Storms

[theebie]

great ... we have storms.

they are meant to be annoying ? well, they -are- annoying.
to a point that makes me stop travelling.

we have weathers where you can see the city gates, and cant go there,
because you stumble in ANY direction but town. again, and again, and again again.

we have weather that lets you not see your hand in front of your eyes on daylight.

and its not predictable. you just stumble in a freaking storm and are fucked.

this pisses me off, personally, oocly and icly. (and its ok icly, even meant to be like that)

some suggestions:
-let there be LESS storms.
-announce a forecast (like: you enter a room thats 3 rooms away from mister-i-blind-you-storm and you get, you enter the room. the weather to the east is really really annoying)
-let there be LESS storms.

and i have another suggestion:
how about LESS storms.

[Cavus]

how about LESS storms.

Your post made me laugh. :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

But, that's good thing because I am agree with you. If anything about storm will not change, at least there should be less of them.

With all respect to our coders,

Cavus

[flurry]

You can check weather in adjacent rooms now (but maybe you know that).

Making the outdoors more harsh is a worthy goal, I think, but I agree the storms can be pretty frustrating at times.

[theebie]

regarding to: check weather in next room.

imagine you want to go the 18 rooms northroad westwards.
you'd have to:

without storm:
w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,... you get the point

with storm:
w,
weather w
[wait if a half-ler comes in and wants to eat you]
[you probably want to 'l n, l s' to scan for dangers, since you stay a bit more in the room]
[read what 'weather w' says],

repeat...

[Delirium]

Oh my, you actually have to pay attention when you're travelling out in that brutal desert! The horror!

[Bestatte]

Paying attention is important, with or without the storms, and typing n,n,n,n,n,n without looking in various directions is what kills a lot of people.

However..I wouldn't mind seeing something like this:

If the code lets you see 3 rooms away (very far: nothing) - at least it should let you also see if there's a storm 3 rooms away.

In addition, I wouldn't mind a precursor to a change in weather:

So you're moving along, things are a little sandy but nothing you can't deal with, not even getting sand on your cloak. The weather is about to change. You get an echo:

>The winds begin to pick up toward the west.

You now have exactly 20 seconds to do SOMETHING (or nothing) to prepare for the oncoming blinding nasty can't-do-shit-until-bootup sandstorm. Retreat, go in a different direction, set your kank running and try to get past that area before the storm hits, or make camp and hope you don't run out of water til the saturday reboot.

[Anonymous]

Oh my, you actually have to pay attention when you're travelling out in that brutal desert! The horror!

Now THAT'S sarcasm.

I haven't dealt with sandstorms in a while, but the ones that seem to rage on for 2-3 RL days are annoying.  Playing in Red Storm they are almost punitive.  Last I knew I thought there were some changes.

[ashyom]

A good reason to make friends with your neighbor ranger.

[JoyRide]

Though I have yet to suffer in the new storm-related code, I'm glad it's come around. There was a thread some time ago about people RPing the effects of a sandstorm and well, when you're dealing with incredibly fierce winds and nearly zero visibility, it seems like either it'd be enough to kill you or make you roam around blindly. Since they took the latter than the former, that makes me a little jollier.

It makes things a little more realistic I think. I've seen people (and I think I've even done it a few times though with a ranger) who would go out in a harsh or blinding sandstorm to hunt or travel unnecessarily. When you think about it though, would you want to go out and travel in a harsh sandstorm or snowstorm if you weren't accustomed to it (i.e. a ranger)? Or would you rather stay in the comfy home you have and pray to God your job keeps you within the sanctity of your city walls?

[Bardex]

You mean the friendly neighborhood ranger who will turn in your ass for being an evil magicker just trying to get from point A to point B?

