Weather System

I'm not a programmer so I may simply be uninformed, but I think that a weather system might be hard for SD to incorperate.

That said, It would be awsome if they did! In addition to the above suggestions, perhaps give races an option to become stronger during certain seasons and weaker during the opposing season (ex. Strong in summer, but weak in winter)???

if you can think of it...you can program it. That's what I am told by the programmers where I work at least.

It would annoy me as a weather person to have "random" blizzards.

The basic macro things related to seasons shouldn't be too hard to implement. It wouldn't be very hard to put status effects on characters and regions based on the seasons, though individual storms and the like may be a too specific to be balanced properly.

That would be cool to see and add some strategy/variety to the game.  I'm just concerned it could take quite a bit of time and resources to implement it well.  And I'm also not sure on what contstitutes a "turn".  Is that a week?  Month?  Day?  Year?  That would make quite a difference in the ability/need to implement weather changes.

Another factor to consider in there would be elevation (considering this is 3D, that should be a factor), proximity to bodies of water, atmospheric composition, vegetation, and planetary cycle.  For a whole map to become winter (versus just the mid-section) or blazing summer (even in the polar regions), might not be very realistic.  This is a very complicated request, assuming a map covers a whole continent.

Looking at the screenshots, I think a turn is a day, as research on there is given in days.  I wonder if this will be configurable, though...

I am not so sure.  If the map is broken down to a simple grid, weather systems could be applied to specific grid blocks.  In fact, not that I am advocating this, entire weather systems could move across the map utilizing a drifting grid coordinates over a period of time.

A weather system is a big project to include within the game, if it's not currently planned I doubt it could be included.

Now that I think about it, SD could "borrow" how seasons/weather work from the Total War series. Certain areas (usually more northward) turn snowy in winters (which in blizzard conditions on the battle map turns visability to near zero). Deserts turn hotter in summer, but I never really campaign in desert areas in TW so I dont really know what advantages or disadvantages fighting in the desert has.

In addition, TW has random storms generating in oceanic areas (more to foil fleets slightly than anything else) so a weather system could be done to some degree.

I'll advocate it if you won't.

Just think how cool it would be to spot a storm front approaching the mountains and knowing that if you can lure your enemy onto the windward side in a few turns, there's a good chance they'll get stranded in a blizzard while your troops take cover in the forest below.

Dynamic weather could be a good way to add an element of timing to the players' battle plans, much like terrain bonuses heighten the importance of location. Heavy rain might slow the movement of siege engines on open ground while greatly reducing the range of archers, which would be bad news for any large troop columns on their way to siege a city. Snow and cold would be hard on mounted units and melee fighters, especially at higher elevations. Fog reduces visibility in valleys, wind makes physical and magical projectiles less accurate but speeds flying units, etc. Could make things interesting. Certain locations might even have recurring weather patterns, like an often-flooded river or misty swamp.

I was thinking along the same line when I coined the idea. Since the players have to also maintain their cities, weather patterns could also have some sort of effect on their production, economy and domestic. During summer foods will yield less than normal. It becomes worse if was hit by a draught. In the winter, food consumption increases while production decreases. A blizzard event would bring all production to a halt.

Saying that I am a bit unsure with this idea as this also requires players to focus on a lot of city planning, weather prediction and etc.

I like the idea of weather as "atmosphere" in the vibe sense, and as a factor in the economic layers, but not so much as a combat variable. At least not without a really good "fog of war" function that meant you had to have a fantasic info network or some serious weather magic to know what's coming down the pike.

If there is a weather system, I trust it will be scalable for the big maps so there are places where blizzards are impossible and others where droughts are unheard of.

But most of all, I don't want to see this game setting end up sounding or looking like it is a goopy, gassy lump of rock whirling around a fat wad of fusing hydrogen. I know this thing has associations with the GC stories in Brad's background work, but I'm hoping that Elemental all takes place before (or at least beside) the Big Bang that created the universe of the Arnor.

Yeah I agree it would be very cool but it would all depend on how much time is represented between turns.  Anything short of weekly turn cycle would not work. 

I think it may be a bit difficult. Weather is probably something you want to animate in real time, but the game is turn-based. So, it could be a bit jarring when the weather changes.

while the game is turn based, I'm pretty sure graphics could be dynamic, without any trouble - thus, weather changing isnt really any problem. press end turn, and slowly the sunny weather changes into heavy rain...

Weather system would be nice if it was localised because it would open up the possibility of weather spells. If one could continuously cast draught on an area and cause it to dry and become unproductive for instance. Or other more or less subtle effects to ruin your opponent's land (yet another thunderstorm).

Weather spells would be sweet.  Or how about creating a bit fog over an area?  Or ice?  Or hail?

I'd say if the devs went to the effort of making an actual weather system, they really need to incorporate weather spells in there, too.  That would really add some cool strategy and effects, plus be really wizard-like.

Oh yeah. Cast some fog over an open field so your swordsmen can make it across without being massacred by archers, or cast drought to dry up a riverbed so your siege engines can cross. But if the spell isn't powerful enough, or if the normal weather pattern is too strong, you might not get the effect you were expecting...

+1 for weather spells

in dominions 1, your god could change the map and that was very cool

While a full weather system may be too much, seasons should be doable. They can alter the general look of the map (a series of filters) and convey a global bonus or malus. For example, in winter, all cold-blooded units might be at a disadvantage.

Dominions 3 has this system (complete with random events particular to each season), and Dom3 is what I see Elemental competing against.