Venting: Sandstorms in allanak

[Agent_137]

If I wanted a storm around me -every- time I logged in, I'd move my character to red storm.

Thanks.

[spawnloser]

I feel ya, man.

[Dan]

It is a desert planet. Or mayby... just mayby... there are IC reasons why the storms are so bad and frequent? Or mayby not.

[DustMight]

Isn't Allanak smack dab in the middle of the desert...any wind-breaking mountains many miles away?

[Agent_137]

I don't care about good reasons. I've heard them. I know them.

It still fucking sucks.

If I wanted "I can't see shit at night because the sand is ALWAYS piling in small dunes" roleplay, then I'd go to red -storm-.

But whatever. I'm over it. Next PC will be a tuluki.  :evil:

[Koala]

Tuluk is not a paradise when sandstorms are considered...

[Krath]

You do realize you are in the middle of the fucking desert, and a large body of silt is near
you as well.....And we Tulukis dont want you! Go to Luirs They like everyone! j/k

[Mr.Camel]

I don't think the problem is with frequent sandstorms, its just that some storms seem to appear and just fail to go away before reboot, even when its days away.

[Marc]

Agreed.  With how much storms limit playability it would be nice to see the week and month long storms be a thing of the past.  A day or two for a bad storm seems reasonable.  That is HOURS of IC time.

Then just turn up storm frequency.  You might get three or four storms in any 24 hour period.  Maybe more if the weather is very bad.

The "It's a desert" and "Ever think there might be an IC reason" excuses just don't add up with the in game weather system being as far from dynamic as it is.  I think some sort of change to increase over all playability would be well received.

[Angela Christine]

Well Allanak does have a big section of their city devoted to sheltering filthy magickers.  Everyone knows that magickers are up to no good, so I'd blame them if I were you.  Probably a bunch of whirans and rukkians were having a big orgy and got the storms all riled up.


AC

[Anonymous]

Well Allanak does have a big section of their city devoted to sheltering filthy magickers.  Everyone knows that magickers are up to no good, so I'd blame them if I were you.  Probably a bunch of whirans and rukkians were having a big orgy and got the storms all riled up.


AC

You know I am!  Mid-air sex is definitely ubersauce.

[IceWhiz]

I used to agree with this sentiment (very much so) -- but over time I've learnt to accept the sandstorms as an important part of the world. In fact, I'm fairly happy with the current system.

What I think should change is:
1) Removal of the dependency between storms (or rather, wind velocity) and reboots. It's no secret that after reboots the winds are still and take time to build up. The current dependency is too OOC (I log onto the MUD page, see the game has been up for eight hours -- 95% chance of a clear day).
2) Perhaps decrease the frequency of sandstorms a little itsy tiny bit (10%) -- just so that some people won't complain about their playability.

But... All that being said, IMHO it is a good thing sandstorms are as frequent as they are in some parts of the world -- it opens up several oppotunities.

[Pantoufle]

Yeah sandstorms don't really do much for me, least of all help me get IC and immerse myself in the nitty gritty harsh reality and such.  It's 100% OOC nuisance to me.  As a ranger once I spent an entire week logging in to sandstorms.  Every day I would log in to:

You can't see a thing; sand swirls around you!

And then I would promptly log back out and say to myself, "Ah, I'll try later."  As fate would have it, I kept logging back in at night, which is more my own bad luck than anything else but still...  The damn thing didn't end until -- you got it -- the next reboot!

I've also spent a half an hour of real life only to have my character regenerate 5 stamina because he's in a sandstorm.  You can guess how exciting it must have been for me.

So I hear ya man.  Vent on.

[DustMight]

The same arguments have been made by pcs without tourches for the moonless (but clear) nights.  If you can't see, you can't play...
I disagree.  Play that you can't see.  Use the way to get what you want.
What good would a Drovian be if there wasn't thick darkness once in awhile?

[Armaddict]

I've been noticing that there seems to be a 'sandstorm season'.  Before this bout of storms, there was unnaturally clear weather for about 2 or 3 RL weeks.  The majority of the time, anyway.

I don't mind it, just remember to role-play your character through it.  I actually got to role-play my city boy being lost as hell in a sandstorm, to the point he couldn't even find his shelter.  It was pretty fun

[Kankman]

:cry:  WAAAH!!  :cry:

Go love and hug your fluffy bunnies!

Storms are good. Storms are great. Storms are caused when Whira is irate.

[Marc]

These "I like the storms" and "It's all IC" arguments are bogus.

The system is archaic.  Winds blow the same speed and the same direction no matter where you are.  Storms last for IC weeks months and years (minus the eye of the storms caused by reboots).  How is this good?

It isn't dynamic.  It doesn't add anything to the environment.

So for all you nay sayers let me ask you this:  What does a 7 day RL week long terrible sand storm add to the game that 10-20 IC day storms over the same period wouldn't?

I bet less than 15 people who read this board could actually code on a mud, so lets not hypothesis on the difficulty of this suggestion, just on what a more dynamic weather system would do for the game and playability.

[hcwalker]

I agree with you completely, Marc.  No one is arguing that the sandstorms should be done away with, rather that they should be more dynamic in-game.  It would improve playability in the southlands.

[EvilRoeSlade]

I think the really bad sandstorms that never end until the reboot is an unintentional bug with the weather system.

Unfortunately, nobody wants to fix it because the weather code has been known to slay and devour coders who approach too close.  So we might be stuck with this for a long time to come.

[Halaster]

I think the really bad sandstorms that never end until the reboot is an unintentional bug with the weather system.

Unfortunately, nobody wants to fix it because the weather code has been known to slay and devour coders who approach too close.  So we might be stuck with this for a long time to come.

There is truth to this.. it is a daunting system.

But, there IS a project underway that involves revamping it.  Bear in mind that the coders do this stuff in their freetime, so, I can't honestly give any sort of timeframe.  But I do know (as one of the ones who've been talking about it lately) that there IS some attention being paid.

[jhunter]

Just out of curiousity, do you know if it include some sort of buildup to storms?

That's my biggest peeve about it, in real life you can usually see an incoming storm some distance away before it actually hits you. I'd like to see that added into the weather system of the game somehow.

[Dresan]

I think what might work is if storms be limited by something like a 9x9 block (for example), where the middle (3x3) are the ones you cant see in, the outer blocks decrease in intesity, while the storm was active it would move in random directions(slowly but surely)...in this way we could have sandstorms but be able to continue to play around them.

[Anonymous]

Just out of curiousity, do you know if it include some sort of buildup to storms?

That's my biggest peeve about it, in real life you can usually see an incoming storm some distance away before it actually hits you. I'd like to see that added into the weather system of the game somehow.

I thought desert sandstorms could hit you without notice in real life.

Or are you saying the movie Hidalgo was full of lies?

[Marc]

Or are you saying the movie Hidalgo was full of lies?

Viggo really is that chiselled.  Fear not!

[Reverend Jeff]

Just out of curiousity, do you know if it include some sort of buildup to storms?

That's my biggest peeve about it, in real life you can usually see an incoming storm some distance away before it actually hits you. I'd like to see that added into the weather system of the game somehow.

I thought desert sandstorms could hit you without notice in real life.

Or are you saying the movie Hidalgo was full of lies?

Are you kidding?  I'd LOVE to outrun a sandstorm on a kank.