Yearly Plant Growth?


peege

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I'm coming up on 310 days now, and I'm wondering if the plants are going to grow back once a year.

No unfortunately, everything stays the same except tree limbs, coal and animals. However you can check out my posts raise your voice comment make the topics alive maybe the devs will take a pity on us and make at least one season where some plants re-grow.

This link leads to my idea how the system should work check it out:

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=8453

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=9233

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How exactly you see anything growing in constant minus degrees, and extremely low minus degrees ?

Exactly this. Plants are dormant (at best) in freezing temperatures.

Depends on the plant. In Scandinavia, Lingon berries keep growing all the way down to -40°C. Many Alpine plants are quite at home in freezing temperatures. A few years back (2-3 years, when we didn't scoff at the weather forecast when it predicted snow) it reached -10°C (in the UK, we consider that pretty cold. Don't laugh at us, we have a damned ocean current keeping the temperature up.) despite these freezing temperatures (which persisted for weeks, never going higher than -5°) we still had snowdrops merrily making their through the snow and blooming. Obviously these temperatures pale in comparison to the depths of Labrador and the Yukon, but it's evidence enough that plants are still active well below freezing.

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Lingon berries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) certainly tolerate -40, but I don't think they're actually growing at that temperature. Photosynthesis just doesn't work at freezing temperatures --for most plants. Certainly at -40 there is no photosynthesis for any plants.

There are a few species (like skunk cabbage) that are definitely active below 0, and can even generate their own heat (a little), but even they are not full out growing.

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Bear in mind that this environment is intended to represent one season of one year for the purpose of surviving a single event. Gameplay beyond winter has been hinted at by the studio but only for when they ever get past the season one story and possibly develop a season two.

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That is true, but I think Sandbox should represent seasonal changes. It's not story bound, but it shouldn't be an eternal winter. This is northern Canada, not Narnia during the time period of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

That's a fair point, but maybe it is eternal winter for a reason?

Or more likely I suspect, the story is meant to take place in winter-- the sand box is moreorless a testing ground within part of the game environment. So, if the story isn't extending beyond winter, I don't see the sandbox doing so either-- as amazing as it would be, there would be way too much time and resources required.

But perhaps we can hope that Hinterland sees the interest in this and will expand their scope (or continue with the rumored additional seasons as sequels---though I don't see that as quite the same thing).

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Bear in mind that this environment is intended to represent one season of one year for the purpose of surviving a single event. Gameplay beyond winter has been hinted at by the studio but only for when they ever get past the season one story and possibly develop a season two.

Is it actually supposed to be winter? Daylight seems to last way too long for it to be winter. I haven't paid super-close attention, but I feel like I've frequently seen it say 13 hours of daylight, and I don't think I've seen it say more than that. That would make it early spring, a bit past the equinox. I assumed or read (not sure which), that the geomagnetic storms had made the weather unseasonable frigid. That would also be why the bears are out (starving now and no longer able to hibernate) and the wolves are so aggressive.

If that's supposed to be the case, it's even less likely that any local plants would be able to grow since they wouldn't be adapted to that kind of weather during the growing season. They would stay in their winter dormancy despite the longer days.

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No matter how powerful a geomagnetic event is, it cannot change the orbit of the Earth, nor its axial tilt. the seasons will march on regardless. Besides, from what I've read, anything above the 64th parallel rarely gets above 15°C even in the height of summer (although wild fluctuations in local environment do happen). It's still bitterly cold most of the time, and summer brings its own problems (such as closing down major travel routes due to ice melting, lakes are no longer traversable by regular means, and of course, the flies).

During summer, food will decay faster, damper conditions lead to conditions such as trench foot, tools degarde due to rust, subsisting on fishing becomes nigh impossible (lack of ice holes mean you can only get the tiddlers that venture into the shallows, the big ones stay out in the deep parts where you can't get at them.)

Foods which you would normally rely on are in short supply (because they are all growing back). Summer is a time of starvation for humans, unless you can hunt enough.

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Most of this has already been covered repeatedly, but since there are also some newer players who haven't followed the game from early on, here are some short notes:

I think Sandbox should represent seasonal changes.

