Environment & Weather Systems Overhaul Concept

Gidorick

ESO is easily one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. The aesthetics of Tamriel are spot on and ZOS has created a world that I want to spend my time in. I have yet to visit all the corner of all the lands of the zones that have been opened in Tamriel. Many of the decisions that were made regarding the design of the world couldn’t have been better, many seem curious, others seem outright wrong. Following is a list of enhancements that would remedy some of environmental quirks.

Contents:

• Dynamic Weather Enhancements
• Night Enhancements
• Day/Night Length Adjustment
• Following the Calendar
• The Main Problem

TL/DNR: Synchronized Dynamic Weather that increases view distance by receding fog in nice weather. Darker, more dangerous, more immersive nights. Change day and night to 10 hour days so that 1 Tamriel year can equal 5 Earth months. Implement holidays so holiday items can be added to the Crown Store to pay for this, and other, updates.

Dynamic Weather Enhancements

The weather in Tamriel is wonderful. I equally love to experience storms and bright sunny days. There are, however, a few issues.

1. Synchronization of Weather: The weather for one player really should be the weather for all players in the zone. Gone should be the days of playing in a group and one member is experiencing a thunderstorm and another is experiencing a bright and sunny day. Having this simple enhancement would open the game up for some game-changing mechanics such as…
2. Time and Weather Dependent Fog: While fog in Tamriel seemed to serve as a means to compensate for technical limitations, I have had my eyes opened by the ESO Launcher/SweetFX programs. Having no fog in the world changes the scope and feel of ESO’s Tamriel in an amazingly positive way. Alik’r desert without fog is gorgeous.
   
   However, not having fog has allowed me to appreciate the fog as a tool for creating environmental tone. Fog really needs to be used to enhance ESO, not just blur out the distance.
   • If it is a sunny and bright day, the world should have very little/very distant fog or no fog at all
   • If it is storming and raining, the world should have heavier/dense fog.
   • Night storms should produce denser fog than day storms.
   • If a storm arose during the night, the fog should remain through dawn, creating foggy mornings.
   • Overcast shouldn’t necessarily produce fog, but it should be possible.
   • A fog slider should be added for players to increase the maximum distance the fog will retreat. This will allow players who experience performance hits to decrease the fog distance to improve performance. For these players, the closest fog distance will be the same as all other players but, as the fog recedes, their fog would recede more slowly than those that have their fog distance set to maximum.
   

I made an independent thread about this HERE.

Night Enhancements
To be honest, I had planned to have a section for Day Enhancements but I truly feel the day environments are just about perfect in Tamriel. The appearance of the sun, the movement of the shadows, and the skybox are all wonderfully designed and constructed. There is nothing I could imagine that would make the days of Tamriel better than they are. Well, except for fog removal, as mentioned above.

Opposed to day, night in Tamriel actually leaves quite a bit to be desired. There are a few enhancements that should be made to make the night play significantly different than the day in Tamriel.

• Darker nights: First and foremost, Tamriel needs darker nights, depending on the cloud cover.
  • The current night brightness should be the setting for bright nights with clear sparkling skies.
  • The darkest the night should be a stormy night with completely covered skies.
  • Darkness should vary naturally from the brightness night to the darkest night, dependent on cloud cover.
  
  
  While it would make sense for the brightness of the night to be effected by the phases of Masser and Secunda, I think it would be too much to ask to have both weather and moon-phase to impact the brightness of the night.
  
• More dangerous night wilderness: To go along with darker nights, each and every citizen of Tamriel should experience more dangerous nights. Certain beasts, such as wolves, should be more abundant at night and there should be some night-specific creatures such as ghosts. This could be a way to introduce zone wide (or at least area wide) creatures.
  
  Imagine a ghost that appears at night on the shores of Greenshade, we don’t know where, but legend has the ghost walking along the shore. The player can attack the ghost and kill it every night if they wish but then there are books and clues along the shore that gives the player clues as to what happened to the ghost and how to go about laying its soul to rest.
  
