Major update progress: Seasons are coming

The ski holidays in Europe are mostly over so it's a good moment to share some updates. The next major update development picks up the pace, it's still a long way to go but the list of items to be included is mostly finalized.

Seasons

The main focus of the update, seasons introduction means the snow depth will now change on its own throughout the year. In summer, lower parts of the mountain will likely get green, both trees and land. Besides visual effect, this will also disrupt the skiing activities as people can't ski with no snow. You'll have to either close some trails every summer or buy the newly added snow cannons to ensure trails being snowy all year round.

The game will also receive new sandbox settings, where you'll be able to set everlasting winter for your resort if you don't like the changes, together with other things.

Snowline limits will be configurable during the map creation instead of the current tree lines (did you know the two are actually tied together in the real world too?).

Dynamic weather and avalanches

Seasons will come with dynamic weather. Most of the time it will bring some small modifiers to skiers speed and injury rate, but sometimes it'll get extreme, leading to events such as snowstorms and avalanches. New avalanche defense buildings will be there to help protecting the resort.

The avalanches will also be triggered by skiers on badly groomed snow or freeride areas. If not stopped, they'll damage buildings and incapacitate people, putting extra strain on your helicopters.

Bridges and tunnels

A long requested feature, bridges and tunnels will allow more complex resort setups. They will exist in variations for road transport and for pedestrians.

For pedestrians specifically, stairs will come together with bridges and tunnels. These are compact one-tile buildings to connect adjusted flat areas of different elevation (no more 20m long gondola rides needed).

More customization

Apparently, some players are not fond of the orange color. New update will bring a tool to paint some buildings, or to set company colors used by buildings and vehicles by default.

Some buildings renamed by players such as lift stations will display their name painted on the walls. The trail signs will also feature few characters such as trail number painted on them, according to the trail name set with the renamer tool.

Workshop and mods

The game is finally getting mod support and Steam Workshop. Mods will be no-code (at least for now) and be able to modify things that are already in the game or add new ones of the same type, such as new "default" maps, new buildings, lifts and slope features, UI languages and color schemes, etc.

Given the current number of players, I don't expect a lot of mods to be published there but still am really excited to see how it'll play out!

Please note any of the plans above can still change. They are not exhaustive, too, the update will likely contain other smaller things and fixes.

If you have any questions (for example, you have an idea of a mod you'd like to create and are unsure whether it'll be possible), don't hesitate to reach out through any of the channels.