New

• Added underground resources, 4 types: Oil, Gas, Common Ore and Rare Ore. Resources first need to be looked for using the prospecting tool (under the industry buildings tab). Depending on the ore available underground we can then place a mining lot which will instantly build 1 of the 5 mining buildings (an oil field, a gas field, an open pit mine, an underground mine and an offshore rig). Mines and rigs provide jobs, tax income and improve the trade balance.
  

• Added a container port and container ships. Ports increase the value of a city's exports. The trading capacity of ports is shared accross all cities (like power production).
  

• Added trade balance, takes into account the exchange rate, the trade capacity (from ports and airports) and of course the imports/exports ratio. The trade balance is NOT shared accross cities. The census tool will show the exports/imports balance for each commercial and industrial lot.
  
• Added alert icons over buildings. Will display one of the 8 most common problems: no water, no power, not enough demand, unemployment, no workforce, pollution, crime or 'can't reach workplace'.
  
• Added 3 farming variants
  

Balancing and Changes

• New job creation / distribution algorithm to stabilize the economic cycles and facilitate economic transitions. (I really thought we were done with big economic changes but I discovered that some of the adjustments made previously were actually disregarded entirely once the game was initialized).
  
• New inflation and exchange rate system. A bit more complex but theoretically more realistic. Updated the economy stats panel.
  
• Enhanced spatial segregation of social classes (sorts lots based on their land value and picks the most relevant).
  
• Added the option to sell dollars.
  
• Added a dynamic representation of political affiliations in the approval stats.
  
• We can now reduce the tax rates and print money even if stability is at zero.
  

Minor Fixes and Changes

• Replaced display of the exchange rate by the trade capacity (earned from ports and airports) in Nation UI.
  
• Improved Census Tool and Service Editor position. (solution proposed by GeneMonty, thanks!)
  
• A Stage 7 upper class building had a concrete texture instead of windows.
  
• Pressing escape while destroying a zone now cancels the action.
  
• Added tooltip displaying the reason why a building can't be placed (if no road access or insufficient funds or terrain too steep).
  
• Terraforming actions are now prevented when the balance is insufficient.
  
• Some residential sound effects were not being used.
  
• Lowered the quality score threshold for service buildings to reach grade A (visual only).
  
• The population amount coming from neighbor cities is now displayed in the population stats.
  
• Increased inflation effect on the social ladder.
  
• Decreased incarceration rate (-20%).
  
• Decreased number of students in high school and elementary (-20%).
  
• Decreased traffic (-15%) and pollution (-25%).
  
• Decreased land value requirement for advanced manufacturing (-25%).
  
• All menus can now be closed with the ESC key.
  
• In large cities new low class houses could sometimes never develop.
  
• New attempt at solving the ever disappearing airport stage 1.
  
• The red district was not keeping its initial rotation after loading back the city.
  
• Improved boat navigation. Should not sail on land anymore.
  
• Gained about 5 seconds on saving and loading Nation.
  
• Riots have a larger area of potential destruction.
  
• New residential buildings no longer start with an education score of zero, depending of the social class they will start with up to half of the current city's education score.
  
• News about prison overcrowding was triggered at 80% prison occupation.
  

Known Issues:

• Placing the port can be difficult in small spaces. A large open shore is recommended. Build a road first.
  
• Helipad cannot be destroyed.
  
• Cars on service buildings disappear after reloading the city.
  
• Localizations other than English and French related to the new features are of mediocre quality (will be updated in June).
  
• Props and trees can clip into buildings for a while before getting updated.
  

Update 1.2.1 will add new lot sizes, possibly an option for larger maps, big changes to the bottom part of the UI, a revamped census tool, and new unique buildings. It'll take about 4 weeks of work.