Cities: Skylines 2 - Wishlist

[Dalaar]

So assuming that there is a Cities: Skylines 2 in the works somewhere I thought it would be great to have community suggestions and input into what form that it takes. I've read somewhere that there is talk of introducing countries or something but that doesn't especially interest me. It would be great if Colossal / Paradox setup some sort of user voice forum where people could submit suggestions and vote on them to help shape the new game. If anyone knows of such a thing please let me know - I've not been able to find it.
Barring that I thought I might use the forums here to at least submit some of my thoughts. Now some of this might be included in mods available but this is what I would like to see added to the base (un-modded) game.

Roads/Network/Traffic

• Enable PROPER MERGING LANES like those you might find in real life, with various options for lane markings like you might find.
• Customisable road builder available in game, allow the creation of custom roads in game specifying number of lanes in each direction, with each lane being able to be of a different type sidewalk, car, bike, bus, tram and allow the addition of regular props along the way, trees, lights, signs, post boxes, seating. Allow these to be created as presets that you can save to use in your city.
• Improved Traffic AI that lets cars change lanes anywhere and not just on nodes but also makes better use of multi-lane roads instead of queueing up in one lane the whole way.
• Allow trams to return without needing a roundabout!!! In fact can you bring this into the current game also - this is ridiculous.
• Include some basic features from Traffic Manager mod such adding Give Way/Stop/Through, adding and removing stop lights and setting which lanes can turn or go straight (I know that you can add and remove stop lights and stop signs in game currently but the UI for that is awful).
• Include a net picker so piece of network on the map can be selected and then used to lay down more of that network. (Yes I know there is a mod for this - build it into the game! So handy.)
• Include a basic roundabout builder that can select the type of road to be used and size. Roundabouts are fundamental and building them should be part of the base game. Doesn't need all the bells and whistles of the mod as long as it can still be enhanced in a mod.

Infrastructure

• Allow power networks to be created underground similar to water pipes.
• Remove the power zone created around structures and introduce overhead street power lines instead that can then be replaced with underground power networks as a later unlock. More like real life city planning considerations.
• Add data networks to the game so that internet cabling and 3G, 4G 5G towers can be added potentially onto existing building structures. Make data networks improve happiness of people and efficiency of businesses.

Graphics

• Improve the graphics engine to allow even greater detail - Unreal Engine 5 anyone?
  
  The more the game looks like a real city the better!

Assets

• Allow assets to be stretchable to match (to a certain extent) the curve of the road. This might leave the building unchanged but stretch the garden/outdoor (Fencing/hedges) area to stretch bed around the road, creating less gaps between assets, or allow all or part of a structure to flex a certain amount to the curve. This would create more realistic blocks where there is no no-man's land like there is in the game now.
• Introduce the concept of seasons and allow Assets to have different appearances based on seasons, particularly trees & vegetation. Maybe the option to have snow or not on other assets.
• Allow some assets particularly train stations to be placed without being connected to a road or to connect onto an existing train line instead!!!
  Currently if I want a station to line up to a rail network I need to guess where the rail bit of the station will be and create a road in about the right place to put the station then hope that the rail lines up nicely.
• Ability to have more rounded assets and structures
• Find It mod built in.
• Ploppable RICO built in.

Terraforming

• Improve the UI to smooth terrain, perhaps be able to paint an area and then have it smooth it out to the edges or surrounding roads.
• Allow placement of Trees and vegetation on steep slopes
• Be able to paint an area or brush with a combination of vegetation, select a mix of tree, plant or rock assets adjust the % of each and have the game randomly place these assets in the area in the desired concentrations.
• Paintable pavement and other surfaces that can optionally be bordered by roads or structures (rather than plopping down odd shapes to try and fit). Have these surfaces be able to crop the vegetation underneath. (I hate seeing the grass come through an outdoor pool asset - very annoying.)
• More tools to make more natural looking terrain like water courses and cliffs would be nice - I'm not sure how what exactly here, I just know that I find this a challenge.

