15 Sep 2026Developer post

Expansion Pass 2 Out NOW!

Iceflake's first Expansion Pass is here! With the continued development of Cities: Skylines II, we have reached an important milestone: our first official Expansion Pass, and our first expansion: 'Park Adventures'! After a long time of patches, it is time to breathe some new life

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Iceflake's first Expansion Pass is here!

With the continued development of Cities: Skylines II, we have reached an important milestone: our first official Expansion Pass, and our first expansion: 'Park Adventures'! After a long time of patches, it is time to breathe some new life into your cities with this newest addition, while our team continues working on improving your experience with Cities: Skylines II.

Together with 'Expansion Pass 2' comes our latest patch, Autumn Breeze, which includes improvements to the gameplay, visuals, and much more! The Patch is available now, and you can read the Patch Notes here: View game page

...And if you get the Expansion Pass, you'll get your hands on the 'Downtown Market' instant unlock, available for you for free!

'Downtown Market Set' brings street-level energy to your city! This Instant Unlock lets you create a vibrant social hub with repurposed shipping container architecture and colorful food trucks. And if you are looking for a new environment to build on, the set comes with a new Scottish-inspired temperate map, enriched by lochs, rivers, and ruins!

Some new eateries on wheels are included in the Instant Unlock and…

…one new ‘Emerald Estuary’ map!

Join us for the next couple of months as we release the next expansion, 'Park Adventures', all about shaping and customizing your own outdoor spaces. From green city parks, to animal-filled zoos, to colorful and exciting amusement parks, to natural reserves that calm the soul.

'Park Adventures' will be the first Expansion by our team at Iceflake. Decorate your city with everything from calm urban parks for your city centers to entertaining Ferris wheels and relaxing nature trails!

One of the most-requested expansion themes by the Community, Park Adventures, follows in the footsteps of the 'Parklife' Expansion from Cities: Skylines; whilst being something especially tailored for Cities: Skylines II.

Maybe you want to be able to mix and match what your park offers? Don't worry, if you wanted to add a roller coaster in your zoo to add some “Aaaahs” to your “Rawrs,” you totally can!

Add some fun for your citizens with over 100 new assets spanning city park buildings, zoo enclosures and animals, nature reserve structures, and amusement park rides. If you want to start a new city, you will also get new maps to build the arid, tropical, boreal, alpine, or Mediterranean city of your dreams.

We also wanted to share that, along with Park Adventures, there will be a Free Update that all players will receive! All players will be able to try something new with the release of Park Adventures, and we are excited to see what you will make with the Free Update features!

The next release will be new Creator Packs from community creators Arthaix and Trist1322, and a new accompanying Radio Station.

'First Response' by 'Arthaix' will expand your city's fire, police, and healthcare services, from small substations and clinics to operations centers and headquarters. With many upgrades to add to the fifteen new buildings, they can evolve with your city.

'Modern Suburbs' by 'Trist1322' adds a new section of modern and contemporary low-rise residential and mixed-use row homes that will slot naturally into any city. The community-oriented service buildings will also fit right into the new neighborhoods with the Civic Hall, Community Learning Center, Contemporary Subway Station, and Community Library.

'Corner Street Beats' Radio Station. Smooth, late-night sounds to accompany your city planning sessions — whether you're laying down transit lines, shaping new neighborhoods, or just watching the lights come on across the skyline.

Further into 2027, we will have a Map Pack from another community creator, Uncle Ron, accompanied by a new expansion by us at Iceflake, City Vacations.

'City Vacations' will expand on your city's tourism and the tourists that will want to visit the new buildings, landmarks, and attractions: from cultural venues and entertainment districts to iconic structures. Beyond placing attractions, you gain meaningful control over how tourists move through your city once they arrive, influencing where they stay, how they get around, and where their spending flows.

'Map Pack' by 'Uncle Ron' features seven new maps inspired by holiday destinations around the world, from tropical islands to alpine valleys and desert canyons, and includes three tropical-focused maps, two temperate-focused maps, one alpine-focused map, and one arid-focused map. Explore new parts of the world with the Map Pack Creator Pack.

Original post

15 Sep 2026Developer post

Patch 1.6.2f1 - Autumn Breeze

Hello Mayors! Patch 1.6.2f1 is now live, bringing a number of improvements to gameplay mechanics, such as garbage truck logic, citizen financial behavior, and company renting priorities, with the addition of small adjustments to the UI, Asset Editor, and Paradox Mods. This update

Hello Mayors!

Patch 1.6.2f1 is now live, bringing a number of improvements to gameplay mechanics, such as garbage truck logic, citizen financial behavior, and company renting priorities, with the addition of small adjustments to the UI, Asset Editor, and Paradox Mods. This update also brings enhanced visuals with improved tree LOD quality, fixes for water flow, and more!

