Cities in Motion 2 FAQ (with replies from Colossal Order)

[BjornB]

UI and Visuals

"Menu interface doesn't feel as polished as before."
This might be because CiM2 is so different from the first game that we decided to re-do the whole menu and not save everything from the old one. The interface you see is actually our third version, we really put a lot of effort in it, but I do admit it's not perfect. If you have some specific issues, we'll see what we can do!

"The tutorial text was too long and hard to read."
I'll see what can be done about this, the text is written by me and it might be that I'd need to add short descriptions of each task or just cut down the amount of words there. Sorry!

"What's up with the nuts camera movements? Yeah, sure WASD would be okay if even that would work properly. It doesn't move smoothly, it jumps around if you move with this. Why mess with something that is already a standard in gaming and works well?"
We are adding edge scrolling in the next update that we are currently working on. It should help with this issue.

"There is hardly any music in the game."
This could be a bug, but we did want to have more ambience than music since long playing sessions could make repetitive music irritating fast.

"All vehicles seem to have headlights on all the time."
This was a choice we made, that's how headlights have to be used in Finland. It's illegal to drive without your headlights on.

"Either way the choice of vehicles is also bad. Usually I like sci-fi stuff, but this is one game I'd like to see buses from nowadays, since it is named Modern Days. Also the lack of different choices is bad."
I'm sorry you feel the choices are bad. We wanted to have today's vehicles and a few older ones to give the feel of having something familiar from the first game.

Technical issues

"There are problems with multiplayer, I get a timeout error."
I'm very sorry about the multiplayer issues, we are working on them even as we speak. It's our fault, and we are working as fast as we can to fix them. Apologies to all players, the multiplayer is an essential part of the game.

Gameplay

"Again, what's up with the nuts vehicle capacities again? Biggest bus: 38 seating passengers + 25 standing passengers max? What's up with this."
They are balanced to work well in the game, not to be realistic. We are adding modding tools in a few weeks and then people will be able to make their own "rule sets" and adjust the capacities to their liking.

"Where's all the traffic? I played for 4 hours, and the biggest traffic I saw: one section of the road in entire city was half-filled."
We wanted to avoid traffic jams, since they were a big problem in the first game, so the amount of residents in each city is designed so that it's unlikely to clog the roads.

"Why does people in stops get mad if they come into stops too early and have to wait for their ride?"
Passengers want to travel from A to B according to their own wishes, and they would like the lines to cater to those needs, that's why they can get upset. One way to handle the issue is to have bus lines feeding passengers into the metro stations and have the buses arrive a few minutes before the metro arrives, so the passengers don't have a long waiting time.

It's hard to build underground metro. You can't see it under the roads."
We are currently working on a fix for the underground mode. The roads need to be seen, but now they obscure too much, you are right.

"There is no way to edit/delete profiles (without editing config files) and editing the selected ones just adds a new profile."
I will add this issue to our fix lists and we will see what can be done.

"The tutorial doesn't feel as intuitive as before."
We did a lot of work with the tutorial, I think it's one of the hardest things to make in any game. Feel free to post feedback on how the tutorial could improve.

"It is possible to scroll the environment by holding down control but an option to do that without in the games settings would be welcome."
Edge scrolling will be added in the next update within a few days.

"It doesn't seem possible to connect to any of the online game sessions."
There's an issue with modem settings that we are looking into just now. An update will be available soon!

"Keep the thing with Rightlick + Mouse Wheel = fine rotation but add hotkeys for the 45° rotation so rightclick can be used to close the build menu (like every other game does)."
The hotkeys are currently not in our plans, but I'll look into adding them.

"Add a key for closing all open windows."
Can be done, I'll add this to my list.

"I'm having trouble distinguishing between the light green and the medium green color of the ticket prices."
The shades are probably too similar, this will be fixed!

"It'd be nice to access the options menu from the editor."
It definitely would ;P This is a bug and will be fixed.

"Alt+Tab causes trees to morph into cardboard cut-outs."
This is a bug and will be fixed.

"Screen gets cluttered with windows to easily."
The close all windows button might help with this, it's coming.

"Depot, vehicle, stop upgrades would be a great addition in a patch, rather than having to delete and build from scratch."
Currently you can upgrade stops and depots, just choose the type you want in the build menu and place it on top of the existing stop. The closest thing to upgrading vehicles would be to buy new ones to the depot and sell the old ones, the new vehicles will automatically be used as soon as a line demands a vehicle.

"Trains should have reverse at end of line feature, having to build a loop is ridiculous, especially when building elevated railways in a city"
You can also use another depot to reverse the train.

"Depots should not have to be included in a route. They should be placed independently and vehicles should have service intervals or require service when they get below a certain percentage. When this percentage is reached the vehicle calls at the depot the next time it passes through."
The depot system was a design choice we made very early on. We felt having lines connected to specific depots gives the game more depth and a tactical element it wouldn't have with individual depots.

