Seasonal variations

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Timeless Terrapin seasonal variations.[1]

Mounts being one of those things that you own will interact with the seasons and the time of day.[1]Steven Sharif

We're just using this example, but we could use this type of tech for a lot of things not just mounts.[2]Margaret Krohn

Seasonal variations or time of day may affect certain objects in the world, such as mobs and mounts.[4][5][6][2]

  • Different creatures will spawn based on the season.[4]
This alcove might now have a bunch of new types of monsters that are AoE focused and you might want to bring your AoE team there during winter because you can get that spot in this hunting ground; and you can pull really easily all the creatures into that little spot. But in summer maybe that population isn't as close and it's no longer a viable hunting ground.[4]Steven Sharif
Mounts will have rarities and those rarities will be, I think, respective not only of their skill selection that they were either bred with or acquired with, but also as it scales in rarity you're going to see effects like these come online: The ability for that mount to represent. But as Margaret said, this is not just on the mount front, this is something that I think allows us to integrate both the visual component of an environment that you see but also incorporate effects as part of that environment and that change accordingly to other things that are going on in the world.[6]Steven Sharif
  • It is unlikely that seasonal variations will affect player armor.[8]

Seasons

Ashes of Creation Seasons in the Riverlands.[9]

Part of the triggers that can create seasonal change is not just time related for each of our biomes, but they are also indicated by events that occur on the server. Whether that be certain raid bosses forming, or a relic being acquired by a particular node and being activated to change potentially the weather out of a winter state into a spring state: and the reason why a node might have interest in doing that of course is because weather and the seasons also affect skills and abilities.[10]Steven Sharif

Seasons affect different zones (environments/biomes) based on their location in the world.[11][12]

  • A majority of environments will experience either two or four seasons, excluding corrupted areas, which is considered a "season" itself.[13]
  • Some biomes will have seasons that are less (or more) temperate. For example: Northern, Southern and Tropical regions.[14] Other biomes will have fixed climates.[15]
    • Biomes that are affected by seasonal cycles may experience drastic visual differences between seasons.[11]
  • Events may radically change the current season a zone is in, or elongate it.[16][17] This includes weather changes.[12]
  • There will also be magical seasons where you might be in a tropical zone and suddenly it's snowing.[14]
  • Items, crop cycles, buildings, and crafting mechanics might gain certain buffs or debuffs in certain seasons.[16][18][12]
  • Ocean and underwater areas will not have seasonal changes.[19]
Winter might have a spawner that activates on a road that spawns at large fallen tree and players who see that will have an opportunity to go up and exert some type of one-time action that helps in removing that tree and it might require X number of people to do that before the tree gets removed; and that as an example is not beneficial for the transit of goods because as caravans require- well they don't require but they move better on roads and if that tree were present let's say blocking a road that led to a bridge per-se that they would have to off-road.[12]Steven Sharif
  • Different seasons may affect access to various roads.[16][17][12]
    • Pathways that are open during summer may be closed during winter.[12]
    • Seasonal affects may cause obstacles or blockages to the transit of goods via caravan.[16][17][20]
    • Water turning to ice in winter, enabling players to walk over the water but blocking access to what is underneath.[12]
      • Ice will make roads bumpy and slippery.[21]
    • Seasonal flooding is something the developers are talking about internally, but will not be present in Alpha-2.[22]

Seasonal changes

Right now we're getting some rain which will usher in springtime and so you'll see all the flora that's growing up right now out of the ground.[23]Brian Gans

Seasons change on a regular basis, but may also be triggered or elongated by certain events.[24][25][26]

