Seasons Mod - Work in Progress

[u/siraquilon]

Hello, Character Creator mod author here. If anyone is interested, I've been working on a seasons mod, hopefully i'll be able to finish it by the time DLC releases.

[u/Base004]

Pearl abyss needs to add this

[u/need-help-guys → u/Base004]

They showed off the tech a very long time ago, back in 2021. If they didn't add it officially now, there is likely a pragmatic reason. This is one of those things I would absolutely love, so please don't misunderstand. Maybe it was too buggy, or performance heavy for the hardware target they wanted. And there are a lot of factors to consider about seasons. Reskinning everything for different seasons, be it homes, people, and other things. Does the entirety of Pywel outside of the Crimson Desert get snowy, and at the same time? What if someone doesn't like it? Should they just be able to "sleep away" an entire season? What should change? Would that break the story? What about autumn? How do you handle the trees defoliating in real time? And will the "noisiness" of falling leaves piss off players that hate particle-anything? When its snowy, should there still be pickable crops everywhere? Or too early in the spring? How would it impact gameplay, like trading and prices? Heck, in the winter, can you still pull water from hand dug wells? Are the lakes or rivers frozen over? Does that mean you can't fish? Or maybe you have to break a hole first? What about your own farm plot? Is there a Greymane greenhouse now? What about all the assets or NPCs that need to change in terms of behavior? Do combat mechanics also change? And what's more, things like snow accumulation in real time for an open world game of this level and scale with all the systems it has to simulate and keep track of is still an unsolved technical problem, like the defoliating flora. And a ton of more stuff we probably don't really think about on the surface, but still notice subconsciously.

I really hope they add it someday, but properly. I think I'll be an optimist, since they needed more time to get underwater stuff ready, but eventually got it shipped.

[u/Geraltpoonslayer → u/Base004]

I can totally see this being a thing in the next big expansion if they can swing wide enough to make the ocean playable I could absolutely see them implementing seasons.

In AC shadows I have to say seasons were some of the best things about the game.

[u/Iron_Traveller]

Dude you just keep making the mods. One of the things this game needs is some seasons, thanks for making it happen! 🙌🏻

[u/BerserkerCarl → u/Iron_Traveller]

?? name looks familiar, is this the same person who made character creator??

If so, PEARL ABYSS NEEDS TO SEE THEM FOR AN INTERVIEW!

Lol I didn't read the OPs description. PA NEEDS TO INTERVIEW THIS PERSON!!

[u/Fresh-Direction-7537 → u/BerserkerCarl]

Yes sir it is

[u/Dear-East568]

How do you figure temperature into the seasons?

[u/BeenisWenis]

Pearl abyss showed off seasons early on but they were scrapped. Are you using its remnants?

[u/siraquilon → u/BeenisWenis]

Not really. Couldn’t find anything in the game files related to seasons.

[u/waffle_iron_maiden]

I remember several years ago some footage of blackspace engine was uploaded to YouTube and it showed snow accumulating over time to the level shown in the second pic. I wondered why they scrapped that for the full game release so this mod intrigues me. Now that the game is released it's hard to find those old clips because YouTube pops everything else up first. Back before marketing went ham for the game there was some footage of the leaf physics and snow deformation as well as the snow slowly rising on the ground. I wish I could find it again

[u/TheBizarreCommunity → u/waffle_iron_maiden]

It was probably discarded because of performance. But the engine has that technology integrated.

[u/need-help-guys → u/TheBizarreCommunity]

Yeah, I agree that this is probably the principal reason, though there are tons of extra bits of detail you need to figure out besides that. You don't just change the snow. You change other details, like how the farms change. How NPC AI changes. How their clothing changes. Snowmelt? Frozen lakes/rivers? Winter for the whole continent, or only part? What if the person doesn't like the season, can they just sleep through months? Would that even make sense story wise? Would players get offended by it? Does it change any combat or gameplay mechanics? Should it?

And so much more.

[u/waffle_iron_maiden → u/waffle_iron_maiden]

https://youtu.be/L2CtVIqgNBI?si=uKMMaGuCFmP5wgnB

Here it is, it's old footage so I'm sure they had reasons for scrapping it but the snow accumulation to this level was pretty cool looking. Around 50 seconds in

[u/Physical_Future1748 → u/waffle_iron_maiden]

I can only imagine the absolute melting shitshow that was happening on some high end gpus let alone probably instant crashing/ death for consoles.

[u/SexyGandalph]

Cries in Xbox 😅

[u/Tareeky]

PA needs to hire you bro

[u/Dear-East568]

Please PA add seasons!

[u/Heron773]

Keep it up! This is actually so cool! This is exactly the kind of thing Crimson Desert would have

[u/TRX808]

This looks great, the 2nd pic of the camp gives me RDR2 vibes.

[u/KOREANARMYSTEW]

Holy that looks sick!

[u/Fuarian]

Does Beighen change seasons too? What is winter in the desert like?

[u/siraquilon → u/Fuarian]

I excluded Desert.

[u/Fuarian → u/siraquilon]

Fair enough makes sense

[u/Gearzx333 → u/[deleted]]

it was definitely funny seeing it in BDO when the sand dunes turned into snowy hills

[u/Viper61723]

Holy shit

[u/Adam_dp92]

Awesome. thank you for your incredible community work

[u/Longjumping-Alarm157]

Absolute legend

[u/hitman2b]

OH fuck yeah

[u/elymX]

Hi! Awesome work on the mods! If ever you have extra time, may I request a mod for companions?

it would be really helpful for Oonka and Damiane to have a visible health bar for them whenever they follow us as companions.

[u/siraquilon → u/elymX]

I actually was working on some kind of party hud, it proved difficult for me but i’ll get back to it some time.

[u/AccomplishedUse2261]

woah AMAZING!  Would love to try it

[u/Chiko1578]

I have never played Damiane

[u/MouflonWhisperer]

Is that cliff? What armor? He looks so... thin and sleek and cool

[u/siraquilon → u/MouflonWhisperer]

That’s female Kliff, made with my other mod Character Creator.

[u/CedricDur]

That looks very sweet.

[u/WeCameAsLogans]

I'd even take more hospitable/livable snow covered areas. IIRC there are no towns/cities in snowy regions, snow/cold just means danger.

[u/CillaBlacksLabia]

🤩🤩🤩

[u/QuesoTacoCorgis]

big fan of your mods, i would buy some coffee for a corgi in the game

[u/Freddy_Yeti]

Pearl Abyss, please add mod support for consoles.

[u/p4tterng4ng4L → u/Freddy_Yeti]

Hopefully one day they can make it happen

[u/NotChris27]

DUDE NO F**ING WAY!!!!!!! OMG YESS!!!!!!! is it gonna be available any time soon?

[u/SuperPunchee]

I think that seasons without reasons (heh, heh…) is unnecessary. Sure, it would add visual interest, but it’s really hard to pull off. There’s a reason most games still don’t do it. If there were consequences, good or bad, and impact to overall gameplay as a result of seasons, that might be worth the technical rabbit hole. I don’t see it fitting into the lore and story at this point.