Weather?

[autosave_3]

This alien planet always has good weather. What if there were different "conditions"?

This is sort of like the posts about food and sleep but hear me out. Different weather conditions could effect factory systems. Wind could slow bots, temperature could effect machine productivity and biter behavior. Pollution and weather could interact, maybe acid rain is a new reason to limit pollution. Weather could also offer new options for water and power production.

I think weather would improve the game by adding a new incentive to design. If conditions can change and disrupt your production then you'll have to design more resilient, diversified systems, build in back-ups, etc...

[E-37]

The problem with weather is that it is random. Players don't like being punished for things they can't control. It is like having a chance for a nuclear reactor to explode. It might seem more realistic but it doesn't make the game more fun. What if it that reactor was your only source of power and exploded right before the biters came? You would take heavy damage. It would feel like you were being punished for no fault of your own - just for being unlucky and not wasting materials for a backup you probably won't need. If it is added, weather shouldn't have any effect on the factory. Visual effects could be added, but there should be a way to remove them similar to how you can remove night with lamps and night vision goggles.

I don't think content should be added just because it would make the game more realistic. It needs to add something to the game. Random events don't make the game more enjoyable. Biters are the closest thing the game has to random events and you are given plenty of warnings and many ways to mitigate the threat. And even they are closer to a constant threat than a random disaster.

Besides, its an alien planet! Who says it bad weather like Earth?

[mp0011]

The problem with weather is that it is random. Players don't like being punished for things they can't control.

It's not random if it is within some controlled and reasonable limits, and You know it will happen soon. If there eg. are 10% chances for less sunshine, just add some more accumulators or panels.
It may also be easily controlled (and disabled) at map generation on map settings, in three standard select boxes for Bad Weather: Frequency (none to very high), Length and Intensivity.

[E-37]

The problem with weather is that it is random. Players don't like being punished for things they can't control.

It's not random if it is within some controlled and reasonable limits, and You know it will happen soon. If there eg. are 10% chances for less sunshine, just add some more accumulators or panels.
It may also be easily controlled (and disabled) at map generation on map settings, in three standard select boxes for Bad Weather: Frequency (none to very high), Length and Intensivity.

If it is added, there should be an option to disable it. As for a chance for less sunshine, the player's response will be: "There is a chance for my solar panels to be 20% less efficient, so I better build 20% more or switch to a different power source." How is that adding anything to the game? The problem with adding a chance for penalties is that most players will simply build too much. My assemblers might be 10% slower? Better build extra. I guess I think that if something is added, it should make playing more fun in some way.

If weather is added, it should be added in a way similar to biters. Defending your base isn't just an extra resource drain, it can be fun to use your environment to your advantage and it encourages a different style of play. The randomness of the nest layout can affect how you expand which can lead to different layouts which can help keep the game fresh. If a whole bunch of spitters are camping a giant iron field, you might have to go elsewhere for iron, but later you can come back in a take and wipe them out - they might be annoying, but eventually they can be overcome which is fun and rewarding. They might attack a weak area and break in for a short time but you can learn from that random event and build better defenses. Essentially, the random attacks reward you for good design, something that random weather would need to do to really add something to the game.