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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

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The title pretty much says it all. As most of you probably know, major parts of the earth undergo some sort of seasonal change. Where I live, I get the full 4 seasons, from the frigid winter, to the sultry summer and back again.

 

Variables that keep track of the seasons would be used to decorate and affect the layout of the Battlescape. For example, farm areas will show the fields of crops in different stages of growth. Summer terrorist sites will be full of college drunks and girls in small shirts. Winter malls will be full with christmas shopping, heavy jackets, and have Santas and Christmas trees everywhere. Autumn sites will have brightly colored trees, and leaves all over the place, with murky, brown grass.

 

The main idea is to have the average battlescape change as the year progresses, which would provide variety, and add depth to the game. The game campaign will usually last at least a year, so it'd be great to have some way of showing the seasons.

 

 

P.S.: BTW, could this master topic title be changed to "Battlescape Environment"? It'd be more general, and still include interactions.

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For the Battlescape how about this: Frozen waters and high movement TU COST in the winter; Less shadows and small morale decrease (Very small since some Charac tend to have low morale points) in the Summer; Foggy areas and low terrain reveal in the Autm; and low movement cost and medium shadows in the Flora season!! -_- Edited by Black Dash
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For the Battlescape how about this: Frozen waters and high movement TU COST in the winter; Less shadows and small morale decrease (Very small since some Charac tend to have low morale points) in the Summer; Foggy areas and low terrain reveal in the Autm; and low movement cost and medium shadows in the Flora season!!

 

Don't forget, that when it's summer in the Europe, it's winter in Australia. Areas near the equator don't have the same seasons. They have wet and dry seasons, where it's bone dry half the year, and completely flooded the other half. I don't know if the poles have seasons, though.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Not much seasonal change in terms of flora or temperature, but it's still crucial - half the year there is no light at all only the stars and the polar light. While during the summer (wheter its during our northern summer, or our winter on the Antartica) there is always some light and the sun doesn't go below the horizon.
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I can already see the programmers strangling me for liking the whole idea, but I can't help being fascinated by it. If we are to do it properly, it would be a HUGE job, and it may manage to enhance gameplay immersion a lot. However, it would need a lot of discussion about the actual effects to be put in, and a big pain in the donkey to collect and implement the actual weather patterns.

 

Avalanche wind blowing a dead Cloak away, mmm...

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Yeah, the coding itself definitely would be no easy task, but worth it I think. It could be one of those things you could implement later on for testing. Could you imagine seeing the northern lights in Alaska on a night mission? ... Alright, I won't push my luck. I couldn't even begin to imagine how such an effect could be coded, let alone graphically be put into the game. :wacko:
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  • 8 months later...

Northern lights? sounds like a job for a particle system or something.

 

Other things:

wind affecting projectile speed/direction

decreased TU cost when walking against heavy wind

decreased sight distance in fog

less likely to panic/berserk in cold (cold makes people calmer)

more fragile aliens might be sensitive to certain environments (they get less starting health)

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  • 5 months later...

This is a cheap solution, but something more workable. For various 'regions', or those huge blotches of checkered green for forests and grey for mountains, you could make 'weather' tables with two dimensions.

 

The first dimension is the current date which would be based on loosely predicted climate patterns. The second dimension would be the time of day. Once the appropriate cell is found, it has data for probability of certain weather conditions, light conditions, probability for wind conditions, etc.

 

Meteorology fans could probably make the relevant tables and progammer would just insert them like any other file.

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Hmm. I just think the animation would be a lot of work. What good is wind if the trees and trash don't blow around. Rain can look stupid without collecting in puddles. Puddles look stupid without reflection or flowing down hill. Am I making any sense?
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  • 2 weeks later...
I don't know about all others but, when I make a UFO crash down on the pole (North or South) I'd like to see the midnight sunlight. The Ufo Defense doesn't consider this kind of thing. Other thing is, you can make a Batle in a crash site last for ten or more turns and you spend only one second to do it. Maybe each turn could have predifined time how many turns you spend, more time the mission has.
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  • 8 months later...

GARAK, a British science show called Brainiac disproved the flushing in the opposite direction thing. While it's true that the Conrolies (sp) effect does have some effect on the directing of water-flow, the shape of bowl, hole, and amount of water have a FAR greater effect on which way the toilet flushes. But that's all off topic...

 

I like the season thing, and I don't think it'll be too hard to implement. Simply have the 4 differant kinds of looks for each type of terrain--one for each season.

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