Understanding the Needs of Citizens and Companies
In the latest development diary for Cities: Skylines II, the highly anticipated city-building game, the focus is on the city services available to players. While the basic functionality of these services remains the same, the developers have added more nuanced and complex mechanics to create a more realistic city-building experience.
One notable addition is the ability to restrict city services to specific districts, providing more control and customization options for city management. This feature is complemented by the introduction of policies that can be assigned to both the entire city and individual districts, allowing players to fine-tune various aspects of their cities to meet the needs of citizens and businesses.
City Services: Enhancing Quality of Life and Ensuring Safety
Cities: Skylines II maintains the core gameplay mechanics of providing essential services to citizens. The goal is to enhance their quality of life, happiness, and safety. However, unlike the previous game, where players aimed to evenly distribute different service types throughout the city, Cities: Skylines II emphasizes understanding the specific needs of citizens and fulfilling them with suitable services and amenities.
It is important to note that city services no longer directly increase land value as they did in the previous game. Instead, they indirectly affect land value by meeting the needs of citizens and companies. As these needs are satisfied, citizens and businesses become more willing to pay higher rents, resulting in increased land value.
Meeting Citizens’ Diverse Needs
In Cities: Skylines II, citizens’ needs vary based on their demographics. Senior citizens, for example, prioritize places where they can spend their free time, while families with children value areas with schools. Working-age citizens seek residences with quick access to workplaces, and companies prioritize services that improve their efficiency and profitability.
Players can inspect citizens’ needs by accessing their household’s Selected Info Panel (SIP) and hovering over the Happiness icon. Similarly, companies’ needs can be inspected by hovering over their Efficiency value in the SIP. Understanding these needs and catering to them is essential for creating a thriving and prosperous city.
Detailed Overview of City Services
Roads: The Backbone of the City
Roads play a vital role in city infrastructure, providing buildable zones, paths for agents, and the basic infrastructure for water and electricity distribution. However, roads deteriorate over time due to vehicle traffic, resulting in slower travel speeds and an increased risk of accidents. To maintain road safety and condition, a Road Maintenance Depot is required. This facility deploys a fleet of Road Maintenance Vehicles to repair worn-down asphalt throughout the city.
Electricity: Powering the City
Electricity is a critical component for running a city. Most buildings require electricity to function effectively, and citizens are unwilling to endure prolonged power outages. Lack of electricity significantly reduces the efficiency of businesses, hindering their production and profitability.
Cities: Skylines II introduces various power plant options, including green and sustainable alternatives like Wind Turbines, Solar Power Plants, Geothermal Power Plants, and Hydro-electric Power Plants. Fossil fuel-based options such as Coal Power Plants and Gas Power Plants are also available. For maximum power generation, players can invest in a Nuclear Power Plant, although it comes with a higher cost.
Water & Sewage: Basic Necessities for Citizens
Access to clean water and effective sewage management is crucial for citizens’ well-being. Freshwater scarcity leads to unhappiness among residents, while businesses suffer a significant decline in efficiency. City services, including healthcare, are also compromised without adequate freshwater supply.
In Cities: Skylines II, players can pump surface water from open water sources, but its quality is affected by pollution caused by sewage. Groundwater, however, works differently from the previous game. Maps in Cities: Skylines II feature groundwater deposits that contain fresh water. These reservoirs have a limited refreshment rate and are susceptible to ground pollution, requiring careful planning of water supply systems.
Effective sewage treatment is vital for city management. Players must choose between pumping sewage into open waters through a Sewage Outlet or treating it in a Wastewater Treatment Plant, which purifies the wastewater and returns it to the freshwater network. The pollutants extracted from treated wastewater become solid waste, which can be managed through the city’s garbage management sites.
Healthcare & Deathcare: Ensuring Citizens’ Well-being
Healthcare and Deathcare services are essential for citizens’ well-being in Cities: Skylines II. Medical Clinics and Hospitals provide healthcare to the sick and offer ambulance transportation for those unable to reach medical facilities on their own. These services also passively boost the health of citizens in the surrounding area. Ambulances respond to traffic accidents, providing immediate care and transporting injured citizens to medical clinics or hospitals.
Deathcare services handle the deceased, transporting them to cemeteries and crematoriums using hearses. Citizens may pass away due to old age, declining health, traffic accidents, or building collapses resulting from abandonment or natural disasters.