Audio

• Allow music to be pulled from playlists in Google Play Music or Spotify. Allow the option to insert the in game adds in between these tracks through.
  I grow tired of the ones in game and I find it somewhat objectionable to buy music packs that have a few more songs that I'm not that keen on either.
• MORE in game radio adverts! These are awesome but there needs to be more!
  Can this be modded or become assets that the community can add into the game also?

Other features:

• Asset and mod profiles - allow the game to be started up with different sets of mods and assets available as presets defined by the player to play the game in different styles. Or make these presets shareable also in the community so that people can start with recommended packs from community members.
• Challenge mode - I really enjoyed the community challenges that Biffa put out for biggest city in 30 mins and worst traffic, it would be great if these challenges could somehow be defined and then posted out to the community to attempt with all the appropriate restrictions in place.
• EDIT: Almost forgot 81 tiles in the base game, & perhaps with option to go larger if resources permit.

Anyhow I think there's a few other things that I've though about while playing the game that I've forgotten to include in here. Mostly I just want more/better of the same game - not too dramatically different from the present game, if significant new features are added that take the game in a whole new direction then they need to be done as options so that the people who have come to love this game for what it is can continue to do so.

Finally I would love to hear what others think of this list of mine and especially if you too would like to see a feature list / suggestions site that can take community votes on each feature like the Microsoft User Voice or other software companies use.
What other features would you like to see that I have not thought of or included here?

 

[Cityplanner 53]

It might be reasonable for assets to be compatible, but for mods to be compatible, they'd basically have to give you Cities 1 with no changes. Even small changes in DLCs can break mods, it's not reasonable to expect mods to be compatible with CS2.

True but, As I commented, most of the major mods would probably be updated by the creators within a month of launch, my focus was more on the assets; props, buildings and vehicles, which are more likely to not get updated.

 

[Dushess]

True but, As I commented, most of the major mods would probably be updated by the creators within a month of launch, my focus was more on the assets; props, buildings and vehicles, which are more likely to not get updated.

• Assets is simple, actually easy to just use same type (fbx) in new engine.... BUT, if they gonna use another method, like more materials per model etc... Then it's a problem. Maybe CO will have backward compat mode... <- a suggestion to them.
• Also for transport. Not sure how it gonna work, but in Editor might be an option to attach some decals as variations. Usable for buses, taxis and branded trucks.
• Actual healthcare. Just civs can get sick randomly or in fall-winter season, you know. They gonna visit health centers and rarely call home-doctor (different transportation, it is not emergency)

 

[FreedomPei]

I hope that there will be less downloadable content as i hope that the game has everything, including trams.

 

[willvette]

Incremental capacity unlocks

The city starts receiving basic transport unlocks like bus, ferry, and rail early but the initial unlock has both an expansive footprint since land is cheap and limited capacity given the ritual area. But as the city grows it unlocks smaller and/or higher capacity options: regional station, urban station, hub station, etc.

Stations (defined as a transit conversion location) are modular in form and function, with platforms (defined as a transit options) for example:

Place a rural passenger rail station (first to unlock), it is placed roadside like it does with CS1 but lacks a rail-line, instead 1 platform (station limit) may be added. Later, as the city grows, better stations are unlocked with higher platform limits, smaller footprint, and a larger selection of platforms to add, such as raised rail, sunken rail, underground rail, ground metro, raised metro, sunken metro, subway metro, parking lot, small multi-level car park, and large multi-level car park. The rules for platform placement are simple: A. station must have unused platform slots B. must be placed adjacent to the station or another platform (terminus placement is allowed) C. level must be free of obstructions (this rule allows platforms to stacked and/or cross at different levels).

Paths (defined as a transit conveyors) start off, depending on form, low capacity with limited abilities like dirt/gravel roads, paved roads and avenues both lacking sidewalks, and single two-way low-speed rail lines. But like stations, better cleaner higher capacity roads will be unlocked with city growth.