• Towns shut down at night: With the justice system, it would amazing to have NPCs that go home and go to bed. Players, if they so desire, could break into homes and burgle homes and merchant carts throughout the night. To make up for the lack of NPCs in town there could be a heavier guard presence at night. There should be a couple of 24 hour merchants available, such as the Bartender, Outlaw Den’s merchants, Traveling Merchants, and Guild Merchants.
  
  There was a thread that included these types of concepts from @Neizir that can be found HERE.
  
• Two moon reflection: The fact that there is only one moon reflecting on the surface of the water when there are two moons seems like a gross oversight in the environmental design of ESO, especially considering the careful attention paid to the majority of the rest of the environment.
  
  I made an independent thread about this HERE.

Day/Night Length Adjustment

The total amount of time it should take for one day/night cycle on Nirn should 10 of our hours. this would mean every Earth-day=2.4 Nirn-days. More on why later.

While the difference in length between the day and the night in ESO isn’t exactly unrealistic, ESO includes mechanics for Werewolf and Vampires that could involve more interesting night elements and, when considering the above suggestions for night enhancements, night should offer a completely different level of gameplay.

There are two options of enhancing the day/night cycle.

• Equal Day/Night Lengths: Adjust the length of day and night to be the same length of time, giving equal time for creatures of the day and creatures of the night. This would offer an even “fair for everyone” approach to the length of the day and night.
• Variable Day/Night Lengths: Dynamically adjust the length of the day and night to change over time. At one point the day is longer, then the day and night equals out, then the night is longer than the day. This would also be “fair for everyone” but over a long period of time.

I personally prefer the Variable Day/Night length concept as it would make it so players that have bonuses at night would have a period of time that they have an advantage and a period of time they have a disadvantage. Using this concept, the maximum difference between day and night should be 2 hours. This would allow the maximum different of a 10 hour day to be 4 hours day/ 6 hours night on one end and 6 hours day/4 hours night on the other.

Following the Calendar

Using a 10 hour Tamrielic day we arrive at a 365 day Tamriel year clocking in at just about 5 months. If this were the case, in 10 years we would have 24 Tamriel years pass. This isn’t an unrealistic amount of time to have passed in an MMO’s ‘lifespan’. If ESO turns out to be wildly successful and lasts for 20 years, only 48 years would have passed on Tamriel. Being that ESO takes place in 2E 582 and Tiber Septim wasn’t born until 2E 828, there are over 250 years of the Faction War that can be fought. If each of those years takes 5 months we have 104 earth years before “lore” becomes an issue. Lol.

Within each 5 month year we would see a complete day/night cycle, taking approximately 5 weeks to shift between a Solstice and an Equinox.

• Summer Solstice (6 hours day/4 hours night)
• Fall Equinox (5 hours day/5 hours night)
• Winter Solstice (4 hours day/6 hours night)
• Spring Equinox (5 hours day/5 hours night)

ZOS could decide to have every nirn-day shift in length just a tiny bit (about 1.43 minutes) to be as realistic as possible, or just have the day-light extend/constrict by 24 minutes every week. Either way, the end result would be the same: a variable, dynamic day/night cycle.

Additionally, we could finally have exact day/month of each Tamrielic day in ESO. We could know that the current day is Middas, Second Seed the 14th. Why would THIS be helpful? Well, aside from guild event scheduling and the creation of ESO clocks, it would allow ZOS to incorporate the Tamrelic holidays that so many players are longing for, but in a realistic way that has absolutely no adherence to the Gregorian calendar.

For the 10 hours that is Morning Star the 12th, the people of the Alik’r Desert could offer prayers to Stendaar. Shops could be closed in observance of the holiday and NPCs could be seen praying at the temple and all Redguard players could get a buff on that day.

For the 10 hours that is Frostfall the 13th, also known as the Witches Festival, the Mage’s Guild could offer a ½ off sale, as is tradition. Also, as is tradition, the night of Frostfall the 13th should be filled with an unusual amount of summoned creatures.

Certain festivals could last longer than the day they are on. Just as in our world, people in Tamriel like to Celebrate their favorite holidays for more than just the one day. They could celebrate a holiday an entire week (about 3 days) or even a whole month (about 12 days)! Festivals could be regionalized and they could include sales, contests, and player items could all be part of the festivities. If a player misses their favorite holiday, that’s ok… it’s coming back around in 5 months.