Citizens’ health is influenced by various factors, including resource availability, consumption patterns, healthcare access, pollution, previous illnesses or injuries, and uncollected garbage. Unhealthy citizens affect the efficiency of companies, making it crucial to prioritize and maintain their well-being.
Garbage Management: Dealing with Waste
Garbage accumulation is an inevitable byproduct of urban life, and effective management is necessary to maintain a clean and healthy city environment. Buildings generate garbage based on factors such as type, level, size, and citizen education level. Higher-level buildings and educated citizens produce less garbage.
Cities: Skylines II introduces several garbage management options, including Landfills, Incineration Plants, and Recycling Centers. Landfills store and slowly process garbage, while the Incineration Plant burns waste to generate electricity. The Recycling Center separates usable materials for manufacturing purposes.
However, it’s important to note that garbage management facilities, especially the Incineration Plant, can cause pollution. Placing them far away from residential areas and downwind is advisable to minimize the negative impact on the city.
Education & Research: Building a Knowledgeable City
Education plays a crucial role in the success of a city. Cities: Skylines II offers various schools for different age groups. Elementary Schools cater to children, High Schools accommodate teens, and Colleges and Universities serve adults. Citizens choose between education and work based on financial calculations and personal interests.
Citizens have different levels of education, ranging from Uneducated to Highly Educated. Graduating from schools increases citizens’ education levels, and these levels determine their eligibility for job positions. Job positions in companies and city services require specific education levels. Insufficiently educated employees decrease service efficiency and negatively impact production output. Higher-level companies prioritize higher-educated employees.
Elementary Schools also provide a well-being bonus to families with children living nearby, encouraging families to move to areas with nearby schools.
Fire & Rescue: Ensuring Safety and Disaster Preparedness
Fire & Rescue services are essential for maintaining safety in Cities: Skylines II. Fire Houses, Fire Stations, and Firefighting Helicopter Depots play crucial roles in preventing and responding to fires. These services decrease fire hazards in their respective areas and dispatch fire engines and helicopters to extinguish fires efficiently.
Additionally, Firewatch Towers can be placed in wilderness areas to lower the risk of forest fires, which can spread quickly and damage nearby buildings. Early Disaster Warning Systems provide timely notifications to citizens, urging them to take shelter during natural disasters. Emergency Shelters offer a safe haven for citizens during emergencies, ensuring their well-being.
Police & Administration: Upholding Order and Ensuring Welfare
Maintaining law and order is essential for a well-functioning city. Police services, including Police Stations and the Police Headquarters, play a vital role in decreasing crime rates in their respective neighborhoods. Patrolling police cars discourage criminal activities and reduce the probability of crimes occurring along the patrolled routes.
The police force responds to crimes, apprehending criminals at the scene and transporting them to local prisons or outside connections if local facilities are unavailable. Prisons not only serve as places of detention but also function as production facilities, generating resources for manufacturing companies within the city.
Administration services, such as the Welfare Office, City Hall, and Central Bank, contribute to the overall well-being and prosperity of the city. The Welfare Office supports individuals facing hardship, boosting their well-being if their happiness levels fall below a certain threshold. City Hall has city-wide effects, including reduced loan interest rates, import costs, and crime rates, as well as lower building leveling costs. The Central Bank aids in reducing loans and increasing export profits, benefiting both citizens and businesses.
Transportation
Transportation plays a crucial role in Cities: Skylines II, offering various options for public transportation. Players can choose from buses, taxis, trains, trams, subways, ships, and airplanes to establish an efficient and comprehensive transportation network. In addition to road-based cargo transportation via delivery trucks, players can also manage cargo transportation for rail, water, and air, providing greater control over the movement of goods.
Each type of land transport has its own depot, from which fleets of vehicles are dispatched. Water and air traffic, on the other hand, are connected to harbors and airports, which are linked to seaways and Outside Connections, respectively. Airports have the unique ability to be upgraded to include a cargo terminal, while other transportation types have separate passenger and cargo stations and terminals. For a more detailed look at transportation, players can refer to the development diary on Public & Cargo Transportation.
Parks & Recreation
In Cities: Skylines II, Parks and Recreation serve a different purpose than in the previous game, where they directly affected Land Value. Placing parks and recreational facilities in the city was beneficial as they saturated the area, increasing Land Value. However, in Cities: Skylines II, parks, plazas, tourist attractions, and landmarks, along with other city service buildings, don’t directly impact Land Value. Instead, they cater to the diverse needs of citizens and contribute to their overall satisfaction and well-being.
