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Stiebler · 11-01-06, 02:52 PM

I've been trying SabreHawk's weather recommendation for a full campaign with NYGM. Identical changes are made to all three campaign files (_LND, _RND and _SCR).

Any discussion of how well the changes work has to recognise that the weather changes are random (or pseudo random; I have a suspicion from air attack changes that an additional random variable is set each time you turn on the game). This makes comparisons very tricky for changes to the weather parameter.

However, a full campaign represents a very long test time, and the following seems to apply:
1. The weather changes more frequently than the stock weather.
2. This can result in protracted periods of 'fog' (heavy precipitations), or in protracted periods of strong winds (15 m/s).

I believe that this effect can be explained:
Normally, the rain and the wind can change randomly up or down. However, when either variable is at a maximum, on average every other random change is ineffective since it tries to be more than the maximum and is therefore ignored. This means that SabreWolf's weather settings cause the weather to move more rapidly than stock weather to maximum figures for wind and rain, which persist for some time (even when the figures start to fall, they have presumably a 50:50 chance of returning to maximum again). When the weather improves, it changes more rapidly than stock weather back to maximum figures.

In other words, by throwing the weather dice more often, you increase the speed of the weather trending to maximum values of fog and wind.

Sometimes, again by chance, the fog and strong winds subside more quickly than with stock weather. But even when this happens, it quickly returns to fog. In summary, you get more fog and strong winds but for shorter periods.

I still can't decide whether or not the overall effect is an improvement over the stock weather pattern.

Stiebler.

11-01-06, 02:52 PM	#70
Stiebler Fuel Supplier Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,237 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 4	I've been trying SabreHawk's weather recommendation for a full campaign with NYGM. Identical changes are made to all three campaign files (_LND, _RND and _SCR). Any discussion of how well the changes work has to recognise that the weather changes are random (or pseudo random; I have a suspicion from air attack changes that an additional random variable is set each time you turn on the game). This makes comparisons very tricky for changes to the weather parameter. However, a full campaign represents a very long test time, and the following seems to apply: 1. The weather changes more frequently than the stock weather. 2. This can result in protracted periods of 'fog' (heavy precipitations), or in protracted periods of strong winds (15 m/s). I believe that this effect can be explained: Normally, the rain and the wind can change randomly up or down. However, when either variable is at a maximum, on average every other random change is ineffective since it tries to be more than the maximum and is therefore ignored. This means that SabreWolf's weather settings cause the weather to move more rapidly than stock weather to maximum figures for wind and rain, which persist for some time (even when the figures start to fall, they have presumably a 50:50 chance of returning to maximum again). When the weather improves, it changes more rapidly than stock weather back to maximum figures. In other words, by throwing the weather dice more often, you increase the speed of the weather trending to maximum values of fog and wind. Sometimes, again by chance, the fog and strong winds subside more quickly than with stock weather. But even when this happens, it quickly returns to fog. In summary, you get more fog and strong winds but for shorter periods. I still can't decide whether or not the overall effect is an improvement over the stock weather pattern. Stiebler.