefully, at least) from the sales. But don’t worry about the consumers, we have also increased the wages companies pay so the citizens can afford both their homes and the resources they need.

Alright, that was a lot of information! With that, we’ll end today’s dev diary, but don’t miss part 2 coming next week where we look at Rent, Building Upgrades, and what happens to existing cities. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts on what’s to come. Any changes you’re particularly excited about? Any that leave you with questions? Let us know in the comments below.

Economy Re-work

The initial implementation of the economy re-work is done, and the patch is currently being polished. Our internal team, along with feedback from our Beta group, indicates we are heading in the right direction, and we are excited to share it with you soon. This patch will not address everything, but to ensure it meets the expectations of our wider community, we want to give it a few more weeks so we can take action on more of the feedback we have received from the Beta group. The goal of the patch is to address the community feedback we have received in regards to the economy; increase the importance of managing the economy, increase the challenge, and make it clearer to the player how the economy is affected by your choices. Currently, we aim to release the patch in the window June 3rd - June 19th and we will be detailing the update further in upcoming Dev Diaries.

Upcoming Creator Packs

As a result of this extended feedback and adjustment period for the economy patch, the Creator Packs will be pushed to post-summer. Even though the Creator Packs require relatively little time for implementation from Colossal Order, we want to make sure the upcoming economy patch has the intended result, and that we have time to also evaluate your feedback before we release any new paid content. This means we will move the Creator Packs to release after the summer lock.

What is summer lock?

In accordance with Swedish and Finnish vacation laws and union agreements, both Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order observe a general holiday period during the month of July and parts of August, where employees have the right to four consecutive weeks of vacation. This means that our staffing levels are reduced on both the development and publishing side. Therefore, we avoid scheduling any updates during this time period. As there is always a potential risk when patching a game, we always want to have the necessary personnel available in case any critical bug is introduced so we can fix it within a reasonable timeframe. Hence, we do not plan for patches or updates in the month of July or early August.

Upcoming Patches

The patch, scheduled for release soon, primarily focuses on the economy. However, there are some other requested improvements included such as an update to the building upgrade system. This means you will be able to place building upgrades more freely around the main buildings and also delete and move specific upgrades. We will provide detailed patch notes in connection to the patch as usual.

The next patch, expected after summer, will introduce some free content and other frequent requests, such as new service buildings and vehicles, as well as the addition of a surface tool to allow more freedom to paint the areas around buildings. We are also making progress with the technical difficulties that are blocking the release of the asset editor; we cannot confirm if it will be ready for the first patch after summer, so no promises just yet, but we are doing everything we can to make it so.

Consoles

We had a Beta build delivery at the end of April which has undergone extensive performance and stability tests. These results showed that we are not hitting the stability and performance targets that we want to reach. Fixing these crashes and improving the FPS is the highest priority when it comes to the console builds. The development team is working diligently and has already fixed some of the issues from these tests, and we still hope we can keep the timeline for an October release. But, to set expectations, the window for an October release is shrinking and it might have to be delayed further.

Player Feedback

We have two groups testing our patches and providing valuable feedback before public release: a long-standing group of dedicated modders and a newer group of community representatives and prominent modders who joined through the application process last year. We recently held a more intimate meeting with representatives from the community, who shared their insights and conveyed those of their follower base, on what they wish to see in the game. Once the economy patch is out, we will also launch a survey to gather feedback from you, the broader community. This will ensure that we understand your experience and continue heading in the right direction. We are also continuously reading posts you share on our official channels and we appreciate all the good and constructive feedback we have received over the past few weeks.


Thank you for being a part of our community and for your continued passion for Cities: Skylines II. Stay tuned for further updates on the economy patch and the timeline for upcoming patches and new content.

// The Cities Team

Hi everyone. As patch 1.1.2f1 is rolling out on Steam and Microsoft Store, let’s have a look at what it includes and what you can expect next.

This patch removes the entitlement from all the Beach Properties assets, so they are now a part of the base game and available to everyone. Saves and custom maps using the assets should work without any extra steps, but as always, don’t hesitate to make a bug report on the forum[forum.paradoxplaza.com] if you have any issues. Additionally, we have improvements to performance, support for Nvidia DLSS Super Resolution, and a long list of bug fixes for both the game and the Editor. You can find the full list below.