Parks and Recreation buildings provide citizens with options for outdoor activities, fulfilling their need for leisure. Citizens can engage in various activities such as shopping in commercial areas, enjoying entertainment and meals at restaurants, and visiting parks, plazas, sports venues, tourist attractions, and landmarks. The choice of activities may also be influenced by weather and the time of year. Citizens are more likely to spend time outdoors in parks during warm and sunny weather, while they may opt for indoor activities like shopping during rainy or cold weather.
Parks and Recreation buildings also contribute to the city’s attractiveness for tourists, adding to the City Attractiveness value. Tourists stay at local hotels and make decisions about visiting city attractions based on their distance from the hotel and the attractiveness value of the location. They are particularly interested in visiting various tourist attractions and landmarks.
Communications
Communications is a new service category introduced in Cities: Skylines II, encompassing the familiar Post service and the new Telecom service, which provides citizens and companies with an internet connection.
Post services fulfill the need of citizens, companies, and city services to send and receive mail. The ability to send and receive mail contributes to citizen well-being, increasing their happiness. The absence of mail services affects citizen well-being negatively, as they are unable to send postcards, letters, or express their opinions through letters to the editor. Functional post services are also essential for companies and city services, improving their efficiency when their mail is collected and delivered.
The Post Office dispatches post vans to collect mail from mailboxes used by private citizens, as well as directly from companies and city services. The collected mail is stored in the Post Office until it is sent either to an Outside Connection or a Post Sorting Facility. The Post Sorting Facility categorizes mail into local and long-distance mail, which is then delivered within the city or sent to Outside Connections, respectively. Without a local Post Sorting Facility, all mail from the city is transported as long-distance mail, and only mail coming from Outside Connections can be delivered within the city.
Telecommunications focuses on providing citizens and companies with high-speed internet connections. Each citizen, whether a resident, worker, or student, utilizes a portion of the available network bandwidth (1 Gbit/s). Telecom buildings have a bandwidth capacity and range, determining the number of citizens they can serve and the distance their service reaches.
Good telecommunications coverage enhances citizen well-being by providing them with recreational activities to fulfill their leisure needs. The strength of the network signal affects the well-being gained from internet usage, with the signal being strongest near the source and gradually weakening as distance increases. Commercial companies benefit from telecommunications by increasing their sales through online shopping, while industrial companies enjoy better deals from resource providers due to improved communication and wider reach, resulting in lower material costs and increased profit margins.
Landscaping
Landscaping remains largely unchanged in Cities: Skylines II. Players can use terraforming tools such as shifting, leveling, softening, and sloping terrain to mold the landscape according to their city-building needs. The game also includes the option to plant trees, which have a life cycle. Newly planted tree saplings grow into mature trees over time. Similarly, if a forest fire damages a part of a forest, new trees will gradually grow to replace the burned ones.
Pathways are another important feature in the Landscaping menu, allowing players to create pavement paths for pedestrians, including various styles of pedestrian bridges. By providing efficient pedestrian pathways, players can encourage citizens to choose walking as a mode of transportation, reducing traffic congestion and offering a free alternative for citizens to move around the city.
Service Upgrades
A notable addition in Cities: Skylines II is the service upgrade system. Unlike the previous game, where service buildings were one-time structures, buildings in Cities: Skylines II can be upgraded, extending their operations to serve more citizens and cater to different needs.
Upgrades can introduce new functionality or expand existing functionalities of service buildings. For example, players can add more ambulances and patient capacity to a Medical Clinic by building an ambulance depot or an extension wing. Upgrading an Elementary School with an extension wing increases its student capacity, while adding a Children’s Clinic or a Playground improves student health and well-being, respectively. Power plants can have additional turbines for increased electricity output, exhaust filters to reduce air pollution, or additional storage space for fuel.
It’s important to note that upgrades come at a cost, both in terms of initial investment and increased upkeep costs. Players should consider the needs of their city and citizens when deciding whether to upgrade a building or build a new one. Factors such as location, demand, and potential traffic congestion should be taken into account.
Upgrade Types
Service upgrades in Cities: Skylines II are categorized into three types: Operational, Extensions, and Sub-buildings. Operational upgrades bring functional and statistical changes to a building without altering its appearance. Examples include bandwidth increases for Radio Masts, exhaust filters for Coal Power Plants, or the addition of a dispatch center within a Taxi Depot.
