Anyone play Cities: Skylines yet?

jakeroot · February 07, 2022, 12:12:49 AM

Quote from: Scott5114 on February 06, 2022, 08:30:15 PM
Are mods available to every platform the game exists on, though? The only recent game I'm involved with that has an active/somewhat dev-sanctioned modding community is Stardew Valley, and with that game, mods are available on PC only. If we want to play with a mod, we're out of luck, since we play it on the Switch. (Fortunately, Eric Barone has been very responsive to community input as to what goes into base Stardew Valley, so that it's not like you miss out on anything playing it without mods, but it kind of sounds like that's not the case with Cities: Skylines.)

Okay, yes, true: mods are strictly PC. But this is true for every game. In almost every case, the PC version of any game is going to have additional mods not available to the console player. While this can sometimes be bad (aimbots, etc), it is often good in terms of adding significant complexity that few game developers would normally build into a base game. Because, ultimately, these mods are almost always aimed at a smaller subset of players.

I still maintain that Skylines is meant to be a fun city builder, not a technical city builder. People like me who prefer the technical side of that, really need to play on PC. And yes, that's entirely because that's where the mods are.

Scott5114 · February 07, 2022, 03:02:43 AM

Right, which is why what is in the base game and not gated behind a mod actually does matter. While, yes, not every user is going to want or need every single mod installed, some people are going to be unable to access mods even if they really want to, so that's not a real solution to any bonkers behavior included in the base game.

paulthemapguy · February 07, 2022, 09:55:28 AM

Quote from: Scott5114 on February 07, 2022, 03:02:43 AM
Right, which is why what is in the base game and not gated behind a mod actually does matter. While, yes, not every user is going to want or need every single mod installed, some people are going to be unable to access mods even if they really want to, so that's not a real solution to any bonkers behavior included in the base game.

Yeah so don't come crying to me about how my cities and interchanges look with all their vanilla components, claiming they aren't good enough until I've installed all the mods you've installed.

(Edit: this isn't directed at Scott, this is directed at others who might try and do this.)

jakeroot · February 07, 2022, 12:51:14 PM

Quote from: Scott5114 on February 07, 2022, 03:02:43 AM
Right, which is why what is in the base game and not gated behind a mod actually does matter. While, yes, not every user is going to want or need every single mod installed, some people are going to be unable to access mods even if they really want to, so that's not a real solution to any bonkers behavior included in the base game.

Just to be clear, most mods that I'm into are aesthetic changes: where the nodes (lanes) line up, slopes, intersection markings. The actual base game mechanics have definitely improved from the past, and I think the base game on consoles is absolutely playable and quite enjoyable for everyone, even road geeks. It would be nice to have improved aging mechanics (no more death waves), or even commute hours ("Real Time" mod), but I think that is perfect for what C:S 2 should be. Hopefully we get some improved lane alignment mechanics too lol.

While I like to do things like this on PC, are we really to say that this should be possible on, say, Nintendo Switch? I think, no. Because no one wants to take the time to do this without a keyboard and mouse

...

Modern Roundabout by Jacob Root, on Flickr

riiga · February 08, 2022, 02:16:33 PM

Gorgeous roundabout!

X99 · February 10, 2022, 12:52:39 PM

Speaking of roundabouts,

This... somehow works. The main road is still separated from the roundabout so westbound traffic doesn't have to use it (north is top). The congested ramp on the right is one lane each way for the road to the southeast which currently only leads to housing. It was originally two T intersections, with the northwestern road (commercial) linked to the northern road (industry), and I was getting constant congestion on the north to southwest movement due to traffic conflicts from northwest to southeast. The water level isn't easy to maintain either- the water source is as small as it will let me place and has to be removed from time to time to keep from flooding the apartment complex in the northeast.

Scott5114 · February 10, 2022, 08:53:01 PM

I seem to recall Ned Weasel posting a paper drawing of something similar to that a while back.

Don't post that water feature in the roundabout in a thread tradephoric watches; they might hyperventilate

Ned Weasel · February 11, 2022, 08:56:08 PM

Quote from: Scott5114 on February 10, 2022, 08:53:01 PM
I seem to recall Ned Weasel posting a paper drawing of something similar to that a while back.

Similar, but not quite the same. The idea was to find a solution for where a main route takes a 90-degree turn, but with minimal disruption to traffic flow for both the "right turn" and the "left turn." Someone else on the thread later made a rendering much closer to the above design.

jakeroot · February 11, 2022, 08:57:35 PM

Quote from: riiga on February 08, 2022, 02:16:33 PM
Gorgeous roundabout!

Thanks! It's not the last I'll post here.

Quote from: Ned Weasel on February 11, 2022, 08:56:08 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on February 10, 2022, 08:53:01 PM
I seem to recall Ned Weasel posting a paper drawing of something similar to that a while back.

Similar, but not quite the same. The idea was to find a solution for where a main route takes a 90-degree turn, but with minimal disruption to traffic flow for both the "right turn" and the "left turn." Someone else on the thread later made a rendering much closer to the above design.

