Alright Boyz, Here We Go! Cities:Skylines Impressions

[Coffee Warlord]

I have a feeling this one's gonna deserve it's own thread.

Only got a couple hours in last night, and restarted about 850 times. But I have good vibes thus far.

[Buccaneer]

A better SimCity?

[Coffee Warlord]

With the caveat that I did not purchase SC5, for many obvious reasons, and with the other caveat that I haven't gotten very far...this appears to be a very legitimate successor to SC4.

[Butter]

Pretty excited about this... would love to hear some details from anyone that is giving it a try.

[jeff061]

Giving it time for people to weed out any broken mechanics, but my hopes are slowly rising.

[rockboy70]

FYI, Green Man Games has this for ~$22 in their VIP section (only need to have an account with them).

[nilodor]

Cities: Skylines: The Kotaku Review

Kotaku review up

[flere-imsaho]

I've been following it all over the place and recommend the "Let's Play" videos on YouTube from both Quill18 and Skye Storme.

The word so far seems to be that it takes the stuff we liked from SC2013, didn't do the stuff everyone hated, and also added in more stuff, for a pretty competent and fun city-builder. But traffic is currently kinda fucked, although they're working on it (which is more than we can say EA/Maxis ever did).

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by rockboy70

FYI, Green Man Games has this for ~$22 in their VIP section (only need to have an account with them).

Well that did it, taking the plunge...

[Groundhog]

Spent a good 5 hours on this last night. Traffic can be a little screwy but I sorta blamed my rookie city building skills. Only complaints I have so far are the lack of non-flat terrain (might be the map - I've only tried one), although I can't say that, realism aside, I enjoyed dealing with it in Sim City 4. Looking forward to starting a new town now that I know a little more.

[dzilla77]

Damn quill18 and his lets play videos - downloading now!

[Eaglesfan27]

I bit as well. Having fun working on my first city.

[JetsIn06]

Loving this so far. I just witnessed something close to an apocalypse. I was on the highest speed, zoomed in up close on something, and was working on something on my other screen. Went back to game about 10 minutes later thinking I'd just have a shit-ton of money.

Nope. It looks like sickness actually spreads in this game. I had one little area that had no hospital coverage and pretty piss poor traffic. I think bodies were taking too long to get picked up, people got sick, and the sickness spread. By the time I looked at the game, my entire city was sick, I was losing $20K a week, and my population was dwindling.

Love it!

[MrBug708]

Taking the plunge

[Lonnie]

How big is the download? I'm stuck in a hotel tonight and wondering if I should go for it with the shitty Wifi, or wait until I get home.

[MrBug708]

Not that bad, though I dont remember at the moment.

It wouldnt let me save the game. Anyone know why?

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Lonnie

How big is the download? I'm stuck in a hotel tonight and wondering if I should go for it with the shitty Wifi, or wait until I get home.

Less than 2GB. Not a horrible one.

And of course...started a new city, actually like how this one is coming along. And of COURSE my power plant burns to the ground, because it was placed such that my firetrucks couldn't get to it.

[RainMaker]

This is a really fun game. I also think there are going to be some great mods that enhance this game. Highly recommend it.

[Groundhog]

One thing that has bugged me is "cleanly" connecting my towns up to highways. Going to watch some vids and see how others are doing it.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

One thing that has bugged me is "cleanly" connecting my towns up to highways. Going to watch some vids and see how others are doing it.

I agree there, I miss SC4's relatively simple overpasses and building T intersections into existing highways.

[Groundhog]

Yeah, on the plus side, I expect modders to have every type of overpass and connector ever thought of available on the Steam workshop before long.

[Coffee Warlord]

Yeah, the modders are already working in that regard (and I agree - the present tools just make connecting highways butt ugly).

I'd like to see them smooth out the zones on diagonals/curves a little better, too.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

One thing that has bugged me is "cleanly" connecting my towns up to highways. Going to watch some vids and see how others are doing it.

The bane of my Cities existence right now! Gah im so horrible at it.

[Ramzavail]

Originally Posted by rockboy70

FYI, Green Man Games has this for ~$22 in their VIP section (only need to have an account with them).