The Main Problem
The main issue with all of these enhancements is quite simply how to pay for the man-hours it would take to make these enhancements? These enhancements would have to lead directly to items that could be purchasable in the Crown Store such as Torch Bundles, Lanterns, and Lantern Oil.

By following the Calendar, ZOS would open up multiple monthly events that could have their own specific Crown Store items. These items could be offered for the one specific month that houses the holiday and not be offered again until the holiday comes around again. These holiday items could be added to regularly and would offer a ‘limited time offer’ dynamic to the Crown Store.

The only aspect of this suggestion that couldn’t be directly monetized is the Dynamic Weather Enhancements. I couldn't come up with a Crown Store item that would be beneficial to the player in different weather conditions as weather is a purely aesthetic mechanic and has no direct impact on gameplay.

Making these changes to ESO would dramatically increase immersion of each and every play session.

Thoughts?

MasterFUNG_ESO

I like all of your ideas. Why we currently have a /torch emote that dissapears with one step makes no sense to me at all. Torches should be implemented as items for use or at least a lantern wearable on the belt.

Mikoto

This is great! Hopefully it'll get implemented in some form.

Hawk269

That all sounds great and was well written. I and I think many would love to see these things in the game, but can the current engine running the game handle these changes?

Rev Rielle

Very nice post, I like a lot of your ideas here because they just make sense.

If nothing else is taken on board by development, 'Synchronization of Weather' should be. In an MMO it is completely nonsensical to have player characters experiencing different weather when standing right next to each other. Completely. It's a perfect example of whilst not being perhaps overly important in an of itself, it's these sorts of little oddities that send a message, make players raise their eyebrows, and wonder such things as; 'well if they didn't have the foresight/competency to understand how that works with in the scope of a multi-player world, what far more important issues have they not also seen?'.

If such attention to detail and critical thinking about the game world is lacking it really does bode ill for any grand design or majestic novel mechanic development want to put in place. The little things in this context really are so very important.

Mos-De-Atmo

Whoa nice ideas and great post - nice images too! I wasn't convinced of the need until those screenshots, they look great.

ShadowHvo

Lovely ideas! I really hope Zenimax takes a look at this!

sarttsarttsarttub17_ESO

Need more Snow Storms. Also tornados in cyrodiil.

Gidorick

sarttsarttsarttub17_ESO wrote: »

Need more Snow Storms. Also tornados in cyrodiil.

You know, I actually had severe weather as part of this concept... and seasons, but the post felt too fat. I tried to keep the suggestion within the constraints of the current system. Ideas like "less fog when it's nice outside" is more attainable than "hurricanes with gale force winds that alter player moment"

I think those suggestions should be brought up after wet get more realistic implementation of the weather systems we have, if that ever happens.

Alabyn

I'd be thrilled if the nights had a bit more "spook", and I think these suggestions are spot on! Great work.

Gidorick

MasterFUNG_ESO wrote: »

I like all of your ideas. Why we currently have a /torch emote that dissapears with one step makes no sense to me at all. Torches should be implemented as items for use or at least a lantern wearable on the belt.

I'd prefer torches be an item that we can use but I'd totally be fine with /torch being a torch toggle. /torch... flame on! /torch. .. flame off.

Gidorick

A couple of images I took today on a beautiful clear day with no fog... as it should be.

Gidorick

I took these pictures to compare how the fog impacts the atmosphere of the game. The scenes on the left and the right are the same scene in the game it's just that the image on the right is with ESO Launcher and Sweet FX.

I think all 4 weather types should be available in game under normal weather conditions. This is outlined in the OP, these pictures just give a good examples of the kind of different types of fog I think would be good for the game.

Selique

I agree with these ideas. Especially darker and more dangerous nights!

I'd love to be afraid to venture out of town on a dark night, for fear of being mauled by a vicious bear or attacked by a bloodfiend or some other mystical creature!

Mr.Turtlesworth

I love fog. If it were up to me, it would be foggy in the game all the time

Kalfis

As much as a proponent I am over making games look the best they possibly can, I want the "fog" to stay, which is why I don't use any tools to get rid of it.

