Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

JackTreehorn · 2020-12-01 02:50:56

Concept - We introduce a warm season and a cool season which switch every 30 or 20 mins. An indicator in the bottom bar can tell the player which season it is
(perhaps it could look like a circular rotating cycle display similar to typical day night cycle displays in other games.)
The seasons will change the global temperature and will change what crops should be planted.

Reason - It will force the players to grow and stockpile crops they wish to access while off season and make the players consider changing clothes to suit the seasonal climate.
It will give crops more value and make stockpiling and crop storage rooms a necessity.

Crop Details -

Warm Season https://www.sunset.com/garden/garden-ba … ason-crops
-Beans
-Corn
-Cucumber
-Peppers
-Pumpkin
-Squash
-Tomato
-Chillies
-Herbs

Cool Season https://www.sunset.com/garden/garden-ba … on-crops-0
-Cabbage
-Carrots
-Onions
-Potatoes
-Berries

All year
-Garlic
-Wheat

Anti exploit - Perhaps crops should die if left unharvested when the seasonal change happens.

Too harsh? - Perhaps instead of not being able to grow certain crops off season they could just have reduced yield.

Weather Changes - Players may want to wear warm clothes in cool season and less clothes in warm season. Players may want to dress their babies and keep them indoors by the fire in cool season and let their babies follow behind them dressed in just a loincloth and backpack in the warm season.

Conclusion - As you can see there are less crops to grow in winter so you will need to stockpile crops to get you through the winter.

Last edited by JackTreehorn (2020-12-01 12:16:16)

Lizzee · 2020-12-01 12:03:15

"Nope, don't like that" in my best Michael Scott impression

QuirkySmirkyIan · 2020-12-01 13:23:52

It doesn't add anything to the game besides pointless restrictions so no thanks.

PeebleCreek · 2020-12-02 22:47:50

I like this idea in concept, but imagining how hard it would be to explain that mechanic to new players has me shuddering lol.

Stuff like this makes me wish there was an Expert Mode or something though. For all these cool suggestions that are really neat but super impractical. Unfortunately the Expert Mode itself falls under that category

NoTruePunk · 2020-12-03 12:34:00

bad

DestinyCall · 2020-12-03 18:50:37

I like the idea of seasons and crop rotation, but I struggle with how to implement it in OHOL in a way that would be fun and intuitive for new players.

The first problem involves timing. How long would one season last? If there are four seasons and they each last 15 minutes, you could experience all four seasons in one life. But imagine how annoying it would be to have to change clothes four different times or deal with different weather conditions and rapidly shifting between temperature extremes so many times in one life.

If there are only two seasons, hot and cold, that would simplify things a little, but it would still be very important to pick a good season duration so that seasons felt substantial. I would lean toward very long seasons, like an hour or more for each season. In that case, you would only experience one season or a single seasonal change during your lifetime. You would not necessarily know how long until the next seasonal change, without consulting with your elders. Each generation would need to prepare for the coming season by planting new crops and harvesting the old ones.

I think it could be a cool game mechanic, especially if it was integrated with a dynamic weather system.

But making it work in OHOL would be rather tricky. You would need to find a good balance that allows farmers to do their work while also challenging them to stockpile food and harvest regularly.

jasonrohrer · 2020-12-04 18:03:44

This is one of those things where I had to pick my battles, as a solo developer who actually wants to ship (and eventually finish) this game.

No oceans.

No seasons.

A lot of developers make the mistake of over-scoping their game, and they get bogged down implementing a long list of extraneous systems.

You might say, "Hey, there ARE a bunch of extraneous systems in this game," but they were all motivated by some particular design problem that we faced on the ground, as the game was being played by actual players. And I have been (and will continue to) remove those systems when it becomes clear that they don't work or are no longer necessary. For example, you can see what happened with tool slots.

Seasons is an example of something that would require a ton of extra work to do right.... snowy versions of a bunch of different art assets, for example. Yeah, I could "phone it in," but I wouldn't want to do that.

Arcurus · 2020-12-04 20:20:53

jasonrohrer wrote:

This is one of those things where I had to pick my battles, as a solo developer who actually wants to ship (and eventually finish) this game.
No oceans.
No seasons.

what is the big thing with oceans?

To seasons, must not be winter, but cant we have something like berry seasons, wheat seasons, so that you have more challenges and not every life feels same? Maybe different grow speed in different biome rings?

Last edited by Arcurus (2020-12-04 20:22:18)

NoTruePunk · 2020-12-04 20:32:57

Arcurus wrote:

jasonrohrer wrote:
This is one of those things where I had to pick my battles, as a solo developer who actually wants to ship (and eventually finish) this game.
No oceans.
No seasons.
what is the big thing with oceans?
To seasons, must not be winter, but cant we have something like berry seasons, wheat seasons, so that you have more challenges and not every life feels same? Maybe different grow speed in different biome rings?

