Seasons

[BWLeeEllison]

<p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">I would like to see seasons added to the game please.  It is the one thing I have been waiting for and waiting for in ANY game.  Can't we please have the trees in Antonica change colors?  And when the "winter" comes, have snow instead of rain??  That is immersion.  That would give a great "look and feel" to Norrath.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">One day in Norrath is 72 minutes, or an hour and 12 minutes.  One week is 8 and a half hours roughly.  A thirty day month comes out to about a day and a half IRL, and a year is about 18 and a quarter days.  Please, someone look into seasonal changes in the weather and scenery.</span></b></p>

[Arianah]

Me too, I've seen cloudy days, rainy days, night and day, lightning storms, but no seasons <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I've seen snow used instead of rain, but I think it'd still be nice to see seasons too.Funny how when it's Deepice, all the plant life is full and lush huh? hehe <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/97ada74b88049a6d50a6ed40898a03d7.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[ke'la]

<cite>BWLeeEllison wrote:</cite><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">I would like to see seasons added to the game please.  It is the one thing I have been waiting for and waiting for in ANY game.  Can't we please have the trees in Antonica change colors?  And when the "winter" comes, have snow instead of rain??  That is immersion.  That would give a great "look and feel" to Norrath.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">One day in Norrath is 72 minutes, or an hour and 12 minutes.  One week is 8 and a half hours roughly.  A thirty day month comes out to about a day and a half IRL, and a year is about 18 and a quarter days.  Please, someone look into seasonal changes in the weather and scenery.</span></b></p></blockquote><p>You do know there are alot more Day's in a Norrath Year then there is in an Earth year right?</p><p>A Nortath Year and an Earth year are aproximetly the same length of time, wich is why we only have 1 of each seasonal event a year.</p><p>That said it kinda would be nice to have seasons... however as Norathian Cities are both above and below the Equator, it would mean that half the zones would have to be in Summr while the other half in Winter... the easy way to avoid that lorewise is to just say that, unlike Earth, Norath's Axis is not tilted as such it does not accually have seasons, just like those areas of earth that live close to the Equator.</p>

[Qandor]

Well we currently have a grand total of about 6 zones that even have pseudo weather. All the rest have nothing in terms of weather. With that in mind, I would think that the likelyhood of them adding seasons is about nil. Even taking their latest effort into account, RoK, we have the perpetual flurry at Terens Grasp and the occasional sunshower at KC. That is the extent of the weather in RoK. I cannot recall any weather at all in EoF. So things are not getting better, they are getting worse if thats all they can muster in the latest two expansions. 

[BWLeeEllison]

<cite>Qandor wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well we currently have a grand total of about 6 zones that even have pseudo weather. All the rest have nothing in terms of weather. With that in mind, I would think that the likelyhood of them adding seasons is about nil. Even taking their latest effort into account, RoK, we have the perpetual flurry at Terens Grasp and the occasional sunshower at KC. That is the extent of the weather in RoK. I cannot recall any weather at all in EoF. So things are not getting better, they are getting worse if thats all they can muster in the latest two expansions. </blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Yes, but I, and many others I am sure, used to get quite annoyed with the fact that it rained INSIDE buildings.  They have fixed that, finally.  Now all they need to do is address the lighting inside the buildings when it is raining.  They can use the same code they used to lock the rain out of buildings to block the dimming of the lighting.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">The first time I climbed the road up the mountains in KP, I was blown away by the change from a temperate clime to the perpetually frozen mountain top where Teren's is located.  Again, blown away by said change, reversed, when I headed down to Highton.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">As was mentioned earlier, global positioning of the various zones would have to be taken into account, and quite possibly this could also bring "time zones" into play.  I mean, if I am in Antonica and it is still a while to go before dawn, if I teleport to Commonlands, the sun should already be coming up.  THAT would thrill me to no end.  There is no game on the market (IMHO) better than this.  They set the bar for so many other products, existing and coming up.  No other online persistant game on the market, or in development that I have seen, has seasonal change, seasonally driven weather patterns, or time zones built in.  Things such as these would totally bring the game up about 3 notches above the top of the bar <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.</span></b></p>

[Aenashi]

that is assuming that the world is tilted on its access to give norrath seasons <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  It may just be straight up and down and only effects certain regions.  I would like to see snow in lavastorm and summer in everfrost <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  wonder what kind of goodies in everfrost are hiding under the snow.