  • Each season will be approximately one or two IRL weeks long.[24][25][26]
They might last longer if you don't deal with the dragon, or if you keep that relic active, but these on a cycle on a cyclical perspective as a normal season transition might be exist within a one week timeframe right and then it transitions over a period of hours.[25]Steven Sharif
  • The final duration of seasonal cycles is subject to testing during Alpha-2.[27]
The weather systems, the season systems, that's going to be a obvious point of testing for Alpha 2 of course. We're going to play around with the different cycles and and times and how they impact the economy, the rotation of resources, the movement of goods: all of those things play into the purpose- one of the purposes of having seasonal systems. So that is something that we are going to play with during our Alpha 2 testing and will land on what feels both most comfortable- is visually appealing, but also has the impact on the economy that we desire to see on the design side.[27]Steven Sharif
  • Environmental seasons are not to be confused with PvP seasons, which last for six months.[28]
In Ashes of Creation the world will change on a regular basis. Zones will progress in a seasonal cycle, which will alter the very nature of the environment around you. Snow may block pathways that are accessible in warmer months, spring may encourage creatures otherwise unseen to come to the surface, and fall might be the only time that certain crops thrive. This cycle can then take in the state of the world’s Nodes and shift depending on their progression.[20]

Seasonal events

Calendar Events can be seen as holiday-related celebrations or other seasonal content. Imagine these Events as things you may experience annually, based on the cultures within the world. Some of these may derive from the seasons, and how the nodes in those areas are affected by them. These will most often be server-wide and provide unique content for a specific duration of time during the calendar year.[29]

Calendar events (seasonal events/holidays) in Ashes of Creation can be in-game events or they can relate to the real-world in some way.[30][31][32]

  • Events are not a direct parallel with real world events. Instead, there will be in-game lore behind seasonal events that can relate to the real-world in some way.[30][31][32]
  • Certain calendar events will incorporate the cultural identity of the various character races.[33]
Part of the things that they're working on is creating a lot of cultural identity for these character races and how we can bring about these calendar events from the perspective of each individual race. That's something that I think is going to be really helping identify or giving identity to each of the character races.[33]Steven Sharif
  • Seasonal events in-game may not exactly align with real-world seasons due to the different in-game seasonal cycle.[34]
Will seasonal events in the real-world align with the seasonal rotation in the game world? And I think in that sense probably not. That's going to require a little bit of suspension of disbelief in understanding that. But it's also fair that in-game events do not need to be perfectly cyclical like let's say seasonal events are in the real world. They could have a non-uniform cycle associated with them... There is something to be said for having that represented in the game as long as it's immersive; as long as it's contextualized within the story and the world and the universe that we've created; and isn't a direct homage to Santa Claus in the real-world, just to use a prime example of something.[34]Steven Sharif
  • Holiday events are not going be "campy" or immersion-breaking.[30]
We have a lot of ideas on how certain real-world holidays can be contextualized within the game world and seem fitting.[30]Steven Sharif

Events may bring seasonal change.[16][12]

Climate

Alpha-2 dynamic weather change caused by the Beneath the Stone Shadows event.[35]

Since you instigated this event, which changed the weather, that will also now influence spawns nearby. You could potentially be spawning- well you are spawning side quests that relate to the rain, changes in enemies that relate to the rain, and that's driven on player action. So it is like a feedback loop.[36]Skott B

Some environments (Biomes) have fixed climates and others are variable.[9][15][37] Dynamic weather of varying intensity can triggered by certain events.[36][9][16][38]

During those weather events, the area of effect that the event is occurring in will likely have its climate descriptor overridden by whatever the event is specifically. So tornadoes might be windy, blizzards might be cold. And if an arctic dragon comes into a temperate climate it brings the cold weather with it; and that can be interacting with skills and abilities or other functions like farms.[39]Steven Sharif
There are climate effects that occur from a buff standpoint. They can also affect skills like, let's say you're using a frost bolt in a winter climate. There's the ability for those effects to be enhanced and/or stronger in those climates.[42]Steven Sharif
They affect crops and gatherables, vehicles, and mounts, ships, creatures; and loot tables change: their behaviors might change. Resistances and weaknesses or synergies might be relevant in certain seasons or weather systems. Targeting might change the AoE radius might grow for a fire effect if you're in the middle of summer, or it might shrink if you're in the middle of a storm.[10]Steven Sharif
  • Some weather conditions can be hazardous to mobs and players.[35]
Weather events and encounters themselves can include hazards that can appear and shake things up. They can also help too, if you can kite enemies into the lightning strikes or whatever.[35]Skott B

