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Greetings, fellow city-builders, and welcome to another Sunset Harbor Dev Diary! This time we'll check out the free content coming with the update.

Overground Metro

Imagine a busy city center, people walking towards a metro station and a metro train passing by in the background... That's right! One of the most highly-anticipated features, the overground metro, is coming to Cities: Skylines! Now you finally have the ability to build street level metro tracks or even raise them off the ground entirely! Plus, there are two new metro stations and a brand new metro vehicle as well. The new stations can naturally be connected to your old metro lines and underground metro network. These new buildings unlock at Milestone 6.

Since the metro vehicle model now looks more realistic and is longer than the old one, some changes were made to the underground metro stations and pathfinding. This feature won't affect old saves, however you won't be able to make the tracks turn as sharply as was previously possible. Metro lines can still be created the same way as before, by selecting the line tool and adding nodes on metro stations. You can change the elevation of the metro tracks with the same old Page Up and Page Down keys as always. Have fun planning new overground metro lines in your cities!

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Elevated metro station takes citizens to new heights.

New Healthcare City Services

As a part of the free content update, we offer a place for all elderly people to gather and spend time together, take part in hobbies and get treatment for the various ailments old age brings. Studies show that placing an Eldercare facility in your city increases the health of all elders, heals sick elders and increases the average lifespan of all citizens. Building Eldercare buildings might also attract more elders to move into your city.

In addition to looking after the elderly, there is also another healthcare city service. The Child Health Center increases the health and, ultimately, the happiness of all children and teenagers in the neighborhood and increases the birth rate nearby. There is also a high chance of a sick minor getting cured when visiting the building. Together, these new additions come with a new Advisor text and an updated Health infoview.

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Eldercare and Child Health Center to care for the elderly and children.

Improvements

On top of the free content mentioned above, Sunset Harbor also includes lots of smaller improvements. The biggest of them all is the Tutorial Message Log. You know how sometimes you forget a tutorial text that popped up a moment ago and you want to read it again more thoroughly but can't find it anywhere? Well, now you can access all unlocked tutorial messages from a neat new log! The Tutorial Message Log can be found in the pause menu. It even comes with a search bar and categories to make searching easier when there are lots of unlocked tutorials.

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The Tutorial Message Log stores all tutorials.

Another handy new feature is the possibility of loading a game and having it start in a paused state. No more rushing to pause the game immediately after loading. This option will be on by default, and you can turn it off anytime from the Gameplay Options. The camera position can also now be saved when saving the game. This means you get to continue exactly where you left off when you load a saved game. If you save the game while zoomed in on a certain building for example, you will continue from the exact same place when you load the game again.

Placing buildings on curved roads and slopes has also been made simpler with more flexible building placement. Building onto the inside curve of a curved road, for example, is not challenging anymore. Building pedestrian paths is easier now, too.

And last but not least, we have walkable quays. Quays can now be edited in the Asset Editor to allow pedestrian paths on top of them. This makes quays work like pedestrian paths, which is a nice addition to city-planning and allows for detailing the shoreline in-game.

And this wraps up Sunset Harbor DLC Dev Diaries! In addition to this free content, there are a lot of new features available ranging from the Fishing Industry all the way to Trolleybuses, the Waste Transfer System and Inland Water Treatment Plants. Are you already excited for Cities Skylines: Sunset Harbor? It's coming out soon, so you can already start planning on how to incorporate all these neat features into your new or existing cities!

Best regards,

Your Colossal Order dev team
 
Good stuff.

Does that mean that the existing quays in the game do not have the paths added?

I don't know about the default one, but adding paths to custom quays didn't do anything. The AI simply didn't support the pedestrian lanes, so people wouldn't use them. I didn't add any to my quays, but someone who did might not have to update for them to be used by pedestrians.

Do you already have prices set for other countries? (e.g. Brazil)

Yes, and it will cost 28.99 BRL :)
 
For my part, I find that the presentation on improving the metro was very simplistic ... Will we be able to create lines on several levels underground and to interconnect them? Can we interconnect the train and the metro in underground? Do we have all the forms of underground stations as in the mods with curved platforms for example? All that it's not precised clearly...
 
