Winter length problems (maybe inplement spring/fall?)

[doh_boy]

I've been playing the Beta for a while now and this Winter update is the change I've been most excited for (bring on the difficulty!). I played through to my first winter and found it actually kind of dull, though. Don't get me wrong, preparing for winter was stressful and fun. It made the quite easy "early game" more challenging knowing I didn't just have to survive, I had to prepare, hoard, and plant. Then living through the first 7 or so days of winter and testing my preparations was fun too. But then...

It became obvious I had hoarded/planted enough resources to sustain myself at a steady state through the winter. I could replace morsels by boomeranging birds and bunnies, get some berries every few days for filler, and chop enough wood nearby to stoke the fire. These "chores", however, only took about 1/4 of a day cycle. After that, I ended up just surfing the internet, with the game and volume on in the background so I could listen for hounds/eyeclops. This is no way to play a video game! Basically, winter adds much-needed difficulty to the game, but that difficulty is loaded onto summer days, with the actual experience of winter just being mostly tedium.

I love the idea of cyclical seasons, but I don't think precisely one half summer and one half winter is appropriate. Even if you can choose long/short seasons when setting up a sandbox game, you're still getting half of your days as extremely long and full of activity (fun!) and half of your days sitting by a fire in the dark (tedious). It would be nice to have fall/spring, where day length is between summer and winter and freezing is a hazard only during dusk or night.

Anyway, just my two cents. This game has already returned a great time/$ ratio for me, especially for a beta. I can't wait to see what you guys think of next!