Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters - Dev Diary 1: Meteors and Helicopters

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Hi,

For me, I would like only 1 request. Personnal and/or Media Helicopters!

GULA made the magnificent Kingdom Tower with an Helipad, and I would love to see Mariina get out of this 'copter and walk into the tower which could be renamed The Colossal Kingdom Tower :p

Also, talking about Gula, any chance we could see a DLC with more of is great creations?

And finally, you should really think about getting the RICO mod into core game. I know it create a "painting" city, but sometimes its really great to "paint" buildings! ex: most gas station are at corner of roads, not in the middle... a McDonalds rarely goes bankrupt or moves or come in 5-6 in a row... so "painting" is part of a City by econimic laws. McDonalds tell is licency where to put there restaurant, not a random computer. Also, having the Empire State Building be more than a unique but a true "working place" is more realistic. Don't if its possible to have buildings who can have Residential High, Commercial and Office at the same time, but it would be realistic in those big Skyscrapper!

Thank and Keep the good work!
 
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I am really happy to see helicopters with lights in the screenshot and hear dogs are coming to search for missing people.
Something I was really hoping to come!

And the information about roads that they will also look damaged is good to hear.

Will we see also damaged roads in general, when a road is in bad condition caused by insufficent road maintenance service?

Will medical helicopters also act as hearses when no road access is available after a disaster?

Will police also have dogs to fight against crime?

I am looking forward to see more screenshots in the next dev diary :) Might we also get short clips from a meteor impact with sound effects so we can attune to this DLC? So I could feel the crash with my subwoofer ;)

And will vehicles get new textures so they look damaged after a disaster?

One thing I forgot: As there are no panic animation of people, will they try to get away from a disaster by walking away, or running by increasing their walk speed and will we hear them screamin when zoomed in so we get a feeling that they are afraid and want to save their lives or is this impossible because of the game rating?
 
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Just want to say, that I think, that the damage that is incurred by the meteor is rather unrealistic. I am no expert, and neither do I know the mathematical formula behind this, but if I take a look on the screenshots, I imagine that a meteor that leaves behind a crater of, i would say 100 to 200 meters, would do much more damage than setting some buildings and trees on fire.

You can see in the screenshot below (seen on gamestar.de) that the destruction caused by the meteor is ridiculously small, at least that is what I think. In my imagination, there should no building be left standing in an area of a few kilometers. Instead there are some "small" fires just a few meters away.

bigimage.jpg
 
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the size of the meteorite has not been mentioned yet so it's not really possible to say how realistic or otherwise the size of the crater is. they have said that the sizes will differ between size 1 through to 10. if this was a size 10 then i agree, if it was a size 3 or 4 then the damage is realistic
 
the size of the meteorite has not been mentioned yet so it's not really possible to say how realistic or otherwise the size of the crater is. they have said that the sizes will differ between size 1 through to 10. if this was a size 10 then i agree, if it was a size 3 or 4 then the damage is realistic
It´s not really... A small meteorite fell down in Russia a few years ago, and the damage a few kilometers away was quite vast... An impact that would leave that big a hole, would demolish buildings by sheer pressure :)
 
Interesting dev diary post. You guys are great at interacting with the community and keeping folks posted about developments to the game. Glad you posted this diary as it has begun to fill the vacuum created following the initial announcement. Some folks allowed their imaginations to run riot and create a whole new game! The early signs do look rather good. This does look like a major DLC. Looking forward to the next update.
 
the size of the meteorite has not been mentioned yet so it's not really possible to say how realistic or otherwise the size of the crater is. they have said that the sizes will differ between size 1 through to 10. if this was a size 10 then i agree, if it was a size 3 or 4 then the damage is realistic

Like I already said, I am no expert. But the damage a meteor impact does, depends on its mass, its size and its velocity.
A meteor with a size of 100 meters that is made of ice (low mass) would do much less damage, than a meteor by the same size that is made of iron (great mass). There naturally is also a difference if the meteor impacts with a velocity of 10kph or 100kph, the higher the velocity, the greater the damage it does. I know that an ice meteor of any size would most probably burn up in the atmosphere, but I think you get the gist of it.

Knowing this, you should understand, that, whatever left a crater of the size in those pictures, should do quite some damage. So it is of no consequence if it was (in in-game terms) a size 1 or size 10 meteor. A 100 kilometer meteor can do as much damage as a 100 meter meteor, if they have the right mass and velocity. There is also the angle in which it enters the atmosphere, cause this can slow down its velocity, and reduce its mass. But no matter the size, mass or velocity, something that leaves behind a 100 to 200 meter crater, should be quite devastating.
 
you are aware that it's a game right?
 
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Have you ever thought about making the crater area attractive to tourists? After some years the crater can have the same area of effect of the beach shores and we could develop around with leisure facilities. A lot of craters in the world are tourist attractions.

I can see already people filling their craters with water, using the canals, and placing a marina on it, with hotels around! Talk about life giving you a lemon and make lemonade with it :)
 
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Have you ever thought about making the crater area attractive to tourists? After some years the crater can have the same area of effect of the beach shores and we could develop around with leisure facilities. A lot of craters in the world are tourist attractions.

