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I started a new game to test A18 and selected a nice location in the boreal forest that i had played before in a17.  The world level says the growing season is 20 days.

however, when i finally get to the map i notice "permanent winter" under the date.  But my growing zones still say growing season 11th septober - 1st Aprimay.  The world level view gave no indication of the permanent winter and i feel rather sad as I love this particular location.  Oh, and my river is running backwards....  in from the ocean instead of out to it.

seed: fever garden (one tick up on rainfall, one tick down on temperature)
lat/lon: 44.53 S 164.22 E

All in all very pleased with A17.  While you say content has been locked, it still feels that it needs one last balance pass as far as the crops go.

I have lost four colonies in A17 (2 crashlanded, 1 tribal, 1 rich explorer) because of 1st year crop failures (the last one in build 1543.)  Essentially, the recent changes to grow times are compounding event issues.  Combined with the nearly now unaffordable sun lamps (power-wise), I have yet to have more than a handful of rice plants harvested before an event within the 1st 10 - 15 days destroys the crops.  Depending on map size/terrain the hunting options are often not enough to sustain the colony, and traders are unlikely to have lots of food early.

Sun lamps are not viable at nearly double the a16 power-price for a colony still in its first quad to have set up greenhouses and even more so when considering the heat needs for cold climates. A more respectable power-price of around 2000W per lamp is more reasonable.   However, the most unbalanced change has been the strength and timing of events that affect crops. 

Blight - I get and I'm actually okay with because many pioneers and colonies have nearly or completely died off because of blight at any season of the year. 

The one I do not understand is a mid-Jugust cold snap (at day 10 for me this last time - v1543) that drops the midday temp from 80F to 4-5F and lasts for several days (Northern Hemisphere.)  Down to the 30s/40s sure I can see some realism there, but a nearly 80F drop?  Throws the balance and usefulness of crops out the window.  Especially considering I've never seen a 5 day long 80 degree heat wave in the middle of winter.  Simply put, the intensity of the cold snaps feels too strong and too frequent. Go ahead and leave it as a summer option for an event, just take some of the *heat* off.  Maybe the conversion factor for Celsius and Farenheit is off in the code?

I LOVE the scrimp and fight and struggle to stay alive that is in this game.  It just feels like a bit too much of a "let's make it artificially hard for the player" gimmick as far as the crop-affecting events go (looking at you cold snaps....) when factored against player adaptive strategies.  It's to the point that on crashlanded games (given up on tribal for now) the first things I build are a sun lamp, solar gen, heater, and battery and an enclosed greenhouse instead of beds.

Love Love love the game Tynan!  Just offering my 2 cents to help you succeed it even more amazing.  Thanks!

PS> the above mentioned playthroughs occurred on Randy rough and Cassandra Intense