This patch updates the UI framework, which can cause side effects to a limited number of mods. Loading of old save games is supported.

Gameplay:

Improved garbage truck logic: Trucks are now smarter at reserving capacity for their intended destination and skip more buildings with very small amounts of garbage. This makes them more likely to reach their intended target before filling up on the way.
Garbage now has more effect on citizens’ happiness.
Adjusted company renting priorities: Companies producing the most-needed resources in the city are now prioritized when renting properties, preventing companies producing less-needed resources from claiming available properties before them.
Adjusted residential demand calculations: Residential demand now takes the size of the city into account when calculating the impact of empty residential properties, fixing the lack of residential demand in very large cities.
Adjusted citizen financial behavior: Citizen happiness, shopping, and leisure choices now use income rather than wealth. Because citizens adjust their spending to match their financial situation, current wealth is a poor measure of how well off they are, making income a much better indicator.
Fixed an issue where teens who became adults would often move out immediately, causing a gap in the age pyramid. Now fresh adults delay moving out of their parents’ home until they can find a home they can afford.
Fixed cars sometimes being left behind, especially at transit stations, when a citizen returns home using other means.
Fixed cars sometimes being left behind when the household moves.
Fixed cars sometimes being moved to outside connections after being despawned due to unavailable parking. This caused unnecessary trips to fetch them back.
Fixed offices not being able to import Software from outside connections.
Fixed a bug where the Post Office Sorting upgrade disabled the ability to import local mail, resulting in too little local mail available to serve buildings that expected it.
Fixed a bug where homeless people trying to coordinate trips with their family could get stuck.
Fixed not being able to bulldoze or relocate buildings when their removal would cause minor overlaps among remaining buildings or roads.

UI:

Coherent Gameface updated to version 2.2.1 for better future support. This can have an effect on a limited number of mods.
Adjusted toolbar icon sizes and padding to fix uneven icon sizes and gaps between toolbar icons.
Reworked some icons to be isometric for better consistency between icons.
Small improvements to some icons’ colors and details.
Added encyclopedia sub-chapter for Texture Painting Tools.
Fixed the Selected Info Panel upkeep section not showing the service budget effect on wages.
Fixed an issue where policy slider rounding could result in a slightly different value being applied than what was displayed.
Fixed a rare issue where multiple error screens appearing at the same time could leave the game unresponsive.
Updated revised maps’ thumbnail and preview images.

Visual:

Updated Waterway Pass and Lakeland maps with new painted terrain texture details.
Adjusted surface normals to make their lighting follow the terrain.
Improved tree LOD quality and performance.
Fixed nighttime illumination of window interiors where they are configured by the creator to be always on or always off. Window interiors are now correctly lit, unlit, or simulated.
Fixed values used for water flow-related visuals.
Enabled moonlight shadow casting during the night, which was accidentally disabled in a previous update.

Misc:

Optimized numerous assets for performance (new/better LODs).
Smarter selection of LOD levels for improved performance.
Minor simulation performance optimizations.
Memory usage optimizations.
Improved wind simulation performance.
New tree added: the European Spruce.

Editor:

Added a new launch parameter –startEditor to open the Editor on startup.
Added support for frosted and opaque window types.
Added per-window-type asset import settings:
- Option to turn decoration off per type,
- Window color (and light intensity) for frosted and opaque windows.
- Window tint color (and tint strength) for normal windows.
Added Import Parameters to window mesh files in the import panel.
- In-editor UI support for choosing each window type’s colors.
- In-editor UI support for disabling decorations for each window.
Added support for new Localized mesh states.
- Added a new preset "Localized Static Object".
- Added a new example folder.
Added Copy/Paste option to all Name and Description translation fields in the asset Localization section in the editor.
Added support for multi-line input for Description fields in the Localization section in the editor.
Added an "Add All Translations" button to each Name and Description field in the Localization section in the editor.
Added Parent Mesh, Group Index, and Probability overrides when placing items on other assets in the editor.
Added Expand All and Collapse All sections to editor inspectors, with an optional keybind to toggle them available in the interface options.
Added Save and Reset buttons to the Import Seed field.
Added item names to collapsed element lists.
Changed the Object State Panel to be collapsed by default.
Improved the package panel’s "Add Assets" selection process:
- Added filters for asset types, default includes "Prefab Asset", excludes "Render Prefab".
- Added multi-select and confirm to add multiple assets in one action.
Fixed an issue where a massive number of color palettes could accumulate for creators on custom maps, and any saves using it, eventually making them unplayable.
Fixed the "Clone" shortcut not showing the Tool Options UI in the editor.

