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Season Length?
KnightPixie
Member
Are season rotations still being tweaked? The last thing I had heard was that seasons would last one Earth week each. Does the design team feel comfortable with one week seasons? Would they consider maybe something on the longer end like 1-2 Earth months per season? To go through a game year (all four seasons) in less than 1 Earth month seems really strange/quick. With lengthening seasons it also may drive players to save certain resources if they knew they will have a longer drought before being able to obtain those resources/farmables again.
I'm curious what others thought about the short length of seasons?
I'm curious what others thought about the short length of seasons?
3
Comments
True, it is very subjective, but I've only ever come from games that match real world seasons as a 1:1. Days and weeks in game may be a lot faster, but seasons always mapped to Summer in Summer and Winter in Winter. So it feels really strange to go to "Well, Summer only lasts 1week now". Most likely I think 2-5 weeks would probably be a sweet spot for season length where seasons can be enjoyed multiple times a year, but they aren't seemly rushed/forced through.
Personally one season per month would be nice, but that deviates too much from the 1 week rotation I'm sure many wouldn't agree.
Not a huge deal, but as someone who may play once or twice a week due to life stuffs, seeing each season once or twice In a row would be kinda weird.
On the other end though its less immersive to have the season be so short and also if they are short a player might not get to experience what that season has to offer before it changes due to time constraints. There is a sweet spot somewhere I am sure like you mentioned.
As far as seeds and harvesting goes. Having the market prices flux on seasonal times weekly sounds good to me. My bet is that you will stock pile enough seeds every season for the next season. Like the farmers of old.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
From what it sounds like AoC game is that there will be some areas that may always be desert or always be snowy, but for others plant life will die off in the fall, it will snow in winter, new growth in spring, and ??? in summer. I can't ever recall FFXI being like that. They had super short years (a little over 2weeks) but the effects seemed so muted; they were non memorable to me.
I think AoC will be like if say Sarutabaruta or Ronfaur started getting a build up of snowfall and then it suddenly melted away in the span of a week and then repeated again every real month. Or like if it's impossible to grow certain plants in Windy for a week. That to me would have been super disrupting.
I remember having pots in my house. I can't remember seasons playing a role in FFXI. You are right though. I did not even think about it, but location could be huge when it comes to growing. There are a lot of variables here the more I think about this. Some plants might grow faster, or need more attention to grow. There might be different grades of fertilizers? Crop rotating? It could be a very complex system.
Wiki does not give a high amount of detail on these questions: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Farming
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
I think each season lasting for 15 days is probably the right amount as it will both, impact the player's playstyle significantly, and it won't not bore players visually.
How much of the world is affected by it, how does it impact herbs, farming, crop roatations, how does it impact other aspects of the player's life. Can certain potions only be made for herbs that grow in spring? Will this create a market, where certain herbs can only be utilized within certain seasons? Will it solely affect quality?
All these factors are important. We don't have any information though. Basing it on "feelings" of a weeks being too short or not is arbitrary and would result in horrible game design decisions.
I agree that the decision should be best for the design system, however I was simply curious as to others opinions felt on this.
For example if you can only play on the weekends (due to hectic job or school schedule or similar) and you log in and it's summer being all hot and tropical or something. Maybe a relative visits the next week. The next time you log in and it's in game winter with snow all over the place. If I log into the next game session and it suddenly turned from summer to winter that would seem very strange considering I'd only been gone a real life week (two technically since I'd only be on the weekends).