Cities Skylines 2 PC performance is below target and modding tools will be basic at launch, Paradox says
Cities Skylines 2 PC performance is below target and modding tools will be basic at launch, Paradox says
I hate how city skylines dominates this genre. I want something that’s more about the challenges of making a real breathing city with lots of options versus a traffic management simulator.
Checkout frostpunk if you want something more about keeping the city living
Frostpunk was absolutely brilliant, I loved every second of it.
Will do thanks!
So, not a lot of detail as this is a shit post account, but I mocked up a vector based system to use rather than grids which allows a city builder to run smoother and lighter on ram instead of basically being a giant spread sheet. Each path was a single vector and a data tree ties all the information to a single point on an infinitely divisible grid. It allowed a game to be more complex, and allowed for better road and other building elements.
I gave it away for free, hoping someone, anyone with more time on their hands would use it. Paradox now owns the rights to that system, they aren't using it, but they are likely making sure noone else does.
What's so bad about dropping grids and right angles, why can't a building be a shape other than square? Because it's cheaper to do and easier to mod.
If I ever have the time I'll whip something up in unreal as a demonstration. The original was unfortunately built in unity. The whole point was to allow buildings to follow curved roads.
I look forward to buying this game in twenty installments, like Europa Universalis 4. Or perhaps they'll offer a subscription, so you don't have to pay $400 to access the full game.
I get where you're coming from, but in fairness the model can work. Cities Skylines 1 DLCs did mostly add substantial content to the game which over time built it to what it is today. At launch CS1 was a good game, far better than the premium Sim City 2013. I have over 1000hrs in the game so for me I think it was good value; and a lot of people bought the game over the years on heavy discount with a lot of the DLCs bundled.
The downside with this model is when they release half baked games and withhold core game mechanics to engineer DLC. From what they've released of Skylines 2 that doesn't seem to be the case - it seems to be a fully featured city builder with more at launch than CS1 had. Obviously it will depend what the game is actually like and launch and there are obvious hooks for DLC already.
I compare that to a game like Sim City 2013 - that released as a premium game, with a shitty reduced game scope, basic missing features and an always on-line DRM requirement, 1 crappy expansion and then completely abandoned by EA in a crappy state despite selling 2 million copies.
If I had to pick a model I'd pick Paradox's.
I love that merging lanes are so easy to make now, I'm excited for launch but don't expect to start a long term city until performance improves and mods are available.
No one buys all the DLC. Half if it was very project specific so wouldn't have been required for everyone.
I mean there's like 10 radio station DLCs in Cities Skylines 1 and I highly doubt anyone bought those for the music.
The "full game" in the case of CS1 being 62 DLCs released over a span of eight years, just to put that price tag into perspective.
A lot of those were content creator packs though, once you don't really need to enhance the game experience.
Like they give you Japanese buildings but that's only really useful if you want Japanese buildings if you're not interested in having them then really the content creator pack doesn't offer anything so the price tag is considerably less than what OP is quoting unless you get literally everything and I don't think anyone would do that.
I'm fine with this, honestly. I'd prefer more devs do this instead of pushing back releases at the last minute or forcing their teams to crunch.
I totally agree with you, but the issue is that often times it's hard to justify a delay when you're working with publishers or external investors. What I find unhealthy in the industry is that, oftentimes, companies simply can't afford to delay the release because they've signed documents that lock in that date, or that could affect the companies income during the delay. This obviously isn't universal, but it's something that I've seen first-hand, having worked in the videogames industry.
Maybe not but devs nowadays are getting death threats because of stuff like this
Or just release it as early access with a 5€ discount or something. That way people who don't give a shit about the optimization can get it early while the rest gets the full release (Baldur's Gate 3 was in Early Access for a long while for example)
Although I think in this case it's a bit more complicated. The marketing campaign was rather large so I think they thought they could deliver on time but ultimately were unable to do so. This is likely also why we are hearing only now about mods, they were still working on it with the hopes of making it in time and had to make a judgement call last minute - in this case to delay the modding tools until after release.
Dang, guess I’ll have to upgrade my PC. Assuming I can’t get a GTX 750 TI to play it at 640x480 resolution.
CS1 is the main reason why I upgraded my PC the last time 😭 ugh now I'll need to start saving up again
Would be nice if devs today would still offer demos so that people can see if the games even run on their system.
But I won't bother anyway. Buying the first game was such a mistake, same with Stellaris. I just can't afford this shit, spending hundreds of bucks on a single game. Video games become more and more an unaffordable luxury.
Would be nice if devs today would still offer demos so that people can see if the games even run on their system.
The Steam refund policy pretty much serves this purpose nowadays. Since the refund is auto accepted if you have 2h or less in play time and bought the game less than two weeks ago. After that you still have good odds for a refund but you'll have to actually explain why you want one ("game gets too slow toward late game" would be a reason that would very likely get your refund granted)
Nobody forces you to buy DLC either, there is plenty of content in the free updates. Plus there are always sales if you really want a DLC and from historical precedent Paradox offers decent discounts even on recent DLCs and massive discounts on older ones.
When did they make it auto accepted? I had a refund denied after 15 minutes when I said it caused motion sickness
The Steam refund policy is nothing but a fucking joke.
A lot of games nowadays require stupidly long shader building already. Then you might even have to go through 5 hotfixes before the games run adequately, each one of course also requiring their own redoing of the shaders. By the time you actually got the game running and in a playable state you're typically well past the 2 hours. And games that straight up don't run properly, despite tinkering and a lot of work, are then still denied with idiotic automated messages, because no real person actually reads your pleas and explanations what you've spent your time "playing" actually with.
Nobody forces you to buy DLC either, there is plenty of content in the free updates.
lmao
Get that head out of corporates asshole and then we can maybe talk again.
Plus there are always sales if you really want a DLC and from historical precedent Paradox offers decent discounts even on recent DLCs and massive discounts on older ones.
I already said that discounts are already factored into this. And Paradox doesn't go below I think it was like 50% discount for their shit anyway, so if you wait for a good deal, you'll wait practically forever. Meanwhile, the next game is already coming out while you try to scrape together the content for the previous one. It's a joke.
What exactly does CS2 better than CS1 with mods?
Essentially the engine is more modern, the graphics are nicer, and the simulation seems to be better. It is also hopefully a better base for newer mods.
I love CS1 but the engine is 8 years old and PC gamers in particular have been hitting the engines limits in multiple ways for years. There were also some fundamental design decisions which limited the scope of what could be done with the game going forward - it is definitely time for a sequel.
To be fair though, CS1 is going nowhere and has a massive amount of content available for it (including the massive free community content). It will probably take a couple of years before CS2 surpasses it. Although for Console gamers it'll probably quickly surpass what CS1 was and is able to offer.
Don't forget overall better service pathing (apparently) and the ability to restrict a service to a district. That was one thing I wanted desperately.
"What does this newly released game do that this other game (THAT HAS HAD EIGHT YEARS OF MODS AND EXPANSIONS) doesn't do?"
Keep you from asking stupid questions, for one. Just like every iteration of every heavily modded game ever. And in eight years you'll be asking the same stupid question about CS3.
Big fucking surprise....
That's actually a surprisingly honest thing to say ahead of launch. How bad it'll be performance-wise will depend on what their targets were I guess. I'll play this at launch, but only because it's on gamepass.