Paradox Mods:

Introducing Collaborators to mods (more information about this here).
Added support for managing mods in Paradox Launcher.
Added the ability to exclude tags in the Browse tab.
Added the option to toggle 'Auto-download mods' in a playset's settings.
Added max character count indicators to all text fields.
Added a 'Not Downloaded' badge on mods instead of having a yellow backplate.
Fixed not being able to interact with links in the featured section.
Fixed the 'Show All' button in followed creators not working.
Fixed not being able to delete freshly created playsets.
Fixed the active playset not being shown when opening Paradox Mods while offline.
Fixed not being able to manage your mods while offline.
Fixed some mod pages with an unexpected forum link format not having a comment section.
Fixed rare cases of the loading logo getting stuck on startup of Paradox Mods in-game.

Original post

09 Sep 2026Developer post

Official Q&A Thread | 2026

You asked, we answered, and will continue to answer! Our official Q&A Thread is now open in the Paradox Forums ! Whether you're looking for answers or want to ask a new question, this thread is the place to be! Whatever it might be, feel free to hop in and post your questions

You asked, we answered, and will continue to answer!

Our official Q&A Thread is now open in the Paradox Forums! Whether you're looking for answers or want to ask a new question, this thread is the place to be! Whatever it might be, feel free to hop in and post your questions in the thread, and we will answer as soon as we can.

Roads and Infrastructure

Q: How can the game provide more flexibility in road design, such as varied road widths and default restrictions for pedestrians on highways? What about road naming?

A: We haven’t looked into how feasible it is, but something like the road builder mod included in vanilla Asset Editor could be a possibility. Live editing in-game is probably out of scope, though, we would need to look more into it to give a definitive answer.

Pedestrians on highways are a fallback, and if it happens, then something else already went wrong. If the recent fixes haven’t helped, there needs to be a bug ticket with a save where it happens, so we can investigate further.

We haven’t looked into improving the road naming yet, but we know that this is one of the most-suggested features in the game. So, time will tell!

----

Q: Are there plans to allow for more integrated public transport infrastructure, such as bus stops and bike lanes on the same road segment?

A: No big plans like this as of now, but let’s see what the future holds.

----

Q: Are improvements to tunnels and underground infrastructure being considered?

A: Not currently, beyond smaller fixes like visual issues with tunnel entrances.

Zoning and City Management

Q: What plans are there to address the instability of zoning grids and allow for smaller, more precise grid sizes (e.g., 2m)?

A: Smaller grids not planned. QoL for controlling the grids are possible but not in the short term plans.

----

Q: Is there a future system planned for complex regional hierarchies, allowing players to manage multiple settlements (towns, villages, capitals) within a single map?

A: No.

----

Q: What are the next steps for improving the resource economy? Are there any larger changes planned beyond the company-priority adjustments introduced in Autumn Breeze?

A: The resource economy is being worked on from multiple angles and need a lot more investigation, so giving a concrete answer is quite difficult. We’re taking things step by step, starting with fixing various services, then focusing on the economy basics, like citizen and company behaviour, demands, rents and land value, which are all interdependent. Then, we would probably move onto cargo transportation.

----

Q: What can players expect performance-wise as their cities get larger? When is the next meaningful optimization pass coming?

A: Optimization is an ongoing work, so there are no single big wins in this area, that would fix everything in one go.

----

Q: What are the biggest remaining performance bottlenecks in large cities, and are there any particular areas of the simulation currently being targeted for optimization?

A: Bottlenecks depend on the city and hardware, so there are dozens of areas targeted for optimization and not one specific one that we are focusing on.

Simulation and Difficulty

Q: Will developers introduce customizable difficulty settings to provide more challenge, such as pandemic management or organized crime control?

A: Customizable difficulty settings are doable if we really want it, but that would mean they will never be balanced. So, right now we are focusing on balancing the difficulties that we already have.

As for pandemic management and organized control, not planned.

----

Q: When can players expect a rework of the pathfinding algorithm to prevent traffic congestion and the reliance on single, inefficient routes?

A: It is impossible to say “when” this would happen, but it is a high priority. In any case, there will be no “rework”, but instead a simple balancing or a bugfix, because they already avoid congested routes.

----

Q: What is the status of improvements to natural disasters and the emergency evacuation system?

A: Not planned currently.

----

Q: Are there plans to revisit traffic and pathfinding more broadly, particularly highway traffic, lane usage, and pedestrian routing?

A: We are looking into issues with pathfinding all the time, but no major rework is planned. However, very small balance changes in the cim decision making can have a huge impact on how this feels.

