Tree leaves in winter

[Wahazar]

Currently, leaves turn white in winter, instead of fall down (except for most of coniferous trees). This is due to simply in-game recoloring system - leaves texture is white with transparency, opaque color is recolored according to season/temperature.  

My proposal is to

1. convert opaque color to transparent, after temperature reached some negative threshold

2. add some delicate branch texture (thinner that branchy leaves, to be distinctive), to have some visibility of leaves blocks in winter.

Second point can be achieved either by adding additional branch texture (not FPS wise), swapping leaves to branch texture, or maybe painting branches on leaves and using selective recolor (only white)? see sketch in attachment.

By the way, non-branchy leaves should also drop stick sometimes (1:10?), I often observe new players wasting time for breaking plain leaves. 

[LadyWYT]

Oh, I really like this idea. It would add a lot more immersion, without requiring a lot of processing power...I think. Though it could get a little goofy given some of the temperature swings that can happen from fall-winter or winter-spring.

[Wahazar]

I'm not sure, how transition is related to temperature and season. I don't recall red leaves and grass during spring, so maybe it is doable to have proper transition from leaf-less state to green leafs, without reverting back?

[Human17]

Great idea!!

[Thorfinn]

On 4/23/2025 at 6:43 AM, Wahazar said:

By the way, non-branchy leaves should also drop stick sometimes (1:10?), I often observe new players wasting time for breaking plain leaves. 

	drops: [
		{
			type: "item",
			code: "treeseed-{wood}",
			quantityByType: {
				"*-pine": { avg: 0.05, var: 0 },
				"*-acacia": { avg: 0.05, var: 0 },
				"*-larch": { avg: 0.01, var: 0 },
				"*-crimsonkingmaple": { avg: 0.01, var: 0 },
				"*-redwood": { avg: 0.002, var: 0 },
				"*-ebony": { avg: 0.004, var: 0 },
				"*-purpleheart": { avg: 0.004, var: 0 },
				"*": { avg: 0.02, var: 0 }
			}
		},
		{
			type: "item",
			code: "stick",
			quantity: { avg: 0.02, var: 0 },
		}

2% is less than your recommended 10%, but it's not a waste, particularly if you want seeds.

But it would be an easy enough patch mod.

[EDIT]

On reflection, might need to nerf the shears a bit if sticks become much more common.

Edited April 24, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Wahazar]

2% is so small, that I never noticed such drop

5-10% would be more reasonable and also decrease demand of "more sticks" or "craftable sticks" mods. On the other side, shears will be less important, but hope that shears will be also used to get wool, in future releases... 

[Thorfinn]

Play around with it a bit and see what you think makes sense. The file is normal.json, located in .\assets\survival\blocktypes\plant\leaves

The other thing you might consider is, in the same directory, branchy.json. The current stick drop is 

			quantity: { avg: 1, var: 0 },

but you could change that to something like 1.5, that is 1 stick guaranteed, and a 50% chance of a second.