[Cavus]

:arrow:  Giving a room echo for possible storm at next room is a possible solution in my opinion.
>north
>You are at Sand Wastes
  There is this and that, bla bla.............
   ......................................................
   .......................................................
   North of here goes x road, and south to small grove
   North is hit by fierce storm
   
:arrow:  Also, there should be some transition from clear sky to bad storm in a room. Generally storms do not hit suddenly. You start to feel the wind, then sky change, etc. So, an echo can be good. For example:
>You are at Sand Wastes
  There is this and that, bla bla.............
   ......................................................
   .......................................................
> A heat and strong storm starts to blow from south
.............
> Strong sand winds starts to make the visiblity harder.
.............
>Stining sand storm
.......
>Blinding sand storm
............
.............etc.

[Gaare]

Try to assume this code was implemented before you begin playing ARM.

A little "fucking" never hurt anyone.

[Xamminy]

Don't assume, know.  This is old, formerly-buggy code.  Xygax fixed a bug which allows it to work finally.

I have suffered by this code and think it glorious.

Frustrating and annoying at times, but glorious.

[Cuusardo]

A good reason to make friends with your neighbor ranger.

Or to BE the neighborhood ranger.

[Ghost]

What Xamminy said.

And to add a few more:

There were threads like RPing the long distance between each leagues outside.  And there you go.  Now you dont spam walk outside.  You check every direction (l n;l e;l w;l s) and you check for weather conditions of the adjacent rooms as well.

The code is now much better than the former.  It makes the discrimination between, who is accustomed to the harsh wastes, and who is accustomed to the relative safety of the tribe's and city's territory.

[wizturbo]

I love and hate the code.  I'd either like to see markers near cities so you can use them to get to the gates in a storm, or for the storms to actually come and go frequently so that your not stuck for 2-3 RL days being unable to get back to the city/outpost/village your trying to get to.  Sandstorms lasting 3 in game weeks is insane.

[Cuusardo]

People were looking for a way to increase travel time between places.  It looks like you've got it, folks!  

[halfhuman]

While it IS coded on how to avoid storms, I think that if you look in the direction of a storm, you should know.  You can't look at the touchdown area of a tornado and say, "Hey! That's a really cool lawn flamingo! I hope a tornado doesn't hit it!"

So, I think that when you look in a direction you should see:

look n
North of here you see the Hubba-Dubba Motor Lodge.
very far
A blinding gale of sand rages on.
far
A blinding gale of sand rages on.
near
The Hubba-Dubba Motor Lodge
A British man drinks tea
A cricket field

I've been walking along and I look in  a direction:

look s
very far
nothing
far
nothing
near
nothing

s

You can't see a thing! Sand swirls about you!

If i can't see a thing while I'm there, I damn sure can't see a thing from far off!

While this can all easily be avoided with the weather code, it's very inconvinient and kinda hacks at the fun. I don't wanna have to type:
look n
look s
look e
look w
weather n
weather s
weather e
weather w
Every time I enter a room!

I know I could macro it, but then I'd have to scroll up ever single time I entered it because directions are very space consuming.

[SewerRat_inTheOpen]

It's a few leagues away after all, not a few hundred metres.

[Ghost]

It's a few leagues away after all, not a few hundred metres.

Out in the wastes, one league itself is more than half a mile.

So one league, indeed, is more than a few hundred meters.

[Rhyden]

People were looking for a way to increase travel time between places.  It looks like you've got it, folks!  

Hell yes! No complaints about the new storm code over here. Although it's annoying as a half-elf, it's quote Xamminy: "Glorius".

- More accurate to realistic harsh desert climate
- Increased travelling time
- Rangers have more of a roll in the wilderness

Aside from the ooc reason of not being able to get to the gates when you can see'm, I love this code!!!

[runningwithscissors]

I guess since I'm still very new, my opinion won't be as important as another, but I have thought on some things regarding this topic.

I've read over many of the posts on the gdb. From the skills that rangers seem to possess, there comes a point when one has to say "Isn't that enough"? I like the ranger class, but it seems that if too many perks are given to one class in particular, it may unbalance the game.