----

Q: When you talk about giving players more control over the simulation at the district or city level, what kinds of controls are you currently considering?

A: For example, control over where resources are produced (possibly district level), and more management for import/export.

Visuals and Immersion

Q: What improvements are scheduled for building construction animations, citizen behavior inside buildings, and more natural road textures?

A: Nothing is scheduled, but right now the road textures are highest in priority out of these three.

----

Q: Will the game include more ambient sounds and unique audio cues for buildings to increase immersion?

A: Yes, definitely! Alongside that, we’re planning a full audio update across the entire game in the near future. Our goal is to add new audio content and redesign existing sounds to build more deeper immersion through unique, memorable and stylized soundscapes.

We’re also working on rebalancing volume levels across the board to ensure that the entire audio experience is clearer, enjoyable, informative and fun.

----

Q: Can players expect more diverse, non-US-centric assets and agricultural variety?

A: Yes, but it is impossible to say the timeline for them.

----

Q: Will existing base-game assets eventually be updated to make use of the new window materials and lighting options?

A: Eventually, perhaps, but not in the near future.

----

Q: Is there a long-term plan to make Cities: Skylines II feel more dynamic and interactive?

A: That would be our ultimate goal, but it will take a lot of work (and time) to achieve. But hopefully, we can reach that goal, one step at a time.

----

Q: Are there plans to revisit the game's visuals and lighting?

A: Yes, we have plans to update the visuals. More exact details to come later during the autumn.

Development and Roadmap

Q: Can the community expect a clear roadmap for content and features planned after the upcoming patch?

A: Yes! We are planning on releasing a roadmap very soon, which should bring some clarity about our plans for the future.

We have also been discussing the possibility of releasing roadmaps regularly, so you, as players, would know the general plan for the year. Of course, not everything is always set in stone 100%, but it should work as a general overview of what’s coming!

----

Q: How are community-reported issues, such as those related to supply chain logic for Signature Buildings, prioritized for future updates?

A: Community-reported bugs and issues are logged in Jira where they are triaged and given priority. High priority issues will be fixed as soon as possible. Lower priority issues will take longer to enter active development.

---

Q: When will the game be available on PS5 / Xbox, and are there plans for more robust developer tools for community testing? What remains to be done before it can be released?

We do not want to commit to any dates for the console release before we are absolutely certain that they will hold. However, we have been making good progress and will share more information as soon as we are ready! There are still (more than) a few things that need to be done or improved; for example, the UI.

No plans for more developer tools as of right now.

Hop into the Thread here!

Original post

03 Sep 2026Developer post

City Corner #12 - Collected Questions

Hello Mayors! Previously, in the world of City Corners, we talked about our next patch and what kind of changes you can expect from the upcoming update, which will arrive in mid-September. Naturally, City Corner #11 was followed by a bunch of questions from you, and after seeing

Hello Mayors!

Previously, in the world of City Corners, we talked about our next patch and what kind of changes you can expect from the upcoming update, which will arrive in mid-September. Naturally, City Corner #11 was followed by a bunch of questions from you, and after seeing some of the same questions pop up, we thought: “Why not put the answers somewhere where everyone can easily find them?”

So, that’s what we are doing today! While we wait a little longer for the release of our next patch, we have gathered some of the hottest topics and questions in one place, along with the answers to help clear things up. This time, we are mostly focusing on general improvements and simulation, but if there is a specific area you would like to hear more about or have questions on in the future, let us know!

Now, this is a chunky one, so let’s dig in!

How do we decide what to fix?

As many of you might know, Cities: Skylines II is not an easy cookie to crack; there are many things that we’d like to improve. While community feedback plays a huge part in this, making the decisions on what to improve next isn’t quite as simple. Oftentimes we cannot pick the most-requested suggestions and put them straight into the next patch; we also have to consider bugs, how different systems interact with each other, and what can realistically be tackled at a given time.

Our approach is generally to first make sure that the systems we already have are working as intended and are understandable to the player. From there, we can look at balancing, improvements, and giving players more control where it makes sense. We also keep track of community suggestions internally, so even if something is missing from City Corners or Patch Notes, it certainly does not mean that it has been forgotten!

This is also the reason why we don’t always jump straight into a major rework. Take logistics, as an example: the team often starts by fixing the underlying issues, then looks at how the system behaves afterward before deciding whether further balancing or larger changes are needed. In other words, fixing something doesn’t always mean that we are at the finish line; sometimes it is just the beginning.

Why can simulation issues take so long to address?

Simulation is one of the biggest talking points whenever we release a City Corner, and understandably so. Usually, when we look at a problem in the simulation, it might look simple from the outside. However, more often than not, this issue turns out to be connected to several other parts of the simulation.

