Paradox and Colossal Order are continuing the weekly deep dives of Cities: Skylines 2 as its release date draws nearer. The latest feature highlight landed today, and it covers the new and improved zoning options players will have at their fingertips, plus some new features to make their cities feel more realistic.
First off, on top of the low and high-density residential zoning options seen in the original entry, players will now have a few more options to customize how the land gets populated:
"New residential zone types include medium density row housing with wall-to-wall homes, medium density housing with apartment buildings, mixed housing with shops occupying the ground floor and apartments taking up the rest of the buildings, and low rent housing with large apartment buildings housing lots of small apartments."
Much like real life, the new low rent housing is said to be an attractive option for students and young adults who are searching for their first apartment, but don"t have much to spend. The new Mixed Housing option is also interesting, which combines residential housing and commercial zones into the same area, improving the density in city centers.
The zoning tools also allow players to select the visual style of buildings. They can look North American and European. While one option must be selected when first starting a map, which affects street markings, props, and service vehicles, players can switch between the two types when zoning individual areas as well.
Next, we have Signature Buildings. These are unique landmark-style structures that fit into the standard residential, commercial, industrial, and office spaces, but must be plopped down instead of zoned. While free to build, they will still follow the rules of standard zoned buildings, plus they carry various benefits for the city. However, certain city milestones must be hit to unlock each one.
Read the full feature highlight blog post regarding the topic by the developer here. For those who missed them, there have already been three deep dives in previous weeks: New and improved roads, vastly upgraded traffic AI, as well as public and cargo transportation. The next developer diary will drop on July 17, which will cover the city services topic.
Cities: Skylines 2 launches on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 on October 24, 2023. Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass subscribers are also gaining access for no extra cost on day one.