seaons changing in game, your thoughts?

[NefarioCall]

THIS IS AN AWESOME IDEA.
On the coding nightmares note though, they shouldn't really have to completely change the zones to make it happen. Having it snow more often than rain, or be windy or foggy more often for starters should be easy. Changing some of the monster spawns around shouldn't be too bad either... And it is clear that they often do place new chips on maps and then take them away.

For example, it's summer, so they cover a zone in some kind of cool flowers they drew up. They've done this frequently for seasonal events... If they are organized with the code, this should all be very doable. Although having to manage it every three months for what will eventually be over 100 zones could get time consuming, so it might have to be a selective process concerning zones they focus on.

[AceofRains]

I was just thinking about seasons yesterday. Because I cannot wait for coerthas to be covered in snow!

But moreover you should look at my Geomancer job design!!
It would be so cool in junction with the weather patterns and primal summoning.

[MartaDemireux]

THIS IS AN AWESOME IDEA.
On the coding nightmares note though, they shouldn't really have to completely change the zones to make it happen. Having it snow more often than rain, or be windy or foggy more often for starters should be easy. Changing some of the monster spawns around shouldn't be too bad either... And it is clear that they often do place new chips on maps and then take them away.

For example, it's summer, so they cover a zone in some kind of cool flowers they drew up. They've done this frequently for seasonal events... If they are organized with the code, this should all be very doable. Although having to manage it every three months for what will eventually be over 100 zones could get time consuming, so it might have to be a selective process concerning zones they focus on.

Yeah, having to do it for so many is why I think it won't happen. Though just gives more support for an expansion pack with a distant land that maybe brings back the "large" zones in favor of a season progression for changes of scenery.

[Duelle]

A calendar system would have to be developed to better support this. Something to help people keep track of the time of year in Eorzea without the need of the likes of Mithra Pride and whatnot. We have the moons, we have the names for the days, but we need to have that put together in a way it can be tracked in-game.

[Keruvinde]

the picture i have in my head is like 3-4 versions of thanalan. 1 rainy season, cleary type season where thanalan is covered with more life then a dry season as it gets back to what it looks like now and so on. and i was thinking like weekly season considering eorzea time is faster than irl time. kinda pushing it though. i dunno XP cuz the way i saw it was seasons would also affect gathering like what you can get in some way. like you get higher chance of getting veggies in spring or something. along with the mob seasonal change to reflect the area.

the thing with the current seasonal events is like this last holiday season it snowed only in the citys. so you only got the feeling of the season changing in the city.

[nibelunc]

Good idea but we get some snow areas at least with 2.0

[MartaDemireux]

the picture i have in my head is like 3-4 versions of thanalan. 1 rainy season, cleary type season where thanalan is covered with more life then a dry season as it gets back to what it looks like now and so on. and i was thinking like weekly season considering eorzea time is faster than irl time. kinda pushing it though. i dunno XP cuz the way i saw it was seasons would also affect gathering like what you can get in some way. like you get higher chance of getting veggies in spring or something. along with the mob seasonal change to reflect the area.

the thing with the current seasonal events is like this last holiday season it snowed only in the citys. so you only got the feeling of the season changing in the city.

Well, the problem with that is Thanalan is a desert. It's not supposed to rain hardly at all. The reason it's raining so much now is because of the Seventh Umbral Era and Dalamund. We don't know the location of Eorzea on the map as well so it could be just above the equator, with Uldah being right on it. We also don't know the tilt of the planet nor if it has a perfect revolution around the sun or if it's elliptical. So there's a lot we have to take into consideration. The more of a tilt you have and the more elliptical of a revolution would lead to more frequent and widespread seasonal change. If the planet has no tilt, there won't be any seasonal change.

May be a little too real-world, but I expect a bit of real-world physics in the game and this is no different than having gravity, haha. My best guess is we're on the equator or that Hydaelan isn't on much of a tilt. Or both!

Edit: Course this doesn't mean the impact of Dalamund couldn't be so great as to tilt the planet and then produce seasons in the future...

[Viritess]

Like the idea of seasons, but i'd expect ideas for small changes would be the most likely to be concidered for instance textures that are repeated often but take up little space, and could possibly be changed somehat easily.

My thoughts for examples:
Tree leaf textures: If you have a base green leaf texture. you could add some orange and browns to it and on a date, replace the green texture with orange and brown texture. Instant Autumn look.

Replace most of the same texture with transparentcy but at the base of the texture make a small greenish bud = Spring

Remove the texture or make a bark colored scraggely line = winter

Also Water effect, is a toughie, but if you removed ripple effects, gave it a white frosted texture/effect you could have a winterish look.

Main issue is if your attempt to have say, snowcover during winter, you have to make a second/third texture of nearly every outdoor setting.

Love the idea, but time is money. So would a more subtle effect like the ones i've mentioned be good enough for those interested?

[Xaimera]

i love this idea!! ^^ it would be awesome to see the seasons change !

[Volsung]

I would LOVE it! Having said that I realise the amount of time it would take would be phenomenal and could potentially be better spent elsewhere.

If at some point they could at least take a handful of zones and give them varying seasons instead of them all I would be more than OK with that. The plains in XII that had a wet season come to mind, the entire change to how use used the zone and what was there was astounding.