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After reading this: We need weather and clouds!


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36 minutes ago, Alshain said:

I agree we should have clouds, though I disagree on weather... but what does that story have to do with KSP?

This - clouds would be great. I'm against weather because all it would do is force players to time-warp until a clear day happens, without really changing gameplay.

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5 hours ago, Alshain said:

I agree we should have clouds, though I disagree on weather... but what does that story have to do with KSP?

Install a mod with some clouds? :D

I agree though, the graphics for stock KSP could use a little overhaul, with some clouds & better textures for planets.

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5 hours ago, tjt said:

This - clouds would be great. I'm against weather because all it would do is force players to time-warp until a clear day happens, without really changing gameplay.

Unless it's career and your on limited time. Then it's having to choose when the best launch window is.

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5 hours ago, tjt said:

This - clouds would be great. I'm against weather because all it would do is force players to time-warp until a clear day happens, without really changing gameplay.

That's fine if you are on a mission within the Kerbin system.  However, skipping a day for clearer weather can cause you to miss a launch window for Duna, Eve, or anything beyond.  Not everyone plays with the idea of throwing on as much fuel as they can.  That sounds like a change in gameplay to me.  Not to mention when playing career eats up time left for those missions to be performed.

 

It was in the wiki, not sure if it still is, that weather was on the table for adding to the game.  But that was a while ago when the game was still early access and when the original devs were onboard.  As things are now I am actually not expecting it to be incorporated unless they decide to use one of the mods.  At this point I'd prefer to just have clouds and other atmospheric effects for some nice aesthetics, but to leave weather which can affect flights out of it.  Harvester never seemed to want a true hardcore mode where you can actually lose the game, and weather would be something to lead to that.

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3 hours ago, samstarman5 said:

That's fine if you are on a mission within the Kerbin system.  However, skipping a day for clearer weather can cause you to miss a launch window for Duna, Eve, or anything beyond.  Not everyone plays with the idea of throwing on as much fuel as they can.  That sounds like a change in gameplay to me.  Not to mention when playing career eats up time left for those missions to be performed.

Are you prepared to wait over a year for your next launch window to another planet because inclement weather prevented you from launching?

Edited by tjt
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It would be nice to  have the graphics updated a bit adding texture to the surface/clouds but not to have the weather affect launching. Noobs like me struggle making the rocket stay up enough without turbulence and trying to launch through a cloud. 

 

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As long as the weather can be turned off I don't see the problem as those who don't want it don't need to have it.  Weather would be especially nice when flying planes.  I remember when Microsoft Flight Simulator first got weather, it was so nice even though the computers at that time tended to struggle a bit with it (ah those 10FPS slide shows...what fond memories) it added challenge and greatly enhanced the experiance.

Edited by kBob
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9 hours ago, RX2000 said:

Install a mod with some clouds? :D

Speaking of which, what's the best/simplest mod for that?

Assume that I know nothing at all about mods, other than I think they go into the GameData folder

Edited by zarakon
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Clouds, yes please, they add so much to the game visually.  And also add a little extra challenge by simply being there and obscuring the view of the surface below.

Weather effects I'm a bit more unsure of.  I like the idea, I some flight sims do winds so I guess its possible, and if it can be done in KSP without overloading the processors then maybe.  A simpler alternative to modelling the winds themselves may be to 'roleplay' the more serious weather conditions like storms etc by adding visuals and randomising the chance of lightning strikes and strong gusts knocking you sideways etc. with information to the player in the form of forecasts that give an indication of the risks of flying through or launching during the conditions so that players can decide whether to risk it or not.

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1 hour ago, Curveball Anders said:

Or those whose GPU don't have it,

Well hopefully it would be on sliders that give you good control.  Back in the old days of flight sim you could dial down things like clouds or other effects that really slowed down things so you could still have a taste of  them (and over time as you acquired faster computer parts you could increase the sliders); even most cheap mother board integrated video processing these days can run rings around what we had back then.

Of course if you're doing rockets you're not going to be effected by the weather for very long most times, though it could be fun to watch a capsule with parachutes deployed catch a strong updraft.

Edited by kBob
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1 hour ago, zarakon said:

Speaking of which, what's the best/simplest mod for that?

Assume that I know nothing at all about mods, other than I think they go into the GameData folder

Easiest way is probably to get CKAN, then have it install SVE for you.

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2 hours ago, zarakon said:

Speaking of which, what's the best/simplest mod for that?

Assume that I know nothing at all about mods, other than I think they go into the GameData folder

My screenshots were done with Atmospheric Scatterer.

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13 hours ago, samstarman5 said:

That's fine if you are on a mission within the Kerbin system.  However, skipping a day for clearer weather can cause you to miss a launch window for Duna, Eve, or anything beyond.  Not everyone plays with the idea of throwing on as much fuel as they can.  That sounds like a change in gameplay to me.  Not to mention when playing career eats up time left for those missions to be performed.

That makes no sense.  Launch windows don't come and go in a day.  It just doesn't work that way.

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On 1-11-2016 at 8:12 AM, tjt said:

Are you prepared to wait over a year for your next launch window to another planet because inclement weather prevented you from launching?

Seeing how I (and any prepared player) always have everything for a mission assembled in orbit waiting for a launch window... It'd just be annoying and nothing more.

Edited by Sir_Robert
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21 minutes ago, Sir_Robert said:

Seeing how I (and any prepared player) always have everything for a mission assembled in orbit waiting for a launch window... It'd just be annoying and nothing more.

Hmm..I agree it can be worked around. I think your use of the term "annoying" is telling though. Would adding weather substantively improve the game experience or would it just add an annoyance to be time-warped over? If weather is serious enough to be worth adding, it's also likely too serious to launch in. In real life they have strict weather parameters.

One of the Mariner missions was stuck in orbit for months due to a freak storm on the Martian surface. Even NASA sort of time-warped - they left the lander in orbit until the storms died down and then commenced with the mission. In the same period a couple of Russian landers - which couldn't delay their re-entry - flew into the storm and were lost.

Edited by tjt
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