I can see already people filling their craters with water, using the canals, and placing a marina on it, with hotels around! Talk about life giving you a lemon and make lemonade with it :)
pretty big lemon o_O
 
Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters Dev Diary #1

As we have already shared with you guys we are working on the next expansion for Cities: Skylines and it’s time to get up close and personal with the new features. Natural Disasters is a very interesting expansion to work on and we hope it will be even more interesting to play! We have already announced there’s going to be disasters, scenarios and new and improved city services, but we’ll start with the ones implemented at this time: Meteor strikes and helicopters. The meteor strike looks awesome, but not only that, it also has many effects on the city. Helicopters tie into that, but are also usable in other ways.

c4PFxx1.png

One of the first disasters we came up with was the meteor strike. A flaming rock from space falls down and strikes your city! What could be cooler? Only that it has a complex effect, not just cool visuals! So when the meteor is approaching the city, there’s things you need to know. How big is it? A meteor strike has severity of 1-10, where one is a small quite harmless space rock that will just take out a couple of buildings when it hits. A meteor strike with a full ten points of severity makes a huge crater, wiping out any buildings, roads, water pipes and such in the impact zone, and sets buildings on fire around the crater. The crater actually modifies the terrain, which means after dealing with the most urgent aftermath, your city might have a big crater in the middle of it. The crater can be utilized, you can build a bridge over it or soften the terrain with landscaping tools and zone the area again.

The more immediate consequences are the fires and destroyed buildings. The fire mechanic has been adjusted, so fire spreads pretty easily from one building to the next. This means that if left unchecked, a large portion of the city could burn down as an after effect of the meteor strike, if you are not careful.

qw6mPpb.png


But worry not! As roads can be destroyed by the impact, so fire engines can’t make it to the affected area, helicopters come to play. Fire fighting helicopters reside in a depot separate from the fire stations. This allows you to place the depots close to bodies of water, as the helicopters need to fill up their water buckets before heading out to help with a fire. They calculate the shortest route possible so they can first reach a body of water, then go to a fire, and then refill bucket or return to depot, if no more fires are present.

There are also helicopters for healthcare service, police and Disaster Response Unit. The helicopters have different functions. The ambulance helicopter basically picks up patients from hard to reach locations and takes them to a hospital. Disaster Unit Helicopters take search parties and rescue dogs to destroyed buildings to make sure no one is left behind in the rubble. Police helicopters patrol the city, reducing crime rate, but do not pick up criminals like police vehicles. The different helicopters will also be used when the traffic doesn’t allow ground vehicles to get to the destination fast enough.

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We are currently working on the system that will decide if a service will use a helicopter or a ground vehicle. It seems that looking into traffic congestion data would be the best way to go, but this feature still needs some iteration, so the logic might change. The ground vehicles calculate their route while taking into account the traffic, but the system cannot predict how the situation will change when they are on their way. The main point of helicopters is still to help get services to the places in need fast and efficiently. Having less emergency vehicles on the roads will also lessen traffic congestion, which will then shorten the time it takes to get to an emergency. Careful balancing is needed so this doesn’t become a “pendulum motion” so that traffic is slow then helicopters are taken into use, which then helps traffic, and services switch back to ground vehicles, which then clog the traffic, so they switch to helicopters and so on. So, while your city can be pelted with asteroids, you can help your citizens out by having helicopters at the city services’ disposal. And they even work when the only disaster happening is clogged roads :)

Disasters, disaster related services and helicopters all play in together, and also have an impact on other game play. We’re expecting that helicopters will help out a lot in cities with traffic problems, and with disasters they are very much needed as the roads can get damaged.

We are looking forward to your feedback and can’t wait to share more about Natural Disaster in the upcoming weeks! There will be a new dev diary coming your way every other week until the release and don’t forget to tune in for the usual CO word of the week between the dev diaries!

All the best,
Karoliina
awesome :D i am so happy with this post
now i am hyped for the expansion already and your going on the right track for sure
 
Here it is, translated to French : http://cities-skylines-france.blogspot.fr/2016/09/natural-disasters-carnet-1.html << En Français!

However, I have question related with this :
The crater actually modifies the terrain

Until now, there is management system for the ground in a way there is always same amount. You take the earth to one space and add it to another space, etc.

But do craters kill and reduce that earth available
or
is that earth dispatched far around that crater ?
....making the availability of the same amount of earth, possible then.
 
Have you ever thought about making the crater area attractive to tourists? After some years the crater can have the same area of effect of the beach shores and we could develop around with leisure facilities. A lot of craters in the world are tourist attractions.
I can see already people filling their craters with water, using the canals, and placing a marina on it, with hotels around! Talk about life giving you a lemon and make lemonade with it :)
After some years?
Exhibit A: Lake Siljan, Sweden
It's the largest meteorite crater in Europe and was hit 377 million years ago. The geological topography and content is unique to this region due to the impact physically upheaving the earth crust on such a wide scale and to great depth. I believe it would have taken many millennia for this area to have become habitable once more.
(it's also a great tourist location, has the best sunsets I've ever seen and my mother's hometown lol)
However, this is a game and with the aid of a terraform tool and the will to play god, one can transform a crater into anything you please within a few minutes ;)
 
I said some years cause it seems a bit harsh to simple start profiting from a horrible disaster right away. First you take care of the citizens, arrange money for the families that lost their homes, then you let the whole thing calm down and then you start to build the hotels :)
 
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