For my part, I find that the presentation on improving the metro was very simplistic ... Will we be able to create lines on several levels underground and to interconnect them? Can we interconnect the train and the metro in underground? Do we have all the forms of underground stations as in the mods with curved platforms for example? All that it's not precised clearly...

1. Yes, but only with one of the hubs.
2. No.
3. No, just the basics.

Remember, this is essentially a simplified version of MOM.
 
Okay, I just checked it out and there is no elevated stations with roads :(
Don't get me wrong, I love the Cities Skylines and the fact that we finally get the elevated metro. But it baffles me how the game that in many aspects has incredible attention to detail sometimes overlooks the most obvious things (another wasted opportunities are lack of beach resorts in a seaside named DLC or the new helicopters - many buildings in game have helipads but instead of using them as air taxi they're just reskinned blimps).
I mean seriously - no one at CO had thought about it? And if it was considered then why it wasn't implemented? It probably wouldn't be a that big deal since it was possible already in game with monorail tracks and stations. I would be happy even if it was a paid feature: everyone gets elevated metro for free but space saving elevated metro tracks & station with road are DLC - that would be a fair deal. But I've seen content showcase videos of Sunset Harbour and there is none.
To me there is almost no incentive to use elevated metro (maybe except cases such as bridge over canyon and aesthetic reasons) - underground tunnels are quite cheap (they definitely should be more expensive because currently underground metro is the most OP public transport in game) and stations are compact - it only takes 2x2 square, while elevated station occupies 16x4 (16 times more space) and somehow cost 2 times more than subway stations (30k vs 15k cimoleans). And the elevated metro noise will almost certainly outweigh any positives.
Also while I do like stations design I was hoping for NY/Chicago gritty old style track and station design and boxy subway cars (like classic NYCT R32 that are still in service to this day) - the metro train model looks too modern and bland while most metro systems still often use decades old trains (and even if the trains are newer they're often still look like boxy retro models). If I wanted futuristic rail transport I'd build monorail.
I know that maybe I complain too much because that is a free content after all and someone will mod this in a few days, but I hope that isn't the last update and if there will be another update in the future I hope to see metro rebalance & elevated stations and tracks above roads (this time with the New York/Chicago subway aesthetics, I think the current stations would fit better European themed maps) and additional old school subway train model :)
 
Okay, I just checked it out and there is no elevated stations with roads :(
Don't get me wrong, I love the Cities Skylines and the fact that we finally get the elevated metro. But it baffles me how the game that in many aspects has incredible attention to detail sometimes overlooks the most obvious things (another wasted opportunities are lack of beach resorts in a seaside named DLC or the new helicopters - many buildings in game have helipads but instead of using them as air taxi they're just reskinned blimps).
I mean seriously - no one at CO had thought about it? And if it was considered then why it wasn't implemented? It probably wouldn't be a that big deal since it was possible already in game with monorail tracks and stations. I would be happy even if it was a paid feature: everyone gets elevated metro for free but space saving elevated metro tracks & station with road are DLC - that would be a fair deal. But I've seen content showcase videos of Sunset Harbour and there is none.
To me there is almost no incentive to use elevated metro (maybe except cases such as bridge over canyon and aesthetic reasons) - underground tunnels are quite cheap (they definitely should be more expensive because currently underground metro is the most OP public transport in game) and stations are compact - it only takes 2x2 square, while elevated station occupies 16x4 (16 times more space) and somehow cost 2 times more than subway stations (30k vs 15k cimoleans). And the elevated metro noise will almost certainly outweigh any positives.
Also while I do like stations design I was hoping for NY/Chicago gritty old style track and station design and boxy subway cars (like classic NYCT R32 that are still in service to this day) - the metro train model looks too modern and bland while most metro systems still often use decades old trains (and even if the trains are newer they're often still look like boxy retro models). If I wanted futuristic rail transport I'd build monorail.
I know that maybe I complain too much because that is a free content after all and someone will mod this in a few days, but I hope that isn't the last update and if there will be another update in the future I hope to see metro rebalance & elevated stations and tracks above roads (this time with the New York/Chicago subway aesthetics, I think the current stations would fit better European themed maps) and additional old school subway train model :)

Dude, MOM is the mod for you. They're updating it now.
 
