Why did you remove the cruise ships all-terrain capabilities? :)

^ This.

Even the patch notes seemed sad about it.

I was sad as I wrote them :(

What would you do if EA tried to buy you?

Something like this.

Hey guys,

first of all thank you so much for this awesome game and keeping the city builder genre alive!! :) I'm sure with your awesome development team and the eye-to-eye community contact, C:S will have a bright future. You'll make the game even greater than it is right now! :)

But now to my questions!

1) Roads! I think you can agree that roads make up a big chunk of the city builder genre. Although the current range of roadtypes provided by the game are a good basement, there are endless possiblities and ideas on increasing the variety (road textures, road(-side) decorations, lane management, bus lanes, speed limits, pedestrian areas, ...). Do you have any plans on working on that? Maybe even giving the community tools like an asset editor for roads?

2) Biomes! Was the decision on making european biomes bound to a distric rather than a whole map a techinal choice or a design choice? I think there are many cities that combine different styles, it would be cool if this would be possible to recreate in C:S!

3) Simplicity versus Depth! The decision between making something simple and easy to understand, but not very complex and powerful versus the opposite - powerful and complex, but with a steep learning curve and a lot of time investment for the player - is something you often have to face in designing (I guess?). Some players love to go really deep into micromanaging and want to regulate as much as possible (e.g. Traffic Management, I'm guilty of that!). Others want to leave a lot of decisions to the game and rather focus on something else. What is your take on this conflict and how are you going to approach that in future Updates and Addons?

Thanks for taking the time and doing this AMA. Thanks for you great game. Thanks for keeping committed to the game with updates and Addons! I'll be gladly spending more money on the game! :)

1) We love roads. Unfortunately having to go too deep with the roads can start feeling too much micromanagement and therefore we're not planning to go too much into details with them. However a couple of things we have discussed and are looking into: naming the roads, new road options/policies and figuring out if the roads could be made moddable. I have no eta on any of these, just telling you guys what we are thinking would be cool.

2) Both technical and design choice. Given the options we had we implemented the European buildings in the best way possible even if I know not all agree with me.

3) This has been one of the more difficult things to balance in Cities: Skylines. We are known for more complex games and had to pull back a lot to make the game more approachable than our previous titles. We trusted the more hardcore players will be able to modify the game to their liking and we'll be focusing on giving more content and features to all the players and improving on the modding tools to cater to cater to the modding community. In the future we will try keep in mind the openness of the game for newcomers while adding depth to the game.

Since reddit prioritizes only the OP, here's a comment so this is a standard response!

Are there plans to add tunnels for pedestrian paths? I would love to build pedestrian underpasses!

It's something we'd like to see and is definitely somewhere on our to-do list. No ETA or indication as to when, though. There are lots of things we want to do!

What's the funniest glitch/programming error you have come across while creating the game?

It was early 2014 and I was trying the bus lines for the first time: http://i.imgur.com/o4vgc7C.gif

P.s. I call it "The Party Bus".

LOL! Why haven't I ever seen this?

Are European buildings really restricted to 3 new maps?

How about vanilla game north & south Europe maps?

Can buildings be controlled through district tools?

Or is it for the modders to unlock the new buildings for other maps too?

Please pretty please do not leave this issue for modders only.

One of the reasons the European buildings are their "own set" so to speak is because they add quite a lot of graphical assets into the game which, if simply added to the vanilla game assets, would most likely exceed the system specs set for the game, making it require more powerful hardware and in worst case, render the game unplayable for the lower end machines.

This needs more upvotes for visibility! We're pretty much obliged to stand by our system requirements as far as I am aware.

Do you have any plans for your next big update? If so, are you willing to give them away yet?

Yes, we do! Unfortunately I'm not at liberty to share anything yet but it's exciting stuff. Think gameplay, added depth and stuff that actually matters and you're well on your way.

Good evening, guys. Many players of CSL want to input trams in game. Do you have plans about it? And.. What about trolleybuses as CIM (St. Petersburg), CIM2?

Trams are something we will think about in the future. So many players are asking for them to be added so it has gotten our attention. Also we like trams.

Woop! Trams are awesome, although not in Gothenburg...

Ah it's not so bad is it? I live in Stockholm and have always been a bit envious about Gothenburgs trams, but that may be because we only have a tiny tiny tramlines over here...

But we have the tunnelbana which is FAR better than trams in GBG. Trust me, I grew up there and live in Stockholm now. No one that prefers the Gothenburg system is in their right mind.

Hey Guys. I have some questions for you

1) What are your favorite mods of Cities Skylines

2) Do you watch streams/let's plays of Cities Skylines

3) Will we get different weathers at some point?

