spring->summer vs fall->winter

[RobbyStark]

is it me or is summer way worse than winter? overheating is more incapacitating than freezing (less ways to deal with it) and those fires are just brutal. they wreck your base even even more spectacularly than deerclops. also food spoils more

 

I thought I was good to go with my blue amulet and ice flingmatic, but the amulet wears out in a single day, and the ice thing does't reach to my entire base.

 

it also goes without sayign that spring is way more difficult than fall (frogs, bees, buffalos, and RAIN)

 

in other words I don't think the combination spring->summer versus the combination fall->winter is balanced at all. it would be better if they each had their own different challenges (but equally difficult/rewarding)

[Proctor]

I'd agree with summer being terrible and spring being troublesome, but the means of countering many of their negative effects (rain and overheating especially) are there and can make things manageable. With experience you'll plan ahead of time and prepare them long before these seasons arrive unless you play with very short seasons or are otherwise unlucky. In my most recent game it's autumn Day 10 but I've already got my Ice Box and Flingomatic ready, and am currently working to have a Rain Coat long before spring comes.

 

Referring to the issues you've raised, I'll mention the following to back up my contention:

 

• Having an Ice Box (which helps preserve food) with one or two Thermal Stones works far better than the amulet; the stones are reusable and freeze quite quickly. Toss in an optional Floral Shirt with Straw Hat and heat becomes a mere nuisance.
• Try getting a Rain Coat to deal with the spring rains, or at the very least an Umbrella.
• You'll obviously need more than a single Flingomatic if you have a huge base; I build only the minimum and quite closely together (my bee boxes being the only things farther away) so two of them are usually enough to cover everything.
• I deal with frog rains by setting them to "Less" during world generation; as the game says, it's your world and your rules. Alternatively, I've seen suggestions recommending players run to a location they want the falling frogs to concentrate in, although I've never tested it myself.
• My only interactions with beefalo during springtime are to pick up their manure (mainly to fuel my fires and Flingomatics) at their perimeter or to lead hounds to them. Other than that I pretty much leave them alone. If I must collect their wool for some reason I wear a Beefalo Hat. Same for bees; I collect honey and avoid them the rest of the time.

With these in mind, even if the Spring/Summer combination is unbalanced compared to Fall/Winter I don't really mind at all.

[imsomony]

I don't think the intent was to balance 2 seasons together - that's the vanilla game. From how it seems to me, the intent was to balance all 4 seasons across the entire year. Each season on its own brings different challenges and rewards that can be used advantageously at varying times throughout the year... not just in the season after the reward was gained.
 

I think Summer is far worse than Winter, agreed. When I first began playing RoG, it was because I struggled to get a handle on overheating. Time went on, I learned new strategies, and now I think it's the worst because I get bored. Unless my map-gen blessed me with an overabundance of rocky biomes, by the time Summer #2 rolls around, all I'm looking at is 16 days of fueling my Flingomatics, with short jaunts in-between to hunt or kill hounds. At least the boredom gives incentive to explore more underground. 

 

Autumn: easy mode. Rest and recover from the harshness you just experienced the 3 seasons prior. Collect your loot, build your base, gather your supplies... because WINTER IS COMING.

Winter: you need to manage your bodily temperature, and nothing grows. Hope you stocked up on meat! You now have the chance of obtaining the best in-game items: Tam and Walking Cane. Plus, more chances for hounds teeth to grow your panic room to gigantic proportions.

Spring: everything in your environment is trying to kill you. However, you get an overabundance of meat from frogs, your farms grow quickly, and flowers regen everywhere.

Summer: you need to manage your bodily temperature, and everything burns. However, now you can... get Summer-specific things? Dragonfly, cactus flowers... lots of fire hounds... ummm...

[Monkey_BBZ]

I thought I was good to go with my blue amulet and ice flingmatic, but the amulet wears out in a single day, and the ice thing does't reach to my entire base.

The blue amulet is a precaution, wear it to stop overheating. It's not designed for keeping you cool, just for keeping you under the overheating threshold. And if the Flingomatic cannot reach your entire base, either move stuff closer together (preferably around the Flingomatic) or build a second one. As for dealing with fires, carry an Ice Staff around and some materials to smother fires like Grass.

The best items for dealing with Summer would have to be the Eyebrella (since it lasts a long time) or the Ice Cube (since it is the best, yet it slows you down and melts quickly), the Summer Frest (Floral Shirt works just as well) along with an Umbrella. Although these are the best, I can survive quite a while with a Straw Hat and frozen Thermal Stone, enough time to collect plenty of food for the day.

As for Spring, the near-constant Sanity decay is negligible due to the fact that flowers sprout crazily during Spring,  not to mention that most things grow nearly twice as fast as they do in Autumn, making back-tracking more viable in Spring. The increased growth also applies in Summer, making Summer ideal for growing plants near your Flingomatic.

[the truthseeker]

Insomony and Monkey_BBZ pretty much nailed it in their replies, so I'll add this:

 

 

The reason more gears were added was so you could get summer-related protections, especially the Fling-o-matics and Ice Boxes.

 

If you complained of freezing and didn't have a Therman Stone in winter, would you accept the same thing if burning in summer?

 

It is a cornerstone in temperature management but keeping a spare in the ice box is an option you don't have in winter, plus you save on resources you now must spend on the Fling-o matic(of which I too must emphasize, group your pickables and combustibles in one area and make sure they are in range of your Lightning Rod and fling o matic or make more.) 

 

The Blue necklace is to lower temperature, it is not like clothing to constantly wear. Treat it like a (n endothermic) fire you use when in trouble, then unequip. Again: it's a backup item, not a constant item. As noted, use eyebrellas, floral shirts and umbrellas with that thermal stone (but only the eyebrella is sewing kit usable) like you'd use vests and hats in winter. 

 

Spring works the same way (and same rules with the Eyebrella) with the option of raincoats and rain hats. keeping dry means staying both warm and sane. if you start in Spring, make a pretty parasol, but since it only lasts for two days, your first rain item is the umbrella, followed by the rain coats and rain hats (and later Eyebrella when you kill Deerclops.)

 

I cannot emphasize eyebrella enough:

 

. It both dries you 100% and is a huge anti-heat [treat like a tier 3] item which is to be kept unequipped when not in use (spring when it stops raining and in summer, when under trees or by endo fires) and this way is able to be restored by a single use of the sewing kit at the end of a season (once from spring to summer and once from summer to fall.) When in combat you can briefly switch to helmet armor if needed, then switch back when done. 

 

 

 

Finally, the Siesta lean to is the tent of Summer. not only can it be used to Sleep restore sanity like a Tent, but it can cool you down and skip to the cooler part of the Dusk day. But hunger ruiles also apply so it's another reason to have an Ice Box and jerky foods ready. 

 

 

But yeah, winter only stunts pickables, while summer threatens to burn them all away, plus roast any burnable structure not in fling/fertilizer/ice staff range.

 

 

It's even more important to either turtle or have immediate anti-smouldering tactics for items in range outside your base. 

 

 

But it's balanced, even more fairly balanced than the game was in vanilla. if you need an easier time, practice in a non RoG game to prepare basic seasons first. it is advanced so no shame if needed. 

(But every new game I also pray for fall to be first this time )