CRAZY IDEA : Weather control system

Suggestions
32

Didn’t think of that since the suggestion itself seemed like a good compromise because I’m sure some players are happy with how the weather currently works. I would add the option to the poll, but it would reset the votes, and that’d be wrong.

Anyway, the whole point was to be able to localy customize weather to add another layer of ambiance to a build.
For instance, my place works WAAAY better with the fall of rose petals and/or leaves, but in the wild, rain/snow/fog seems fine.

IMHO, a machine would be a terrible scenario : do you really think the game needs more damn things to fuel all the time? I certainly don’t.

Although, yeah, a machine would make more sense since it could affect weather in a large radius, instead of a beacon.
If said machine didn’t require fuel, I’d be ok with it… but I’m sure logic would require it to have fuel.

SO, here’s another compromise idea : the Weather-control thing is a machine which requires fuel, BUT Gleam Club would automatically fuel it, like it fuels beacons. Would that be ok?

1 Like
33

For me the weather is the weather of the planets - don’t like the weather - find another planet. I haven’t seen a comprehensive and well put together post (which I might have missed) about the “problems” with weather so that we could have a correct conversation around it and if changes are needed or not.

I do agree that fog shouldn’t be “inside” a house and that maybe some areas on planets might rain too much (when not a swamp or jungle) but I fear it might require some serious coding to make that work.
Overall, though, not having enough planets or moving options or a variety of other things can cause people to feel that the answer to the “problem” is to just fix the weather. Instead I think we need more data on how the weather is broken before we just link a fix to something like GC and put programming time to give people other options. Because right now the suggestions feel like a band-aid not a solution.

Personally I feel this is just a balance issue overall and people need to be more clear in a post and the problems they are having so that the Dev team can look at adjusting the timers or whatever causes the “rain/snow/etc” to go…

Honestly I wouldn’t be on board with that. GC auto-fuel for a beacon was already a huge break from previous game policy and should have never happened. Plus I don’t agree with GC being tagged to weather stuff on any level at this point. My comment about a machine was only that personally I’d have a conversation around it but honestly doubt I would be swayed to agree with it. I don’t feel the weather is broken and just needs to be tweaked down maybe in some things.

34

Agree to disagree, then. :man_shrugging:

2 Likes
35

Personally I’d like to turn all weather off. Really don’t care for any of it.

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36

For me it is about building the area. Our impact on the planet. If I go to a marsh and turn it into a magical forest that is 20x20 plots wide and redo the entire landscape I would like to also customize the impact it has the environment. Maybe I want more rain, or the sparkly green floaty effect to show the cool magical area I have made.

Weather is an area that can impact the ‘feel’ of a build. Having some level of control is just another area of customization.

If I was building a winter wonderland build, would be cool to have it snow there more…and the like>

I am not certain if I am for ‘complete control’ of weather effects…but love the idea of influencing it to make some weather more likely.

I am all for more customization to make it so our builds feel more like what we want them!

5 Likes
37

Hit B. Problem solved.

I could see impact to a region in that maybe adjusting weather. I could see a machine helping in that too. Unfortunately, though, I could see changing weather in one spot would adjust it in other areas of the planet then. So more rain in your area might mean less rain in another. Or maybe rivers or streams dry up and crops die.

Since this is a survival game on many levels I think if we allow weather adjustments that there needs to be some adverse response then as well. I think people have forgotten that these are planets and that some planets are going to be hard to live on and the design the devs are trying to put into the game. We have weather for reasons just like we have atmosphere design and protection.

It just feels like people want an “easy button” again with things like this and forget what the game is actually about and instead just focus on the building part of it. Personally those stuck in that mode should probably end up moving into a creative mode (if that is ever made available) or something.

Don’t get me wrong - I sometimes get annoyed by the weather as well. Hence why I say people need to do a better post on “their experience with the weather” and suggestions on how it could be balanced better. That would solve more things in the long run I think because it would stay in the MMO style and world experience the Devs want.

38

This, 100%.
The original idea was to maybe disable some weather effects out of the roll of potential weather effects in a place depending on your needs, but it could also be some kind of system where you have to move sliders and it’s coded so that the numbers have to always be balanced out. Wanna remove rain? Then you get more of another weather effect.
Just spit-balling there. I remember that kind of feature from the weapon-maker of Worms 3D Mayhem where you had to balance raw damage, terrain damage, knock-back effect and poison effect (Damage-over-time) as to have a weapon that wasn’t too OP.

“Welcome to Boundless and happy Oortmas. Press B twice to get rid of the snow and learn to enjoy the game in building mode until the event ends”.
Yeah.
Great idea Xal. -_-"

Are you comparing weather to the actual environment effects on T4+ worlds which require skill points?
Weather has litterally NO gameplay impact. It’s just a visual effect, plain and simple.
Don’t get me wrong, rain could apply a “Wet” debuff that makes you drain energy faster until you hide under a roof, and I’d be fine with that. But until that happens, rain is just a visual annoyance.
Don’t try to compare current weather effects to “challenge”, saying that we’re arguing for “easy buttons” and stuff, that’s ridiculous.

