Bad weather house rules?

**RobotSpark** · 08-18-2021 15:40

I was curious if anyone had come up with house rules for bad weather effects such as limited visibility from fog, effects of wind and rain on flight performance, etc. I'd be happy to come up with my own but I'm just curious to see if anyone else has "invented the wheel" first.

**zenlizard** · 08-18-2021 16:48

The most recently concluded play-by-private message series of games (Scenario 11, Battle Amongst the Clouds) included a set of rules for such.
Also, back when I was participating in the solo play campaign, the scenrio I designed featured heavy cloud cover, with an ever-moving hole for visibility. That's here: https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...1916-zenlizard

**Flying Helmut** · 08-19-2021 04:52

I wrote some last month, as part of my WW1 "Wings" Campaign Rules, and I'm trying to find time to playtest them now.

Off the top of my head (I'm at work; my Campaign is on my laptop) there is no flying at all if the Weather is Fog (it's suicidal - you can't see to takeoff, or land!) and I had disregarded effects of wind at flyable wind-speeds (too complex moving all planes, and all clouds, and at different rates depending on solidity, etc.).
Wind occurs at 4 levels - "Still", "Gentle", "Moderate", "Strong". Flying is impossible in "Strong", and Balloons cannot be deployed in "Moderate" or "Strong".
The Wind also varies by Altitude, and the weather each turn is based around the weather of the preceding turn.
Rain is also factored in, depending on the cloud type (again, 4 types, "None", "Scattered", "Intermediate" and "Blanket") and cloud altitude.

It's all interlinked; I'll be posting the whole Campaign on here when it's finished...

**Stumptonian** · 08-19-2021 07:24

Originally Posted by Flying Helmut

It's all interlinked; I'll be posting the whole Campaign on here when it's finished...

Looking forward to checking that out, Tim.

**mikeemagnus** · 08-19-2021 07:51

Yep, me too

**Flying Officer Kyte** · 08-19-2021 08:28

I seem to remember playing a game in the early days of the Solo campaign were my Bulldogs were subjected to all sorts of bad weather including lightning strikes. It may be worth having a look back. Could even have been one of Flash's inspirations, but I am not too sure about that. Memory never been quite so good since my Camel got struck by lightning.
Kyte.

**Flying Helmut** · 08-19-2021 09:33

Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte

Memory never been quite so good since my Camel got struck by lightning.
Kyte.

So it was you who started the trend of "lighting up a Camel"!

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**Flying Officer Kyte** · 08-20-2021 03:29

If you recall Tim, incendiary camels are my trademark.

Kyte.

**Diamondback** · 08-20-2021 08:01

Originally Posted by Flying Helmut

So it was you who started the trend of "lighting up a Camel"!

*groan* that was csadn-level Weapons Grade Stinker... I've been toying with the idea of computer-controlled turn-by-turn weather adjustment for both Wings and Sails, but I'd need "time per turn" and decks for moving clouds at various windspeeds.

**Stumptonian** · 08-20-2021 09:54

Originally Posted by Diamondback

*groan* that was csadn-level Weapons Grade Stinker... I've been toying with the idea of computer-controlled turn-by-turn weather adjustment for both Wings and Sails, but I'd need "time per turn" and decks for moving clouds at various windspeeds.

Speaking of Chris, do you happen to know what happened to him?
He disappeared going on 4 years ago.

**Diamondback** · 08-20-2021 11:08

Originally Posted by Stumptonian

Speaking of Chris, do you happen to know what happened to him?
He disappeared going on 4 years ago.

He quit four years ago over various problems with Ares between inability to deliver on schedule (I'm salty with them on this too, they put a friend out of business because of it and their delays always interfering with his ability to book family vacations--you might remember Bill Dettmers at 12-7-Games) and inability or refusal to keep core groups of "iconic" planes in constant production.

He thought the answer was let it crash and burn so FFG (boo hiss) or somebody else can pick up and relaunch "bigger and better," but I think the problem is more Ares minuscule Market Capitalization and low cash-flow where all they have to fund the next project is the profits from the last. I really wish they'd look into something like One Share, let us who believe in them and want to support them raise their Market Cap by selling single shares--enough to have something nice to hang on the wall, not enough change of ownership to threaten creative control.

**Jager** · 08-20-2021 12:33

Yeh, I miss Chris
Karl

**Baxter** · 08-20-2021 17:12

I was thinking of the wind question. When the wind is coming from the West perhaps a slower deck could be used for Entente return to base part of the game (and I guess maybe a faster one when flying East?)

**RobotSpark** · 08-20-2021 19:13

I should note that some of the effects I'm particularly interested in are bad visibility (due to haziness, heavy rain), perhaps something to do with wind affecting flight performance, and clouds

**flash** · 08-20-2021 23:10

Originally Posted by Baxter

I was thinking of the wind question. When the wind is coming from the West perhaps a slower deck could be used for Entente return to base part of the game (and I guess maybe a faster one when flying East?)

Wind effects all planes the same Gary so the chasing planes would have to be similarly adjusted - are you going to change decks every time you face a particular direction ? Wind effects might be a rabbit hole you may not want to go down.
Visibility may be easier to handle as you can limit that to range ruler lengths - how you handle movement then is more complicated, bit like flying in cloud perhaps.