Day/night cycle, weather, seasons, and survival.
Environment
The environment system creates a living world with time of day, weather, seasons, and optional survival mechanics.
Day/Night Cycle
The world progresses through 6 time phases:
| Phase | Description |
|---|---|
| Night | Dark, reduced visibility, nocturnal mobs active |
| Dawn | Transitioning to daylight |
| Morning | Full daylight begins |
| Noon | Brightest light |
| Afternoon | Light softens |
| Dusk | Transitioning to dark |
The cycle length is configurable — one in-game day can be minutes or hours of real time.
Weather
9 weather types that affect gameplay and visuals:
| Weather | Effects |
|---|---|
| Clear | Normal conditions |
| Cloudy | Overcast skies, dimmer light |
| Rain | Reduced visibility, waters crops |
| Storm | Heavy rain, lightning |
| Fog | Greatly reduced visibility |
| Snow | Cold temperature, reduced movement |
| Heatwave | High temperature, faster thirst drain |
| Blizzard | Extreme cold, near-zero visibility |
| Sandstorm | Blowing sand, low visibility |
Weather transitions smoothly over time, and every weather carries an intensity (0–1) that ramps in and out — a storm that arrives naturally starts light and builds instead of snapping on at full strength. (The event-command "Set Weather" action uses a smaller scripted subset — None, Rain, Storm, Snow, Fog, Sandstorm — for one-off cutscene effects.)
Weather Schedules
Author guaranteed (or probable) weather windows in **World Config → Weather & Time → Weather Schedules** — "every autumn evening at 18:00, a storm rolls in for 3 hours":
1. Click New Schedule and pick the Weather Type and Season (or All Seasons).
2. Set the window: Start Hour (0–23, in-game clock) and Duration in hours. Windows
may wrap past midnight.
3. Set Probability — 1 fires every day, 0.25 roughly one day in four. The roll is
made once per day per schedule, so a window never flickers on and off.
4. Shape the Intensity Curve: Peak (how hard it blows at the plateau), Ramp in
and Ramp out in minutes — the drizzle-to-downpour-to-tapering arc.
5. Save. The live server picks the schedule up immediately.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Weather Type | What the window forces while active |
| Season | Only fires in this season (All Seasons = year-round) |
| Start Hour / Duration | The in-game window; wraps past midnight |
| Probability | Chance (0–1) the window fires on a given day — rolled once per day |
| Peak intensity | Plateau strength 0–1 (a light drizzle never has to reach 1) |
| Ramp in / out (min) | Minutes to build from calm and to taper before the window closes |
Outside scheduled windows the world keeps its normal seasonal weather rolls. A calendar event's forced weather outranks schedules for its whole day.
Seasons
4 seasons cycle throughout the year:
| Season | Effects |
|---|---|
| Spring | Crops grow faster, certain herbs available |
| Summer | Longer days, higher temperatures |
| Autumn | Harvest season, resource bonuses |
| Winter | Shorter days, cold, snow |
Seasons affect farming, mob spawns, and ambient temperature.
By default the four seasons rotate on a fixed Season Length (days). Author a Calendar and that changes: your months decide when each season falls, and Season Length is ignored. The seasons themselves keep working exactly as described above — the calendar only changes when they happen.
Dynamic Lighting
The game client renders dynamic lighting:
- Ambient occlusion — shadows under objects
- Point lights — torches, campfires, glowing items
- Day/night color tinting — scene shifts warm to cool
- Bloom — bright light sources glow
- Weather particles — rain, snow, fog layers
Survival System
When the survival feature flag is enabled, players must manage:
| Vital | What Happens If Empty |
|---|---|
| Hunger | Hungry → Starving → HP loss |
| Thirst | Thirsty → Dehydrated → HP loss |
| Temperature | Cold / Hot → damage over time |
| Stamina | Limits sprinting and heavy actions |
Players restore vitals by eating food, drinking water, resting, and wearing appropriate gear. Turn this off for a more casual experience.