Cities Skylines 2: a phonecall from sweden

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Cities Skylines 2: a phonecall from sweden

«‹›4 »

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Someone needs to mod in railway signals to satisfy my rail sperging.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 17:44

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 11, 2024 14:55

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Baronjutter posted:

So I'm loving around in unlimited/unlocked city. I think once I've gone through the progression a few times it's nice not having to wait for money or unlocks. One thing I've done is some transit testing. I was previously fussy at how useless metros are since they can't cross over each other, but I did some experiments to see just how you could do this.

First of all, metro "tracks" don't work like train tracks, there are no switches or actual rails. They actually function just like roads! So you can make a 90 degree 4-way intersection and trains handle it just like cars making all possible turns. This really surprised me as I was under the impression you had to lay them like actual tracks and make more complex junctions and this is where my jams were coming from. So, it's entirely possible to make a "grid" of metro lines just as long as routes don't share stations as that's where the jams really come from (or more to the point, trains ever turning left in front of each other trying to get into the same station).

So now I'm making a grid of metro lines. Every 2nd or 3rd station has a buddy going the other direction near by and if the AI isn't too stupid it means anyone can get anywhere in 1-transfer transit journey. Metro trains often have to stop at "intersections" to let other trains pass, but it's never more than a second or two. It works fine, but why or why can't we pageup/down to raise/lower metro tunnels and even stations just like in CiM1 ??

Also Cims pick transit in an odd way, or maybe just random/closest. You can build a metro line exactly mirroring a bus line and the cims will pick them about 50/50, if anything they'll be more likely to pick the bus. So you'll have huge crowds waiting for that massive clump of full buses (come on CO, auto-space transit vehicles!) for months while a much faster metro is right there with each train at maybe 20% capacity.

I hate to say it but Cities XL handled bus lines better in a lot of ways. Instead of a global funding level you could click on a line and it would actually tell you how many people the line was using vs the capacity of that line. There were no agents so no individual buses, but you could select between a mini-bus, a standard bus, and a double-decker bus. Each level of bus cost more to maintain but upgraded the capacity of the line. Simple, intuitive. We don't need CiM1/2 levels of control over transit, specially no time-table garbage, but 2-3 types of buses plus a low/med/high frequency control would be enough, per line. Or even have an "auto" button that would automatically set the correct number and type of bus for the line, that poo poo isn't hard to auto-detect and make a pretty safe guess.

All that said, has anyone dug into how easy it would be to mod transit vehicle capacities? They seem a touch low, both from a gameplay perspective and a "realism" perspective. A city of 60k shouldn't need 6 metro lines running bumper to bumper trains to move people around, nor should a quiet suburban area need a parade of huge tour buses.

Hmm, I have metro routes that overlap (and gratuitious station-sharing) and don't have metro traffic issues in the slightest.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 18:18

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Fhqwhgads posted:

Didn't one of the older Sim Cities recognize this? Or at least "Higher = better" as far as land value?

It was SC2k. Also waterfront property and trees nearby factored into land value as well.

Noyemi K fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Mar 16, 2015

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 19:45

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Hey, if SC2k could do it, I bet this game could.

C'mon CO, make the waterfront property valuable.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 20:13

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

sigseven posted:

This Swindon Magic Roundabout knock-off says otherwise:

Is this on ye olde workshoppe? If not, it should be.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 20:47

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Penultimatum posted:

I feel like an elegant solution to land value would be to have lots that are being built run an imaginary line downhill. Every scenic object ( i.e. high level building, park, tree, etc.) the line passes would slightly increase land value, and every ugly object (i.e. factory, landfill, etc.) the line passes would slightly decrease the value. The line would stop when it hit a building with height larger than the initial elevation, which would model your view being blocked. If the line gets all the way to water you'd have a big boost to land value and the line would stop, modeling a waterfront view. It would also stop if it reached the bottom of the hill. If you had this running every frame it would probably destroy your FPS, so you could limit it to every time a building levels up or intermittently at random.

This wouldn't model things like having really pretty natural features far away, but it would encapsulate approximately how view affects land value. It would also create deeper gameplay, as you'd have to zone your buildings so they didn't block the view of the other buildings in order to maximize revenue. You wouldn't be able to see the effect of view on the overlay in advance if you did this, but it probably wouldn't be a big deal. The one downside is that it would only take into account things that are directly downhill of the lot, and not things off to the side. I'd make a mod that did this myself but I have no idea how Unity modding works.

But I want to look outside my window and see factories below the cliff, that'd own. I live near a freight yard and dock and it's so cool to see the dock cranes every time I go to the store.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 20:51

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Due to complaints about parks required to upgrade/appease industry, I've made some suitable parks for industrial locales, as you can see here and here.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 21:25

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

I used to do 3D stuff in blender but it was usually on the cartoony side. Is it easy to get blender set up to export models for this game? I'd like to make custom props and buildings at some point.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 22:27

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Yeah, I think I'll be starting with props/signs just to have some variety. I'll be making some really nice ones, too. If only the internet wasn't chugging atm and I could actually get blender re-downloaded (I guess I lost it with my previous install!)

