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We have been busy little bees working on something completely new for Cities: Skylines and now we finally get to talk about it!

Cities: Skylines Snowfall is inspired by the Finnish winter that just seems to last forever. It's all about what we see and feel around us: Snow, ice and cold weather. You get to experience the snowfall, so make sure your citizens stay warm by offering heating, and tackling the challenges of slippery roads slowing down traffic.

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People have been asking us to add seasons to the game. However we felt that winter should have it's own theme with unique challenges. This means that winter maps have eternal snow and new features tied to it. You can create your own winter maps in the map editor or play the three maps that are available in Snowfall.

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The snow is naturally a very visual feature and we have created quite a few new buildings for the theme. Many of the base game buildings have been varied to fit winter conditions better, so you won’t have flowerbeds or palm trees in your winter wonderland. For modders we'll have more information how to prepare their assets for the snow coming later, but what we can say at this point is that the snow is generated by code and the assets should work with minor tweaks. Roads are also covered by snow and citizens wear winter clothing. Just like in European maps, winter maps have special buildings only available in them. We have also added some weather effects for all the other map themes.

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Not only is the winter map about the visuals but there are special services that are available only in this theme. So make sure you clear the roads of the snow and heat up the citizen's home because the temperature is dropping. We'll be talking about these new features and more in a weekly developer diary until the release, so stay tuned!

Are you ready for a gorgeous winter wonderland?
 
You're a brave woman, given all the negative comments that have been posted in the less than 24 hours since the announcement.

Looks good and the aurora borealis is a nice touch. Don't know if more traffic problems is really what the game needed.
 
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Why would there be negative comments? If you are a boring person and don't want snow you can just not buy it right?

A proper set of seasons would be nice though - I guess thats material for a later DLC.

I for one am mildly excited for this DLC, more so than I was for AD.
 
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A lot nice ideas and it sure looks nice, but it’s mostly aesthetics over substance, again. It’s like After Dark with night only on a new special map, which is dark forever.

As quite a few have been writing on this forum and on Reddit (and me here), if seasons is to be the new thing, take more time, introduce real seasons, on all maps. No reason why winter shouldn’t have real consequences and gameplay impact there, too (with the exeption of tropical maps and with full manual control for players).

And please don't go down the "aesthetics first" road forever. There are quite a few things to improve (e.g. tourism, night mechanics, agent limit) and lots of cool new management / gameplay things to add, like more public transport management, more tourism choices and statistics etc.
 
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Is there a chance that you will also enable snow on the other map themes? As far as I understand, it should be possible, since snow is generated by code.

I will be honest, for me this decision is a real deal breaker. After Dark had some poor design choices. But enabling snow only on a single map theme means that I will be forced to play on a certain themed map which will be covered in eternal snow just to use most of the features. There have to be some really good features that are enabled on all map themes if you want me to buy this DLC. And as far as I have seen I am not the only one who voiced their concerns regarding this decision.
 
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I'm generally pleased with the update but was a little disappointed by the initial plans for this DLC.

Just a preface, I read the CS subreddit so my news comes from TotallyMoo (who is awesome, btw). I think it's totally appropriate to have an all-winter map but at the same time I also think we should have an all-seasons map. We shouldn't just have an exclusive winter map. I think in order to best encompass all geographies and provide environments that we can theme our cities on will definitely keep me interested in this game. I've been waiting for someone to usurp Sim City and I think Cities: Skyline has been exceptional thus far.

If we were to include seasons, I'd also be intrigued in seeing natural disasters take place. Sure, some people will want to see the world burn but I think it adds a challenge and requires the mayors of their respective towns to rebuild after the latest disaster has affected their town. I think it would provide a more dynamic city building experience. That being said, I understand development and QA are a pain and understand that there are things you want to release but want to complete properly.

Once again, thank you for making an excellent game and I hope you guys continue to make great decisions towards the future releases for CS.
 
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Trams! That is all!

Edit: Didn't take the downvote trolls long to come by the thread.
 
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Inb4 people complaining about criticism... oh, wait, they started with the very first post.

Anyway it is nice to know snow is generated by code. It gives hope.
 
