Wind direction + strength, more indicators

[CmdrDats]

I'd love to see more indicators of wind speed and direction, particularly for clear days with low wind speed. This would aid hugely for making sure you're still walking in roughly the same direction as you were intending.

• Your breath condensation should fade off into the direction of the wind.
• Smoke from things like torches that would also go in the correct direction. (currently, you can't actually see the smoke from your torch)
• Maybe a subtle blue hue gradient to indicate the side of your face you're getting hit by wind would be nice, to make up for the fact that you can't actually feel the wind.
• As you walk, you could be kicking up a bit of snow that could also gravitate in the direction of the wind - might be hard to tell the direction though unless it's a stronger wind, since the velocity of your kick would be variable (hard to get exactly consistent strength and depths of kicks).
• Maybe ice condensation about the lakes, which could shift in the wind direction? That would be rad, but I'm not sure on the real-world physics of that.
• Grass to blow in the direction of the wind - currently it just bobs side to side dependent on the strength of the wind.

Anyhow - some subtle things that would make the game that much more immersive for me

[JAFO]

17 hours ago, CmdrDats said:

I'd love to see more indicators of wind speed and direction, particularly for clear days with low wind speed. This would aid hugely for making sure you're still walking in roughly the same direction as you were intending.

I'm not sure I follow you here.. in the conditions you describe, making sure of the direction you're going in works just fine using purely visual references. Wind direction, on the other hand, changes around quite a bit at random during the day, which would kind of negate your stated reason of using it for navigational purposes.

[CmdrDats]

I often find myself confused using purely visual references, particularly when I'm just in the middle of a bunch of trees. I found that if there's a strong wind it's easier for me to keep direction than on a clearer day (crazy), because I keep spinning around to check for wolves/etc.. Of course, it might just be that I need to work on being better at visual markers instead of using other, more global, indicators.

The wind direction usually sticks around for the half-second it takes to look around and re-orient to my intended direction, so even if it's shifting a bit now and then, it would be fine.

Another thing i'd love to see is to have the grass also blow in the same direction as the wind, instead of the current simple 'shudder dependent on wind strength' - being a flat sprite makes this a bit interesting to fix though.. I was going to add that to the list in the original post, but I wanted to confirm in game last night first.

Anyhow - I feel like this would be a set of subtle, but really nice touches to the game. Useful, but not in your face.

[JAFO]

35 minutes ago, CmdrDats said:

I often find myself confused using purely visual references, particularly when I'm just in the middle of a bunch of trees. I found that if there's a strong wind it's easier for me to keep direction than on a clearer day (crazy), because I keep spinning around to check for wolves/etc.. Of course, it might just be that I need to work on being better at visual markers instead of using other, more global, indicators.

Ok.. now I see where you're coming from.. familiarity with the region helps a lot, but that takes time.. something I found helpful in the early days, particularly in the conditions you describe, is shadow direction and sun position. (While being aware that the sun does track across the sky during the course of the day. Paying attention to the time of day helps with this, also.) Also, try to note some distinctive feature in your intended path, even if it's just a different type of tree, rock outcrop or something, that you'll recognise again after spinning around.

[Crimson Foxx]

I do get a sense of wind direction and chill during heavy snow and obviously blizzards. Snow fall often hints to me which side of a rock face to walk along to get sheltered badge at the top of my screen. But i would also like to see small trees and taller grass and those reeds bend in a clearer direction that the wind is blowing. also soft /light snow on drifts to blow and move in the same direction as the wind and any smoke and flags to move in that direction too, mostly for visual immersion. ☻

Good call.

[CmdrDats]

1 hour ago, JAFO said:

 something I found helpful in the early days, particularly in the conditions you describe, is shadow direction and sun position. (While being aware that the sun does track across the sky during the course of the day. Paying attention to the time of day helps with this, also.)

Very good! I hadn't really noticed the shadows that much, will pay them a bit more attention