I’m legit angry at you for saying I should be moved to a Creative Mode just because I like building more than the rest of the game. I feel borderline insulted by that statement.

5 Likes
39

I think we are more aligned then we realize. Because of text and I am sure I am not typing out my full thoughts or communicating completely.

There are effects that are in the game like currently in the sanctum:
image
These cool sparkles in the air. They would be cool to appear around my base. There was an exo world that had neat leaf/line effects that were green, I would love those around my base.

To be fair, I built my base where these appeared:
image
Little dancing ball of light that fade and move around. I wanted them for the ‘feeling’ of the area so I built where i found them spawning and on the world they were on.

Also, there may be two pieces of feedback in this thread.
1- a group that doesn’t like certain weather effects and wants them to be able to turn them off (rain/snow) ect. I am not in that group and fine with random weather patterns.
2 - a group that wants to customize the weather effects for their base to add to the build creating an extra layer of ‘ooooooo’ added to their build.

I would also note I am not tied to the suggestion that GC would pay for it or how it would be implemented. My feedback is simply: “Being able to add effects to the air in my build would be cool”

Maybe that is a new machine and item that is a fuel and people have to “Collect” environmental effects and it creates fuel for the machine…or maybe it is just on the beacon.

I think the devs can balance that. I would enjoy the option so I support the suggestion.

2 Likes
40

I think this could be done with decorative objects that have effects or blessings on the corresponding beacons. For example, snowmen that give the beacon 5% more chances of attracting snow with a limit of 30% maximum for accumulation. Something like that for every weather option. If technically possible by how the weather is coded, of course. xD

2 Likes
41

That actually could be a fun idea.
But let’s say you have +30% to all weather effects, then the whole thing kinda becomes pointless, though, doesn’t it?
Or would the +30% be total across all weather effects?
Problem is, then, how would the system decides which weather bonuses receives priority if you have plenty of each item that gives a bonus?

1 Like
42

30% maximum for each type of weather, if you put more decorative objects of its kind does not add more probability, it would remain at 30% Then if you want to waste the blessings putting 30% on each type, it is your problem because you do nothing, but if you put two or three types of climates at 30% because they are your preferences, then you have 30% more chances in those types of weather. This would include following the weather as it is. Let’s say you put a snowman in a desert where there is a 0% chance of snow, so you do nothing. What I mean is that the percentage is applied to the planet’s climate. Would something like that be possible?

Also, for my part, I would like that in a closed place not between the fog and the particles, in addition to the sound effect of rain and others, it is somewhat lighter than now inside the buildings.

43

Yes I am comparing them because on a base level they are related. Planets has atmosphere, weather, and terrain that is different. That should not go away and maybe only be balanced better. People shouldn’t be allowed to control those things except in creative or private rental areas. Plus I would say “weather” does affect game play because people are complaining about it and others like it.

The “easy button” comment is much more than just about weather and you shouldn’t take it personally because I mention it here again in this post. My comment is about a consistent trend by some players in forum posts to try to make the game easier instead of solving root design or game mechanic issues. I think we need to sovle the root issues not put patches on stuff.

No where did I say YOU should be moved to creative mode so I don’t know why you would make that link. I feel many people that cannot manage the grind or specific game play situations might be better suited for a creative or own planet mode than the MMO situation. Just because I say that doesn’t mean I’ve made a definition on who should and should not be in any mode. I am speaking in generalizations.

People need to keep the context that the MMO is a survival game and not a grind free nothing never changes game. I’m not saying you said anything like that. I’m just using this post to share a few more thoughts that are relevant on basically why I would be against weather changes like the OP until AFTER the game systems are fixed.

44

Yup… I think we are mostly aligned with that. I would consider point 2 and just am not on board right now with point 1. In the end, though, even if I am not on board with point 1 I do think we need to take time to confirm the balance of the effects are correct. I don’t know enough on the weather layer beyond basics of its design to speak to more specific points.

1 Like
45

I’m in support for weather control with gleam club. If for no other reason other than it would fix my leaky roof in every single build of mine when it rains. I’m guessing it treats it like the underside of a tree or something? raining outside, well inside the ceilings are dripping now…

Build mode getting rid of snow is ok when you are looking for resources, or trying to place patterns when building, but NOT a solution for when you. This is the very definition of a band-aid fix though, and you mention elsewhere that you want root cause fixes. The root problem is to make the weather system “more survival like” or even “more practical” we are talking about increasing the amount of code related to it by about 5-10 times what it is now I’m sure. By adding a way to customize it, you create a game feature, with far less work.

