Greetings Mayors!
[p][/p][p align="justify"]Happy New Year! As we start 2026, we at Iceflake wanted to share some news about our progress with the first patch; our plan is to publish several news posts between every release, with the ones in-between releases focusing mostly on things coming in the next update. However, we will include other topics as well down the line.[/p][p][/p][p align="justify"]There are quite a few changes coming in this first patch, some of which you have been requesting for a long time. In this City Corner, we will be focusing on the visual features of the first patch, and in the next one, we will focus more on the mechanics. And, if all goes well, you will be able to see these changes firsthand in the second half of February! So without further ado, sit back, relax, and let’s get into it![/p][p][/p]Your city is your canvas
[p align="justify"]Adding a bit of color can make your city transform from “meh” to majestic! Inspired by the fantastic “Recolor” mod by yenyang, with our first patch, we will be adding an ability to set a custom color to assets and change the look of your city. So far, we are limiting this asset coloring to buildings, props, and vehicles for now, but we are working on making this possible for trees, plants, and other props as well.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43753943/c2eda1e00c6f34c5cd53dde8ef934ac655a2b402.png"][/img][/p][p]The new Color customisation UI![/p][p][/p][p align="justify"]Later down the line, we will add the possibility of saving a color setting as a “favorite”, making it easier to paint different assets around your city with the same colors. You will also be able to color all buildings within a district, so if you have always wanted a district to be pink, you can finally live your dream![/p][p][/p]
Extreme Makeover: UI Edition
[p]We know that the UI can sometimes be a bit confusing when it comes to communicating things, and while it’s still a work in progress, we’re really excited to show you the first changes we have made towards making the UI clearer to understand. We have streamlined the onboarding process and changed some icons to be more expressive and easier to understand the context from them. The toolbar has had the most changes as the colors and the visual style have gone through a big makeover. Now there are more round shapes, and the demand bars have more focus. [/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43753943/3c5e6c3a50979f4296211d616675228d3fc4dbef.png"][/img][/p][p]Updated Development Tree and toolbar with new colors, modernized visual style, and improved icon quality.[/p][p][/p][p align="justify"]We have also been working on an in-game Encyclopedia, which has all the information at your disposal during gameplay. It allows you to revisit different aspects of the game and read about them by browsing through different categories and DLC features. The Encyclopedia also has a search function, which you can use to jump into a specific topic whenever necessary. This addition is still in the works and will not be ready for our first patch, but it will be added at a later date.[/p][p][/p]Turn the lights on!
[p align="justify"]Though we in Finland live in darkness for most of the year, your city doesn’t have to! We have improved both the daytime and nighttime lighting, giving the nighttime more visibility, while also updating the sky texture. For the daytime, we have balanced the amount of clouds so that you might see them more often in your maps.[/p][p][/p][p align="justify"]Fog settings have also been updated and are now controlled by the weather or the level of cloudiness, which means you might see more fog while experiencing stormy weather, for example.[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43753943/b65fd828793168b585b20fbf5c94a8b4940273f9.png"][/img][/p][p]Mountain Village before with clear skies…[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43753943/995d499b7d4627063aca540d456c03bfad791214.png"][/img][/p][p]…and after, with the weather being slightly cloudy.[/p][p][/p]Speaking of weather…
[p align="justify"]Since the seasons are different depending on your location, we have made updates to the climates of the maps. Now, it is easier to customize maps to have a distinct look and feel based on their location, and you may notice more snow on boreal maps compared to tropical maps.[/p][p align="justify"]And when winter is coming, and snow is falling, it will now fall onto your lots and their surfaces as well! Since most of the surfaces didn’t show any signs of snow even in the thickest snowstorm, we decided to fix it in a true Finnish fashion; no more clean-cut grass during the wintertime, you will be able to enjoy the snow to the fullest.[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43753943/9e7dc3f52f138cd7b57b82c4c872efcbbd8212a4.png"][/img][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/43753943/e09b021005bdb16bbe2424fd5c82e7475da43266.png"][/img][/p][p align="justify"]We have already begun the process of improving other aspects of the environment, like ground textures and how to make them look more realistic, as well as being able to plop trees much closer together and toggling their age. While some of these improvements might not be ready for this first patch, we are hopeful that they will be ready for the next one.[/p][p align="justify"][/p]