A good example of this, once again, is logistics. When looking at issues such as companies that are struggling to get the resources that they need, the first step is to identify whether there is an actual bug, and then see how the system behaves once that has been addressed. Is the company making the wrong decision? Is the resource unavailable? Is the vehicle choosing a route that is inefficient? These questions are the reason why our approach is often to start with the underlying issues, then observe how the simulation behaves after that.

From that point on, we can look at balancing and determine whether larger changes are needed. Of course, not every problem needs a complete rework, and sometimes it is better to see how a smaller change affects the simulation before making bigger adjustments. We know that that approach isn’t always the most satisfying answer, especially when you are waiting for something to improve, but taking the time to understand the systems we are changing helps us to avoid creating new problems while trying to solve the old ones.

What about performance?

Now, on to the most important part of our work: the performance. There is still room for improvement as always, particularly on the GPU and rendering side, although these optimizations are not always straightforward. On the CPU side, pathfinding still remains one of the bigger challenges, and some improvements may require larger changes to how the simulation behaves.

This means that we have to look at performance across the game as a whole rather than focusing on a single area. Some of the improvements that we make might be immediately noticeable, whereas others are smaller optimisations that add up over time.

A lot of this work benefits PC players, but also helps us tackle the technical requirements of bringing the game to consoles (yes, we are actively working on it). Because consoles have stricter memory limitations, our team is looking for every little win. As we have mentioned previously, something as seemingly minor as changing how assets are stored or how parts of the UI are rendered can free up memory that can be used elsewhere. Every bit of memory and performance matters, and improving the efficiency of the game helps everyone!

Controlling the simulation

One thing we've seen come up repeatedly is the question of how much control you should have over the systems running your cities. Where are resources coming from? Why is a company producing a particular good? Why does a warehouse want to store something I don't need?

At the moment, many of these decisions are handled by the simulation, with players influencing them indirectly through things like taxes, subsidies and their transportation networks. But as we have previously pointed out, we also recognise that there are situations where players would benefit from having more direct control.

The tricky part in this case is finding the right level of control. Being able to tell every individual building exactly what it should produce, store, or sell might give you more control, but it could also turn running a city into a lot of micromanagement, and that is not necessarily the experience we want to create.

Instead, we have been thinking about ways of giving players meaningful choices without asking them to manage every individual company. For example, could players have more control at the district or city level? Could there be better ways to influence which goods are imported or where certain types of production are located? These are the kinds of things we are considering as we continue looking at the simulation; not just the amount of control per se, but also what kind of control makes running your city more interesting.

Quality of Life, and future endeavours

Not every improvement needs to be a huge new system. Sometimes it's about making something that already exists easier, clearer, or more enjoyable to use. Our overall aim is to improve quality of life and usability across the game, which can mean everything from visual improvements to small tools that make building and managing your city more convenient. We've already brought several community-requested improvements into the base game, and we'll continue looking at where similar changes can make a meaningful difference.

Of course, there's still plenty of room to improve the day-to-day experience of building a city, and sometimes the smallest changes can make the biggest difference. As we move forward, we want to continue finding opportunities that improve both the big and small parts of the game.

And that’s our cue for this time around! Before we go, though, we would like to hand the mic over to you! Are there any questions on your mind that you would like us to answer in a future Q&A? Let us know! We will be keeping an eye on your questions and are planning to answer some of them in a separate session very soon!

Original post

20 Aug 2026Developer post

City Corner #11 - Autumn Breeze

Greetings, Mayors! Our next update is on its way, and in this City Corner, we will take a closer look at some of the changes coming with the upcoming patch. We will go through a number of gameplay adjustments, including changes to citizen behaviour and how some of the systems in

Greetings, Mayors!

Our next update is on its way, and in this City Corner, we will take a closer look at some of the changes coming with the upcoming patch. We will go through a number of gameplay adjustments, including changes to citizen behaviour and how some of the systems in your cities work, as well as some visual improvements. There are also a few smaller tweaks to go through, so let’s dive in and talk about what’s coming in the next update!

Improvements to Gameplay

In the upcoming patch, we have put a lot of focus on improving the behaviour and logic of the game. For example, we have worked on adjusting the Garbage Truck’s logic so that trucks now reserve enough capacity for the waste they are expected to collect at their intended destination. Previously, garbage trucks sometimes collected small amounts of garbage from buildings along their route, causing them to fill up before reaching their intended destinations. With the next update, the trucks now skip buildings with only small amounts of garbage on their route, allowing them to prioritize buildings that need collection more urgently. The change applies to all buildings, which means you should see less notifications about garbage piling up, especially if you have an efficient amount of garbage processing facilities! This also affects citizen happiness, with clean homes providing a greater happiness bonus.

