Friends!
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with this update. I'm very close to putting this next version of the game out onto the beta branch.
This week I was wrapping up the temperature system and how it affects entities and the environment. I also updated a lot of the UI to better communicate weather, block temperature, entity temperature, and so on. Here are some gifs showing various UI additions:
This temperature system is neither Celsius nor Fahrenheit. It's just a simple -100* to 100* scale. Anything below 0* starts to freeze and anything above 90 has a chance to catch on fire with 100* being on fire. 50* is the comfort zone for critters. Imagine a nice summer day with a breeze. 70-80* would be more tropical/desert weather and 20-40* would be fall/spring for taiga and voidlands. Tundra has very cold spring/winter/fall seasons but a moderate summer which will allow you to grow things and prepare. Weather and day/night will also affect the current temperature on top of the season.
Entity temperature is affected by the block they currently occupy. This block temperature will lower the entity temperature IF it's lower than the entity's cold tolerance. Cold tolerance is a stat which can be buffed/debuffed by items, inherent abilities, and effects. Humans have a default cold tolerance of 20* and their resting body temp is 50*. This means that if the block temperature drops below 20*, the entity's body temperature will start to lower to match. If it drops below 20* then the entity will gain the freezing status and will start to take damage. Very similar to the hunger/thirsty status. You can keep your entities from freezing by providing warm spaces (torches, fires, braziers, provide areas of heat) or equipping them with better clothing. Wool clothing can drop the cold tolerance to -10* which means the entities won't lose body temperature in weather of -10* or greater. But, if a snow storm sweeps in and drops the temperature to -20*, then you better make sure they have a warm house to hunker down in.
A biome's temperature will also affect things like ice, snow, and plants. Each plant has their own cold tolerance. This means that you'll be able to keep plants alive during winter in a greenhouse with heating and sunlight but probably not if you leave them outdoors in the cold. Likewise, snow and ice will melt when spring rolls around.
So, what's left to add to this update? I'm still working out some of the smaller dynamics of ice and snow melt. After this I need to add the new animals (3-4 new) as well as some new events. This is probably about 2 weeks of work. With those things ready, I'll be able to submit the new version to the beta branch to start to get help finding bugs. :)
That's all for now. Have a great weekend!
Waylon