19 replies to this topic

[Aero Slasher]

How will weather affect the game?

will we only be able to choose day/ night?

or will ther be other weather like Snowing, Sleeting, Hurricane force winds, sudden natural disasers like Tsunami or earthquakes, or something that will cause an avalanche ?

Edited by Aero Slasher, 28 May 2012 - 07:20 AM.

[William Petersen]

In both cases you mean "affect". Affect is the verb form, effect is the noun form. <3

I do believe they've said there will be no night maps at launch, more's the pity, but we'll get them eventually I'm sure.

I suspect the same goes for weather, though I doubt we will have sudden natural disasters. That would probably cause a *lot* of complaining. I know I, for one, would be pretty irritated if I got destroyed by a tremor opening a chasm and I couldn't do anything about it. =P

[Redshift2k5]

They have said there will be some weather effects, like snow or fog, but large scale or disastrous effects would be very difficult to implement.

[Adrienne Vorton]

well it doenst have to be a tremor or hurricane...hard rain and snowstorm would be enough

[Bleakheart]

Would be kinda neat to have to turn on the windshield wipers at times. Have hail white out your radar. You know, little things that make the fight more interesting for a bit.

I play WoW and absolutely love playing Arathi Basin in heavy fog. Makes for a much different fight

[Redshift2k5]

A few words from the devs about weather:

Garth Erlam, on 22 May 2012 - 12:41 PM, said:

[VEXGRAVE LARS] “Will there be dramatic dynamic weather with effects on gameplay? Like limiting vision in fog etc..?”

[GARTH] “Yes, there will be dynamic weather such as rain, fog, etc. Fog will obscure vision and make for much more ‘oh crap!’ matches, where you suddenly find yourself walking into the enemy. It makes things a lot more tactical, and slows matches down. Also Lights love it

[Sc4rr3d]

The biggest catastrophic event i can think of is a lightnig storm that is making your radar go crazy!
Besides that "immersive" and a bit gamplay changing effects like
Sandstorms = obstructs vison, slows mechs (sand in gears = never good)
Heavy rain = constant cooling of mech but possibility of being struck by lighting

The heat and gravity of planets are big factors too.

[Tsula]

Ya fog in a light mech is good.

[GrizzlyViking]

Redshift2k5, on 28 May 2012 - 07:26 AM, said:

A few words from the devs about weather:

Fog really changes all map dynamics and it can be a lot of fun. Snipers are great fun in fog and that close range brawler is extremely deadly when you run into it unexpectedly in the fog.

I think the only drawback as for weather and effects in general is for those that do not have the system power to process them. However, all of the games I've played have a way to customize effects settings, so it should be manageable.

One other thing that occured to me though is that if there is a way to turn off weather effects it would necessarily need to exclude fog since having fog off would become the norm due to the advantages it would bring in battle.

Edited by GrizzlyViking, 28 May 2012 - 07:41 AM.

[Spleenslitta]

A piece of nature that hasn't been considered here yet is the terrain itself. What if a swampy terrain slows down mechs since their feet sink down into the mud?
The heavier the mech the bigger the movement penalty. Or maybe the difference between engine size and the mechs weight should also be important.

Let's say that an assault mech with an engine that is lowpowered for it's size has a harder time lifting it's feet out of the sucking mud in said swamp.
It would add one more reason to have a bigger engine even in the heavier weightclasses. Deepen the strategy layer by quite a bit too.

[RoadKill21]

Might be a long shot but what if there was a map with a few spots of semi-deep water, and during a heavy rain storm the water level rises? As time goes on it could remove certain pathways around the map.

I could imagine this being a hell of a balance issue but just a crazy idea that I felt like typing out.

[Aero Slasher]

Sc4rr3d, on 28 May 2012 - 07:30 AM, said:

Sandstorms = obstructs vison, slows mechs (sand in gears = never good)

Sandstorm on a Battlemech wouldn't have such an affect on due o myromer mussels, and the enclose enviroment.
during battle i think the only the actuator would be affected.

Edited by Aero Slasher, 28 May 2012 - 07:47 AM.

[Haakon Valravn]

Sand in a sandstorm gets everywhere. Including inside 'enclosed' environments.

More practically, you can't really fight in a sandstorm. Or do much of anything else but hunker down and wait for the storm to pass. I suppose 'Mechs and Battle Armor could fight in a sandstorm, but visibilty is non-existent. Static electricity would screw with electrical readings, &c.

[Badfinger]

Give me a good old Arctic blizzard (-50 F) with lots of blowing snow! Anyone have a pair of CLEATS for sale that will fit my "ICE ROAD JENNER"?

[Alex Reed]

Electromagnetic storms or strong solar flare activity hampering electronics (radar, ECM suites, etc.) would be nice. It is something that could be detected prior to pulling into orbit. It would totally change the game dynamic. With the exception of adding some color to the atmosphere during battle, how hard would it be to render. Plus, adding Friendly Fire, in such situations would test the nerve of any mechwarrior.

Don't believe me? Go try one of your favorite shooters with the radar option off and friendly fire on. A guaranteed way to slow down the "Halo jumping" crowd (hard to do that jump in a mech) and test the strength of team unity as lance mates accidentally graze or skewer one another.

[Aero Slasher]

Haakon Valravn, on 28 May 2012 - 07:50 AM, said:

I suppose 'Mechs and Battle Armor could fight in a sandstorm, but visibilty is non-existent. Static electricity would screw with electrical readings, &c.

which would be awesome in a in battle scenario. imaging mistaking a lighting flash for a ppc flash! nearly blind fighting with some brief periods where it lets up!

Edited by Aero Slasher, 28 May 2012 - 08:22 AM.

[Arbalister]

Nature affected my mech - got bunny between the Cataphact's toes... slipped and fell, missed the head-shot...

[KT Grim]

Hoping they have some good rain effects.

Also on snow maps, hoping they add proper particle effects for explitions in the snow. I would love to see snow particle effects off of treess when they get hit with ordinance.


Also is no night maps confirmed? Night maps would be great for tactics, not to mention graphically.

[Sarriss]

This is far fetched and highly improbable for multiple reasons, but I think it would be neat if we could have heavily forested areas, good for ambush tactics or quick retreats. Scouts could manoeuvre without knocking down many trees, whereas heavies and assaults make large paths through the foliage. Then with enough lasers or burner fire, could actually start the forest on fire, like in Far Cry 2's style of "fire catches on everything" gameplay. Obviously this would lead to most people firing everything on that forest early to eliminate the ambush threat, and a way to maybe catch a scout caught inside, which would be constantly overheating and shutting down from the heat from the fire.

Again, so unlikely hardly worth mentioning, but since everything is wild speculation in regards to weather and obstacles I figure I'd put my wishlist in there.

[Dead Winter Dead]

Will trees stop weapons fire? Are they and other objects destructable? Or will we have the old "that tiny building just took 200LRMs and is still standing'?

Edited by Dead Winter Dead, 28 May 2012 - 09:35 AM.