Cities: Skylines turned three a couple of weeks ago, meaning that it’s time to dust off our best Cities: Skylines mods list and see what wonderful community creations we can fill it with. On the day of its launch, Skylines already had pages and pages of buildings and complicated junctions waiting to be downloaded; now there are 1,000 of them, containing a ridiculous 145,948 mods.
That’s quite a lot of stuff to get through. And you should absolutely give Steam Workshop a browse — you never know what you might find. If you don’t want to faff, however, I’ve gathered a bunch of the best, including some personal favourites that I can’t live without. Most of these mods will work with the base game, but there are a few you’ll need one of the expansions for, and remember to check for conflicts.
Ghost in the Shell Buildings
The first question I ask myself when building a new city is how futuristic and gaudy do I want it to be? The answer is always: as gaudy and futuristic as possible. You’ll undoubtedly notice a theme in this list. This makes the Ghost in the Shell Buildings pack essential, though it’s more understated than a lot of my sci-fi mods, making it a solid addition to a contemporary city as well. Crazy taxi 3 pc abandonware.
Blade Runner Police Tower and Tyrell Corporation Pyramid
While we’re talking cyberpunk, let’s not forget about Blade Runner. You can’t get more ostentatious than these two buildings. The Tyrell pyramid is particularly impressive, and it’s perfect if you want something in your city that screams malevolence. The police tower looks a little bit off during the day, I think it’s all the black, but at night it’s incredible.
FOGBAE-TOWR4
Let’s stay in the future with the imposing, monolithic power station FOGBAE-TOWR4. Is there a hint of Brutalism about it? Who cares, it looks bad ass. It’s also practical, providing electricity for all the terrified ants scurrying below. Get this building to let all your citizens know that the state will crush them.
Gula’s Architectural Designs
Okay, Okay, you don’t all want futuristic cities. Gula’s Architectural Designs is a 24-item collection from the titular modder, and it’s a corker. It contains everything from a giant hamster statue to a KFC, Taco Bell combo. There’s plenty inbetween, too, including schools and skyscrapers. It’s a diverse, high-quality pack.
Quad Collection
The Quad Collection contains a whopping 166 items, and while I’m a fan because of the vast number of flashy sci-fi or sci-fi-adjacent buildings like Xenophilia, it’s also full of contemporary skyscrapers and offices that would fit perfectly in any modern city. If you don’t want to sift through hundreds of buildings, this is a great time saver.
Sunken Train Station
I love it when cities try to hide large buildings and infrastructure, making them seem more open, so I guess I like sunken train stations too (whether in brick and concrete). If you’re looking for subtlety over flair, then this is the transport link for you.
Amsterdam Centraal Station
But if you want a train station that’s also an in-your-face piece of architectural art, then you’ll be wanting something like Amsterdam Centraal Station. It’s a gorgeous six-track station based on the real Amsterdam Centraal, and it’s fat with details. Just take a peek inside!
Timboh’s Marvelous Interchange Emporium
This collection of junctions is a mainstay for me, and has been since just after Cities: Skylines launched, though it’s grown a lot since then. I love making road networks, as I suspect anyone who came to Skylines after Colossal Order’s Cities in Motion would, but it’s tricky and takes up a lot of time. Timboh’s Marvelous Interchange Emporium alleviate some of the pressure, and show you want talented people can do with some tarmac.
Sharp Junction Angles
Sharp Junction Angles does what it says on the tin, allowing you to make sharper angles when constructing roads, freeing you up to make a more elaborate, fine-tuned transport network. It also comes with Road Anarchy, a crazy mod that lets you make physics-defying streets that wouldn’t look out of place in Trackmania.
Advanced Road Anarchy
Speaking of Road Anarchy, here’s its bigger sibling Advanced Road Anarchy. It’s largely the same mod, allowing you to throw caution to the wind and construct the most dangerous, ill-conceived motorways anyone has ever concocted. But it also has buttons, an options panel and info text.
CTCN Transport – Blimp
When the Mass Transit expansion came out, we finally got chubby blimps that could fly around the city, picking up and depositing excited citizens and tourists. Blimps are pretty retro, though, and by now I’m sure you know what I like. Yeah, let’s turn those blimps into helicarriers. The CTCN Transport is a functional blimp, but sexier. Fill the skies with them!
Better Planes Pack
Planes deserve some love, too. The Better Planes Pack introduces two plane types and eight liveries to make them stand out. Right now they’re mostly US planes and paint jobs, but more international ones are coming. And while they’re functional planes, there are also prop versions, allowing you to dump them anywhere.
Mini
I just really like Minis.
Newport City (Niihama) Map
This Ghost in the Shell map comes with the Ghost in the Shell Buildings pack, but I’m adding it here too because you can never have too much Ghost in the Shell. Even when it’s a not-great live action movie that, I’m sorry, I really enjoyed.
Belmont County Transport
When the Mass Transit expansion arrived, it came with some transport-specific scenarios, but what if you don’t have Mass Transit? Belmont County Transport is a scenario map that tasks you with linking a bunch of little towns together, transporting 1 million citizens in 750 weeks, without using the metro. Try not to use other transport mods if you want the full challenge.
