It’s been a few days since Paradox Interactive announced their winter ’Snowfall’ expansion for their lovely city building sim Cities: Skylines, and they’re keeping the hype tram rolling, so-to-speak. In a new developer diary, Paradox went in-depth about two of the major additions to your fair cities: Trams and road maintenance.
The new diary was posted up on the Paradox Interactive forums, where the developer posted screens and talked about one of the major difficulties of maintaining a city in and out of the winter time. Road maintenance is a new system that will either boost or hinder your traffic based on how much you pay attention. The obvious implications of taking care of your roads in the winter are clear, but keeping your streets clean and neat with Road Maintenance vehicles will give them a boost that makes traffic flow more abundantly.
Trams had already been announced, but Paradox went on to explain exactly how this system differs from other public transportation. Simply put, you’ll build tram depots and tracks to establish lines. The comparison to bus lines is abundant in the diary as trams perform very similarly, but where buses must run on roads, tramlines can be built on or off-road, allowing more versatility. Also, Trams can hold more passengers per vehicle than buses. The trade-off is that trams in their entirety cost more to run.
The diary also briefly goes over how weather will affect most buildings and landscapes visually. Your citizens will react to the whether properly and change their behaviors and building decoration as the seasons change. These changes will affect buildings from the ‘After Dark’ expansion as well.
‘Snowfall’ has no release date yet, but the expansion will come alongside a free update for players that will offer players other cosmetic weather changes.
