Which Cities Skylines 2 Map is Best for You? (Complete Guide)

[@CitiesByDiana]

STOP COMMENTS ABOUT IT LONG ISLAND IS IN NEW YORK I KNOW THAT I SAID AND NOT IN CONNECTICUT. If you comment about it you'll be banned. 😅 What map do YOU plan on starting with? Let me know! ❤ EDIT: Yes I know Long Island is IN New York state - pardon my west coast accent I said AND not IN when referring to Connecticut 😆 as in the mainland reminds me of CT and the island reminds me of Long Island sorry to anyone I offended 😭😭 Subscribe to my channel here - kzbin.info/door/oZ9LOmu2J3d6dex2l-Md1Q Follow me on TikTok - www.tiktok.com/@citiesbydiana

[@flynngames4703]

Any map, any at all. I just need the 24th to get here soon. I’m about to bust. But probably river delta 😊

[@fredashay]

I like cool climates so I think I'm gonna start with Great Highlands! All the rivers make it easy to get water and dump the poo, lol. 5 more days! I can't wait!

[@CitySculptor]

I’ve been thinking Barrier Islands for awhile now, but your overview of San Francisco has piqued my interest. Was curious about how SF would turn out, and it looks good! Tough choice!

[@erikaverink8418]

Tampere i think or another one with a lot of (Flat) land. Just to learn how everything works, without thinking to much about the terrain. Nice video Btw.

[@fingerdrop]

Why stop all the wonderful engagement?

[@MugwumpSupreme]

Now this is the embargo lift content I wanted

[@philbear2185]

Yeap, nice idea. However, due to hardware needs for large cities, most players would probably need to invent new ways of playing, different than what they did in CS1. At least for the time being. I think the economic and citizen simulation is interesting, I'll tinker with small cities and weird builds.

[@Ramotttholl]

true. i don't wanna see ppl build there cities before i can. but this this gives us energy to start thinking ahead for our own projects.

[@spamfilter32]

One point of information. Just because a map doesn't start with water connections, doesn't mean you can't still have one. If you place a harbor down on a river, you can draw the harbor connection all the way to the edge of the map, and that gives you an outside water connection, just like drawing a road or rail would. Assuming the river goes to the edge of the map of course. This also does require purchasing all the tiles along the river to the edge. Acruas did juat this in his last video. He chose one of the maps with out an outaide water connection, and it worked.

[@Bram06]

Very unfortunate that rail isn't very accessible in most maps. It's going to make it hard to make cities that started out as railway towns

[@arnavsrikanth]

I wonder how long it will take for some good custom maps to be on the workshop though

[@Syouis]

give it a week or two, people are crazy lol @@arnavsrikanth

[@lukasgoodyear9430]

hopefully not long@@arnavsrikanth

[@terrydactyl2077]

So if a map doesn’t have rail connections like Twin Mountain, can we still build our own connection to the outside to start having rail import/exports? And what about similar for maps that have no ship connections? Can you eventually make a river have connections to the ocean?

[@terrydactyl2077]

@@micbln8967 nice. Cheers!

[@Li0noftheN0rth]

Twin mountain reminds me of the Pioneer Valley in Springfield Massachusetts and the surrounding area. It has no sea but the flowing river and rolling hills and mountains is picture book western Mass.

[@patrick17_6]

Should have added chapters, as they don't load up in video: 0:17 - Archipelago Heaven 1:34 - Barrier Islands 2:44 - Great Highlands 3:56 - Lakeland 4:58 - Mountain Village 6:10 - River Delta 7:32 - San Francisco 9:02 - Sweeping Plains 10:17 - Tampere 11:21 - Twin Mountain 12:32 - Waterway Pass 13:53 - Windy Fjords

[@knockshinnoch1950]

Thanks for this base game map review. Of all the early access videos posted so far this is the only one that focuses on what is possibly the most important element of any game- the map!

