Greetings, fellow city-builders, and welcome to another Sunset Harbor Dev Diary!

As the previous diary was dedicated to Trolleybuses, we think it's a good idea to follow it with even more public transport services coming to you in Sunset Harbor.

Intercity Bus Service

Intercity Bus is a public transport service that opens up a new outside connection. In addition to transporting tourists, the Intercity Bus Service also makes traveling easier for your citizens and ultimately decreases traffic, as people leave their own vehicles at home.

There's something to it when you travel by night, with home waiting in the distance.

The Intercity Bus Service unlocks at Milestone 6, but you can already see intercity buses on the highways at the start of the game. The new intercity bus station and terminal are located in the same build menu tab as the local bus service. There is no need to create any stops or lines, just build an intercity bus station or terminal and you can notice intercity buses making frequent stops at your city. This new service also comes with a brand new intercity bus vehicle model and an updated Public Transport Infoview. Adjusting the old bus budget slider also encourages people to use intercity buses more.

An intercity bus station in the morning.

Passenger Helicopter

The next new public transport service takes citizens to new heights. Passenger helicopters circumvent traffic altogether and zip through the sky, connecting people in a whole new way. This service unlocks at Milestone 11, right before airports, and uses the same build menu tab as other Air transport services. The new assets that unlock with the service are the helicopter vehicle model, helicopter depot and helicopter stop. There is also an updated Public Transport Infoview and helicopters are added to the existing Air Transport budget slider. To start building your first passenger helicopter line, you first need to place a helicopter depot that sends out the helicopters. Then you build as many helicopter stops as you want and connect them with the new Helicopter pathway tool. Don't forget to connect the depot to one of the stops because helicopters can't move without pathways! Lastly, you can create helicopter lines by selecting joined Helicopter stops with the Helicopter Line tool. There are also two helicopter stops in one of the new transport hubs we are going to talk about next!

Connecting a Passenger Helicopter Depot to a Helicopter Stop using the Helicopter Pathway tool.

Transport Hubs

You read it right, we are adding new transport hubs to the game! There are five new hubs in total coming with Sunset Harbor. Transport hubs connect different transport networks together, making changing from one transport type to another easy and fast without the need to walk from one stop to another. All new hubs are added to a brand new build menu tab together with the older hubs. Transport hubs function the same way as public transport stops: If a transport hub has been built and is connected to a road, train track or metro track, it can be used as a stop when creating a public transport line.

Train-Metro hub, at your service!

Here are short introductions to the new assets:

• Bus-Intercity Bus Hub utilizes the new intercity bus service introduced above and connects it to the good old local bus service. Bus lines can be created on the bus platforms and citizens can change between local and intercity buses with ease. At Milestone 6, this hub is the first of the five to unlock.
• Metro-Intercity Bus Hub combines the intercity bus service with an underground metro network to get your travelers all around town! This hub unlocks at Milestone 7.
• Bus-Metro Hub connects the local bus service and two metro networks together. You can see citizens taking the escalator to the metro and hurrying to the bus platforms as they change lines. Unlocks at Milestone 9.
• Train-Metro Hub has two large stations connected together by a road and a bridge over the road that makes it easy for train passengers to change to a metro line. But hang on, is that an overground metro line? More about that in the Dev Diaries to come This beauty unlocks at Milestone 8.
• Metropolitan Airport brings with it the largest building to Cities: Skylines so far! This hub wraps together an international airport, two underground metro stations and two landing pads for the passenger helicopter. This colossal building unlocks at Milestone 13.

The Metropolitan Airport will bring citizens together from around the world.

With these hubs, we've tied together all the new public transport services. The next Dev Diary is going to focus on completely different city services. We hope you liked these new features and are looking forward to the next ones!

Until next time, city-builders!

Colossal Order dev team

EDIT: Fixed broken smiley

 

[Avanya]

Hope modder can create their own hub, mixing and matching different transport station as they like. e.g mix monorail with ferry pier

We can already do this, so I don't see why not. We'd ofc have to make sure we put them in the new category.

I'm not seeing the image of the Overhead Metro line.

Above ground metro was confirmed to be in the free patch in the first dev diary. So that's why we haven't seen much of it yet - it's part of what we'll see Wednesday.

 

[Stevrnic]

This was answered on Instagram. Same as normal buses - 30.

I don't understand exactly how these intercity buses work. Are they just for tourists? The dev diary says that they are not just for tourists and are also for citizens but seen as you can't create lines for them I don't see how they can be used by citizens unless they are going to an outside city.

Not sure where you're from but here in the US they would be similar to Greyhound, Boltbus, or MegaBus. Hope that helps.

 

[Keltia_Vikinga]

What about bus from green cities dlc ??

 

[DJMT]

I really hope they allow all modes of transport to have their model changed as opposed to just the buses. Having to download a mod to duplicate a vanilla feature is the height of half-arsery.

 

[Vinterthorn]

Maybe it's the angle of view or my eyesight, but where exactly are the on/off-road connections on the intercity bus stations located? Or will buses rumble over the sidewalk?
As for the hubs, I second the thought that a triple-service hub would've been nice.