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 22:34

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

SynthOrange posted:

Yeah. I was just testing it out myself. A 1x1x1 cube imports into game real tiny, but scale it up by 400X and it fills a 1 tile square perfectly. Also remember the object's transformation is not applied, so check that they're all zero and dont transform in object mode. Apply all the transformations inside edit mode.

You should probably switch the scale to meters then.

At any rate, I remember how to model!

The bad news: I don't remember shortcuts for things like resetting the origin! Hooray! (boo!)

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 23:07

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

SynthOrange posted:

Nah it's something about the way Skylines imports stuff, seems to be unit-agnostic. Anyway, I export it all as fbx, and the supported maps are diffuse, normal, spec, alpha and luminance. Once you do that, you can import objects as props, then make a building using the prop.

Well poo poo.

Autodesk has a .fbx exporter that might fix the issue, because even following the guide I'm having trouble with actually getting the thing into the game. I've set the scales and all that and added a test map and... nothing. Any particular settings you used?

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 23:44

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

SynthOrange posted:

Just the default settings out of blender. Got PMs? When I get home I'll upload a reference file that I used successfully to get stuff into the game. (I only just got into work tho, it'll be about another 8 hours )

Yeah, I have PM. It'd be good to know because I'm really banging my head against the wall on this.

e: well I got it to work, but apparently I created the texture upside-down :downs:

e2: sort of. It appears in the preview window but not in the edit mode.

e3: actually... I think it IS appearing, it's just really, really, really, really tiny despite me jacking the scale up. What the hell.

Noyemi K fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Mar 17, 2015

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 23:50

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Cool, I just got this thing to work! Hooray! Except now it's slightly too large!

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 00:11

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Now that my prop is in the game... how the hell do I use it on buildings and stuff?

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 00:21

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

SynthOrange posted:

Create new asset - Building. Pick a building type and build. For some reason the props are plopped under Park equipment. I havent figured out how to add icons to a prop yet either so it'll appear as an incomplete grey pile of bricks when looking for it in the menu.

Oh, hah... thar she blows. The benches section. Didn't even notice before!

Well, guess it's time to get modeling :downs:

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 00:45

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Here comes some mods, baby :getin:

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 01:02

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

I wonder, what's a good size for sign textures? I've been using 256x256 but maybe I could use 512x512 instead.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 01:52

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Mod time! It's a vending machine prop you can use to spruce up your parks or buildings. I intend to use it myself for later mods.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 03:39

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Galaga Galaxian posted:

I don't suppose the screen with the geisha mouth is animated? Is that even possible?

It's the plymouth arco!

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 03:58

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

gently caress, houses are hard. I should have done a boxy commercial building or something

Noyemi K fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Mar 17, 2015

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 05:32

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

I'm still working on that stupid house. Seriously, after this, it's just gonna be offices... holy poo poo.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 07:27

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Nitrousoxide posted:

How do you choose what RCI a building is under in the asset creator? I downloaded a bunch of farmhouses that the creator put under residential, but I want to make them industrial/farm growables. I can't for the life of me find any option to change what zone it grows under.

You can't, unless you have the model.

e: all that effort and all I have so far is this:

Noyemi K fucked around with this message at 08:29 on Mar 17, 2015

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 08:21

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Nitrousoxide posted:

Okay then, I created a new asset using one of the base game's homes plus a field for a farmhouse. Now how do I choose to make it a farm zone growable?

Like I don't see an option for this poo poo ANYWHERE.

It has to actually use a farm zone slot from the asset list. Like, it has to be made with a farm zone template. Even still, I haven't seen a growable of my own work yet so I'm not even 100% on that.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 09:11

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

simosimo posted:

Is ther a modeller tool where you can drag and stretch shapes [or meshes] , and if you click on a face, you can assign a texture? A long shot, but something like Second Life.

I want to make small street stuff mods [like vending machines] but not knowing 3D stuff is crippling me.

Vending machines are already pretty easy stuff, but blender does support sculpting and texture painting (though I don't use that and I only use sculpting for faces)

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 09:16

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

simosimo posted:

What do you use? I'm only looking for low poly stuff for the time being to get started - I'd like to know how you assign textures to a model (still a mystery to me). Let's do this 3D thing!

I use blender; I actually had a student license for Max at one point but I loving hated it. Blender might have a million shortcuts, but I love 'em, damnit.

