Matrix Games Forums

Into every life a little rain must fall. Or waterfalls from the apartment above.

In keeping with the theme of my life this week, here are some samples of the weather depictions.

The hexes to the west are experiencing rain while those to the east have storms. The weather at sea is storm.

Thepurpose of this screen shot is to show how different terrain looks with rain versus storm: clear, forest, and mountain.

This one shows the difference between rain and storm at sea and some rain in the swamp.

Similar to the first showing rain versus storm against different terrain types. The desert here has clear weather (of course). The swamp has storm.

Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Western Poland have snow while esatern Poland has blizzard. This contrasts the two against clear, forest, and mountain.

The units will sit on top of these and not be obscured at all. Notice that the icons and names also sit on top of the weather. So do the railroads.

The only blizzard hexes here are the mountains east of Sacromento and those even farther east around Salt Lake City. The Great Salt Lake itself has a blizzard in progress.

Oops, I should have noted on the previous screen shot that some of those forest hexes have blizzard too - and so is Salt Lake City.

Last in the series.

Here we see a mixture of storm, snow and blizzard. The desert (barely visible) and desert mountain hexes have rain. Lahore has snow but the hexes southeast of it have storm which continues up into the moutains. Some of the mountains have storm, some, snow, and some blizzard.

Kabul - snow.
Peshawar - blizzard.
Rawaplindi - snow.

As you pass the cursor over a hex, a small section of the main screen gives a text description of the weather (if you are uncertain).

Speaking for myself, it's sort of hard to tell rain from storm, and snow from blizzard, especially at lower zoom levels.

If I could suggest that rain and snow also be given extra space between the diagonal lines, the line thickness and length differences would be easier to see without having to mouse-over the hexes.

Hello,

Bizarely, the screenshots of Rain & Storm are on a zoom level, and the Snow & Blizzard on another zoom level.
I like a lot the Snow & Blizzard effects, I like less the Rain & Storm for the moment.
It would be good to see all weather effects at the same zoom level, wouldn't it ?

I'm finding it hard to differentiate. Perhaps you could use shapes such as little rain drops or flakes at various densities to provide another cue? Lightning bolts?

Cheers, Neilster

I also find it hard to differentiate the different weather types. I know that the weather is not clear, but it's hard to guess
kind of weather is inside the hex.

Maybe it could be a good idea to change the hatch angle.

Rain ands snow could have hatch angle 45 degrees. Storm and blizzard could have hatch angle of 135 degrees.

For me it's difficult to see the difference between rain and snow. I notice that the snow hatch pattern is slightly lighter. But it's
not intuitive.

I support the idea of adding some extra info in the hex with bad weather that would give a clue of the true weather in the hex.
Maybe keeping the hatch patterns as is, but to add one small symbol into each hex. Some raindrops for rain, snowflakes for
snow, lightning for storm, and something for blizzard. That could help very much.

ORIGINAL: Borger Borgersen

I support the idea of adding some extra info in the hex with bad weather that would give a clue of the true weather in the hex.
Maybe keeping the hatch patterns as is, but to add one small symbol into each hex. Some raindrops for rain, snowflakes for
snow, lightning for storm, and something for blizzard. That could help very much.

The man is clearly a genius. Almost my words exactly. [:'(]

Cheers, Neilster

They seem to be a little hard to distinguish even at 1680x1050 resolution. maybe a little looser on the spacing. Also what do counters look like underneath the weather. Are they hard to distinguish/read etc... Could you post a pic with weather and units?

ORIGINAL: abj9562

They seem to be a little hard to distinguish even at 1680x1050 resolution. maybe a little looser on the spacing. Also what do counters look like underneath the weather. Are they hard to distinguish/read etc... Could you post a pic with weather and units?

Units are on top of weather so their depiction isn't affected.

For my next pass on this:

- I'll make rain and snow come in from the upper left and keep storm and blizzard from the upper right.

- Rob has sent me heavier versions of storm and blizzard but they seem too overpowering. I'll have him reduce the density of all the images by 50% and make the lines for rain and snow slightly thicker. This should solve the problem I am having at different resolutions where I am losing a lot of the lines because they are only 1 pixel wide.

- I do not want to use raindrops and snowflakes because they are out of keeping with the rest of the terrain graphics - which are rather abstract (cities, forests, mountains, swamps) and rely on color and texture to communicate.

I would propose that rain comes up-down, storm left-right, blizzard right-left and snow to be white dots.

ORIGINAL: morkin

I would propose that rain comes up-down, storm left-right, blizzard right-left and snow to be white dots.

Another possibility. Thanks.

Another vote for an angle change.

milder weather might come from milder angles closer to 0 degrees.

Say rain came from 30, storm from 150, snow from 210, and blizzard 330?

Perhaps easier to intuit the weather type?

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: morkin

I would propose that rain comes up-down, storm left-right, blizzard right-left and snow to be white dots.

Another possibility. Thanks.

I think this a a brilliant suggestion

I really liked Froonp's suggestion a week or two back to change the terrain when required by the weather, i.e. swamp>forest in winter, desert>remain clear in rain, frozen lakes, etc. Especially so for desert, it is always easy to forget how weather is handled there.

also it would be nice to just have an option of a small graphic bar showing the weather in the zones: Arctic=Blizzard; N. Temperate-Snow; Med-Rain, etc. without changing the hex overlays. if you've played WiF you're more used to it of course and the overlays could be a choice to use or not.

oh, and it is important to know the weather _In The Sea Box_ in sea zones where the weather line is running through the zone, not on the sea zone boundary. this could be a little confusing for new players.

ORIGINAL: trees trees

I really liked Froonp's suggestion a week or two back to change the terrain when required by the weather, i.e. swamp>forest in winter, desert>remain clear in rain, frozen lakes, etc. Especially so for desert, it is always easy to forget how weather is handled there.

My proposal was also to have new graphics for each terrain. For example, to have a snow covered land for the clear terrain under snow, with patches of terrain not covered by snow.
I think this would very beautifull to have the map covered by snow when winter comes.

Also, as the map is an abstract view from above, this would be more logical to have the ground covered by patches of white when snow falls, and more even white when blizzard is blowing.

Also, showing the change of terrain cover (swamp --> forest) seems to me quite mandatory, because new players won't know this happens. Showing them that this happens by changing the graphic would be a good thing. Well, that forest need to have patches of white snow too, because it is winter.

Yes. I think changing hexes according to the weather is an appropriate application of computer power. The weather is easy to overlook without visual cues and it's vital to the game.

Cheers, Neilster