A new Cities: Skylines 2 video has been released, highlighting the ways in which climate and seasons will work in the upcoming city-builder.
Previous Cities: Skylines 2 dev diaries have revolved around the game's huge maps, its power and water systems, and its essential services, among other things, but this latest trailer is all about the weather.
According to the video and accompanying Steam post, Cities: Skylines 2 will have an all-new climate system that brings changing seasons to the city-builder and simulates real-world weather patterns.
Climates will be unique to each map, and they'll be based on latitude and longitude, so day length and sunlight amount will also be different depending on the map you pick.
Broadly speaking, there are three basic climate types in Cities: Skylines 2: Temperature, Continental, and Polar.
Temperate maps have "distinct seasonal changes, moderate precipitation, and a wide temperature range", according to Paradox and Colossal Order, while Continental maps boast "significant annual variations in temperature".
Finally, Polar maps feature short and cold summers and lengthy, cold winters. Each map has its own climate, though, so there will be variations even within climate types.
Cities: Skylines 2's weather system is heavily linked to the climate feature, with different maps featuring unique weather that will affect the behavior of citizens and the running of your city.
Colossal Order and Paradox are also changing the way time works in Cities: Skylines 2. Each in-game year lasts around twelve in-game days (if that makes sense), and each season lasts around three cycles through day and night.
Seasons cause the weather to change over time, which could lead to unique challenges for your city, like snow increasing the risk of accidents.
The new dev diary also gives us a look at some of Cities: Skylines 2's natural disasters, including forest fires, which are more likely to break out in dry weather, and hail storms, which happen when the weather is cold but not freezing.
There's also the devastating tornado, which, according to the devs, is Cities: Skylines 2's "most extreme natural disaster". You'd better build some Emergency Shelters if you want your citizenry to survive a tornado.
Cities: Skylines 2 is due to launch for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on October 24th.