[@Bottle-OBill]

Barrier Island is extremely reminiscent of Brisbane, Queensland's Moreton Bay, like they mooshed Bribie and the Stradbroke Islands together. The climate, latitude, and concave coastline seem very much in-line with that area, though the orientation is definitely Long Island-y. River Delta looks like it could be based on the southern coastline of Finland.

[@Lucasolvalou]

Great breakdown of all the maps! I appreciate mentioning the real life height maps each of them are based on or what region a map is reminiscent of, thanks for taking the time to do that. So strange how in some shots everything looks more realistic compared to CS:1 but in others extra cartoonish. The hard lines between ground and water in some places are giving me N64 vibes. Also the lack of ship wakes and just the water in general feels kinda meh. Hope it gets sorted in the future.

[@Presidentti_El_Cabio]

I just got this game for my birthday, and as player who loved cities skylines 1. I gotta say, i already love this. And i started in Sunshine Peninsula.😸

[@JamesDFreeman]

This is really helpful, great idea for an early video that's useful for everyone

[@TransportSimulatorNationTSN]

Awesome video and I do like the New Zealand Maps. They look more interest to build.

[@TheMrBloxley]

I spent years living on the central coast of California in Santa Barbara. I also have decided I’ll be playing on Twin Mountains when I start playing CS2 so when I heard that you were comparing the two areas it immediately made me wonder if that’s why I just so innately liked it!

[@CitiesByDiana]

Yeah I don't actually know where it's based on but having spent a LOT of time on the central coast, it felt kinda like that, especially from the ground

[@neospectrum]

I'm just gonna go straight for Twin Mountain and make extensive use of that max size full strength level terrain brush, keep some elevation at the base of the mountains, flatten out everything else, fill in half the harbour, redo/add the networks + rail and voilà!👍

[@Void_Sphere]

The video I needed before CS II finally arives. Thanks for the orientation and for having an eye for the detail. Will watch it again, when this screen finally shows up at home. :) Keep up the good work!

[@arthurl5280]

Really useful video - thanks for this! I may rewatch on the 24th!

[@Lazuli2-6]

Dang, I was going to recreate SF roughly 1:1 but it's going to be a bit more difficult than I planned. I had big plans as well as I wanted to reach San Jose and the Silicon Valley and Oakland as well but those limitations are...disappointing since I thought the map was really huge with the world expansion. Hopefully I can reach SFO at the very least (furthest dream is to reach San Mateo). The pre-European terrain instead of today's terrain is kinda messing with my head as I been using google maps to form my plans and I'm not really experienced in using the terrain tool to build smoothly so I don't get stretched buildings. Might fall to Watch Dogs 2 map of San Francisco to work this out.

[@beezany]

The map area is only 15x15 km, which is only slightly larger than the city. South SF and SFO will both be outside the map area unless they've made it smaller than 1:1 scale.

[@Lazuli2-6]

@@beezany :| Welp... Guess I'll cry myself to sleep

[@Gabriel-ve2gj]

youre making a city not an entire region

[@bigpoppa1234]

Barrier Island seems to be based around the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. The southern hemisphere latitude, the name being 'Barrier' like the Great Barrier Reef, the big island is similar in shape to North Stradbroke Island, there's also a little small island next to it like Peel Island, another island to the north which would be Moreton Island, and then the main inland feature is an East-West river just like the imaginatively named Brisbane River.

[@Palpatine001]

Going with the New Zealand Maps, probably because I am from NZ but maybe also closest to my game style as well when it comes to physical geography influencing the City and so on

[@JMP1337]

