Do you want to add the weather in the game?

Exactly.. it is different. You just have to find a server or start your own with the settings you like.

I'm torn, on the one side I like the freedom to be able to switch aspects of games on and off and it can be fun on occasion to play a game with a ridiculous ruleset - but I must say the example you gave is a pet hate of mine if you cannot find a normal game in a sea of these.

The answer isn't as simple as "run your own server" either as not everyone will have access to the kind of hardware to run the kind of server they want if they have large enough games, and not everyone has a spare computer lying around to run a dedicated server on.

I heard that Uber intend to run a fair amount of servers, if this is the case then perhaps that would mitigate the effect of this.

I don't think this would be a problem in relation to weather.

Lets take the most stereotypical player who would host that type of game - the setonite. They hate anything that detracts from single strategy giant swarm battles. I cannot imaging them actually wanting to enable weather effects that could tip the delicate stalemate they aim to produce.

So why an endless list of bad custom servers may be a problem, I don't think enabled weather will be part of the problem.

^this

There is room for every type of gamer. So when someone act like: -- Ohh.. No no.. I don't want this in the game because of this this and this.. -- the majority of the time this person is talking like someone that wants to play the game competitively and forgets that a HUGE part of the players base will play the game just for fun/relax. This is somehow expected since the community is driven by competitive players.

No random ways to lose aren't fun for anyone, just go flip some coins, tell me how much fun it is.

We are not talking about random ways to lose.....

I believe you are, and don't know it.

That's the general consensus on like 80% of threads...

One in five sounds like a pretty generous estimation.

I'll have you know that thread started off great Mr. Guy-Who-Posted-A-Positive-Second-Comment.

Basically the train of though started as "Hey you remember the game set up options 'No Nukes', 'No Air', 'No Experimentals'? What if you could set those per planet instead of over the whole match?" -> "What's a good visual short hand for 'No Aircraft'?" -> "Well from far away you could probably see high altitude lightning and clouds zipping across the sky pretty well."

Then people started arguing about barometric pressure, rockets, helicopters on the moon, and a bunch of other random stuff that didn't have anything to do with anything. Then the thread died.

Helicopters on the moon you say... interesting.

Sure add weather as long as it doesn't affect gameplay except possibly wind [are tides weather?].

Have you ever shot down a Czar from SupCom and had it crash on your ACU, and lose? I have. What're the odds of that happening? Because that felt pretty random. So what? It was ONE MP match. (And just one example.) But I didn't decry SupCom because something random like that lost me a single game.

Games like Tropico 4 and Civilization 5 have random events, such as natural disasters, which make the games more interesting. So why not in PA? And for the crybabies like you, elexis, it could be an optional feature.


Regarding Ocean and Lava worlds, it would be awesome if the player could trigger "natural disasters". For example, a Lava planet could have a smoking volcano near each player's spawn point, which could erupt randomly. But if you bombed the volcano with bombers and/or artillery, you could trigger the volcano to explosively erupt and destroy the enemy base. Or on an Ocean world, perhaps a nuke detonation would also cause a tsunami that damages a lot more units and buildings than the explosion itself.

I think that planet-specific specialized tactics like that would be fun -- just like Asteroid KEWs.

No, but they actually make a heck of a lot of sense with the game working on a planetary scale. But the physics could be nightmarish.

Tropico 4 wasn't multiplayer, and neither that or Civ 5 had a random, unpredictable, unpreventable, unavoidable event that would result in your immediate death if it occurred. There is no strategy in such an event. Czar landing on your ACU? well, the opponent had to put it over your head in the first place, which meant punching a hole in your defences. Compared to you fighting one guy on your planet only to suddenly have some guy on another planet who hadn't even encountered an enemy yet suddenly die because of a stray meteor landed on him or an earthquake hit his power generators and caused a chain reaction. No strategy = no fun, regardless of how aesthetically cool it is.

Mmmm, cosmetic rainstorms.

I'm pretty sure that Czar-crashing is considered as a valid tactic to take ACUs by some players, and a standard (if rarely used) move with the unit.

Cosmetic weather, not hindering awareness or visibility? Sure, it would add a nice flavour to the game.
Constant, predictable effects on some places (like, say, a no-fly zone, or constant bombardment from a nearby volcano)? Why not, it may bring nice tactical variations to the game.
Mods bringing random events? That's what mods are for.

But random events affecting the game, like a punctual meteor shower, in the main game? What would be the point? It wouldn't bring tactical or strategic depth, it would potentially unbalance a game, and most probably be felt as an annoyance by the players.

Random events that hamper play can add to strategic depth, it becomes a question of how robust and flexible your strategy is. This also depends on the size,strength, frequency and duration which is funny because people are assuming they'll either be benign and fun, or powerful and common you loose events and it could really be either or inbetween.

OMG tornado hit ACU! Does not add anything. Rain in a region slightly decreasing aircraft range for a little? Can you live with weakened air power for a bit, can you take advantage of it while it last? I think it could add to the game, if done well, so that they can create opportunities. But you also get into the UI issue of how does the player know the impact of things? That's where start to prefer the devs work on other things.

Well said.

In TA was hail that sometimes inflicted little damage in random zones of card - it brings variety to the gameplay.

So basically, it takes work, it's hard to pull off, easy to screw up and wouldn't be missed if it wasn't here. IMHO, we should let it to mods.

The snowball or asteroid showers that would randomly blow up some of your units was mostly annoying.

I'd just like to have snow, rain, and even night/day cycles to make the game look cool, but to have it affect gameplay just makes the game more random, not more complex in an interesting way.