DLC + Workshop = Awesome!

Thinking of buying a DLC? Before you make a decision, I want to bring your attention to something else that never seems to get mentioned: A vast library of free workshop content from the community that's built up around those DLCs!

Obviously, if you have a potato computer, adding a load of workshop content might be a problem, but for most people even a few assets or mods will take things to the next level.

Note: Most of the images in this guide are using custom assets and mods from the workshop; that's what I'm trying to convey with the guide - the DLCs are just the foundations for some truly epic workshop content!

At the end of the guide, I've included summaries of key features for each DLC, and also a summary of which DLC you need for certain maps, animals and vehicles.

("Chirper" image by Jonna Piltti[jonnapiltti.artstation.com])

Work In Progress

This guide is incomplete. I'm releasing it in this state to provide a much needed additional perspective for a bunch of discussions that are happening in the forums recently. I'll keep chipping away at it but getting all the images and information takes ages to do properly so it will be a while before it's finished.

While not directly relevant to this guide, I found a bunch of youtube videos that does a decent overview of the main features in each DLC.

After Dark

Updated: January 2020

See also: Store and Wiki[skylines.paradoxwikis.com]

If you want more leisure & tourist features, or taxis, or ...prisons(?!!), this is the DLC for you!

Despite its name, this DLC doesn't really have anything to do with the day/night cycle (which is part of the base game and doesn't require DLC). Instead it adds several decent-looking waterfront and leisure buildings, commercial specialisations (leisure and tourism) and, perhaps most notably, some improved transport options. Oh, and prisons, because that totally makes sense.

The waterfront leisure buildings include marina, fishing and restaurant piers, and a jet ski rental. While not immediately obvious in-game, it's possible to "snap" these buildings on to quays...


If you want to create waterfronts like the image above, subscribe to some "Quay" assets in the "Roads" section of the Steam Workshop, such as these. I recommend also getting the Quay Anarchy and Move It! mods to precisely place them.

Note that the Marina and Fishing Tours assets are missing their boat props, but those can be repaired with the Parkify mod (you might need Parklife DLC to use this mod, I haven't checked). If you want to plop any of the boats (shown above) that come with After Dark, you can use the Boats Pack. If you want even more boats for your marinas, you can convert lots of older boat assets in to floating buildings with the Ship Converter mod (this is also useful for, and possibly also requires, the Mass Transit DLC which we'll see later).

todo: image of stables

The DLC also contains a skate park, beach volleyball court (which looks weird as it's a terrain-flattening building that requires road connection... on a beach) and riding stables, and also a handful of (somewhat basic) unique buildings.


The tourism and leisure specialisations for your commercial zones are quite nice features, and there's plenty of workshop assets for leisure (like the New Victory Theatre shown above) and tourism to add extra buildings for these specialisations. During the day they act as normal commerce, but at night they attract crowds of cims and tourists seeking entertainment.


If you want the city to change character more noticeably between day and night, and also throughout the day and at weekends, I highly recommend the Real Time mod - it adds work shifts to your city, affecting parks, industry, commerce, residential, and even construction. That in turn creates rush hours and distinctly different characteristics throughout the week.

Now, let's get on to the transport options...


A number of new roads are added that include dedicated lanes for busses and bikes. While it's possible to use Traffic Manager: President Edition to replicate the bus lane functionality (something mods were doing prior to After Dark), the bike lanes are dependent on the After Dark DLC. There are now a huge number of road assets (like the one shown above) in the Workshop that take advantage of these special lanes and they can greatly help the traffic situation in your city.


There's also lots of vehicle assets for busses and, as shown above, even bicycles!


The taxi service is one of those minor details that somehow manages to add a great deal of realism to a city. It adds taxi depots, taxi vehicles and taxi ranks (where taxis wait for their next customer). It's a popular service with cims and tourists as it helps to fill the gaps in your city transport infrastructure, and it's particularly effective at night.


As you might imagine, there's a vast array of custom taxi vehicle assets (like these) in the workshop and even a few custom taxi depots too (like the one shown above).

Then there are the large transport hub buildings which help solve transport issues, particularly in the mid- to late-game. The "Cargo Hub" is a cargo dock and cargo train station rolled in to one. The "International Air Port" is a large airport with a built-in metro station. And the "Bus Terminal" has multiple bus bays and allows passengers to easily transfer between the different bus routes that use it. These are all good, reliable and useful buildings, but in reality you can get equivalent or better alternatives (like the insanely awesome international airport shown above) in the workshop.


