Storm Sighting

[Cutch]

I'm happy to see weather brought back to the game, but this does change the dynamics of some critical PVP activities, especially when the attacker is trying to aim for a port near the limits of the 1 hour flag timeout. The secret island and Flatts are good examples of this. A journey that used to be doable without much risk is now very difficult if you hit a storm along the way. It reduces your speed enough to make the trip impossible.

 

The difficulty is that you have no idea where the storm is until your in it. The storm's boundaries are very well defined, where it's sunny one second, and hurricane the next. I don't mind the transition so much, but I would suggest altering the sky above the storm areas to allow captains to spot them and work around them if they like. There are lots of other mechanics that would benefit from being able to see storms from a distance.

 

To illustrate what I'm imagining, any time I'm boating we often see sights like the one shown below. When trolling, its not difficult to navigate around the weather. Even in systems with multiple rain clouds, simply looking up help you plot a course around the harsh seas and winds.

 

 

The addition of a similar graphics feature in game would help pilots control their environment more accurately, and better reward skill through planning.

[maturin]

That's a photo of a rain squall, not a storm.

Visualized bad weather on the horizon looks ominous and atmospheric (geddit?), but any storm worth sneezing at will be too large and too fast to avoid.

[Jean Ribault]

In some instances I might agree with this, e.g. I don't like navigating to a new port over large open areas and hitting a 100-year rainstorm halfway.  Too easy to pass right by your target island and miss it when visibility drops to near-zero in an instant.  In those cases the F11 grid system helps a bit.

 

How would you like to see this idea implemented?  An overlay on the in-game map?  Perhaps transparent circles shaded different colors by severity of storm, dynamically appearing on the map as the server generates them?

[Cutch]

Nah, I dont think changing the map is necessary, or realistic for the period. Simply make the skies in the direction of the inclement weather have a different appearance from a certain distance than the skies in the direction of clear weather.

 

It doesn't have to be perfectly realistic in terms of function - nothing in the open world is really to scale anyway. The goal is to make the weather more predictable and add another element of skill involved in navigating the open world. Use of common cloud formations that can be used to predict weather would be great - wall clouds, shelf clouds, anvil clouds, etc. Not just useful, it'd also look amazing

[Legioneod]

They used to have a system like this in-game but they removed it. You used to be able to see the storm/hurricane way before you got to it, and it used to travel around the map until it disappeared.

Hope they bring it back.

[Robbert Dole]

Nah, I dont think changing the map is necessary, or realistic for the period. Simply make the skies in the direction of the inclement weather have a different appearance from a certain distance than the skies in the direction of clear weather.

 

It doesn't have to be perfectly realistic in terms of function - nothing in the open world is really to scale anyway. The goal is to make the weather more predictable and add another element of skill involved in navigating the open world. Use of common cloud formations that can be used to predict weather would be great - wall clouds, shelf clouds, anvil clouds, etc. Not just useful, it'd also look amazing

 

^^ my complaint... towns need some lanterns or lighthouses or whatnot (I don't want glowing red words in the darkness like some will suggest) as it sits currently its easier to see ships in a storm due to the lanterns (because combat ships running from the enemy in a storm/night need the lights on or else the coast guard will give them a ticket) than it is towns.

[Æthlstan]

THIS!

 

Bring back storms and weather! Bring back massive waves! Make storms travel like they used to, make them visible before you enter them! Make those cloud formation thingies!