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From the cold north to the pleasant south and the radiant tropic, we welcome all of you to take a look at the development diary about the different climate themes in Cities: Skylines!

Cities: Skylines features three distinct terrain themes. These include north, sunny and tropic themes. Gameplay-wise the themes do not differ from each other, the effects are purely visual. This way the player can create their favorite maps using any of the themes available.

A theme includes its own set of trees (pine and conifer trees for north, broad-leaved trees for sunny and palm trees for the tropic theme – there are also some overlapping flora found in all of the themes), terrain colors, water texture and lighting conditions. For example, the sun is lower in the north theme and the grass is darker as well. The water is also a darker blue. In comparison the sunny theme has sun higher up in the sky and the lighting reflects more the Central and South European lighting conditions. The grass is greener and the water texture is somewhat more vibrant compared to the north theme. The tropic theme emulates tropical island atmosphere with sand texture that has a nice, slight glow to it when the sun hits it.

North theme
North theme represents the climate of northern countries such as those in Scandinavia. The sun has a bit colder feel to it accompanied with a toned down sky color, the grass is a bit darker as is the color of water. Pine and conifer trees make up the majority of flora but there are also a few broad-leaved trees and bushes to create variation.

Below are a few images of a small industrial town in the north.

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Sunny theme
Sunny theme represents central and south European climate. The sun is brighter and a bit warmer in the sunny theme with blue skies, the grass is brighter green giving a more vibrant feel and the color of water is lighter blue. Broad-leaved trees such as alder and beech make up the majority of the flora. Oak trees are included in the sunny tree roster as well as are few bush types.

Sunny metropolis divided by a river.

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Tropic theme
Tropic theme represents both the sunny California type climates as well as tropical island climates. The sun light is of warmer color and the sky color complements it nicely. The grass texture goes for a slightly different shade of green color compared to the sunny theme. The lush palm trees and bushes add to the grass color and create the iconic sunny beaches and tropical islands look.

Last but not least, a city stretching from the highway to the sandy beaches, just like in California.

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- Henkka also known as an artist, designer and level designer at Colossal Order
 
Looking at the tropical themes I had the song "Under the Sea" tripping through my head, plus "Yesterday, a llama has made a successful assassination attempt on El Presidente's favorite hat. The hat is in very bad conditions with little hope of recovery."
 
Good to see some themes. I was actually a little surprised as I thought the game would ship with just one theme to begin with. :)

Two things though.
1. Will we be able to use the buildings from more than one theme in a map? Let's say that I build a tropical island city but want to build "Little Scandinavia" in one district with buildings from the Nordic theme. Is that possible?

2. The yellow from the tropical theme should probably be toned down a little bit.
 
Good to see some themes. I was actually a little surprised as I thought the game would ship with just one theme to begin with. :)

Two things though.
1. Will we be able to use the buildings from more than one theme in a map? Let's say that I build a tropical island city but want to build "Little Scandinavia" in one district with buildings from the Nordic theme. Is that possible?

2. The yellow from the tropical theme should probably be toned down a little bit.

Didn't TotalyMoo say they'd also be filters which if so would also change the look.
 
Didn't TotalyMoo say they'd also be filters which if so would also change the look.

if you don't even read posts by CO in this very same thread, I don't know what to say....

Maps that are made have a set theme to them which cannot be changed (for example you can't choose Map X that has the North theme and change that to Tropic theme before you start a game). You can still choose from a group of filters in the options menu to change certain aspects of the lighting condition and so forth. But changing the entire flora and grass color and so on is not possible (mid-game or on an already created map).

for the next:
Russian translation is here! :)
http://transport-games.ru/index.php...ylines/csl-dnevnik-10-klimaticheskie-temy-r99

North theme looks sooo perfect. I like it. :)

Also it would be nice to add later Mother Russia Theme with show, vodka, and grey colour filter, you know.
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I'm pretty sure you can make your own Vodka filter very easily without modding. Just drink loads of Vodka, and the game should look totally different :D
 
if you don't even read posts by CO in this very same thread, I don't know what to say....

It was my English way of saying "Don't be a bloody idiot complaining about colours when we'll have filters to change the look".

My way was sort of more polite and gives the other person an easy way out :)
 
It was my English way of saying "Don't be a bloody idiot complaining about colours when we'll have filters to change the look".

My way was sort of more polite and gives the other person an easy way out :)
your intentions clearly went over my head then :D I interpreted that you thought that the themes were a replacement for the filters, and you were looking for info about where those filters went (while the answer to that was literally a couple of posts down the thread).

Slight misunderstanding, can happen in an international community :D
 
Good to see some themes. I was actually a little surprised as I thought the game would ship with just one theme to begin with. :)

Two things though.
1. Will we be able to use the buildings from more than one theme in a map? Let's say that I build a tropical island city but want to build "Little Scandinavia" in one district with buildings from the Nordic theme. Is that possible?

2. The yellow from the tropical theme should probably be toned down a little bit.
1. The buildings are shared from one theme to another. In other words: there are no "themed buildings" in that there is no North building set or Tropical building set.
2. One person thinks the Tropical theme colors look good, another thinks they should be either toned down or changed. It is impossible to please every view on the matter but luckily there will be modding possibilities and I am fairly sure the lighting will be one of the more straightforward to be altered by the mods. Also, you can alter to certain degree the existing themes mid-game by accessing the Options and over-riding the filters.
 
Thanks for the reply. I rather rely on hands-on people than hyped fanboys with their "itsallgonnabegood" mantra.
I like what I read in the new FAQ and here, gives me at least a little hope. If your modding support will be as good as your communications, it will be a hell of a year
 
your intentions clearly went over my head then :D I interpreted that you thought that the themes were a replacement for the filters, and you were looking for info about where those filters went (while the answer to that was literally a couple of posts down the thread).

Slight misunderstanding, can happen in an international community :D

np :)

English can be a very subtle language, Yes Minister is my role model where a simple "Are you sure that's wise?" translates to the subtext "You're an absolute idiot and if you go ahead with this lunatic scheme you will lose your seat and the government may well fall!!!"
 
I'm a lot happier now that I have seen the Northern theme. More like the way we are used to seeing the game. I love it.:)

Yup, now I understand where those earlier screenshots from a few months back, were coming from.

I just wished the CO / Paradox guys had a been a bit clearer, much earlier on about this. It was only this past week that the penny dropped for me, when co_fiirdraak started to explain things that certain shots had been taken against a certain Theme.
 
Maps that are made have a set theme to them which cannot be changed (for example you can't choose Map X that has the North theme and change that to Tropic theme before you start a game). You can still choose from a group of filters in the options menu to change certain aspects of the lighting condition and so forth. But changing the entire flora and grass color and so on is not possible (mid-game or on an already created map).

I like what I see, and I have a question:

If I use the Map Editor to make my own map; is it possible for me to choose the northern theme, but to populate it with the flora(trees and stuff) from, say, the mid latitude palette? I think that kind of look will be my ideal.