And then, somewhat randomly... Prisons! Apparently the tourism and leisure features increase crime rate at night, and your police stations might start overflowing with drunk cims so why not cart them off in special prison vans to the local slammer instead? Jeffrery Epstein didn't kill himself. There's a load of custom prison vehicles in the workshop, and also prison buildings like the huge penitentiary shown above.



If you want to take your prisons to the next level, check out the awesome Interactive Prisons asset bundle by Bad Peanut. There's also a youtube video tutorial showing how they work.

Snowfall

See also: Store and Wiki[skylines.paradoxwikis.com]

If you like winter, or trams, or road maintenance, or water heating, Snowfall is the DLC for you!

The first thing you need to know about this DLC is that the snow/winter stuff is only available on dedicated "Winter" biome maps. There is currently no way to add proper snow/winter season to other types of maps, despite - the - best - efforts of the modding community.


The winter maps (like the one shown above) are strikingly different to all the other types of map - not only is everything covered in snow, but you'll also get blizzards (instead of rain) and the cold environment poses a complete new set of transport and heating challenges for you to deal with.

todo: image of heating

The first challenge is heating, and the costs associated with it. To help heat your city, new buildings such as geothermal plant and boiler plant are available - these heat water which is then piped to nearby housing, helping to reduce the need for electric heating (which is much more expensive).

Note: You can use the heating features in all maps, not just snow maps. Geothermal plants look pretty sweet in boreal/northern map biomes.


The next challenge is transport - all that snow grinds your traffic to a halt. To overcome this you'll need snow ploughs (plows) to move the snow in to snow dumps which slowly melt it. As you might expect, there's some awesome assets in the workshop like the one pictured above (there are both left hand and right hand traffic versions of many of them). There's also a bunch of city/district policies such as studded tires and pavements which help with the icy conditions.


The road maintenance service, and it's vehicles (like the one shown above) keep your roads in prime condition.


Once a maintenance depot is placed (like the one shown above), it will start spawning maintenance vehicles (there are entire fleets of them in the workshop) which will improve the condition of your roads, making them slightly faster as a result. If you use Traffic Manager: President Edition mod, the reverse will also be true: Poorly maintained roads will become slower.


Trams are available on all map types and provide a nice way for your cims and tourists to travel around the city. There are loads of really excellent tram vehicles in the workshop, many offering higher capacity and speed than those provided in the DLC thus making them more compelling as a transport option.

Note that prior to the Snowfall DLC adding proper trams, asset creators were making "tram trains" (trains that looked like trams). You can convert those older assets to proper trams using the Train Converter mod.


All trams spawn from a special tram depot, and again there are some really nice alternate tram depots in the workshop, like the one shown above.


Trams are tracked vehicles so they need special roads to move around your city - you can use a mixture of dedicated tram tracks (which only trams can use) or roads with embedded tram tracks (which both trams and normal vehicles can use). There's a huge collection of tram tracks and road assets in the workshop, one of the more notable collections being the Light Rail Tracks (shown above) which include rendered tunnels and some really nice tram stations.

Match Day & Stadiums

See also: Store and Wiki[skylines.paradoxwikis.com]

If you like football (soccer) this is the DLC for you! Oh, and it's a free DLC!

The Match Day adds a functional football stadium to your city, and your own football team.


You can customise your team colours, and they play against competing teams from other cities - causing lots of traffic due to the huge crowds of fans.

If you want authentic traffic chaos on match days, use the "Parking AI" feature of Traffic Manager: President Edition (TM:PE) mod; it prevents cims from using "magic pocket cars" and forces them to find a parking spot instead. They will totally love you... lol


There are loads (like thousands) of car park assets in the workshop, many are just basic parking lots like those shown above. If you want customisable parking lots, check out Parking Lot Roads - these are actual roads and special parking assets that you plop on top of them (be sure to read asset description):


Maybe you want something a bit more "leafy"? Check out Perpendicular Parking System which puts parking on your pavements and rows of trees and shrubs behind them:


Or maybe you want space-saving multistory car parks like this Standard Parking Garage:


Now, you're probably wondering why I've spent ages talking about car parks and not the stadiums? At one point there were some content DLCs with additional stadiums based on real-life football clubs, but they are no longer available.

Currently I think there's just two stadiums that use Match Day: Colossal Park Sports Precinct and AFL Stadium. While they won't show players on the pitch (due to asset editor limitations) they provide all the other Match Day functionality.


If you want more functional stadiums, with more sports, check out the Campus DLC which introduces Varsity sport stadiums.

Natural Disasters

will add this section later

Mass Transit

Will add this section later

Concerts

todo

Green Cities

Will add this section later

Park Life

If you're are creative, or love animals, or like detailing, this is the DLC for you!