With this patch in your hands, we’ve started working towards the next one. It will take about a month as, along with bug fixes and improvements, this patch will include a large re-work of the Economy to address much of the feedback you have shared with us in the past months. We’ll share more details on what has changed when the patch is ready.

As modding is an important part of any Colossal Order game, one of our top priorities right now is to resolve the remaining issues with the asset import pipeline, so you can start to import and share your custom assets on Paradox Mods. This is proving more difficult than we hoped, so we don’t have an exact timeline at this time at this point, but it will likely take several more months.

Thank you for all the bug reports, feedback, and support. We really appreciate it as it helps us understand and improve your experience with Cities: Skylines II.



Beach Properties assets implemented to the base game

Performance

• Nvidia DLSS Super Resolution support added
  
• Some pathfinding optimizations to reduce slowing simulation
  
• UI optimizations
  
• Optimizations to reduce frame spikes

Bug fixes & improvements

• Mod options are sorted alphabetically instead of random
  
• Made bus stop and mailbox color in infoview same as icon color
  
• Citizens are more likely to use taxis from outside connections when moving in the city
  
• Automatically pause and display any pending legal documents when continuing last game from the launcher
  
• Fixed crash to desktop occurs after starting a new game on Custom Map from Editor where 'Placeholder Surface' was used
  
• Fixed crash to desktop occurs after placing any Truck from “Add Object” menu in developerMode
  
• Fixed crash to desktop after loading save with broken path-road connections
  
• Fixed crash to desktop after loading map with Landfill's lot created in Editor
  
• Fixed Cartography achievement
  
• Fixed dispatching problem causing service vehicles to have trouble reaching some targets in certain cases. Affects garbage collecting, post van (for buildings), police patrolling and road maintenance.
  
• Fixed patient teleports to ambulance if the parking lot is close to their location
  
• Fixed a road tool snapped to an existing road may randomly get into an incorrect position
  
• Fixed zone grid alignment broken when bulldozing stops or mailboxes when there are different sized roads connected
  
• Fixed duplicated city service upkeep items of building that have upgrade
  
• Fixed trains stuck at rail yard when there are multiple spawning trains and arriving trains at the same time.
  
• Fixed part of Hydroelectric Power Plant remains on map after bulldozing it
  
• Fixed tutorial task list not resetting when selecting “Reset tutorials” from gameplay options.
  
• Fixed limit tutorial center card height to prevent overlapping with bottom toolbar
  
• Fixed missing color of Destroyed Buildings in the Disaster Control Info View
  
• Fixed service coverage displaying all red for a couple of frames when activating infoview for the first time after loading save (In paused mode or soon after loading)
  
• Fixed line color changes are not visible while it's hovered with a cursor.
  
• Fixed Firewatch Tower incorrectly shows its range when hovering over the building
  
• Fixed mouse tool options tooltips did not support handling a larger number of options or smaller resolutions/UI scalings
  
• Fixed interface/panel transparency for non default UI styles
  
• Fixed issue preventing saving after changing name with controller and virtual keyboard
  
• Menu notifications thumbnail image will now retain its aspect ratio and will cover the square space with overflow content cut
  
• Various screen resolution fixes
  
• Multiple text fixes
  
• Controller fixes:
  
  • All photomode panel properties can be reset
    
  • Reset property and capture keyframe action added for controller
    
  • Revamped controller navigation and focus styles for a more intuitive and streamlined UX
    
  • Disabled Editor inspector items can be focused to fix situations where some fields cannot be viewed or scrolled to with a controller.
    
  • Fixed draggable value not updating input label in photo mode panel
    
  • Fixed null reference when trying to reset a property that had no reset callback
    
  • Fixed controller navigation in Editor preview/thumbnail picker, save map panel, and add component menu. Item pickers no longer select items when focused by default.
    