As soon as you put in oceans you then need boats, swimming, drowning, fish, fishing industry, sea monsters, underwater diving, etc etc etc. That's a bottomless pit

JackTreehorn · 2020-12-05 02:01:53

Yeah, I get that it is not needed to be a functional game however I believe it would add a lot to the final product. As for new assets I don't think they are needed if it doesn't get cold enough for snow. No visual difference is needed, however if you wanted a seasonal visual difference you could just change the hue of the screen so it's slightly blue or slightly more yellow in the warm season.

The reason I suggested adding this is to change up the meta so there is differences each life while making the world feel more alive and not static. The leaders could order, "The warm season has come quickly plant warm season crops we need to get some stored away". The cool season is a time for building, wood chopping, composting, and meat harvesting and meat pies. If you had a craving for tomatoes in the cool season it would be a reason to visit another town to trade for some.

The reason why I thought of this was because every developed town has fields full of grown crops which don't get harvested, children just go around picking one of each crop and are set for the rest of their life. farmers are told to maintain the fields rather than actually farm (figuring out what crop to plant, tilling the fields and harvesting when ripe).

However as always it's up to you Jason, I won't push too hard for this. I just thought it was an interesting idea and worth suggesting.

Last edited by JackTreehorn (2020-12-05 03:44:49)

Arcurus · 2020-12-08 10:00:37

NoTruePunk wrote:

Arcurus wrote:
jasonrohrer wrote:
This is one of those things where I had to pick my battles, as a solo developer who actually wants to ship (and eventually finish) this game.
No oceans.
No seasons.
what is the big thing with oceans?
To seasons, must not be winter, but cant we have something like berry seasons, wheat seasons, so that you have more challenges and not every life feels same? Maybe different grow speed in different biome rings?
As soon as you put in oceans you then need boats, swimming, drowning, fish, fishing industry, sea monsters, underwater diving, etc etc etc. That's a bottomless pit

You did not mention that we then need to have atomic submarines (which would bring us actually a step closer to the atomic powered robot), tsunamis, sunken Atlantis, Lemuria, under water volcanoes, algae, titanic, Poseidon, fish men, under water alien bases... just to mention some...

DestinyCall · 2020-12-08 18:39:31

Can you call it a real ocean if it doesn't have underwater volcanoes?

I don't think so.

Arcurus · 2020-12-08 21:52:02

DestinyCall wrote:

Can you call it a real ocean if it doesn't have underwater volcanoes?
I don't think so.

So thinks Jason... but i think in our times its more the under water alien bases that are missing to finally have oceans...

DestinyCall · 2020-12-08 22:25:20

And now I have an uncontrollable urge to go play Subnautica again.

schmloo · 2020-12-09 20:34:50

Actually, a little bit related to this...

...What about using homebands as a way to add different climates into the game? The neutral zones remain how they are. However for each specialty band, there are some sub-specialty green, prairie, swamp and mountain biomes? Each band would have their own different types of resource variations, for example tundra bands would have white rabbits, which give white fur and different meat, while desert rabbits are a grey-colour and vice versa. This would also extend to wild foods, such as berry variations like blackberries, strawberries, etc.

Of course this wouldn’t achieve much, and is more of an aesthetic gimmick in terms of resources, but it could be the start of another idea, which is more implementation-friendly.

Hailerm · 2020-12-09 23:54:14

just imagine the ohol world without berries for 30min ..

wondible · 2020-12-10 00:19:44

schmloo wrote:

Each band would have their own different types of resource variations, for example tundra bands would have white rabbits, which give white fur and different meat, while desert rabbits are a grey-colour and vice versa. This would also extend to wild foods, such as berry variations like blackberries, strawberries, etc.

Right now all the specialty stuff is rare and precious. What if each band had foods that were good and easy enough to be staples in their band, but would still be somewhat unusual in other bands. Tacos and saurkraut are probably the closest, both involve moving some base materials rather than finished goods.

DestinyCall · 2020-12-10 00:37:47

I would love to see region-specific clothing, building materials, food, and animals. That would be very cool.

Snow villages filled with ice cream and saurkraut. Jungle huts with tacos, salsa, and tattoo artists. Desert villages with great stone buildings and everyone wearing shorts.

It would give each town its own distinct flavor.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2020-12-01 02:50:56

Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#2 2020-12-01 12:03:15

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#3 2020-12-01 13:23:52

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#4 2020-12-02 22:47:50

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#5 2020-12-03 12:34:00

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#6 2020-12-03 18:50:37

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#7 2020-12-04 18:03:44

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#8 2020-12-04 20:20:53

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#9 2020-12-04 20:32:57

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#10 2020-12-05 02:01:53

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#11 2020-12-08 10:00:37

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#12 2020-12-08 18:39:31

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#13 2020-12-08 21:52:02

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#14 2020-12-08 22:25:20

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#15 2020-12-09 20:34:50

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#16 2020-12-09 23:54:14

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#17 2020-12-10 00:19:44

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

#18 2020-12-10 00:37:47

Re: Idea - Seasonal Crops and Clothing

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