Cities Skylines features a lot of customization and opportunity for the budding city-builder in all of us. But for those who want to take the sim further, a broad and growing selection of mods is available via the Steam Workshop. These include new structures, power lines, public services, surfaces, maps, and mechanics. It’s a lot. But narrowing down the best Cities Skylines mods proves challenging but doable. Here they are.
Best Cities Skylines Mods You Should Download
How do you pick the best Cities Skylines mods? The Steam Workshop has over 330,000 entries, many of which are highly rated within the community. You obviously can’t run all of them simultaneously; the game would crash, so let’s narrow it down.
Timboh’s Interchanges
Mod author Timboh has over 30 entries on the Cities Skylines workshop, and they’re all different types and styles of interchanges. Despite the overall simple nature of his mods, they’re all extremely well-rated within the community. Seriously, if you sort by most famous of all time, his mods hit the top spots every time.
Why? First and foremost, it’s because interchanges prove exceptionally difficult to create in Cities Skylines. Most of my interchanges wind up ugly and inefficient. It’s easier to download a mod.
MoveIt
MoveIt, by mod author Quboid, allows us to move and shift objects with greater precision in Cities Skylines. Previously, shifting a road or bridge felt cumbersome. It would ruin the landscape or delete buildings to make room. But with MoveIt, the task is more fluid and fulfilling.
Yes, even structures! You can move an entire neighborhood, house-by-house, to complete the authentic Maine township you’ve dreamt of since you were little. It’s entirely possible, all thanks to MoveIt. And the same goes for decals, procedural objects, trees, props, and even surfaces.
Precision Engineering
Precision Engineering, by Simie, allows for greater positioning and placement by enhancing the game’s angle snapping, guidelines, road construction, and even the pipes and power lines. It’s a must-have for anyone who takes city-building seriously.
Personally, I’ve always found it difficult to place a road in the exact position that I want in Cities Skylines. It’s a frustrating experience. But with Precision Engineering, that’s no longer an issue because you can hold CTRL to snap to various angles. That unique neighborhood you crafted in your notebook is a genuine possibility in-game.
Roundabout Builder
When it comes to building a roundabout naturally in Cities Skylines, it seems the game doesn’t want to cooperate. You wind up with a mess of interconnecting roads and partial circles. It’s a mess. But with Roundabout Builder, a mod by Strad, it’s now easier than ever to construct a full roundabout anywhere on the map.
Instead of an ugly four-way stop in the small-town neighborhood, you spent all night working on, place a roundabout instead. It’s much more attractive, allows traffic to flow freely, and provides an aesthetic that Instagram would love. Furthermore, you can customize every roundabout, adding multiple lanes and roads leading into and out of the circle. It’s totally up to you.
Senfkorn’s Structures
While the buildings in Cities Skylines prove adequate in vanilla, anyone who wants to delve deeper into city-building and truly customize their vistas will need to download modded structures. These include business parks, police stations, residential buildings, sports parks, etc. And the best of them come from Senfkorn.
With 30 different buildings to select from, all with five-star ratings, Senfkorn dominates the Cities Skylines Workshop regarding modded facilities. His mods add additional styles and aesthetics to residential, commercial, and even city service buildings. There is a lot to explore here.
Keep an eye out for more Cities Skylines content from Prima Games, especially with Cities Skylines 2 right around the corner.
Published: Sep 28, 2023 11:55 am