Weather sense

[Kraelman]

"Looks like there's a storm coming."

If you live in a certain environment for a long time you'll typically start being able to predict the coming weather pretty well. Feeling drops in pressure, smelling the air for signs of rain, the Kansas farmer who glances at the sky and says "Well, git the kids down to the cellar Martha, we got a tornado coming."

I think it'd be cool if the character in TLD could start giving you warnings for blizzards when you're outside after a certain period of time, like 10-30 minutes in advance of them happening after he'd been living in the environment for say 100-200 days. As you spend a lot of time outside, I feel like this would add a bit of growth and grittiness to the character.

[Cosmoline]

There actually are signs of weather shifting, and discernible patterns. The big storms start with a distinct combination of wind and snow. Granted you don't have much time to react, but you can wrap up what you're doing and start on a proper trajectory before whiteout. You can also tell when the storm is blowing itself out by the way the wind is howling.

[elloco999]

...You can also tell when the storm is blowing itself out by the way the wind is howling.

That's not always true. I've been in the situation several times where there was no difference in the sound of the wind but when I went outside the blizzard was over and the weather was clear, just with a very strong wind. But most of the time, you can hear the wind dying down when the blizzard stops.

[ChillPlayer]

Yes that actually got me fooled too, so much that I felt inclined to create the "Reduce the frequency of blizzards" thread. From inside the cabin I've given up to "know" if there's a blizzard (with 0 view) or only strong winds, I check everytime now and mostly when I thought the blizzard was still going on, weather was already clear but still very windy.

But yes I would very much like to have some sort of predictability inside the game. For now the strongest indicator that a blizzard is imminent is: snow or strong winds and a wolf howling, 9 out of 10 times a blizzard will follow within the next 30 ingame mins. How about cloud patterns, air pressure, some realistic cool-off periods after a blizzard and so on? This could (and would) all be used to get a sense for when it's safe to do something outside for a longer time and when it's not.

[The_Hawk35]

I get that the buildings need to be instanced. However I really dislike needing to actually step outside to see the weather (is it snowing, is the wind blowing strongly or just a breeze) perhaps they could have an option to see outside weather when you press tab?

[toebar]

maybe something like this...

[Geck0]

I may be wrong but I can predict a storm by looking at the horizon, the clouds darken in my opinion and it's usually right.

[ChillPlayer]

Only because the sky darkens before a blizzard does not mean that a blizzard will always come when the sky darkens. And it doesn't darken always, sometimes you first get thick fog and sometimes you get snow and sometimes no warning at all, sunny weather, wind getting stronger, bam, blizzard. So it's not a reliably source to predict weather, some form to measure air pressure would be, or cloud patterns.

[elloco999]

I get that the buildings need to be instanced. However I really dislike needing to actually step outside to see the weather (is it snowing, is the wind blowing strongly or just a breeze) perhaps they could have an option to see outside weather when you press tab?

Yeah, I'd like that very much as well. Maybe you could click a window at you'd get a message stating the window outside (and whether there are wolves nearby or not...).

[EternityTide]

I would like to see windows being animated. I know we've had the whole discussion of "see-through" windows too look outside, and how much of a problem that would be to implement, but I would like to see little zephyrs of snow blowing through cracks, and clattering particle effects of hail (if it was implemented) also for the noise to increase in volume when standing next to a window. Snowflakes landing on the window and melting would be interesting too.

I would occasionally like to see dark shapes pass by the window, not to show a wolf going past, but something unnerving to the player, something to throw them off kilter mentally. and rarely I think you should hear someone rapping on the window.

[baviasi]

+1 for more of Will blurting out his random thoughts.

Not sure more predictability is what the game should be going for as the randomness keeps things interesting. That said, there is already a mechanism for Will to improve his survival skills (e.g. item repairs), so the precedent has been set for some skill improvement in weather sense.

On a side note, is it just me or does the weather increase in variability the more you pop in and out of buildings? Are the weather dice re-rolled on Outdoors environment load? Could just be me... I hear long periods of isolation can do that. ;

[city_hunter]

How about a barometer?

It's a common thing to have in remote places anyway. You could equip it, to watch it while traveling. To the weather change after entering / leaving shelter, I read on this forums that it might be not as random, as it seems. The weather change wasn't just fully loaded at that time, entering and leaving a building may just load the new weather instantly.

[ChillPlayer]

How about a barometer?

+1

I have suggested that several times too

[baviasi]

How about a barometer?

To the weather change after entering / leaving shelter, I read on this forums that it might be not as random, as it seems. The weather change wasn't just fully loaded at that time, entering and leaving a building may just load the new weather instantly.

Thanks, I hadn't seen that yet.

+1 for barometer (equipable)

[Boston123]

In real life, you can predict the weather with varying degrees of accuracy by looking at the clouds and prevailing winds. Different cloud types and heights "generally" signify different precipitation/wind patterns, and being near large bodies of water (ie the coast) has an effect as well. This would be nice to see (Cumulus clouds? generally sunny. Nimbus? Overcast, potentially snow., etc)

Also, mountains tend to "create their own weather", as they disrupt otherwise-prevailing wind patterns.

[Myroslav]

maybe something like this...

I liked the picture) but in general, in the long dark I learned to anticipate the storm by the sound of the wind. I just watch the wind speed in the inventory and if it increases - it is time to seek shelter.