that way we have it The idea is purely aesthetic, they wouldn't obstruct strategic view and of course they should be toggleable like minecraft clouds as I noted in the OP. I think most of your gripes would go away if you didn't imagine silly implementation. The only legitimate objection seems to be that this maybe might possibly divert resources from other more pressing matters. This, much like the day & night contrast, would be post processing and neither should affect in what order other issues are handled. Static or generated clouds should be relatively simple post processing, if Uber wants to get fancy with dynamic cloud formation then things might get complicated. If that's the case then Uber will prioritize and I will defer to them. I brought this up not because I'm derpy and don't like playing without clouds but because I think it's a decent aesthetic improvement and would help sell copies, much like the higher contrast day and night. And the better PA sells the more support/development we can look forward to after release. I know you, nanolathe, don't value aesthetics and to be honest they're low on my priorities too - but we can appreciate that aesthetics sell copies and therefore support further development. edit: i should mention sxx has a great thread in the mod forums on darker nights which are tangentially related viewtopic.php?f=72&t=47502
I like the idea of clouds. It should be easy to add. Aesthetics may be impacted negatively when nukes go off and the big Mushroom cloud can't push away the white fluffy clouds.
Honoustly its probably not that hard to add. If it takes up a lot of dev time, sure its not really needed. But i do feel it would add to the aesthetics of the game a lot. Giving a bit more character to the planets... It should of course be optional, as it is just a graphical setting. But if it doesn't take too much time/money, i'm all for including it. Saying that it is graphical, and thus irrelevant would be the same thing as saying unit animations etc are not needed. Sure they don't influence gameplay, but would you want an army of static red cubes? Of course having no animations would be more noticable, but still...
I think clouds (like a skybox you can see when you look up from POV mode) and weather and fog would be nice, but not so thick that it blocks your view. If it is added then there should be a setting to disable it for your lower end systems. But, it sounds like one of those things that should be put toward the bottom of the list of bells and whistles
I think its a great idea, and adds a lot to the world feel The main argument against this is due to the development cost, because hardcore gamers turn them off? The hardcore section, is generally a small amount of the overall players (except maybe dwarf kingdom, that looks scary).
I do agree. Ive always really in general wanted the game to have a bit more cartoony looks and such with colors than it has now. I think with clouds and such, do something like Spore. i might have been a average game, but man did i love how they did planets. http://www.fileplanet.com/fileblog/imag ... planet.jpg It really adds so much. i wonder if we can mod the game to be that colorful /Dream.
That spore screenshot is interesting. The clouds are volumetric instead of just a textured sphere overlaid over the planet. It's true that clouds and fog add significant realism, but should only be added once the core work is complete.
If it's toggleable, then there is no reason to be against it, at all, so playing devil's advocate is only a fools errand and a pain in the ***. +3 internets
The "waste of time / resources / whatever" is always a pointless argument to me. If this happens it'd be the art department. This is not taking away from any other group at all.
What has changed with beta that this is bumped when we already have many threads on this exact subject, some of which are even more recent? Mike
Correction. If it is toggleable then there is no reason to be against it as a player. From the perspective of the Devs, garat have already listed clouds as excessive and "not core to the game". Link Personally I'd like to see clouds and I also would like to see them have gameplay effects. Nukes kicking up dust causing vision radius to be much lower, block radar and cause laser weapons to have lower range and damage for example. As the battle rages on the planets gets enveloped in Dust forcing the use of close quarter combat as line of sight is limited. There could even be dedicated dust scramblers throwing up dust in the atmosphere hiding units from radar and Line of Sight.
I stand with nano.... totally pointless and waste of time and money..... now if there was fantasy thrown into our sci fi game and I had an orbital cloud unit .......
