Summary
- Don't evacuate: Keep citizens in the city until the last minute to maximize tax income, but be prepared for more death.
- Preparation is key: Use structures like watchtowers and emergency shelters to mitigate the damage caused by natural disasters.
- Save money for emergencies: Have reserve funds to immediately repair the damage after a disaster and prevent bankruptcy.
Cities: Skylines 2 tasks players with building the ultimate metropolis. That comes with countless challenges, but the most frustrating are natural disasters. As the name suggests, these are unpredictable phenomena. They emerge from out of the blue and wreak havoc on any cities in the vicinity. Worst of all, players can't do a thing to stop them. That's not to say they're totally powerless, though.
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On the contrary, Cities: Skylines 2 provides a myriad of measures to recover from natural disasters. These are instrumental in both mitigating the damage and bringing the city back from the brink. Without them, these catastrophic events could reduce the most bustling metropolis to rubble. That's a price which no one wants to pay. As such, players owe it to themselves and their citizens to implement these strategies.
Don't Evacuate
Fewer survivors means fewer taxpayers.
This is an admittedly cold-hearted approach and won't win players any new fans. Once a natural disaster rears its ugly head, the normal procedure is to evacuate the city. This saves the lives of its residents, but it also halts income. That stoppage makes it more difficult to rebuild after the disaster dissipates. Why not squeeze every bit of money out of citizens beforehand?
Players do this by making the masses pay their taxes right up until the moment the disaster hits. This maximizes the amount of resources they accumulate. In turn, this makes it easier to pay for recovery efforts once the crisis passes. Obviously, it also results in more death. The trade off is that fans can restore normalcy more quickly for the survivors. Again, it's a morbid solution, but a solution nonetheless.
Preparation
Learn about disasters before they happen.
Sometimes, the best recovery is prevention. While players can't thwart the disaster itself, they can mitigate the damage through awareness. Namely, they should erect structures to warn people about oncoming events. The most helpful are the watchtowers. As the name suggests, they keep a lookout for forest fires and other phenomena. The ensuing alert keeps players from being caught with their pants down and allows them to respond more efficiently. However, they should also have a contingency plan.
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Specifically, they might invest in additional structures to minimize deaths. Emergency shelters let folks take refuge from the destruction. Fire departments combat woodland infernos, possibly before the flames even reach the populated areas. These measures don't stop disasters in their tracks, but they do put a dent in the damage. A few rescued victims can mean the difference between a thriving metropolis and total societal collapse.
Save Money
Leave some cash in the bank for emergencies.
Once a disaster ends, players are left to survey the damage. They'll see multiple structures in desperate need of repair, so they must spend money to restore these buildings to working order. Given the widespread destruction, these costs will likely add up to a steep price. Fans may actually go bankrupt just getting the city back on its feet. Luckily, there's an easy fix.
Like in real life, it's wise to have some money in reserve. Saving funds ensures that players can repair the damage immediately and get things back on track. Granted, this restraint may not be easy. The nature of Cities: Skylines 2 encourages urban expansion, so fans want to spend any cash they gain to improve their cities. However, they must somehow control that creative instinct and set some money aside. They never know when they might need it for a rainy day.
Repair The Roads
People need a clear path to evacuate.
Plenty of places need players' attention, especially after a disaster. It's hard to know where to start. To maximize efficiency, though, they should focus on the streets. This paves (sorry) the way for all other aspects of recovery.
The road system allows citizens to navigate their complex cityscape. That includes workers, who are essential to any city. Traffic jams or damaged roads impede their ability to do their jobs. In the short term, it means aid workers--like firefighters--can't contain the damage. In the long term, it prevents the economy from bouncing back. This, in turn, hinders the funds available to fix other structures. Such a snowball effect can cripple a city more than any disaster. Players ought to prevent that drawn-out demise by simply repairing the roads first.
Supply The Shelters
A sanctuary is useless without resources.
If players fully commit to saving the citizenry, then they must go all the way. Just because people reach a shelter doesn't mean they're out of the woods. The place needs upkeep and resources like any other building. Each shelter should receive water and power to stay in operation. That's not all.
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The government must provide enough food to sustain the survivors. Players accomplish this by putting generic industries nearby. Then, pave a clear path from those industries to the shelter. That way, the food trucks arrive safely, and the people don't starve. Finally, they emerge from the shelter, reinvigorated and ready to lend themselves to economic growth once again. The more workers survive, the better the chance of the city's recovery.
Turn Them Off
The Options menu is the saving grace.
This is the most foolproof method of handling natural disasters. Upon starting a new game, players have the option to turn natural disasters on or off. It goes without saying that disabling this feature eliminates any possibility of hail storms, forest fires, or tornadoes. Thus, any questions of recovery are null and void.
Sure, this preemptive workaround is a cheap way out. Who says that's such a bad thing? Sometimes, players don't want the extra headache. They'd rather enjoy the game's spirit of expansion without the looming threat of tearing it all down. That's among the perks of such in-depth personalization.
Cities: Skylines 2
- Released
- October 24, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Colossal Order
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- City Builder