Did this work for anybody? I just tried and it said I can't use the voucher for this game.

[Ramzavail]

I got it, nevermind. I thought you had to use the 20% voucher code. Purchasing now.

[Grover]

Absolutely itching to purchase this.

I miss SC3K.

[Draft Dodger]

I almost never buy new release games, but I caved and bought it today. Set up the download during lunch so it'd be all ready tonight. Got some stuff done, sat down to play and...it won't launch.

it turns out, it requires a 64-bit OS. I do not have a 64-bit OS. I actually did look at the required specs for this one and didn't even notice that part, as I'd never come across another game that required 64.

my bad, but still a bit frustrating

[Alan T]

That actually happened to me too. I ended up just using it as e motivation to upgrade my 7 year old computer finally though. My new one arrived but of course I am out of town this weekend so will have to wait til next week to check it out

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Alan T

That actually happened to me too. I ended up just using it as e motivation to upgrade my 7 year old computer finally though. My new one arrived but of course I am out of town this weekend so will have to wait til next week to check it out

yeah, I am hoping to upgrade this year. It's due - I think mine's about the same age. But it held up okay - this is literally the first game that physically would not run on this old box

[dzilla77]

2 hours into it (and one restart) - its definitely better than SC4 and the CXLs. I haven't gotten the hang of free form roads yet, so both my cities look a little boxy.

Gotta get my head around districts, too. Seems like a cool aspect that wasn't in the other city builders I have played.

Not sure what the issue with traffic is, but I am not far enough into a city to where it would be impacting me if its still an issue.

Surprisingly it seems to run decent even though I am well below recommended on the graphics card spec (GT460M).

Good thing the wife is going out of town for a couple of weeks - gonna be burning a few hours on this puppy.

[INDalltheway]

I am having all sorts of problems running this game (well) with a Nvidia GT750M.. I am going to sell this rig and upgrade I am nearly certain.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by INDalltheway

I am having all sorts of problems running this game (well) with a Nvidia GT750M.. I am going to sell this rig and upgrade I am nearly certain.

I have NVIDIA GT 750M on my laptop and the game runs just fine.

[flere-imsaho]

Yeah, I can't buy it yet as I have to upgrade my 2008 iMac to do so. :o

[BigDPW]

Originally Posted by INDalltheway

I am having all sorts of problems running this game (well) with a Nvidia GT750M.. I am going to sell this rig and upgrade I am nearly certain.

Check and make sure the game is running with your GT750M and not with your integrated graphics. I am not aware of any way to tell while you are in game. The game defaulted to my integrated card and it was horrible/choppy/laggy. Went into the folder and found the .exe for the game and right clicked and selected my 780M to run it instead and it is smooooooooth....

[jeff061]

Over half the games on my laptop with a Nvidia card(forget specific model) only work when running in Windowed mode, not full screen. It's annoying, but something worth trying.

[Buccaneer]

Sounds like something I could pick up, if I had not just bought Rogue.

The biggest criticism I had with SimCity 4 was the predictable pattern of building each city/region - all very regular, symmetrical and patterned. Does Skylines offer a better organic city layout and growth or does one still put down a regular grid pattern at the start?

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by INDalltheway

I am having all sorts of problems running this game (well) with a Nvidia GT750M.. I am going to sell this rig and upgrade I am nearly certain.

Using a GTX 570m and it runs at a solid 60fps with everything maxed.

[chinaski]

aaaand after 30 hours of the game so far, I can soundly say this is and will continue to be the best city builder ive ever played. Completely engrossing. Can't wait for some of the bugs to be worked out and all the incredible mods to come.

[RainMaker]

This game exemplifies how bad EA is. It does everything right that SC got wrong.

[frnk55]

As much as I love SC 4 I don't think I'll be playing it again. Skylines is excellent so far.

[Groundhog]

Spent a good 6 hours (maybe more?) playing yesterday. I played a good amount of SC4 but I was never particularly good at it - I could make a profit with my city, but I never really felt like I was doing more than laying out a grid.

C:S felt a bit like that at first too, I have to admit. I picked the beachy map (name escapes me), and started plotting out my nice little low residential/commercial city near the water, with an industrial area to the north off the highway. After quite a few hours I had upgraded all the streets to be nice and pretty with trees running alongside, and built public transport etc. etc. It was a nice little upmarket town.