 

[Seneon]

It looks nice, but too bad there still isn't any metro/metro hub : small, simple, with various platform shape ( +, x, =, ||, #...).
This would be way less niche than blimps or helicopters.

Or at least if metro stations could be linked with one another with underground pathways...

 

[Beer Fiend]

Maybe it's the angle of view or my eyesight, but where exactly are the on/off-road connections on the intercity bus stations located? Or will buses rumble over the sidewalk?
As for the hubs, I second the thought that a triple-service hub would've been nice.

Looks like they're on the sides to me.

 

[Bluegrass Geek]

What about bus from green cities dlc ??

The Electric Busses in Green Cities are just regular busses that produce no pollution, due to being electric.

 

[Beer Fiend]

The Electric Busses in Green Cities are just regular busses that produce no pollution, due to being electric.

Biofuel and they produce 30% less pollution actually.

 

[Norppis]

New Metro-train -hub looks really nice, but just leaves me wonder.. can one trace a tram or trolley bus line through it? Monorail is probably out of question.

 

[Beer Fiend]

New Metro-train -hub looks really nice, but just leaves me wonder.. can one trace a tram or trolley bus line through it? Monorail is probably out of question.

I think the road is attached, so no in that case. If not, you should be able to draw the road and attach the building to that.

 

[Keltia_Vikinga]

Discussiong with a console player... we think it would be nice to get modular parkings (or parking we can extend) ingame...

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

Maybe it's the angle of view or my eyesight, but where exactly are the on/off-road connections on the intercity bus stations located? Or will buses rumble over the sidewalk?
As for the hubs, I second the thought that a triple-service hub would've been nice.

Buses still have to drive between the trees and over the grass to get onto the road.

The behavior isn't new. I've been mildly irritated by it for years.

 

[Norppis]

Humh. I understand that DLC makers cannot except people to have another DLC, but I'm still little disappointed that new hubs and systems totally ignore the existence Monorails and Tramlines.

 

[ristosal]

It looks nice, but too bad there still isn't any metro/metro hub : small, simple, with various platform shape ( +, x, =, ||, #...).

The Bus-Metro hub actually looks like it is one based on the tutorial video, with the platforms crossing perpendicular to each other.

 

[Weyird]

Best news is that there are hubs with 2 metro tracks. Could have done with like 10 more station types, but oh well, nothing mods and assets can't fix. I'm liking a lot of what is in this DLC, but you guys seem to rely on modders to actually finish your game for you. So many mods out there that are pretty essential to anyone. Glad you took some inspiration from Metro overhaul at least

 

[Norppis]

Best news is that there are hubs with 2 metro tracks. Could have done with like 10 more station types, but oh well, nothing mods and assets can't fix. I'm liking a lot of what is in this DLC, but you guys seem to rely on modders to actually finish your game for you. So many mods out there that are pretty essential to anyone. Glad you took some inspiration from Metro overhaul at least

Indeed, it feels a bit strange that one needs somewhat unreliable mods to make game complete. I guess I should take a look at them.. have so far avoided.

Another thing I had in mind: is there any functional difference between Blimps and Helicopters? (Other than possibly capacity and speed). Or are they both basically same thing, transporting passengers on pre-made route?

 

[Avanya]

Humh. I understand that DLC makers cannot except people to have another DLC, but I'm still little disappointed that new hubs and systems totally ignore the existence Monorails and Tramlines.

This is pretty easy to add in game though. For trams you just need a tram road in front of/near your transport hub, then you can have them transfere easily. For monorail you'd need another building next to it, but at least they are fairly small so it's doable. And then ofc there's always the chance of the workshop having some that require more DLCs.

Indeed, it feels a bit strange that one needs somewhat unreliable mods to make game complete. I guess I should take a look at them.. have so far avoided.

Assets (buildings, props, trees, vehicles, etc) are very safe to use. They are made with the game's editor and so very rarely ever break, and if you remove them they simply disappear from your city. So if you grab for example more stations you are very very unlikely to have any issues.

Mods are where you should be a little more vary. They change how the game does something, which is why they can break or break things. So if you want to stay safe, avoid mods or at least limit how many you have and how much they do. We have an awesome modding community who keep updating mods that break and it's been a long long time since I had to say goodbye to a heavily modded city because a mod broke, but it can ofc happen.

 

[Lord_Beelzebub]

This was answered on Instagram. Same as normal buses - 30.

I don't understand exactly how these intercity buses work. Are they just for tourists? The dev diary says that they are not just for tourists and are also for citizens but seen as you can't create lines for them I don't see how they can be used by citizens unless they are going to an outside city.

I'm sure the term "Intercity buses" just simply means they are buses that only operate within city limits. That way when you're looking at city statistics and graphs, you can easily see which buses belong to your city and which are "tourist" buses that can come and go via outside connections.

It's most likely nothing more than that.

 

[Beer Fiend]

I'm sure the term "Intercity buses" just simply means they are buses that only operate within city limits. That way when you're looking at city statistics and graphs, you can easily see which buses belong to your city and which are "tourist" buses that can come and go via outside connects.

It's most likely nothing more than that.

Nah that's 'Intracity buses'

Intercity buses is like The National Express and only stop off in your city before going elsewhere.