Option to REMOVE WINTER Graphics

[Timoca 154]

Maybe do winter without snow? just trees and bushes without leaves and little more fog than usual.  Maybe slow down the grass growth rates as well.

Or make it a toggle.

[Tor 523]

12 hours ago, Keenan said:

 

Instead of remove, could we see some suggestions on how we could make it look better? I know there may have been some before, but I do feel that winter is one of the worst looks we have. I'd love it if people could enjoy it rather than seek to disable it.

 

Take a look how they have done the snow in winter maps in GW2, it's just not plain white, there's more contrast and shade

 

Probably new and different textures for the tiles that trees grow on and the grass tiles, maybe around the trees can be seen some dirt or stones and on the grass tiles some grass poking out and stuff like that. Pretty much the oposite of what have been done to the sky that it doesn't look like  total darkness now

Edited May 8, 2023 by Tor

[Aeris 3,752]

We've asked for this many times and it always ends up in people saying "this doesn't hurt me, so it can't hurt you", as if one truth about pain can be applied to every human on Earth. People have even threatened to grief me because I pointed out that for some people winter in-game means they have to log out until the season is over. And no: I wasn't being rude or hostile to get them to threaten to grief me. I just didn't agree with them that having tiles white enough that it actually hurts people despite them having tried every game, monitor and computer setting available was a vital part of the game.

 

And saying "you just haven't tried all available settings" to the people who've been struggling with Wurm winter for years doesn't help. If the setting is so hard to find that a bunch of tech savvy people haven't been able to do it for years it's a very clear indicator that it shouldn't be a thing people have to do. You shouldn't have to plunge into the depths of the Internet compost pile to salvage the remainders of a forum post that may hold the answers to a problem you literally only struggle with in this one game.

[Finnn 3,303]

8 hours ago, Beastwolf said:

Another Example, bridges have no winter it just cuts off. Winter just seems 'unfinished' in many ways. @Keenan

 

 

 

tiles appear to have some reflective effect on them, maybe if snow affected tiles like paving/grass/tree/bush..etc.. could be given less of that so brightness doesn't just blast player's eyes..

 

current solution is to lower client brightness / maybe contrast and play in some odd dark mode where you wont be blinded, but is also not enjoyable, while you can indeed go out with friends and laugh at how miserable they feel by not playing around with the settings, it's annoying to do this for just 1 season of course and again it's not a thing anyone does, it's also not a perfect solution as it still ruins graphics ql with the terrible colors after nerfing the screen light

[Darnok 203]

12 hours ago, Keenan said:

 

Instead of remove, could we see some suggestions on how we could make it look better? I know there may have been some before, but I do feel that winter is one of the worst looks we have. I'd love it if people could enjoy it rather than seek to disable it.

 

1. Severe winter, young and adult diseased/negative traits farm animals die of hypothermia. Unless they are in stables.
2. Crops are destroyed when winter begins.
3. Temperature (The long dark and many other games) and its influence on character. A chilled character is loosing stamina faster, gets hungry faster, etc.
4. Shallow waters freeze, blocking movement of ships (unless they are upgraded and equipped with a metal bow).

    Player on foot and on horseback can move on ice, but vehicles sink.

5. Sleigh and team of dogs/wolves/bears can move on ice and snow.

6. Various new armors and outfits to insulate your character from cold.

7. Ice, which can be used to create igloos and sculptures, sculptures in cold mines would not melt or melt a lot slower during spring and summer.
    Of course, snow should be melting faster, and ice can melt at the same rate as the snow is currently.

8. The poor settler's fridge, which is simply two blocks of ice with a cavity inside, which are used to freeze food.

9. Mob render distance depends on character tracking level.
    Each mob would have some passive stealth/camouflage level, with a large bonus in spring and summer (vegetation helps to camouflage) and a negative value in winter (prey is easier to track in snow).
10. New mobs that only spawn in winter. I've given several examples in past... polar bears, white wolves, yetis, mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, Siberian rhinos, polar foxes and rabbits.