Hey there!

These are of course my personal opinions :)

1) Dynamic Resolution, Traffic++ and that one citizen tracker mod that I can't remember what it's called.

2) I did a lot around launch but never find the time anymore. Aiming to do so when we release a bigger expansion!

3) Commonly suggested idea that we think is pretty awesome, I can say that much :)

Do you think bringing Cities: Skylines to GOG (or other digital retailers) could be a future possibility? Another user mentioned that it would be difficult to do because of Steamworks.

Thanks for doing the AMA :D

I'm trying to get our sales guy in here to give a more educated answer for you!

FILIP! IF YOU SEE THIS PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS QUESTION. KTHX<3

I don't know why, but this made me laugh so hard. Working in the office, the decision of: "Do I call his desk phone, message him, or do I walk sixty feet to go talk to Bill in Sales?" comes up way too often.

Hehe, we're in CEST timezone so this is a fair bit after office hours :) Close to 23 now!

Oh hello! /u/TotalyMoo you are really cute :O Question time: When would the cargo train station bug on left hand drive be fixed? And why do my cims hate living by the water (regarding low land value)?

It's in our bugtracker, I can say that much. CO are probably better up to date on what's being actively worked on when it comes to bugs, as they do their thang.

Also, oh you ~

Can we get a screenshot (or shots) of your personal biggest city? :)

This here is my personal project that grew largest. I'm more a fan of smaller builds.

http://i.imgur.com/cUJRFw8.png

What map is that? Raerei Cove?

Correct!

Hey guys! I absolutely love your game, and I have two questions.

1) What was your honest opinion when you knew that this game became a massive hit?

2) Any interest in making any sequels to Cities: Skylines in a few years?

1) When our guests at ParadoxCON 2015 skipped lunch/dinner/parties to play, and then asked for a copy to bring with them so they could play on their laptops whilst flying home.

2) Cities: Skylines is built as a platform to be expanded upon. It doesn't make sense to develop a sequel when there's so much fun stuff to add to your current game!

Have you pressed /r/thebutton yet?

Yes, proud 60s puritan here.

It has a less American vibe than sim city, but C:S is still a 'new city' simulator. Do you think it would be possible to make a city builder through history to allow player to create cities with an historical feel? Would it be too complex to create or not fun enough?

If you have a team of 500+ people working for like 4-5 years, sure.

It's not plausible with today's technology and industry mood, I don't reckon. Too big of a risk, too many design features that need to work in perfect harmony. Too much at stake if it turns out to be sub-par or "just OK".

Hello, and thanks for doing this AMA. My questions are more about working in the game industry than the game itself.

• So what do you think is the best way to aproach companies such as Paradox Interactive or Colossal Order for possible work/apprenticeship opportunities? As a person who studies and dreams to be working in the industry one day I find it very hard to make contacts or land a job.
• How did you guys get started and what do you think is the best way to make a brake. (In other words "Saada jalka ovenväliin".) Considering a career in the industry.

Hi there :)

• Apply via our application pages!

http://career.paradoxplaza.com/jobs

http://www.colossalorder.fi/jobs.html

This is how we find most of our employees. In addition to that, volunteer work in industry related things (esports is how I started), do mods, participate in the community. Just hang around people that do games and one day it's plausible you find yourself one of us!

• Super broad question! It all depends on what your skills are. Just get real good at what you do and keep applying. Be open minded, challenge yourself and never give up. It's not as hard as it might seem, games companies always recruit.

Or become a programmer and get a job first day out of school ;)

What is the favorite game you have ever played?

*puts on hat of shame*

Vanilla World of Warcraft.

Will you ever add dinosaurs to the game?

If our brand manager has his way, yes.

... so probably not, sorry :(

Do you guys have any feature that you're "We would love to implement that but we don't know how to do it/do it and still make it fun".

Also, what are you guys currently playing? (it can the mobile, pc, console)

For the first question - Kaiju defense mode with Oculus Rift support.

Second - Witcher 3, Hearthstone, Skylines :)

I'm sure this has been asked a lot, but any plans to incorporate something multiplayer-wise? It's something I wouldn't even mind paying for, to be honest! That's not to say the current game as it stands blows others away!

Nope, sorry! Multiplayer is way out of our scope to do in any fun/interesting way. Cities: Skylines is intended to be, and designed as, a singleplayer experience :)

Did you ever think the game would become such an instant hit? How does it feel seeing the community's positive reaction (especially in contrast to the backlash EA got for SimCity)?

We knew it was a good game, but the insane reaction was far, far above anyone's expectations. I can't take any credit for the actual game but I had a warm feeling in my chest for several weeks after launch... actually it's not gone yet. :D

HI All!

