Do you think planets are going to change seasons?

Don't tell the dev team! They'll put it in the game and make us wait longer!

If they do add seasons, it would most likely be post-release.

 

I wouldn't care, it would make it look even better on the first version.

 

Haha you got me there xD you're absolutely right, we don't need to be precise with a sci-fy game.

 

seasons eh? not a bad idea, adds some spice to your world. if you have a world with seasons as a homeworld xd

 

Heh! maybe the weather station on the homeworld will eventually have a seasonal override option.

 

you mean like the climate control in The Giver?

 

A system that implements seasons would be great.
One that implements seasons, weather phenomena, and drastic variety from both that necessitates survival strategy would be outstanding.

I would definitely enjoy any desert world that has many harsh sandstorms, or a frostbite-inducing winter characterized by year-round frozen worlds.
Day and year lengths are also a consideration. Would you expect long stretches of night to cause decreases in temperature, or particularly long seasons to introduce extraneous hazards (such as ice-themed creatures which get progressively more troublesome the further into winter your world progresses)?

 

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I'm with him.

 

Kind of Yeah.
By golly, I haven't read that book in quite some time!

 

Of course, whether there are seasons or not should depend on the planet. It is the atmosphere that often decides that, so maybe you could throw that in as well.

For all we know, one planet could be just like Earth, and another one could be like one of Jupiter's many moons.

 

Well yea.​

Itd be differnt for each planet thoguh, for instance:​

Erathlike = Well Earthlike​

Volcanic:​

Spring = Hot as hell​

Summer = Hot as hell​

Fall = Hot as hell​

Winter = Hot as hell​

​

The opposite of that for a winter planet = Cold as Balz​

So yea. Just liek here on earth, its going to suk...​

 

These are a few more excellent ideas for how weather could affect gameplay! Also, Mercury's day/night cycle is about 60 Earth days, and the temperature differences there are astronomical (pun kind of intended)! So definitely, day/night cycle could also be a huge factor in the threat level of a planet.

 

Keep in mind that the laws of Earth and the Physics of Earth simply do not apply to planets in Starbound from a realistic aspect. You could have seasons on a robotic planet that don't exactly follow what one might expect in a season. For example...

Rust season: All the piles of scrap are visibly rusted, procedurally generated robotic enemies could look visibly rusty (Have a chance to poison with melee attacks?). Acid rain a possibility. For lack of better words, equivalent to Fall/Winter
Shine Seasons: Piles of scrap blossom into what appears to be Chromium flora, plus robotic enemies have a chance to appear chrome (Have a chance to reflect projectiles?) Spring/Summer equivalent.

So, if we take the term "Season" and try to look at it NOT from what it is on Earth, essentially it becomes an umbrella term to define any "Long term, but temporary, change on a planetwide scale."

We could use that to further fuel interesting ideas and game mechanics.

For example, above I was talking about the Chrome/Rusty robots up there. They'd still have a chance to spawn regularly, but possibly a much lower chance. Don't wanna get into it too much, but let's say after procedural generation, a robot then takes a "Roll" at whether he'll be rusted/chrome. (It'd basically change the color and add the aforementioned characteristics.) Let's say that chance is....2% Whereas in a Rust season, the chance for it to be rust goes up, and Chrome goes down a bit.

So, basically, I think we'll have some sort of "Seasons" for planets, but we can't expect it to be the typical Fall/Summer/Spring/Winter deal. If we try to only think of things that are possible on Earth, we're limiting ourselves.

 

Limitation/constraint is the key to creativity.

 

I fail to see the logic in that. For game design, especially a game like Starbound, trying to develop other planets only in relation to things that are possible on earth inhibits creativity. Not encourages it. The only way limitation leads to creativity is the people who question the limits and seek to push them, surpass them. So it might lead to creativity, eventually, but it's not the key.

If everyone accepted the world being flat as absolute truth and didn't ever question it, how would we have known today it was "Round?"

My point is simply this. Starbound is a game, not a realistic planet simulator. Trying to think of seasons only in terms of the seasons on Earth would not help creativity with the game. So perhaps you mean "If you limit yourself, you'll have to think of more creative solutions/ideas due to the constraint." But limiting, in essence, is taking some degree of creativity away.

Get from point A to B = Infinite possibilities.
Get from point A to B without touching the ground = You'll have to think creatively to achieve it. But at the very same time, you're limiting yourself.

I understand what you mean, but it doesn't apply to what I said. It's a bad idea, to try and only use "Spring, Winter, Fall, and Summer" as seasons and try to apply them to every planet. Sure, it would force them to be creative in implementing them, but it's limiting them from using anything else. I know which choice I'd pick. Especially for a sandbox game.

tl;dr - Creativity when limited =/= Creativity when unlimited.

 

They could have seasonal variation be a factor on planets. Planets with a factor of zero have no seasons and are the same year-round. Planets with a factor of 1 have a very minor difference. Earth would be about a 3-4, and planets with ten would pretty much be melted during the summer and encased in ice during the winter.

 

The thing is, too many possibilities is a bad thing. I didn't say that we should limit ourselves to an earth sim, but you HAVE to define what you can and can't do. However, there are things one must do when designing a game. Most importantly is physics. Castlevania I is a prime example of not doing proper physics, the stairs operate on a completely different subroutine than walking, and transitioning between the two sucked supremely. As a developer of a science fiction based game, there needs to be science of some form behind it. Take your silly robot seasons for example. You listed absolutely no reason for the robots to rust. They just allofasudden do. Instead, maybe this planet has a rainy season that would cause robots to rust. The idea is, you can't just throw ideas into a game because you like the idea. It needs some form of continuity, a game has to have rules, and this game is based on science fiction stuff. And as for how it is uncreative to work without limitations, without limitations you simply slap down whatever comes to mind, and its fine, wereas if you have some sort of rules (i.e. for most games, and especially for starbound as a science fiction-y space game, the rules of some form of physics) then you have to make sure that what you are doing does not break these rules. Imagine if I gave you unlimited supplies and asked you to build a neat house in minecraft. You could probably make a very cool looking house, but it would likely have zero functionality, and tons of empty space. However, if dropped on a tiny island floating in the sky, and given nothing but a bucket of lava a single tree and a block f ice, you would end up with a very cool looking island you built out, and every inch of it has some purpose (yes I'm referencing skyblock), some usefulness, some function. A reason for being there. While sure, if we don't restrict ourselves, we open up all possibilities. However, we must restrict ourselves to decide what is practical, doable, or fitting. Anyone who has set out to make "The Ultimate Game" knows it is impossible to do practically. When you try and implement every cool idea you can think of, they don't fit together right, and we find things like the problem in castlevania, only on a much larger scale. Game development is like piecing together a puzzle no one has seen before. Some ideas fit, while others just don't. And a good dev knows when to say "no, that idea just doesn't fit our game."

 

Interesting idea, but probably not. My money is on static biomes - several per planet.

If they did implement changing biomes, they would probably shift from one random variation to another similar randomized biome. Real seasons sounds pretty difficult, and I personally would rather that they focus elsewhere.

 

Seasons would be wonderful. Add a touch of reality to the game. Although I imagine some of it would be difficult to incorporate.

 

Applying landscape color filters and retextures, as well as seasonal enemies and custom weather sets sounds like a tangible starter goal. Simple additions like these would go such a long way! They would also provide a foothold to further develop a more complicated system, should the developers want to.