As someone who enjoys rain and, specifically, rain ambiences in videogames a lot I wondered how a rain effect overlay would look in AoE2. This led me to think how weather effects in general would look in AoE2. This humble artwork is the result
While doing this, I came to believe that a simple overlay should not involve much work from the dev team, and it should not mean a heavy extra computational load niether.
I think it would help immersion and improve the overall experience if something like this is included just as the already existing “Map Lighting” setting.
I just want to clarify two points, just as my oppinion:
These weather effects should absolutely be toggleable. I’m aware a feature like this affects readability, and it should not be forced on those who do no not want something like this.
These weather effects must not affect gameplay. I’ve read proposals like fog reducing unit LoS or rain making units move slower. It’s a fine feature for custom scenarios and such, but I don’t think things like that would improve the gameplay experience. Quite the opposite actually.
And that’s it. I just wanted to share this piece of work with you guys. Let me know what you think.
While this would be pointless for MP this would be soooooo cool for the campaigns…
I think the second one, the wind one was a bit subtle, and the snow one was a bit heavy handed, but I love this concept. Really crank up the ambience in the campaigns for those who choose to enable this setting.
You could probably have a second setting for opacity, so you can crank it down for a subtler effect, or crank it up for a more pronounced effect.
Great job, both rain and snow look excellent, and I would love such a feature for campaigns.
The second effect in the desert I did not recognize initially. It looks like few clouds are moving and their shadow wanders over the ground? Or is it supposed to be wind, like Quasibrodo assumed?
Anyway, great idea and execution!
Great job! The day & night effect in Jadwiga already shows some direction towards more immersion. Weather effects just add onto that. This should be the future standard of campaigns.
I remember Warcraft 3 has some maps that it is raining all the time. Would be a nice flavor. Just make it toggable and it would be perfection.
It’s supposed to be wind carring dust and sand. I’m aware it’s very subtle, but it’s the best I could achieve with my poor video editing skills.
Oh, actually there are weather effects in UserPatch 1.5.
You can set rain, snow, or thunderstorm effects.
These can be configured in the player setup section of a map script, here’s the documentation for them.
Some years ago I found a youtube video showing off these weather effects, but never understood how to enable them.
So, they had to be set up within the map script, I see.
I like the idea…it looks more cinematic or realistic…
Exact…
AoE 3 has rain on its tropical maps and snow in its snowy maps and it looks incredible and beautiful…so I wouldn’t see a problem with AoE 2 incorporating that too…