 

[unmerged(276373)]

"Depot, vehicle, stop upgrades would be a great addition in a patch, rather than having to delete and build from scratch."
Currently you can upgrade stops and depots, just choose the type you want in the build menu and place it on top of the existing stop. The closest thing to upgrading vehicles would be to buy new ones to the depot and sell the old ones, the new vehicles will automatically be used as soon as a line demands a vehicle.

About the upgrading of the stops. The bus/trolley/tram stop in The Modern Day DLC isn't possible to upgrade to.

 

[Co_Karoliina]

GE90-115B, thanks for the info, I hadn't noticed that! It's added to the list of things to be fixed.

 

[Miwi]

"Depot, vehicle, stop upgrades would be a great addition in a patch, rather than having to delete and build from scratch."

Same goes for road upgrades...even more annoying that it is not possible at the momemt.

 

[Gogomaester]

Please add road upgades!

 

[Baro]

Thank you so much for the replies.

I'd also like to note that due to the size of maps, making routes takes MUCH longer than before. It would be nice to be able to just pick the start and end points of a route and have the vehicle automatically stop at every stop along the route. Clicking 50 stops to make a route is a huge pain, specially if you then need to change it later and re-do it all again.

Upgrading/changing roads is also needed.

And where are the airports? Train stations? Intercity highways? Where are the interesting and unique landmarks, buildings, city squares and markets and other things that add life to a city.

 

[blackandecker]

Wait, road upgrades... i'm not sure it would make the game more realistic.
Surely it would be easier for us, but.... in reality you can't build a 6 lanes road over a 2 lanes one, in the same space..

 

[unmerged(390777)]

Please change the bus stop catch area. CIM1 model would work. It is horrible and annoying when you try to add a stop i a area where are stops nearby.

 

[Gogomaester]

Wait, road upgrades... i'm not sure it would make the game more realistic.
Surely it would be easier for us, but.... in reality you can't build a 6 lanes road over a 2 lanes one, in the same space..

thats why we said that we mean adding bus line instead of parkplace or adding busline instead of normal line - the roads would have same size. But i dont see a reason, why the road couldnt be wider? You simply add more asphalt - of course if there is something in the way, you have to demolish it!

 

[Fluclo]

"Where's all the traffic? I played for 4 hours, and the biggest traffic I saw: one section of the road in entire city was half-filled."
We wanted to avoid traffic jams, since they were a big problem in the first game, so the amount of residents in each city is designed so that it's unlikely to clog the roads.

I must be doing something quite drastically wrong then, number of times my bridges fill up with traffic, and then my buses get stuck. I end up building bus-only bridges across the waterways!

"Why does people in stops get mad if they come into stops too early and have to wait for their ride?"
Passengers want to travel from A to B according to their own wishes, and they would like the lines to cater to those needs, that's why they can get upset. One way to handle the issue is to have bus lines feeding passengers into the metro stations and have the buses arrive a few minutes before the metro arrives, so the passengers don't have a long waiting time.

Sort of hurts when I see that yellow "Unhappy" within seconds of building a bus-route. Like, hold on little sim, it'll take the bus an hour to get up the road to you. Now WAIT PATIENTLY. If only

It's hard to build underground metro. You can't see it under the roads."
We are currently working on a fix for the underground mode. The roads need to be seen, but now they obscure too much, you are right.

That's why I love CO, always listening to the players and fixing the biggest concerns. +1 on this, already looking forward to it's release.

"The tutorial doesn't feel as intuitive as before."
We did a lot of work with the tutorial, I think it's one of the hardest things to make in any game. Feel free to post feedback on how the tutorial could improve.

Where would you like that feedback?

"It is possible to scroll the environment by holding down control but an option to do that without in the games settings would be welcome."
Edge scrolling will be added in the next update within a few days.

And another example of listening to the community. Qudos to you all. +1 on this, and also eagerly awaiting it's implementation.

"Keep the thing with Rightlick + Mouse Wheel = fine rotation but add hotkeys for the 45° rotation so rightclick can be used to close the build menu (like every other game does)."
The hotkeys are currently not in our plans, but I'll look into adding them.

I'd rather have Tab for this function, seems to be what many other games use to change orientation. Having a customizable option for this would be great, and let us move the map with the right mouse button instead.

"Add a key for closing all open windows."
Can be done, I'll add this to my list.
"Screen gets cluttered with windows to easily."
The close all windows button might help with this, it's coming.

Another option to consider is for the windows to 'reuse', that is if I click on Bus Line 1, then click on Bus Line 2, replace the window of Bus Line 1 to Bus Line 2 - this way, only one window in use, no multiple windows to worry about. Maybe give us a setting for us to choose which we prefer)

"Depot, vehicle, stop upgrades would be a great addition in a patch, rather than having to delete and build from scratch."
Currently you can upgrade stops and depots, just choose the type you want in the build menu and place it on top of the existing stop. The closest thing to upgrading vehicles would be to buy new ones to the depot and sell the old ones, the new vehicles will automatically be used as soon as a line demands a vehicle.