Then I get access to the high residential/commercial zones, and build my Manhattan-esque skyscraper zone. But there's a problem. My industry zone is dying. Buildings are abandoned as quickly as they are built. There is a lack of workers, and those that are working are over educated. I build offices to try and keep the educated workers happy, but to populate the industry zones I do something I've honestly never set out to do in SC4 - I buy land to the north and build a 'blue-collar' town.

Still waiting to see if this achieves what I hope it does, but I'm having a ton of fun either way making decisions like this.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Spent a good 6 hours (maybe more?) playing yesterday. I played a good amount of SC4 but I was never particularly good at it - I could make a profit with my city, but I never really felt like I was doing more than laying out a grid.

C:S felt a bit like that at first too, I have to admit. I picked the beachy map (name escapes me), and started plotting out my nice little low residential/commercial city near the water, with an industrial area to the north off the highway. After quite a few hours I had upgraded all the streets to be nice and pretty with trees running alongside, and built public transport etc. etc. It was a nice little upmarket town.

Then I get access to the high residential/commercial zones, and build my Manhattan-esque skyscraper zone. But there's a problem. My industry zone is dying. Buildings are abandoned as quickly as they are built. There is a lack of workers, and those that are working are over educated. I build offices to try and keep the educated workers happy, but to populate the industry zones I do something I've honestly never set out to do in SC4 - I buy land to the north and build a 'blue-collar' town.

Still waiting to see if this achieves what I hope it does, but I'm having a ton of fun either way making decisions like this.

You did the exact right move. It'll take a little time to build that blue collar industry back up, even to the point you might even consider moving all those jobs closer to your new trailer park

[chinaski]

Im at an intervention level of addiction to this game. Going on 45 hours.

[INDalltheway]

Thanks for the help guys. I will try out some of those things.

[Groundhog]

Re: the problem connecting highways to towns neatly, I recommend the Texas U-Turn connector on the Steam workshop. It makes it easy to get the 4 lane, 2-way streets to your city. You need to plan ahead a little though as you aren't able to build the 4 lane/2-way streets at the beginning of your city.

One problem is avoiding traffic lights when connecting to these streets, though. Roundabouts are probably the solution here.

[Eaglesfan27]

Long week at work, so I planned on going to bed early. But, I decided to fire this game up "for a few minutes of relaxation before bed." That was 3 hours ago. This game makes the time fly and is the most fun I've had with a city builder game in many years. Heck, I'm fighting the urge to fire the game back up and play for just a few more minutes...

[SackAttack]

I suspect I'm going to need to get this at some point.

[chinaski]

Finally hit 30k in a city. This one is looking pretty solid after a string of heart breaking implosions.

[Peregrine]

Well I decided to spring for this game - haven't played a city builder in a long time but this one looks neat.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Spent a good 6 hours (maybe more?) playing yesterday. I played a good amount of SC4 but I was never particularly good at it - I could make a profit with my city, but I never really felt like I was doing more than laying out a grid.

C:S felt a bit like that at first too, I have to admit. I picked the beachy map (name escapes me), and started plotting out my nice little low residential/commercial city near the water, with an industrial area to the north off the highway. After quite a few hours I had upgraded all the streets to be nice and pretty with trees running alongside, and built public transport etc. etc. It was a nice little upmarket town.

Then I get access to the high residential/commercial zones, and build my Manhattan-esque skyscraper zone. But there's a problem. My industry zone is dying. Buildings are abandoned as quickly as they are built. There is a lack of workers, and those that are working are over educated. I build offices to try and keep the educated workers happy, but to populate the industry zones I do something I've honestly never set out to do in SC4 - I buy land to the north and build a 'blue-collar' town.

Still waiting to see if this achieves what I hope it does, but I'm having a ton of fun either way making decisions like this.

Thanks for this post, I can easily see the decision-makings. However, why did you decide to build a Manhattan-esque skyscraper zone? Is this game going to trend towards covering all the land with high-rise residential/commercial zones like the monstrosities that people built in SC4?