Anyone here getting/looking forward to Cities:Skylines?

[BloatedGuppy]

I ask because I've seen very little chatter about it (if any), and I remember people couldn't shut up prior to SimCity's launch in 2013. At least part of that was due to DRM issues and people piling on to EA, but it seemed to be a hotly anticipated title in spite of that.

Skylines launches on the 10th and there's been quite a flurry of Let's Play and Twitch videos on it over the last 24 hours since the embargo lifted. Quill18 has done a long Let's Play series, Total Biscuit streamed on Twitch, even The Escapist got in on the action:

http://www.twitch.tv/escapistmagazine/v/3857886

I ended up pre-ordering due to A) hunger for a city builder and B) the low price point ($20 with a coupon on Green Man Gaming). I've been hungrily devouring videos on it ever since, wishing it was out TODAY.

For anyone unfamiliar with the title, it is Paradox's entry into the City Builder genre, via their developer Colossal Order (who did the traffic management sims "Cities in Motion"). It is UNABASHEDLY imitative of the 2013 SimCity, most particularly in visual style, with three major differences.

1. You can play offline
2. Cities can be SIGNIFICANTLY larger (9 times larger than a SimCity city out of the box, potentially up to 25 times larger with mods, although the latter is not officially supported due to system strain).
3. Robust mod support.

Notably, they've also stated a desire to build a stable, functional simulation (as opposed to the flamboyant but utterly broken one EA shipped) but people won't know how well they've succeeded at that until the game has been heavily played.

If nothing else, you guys might appreciate their pointed barbs at EA:

"Thankfully advances in technology have enabled us to do all city management calculations locally on your PC. We don?t have to do them in the cloud anymore, which you know, was the ONLY way to do it a few years ago."

Anyone been following it? Thoughts about what we've seen so far? Concerns?

 

[raeior]

I'm pretty interested in this. It has been a long time without any good city builders. Not interested enough to preorder it though. Some of the videos and streams seemed to show quite a lot of problems with the pathfinding of cars sooo....

I'll be happy to buy it when the first people have played it for a longer while. If it should show problems in the later game..weeell hopefully they patch it and I'll buy it when its fixed.

Captcha: Sky's the limit. Well...I guess? Hopyfully so!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Some of the videos and streams seemed to show quite a lot of problems with the pathfinding of cars sooo....

Care to elaborate? Are you speaking of their fanatical adherence to the lane they plan to exit from?

 

[leberkaese]

I'm hyped for this game. I already preordered it (despite avoiding preorders normally. This is the first game in the last 4-5 years I preordered. Well... with only one exception). I watched some of yesterday's streams and I really like the micromanagement they added through the creation of subzones/neighborhoods etc. The way you can build streets and networks seems pretty awesome. The game has nice looks, too. It might lacks in diversity when it comes to different models for buildings and cars. But nothing the modding community won't fix.

Like Raeior mentioned you could see at some points where the AI didn't behave very well in its pathfinding. For example: trucks are using some weird ways to their goal. Filling an already stuffed street with yet more traffic. But most of the times they try to find smart paths and avoid filled roads. There's no City Sim out there, that calculated the pathfinding perfect. SimCity 4 had many problems and the successor that shouldn't be named is a complete mess. I guess, C:S is doing that better already.
Only thing I don't know yet: how the AI will behave in really large cities. Because in games like SimCity4 this was the point when the flaws of the AI completely f*cked up your street network.

Overall this game seems like the successor SimCity 4 deserves. But we can't say for sure yet. I tend to say that it's worth the ?20, though

One last thing I gotta mention: it's paradox. So prepare for a lot of DLC. A lot of DLC that's a waste of money because it's only aesthetics. Then a few DLC that will add a lot of good content. And for every big content DLC a free patch.
I like Paradox' DLC policy.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

One last thing I gotta mention: it's paradox. So prepare for a lot of DLC. A lot of DLC that's a waste of money because it's only aesthetics. Then a few DLC that will add a lot of good content. And for every big content DLC a free patch.
I like Paradox' DLC policy.

You know it's funny. If I had one overriding complaint based off the footage I've seen, it would be visual repetition (donut trucks, anyone?). The price point of the game is SUPER low, particularly if you capitalized on GMG's offer. I would've happily shelled out an extra $10 for "aesthetic DLC".

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I really wouldn't call $30 for base, 40 for deluxe to be "super low," really.

How did you get it cheaper? It still says the game is at full price to me.

GMG had it on something like a 10-20% discount, and then I applied an additional 22% discount via one of their ubiquitous coupons.

I consider $30 for a freshly released game to be extremely inexpensive. It's not an indie title or 4 hour special, it's a reasonably feature-thick simulation. I think they could've easily charged $40+ for the regular version and no one would've batted an eye.