It's incredibly obvious that the fog is meant to be there, the game looks very weird without it.
Especially in Morrowind. When you take away the fog, Stonefalls looks dreadful.

CaptainObvious

I figured this would be a ping for localized weather and region-based day/night adjust.

If you are going to go this far, then consider this. If it is raining in one area of the map then it is raining in all areas (snowing in snow zones).

Additionally, if it is dawn in the eastern-most part of the map, it is also dawn in the western-most part of the map. There is no location based offset on the day night cycle.

Gidorick

@Mr.Turtlesworth @Kalfis I'm not suggesting fog go away, I'm suggesting it be better implemented contextually. I too love the fog! Just not ALL the time.

The Bangkorai image above shows the different effects of fog/no fog. I think we should have all 4 types of weather, not just the 2 on the left.

TheLaw

Amazing idea, 0 chance of implementation in the foreseeable future.

Greevir

As long as there is an option to disable every bit of that, sure. Why not? Really the only thing here I'd like to see is darker nights. I've always hated bright nights in games.

LameoveR

But it's awesome. Really. Good.

Gidorick

Which is why I included the TL/DNR section at the top @LameoveR

I know it's long... but thanks.

LameoveR

Gidorick wrote: »

Which is why I included the TL/DNR section at the top @LameoveR

I know it's long... but thanks.

I'm reading now.

Betahkiin

The game is beautiful and engaging, I am one of those who prefer a more immersive atmosphere regarding the events that occur around. I do not like games with shiny, cartoony look.

But all that is related to graphic improvements or increase in terms of complexity, often generate increased system requirements to achieve good performance and that could affect many users.

I think one way we can improve substantially the immersion is through music, sound effects, dialogues, attitudes and reactions of the NPC and accessories that become available for players to make use of them according to the occasion .

Long ago, the graphical quality of the games was very poor compared to what we have today, despite this many games in those seasons achieved an unparalleled immersivity.

In the absence of the ability to provide realistic images in games with high-definition, most of the development was based on sound atmosphere, the backstory and variety of objects oriented to role.

Currently the investment of resources in the graphic look is very relevant, obtaining an incredible estetic games with few options to role, unimaginative stories, and bad music and sound effects.

NPC attitude and character according to the situation, resourceful and immersive lore, music and appropriate sound effects and a variety of accessories for player to use depending on the situation may be the key to success.

In this aspect ZOS achieving some very good level, if they could make it better would be epic.

I am 100% in favor of any modification to improve the immersion, but not at the cost of sacrificing performance and fluidity in the gameplay.

True, it may include the option to enable / disable this type of improvements, but for those who can not play with the enabled improvements would be losing much of the requested immersion could be achieved by other more accessible medium.

Immersion is a fundamental part of an RPG and as such has to be accessible to as many users as possible, preferably all.

I think the key to success is to give the game a visual aspect of good quality without exceeding, and focus on the lore, music and versatility that is given to the character to suit every situation and those are the areas in which improvements should be made.

Gidorick

Out of the 4 sections of the OP:

• Dynamic Weather Enhancements
• Night Enhancements
• Day/Night Length Adjustment
• Following the Calendar

The only one that would possibly cause more drain on the system would be the dynamic weather enchantments. I do, however, remove the FOG in ESO in my game using ESO Launcher and I get no performance hit. none. zero. ziltch. nada.

mazher

A little food for thought on this. Fog in games serves more then just technical limitations. While true that it is used to hide objects drawing in (thus having your draw distance be what dictates performance, not your fog settings) it is also used to help sell the scale of a zone by exaggerating atmospheric perspective. The fog being what it is gives you that sense of scale, both of the zone and large objects as they are pushed even further in the distance by the fog.

It also helps to create a clear foreground, middle ground, and background which makes for more pleasing compositions and gives you an easier time judging distances. This also has the effect of helping you focus on you, since the most contrast will be around your character and the immediate foreground objects.

Fog is a VERY powerful tool when creating environments for games (and anything else really ). When used well it ties everything together, enhances the mood and overall lighting of an environment and tells its own story.

Revenant_Spartan

Exactly what mazher said.

