Weather in Wesnoth

[Drake Blademaster]

Why is there no weather in Wesnoth? It's always a clear sky. The real world isn't like that, so why is Wesnoth? the changing of weather could be the same system as the attack hit %. 50% chance of rain, 30% chance of snow, etc. Water creatures (e.g. Nagas) would get an defense boost in the rain, fire creatures (e.g. Drakes) would get an attack bonus on a sunny day. The default -- where there is no attack or defense boost for anyone-- would be partially cloudy. This has probably already been suggested, but hey, why not give it a shot?

[Wintermute]

The real world isn't like that, so why is Wesnoth?

WINR, which you can lookup via this handy thread

[Legowarrior]

I like the idea, but I wonder if it has already been asked before, and developers decided it wasn't that great an idea. Weather is a powerful force. It's what led to the victory of France over England (When was that, 1000 AD or so), or the Protestant Wind helping the British to defeat the Spanish (The Spanish Armada).

But would weather be universal, or would it have to be individualized, certain units are affected differently, or by side, the Undead like rain, but loyalists do not?

What kind of weather would be implimented?

[Imp]

Oh man, the tactical and strategical considerations that would result from this implementation is so exciting...Having to account for random weather patterns in planning as well as time of day. How fun! Especially now that the "standard openings" are mixed up a bit with the random time of day start of a match.

Unfortunately, if this idea is accepted, it would be a long (long, long, long) way off from implementation as it would unbalance all of the current maps and be a bit of an effort to implement.

But damn, this would be so awesome!

[JW]

Actually, implementing a weather system similar to Tactics Ogre would be pretty awesome. The difference with that game is that they did not have a ToD cycle that predicted unit movement, and weather was not an exceptionally powerful force other than how powerful magic was. It would be hard to figure out a way to implement weather in a way that would be simple, fun, and not imbalancing to Wesnoth.

I would like to see something like this someday though.

[Eleazar]

This has probably already been suggested, but hey, why not give it a shot?

Really if you want to propose an idea, you need to explain why we should bother to "give it a shot." "The real world is this way" does not count as a reason.

It would be hard to figure out a way to implement weather in a way that would be simple, fun, and not imbalancing to Wesnoth.

Or virtually impossible using Wesnothian definitions of "simple".

One of the identifying features of Wesnoth is that each unit's defensive ability is determined solely by the terrain.

Also the consensus of the vast majority is that Wesnoth has about the right amount of randomness, or too much. Basically no one complains that Wesnoth is too deterministic and should have more random elements to effect the outcome of combat.

[Legowarrior]

It's too deterministic!

[CIB]

I think weather animations, like raining and snowing would be nice, but I'm not sure if it should affect the battle..

[longhair]

Unfortunately, if this idea is accepted, it would be a long (long, long, long) way off from implementation as it would unbalance all of the current maps and be a bit of an effort to implement.

You could take care of that by leaving all the current maps as "clear weather" which wouldn't affect anything. Map makers could add the new weather effects as they make new maps.

[Tux2B]

Weather can be done to some extent using WML tricks like in Northern Winters in HttT, or the fact that sun dehydrates you in UtBS when you're on sand. I think that if there were more terrain types like snow that indicate a weather condition, it could be easy to do, since it's already something that can be supported by the engine.
I'm just unsure whether it is a great idea in other things that in campaigns.

[Alink]

By the way, for the graphic effect, some time of the day masks can be used (I recently do a little debug on their smooth transition between turns). Just add the mask tag like you use the rgb ToD color. The drawback is the pattern is static and repetitive. I tested it and it's a bit strange to see non-falling snow.

Maybe add the possibility of different masks definitions and use them to add animation or irregularity ?

For the moment, it's just a hex blitted on each tile. But I think that use a repeated square texture on the main view is simpler. Also, we can then define a velocity vector which will translate the texture every few frame, so you can easily create falling rain or wind in clouds.