Traditional parks are essentially just buildings that you attach to roads to allow pedestrian access. While they might draw a crowd, they take up valuable road-side space that could be used for zoned buildings (residential, industrial, commercial, office) and services.

Park Life changes this by allowing you to create "park districts" in which park buildings can be attached to narrow pedestrian paths for a much more realistic "look and feel", for example this camp site nestled in the woods:


Each park area must have a "main gate" - this defines what type of park it is:

* Nature reserve
* City park
* Amusement park
* Zoo

Each category of park comes with a load of park buildings, paths and props. You can use any of the park assets in any park or anywhere else. For example, you could add an amusement park ride to a city park, or put a city park plaza at the side of a normal road.


In addition, you can add any existing game props and paths in to your parks, so get creative!


Additional entrances can be created by adding "side gates" or just direct connections to your existing transport infrastructure. Note that money is only gained when cims enter a park through a main or side gate.


There's a downside to parks though - unless you have roads running trough them, which tanks your profit (as cims bypass the gates), fire engines can't get in to put out fires. If you've got the Natural Disasters DLC, make sure you've got fire helicopters ready and a nearby source of water for them to use! And plop a fire watch tower nearby to keep an eye out for fires.

I highly recommend the Parkify mod that converts _all_ your existing non-DLC park buildings in to Park Life compatible buildings, allowing them to be connected to paths within a park area (you can still use them as normal park buildings too).


Tip: To make a huge profit from parks, stick park gates at either end of busy pedestrian paths in your city. It's kinda cruel making your cims pay to walk to work, but profit is all that matters in this crazy slave camp we were born in to, right?


Subscribe a bunch of extra park gate assets (like the one shown above). Search the workshop for things like "Park gate", "Main gate" or "Side gate" and you'll find plenty of great assets to use. Tip: Subscribe some small or invisible main gates - these will make it much easier to create narrow parks between buildings, and such parks are often biggest revenue earners.


The zoo (which is the only park I've not yet got round to making) adds an insane number of new animals. Normally they are enclosed in park buildings, but if you want to set them free you can use spawn point assets (Park Life DLC required!) to place them anywhere in your park areas. Yes, you can create Planet of the Apes if you so desire!


If you want a bunch of extra park assets that draw a crowd, check out the Park People Generators.

Industries

Will add this section later

Campus

will add this section later

Sunset Harbor

Will add this section later.

Airports DLC

See also: Store[http//Store] and Wiki[skylines.paradoxwikis.com]

If you want modular airports, where you can integrate passenger, cargo, and public transport (including your own airline company with customised aircraft), this is the DLC for you!

The major feature of Airports DLC is modular airports - not just the runways/taxiways, but the actual buildings are now becoming modularised. The foundation of this is the new concourse network which is essentially a enclosed (in something that looks like a building) pedestrian path that you can attach other buildings and networks to.

The hub of your airport is the terminal and, as you'd expect, there's workshop assets to give you more variety - such as the International Airport Terminal above which seems similar to Memphis airport.

Add some style to your airport with this Modern Timber Concourse.

Every airport needs an Air Traffic Control tower, like the Hong Kong ATC Complex shown above, or FSB International ATC.

All those travellers will need somewhere to stay - the luxury Sheraton Hotel is sure to please!

As you'd expect, there's loads of Airport-themed public transport vehicles, like the Terminal Hopper Bus shown above, that you can use within your airport complex.

While the Airports DLC provides transport options such as bus and train, you'll need workshop assets to add other modes of transport - like this Airport Monorail Station which connects directly to the concourse with no need for a road! There's also a Tram Station in a similar style.

While the DLC does have inbuilt metro station in the main termnial buildings, it doesn't provide metro stations for your concourses. You can fix that with the Underground Concourse Metro shown above :)

Of course, there's also themed vehicles for those stations, such as the Airport Connect Tram shown above.

Airports DLC is compatibile with all the existing passenger aircraft, and also cargo aircraft (if you have Industries DLC). But it also introduces a new concept of "aircraft stands" which come in three sizes: Small, Medium, and Large which correspond to aircraft size categories also introduced in the Airports DLC...

These planes have custom sound effects, working flaps and undercarraiges: Regional Jets (small stands), Mainline Jets (medium stands), North American Jets (various sizes). Also check out APEX Planes (various sizes).

And don't forget to subscribe to some shiny new Cargo jets - these will land at cargo airport stands.

If you want to make your airport more dynamic, you can add some Airport Service Vehicles such as the Baggage Tugs shown above. They are acutally fake buses, so you'll need to place some Airport Service Roads and some Invisible Spawn Points (bus station) next to one of those roads. Then create a bus route and set it to use the baggage tug vehicle.

