Thunderstorms

[Portal Rat]

This is purely aesthetic, but I can't imagine that it's terribly difficult to implement.

The weather on the Archipelago is kind of, well... dull. I recently played through the official campaign with a friend, and was disappointed to discover that the storms in there are more convincing than the ones on EfU:A.

Specifically, there was intermittent use of the low, rumbling distant thunder sound, along with occasional lightning flashes (where the whole screen goes white for a split second), coupled with the loud crashing BANG! of a good solid thunderclap. I've never seen any of this put to use in the EfU:A module, and the weather is a fairly important part of the Archipelago experience.

One of the things I love most about EfU:A is the care that the designers put into the player experience. I can only guess that this is some kind of oversight, and at least for me, making the weather feel more menacing would greatly enhance the degree of my immersion in the setting. The rain, as it is, seems canned.

[TheImpossibleDream]

Hrm I don't recall any of that from the original, SoU or HotU campaign, but I haven't played it in almost double digit years now. What section of the game has those in it?

[Portal Rat]

It was one of the outdoor areas in the first campaign. I'm thinking it was Chapter 1E.

[ScottyB]

The official campaign has the advantage of being static. If a chapter takes place during a storm then it can be perfectly tailored. That area is always going to be stormy to they can paint special sound placeables, crank up the area lightning, etc.

We could create @Areas that are always stormy and have this level of detail, but in areas where the weather changes this would be much more difficult to implement. I think there was a massive undertaking to make sure that when you transition between nearby areas that the weather is consistent. That was something actually immersion-breaking.

[The Old Hack]

One of the things that impressed me when I first came here was how the weather would be consistent over large areas. On my old server, it wasn't, you could go from rain to sun and back as you passed through areas. As Beam me Up Scotty says, it was quite immersion-breaking.

On the other hand, you could make a quest area where the weather was always threatening and gloomy with thunder in the background, and that might be a really cool thing.

(At one point on my old server, we had a thunderstorm script that allowed for a small chance of a PC actually being hit by lightning during storms. However, it checked for that 'small chance' so often that it ultimately turned into 'virtual certainty'. This led to some memorable situtations. One was right after the script was implemented. A friend of mine was playing a new character on his first quest, and the guy said, "How exciting! My very first adventure!" The moment after, KABOOOOM and he was dead. Then there was the time my half orc warrior was fighting undead and without warning got hit by lightning, sending him from full positive HP to -153 HP -- a record I have not broken since. And there was also the time one of our server's good clerics was berating our most notorious evil cleric for his misdeeds, this smack in the middle of the town square. He just finished telling him, "In the end, the Gods will make you pay for your crimes!" Then KABOOOOOM -- and the good cleric was struck dead...)

[Howlando]

We could certainly improve this.

[tspawn35]

I have seen lightning once in game. but no thunder. I think it would be cool to see lighnin and thunder from time to time. That's the only thing I would think would be cool

[Portal Rat]

Yeah, I'm not talking about a big revamp of the weather system, I'm just saying it would be nice to mix in some of the other storm sounds and effects to the weather that's already there. Just throw in some triggers that fire off a few random effects every now and again and it's golden.

EDIT: Somehow I missed The Old Hack's post. Hilarious stuff, that.

[GreenSkinEFU]

Just brainstorming, what about A big storm that moves in and Stays for a week or to,some sounds could be placed maybe most npc's moved inside for a time,then when storm ends it gets set back. Kinda' like a extended Event thing and stuffs maybe.

And on the permanent weather, A side of the Island might get more rain than the other(like Hawaii),So there could be a Jungle that is always raining.
 
But the Dms have probably thought of this stuff.

[Divine Intervention]

I like the idea of bigger more realistic storms, I don't really like the sound of insta death lightning, I mean in DM storms I've been hit before but nothing that kills you outright.

[Shotzie]

I remember places in the UD, in lower, where lighting strikes was part of the thrill of walking those dark alleys.

[The Old Hack]

It is probably worth mentioning that the dev on my old server who made these lightning storms was not very popular and eventually walked off in a sulk. And that players were getting good and tired of all the lightning strike deaths by the time he did.

[Bearic]

One of the things that impressed me when I first came here was how the weather would be consistent over large areas. On my old server, it wasn't, you could go from rain to sun and back as you passed through areas. As Beam me Up Scotty says, it was quite immersion-breaking.
 
On the other hand, you could make a quest area where the weather was always threatening and gloomy with thunder in the background, and that might be a really cool thing.
 
(At one point on my old server, we had a thunderstorm script that allowed for a small chance of a PC actually being hit by lightning during storms. However, it checked for that 'small chance' so often that it ultimately turned into 'virtual certainty'. This led to some memorable situtations. One was right after the script was implemented. A friend of mine was playing a new character on his first quest, and the guy said, "How exciting! My very first adventure!" The moment after, KABOOOOM and he was dead. Then there was the time my half orc warrior was fighting undead and without warning got hit by lightning, sending him from full positive HP to -153 HP -- a record I have not broken since. And there was also the time one of our server's good clerics was berating our most notorious evil cleric for his misdeeds, this smack in the middle of the town square. He just finished telling him, "In the end, the Gods will make you pay for your crimes!" Then KABOOOOOM -- and the good cleric was struck dead...)

 That is awesome! Right, some what impractical, I suppose.
 
 I like GreenSkinEFU's idea too; we need a hurricane!! Yeah, flood the docks! We could literally fight the storm with those corporal mist monsters, or water and air elementals.

[Letsplayforfun]

Improving storm feeling, certainly. If we could have hurricanes and twisters, too, that'd be neat.

Randomnly striking PCs to death, on the other hand, would probably not get popular approval.

But if you enjoy it, The Old Hack, i'm sure we can personnalize very local lightning strikes on your pcs...

[Disco]

Coral cove quest need more lightning imo.