Besides Colossal Order games, of course, what games are your favorite to play? What are you favorite games from 20 years ago?

Favorite right now: GTA V (although just finished!)

20 years ago: I... I was one year old. I reckon I liked playing with my dad's old legos.

Hey guys, massive Paradox fan here!

First off, congrats on the success of Cities: Skylines.

My question is, what caused you to shift from a franchise limited to only transportation simulation like Cities in Motion, to this massive city simulator?

Hey there! Thanks for your support :)

As far as I am aware CO have always wanted to do a city simulator/builder, and so have we at Paradox. Super big fans of the genre and all that. Yet when we started working together back in the day it simply wasn't the right time to do it. After the interesting reaction to the latest SimCity I reckon there was an "aha" moment at both companies that maybe it was our time to shine... and so it was!

/u/co_martsu can probably shine a lot more light on this question.

So on fb a few days ago there was a picture of a busy train station. Where is this in game? is this a train station that's going to be released soon or was it just a custom asset from workshop?

That was a custom asset made by one of our wonderful modders :)

Hi guys,

Thanks for the awesome game, a few questions

• Will there ever be paid content?

• Can we get extra fonts for the canalhouses :)? just to add a little variation

• Will it be possible to get the EU setting mixed with the big skyscrapers? I love an old citycenter with a more modern outercity

• And what is your stance on sites like G2A?

Paid content

Yes, there will be paid expansions. We're aiming to pair them with free, large sized, updates like we do with EUIV/CK2. Our expectation is that our players will find them both substantial and worthwhile!

Extra fonts

Please elaborate!

G2A

Not too up to date on that site but I reckon they are a grey market site, no? In that case I always advise users to be wary. You never know when an unofficial retailer is selling keys that have been purchased with stolen credit cards or in another region.

Still, each to their own. We don't recommend it if it's not one of our partner sites :)

Hey guys. A question about the future of sim games. Do you think we'll mostly be seeing sandbox-style sim games, or is there still room for more sim games with a more traditional objective and victory conditions?

I honestly hope for both. Sandbox is awesome for the creative types, yet the best memories I have from city builders is playing the campaign in Cleopatra and Caesar III.

Any plans on releasing the pre-order exclusive parks as (paid?) DLC for everyone who didn't pre-order?

I really like those parks (especially Basketball court) but I missed out the opportunity of pre-ordering so I can't build with them. I'd be ok with paying a few bucks for them as well.

Alos, thanks for your fantastic game, it's a LOT of fun. And thanks for the recent free update, I really appreciate it! :)

We're currently discussing our options regarding the pre-order assets internally. I'll come back to ya'll about that once I've got real info!

And cheers! We're kind of in love with it too, hehe.

Do you approve of very similar city builders such as Cities XXL?

XXL stands on its own merits. I personally consider it more of a city-designing game than a simulation. :)

what was the idea behind abandoned buildings having to be deleted by the user? Really love the game and I know there is a mod to auto-delete them, but was playing nomods for achievements and found this really irritating. Keep up the good work <3

you don't have to bulldoze them. in fact doing so is BAD. if you leave them be, they respawn after a while on their own. if they were abandoned, you have a problem somewhere. bulldozing doesn't fix that problem and will only make people come in and abandon it again until you actually fix the root problem. exception: burned down. those you HAVE to bulldoze yourself

This guy here is pretty right. If you fix the problems causing abandonment they will be repopulated :)

Any tips for someone considering getting into the game development industry?

Work hard, socialize and network, attend events, do community related stuff (modding, guides, forum moderation, anything). You'll get contacts and from there it's not too hard :)

I heard you guys were thinking of making a similar thing like the Sims franchise, is that true?

Lol, that's just Shams (Chief of Acquisitions) talking. Don't take him too seriously. He's a great guy but tends to think out loud on twitter with... mixed results and reception.

On a scale of 1-10 how awesome is your wiki team?

9.5, nothing is perfect.

Hey everyone! Thanks for an amazingly fun experience in Cities: Skylines.

My question is this: how do you guys keep the experience fresh and new each time you play? I hit the same issue when I first started playing Minecraft so long ago, in that it's insanely addictive and fun for a while, but very quickly I feel like I'm stretched to do anything that piques my interest as much again. Any advice?

Thanks again!

Personally I try different approaches to design, download tons of mods and pace my playing sessions widely. I love this game to bits but I can't be overexposed to it - especially when also working with it. Trust me, it invades your dreams after a while and I'm tired of waking up thinking about optimal road planning.

That way it will stay fresh and interesting every time you get in the mood.

And cheers!