My own little sandstorm rant

[Jarod550]

I've noticed that there are sandstorms sometimes for IG weeks, I understand we are supposed to be on such a "harsh" world, but come on.  At least make the ratio in the weather a little more conducive to the players and so everyone doesn't have to be a ranger just to find their way along a rock road.


Just my little rant.

Jarod

[Rindan]

I don't mind the constant sandstorms.  What I would like to see is making it so that getting lost in a sandstorm is a little less harsh.  As it stands, if you step outside of the city gates and forget to check the weather,  you are pretty much screwed if the sandstorm doesn't let up.

A nice alternative to this would be to make it so that sandstorms only screw up your movement say 20% of the time.  This way, if you head in a general direction you will more or less get there.  If you know the land well enough, you might be able to ride through a sandstorm from Allanak to Luir's, it will just take some time and involve a LOT of backtracking.  Just reduce how often the sandstorm makes non-rangers lost and I think the change would be very much playable, even with week long sandstorms.

[Jarod550]

Or maybe make it easier if you're on the established roads to keep your bearings, I can see if you get lost, tumbling from dune to dune, but if I'm walking on a road, and I get lost by some dust, Give me a break!


Jarod

[Pantoufle]

I think there ought to be different types of equipment that increase the chance for (non-rangers) to maneuver through a sandstorm, like sunslits and hiking boots for instance.

[jstorrie]

A sandstorm isn't some dust. A sandstorm is shit-tons of grit, whipping around your face at over ninety miles an hour, cutting into your skin. Forcing you to keep your eyes nearly shut. Covering the road in half a foot of sand, until you can't tell the difference between Along The North Road and Twelve Miles Into Githland.

If you can't deal with sandstorms at all, make Tuluki city characters. The weather up there isn't as bad and the city walls keep most of it out. Otherwise, tough it out.

[Bestatte]

http://www.weatherquestions.com/sandstorm.jpg

That's a sandstorm. If you're walking in the middle of one, don't expect to find your way out any time soon.

[Halaster]

As it stands, if you step outside of the city gates and forget to check the weather,  you are pretty much screwed if the sandstorm doesn't let up.

Probably not the answer you want, but this still may be helpful.  Don't forget you can check the weather in the next room, by typing:  weather <direction> .   For example:  weather north.

So, you could check the weather just outside the gates before proceeding out them.

[Rindan]

Probably not the answer you want, but this still may be helpful.  Don't forget you can check the weather in the next room, by typing:  weather <direction> .   For example:  weather north.

So, you could check the weather just outside the gates before proceeding out them.

That is true, but it won't change the fact that if the weather suddenly changes while you are out and it decides it isn't going to change back any time soon you are pretty much d00med.  I don't have a big problem with a sandstorm ruining your whole day if you get caught in one, but I would prefer it not to be an instant death sentence.  As it stands, if a sandstorm hits you while you are out, and you are not a ranger, there is nothing to be done.  To add trouble to troubles, the inability to quit outdoors basically means that you are locked into the MUD until either the sandstorm lets up, or you simply resign your character to die and log off.

On the other hand, if you simply made it so that you fail to move in a certain direction say 20%-30% of the time, a sandstorm is still very bad and potentially a death sentence, but at least you can do something other then just sit down and let the MUD idle in the hopes that the sandstorm goes away before you die.  In this instance you can try to walk in a certain direction.  Sure, you will back track and turn around a lot still, but statistically you will keep moving at least roughly in the direction you are trying to move.  It might take many times longer to get where you are going, and if you don't know the land you will likely get lost, but at least there is something you can do.  

I don't mind sandstorms being harsh, but instant death that can suddenly appear to any non-ranger in the wilderness is a bit harsh.  It makes being anything but a ranger in areas hit by sandstorms a game of Russian roulette that you eventually WILL loose, especially if you can't sit at the computer for RL days waiting for a sandstorm to go away.

[Pantoufle]

Rindan has said exactly what I've been thinking.  I don't have the need to venture out of doors in my present incarnation, but last time I played a non-ranger who ever needed to go even one step outside, I found the sandstorm code relentless.  

Playability should never be sacrificed for realism, and you can shove all your ideals of "Harsh" down my throat or show me photo clips of what a real sandstorm looks like, that's not the point.  Not being able to logout when you're a mere 3 rooms outside the city gates (hardly what I would call "deep wilderness") is!

[Tarx]

Well, I'm not sure how this ranger code stuff works.  At first, I couldn't really "navigate" a sandstorm.  After a few weeks playing, it wasn't so bad.  I couldn't technically see anything in the really bad ones, but I wasn't "stumbling around" lost.

The way I dealt with it was to have my char never stray far from the city he was at.  If a sandstorm sprung up, he'd try to maneuver back to the city and get inside.  The key to surviving the bad sandstorms (in daylight--if it was night you were just screwed) was knowing WHERE I was in relation to the city, exactly.

And desert quit ain't that bad either.  But yeah, I complained about the sandstorms in a particular area for a while until my char was getting more used to them.  Then I didn't worry about them so much--they became a part of life that was dangerous but an acceptable danger that I knew how to deal with now.

[Maybe42or54]

I wouldn't mind a 30% chance of the winds skrewing up your direction, but if so, I think it shouldn't tell you that you get confused and went the wrong way. Know what I mean?

[Anonymous]

I think 2 changes to the weather code would be nice.  First some sort of chance that your PC sees the bad weather coming and secondly when wind changes direction there should always be a drop in wind speed.  I'm no Zalanthan meteorologist but my faint understanding of Earth's climate says that winds coming from a different direction are generated by a totally different source hence maintaining speed is unlikely.

I'd also like to see wind speeds drop before wind changes direction since I believe it takes a decrease in wind speed for a new prevailing wind.

[Agent_137]

sandstorms should not be near constant.

I hate having a character from red storm who goes, ALL THE TIME, "Man, this reminds me of home."

[Delirium]

Didn't I just post these?

http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11999
http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12820
http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12930
http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13697
http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12952

[Cuusardo]

I think it would be really cool if there would be some kind of warning that a sandstorm is approaching, so people would know to get the hell out of there and find safety.  Like if there was a storm on the horizon you'd get a message like:

"A terrible sandstorm approaches from the south."

After seeing that, any smart person would hightail it away from the storm, and have a much better chance of not getting caught in it.

[Agent_137]

I think it would be really cool if there would be some kind of warning that a sandstorm is approaching, so people would know to get the hell out of there and find safety.  Like if there was a storm on the horizon you'd get a message like:

"A terrible sandstorm approaches from the south."

After seeing that, any smart person would hightail it away from the storm, and have a much better chance of not getting caught in it.

does this achieve the same purpose, or are you looking for something more specific?

Code Select Expand


weather south
weather
think Sandstorm to the south, and the wind's blowing this way. Fuck.

[Larrath]

In the end, I can see sandstorms as uninteractable NPC-like creatures that move around according on how the wind is blowing, with the room they're in the eye of the storm and each room away being one degree worse, so if you're in a room with the storm you're blinded, if you step outside you're pelted with sand, another step away it's stinging sand, another it's just sweeping sand, and then nothing.
Some storms would be bigger of course, with larger eyes and further-reaching effects.

And when we checked Weather in a direction - "you see a mild storm far to the south".

Not nearly as simple as it sounds, I'm sure, but that's how I think it will be in a couple of years from now.