[CF-Devel] New weather stuff, and bigmap thoughts

[Tim Rightnour]

Just a status update on the new weather stuff, and some requests for people
working on the bigmap.

1) Weather computation should now be fully working.  The game is now capable of
computing the weather for any given square.

2) Weather currently has no effect on players or gameplay.  I plan to change
that soon, but starting slowly.  Ideas welcome, but lets keep it simple to
start.

3) If you want to play with the weather, you need to do a few things:

a) use the bigmaps set, and set all the appropriate settings in the settings
file.
b) set dynamiclevel to at least 1.
c) you will probably want to turn fastclock on, so you can watch it move
quickly enough to be interesting.
d) compile utils/maps.c  "gcc -o maps maps.c" will do.
e) run crossfire.  cd var/crossfire; run the maps program.  Look at the pretty
pictures.  you can simulate your favorite weather channel with: (ksh)

xv -wloop -wait 2 -poll skymap.ppm &
while sleep 2
do
 maps
done


Now.. for the part where I need some help.  There are a few things I think
would make the weather run smoother, and some things that I think would make
the effects much much cooler:

1) The world could really use some more rivers, lakes, small ponds, etc.  The
center of the world is pretty dry, and I really had to tweak the humidity to
keep it from becoming a barren desert.  Specifically, I think some rivers off
the mountains might be good.

2) I'm probably not adjusting temperature for elevation enough.  Someone might
want to look at that and give me some feedback.

3) I could really use some more graphics to make this really come together. 
Some things that would be really really helpful:

translucent puddles, so you can see it's been raining.  perhaps a few different
ones, or stackable ones so the ground looks more and more soaked as the rain
progresses.  Not sure if or how this would work with something like a tree.

translucent snow, just like the above.  Also, an ice-field graphic, for when
the poles start freezing.  Maybe frozen rivers and lakes?  If someone felt
particularly adventurous, some of the town buildings would look cool with snow
on the roofs.  I know there are snow-covered trees.. is there anything else
we've missed?

an accumulating hail graphic of some sort, like the above.

Anything else you can think of that might show the effects of weather.  I'm
open to suggestions here.

I was thinking of giving snow hp, so they can devolve into puddles, which would
eventually evaporate.  (also, a sicko with burning hands could see direct
effect)

4) A side note, but I really think a good streetlamp graphic would be nice, so
the lights in the city don't just magically appear from nowhere.  Perhaps
similar to those yellow torcheries in temples.  Possibly a few different kinds,
so backwater towns have less advanced lighting.  Also, the doors of
major buildings in town should probably be lit up. (IMHO)

A few people have said the outside world is impossible to navigate at night. 
Maybe we want to pepper some streetlamps on the main roads?

A graphic for a handheld lamp (like a brass lamp) would be useful.  Nethack
might have one we can steal.  (night is going to neccesitate better lighting
options)

---
Tim Rightnour <
     
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