Not Just Traffic Jams and Accidents - Here's How Cities: Skylines 2 Changes Road Traffic
We've already had a recap of the changes on the roads in Cities: Skylines 2. Now it's time for traffic jams, accidents and other charms of big city traffic.
As promised, developers of Cities: Skylines 2 have discussed another aspect that will be significantly improved in the continuation of the popular city builder. After road-related improvements, it was time for vehicle movement.
As before, the entry on Steam and Paradox Interactive's official forum is accompanied by a video discussing traffic jams, accidents and the "pathfinding cost." You can watch it below.
The latter term (Pathfinding Cost) refers to changes in route-finding by "agents": residents and service and resource delivery vehicles. In the first Cities: Skylines they usually took the shortest route - only that it was in a straight line and without considering the city's road system. As a result, they didn't always take the optimal route, which in case of urgent issues (for example, fires) could be fatal.
In the sequel, Colossal Order will introduce a much more complicated system. Many factors will determine the choice (or change) of route.
- Time, comfort, money and behavior are the four main aspects based on which residents will determine their routes. The former is usually the priority, but sometimes the others will become more important. It should also be clarified that the last one determines the propensity of an "agent" to make "dangerous" decisions on the road, such as turning or changing lanes.
- Of considerable importance will be the age of the "agents." For teenagers, money will matter more, for adults - time, and for seniors - travel comfort. In addition, an important factor is also parking system.
Cities: Skylines 2 will allow the construction of larger cities.Source: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive.
On a similar note, path-finding for vehicles will be improved.
- Importantly, when issuing orders for service vehicles, the game will take into account not only their current location, but also their future location (i.e., where they will be when the current task is completed).
- In practice, this means that instead of assigning the nearest unit to - for example - repair a road, the system will issue such a command to a vehicle that will be in the area after dealing with another activity.
- For vehicles delivering resources, the most important thing will be the length of the route - that is, financial considerations.
It is worth mentioning at this point that, despite the much larger number of operations performed by the game, the developers have abolished the upper limit of moving "agents". In other words, cities in Cities: Skylines 2 will be able to have a much larger number of inhabitants than in the first game. This is due to better use of the capabilities of multi-core processors, although probably after the release players will quickly create metropolises that will slay the average PC (or console).
The post also touches on quite a few other traffic issues, including more frequent use of empty lanes (including at traffic circles), parking, the Roads Infoview tool and accidents. Cars will be able to hit not only other vehicles, but also buildings - so it is better to take care of the condition of roads and lighting to reduce the risk of collisions.
The Roads Infoview tool will make it easier to deal with virtual traffic jams.Source: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive.
Cities: Skylines 2 will be released on October 24 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game will also be available immediately on Game Pass.
