Cities: Skylines 2 has had a rocky launch, to say the least. Major performance problems and bugs have kicked its planned content patches a long way down the road, and the situation's been made worse by an absence of modding support at launch—something Colossal Order's CEO says is her team's "biggest regret".
While redemption stories aren't too rare in gaming (just look at Cyberpunk 2077 or Warhammer 40k: Darktide) the long road to players' good graces is particularly painful here, with the game's recent reviews "mostly negative" on Steam at the time of writing.
Still, for those downtrodden city designers there may be a small glimmer of hope. Colossal Order has announced the game's first asset pack post-launch and, crucially, the dawn of official mod support for the game.
"Along with Beach Properties, the first wave of Cities: Skylines 2 Modding will be available," writes an announcement on the game's official forums. While it looks like it'll be a "beta release", these official mod tools will include a map editor and "Code Tools."
"With the Map Editor, you can make maps with the Terraforming Tools you’re used to, import heightmaps to create highly accurate depictions of your hometown, and upload your creations to Paradox Mods … With the Code Tools, you can show off your coding skills and create Code Mods to meet your heart's desire!"
If you're a modding boffin and want to get your homework started already, there are some entries for these tools on the City Skylines 2 wiki right now. The update will also bring a "substantial amount of Performance updates and General Fixes & Improvements."
When it comes to the actual DLC, the Beach Properties asset pack adds a waterfront residential district complete with its own bespoke buildings and—get this—four whole trees. I know you probably don't need that many tree types to create a convincing vista, but I can't help but feel for whoever was forced to put that graphic together.
The developer has also released a new roadmap for its delayed content schedule, which you can view below:
The Beach Properties asset packs will still be paid content—which has put some players on-edge, especially considering how the announcement buries the lede on fixes. It's also a hard sell considering the first Cities: Skylines is cheaper, more content-complete, and overall just plain better than its sequel.
Still, Cities: Skylines 2 did release with an optimistic Expansion Pass that players did pay for, which means Paradox has put itself in a corner: Make this stuff free as a gesture of good will, and the folks who shelled out more might feel short-changed. Keep it as paid content, and you're seen as wringing money from a product that didn't release in a great state. It's not a situation I envy, even if it's something the publisher did to itself. Beach Properties will nonetheless be releasing next week, March 25.