0:17 Archipelago Haven | Expert | EU | 8-30 | Northern | 16% 1:34 Barrier Islands | Beginner | NA | 10-29 | Southern | 42% 2:44 Great Highlands | Beginner-Intermediate | EU | -3-19 | Northern | 41% 3:55 Lakeland | Beginner | EU | -15-26 | Northern | 49% | No boat 4:59 Mountain Village | Beginner-Expert | EU | -12-27 | Northern | 21% | No boat 6:11 River Delta | Intermediate | EU | -4-34 | Northern | 42% 7:33 San Francisco | Beginner-Expert | NA | 5-28 | Northern | 42% 9:03 Sweeping Plains | Intermediate | NA | -4-23 | Southern | 31% 10:18 Tampere | Beginner | EU | -13-24 | Northern | 66% 11:21 Twin Mountain | Beginner-Intermediate | EU | -4-15 | Northern | 39% | No train 12:33 Waterway Pass | Beginner | NA | -5-36 | Northern | 53% 13:52 Windy Fjords | Intermediate | NA | -6-18 | Southern | 21%

[@JMP1337]

I hope its readable on mobile to. I will probably start with Tampere to learn the game and have a map with snow. Second map will be Windy Fjords, its looks so beautiful.

[@CitiesByDiana]

Amazing TYSM - i'm gonna add this to the description

[@dreadlypanda6580]

I would like to thank you for answering my questions within the first 1:45. I am now a subscriber...

[@kilonzi900]

Thanks for the video now I can finally start out which map have😊 snow in

[@CitiesByDiana]

Pretty much any map that goes below 0°C will have snow 🙂 I show all the temperature ranges in the video

[@kilonzi900]

Oh man I also asked this question if you can I've been asking around for a long time here's the question Is the PC version compatible with Xbox controller thanks and advance

[@CitiesByDiana]

@@kilonzi900 I have no idea if it is or not I'm so sorry 😔

[@Jakeurb8ty82]

The one I put 50 hours into crafting when I get the game. I've always found map making and terraforming to be therapeutic since sc4.

[@Nyzzio]

Well I’ve been planning to start with twin mountain but now I’m heavily considering river delta

[@Coffeepanda294]

Looking forward to this 🍿

[@rwiggerts]

That water....😮 Looks so unreal.

[@JC_Cali]

Thank you for this very detailed video and I especially appreciate the touch about real-world inspirations. It actually reinforces many of my reservations, from the minor to weird graphic blandness and water texture scaling, to major, in not having any tropical or desert environments and no ability to start cities from rail stations or on islands with ferries/harbors. I can't create cities of my dreams if I'm bounded to road infrastructure first and foremost.

[@HayzTeeArt]

Thanks for this video. Excited to play and it's nice to get a rundown of the Napa to help start my inspiration and ideas flowing. Fab video, very informative!

[@Pixelkvist]

Fantastic video, now I want to build on all of them! :D

[@unclemikeyplays]

This video is excellent, Diana! Thank you. The only problem is that it doesn't actually help me choose! They all look so good! Can't wait!

[@Loveme5-e2m]

I will definitely start in mountain village when I get this game next week, looks so beautiful and experimental.

[@brinedpickle]

Great video. Picking a good map can be a real challenge without being able to get a good look at them first. I still don’t know which one I want to try first bc they all look amazing but at least now I’ve got more info to work with 😊

[@croatia0728]

I really hope a mod that changes the mountain textures comes out pretty quickly because the mountains honestly look like piles of dirt rn lol

[@fajaradi1223]

Well, some hills and mountains IRL is just a pile of dirt tho

[@thedrizzle619]

this is what I wanted to watch the most, thanks diana!!!

[@terrydactyl2077]

Buildable area just means how much water and mountains there are right? And that can be changed by adding land and flattening mountains with the terrain tools. Or am I wrong?

[@Mrs.Tim.]

Thanks Diana, this was just the map preview I was looking for:)

[@jameswiebe8956]

Actually, the Mountain Village terrain looks almost exactly like Banff, Alberta (Canada). And the River Delta map is fairly similar to Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada).

[@samsmick3773]

I’ve been waiting for this exact video

[@JakkeJakobsen]

Windy Fjords reminds me so much of my home region of Lofoten in northern Norway. The small plains between steep mountains, small islands out in the sea.

[@Francois39]

9:10 OMG I never thought I'd see the day where my country is featured is a Cities: Skylines map of any kind!