New Orleans Disasters
If you’ve got the Natural Disasters DLC and are looking for a scenario to test your sanity and ability to remain calm and collected during a crisis, you might want to take a gander at New Orleans Disasters. The map uses realistic elevation and sea levels, so it’s extremely prone to flooding.
New York City
It’s not a proper city builder without a nice big map of New York to play with. This is just a really cool space to build a city on, whether it’s your own version of New York or something entirely new.
Skyrim
You’ve wandered around the map for 100 hours, now build a modern city on it. Skyrim is an unusual, tricky space to build on, but it’s also one of the most stunning Cities: Skylines maps that I’ve seen. There’s such a huge attention to detail that I feel terribly guilty plonking down big, ugly industrial buildings. This is definitely a map you’ll want to build a green city on.
Los Santos
One of the first big map mods, GTA V’s Los Santos remains one of my favourites. Like the Skyrim map, the limitations force you to really plan ahead and make a city that conforms to the dramatic environment.
First Person Camera: Updated
What do your citizens see when they walk through your city? This first-person camera mod lets you see through their eyes. It’s pure novelty, but ever since Dungeon Keeper let me possess my minions, I’ve always had a soft spot for management games that let you get down to street level.
81 Tiles
This mod unlocks the whole map, expanding the building zone from 25 tiles to 81. That’s a big city. You can unlock them one-by-one, just like you normally would, or all at once, letting you expand in all directions straight away. This will obviously have a performance impact, especially once your city starts growing.
Automatic Bulldoze
Burned down and abandoned buildings linger, ruining property values and making your city look hideous. Demolishing them one by one, especially in a huge metropolis, is a right pain in the arse. This makes Automatic Bulldoze, which knocks them all down at the touch of a button, absolutely essential.
Reddit For Chirpy: Updated
Chirpy, Cities: Skylines’ Nazi-free version of Twitter, can now keep you informed of all the newest posts on any subreddit you fancy. See, Chirpy can be useful.
Chirpy Exterminator
No, Chirpy is a demon who must be excised from the game, and that’s exactly what Chirpy Exterminator does. With it, he’s gone forever, never to ruin your mood with the inane thoughts of your idiotic citizens.
More Beautification
Mods For Cities Skylines
More Beautification introduces props to the main toolbar button under the Decoration tab. You can place as many as 65531 props in the game, though it doesn’t add new props, it just gives you access to the existing ones. Grab Prop Snapping and Prop Anarchy as well, to extend the capabilities of the mod.
We’ve reached the end of list, but by no means the ends of City: Skylines mods. This will be more than enough to get you started, but there’s a whole universe of weird statues, spaghetti junctions and towering skyscrapers out there. And as always, if you’ve got some favourites that haven’t made it onto the list, let the world know in the comments.
The Levitator
Best Cities Skylines Xbox One Mods You Can’t Play Without
One of the more wacky additions to Cities Skylines on Xbox One is the Levitator, a UFO vehicle which can be placed into a city. The description makes it clear that the other-worldly vehicle is sure to ‘make headlines’ and boldly go where no man has gone before.
Giant Hamster Statue
Best Cities Skylines Xbox One Mods You Can’t Play Without
This remarkable rodent recreation towers above the city with pride. Yes, you can now be the owner of a giant hamster statue which you can place wherever you wish to create the desired effect which, presumably, is to confuse and terrify its citizens.
While this addition may have many players scratching their heads as to why they would want this giant fur-ball watching their city, it’s still nice to have the option, you know?
Quad’s Buildings
Best Cities Skylines Xbox One Mods You Can’t Play Without
It’s not all flying saucers and giant hamsters on offer here, there’s also the option to add a touch of class with the Quad’s buildings. These buildings are a diverse collection of gorgeous futuristic architecture which allow you to build flashy modern districts with ease.
There’s a tonne to choose from, angular skyscrapers and neon-clad behemoths, but this Quad’s Grace tower holds a particular beauty to it.
Hot Air Balloon Park
Best Cities Skylines Xbox One Mods You Can’t Play Without
Unleash your inner Phileas Fogg and add a Hot Air Balloon Park to your city. This park will see regular flights of colorful balloons, carrying passengers across the skies of your city. This is just one of the parks available in the new update but is definitely one of the best.
Football Parks
Best Cities Skylines Xbox One Mods You Can’t Play Without
If you’re feeling the comedown from Super Bowl fever, look no further than the Football Field Park you can add to your city. There are a few variations ranging from relatively scaled-back fields to gargantuan stadiums so be sure to include one of America’s favorite pass times in your game.
Self-Driving Trucks
Best Cities Skylines Xbox One Mods You Can’t Play Without
If you’re looking to introduce a little dystopia into your world, look no further than this self-driving truck. Fret not though, there’s still a guy loading and unloading so no-one is going to lose their job in the name of progress.
It’s all a little bit Black Mirror (let’s hope it doesn’t go rogue and start mowing people down) for sure, but when the trucks look as cool as this, we’ll allow it.
