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

[Todd Mitchell]

>
     
      > 2. Does weather change maps? When there is a tree for example,
     
     >
     
      >   and it gets dry. Will that three vanish? Is weather
     
     >
     
      >   going to change tiles like grass into desert?
     
     >
     
      >
     
     >
     
      >   Or is it more like a new form of "animation", which is
     
     >
     
      >   able to change images according to weather conditions?
     
     
I think this would work well - certain arches could be created to animate
this way (tree with buds, tree with leaves, tree with bare branches, tree
with snow) or for the ground (puddles, mud, snow, flowers) and then it would
be easy for map makers to use them in their maps (or if all is well, to redo
some of the existing arches to use weather animation.)
I think some of this kind of graphic is already available with a bit of
modification.

BTW, does the weather machine send messages to the client?  ('it is
raining.', 'it is very windy') - this alone does add to the game since
imagination is pretty powerful tool.