[MUD-Dev] weather

[Martin Keegan]

On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Greg Miller wrote:

> Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> > I think you'd kind of have to set the data manually anyway though, unless
> > you just defined the base weather statistics as being the same for each
> > environment type (so maybe all deserts would have the same weather, etc).
> > There are less than 100 areas in the game though, so setting it by hand
> > isn't a big deal, and it's just a one-time job.
> 
> Well, what I was thinking was something along the lines of using an
> area's position in the world to generate some base climate numbers...
> with colder areas near the poles, higher humidity along coastlines, etc.
> It's an oversimplification, but probably Good Enough for most uses. As
> you said, tho, it's probably not to hard to just enter data manually for
> each area.

In a location-based mud, which is most of the text-based ones out there,
one basically HAS to have a per-location weather-class setting for any
decent weather system. Weather can be used to great effect to enhance a
mud's verisimilitude without sacrificing much in coding, complexity or
player annoyance.

The crucial thing is to have interesting atmospheric messages for when the
weather status changes. To get this right you'll want a parameter in the
weather class which says if, whilst indoors, you can sense the weather
changes going on outside, or whether you're too far indoors to notice.

Players really appreciate this level of non-intrustive detail and colour.
When you have them going to the desert or the poles to watch the cool
sunrise message, you know you have won.

Mk




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