EDIT:
11. Healthy adult animals have a 3-4x increased consumption when they are cold.
12. Blizzards that deal damage if character does not have appropriate outfit.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Darnok

[Madnath 3,113]

14 minutes ago, Darnok said:

-snip-

 

It looks like you didn't understand the request. Would you like help?

 

12 hours ago, Keenan said:

 

how we could make it look better? I know there may have been some before, but I do feel that winter is one of the worst looks we have. I'd love it if people could enjoy it rather than seek to disable it.

 

This is referering to visual upgrades and changes to how it looks to players.

This is not a request to peddle mechanic requests that people don't like.

[munster 41]

This might be a nightmare to implement, but visible tracks in the snow would be super cool. It would also make tracking somewhat worthwhile in the PVE realm. Either default animal tracks that showed up for everyone, or tracks that showed up as you leveled up tracking, and were more distinguishable as you got better.

 

Could become a useful skill for doing slay/sacrifice missions, and add a little texture and definition to otherwise bland snow.

 

I don't mind winter as is, but it's pretty bright can see why some people get headaches.

[Darnok 203]

24 minutes ago, Madnath said:

 

It looks like you didn't understand the request. Would you like help?

 

 

This is referering to visual upgrades and changes to how it looks to players.

This is not a request to peddle mechanic requests that people don't like.

I like visual side, minor shortcomings do not interest me if game features are interesting.
Snowfall or blizzards probably would cover many visual problems.
But I would rather suggest focusing on performance for every season.

[HawkHawk 299]

I've noticed on Planks paved outdoors the effect is a lot more minimal than other types of paving/paths and the Planks are still very visible.

 

Not sure if its possible but having the option to shovel/plow a tile to clear it of snow would be nice, reducing the snow effect to that similar of the planks?

 

Alternatively I'd just like to see well-traveled routes like those with Catseyes have a similar reduced level of effect, hypothetically it makes sense people travelling the roads would reduce the buildup of snow. It also will help people navigate as the roads currently camouflage in snow.

Edited May 8, 2023 by HawkHawk

[joedobo 1,187]

The all white is too bright.

 

A good fix would be to add unique tile textures for all tile types. Make sure it's easy to visually distinguish between tiles. Avoid making it so white, bright, and boring.

 

Reminder, giving players the means to disable winter is super easy to do. The option is already in the client. See gamesettings.txt and "season_override=0". This used to work for all players, but someone decided that it should only work for devs and it got changed.  I think this should be enabled while Wurm finds a solution that players like.

[Synjor 466]

12 minutes ago, joedobo said:

Reminder, giving players the means to disable winter is super easy to do. The option is already in the client. See gamesettings.txt and "season_override=0". This used to work for all players, but someone decided that it should only work for devs and it got changed.  I think this should be enabled while Wurm finds a solution that players like.

This please.

Just allow us to disable it again, at least until the team finds a solution that they're happy with and have the time to implement 

[Skullripz 62]

I think easing in to the season may help.

 

- Phase 1: Leaves fall off trees

- Phase 2: Light dusting of snow

- Phase 3: Full snow (Snowballs)

- Phase 4: Melt

 

Currently, it just goes straight to full on snow. I know it's only a few days, but it seems to stretch on forever. Due to the appearance of the snow on paved tiles (or any tiles for that matter), it makes it incredibly difficult to determine how your deed will look the rest of the year when developing/building new deeds/projects.

[DaletheGood 1,073]

I'm one of those that goes inside and makes mats for the entire winter season, which is great for accumulating mats, but by the 3rd or 4th day I'm bored outta my skull.

 

I actually  like having seasons, and there is a certain beauty in winter, but the all white is way too bright. I'd like to see the grass poking thru the snow, like the bugged grass Arch mentioned above. Also rock shouldn't hold the same amount of snow that grass does, especially steep rock. And roadways should be much clearer of snow, perhaps pushed to the side a bit but mostly clear in the middle. One problem i foresee with that though is diagonal roadways, getting the graphics to not show stripes on the road if the model has snow pushed to the edges.

