Welcome to Cities: Skylines The Dev Diaries
These videos take a closer look the official Dev Diaries that can be found
at the Paradox Interactive forum and I'll include a link to them in
the video description
In this episode we'll be looking at The Map Editor
And in my opinion this is the jewel in Skylines crown
When you start creating a new map the first thing you'll see is the
map tile grid which covers the entire buildable area
The center tile defaults to being the 'Starting Tile'
but you can choose any of the 25 tiles and you can change the Starting Tile
at any point during the map creation process
Now there have been a lot of questions about the size of the maps and how much buildable
area we will have so let's cover that now
You start with a single tile which is 2km by 2km
The developers have optimized the game for 36km� which is 9 map tiles
and you will be able to unlock up to 9 tiles in any direction or pattern of your choosing
Now this is usually the point where we get disappointed and think why the hell did I
bother getting a good gaming rig when they restrict the map size like this?
However!
the developers have made it very clear that modders will be able to unlock
the entire 5 by 5 grid
Now OK .. personally I would have liked an in-game option where I could select the maximum
number of unlockable tiles but hey
As long as we get to play on the biggest map our
PC's can handle then I'm happy
One useful feature of the Map Editor is the Checklist
The Checklist is split into 2 categories Requirements and Recommended Features
Requirements are things that every map must have in order to be playable
Like outside connections
Recommended features are optional things like natural resources
and the checklist gives you an easy way to keep track of your progress and
make sure you've covered all the bases
As you add things to the map the checklist will automatically tick the boxes for
tasks that have been completed
The boundaries of the buildable area can act as a useful guide when you're terraforming
The developers describe the area outside the buildable area as the 'eye candy' area
and you can go wild vast oceans, mountain ranges, whatever you
like just remember you'll need at least one outside
highway connection
Inside the buildable area you can still go wild
but the best maps will be a good balance of interesting and challenging terrain
without limiting the buildable area too much
So how exactly do we go about creating these masterpieces of geoengineering?
The terrain editor has a pretty comprehensive range of tools to allow you to manipulate
the terrain pretty much any way you want
There are several editing modes: raising/lowering, flattening, smoothing and
creating slopes
and for each of these modes there are several different brushes
starting from the basic soft and round brushes up to the harder-edged brushes
and custom-shaped brushes which are apparently designed to create more natural
looking formations like rivers and lakes for example
Oh yeah and the brush size and strength can also be changed
Sounding good so far?
Yep I think so too
But what about if you don't want to fiddle about recreating Manhattan by hand?
Well the map editor also allows the importing of height maps
The game prefers 16 bit grayscale PNG files which
should, they say, give pretty accurate terrain formations
Just pop your files into the correct folder and you'll be able to access them within
the editor
Here's an example of a map that was imported and then modified using the in-game tools
to improve the playability
I can just image a whole bunch of avid map makers who can't wait to get
their hands on this And I'm gonna predict right now that
we'll have maps of major cities and well known landscapes
available for download in a matter of days after the launch
I'm also going to predict that several of you out there are going to need a
cold shower after this next bit
Because now we're gonna look at water
and the way water dynamics has been implemented in Cities: Skylines looks
nothing short of total friken sweetballs!
Let's start with the basics
For a map to be playable there needs to be water somewhere
in the buildable area and specifically there must be water in the starting tile
otherwise your little skyliners won't have anything to drink
or anywhere to dump their sewage
Water is present in two ways
Fresh flowing water that's created by placing water sources on the map
and sea water that is automatically present in areas where the terrain level
is below the sea level and there's access to the border of the map
and by the way, the sea level is not fixed you can set the sea level to whatever you
like in order to fit the maps you create or import
So, for example, on this imported map set the sea level to 45 meters
and you get this
But the best thing for me are the water spawners
You want to create a lake?
Dig one out place a water spawner in a suitable location
set the height of the spawner to define the level of the lake
Then sit back and watch the water flow
The water will continue to spawn as long as it reaches the height set for the spawner
Then the spawning and also draining of water will automatically balance so that the lake
won't flood unintentionally
Spawner also act as drains so you could have water spawning in one lake
flowing down a river into a second lake where the water drains away
The best way to handle rivers is to dig a river bed
to the edge of the map and then place a water spawner
The water will flow along the river bed and if the spawner's capacity is large and the
height is high enough it will keep flowing until it reaches the other side of the map
or the sea level
I told you .. friken sweetballs!
The map editor also has a set of what the developers call 'infoviews'
which help you with some the most important aspects of the map like water flow directions
and the placement of natural resources as well as the terrain height differences
For example, the flow infoview will help you make sure that the water spawners have high
enough capacity to produce strong currents and that the river flow works properly
when it comes in contact with other water features like the sea and lakes
The terrain height infoview mode will help identify any unwanted irregularities in the
map allowing you to spot and remove any annoying
bumps that might interfere with city building
and the Natural resources infoview shows you where the resources are located
Green for trees, black for oil, blue for ore and yellow for fertile land.
In order to be playable a map must have at least one incoming
and one outgoing connection for each of the different types of transport
and the starting tile has to have at least a highway connection since the player has
only access to road building at the beginning of the game
This is where the checklist comes in very handy, keeping track of exactly
how many connections you have any given moment
One thing that's worth pointing out once you're actually playing on the map
The player can only edit the roads in the map area they have unlocked
they can't edit roads or any other connections such as train tracks
that are outside the city boundaries or in the non-buildable zone
And therefore it's up to the map maker to make sure the player will have all the
connections a city will need
and that they in accessible positions
The developers, Collosal Order, view natural resources as an important
strategic element in the game and the mapmaker can play some interesting
games depending on the size and placement
of resources
Three of the four natural resources can be painted on the ground and
will alter the ground texture depending on the specific resource type
forests, for example, have several different trees to choose from
depending on the map theme
and the developers have teased us by promising to tell us more about
climate themes in a future Dev Diary
But we do know for sure that there will be a Nordic theme
and a desert theme
And each theme will have unique lighting conditions and terrain textures as well as
a unique selection of trees
The Nordic Theme for example offers pine trees and conifers for your forests
and the lighting attempts to simulate that found in
the northern hemisphere as well as having terrain textures with rather toned down colors
Once your map is complete you can create a preview image with the Snapshot tool,
give the map a name and check the Publish Map checkbox
Then your map will automatically appear in the list of playable maps
when starting a new game
And that's it for The Map Editor
Starting to believe the hype yet?
I am
I'd like to thank Henkka for putting together the original Dev Diary
I'd like to thank you for watching
and you enjoyed this vid hit the like button or better still, leave me a comment
I'll see you for episode 7 where we'll be looking at
Simulation