[@shawngagnon7695]

I think Barrier Island would also be a really cool way to recreate Coney Island or Rockaway Beach in Brooklyn!

[@Paulovlyra]

Most useful CS2 video I've seen... Thank you

[@CheapGravity]

Great Video! Thank you for this! Just what I wanted

[@Osariik]

Twin Mountain is based on southwestern Iceland. Those mountains are tuyas, a type of volcano which forms under ice caps.

[@MrRhombus]

I didn’t expect this in my recommended :)

[@trilingualfudge7307]

I’ve been playing cities skylines for a while now and I gotta say my style of building road layouts and planning cities is really counter to what the game wants. Having seen a lot of cities skylines 2 content, the game looks even more unfriendly to my playstyle (for good reason honestly) but there are some things such as mixed zoning which make it hard for me to decide if I should get it or not.

[@PikaPika-Tassie]

thank you D. Very good map review ❤

[@longislandloser]

wow I was really shocked to see a map close to where i live (long island)!

[@MicheBuilds]

I gotta save this one for when I eventually get the game.. 👀

[@azuarc]

Overcharged Egg: This map is only good if it's pretty. Look at the landscaping. It's gorgeous on this map that is utterly impossible to build on, and that makes it a must play. CitiesByDiana: Here's all the things you need to consider if you're actually going to try to *use* this map.

[@Liberty0522]

Being from the PNW, Waterway pass is gonna be my first map! Reminds me of the Willamette Valley.

[@davidfell5496]

Nice overview. Thank you.

[@tmg7476]

Thank you. This is very useful. I hope that as we get more maps you will do another on them. I am surprised at the rail treatment in CS2. Not only is rail quite far away from the starting square in most maps but the size of the buildings makes it hard to make small rural stops or smaller in-city locations. Also, as another creator pointed out, none of the utilities or industries have a rail connection. I assume that this is because CO is planning a rail DLC for us to buy.

[@lenajk2004]

already planning out my first city in lakeland lmao, can't wait to actually put it in game

[@spartan362kauten8]

There are a handful of maps that gotten my attention, mainly the maps that are flat. However when we get the editor? 🤔

[@Bergen67367]

Most detailed explanation of all maps in CS2. What map would be best for the winter theme with all outside connections??

[@abbymortillaro4220]

I like River Delta because I notated that it had a lot of forest. I could build a lot of forestry industry on that map.

[@hellothere813]

great video! wouldve loved to see the natural resource placement on the maps, since ive seen it be quite scarce on some of the maps in other videos

[@azebramoomoo2727]

I really like the video but can you add time stamps so we can navigate through all the separate map sections easier?

[@itimdesigner]

thanks for such a great video diana

[@markalexander1987]

Great highlands is my current city 😃and at night time you have the effect of the Northern lights, it’s an awesome map

[@jstokes]

This was very helpful Thank you! I am not interested in snow so your review helped me narrow the list. My feeling is that I can always terraform what I want, but snow is built in, so knowing that really helps.

[@SilentResidentYouTube]

when I terraformed snowly mountains, snow immediatelly vanished when the landscape's height was lowered to warmer lower heights.

[@jstokes]

@@SilentResidentKZbin ah, thats interesting. Makes sense. Thanks!

[@fieryphoenix586]

I like having as many outside connections as possible. So I go with Coastline Cities frequently for cargo ships and train depots. I hardly ever make it to where I have airports.

[@luckyford22]

Totally unrelated but what’s the song called at 5:00? I’ve been watching these vids for a while and always heard this song and my curiosity grew

[@CitiesByDiana]

It's called "Headshake" and the artists name is Zorro 😁

[@luckyford22]

@@CitiesByDiana thank you so much!!