Day and night cycle

Alpha-2 day/night cycle.[43]

Day and night cycles in Ashes of Creation are actually over the course of a few hours.[44]Steven Sharif

There is a day/night cycle in Ashes of Creation.[45][46]

  • Day and night cycles occur over the course of a few hours.[47][44]
    • Fifteen IRL minutes may equate to one hour in game time but this is subject to change.[24][48]
    • Day and night cycle tied to server time will be tested in Alpha-2.[49]
The day night cycle is tied to server time, yes. So there is a number of hours that exist between each of the cycles. That's something that we'll be fine-tuning of course during Alpha 2 as well, but it is intended for players to interact with certain systems even based on in-game time as well.[49]Steven Sharif
  • The developers requested feedback on the intensity of illumination and darkness that will be present in Alpha-2.[50][51]
    • Based on feedback the developers increased the nighttime darkness.[47]
Certain creatures will react differently. Certain spawns react differently during night times and different day/night cycles. Those might also influence things like abilities and/or buff/debuff vulnerabilities. You'll have to find out based on the type of creature you're experiencing.[53]Steven Sharif

Darkness

Alpha-2 Winstead node at night.[47]

You guys will probably notice that the nighttime is significantly darker than when you guys last saw our nighttime update. We saw feedback from the community that bringing in the field of vision through the lighting in the environment was something you guys wanted to see; and that's what we have adjusted a bit.[47]Steven Sharif

Darkness as an environmental obstacle is being considered as part of the game mechanics.[51][57]

  • The developers are requesting feedback on the intensity of illumination and darkness that will be present in Alpha-2.[47][50][51]
In more survival oriented games you're expected to have really dark night times because you utilize instruments like torches and lights that can be present, but when you think about an MMORPG and you think about the types of player numbers and player count you're expected to have in certain locations and dungeons, you need to be able to accommodate those types of visibility lines and those mechanics around that large multiplayer environment. So when you guys are giving feedback think about whether or not you want the outside night time to really be very dark, or if you want that to be reserved for specific locations in game, like certain dungeons and towers where we can utilize mechanics like different types of lighting mechanisms in order to facilitate that more dark feel.[51]Steven Sharif

Visuals

See also

References

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  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Livestream, October 29, 2021 (51:22).
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  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Livestream, May 27, 2022 (58:04).
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  8. Livestream, May 27, 2022 (1:02:41).
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  18. Livestream, July 26, 2019 (1:32:40).
  19. Livestream, September 30, 2022 (1:25:56).
  20. 20.0 20.1 Our immersive world - Environments.
  21. frosty-roads.png
  22. Livestream, June 30, 2022 (1:10:19).
  23. Video, May 27, 2022 (6:33).
  24. 24.0 24.1 24.2 Livestream, May 27, 2022 (1:13:39).
  25. 25.0 25.1 25.2 Video, May 27, 2022 (12:50).
  26. 26.0 26.1 seasons.png
  27. 27.0 27.1 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (2:57).
  28. Interview, July 18, 2020 (16:34).
  29. Types of Events on Verra.
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 Livestream, April 29, 2022 (36:51).
  31. 31.0 31.1 Interview, October 20, 2018 (7:31).
  32. 32.0 32.1 Livestream, May 10, 2017 (40:36).
  33. 33.0 33.1 Livestream, April 29, 2022 (38:05).
  34. 34.0 34.1 Livestream, April 29, 2022 (50:49).
  35. 35.0 35.1 35.2 Video, February 29, 2024 (16:34).
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  48. time.jpg
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  54. Podcast, April 11, 2021 (15:55).
  55. day cycle.jpg
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  57. Interview: Ashes of Creation on Building Their Virtual World, 2017-04-13.