Dude, MOM is the mod for you. They're updating it now.
I know that there is Metro Overhaul Mod, but it still would be better to have such stations and tracks in vanilla game, especially since MOM is known to irreversibly break cities in certain cases and I don't think I want to risk my savegames.
I'll probably solve the track problem with Road Anarchy to place elevated tracks atop four lane road, but there are also console players that have no mod support at all so mods cannot solve problems for everyone.
 
I know that there is Metro Overhaul Mod, but it still would be better to have such stations and tracks in vanilla game, especially since MOM is known to irreversibly break cities in certain cases and I don't think I want to risk my savegames.
I'll probably solve the track problem with Road Anarchy to place elevated tracks atop four lane road, but there are also console players that have no mod support at all so mods cannot solve problems for everyone.

Only if you don't follow the instructions.

Depends on how the pillars look in vanilla, as for console players, oh well.
 
Unfortunately they did. The metro was overpowered but train capacity is the last thing that should be decreased.
What should have been done is (as I've said earlier) price balance - underground tunnels and stations are too cheap - subway station cost only 15k (while newly added elevated stations cost 30k - why it isn't other way around?). Subway tunnels are extremely expensive to build in real life so underground stations are the ones that should cost 30k while elevated ones should be cheaper.
I know there will almost certainly be a patch so this needs to be addressed.
 
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@co_emmi I see the metro track upkeep costs have gone up drastically. Previously the tunnel upkeep was 0.64/cell/week; now the ground level tracks cost 1.28/cell/week and the tunnels a whopping 5.74/cell/week! Bug or feature?
 
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The model is bigger, but the capacity went down. Pisses me off. I often found 180 a bit lacking, so 150 is really going to suck. :mad:

Price increase is not going to help.

I use Metro a lot. I guess because it always worked well.
 
The model is bigger, but the capacity went down. Pisses me off. I often found 180 a bit lacking, so 150 is really going to suck. :mad:
Price increase is not going to help.
I use Metro a lot. I guess because it always worked well.

I completely agree with you, Fox.
I just got one of my metro lines with the correct number of vehicles to consistently clear all stations of passengers, but it really cant take adding more vehicles to the line (due to fear of overloading it). This line is the most used one I have, and has been difficult to manage; all other lines are fine.
Reducing it to 150 passengers per vehicle, is probably not going to work for this line.
Uggggggg.
 
Uhm, about using the Editor to make Walkable Quays, ELI5?
 
Looks like the 150 capacity thing is a bug. There can be both 150 and 180 capacity trains on the same line.

I thought I saw a metro train with 180 on it yesterday. Later I could not find any. I thought maybe there was 180 when I loaded, then they dropped to 150 when people got off. Just the theory I had. I did not do an exhaustive search.

I'll have to look closer if I get a chance to play today.
 
Another insight on why childcare and eldercare were implemented... I didn't get seniors this early into the city's development before the patch. This screenshot is only one year in.
 

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So I loaded a pre-SH/1.13.0 save, and every metro train I could find had 180 capacity.

There was some odd behavior. One metro said returning to station and skipped all the stops and then disappeared. Others got all jumbly turning around in an end of line station. Another stopped and waited for another metro to clear a station, and when it didn't, it pulled up and blocked it in. Then disappeared. The other one never left the station.

Then I started noticing metros with 150 capacity.
 
So I loaded a pre-SH/1.13.0 save, and every metro train I could find had 180 capacity.
There was some odd behavior. One metro said returning to station and skipped all the stops and then disappeared. Others got all jumbly turning around in an end of line station. Another stopped and waited for another metro to clear a station, and when it didn't, it pulled up and blocked it in. Then disappeared. The other one never left the station.
Then I started noticing metros with 150 capacity.

So after that, did they all stay at 150 capacity?
Or were some of the vehicles 180 and some 150 as the game continues to play?
(Is this a new bug?)
PS: I have not allowed the new patch to download. I usually wait a couple weeks to absorb what "quirks" will be present, from reading others' reviews.