Extensions are visible upgrades directly connected to the main building. They typically increase the building’s capacity for vehicles, output, range, or the number of citizens being serviced. For instance, extension wings can be added to medical facilities and schools to provide more patient and student capacity, respectively. Garages can be built for various services to expand the size of their vehicle fleet, and additional turbines can be installed in power plants to increase electricity output and fuel consumption. Extensions fit within the existing lot size of the building.
Sub-buildings are separate structures attached to the main building’s lot. They can increase fuel storage capacity for power plants or add new functionalities to a building, such as Children’s Clinics and Playgrounds for Elementary Schools. Sub-buildings require additional space and should be considered when planning the placement of service buildings.
Service Coverage
Services in Cities: Skylines II have both a passive coverage effect and a simulated effect. The passive effect is localized around the building’s vicinity and spreads along roads. Services with passive effects include healthcare facilities (providing a health bonus), elementary schools (enhancing well-being for families with children), fire department facilities (decreasing fire hazard), police department facilities (reducing crime accumulation), and parks and recreation buildings (enhancing well-being). The strength of the passive effect is determined by the range, capacity, and magnitude of the service building. Range refers to the maximum distance along roads where the passive service coverage effect extends. Capacity estimates the number of people reached by the passive effect, taking into account the population density in the surrounding area. Magnitude represents the maximum impact of the passive service coverage, with the effect diminishing towards the edges of the range.
Simulated service effects complement the passive coverage and extend the reach of services through patrolling vehicles or citizens visiting the service building. For example, a police station reduces crime accumulation passively in its neighborhood, but patrolling police vehicles can cover the entire city, responding to incidents and maintaining public safety. These two aspects of service coverage work together to ensure the efficient functioning of city services.
Service Efficiency
Efficiency is a crucial aspect of city services in Cities: Skylines II. It represents how effectively a building performs its function and impacts various aspects of its operation. The Efficiency value influences a building’s capacity, processing speed, output, and even the range of passive service coverage effects and city-wide effects for certain service buildings.
Different service types are affected by Efficiency in specific ways:
- Roads: Efficiency determines the number of available road maintenance vehicles.
- Electricity: Efficiency affects the electricity output level of power plants.
- Water & Sewage: Efficiency influences water output level and sewage processing speed.
- Healthcare & Deathcare: Efficiency affects the treatment bonus, deceased processing speed, and the number of available ambulances and hearses.
- Garbage Management: Efficiency impacts garbage processing speed and the number of available garbage trucks.
- Education & Research: Efficiency determines the graduation bonus.
- Fire & Rescue: Efficiency affects the number of available fire engines.
- Police & Administration: Efficiency determines the number of available police cars.
- Transportation: Efficiency influences the number of available transportation vehicles.
- Parks & Recreation: Efficiency affects the attractiveness value and the number of available park maintenance vehicles.
- Communication: Efficiency determines the number of available post vehicles, network range, and capacity.
Efficiency is influenced by various factors. For example, employees play a significant role in maintaining high Efficiency. Happy and healthy employees with appropriate education levels contribute to smooth service operations, increasing Efficiency. Employee Happiness boosts Efficiency, while unhappy employees reduce it. Sick employees are unable to contribute to Efficiency, resulting in a penalty. Additionally, finding employees with suitable education levels is essential for optimal Efficiency.
Some service buildings, such as power plants, require resources to function effectively. For instance, a power plant without access to fuel experiences a significant decrease in Efficiency. Wind turbines rely on wind availability, and solar power plants don’t produce electricity during nighttime unless they have built-in batteries. Medical facilities rely on pharmaceuticals for treating patients, and running out of this resource decreases their Efficiency and the treatment bonus.
City service budgets also impact Efficiency. Adjusting the budget for a specific service category can affect the Efficiency of all buildings within that category. Lowering the budget reduces Efficiency, upkeep costs, and vehicle usage, which can be useful for small cities with limited needs. Conversely, increasing the service budget improves Efficiency, enabling service buildings to serve more citizens effectively.
Service Fees
The Economy panel in Cities: Skylines II includes a page dedicated to city services and their budgets. The budget slider affects all buildings of a particular service type equally. Its primary function is to adjust the upkeep cost and Efficiency of the buildings. The expenses displayed on the panel include maintenance costs (building upkeep) and resource costs, such as fuel for power plants.
Certain city services, including Roads, Electricity, Water & Sewage, Healthcare, Garbage Management, Education, and Transportation, collect fees from citizens. Citizens and companies pay fees for electricity and water services, which can be adjusted in the Economy panel. Lowering the fees increases citizen Happiness and company profitability but also leads to higher water and electricity usage. Conversely, increasing the fees decreases citizen Happiness and company profitability but reduces water and electricity consumption. Adjusting these fees, along with implementing District policies, can encourage citizens to conserve water and electricity, thus reducing demand in the city.
