Seasonal changes

[Cranky]

Numerous stalker and voyager runs of mine have lasted between 100-200 days and yet the season never seems to change. I’ve never lived north of the US/Canadian border but I assume there is seasonal weather changes. I know (from doing seasonal work) in Alaska summer is quite different than winter. Would anyone be interested in this being implemented?

[Stinky socks]

I would, but it's doubtful we will see anything like that until perhaps #2.

It's always cold and wintery, just like in Astrid's heart.

[UTC-10]

The scope of Story mode would limit the degree of changes in weather/season since Story mode deals with a specific period of time.  Until the story that the devs wanted to tell concludes,  the weather and conditions would not be expected to change. 

Now, once story mode is no longer a factor and time can progress then we might start to see new things including seasons, new seasonal mechanics, and seasonal changes in the landscape as a result, assuming that the game world development continues. 

So there would be nothing wrong with seasons though I imagine the phrase "mission creep" might apply. 

[Stinky socks]

I don't think Hinterland can pull this off very well, with the texture style the chose to implement in TLD. I would certainly not like to see green field with a couple grass strings here and there. Bear island is sort of secluded space from a lot of human encreepment(?), so there would be a lot of open nature, and nature means a lot of complex models, vs having just a bunch of square houses.

I am worried.

[Cranky]

1 hour ago, Stinky socks said:

I don't think Hinterland can pull this off very well, with the texture style the chose to implement in TLD. 

This was something I thought of as well. I really like the simplicity and beauty of the graphics and game textures but also realize it’s well suited for the color scheme. I have no understanding of game coding, development, or graphic design and thus have no idea if this kind of change is relatively easy or to complex. I do get the sense that it would be a rather welcomed update or implementation for the next. 

[Stinky socks]

Not to mention, all that ice will turn into water..

[Cranky]

Lol, that just means fishing, swimming or even bathing.  FM could become something entirely different, we could craft a raft and take out bears/wolves from our makeshift boat. 
 

fishing on a sunny day in the comfort of our bushcraft raft..... sounds like a fun vacation. 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Cranky

[Stinky socks]

1 hour ago, Cranky said:

sounds like a fun vacation.

😁not from programmer's perspective. Remember what happens when Astrid falls off the ice at coastal highway? *plunk* like a rock! Hinterland will have to program some swimming skill progression if we get rivers and oceans.

On a serious note, all that traversible ice we have now will have to be reprogrammed entirely. I doubt Hinterland will want to go there(swimmers pun!)

I'd like to see it, but realistically, it'll probably happen only in a new game.

[Syraith]

Not possible without a complete revamp yeah. All the snow/ice is just a texture so they’d have to essentially start from scratch. But I completely agree, seasons would be a great feature for survival.

I think I saw somewhere that the aurora is the factor that keeps the winter going (or maybe that was a fan theory?) as even some of the coldest places up north can also be some of the hottest. Take Fairbanks AK for example. Well into the double digits -F in the winter but HOT summers. I lived in Anchorage for a number of years but different areas of Canada definitely have different climates.

Having a warm season would add fun dynamic changes. Heat condition over cold. Rain instead of snow (wet cloths still a factor), faster food condition change if left outdoors but reduced on refrigerator? No ice fishing but rivers would be the better source. Faster curing if left outside in the sun with an actual curing rack. Obviously traveling would also change since rivers would be flowing (possibly current makes areas non-traversable).

 I hope if there’s a TLD 2 they consider this but the simplicity of what they created is also just as amazing as this concept.  

Edited April 14, 2021 by Syraith

[UpUpAway95]

They'd have to change the name of the game for the summer months... since, in the far northern latitudes, the sun stays up in the sky for a significantly longer day and reaches a point for a few days where it doesn't set at all.  In addition, the BC Coast is actually quite fertile with very abundant plant and wildlife during the summer months.

The reality is that the game is intentionally set in the dark winter months of the year.  Seasonal changes would, essentially, undermine its entire premise.

Edited April 14, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[Syraith]

@UpUpAway95maybe “The Long Dark” is more of a state than literal darkness. As in dark or dismal times 😏

[UpUpAway95]

11 minutes ago, Syraith said:

@UpUpAway95maybe “The Long Dark” is more of a state than literal darkness. As in dark or dismal times 😏

I think it's both... The short days and long nights in the winter are known to be contributory to  SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) - "Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. Less often, SAD causes depression in the spring or early summer."