  • Fixed preview not updating with various tools when using controller to select asset
    
  • Fixed controller action hints overlapping main menu sub screens
    
  • Fixed Editor bottom bar sliders not being usable with controller
    
  • Fixed item picker footer slider not being usable with controller
    
  • Fixed controller's slider buttons getting inverted when the slider's start value is higher than the end value
• Added missing names from QLOC team to the credits

Editor

• Added wind editing for maps
  
• Added Paradox creator profile bindings
  
• Display user avatar in Paradox panel
  
• Added notification about mod loading status
  
• Added support for text field input for numeric fields for mouse brush options
  
• Added display tool options for bulldoze tool
  
• Added notification if a mod failed to load. If you click on it, it shows details with the ability to open a mod page on Paradox Mods or disable a failed mod.
  
• Added 'builtIn' property to setting pages
  
• Added missed attributes to options in modding setting tab
  
• Added directory picker
  
• Added directory picker to modding toolchain dependencies to select installation path
  
• Added directory browser bindings to OptionsUISystem
  
• Fixed water simulation speed now resets when closing Editor water panel
  
• Fixed modding toolchain sections text/icons not readable with scaled text
  
• Fixed searching for components or directories not returning all results, small refactors and optimizations
  
• Fixed brush options not resetting between Editor and in-game
  
• Fixed Editor tool options sometimes not rendering before next UI action
  
• Fixed visible loc ID in savegame's map name if the custom map used in the save has been deleted
  
• Controller fixes & improvements
  
  • Editor tool options moved to inspector panel footer and usable with controller
    
  • Added controller action hints to Editor
    
  • Restricted controller navigation to Editor panel when active,
    
  • Several minor improvements to Editor controller navigation
• Several UI modding improvements
  
• Map upload: disable “Submit” button when internet connection lost or user unexpectedly logged out
  
• Map upload: disable “Submit” button after successful upload to prevent uploading same map multiple times

Paradox Mods

• Paradox SDK updated to version 1.19
  
• Paradox Mods updated to version 1.4.1
  
• New features
  
  • Addition of Creator profiles and Your profile view
    
  • Ability to follow creators
    
  • Pressing Escape can now be used to close Mods UI
    
  • Addition of Ko-fi, Buy me a coffee, Crowdin as external links
    
  • PageUp, PageDown, Home and End can be used to scroll in various views
    
  • Mousebutton 4 and 5 (thumb buttons) can now be used for back and forward navigation
    
  • Author is now clickable when browsing mods
    
  • Mod ID is now visible in Mod info and can be copied as well as copy the full link of the mod
    
  • Arrow left and right can now be used to navigate the gallery on mod details
    
  • Input text fields will now auto focus
    
  • Going back from mod details will now scroll down to where you were before
    
  • Ability to remove a mod from all playsets when in Library
• General improvements
  
  • Increased scroll speed
    
  • Redesigned mod details information box
    
  • Thumbnail is now visible on mod details
    
  • Reordered icons when browsing mods
    
  • Clarified text in Library to also mention how many mods in the active playset
    
  • Clarified text when on an empty non-active playset
    
  • Modals have been slightly redesigned
    
  • Failing to fetch discussion will only show a toast instead of an error modal
    
  • Updated translations in some places
    
  • Redesigned spotlight in Featured to be smaller
    
  • Browse now have 5 mods in a row on PC, up from 4
    
  • Mod version will now be used instead of numerical version (if it exists)
    
  • Featured mods can now be subscribed and shows likes
    
  • Clarified text on featured mods Browse all button
    
  • Last updated is now showing in mod info
    
  • Created timestamp is now showing in mod info
• Bug fixes
  
  • User removed mods are now properly texted as removed
    
  • Fixed a couple of crashes in offline mode
    
  • Fixed search field flickering when switching to and from Browse view
    
  • Fixed scrolling back in Browse not centering on the previous clicked mod
    
  • Fixed text in library to not overflow to much in some languages

We’re back with an update on Beach Properties in the Base Game.
Besides the refund and compensation, in our last update to our community, we promised to include everything that was in the Beach Properties Asset Pack to the base game.

As promised, with Patch 1.1.2f1, all assets from Beach Properties are now available for everyone! Read below on the new additions and what you can find.