Just my thoughts.

[Rhyden]

Your opinion is as important as anyones' on this board, runningwithscissors. As for the unbalance to ranger, I don't really see that. Every class has their good sides. Oh, and besides, it states in the helpfiles that rangers are most easy to hire for desert travel. This hasn't really been true since now.

[Cenghiz]

I'm sick of seeing merchant wandering around alone in European times. Storm's good.. Believe me.

[Xygax]

It's interesting that most of the discussion along these lines seems to consist of the following argument:  "Look lets me see three rooms in that direction, why can't I walk that way??"

It's probably better if you assume that "look" is erring on the side of allowing you to see too far, rather than assume that walking is too difficult.  If anything, look should be made still more restrictive.  I'm pretty satisfied with the tuning on this feature (as far as guild-balance and playability goes), and so without better arguments than "my warrior can't hunt enough anymore!" it's likely to remain the same.

Some things I'm -considering- but haven't gotten around to (or am undecided about):

• Making roads and cities somewhat easier to navigate through (this is pretty easy and seems to make sense, I've just not gotten around to it yet).
  
• Making "look" work more accurately (and thus restrictively) -- obscuring buildings, corpses, etc., and perhaps not allowing you to see into that room at all, ala darkness, though I'm inclined against this.
  
• Having some subguilds yield a small bonus to navigating through storms (though noone will be perfect but the Ranger guild)
  
• Items that yield small navigation bonuses. (if/when this goes in, you won't hear about it, but the obvious candidates may gradually receive the right enhancements.
  

As I've said before, this change was made originally, to force people to make some choices about what kind of life their character leads, and what decisions they make.  If you don't think you can safely trailblaze through the desert without being "frustrated" by the sandstorm code, then you probably shouldn't go.  You might get worse than "frustrated."

If you can't handle making this choice, make a friend instead.  

--X

[Rhyden]

Long live Xygax!

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Xygax said it best.

[Dracul]

The weather code has almost killed me. Directly killed me.  (okay...maybe indirectly...but pretty damn close)

And I loved it.

[Ghost]

I hope you finish those additional codings soon about the subject.   That would be great.
Thanks a lot again Xygax.

[fearwig]

The main problem I have with storms isn't that they're annoying, or frequent. The main problem I have is actually one of realism:

Now, I'm not an oldie here, by any means, but I certainly don't think that having your vision obscured a bit is going to make you do an about-face and walk blindly in the opposite direction from that which you've been struggling toward for hours, that you could continue to follow with your eyes entirely closed.


No, I think storm severity should have a CHANCE of making you lose your direction, like darkness should. Darkness should have a flat chance, maybe 10%, if that feels right. The *worst* storm should make you lose your bearings 15% or 10% of the time. No more. It's incredibly artificial, the way it is.


I realize that not all storms seem to make you lose your bearing now, so if what I'm describing is already implemented kindly ignore me. I know very well that it's not implemented in this way for darkness, yet, and I suggest that humbly (ha ha, me, humble).

[jmordetsky]

I haven't experienced this code first hand yet, but like 90% of the people who do talk about it says it sucks....

I think there is something to be said for that.

Thought, I had a char that wasn't a ranger and I used to wander around outside of allanak with out much trouble.

*shrug*

[joyofdiscord]

Let me be a big doink and just copy and paste my long post to another thread on this topic, explaining why I think the storm code is hunki-dori, and why trying to go east and actually going west -does- make sense.
---
Navigating in the wilderness can be HARD. It's easy to think you are walking "in a straight line" but slight deviations in your gait can send you off in circles so gradually you won't even notice, especially if the sun is very high so you can't use it as a compass. I know this by experience. I lived for a couple weeks in the National Forest around Williams, Arizona, a Grand Canyon town. Really scrubby, rocky land with short, gnarled trees. Reminds me of the Scrub Plains or Grey Forest or something. Well, I decided to take a super-short walk a ways out, then turn around and come right back. I was camped near the fence, so even if I veered off enough to hit the fence at a different point, as long as I recognized the general area or could even SEE THE TOWN quite a ways past the fence, I would be fine. But I didn't even manage that; that super-short walk turned into several hours wandering rocky terrain hopelessly until I stopped a person driving a truck down a faint path toward private land and he directed me toward the town, which I reckon must have been a couple miles away by now.