Healthcare services charge citizens a fee when they seek medical treatment, while garbage fees are paid when garbage trucks collect waste from households and companies. Similarly, citizens pay for education, with each school type having its own service fee. Roadside parking fees can be set for districts and various parking lots and halls included in the Roads service. Additionally, ticket fees for passenger transportation lines can be adjusted individually, influencing citizens’ transportation choices based on cost considerations.
Service Trade
In Cities: Skylines II, cities have the opportunity to engage in service trade with neighboring cities through Outside Connections. Services can be imported or exported, providing benefits for both small and thriving cities.
Electricity, water, and sewage services can be imported and exported. Electricity is transmitted through power lines from Outside Connections to a Transformer Station or vice versa, which then distributes the electricity to the local grid. Clean water can be delivered or pumped to and from neighboring cities through pipe Outside Connections. Sewage can also be sent to and received from Outside Connections via pipes. Excess output is typically sold, ensuring sufficient supply for the city’s own needs while capitalizing on surplus.
In the absence of medical facilities or deathcare services, citizens can travel to Outside Connections for treatment or transportation of deceased individuals. Similarly, police and fire services can be imported, although their response times are slower as they arrive from Outside Connections. Importing services may lack the passive service coverage effects of local buildings, which contribute to crime reduction and fire hazard mitigation.
Cities can also export education, attracting students from Outside Connections who enroll in the city’s Colleges and Universities. These students become citizens as they find accommodation within the city.
Districts & Policies
Districts and policies offer players more control and customization options for their cities in Cities: Skylines II. Districts provide in-depth information about the population residing in specific areas, while policies can be applied to individual districts or city-wide, adding flavor and fine-tuning to different parts of the city.
Creating a district is a straightforward process using the District Tool. Players define an area by placing corner nodes, and once the area is closed, the district is created. Districts can be adjusted by moving or adding nodes after creation, and they can be renamed to suit the player’s preferences.
City services can be assigned to one or more districts, restricting their coverage to specific areas. Services not assigned to any districts serve the entire city, regardless of district boundaries. While the passive service coverage effect of a building is limited to its neighborhood, the simulated service effects, such as vehicles and patrols, reach all assigned districts.
District policies provide more control over specific areas of the city. Players can limit heavy traffic in a district to reduce noise and air pollution, install speed bumps to slow down traffic and prevent accidents, or create gated communities to restrict access. Roadside parking fees can be implemented to generate income, but they also influence citizen pathfinding, as they consider the cost of parking when deciding on transportation modes.
City policies, on the other hand, have city-wide effects. Examples include removing speed limits from highways, installing air filters in industrial zones to reduce pollution, or implementing specific policies to enhance the overall functioning of the city. Some policies have associated costs or negative consequences, while others have neutral effects. Players can tailor policies to their city’s specific needs and implement them to shape the overall development and behavior of their city. Whether it’s encouraging sustainable practices, managing traffic flow, or promoting economic growth, city policies in Cities: Skylines II offer a range of options to fine-tune and customize the urban landscape.
One aspect of city management that remains crucial in Cities: Skylines II is the balance between residential, commercial, and industrial zones. Careful zoning decisions can lead to a harmonious and efficient city, where citizens can live, work, and play in proximity to one another. Balancing the needs of each zone type, providing adequate infrastructure and services, and managing the flow of goods and resources are key considerations for successful city planning.
As players progress in Cities: Skylines II, they will face various challenges and opportunities, such as natural disasters, economic fluctuations, and the demands of a growing population. Managing these challenges requires strategic decision-making and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Building resilience, implementing emergency response systems, and investing in infrastructure upgrades are just a few examples of how players can navigate these challenges and ensure the long-term success of their city.
In conclusion, Cities: Skylines II offers a comprehensive and immersive city-building experience, where players can create and manage their dream cities with a wide range of features and tools. From transportation and infrastructure to services and policies, the game provides a realistic and engaging simulation of urban development. Whether you’re a seasoned city-building enthusiast or new to the genre, Cities: Skylines II promises to captivate and challenge players as they shape and transform their virtual cities into thriving metropolises. Get ready to unleash your creativity and embark on an exciting journey of urban planning and management.
Exploring Zones and Signature Buildings in Cities: Skylines II: A Detailed Guide
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