The renting priorities of companies have also been adjusted. Companies will now be prioritized based on whether they produce the resources most needed by the city. The companies that produce less-needed resources will wait until higher-priority companies have found an available location before they have the opportunity to rent one. This means that when you are zoning areas, the zones are more likely to spawn companies whose resources are actually needed. In turn, this increases the variety of company types located near each other, and makes the demand bars reduce correctly. This change will also act as a foundation for future improvements on how the resource economy works.

Some changes have also been made to the residential demand calculations. Previously, the residential demand didn’t take the size of the city into account correctly, which caused the demand to plummet in very large cities. This has now been fixed, and the calculation now also takes the number of empty residential properties into account, which in turn makes the demand more balanced.

When it comes to the citizens, we have adjusted their financial behaviour in a way that the citizens’ happiness, shopping, and leisure choices now use income rather than wealth. Previously, citizens based their shopping, leisure, and happiness decisions on their accumulated wealth. Because wealth naturally fluctuates as citizens earn and spend money, it was not always a reliable indicator of their financial situation. These decisions are now based on income instead, making the happiness indicator better reflect how well off citizens actually are.

Visual updates

In City Corner #8 - Transforming the Terrain, we mentioned that we would continue working on the maps within the game with the new, painted-on terrain texture details. We have now finished two more maps, Waterway Pass and Lakeland, that you can enjoy immediately when this newest patch goes live!

Waterway Pass

Lakeland

The LOD quality of trees has been improved. Previously, the tree LODs could make the trees look like they were missing branches, or make the leaves seem like they were floating in the air instead of being properly attached to the tree. In this patch, we have enhanced the quality of these LODs, making the trees look fuller and more lush, and with their branches and foliage sitting more naturally together.

Tree LODs before.

Tree LODs after!

We have tweaked the surfaces and the way the terrain renders with the underlying terrain normals. A normal map is used by the game to calculate how light interacts with a surface. Previously, all surfaces used upward-facing normals, causing lighting to behave as if the ground were perfectly flat. This meant the shape of the terrain underneath wasn't reflected in the lighting, making it seem less interesting.

In this new update, surfaces now inherit the normals of the underlying terrain, allowing the light and shadows to follow the terrain's actual bumps, hills, and slopes, making its shape much more visible and three-dimensional.

An example of the surface rendering before.

Surface rendering after the upcoming patch!

We’ve also been working on improvements to the appearance and behaviour of building windows. While these updated windows are not currently used on any of the assets, we wanted to share the development. This includes adding support for frosted and opaque glass variations, allowing these window styles to be used on future assets,assets re-imported into the game and assets created by modders.

2 Left columns of windows are the new frosted windows, center column is standard windows, 2 right columns are the new Opaque windows.

In addition to the opaqueness of windows, assets configured with windows that should always remain lit or unlit will now correctly reflect that design intent, making them look more believable at any time of day. As part of the work for these improvements, we expect to see some small performance gains when rendering large numbers of building windows at once.

Growing Beyond

With that, we thank you once again for reading! As always, our work continues as we keep bringing new updates, improvements, and additions to Cities: Skylines II. There’s plenty more in the works, and over the coming months, we will have more to share about upcoming updates, new content, and of course, the DLC! We are looking forward to showing you what we have in store for you and giving a closer look at what is still to come. Until then, keep your eyes peeled, and we will see you in the next City Corner! Ta ta!

Original post

11 Aug 2026Developer post

City Corner #10 - Expanding the Modding Tools

Hello Mayors! It’s time for another City Corner, and this time, we will be talking about an aspect in Cities: Skylines II that hasn’t really been touched upon in our previous updates: the Asset Editor. We have started working on improving the modding tools, and there are a number

Hello Mayors!

It’s time for another City Corner, and this time, we will be talking about an aspect in Cities: Skylines II that hasn’t really been touched upon in our previous updates: the Asset Editor. We have started working on improving the modding tools, and there are a number of quality-of-life improvements we want to highlight in this City Corner, like smoother workflows, asset localization, and placement overrides.

We will also take a look at the mod support and what our plans are when it comes to managing your mods. Let’s get started, shall we!

Smoother Workflows in the Editor

Let’s begin with the Editor. For our upcoming patch, we have started working on improving the tools in the Asset Editor, aimed at reducing repetitive clicks and making it easier for creators to navigate and edit their assets.

First, we have added a new launch parameter -startEditor to open the Asset Editor on startup. This allows you to launch straight into the editor, without having to go through the Main Menu first.