A Slice of Paradise
New Waterfront Zone for European Theme gives your city a touch of Southern European coastal city charm, and New iconic fences around the yards help tie the buildings together with the region's style.
New Waterfront Zone for the North American Theme brings an atmosphere of the Florida coastline to your cities, and new swimming pools in the backyards liven up the neighborhoods.

Luxury Lifestyle
North American signature buildings take inspiration from the sun-kissed Florida beaches and villas.
Spanish styled villas can be found from the European themed signature buildings.
All these new luxurious signature buildings sure are a way to increase the sunshine in your city!

It's time to face the palm trees!
In the Vegetation menu is a collection of new Palm Trees to bring a cool ocean breeze and relaxed beach vibes to your city!

Besides the implementation of Beach Properties assets to the base game, patch 1.1.2f1 is live now on Steam & Microsoft with a bunch of bug fixes for the game and the Editor.

Read the full patch notes here

Dear Cities fans,

We see and understand the disappointment many of you have expressed after the release of Cities: Skylines II and the recent release of Beach Properties. We asked for your patience and support, and you’ve shown those. In return, we let you down. We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form. For all this, we are truly sorry. When we’ve made statements like this one before, it’s included a pledge to keep making improvements, and while we are working on these updates, they haven’t happened at a speed or magnitude that is acceptable, and it pains us that we've now lost the trust of many of you. We want to do better.

The very first thing we’re doing is to compensate those who purchased Beach Properties. We will change the pack to be a free addition to the game, refund it to the extent possible, and provide additional content within the Ultimate Edition. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to offer refunds for Ultimate Edition buyers. This is due to the distribution of the Ultimate Edition across digital and physical storefronts, which create significant complexities for executing a partial refund. We realize that this is far from ideal, especially given the dedication those who have stayed with us since launch have shown. We are committed to repaying that loyalty, and therefore, we will compensate Ultimate Edition holders by adding 3 Creator Packs and 3 Radio Stations which, together, sum up to a value of USD 39.99. This solution hopefully ensures that you, regardless of purchase method, feel you receive fair compensation.

Looking ahead, we also want to make immediate and meaningful changes in the way we approach the game’s development and our communication with you. Firstly, this means a complete focus on improving the base game and modding tools, and secondly, we want to better involve you, the community, as we choose our priorities going forward. We will focus on additional free patches and game updates in the coming months before Colossal Order spends time on new paid content, resulting in a move of the Bridges and Ports Expansion to 2025. In addition, the aforementioned Creator Packs are being produced independently, and will not take any focus away from the work on improving the game. To make sure we focus on the right things, we’re putting together an advisory meeting, where a small group of player representatives, together with Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive, will discuss the development plan for this year. The people in this group are chosen for the size of their following within the community to represent as many people as possible. The teams from Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive will provide them with full transparency and answer any questions and critiques voiced. Our hope is that together with you, our community, we can make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes we have made in the past and bring this game into a bright future.

We also want to address the pending Console release. As you know, our plan was to release in Spring of this year. We have been hesitant to communicate an actual release window because of the uncertainty we are facing, and to not make further promises we might not be able to keep. We have been struggling to get Cities: Skylines II to the necessary level of optimization for a console release, but are now hopeful that an upcoming build delivery in April will demonstrate sufficient progress for us to progress with a release candidate, and then a release build targeted for October. Before we have seen and evaluated the progress made in these builds however, we will not be able to confirm the release date, and even then, some uncertainty always remains. Our ambition is to deliver the experience that you all deserved at launch, but it will take time. It’s important to note that the team working on the console release operates separately from our PC development team, so it will be progressing without splitting our focus or time.

In closing, we want to reaffirm our dedication to making Cities: Skylines II the best city builder it can be. We appreciate your support and feedback, and hope we can regain your trust going forward. It’s our responsibility to earn it, and we hope these actions are a first step in the right direction.
We are deeply grateful for your continued passion for our game. Please stay tuned for further updates on the game and the refund process, and thank you for being a part of our community.

Sincerely,
Mariina Hallikainen
CEO, Colossal Order

Mattias Lilja
Deputy CEO, Paradox Interactive

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We have created an FAQ page[forum.paradoxplaza.com] with information on how your refunds will be processed and further information about release timelines.

