Major Patch for Cities: Skylines 2 Was Released on Steam. Economy 2.0 Is Set to Revolutionize Gameplay
Cities: Skylines 2 received the promised update. Economy 2.0 is just part of a long list of changes to the highly anticipated patch.
The update with Economy 2.0 is now available in Cities: Skylines 2. As announced after the recent delay, patch 1.1.5f1 hit PCs today along with a huge number of fixes, which are finally supposed to change the game as fans desired.
Economy 2.0 in a nutshell
Just a reminder: the update alters numerous elements, with the most crucial being the overhaul of the economy to make it more understandable for the player (i.e., so the game doesn't conceal information about the virtual city's operation) and to provide greater control over the metropolis, while also ensuring that the gameplay is challenging and not merely about "painting" the city without any challenge, as some players put it.
The Colossal Order team has previously discussed the changes in earlier posts and has now released a detailed list of changes in version 1.1.5f1. You can find it in the studio's announcement, which was published on Steam and the official forum of Paradox Interactive.
As promised, the patch also introduces changes to the education system, increasing the likelihood of citizens attending and completing primary and higher education. It also rebalances the operation of city services, such as increasing the number of employees in some buildings and making building improvements.
Compared to the previous posts, there is also one more novelty: the cost of maintaining the Tile Upkeep. This only pertains to the first 9 starting tiles, and you can deactivate this feature using the "Unlock all map tiles" option. Bear in mind that this will also prevent you from earning achievements.
Urban crisis
Although the long list of changes looks promising, it's currently difficult to assess the actual impact of the patch on CS 2 gameplay. As announced by the devs, the cities that were built on the old saves are facing "waves of death" and other problems. The game must therefore adapt the existing metropolises to the introduced changes. It may take quite some time depending on the size of the city.
So at this moment, the only way to even briefly check how much has actually changed is to start the game over. Nonetheless, judging by the first opinions, it seems that this time the Colossal Order team didn't disappoint.
Of course, there are complaints about incompatibility with mods (which should be obvious), and some players are forced to close the game or deal with disappearing user interfaces. It seems that at least some of these problems result from the presence of currently inactive fan modifications (via Colossal Order). However, both the list of changes and the first tests (unless they were interrupted by the above-mentioned errors) show that Economics 2.0 has actually changed Cities: Skylines 2 for the better.
Of course, as mentioned, this is just the first step towards making CS 2 a worthy successor to the original Cities: Skylines. Fans hope that the Colossal Order team is already preparing the next updates. Furthermore, it's best to refrain from evaluating Economy 2.0 until players have had sufficient time to thoroughly test the new game version.
