Right now, the game can't distinguish between fresh water and salt water. This makes things silly, for example, tuna live in drinking water. My suggestion would be for the game to add fresh water and salt water boats and distinguish between the two. Fresh water vessels can't operate in salt water, as they will rust, and salt water vessels can operate in salt water, but with a reduced capacity due to fresh water weighing less than salt water, producing less buoyancy. This would also open the door to desalination plants. Also, add two fresh water fish to Sunset Harbour- Trout and bass. ALL Winter maps should have fresh and salt water, to allow snowfall players to get the most of this distinction
Suggestion- Distinction between fresh water and salt water
- Thread starter cityrailsaints
- Start date
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
fish habitats are silly indeed, but some suggested effects are questionable.
Perhaps salt water could be modelled like a special kind of water pollution that does not affect land value, but drinkability. Water coming from outside the map could then be toggled as salt- or fresh water, leaving the rest to the water simulation.
Salt lakes could be sprung from salt water sources as well. (those might be lifeless, though)
Saltwater would be pumped by desalination plants and converted to fresh water.
Saltwater fish would be different species than their fresh water couterparts.
Maybe allow (toggleable) tides, if the water from the maps edge is salty.
- Ships also rust in fresh water (albeit less than in salt water). But we do not really decide on the ship types anyway, so this distinction is not important. Also, the cases where this matters from a gameplay standpoint are miniscule.
- The difference in buoyancy is quite irrelevant for ships. Consider that this difference will be dwarfed by the cargo weight.
- Maps should not be forced to have salt water, because not all cities need to be seaside. Cities can be on lakes, rivers or completely inland.
Perhaps salt water could be modelled like a special kind of water pollution that does not affect land value, but drinkability. Water coming from outside the map could then be toggled as salt- or fresh water, leaving the rest to the water simulation.
Salt lakes could be sprung from salt water sources as well. (those might be lifeless, though)
Saltwater would be pumped by desalination plants and converted to fresh water.
Saltwater fish would be different species than their fresh water couterparts.
Maybe allow (toggleable) tides, if the water from the maps edge is salty.
see the thing is, the difference in boyancy does not effect large ships but does effect small boats. I agree with you. Perhaps the player chooses whether or not there is salt water in their cities. Fresh water bodies also have tides.
boats would look very similar between both. The important difference is actually that most bodies of fresh water are less perturbed, with fewer and smaller waves. Smaller boats are often not seaworthy.
Negligible tides. Mostly driven by the wind. (Speaking from experience of the Baltic Sea, which can be considered a huge lake)
- 1
I see. If CO were to add this, it would be interesting to see how CO were to approach this, if they were to approach this
Some map edges would need to be fresh water, and some would need to be salt water. Perhaps upstream map edges would be fresh water whilst downstream edges would be salt water. There should also be salt water only maps, as not all coastal cities have rivers
Then again, as far as tides are concerned, would it make any actual game play difference besides graphics? And if it is just a graphic difference, I'm not sure tides would be worth it, as Cities:Skylines is already hard enough on my graphic's card
Well, this would mean changing water levels and potential flooding. Maybe some ferries can only operate on high tide..
The actual change depends on the actual height difference. Without storm floods, tides will be mostly cosmetic, however. That is true of nearly everything. Consider that the proposed salt water would have only a small effect as well:
- different fish species are not visible and fishing harbors are mostly exchangable.
- desalination plants are mostly one additional building that fulfills the same function as another (and could be replaced by water towers)
- ferries rarely would have the opportunity to cross both types of water, so the distinction will have no real effect
Desalination plant is very different to water towers. Ferries can cross from fresh water to salt water if serving rivers and islands. This is especially the case if there is a downtown district on a river, with a ferry wharf to serve oceanic islands.
In game terms, a desalination plant would be a slightly more expensive water pump. Due to issues with Water physics, water towers are often preferable over pumps (no sucking up all the surface water).
Ferries could indeed switch between freshwater in a rivermouth and some islands. But they are an underutilized form of transport in general, with a low capacity. The effect would be barely noticeable. Mostly higher costs.
Don't get me wrong, I support adding salinity. But let's be clear that the actual effects on gameplay would be small. Most actual effects could be applied by yourself using mods (e.g. Customize It https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1806759255)