Let's talk weather.

[gbs]

I think the weather is not at the point yet. I saw frozen beaches in Florida. I think there are crocodiles living there and not penguins.

By the way - the pic for the frozen beach (or was it swamp ?) is broken.

No, not crocodiles......"gators"

[Pocus]

if a player with modding skills propose us a new terrain matrix, with a good concensus of players around the changes, then we will adopt that as the new official matrix.

[Carrington]

For what it's worth, 35-45 degrees F is hypothermia weather, probably comparable to 20 degrees because of the higher likelihood of freezing rain.

Moisture kills, not snow. (of course, also, some of that moisture is just generated by men marching in wool or cotton uniforms...).

Graphically, the "white-out" might be a little distracting, but I suspect the campaigning season is about right if not a bit relaxed -- not all that much happened in the winters, for reasons detailed above.

The issue with the graphics is whether the snow will 'stick' or melt off. The issue with the campaigning is that snow-cover, rain, and mud all make impermanent camps very debilitating for large groups.

By the way, any ideas of what seasons Malaria would hit in the south?

[gbs]

Carrington, can't argue with anything you say here. It's not the winter effects on troops in the game I have a problem with, it's where these effects show up. St. Augustine, Fla for example. From a graphic standpoint, its just my opinion that for nothing more than reality purposes the white graphic could be taken out of the game all togeather for all but mountain and expreme north regions. Note I didn't say the effects of winter weather, just the winter graphic. Having said all that, I love the game the way it is.

[Carrington]

Carrington, can't argue with anything you say here. It's not the winter effects on troops in the game I have a problem with, it's where these effects show up. St. Augustine, Fla for example. From a graphic standpoint, its just my opinion that for nothing more than reality purposes the white graphic could be taken out of the game all togeather for all but mountain and expreme north regions. Note I didn't say the effects of winter weather, just the winter graphic. Having said all that, I love the game the way it is.

You're right... the graphic's pretty distracting... It does show up the anomalies (like Florida blizzards) more than we'd like...

Note that "extreme north" does include most of PA, Indiana, Illinois, and probably even the plains/border states: Mo, KS, etc -- for snow cover we're not just talking Minnesota and Aroostook. I think Keegan pointed out that there are a lot of similarities between the winters in Illinois and Bielorussa.

To a western European, American weather often appears barbarous.

[LMUBill]

I just wish that the summer weather would get represented properly as well.

[aryaman]

I agree it is more than anything a graphics issue, if instead of snow and blizzard we had just an icon indicating "winter weather" there would be less problems.

[Jabberwock]

if a player with modding skills propose us a new terrain matrix, with a good concensus of players around the changes, then we will adopt that as the new official matrix.

The way this works - the Areas.ini file also defines weather areas. Then each weather area has a seperate file to determine weather probabilities for each region it contains, based on the month of year and terrain type for the region. The original file can be found in the GameData folder.

I figured the first step is to try to get the areas file correct. I would like to see some constructive debate on this. As in, 'winter weather here is different from winter weather there, but you have them in the same region and they are the same terrain'; or 'I think you can combine these areas differently, like so . . . because . . .'

Also, if anyone notices mistakes (missing '|', missing region, duplicate region) please let me know so I can fix them.

The attachment is for information and comparison purposes only, do not try to load it and run the game.

[jimwinsor]

I agree it is more than anything a graphics issue, if instead of snow and blizzard we had just an icon indicating "winter weather" there would be less problems.

Well, if you're on a boat, having the Mississippi freeze over is tad more than a graphics issue.

[Pocus]

Stonewall is officially invested with the mission to tweak the weather matrix, after reaching some concensus with the involved players there.

He is dedicated and has quite some skills when it comes to modding, amongst many others things I'm sure . So he will do the actual tweaking and we will accept them officially in a new patch. He will have the final word in case of disagreement with one of you, but I'm sure this will be a democratic process most of the time!

[Pocus]

Jabberwock, just saw your post. I asked Jason yesterday, so I hope you won't mind he stays in charge (or if you want to switch position, no problems for me too, we need someone dedicated and with moddings skills).

We would need another person to do the same kind of things for the railway by the way

[Jabberwock]

We would need another person to do the same kind of things for the railway by the way

Do you mean broken railways or anachronistic railways?

[Jabberwock]

Well, if you're on a boat, having the Mississippi freeze over is tad more than a graphics issue.

The Mississippi would freeze as far south as Keokuk, and the Missouri as far south as Leavenworth during January and February (with drift ice down past St Louis). This is from 1874 & 1875 records, two years with temperatures closely comparable to the early 1860s. More info here:
http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv//?request=get-archive&issn=1520-0493

I wish I had read that last night.

[Pocus]

Do you mean broken railways or anachronistic railways?

both, but mostly anachronistic ones I would say.

[gbs]

The Mississippi would freeze as far south as Keokuk, and the Missouri as far south as Leavenworth during January and February (with drift ice down past St Louis). This is from 1874 & 1875 records, two years with temperatures closely comparable to the early 1860s. More info here:
http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv//?request=get-archive&issn=1520-0493

I wish I had read that last night.

This is fine but my games are getting frozen Mississippi as far south as Natchez. This should be eliminated IMHO.

[jimwinsor]

This is fine but my games are getting frozen Mississippi as far south as Natchez. This should be eliminated IMHO.

Yep.

[aryaman]

Well, if you're on a boat, having the Mississippi freeze over is tad more than a graphics issue.

Yes, that is a problem, I agree.

[Stonewall]

This is fine but my games are getting frozen Mississippi as far south as Natchez. This should be eliminated IMHO.

Thats an easy fix. Very easy. All I need is a list of actual river zones that should never freeze and they can be placed in a weather zone that never freezes.

[gbs]

I would say that all river zones on the Mississippi south of St Louis should never freeze to the point of hendering movement at all. That one I feel sure about.

[Pocus]

updated the AACW database to 1.05a (see the mod forum), including now in the ZIP the latest CSVSplitter

[mike1962]

I remember seeing a map that someone posted on one of the threads that had the region names. Does anyone have that or know of the post. I wanted to color code the weather areas. The game file has 16 Weather Areas total, 13 of these in North America. I noticed Jabberwock's has more. Stonewall, have you worked at adding any weather areas? Would a map help? Also if we are talking about specific regions is it better to use the name or number i.d. ( region 83, or region 1145river)? Would it help to put region i.d. on the map?

[PBBoeye]

I just found this thread. There needs to be ONE weather thread as there are a few, each with important info in them. Here's the other one:

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=4554

[PBBoeye]

I just d/l your Areas.txt file and was looking over the altered regions. I suppose you created this arrangement, correct?

If so, I'd like to congratulate you on what looks like the best arrangement of regions I've seen yet. I was wondering if you planned on doing any further development of it (assuming you've done this work to begin with)?

[Jabberwock]

Yes, I created that. I left this one to Stonewall; I am working on other projects.