Cities Skylines II

[maflynn]

It seems that a number of Cities:Skylines youtubers have published a lets chat video this past week. A number of them stating that they'll back away from CS2, no longer playing the game or creating CS2 content.

I have to agree, I have uninstalled the game, and I'm back to playing CS1

There's also a lot of reports of the community turning toxic, seems that the developer/publisher totally misread their audience. I think too often now a days, publishers have the mentality of publish it now, and fix it later. I mean we've seen this with No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk, even Fallout 76.

For me, I think the fundemental design of CS2, its not a game for me. It seems like they tried to make CS2, realistic on so many levels, and to a granuarity where each sim is managed/controled. Some of the performance issues are related to the amount of processing power needed to draw each one's clothing, hair, and even purportedly teeth.

I don't see CS2 rebounding and changing to a point where it would be fun for me. Others may enjoy it, but evidently CS2 isn't for me.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

For me, I think the fundemental design of CS2, its not a game for me. It seems like they tried to make CS2, realistic on so many levels, and to a granuarity where each sim is managed/controled. Some of the performance issues are related to the amount of processing power needed to draw each one's clothing, hair, and even purportedly teeth.

I don't see CS2 rebounding and changing to a point where it would be fun for me. Others may enjoy it, but evidently CS2 isn't for me.

I agree. I've dumped something like 85 hours into CS2, and it's just not doing it.

The game is too realistic, to a detriment. Even excluding the hair and teeth issue, the only thing that SC2 does better is 10º angles for road and rails. Everything else just feels needlessly complex for the sake of complexity, but the systems are so bugged that they just don't matter.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

It seems like they tried to make CS2, realistic on so many levels, and to a granuarity where each sim is managed/controled.

All they need to provide is an open API and sales will skyrocket in the academic world. A researchers dream for digital cities, traffic simulation, etc.

Reminds me of buying tons of Minecraft licenses to teach our students how to write shader packs for it. Win-win situation, play Minecraft and learn how to write shaders along the way.

 

[maflynn]

Everything else just feels needlessly complex for the sake of complexity

I agree, one youtuber said she plays the game to escape real life and here this game tries to bring real life

All they need to provide is an open API and sales will skyrocket

I don't think so, there are people who want a simulation that mimics real life, but I think those folks are in the minority and others want to do city planning for fun and don't want as much of the minutia that CS2 brings. I could be wrong, and stating my own bias

One thing is clear the game is in trouble with less and less people wiling to play, youtubers stating its not fun to play and they'll go back to CS1, and modders leaving because of the issues with the game and toxicity of the community.

 

[Isengardtom]

It seems that a number of Cities:Skylines youtubers have published a lets chat video this past week. A number of them stating that they'll back away from CS2, no longer playing the game or creating CS2 content.

I have to agree, I have uninstalled the game, and I'm back to playing CS1

There's also a lot of reports of the community turning toxic, seems that the developer/publisher totally misread their audience. I think too often now a days, publishers have the mentality of publish it now, and fix it later. I mean we've seen this with No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk, even Fallout 76.
View attachment 2346502

For me, I think the fundemental design of CS2, its not a game for me. It seems like they tried to make CS2, realistic on so many levels, and to a granuarity where each sim is managed/controled. Some of the performance issues are related to the amount of processing power needed to draw each one's clothing, hair, and even purportedly teeth.

I don't see CS2 rebounding and changing to a point where it would be fun for me. Others may enjoy it, but evidently CS2 isn't for me.

It’s a big fundamental issue in the gaming industry to release games like this. Overpromising, unpolished products not ready for launch. This year we saw that with Starfield (mediocre game with poor writing, outddated design and with CS2, which while good fundamentals needed a lot more time in the oven. This release should have been an early Access at a reduced price)

I myself will not pre order any games anymore, except maybe from Larian, but especially not from the likes of Blizzard Activision, Bethesda and Paradox / Collosal Order.

Not going to be fooled again.

