If you have a building that's been damaged and is on fire, will it give off a smoke effect? and if so, does the smoke just rise vertically, or is there any sort of simulated wind that can cause the smoke to blow across the screen. I understand if that's too taxing to achieve, but it would be an nice visual touch, adding a bit of realism, and also could have tactical consequences. Being able to see smoke you could follow it back to the damaged unit, increasing your awareness of the battle. Or the smoke could even partially obscure your view, making it something that you either have to deal with, or run the risk of missing a few enemy units using it for cover. While we are on the topic of wind, there is one thing that i would love to see, and that is the trees having a bit of movement, swaying about in the wind. At the moment they just look too static, almost like they are green rocks, but if there where just a little side to side movement, i think that could greatly improve the atmosphere, and make the world seam a little more alive. Once again, i understand if thats not technically possible because of limited resources, but i can still dream can't i?
Wind animations would be cool, but I'd rather have it simulated for economy than not at all. It was neat in TA that different maps had different and variable wind speeds. It made using wind an interesting choice.
What I would really like to see in Pa is not only smoke changing direction when affected by wind, but also a sand storm appearing on desert planets. Such hazard could reduce the sight and radar range of the units. If we have wind in the game then why not have a rainfall with thunders. Thunder lightings would add a really cool feature to the game. Thunder power stations could be introduced.
Fake wind animations(because it's easier to do) and real effect on the energy output of any wind-based power generators (aka windmills).
The Devs have addressed this sort of thing multiple times. while it may be neat to have simulated weather, it adds nothing to the core game play except for things that would serve to inhibit your effectiveness as a commander.
I really enjoy watching smoke effects. Smoke and dust stay around for a very long time in real life but, sadly, that's not the case in games. F.E.A.R. is the only game I can recall that makes smoke/dust something you have to think about. A room filled up with your gun smoke can become impossible to see in until it clears. It really added something to the game play. I hope P.A. will add some long lasting smoke/dust effects from land unit movement on dirt, explosions in general and of course I really like the smoke effect for the nuke in the P.A. video.
