Active Sandstorms

[Rhyden]

Currently, sandstorms are kind of harsh if you're not a ranger or someone with direction sense.
If you get stuck in a sandstorm, or if there is a sandstorm in your way, it could mean you have
to wait anywhere between ten minutes to a couple hours IRL for them to go away. This is kind of
a drag. If sandstorms could be coded in a more realistic and "active" fashion, players wouldn't
have to wait as long for them to end, and they could be a great role-play device.


Let's say O is non-stormy and X is stormy. An example of your current sandstorm:

Code Select Expand

OOOOOOXXXXXXX            <--- This sandstorm is very linear. Generally the O area will remain
OOOOOOXXXXXXX                 clear while the X area will either get stormier, or clearer in
OOOOOOXXXXXXX                 a matter of time.
OOOOOOXXXXXXX


What I'm suggesting is a more mobile, live sandstorm that would move in the direction the wind
is blowing, replicating a real-life sandstorm that generally lasts for only a few minutes in
one particular area. The faster the winds are blowing, the faster the sandstorm would move.
For my example, the wind would be blowing west, in a fierce sand storm.

Code Select Expand

OOOOOOOXXXXOO                    OOOOOXXXXOOOO                    OOOXXXXOOOOOO
OOOOOOOXXXXOO  (2-3 mins later)  OOOOOXXXXOOOO  (2-3 mins later)  OOOXXXXOOOOOO
OOOOOOOXXXXOO                    OOOOOXXXXOOOO                    OOOXXXXOOOOOO
OOOOOOOXXXXOO                    OOOOOXXXXOOOO                    OOOXXXXOOOOOO

The sandstorm is on the move. It is more active, more realistic, and is over much quicker than
the current sandstorm code, depending on how fast the wind is blowing. Characters can still rp
hunkering down for the sandstorm like they can currently, or they can try their direction sense
skill to either move with or against the sandstorm in order to get out of it.

If this can be coded, I believe it would be a great addition on an IC and OOC level.

[spacewars]

I really like this idea

[Wasteland Raider]

While this may be a possibility for 2.Arm, the current iteration of the game is split into "zones," as a stock DIKU MUD might be. So rooms 1000-1999 are Z1, 2000-2999 are Z2, 3000-3999 are Z3, etc.

Let's say Allanak is Zone 1, the wilderness around Allanak is Zone 2, and the wilderness around Red Storm is Zone 3. Storms are zone-wide; they're not location-based entities. So when you are waaaaaaay west of Red Storm on the border of zone 2 and zone 3, as soon as you step into Zone 3, you've got a massive blinding sandstorm to contend with... and then when you're miles and miles away, as SOON as you step into zone 3 on the very far east of Red Storm... you've got the same sandstorm.

It'd be a pretty massive rewrite to get 'realistic' sandstorms in. Awesome, yes, but way beyond a simple little coding project.

[Barsook]

I dig it too, but yeah, for Arm2.

[Rhyden]

Oh right, I forgot about Diku and Arm 2. My bad. Continue with the annoying sandstorm code.

[AmandaGreathouse]

Yah, I was about to say, I really like your idea, but given how scattered rooms built with the area number of the storm might be, it would be really weird to have all the sandstorms in all those places be linear or whatever.

I still like your idea though. <3<3<3

[Synthesis]

You could probably hack together a shitty wandering local sandstorm by creating a monster object, making it completely invisible and non-interactable, and coding a "sandstorm" spell effect for it that is always active.  You could then take several of these and station them in adjacent rooms, and possibly use the SimDesert code to have them move around at intervals.

[Yam]

Better yet, make the mob visible. And aggro.

[Kismetic]

And give it disarm

[BleakOne]

And carru bash.

[Delirium]

Looking past the gates with a foreboding shake of his head, the craggy, grey-haired man says, in sirihish:
     "Killer sandstorm out there today."

The tall, muscular dwarf says, in sirihish:
     "its ok i have sunslits"

The tall, muscular dwarf walks east.

You hear someone cry out from the east.

Letting out a long-suffering sigh, the craggy, grey-haired man says, in sirihish:
     "They never listen."

[Malken]

[Zoltan]

Looking past the gates with a foreboding shake of his head, the craggy, grey-haired man says, in sirihish:
     "Killer sandstorm out there today."

The tall, muscular dwarf says, in sirihish:
     "its ok i have sunslits"

The tall, muscular dwarf walks east.

You hear someone cry out from the east.

Letting out a long-suffering sigh, the craggy, grey-haired man says, in sirihish:
     "They never listen."

I just lol'd myself irl.