Now, I am definitely not super-wilderness man. In fact, if I was an Arm char, I would probably be a Burglar/Jeweler (I don't break into homes, except my own sometimes, but I think I fit that skill set the closest... hmmm, this sounds like an Idle OOC thread to me.), so it makes sense for me to lose my way, not knowing all the ways to orient oneself well in the wilderness.

Now, in wide open plains where you could follow one distant landmark (which you KNOW) to another, that phenomenon might not be a problem. In denser terrain, or in storms, the landmarks would have to be pretty close in order to follow, and you're still likely to end up veering off course just by picking a landmark a little more northward than another, etc.

Real wilderness isn't actually divided into "rooms", with one in each cardinal direction. A character with 1 room visiblity can't see four distinct regions and choose which one to wander into. He sees 360 degrees of largely indistinct terrain which is quickly swallowed up by sand just a little ways out. I think in these situations, it is very realistic to lose your way.

It seems jerky to type 'e' and get blown back 'w', but that's because we use a map grid. You aren't actually getting caught up in a big gust of wind and carried backwards. Those wilderness squares are huge, if you try to go east and end up going west, it's because you got turned around (perhaps virtually turned around over the course of your last 6 leagues of travel). And even turned around, you still magically know which way is east in order to try again, which seems pretty good to me.

The storm code seems pretty realistic, except for some minor issues like city gates, in my ever-so-humble opinion, and we ought to be happy our characters' magic internal compasses still function even way out in the Salt Flats or the Scrub Plans, etc.

[Cenghiz]

By the way.... Some folks might need storms actually.. The game's balanced. Something bad for you -very hot weather, harsh storms, lots of agreessive creatures, gith, harsh winds making shooting arrows impossible- may be good for other characters. As I said before a few times, it's possible to survive in blinding sandstorm for days which I've experienced a few times with a character who was not a ranger. If you can't, it means you shouldn't have been outside the gates in the first place. I'm bored of desert wandering lone merchants and hoping to make raider clan on the North Road with my next character to stop it.

[Xamminy]

To rephrase what someone else said.

In the dark or in a storm, you should NEVER type 'north' and go 'south.'  No matter how confusing the storm or darkness, that's unrealistic.

If you're travelling down a corridor, let's say, a place with cliffs on both sides, or a place with walls on both sides, and you're following one of the walls, how could you get turned around?  It's happened.  I've experienced it.  It sucks and seems very...arbitrary and artificial.

[joyofdiscord]

Hmmm, perhaps because the code has a hard time telling if you are following a wall/ledge, and there'd have to be special code on all such areas.  Plus, if, when going north, a mixup sending you south was impossible, then you'd only end up veering back and forth east and west, and the net result is that you'd still probably end up walking exactly where you wanted to go.  And, in many terrains, getting turned around -does- make sense, lots and lots of sense.  Maybe not in a canyon or hallway, but those are special cases.  Typing "north" does not mean your character is insta-teleporting into the center of another rectangular area directly north of the rectangular area he is currently standing in the center of, even if that's what the code does.

[Xamminy]

If the code was restricted from choosing 'up' and 'down' (I've been in a room with [NESW] as exits and seen that I couldn't move that direction when being turned around.  It was an odd sensation.) or the direction opposite the one typed, it would mostly solve that issue.

Walking down a corridor, you'd occasionally see that you can't go that way, but you won't go backwards.