Paths can be set with three options when deforming the ground whilst laying on uneven ground or artificially raised or lowering to a certain limit: default will only deform when placed on ground level but will elevate or tunnel where needed, Surface will landscape slopes as much as possible and Viaduct will build retaining walls as much as possible. Anything beyond the set limits builds elevated/tunnel.

Building over water is like SimCity 4 in that both start and end points must on/over land but allows the player to select the type of bridge to build, based on the road used. Some later bridges may have underground road points for multilevel spans.

While zoning is mostly added to roads, if certain zones, like commercial or industrial, are bordering another type of path that allows freight traffic such as rail, canal, or quay, they will generate their own platforms and prefer to ship via the allowed transit option. Players can take advantage of this by placing the starting rail (single two-way low-speed rail lines) as a spur reducing road traffic. Certain buildings may require such locations such as warehouses (industrial) and distribution centers (commercial) acting as private quasi-station for other zoned buildings around them that lack such a location, thou business still prefer the cheaper option of a civil station.

 

[willvette]

Zoning:

How far away from the road a zone reaches is dependent on the zone used with different zones preferring different depths, extraction having the farthest at 12 squares deep for farms, mining pits, and logging camps

Residential, Green

Light: 6, rural suburbs​

​

Medium: 5, light urban​

​

Dense/Mixed: 6, intermixed shops and apartments​

​

Commercial, Blue

Light: 4, small freestanding shops​

​

Medium: 6, large freestanding shops with some office spaces​

​

Dense/office: 6, Large intermixed shops and office space​

Industrial, Yellow to Orange

Extraction: 12, will extract raw resources from the land and store raw resources, will default to ranch if no natural resources are present​

​

Light Industry: 6, will convert refined/raw resources into goods, 5% chance of light transport if adjacent to rail, quay, or canal. Manufacturing, auto shops, fabrication, sawmills, food plants, etc.…​

​

Heavy Industry: 8, will convert raw resources into refined resources, 5% chance of heavy transport if adjacent to rail, quay, or canal. Refineries (Oil, Hard Metal, Precious Metal, Silt, and Coal), Large Factories for steel, electronics, frames, etc.…​

​

Office/HQs: 6, office workers​

8 Industry Specializations:

Ranch (None, uses grains to make meats)​

​

Grain (fertile soil)​

​

Coal (coal deposit, shaft mining)​

​

Silt (sand and clay, pit mining)​

​

Hard Metal (iron and copper, pit mining)​

​

Precious Metal (gold and silver, shaft mining)​

​

Oil (pump jacks)​

​

Lumber (old growth forest, logging camps)​

Regional, national, and international corporations may take an interest in the city for specialization deals, but you then become dependent on said industry for most of your population. These deals can make or break the city, depending on the corporation’s fortune in the market. Examples w/ IRL references where found: Car Assembly Plant (Ford, GM, VW), Plane Assembly Plant (Boeing Everett Factory), Shipyard, Computer Plant (Microsoft), Confection Plant, Appliance Factory (GE), etc.…

 

[Tuluban]

Modular Stations would really be amazing! For both Metro and trains, and underground, groundlevel and elevated.

And what I would think would be really helpful (and could already be integrated with an update): Syncronized transport lines! If you have two lines sharing a section of track, it would be really good to have them syncronized in a way, so that the distance between all vehicles on the shared section is balanced

 

[Dushess]

One more and also bumping, yeh...
* Add real transparent layer if not gonna break something. Probably gonna be there by engine abilities, but a lil' notification is ok.

