Paradox Interactive announces new gameplay features coming next week to Cities Skylines in the upcoming Snowfall expansion for the urban planning game, while also revealing new features coming to the base game via an accompanying free patch. They will begin a live stream showing off the expansion on Twitch today at 11:00 am Eastern Time. Here's the rundown on free changes coming in the patch:

In addition, Paradox has also detailed the features that will be added to Cities: Skylines for all players in a free patch on February 18, whether the weather-oriented expansion is purchased or not. All players will see the following additions:

• Rain and fog-based cosmetic weather for existing maps outside the new “Winter” themed maps
• A new Theme Editor for map modding, allowing players to create new Map Themes ranging from different terrain styles to incredible alien worlds; here is one such incredible alien world
• Whoa cool!
• Pretty cool, right?
• An expanded UI for public transportation management
• New Chirps from everyone’s favorite in-game social media avatar
• New Hats for everyone’s favorite in-game social media avatar
• Newfound respect for everyone’s favorite in-game social media avatar