Active Weather

[deadstikmac]

What's the chance of:

"Active Weather" - weather systems that change during the course of play that is randomly generated on a 24hr clock in game.

This alone would open the doors for a lot of interesting things to happen.

Wind could become a factor now. Not with bomb drops only but also with the direction of travel in relation to direction your nose is pointed. (the autopi would do that for you to keep things simple)
Along with having to know wind direction on the map to adjust for, one would also have to factor that in with bomb drops adding to the realism of flight. (the auto calc function for bombing could be able to do that for you somehow too keep things simple)

Not only wind would be involved with weather but visibility would be effected. Rain could be light too heavy decreasing visibility overall if you were in a storm system and not flying over it vs clear sunny sky. Huge cloud systems could be used for concealment if you "ducked into" one and created a "loss of visibility" by your opponent. Also you could "Layer" the weather and cloud systems at different ailtutides with different severities.


Quick example:

Wind Direction North @ 3 1/2mph. Your base of takeoff is South of intended target.
Huge Heavy Storm System Sea-Lvl up to 9000 feet & 5 sq mile wide, moving north @ 3 1/2 mph currently overhead of take off base.

How cool would it be to see rain streaking off your canopy upon takeoff. Climb to cruse alt of 12,000ft while climbing out of a storm system into clear sky en route to target. Drop ords then RTB through that same storm you flew ahead of while using the clouds to cover your escape.


Thoughts?

[deadstikmac]

The flight would become a lot more realistic due to wind and it's dynamic too flight. That would be an interesting thing to have effecting the plane during combat...

[RedBull1]

Personally I think it sounds like something that needs to be added - eventually
Im not saying we need it right now drop everything and give us weather, but I think it is a necessary addition to Aces High in the future, for both realism and fun, I think it would be a blast to have to deal with clouds, rain, wind, etc!
+1

[MK-84]

For completely self absorbed reasons I like it.  But for game play I can not say that adding too many variables is a good idea. (I want to shoot you down, or hit my target because I am better, not because weather screwed me up).  I would like as a compromise like that planes/icons are obscured within a cloud.
We have clouds that we can fly through, rarely, but we do.  But when I fly through one I can still see the enemy plane and icon as if someone put an instagram filter over it.  I do not know if game development can allow for this, but cloud coverage is just as important (or more so) as using the sun's glare as a tactic.

[deadstikmac]

Upwind merge would hurt... The decreased speed/performance along with opponent having a increase in speed/performance would be real interesting to add into combat.

[deadstikmac]

Yes Icons would have to be effected by clouds and visibility factors or it's a waste.

[flatiron1]

See the ports on small pizza map.

[hitech]

If weather is bad, WWII r planes don't fly.

Planes don't fly why have a game.

HiTech

[deadstikmac]

If weather is bad, WWII r planes don't fly.

Planes don't fly why have a game.

I was leaning more towards the visual not the actual effects of weather on the dynamics of flight. There would have to be a high level of moderation if you decided to add the "actual" dynamics that weather would bring on. Visually you could add small elements without having any real effects of performance to aircraft. Just because we see rain and clouds would not have to mean that the "actual" performance of an aircraft at sea level should have to be modified?

[save]

Hitech, true , but chasing planes in and out of clouds could add a fun dimension of the game, like they did IRL.

I dont know how much frame rate would be affected , but you certainly look more @ instruments than before

[Debrody]

Hitech, true , but chasing planes in and out of clouds could add a fun dimension of the game, like they did IRL.

WW2 combat reports often says: "i was chasing a 109 but he could escape into the clouds and we lost vis on him"

It would be pretty nice to have this. I dont know much about polygones and textures either, but maybe a 3d object filled with fog would be a less fps penality than a series of layers.

[Bruv119]

cloud rooms killed FA,  

HT is spot on!       

enough running and hiding goes on as it is.

[IrishOne]

enough running and hiding goes on as it is.

Q F T

[Debrody]

lol good point.
combat >> eye candy

[Pand]

If weather is bad, WWII r planes don't fly.

Planes don't fly why have a game.

HiTech

Maybe not hurricane style, but just any sort of weather.

1.  Variable visibility in different areas of the map based off of current weather conditions in your area
2.  Calm to Light wind, with varying direction based off location of the map to follow a similar weather pattern in real life.
3.  Variable weather across the entire map... there may be a 20-30-40-50 mile stretch of "bad" weather on a front moving across the map where aircraft would avoid, or have to 'go around'--- wouldn't expect it to cover the entire canvas.  Just scale it as appropriate.
4.  Variable cloud layers in different areas of the map based off of conditions.
5.  Just because it's 'raining' below the clouds doesn't mean it's not clear skies above it.

Just some thoughts, we have some pretty big maps.