Hazeron Starship supports a season system for plants on worlds. Tree, shrub, and ground textures are all affected and modified by the current season. Temperature is also affected by seasons.
The standard four seasons are available: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The current season is displayed next to the current temperature on the Locator (F7) window's Compass tab.
The current season is also displayed in the header information of city reports.
Alongside color changes, plants may also sprout leaves and flowers depending on the season. The effect of each season is given below:
Non-Aquatic Plants
Leaves
Flowers
Spring
X
X
Summer
X
X
Autumn
*
X
Winter
X
X
Aquatic Plants
Leaves
Flowers
Spring
X
X
Summer
X
X
Autumn
X
X
Winter
X
X
*Leaves are in fall colors
The current season on a given planet is determined by the position and movement of its host star, along with the world's axial tilt. Other stars in the solar system do not affect the season.
Season transitions are instant, which can result in abrupt shifts from winter to spring.
It is possible to have areas of worlds where the season never changes, if the orbital configuration and axial tilt allow for this. It is also possible for seasons to be skipped, such as autumn directly changing to spring if the sun doesn't allow for a winter.
Ringworlds also have seasons. These are artificially created by the sun shadow panels expanding to change the size of the gap - with a minimum of half the normal day length during winter. This is continuous around the ringworld, so all four seasons are constantly present in different quarters of the ringworld. During star gate activation, the panels retract to their summer configuration.
Habitable worlds have a mean axial tilt of 24, with a standard deviation of 7. All other worlds have a mean tilt of 45 with a deviation of 15.
There have been requests for seasonal variations of plants.
Planets now determine the current season at the viewer's location. This is shown on the Compass window, where the current weather conditions are shown.
Season determination is based on the position and movement of the world's sun. Other suns in the solar system do not affect season.
Plants and ground texture change appearance with season. Season changes are not gradual. There is no scene generation time between seasons; the rendering change is instantaneous. Winter to spring is quite abrupt when all the trees and plants suddenly have leaves and flowers and everything turns green.
Non-aquatic plants:
Spring - Leaves, flowers
Summer - Leaves, no flowers
Autumn - Leaves in fall colors, no flowers
Winter - No leaves or flowers.
Aquatic plants:
Spring - Leaves, no flowers
Summer - Leaves, flowers
Autumn - Leaves, no flowers
Winter - Leaves, no flowers
Season affects the outside air temperature calculation.
Work on this revealed that a large number of worlds have very little axial tilt. Axial tilt is needed for seasons to change; Earth's is 23.5 degrees. The axial tilt calculation was changed so habitable worlds have a mean of 24 and a standard deviation of 7. Other worlds have a mean of 45 with a standard deviation of 15. This change will affect all existing worlds.
Depending on axial tilt and orbital configuration, it is possible for a world to have areas that never change season. Seasons can change from autumn to spring with no winter in between if the sun doesn't retreat far enough. ::Likewise the season can change from spring to autumn if that area never gets sunny enough for summer.
It is always summer on ringworlds but the plants have their flowers. Think of it as early summer.
Potted plants in the environment do not show flowers until they have been planted for ten minutes. This coincides with the first time the potted plant is ready to be harvested for its fruit or seeds.
Potted plants in your hand always show flowers but they will disappear as soon as the flower pot is dropped. The seed planted time is reset at that time. This causes the flowers to appear at the same time the potted plant is ready for harvesting.
"It is always summer on ringworlds but the plants have their flowers. Think of it as early summer."
I could not be satisfied with this. After mulling over several possible ways to induce seasons on a ringworld, I settled for modulating the day length as follows.
Shadow panels now modulate the width of the sunlight gap, down to half the normal day length in winter. This is done continuously around the ringworld so all four seasons are present all the time, each in a different quadrant of the ringworld.
When a stargate is opened the shadow panels retract to their summer configuration, with maximum aperture. This means you can no longer look up to see when the shadow panels are in position to open a stargate. Instead the obelisks at the corners now show a light at the top when the shadow panels are in position to open a stargate.
The Control Center story chapter was updated to impart this information.