Upgrading vehicles is tedious, clicking sell 20 times, then buy twice (since we can only buy 10 at a time). Could we also upgrade a depot to hold more than 20 buses? (Takes twice the room, can cater 40 buses etc), just buy a "depot extension"?

"Trains should have reverse at end of line feature, having to build a loop is ridiculous, especially when building elevated railways in a city"
You can also use another depot to reverse the train.

Wouldn't that mean we need to have underground depots for reversing underground trains? Couldn't we have a CIM1 type reverse method available?

 

[dryerlint]

Wait, road upgrades... i'm not sure it would make the game more realistic.
Surely it would be easier for us, but.... in reality you can't build a 6 lanes road over a 2 lanes one, in the same space..

Actually, roads in most cities today are built with extra wide lanes so that they can easily be upgraded to have more lanes twenty years *ahem* down the road

 

[Sabarok]

I'd also like to note that due to the size of maps, making routes takes MUCH longer than before. It would be nice to be able to just pick the start and end points of a route and have the vehicle automatically stop at every stop along the route. Clicking 50 stops to make a route is a huge pain, specially if you then need to change it later and re-do it all again.

There are downsides to this one. I'll have places where there are stops from different lines on the same stretch of road (handy when linking up different bus lines to a metro station). You might also want an express that skips lines. There's also more complicated bus routes that aren't in a straight line. No way is an AI going to be able to figure out what my idea is for the maze of bus stops its looking at.

I think what would be more useful would be ways to manipulate the list rather than having it completely automated. I haven't figured out how to rearrange stops without redoing the entire line

 

[asaphxxx]

URGENT: Please add autosave feature! there are still bugs and crashes (I just had a crash: too many heaps, or something like that), and the player may lose a very long playing time!!

 

[Baro]

Oh yeah I only meant as an option. Like some button that auto-sets all stops, but you'd still have the control.

The line management and creation process needs and overhaul. Even on CiM's smaller maps any time you wanted to extend a line or change something it generally meant you'd delete the line and just start over, it's extra bad in CiM2 with maps and lines being way longer, plus the interface being worse.

 

[asaphxxx]

2 very major problems (show stoppers):
1. It's very hard to edit a line after creation - there's no real option (at least not intuitive/clear/indicated) to add a stop in the middle of the route - sometimes it happens automatically somehow that the stop you're setting is put in the right place, but if you want for instance to change the line's associated depot, you can't, but rather you have to remove all stops and assign them again, which leads to the second problem:

2. Other that knowing the numbers of all stops by heart, there's no way of determining an existing line's route! It should be highlighted among all the route arrows on the map, otherwise it just blends with them and can't be distinguished.

This game is not ready for release!

 

[asaphxxx]

The line management and creation process needs and overhaul. Even on CiM's smaller maps any time you wanted to extend a line or change something it generally meant you'd delete the line and just start over, it's extra bad in CiM2 with maps and lines being way longer, plus the interface being worse.

True that!
And also, there's no indication at all of passenger traffic (what lines they go on, when, origins, destinations). Only how many zones they go on. Do passengers even change bus lines? If so, in what way - do they change between stops at overlapping catchment?

 

[asaphxxx]

Gameplay



"Screen gets cluttered with windows to easily."
The close all windows button might help with this, it's coming.
.[/I]

easy fix: make it so a new convoy/stop window closes the previous one. Ctrl click to override.

 

[unmerged(609936)]

2. Other that knowing the numbers of all stops by heart, there's no way of determining an existing line's route! It should be highlighted among all the route arrows on the map, otherwise it just blends with them and can't be distinguished.

Um, toggle showing of all lines off and then turn only the one that interests you on? (the eye icon)

 

[kensternation]

Gameplay

[
"Depots should not have to be included in a route. They should be placed independently and vehicles should have service intervals or require service when they get below a certain percentage. When this percentage is reached the vehicle calls at the depot the next time it passes through."
The depot system was a design choice we made very early on. We felt having lines connected to specific depots gives the game more depth and a tactical element it wouldn't have with individual depots.

The depot system has numerous issues, not the least of which is the 20 bus limit/depot. The way you have the day speed and vehicle speed, I have lines that I would not consider very long needing more than 20 buses. That is insane. I have no problem with the depot system per se but it needs to work. I finally discovered why one line wasn't running- I had bought 40 buses in one depot- max is 20 and so I did not have any buses in the depot. I then moved the buses to another depot and reestablished the line to use the second depot. Still did not work. Had to sell the buses and rebuy them. I assume this is a bug. It also appears that if your line uses more than one depot- due to the vehicle limit- that it does not want to work.

 

[jmr00]

You can't have more than one depot dispatching vehicles. You can have other depots attached to a line to turn vehicles around, but every line must start and end at the same depot.