 

I don't want winter to go away, but I'd like to see the roads when traveling, and not have just an unrelenting white world. Wurm is beautiful in it's diversity of colors, even if some of them are a bit garish (looking at you enchanted grass and moss), so having the green grass poking thru, or tufts of steppe, being able to distinguish rock tiles without having to mouse over them, and being able to plainly see the roadway would go a long way to making winter more tolerable. Edit: Just noticed that at close range steppe does have tufts of grass poking over the top of snow, but that graphic turns into all white just a few tiles away (5-6 tiles it looks like). Not sure if the bugged grass is the same, but the new graphics (assuming we get them) should show at a distance, not just the immediate area.

 

Even if there was a bell curve to the coverage of snow, where the first day or two the snow is just barely there, gradually increasing so that by the time there's snowballs on almost every tile (usually 48-72 hrs after winter starts) there's maximum snow (but still not as covered as it currently is), then decreasing the last couple days til it's spring. Not sure how involved that'd be, probably more than just reworking the different tile models, but that'd be cool. Could also incorporate the yellow autumn grass color in the first part of winter, and changing to the green grass peaking out the last couple days.

 

I'm encouraged to see Keenan actively involved in this discussion, thanks for listening Appreciate you guys

Edited May 8, 2023 by DaletheGood

[kordethbludscythe 762]

On 5/7/2023 at 7:06 PM, Keenan said:

 

Instead of remove, could we see some suggestions on how we could make it look better? I know there may have been some before, but I do feel that winter is one of the worst looks we have. I'd love it if people could enjoy it rather than seek to disable it.

Well to start some changes to how winter looks on different surfaces, for instance icicles hanging from buildings and bridges maybe the edge of the shore has a bit of ice crusted upon it. not all the same shade of snow, IE trees cast shadows on snow giving it a dirtier look while snow on a feild would be more pristine white. maybe add a few snowdrifts to the static look of snow kind of like how the servers add a rock to normal grass and dirt. give us the oppurtunity to shovel our walkways and roads to remove the snow cover for a set amount of time for small skillgains. small waterways for example could get choked with ice if not used routinely forcing us to remove the ice with a sledgehammer before traffic would be able to use them again

have snowfall act more randomly, sometimes no snow some times flurries and then the occasional white out ala fog like snow

i know this is probably a lot of work to do but implementing weather effects like this would be awesome and give the season of winter a bit more charactor

[Coach 196]

On 5/8/2023 at 9:42 AM, Keenan said:

I'm also curious on what about it makes everyone really dislike it so much, besides just the brightness.

The current snow looks fresh, it isn't dirty enough, especially on the roads, highways, etc.

BTW, i am just slightly dislike it.

[Cecci 1,609]

3 hours ago, Coach said:

The current snow looks fresh, it isn't dirty enough, especially on the roads, highways, etc.

BTW, i am just slightly dislike it.

In a world without cars, or at least sanded roads, the snow does not get dirty. I know it from growing up in Lapland.

[Coach 196]

1 hour ago, Cecci said:

In a world without cars, or at least sanded roads, the snow does not get dirty. I know it from growing up in Lapland.

Wagoners use wagons on highways which like cars that have wheels and can carry heavy thing.
I guess they are moving on the thin snow road otherwise the wagons would easily get stuck?
And we can't even collect snow on the first few weeks of winter but the snow appearance on early winter is still the same as the one on the mid to late winter.

Does thin snow highways get dirty while wagons are carrying goods?

[joedobo 1,187]

IRL, A winter forest will have leafless (and dead looking) deciduous trees and a think blanket of blinding white snow everywhere.

