The original Cities: Skylines just got a politics mod, giving you a new way to paint the map

While the second Cities: Skylines game is slowly recovering following the departure of its creators, the original game is more than thriving due to its incredibly talented and active modding community. Now, that game received a major new fan-made mod called Politics & Elections that does exactly as its name implies.

The mod enables your citizens, and may there be many of them in every town you make, to vote in relatively free elections to support parties that eventually merge into coalitions. These coalitions and political powerhouses then force certain policy changes that you’ll have to make, with the citizens themselves dynamically reacting to their own circumstances. If you raise taxes too high, don’t be surprised if a liberal political movement gains power and makes you reduce it. Polluting the air too much? The people want those green policies enacted ASAP. You get the point.

Parties are fully customizable, so you can roleplay to your heart’s content or reenact real-world political systems.

As per the mod’s Steam Workshop description, “citizens care about high taxes, poor health, unemployment, [and] high crime,” while certain situations might cause your population to swing left or right, such as deficits pushing them toward right-leaning, spending-conscious parties. It’s an incredibly detailed mod mechanically and does its best to bring parliamentary democracy to Cities: Skylines, a game that otherwise has you as its sole, somewhat benevolent, and borderline omnipotent dictator that decides who gets to keep their home and who’s being bulldozed in favor of a statue that’ll increase property values.

So far, neither the original game nor its sequel has ever received a proper political system. Sure, citizens can react to all sorts of policies, like high taxes, too many dead bodies not being taken care of, trash all over the place, that sort of thing. But they don’t really engage in policy and force you to make certain decisions, especially since you can just bulldoze any dissidents and send them to the ether or wherever else Cities citizens emerge from.

In fact, there aren’t many games that have this sort of mechanic at all. Tropico comes to mind, and while it does its job rather well, it sort of leads you into roleplaying as one specific kind of politician, i.e., a tropical dictator that is more or less kindhearted.

One game captivated me a few years ago precisely with this premise. It was called Urban Empire and promised to deliver on exactly the detailed and complex politics of managing a city or larger administrative unit. It didn’t turn out so great, but it had a lot of interesting concepts that unfortunately didn’t spill over to other games.

But perhaps mods like these will give some developer an idea and start them down that path.

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Managing to clean over thousands of books in Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library is no mean task, and it gets harder when there are four hidden keys among them. All the keys can be found in the library itself, but they will be mixed with the books. That said, their spots are always fixed, and this guide will help you to locate all of them.

How to find all keys in Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library

The four keys have unique colors that will allow you to identify them as they lie inside the library.

• Red
• Green
• Yellow
• Blue

Red key location

This is the earliest key that you’ll be able to find, as it’s near where you spawn. You’ll need to look for the University of Celesthall logo, and the red key will be hanging from it.

Green key location

To find the Green key, you’ll need to look carefully on the ground floor. The floor will be littered with books, and you’ll need to look for a table. The table will be located almost in the middle of the floor. The key will be on top of the table, sitting beside nearby books.

Yellow key location

If you look carefully near the staircases, you’ll find a vase on each side. Look inside the vase kept on the staircase to the right, and the key will be inside it. You’ll need to view it from the top; otherwise, the key will be completely hidden. To do so, you’ll need to use the nearby railing by jumping onto it and then getting to the vase.

Blue key location

To find the Blue key, you’ll need to look between the top of the shelves 2O and 2P. You’ll need to have unlocked the High Jump ability to get to this key. This is also the only one that’s located on the second floor of the library.

How to use the keys in Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library

When you find a key for the first time, you’ll find strange symbols on it. Each key corresponds to a treasure chest that you can unlock. These keys are also specific to the chests; if the symbols on the key and the chest don’t match, it won’t work.

Each chest you open helps you get a Minor magic ability.

• High Jump: Obtained from the Red (Crimson Octagon) key, you gain the ability to jump whenever you want, and the chance to access the second floor without using the stairs.
• Run: The Green (Emerald Club) key allows you to run in the library and quicken the speed at which you put the books in their places. It’s a fun ability to have if you want to save time while filling up all the shelves.
• +3 Carry Capacity: Obtained from the Yellow (Golden Diamond) key, you’ll be able to carry more books at any given point.
• +2 Carry Capacity: Obtained from the Blue (Azure Star) key, you can carry more books.

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