1.2m Weather Stretch Goal

I think you're probably right in general. Cosmetic weather might be "good enough" for a game. However, for SotA, this was one of the funding stretch goals in the kickstarter. For $1.2m they committed to including seasonal game-changing weather. So I think they're committed to providing weather which changes with seasons (not just random or based on area), i.e. there are distinct seasons the game world progresses through and they're committed to providing weather which is "game changing".

The "game changing" part is subjective and will be part of the design process. The issues you brought up with farming would have to be considered and ensured its done right.

But weather which is purely cosmetic probably wouldn't be considered "game changing" so I think its safe to assume it'll be more than just cosmetic.

 

Ultima VII Part 2 (Serpent Isle) was the first game I played where you could get too hot or cold and take damage to your player and party members. There could have been others out before or duing, but if there were I am not aware.

It was one of my fav parts of that game, I really hope something like that can make an appearance in Shroud.

 

Concerning crops...I would respectfully disagree. As counter-intuitive as it would be, I wouldn't want dynamic weather to affect crops for players. At this point, we don't have a clear look at how crops and Agriculture is going to work. But besides "nice weather"...every single other weather effect would either kill crops or lessen them. I know, I know....that's how it works in RL. But as a game mechanic...it wouldn't be "fun." It would only serve to hinder players trying to advance in skills depending upon those crops. And if a game mechanic isn't fun and only serves to hinder player advancement...you really have to question that game mechanic.

If anything..."stretches of nice weather" can still result in "bumper crops." I'm all for bonuses. I'm all for rewarding players. I'm just not keen at randomly penalizing them. Give players enough floods, tornadoes, and heatwaves and you're going to start to lose a lot of farmers.

 

Yeah, I'd rather crops doing well or not was something you could do something about. Perhaps this means killing bandits at the water tower or slaying dragons for fertilizer. Things triggered by player actions is best. (e.g. PvPers claimed a dam) Something random triggering a quest for players to solve is OK. (e.g. pseudo random daily quests in any game) Random, random, random isn't really helpful.

 

Can I fly a kite?

 

I'm foremost for seasons for things like knowing when to plant or harvest your crops.
I'm good with weather affecting the land because that gives reason for more content and or ways to protect you and your land.
Turning off a PK in my mind is a bad idea because you ruin all kinds of content that could be built around dealing with them.
It is the same thing for weather, think of ways of dealing with it, don't eliminate it.
If it snows, get out your shovel.
If there is a flood, get out the sand bangs.
If there is lightning, put some lightning rods up or something.
If there is to much wind then start building smaller houses and live in the underground world they are giving us.
etc

 

Weather done correctly can add a LOT of atmosphere into the game.

One of my favorite memories of when I played Lord of the Rings Online was out questing near one of the smaller fort-like towns at night when a THICK fog rolled in. Usually at nighttime you could still see a good ways away as is normal for a game with day/night. However, that one evening, you could barely see in front of your character. The lit torches on the walls of the fort/village were some of the only things visible and then only as faint blurs in the distance.

There should be more to weather effects than just turhning the sky grey, flashing some lightning effects and dropping rain which as stated with the Unity scene we saw in the nighttime flyover with the night storm rolling in. Seeing the trees waving in the wind, leaves flying off, and so on really gave the feel of the incomoing storm.

Additionally, one of the BIGGEST things I've long pushed for in Ultima Online was the addition of "seasons". It was partially developed even as far back as pre-UO:R (The Trammel map with the extra flowers was actually the proposed Spring seasonal map). For UO it would have been simply to have 4 versions of the ingame map and swap over via publish at the right time of the year. Unfortunately, it's never been done beyond the Trammel map and the "Snow Map" which has been added each year for Christmas time.

The thing I DISLIKED about LotRO and WoW were the "climate-locked" areas of the game. In many cases, they made little sense next to each other (LotRO was better than WoW in this regard) and even though they HAD weather effects, there was no seasonal change.

What I would like to see from SotA along with the more immersive effects seen in the Unity scene would be the transitional changes in specific areas, particularly temperate zones where trees gain leaves in spring, leave turn and fall in autumn and snow falls in the winter on bare branches.

Usually something like a robust weather system gets lost because it's such a low priority compared to gameplay itself, but it's something that's more and more feasible and in the era of 3d gaming and 3d worlds help make them feel a lot more alive.

 

I don't think it'll be lost. This was one of the stretch goals which was met, meaning their plan is to do it.

 

I'm not saying it will be lost here since it is effectively a required component of the game due to Kickstarter, but that I've seen it mentioned as a proposed addition and then get lost due to being a "low priority".

 

Having weather is a must. It just makes the world that much more immersive. They should have sun showers where it leaves a rainbow and ofcourse you have to find that leprechaun and his gold...

 

I think weather can play a vital role in gameplay as well as adding to atmosphere like it did in the scene jam winner (it was really well done).

I think one of the KEY things to making weather important is to have survival mechanics in the game.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with how popular survival games are becoming, games like Dayz, Minecraft, State of Decay, etc. PEople are getting more and more into this aspect of games, managing their hunger, supplies, temperature, etc.

Why not incoporate this into the weather system? Things like snow makes it colder, in turn making you move slower in deeper snow (IE assassin's creed 3/Uncharted), it lowers your temperature (making fire an important resoruce) and increases fatigue faster (as you are extering yourself more in the snow).

Rain would have lower your temperature to but also dampen your belonging in your bag (Which could affect things you are carrying or holding, putting out your torch, etc).

This can also play into gameplay in terms of tactics and deciding where/when you would fight and how.

 

Weather is a must!

I loved the skyrim mods to make storms more intense.