You can customise airport service vehicles too - for example these Rosenbauer ARFF fire engines. Just place a fire station next to one of the airport service roads mentioned above, and they'll rush out to attend any fires at your airport (so long as they can reach them from the service road).

Content Creator Packs

Will add this section later

Radio Stations

Will add this section later

DLCs overview

This is just a very brief summary of the key value of each "feature" DLC prior to adding any workshop content...

After Dark:
Day/night cycle is part of base game, not the DLC. The DLC is more about leisure/tourism and transport:

• Commerce specialisations (leisure, tourism) - these become more active at night
  
• Taxis
  
• Bus and bike lanes
  
• Prisons & Prison Vans
  
• Nice waterfront assets

Snowfall:
Snow only occurs on special 'Winter' maps, you don't get a winter season in other maps :(

• Winter maps
  
• Trams
  
• Snow ploughs and dumps (only on winter maps)
  
• Road maintenance
  
• Road conditions affect traffic speed
  
• Heating services and pipes

Match Day:
Free DLC that adds a functional football (soccer) stadium.

• Customise your team
  
• Match events cause heavy traffic in your city

Natural Disasters:
Does what it says on the tin:

• Lots of disasters: Tsunami, tornado, meteor...
  
• Helicopters: Police, Fire, Medic, Search & Rescue
  
• Disaster response service
  
• Early warning sensors / services (lots!)
  
• Pumping service, water storage, water outlet
  
• Emergency shelters and escape routes

Mass Transit:
Lots of new transit options and improved road management:

• Ferries
  
• Monorail
  
• Cable Cars (Great for Snowfall maps and mountainous maps)
  
• Blimps
  
• Canals
  
• Mass-transit hubs

Green Cities
Over 350 new buildings, and they all look much nicer than base game:

• New power plants
  
• Pollution clean-up services
  
• Biofuel (quiet) busses
  
• New specialisations for residential, commerce and office
  
• Hundreds of new residential, commercial and office buildings
  
• Eco versions of many service buildings
  
• Some decent new parks

Park Life:
Fantastic for creative detailers and eye candy enthusiasts:

• Park areas - zoo, amusements, nature reserve, city park
  
• Loads of new wildlife - whales, chimps...
  
• Lots of new buildings (many animated), pedestrian paths (really nice) and props
  
• Place park buildings next to paths (or roads if you want to be old school)
  
• New ground cover plants, boulders, etc
  
• Sightseeing tours (bus and walking)
  
• Hot air balloons
  
• Firework displays

Industries:
This is a major improvement to the base game industry functionality:

• Industry specialisations: Oil, Ore, Farming, Forestry
  
• Lots of new industry buildings - much, MUCH, better than base game
  
• Extraction, Processing, Storage, Warehouses
  
• Production chains and 16 unique factories (most with a special vehicle type)
  
• Postal service with local post offices, sorting facility and new vans/trucks
  
• Cargo airport and hub

Campus:
Basically an upgrade to university-level education, letting you create much bigger universities.

• Campus areas with specialisations (trade school, university, liberal arts...)
  
• Lots of new education buildings, including things like museums, trade schools, etc.
  
• Varsity sports and associated stadiums (mostly American-themed)
  
• Adds gameplay in that you hire staff and work on improving the reputation of your university

Sunset Harbor
Now we have sea food!

• Fishing ships, floating farms, and related industry
  
• Intercity buses and Trolleybus!
  
• Aviation club - small aircraft tours
  
• Passenger helicopters
  
• Inland water treatment plants

Airports:
This is a major improvement to airports in the game, both passenger and cargo.

• Modular concourse buildings
  
• Air Traffic Control (ATC) towers
  
• Passenger and Cargo planes can use same runways/taxiways (integrated airports!)
  
• Plane stands - small, medium, large
  
• Create a custom airline for your city - with custom plane livery and colour
  
• Airport hotels, hangars, etc.

Maps, Animals and Vehicles

Updated: January 2022

A common question is "Which DLC do I need for _whatever_ thing?".

Well, here you go... (Vanilla = base game)

Maps
See: All Vanilla City Skylines Maps With All DLC Maps.

Animals:

Some animals are specific to certain map biomes when using generic "wildlife" animal spawner. There are lots of specific animal spawners and also static animal props. Some animals, such as Cows and Pigs, only seem to appear in farm industry buildings. Others, such as Horses, only seem to appear in Riding Stables.

