Cities Skylines 2 is Official!

Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,310
I can't seem to make money on this game, no matter how many residential zones I create! I'm down 300k a month atm :D
Have you got your industry up and running? I wasn't making money until I managed to get food and ore production up and running. I then how to build out the industry zones to process the raw materials into goods.

Also don't spam too many services, they are really expensive.

I nearly went bankwupt but I'm now making about 2000/month but a lot of services are switched off. I built a massive landfill that costs 30,000/month to run :cry:
 
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Soldato
Joined
17 Mar 2009
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6,607
Location
Nottingham
I can't seem to make money on this game, no matter how many residential zones I create! I'm down 300k a month atm :D
Im finally 100k a month in profit at 59k citizens and exporting water and electric. My biggest money sink at the moment is the 2900tonnes of wheat i import despite producing 670tonnes lol

The demand for low density housing is so frustrating though as its never ending and i REALLY need my guys to move into higher density
 
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Associate
Joined
4 Mar 2010
Posts
2,085
Apparently the Game Pass version is still awaiting the patch, coming "as soon as possible".
Still on 1.0.9f here.

Started my second city last night and running in to some of the same problems as the first - most importantly is seemingly unable to start making a profit and the gaps between levelling up become such that I'm heading towards bankruptcy again. Watching a few guides, it seems people are resorting to some in depth pop manipulation by, for example, going through the whole commercial district and bulldozing business with educated staff to get them into the industries that can better make money.

I expect some of it is my inexperience with CS as I have, at max, probably only 100 hours in CS1. Maybe a loan is the answer like @PaulC2K to try and build up to a more profitable city. Though I'm thinking I might have to start some more in depth tweaks to get through the early levels.

@b0rn2sk8 Yes, cities look nice at night but it's almost impossible to try and build anything. I do wish there was a darkness slider rather straight up disabling the day/night cycle.

It seems like education is important to try and get going, but at the same time its an expensive service to provide. In my save i only built the elementary for quite a while, and it took quite a while before i caved and built the high school and college. I'd imagine it was a coincidence that a while after this things took a turn for the better (dont think they'd have graduated to make a difference). I think its more likely that i started building specialised industry like forestry and stone mining. I was being stubborn because where i had some suitable forestry spots they were closer to my building area than i'd have liked, so i want to hold off. Same kinda story with mining. In the end i built them close, because i had industrial demand and didnt want to continue pilling on basic industry (factories).

I think that may well have been what saved me. It makes sense too, because you're creating a lot of jobs and more people will want to move into the area, so you're gaining tax income from more people, but businesses importing these resources, to exporting them, should make them more profitable, so presumably theres more to tax.

Comparing 2 saves, 5mo apart, Population 4.6k vs 9.6k (2x), Ind Tax: 29.6k vs 137k (3.5x), Off Tax: 2.4k vs 32.6k (13.5x).
So maybe my education had kicked in as those office numbers have exploded. I had been having a steady DROP of office buildings, and i think maybe only 2 at one point, then after the upturn they're all full including those i'd placed but never got built.


Also, someone asked about disabling the day/night option - its in Options > Gameplay > Day/Night visuals (untick etc)

Yea as much as I want to cave and get stuck in, I'm going to give it a while, 6 months, a year maybe and hope it'll be in a better state.
Honestly, unless your impatient like most of us here, waiting isnt a bad thing. Theres games where if you dont get in early then storyline can be spoilt for you, or multiplayer games where you need to follow the meta to stand a chance etc. CS is just a chill game and it'll likely take a few months before many of the highly popular mods from CS1 are introduced.

I can't seem to make money on this game, no matter how many residential zones I create! I'm down 300k a month atm :D
Good lord :D As above, industry seems to be quite important for your economy.
Over producing electricity is something ive heard people talk about, but im not sure how profitable it is. Citizens do pay for their electricity, as does exporting it, so presumably something costing say 1m/mo to run must make more than 1m/mo at 100% rates (whether sold locally or exported).
I've mentioned it before, but in pre-release a YT'er known for showcasing daft successful ways to play games, built a city with thousands of wind turbines, 1 house, 1 of every service, and was rolling in money. I'd imaging its been rebalanced if its considered broken, but it should be profitable.