But after so many years of players complaining about winter maybe it's time we choose player happiness over realism? Oh, but wait, we can give each player exactly what they want and cause no harm because of it. Wurm already has the means to let use choose what season we want to see. This means if you want to see white hell, go for it. But I'd rather see an extra long fall and no winter. Note that snowballs are a server side thing so we could still collect them towards the end of the extended fall season.

[kordethbludscythe 762]

13 hours ago, joedobo said:

IRL, A winter forest will have leafless (and dead looking) deciduous trees and a think blanket of blinding white snow everywhere.

i dunno what forests you have been in that it was blindingly white and no debris on the snow, but i have lived in many places and can tell you that not all areas are blindingly white in forests or even in the plains, sure most snow will blindside you in the direct sunlight however with the fact that wurm only has short bursts of actual sunlight punctuated by long nights means blindingly white snow all the time is nuts. and my fir trees on my deed do not shed their leaves in the winter and would most certainly have a blanket of needles on the ground below them. on the plains rock formations and snow drifts change the texture of the snow and even a texture change makes a difference in the white shades that snow produces. I do acknowledge that flowers on a tile will subtlely change the look of the tile but not to a great enough extent to help deal with the stark whiteness of winter in wurm and that is most likely the cause of complaints about the snow

[DaletheGood 1,073]

The thing is, when I used to go snowshoeing thru the back country of Colorado when I was young, there were variations on the whiteness of snow. Leaves on the ground under trees, animals making trails thru it, exposed rock, drifts making different shapes, and then the natural deformation of the snow as it went thru the inevitable melt during the day/freeze at night cycle. In Wurm, if you're standing in a steppe that goes on and on, the 5 tiles around you show a nice amount of grass tufts sticking out of the snow, but from the 6th tile until infinity it's the same flat whiteness. There's no way to distinguish whether a road runs thru it unless you happen to be within 5 tiles of the road - and even then you need hawk-eye vision to see it. Also, having grown up where there's an overabundance of snow, I know that there is not a uniform layer of snow on the ground. There's drifts in some parts, especially against buildings and fences, and bare areas in others where the wind has blown it into a drift. The north side of hills and buildings have more snow than the south side because of the melting effects of the sun. In short, there's a variable quality to snow that Wurm does not have, instead giving us a uniform, unending, flat white that starts immediately upon winter's arrival and doesn't change for 5-6 days until spring suddenly makes everything green again - which is also unnatural, but one I can live with.

[Seriphina 1,223]

To me, at least part of it is a lack of texture to the white leading it to be so blinding. In many games, they've done winter really really well, creating texturally complex landscapes that break up that blast of white while still giving the overall impression of snow, though if you look closely, white is NOT the dominant color on the ground, it's more greys, purples, and blues. Lean harder on shadows making them darker and more pronounced (sun angle is low in winter). Keep a good bit of grass, but make it look more dormant and brown, and other terrain details to break up the swath of white we currently have.

 

 

 

 

 

[Vorticella 958]

It might help if the snow was a lot thinner under trees and maybe creating a gradient of reduced or patchy snow around them, so a dense forest would have much less snow than open landscapes. That would require a new tree tile design so it's not bright green grass under the trees in winter, but honestly we could really use a proper forest floor texture under trees too. I've always thought it was weird to have thick lush grass growing under a dense tree canopy.

 

Not sure how hard it would be to do this without creating an awful checkered effect, but if it worked it could help a lot to break up the winter landscape and make it look more realistic, while making forest landscapes more realistic at the same time.

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by Vorticella

[Zundy 99]

I guess an immediate fix would be to change the texture from bright white to a lighter gray.

[Breezzy 50]

Make winter shorter, that way I can just stay logged in through it until it's over. LOL (Never on Tues)

[Ekcin 2,407]

On contrary: Winter is already short. While not changing winter durance itself, availability of snowballs should be extended: from 1st week Silence into 3rd week Diamonds.

Apart from that, an option to make snow surfaces like those after crossing servers may make sense.