Game Development: Ancestral Ropewalk

[Pommfritz]

I think seasons are ok, winter can be a bit annoying if you are unprepared but imo that's something to learn from and do better the next winter. Autumn is a great season the biggest problem I see is in Spring. Not being able to harvest seeds from your new planted trees and therefore not being able to plant new trees for more than the winter period sucks a lot and drags the whole thing out. Some foraging stuff could probably be adjusted for Spring as well but I didn't pay a lot attention to that in last Spring. Make Spring a bit more like Summer and all good xd

Great update btw

[loftar]

One idea is a simpler two season dichotomy. Warm season and cool season. That way you can keep the nice things about seasons but remove the oppressive elements.

We considered similar things, but the snow is one of the more aesthetically nice things about seasons, and also one of their greatest problems, so I'm not sure that's viable. In that case I would tend to believe more strongly in the idea of locating them geographically as mentioned in the OP. There are many other games that do similar things with "autumn areas", so to speak, and I've tended to enjoy that in the games where I've seen it. While I also like the longer rhythm to the game that time-based seasons afford, I also don't mind being able to settle in a permanent autumn region, so to speak. Not entirely sure what to make of it, but there are aspects to that idea that I don't hate.

[strpk0]

Are you actually pretending people don't globally dislike seasons after the first 2-3 times they experience winter/spring?
lol

Course not, not a fan of them myself, but straight up removing them doesn't appeal to me either.

So then it isn't just farmer bots going offline, which is what I found objectionable about your post.
I agree there's an opportunity for them to do interesting stuff using seasons, but in the meantime maybe disabling the feature temporarily so people aren't getting burned out by not having anything to do for two weeks straight in-game is slightly less bad.

[jordancoles]

Winter can be nice for doing the nomad credo inland with sleds, but the more recent change where the ice doesnt fully freeze over rivers and bays just really, really sucks. You constantly get stopped while sledding around and have to find new paths and take longer routes, or bring a rowboat and constantly switch between the two. Having a break from harvesting crops is kinda nice, and seeing fallowed crops helps with judging base activity. No tree planting sucks, and no seeds really sucks, but it's a short season at least. Winter stoats are a nice idea but they are way too rare, way too fast, and way too many hides are needed. I was out and about the last 2 winters and didn't kill a single stoat. Rare winter mobs could be developed on further though. Rare, larger white bears, yetis and boars could be fun for winter.

Fall is probably the best season, because it only adds and doesnt take away from the summer mechanics. Leaf patches are fun and mushrooms everywhere are nice for energy foods. The only downside is that you know winter is coming and you wont be able to plant trees for a stupid amount of time.

Summer is just the game played normally and is enjoyable across the board aside from midges which are total cancer. Why you guys have spent years adding reskinned ropewalks and rocking horses rather than giving us a way to deal with midges is pretty frustrating to everyone.

Spring is by far the worst season. Rather than seeds regenerating day 1-3 of spring, they dont even start until summer hits and even then it takes like a week or two before theyre all back (even in caves??). Terrible mechanic and I hate it. Trees are a massive part of development and to turn them off for 2 and a quarter of the seasons is just dumb. Seeds should start respawning day 1 of spring and they should all be back on all trees within a few irl days. Otherwise, spring should basically be summer with more bees and pretty flowers so you can still tell the difference.

My biggest issue with seasons is that you guys haven't fixed seasonal questing. You still get shit quests that ask for morels during the first summer of the world. You also should not be getting quests that are technically possible if you were to dig out the snow and then relog in that spot every 20 minutes hoping for an ant hill or tangled bramble to spawn. Just dont allow these quests to be assigned already!

Kinda salty that a lot of qol and seemingly obvious fixes havent been added to improve seasons since seasons were added, which is the other main issue with them imo. Seasons were added and very little has been done to flesh each one of them out to make them unique and decent in their own ways. And now preferring to pull the plug rather than adding those things is also frustrating.

[Vesena]

It seems a shame to remove all the aesthetics, so I'd rather they were kept and the mechanics of seasons just toned down instead. Like maybe instead of completely losing access to seeds during winter, they're instead acquired through a "Raid Squirrel Larder" option trees sometimes present?

[jordancoles]

One idea is a simpler two season dichotomy. Warm season and cool season. That way you can keep the nice things about seasons but remove the oppressive elements.

We considered similar things, but the snow is one of the more aesthetically nice things about seasons, and also one of their greatest problems, so I'm not sure that's viable. In that case I would tend to believe more strongly in the idea of locating them geographically as mentioned in the OP. There are many other games that do similar things with "autumn areas", so to speak, and I've tended to enjoy that in the games where I've seen it. While I also like the longer rhythm to the game that time-based seasons afford, I also don't mind being able to settle in a permanent autumn region, so to speak. Not entirely sure what to make of it, but there are aspects to that idea that I don't hate.

This would make boat travel a lot harder. Unless knars could break ice tiles at a slowed speed, it would mean abandoning your boat once you hit an unexpected snow biome and you would always need a sled and rowboat in your cargo for all party members.

I don't think eternal winter areas and unexpected seasonal shifts would be the better option

[LunarArchon]

These are some solid additions!

Regarding seasons, I think speeding up the returning of tree seeds would alleviate most players frustrations. It would be unfortunate to lose sleds, ermines, and the break from feeding the animals. I am in the keep seasons camp but think it would be interesting to test eternal summer.

In generally I think it would be better to add more season specific content/mechanics then take it away. Normally I would make suggestions here but honestly I would rather just see the bigger changes you have planned come sooner. (OCO, Fancy buildings ect.)

[Asgaroth22]

These are some solid additions!
I am in the keep seasons camp but think it would be interesting to test eternal summer.

Eternal summer was what we had for all the worlds before seasons came, so I'd say it was tested extensively.

Spring is by far the worst season. [...]

This is what most players have gripe with. If you're trying to fix seasons, fixing spring should be the first step

[telum12]

Seasons bad, +1 removal. Can’t sail unless village is by sea but can’t really do that unless big boi.

Not getting discovery lp is much less of a bad than having to run around rediscovering things. The LP can be easily gotten from curios if established, and if the lp matters you could just not pray.

[Kitamie]

As a farmer, I actually like winter as it gives me a bit of a chance to catch up on other things throughout the village. Plus you can have sledge races with your villagers. The cones/seeds from trees coming back at the start of spring would be hand though.