Another solution would be to have the code 'change' orientation on you randomly.  So that from now on, when you type 'north' it means 'east' and etc around the compass.  You have to get out of the storm to reorient.

[Xygax]

In the middle of the desert, when you can't see sun and stars to navigate by, you don't know your way, and you have no landmarks (certainly no landmarks with which you can associate a cardinal direction), or worse, the landmarks are actually being -moved- by the enormous winds, and oh yeah, you mostly can't open your eyes unless you want them to bleed....  yes, you can lose your way completely and go north when you meant to go south.

-- X

[Xamminy]

So how about a room flag that could flag some rooms, when you would have the ability to follow a wall or the like, to prevent the storm code from turning you around?

[Xygax]

I think that would be a lot of data to add to soften a feature which I think mostly works about right as it is.

[Dracul]

Yeah..it -sucks- It REALLY sucks.               Awesome.

It almost killed me a few times when I had a non-ranger down near red storm though.

I still like it, and Im not playing rangers.

[jmordetsky]

The more I think/hear about it, the more I like the idea that there should be storms that "execute" the darkness code. (stumbling in random directions).

However, I think a big problem is that from what I hear, these storms are "EVERYWHERE", "ALL THE TIME"....

If thats the case, why not just tone it down a bit? I mean is the realism of an eyeball bleeding sandstorm worth X% of your player base hating the game?

Not to point finger Gax, but when I read your posts on this, it makes me cringe. I fee like your wielding this vorpal code sword and basically saying to the players, "We have storms now and your going to like it. Xygax has spoken".

From what I can tell a good deal of the player base is really put off by this code.  Why are you so adamantly for it?

[Maybe42or54]

And it gives those Rangers a chance at earnin' respect when they are the only one in a group of warriors that knows where the hell they are going.

[Xamminy]

The problem is, you can still get lost when following a ranger.  The rangers in the group are the only ones that won't get lost.

While I love the fact that rangers are made actually valuable in the wilds, some of the somewhat unrealistic executions of this code do bother me.

[Maybe42or54]

Really? I havn't seen that.
Xygax said something to the opposite, didn't he?
I believe him, from experience and his word.

[Delirium]

If you're directly following a ranger you won't get lost.

[fearwig]

I want to make my complaint clear:

I am walking in a tunnel with no intersections in sight. Suddenly, my torch goes out. I start walking the same way I've been walking.

Now, if I relight my torch, I have moved X random steps in random directions, putting me (on average) right back where I was. In a TWO WAY TUNNEL.

Which indicates to me that the code itself could use some rethinking, that's all. If it's screwy on this scale, it's similarly screwy on a larger, wilderness/storm scale. I do, however, think it should be easier to get lost in the dark or a storm if there are 4+ allowed directons.

[jhunter]

Hrrrmm, if it's not already taken into account that sort of code should take into account the number of exits when generating whether or not you'll get lost.

Makes sense to me.

[Nidhogg]

With 0 visibility, when being buffetted by a high wind, I would think getting turned around is a viable possibility.

[jhunter]

Right but if you've a rock wall on one side of you all you have to do is keep it on one side of you and you can keep on in a certain direction.

Out in the wide open I can see it, but not when you've something that you can stay close to by touch even to keep on your path.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I remember a hallway in game where you got turned around without a torch.  Has nothing to do with storms, though as it was indoors.

[jmordetsky]

With 0 visibility, when being buffetted by a high wind, I would think getting turned around is a viable possibility.

You would be aware though...

a better algo for this code might be something along the lines of:

walk original direction

if storm fail { randomly select new direction that is not a direct oppisite to original direction n,s,e,w)

walk new direction

if new direction fails (ie: 'you cannot go that way' then)

walk original direction with no chance to fail.

This would also better represent the gradual curve that would occur if you out in an open space.

Another thing to conisder is your ability to cling to cliff face.

If I'm walking e along the shield wall in a storm, and the north is blocked but the south is open, I shouldn't get turned south when my east walk fails.

