Season Thoughts

[Hamel]

The best part about hostile weather and seasons is that they would kill off poorly protected throw-away alts.

Wow and best of all it does this without killing newbies who have just started causing them to quit and losing prospective players, oh wait it doesn't.

Not if the newbies spent significant investment trying to protect themselves from it. Like, avoiding long treks through blizzards, getting thick wool clothing, bringing warm drinks with them, taking frequent rests in sheltered areas, et cetera et cetera. The key is finding a balance that would let newbies survive, but have careless people (namely naked throw-away alts) die.

To tell you the truth, I had thought of multiple climates a long time ago, but I stopped thinking about it when I got to tropical environments and Arabian settings (camels included). I realized that Jorb and Loftar probably wouldn't want that kind of stuff in their game setting.

But, I think getting harsher environments as you traverse away from the RoB would be okay. Sounds kinda familiar though.

[Peter]

Um, this idea had nothing to do with killing alts.

The main advantage I see is providing some sense of life to an all-around dead world. To make the pressures on the player change over time. In spring you farm, in summer you build, in fall you harvest, in winter you craft, for example.

[sabinati]

there are several things needed before this could work:

seed bags or stackable seeds
better planting/harvesting ui
granaries
domestic animals
winter gear
probably a ton of other shit

[niltrias]

Latitude based weather changes would work, but another way would be to make the changes based on Altitude. Where I grew up, it was pretty normal to be running around in shorts and a t-shirt in view of mountains no more than 5 miles away that were covered in snow. It would not just have to be mountains, either...high snowy plateaus, small warm valleys surrounded by frozen peaks...

[theTrav]

there are several things needed before this could work:
seed bags or stackable seeds
better planting/harvesting ui
granaries
domestic animals
winter gear
probably a ton of other shit

The ability to make town Idols publicly spawn-able would also help out, as would removing the ability to teleport via spawns.

[sabinati]

there are several things needed before this could work:
seed bags or stackable seeds
better planting/harvesting ui
granaries
domestic animals
winter gear
probably a ton of other shit

The ability to make town Idols publicly spawn-able would also help out, as would removing the ability to teleport via spawns.

does not compute

[theTrav]

does not compute

Winter makes survival outside a town more difficult.

New players spawning in towns makes new player survival less difficult in winter.

Ability to Teleport between towns without braving the wilds in winter makes winter less effective,
removing ability to teleport between towns will make winter more effective at keeping people within towns.

[Ai_Shizuka]

Nice ideas and everything but, as the vast majority of ideas proposed here, it's too focused on "hardcore" players.
What if your normal casual player can't log for a week or two? He miss a season. Are his crops going to freeze or rot on the fields?
What if he miss summer and can't plant anything? He logs again in winter and has no food.
Or a new player starts in winter and has to wait two seasons to start farming something.

A realistic farming/weather system would be a very interesting addition, but could potentially screw the less hardcore players.

[theTrav]

What if your normal casual player can't log for a week or two? He miss a season. Are his crops going to freeze or rot on the fields?
What if he miss summer and can't plant anything? He logs again in winter and has no food.
Or a new player starts in winter and has to wait two seasons to start farming something.

I'd imagine there would be ways of getting food in the winter, just not as high yield as in the other months. There'd probably also be laborious tasks that new/poor players could perform in return for food.

[Peter]

Good thought, I suppose.

I don't think that winter necessarily has to be harder to play- just different to play. Different resources and skill sets come to the fore, but it's still possible to do all the basics.

Oh, and a note; seasons would give a good excuse to put daylight cycles into play. That is, summer has longer "day" periods than winter.