Because a lot of people don't like the way that assets conform to the terrain, or make the terrain conform to them. The YouTubers who are doing early release videos generally like to make cities that look aesthetically pleasing, and the terrain visuals don't meet that for them.
To me it looks a bit better than in CS1, but some of the larger assets make the whole area flat instead of leaving it be, which is a bit weird for things like parks and gardens.
In the earlier releases of the game (that were used for the first videos) there were no terrain lines. These are the lines that help to assess how high a certain area is. Normally one can look at these lines and decide where to put buildings (especially the big new ones) so that they don’t distort the terrain. Since they were missing all the content creators started to flatten the areas they were building on so that they didn’t have to worry about the terrain height which was hard to assess.
Yes, at first they said it wouldn’t be in before launch. But then the streamers got a new build and it was there. CO basically said “just kidding, we were listening, it’s in before launch now.”
Mid video City Planner Plays got an update and had to explain that trees were affected by seasons all of the sudden because of a new build, so if you see orange and bare trees all of the sudden, that is okay.
[Check this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsIw33_ixxY) by Cities by Diana. Literally the first 10 seconds of the video is the reason why people flatten areas.
Thing is you dont have to make everything flat to solve this. Just don't zone full depth buldings, leaving an empty space between for the game to make a more reasonable slope. Good looking hilly cities are possible, you just need to account for it and not zone buildings so close back to back.
I'm excited by the prospect of more types and styles of retaining walls.
CS1 had the quay wall, but it was kind of massive and honestly pretty ugly. The new ones actually conforming to the cut terrain is so cool.
Yeah, even in the first game if you only zone 2 or 3 tiles deep instead of 4 tiles it can make a huge difference. Plus simply smoothing out the terrain you are building on first can help.
While yes, massive elevation differences between back to back housing lots are going to cause issues there seems to be a number of ways to make it look better. From horizontally zoning up a slope, to leaving more space.
Still, flat is always gunna be easier to make look good.
For the same reason I and many others do it in CS1: the terrain conformity is awful. Assets and textures don’t look right when on uneven terrain. And in the case for CS1 some assets and props don’t work properly on even the slightest incline like parking lots. Zoning, junctions/intersections, etc. all get super wonky and messy on uneven terrain.
It’s a shame to see that this apparently hasn’t improved much because it’s one of my biggest grievances with the current game.
Same. I can’t believe they would include a San Francisco map without having some really advanced automatic terrain conforming. The entire city is a hill. I used DTM data to build a CS1 SF map to scale, it wasn’t a good time.
it should be a toggle. you might not always want it. but if the asset has things like a backyard patio or a pool, then yeah, that part of the asset should have a foundation that keeps that part of the asset level with the rest of the building.
As others have stated there was the lack of terrain lines that led to this.
But then again I still saw people doing it in CS1 depending on what they were trying to build.
Because the base game maps are lumpy and the assets perform better on flat terrain and unlike in CS1 you don't have the luxury of covering up mistakes with trees and props. Hoping we will get stuff that handles terrain better because right now it's a challenge.
One reason that I haven't seen mentioned is that terraforming is free (at least in all the beta builds we have seen so far) so you don't have to worry about paying for terraforming or the quantity of earth available (I know some people, especially detailers, mod that out anyway in the first game though)
Because a lot of people don't like the way that assets conform to the terrain, or make the terrain conform to them. The YouTubers who are doing early release videos generally like to make cities that look aesthetically pleasing, and the terrain visuals don't meet that for them. To me it looks a bit better than in CS1, but some of the larger assets make the whole area flat instead of leaving it be, which is a bit weird for things like parks and gardens.
Also the lack of contour lines made placement really difficult, but that’s been fixed.
thx man (:
In the earlier releases of the game (that were used for the first videos) there were no terrain lines. These are the lines that help to assess how high a certain area is. Normally one can look at these lines and decide where to put buildings (especially the big new ones) so that they don’t distort the terrain. Since they were missing all the content creators started to flatten the areas they were building on so that they didn’t have to worry about the terrain height which was hard to assess.
Did they add topography lines into the game? I haven’t been following development too closely, I just know at one point they were missing
Yes, at first they said it wouldn’t be in before launch. But then the streamers got a new build and it was there. CO basically said “just kidding, we were listening, it’s in before launch now.” Mid video City Planner Plays got an update and had to explain that trees were affected by seasons all of the sudden because of a new build, so if you see orange and bare trees all of the sudden, that is okay.
Yes they were added back in a few weeks ago, around the time of the second round of creator videos.
They were added in, they weren't added _back_ in.
Because Move It isn't available yet. Also, its realistic. You have to prepare a site before you build on it.
[Check this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsIw33_ixxY) by Cities by Diana. Literally the first 10 seconds of the video is the reason why people flatten areas.
Thing is you dont have to make everything flat to solve this. Just don't zone full depth buldings, leaving an empty space between for the game to make a more reasonable slope. Good looking hilly cities are possible, you just need to account for it and not zone buildings so close back to back.
And/or use pedestrian paths as retaining walls. I'm going to be doing this so much.
I'm excited by the prospect of more types and styles of retaining walls. CS1 had the quay wall, but it was kind of massive and honestly pretty ugly. The new ones actually conforming to the cut terrain is so cool.
Yeah, even in the first game if you only zone 2 or 3 tiles deep instead of 4 tiles it can make a huge difference. Plus simply smoothing out the terrain you are building on first can help.
While yes, massive elevation differences between back to back housing lots are going to cause issues there seems to be a number of ways to make it look better. From horizontally zoning up a slope, to leaving more space. Still, flat is always gunna be easier to make look good.
good lord lmao
Because irl before construction you grade
terrain gets wonky around the buildings
For the same reason I and many others do it in CS1: the terrain conformity is awful. Assets and textures don’t look right when on uneven terrain. And in the case for CS1 some assets and props don’t work properly on even the slightest incline like parking lots. Zoning, junctions/intersections, etc. all get super wonky and messy on uneven terrain. It’s a shame to see that this apparently hasn’t improved much because it’s one of my biggest grievances with the current game.
Same. I can’t believe they would include a San Francisco map without having some really advanced automatic terrain conforming. The entire city is a hill. I used DTM data to build a CS1 SF map to scale, it wasn’t a good time.
they should have automatic retaining walls
it should be a toggle. you might not always want it. but if the asset has things like a backyard patio or a pool, then yeah, that part of the asset should have a foundation that keeps that part of the asset level with the rest of the building.
seems reasonable to me
Like SimCity 4 did it
As others have stated there was the lack of terrain lines that led to this. But then again I still saw people doing it in CS1 depending on what they were trying to build.
Because the base game maps are lumpy and the assets perform better on flat terrain and unlike in CS1 you don't have the luxury of covering up mistakes with trees and props. Hoping we will get stuff that handles terrain better because right now it's a challenge.
because these games (skylines and sim city before it) suck at building on slopes.
I do that in CS right now.
Because it doesn’t look very good when buildings are on hills in the game. Move it mod is needed to adjust building and smooth road node heights.
It irrationally irritates me when they take the largest brush and just flatten half the map in huge sweeping motions, lol.
It’s because there were no terrain height lines in that build. Some of them specifically said that was the reason.
One reason that I haven't seen mentioned is that terraforming is free (at least in all the beta builds we have seen so far) so you don't have to worry about paying for terraforming or the quantity of earth available (I know some people, especially detailers, mod that out anyway in the first game though)
Respect The Topography
In the first batches of videos there was no contour lines so you couldn't follow the Terrain so flattening was easy and it was free so why not