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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Seasons and their meaning.
Nikbis
Member, Alpha Two
When all is gone and life leaves times, careless.
When all deperish and put an end to your footstpes.
When hatred finds no purshase in bleak landscapes.
When receed knock a door so outside you observes.
Even when missiles are a threat, whenever.
Even there, ice would make them reconcider.
Even your thirst for conquest would have no temper.
Even here, you'd bow down to any mighty tempest.
Unlike Burgeon, Bright-Light or Fading-Glim,
Thin-Ice, always, forced anyone to take care.
Winter should be that Force we cannot go against. It should last long enough so we have to adapt and gather ressources before it hits.
If we'd ever want to enforce it and conquere territory, we'd need to mobilise so, so many people! A true war effort!
Seasons should be rooted around an axis. Through quests only could we bend nature. Momentarily.
Until it correct course itself (unless we don't let it do, so a mega-quest trigger, maybe?
).
Winter is the one expected place where anybody know things will settle. Same as real life. Because ICE is ICE.
I advocate for seasons to last 1/3 they last IRL. With the In-game influences we know.
Seasons are currently planned to last 2 weeks. I find it too little. Especially when only one matters. Winter.
Only winter should slows things down.
I love winter above anything else and its influences.
Why make seasons if they makes no real sense?
When all deperish and put an end to your footstpes.
When hatred finds no purshase in bleak landscapes.
When receed knock a door so outside you observes.
Even when missiles are a threat, whenever.
Even there, ice would make them reconcider.
Even your thirst for conquest would have no temper.
Even here, you'd bow down to any mighty tempest.
Unlike Burgeon, Bright-Light or Fading-Glim,
Thin-Ice, always, forced anyone to take care.
Winter should be that Force we cannot go against. It should last long enough so we have to adapt and gather ressources before it hits.
If we'd ever want to enforce it and conquere territory, we'd need to mobilise so, so many people! A true war effort!
Seasons should be rooted around an axis. Through quests only could we bend nature. Momentarily.
Until it correct course itself (unless we don't let it do, so a mega-quest trigger, maybe?
).Winter is the one expected place where anybody know things will settle. Same as real life. Because ICE is ICE.
I advocate for seasons to last 1/3 they last IRL. With the In-game influences we know.
Seasons are currently planned to last 2 weeks. I find it too little. Especially when only one matters. Winter.
Only winter should slows things down.
I love winter above anything else and its influences.
Why make seasons if they makes no real sense?
If I had to keep only one song, it would be this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCF2pson54s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCF2pson54s0
Comments
This is very much a geographical bias.
There are parts of the world where summer is when things slow down, because it is too hot to do anything. There are also parts of the world that only have two seasons, wet or dry.
If a desert or tropical biome in Ashes is slowed down in winter instead of summer, I'd be insanely disappointed.
I do see your point on that and was just about to suggest that. I do not know if that is what they have planned, but I don't see how they would not. You are not going to have snow on a tropical shore.
I hope Ashes takes that into account because I would be sad to see a hot desert turned into a winter wonderland every few weeks.
That's why I'm not the weatherman
But Verra also has magical Seasons.
I see it similar like You. Winter is just the coolest. ( No Pun intended )
Two Weeks ?
I hope dear Intrepid will make Servers in which every Season lasts a WHOLE. WEEK. Meaning every Year -> 12 Years would pass in the World of Verra.
Or maybe even Two Weeks for every Season ? This would make every Year in Verra Two Months long in our real World. Also not a bad Time-Window.
But Two Weeks ? Sheesh. It's like i can watch the Snow melting already.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
Also with a 2 week season duration I think it would make sense to have some subdivisions of that, early, mid, late aka 3 months for each season which being/end certain gatherables so that the world gathering portfolio is not absolutly rigid for 2 weeks strait but sees some modest changes in the two transitions in a season before more radical changes at a season switch. Short fraction seasonal available gatherings could be a nice way to up their rarity over one that stretches a full seasonor more but I'd keep it to a minimum of 2 'months' so even a once a week player has a chance at getting some.
You assume right!
I live in France and never left it so far. And the brother of my mother -so my uncle, lives in an isle on the atlantic sea where winter is known as the Storms season. No snow, only raging winds. And more often than not, tornadoes.
I see things through a temperate climate. It's probably cosier and easier to live-in than many other places around the globe.
Here, we have a little bit of everything. But not too arsh. Temerate, right?
Many mountains to begin with.
Pyrenean mountains on the south, between Spain, France and Andorra.
Or the Alps mountains chain on the east, shared by Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Monaco, Germany, Italy, Austria and France.
The Jura, north to the Alps.
The Massif Central. We could literally translate it the "Mass Center"? Right in the geographic center, with its dormant vocanos.
The Pilat dune, trapped between forests and sea.
Then seas -the mediteranean, English channel/La manche & the Atlantic ocean, a few swamps, tiny bits of jungle, red earth around a lake reminding of (Australia/Mars -equally as fearsome, at home. Lok'Tar Ogar!). And probably a few more I forgot?
And of course, plains again and again, as far as the eye can see.
France is, if anything, smaller than just the Texas state! Yet has so many biomes. From what I've heard, more than most countries in the world. Please, PLEASE, correct me if I'm wrong on that (really, I'd like to know).
That's pretty much the extent of my knowledge about seasons.