"

• Your biological clock (circadian rhythm). The reduced level of sunlight in fall and winter may cause winter-onset SAD. This decrease in sunlight may disrupt your body's internal clock and lead to feelings of depression.
• Serotonin levels. A drop in serotonin, a brain chemical (neurotransmitter) that affects mood, might play a role in SAD. Reduced sunlight can cause a drop in serotonin that may trigger depression.
• Melatonin levels. The change in season can disrupt the balance of the body's level of melatonin, which plays a role in sleep patterns and mood.

 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[Lycrist]

If you want to have seasons, play Interloper.
You start in Summer and it slowly becomes winter in day 50. Forever.

[k0s0ff]

This is a dream game. I want to, but I don't think we're going to get it. It's not about the complexity of the process, the guys made the game, and I think there are a lot of problems there. The fact is that the game is about something else. Winter, cold, hopelessness, hopelessness, death, and other depressing things. Overcoming which the player overcomes the game. However, it is infinite, like an allegory of life.

Not in this life.

[Schrodingers Box]

let’s remember this is a survival game, not a camping simulator. If there are to be seasonal changes it should waiver from brutally cold and wintery to unbearably cold and wintery. certainly not spring and summer.  

Edited April 20, 2021 by Schrodingers Box

[jajo88]

Hello everybody,

I've just finished reading all the threads. I think most of people are right. A seasonal would ghange too much the game, but I've got an idea(silly of course) from this.

Lets suppose only two seasons. Winter and a sort of Spring/Autumn. These would just cause a modification of the weakness of the ice in some regions like Coastal highway(where for example you cannot simply go on the ice) and change some paths in other regions like forlon and introduce weakness in regions like mystery lake. While other regions are less affected like timberwolf mountain ecc(and some connection areas like the dwon part of carter hydrodamn could be with all ice weak make a player chose other way). Speaking now about rivers(already icy), maybe some could start to make wet your dress! In terms of temperature: yeah maybe a rise of some grades could be the solution but for this maybe the wildlife starting to grow in number and be more agressive even at low stages of the game. In some regions snow drop could make your dress more wet and during the night freezing.
I don't know if it's a good one but in this way the devs don't have to change he whole structure of the game but simply change status of some ice paths and so on.

Tell me what do you think. Maybe this could make the game harder?

 

[oplli]

On 4/13/2021 at 3:21 PM, UTC-10 said:

Now, once story mode is no longer a factor and time can progress then we might start to see new things including seasons, new seasonal mechanics, and seasonal changes in the landscape as a result, assuming that the game world development continues. 

Devs have promised to deliver every episode of storymode 1-5 for free but after that i doubt they are going to continue the developpement of the game for free or at all. 

I would like hinterland's next survival game to be a summer game or a game where seasons occurs though.

[oplli]

19 hours ago, jajo88 said:

Lets suppose only two seasons

I had an idea in the past that kind of meet your's its an idea of a challenge and here's the desciption i made for it : 

(the beggining has been ispired by someone on the topic so it is no mine) You live near milton at the paradise meadows farm and it is the end of the winter... you take some week off to go see a member of your familly at the blackrock federal prison. when you are there an earthquacke happens at milton and blocks all the possible entrances to the region. except one: by forlon muskeg at marsh ridge. The only way you can get back to your familly to check if they are safe is by FM and the winter is near ending... we all know that FM is a dangerous path during winter so its not even imaginable near the spring as the ice gets thiner and thiner, sooner or later the path is going to be untakeable. But our hero wants to try his luck and start by foot from Blackrock and travels to his house. now the challenge is right here you will have two days to go from blackrock to your house and without taking the fastest shortcuts it is not going to be possible. on the way multiple dangers will come: blizzards wolf packs bears hunger. everything that we know. now if you finally get to marsh ridge alive you will still have to go from milton bassin to your house and there is still thin ice and big bears there... you will have to pay attention.

the last part is the most beautiful one if you finally get to your house after climbing one of the highest climbing spot in the game you will finally see your home and a beautiful and peaceful spring hitting the plains as a reward for this challenge...

I dont know how to quote from another post but for the interested people the post is called : Mix of ideas / brainstorming

I would love to see something like that as a challenge or as another separate game but i like the unchanging weather of the game in regular sandboxes.

 

 

[Old Hermit]

On 4/20/2021 at 5:59 AM, jajo88 said:

Hello everybody,

I've just finished reading all the threads. I think most of people are right. A seasonal would ghange too much the game, but I've got an idea(silly of course) from this.

