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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
 

Hannodb

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I must say, I'm starting to fall in love with these themes.

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Just look at those houses on the gravel road. In any other theme, this would make it look like a slum area. But in the tropical theme, it actually looks like holiday homes.
 

gabrielcrandall

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With the new themes option for the game I was thinking about the tropical areas in real life and how they have hurricanes. I was thinking about simcity and how they have disasters in the game. Will Cities:Skylines have disasters as well or will the game not have disasters? If it doesn't have disasters I will still love the game. If not, oh well. I'm sure there will be a mod for it somewhere.
 

Petrino

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im really hoping for timelines!
i wanna build a steampunk victorian modern city! because thats what i want darnit! but i would settle for being able to build a 1900 city...or a 1940s city...or any other decade!
 

WiKi_KiKi

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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.

It's the small things like this which really make a big difference, can't wait to play it! Eagerly counting down the days.
 

Knock0

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I hope modders come out with date period themes....Like 1920s New York City, or 1970s New york city with it's high rise public housing/projects, or modern NYC with it's coops and such with the industrial size being more high tech rather then the big hulking 1920s NYC industrial factories producing tons of soot out of it's smoke stacks
 

Quixadhal

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What I would love to see, maybe in a future expansion or DLC, is weather.

The climate themes are great, but it would be awesome to see snow fall and cover the ground for months, or rain falling and filling the rivers or lakes... or the hot baking sun drying things up over time.

Obviously that's a big enough system to form an expansion around, so I don't expect it soon... but it would elevate the sim to a whole other level to have to deal with good and bad weather effects over weeks or months of game time. :)