[fearwig]

As I said, the indoor room (sewers of Allanak, to be specific) that I mentioned at the top of this page wasn't storm-related, but darkness-related, which I'm assuming is similar code. I'm pretty sure that's global darkness code that has you move in completely random directons, not just area-specific code.

[Xygax]

I am walking in a tunnel with no intersections in sight. Suddenly, my torch goes out. I start walking the same way I've been walking.
Now, if I relight my torch, I have moved X random steps in random directions, putting me (on average) right back where I was. In a TWO WAY TUNNEL.

Having been speelunking, I find this entirely believable.

[Xygax]

I'm sure that if you spend enough time on this, you can come up with a thousand examples of where the code is flawed with respect to storms, and with respect to darkness.  The intent of the code isn't necessarily to be entirely believable, but instead to create a framework for you to play with.  If you're wandering around in a pitch-black tunnel without a torch, don't be surprised if you get lost (or eaten by a grue)...  the code represents this by causing you to wander in a random direction, sometimes bumping into a wall, sometimes moving 180 degrees the wrong way...  the code isn't perfect, but it achieves its goal which is to make you buy a torch.  Essentially the same code causes wandering in the wilderness during storms (it isn't, in fact, the same code, but one was probably cut and pasted from the other); the intent of that code is to make you bring a ranger.

Neither of these systems is really meant to be perfect.  There are a thousand tiny elements of the game which aren't exactly represented by the code, and you are expected to smooth those "bumps" with your RP.  I don't think either of these systems are unplayable, or unROLEplayable, and they both seem to be achieving what they're meant to achieve, which is to inconvenience (or injure, or kill) the unprepared and to define specific roles and boundaries (ie. if you try to make X be your lifestyle, you may face danger Y).

-- X

[DejaVu]

With 0 visibility, when being buffetted by a high wind, I would think getting turned around is a viable possibility.

I don't think getting completely turned around is viable. If you're walking into the wind, I'm sure you'll notice if the wind is blowing your hood up against your head instead of off of it. I could see turning to the side, because it wouldn't be AS noticeable.

I'm in favor of not going in the completely opposite direction. I think that is the only revision of the "lost" code I think should be warranted.

And even then it's not that big of a deal to me, It's fine the way it is, and I can only see it getting better if you can't go directly the opposite direction.

Also, maybe if the winds are harsh, you could attempt heading North, stumble and fall because of the winds and lack of visibility, and when you get up try heading North again, but because of your tumble you COULD be turned around then. That would make more sense to me.

Heading North, you can go North, East, or West, but not South. However, if you are knocked over by the winds/something on the ground, you can then go in any direction.

[Maybe42or54]

What is around you?
If the wind changes direction, and you know that you were going with the wind, wouldn't you go with the wind still?

[joyofdiscord]

I don't think getting completely turned around is viable. If you're walking into the wind, I'm sure you'll notice if the wind is blowing your hood up against your head instead of off of it. I could see turning to the side, because it wouldn't be AS noticeable.

Yaarrgh!!   People, in real life, you do not walk on rails fixed to cardinal directions.  Your direction can gradually change.  Furthermore, as 4254 points out, winds change.  Also, a western wind does not mean a constant, unidirectional wind like from a stationary desk fan.  Wind eddies form in all but the most unobstructed terrain.  They whip and make the wind feel like it is constantly changing.  Western wind means prevailing western wind.  Ever seen someone do that deal where they moisten their fingertip and hold it up into the wind.  That's because just the subjective idea of how the wind feels is often not enough to determine the prevailing wind.  You have to see which side of the finger dries out faster to determine that.  Ever seen a windsock outside?  It whips and jumps and falls, but -generally- points in the same direction.

In a blinding sandstorm, you CAN and WILL get turned around, and you WILL NOT notice it.

