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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
 
Getting them side by side like that, it does look nice indeed :)
 
So that filters can not be seperated? What I mean is that they affect every object in the same way. For example: The sunny theme makes the sky and plants look nice, but look the tree trunks for example, they are blue now as well.
I am not exactly on board with any of that themes yet.
 
Writting from sunny South Africa, I confirm that "Northern" looks most realistic to me as well. While I don't mind playing with the bluish or yellowish tint, I certainly is not going to use those if there is something more realistic on offer :)
 
I really like the tropical theme makes me happy . Did I understand it correct that you can choose any theme of your liking with each map?
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).
 
You can still choose from a group of filters in the options menu to change certain aspects of the lighting condition and so forth. (mid-game or on an already created map).
Could you give more details on that? Maybe even modding wise, what kind of file format determines that?
 
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).

Thanks for the clarification :)
 
No Totallymoo said yesterday that today's Dev Diary wouldn't be..
What about modding info? Wasn't this dev diary supposed to be about modding. Totalymoo?