Right here:

Quote from: jakeroot on August 25, 2021, 08:20:19 PM
Quote from: tradephoric on August 20, 2021, 09:08:39 AM
Get rid of the jughandles (as mentioned by a previous poster) and you got a Florida T-intersection where SB thru traffic doesn't have to stop. But the typical Florida T-intersection requires 3-phase traffic signals whereas your design only requires two (since there isn't conflict between traffic turning off/onto the main route). I like that a lot. Illustrations of a 2-phase Florida T/roundabout intersection would be cool to see.

I decided to illustrate it...in a video game (Cities: Skylines).

One thing to note: to avoid conflicting with the green lights, I had to make the upper-most crossover a yield-to-entering-traffic situation. Otherwise there was a severe risk of lock-up.

Overall it flows very well in-game.

90-Degree Roundabout by Jacob Root, on Flickr

noelbotevera · February 11, 2022, 09:17:53 PM

Wondering if this game is worth buying again. I've since lost the Steam account used to play it (so like any poor high schooler, I'll commit a crime known as piracy), but I'm considering getting DLC the second time through.

I hope the pathfinding has improved, where people actually live in their houses and not "barfight" for the closest house, closest job, and closest store.

ran4sh · February 14, 2022, 01:24:25 AM

It's worth buying if it goes on sale. I got it about 3 years ago during a sale when it was $7.50 . The normal price right now might actually be close to that.

yand · February 28, 2022, 12:58:30 AM

Well I made another cities skylines video, this time combining completely carless superblocks with narrow 1 lane roads to maximize safety and reduce cost

https://youtu.be/75m0OE7gm9I

jakeroot · March 16, 2022, 03:15:40 PM

Built a cloverstack with HOV ramps. May add more directions in the future.

Cloverstack Interchange with HOV Ramps by Jacob Root, on Flickr

paulthemapguy · March 16, 2022, 09:32:35 PM

Looks awesome. How do you get the ultra-low-deflection merge angles, where the offramps meet the mainline? That's something I have wanted to do on Cities:Skylines for ages. Also, how do you get the chevron-shaped hatching in the dead spaces between the onramps and the mainline?

Ned Weasel · March 17, 2022, 07:30:21 AM

Quote from: paulthemapguy on March 16, 2022, 09:32:35 PM
Looks awesome. How do you get the ultra-low-deflection merge angles, where the offramps meet the mainline? That's something I have wanted to do on Cities:Skylines for ages. Also, how do you get the chevron-shaped hatching in the dead spaces between the onramps and the mainline?

JakeRoot can give you the technical answer, but I can give you the non-technical answer: lots and lots of mods and time!

jakeroot · March 17, 2022, 11:24:35 AM

Quote from: paulthemapguy on March 16, 2022, 09:32:35 PM
Looks awesome. How do you get the ultra-low-deflection merge angles, where the offramps meet the mainline? That's something I have wanted to do on Cities:Skylines for ages. Also, how do you get the chevron-shaped hatching in the dead spaces between the onramps and the mainline?

Two mods from macsergey:

Node Controller Renewal: allows much greater control over how nodes (the individual points and intersections along a road) are shaped, sloped, rotated, etc. It's extremely helpful for several things in my image, including the longer on and off ramps (ultra low deflection), and the overpasses matching the angle of the road they pass over.

Intersection Marking Tool: fairly self explanatory, but it allows you to apply markings to each segment of road (the areas between each node), or to intersections. For the chevrons in between the ramps, the mod supports what it calls "fillers", which are markings that can fill in a specified area. Most often, these are used to fill the gore area of intersections, such as where freeway ramps merge together or diverge. It has a ton of settings to play with.

Another essential mod (also by macsergey): Network Multitool: Has a ton of little features for road building. There are a bunch, but some cool examples are a loop creator (I used to make them by hand, but the mod allows you to select two segment of road and it will automatically make a loop connecting them for you), a parallel road tool that isn't a PITA, a tool to create a perfect slope, and a bunch more. You can download premade markings from the Steam Workshop, or make your own (and save them as presets, copy-paste, etc).

Notice these are all by macsergey ... the guy is a genius of coding and totally revolutionized road building when he started creating mods a few years ago. He's good enough that Colossal Order (the makers of Cities Skylines) actually hired him for future projects. Unfortunately, this has meant him backing away from modding, so he mostly just maintains his mods at this point rather than continuing to make changes or add more features (although he still does so from time to time).

Quote from: Ned Weasel on March 17, 2022, 07:30:21 AM
JakeRoot can give you the technical answer, but I can give you the non-technical answer: lots and lots of mods and time!

Very true, although it should be said that, apart from TM:PE allowing me to restrict the center ramps to buses and emergency vehicles only, I only used the above three mods in making this interchange. But I do have like 80 or 90 mods and a few thousand assets. It should be noted that the above mods do make this kind of interchange much easier to build. The parallel road tool in particular was vital, as was the loop creator and curve creator tools.