[DamianTV]

<p>Ascherons Call did have seasonal weather changes, but the game wasnt very good.  Bad thing is it would be extremely difficult to implement.  The Dev's are people like me that when they do something they want to do it right.  One of the first things they would need to address before being able to do seasons is the skies and general weather effects.  We've all seen the rain.  The specularity on the ground doesnt come out quite right and the skies need a better texture.  What most players dont consider is global lighting changes that would occur on their systems, not the servers, hence lowering framerates dramatically which may make the game unplayable to a lot of people.  It would be great to have if when it rained, it really rained, even in the middle of day, global lighting made everything darker (depending on severity of the storm determining how dark it gets) and lightning strikes and sound.  If I were a Dev that would be the first thing I'd do because its easier.</p><p>But lets take a look at Winter.  In winter, you'd have to replace every tree model with one that had the same shape but no leaves on it.  Then we would want snow.  That would require massive structural changes to the world geometry so you can actually interact with the snow, leave footprints, etc.  It would definitely be beautiful and fun to have but the client side workload would go so far over budget (talking about player machine budget for what their machines can and cant do before they choke on the weight of graphics info to process) that it wouldnt be playable.  </p><p>Transition to Spring.  What happens in spring?  Trees grow leaves, more model replacement, and snow melts, requires changes in geometry of water levels which affects gameplay.  Color and texture changes relatively trivial but still need an artist to create not only the textures but the gradual transitions that look good.  </p><p>Transition to Summer.  Basically most of the world right now.  No change.</p><p>Transition to Fall.  Should have also mentioned this.  Days get shorter.  Do you really want to mess with the duration of day and night?  Color change, again trivial, tree model replacement.  Imagine more wind.  New animation for things affected by variations in the wind.  Yeah it would be cool to have but would basically require remapping every zone in the game at least four times.</p><p>----------</p><p>Easy story solution for this:  The earth gets its seasons because its rotation is not parallel to its orbit.  Hence our Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn at 22.5 Degrees Latitude.  This affects the length of our days, which creates the seasons.  </p><p>Imagine the Planet of Norrath's rotation is directly parallel to its solar orbital rotation.  Problem solved.  Unless you want to knock Norrath off its rotational orbit and end up with Luclin all over again...</p>

[Arianah]

There's already lore proving that the seasons <i>DO</i> change....<a rel="nofollow" href="http://myrist.nsaguild.com/eq2/index.php?content=calendar3.php" target="_blank"><i><b>The Starpyre Calendar Seasons</b></i></a>Take a look at the names of the <a href="http://myrist.nsaguild.com/eq2/index.php?content=calendar2.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">months</a> too, they imply a change in weather/the environment.

[BWLeeEllison]

<p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Even if the world has an axis perpendicular to the orbital plane, the orbit's shape will have some play in the way weather works out.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">In regards to the changing of the foliage, that can be done relatively simply.  Change of color during certain seasons, and when it comes time for the trees to be barren due to the leaves having fallen off, render the leafy portion of the foliage transparent.  It would be more difficult to have leaves blowing on the ground or snow drifts or snow cover.  Doable, but difficult.</span></b></p>

[Wildmage]

The simple truth is this isn't something thats important enough to justify the time and effort it would take or the the additional taxing of the game engine it would cause. 

[BWLeeEllison]

<cite>Wildmage wrote:</cite><blockquote>The simple truth is this isn't something thats important enough to justify the time and effort it would take or the the additional taxing of the game engine it would cause.  </blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Yet.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">If enough people get behind an issue/cause/request, it then gains importance, perhaps even enough to become a reality.  There are other things I would like to see in the game but this is the one I would like to see brought in most of all.  Sorry, but I come from a small state college city in OK (about 4 years ago anyway), and one of the highlights of each of the 20 years I lived there was the turning of the leaves on campus.  Our campus had, in fact, become kind of a tourist spot because of the autumn change.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">It's not something I'm asking for or demanding.  I am BEGGING for seasons to be more adequately represented in the game PLEASE?!?!?!?</span></b></p>