 

[Cityplanner 53]

Got another 3

1. Tunnels in the map editor; I put it in a separate thread earlier but for Islands or even just remote areas that don't appear to have outside connections, being able to lay road and rail under the map allows this without the game play difficulties actually cutting your city off would cause.
2. The free-walking feature from consoles; I know that not everyone wants it but it is in the console version of the game and it does offer a new perspective on your city, being able to wander around the city. Ideally you would also be able to board public transport as well.
3. Multi-purpose buildings; many shops have apartments above them,universities and transit hubs likely have shops in them and universites have dorms that act as residential buildings, having buildings that act as commercial and residential, or service and commercial or residential, and the ability to set custom asset buildings to act as multiple things would really add an additional bit of realism to the game

 

[Dushess]

Layered road system. Basically road is a prebuilt pack of various subsegment types. Just like:
main pavement + 2 connectable sidewalks. It can be removed, replaced by another sidewalk-type net unit. Detached and moved aside, be actually independent from street pack, i.e. just a walkpath alone, but same unit for vanilla like appearance.
This also gives us direct option to attach other types, like parking strips, stop zones, grass dividers, etc.
More free positioning for all the situations and also aestetically better sometimes.

 

[Geralt 2 Riv]

Let's not forget the most important update of all perhaps for many of these features - 64bit support. As amazing as Cities Skylines was, it could be argued to have been held back from its full potential due to 32bit limitations like Vehicle and Pedestrian limits. As soon as you hit those limits, your city would come to a grinding halt and unable to be built out further.

Secondarily but perhaps just as importantly, improved multi-core support. The original game didn't really have much in the way of multi-core support, and any simulator almost by definition needs this kind of support if it's to scale well.

To be perfectly fair, this was not originally in the hands of the developers as the engine the game uses is Unity. Several years ago though and just after the game's release, Unity did provide full 64bit support and increase limitations well beyond the game's original foundation, so these issues are no longer a problem (both from the standpoint of the developer and user hardware and software wise).

Whatever form Cities Skylines 2 takes, it won't live up to the name and have longevity if it doesn't have this support at least optionally available (adjustable if necessary to let normal PC users run it over the performance impositions of most consoles).

We need optimisations for big cities !!!

 

[Cityplanner 53]

Got four more.
1. Realistic Building mode; I think this should be toggle able, some of us might enjoy it but others won't. Realistic Building mode would mean several things; firstly everything would need to be built, not just growables but also placeable buildings and networks, secondly they would take longer to build, preferably with the building time being dependent on the size of the building (3 in game days for roads, a week for low density, a month for high density and service buildings and longer for unique buildings), finally the construction of buildings would require resources and construction vehicles, meaning projects will be built faster if you build industry and construction companies, as without them these vehicles would have to come from outside the map.
2. Akin to the layered road system seen above, perhaps a system similar to the parallel road tool mod, so you select the central lane so for example a simple road (1 lane, 1 way, no pedestrian path) then you can add more networks, so more lanes, tracks for trains or trams, pedestrian paths (which would be what come with zoning and always be two way) and decoration networks like curbs, grass verges and grass verges with trees and a button to make it 2 way, mirroring the hierarchy that the road is set up as, with the directions reversed.
3. Something similar to Metroped, underground stations (legitimately underground ones, not like the sunken ones from the new DLC) will be placeable with no road snapping, and would have at least 2 pedestrian tunnel access points from which you can connect to with independent pedestrian tunnels. Additional parts would be entrances that can be placed on the side of the road, offering better options for connecting the stations to the road.
4. Underground rail passenger/cargo stations I know of at least one of these on the workshop, but it's very finicky and difficult to connect up without terraforming issues, and it'd be useful to get trains, particularly cargo trains into the heart of a city without using up precious space for overground rail lines or the vaguely unrealistic prospect of having an underground cargo line popping up to connect to a cargo station and then go underground again.

 

[Cityplanner 53]

One way stations would be a good idea.