 

[leberkaese]

You know it's funny. If I had one overriding complaint based off the footage I've seen, it would be visual repetition (donut trucks, anyone?). The price point of the game is SUPER low, particularly if you capitalized on GMG's offer. I would've happily shelled out an extra $10 for "aesthetic DLC".

Fair enough. If I'm gonna spend a lot of time in this game, I'll be okay with spending some money on DLC. But if they want to make me spend money on more buildings and cars it has to be a lot of new stuff in a single DLC. Because I imagine adding those things is one of the easiest to make stuff.
Also there will probably be lots and lots of new buildings from modders. The mod support is one of the most advertised things in this game. I guess (rather hope) the modding community will be huge.

I really wouldn't call $30 for base, 40 for deluxe to be "super low," really.

How did you get it cheaper? It still says the game is at full price to me.

Compared to SimCity 5 it's very cheap... that one did cost $80 as Digital Deluxe when it was released.

Simply go to Greenman Gaming and use the 20% voucher, then you'll be at ~?22

 

[leberkaese]

And I assume I'll get the key for the preorder and I can plug it into steam immediately?

You won't get the key immediately. When I ordered they wrote that I'll get the key 1 or 2 days in advance or at least right at release.
Greenman Gaming is a big and trustworthy Steam seller, so you'll probably get your key on time.

 

[Delerien]

It really looks like everything SimCity should've been. And at 30? it's still cheaper. Even if, in good old paradox fashion, there's 20? of near essential dlc it would be fine.

That being said:
https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume/status/573203901081509888

 

[Don Incognito]

I'm looking forward to it, but I am cautious. We all know how SimCity turned out, and I've heard mixed reviews about the developers previous efforts.

The sad irony of EA shutting down the original Maxis studio just a week before the heir-apparent to SimCity is released is... sad.

Not sure where I was going with that sentence. I'm not a wordsmith.

Anyway, after you get your hot little hands on it, Guppy, please come back here to report your thoughts. I've come to trust your judgment after lurking these boards for a couple years.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I've come to trust your judgment

Fool! FOOL! HAHAHAHAHAHA! At last! At last my long plans have come to fruition!

Ahem. Yes. I will certainly share my impressions.

 

[Don Incognito]

I've come to trust your judgment

Fool! FOOL! HAHAHAHAHAHA! At last! At last my long plans have come to fruition!

Awwww, crap.

Sorry everyone. We had a good run as a species. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

That being said:
https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume/status/573203901081509888

Ugh, that's sad. SimCity was a problematic game, but it felt like a lot of what plagued it came via publisher pressure rather than developer error.

Maybe Colossal Order can snap up a few of their guys if projections on Skylines sales remain strong. Mind you, aren't they located in Finland or something? That's quite a move.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Surprisingly this wasn't on my radar..just hadn't paid much attention lately I guess besides DBZ and a few kickstarters.

Might consider pre-ordering with gmg, I'll have to look into a few more videos first, but from what I've read, it sounds good on paper.

 

[duwenbasden]

I'll wait until I pass judgement. However, I remain cautiously optimistic. I have every SimCity games sans Societies/2013 since the first one and have clocked over 10,000 hours on them.

Also, I am still not sure about the size of the cities: my 2 largest cities in 4 are over 550 km2 in size.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I'll wait until I pass judgement. However, I remain cautiously optimistic. I have every SimCity games sans Societies/2013 since the first one and have clocked over 10,000 hours on them.

Also, I am still not sure about the size of the cities: my 2 largest cities in 4 are over 550 km2 in size.

http://np.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/2vk89p/simcity_vs_cities_skylines_map_size_comparison/

6km2 x 6km2 = 36 km2 4km2 x 8km2 = 32 km2

C:S is still larger than 2 large simcity 4 maps

There was another thread on the subject that broke it down better. Asset size affects things as well. Skylines uses slightly smaller assets than SimCity 2013 did, and I imagine SimCity 4 used smaller assets still, so usage of that space would be different from game to game. But it sounds like Skylines is very comparable to SimCity 4 if not somewhat larger.

 

[duwenbasden]

Can you put cities side by side though? One of my city is 28km x 32km thus 7 large x 8 large in SC4.

Not a deal breaker, mind you. Not all my cities are that big.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Can you put cities side by side though? One of my city is 28km x 32km thus 7 large x 8 large in SC4.

Not a deal breaker, mind you. Not all my cities are that big.

Not sure about that.

I do know you can mod the game up to 25 "tiles" if your PC can handle it. Which would put it at 25x the size of SimCity 2013.