We’ve added controls to expand or collapse all components in the Inspector panel at once, making it much easier to explore an asset’s underlying structure or quickly reach a specific component. Creators can choose whether components are expanded or collapsed by default in the options, use the dedicated buttons, or assign their own shortcut to toggle between the two states.

We’ve also reviewed the editor’s Inspector panels to remove unnecessary layers of collapsed containers where possible. Previously, creators could sometimes need to expand a component and then expand another container inside it before reaching the relevant fields. These inner containers are now kept open in many places, removing an extra step from the workflow.

Another improvement focuses on the long lists of props and other items attached to assets. Each item in these lists has its own container showing information such as its position or spawn probability. Previously, the item’s name was only visible after expanding that container, which meant creators could have to open many entries across several pages just to find the one they wanted.

Item names are now displayed alongside their Element IDs while the containers are collapsed, making lists much easier to scan. We’ve also added a search bar to these lists, allowing creators to filter them by either an item’s name or its Element ID.

Related to the previous improvement, selecting a propped item on an asset now displays its Element ID in the Object Info panel alongside information such as its local position and probability. Creators can copy that ID into the list search to quickly locate the corresponding entry.

Asset Localization Tool Improvements

We’ve made several improvements to the process of adding localized names and descriptions, which is the translated text displayed according to the language in which the game is being played.

A new Add All Translations button lets creators add slots for every supported language at once, rather than selecting Add Translation separately for each one. With 12 languages currently supported, this saves a lot of extra clicks for each name or description section.

Description fields now properly support multiline text as well. While asset descriptions already supported new lines and paragraphs, the Editor’s input field did not correctly recognize the Enter key as a new line. This has now been fixed, allowing descriptions to be formatted directly inside the Editor.

Creators can also copy the localization from one asset and paste it into another. This is particularly helpful when creating multiple variations of the same asset, as the shared text can be transferred in one step instead of copying each field individually or relying on a separate spreadsheet.

New Placement Overrides for Propping

Our final highlight for the editor is a new Overrides tool option that becomes available when snapping is enabled while placing props on an asset. It provides three optional overrides that can be applied as each item is placed:

Parent Mesh lets creators specify which mesh the prop should be attached to, ensuring that it moves together with that mesh.
Group Index lets creators set this technical parameter during placement. Group Index can influence several behaviours, including synchronized spawn probability and colour variation selection, so setting it in advance avoids having to update every placed item individually.
Probability lets creators set an item’s spawn probability while placing it. When enabled, it defaults to 100%, ensuring that placed items will always appear unless the creator chooses another value between 1% and 100%.

Each override can be enabled independently, or creators can use any combination of the three. This makes it possible to define important properties during placement instead of placing each item first and then editing it individually afterward.

Launcher Mod Support

In addition to the Asset Editor, we are also working on improving the mod support with the help of the PDX Mods team. Many of the changes here have been requested by you, and while we don’t have an exact date for these changes yet, we wanted to share the progress with you!

As the title of this section suggests, we are adding a feature to the launcher, which allows you to manage your mods even before starting your game. When the launcher opens up, you can select your active playset. If that playset is somehow corrupted or outdated, the launcher will display a warning, which you can hover over to see what the launcher thinks might be the issue. The launcher will also attempt to update any mods from the PDX Mods backend that you may have installed, or that might be missing from your current computer.

You can also set a playset to be off-disk, which means you will retain your playset, but mods won’t be downloaded and installed. This will be useful for the playsets that you want to keep, but are not actively using. In addition, the launcher will allow you to create new playsets, remove old ones, and edit existing ones. The naming of this feature is still subject to change.

Of course, we’re hoping to expand on these features by adding even more functionality in the future. For example, we’d like to let you change the location of your downloaded mods or spread them across multiple locations, which is something many of you have been requesting! These features are still in the works, but we will keep you in the loop as the development progresses.

To be continued…

Our work on editor improvements, as well as mod support, is guided by feedback shared across our community, on the forums, and from our Creator Program. We look forward to continuing to improve the Editor and Mod experience over time, and if you have any ideas for things that would help you in the future, please let us know!

With that being said, thank you for reading! We hope you have enjoyed this look at what we’ve been working on, and we look forward to sharing more with you. We will be back soon in the next City Corner with more information about our upcoming patch, so stay tuned!

Original post

23 Jul 2026Developer post

City Corner #9 - Happy Six Months!

Hello Mayors! Six months ago, we at Iceflake Studios took the mantle of development of Cities: Skylines II. Since then, our primary goals have been to improve the game, address long-standing issues, and build a stronger foundation, so we can optimize and develop the game well int

Hello Mayors!

