The latest patch for Cities: Skylines 2 addresses homelessness and air pollution in a year that is already fraught with election issues

Homelessness and air pollution are complex issues, I was told, despite a surplus of unoccupied building and people who would prefer to breathe clean air. Even in the patch notes for Cities: Skylines 2 we can see how to solve problems.

The list of changes in Patch 1.1.10f1 are extensive, but it is important to note that the pollution issues will, technically, result in morepollution for many cities. Air pollution has been adjusted so that "overall more air pollution is produced, it spreads a little more, and dissipates a little slower." Unfortunate.

The patch also addresses "issues relating to road-based sound pollution" and rebalanced the road noise generation in order to account for the fix. Overall, highways and non-highway roads will produce a slightly higher level of noise pollution than before. The patch also fixes the vehicle pollution being visible only above roundabouts or map borders.

Homeless citizens will no longer be forced to "wait endlessly for public transportation at the International Airport." The tents that were left behind by the homeless will also no longer be found in the parks.

The tourism mechanics also received some much-needed attention. Fixes were made for hotels that refused to sprout in commercial zones, and tourists who lingered in buildings forever when they should have been doing tourist activities.

The patch also increases "fire spreading probabilities from 0.05 up to 0.3", meaning that fire will now spread between buildings more easily. At least, your fire departments won't be short of work. Also, note that cars will no longer be able to park in motorcycle parking lots. Civilization is finally restored.

There are also a number of fixes and adjustments made to the UI in order to improve readability and usability, while also addressing issues with interface elements that disappear, are incorrect, or do not respond. Audio fixes are also included. I read that "an unrelated sound that could be heard during the game loading screen" has been removed. Rest easy if you're someone who is sensitive to the sound of a whoosh. It's finally your time.

Mattias Lilja, Paradox's deputy CEO, said that the latest fixes are part of a continuing effort to restore Cities: Skylines 2 following a launch plagued by performance issues, bugs and missing features. According to Lilja, this launch was probably too early. Cities: Skylines 2 is still rated Mixed on Steam at the time of writing.