 

[AzemOcram]

I agree with many of your suggestions but I believe that some of your ideas should be implemented differently

Traffic and Infrastructure:
I would love to see merging lanes and highway ramps allow for more fine angles than normal intersections but when creating such angles, forbid the weird highly acute angle turns.
The traffic AI leaves much to be desired. Adding nodes should be possible to let cars change lanes but service vehicle AI needs a complete overhaul. Emergency vehicles stop at red lights and have purely cosmetic sirens. Death-care is a complete disaster because hearses will travel across the city to pick up dead bodies and ignore nearby corpses and Cims live through far fewer commutes than humans. I really dislike the unrealistic passage of time on the calendar. The in-game day/night cycle roughly corresponds with the in-game commute but the calendar goes by months or years in one day/night cycle and Cims age with the calendar, not the commute.
I think that there should be an option for roads to carry utilities or not, have a toggle or an upgrade. Paying a little bit more (both in construction and maintenance) would be worth the convenience besides, following right-of-way should be cheaper than building all the pipes and power lines elsewhere so the convenient option should generally be on par or cheaper than the current version (at least at higher densities).
I agree that telecommunications should be utilities. Right now, there is only electricity, water, and sewage. Adding natural gas, television, phone, and internet would enhance the experience.
I agree 100% to allow stations of all kinds to hook up to existing infrastructure, without being forced to use built-in 2-lane roads and tracks.

Graphics
Colossal Order uses Unity, not Unreal so updating to the latest version of Unity would go far but wouldn't quite look like the latest version of Unreal or even old versions of Cry.
I think that intermediate LOD's would be great.

Assets
I agree that lots should better conform to curved roads. GlassBox SimCity did it best back in 2013.
Seasons would be great! Especially if they impacted agriculture and forestry.
If zones conformed to curved roads properly/better and could stretch as far as 16 squares (128 meters) from the road, ploppable RICO would be unnecessary and you'd only need to enable Plop the Growables.

EDIT:
I also think that specializations in the sequel should always conform to the zone density. Also, I want to see hotel zones with generic being business hotels (improves the happiness of offices); holiday hotels would then be a specialization for hotel zones.

Furthermore, I want the base game of the sequel to have a properly implemented Industries system:
Farm fields could grow Grain, Produce, or Fibers. Produce can be shipped to grocery stores or turned into Processed Food at processing factories. Grain can be fed to animals to make meat or processed into flour at factories. Fibers can only be processed into textiles, which can then be turned into clothing.
The petroleum industry in Industries DLC works OK but generic products should be renamed "petrochemicals" and there should be a power plant which runs off refined petroleum, also there should be gas stations (retail which sells refined petroleum). Also, the factory types are kind of messed up and it wouldn't hurt to also produce natural gas.
The mining industry should have sand be a different resource from ore and be mined from sandy areas (not ore deposits) and be processed into glass. Ore should only be processed into metal (I would just call it iron). Then iron could be smelted into steel with coal. The only type of power plant to run off the mining industry would run off of coal, not ore.
Forestry is mostly OK but generic goods should be Lumber while the Engineered Wood factories should make Engineered Wood.
Basic Recycling facilities would produce Paper, Plastic, Metal and Glass but there should be ways to mod other recycling (realistically, only Engineered Wood, Ore, Sand, and Textiles).

This would require 1 new resource deposit (Coal) and a rework to existing resource chains.

 

[PrestigeWorldWide]

Late to response here but theres alot of great ideas on this page. Some things I would like to see in addition to everyone great ideas, is having more issues within cities like protests, and riots, calling in national gaurd, declaring marshal law to prevent city from being destroyed. In alongside natural disasters what about attacks like terrorist attacks, seeing building explode in a area, depedning on how big the bomb radius is determined by size of bomb. cyber attacks, your money getting stolen temporary elctrcity shutdown, oil compnay got hacked, expect gas shortage,etc , you can prevent these things by adding security buidings and unlocking researching, bring more enforcment like fbi and cia into your city, add military bases so national gaurd can deploy also being able to run military excerizies would be fun. launch a military parade, instead of typical traffic jams, lets see a high speed car chase crash into other cars causing traffic delay also put in mechanics for being able to set up speed limits on roads and based on traffic issues you need to decrease the speeds to prevent known acidents in an area but too low now causes traffic? like no going 80mph around a corner lol. In other words making a city feel more like a city. Also I like playing on xbox one and the size of city is too small compared to mods on pc making for bigger cites. Also maybe instead of controlling 1 city and turning into sectors, why don't we have an actual state to control more cities which can increase trade routes. Also another way of expanding trade is making out cities online and connected to other people so that I can drive into someones city and they could do same. Like drive a train or a truck or a plane to deliver goods. Make it interactive. Of course eith other players permission. I think city skylines 2 has alot of potential regardless I cant wait for it to come out!!