I can enjoy the border of a sea, I LOVE forests and mountains (we know we have that for sure).
What I know about Aoc is, biomes are not logically placed.
As you @Noaani and @Taerrik said, a desert should not be covered in snow.
But the world of Verra does not follow the meteorological rules we expect. It looks like World of Warcraft rules, where Dun Morogh, a forever snowy place, is right in the Equator, where the sun burns more than anywhere else IRL.
If anything, I could see the Sandsquall desert covered in snow for a few 2-4 days, sometimes, because *fantasy world, let's have a little fun*. You know, just once in every 4 to 6 season's rotations. The same would apply the other way around!
Biomes dictate how a region would develop. In Verra, magic bend the scale. But how much?
My point is hard to make, because we know too little about how the game will play.
I want to talk about day/night cycles (which includes constellations, aa great unknown?), abundance and scarcity of ressources, the importance of the cooking skill, and a bit of survival.
Yes, I know, AoC is NOT a survival game. And I don't wan't it to be (hell no... but still, a little bit. Let's say 15%).
I needed to start somewhere
A2 isn't there yet, but we should discuss these topics, as early as possible!
I am not too sure what you want.
To me, 2 weeks a season are too little. I'd like them to last 4 weeks each!
Now, again, we are yet to try it out in action. So it's juste a gentle conversation.
Your raised bodies better be ready for arsh conditions
As I see it, less dedicated players would notice, soon enough, a change in pace. Be it snow melting on the sun or trees rapidly growing, on temperate climates (can't wait for more pationnate chat about exotic places!).
MMORPGs, to my understanding, were never meant to cater to impatient players. Could they wait at least 3 weeks to see a change? That is, if they stay on the same region?
That might be my main point.
With players, logged-on 16hrs a day, gathering ressources. Can we expect them to deplete the forests/fill the barns in less than a week or two? They will.
Again, I don't come forth with certainty. I just assume they will force their way and slam trees and rocks all days long, and break the economy. Count me in. I swear, the Riverlands will be barrens and should not survive our wave and let us stockpile whatever we want until the next full rotation. If it is a month later, it is too soon.
We will stockpile as madmen. 2 IRL weeks per seasons is too short.
Seasons needs to stop us. And if anyting, it would ignite the so expected node/guild wars, for ressources.
I expect winter, on temperate climates, to calm things down, to let nature grow ressources, to let ressources grow back, as it should be. In Verra, we don't cultivate forests and crops on an industiral level.
Yeah... such talk, before Alpha 2 is even there, I know.
Better to start sooner than later.
So for now, longer seasons (4 weeks each instead of 2 as planned), with limited ressources (growing trees, plants... and rocks?). To regulate the market?
I might start next with the Cooking and the need for it to be the center of everybody's wealth.
If you found me pertinent enough?
Though I wouldn't go as far as saying that seasons currently make "no" sense.
We should make it a Suggestion Topic better sooner than later,
that dear Intrepid shall "Please" for the Love of God that is Steven(lol) include different Types of Servers. Servers in which Seasons are shorter - and Servers in which Seasons are longer.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
Though even knowing this I'd still think that at least 3 weeks (if not the aformentioned 4) would be better. Nikbis would be right insofar to assume that for casual players seasons lasting only 2 weeks wouldn't make much of an impact at all.
Seasons in Ashes should be almost exactly 15 days long.
This causes the 'day drift' for people who can only play at specific times, but also gives the rest of us some secondary associations (the weekend not always aligning with a specific 'part' of a season).
Allows them to keep winter roughly aligned with both hemispheres' winter, and therefore Holiday events if they wish it (the 5 days of padding left over after 360/15 is gonna get eaten up by server maintenance, on average, but maybe Ashes won't have full-maintenance).
Summer can be 'misaligned', I think both Hemispheres moreso experience summer by the heat, not the change, so it generally being Verran Winter in late June and December, with Summer in July and January, should be good.
Works out whether they use a 4-hour day cycle or a 2.5 hour (my obvious preference) day cycle, just changing a Verran season length from 90-144 (in Verran days) and vice versa, as needed.
I think if they're longer, even the more casual players will get more of a tradeoff than a benefit. Part of the appeal of Verra is dynamism, and being in a guild/group, so I would expect most players to 'experience seasons vicariously through others' even if they couldn't play as often.
I think it's better to have your guild members 'talk about the changing seasons' more often, at the cost of 'a player who can only play on weekends' not getting as much of a contiguous feeling for the seasons based on only their own play. So much else is going to change in the world, so relatively often/quickly, that I'm not sure longer seasons would matter unless the philosophy is 'well everything else is changing so they should have the seasonal changes to anchor to'.
And this is exactly then what we might need.
" Options ". The Options to set things. If such things exist in the Game, it will already help a lot with the Problem of People fearing to miss out on awesome Stuff.
Why having like 3 Days Winter when You can have 5 or 6 Days ? Same counts for Spring, Summer and Autumn. Imagine the Waste when every beautiful Season is all the time running out and vanishing again as fast as it came.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
If this is the case, it would need to happen at the same time every week.
If this isn't the case, then I generally agree.
I'll put this on my list of things to provide feedback on during the Alpha, its actually one of the changes that I think can be done without messing up other systems too deeply, which makes it a great topic for the "subject to change" clause
Steven already plans to test how long seasons and years should be. At some point.