[FRDF] Weather

[PJayTycy]

The map and gameplay is influenced by the current weather. For example: precipitation will affect the vehicles so that they must drive slower. The weather could also influence water levels or accessibility (i.e. snow)

Overall I think that weather influence is unimportant for the game. Sure it would be pretty cool, but I don't think it will add much to the gameplay.

How far do we want to go in realism? I think this is very difficult to implement and would occur so rare that it might not be worth the programming effort.

Will weather really be feasible? Surely days will be passing at a much faster rate than normal.. so it may look a little odd to see 1 month snow storms.

drop the idea.

So, do we drop it?

[Hyronymus]

At least for now but we might consider keeping a space open to implement it.

[Zuu]

Wheather can be catigorized in three categories:
* Visual impact (ie the screen becomes white when it becomes foggy )
* Map imact (the map may be changed, whater level changes etc.
* Transoprt market impacts: (when it is a sunny summer more ppl goes to costal cities to bath.)


I think that map impacts can destroy lot of infastructure if it is not done right, or make it useless.

While visual inpacts are probably esiest to program.

[Steve]

From your list:
* I've found that to be a horrible feature of 3D engine games. You shouldn't restrict the user from seeing the game. If it's an action game, this would be appropiate as it is as if you ARE the person your playing, it creats atmosphere. But for a strategy, this isn't important.
* As long as it is marginal.. would make some pretty hefty disasters.
* I like the idea, but link it to seasons rather than weather. Farms produce only in spring/summer, long distance travel booms in summer too, especially to the hotter sunny areas.

[jfs]

Yes weather effects can be good if implemented correctly. I suggest making it mostly fixed seasonal variations (probably slightly different from year to year), but it would be better if it was also locational, so you could have eg. a map of Europe, where you'd see more snow in Scotland during the winter, than you'd see in eg. southern Italy. (Thinking about regions with same height above the sea.)

Locomotion implements a simple kind of seasons changing by changing the snowline during the year. When certain industries (fields of farms) get covered in snow, the production falls, but nothing is destroyed. (The tiles turn from "productive farmland" into "snowcovered farmland".)

IMO that's some rather well-implemented seasonal variation, but I'd still like to see it taken further, especially regarding to passenger destinations and industry production. During the summer (and possibly winter, but not to an as big extent) passenger traffic shifts from short commutes towards longer travels. Most farms and plantations only harvest during some seasons. (But eg. a greenhouse could produce around the year.)

On the "location awareness" I was talking about before, I'm not imaning it would be influenced by things like mountains and distance from the ocean; that would be too complex I think. Natural disasters should occur, though, but not just your daily "extreme weather". (Like, a week of showers would probably mean an increase in passengers, but it's too much of a detail for the game.)

[PJayTycy]

If you want to have seasonal effects, the game should be really really slow. If a train travels 4 months to go complete its schedule, seasonal changes would force a different consist on every run.

[jfs]

If you want to have seasonal effects, the game should be really really slow. If a train travels 4 months to go complete its schedule, seasonal changes would force a different consist on every run.

True.
But on the other hand, in eg. TTD a train can easily spend a few weeks just completing a circle around a city, stopping at a few stations underway. Either the vehicles will move around the screen at uncontrollable speeds, or the date will advance extremely slow, if we want realistic relative speeds. But that belongs more in the "scale" topic.

So, seasonal variations might not work well anyway. I'm back to "drop that"
I'm still for spatial variations in climate, though.

[Steve]

Meeting Decisions:

* Weather = dropped
* Spatial climate variations = kept

Status: Closed.

Topic locked, decisions processed (09112006).