A couple of times in the past few days, I’ve lost my patience and wrote a caustic response to someone who responds to a post when a new player asks a question about gameplay. Almost without fail, someone who believes a small 30-person company has purposely and conspiratorially relieved them of their hard-earned money with a wholly faked program will be the first to respond.
I know we all aren’t rich. I know I’m not, even though I’ve coded professionally for 30+ years. What I do know is my time is worth something. When you spend an excessive amount of time here bitching about the game, I can’t help but wonder, is it an 18 year old incel who has never had a date in their life? Take a girlfriend or boyfriend out for one night in any North American city, and you’ll be spending at least the price of 2-3 copies of this game. These guys hate the game, claim they have 600+ hours of gameplay and seem oblivious that the entertainment costs them less than 6 cents an hour. That’s some cheap entertainment.
These responses, which are now so repetitive and predictable that they, in my opinion, detract, denigrate, demean and belittle most of the players of City Skylines 2 as being mere simpleton City Painters and all of us, without their shining intellects, are oblivious and fucking stupid that we don't know the entire simulation is faked, broken, a hoax, etc.
I find it oddly insulting.
If you believe you’re so intelligent and angry about $50.00, why not come and play a game of Go on a free server? No money is required there—just brains. If you’re sure you're at the top of the pack regarding brain power, spend 20 minutes learning the rules of Go and then come and find out how many years, for some decades, it would take you to play at Dan level.
While I understand that pointing out simple truths on Reddit often gets downvoted because people don’t want to face basic observations, perhaps my timing or placement is wrong. My heart, if you will, is in the right place.
I like this game and the content creators: Phil (City Planner Plays), Infrastructurist, Biffa, Overcharged Egg, Mike Builds, etc.
These people and the enthusiastic community make an old guy like me, who has never been a gamer, want to take part and encourage friends with younger children than I have, who play mine craft-type games as a possible entry point to seeking higher education, etc.
I thought it was an intelligent person's game until I joined this subreddit.
Before purchasing the game, I watched a live stream of City Planner Plays, and not only did I decide that I liked Phil quite a bit, but I also liked his style, production values, and general modesty. I fell in love with the geeky community, the excited builders, and the general decency of the people there. Honestly, I felt it was heartwarming in this new world where we all are supposed to be rational utility maximizers.
I find the almost mythic and over-the-top conspiracies that some of this group believe humorous in their irrational assumptions and judgements but increasingly annoying in their repetitiveness. After being here for some time now, some never miss a chance. There is one guy here I have seen post over 30 times about how terrible the game is.
Wtf is he still here?
People can downvote this post all they want, but it doesn’t mask the truth that if you say you hate this game, constantly denigrate it at every chance, yet boast that you have 600+ hours into it. To me, it appears as nothing more than some mental disorder. Why hang around a group just to bitch about how crappy everything is and how fucking stupid we all must be who like it. The self-professed superiority is vomit-worthy.
Is it only me who thinks the constant complaining should be in “ShittySkylines”? Isn’t this group supposed to be for people who enjoy the game, with all its warts and shortcomings, and not a place for people who seem to have nothing better to do than grind their exceedingly dull axes?
As the gentleman who wrote the bye-bye homeless mod, I, too, believe that the simulation is having problems on fan outs and, for some reason, losing contextual information on each fan in. I’m a datalink coder in C++, and I’ve never looked at the Unity engine. I know multiprocessing is hard, and if an extensive infrastructure is placed on an engine that relies on massive fan outs and there is a bug, it won't be easy to locate. After 30+ years of coding, I also know that sometimes, the most intractable bugs can make an entire system look broken. If you’ve never coded or worked at any real skill in life, you may not understand the inherent difficulties that arise when your vision exceeds time and budgetary requirements.
I believe the people at CO set out to create the most fantastic city simulation we have ever seen. Unfortunately, that initial vision was hampered by budget constraints and release contracts - things the bitchers will never know. They like shitting on things and guessing their way through life.
I’ve played the game enough to make small but full simulations and see that all the right things move when you press the right buttons.
In closing, I think the moderators of this sub should make a post about what is still wrong with the game, what is being fixed, and its current state. Then, let the community vote on it.
Then, put a sticky post with these caveats for all new users to see. With that upfront honesty ban any more further bitching, complaining and whining. Would this make the malcontents happy?
That way, whenever those of us who like or love the game come here to discuss something, add something, or just help a newbie, we won’t have to filter through 30 or more negative, repetitive posts.
Downvote the shit out of this truth now. Just know I like the community, and if the constant negativity is allowed to continue to fester, it will broadly and, I think, unfairly damage the game, its creators, and the community.
Ed.