Weather effects

[King Faticus]

I do not know for sure if caesar 4 already has this or even if somebody already mentioned this (though I've checked and I only found hints and pieces her and there)
I want to suggest Incorperating Dynamic Weather Effects
Like light showers (maybe after which a rainbow could appear)
Hevy rain + lightning and thunder (rain should leave little puddles here and there)
partly cloudy skies (screen would be slightly darker in spots)
Fair and clear (of coarse)
Foggy (in the mornings we get a lot of fog in Florida)
Windy (though you cant see it you could have trees sway)
Snow (in the winter)
Blizzards (Yay frostbite)
also I would like to see seasons In caesar 4 Summer Winter Fall and spring

Also I think you could go further with the weather and seasons
Like Fires are more likely to occur during summer on a perticularly hot day and less likely to spontaniously occur during the winter (omitting accidents)
or during rain storms. (rain should also help prefects fight fire)
And if it starts raining all of the sudden people will scurry across the streets looking for cover whereas in a blizzard people perfer to stay in.
Rain and blizzards should hinder troops (both friend and foe alike)
It would also be really cool if you could see the sun rise and set
since I saw a few pictures with the camera rotated to see the city skyline
(Fog should settle along the city's streets and make a beautiful scene ripe for a picture)

Now Im finished with my little moment and I know people have mentioned weather but I really wanted to add my two cents
I just now realized that It might be too dificult to do some of the things I mentioned.... oh well I still enjoyed writing it all

[sitearm]

Yours is only the 10th C-IV suggestions post (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/search.php?searchid=111168) that even has the word "weather" so I don't think it's been over-discussed. :)

I am curious about "seasons" more than weather, as in wondering if crops in Caesar IV will be harvestable "once per game year" rather than continuously as was done in Caesar III.

[King Faticus]

That's a good Idea you can never have too much realism (unless It makes the game not fun or constrains too much time) :)

but what Im really happy about is that nobody can RAIN on my parade :D
Btw when did you change your avatar? I like it (nothing says roman more than grapes draped over an Ionic colomn)

[Thucydides]

I like both the idea of weather and seasons for two different reasons.

Weather adds a dynamic to the map that makes the gameplayer's world come alive. Of course the realism would depend on gamespeed. If you are whizzing through your gameday at a rapid pace weather would simply look silly. But on the whole I like the idea of differing weather patterns crossing one's map.

Seasons have the potential to add much more interest to gameplay than weather. It was after the harvest that most ancient societies would go to war. And when tribal unrest would inevitably flare in ancient times. And if you hadn't managed a good harvest then winter was always a tough time. Our understanding of ancient weather is quite advanced these days due to the information that we have gathered from icecores, treecores and other sources. In theory one could model with reasonal historical acuracy the weather patterns of the entire Roman civilisation year by year...

[wolf]

My opinion: Incorporating seasons into the game would make a lot of sense and I think it would add to the gaming experience. But trying to put in day to day weather as well doesn't make any sense regarding the time scale. A further complication is that I don't want weather effects as in Roller Coaster Tycoon, because in that game during rainstorms or especially during thunderstorms I can hardly see ANYTHING on the screen. Visibility is so bad I just can't play the game during those periods, and that is very frustrating.

[King Faticus]

Well they don't have too make it that severe (I remember rollercoaster tycoon and it's horrible weather system aswell) as to hinder visability
My real concern with my weather Idea is that the game will have different speed settings...

[Keith]

Now if a rain storm could cause a landslide, or wash way a road or cause flooding then it might be worth adding. In a northern province a blizzard could block the passes and cut off a city's land trade routes.

Unless there are going to be gaming consequences for "weather" in the game it would be little more than eye-candy and probably not worth the bother of including it in the game. Better to have the programming time spent elsewhere in that case.

[sitearm]

Building on Keith's comments, military invasions could be curtailed by impassable passes in winter and impassable seas in storms. They could be slowed or halted for months by inclement weather.

On defending from invaders, this could work to your advantage planning where and when to fortify. On invading, you'd have to plan your routes and time your movements accordingly, or suffer the consequences.

Unless there are going to be gaming consequences for "weather" in the game it would be little more than eye-candy and probably not worth the bother of including it in the game.

[King Faticus]

Rain could also wash minerals into valley making the soil fertile and should help food production by watering the produce and on the other hand a drought would hurt farm production...
I also made vauge references to what weather should be able to do...
I agree That without some function it is just eye candy (and personally I hate beauty without function :mad: ) but even if weather didn't have any real effect on game play it still searves to help immerse the player in the city because it seems more realistic (in other words it cant even be just eye candy if it tried)
Though I really like your Ideas about what weather should do :)

[prof786]

what about the bad kind of weather effects?
ones that could cause things like forest fires and erosion?

[King Faticus]

perhaps bad weather (such as thunderstorms and blizards) could halt construction projects and flood (for rainstorms)
Maybe an immigrating insect new to the enviroment could destroy alot of farm produce (though this isn't weather) or maybe after a lot of rain mold was discovered growing on some of your cities food stores. The possabilities are almost endless :D

[Schmophit]

Maybe an immigrating insect new to the enviroment could destroy alot of farm produce (though this isn't weather).........The possabilities are almost endless :D
Weather does affect the way in which insects behave though, so different weather conditions could bring about a few unwanted guests.....yuk!

[prof786]

a powerful wind can blow a feasting swarm of locusts away from your precious crops.
got that form pearl s. buck's "the good earth" :D

[King Faticus]

Wind should also blow grass and trees should sway....
Another element we could add is hale err hail or however you spell it (hail means greetings...) this could fall from the skies and cause damage (slight) to buildings and make people not want to be outside
plus more on droughts is that they should increas the risk of fire couple this with a perticularly hot day and BOOM!!! :D

[Schmophit]

a powerful wind can blow a feasting swarm of locusts away from your precious crops.
I wish a good wind would come and sort where I live then, we're inundated with crane flies at the moment :p

[Thucydides]

I wish a good wind would come and sort where I live then, we're inundated with crane flies at the moment :p

eeeewwwww... I am glad I no longer live in Shropshire... :p

[Schmophit]

eeeewwwww... I am glad I no longer live in Shropshire... :p
I know they gives me the heeby-jeebies ***shudders***


Wind should also blow grass and trees should sway....
Another element we could add is hale err hail or however you spell it (hail means greetings...) this could fall from the skies and cause damage (slight) to buildings and make people not want to be outside
plus more on droughts is that they should increas the risk of fire couple this with a perticularly hot day and BOOM!!! :D
OMG!!!! :eek: You could lose half your city, unless everyone, not just prefects, is going to help get the fires put out, but wait it's a drought, no water, is there actually going to be prefects in C4?

[King Faticus]

I was exaggerating a bit nobody especially me likes to see their city up in smoke

[King Faticus]

I think in certain parts of the empire seasons should be less prevailent like in the deserts of north africa there wouldn't be a real change in season especially in egypt in places where seasons did change they sould be more mild.
I know that it sometimes snows in Jerusalem but usually the weather is mild
(in other words seasons should be based on geography "mountains can break cold northern winds or halt temperate winds and seas allow the area around it to be warmer"and how close to the equator you are come to think of it weather should be relavent to the area your in like no blizzards in eqypt)