[Rainer Deyke]

I like games that have a day/night cycle. Now I'm thinking of extending the concept. One example would be a lunar cycle which can influence the tides. A cave may only be accessable during low tide. Another idea would be a seaonal cycle. The leaves turn red in autumn. The forstdemons only come out in winter. High mountain passes may only be passable in high summer. Comments?

[Modanung]

Nice idea... but suppose you're on a quest:
God has told you to find the holy grail, wich is kept in the ice castle (Only there in the winter). God tells you to do this in spring... How the hell are you going to get something out of a place that isn't there?! Should you A-hibernate and sleep all summer? I think such large time differences would cause problems quite fast.
It would not be such a problem if you'd have at least 2 quests simultaniously, one of them non-seasondependent.

[Rainer Deyke]

I was mostly thinking of non-linear rpgs where there are always several things to do. In a linear rpg, seasons could be tied to game events: autumn starts when you have completed all of the summer quests.

[Ironshanks]

I think it would work better in a non-linear RPG. Daggerfall had changing seasons with different weather, but it didn't affect gameplay that much. Still, it was cool, and brought you into the game a bit more. You'd go through your foggy and rainy weather to your bright and sunny weather and then to winter and so on.
_________________
That's not a broken link, it's a PICTURE of a broken link. It's really very conceptual.

[Mobius unlogged]

I was thinking about doing somthing like this for my game except that the moons and such would determine the power of spells and schools of spells...like you could find a very powerful spell but could only cast it on the 3rd moons eclispe and only at the space in time between midnight and 11:59....but my spell system is complex enough with out that I think

[barok@school]

you could make it like zelda: oracle of seasons, where you have an item that changes the seasons.

[The Anarchist]

I think the thing about enemy's changing with the seasons is a great idea! A lot of RPGs have different 'seasons' in different places - for example, the town up north is always snowy, down south its always hot summer etc. but changing all the places in accordance to the weather would really add something to the gameplay. Espacially when in winter you have to fight more ice deamons or something.

Shenmue had something like this, although it didn't have different enemys, weather changes affected the atmosphere, music, and even behaviour of the other characters! But events were fixed, otherwise it would get irritating to have to wait for a sunny day to fight Lan Di, just cos he doesn't like the rain on his nice silk dress.
_________________
Some may know me as MidnightDreamer... time for a namechange.
blackgc.f2g.net

[Jihgfed Pumpkinhead]

     My game takes place over the course of two years; I don't think I'll have seasonal changes as such, though, simply because of the extra workload they would bring. I will, however, have a werewolf character, and with that lunar and day/night cycles (she only transforms the night of the full moon; you know the drill).
     I really like games in which there is a substantial feeling of danger to going out at night. It would also be excellent to have visibility dependent on time of day; so that the sneaky thief always go out at night, while the merchant runs his trade route during the day.
     One thing I have never seen done very well (though many games have promised it), is a day/night cycle which really affects vampires (whether the PC is fighting them or playing one); so that the game would revolve more around luring the vampire into the room of choice and then pulling the curtain, than it would on just stabbing him with the Magic Sword of Vampire Killing (+3 against vampires!).

[Tenshi]

- I think the whole day / night / season thing is great. I'm going to give it a try in my MMORPG project (pending at least semi-completion of my current one). Go for it.
_________________
- Jaeda

[Ironshanks]

Every vampire needs a window directly aligned with the rising sun and covered by a flimsy tattered piece of cloth in their castle.

I liked in QFG how the scariest monsters would only be around at night, like the cheetaurs and ghosts.
_________________
That's not a broken link, it's a PICTURE of a broken link. It's really very conceptual.

[XMark @ Katimavik]

This is reminding me of Castlevania II for the NES, which had days and nights. At night, all the monsters would be twice as strong, and zombies wandered the streets of the towns (with really neat music).

[mandrake@work]

[Locrian]

"One thing I have never seen done very well (though many games have promised it), is a day/night cycle which really affects vampires"

Morrowind. Maybe a little more of a modern game that what you're thinkin about but its got vampire stuff. I've never actually seen a vampire in the game yet cause I don't get much time to play it but my friend is a god in the game and tells me all sorts of nifty tales. In Morrowind after getting hit/bitten/whatever from a vampire enough you will eventually contract vampirism. In a few days after it settles in your flesh will burn in daylight and most people won't like you very much heh. Cool thing is that you get lots of nice stat boosts along with the curse and a chance to do vampire-only quests. I assume that since a vampire player character cant walk about during day the same applies for the NPC vampires... cant wait to meet a hot little vampy chick and let her nibble on me... :oP

[Ironshanks]

Yeah, you only really find vampires in dungeons though. Actually maybe there are random vampire attacks...I've never had one.

It's also cool because as a vampire you can jump really high and such.

Oh, and Argonian vampires look ridiculous :P
_________________
That's not a broken link, it's a PICTURE of a broken link. It's really very conceptual.

[Modanung]

I've seen a vampire once. I'd liked him to bite me, but instead het stabbed me, so he forced me to stab back... so I did and killed the bloody blood drinking bastard.

I only know Castlevania I, it's a cool game. I've got it for my NES emulator. Just like Solstice and zelda.