[@rane8558]

the lakeland map is actually inspiered by the massive finnish lakes region! thats why its european

[@CitiesByDiana]

Ohhhh good to know! It definitely gave me northern US / Southern Canada vibes probably cos I've never been to Finland tho

[@Dominik-lc4pl]

What I would want a lakeland map to be would be something like northern Quebec, but it's not very similar in this case

[@TheBusStop12]

@@CitiesByDiana Finnish cities are also generally built in a grid, hence it starting with a small grid already as well. But yeah, CO being from Finland stated they had to include it because the love the Finnish Lakeland. I think it's particularly based on the Lakeland region around lake Saimaa. It's a beautiful area.

[@tomi40672]

It is interesting that people think Lakeland is based on US or Canada. As a Finnish person I of course thought first that it would be based on Finland, the land of a thousand lakes. (*) I guess Finland just hasn't been marketed enough in North America. 😄 (*) Or thousands of lakes as it's usually expressed in Finnish. I'm not sure why it's typically translated like that but maybe it sounds better in English.

[@CitiesByDiana]

@@tomi40672 I imagine the two places have similar clients and landscapes as well, because I've heard a lot of folks from Finland as well as neighboring countries like Norway and Sweden immigrated to Minnesota few generations ago. And a lot of the maps I've seen in CS2 do resemble multiple different places 🙂

[@Housestationlive]

i just pick the one with the better climate cause i want to build a pedestrian oriented city. so i want my pedestrians to be happy and enjoy a nice climate (barrier islands).

[@malv1ee]

I love the coloring of your game! Did you use any shaders? Because mine game looks kinda "grey" and not as colorful as Cities Skylines 1

[@CitiesByDiana]

For cinematics I'm using the camera mode to boost the exposure and contrast, I turned the color temperature setting down a little bit and saturation up a little bit. All only available in camera mode though sadly...once I play the game it goes back to normal.

[@IsaiahWells]

Great guide Diana! Welcome in your new sub!

[@cykoop194]

Thank you for this map guide. I think I will start with Windy Fjords. Does this map have snow? Which is the best map for a Hydro Power plant?

[@Great.Milenko]

I'm seeing some slight performance hitching but nothing unmanagable. can you do a breakdown on how the general options "simulation quality" changes the simulation?

[@zengrath]

Also I thought I heard from other videos that you can build out-side connections wherever you want and that unlike city skylines 1 where you have to use only fixed out-side connections. So the maps where your giving a con about limited out-side rail connections, is it just because it would cost a lot of tiles to reach end of map? Can't all maps essentially offer out-side rail connection as long as you unlock a line to edge?

[@AltrightBuddha]

Can you design maps? Like in the original skylines.

[@CitiesByDiana]

Not yet. Editor coming after release but we don't know when.

[@eyyydoddska]

Genuinely curious. Is Mountain Village really the best map to start out with? I’ve seen a heck LOT of CS KZbinrs picking Mountain Village as the starting map-easily recognizable by the heart-shaped island on the confluence of three rivers.

[@CitiesByDiana]

It's definitely a good one, because the rail is close to starting tile and start square is pretty flat. I know I did my early access builds on Sweeping Plains which required a LOT of terraforming hahaha

[@Ramotttholl]

i mainly want some mountains.. lots of river and a train connection. Basically i wanna build more fortress like old towns that got train access quickly. but what i really want is to dig into that world builder, but i guess that is going to take some more time.

[@Grand1Admiral]

I want to build a bunch or rural villages and towns as well as a small city

[@indoorjetpacks]

as someone who's been to san francisco a few times, i'm very surprised that the SF map is so flat

[@CitiesByDiana]

As someone who has lived in this area for most of my adult life....same 😆

[@indoorjetpacks]

@@CitiesByDiana I will say though I hope it's available for purchase later as dlc, cause I'd still be excited to try my hand at messing with BART stations and the chaos that is the 101/280 junction >_>

[@quellyquell08]

Thank you for this!

[@Grand1Admiral]

Hopefully they make a map of Chareston West Virginia, that would be a really interesting city to build in

[@fineraftmovies]

Riverdelta is more like a Dutch map. That's from my own experience as Dutchy. Besides, looking to the temperature, it's very reminiscent of the Dutch climate

[@msi4887]

Mountains in Netherlands??