Basically what you do to assign textures is to make a UV map and export that and draw (or paste in texture tiles) over it. I pretty much do my textures pixel by pixel, which is why the weird cartoon house is so cartoony looking atm.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 09:32

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

cthulhoo posted:

I'm really enjoying the maps where I actually have to take topology into account instead of endless boring plains.

Map: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406001868

What the... how did you... :catstare:

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 09:55

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

cthulhoo posted:

Do you not like my island of doom?

It basically beat the gently caress out of my city on that very island.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 10:19

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Well hey! It actually kinda looks okay in-game! I need to tweak the normals and the specmap a bit, but wow! This is better looking in-game than I expected.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 10:29

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Fans posted:

That's right. Apparently in Cities Skylines farms are only of the cotton picking variety and there is no heavy industrial farming equipment.

Hey, mills and grain silos can loving EXPLODE, if that's not industrial I don't know what is :colbert:

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 10:39

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

simosimo posted:

Dragonborn population : 1

I'll probably make it into some kind of unique building or something instead of a growable house. It fits alright and it'll fit better with some tweaks, but it still looks pretty special-interest.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 10:46

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

WMain00 posted:

SketchUp is a disaster zone, which is annoying as 3D Warehouse has probably the most amount of freely available models. It's a pity though that drat near all of them have serious issues in modelling and texturing that usually results in the model just straight up failing to export properly.

I don't like Blender at all; there's a good reason its free. For starters its literally opposite world compared to all other 3d modelling tools out there - left is right, up is down. It creates seriously bad habits in modelling that become difficult to break out of.

3DS Max is good but it can be pretty daunting, although for simple game models it might not be so bad? The worst aspect seems to be texture mapping.

I used to use Blender and Max in tandem before they semi-fixed half the exporters and made them vaguely functional :shrug:

E: also my speciality is normally 2D environments so anything that saves me time is an absolute good.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 13:24

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

I use the same tools to draw my textures' details as I use to make 2D and isometric games.

It's great :getin:

I'm starting to remember why I used to enjoy modeling.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 13:52

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

And my unique building is done! Only one can be placed per city, unlike some of the other custom uniques. It actually has a thumbnail in the menu (for some reason this feature doesn't work on other asset types).

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 14:53

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

No love for SC2K?

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 15:17

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

simosimo posted:

Sorry, I know .fbx files can be used by the game, but I opened up the asset editor and could only choose from pre-made assetts (didn't see a 'load from file' dialogue anyehere) , is there a second step needed?

You need to put the .fbx for the model and any maps it uses, in the "import" folder that opens up when you click the folder icon.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 16:43

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

simosimo posted:

Wicked, will check that out. Beating a deadhorse here [i apologise], will the sketch models need a UV map, or are they 'generated' from the textures you apply with the face tool yourself.

Bit late but I was tired and fell asleep after having been awake for more than 24 hours to mod this game, but to answer your question:

What happens is you generate U/V coordinates by unwrapping the mesh. You can leave it at that, but a lot of times you'll want to move vertices around a bit to either use all the space efficiently, or to arrange the UVs more sensibly. Edges can be welded together, split, etc. but basically for this game every part of the texture needs to be on one "sheet" or file.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 20:54

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

simosimo posted:

I getcha. I found a plugin called SketchUV. If I were to texture the model in Sketchup by choosing and paintdropping the textures i want, could SketchUV generate this one sheet UVmap for me? Had enough learning for one night.

I ended making a piano! Good fun, now to get poo poo working.

No idea. I've always done UV/texture mapping the normal (less intuitive) way and the texture images pixel-by-pixel. Max iirc has what you're looking for I think, or at least its UV tools are fairly good, but I hated using Max and no longer qualify for a student license anyway since their requirements changed.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 21:26

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

I made a snack machine to go with the drinks machine. Now your citizens can coat doorknobs and walk signal buttons with cheeto dust!

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 23:02

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

Hah, we got our wish! :getin:

# ¿ Mar 18, 2015 01:05

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 11, 2024 14:55

Noyemi K: Dec 9, 2012; youll always be so sleepy when youre this tiny *plompf*

HardDisk posted:

There's a real dearth of sceenshots and fan art in the OP, can you guys give me a hand there?

Also, I'm starting another list with goon cities, if you think your city is cool or whatever feel free to post (or repost)

I'm also (trying to) keeping track of goon-made mods and prefabs/buildings but I'm behind on it as well.

Sure

Inchun Metropolitan Area, Jodhnagar Metropolitan area (needs the flavourtext descriptions).

My more popular mods.

Fish Fry Andy posted:

Unfortunately like 95% of the premade intersections are useless on maps with any hills at all.

The reason for that is the elevated pedestrian walkways and roads. The former especially, is a complete bitch to use when any change in elevation is present. I've had to re-do whole walkways systems because I kept demolishing pieces trying to connect them.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2015 06:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Cities Skylines 2: a phonecall from sweden

«‹›4 »