[MUD-Dev] weather

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Mon, 11 Oct 1999, Mik Clarke wrote:

> 
> 
> Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> > 
> > Hi everyone. I'm wondering if any of you have good weather systems in your
> > game, and if so, how it works. Achaea's weather "system" at the moment is
> > a pile of crap, and I've designed a new one. I'm hoping that you all can
> > suggest some improvements. I'm reasonably happy with my design, but there
> > is definitely room for improvement.
> 
> [BIG SNIP]
> 
> I've just ripped a somewhat simpler system out of CthulhuMud, mainly
> because it didn't seem to produce interesting results.  I replaced it
> with a simple transitional matrix for the core weather and a climate
> interpretation for each area.

Well, I've got it coded in now with appropriate messages for weather
changing, etc. Going to speed up weather on a development version and see
what it produces. I'm confident that it can be made to simulate
interesting weather systems, and that it provides scope for things like
weather control by mortals (a raise humidity or raise wind spell, for
instance, etc) that is very easily implemented. 


> The matrix simply gives the chance in 100 of going from the current
> weather to the new type of weather (clear, cloudy, rain, storms). I 
> think I have a different matrix for each season.  Once the weather
> changes I generate a duration of how many (game) hours it will last.
> At the end of that time I generate another transition.
> 
> Each area has a climate and this interprets the base weather to give
> the areas weather.  For a desert, they almost all map to sunny and dry.
> For the arctic, they map to clear and cold, clouds, snow and blizzards.
> 
> Quick and simple, and so far no one has complained that it's
> unrealistic.

Right. I'm not really sure how important detailed weather is. I wanted a
system that produces semi-emergent weather patterns largely becuase I
think it's cool. I am excited (and the mortals will be too) about the
possibility of weather-inspired natural disasters though, such as tornados
and the flooding of rivers. (though there's no reason why you couldn't
just fake a system, as Mik talks about above, and stick in random chances
for tornados, and floods as a result of extended rainfall).

I guess the major advantage I see is that the sort of system I'm trying to
do is easily amenable to interesting weather control abilities by players
and Gods. I also think it will produce more interesting weather, in the
same way that the game of Life produces spontaneously interesting
patterns.
--matt




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