Welcome back to the monthly State of the Game megathread for October!
September turned out to be significantly busier than expected. We got a new free patch, major simulation changes, expanded modding tools, a new Expansion Pass, Iceflake's first announced expansion, another developer Q&A, and—because this is still Cities: Skylines II—a few new things for us to collectively stare at and ask, "Is that supposed to be doing that?"
So, let's take a look at where things stand heading into October.
🍂 Autumn Breeze — Patch v1.6.2f1
Released September 15, 2026
The biggest change since our last State of the Game thread is the release of Autumn Breeze, replacing Summer Solstice as the current live PC version.
The update focused primarily on simulation logic, performance, visuals, the Asset Editor, and Paradox Mods.
Garbage Collection
Garbage trucks received new routing and capacity logic.
Trucks now reserve enough capacity for the building they are actually being dispatched to and are more willing to skip buildings with very small amounts of garbage along the way.
Garbage also now has a larger effect on citizen happiness.
In other words, the garbage truck has finally been reminded that it was dispatched somewhere for a reason.
Companies & Resources
Company renting priorities were changed so businesses producing resources your city actually needs are given priority when searching for available properties.
This is intended to:
- Improve the variety of companies spawning in commercial and industrial areas.
- Better align businesses with actual city resource demand.
- Make demand bars respond more accurately.
- Provide groundwork for continued resource-economy improvements.
Offices can also now import Software from outside connections.
Residential Demand
Residential demand calculations were adjusted to better account for extremely large cities.
The simulation now considers both city population and the number of empty residential properties when calculating the effect of available housing.
This should address cases where residential demand could effectively collapse in very large cities despite additional housing still being needed.
Citizen Finances
Citizen decisions involving shopping, leisure, and happiness now rely more heavily on income instead of accumulated wealth.
Additional citizen fixes include:
- Young adults should no longer immediately move out of their parents' homes unless they can actually afford housing.
- Several situations where citizens abandoned vehicles were fixed.
- Homeless households should be less likely to become stuck while coordinating family trips.
Performance & Technical Improvements
Autumn Breeze also included another round of smaller performance improvements.
These include:
- Improved tree LOD performance.
- Smarter selection of asset LOD levels.
- General simulation optimizations.
- Reduced memory usage.
- Improved wind simulation performance.
- Optimization passes on numerous existing assets.
Iceflake has been clear that performance work is still ongoing.
In its September Q&A, the studio explained that CPU-side pathfinding remains one of the larger technical challenges, while additional GPU, rendering, memory, and simulation optimization continues.
Some of this work is also directly connected to the continuing effort to get the game running within console memory and performance limits.
There is still plenty of road ahead here, especially once cities start getting stupidly large.
Visual Improvements
Autumn Breeze continued the terrain and rendering work introduced earlier this year.
Changes include:
- Waterway Pass and Lakeland received hand-painted terrain improvements.
- Surface lighting now follows the underlying terrain normals.
- Tree LODs were improved.
- Moonlight shadows were restored after being unintentionally disabled.
- Window lighting behavior was corrected for assets configured to always remain lit or unlit.
- Support was added for frosted and opaque windows.
- A new European Spruce tree was added.
Asset Editor Improvements
Several previously previewed Asset Editor improvements are now live.
These include:
- The new
-startEditor launch parameter.
- Asset filtering improvements.
- Multi-select when adding assets.
- Improved window import controls.
- Frosted and opaque window support.
- Additional window color and lighting controls.
- Fixes for excessive color palette data accumulating in custom maps and saves.
- Additional Editor usability fixes.
Work on the Editor and custom asset pipeline remains ongoing.
Paradox Mods & Launcher Improvements
Autumn Breeze also brought several additions to Paradox Mods.
Among the bigger changes:
- Mods can now have Collaborators.
- Mods can be managed through the Paradox Launcher.
- Playsets now support automatic mod downloading as an optional setting.
- Mods can be managed while offline.
- Tags can be excluded when browsing.
- Several playset and browsing bugs were fixed.
The patch also updated the game's UI framework, so some code mods required updates after the patch.
Existing save games remain supported.
As always, if you're running a heavily modded city and the game suddenly decides life is optional, check your mod compatibility before sacrificing your save file to Chirper.
City Corner #12 — Simulation, Performance & Player Control
Earlier in September, Iceflake published another Q&A addressing several recurring community questions.
The studio explained that its current development approach generally follows three stages:
- Fix the underlying system or bug.
- Observe how the simulation behaves afterward.
- Then determine whether balancing changes or larger reworks are required.
Iceflake specifically used logistics as an example of a system where one apparent problem may actually involve resource availability, vehicle routing, company behavior, or several systems interacting at once.
The developers also discussed giving players more direct control over parts of the simulation.