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I'm sorry but that is a poor reasoning for not having real seasons. Why not just have all four seasons slowly changing with unique challenges in each season? Why only having winter locked as biome to maps?

Inb4 Spring/Summer/Autumn DLC?
 
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You're a brave woman, given all the negative comments that have been posted in the less than 24 hours since the announcement.

Looks good and the aurora borealis is a nice touch. Don't know if more traffic problems is really what the game needed.

If we'd let negative comments get to us we wouldn't be making games. People who play Cities: Skylines are generally polite and know how to give constructive feedback that we can take on board for the future.

I'm sorry but that is a poor reasoning for not having real seasons. Why not just have all four seasons slowly changing with unique challenges in each season? Why only having winter locked as biome to maps?

Inb4 Spring/Summer/Autumn DLC?

All four season cycle would have to be quite long for it to make any sense having different services in different seasons. Four seasons is much more work than working on one, and we didn't want to spend a year developing a feature that would in fact be in the end mostly cosmetic. So adding a winter theme + rain to other themes made more sense to us and allowed us to have something non-weather features in this expansion as well.
 
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All four season cycle would have to be quite long for it to make any sense having different services in different seasons. Four seasons is much more work than working on one, and we didn't want to spend a year developing a feature that would in fact be in the end mostly cosmetic. So adding a winter theme + rain to other themes made more sense to us and allowed us to have something non-weather features in this expansion as well.

Will this be an option for us to introduce in custom biomes? No work for you necessarily but the modding community can pick up something which, while you guys claim legitimate development reasons, is turning off a lot of potential buyers
 
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I can't imagine why anybody would be making negative comments. The attitude of so many people online just gets me down. However, Karoliina, just remember that the dissatisfied minority are usually the most vocal. The vast majority of us are very happy with Cities: Skylines, AD and now Snowfall and very grateful for all the effort you continue to put in, even if we don't always take to social media to tell you so as readily as the people with a problem!
 
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All four season cycle would have to be quite long for it to make any sense having different services in different seasons. Four seasons is much more work than working on one, and we didn't want to spend a year developing a feature that would in fact be in the end mostly cosmetic. So adding a winter theme + rain to other themes made more sense to us and allowed us to have something non-weather features in this expansion as well.

Banished has fully fledged seasons and a minimal development team… And yes, seasons would need to be quite long to be meaningful. Coupled with manual player control (switch seasons on/off, stay in one forever, choose which one should be on now etc.) that shouldn’t be a problem.

As I wrote here, if it takes too much time, do a Traffic DLC first, add seasons later.

Also, no fully fledged seasons are only part of the problem. There is a backlog of important issues that still are not fixed, nor any information available if / when they might be fixed. And there are tons of cool opportunities out there, that could be done as well, if the focus wouldn’t be so much on aesthetics.
 
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Will this be an option for us to introduce in custom biomes? No work for you necessarily but the modding community can pick up something which, while you guys claim legitimate development reasons, is turning off a lot of potential buyers
How many potential buyers do you think this is turning off, exactly? And how would you know? I don't know of anybody amongst my many gamer friends who's ever said "I would be interested in that city sim game, if only it had seasonal cycles."
 
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How many potential buyers do you think this is turning off, exactly? And how would you know? I don't know of anybody amongst my many gamer friends who's ever said "I would be interested in that city sim game, if only it had seasonal cycles."

I'm assuming he meant being turned off to purchasing the DLC, not the game in general. And he's right when it comes to me. I like the idea of seasons, I'm not a big fan on making maps that are permanently snow. Obviously my opinion and others will differ, but from the standpoint of a game owner who is debating purchasing this DLC... this doesn't appeal to me... whereas a DLC with improves transport or enhances specializations and industry/tourism is much needed in my opinion and I would pay for that.
 
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+1 to the concerned voices. Not only does this DLC seem (at first glance anyway) surprisingly light on content, but the decision to separate winter into its own maps seems very dubious. And where the European theme can be "fixed" with policies, winter can't...

I really like this game, but more style over substance, as nice-looking as it is, is not going to compell me to build a new city. :(
 
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