I'm currently playing a game that has lasted about 330 turns. When I ended turn 299, summer transitioned into winter and it seems to have become permanent. The "countdown" which usually displays how many turns are left in winter/summer is now blank. I posted this as a possible bug (along with other things) in the tech support forum but did not receive a reply.



Does anyone know if this is intentional or not? I know winters are supposed to get longer toward the end of the game, but should they become permanent? Will this be "fixed" in the final release?



On that note, can anyone explain the lore behind the somewhat random summer/winter cycle? I'm guessing the planet either:

A) Orbits a binary star system.



B) Somehow ended up in an expanding elliptical orbit.



C) Is orbiting a Red Dwarf.







Am I close?

I believe this may be intentional, as the Seasons.xml file contains entries for short, long, chaotic, and infinite versions of either season.



As far as the cause of the climate change is concerned, I believe the Ardent Mages questline refers to them as " irregular, magic-enhanced Aurigan Winter," which seems to imply that Dust plays an important part in causing them.

The endless winter is pretty consistent across games for me, probably too consistent to be a bug. So I'd say it is intentional.



There is also the very simple, it is an elliptical orbit and each season the ice sheet accumulates slightly more than what melts thus starting a downward spiral into an ice age as has happened on Earth since it has had a climate. At the moment we're pretty lucky to be in a warm period.



In fact, I'd say it is fairly normal climate cycle just accelerated for game effect, dramatic effect or because plot. (same goes for Westeros)

Both actually have predictable cycles, ASoIF starts at a predicted end cycle of an oddly long summer while Auriga can probably be said it is heading into an ice age (which is why the winters get longer and closer together) where we know roughly how long summer and winter will last (randomised to give it meaningful impact in game - not that knowing exact durations would hamper planning, it would just be harder to make significant).

Pretty par for the course really.

Magic is probably just enhancing their severity/causing the ice age.

It's part of the story.



From what I remember, one of the victory types will be to "get off Auriga" or "to fix Auriga from eternal winter".



But yeah, I'm pretty sure that eternal winter is where Auriga is headed, according to the lore.

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales wrote:
I believe this may be intentional, as the Seasons.xml file contains entries for short, long, chaotic, and infinite versions of either season.



As far as the cause of the climate change is concerned, I believe the Ardent Mages questline refers to them as " irregular, magic-enhanced Aurigan Winter," which seems to imply that Dust plays an important part in causing them.

Ok, good to know. Does infinite winter trigger after a fixed number of turns, or is it determined on a per-game basis?

As for the lore: I suppose the devs could simply attribute the seasons to magic/dust, but I think it is very possible to have a scientific explanation regardless of the developers intent.

Tsvitok wrote:
There is also the very simple, it is an elliptical orbit and each season the ice sheet accumulates slightly more than what melts thus starting a downward spiral into an ice age as has happened on Earth since it has had a climate. At the moment we're pretty lucky to be in a warm period.

Right, but if we presume the planet is in a stable orbit (as would be necessary for life to evolve), then one would expect to find the planet in a state of equilibrium. If every planetary revolution resulted in ice accumulation, then all of the moisture would have been frozen long before complex life could have evolved. The residents of Auriga, in other words, would find themselves on an ice planet with very little precipitation and summer (as depicted in the game) would not be possible. This is why I posited option B, which suggests the orbit was somehow destabilized.

Tsvitok wrote:
In fact, I'd say it is fairly normal climate cycle just accelerated for game effect, dramatic effect or because plot. (same goes for Westeros)

Both actually have predictable cycles, ASoIF starts at a predicted end cycle of an oddly long summer while Auriga can probably be said it is heading into an ice age (which is why the winters get longer and closer together) where we know roughly how long summer and winter will last (randomised to give it meaningful impact in game - not that knowing exact durations would hamper planning, it would just be harder to make significant).

Pretty par for the course really.

Magic is probably just enhancing their severity/causing the ice age.

I must preface the following by defining "predictable" as "knowing with a fair degree of precision". In other words, while stating that summer will eventually turn to winter may be a "prediction", it is not "predictable". In both ASoIF/GOT and Endless Legend, the seasons do not appear to be predictable to any degree of certainty (between 1-20 turns is like saying it will snow at some point between November and February... accurate, but ultimately meaningless).



Ice ages are commonly thought to be caused by either A) a reduction in solar output, or B) a change in atmospheric composition. I ruled out the latter because the changes in the game appear to be quite rapid, which would likely render the air unbreathable for organisms adapted to the environment. Natural ice age progression on Earth takes millions of years, which suggests that the changes to Auriga are caused by either A) an unnatural event (this includes natural disasters), or B) conditions foreign to those we have on Earth.



Again, one could simply write it off as the result of magic/dust or even just "part of the game", and move on. I for one, would find such an answer rather intellectually dissatisfying, especially for such a smart game/series that seems to have put much thought into other lore elements such as dust.

I have found some information in the Registry.xml, that list "InfiniteSeasonStartingTurn" as 275. However, I am not certain if this is a fixed turn, or a minimum turn, as I have never carried any game on to that extent of time.



As far as a scientific explanation is concerned, I want to add that some sort of cataclysm was definitely involved in starting this ice age. Namely, a man-made (or rather, Endless-made) cataclysm during the war between the Concrete and the Virtual Endless. This may indeed be an expanding elliptical orbit, or some weapon that affected the sun and thus caused an increase in sun spot activity, as you suggested in your third theory.

just remember Auriga eventually becomes a barren waste and has been so for millennia around the time endless space happens

JErosion wrote:
just remember Auriga eventually becomes a barren waste and has been so for millennia around the time endless space happens

Ok, good to know. With that in mind, we can rule out option B, as the planet would have probably broken free of its orbit and been flung out into the void by the time endless space occurs.

Here is my understanding as to how the lore explains the change to eternal winter.



It has nothing much to do with the orbital situation in the solar system. I believe it has to do with the planet having been terraformed and that the machines (driven by dust) that maintain its terraformed state are beginning to break down or get out of synch.



escaping before it fails completely is obvious. Fixing the planet before it gets to that point also makes sense in this scenario.



I cannot, however, give you specifics on where I got this impression. It was a bit here and a bit there.

In Endless Space Auriga is a Barren World so that means this is the process of actually getting to that state for one reason or the other. Endless Machines failing is my favorite theory so far.

Doesn't the wonder of Auriga In ES change every-time? giving a different ending to the planet based on the wonder?