Cities: Skylines II Modding on OpenMods

A sequel that traded Workshop for Paradox Mods

Cities: Skylines II (2023) is Colossal Order's sequel, built on a newer engine, designed for a different scale of city, and shipped with a different modding model. Where Cities: Skylines 1 used Steam Workshop, Cities: Skylines II uses Paradox Mods as its sanctioned distribution channel. The shift is corporate-strategic (Paradox controlling distribution across platforms) and has slowed the modding scene's growth substantially.

The launch was rocky, base game performance issues, asset modding postponed indefinitely, smaller mod catalogue than CS1's mature one. As of 2026 the situation is improving but CS2 hasn't surpassed CS1 as the modded city-builder of choice for serious players.

The toolchain

• Paradox Mods: the official mod distribution. Subscribe via the launcher's Mods tab.
• In-game Content Manager: toggle Paradox Mods subscriptions per save.
• BepInEx + Paradox Mods Bridge: community workaround for using BepInEx-style script mods alongside Paradox Mods. Smaller subset of mods.

There's no Steam Workshop integration. There's no Source SDK equivalent. CS2's modding architecture is more constrained than CS1's by design.

What you'll find on OpenMods

CS2's mod ecosystem is smaller than CS1's and centred on Paradox Mods. GitHub-published CS2 mods are typically the BepInEx-style technical mods rather than asset packs. OpenMods catalogues those.

Practical notes

• Asset modding is limited. At launch, asset modding was disabled. Limited asset support arrived through 2024–2025 but the catalogue is far smaller than CS1's hundreds of thousands of assets.
• CS1 mods don't transfer. Different engine, different mod format. Don't expect Move It, TM:PE, or any CS1 favourite to appear here without a complete rewrite.
• Performance overhead from mods is significant. CS2's base game is heavier than CS1; stacking mods further amplifies the load. Run modded CS2 only if your hardware comfortably exceeds vanilla requirements.
• Paradox Mods integration is per-account. Tied to a Paradox account, not a Steam account.