Game Development: Ancestral Ropewalk

[jordancoles]

How about adding Memories of Discovery or something which restores all discoveries of items.

We considered that, but honestly thought that enough people would prefer the extra LP gained from rediscovering everything that it might just be a noob trap.

Also also, lol at removing discovery lp being considered an unacceptable noob trap when multiple literal noob traps have been in the game for years and years

Noobs can choose to use the prayer or not based on their preference so I don't see it being an issue. Most established players will have a cupboard of descriptions for inheriting anyways (which give no lp).

[Lalaxx]

[*] We are considering disabling seasons. Winter (and spring) remove a fair bit of content -- whole core game loops -- we have no easy fix for that, and it seems to hurt a fair bit more than intended. We're considering reworking seasonality to be a map local thing, rather than a server wide event, but that is a bigger project. Eternal summer? Let us know what you think.

Fuck yeah. Give me an eternal winter continent. I will unite all people that live there and we will be plundering all other continents for resources. Viking life.

[Scilly_guy]

I can understand the sentiments for getting rid of Winter and Spring. I like them personally, and I am actually looking forward to winter for a chance to not be ABLE to do farming, and also know that no one else is so I won't be slipping even further behind with my seed q grind.

Spring is the issue for me though, I mean it should really be summer but with more flowers and foragables.

Several years ago I suggested having all seasons on the map at once, a wave that travelled either down or across the map, I have ideas about how to achieve it but can imagine there would be implementation issues. That way newbies can be spawned in the section currently experiencing summer.

Winter additions:
Frozen water fall natural wonder that gives "Not so everlasting ice" - reduces study time by 25%, maybe 33%?
Polar Bears... As was mentioned earlier bigger and whiter - polar bear cape gives more str? - polar bear coat is similar to a merc robe and gives more inv space? Whoa controversial. Stuffed Polar bear toys now with added LP!
Arctic Foxes... They are different somehow too... cuter?
MORE MINK... I mean winter coat stoats, increase the biomes they spawn on?
Newb sleds, maybe made from a board and boughs - unlimited run speed... is the metal sled unlimited sprint?

I dislike the idea of seasonal zones, when it is winter it is winter for everyone, we all suffer, none of this winter opt out business. Granted with "Its always summer somewhere", you could have two bases and live inperpetual summer, but then you have to setup two bases and move between them with the efforts involved with that.

But going back to it... I understand that everyone logs out on the first day of the first winter and only half(?) come back in spring... summer?

[SnuggleSnail]

Newb sleds, maybe made from a board and boughs - unlimited run speed... is the metal sled unlimited sprint?

made from a board and boughs

made from boughs

lol

[Massa]

How about adding Memories of Discovery or something which restores all discoveries of items.

We considered that, but honestly thought that enough people would prefer the extra LP gained from rediscovering everything that it might just be a noob trap.

It's a noob trap early on but it's so nice later on.

[Tammer]

It's not winter that makes your average player quit. It's tedium from the things that once were fun turning into a bunch of chores. Removing time-based seasons takes away variety and adds to the tedium.

I think time-based seasons are one of the best features you've added since I last played in w10.

[Harthel]

Do the devs play the game? Why solicit advice from players and then call the critics autistic? Lol at the idea of poor noobs starting during winter... Straw man or just wishful thinking?

Obviously seasons break the gameplay loop, weren't they specifically created that way? Like did devs consider the loops before or just not realize? That's why I ask if they even play. Why not add rewarding or fun gameplay loops that are season-specific instead? I know the devs love to punish their players for enjoying the game but come on lol this is comedy

[Agrik]

We are considering disabling seasons. Winter (and spring) remove a fair bit of content -- whole core game loops -- we have no easy fix for that, and it seems to hurt a fair bit more than intended.

Dumping your own previous work is not much an efficient way, and also lowers your morale quite a bit, I suppose. The seasons were a great addition, they enhanced the game immersion greatly, they deserve to be improved. It would be a pity to lose such an interesting side of the gameplay.

We're considering reworking seasonality to be a map local thing, rather than a server wide event, but that is a bigger project. Eternal summer? Let us know what you think.

Seasons rolling across the map. I wonder, would it be really "big project" to admix world coordinates into the formula that defines the season for a given tile? Perhaps even not needing a world reset. The main question is how exactly mix them in, i.e. what the seasonal areas should look like on the world map.

Lines parallel to the equator, rocking north and south? Wave lines running along X axis? Concentric circles pulsing around 0,0... or having the circles' center moving in a circle?

Now, after all the seasonal things, eternal summer would be boring.

We've certainly considered greenhouses, but winter has many more problems than just not being able to grow crops. For example, foraging,

It's fine for a game to have some challenges. They are not "problems". The only question is what kind of challenges the game should have, and it's for the developers to decide. Beware of asking your current playerbase, as the game is old enough for the community to have some traits of an "echo chamber" that mostly reflects, or represents, your own previous decisions.

and mapping areas that are only full of snow.

Is it bad? The ground is covered with snow, a cartographer really won't be able to know what the surface is. It's good enough that one can tell ground and water (ice) apart, I'm not sure it would be exactly so in reality.

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.

Agree.
As I see it: there is a discrepancy between the year (season) cycle and the cycle of fruiting. In reality, trees usually fruit once a year, thus either Haven-Time ticks too slowly, or players want to replant trees too often.

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.

Doesn't the game has enough static biomes(terrains) already?

I also find personally that it detracts quite a bit from the walking-simulator aspect of the game by basically making the whole world look the same.

It's remarkable how "the whole world looking the same" coincides with looking different than usual. When walking around in winter I always wonder "What does this region looks like in summer?"

whereas if you just happen to get a quest in winter (which is now guaranteed to be winter-specialized) and then don't do that quest for a week or two, you'd still be as out of luck.

The formula that decides which quests to allow can be made a bit offset, or modified so the quests are given according to the current time and a near future. Like, how the next week is divided between two seasons would set the probability of getting quests for one of those seasons now.

and if we can think of enough content for winter and spring that they could be playable indefinitely as a game in itself (like summer and fall are), we'll certainly consider making seasons time-based again.

Playable indefinitely? Why? Seasons are meant to change, it's a thing that changes. It won't be a "season" if it's always static everywhere. If anything, the possibility to play in one season indefinitely would be needed for static seasons, as opposed to changing ones, not the other way round.

However, one of the main aspects of geographical seasons would be that you can choose your own season. If you don't like winter, you can simply not play winter. If you don't like spring, you can simply not play spring. It would have those kinds of advantages.

These can be made by some regions having the seasonal cycle, while others not having it, or only "oscillating" between 2 or 3 seasons. Like on the Earth, you know.

You only need a good formula to calculate the season for a given coordinate.

[Soukuw]

I would be very bummed about losing season. I do find the complications with credos to be incredibly frustrating though.

There really is something that feels amazing with freaking out that you don't have enough seeds in store for your animals, Panic you haven't planted trees to continue coal production and stockpiling certain items to maintain progress throughout winter. I really feel like it would be a shame to lose out on this kind of feeling.

Today I was hoping my neighbor would come online so I could tell him he could plant a field in my flattened land for his animals if he needed too. This kind of interaction is interesting IMO

[WESKERBOY]

Good update. Now talking about seasons, personally I feel that the game will loose very good contento haven is always good for difficulty, thats the thing that keep me coming back and visual of seasons are great, maybe there is other fix rather that dissapear, like more forageables during winter also fauna and Just fix a little spring more flowers and the core issue is farming, in the World there are variety of seeds and all of them grows on diferent times with the Wide on SUMMER, that could be an answer, boost some of them in x season then mové, Just my cc.