 

[maflynn]

People seem to be abandoning the game in droves and going back to CS1. It sort of reminds me of when EA released SimCity 2013 and made so many missteps that the game was doomed. I'm not sure CS2 can recover. The developer is scrambling to work on bugs and performance issues, and they need to rollout the modding tools, but can't.

It appears the publisher forced Colossal Order to release the game against their will, and now both Paradox and CO are paying the price.

 

[diamond.g]

People seem to be abandoning the game in droves and going back to CS1. It sort of reminds me of when EA released SimCity 2013 and made so many missteps that the game was doomed. I'm not sure CS2 can recover. The developer is scrambling to work on bugs and performance issues, and they need to rollout the modding tools, but can't.

It appears the publisher forced Colossal Order to release the game against their will, and now both Paradox and CO are paying the price.

View attachment 2356457

Yeah I uninstalled the game. May take another crack at it when the official mod stuff is released. I just got tired of the wonky financial simulation.

 

[Isengardtom]

It’s a shame because its potential is huge, but this should have been released much later, or as early access only.
The gaming industry will never learn

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I haven't uninstalled it yet, but that's only because PC storage is cheap and I don't have anything better to do besides store random 1's and 0's.

Maybe one day it will be worth playing :\

 

[Huntn]

People seem to be abandoning the game in droves and going back to CS1. It sort of reminds me of when EA released SimCity 2013 and made so many missteps that the game was doomed. I'm not sure CS2 can recover. The developer is scrambling to work on bugs and performance issues, and they need to rollout the modding tools, but can't.

It appears the publisher forced Colossal Order to release the game against their will, and now both Paradox and CO are paying the price.

View attachment 2356457

Its mind boggling that all new games are not run through a robust beta bug testing period….

 

[maflynn]

Its mind boggling that all new games are not run through a robust beta bug testing period….

If you look at how many if not all of the studios are laying people off, the QA team seems to be one of the hardest hits, so this issue is not only to be with us, but only get worse

I think the mentality has been get it out of the door, and fix it later. With Paradox, they had a string of losses that year and they wanted this to offset those poor game releases, but this was the mother of all poor game releases and has all but killed the franchise.

 

[LeeW]

I'm glad I waited and didn't buy it. What you are talking about is the very reason I was hesitant. It seemed they had taken it too far, and apparently they did. As well as not focussing on the quality aspect.

 

[diamond.g]

If they had released it as early access folks probably would have been more forgiving of the bugs and missing features.

 

[Huntn]

I'm glad I waited and didn't buy it. What you are talking about is the very reason I was hesitant. It seemed they had taken it too far, and apparently they did. As well as not focussing on the quality aspect.

I “most” always wait a bit and check out reviews. I would have jumped on ARK Survival Ascended, if not for all the negative reviews. Starfield, I waited, but maybe not long enough. I’m subject to changing my mind, but aspects of that game disappointed me, but I tried hard several hundred hours worth, to overall be happy with it. I had purchased the previous Bethesda game F4 right out of the gate (thrilled with it) because of the game before that Skyrim (thrilled with it), but these days there are just no guarantees based on previous performance. 🤔

 

[LeeW]

I will just stay in my comfort zone of WoW, Original Skylines and Satisfactory.

 

[maflynn]

If they had released it as early access folks probably would have been more forgiving of the bugs and missing features.

Without question, but how they handled the release made things worse. What I mean by that, is they gave the game to various "influencers" but handcuffed them to an ironclad NDA. They couldn't talk about certain things, and once the game came out, people were upset at those youtubers who didn't provide accurate information.

I don't blamer the Yters for jumping on the chance to play the game, they had no idea at the poor shape, and once they signed that NDA they couldn't do anything about it. Yet a lot of ire was directed towards them, the publisher and studio. I think a lot of that anger was rightfully directed towards the studio and publisher, they made matters worse by building up the hype on something they knew was in rough shape.

