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SpringFall Wiki

Day, Night & Weather

Overview

SpringFall runs on a full day/night cycle, and storms sweep through on top of it. Both change what you can actually see and do, not just how the world looks — night narrows how far your colonists can spot trouble, and a storm brings its own look, sound and sense of danger with it. Reading the sky tells you something you can act on: when to expect trouble seeing, and when to check your lighting. This page covers the cycle and the weather riding on it; the fog of war page covers what that lost sight range means for you moment to moment.

How it works

A full cycle runs from sunrise through noon, sunset, dusk, and into night, before starting over again. The change isn’t just cosmetic: once night falls, your colonists — and you, if you’re directly controlling your hero — see less far than they do in daylight. That’s exactly why a lit torch or brazier is worth noticeably more at night than during the day: it’s making up ground your eyes have lost to the dark.

No two nights look quite the same. The sky rotates through a clear night, a star-heavy night, or an aurora, picked fresh each night, so the world keeps feeling different even as the cycle itself repeats. Night is also when your colonists turn in for Sleep & Rest — one more turn of the wider Needs & Satisfaction cycle they run on throughout the day.

Storms sweep through periodically, independent of the time of day. When one rolls in, the sky clouds over, the wind visibly picks up — grass, trees and clouds all bend and drift harder — and the ambient sound shifts to match. All three change together as one weather state: if you notice the sound change, the look and the wind are changing with it, not on their own separate schedules.

Playing with it

Build torches and braziers around your base and along the paths you use often, and keep them lit — that’s the main way you claw back the sight range night takes away. There’s no dedicated control for the cycle itself; it runs on its own, sunrise to night and back again. When you see the sky cloud over and the wind pick up, a storm is starting — treat that as your cue to check your lighting, since a storm’s overcast sky and driving wind cut into visibility right alongside the dark.

Good to know

  • Keep torches and braziers topped up and lit, especially overnight and during a storm — that’s exactly when the extra sight range matters most, and it’s easy to forget about.
  • Storms are one weather state, not three: the sky, the wind and the sound always change together, so if the ambience shifts, expect the sky and wind to follow.
  • Don’t expect two nights to look alike — clear, star-heavy and aurora skies are all equally likely to turn up, so a strange sky at night isn’t a bug, it’s the system doing its job.