Cities: Skylines 2 patch fixes 'unnecessarily large' character textures, removes 'offensive' radio ad
Citizens might start hogging less processing power, though we're still not completely sure about their teeth.
A patch for Cities: Skylines 2 has been released today, addressing several issues with the game—though it doesn't sound like it's the overhaul needed to soothe the city builder's biggest performance problems. Hopefully, that patch won't be too much longer.
One issue that should improve as a result of this patch is the Cities: Skylines 2 not enough customers problem, which has been frustrating and a little confusing—the game often shows demand for new commercial zones, but at the same time existing businesses inform you they don't have enough customers. As a potential fix, the patch increases "leisure probability" which I assume means citizens will have more free time to visit shops, and thus businesses won't complain as much.
There are more tweaks to businesses, like an "improved balance of companies' profit" and the fixing of a trade resource bug that meant businesses would order supplies even when they didn't have enough storage space for them, and then wouldn't consume resources they had. Hopefully, this means you'll have an easier time keeping your city profitable, which I personally have had issues with in my game.
A lot of Cities: Skylines 2 performance issues have been blamed on the wee little citizens themselves, particularly their teeth, though Colossal Order has denied that rendering individual teeth is causing issues. That said, the patch "decreased resolution of unnecessary large character textures" which sounds like it may be in the teeth ballpark, at least. Hopefully you'll begin to see a difference in fps with your citizens hogging less processing power.
The patch notes also say Colossal Order "removed Spasm radio ad (due to offensive content)," which is causing a (thankfully) very minor stir on Reddit and in the Paradox forums. I don't recall this particular radio ad myself while playing (I turned off radio station ads pretty quickly in general) and very few players seem to remember it specifically, either. I did listen to a recording of it someone uploaded a few times just now. In the ad, the voiceover mimics the sound of someone being electrocuted, which could also possibly interpreted as the sound of someone having a seizure, and the word "spasm" used in the ad several times might be misheard as "spaz," a term that has been used to mock people with conditions like cerebral palsy. But I don't know for sure those are the reasons the ad was deemed offensive, that's just a guess.
Amidst people asking for more details about the ad, commenters arguing about what is offensive and what is not, and the inevitable handful of cries about "wokeness," a community manager for Colossal Order gave a perfectly level-headed explanation in the forums. "An issue with the ad was brought to our attention and we concluded it did not align with our goal of the game being welcoming to all our players," they said. "There's really no more to it."
That explanation sounds reasonable to me—not to mention the ad is incredibly annoying and I don't know why anyone would want it in their game in the first place.
As for other issues with Cities: Skylines 2 (like the 'huge' packs of abandoned feral dogs) more patches are no doubt on the way. The patch notes also include a warning: "Please note! With existing save games, most simulation fixes require the simulation to run for a while to take effect." So after installing the patch, have a little patience, mayor.