Snowstorms and Blizzards

[codyo]

UnReal World should have periods of severe weather to make winter properly dangerous and scary.
Blizzards with their high winds would make freezing temperatures much worse and turn layers of clothes into more of a necessity. Right now a person can easily go through winter without worrying about the temperature much. Cabins aren't that necessary for warmth.

Mechanically a blizzard would be a period where for 10 hours, or much more the snow animation is constantly on. With some random tiles in your view sometimes completely going white for a single turn. Visibility is reduced on the local map and global map. Temperatures drop severely and should go lower than whatever the minimum is now. The interior of a building and cave should provide the most protection. Shelters made up of conifer branches can still help, but you should require a large fire going constantly on the tile beside you. Frostbite on your hands, face, and feet would be a big hazard during the storm.
Weatherlore will need to be updated for blizzards. Based on your skill, you will be able to detect if one is coming in the next day. Or couple of days. As you become more skilled, you can guess more details about it, like how herblore works.
Like at 10% skill you can guess if you're on the edge of a blizzard or not. Maybe how long it will last once you're in it, with A LOT of room for error. At 30% you might be able to see a blizzard a day ahead. And so on. Perhaps it's not very realistic to accurately predict a snowstorm in the dark ages, but it would make the weatherlore skill more interesting and valued.

I think it would be interesting to put all the features of a blizzard on some kind of Bell Curve using multiple dice. Making snowstorms with "mild" values the average and expected. But once in awhile you may roll very brief storms or very long ones that last a week. Some may have worse visibility and temperature, or not. This way not all blizzards will be the same and it will allow for more memorable moments where characters can become lost and stranded in severe weather. Certain months during winter should be at more risk for blizzards as well. Like the "Winter" month(December) and most others during the season may have a 4% chance per day of developing a blizzard. Center month(January) may have a 7% chance each day. I don't know Finland's weather cycles very well, so I don't know which parts of the year is most at risk for bad weather. This is just an example for weather chance.

This would open up the way for more quests too. Like a questgiver in a village might ask you to go rescue a family member that was returning from a hunt or their traps. The quest could be open during the storm or afterwards for awhile.

[PALU]

The coldest weather is when the sky is clear, but the chill factor of high winds may well result in a very low effective temperature.

Getting lost in a blizzard and being unable to use the overland map for travel and orientation while it's on (or if you somehow regain your bearings) may cause additional danger, probably forcing you to make a temporary shelter.

However, you ought to be able to use snow as insulation and build "walls" from packed snow covering most of the opening, allowing a reasonable temperature inside (in iron age terms: I'd hate it...), but you'd still have to survive the building of it.

I don't think there'd be many quest takers during a blizzard, as that basically implies traveling through it to a village, which doesn't make much sense unless you happened to be caught by it when already on the way, and you'd have basically no chance finding anyone in a blizzard unless the instructions of where to look would be way more precise than the current square kilometers sized areas (finding things in coniferous forests is hard enough currently, even when it's not raining or snowing...).

[codyo]

I don't think there'd be many quest takers during a blizzard, as that basically implies traveling through it to a village, which doesn't make much sense unless you happened to be caught by it when already on the way, and you'd have basically no chance finding anyone in a blizzard unless the instructions of where to look would be way more precise than the current square kilometers sized areas (finding things in coniferous forests is hard enough currently, even when it's not raining or snowing...).

I was thinking the questgiver would be worried that their friend is taking too long to return and that something may have happened to them. This happens after a recent blizzard. They'll say something like "My friend typically hunts along the shore of a river 5km to the southeast of here. I can't go myself, because I've taken ill (or my child has taken ill) during the storm, and I have to stay here." Maybe they entrust you with this quest because you are already a well known guest in the village.
The landmarks could be other simple things like lakes, or a mountain with a cave. So it would not be difficult to find a person but, let's say he was injured during his excursion and you have nurse him back to health a little for a reward. You'd have to give the lost person food, water and build a fire and then you can escort them back to the village.

[PALU]

After a blizzard would work. Nursing back to health would be tricky, because that takes time, which means the PC would have to have enough food for the duration (and wouldn't be able to perform that much "useful" activities during that time), although I guess popping by every day or two might work (still a chore if the homestead is a day's walk away).
However, finding an injured person and escort him back to the village would be doable with the current system (injured companions follow you on the overland map even if they're unable to walk).

[ineedcords]

These flavour events sound cool and might have a positive impact.

However surely there is a personal taste in these matters. Personally, when it comes to such things (in other games) with anything that limits freedom, novelty wears off quick and it gets pretty boring which eventually turns annoying.

Considering the real life rarity of such events, if it ever makes into the game I hope frequency (or even existence of such features) will be moddable not to force it upon anyone who don't enjoy it after testing out the new/cool feature early on.

[koteko]

This is very cool, and I've long wished for a real effect of wind, as it's available in many survival games now (the long dark comes to mind). The effect of wetness too.

Blizzards influencing game mechanics (eg, not being able to use the overland map) would be great.

Here's wishing for this being the focus of the 2020 update.. 

[Zed McJack]

I like the idea of blizzards it would make the game a bit harder and thats good.

[Sami]

UnReal World should have periods of severe weather to make winter properly dangerous and scary. Blizzards with their high winds would make freezing temperatures much worse and turn layers of clothes into more of a necessity.

Yep. Weather conditions and the effects could be improved endlessly. We’ve got these, and others, in our plans.