Cities: Skylines 2 | A Wishlist from a City Planner

[Music] city skylines is a fantastic game in fact without a doubt it is my favorite game that said the game is now six years old and i can't help but think that a sequel might be on the horizon in this video i'm going to give you my list of things that i'd like to see in city skylines 2 from a city planner's perspective you might be wondering why i think that city skylines 2 might be just on the horizon well on average a new dlc is released for the game every 6 months or so and as of filming this video it has been over a year since the last dlc sunset harbor was released this is by far the largest gap between dlc releases making me think that something might be cooking so first on the wish list parcels this might seem like a weird way to start but in my opinion it's one of the biggest things missing in the game and could be a core mechanic that could improve the realism of the cities we create parcels are everywhere all land is divided into parcels and owned by either a private party or the general public cities uses grids of squares to approximate parcels however the squares relate to the space that a building can take up and the building includes everything from parking to yards in the case of residential parcels imagine the squares relating to the buildable portion of a parcel so the place where the primary structure would be such as a house or a store and the accessory uses or features of that parcel such as garages driveways fences parking landscaping all being procedurally generated within those parcels this would ensure that no two houses in the entire city look alike part and parcel to that see what i did there would be the addition of zoning codes the game is fundamentally missing the tools needed to create a realistic zoning code and that's a huge omission it tries to approximate a zoning code by the implementation of districts but it's rather convoluted and doesn't allow for some of the more nuanced specifications contained in a zoning code a zoning code generally contains information such as parking requirements setback requirements minimum lot size requirements height minimums or maximums and the amount of signage allowed on a commercial property these types of specifications can have a dramatic impact on the form of the built environment and make a place feel unique for example a downtown might have a lot setback of zero feet whereas a residential property might have a minimum of 10 feet this means that in the downtown area building would be pulled right up to the sidewalk whereas that residential property would have a front yard no smaller than 10 feet so that can really change the way the built environment feels i'd also like to see more nuance in the zoning categories for example there are many different types of industrial districts light industrial heavy industrial warehouses and distribution are all industrial but they have dramatically different forms and environmental impacts similarly commercial can mean anything from a barber shop or a mechanic shop all the way to an auto dealership or a big box retailer having the ability to specify the types of allowable uses within a zoning district would add a great deal of variability to the game now these changes wouldn't just help urban areas that also help rural areas as well one way of looking at the transition from the natural environment to a dense urban environment is the transect in this model lot sizes and their characteristics change based on their location within the transect and you can see this in reality all around you compare the lot size of an ex-urban home to that of an entering suburb or an urban neighborhood and the characteristics of the buildings in each of those classifications there are significant differences in building size placement and parking availability and these could be controlled if cities had a zoning code related to that are additional zoning classifications and missing building types one of the biggest missing zoning classifications is mixed use zoning this makes the creation of a downtown or town center very difficult and adding mixed-use zoning would make it much more possible i'd also like to see large format buildings incorporated into the game things such as big box retailers malls apartment complexes and self-storage just to name a few there are also a number of buildings that are in nearly every city that generate tons of traffic that are missing from the game these types of uses include gas stations grocery stores day cares churches community centers and homeless shelters and i think it would be wonderful to have those types of buildings incorporated into the game and related to that are more building themes and adapter for use of buildings themes would be related to the types of materials used for the creation of buildings so in different decades different building materials have been used i'd like the ability to specify building types based on specific districts or have them change automatically based on a number of in-game years this would show differences between when neighborhoods were developed and i think it would be a very interesting mechanic i'd also love to see the ability to adaptively reuse buildings in reality buildings aren't always demolished when they reach the end of their useful life for specific use often they are redeveloped for a new use for instance old industrial warehouses are often turned into lofts in downtown areas and in low density residential districts density can be increased by adding accessory dwelling units over garages or converting single-family homes into duplexes usually without significant changes to the character of a neighborhood like i said often buildings are repurposed and i'd love this mechanic to be incorporated into the game i would also like to see the addition of a campus or park life-like tool to create school campuses graveyards memorials and other space intensive type uses schools for instance are very complex regardless of whether you're looking at an elementary school a high school or a middle school they generally take up a significant amount of space and incorporate things that are very park-like in nature such as playgrounds or ball fields sometimes they'll even incorporate things like community gardens graveyards and memorials can take up a significant amount of space too and can be landmarks within the community much in the same way that schools are the ability to create these types of uses would go a long way towards making a more realistic land use pattern within your cities i would also like to see more environmental considerations worked into the game right now you can look at things like the natural resources available in a given land or the topography but wetlands soil types things like that are generally considered when a neighborhood is developed now i don't think getting into soil type is necessarily important but i do think that incorporating features like wetlands and swamps into the game would be a great addition this would add the need for stormwater detention which is completely missing from the game right now and is such an important issue with climate change really driving a lot of decision making in terms of neighborhood design and layout i'd also like to see lighting being a factor in the game often when reviewing plans i have to look at light spillage to see if it's going to impact neighboring properties speaking of the environment i couldn't talk about the environment without talking about seasons the winter dlc was a nice addition to the game but having true seasons would make the game come to life and in that same vein if it's raining it'd really be great to see that water dissipate through the storm water facilities i mentioned previously now let's move on to the transportation network i'd love to see better road building tools while the existing road tools do the trick the game can be much deeper with improved road building and layout tools for example the ability to dedicate rights of way or preserve land for transportation corridors and then build the roads within those rights of way would allow greater flexibility for roadway networks without the need to demolish buildings when upgraded imagine being able to enter a planning mode where you could specify the width of a right-of-way that would be dedicated prior to ever building the road and then once you build the road larger terraces would be present to ensure that there is space for wider roads in the future right of way could go hand in hand with advanced roadway configuration tools i imagine these tools looking similar to street mix which allows users to specify the configurations of a road cross section this tool would allow you to configure the number of lanes on a road whether there are bike lanes or bus only lanes and whether there is parking or not and the configuration of that parking i'd also like the ability to have configurable sidewalks the ability to configure their placement and their width and replace them with multi-use paths if desired this tool would be very powerful it would allow you to specify whether sidewalks are there or not whether there's angle parking on a street whether the sidewalks are wide enough for cafe seating or whether it's urban furniture or landscaping within the street terrace i would also love to see a roundabout builder incorporated into the game as well as the ability to add or remove zoning from any type of road speaking of roads i would love to see traffic safety and accidents added to the game city skylines makes congestion the primary method of judging your transportation system's effectiveness in reality safety has a much bigger impact on the transportation system than congestion most of the time incorporating accidents would give players the ability to change unsafe intersections and at pedestrian crossings i think adding a traffic safety mechanic would be a huge addition to the game and finally i'd love there to be more transit vehicle options there are many different types of buses and almost all of them carry more than 30 passengers i'd love the ability to choose articulated buses and buses of higher capacity this would allow the creation of bus rapid transit systems a mode of transit that is missing from the game i'd also like the ability to have longer or shorter passenger trains and light rail vehicles and trams next i'd like more realistic utilities as mentioned earlier right away is an important concept that should be worked into the game with utilities having rights away could force pipes to be placed under roads i would also like the ability to place pipes in areas without buildings and have those areas end up being non-buildable to simulate easements in addition i'd love to have the ability to specify policies regarding whether utilities are overhead or buried in the same vein all electrical lines in the game are transmission lines i would love to see additional poll options available in the game this would be very similar to some of the custom assets currently available within the workshop getting a bit more technical water and sanitary sewer do not utilize the same systems perhaps an option to split them could be incorporated into a hard mode next politics and civic engagement should be worked into the game imagine you have a housing shortage yet the elected officials have no appetite for high density housing you are forced to only build low-rise development this is what really impacts development patterns in reality or there's a strong political will to implement public transit and money is set aside for you to build it as quickly as possible or let's say the city planner decides to blast the highway through a residential neighborhood don't be surprised if there are citizens in the street same thing with the university if the universal education policy is removed don't be surprised if the students protest this would give the player accountability for their actions and make sure that there are a few less mulligans than i like to play with [Music] and finally i'd like to see a more realistic population now i understand that the game uses agents for the base simulation but i would appreciate a fudge number let's imagine that every agent is equivalent to 6 people list that as the population buildings should also have more realistic needs realistic population revisited mod does add something like this and it completely changes the construction of a city way too many commercial spaces are needed in cities right now in the future commercial spaces are projected to take up even less of a city's overall footprint as working from home and e-commerce become the norm seeing a realistic population would also create a stronger connection between the places we're creating and the places that we're part of in the real world i think we'll also give more context to the massive scale of some of the cities that we create so what do you think of my list do you think a city skyline's 2 release is imminent let me know in the comments and if you like this video please consider hitting the like button and subscribing to my channel i also want to give a huge shout out to my patreon supporters who enable me to create content like this thank you so much and i will see you in the next one bye

