Welcome to February's edition of the monthly report on progression of the rewrite - the new, proper version of Alien Horizon that's being worked on in the background. Last month was all about new terrain generation and the addition of water. I promised to show what happens to water when temperature gets too low this month.
Ice
Ice is what happens. The water dynamically freezes and thaws based on temperature. Deeper water takes longer to freeze. The process has two phases - thin ice (darker) is formed first and marks how the ice is going to spread further. Thick ice (lighter) forms when thin ice freezes for long enough, and has gameplay ramifications - water pumps cannot pump water from thick ice (mining drills can still mine it, though), and all colonists and vehicles can cross this ice with a speed penalty. This can temporarily open up some previously inaccessible passages.
Multi-level infrastructure
Probably the most requested feature of preview alpha. In the rewrite, you can build roads, pipes and conveyors in multiple levels above the ground, allowing them to be used without blocking access. A pillar is needed every other tile, so it still has significant limitations. Pipes and conveyors also no longer need direct access from a passable tile in order to be maintained - they can be accessed through any building they connect to, which should make them much more versatile.
In preview alpha, power and utility lines can be built over roads, but this combines them into single structure, which complicates the upgrade (whatever is built first is disabled during construction). This was never an intended feature and is only the case because of technical limitations. In the rewrite, power and utility lines are built one level above roads and are a separate structure. This also allows them to be built over any other structure that is only one level high, such as rocks or energy storage.
Next time, we're going to look at more possibilities of infrastructure and crossing of water. Or you can hop on the official Discord server, where more features are already presented. I hope you've enjoyed this devlog and see you next month!