Would you like to have seasonal weather in whole of Tamriel?

Tapio75

First of all, dont think about if something like this would waste dev time as this is just a question, not a suggestion. Just think how would you feel if weather would change according to season while you are playing. How would you feel if Glenumbra gets snowy when it is winter and such. Think how variety of visual world would affect your whole playing experience.

Seasonal weather, snow and snowy landscape at winter, trees without leaf´s. Colorful Autumn with rains and wet weather, beautiful springs when all life starts to bloom again, hot summers..

Perphaps seasonal materials for alchemy and food.

david271749

I would love seasonal weather

As long as it stays realistic, I think it's a great idea. Khenarthi's Roost should never look like Skyrim. Add seasons, but consider climates.

Tapio75

I am a spy, wishing to peer the answers of the question.

Realism is very important on weather, snow is not impossible on warm climates but if there is snow, it is extremely rare occasion and only lasts for short time.

starkerealm

I would love seasonal weather

Tapio75 wrote: »

Perphaps seasonal materials for alchemy and food.

This would require a complete overhaul of the provisioning system. I'm not about to say that would be a bad thing, but because of how it works right now, seasonal food would just be a pain in the ass.

Curragraigue

I would love seasonal weather

I would like it but not at the expense of other game play issues that need to be addressed.

KhajitFurTrader

I would love seasonal weather

While I would certainly love to see a graphics engine one day that can handle changing seasons, and display them dynamically, I shy away from the sheer amount of work that it would imply. And I guess I'm not the only one.

You see, the landscape, and everything in it that doesn't either move or can be interacted with, is fixed. It's a 3D mesh of polygons, which has a height map and textures plastered onto it. Every tree, wall, rock etc. is also a fixed model that has a firm position in the world. The reason we can jump on a rock and not fall through it to the ground beneath it, is that the landscape's height map 'knows' about that rock, and the client acts accordingly. All this data comprises the bulk of the game's files.

Now try to imagine what has to happen when it starts to snow at the onset of winter, and we're not talking about a simple dynamic weather effect like rain, where the rain on the ground is just a shader. All the textures need to be replaced by ones that display snow. If there should be snowdrifts, snow-covered trees (with icicles), frozen creeks and lakes, the landscape and everything in it would additionally have to be remodeled, and the height map adapted accordingly. And because it shouldn't look like someone flipped a switch and it's deep winter from one second to the next, these changes would need to happen gradually. This might be easier to pull off in a single player game, where there is better control about the player's POV and location, but in an MMO players are literally all over the place at all times.

The amount of work that a single region requires would easily be quadrupled (for four seasons). And any additional regions down the road (I'm sure there will be a lot) will require this amount of work, too. With imaginary infinite resources of time and money, this might be feasible to pull off, but in the real world things need to be finished and pushed out of the door in due time. Especially in an MMO, where customers are constantly crying for new content.

Rodario

I would love seasonal weather

KhajitFurTrader wrote: »

While I would certainly love to see a graphics engine one day that can handle changing seasons, and display them dynamically, I shy away from the sheer amount of work that it would imply. And I guess I'm not the only one.

You see, the landscape, and everything in it that doesn't either move or can be interacted with, is fixed. It's a 3D mesh of polygons, which has a height map and textures plastered onto it. Every tree, wall, rock etc. is also a fixed model that has a firm position in the world. The reason we can jump on a rock and not fall through it to the ground beneath it, is that the landscape's height map 'knows' about that rock, and the client acts accordingly. All this data comprises the bulk of the game's files.

Now try to imagine what has to happen when it starts to snow at the onset of winter, and we're not talking about a simple dynamic weather effect like rain, where the rain on the ground is just a shader. All the textures need to be replaced by ones that display snow. If there should be snowdrifts, snow-covered trees (with icicles), frozen creeks and lakes, the landscape and everything in it would additionally have to be remodeled, and the height map adapted accordingly. And because it shouldn't look like someone flipped a switch and it's deep winter from one second to the next, these changes would need to happen gradually. This might be easier to pull off in a single player game, where there is better control about the player's POV and location, but in an MMO players are literally all over the place at all times.

The amount of work that a single region requires would easily be quadrupled (for four seasons). And any additional regions down the road (I'm sure there will be a lot) will require this amount of work, too. With imaginary infinite resources of time and money, this might be feasible to pull off, but in the real world things need to be finished and pushed out of the door in due time. Especially in an MMO, where customers are constantly crying for new content.

What he said.

Tapio75

I am a spy, wishing to peer the answers of the question.

Things go forward and so forth, AION for example implemented seasonal weather, snow and such couple years back so anything is possible..

That said i know what work it would require and the problems that might come but anyway, this was more like "Imagine if" kind of question.

They could see it as reference one day to give something extra nice but that is up to them