Greetings, Mayors!
Welcome to the second edition of City Corner. Following our initial look at visual updates two weeks ago, we are back to provide a deeper dive into the specific refinements and bug fixes arriving in our debut patch. We will also be addressing several community questions gathered from our previous update.
Before we explore the technical details, we want to express our gratitude for the incredible feedback you’ve shared. Your insights are vital in helping us shape a better experience for everyone. Now, let’s get into the heart of the upcoming changes.
Refining the Cycle of Life and Death
Previously, the “Grim Reaper” operated on a strict schedule between midnight and 6 AM, which many of you noticed as massive “deathwaves” sweeping through your districts. We have recalibrated this system to distribute mortality more naturally throughout the day. This shift ensures a consistent workflow for your funeral services, preventing hearses from being overwhelmed by artificial spikes in demand.
Furthermore, we’ve addressed an issue in Easy Mode where citizens seemed to achieve near-immortality. While we value our senior residents, we have adjusted their lifespans so that they eventually pass on, allowing the next generation of citizens to move in and keep the city’s demographics healthy and dynamic.
Player Agency: Introducing Legacy Toggles
When introducing significant changes, we believe in giving players the power to choose. Following the feedback regarding our UI overhaul, we’ve implemented “Legacy Toggles.” This feature allows you to revert specific elements, such as the interface design, to their original state if you prefer the classic look.
Our long-term vision is to expand these toggles to other features, ensuring that your preferred playstyle is always protected. In this patch, you will see a toggle for the new UI and a change to the Autosave feature, which will now be enabled by default.
Calming the Two-Wheeled Traffic
While cycling is a sustainable way to travel, the sheer volume of bikes was becoming a logistical nightmare. We have reduced bicycle traffic by 80%, effectively ending the “bike blockades” that frequently stalled city transit. We are continuing to investigate lingering issues with bicycle behavior, but this change should immediately improve road flow.
Bicycle congestion on a major artery before the update.
The same road following the first patch.
Our team is also analyzing broader traffic patterns, including pathfinding logic, erratic lane changes, and unnecessary U-turns. While we have made significant progress, these complex systems require further fine-tuning before they are ready for release.
Precision Terraforming
Sculpting the land should feel intuitive, not frustrating. To prevent accidental mountain ranges when you only intended to make a small hill, we’ve overhauled the terraforming suite. Tools now retain their individual settings when you switch between them, and the brush strength has been recalibrated for greater accuracy. Additionally, for fine-detail work, the brush size can now be reduced to a value of 1.
Brush size successfully reduced to 1 for precise detailing.
A hill created using the legacy toolset.
A similar hill created with the improved tools, demonstrating better height and strength control.
Technical Polish and Visual Stability
Exterminating bugs remains a top priority. This patch introduces visual enhancements, such as reduced screen flickering during dawn and dusk. We’ve also updated shadowmap calculations to utilize the full available resolution, resulting in noticeably sharper shadows on higher quality settings.
We are still actively investigating performance optimization, train congestion at map borders, and DLSS-related visual ghosting. Your bug reports on the forums are incredibly helpful as we work to squash these issues as quickly as possible.
Community Q&A
We’ve selected a few of your most frequent questions to answer today:
Can we adjust UI transparency or colors?
While these specific customization options won’t be in the immediate patch, we are developing further UI enhancements that include transparency and expanded color palettes. In the meantime, the Legacy Toggle will allow you to stick with the original UI if preferred.
How is snow handled on vehicles and roads?
We are currently refining how snow accumulates on roadways. However, we have temporarily disabled snow buildup on vehicles to prevent the immersion-breaking “frozen windshield” effect. We will revisit vehicle snow effects once they meet our quality standards.
Can we use Hex values for customization?
Yes! Based on your requests, we have added a Hex code input to the color customization tool. You can now use exact color codes to personalize your buildings and vehicles.
When does the patch go live?
We are targeting a release for next week. We will keep you updated as we finalize the deployment window.
Until next time, Happy Building!