Instead of requiring players to micromanage individual businesses, Iceflake has discussed possibilities such as more control over resources or production at the district or city level.
Nothing specific has been announced yet, but the studio appears interested in providing more meaningful control over the simulation without turning the game into Spreadsheet Simulator 2026.
Expansion Pass 2
September also brought the announcement and release of Expansion Pass 2, marking Iceflake's first major paid-content roadmap since taking over development.
The pass includes:
- Two expansions.
- Three Creator Packs.
- One radio station.
- One instant-unlock content set.
Downtown Market Set — Available Now
Expansion Pass 2 owners immediately receive the Downtown Market Set.
It includes:
- A container-based commercial/social hub.
- Placeable food trucks.
- Additional smaller shops.
- A new Scottish-inspired temperate map.
Park Adventures — Q4 2026
The first full expansion developed by Iceflake will be Park Adventures, currently scheduled for Q4 2026.
The expansion introduces a modular park-building system where players draw their own park areas and fill them with different attractions and facilities.
Four park types are planned:
- City Parks
- Zoos
- Amusement Parks
- Nature Reserves
Parks will level up as they attract visitors and include their own management systems for:
- Ticket prices.
- Staffing.
- Maintenance.
- Park ratings.
The expansion is planned to include more than 100 assets and five new maps.
Yes, we are basically getting Parklife 2: Electric Boogaloo.
And honestly? Fine by me.
Expansion Pass 2 Roadmap
Following Park Adventures, the currently announced schedule is:
Q1 2027
- Modern Suburbs — Creator Pack by Trist1322
- First Response — Creator Pack by Arthaix
- Corner Street Beats — Radio Station
Q2 2027
- City Vacations — Expansion focused on tourism
- Map Pack — Seven new maps by Uncle Ron
City Vacations is planned to expand tourism significantly, including seasonal visitor numbers and additional tools for influencing where tourists arrive, travel, stay, and spend money.
Community Reports Following v1.6.2f1
As always, a major simulation update has produced a few reports worth keeping an eye on.
These are community-reported issues and should not currently be treated as confirmed official bugs unless Iceflake says otherwise.
Hydroelectric Dams
Multiple players have reported hydroelectric dams suddenly operating at 0% efficiency after the Autumn Breeze update.
Some reports are from completely vanilla games, so this may not be mod-related.
"Not Enough Customers"
There has also been a noticeable increase in reports involving commercial businesses displaying "Not Enough Customers" after v1.6.2f1.
Players have reported the warning appearing even in cities with:
- High commercial demand.
- Significant nearby population.
- Fully staffed businesses.
- Adequate stock.
- Good traffic and transit access.
Because Autumn Breeze directly changed company priorities, imports, citizen finances, and shopping behavior, it is possible some cities are simply adjusting to the new simulation rules.
However, the number of reports means this is something we'll be watching throughout October.
If you're experiencing either issue, please include whether you're playing vanilla or modded, your city population, and your current version when discussing it here.
Console Update
There is still no confirmed release date for Cities: Skylines II on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S.
Iceflake continues to state that the console version is actively being worked on, and performance and memory optimization remain important parts of that effort.
Until Paradox announces an actual release window, we're not going to try to manufacture one.
Console players remain at the bus stop.
The bus is technically still on the route.
We simply have no idea where the bastard currently is.
Looking Ahead
As we enter October, the major things to watch are:
- Additional fixes following Autumn Breeze.
- Continued simulation and performance improvements.
- Further Asset Editor improvements.
- Continued development of the resource economy and logistics systems.
- Potential follow-up on post-patch commercial and hydroelectric issues.
- More information regarding Park Adventures ahead of its Q4 2026 release.
- Continued console development.
As of October 4, 2026, no newer major game update has replaced Autumn Breeze.
Current State
As of October 4, 2026:
- Current PC Version: v1.6.2f1 — Autumn Breeze
- Latest Major Update: Autumn Breeze — Released September 15
- Expansion Pass 2: Available
- Downtown Market Set: Available
- Next Expansion: Park Adventures — Q4 2026
- Asset Editor Development: Ongoing
- Simulation / Performance Work: Ongoing
- Console Version: In Development — No Release Date
Guidelines
- Ask questions about the current state of the game, performance, bugs, patches, mods, or upcoming content here.
- Share your experiences with Autumn Breeze and let us know how your existing cities handled the simulation changes.
- If you're reporting bugs, please include whether you're playing vanilla or modded and include your game version.
- If you're experiencing the new commercial or hydroelectric issues, providing your population and relevant city information may help other users compare results.
- Posts asking "is the game worth it now?", "has the game improved?", or "what's the current state of the game?" outside this thread may be removed and redirected here.
We'll keep this thread updated throughout October if Iceflake releases another patch, City Corner, Park Adventures news, or anything else significant.
Last updated by mods: October 4, 2026.
