Greetings city-builders, and welcome to the fourth Dev Diary covering Plazas and Promenades. Today’s dev diary is all about the new district specializations and new maps, so let’s check them out.
First up we have the three new Wall-to-wall specializations that can be used for residential, commercial, and office zones. They unlock at Milestone 6 - Big Town, along with high-density zoning. Each specialization features 48 new modern low-rise buildings to create a unique area in your city. As a new feature to the game, these buildings have murals, which are randomly selected each time a building spawns to create additional variation and color in the neighborhoods.
A sprawling wall-to-wall neighborhood
The new wall-to-wall specializations don’t just look cool, but as a specialization, they also work slightly differently from regular zone types. To reflect their modern construction, these buildings have a lower risk of catching fire, but as they’re built close together, fires spread more easily between them. So make sure to keep a few fire stations nearby just in case they do catch fire.
Like previous specializations, they can be found in the Districts and Areas menu under each zone tab and are applied to a district by selecting the specialization and clicking on a district. For pedestrian areas, however, there is no need to create a district, as specializations can be applied directly to the area. If a district and a pedestrian area overlap and have different specializations applied for a specific zone, like commercial, the pedestrian area specialization will be the one used.
New maps
Now we can’t have an expansion without new maps for you to build on! For Plazas and Promenades, we have 5 maps for you to choose from, featuring different landscapes and themes.
First is the temperate map of Cape Apple. You start centered on a long peninsula with easy access to the surrounding landmasses, creating an excellent environment for a thriving metropolis. Take advantage of the ship connections to bring in tourists or set up a bustling industry along the coast as you build your new city.
Cape Apple offers wide open spaces ready to be developed
Next, we journey to the tropics with Coastal Gem. It features long wide beaches and lots of open space to build a city on. You can expand inland to reach some of the area's many ore deposits or claim the coastline and benefit from the added land value of waterfront property.
Coastal Gem lives up to its name with its beautiful beaches
Gondola Islands is the first of our two new European maps. It is made up of a cluster of islands of varying sizes only connected to the mainland by a bridge. Whether you create island communities focused on walkability using pedestrian areas or connect the many islands using the new roads, Gondola Islands will shape any city built here.
The island cluster of Gondola Islands have much to offer
The boreal map of Oracle Lake offers a large valley filled with forests and lakes for you to build your city on. Base the city’s industry on the large forests, extract the abundant ore in the area, or focus on creating a vibrant tourist destination. The choice is yours.
Oracle Lake features many scenic views
Last but not least is our second European map, Splitz Tributary. Build your city at the foot of the mountains or along the banks of the rivers meeting here. With lots of buildable land, your city can take many forms.
Splitz Tributary is an ideal location for a new city
This concludes our Dev Diaries for the new content coming in Plazas and Promenades. On Tuesday, we’ll have a look at the free update that adds something new for everyone, as well as the patch notes so you’re completely up to date before release. Below Overcharged Egg has another tutorial for you, showing off the new content. Enjoy!
First up we have the three new Wall-to-wall specializations that can be used for residential, commercial, and office zones. They unlock at Milestone 6 - Big Town, along with high-density zoning. Each specialization features 48 new modern low-rise buildings to create a unique area in your city. As a new feature to the game, these buildings have murals, which are randomly selected each time a building spawns to create additional variation and color in the neighborhoods.
A sprawling wall-to-wall neighborhood
The new wall-to-wall specializations don’t just look cool, but as a specialization, they also work slightly differently from regular zone types. To reflect their modern construction, these buildings have a lower risk of catching fire, but as they’re built close together, fires spread more easily between them. So make sure to keep a few fire stations nearby just in case they do catch fire.
Like previous specializations, they can be found in the Districts and Areas menu under each zone tab and are applied to a district by selecting the specialization and clicking on a district. For pedestrian areas, however, there is no need to create a district, as specializations can be applied directly to the area. If a district and a pedestrian area overlap and have different specializations applied for a specific zone, like commercial, the pedestrian area specialization will be the one used.
New maps
Now we can’t have an expansion without new maps for you to build on! For Plazas and Promenades, we have 5 maps for you to choose from, featuring different landscapes and themes.
First is the temperate map of Cape Apple. You start centered on a long peninsula with easy access to the surrounding landmasses, creating an excellent environment for a thriving metropolis. Take advantage of the ship connections to bring in tourists or set up a bustling industry along the coast as you build your new city.
Cape Apple offers wide open spaces ready to be developed
Next, we journey to the tropics with Coastal Gem. It features long wide beaches and lots of open space to build a city on. You can expand inland to reach some of the area's many ore deposits or claim the coastline and benefit from the added land value of waterfront property.
Coastal Gem lives up to its name with its beautiful beaches
Gondola Islands is the first of our two new European maps. It is made up of a cluster of islands of varying sizes only connected to the mainland by a bridge. Whether you create island communities focused on walkability using pedestrian areas or connect the many islands using the new roads, Gondola Islands will shape any city built here.
The island cluster of Gondola Islands have much to offer
The boreal map of Oracle Lake offers a large valley filled with forests and lakes for you to build your city on. Base the city’s industry on the large forests, extract the abundant ore in the area, or focus on creating a vibrant tourist destination. The choice is yours.
Oracle Lake features many scenic views
Last but not least is our second European map, Splitz Tributary. Build your city at the foot of the mountains or along the banks of the rivers meeting here. With lots of buildable land, your city can take many forms.
Splitz Tributary is an ideal location for a new city
This concludes our Dev Diaries for the new content coming in Plazas and Promenades. On Tuesday, we’ll have a look at the free update that adds something new for everyone, as well as the patch notes so you’re completely up to date before release. Below Overcharged Egg has another tutorial for you, showing off the new content. Enjoy!
