Hello and welcome to the July's edition of the rewrite devlog. Yes, it still is July, at least here. As was said in all other devlogs, these are supposed to show some of the new features of the upcoming new rewritten version of Alien Horizon, that's coming quite soon. In fact, if you're impatient, there's gonna be more information about the playtest that was promised in the last devlog at the end of this one.
Today we're going to take a look at the weather system. In the alpha, weather just meant temperature and wind speed, but with the addition of water, it's so much more here.
Clouds
As was mentioned in the previous devlog, there's cloud cover on the planet now. Clouds will affect how well your solar arrays work. Of course, since the game is called Alien Horizon, you can tilt the camera enough to actually see the horizon and that means the sky too, so I took the time to make a dynamic effect that shows what the clouds actually look like. Their speed depends on wind and they even cast shadows and interact with the sun during sunrise and sunset.
Rain and Snow
Since there's water on the planet, as was revealed in the very first devlog, there of course should be rain too. The effect is affected by rain intensity and wind speed and direction, making it possible to rain almost sideways.
The terrain generator has been greatly improved, creating fewer tiny lakes and more rivers.
When the temperature is below zero, it snows instead. You can see the water freezing in real time, which, as mentioned in the second devlog, allows colonists and vehicles to travel over it, but blocks your water pumps.
Unfortunately, snow doesn't accumulate on the ground, but that's something I'd like to address in the future.
Floods and droughts
Back when I first presented water, its simulation was rather rudimentary and thus its effects on gameplay had to be limited. But I've massively improved the simulation since then - every tile is physically correctly-ish simulated (there are some compromises in the name of performance), allowing water to spread and flow as expected, adhering to terrain. When it's hot and dry for long enough, your water sources may dry out.
And when it rains too much, areas may flood.
The simulation is fully dynamic, being affected by terrain changes. This means you can landscape the terrain to create levees to keep water out and canals to get it where you want. When it rains for the first time after you land, you may notice you just got a convenient source of water right at your doorstep.
And that concludes July's devlog. Last time, I said that the playtest was going to arrive at the end of July and as you can see, I didn't make it in time, so I apologize. However, it hasn't been pushed that far and it's close enough to being ready that I can promise:
Playtest is coming on 7th August
Save the date, or even better, come to the Discord server or the new Stoat server both of which are where organization is going to take place, but only if you're fine with playing a game that's unfinished and buggy and want to help get it across the finish line.
Next devlog is going to be in late August. Until then, bye!