Realistic Weather

[nikki.]

Ok, this isn't much of a question so much as a brainstorm. I want my scenario to have weather conditions, which will (hopefully) be plot related.

 

Whilst I could just pop up random messages everywhere about it now raining, or snowing or whatever, I felt it was kinda cheating. What I want to do is make the player realise it's raining without telling them...

 

To do this, I made a practice little script:

Code:

if(is_outdoor() == 0) && (counter == 625) && (what_day_of_scenario() == 3) {   if(current_town() != 3) { //which is a cave     message_dialog("It's raining","");     set_ticks_forward(-624);   }}if(is_outdoor() == 1) {    message_dialog("It's raining","");    set_ticks_forward(-624);}

After a while, I would set_ticks_forward() back to it's original (by adding 625), in order to maintain the day length.

 

I would also maybe slow the party, or temporarily reduce dexterity by 1, to give the impression that they can't move quickly due to being soaked.

 

What I really want to know is if there is a better way; if, for instance, there is a rain graphic (I did see one once, but the LOure aint got it), or if I could darken the game without tinkering with custom counters and the day time...

[Thralni]

I have been thinking about this for quite a while. This is what I would do:

 

Make a custom terrain grapjic of rain. There's an option to have an animation (like the teleporter). You just have to define a sequence of animations in the scenario data script. Set the blockage to be 0, so the party can walk through it.

 

Now you have this, you should let it appear from time to time. Maybe with the script you already made. To let appear, I think its best to use either set_terrain or swao_terrain. Same goes for snowing and wind: just make differnt looking terrain grahpics.

 

I hope this solution will help you further.

[nikki.]

I'd already toyed with this. However since the rain would be a terrain, I wouldn't be able to put any terrain out of doors. So, for example I wouldn't be able to have a sign where the rain was.

 

This could be worked around in two ways, as far as I see...

 

I could just put the rain over the top of existing graphics, and go through everything in the custom object sheet and change which_sheet and which_icon. That way, I would have the effect I need (think buckets and buckes of rain like in the Matrix.) This would slow the game down though...

 

Alternatively, I could just have sporadic bursts of the rain terrain... Which wouldn't be nearly as good...

[Thralni]

What you could do, is not putting everywhere these terrains, but simply on some spots. this can work, but only if its not a shower. Doing this, enables you only to make small rains.