Have you got your industry up and running? I wasn't making money until I managed to get food and ore production up and running. I then how to build out the industry zones to process the raw materials into goods.

Also don't spam too many services, they are really expensive.

I nearly went bankwupt but I'm now making about 2000/month but a lot of services are switched off. I built a massive landfill that costs 30,000/month to run :cry:
Very nice. What milestone are you up to, and what population?
 
Associate
Joined
4 Mar 2010
Posts
2,085
Im finally 100k a month in profit at 59k citizens and exporting water and electric. My biggest money sink at the moment is the 2900tonnes of wheat i import despite producing 670tonnes lol

The demand for low density housing is so frustrating though as its never ending and i REALLY need my guys to move into higher density
I clearly need to up my game :D

Is there any advice you can give that you think helped you get there? Did you just keep on building low density following the demand, did you skimp on services, focus on anything specific early on etc?
 
Associate
Joined
4 Mar 2010
Posts
2,085
Just seen something rather interesting on reddit. Theres a devmode built in that you can access.

on Steam: Launch options add: --developerMode
on GamePass: Create a shortcut of Cities2.exe in your install location, and then in the properties, target + " --developerMode"
eg: Target: "D:\Games\Cities- Skylines II - PC Edition\Content\Cities2.exe" --developerMode

Then launch the game/shortcut, open a save, and press the 'Home' key and a panel shows up. Search for 'Surface' and you've get a few options.

Each one applies a vector shape that you create (a bit like when you shape a landfill/farm/forestry/district zone etc) with the texture selected.
Whats kinda cool though, is if you go to an existing building, with 'Clip Surface' selected, and move your mouse around the model, you'll notice things like the grass, pavement, and stuff like that have nodes and this tool lets you adjust them.

P7gqXYK.png


Thats a Medical Clinic, with the tarmac & grass extended, and then some random props added (tables, swing set, pool & hedges).

Saves retain the items/props etc, its a nice tool to have fun with. You can also search for buildings like the the international airport and place them. You still have to pay for them, and all standard rules apply, the only 'cheat' is that you dont need it unlocked to place it.
Sadly (for me) it doesnt seem to let you place the pre-order bonuses. I suspect they're in there for those of you who own it, but cos i dont, it doesnt let me (is my guess).

Press 'Home' to remove the side menu. If you press the X in the corner, it closes it and cant be restored without restarting the game. Your props can be deleted with the bulldozer (B) when the tab is open, however existing models dont seem to let you delete items (or i havent tried hard enough).

---Edit---
'Tab' brings up a new menu on the left side too. Lots of debugging values and adjustables. The only thing of interest ive found in there is in the 'Gameplay' tab, you can cheat in 200XP, activate next milestone, add 500k cash, and unlock everything (pretty sure you can do that before loading a map anyway)
 
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Si.

Si.

Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
2,645
Location
Melbourne, Aus
This game is so frustrating.

I've spent 20 minutes trying to place a power station and it's constantly saying no road connected. No matter what I do I can't get the road to connect to the power station.

Half the time the game is on night time and you can't see anything, you can't modify things, build things, it's impossible to see. so I have to wait 30 minutes (on fast forward) just to be able to play the game again.

There is a MASSIVE demand for commercial zones, but when I add them they sit empty.

As far as I can tell there is no undo option.. so when you accidentally put a road in the wrong place and wipe out a building you can't just undo it.

What am I doing wrong?
 
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Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,310
Turn off day/night mode in settings.

I’ve had a few issues with buildings not connecting to roads of the road was drawn after. Use the ‘move building button’ and it grabs the road.

No undo button but don’t worry about losing a building which grows in, it doesn’t have a huge impact in reality.

Supposedly this game you need to de-develop your areas a lot more than the old game which was build and forget.
 
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Soldato
Joined
17 Mar 2009
Posts
6,607
Location
Nottingham
This game is so frustrating.

I've spent 20 minutes trying to place a power station and it's constantly saying no road connected. No matter what I do I can't get the road to connect to the power station.

Half the time the game is on night time and you can't see anything, you can't modify things, build things, it's impossible to see. so I have to wait 30 minutes (on fast forward) just to be able to play the game again.

