Would you like to see seasons in Skyrim? Seems like this would be a great way to add variety to the landscape (which I'm sure will be fantastic), and to make the passage of in game time more noticeable.

Spring thaws and floods, winter freezes, fall colour... water levels that change dynamically in response to thaws and such, and so on. I want this.

The thought of this has come to mind before and would be very cool. I definitely would not have a problem with it.

It would be good, especially if Summer meant that things got lots greener and snow was less abundant. The thing is, I wouldn't want to have to experience a season I hated for ages, which could end up happening.
I'd hate to be stuck in the middle of Winter.

It would be great, but I'm not sure how feasible changes to the landscape are. I'm fairly sure snowy areas are completely their own models/textures, and not "regular with snow on top", so having them with and without would basically require making the map twice, or more, depending on how transitions would work. A lot of this is a technology issue, though...if the engine were capable of making "real" snow, instead of it just being another set environment type, it would be very possible. I have no idea what this supposed new engine for Skyrim is capable of, of course, but I've never seen it even attempted in any games I'm aware of, so I think we're still a bit behind that.

At the very least, though, it wouldn't be hard at all to modify weather patterns according to season, and with a bit more effort, NPC behavior. Bears wandering around during other seasons but only being found in caves during the winter, or people changing their clothes accordingly, would be great for immersion. It would be extra fun if hunting were implemented well, and seasons were tied to spawning behavior; some rare animal you're looking for might only come out in the rain, so you'd mark the rainy season on your calendar and get to it.

Good points all around. It could be suggested by tiny details. NPCs walking around with fog-breath on a crisp winter day. And since we've already got weather, maybe more rain and lousy days at the end of the year.

However impossible, tree leaves turning copper and falling would be the coolest thing.

All in all I'd love an in game calendar.

Be nice to have some quests that can only be completed on a certain day.

Like the whole black soul gem type quests. I'd like more of those.

Also during different weather changes your statistics would be increased or decreased abit.

In snow it would be harder for you to sneak due to the 'sploshing of your feet and tracks you leave in the snow"

Also on a cloudy day some NPCs might be in a bad disposition. weather affects peoples moods.

Be nice.

Damn yeah. If it's pouring down, it makes sense that they would want to rush to wherever they are going, and won't be likely to answer the newcomer's stupid questions - unless they know him very, very well.

Most seasonal changes would be quit possible, the problem, as Rhekarid said, is with snow. Changing leaf colors, even having them fall is nothing compared to dynamic snow. If it happens the likely scenario is that the snow textures are simply replaced by others, so we end up with 'flat' snow. Awesome as it would be, I don't see it happening. Better weather effects would be welcome though, as well as small details like steamy breath to set the appropriate mood for areas and their climates.

Autumn would be the best... yellow orange red trees mhmm. Lovely.
And some falling leaves too, even more awesome.

Winter would change the textures, adding snow on it.

All this requires a pretty nice engine. If they manage to pull this off completely, they will be like the first game ever to do this. I think it would be really great.
Crysis added something similiar, what you can call "real snow", when the monsters attacked. So it really depends on the engine.

How come when I make a thread about this nobody replies to it?

Akaviri are strange and scary, that's why.

The biggest thing why seasons are just not worth it to begin with is that very, very few people play for an entire in-game year.
To make seasons a meaningful change for all gamers, you'd probably need cycles of 1 year per 50-80 hours in real life. That can only be achieved by either wicked short day-night cycles or omission of the majority of days in the calendar (with accompanying lore butchering or lore gap).

Not going to happen.
Though a storyline where some god is stealing time, resulting in missing days, would be an intriguing one.

People say that about me alot.



YOu remind me of ICECO from another forum.

It would be awesome to have seasonal creatures as well
or maybe a door covered in ice 3 out of four seasons!
that would also encourage repeated traveling through those areas, since they would look different during the seasons
the only drawback I can think of is that the landscape would have to drastically change over night, or else they risk throwing a couple really heavy global scripts

You make a good point. But I really want seasons, real ones. It would be something very unique, compared to other games.

I guess the best way to accomplish this (if the engine can make REAL seasons at all, of course... which we hope for) is to shorten the number of days for each month. Instead of 30, go like 15. That's not too bad, I think. And the seasons last themselves several months.
I think 15 days per month is a good compromise. I think a lot of people would care much much more about having real seasons, than they would having a few more numbers in the calender, which doesn't really matter anything if seasons don't exist.

That way, if we go by Oblivion's timescale, a year in Skyrim would take roughly 144 hours. Now if we increase the timescale a bit as well (but not too much... that would be really weird and a break in immersion), we could possibly reach a year in 115-125 hours. Most people play that much I think, at least. Many people play a lot more... like 300 hours (this TOTALLY depends on how big the game is and how much there is to do!), at least in the previous games.