Hi everyone. We have a small hotfix for you to address some of the reports we have received following the Modding Wavelet patch. We'll keep working on bug fixes and going through the feedback you share with us, but we wanted to get these fixes out as soon as possible.

Please note that we're still investigating the issue causing mods to not initialize when you first start the game. If you encounter this issue and no mods are shown, please restart the game. If that doesn't help, we would appreciate a bug report here[forum.paradoxplaza.com]

• Fixed crashes to desktop or other problems after starting a new game on a map that has pre-placed buildings with fences
  
• Fixed cases where logging out of the Paradox account would prevent accessing mods again
  
• Fixed issue causing no mods to show up in-game
  
• Fixed darkening of map thumbnail and preview images
  
• Fixed various localization glitches
  
• Replaced generic popup with a searchable popup for existing mod selection in Save/Map upload panel
  
• Updated Paradox Mods branding icons in various places
  
• Added badges for DLC content and Paradox Mods data source content in relevant panels (Load, New game, Asset picker etc..)
  
• Added page scrolling via mouse wheel in What's New Panel
  
• Added youtu.be and discord.gg to supported external link popup resolver
  
• Fixed issues where uploading images and previews containing space would fail in Save/Map upload panel
  
• Improved sanitization of version number in Save/Map upload panel

And here's the usual reminder that bug reports should go on the forum. Thank you for taking the time to report issues you come across, we really appreciate the logs and savegames you provide!
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forums/cities-skylines-2-bug-reports.1162/

Hello everyone! With Beach Properties out, it’s time for a mini-series of development diaries covering our process and giving you a peek at the new assets. In this first installment, we’ll talk about what an asset pack is and how we approached the development of Beach Properties alongside the development of the game, modding support, and bug fixes.

Asset packs are a new type of official content that opens up the chance to add more building variations to the game and bring you more ways to let your city stand out. Our first pack, Beach Properties, has something new for your peaceful low density residential areas and while nothing forces you to zone these buildings near the waves, these assets might be just the touch your waterfront needs.


Beach Properties includes 60 new buildings across two new low density residential zones, one for North America and one for Europe. The zones contain the familiar 5 levels and using various props and decorations, we have managed to sneak in 24 additional variations for each theme. The pack also includes six glorious Signature Buildings plus a large number of props that will hopefully not only be nice to look at but also very useful when you get your hands on the in-game editor in the not-so-distant future.

Who doesn’t enjoy a waterfront view?

With the Ultimate Edition for Cities: Skylines II we have announced a few different types of DLCs, so let’s take a moment to talk about the two types we’ll bring you. Both asset packs and expansions present a way for us to bring you new content to enhance your cities, but they do so in different ways. Where expansions have a broad concept and bring you new gameplay mechanics to expand the game as a whole, asset packs take a more narrow focus allowing you to pick and choose exactly what fits your playstyle and cities. This allows our amazing art team to create stunning new buildings for you while our programmers have been working diligently on the performance improvements and bug fixes you have received since the game was released.

Before Cities: Skylines II was even announced, we had picked the concept for this pack, though work didn’t properly start on the assets themselves until closer to the release last October. As you may have already spotted from the names of the first DLCs, we have focused our attention on waterfronts and seaside cities. In Cities: Skylines we weren’t able to do much with the waterfronts, so going into Cities: Skylines II, it felt like a natural choice to start expanding the game there.

With the theme selected, our artists found references and started work on the pack. As it includes a new low density residential zone for each of the two themes, we already knew roughly how many buildings we would need. The next step in the process is what’s called “white boxing” where we outline the basic geometric shapes of the buildings, like a 3D draft that allows us to flesh out the scale and make sure it fits within the existing game assets.

Work-in-progress models for the European Waterfront Housing

From there we started to iterate on the details that are iconic for the architectural styles we were inspired by. We’ll explore that in more detail in the next development diary tomorrow as we talk about what inspired the Beach Properties and how we created the assets. Until then, we hope you enjoyed this peek at the creation of an asset pack.