[@annasolovyeva1013]

Another hypothesis: Astrakhan.

[@typhoon-7]

I have played CS since it launched but i don't think I've ever played a map they provide because i enjoy the terraforming. Always made my own. Does CS2 have map builder options?

[@CitiesByDiana]

not on release sadly, editor will come later.

[@Paulovlyra]

The temperature is certainly going to be a big factor in ny choice... I'd hope to play on a tropical map to feel as if I'm building it where I live

[@CitiesByDiana]

Unfortunately there are no truly tropical maps yet, but hopefully they'll add more eventually 😎

[@alfonsmarklen1345]

Before they fix the bug of the Tampere map. Can you please make a game save of it since I have a suspicion that the ground level is super high. If I'm correct you could probably have fun with it and make a massive hole in it that would be really hard to reproduce on any of the other maps

[@Kasiarzynka]

Thank you for this overview! I think I might start with Barrier Islands, although I wish a railway connection was close to the starting squares. Edit: or Tampere, just because, well, railway 😅

[@itimdesigner]

i have one question. when it snows, does the grass get covered with snow(white texture from green one) or is it green?

[@CitiesByDiana]

The grass on the map does get covered with snow but it depends on climate and elevation and temperature, so it's a pretty neat mechanic. However, Unfortunately the grass surfaces on the buildings seem to stay green though....

[@itimdesigner]

awh:/ thanks for an answer still:) @@CitiesByDiana

[@gregbuhr5464]

Lakeland - Yea Minnesota! 🤣😎👍

[@Verschal]

Lake or Delta. And if my pc starts to stutter i'll go to barrier, sunny weather and no -0 temp. hopefully meaning less rain and snow equals stable fps.

[@slavplaysgames]

ofc the map i like the most archipelago heaven is LEVEL EXPERT and im playing the game for a week now but getting much better every time XD

[@Snikeymans]

my brain to small to do this myself do you have a map beginner friendly but still mountains and ocean?

[@henrystoes6508]

What's the song playing at 5:30? It's so good!!!

[@arthasmenethil4399]

I was seriously excited to get into Cities Skylines 2, but Tampere being locked behind preordering made me almost vomit with disgust.

[@Johnjackjack]

RIGHT i did even know about the pre order bounses and now what i am screwed. Even after being the deluxe addition seems kind of wrong

[@wuvme9354]

so is my 4gb rtx 3050 would safe to run this game with heavy asset and mod in this game with low graphic?

[@christopherc7322]

Ooo I can’t decide which I’m going to do… either windy fjords or river delta

[@knownothing5518]

I'm hoping they do more to the terrain to distinguish the quality and detail more from the first game.

[@thegrumpydragon7601]

I am going do San Francisco Build into the sea 🌊

[@YoursTrulyAudrey]

I got the ultimate edition, but I don't have the San Francisco map, what gives?

[@johnsonsmithson45]

Will the San Francisco map eventually be able to purchase later on or is it only going to ever be available via ultimate edition or pre order? 😅

[@CitiesByDiana]

I don't know for sure but I think it might be part of the San Francisco Set, seems like they'd add that as a standalone DLC but really no clue

[@Bbtwink]

I have played sims for many years, kinda looking for another fun simulation game. This needs intense planning tho so it’s intimidating. Do you think I should play the first one or dive into the second game ?

[@CitiesByDiana]

I think the first game is worth a try, it's not quite as intensive in the planning and simulation aspect but the second game is still good for casual players too, if you've got gamepass you can try it out there before buying too.

[@thisusernameiscurrentlytak7877]

Tbh the San Fransisco map was kinda smaller than I expected. Still a great map though.

[@Alex-s2o6o]

Great vid ❤

[@TDWKENT]

I’ve heard a lot about performance issues. Also heard they have recently released a patched. Have you had any issues at all?

[@CitiesByDiana]

performance is better but there's some other issues....not awful though