Also, maybe if the winds are harsh, you could attempt heading North, stumble and fall because of the winds and lack of visibility, and when you get up try heading North again, but because of your tumble you COULD be turned around then. That would make more sense to me.

Coding nightmare.  There are reasons that Diku MUDS have few features that take into account past events.  Pretend you fell over, if you must.

Heading North, you can go North, East, or West.

As I've previously pointed out, if only N, E, and W are possibilities, E and W will statistically cancel each other out and you will probably continue exactly how you want to.  And, again, characters do not move on rails.

People, people.  This thread has a few people with actual experiences...:

Having been speelunking, I find (having trouble moving in a tunnel in the darkness) entirely believable.

...plus a bunch of other people offering "common sense" type explanations of how moving around in the pitch black or in a blinding sandstorm is easy as pie.

Want to know the truth, folks?  The current lose-your-way code is realistically TOO GENTLE.  I've written some programs with random movement algorithms, and when it's a simple choice of N,S,E,W on each move, with no consideration of the previous move, you mostly end up bouncing around a bit in the same area.  Realistically, you should end up VERY far away from where you want to be when you get lost.

[Maybe42or54]

Oh and as for not being able to get turned around in wind.
That is possible, I used to go with my dad as he was a Geo surveyor (Or what have you) and one day with not even bad winds, but a lot of sand, we were practically going in a circle, even walking back on our feet prints.

Let us say you get off track and want to retrace your steps, you follow your steps for a ways, but then when they get erased by the sand, do you believe that you were on a straight line, or do you try and correct your direction? Even a little.

[HardCarbon]

I don't think getting completely turned around is viable. If you're walking into the wind, I'm sure you'll notice if the wind is blowing your hood up against your head instead of off of it. I could see turning to the side, because it wouldn't be AS noticeable.

Errr

From the docs:

The wind can sometimes reach up to 90 miles per hour (roughly 150 km/h in real life), building into enormous gales across the flat wastes.

""Andrew was the most costly US storm on record with total losses of $26.5 billion, $1 billion of which was in Louisiana while the rest was in Florida. Winds gusted at over 175mph and had sustained strengths of 145mph. At least 180,000 people were left homeless, 126,000 homes destroyed or damaged, over 50 people killed as a direct or indirect effect of the storm and at least 10,400 injured.

How does something with such monstrous potential acquire such an innocuous name?

Well, lets go back to the beginning. Tropical cyclones, (or tropical storms) (wind speeds between 39mph and 74 mph) or hurricanes (wind speeds of 75mph and above) form within seven regions around the world called 'basins'.  Source http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/understanding/hurricane_names.shtml
""


Note that's 90 MPH on a 'normal' storm... So basicly your in a sandblaster.... barely able to stand.. unable to walk against the wind.. flying sand scouring the skin from your body... being struck by flying crap moving at 90 MPH... hell be glad it doesn't do DAMAGE let alone turn you around.

[Moofassa]

Yeah, i myself have always had a problem about getting -completely turned around. I think you would notice, if you were walking against high, sand blasting winds, and then, all of a sudden, it was hitting your back.

I think in the city and outside should be two different codes. Say, outside in the desert you could be taken NE or SW of the north room you were trying to go to, which would spice it up a little more. And indoors it should stick to the same one room majobber.

[Northlander]

Sand tends to hit you from every direction at once when there's bad weather, but yes, you would notice it - if you were a ranger. This is sand that bleeds your eyes. If you're not extremely used to it, you won't exactly be double-checking your direction.

In pitch-black one-way tunnels, it'd be neat to have one's chance of being turned around lowered just a tiny, tiny bit. But as that probably isn't very feasible codewise, we'll have to make do with what we have. It's still something that happens a lot more easily than your common sense would have you believe.

[fearwig]

That would be entirely feasible, code-wise.


Anyway, based on what someone said earlier:


I think that the worst of storms -should- do damage, and that the 'getting turned around' bit should be toned down seriously. While I think it should be a factor, it's not a realistically implemented one at this point.