Construction Sites
Best Cities Skylines Xbox One Mods You Can’t Play Without
Nothing gives the impression of a growing and developing metropolitan utopia like a construction site. With these handy buildings, you can create whole areas of your city that make it seem like it is still a work in progress. This mod definitely adds to the realism of the game, closer resembling real-life cities and giving off a sense of movement to the whole thing.
These structures come in a variety of sizes, so varying each space can add a bunch of character to an area, eventually, they will result in a finished product, which upgrades over time.
The Wanderlust Whale
Best Cities Skylines Xbox One Mods You Can’t Play Without
Nothing says luxury quite like a cruise liner, and this one is a real treat. Looking somewhere between a Dishonored ship and a gold plated sea creature, the Wanderlust Whale will no doubt add a touch of style to your array of aquatic vehicles.
This thing is positively humongous, containing gardens, sports courts and everything your citizens need to kick back on the ocean blue.
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Cities: Skylines has achieved remarkable success in such a short time since its launch. It's not undeserved, as our review points out, but there are still a few issues with the game that have yet to be resolved with updates. Though these issues don't ruin the experience, their resolution would result in a game that makes your city planning more fun and a little less tedious.
Thankfully, the game is easily moddable. New features, new buildings, and tweaked systems are available to be installed directly from the Steam Workshop page. We've pulled together ten of the best mods that feel like essential additions for any mayor's budding metropolis.
First-person Camera
Not since Streets of Sim City have we been able to get this close and personal with our virtual citizens. This First-person Camera mod allows you to toggle a new camera mode, by pressing the Tab key, which allows you to stroll your own impeccably designed streets. Play with citizens in the park, check out your wind turbines up close, or just creepily follow one citizen as he journeys to work and back each day. You need to get to know people if you want to be the best mayor possible.
Timboh's Marvellous Interchange Emporium
Traffic management is crucial in Cities: Skylines, and it's hampered by the less-than-perfect traffic AI. Long story short: you want to avoid having intersections that require cars to stop at all. This is why you should browse Timboh's Marvellous Interchange Emporium--a package of massive, complex interchanges and roundabouts that don't require cars in any lane to ever stop. Plus, interchanges are just amazing.
Tree Brush
Who's bright idea was it to only allow players to place individual trees, one at a time? It's madness. That's why you need to download the Tree Brush, a tool that lets you paint trees in a large radius--similar to the way in which you paint districts. With just a click and a few swipes of the mouse, you can have beautiful, lush forests covering the whole map.
Automatic Bulldoze
Personally I've never had to bulldoze an abandoned building because my city is so perfect that no-one would ever want to leave, but we can't all be as civically-gifted. Use this Automatic Bulldoze mod to make your abandoned buildings automatically disappear, which is a treat for especially large cities beset by crime, fire, or buildings full of corpses due to the lack of a cemetery. You know what they say: out of sight, out of mind.
Day Night Cycle
New York is known as the city that never sleeps, and since Cities: Skylines doesn't ship with a day/night cycle, technically my city can never sleep so it follows that it is on par with New York. Only, with fewer murders. To keep things that way, you should allow your citizens to get some shut-eye by installing the Day Night Cycle mod. Not only does it provide some variety to the lighting effects, but you'll also get a better sense of the passage of time.
Auto Save
I find it incomprehensible that the game shipped without an auto save function, especially since it costs cash to undo recent mistakes--like the wind turbine I accidentally put near the park swing set. Unlike me, you can avoid civil lawsuits from grieving mothers by installing this Auto Save mod, which allows you to set how regularly the game periodically saves your city.
Lenin Square
Personally, I think there isn't enough concrete in Cities: Skylines. So why not turn your city into a grey Bolshevik paradise with the Soviet Buildings pack and its crown jewel, Lenin Square. After all, what better way to simulate the redistribution of wealth, and the brilliance of central planning, by giving you absolute power--down to the ability to rename individual citizens.
Reddit For Chirpy
If you're sick of bulldozing the houses of citizens who send snarky messages to you through the in-game Chirpy app, then you need this Reddit For Chirpy mod. This changes the messages that appear from a fake social media feed, to real-life topics or replies from your preferred actual subreddit. Set it to the Cities: Skylines subreddit for a deliciously meta experience.
True Colour Correction
I lied when I said there wasn't enough concrete in Cities: Skylines. What I actually meant was, there isn't enough colour. Though the game already features a couple of colour grading options accessible through the settings menu, they don't offer visuals as gorgeous as the True Colour Correction mod. The effects here are on the subtle side, but they help to enhance the game's slightly dull palette without being too distracting. Sorry Lenin, we're trying free markets for a while.
Traffic Report Tool
Remember how I said traffic management is crucial? Well, one oversight Cities: Skylines made was a failure to provide in-depth visualisation for how traffic is actually flowing. The game shows heat maps, but it's not enough information to troubleshoot congested areas. Download the Traffic Report Tool to see arrows that show exactly how traffic is flowing, and how heavy it is on each road.
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