Six months ago, we at Iceflake Studios took the mantle of development of Cities: Skylines II. Since then, our primary goals have been to improve the game, address long-standing issues, and build a stronger foundation, so we can optimize and develop the game well into the future.

Working on this game for the short time that we have has been very satisfying. We have been very busy, but the rewards have made it all worthwhile. Taking on a big project like Cities: Skylines II might have been daunting at first, but all the great feedback we have received, along with the kind words and communication from the community, has made the experience even more enjoyable and rewarding.

In this City Corner, we are taking a look back at what we’ve accomplished during these first six months, and highlighting some of the biggest improvements that have made their way into the game.

Overview of the Patches

Our first major update, First Frost, focused on both the simulation and the overall player experience. We tackled several long-standing issues, like, for example, the death waves. We also rebalanced bicycle usage, improved nighttime visibility, updated weather and fog systems, and introduced the Color Customization tool, which gave you a first taste of customizing the appearance of your cities. Alongside these, we updated the UI, improved the landscaping tools such as terraforming, and gave you more freedom with tree placement.

The updates that followed continued that work across multiple areas of the game. In the Anniversary Update, we introduced one of the community's most requested features: the ability to toggle road zoning, giving players greater control over how and where development occurs. We also added our first new asset, the Iceflake Arena, expanded gameplay options, and introduced the in-game Encyclopedia, making it easier for both new and experienced players to find information about the game's systems.

As spring progressed, our focus shifted toward improving city management and player control. Our fourth patch, Spring Cleaning, introduced the Historic Building option, allowing players to preserve buildings they wanted to keep from being upgraded. We also gave more freedom to customize your UI by adding transparency and scaling options, which were both suggested by you immediately after the release of the new UI. We also continued working together with the Paradox Mods team, giving better mod management and download systems.

Morning Dew continued our work on quality-of-life improvements. We expanded asset filtering options, improved several creator-focused workflows, refined tool behavior, and addressed visual issues affecting shadow rendering. While smaller in scope than some previous updates, Morning Dew focused on smoothing out everyday city-building and addressing issues reported by the community.

Most recently, we had Summer Solstice, which focused on improving both the visual quality of the game and some of its underlying simulation systems. This patch introduced a complete rework of terrain rendering, improved terrain shading, depth perception, and overall landscape quality. We also added terrain painting tools, which allowed you to paint and blend terrain textures directly in-game and in the Editor.

Of course, all of these updates included fixes and improvements across the simulation, performance, and stability as well. For example, with Spring Cleaning, we introduced our Benchmarking tool, which marked the first steps towards making the performance of the game better for everyone. Some of these changes, like the improvements on traffic pathfinding introduced in Morning Dew, are not always immediately noticeable and might even work behind the scenes, but they still have an effect on the overall performance and simulation.

Statistics

Since we’re all here and we love our numbers and charts, let’s look at some statistics, shall we! Starting from January up until now, we have fixed 200+ bugs and added 40+ new features and improvements! To elaborate, we wanted to show you a chart on how these bug fixes and improvements have been divided between different aspects of the game.

A pie chart of the fixed bugs and what their focus has been.

As you can see from the pie chart above, most of these fixes have been focusing on the UI and Interface, with a large chunk focusing on the gameplay and simulation as well. A good example of these fixes includes the various icon and UI bugs, but also stuck citizens, demand bars not filling correctly, and shadow flickering.

New features and improvements in a pie chart.

When it comes to new features, you can see that the biggest chunk here has gone into the UI and visual improvements. The new features in the chart include, but are not limited to, the Historic Building option, Benchmark tool, the Encyclopedia and Iceflake Arena, whereas the improvements in the chart include the Education system rebalancing, cycling policy adjustments, and performance optimizations.

As mentioned before, we will continue working on the different aspects mentioned in both of these charts, but also wish to dive even deeper into these themes when the time is right.

What's next?

As the summer is slowly reaching its zenith and coming to an end here in Finland, we are already working toward the next updates. While our next patch will not be as content-heavy, it will still include bug fixes and a few tweaks to the simulation. As per usual, we will get into all the details about the next update in a future City Corner dedicated to the patch itself! Looking into the horizon, we have also been working on our first DLC - we will tell you more about it at a later date when we are ready!

We’re so excited for you to be along for the journey; here’s to another 6 months, 1 year, and further into the future!

Original post

22 Jun 2026Developer post

Patch 1.6.0f1 - Summer Solstice

This patch can affect some custom maps, but loading of old maps and savegames is supported. Gameplay: Fixed a bug where citizens would always travel to the shop with the most stock, completely ignoring distance. Households now re-evaluate moving home less often, improving perfor

This patch can affect some custom maps, but loading of old maps and savegames is supported.