In a sense this is how the early days of Cyberpunk played out, where that publisher overhyped and even said legacy consoles could play the game no problem at all, and we know how that turned out. At least that studio was able to turn things around, I'm not so sure about Colossal Order

 

[Huntn]

Without question, but how they handled the release made things worse. What I mean by that, is they gave the game to various "influencers" but handcuffed them to an ironclad NDA. They couldn't talk about certain things, and once the game came out, people were upset at those youtubers who didn't provide accurate information.

I don't blamer the Yters for jumping on the chance to play the game, they had no idea at the poor shape, and once they signed that NDA they couldn't do anything about it. Yet a lot of ire was directed towards them, the publisher and studio. I think a lot of that anger was rightfully directed towards the studio and publisher, they made matters worse by building up the hype on something they knew was in rough shape.

In a sense this is how the early days of Cyberpunk played out, where that publisher overhyped and even said legacy consoles could play the game no problem at all, and we know how that turned out. At least that studio was able to turn things around, I'm not so sure about Colossal Order

So early access to the game as a reviewer is worthless if you can’t talk about it. Well not completely worth it, you can get up to speed with the game and issues, but you can’t talk about it until release, correct? I wonder what would happen with the NDA in place, if as a reviewer, you just said “hold off” in advance of release?

 

[maflynn]

A major update has landed, bug fixes, performance improvements and more importantly, mod support and the map editor. While mod support is considered beta, it seems to be the missing piece that everyone was waiting for. It seems to be well received, and looking at steam charts, the game is experiencing an uptick in people playing

 

[richard13]

That's great that they have released this update but being that CS2 is only for PC now it's hard for me to get excited about it. I'm not buying a PC just to play the game and I bet that any workarounds to get it to run on a Mac will result in poor performance. I'll just stick with CS1 for now.

 

[Jorbanead]

That's great that they have released this update but being that CS2 is only for PC now it's hard for me to get excited about it. I'm not buying a PC just to play the game and I bet that any workarounds to get it to run on a Mac will result in poor performance. I'll just stick with CS1 for now.

I initially had hopes they'd eventually get to a mac port within 2 years, but based on the state of the game, I think if that were to ever happen its likely many years away.

I used to play Planet Coaster which was originally PC-only for several years and the developer said they didnt have plans to make a mac version, and then they surprised everyone by releasing a mac port. So It could happen.

 

[Jorbanead]

Major update!

Biffa and City Planner Plays had a meeting with CO and Paradox. In that meeting, CPP asked about Mac (he is a Mac user). In short: a Mac version was originally planned for launch but got delayed. They said they have contractual obligations with Microsoft to release a console version first, but said that a Mac/Linux version is possible.

“Unity comes with a ‘switch’ to port games to Mac/Linux, will try after console is released (within 2 years)”

Full video here:

 

[maflynn]

Biffa and City Planner Plays had a meeting with CO and Paradox

I watched both of the videos, I think both touched upon system issues with the game - basically you can't lose, you can't mess up the traffic The developer was seemingly shocked at that concept, which is surprising since Biffa's videos are all about fixing people's traffic woes.

As for the Mac support, I think CO has bigger fish to fry, before they consider adding Macs. I think most people who own the game would want CO to dedicate resources to fixing the game. Just look at what happened when they released the DLC - it was soo poorly received they had to issue an apology

 

[jb310]

I like to think that by the time this game has full Mac support, a lot of the issues it's facing will have been fixed by then. 🤞

 

[Jorbanead]

I think CO has bigger fish to fry, before they consider adding Macs. I think most people who own the game would want CO to dedicate resources to fixing the game.

I fully agree - I’m just excited that we now have an official update about a Mac version. I think right now the game has at least a year of updates and fixes before it’s where it needs to be, so the beauty of having to wait for Mac means whenever it does come, it’ll likely be a much more polished game at that point.

By then, M4 Mac’s will be out, maybe even some M5’s as well, and I’m sure they would run the game very very well.

 

[diamond.g]

I look forward to seeing if they ever fix the CPU bottleneck in the game.