Lets suppose only two seasons. Winter and a sort of Spring/Autumn. These would just cause a modification of the weakness of the ice in some regions like Coastal highway(where for example you cannot simply go on the ice) and change some paths in other regions like forlon and introduce weakness in regions like mystery lake. While other regions are less affected like timberwolf mountain ecc(and some connection areas like the dwon part of carter hydrodamn could be with all ice weak make a player chose other way). Speaking now about rivers(already icy), maybe some could start to make wet your dress! In terms of temperature: yeah maybe a rise of some grades could be the solution but for this maybe the wildlife starting to grow in number and be more agressive even at low stages of the game. In some regions snow drop could make your dress more wet and during the night freezing.
I don't know if it's a good one but in this way the devs don't have to change he whole structure of the game but simply change status of some ice paths and so on.

Tell me what do you think. Maybe this could make the game harder?

 

Upvoted. Some alterations on game elements, without reshaping everything.

I don't know if the cold weather is growing over the whole planet, but yet the game environment is already cold beyond normal, i guess.
Then, there could be a sort of oscilation between a cold weather (the current game mode) and a hyper-winter, or otherwise a mild weather, both altering temperatures and snow/fog/wind behaviour, and perhaps even vegetation partially respawn, being seasonal on each 365 ingame days played.

Imagine an Interloper playthrough where each winter season becomes more and more aggressive, due the constant decreasing world temperature... of course adjustments could be needed.

(using google translator)

[Stinky socks]

We will not survive if weather keeps getting colder. Everyone will freeze.

[Usfarle]

i already made a topic about this, and people were telling me that it would not be possible in TLD because the actual ground is the snow, soo it will be really hard to remake every map without the snow.

But maybe in tld 2 it is a possibilty, i was thinking about a quite hard summer, to keep the difficulty and the ambience of the game, maybe a warm month when every rose hips, reishi, beard etc... would respawn often (like every week for a reishi, every 3 days for a rose hips). Something to make a carrot for the player, a time when you could stay outside all day, and gather supply for the upcoming winther : Just like real life ! 

It would actually be super cool that Hinterland add some feature like that, but I would be very interested about how they thought about a season system in the game.

[jajo88]

Hello Guys,

@Usfarle I'm not speking about rebuild the world and let the snow be the ground. Just modifications in terms of temperature and consequences like some icy paths become weak and not be accessible anymore and wildlife that would change in behave like more bears more wolfpacks and some transition zone like the winding river that only have weak ice and would not be accessible anymore(if you don't want to die).

@oplli more or less exactly what I had in my mind. not modifications that require a re-build of the world in terms of geodata and so on, just make some ice paths no more accessible(weak ice everywhere like in coastal highway, desolation point and bleak inlet) and modification in wildlife behave.

@Old Hermit Worst weather already occurs if you play Interpoler I think. What was in my mind are at this point three season(in terms of temperature):

1. summer: icy paths all weak. some transition zones(winding river)inaccessible. changing in wildlife behave;
2. spring/autumn: the already implemented weather for pilgrim run; (two same seasons)
3. winter: modification of the weather like interpoler in advanced gameplay(but just for the start).

But I think that all of this stuff maybe would come in a sort of DLC(under payment of course) with several others additions.

[ElleJoy]

I think this would be awesome and I personally think the devs would do a BEAUTIFUL job with it, but I'm not sure how doable it would be in terms of consistency. It would effectively block a ton of exploration options to sudden have lakes and rivers unfrozen, which would mean potentially staying in one place for a long period of time. It would also effect the animal life - which could be potentially GREAT for the game variance. New/different wildlife, more dangerous encounters due to animals protecting their young, more frequency and availability of small game (squirrels, rats, birds etc.). 

The difficulty, I think, would be in implementing enough danger in order to make the warmer seasons as challenging as the colder. Blizzards and the increasing cold are a large part of what make TLD survival so hard, so you would need something to fill that gap in the spring/summer. The game Among Trees, for instance, is largely set in warmer weather and it gets stale pretty fast, despite being beautiful, because after a while there's just very little challenge to it.

Water, again, would be a fun new obstacle- navigating around/through it, for instance, rainstorms and potential flooding/mudslides, as would (again) the animal changes - finding safe flora to eat could be entertaining (are these berries/mushrooms poisonous or not?) but apart from that, I'm not sure what difficulties you could incorporate that would have the same level of complication. 

I can't see this in the OG game, but a sequel game might be able to implement the idea of season changes well enough and add a layer of newness that would make it worthwhile. 

[Pyroxene]

Moose could become even more aggressive during summer and be more abundant. Boats could be crafted to traverse rivers. New animals, e.g. woodpeckers and pumas could roam the island to make gameplay more difficult. Also, paddling in streams can kill you.

[Leeanda]

All the animals will be faster more abundant and therefore more territorial! Even with more water both moose and wolves would benefit even more! Probably on us!!