Channel: City Planner Plays

Views: 337,779

Keywords: cities skylines, cities skylines 2, cities skylines 2 release date, cities skylines 2 trailer, cities skylines 2021, cities skylines sequel, cities: skylines, city builder, city builders 2021, city planner, city planner plays, city planner plays cities skylines, city planner plays city builders, city skylines

Id: iXt-vD-dfMg

Length: 13min 0sec (780 seconds)

Published: Sat May 08 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Johno69R]

Paradox rubs their hands together whilst thinking of making each one of those ideas DLC.

[u/Lovevolve]

Here’s my comment I made on the YouTube video. What do you guys think.

Wow. Amazing suggestions but I’d have to say very lofty goals.
Would you be concerned that all these additional variables would make the base game far more expensive on cpu usage?

It would seem that they would need to redesign the entire game engine to make more efficient use of multi core processors in order to pull this off.

I think the open source modding community of cs is its greatest feature. Unlike any other project I can think of. Skins and accessories are common in many games but the modders ability to alter game mechanics is incredible and I argue unparalleled. My hats off to all the amazing programmers and designers who push the code to improve the game. The game certainly wouldn’t be what it is without them. And imho, in a way they have already created a cs:2 by allowing users to pick and chose their upgrades.

All that said, I’m very interested to see what paradox and the team come up with next. This game is hands down the greatest city simulator ever created. So thanks guys!

Edit: btw, city planner plays is one of the best vanilla series on YouTube. Incredible city design and logistic planning. Highly recommend you give him a follow and watch some of his Verde Beach series