Weather

[Mr. Will]

This is kinda ambitious, but it would make the game interesting...

I think that there should be weather going on in the game. And not simple weather, a.k.a. it's raining all over the world and then the sun comes out, but complex weather. i.e., you can see cloud movements and the landscape darkens as clouds go by, even modern ships may sink in very stormy seas but all ships are safe in calm ones, thunderstorms can slow down movement and flood flood plains, lack of rain can cause droughts, T-storms might spawn tornadoes or randomly hit something with lightning, clouds can build up and create hurricanes, monsoon season would effect monsoon season areas, storms might bring down planes and copters, etc.

Like I said, it's pretty ambitious. Another thing to add would be terrain changes with weather or human interaction. i.e. grassland may become desert after a long drought or if too many cities spring up near a deserts edge, terrain may produce more food after rains or less if it floods.

All these changes would add immense realism to the game but would be very hard to program into a turn-based game. Anyway, it sounds good to me.
Opinions?

 

[Colonel]

um something like this is being discussed in another thread but anyways its a good idea

 

[sealman]

Not really practical considering the time frame of the turns. I mean, in the early stages of the game, storms would be ragining over an area for over 50 years. Better find Noah and build that ark

 

[Mr. Will]

Hmmmmm....
Good point.
Maybe turns could be shrunk to months?

 

[Dreadnought]

Hmmmmm....
Good point.
Maybe turns could be shrunk to months?

Oh my god! That would make the game SOOOOOOO long that it would be practicly unbeatable (unless you play for hours every day). Bad idea, Mr. Will!

 

[warpstorm]

If you went away from turns being a meaningful amount of time, this could be interesting in an abstract sort of way. It could also be useful for small scenarios.

 

[Mr. Will]

Jeez sorry for the turns to months idea...
But like warpstorm said, maybe it could be used in smaller scenarios...
Actually, it'd probably be better to be programmed into a RTS game. If there was someway it could work it would be really neat though. You could have techs and special units and buildings that could detect the weather, too. Like researching doppler radar and building radar towers and weather planes.

 

[rcoutme]

I agree that it might be neat for a Real Time Scenario game, but that won't be Civ IV, as Soren already told us that Civ IV is a turn-based game.

 

[sealman]

Jeez sorry for the turns to months idea...
But like warpstorm said, maybe it could be used in smaller scenarios...
Actually, it'd probably be better to be programmed into a RTS game. If there was someway it could work it would be really neat though. You could have techs and special units and buildings that could detect the weather, too. Like researching doppler radar and building radar towers and weather planes.

Never be sorry for an idea.

Even "bad" ideas get people thinking and may lead to "good" ones.

but weather in RTS games, why hasn't that been included in any games I have played. That would be great.