Winter in ArmA II - Snow!

[Buzz_Fledderjohn 0]

Hello everybody,

Did a search - no results were found. Thought I'd share my idea with you guys.

It would be awesome if ArmA II had seasons; especially winter.

Sahrani has, for the most part, a tropical climate, or at least it's set in warm weather. ArmA II looks like it's set in autumn (which is cool! ).

Imagine how great it would be to play co-op missions in a snowy landscape. You and your buddies are all in winter camouflage, it's snowing, you can almost feel the coldness. A snowstorm makes the enemy harder to see, but also masks your movement. You spot a bunch of T-72s in winter camo somewhere... I bet that gameplay in a snowy, white landscape would be radically different. It would also add more variety for missions, which is always a good thing (variety keeps ArmA multiplay alive).

I think that if the mission author sets his mission to take place in December, there should be a bigger chance of snow, according to the "weather forecast" slider.

Thoughts?

I love how the landscape of ArmA II will look, by the way. Much more interesting than the sunny stuff we see in a lot of games. The terrain really looks pretty real! Keep it up!

[urbanwarrior 0]

agreed, winter in arma2 should definately have snow, its been developed in ofp and arma1 (i think?) so people obviously want it.

[dslyecxi 23]

The problem with that is that you need a whole new set of textures for a large chunk of the game's content. I don't know if it's realistic to expect that in ArmA2 given the development timeframe. I would like to see it, but at the same time, I get the impression that the effort spent could be spent more productively on other aspects of the game.

[stakex 0]

Winter would be nice, but for the reasons stated by Dslyecxi, it would be better suited for an expansion or something along thoes lines.

[smellyjelly 0]

The problem with that is that you need a whole new set of textures for a large chunk of the game's content. I don't know if it's realistic to expect that in ArmA2 given the development timeframe. I would like to see it, but at the same time, I get the impression that the effort spent could be spent more productively on other aspects of the game.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Though it would still be cool to choose if you could change the temperature. If it's cold you could have snow instead of rain, small decals on the ground, (like what's used to after an explosion in Arma), that look like patches of snow or ice, less animals, and maybe even see people's breath.

[paragraphic l 2]

and the biggest part of the implemention is texturing right? so that would mean that only the graphical artists get this to do aswell with how I see this it only adds a small extra code work

So IF not to much of work I would love to see the seasons more represented in the game, or they should take out the option to select dates. Having autumn trees in mid-summer is just weird

[SaBrE_UK 0]

Also having deciduous woodland would mean leafless trees in a cold winter, meaning new models needed and various effects.

For ArmA 2, and given its setting, Autumn is fine. If people can release mods for Winter islands with perhaps new models and textures, then great

Still, imagine in the future a fully realised world with seasons, plants dying and growing dynamically and different grasses, fully implemented weather... We can but dream for now.

[urbanwarrior 0]

dslyecxi made a good point, i would love to see this implemented but i would rather see the developers spending time on the AI than the winter thing. Besides, the community will do it anyway.......if we ask nicely

[Sosna 0]

Realistic seasons would definitely improve Arma 2. The most complex - but possible - way to do it would be gradual texture transitions over time, with each day having a slightly different appearance. IMO that would be a nice thing to have in campaigns, to watch the scenery change over the days/weeks/months.

I don't think such a system could be implemented within a realistic timeframe, however. It would require some very heavy modification to the engine.

The most feasible way, IMO, would simply be to base seasons on calendar date, and not have any gradual transition. Most of the work would consist of retextures: Lush trees/bushes and greener grasses in summer, duller vegetation in winter with some snow/ice, and so on. Some simple work with models would also be needed, notably leaves of deciduos trees/bushes would need to be removed for winter. Also, as mentioned, some representation of weather changes, like snow instead of rain during winter.

Overall, I think it would be worth implementing in some form. I feel that limiting the default game's content to one season would detract from the environmental immersion.

[Buzz_Fledderjohn 0]

Yes, the community will do it if BIS don't, I have no doubts about that. In fact, a winter island has already been released for ArmA if I'm not mistaken. But do a lot of people even use it? I have yet to see a co-op mission that takes place in the snow....

Besides, I don't think it will require THAT much time, really. Changing the texture of the vegetation and sand, adding snow particles to replace rain effects, and removing the leaves from the trees would already make a TON of difference. It doesn't have to be perfect. I think it can be done in ArmA II. I'm not saying that there aren't more important issues (good framerate, less lag etc), but it would add a lot to the game.

[paragraphic l 2]

dslyecxi made a good point, i would love to see this implemented but i would rather see the developers spending time on the AI than the winter thing. Besides, the community will do it anyway.......if we ask nicely

HOW can texture and model making take time away from AI tweaking for example?

I would prefer a finished game over a seasoned vegetation but I think most of the stuff that would be needed for this are visual with only a small portion of code needed.

[urbanwarrior 0]

i was referring to the use of manpower within their development team, i was not saying their texture artists should diversify into AI programming, quite the contrary. What i was saying is that it would be beneficial if they do the hard parts, AI being one of them, then the community can easily cover the easy parts like new seasons and such