I don’t see why that couldn’t be an option for places you plot in game. You don’t really affect others ability to enjoy the game if your house it never rains. I personally like weather changes, but they do make it so you can’t see what amazing work someone has put into a build when the air is full of ice chunks falling from the sky.

In the end, either way it goes, I like the suggestion, I like the game, and with or without I’ll continue to play.

2 Likes
46

It drips on my first floor and there’s 3 total floors/roof above it. And some areas the floor above it is two blocks thick. Plus all the fog in my place. I have two doors on top of each other too as to prevent outside light getting in since my outside doors have windows on them. But still fog and dripping.

Also I wish Build mode got rid of all weather effects not just snow. I’d walk everywhere with it on if that was the case.

4 Likes
47

“NOIWASNTAIMINGATYOUITWASNTMEWHYWOULDYOUTHINKTHATITSNOTMEITSYOU!”
Sorry for jumping at you like I did, but you made that comment in the thread I wrote, while we were having an argument… And yeah, I felt targeted because I only like building in Boundless, and I do wish I didn’t had to go on hunts to get oortshards, and I do think I spend waaaaaay too much time gathering ressources vs building. Between that sort of comment and those that go like “as soon as your place goes wild, imma plunder the living @$£% out of it!”, I get easily triggered.

But whether you were targeting me or not doesn’t matter. You can’t say that thing about Creative Mode.
Mainly because, like I said elsewhere, Creative Mode is an extreme solution.
It basically halves the achievement of building. To make my build, I did had to go find blocks. I can assure you I would have stopped at my workshop if I had a Give menu.
So yeah, some people will likely enjoy Creative Mode, but you just can’t say “let’s throw all the people who only like to build and can’t handle the grind in there”.
Buildist

Regarding the survival aspect of the game, sure, why not. Like I said, I think it would be somewhat interesting if weather effects gave debuffs, and THEN, it would make sense if reducing the chance of a specific weather pattern would be costly in ressources and require some fuel and stuff.

But in the meantime, no, current weather effects have no gameplay value. They are a visual effect, they add ambiance, but they don’t add actual gameplay. The fact that people are visually annoyed by snow or rain and dripping water doesn’t factor. I’m sorry if you think they do, but you’re wrong, plain and simple, there’s no argument to be had there.

Back to the survival thing, you also have to consider if that aspect of the game is worth being expanded for all players. How many players will that bring? How many players will leave because of that?

Let’s take another example. Look at Fortnite.
Do you know it wasn’t always the PUBG-like game it is today? It’s original PayToPlay mode was waaaay different. Why do you think they went over to the current model, and pretty much left the original one to rot?

So, in regards to Boundless, could the devs actually handle having two ‘universes’, one where there’s Creative Mode instead of the survival aspect?

Maybe Rental Worlds will answer that question, but if Creative Mode worlds are individually made, disconnected from any other world, that will be a sad answer. However, if players have the option to open-up their Creative Mode world to an universe of other Creative Mode worlds… that might be quite interesting.

Point is, if that happens, how many players do you think will prefer jumping on such a universe? How many will stay in the “fun” survival mode? Then, the natural question would become “is it really worth it to keep developping one mode if the other is more successful?”

Anyway, I’m personally ALWAYS going to argue for less intrusive gameplay features.
I’m still super sad about the Prestige crops that I simply don’t feel like using because they’re a pain in the rear with their long growth time and their random-@$$ chance to wither early. It’s too random, it’s hard to control, and in the end, it’s just not worth it, unless you actually wanna have withered plants in your build.
How often do you see these plants in people’s builds? I’ve seen them ONCE in a build over the past 60 days, and they were dead (likely on purpose).

1 Like
48

I’ve added a revisited Weather-machine idea to the original post of the thread and a new poll with better and more relevant options.
Got nuts.

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49

Nice options on new poll and cool idea with that machine.

I like shards as fuel idea but maybe machine could just use materials like petals, water blocks, sand blocks, ice etc…

Example of 100 plots radius sounds much, I think manipulating weather shouldn’t be possible overlap to beacon to another without some sort of agreement.

Maybe weather should fade on plot or two of borders to “real” weather that is in area. Isn’t this anyway about keeping own area out of unwanted weather effects, not controlling whole planet weather?

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50

I forgot we actually had the purple petals as an item, so yeah, each effect could indeed require different items. I would leave that decision to the devs, personally.
I mean, y’know… as long as they don’t ask for 5000 ice blocks to get the snow reduction effect in minor. :rofl:

So, the machine should have a big plot radius, but couldn’t affect plots that aren’t owned by the player. That would make sense, right?

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51

they totally should though… the one case where they “do” is the christmas event, the christmas-hat topped creatures only spawned in places in the world where there was actually snow on the ground.