[Qandor]

<p>Dark and Light was one game that was supposedly going to have the seasons you seek. Followed the game extensively pre-launch and they showed some amazing stuff weather wise. However, the game was a massive train wreck at release and I'm not even sure it is still alive. In Dark and Light snow was intended to accumulate and they even at one point showed a video of someone snowboarding on their shield.  I also remember a video of a dwarf moving through a heavy snow cover and he was actually leaving a trail as he passed through. Not sure if any of this made the release version since I couldn't justify buying a game that was in such a mess otherwise.</p><p>Seriously though, I think you are barking up the wrong tree in seeking seasonal changes for EQ2. Just no way for them to justify the cost required to inject it into an existing game, especially one that does not exactly have stellar sub numbers. This type of stuff has to be planned for from the outset I would think. I think your campaign might be better directed at a game still in development. The train has left the station here.</p>

[BWLeeEllison]

<p><b><span style="font-size: small;color: #0099ff;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">You mean kind of like sitting around waiting for PvP in a game we were told would not have PvP in it, as was said of this game?  Hope is a hard thing to squish.</span></b></p>

[Aurumn]

<p>Personally I'd prefer that they enable full multi-core support FIRST, then contemplate enhancements such as what the OP suggests. My pc is stretched so thin GPU-wise that Maj Dul and Neriak are practically unplayable for me (1-5 FPS... literally). That's just the normal zone clutter, lighting, water and NPCs. Piling more graphics processing that gets dumped to my cpu and I'd probably only be able to play on dry summer days in Norrath. They'd have to put a weather bulletin on the login screen so I'd know when not to bother logging in. </p><p>Not everyone has a top of the line PC. While I am hoping to get a new rig built this summer/fall I could see ratcheting up the graphics requirements for the game without enabling multi-core support could potentially make the game unplayable (or at least painful to play) for a good number of folks. That's a high price to pay for what is purely aesthetic in benefit. (That's assuming you just want nature to reflect the season and not monkeying with the hours of daylight and so forth which would impact quests that require spawns at night or after dark and so forth). </p><p>I like the idea of seeing the seasons (I played AC back in the day and I'm currently enjoying the Seasons expansion for Sims 2), but unless it provides a mechanic that is a benefit to the game (say TS xp bonus in winter, adv bonus in summer. Harvesting bonus in Fall and faction bonus in spring) or some such I don't see it as urgent enough to take precedent over class balance, bug fixing, etc.</p><p>Oh, and one other thing occurred to me... how would we find shinies and book pages if they were covered in snow?</p>

[Arianah]

<cite>Mezzmyrelda@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>Oh, and one other thing occurred to me... how would we find shinies and book pages if they were covered in snow?</blockquote>We find them just fine in Everfrost <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Wildmage]

<cite>Arianah wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Mezzmyrelda@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>Oh, and one other thing occurred to me... how would we find shinies and book pages if they were covered in snow?</blockquote>We find them just fine in Everfrost <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" /></blockquote>you know...I don't think I've ever even seen a ? shiny in Everfrost now that I think about it. pages yeah but no shinies...

[Arianah]

<cite>Wildmage wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Arianah wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Mezzmyrelda@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>Oh, and one other thing occurred to me... how would we find shinies and book pages if they were covered in snow?</blockquote>We find them just fine in Everfrost <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" /></blockquote>you know...I don't think I've ever even seen a ? shiny in Everfrost now that I think about it. pages yeah but no shinies...</blockquote>Now that you mention it, I'm not sure I have either. Which is kind of weird, a shiny could survive the snow (water), but the pages would likely be ruined, unless the snow is much more icy than watery... but then, how would you get the page from the icy snow without ripping it? <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/136dd33cba83140c7ce38db096d05aed.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Zabjade]

<span style="color: #00cc00;">I Believe that Norrath has three seasons Growth (Spring/Summer) Harvest (Fall) and Decay (Winter) things are further modified on a Quatrain cycle, the one mentioned earlier I believe...although I'm not sure if it is a five year cycle or decade long one.</span>