In version EFv5 I left the snow&mud parameter to its default level of 100. Now I am sharing some quick visuals and some tests for other designers and people curious about the game engine. First of all here is what M&S does:
VII. NEW MUD AND SNOW RULES:
If this advanced rule is optioned, when snow melts, it is converted to mud. Furthermore, mud dries out proportionate to temperature. (Cold: very little; Hot: very fast). This will facilitate the creation of mud seas.
The manual also mentions that higher values of M&S will make mud dry faster with 100 being the default setting.
[edit: this is from Bob Cross thread on M&S. I think balmy=temperate in his post]
This one optionally changes how mud and snow clear. First, snow now thaws to mud - to create the spring mud phase. Second, mud now dries proportional to temperature and turn interval. Cold doesn't dry at all; Cool dries 10% per week; Balmy dries 33% per week; Warm dries 67% per week; and Hot dries 100% per week. This will allow the fall mud phase to happen. Since this is a big change, I've made it optional as a Game Option.
The Eastern Front scenario has weekly turns and there are three weather zones (marked by horizontal lines in the image). I modeled the seasons with several warm/cold front events with a bit of random variability year to year. In EF the peak weeks of the 'Rasputiza' mud season are modeled with shock events that make movement almost impossible, but I want to use the weather engine to have patches of mud linger long enough to match the start of two real offensives that had to wait for 'weather to get good enough' for tank operations.
- Operation Barbarossa in Bielorussia in June 1941 (Turn 1 or turn 52)
- and 2nd Kharkov offensive in Ukraine in May 12th 1942 (turn 48)
(note that also Operation Bagration started in Bielorussia on June 22nd, 1944.
First I run the scenario for a whole year to go through the 41/42 Winter and then check how mud comes and goes.
A M&S parameter set 'too low' will have mud last past those historical dates, a value too high will make mud disappear too quickly and a goldilocks values should remove mud in those two regions just before the offensives started. Either way I love the 'snow turns into mud rather than just disappear' effect.
.