Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order’s city-building game, Cities: Skylines 2, has got rid of landlords in order to fix its high rent crisis.
In the Economy 2.0 update blog post for Cities: Skylines 2 on Steam, it was revealed that the development team has rolled out a fix for complaints regarding “High Rent”. To complement the Land Value changes made in patch 1.1.0f1 from March, developer Colossal Order has adjusted how rent works. Firstly, it has removed the virtual landlord, so building upkeep is now shared equally by all renters.
Secondly, the development team has changed the rent calculation formula to the one below.
Rent = (LandValue + (ZoneType * Building Level)) * LotSize * SpaceMultiplier
This affects the “High Rent” notifications players may have seen. With the new formula, these notifications are based on the household’s income. If a household doesn’t have enough money to pay rent, they won’t complain but will spend less on resources. They will only complain about “High Rent” and look for cheaper housing or move out if their income is too low to cover rent.
Besides rent, households and companies need to pay for building upkeep, which affects the building’s level. If they pay the full upkeep fee, the building condition improves until it levels up, and then tenants start paying towards the next level. If they can’t pay, the building condition worsens until it eventually collapses.
The development team at Colossal Order also shared its future plans for Cities: Skylines 2. The next major patch, which is targeting a Q3 2024 release, will offer expanded service import for more control, improved UI, and enhancements to how the game relays information to the player. Lastly, the art team is working on some new free buildings for the community.
Cities: Skylines 2 was released on October 24, 2023. It is the sequel to 2015’s Cities: Skylines. The game is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