There is a MASSIVE demand for commercial zones, but when I add them they sit empty.

As far as I can tell there is no undo option.. so when you accidentally put a road in the wrong place and wipe out a building you can't just undo it.

What am I doing wrong?
Firstly you can turn night mode off :D in the gameplay settings. its nice but it does nacker you for building. Wihtout watching you place a power station i cant reallyt advise but ive had no issues at all. DM a discord invite or something and i'll try and talk you through some of the issues if you want. There is no undo option and i would really like an undoi last action option.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Mar 2009
Posts
6,607
Location
Nottingham
I clearly need to up my game :D

Is there any advice you can give that you think helped you get there? Did you just keep on building low density following the demand, did you skimp on services, focus on anything specific early on etc?
Im just building a throw away city at the moment to get used to the demands and the game so its all over the place. Low density demand is mental though as is industry. What frustrates me is the demand for low density housing, which i build, then they whinge "the rent is too damn high" so i build low rent housing but they refuse to use it.

Side note.. off that gov subsidies and nicely in profit now! Costing me a fortune in wheat imports though. Im now producing 905 tonnes but i still have a shortfall of 2400 tonnes lol

FHjTRw2.png
 
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Associate
Joined
3 Feb 2012
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2,267
Location
Bath
I'm currently playing Skylines 1.
Still absolutely love it, and I'll probably pretty much ignore 2 until it's had some polishing. Which will happen, I think- there will be some updates, I'd imagine. The devs will want to quell the disquiet, No Man's Sky kinda style. It'll get there...
 
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Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,310
Once you get your specialised industry going the money seems to flow in.

I've only got 10k population and I've got £8mil in the bank :cry:

Having actually played the game, the discontent is largely overblown IMO.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Mar 2009
Posts
6,607
Location
Nottingham
Sigh... i keep forgetting autosave wasnt turned on and the game just crashed wiping out a 110k city with $134mill in the bank and a +£3.4 mill month income. I was only messing about trying to understand the new game mechanics but still im a bit cheesed! Needless to say i've just turned autosave on. Sidenote.. my wheat shortage ballooned from 2900 tonnes to 6800 tonnes being imported :cry:

However this was a scene that happened at the amost 70k mark....

An accident where a car went flying into the side of a pharmaceutical business, setting the building on fire and a senior citizen, well educated worker in the building burnt to death (sadly in this picture a helicopter had just dowsed the building in water hence no fire). Meanwhile a bus hit a pickup which sent it into oncoming traffic hitting a motorcylist then ending up in my plaza park whilethe motorcyclist ended up sprawled in the park needing an ambulance. At the same time a classic hatchback towing a caravan moment occured, flipping the caravan, blocking traffic and i can only presume one of the 100 or so people waiting for a bus had a heart attack at the sight of all the chaos.

This is the story i tell myself!

YoxmKt7.jpg
 
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Soldato
Joined
17 Mar 2009
Posts
6,607
Location
Nottingham
Once you get your specialised industry going the money seems to flow in.

I've only got 10k population and I've got £8mil in the bank :cry:

Having actually played the game, the discontent is largely overblown IMO.
Its a pig to run but it runs fine and aside from road names flickering and the 1st crash I had tonight. There haven't been too many issues
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
20,199
Location
England
I was alright at building cities in CS1. For some reason, I can’t even build a small starting town in Cs2 lol! Something about the pace has really thrown me off.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Sep 2005
Posts
14,852
Location
Bradley Stoke, Bristol
Do the signs such as no left turn not actually work at all? I've placed them in a few spots and they've updated the lane markers, there's no wear on the road showing. Yet drivers keep turning left across traffic blocking up the whole intersection :mad:
I don't feel like the traffic inteligence is much better than it seemed to be in CS1 right now.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Aug 2007
Posts
29,105
Do the signs such as no left turn not actually work at all? I've placed them in a few spots and they've updated the lane markers, there's no wear on the road showing. Yet drivers keep turning left across traffic blocking up the whole intersection :mad:
I don't feel like the traffic inteligence is much better than it seemed to be in CS1 right now.
Sounds a lot like the average road user where I live :D
 
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