* Antelope: Park Life DLC
* Bear: Vanilla
* Bison: Vanilla
* Chimpanzee: Park Life DLC
* Cows: Vanilla (Farm industry assets)
* Deer: Vanilla
* Dog: Vanilla (there are more dogs in the workshop!)
* Dolphin: Park Life DLC
* Elephant: Park Life DLC
* Flamingo: Park Life DLC
* Giraffe: Park Life DLC
* Gorilla: Park Life DLC
* Horses: After Dark DLC (Riding Stables asset)
* Humpback Whale: Park Life DLC
* Leopard: ? If there is one, Park Life DLC
* Lion: Park Life DLC
* Manta Ray: Park Life DLC
* Moose: Vanilla
* Pigs: Vanilla (Farm industry assets)
* Reindeer: Vanilla
* Rhino: Park Life DLC
* Seagull: Vanilla
* Swan: Park Life DLC
* Wolf: Vanilla

Cims:

There are props in workshop, for - various - workers, and there's a mod that makes pedestrians wear work clothes. You can also apply realistic walking speeds.

* Citizen (Pedestrians): Vanilla
* Walking Tours (not technically a vehicle type, but...): Park Life DLC
* Workers: Vanilla and various DLCs (lots added by Industries & Park Life DLCs)

Road:

There are thousands of custom vehicles in the workshop. Use Advanced Vehicle Options (AVO) to control and customise overall vehicle spawning, Service Vehicle Selector or Service Vehicles Manager for service vehicles,Improved Public Transport or Transport Lines Manager for public transport, and Vehicle Wealthalizer for private cars.

Road - Citizen:

* Bicycles: After Dark DLC
* Cars (Petrol): Vanilla
* Cars (Electric): Green Cities DLC

Road - Industry / Cargo:

* Cargo Vans / Trucks: Vanilla
* Generic Industry: Vanilla
* Finished Product Trucks: Industries DLC (these are really distinctive!)
* Processed Goods Trucks: Industries DLC
* Zoned Industry (farming, forestry, oil, ore): Vanilla (Industries DLC adds more)

Road - Services:

* Ambulance: Vanilla
* Biofuel Garbage Truck: Green Cities DLC
* Disaster Recovery: Natural Disasters DLC
* Fire Engines: Vanilla
* Garbage Truck: Base Game
* Hearse: Vanilla
* Park Maintenance: Park Life DLC
* Police Cars/Vans: Vanilla
* Postal Service: Industries DLC
* Prison Van: After Dark DLC
* Road Maintenance: Snowfall DLC
* Snow Plough: Snowfall DLC
* Vacuum Truck: Natural Disasters DLC

Road - Transport:

* Biofuel Bus: Green Cities DLC
* Bus (including School Bus): Vanilla (Campus free update added Yellow School Bus)
* Evacuation Bus: Natural Disasters DLC
* Sightseeing Bus: Park Life DLC
* Taxi: After Dark DLC
* Trolleybus: Sunset Harbor DLC

Tracked:

There are hundreds of vehicle and station assets in the workshop.

* Cable Cars (sort of tracked, lol): Mass Transit DLC
* Cargo Trains: Vanilla
* Metro: Vanilla
* Monorail: Mass Transit DLC
* Passenger Trains: Vanilla
* Trams: Snowfall DLC

Ships (water):

There are dozens of harbour/port and ship assets in the workshop.

* Cargo Ship: Vanilla
* Ferry: Mass Transit DLC
* Fishing: Sunset Harbor DLC
* Passenger (Cruise) Ship: Vanilla

Aircraft:

There are several airports and probably hundreds (maybe thousands) of aircraft in the workshop.

* Blimp: Mass Transit DLC
* Cargo Plane: Industries DLC and/or Airports DLC
* Helicopters (police, ambulance, fire, disaster recovery): Natural Disasters DLC
* Helicopters (passenger): Sunset Harbor
* Hot Air Balloon: Park Life DLC
* Aviation Club (small planes): Sunset Harbor
* Passenger Plane: Vanilla, Airports DLC
* Space Rocket (ChirpX): Vanilla

[SentinelDaniel]

Just use creamapi

[mushroomguy]

Amazing guide thank you

[leftbehind]

Excellent feedback, thanks!

I didn't realise road maintenance could be used in winter ( I rarely use the winter maps ). I will update guide.

I think I blundered on the priority routes - it's actually from Mass Transit DLC and operates as you describe. I'll make a note about the highways.

[kristofburger]

The road maintenance service is perfectly functional in winter maps as well. It increases road speeds and doesn't depend on snow management.

It's worth noting that you should know what the Priority Road setting actually does before setting it only with slow plows in mind. It sets stop signs to any intersection without traffic lights, including highways, which quickly makes a mess if you're not careful.