 

[Cityplanner 53]

Something that'd be really useful is automatic junctions I.E if you drag a network through another network it just automatically makes a junction instead of needing to go junction by junction, something that gets particularly irritating once you get to dense, grid based road layouts.

Also ideally better Path integration, so you can actualy connect a path directly to a road in the way you can with another road, a rail line,a metro line, a tram line etc with the possibility that if you continue the path across the other side of the road/track, it will form a pedestrian crossing. Most importantly the ability connect paths to bridges or tunnels.

 

[CharlieZ8]

I also like to see Mixed used zoning,but I wonder if zoning system can be more flexible with the introduction of Form-based zoning, which is commonly found in Europe and big cities like New York(with regulation including floor-area ratio,air rights) .
Form-based zoning regulates not the type of land use(except polluting industry,sewage farm), but the form that land use may take(building mass,relation to other buildings and public space). In this cace , land users decide best usage for each slot based on RCI demand and environment,and transition from low density to high density is more smooth.

My second wish is adding building adaptability.
In real world,it's common to find part or all of a building adapt its usage between resident,commerce and office.There are also cases where old industial buildings(factory ,storage) are renovated and become commercial and residential site with industrial heritage.So in game, a building can serve diffrent functions without demolition,and has some heritage values attached to it.

 

[Dushess]

Bump, since already it have some suggestions (from the start)

I will add one more: Make a check to allow vehicles move only if there is no other cars on a path. Just to cut out current behavior of cars sliding trough each other at junctions. It looks ridiculous and actually completely unregulated junctions should be not with street connections, just with small driveways somewhere - it's ok.

 

[Timmysoboy]

My top wishlist item is for the team to have long-term concepts and goals so that they can make sure all machanics actually matter.

For example:
-Industries did a great job requiring you to manage supply lines, and build unique buildings, etc. But in the end, none of it mattered, because everything ended up as vague finished goods anyway. These goods needed to feed into some specific commerce to make it relavent.
-campus was a great university painter, but other than some buffs to overall services, it didn't actually matter what you were building, because the end product was educated cims anyway.
-Assets like elder care or postal services are meaningless.

It's okay to pepper in peice-mill DLCs like in CS1, just make sure that the game actually interacts with the new stuff in a meaningful way.

Also, get rid of pocket cars.

*Edit*
Making education meaningful could be as simple as drastically reducing the chances of someone going to school as they age, and including threeish pathways to higher ed, all of which direct cims towards different job types (trade school, liberal arts, sciences...?)

 

[Dushess]

Another bump, are you even trying to keep your ideas in one place?

I have one more of them now: turn your blue bird into something like municipal informing center where the citizens may send their opinion and the service gonna collect and analyse all of that to send at high level (to you, dear city chief). Because that mess is just noncense, the repetitive messages about everything not so important with some basic triggers in case of major troubles. And not absolutely every town has and uses a twitter acc to collect people's reactions on city life.

 

[old-bore]

For Cities: Skylines 2, could we just have a new engine and keep the game as it is? I would not bother me if I had to rebuild my current city. There are so many mods and assets that I cannot imagen an entirely new game? Thank you for Cities: Skylines, I have been playing since the game came out. I really appreciate all your hard work and the work of the mod and asset creators. old-bore