The climate of Zalanthas closely mimics that of Arrakis, save that it was more extreme in Dune. People didn't stay out in bad weather because the flying debris would eat them alive, not so much because they'd get a little confused.

I don't think every storm should be like that, but I think that the worst of them should be. Milder storms should perhaps obscure your vision such that you have a 25-50% chance of getting sent NW/NE instead of N, and so forth. While NE and NW aren't standard directions in Arm from what I can tell, it can be coded as an extra direction added onto the coded one (excluding the opposite direction, S in this case). Extra stamina would be expended to allow for the confusion.

[Northlander]

Would you have the darkness code merely react with leniency on all indoor and cave rooms, or also base the percentages on available ordinarily visible exits?

Having more than one level of blinding sand storm isn't bad, and would be nice. One could also give even ordinary non-blinding storms a chance of putting you off-course.

A change that I'll idea as soon as I can get into the game is for any indication that one went the wrong way to be removed, so that one can well and truly get lost through code.

[joyofdiscord]

A change that I'll idea as soon as I can get into the game is for any indication that one went the wrong way to be removed, so that one can well and truly get lost through code.

Word.  Now this is a cool idea.   :twisted:

[HardCarbon]

The climate of Zalanthas closely mimics that of Arrakis, save that it was more extreme in Dune. People didn't stay out in bad weather because the flying debris would eat them alive, not so much because they'd get a little confused.

 Well not really   Arrakis had  Mach+ storm speeds.. that's hundreds of miles an hour...

[fearwig]

Right, hence "save that it was more extreme in Dune".

My point is essentially that the kind of "oh man, these storms are so bad you'll get confused exactly 100% of the time, every time you step!" logic would almost surely have to include physical harm, if the storms were -really- that bad. I'd rather see a balance between the two factors.

[Xygax]

Right, hence "save that it was more extreme in Dune".

My point is essentially that the kind of "oh man, these storms are so bad you'll get confused exactly 100% of the time, every time you step!" logic would almost surely have to include physical harm, if the storms were -really- that bad. I'd rather see a balance between the two factors.

Yes, it would.  Luckily the storm code -doesn't- work this way.

[Kennath]

I don't mind being lost in the desert. Don't care if Imms make bets on when I'll die or whatever it is that their hopeing is gonna happen. I just wish that the look command could tell you if a blinding sand storm was RIGHT THERE!

[Maybe42or54]

Use this command "Weather n"

[Ghost]

I don't mind being lost in the desert. Don't care if Imms make bets on when I'll die or whatever it is that their hopeing is gonna happen. I just wish that the look command could tell you if a blinding sand storm was RIGHT THERE!

You can see if there is a storm or not in the next room by using weather command.

Weather north/south/east/west (or simply n s e w)

See help weather for it.

[Kennath]

I dont want to "look n" (enter) "look e" (enter) "look w" (enter) "look s" (enter) "weather n" (enter) "weather e" (enter) "weather w" (enter) "weather s" (enter)
look should give you a SMALL hint theres a storm your walking blindly into I mean, and it shouldn't take you that long to figure it out...
unless that is what you plan to make travel slower...

[Ghost]

Hmm.. But you know Kennath, you can use some macro.  I am not someone in favor of macros but at least I use a few of them and one of them to "look around".  Make a button somewhere it will make "l n;l s;l e;l w" as you press it, and then just make a weather <direction you want to walk>.  Just checking the direction you are heading will do, since you are headed to that direction.

It really is not a big trouble, so long it is just pressing a button and checking the weather.

[Maybe42or54]

Well, when you are about to cross into a new area of the map, Go "Weather (direction where you are going)"

[Agent_137]

You're traveling about a league per outside room.

Slow down, take a look around. It'll do you safer in the long run.

If you're charging blindly along without checking around, you deserve to run headlong into critters and sandstorms.