I seem to be one of the few that actually like the fog. I do however feel it's a little over exaggerated - but it gives depths and mood to the scene. So totally remove it? No. Tone it down a touch - yes and adjust the gradients to that the tops of the environment and build etc. are slightly clearer. It would further the effect of depth. Certain exceptions are needed though for places of gloom and doom where lorewise the fog is supposed to be thicker.

Possible control for the player through the menu would be nice.

Rune_Relic

Rev Rielle wrote: »

Very nice post, I like a lot of your ideas here because they just make sense.

If nothing else is taken on board by development, 'Synchronization of Weather' should be. In an MMO it is completely nonsensical to have player characters experiencing different weather when standing right next to each other. Completely. It's a perfect example of whilst not being perhaps overly important in an of itself, it's these sorts of little oddities that send a message, make players raise their eyebrows, and wonder such things as; 'well if they didn't have the foresight/competency to understand how that works with in the scope of a multi-player world, what far more important issues have they not also seen?'.

If such attention to detail and critical thinking about the game world is lacking it really does bode ill for any grand design or majestic novel mechanic development want to put in place. The little things in this context really are so very important.

@OP excellent and well written post. I agree with everything. Well done.

@Rev Rielle You bring up an interesting point. It seems like only a little thing. But those little things, make you question the world around you. THAT is exactly what breaks the immersion so important to ZOS. Either you are going with the flow with the world around you....or you aren't. If you aren't...then the immersion has been broken. If you are, then you are enthralled by the spell. There is no questioning....just being/accepting. Everything just feels right. There is nothing that pokes you in the ribs and smacks you round the face to wake you up.

Endurance

This is great work! do you have a SweetFX settings? because i want it

Gidorick

@mazher & @Revenant_Spartan I'm not suggesting always having no fog, I'm suggesting that sometimes we don't need it and sometimes it hinders the perceived scale of a zone. I did say in the OP

Gidorick wrote:

not having fog has allowed me to appreciate the fog as a tool for creating environmental tone. Fog really needs to be used to enhance ESO, not just blur out the distance.

In the below example I wouldn't want it to ALWAYS be like the screenshots on the right, the atmosphere of the screenshots on the left is wonderful! but there are times it should be more like the screenshot on the right. Especially on a clear, sunny day.

The reason I'm suggesting contextual fog was because of the impact the lack of fog had on my "atmospheric perspective." Having no fog makes the zones actually feel larger and more expansive. I actually feel like I'm in a WORLD not just a "level". Sometimes, like in the case with Bangkorai, the fog adds to the atmosphere but sometimes it just punctuates the (perceived) limitations of the engine.

I have some more examples below. This feel of large scale was especially true for the top and bottom pairs of screenshots.

http://i.imgur.com/RAasVtQ.jpg?1

I agree @Rune_Relic, and there are weather based gameplay opportunities that just cant be explored if the weather isn't synched. Like, maybe when it's raining there are less animals out and about to fight because some have sought shelter. Maybe when it's REALLY foggy there are specters that are in the fog that will attack you. How about when it's sunny plant-based mats are twice as abundant as when it's not... that sort of thing.

@Endurance, I actually use the standard settings. I liked them so much I didn't alter them at all. Below is an overview of how I installed it. I tried following instructions elsewhere on the internet but they seemed way too involved. Try it this way before you move on to trying it other ways:

Gidorick wrote: »

Roechacca wrote: »

Need a easier way to do this like Minion

It's pretty easy now... using this link: http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/eso-launcher-graphics-enhancer-2/

I downloaded the "Microsoft .NET 4.0+" and "Microsoft C++ Redistributable 2013 x86". Those are self extracting. Pretty simple.

Then I downloaded the ESO launcher and the SweetFX. I just threw all the files in the same folder as the ESO executable file.

For me it was: ... /Elder Scrolls Online/game/client

Then I opened ESO using the "ESOLAUNCHER" executable... created a shortcut on my desktop for that. Now I have "ESO SweetFX" and "ESO NO SweetFX" on my desktop. I haven't messed with the config files for SweetFX because it looks amazing as is!

Good luck and post your screens!

rb2001

These changes are strongly desired.