Cities: Skylines 2 dev says "biggest regret" is missing mod support as it continues to fix game

The "biggest regret" of the developer behind Cities: Skylines 2 is the game's ongoing lack of modding support, Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen has said.

Writing in the studio's latest developer diary, posted on publisher Paradox Interactive's forum, Hallikainen also detailed the changes Colossal is now looking into based on player feedback.

The city-builder sequel released in October last year on PC and was immediately criticised by players for its performance issues and, yes, missing official mod support. In response to fan complaints the game's launch had been a "mess" and a "disaster", Hallikainen admitted Colossal would "much rather be in a different position than we are in the moment, but we cannot change the past".

"The biggest regret we have is that modding support is not yet available for the game," Hallikainen wrote, stating Colossal has been working on it since the beginning of development and "the intent was to have it fully ready at release". Colossal ran into technical difficulties during development and "simply ran out of time" as before launch to fix the game's performance issues and get mod support working, Hallikainen added. In November, Colossal said its all-in-one mod support and tools would need at least a couple of months before an initial release. Since then, the developer hasn't provided any further estimates on when they'll be ready.

For now, Colossal says it's working to "catch up" on missing mod support, the console releases which were delayed until this spring, and the delayed expansion pass content which was also delayed to allow Colossal to fix the base game first, all while "improving the performance and fixing bugs this year".

Based on player feedback, Colossal is also looking into changes in the following: Land Value and Zone Suitability, education system for children and teens, more transparency in the economic system, balancing subsidies and service importing, balancing negative happiness modifiers with lack of basic utilities. "We're a small team of 30 developers," Hallikainen stated. "I can assure you we are all doing the best we can. Only time will tell if this is enough to turn things around."

Hallikainen also said Colossal is "aware we have a mountain to clilmb when it comes to delivering on the expectations" of its players, before pledging to improve the game as quickly as it can. Paradox admitted before Cities: Skylines 2 released the game missed targeted performance benchmarks but decided a release was "the best way forward".