Page 11 of 14
RE: Weather
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:40 pm
by Zorachus99
Different bitmaps for all-sea hexes for the varying weather for the zone is *the way* to go. Much more intuitive.
The overlay for land hexes is fine since it is 'selectable'.
Instead of an overlay for the weather showing the type by pixel, have you considered a weather icon to insert into a hex? Such as a grey '*' for snow and a white '*' for blizzard? This is very similar to how control the hex is displayed.
RE: Weather
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:36 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
Different bitmaps for all-sea hexes for the varying weather for the zone is *the way* to go. Much more intuitive.
The overlay for land hexes is fine since it is 'selectable'.
Instead of an overlay for the weather showing the type by pixel, have you considered a weather icon to insert into a hex? Such as a grey '*' for snow and a white '*' for blizzard? This is very similar to how control the hex is displayed.
I see no need.
The weather overlay never covers the units and shouldn't obscure anything important in a hex. At least that was my goal when approving the different deisgn proposals. I would expect to play with the weather visible all the time myself. I really want to know when it isn't Fine, which is the only time an overlay appears.
RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:43 am
by Zorachus99
The reason you need weather displayed in a sea zone is that it affects naval combat considerably...
What's critical is the Sea Box you are planning to move in, and the weather therein. Sometimes the sea box is not very clear what zone of weather it exists in. Many sea-areas are split by a weather line. Where the sea box is makes a huge difference. It should be extra clear what weather is in a sea area you are moving a task force into.
RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:06 am
by Shannon V. OKeets
ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
The reason you need weather displayed in a sea zone is that it affects naval combat considerably...
What's critical is the Sea Box you are planning to move in, and the weather therein. Sometimes the sea box is not very clear what zone of weather it exists in. Many sea-areas are split by a weather line. Where the sea box is makes a huge difference. It should be extra clear what weather is in a sea area you are moving a task force into.
Not a problem. Post #181 above shows how the seas look for rain/snow. There is another sea hex image for storm/blizzard. So if you have the weather visible, the entire sea area will show which of the 3 weather effects the sea area has. Note that for all purposes there is no difference between rain/snow at sea and storm/blizzard at sea.
I couldn't find any sea areas that are split by a weather zone.
What does happen is that some islands in a sea area are in different weather zones than the all-sea hexes around them. That is also true for some stretches of the continents where a single sea area borders two different weather zones in the coastal hexes (Baltic Sea for instance).
RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:03 pm
by Zorachus99
The old maps have weather lines dividing the baltic and south china sea...
RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:24 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
The old maps have weather lines dividing the baltic and south china sea...
Well, I guess then MWIF is an improvement[:)].
As you can see, the white weather boundary crosses the Baltic Sea from Stockholm to Turku, but a boudary also encapsulates the Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland, which gives all the 'pieces' of the Baltic Sea the same weather.

RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:02 pm
by Zorachus99
Awesome!
A tired question probably; do the sea bitmaps change (uniquely) for each of clear, rain, storm, snow, and blizzard weather effects? The example at the top of the page is obviously not clear...
RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:43 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
Awesome!
A tired question probably; do the sea bitmaps change (uniquely) for each of clear, rain, storm, snow, and blizzard weather effects? The example at the top of the page is obviously not clear...
There are 3 all sea 'terrain' bitmaps. Fine weather (post #206), Rain/Snow weather (post #181?) and storm/blizzard weather which shows a lightning bolt.
RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:54 am
by Shannon V. OKeets
I revised the text for this tutorial, bringing it up-to-date with other changes (all-sea weather bitmaps). The screen shots are unchanged though.

RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:56 am
by Shannon V. OKeets
Here is where the main change in the text occurs. I wanted to talk about there only being 2 types of weather overlays for all-sea hexes.

RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:58 am
by Shannon V. OKeets
Here I switched the order of the 3rd and 4th pages. I think this follows more logically from page 2.

RE: Weather
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 5:03 am
by Shannon V. OKeets
4th and last in the series.
Page 5 will show the weather report and weather probability forms that are accessible at any time during play. I'll talk about the weather roll's effect on the turn ending there.
Page 6 wil show a combat situation where the text will talk about weather effect on combat, movement, and (maybe) supply. There is a whole separate tutorial for supply, so it only needs a quick mention here.
The last page (7) is an aggregate of 12 screen shots (1 per die roll) of the possible weather patterns world-wide for Jan/Feb. Patrice created that graphic and it makes for a nice overview/summary page.

RE: Weather
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:20 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
Patrice has sent me new pictures for the weather tutorial. I just got the 10th one a few minutes ago.
Here is a new starting page for this tutorial.

RE: Weather
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:21 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
Here is another new page.

RE: Weather
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:23 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
Since there are going to be 10 pages, I did not have to cram as many words onto each page. If you think something more needs to be added, let me know - there's room.

RE: Weather
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:25 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
Spurious character in the text here. Other than that error, the rest of this page has been shown before.

RE: Weather
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:27 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
This page has been shown before. I wanted to do a full set - or at least the first 6 pages in sequence.

RE: Weather
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:29 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
6th and last in the series. It is actually page 6 of 10. I'll do the last 4 tonight or tomorrow.

RE: Weather
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:25 pm
by Norman42
The white print on grey background in the tutorial page in post #214 is very hard to read.
RE: Weather
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:34 pm
by lomyrin
I also agree on the readability of white print on grey as not being of enough contrast.
That goes for white print on a variety of pastel color backgrounds in other forms as well.
Lars