Seasons are planned as standalone sequels, depending on how this first edition [Winter] is received.

Is it actually supposed to be winter? Daylight seems to last way too long for it to be winter. I haven't paid super-close attention, but I feel like I've frequently seen it say 13 hours of daylight, and I don't think I've seen it say more than that.

The earliest version started with more realistic travel speed and day/night hours -- but it would have meant playing the game mostly during night, and wouldn't have provided the necessary manageable time for most players [i.e. it would have made the gameplay feel extremely slow]. So the hours were shifted for gameplay reasons.

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Besides, from what I've read, anything above the 64th parallel rarely gets above 15°C even in the height of summer (although wild fluctuations in local environment do happen).

Not sure what you mean by this? The game certainly does not take place that far north....

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My geography may be off, but I'm fairly certain that this takes place further north than Vancouver. Alaska/Yukon, and other Northern territories. Hence the need for planes to bring in goods (sounds more reminiscient of the Alaskan pipeline outposts or Listening stations). Yukon territories start roughly around the 64th parallel. Hence why I said what I did.

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For the record, the southern border of Yukon is the 60th parallel :) (64th is about the middle of Yukon)

I do wish you were right and that it was placed further north--but there's a few reasons it can't be that far north (Or perhaps it IS meant to be further north, and these are just oversights..):

Fish- there's no bass that far north (they've been introduced from eastern North America to a few areas in the southern half of BC).

Mammals - there no rabbits that far north (again introduced from eastern NA and Europe), only snowshoe hare (which turn white in winter).

Trees - there's no western red cedar or Douglas-fir that far north... (it's all pine, spruce, and subalpine fir (which is not closely related to Douglas-fir))

Signs- there are BC forestry signs in several locations.

Obviously the climate isn't quite correct for further south, especially for a coastal area-- but a climate aberration as part of the storyline would be more plausible to me, based on what we see, than the relocation of all of the above...

edit: I must add these... :geek: :ugeek: ( :oops: :D )

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No matter how powerful a geomagnetic event is, it cannot change the orbit of the Earth, nor its axial tilt. the seasons will march on regardless. Besides, from what I've read, anything above the 64th parallel rarely gets above 15°C even in the height of summer (although wild fluctuations in local environment do happen). It's still bitterly cold most of the time, and summer brings its own problems (such as closing down major travel routes due to ice melting, lakes are no longer traversable by regular means, and of course, the flies).

During summer, food will decay faster, damper conditions lead to conditions such as trench foot, tools degarde due to rust, subsisting on fishing becomes nigh impossible (lack of ice holes mean you can only get the tiddlers that venture into the shallows, the big ones stay out in the deep parts where you can't get at them.)

Foods which you would normally rely on are in short supply (because they are all growing back). Summer is a time of starvation for humans, unless you can hunt enough.

Unless that geomagnetic event is a result of those changes, be it changes to orbit, tilt or solar activity. So eternal winter is quite possible outcome.

Also most of those "summer problems" can be easily avoided or at least their severity greatly reduced - food can be preserved by placing it into waterproof containers and cooled in the lake/sea or even caves(that, in terms of temperatures, are similar to fridge conditions), trench foot is avoidable by keeping your feet dry and let to to "breathe" from time to time, flies can be kept at bay by following simple rules of hygiene, ice and snow melting is only problem when there is a lot of it. And i consider temperature of 10-15C to far more better than 20+ ovens during summer - far more comfortable and actually better for plant life in terms of growth.

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When I say "flies", I mean those unpleasant creatures which bite you and harass you over miles of countryside.

Toebar, again, geography's not my strong suit. I live in Britain and have only ever ventured to a few countries in Europe. I'm not familiar with Canada or its environs. I just read what I can.

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Toebar, again, geography's not my strong suit. I live in Britain and have only ever ventured to a few countries in Europe. I'm not familiar with Canada or its environs. I just read what I can.

No worries :) I'm just providing info.. I've learned a lot about a wide variety of topics on this forum (and I contribute where I can). Anyway, I'm the same in reverse--I've never been to Europe, but have been quite a few places in NA.

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