Thrael Astronomy and World Dynamics Patch Notes
Summary
This update overhauls Thrael's sky, time, and seasonal systems so that sun, moons, local time, and daylight all derive from one canonical astronomy model instead of several loosely connected approximations.Player-Facing Changes
- Local time now varies by longitude across the mapped world.
- Seasons and daylight length now vary by latitude.
- Northern and southern hemispheres now follow opposite seasonal patterns.
- Sunrise and sunset are now calculated from latitude and axial tilt instead of a fixed 6:00 AM / 6:00 PM sun cycle.
- The time command now reflects local astronomical conditions for the room you are standing in.
- look sky now pulls from canonical local sky state instead of mutating shared sun/moon objects.
- Sun and moon placement now line up more consistently with local room time and geography.
- Moon phases and local moon visibility now come from one shared lunar model.
- Dawn and dusk sky text once again uses more descriptive atmospheric sunrise and sunset prose.
- Weather-obscured skies still suppress celestial descriptions, while clear skies reveal the local heavens.
Astrolabe Changes
- The astrolabe now reads canonical local sun, moon, and twilight data.
- Directional views are now based on a coherent 3x3 local sky frame model.
- Sun and moon overlays now project from local sky geometry rather than ad hoc offsets.
- Daylight and moonlight now affect star visibility in the astrolabe more consistently.
- Staff astrolabe debug output now reports resolved grid, latitude/longitude, local light state, solar altitude, star visibility factor, frame bounds, and projected sun/moon coordinates.
Staff Tools
- daemontool time checktime now reports local astronomical state, including sun/moon details.
- daemontool time checkday now reports day-of-year, astronomical season, and day-of-season.
- daemontool time sky <room-or-grid> now dumps a canonical sky snapshot for a target location.
- daemontool time survey now supports preset validation panels for core, hemispheres, longitudes, seasonal, moons, and overrides.
Internal Changes
- Added a canonical astronomy data model centered on SkyState, SolarState, LunarState, and ResolvedSkyLocation.
- Reworked location resolution so room paths, grid coordinates, sanctuaries, ships, special realms, and synthetic survey coordinates all feed the same astronomy layer.
- Removed the old rendering pattern where room sky parsing mutated shared global stellar objects.
- Reworked local sun state so light bucket, solar altitude, sunrise, sunset, dawn, and dusk all come from the same calculation path.
- Reworked local moon state so phase, prominence, and local visibility all come from the same calculation path.
- Shifted moon-sensitive gameplay hooks to canonical lunar state.
- Localized weather season lookups to use astronomical season where room mapping is available.
Notes
- Clear-sky weather prose can still occasionally overlap with astronomy prose in room sky output.
- The astrolabe remains a stylized in-game celestial viewer, not a historical simulation instrument.
- Constellation overlay, accessibility-specific sky presentation, and climate/biome tuning remain later-phase work.
RPA Nomination Update
We made a few adjustments to the new RPA nomination system based on early player feedback.- Offline nominations are now allowed.
You no longer need to catch someone while they are online in order to nominate them.
This should help with scenes that end after logout, as well as recognition for strong forum roleplay.
The nominated character must still be an unlocked player character. - Reward messages are now shorter and clearer.
Instead of showing the underlying formula, the reward message now gives the actual awarded values directly.
Example:Code: Select all
[bonus] Unwritten Legends thanks you for your roleplaying. You receive 500 fame and 26,483,030 experience from 1 player nomination. - Nomination limits have not changed.
You may still give 3 nominations per account per day.
You still may not nominate the same character twice in one day.
You still may not nominate a character on your own account.
Matchlock Firearm Updates
We've tightened up matchlock handling so it behaves more like a true matchlock and less like a generic firearm.- Matchlocks must now be primed with a gunpowder bag before they can be lit.
- Matchlocks must be lit with a real lit source, such as a burning match or an active firestarter.
- Matchlocks will no longer light themselves automatically when you try to fire them.
- If the matchcord is not lit, the weapon is not ready to shoot.
- Commands like light my matchlock with my match now route correctly instead of failing unexpectedly.
- Matchcord timing/state cleanup has been improved, so extinguishing, dropping, or firing a matchlock will no longer leave behind stale burn behavior.
- Appraisal text now more clearly reflects when a firearm is primed or lit.
Pour powder, load shot, pack, prime, light, fire.
* This patch will be live with the next reboot, 4/29 in the AM.