Things along this nature have been suggested before, but this is my unique take on it. This would introduce a new weather system that prevents frequent rainfall (something that annoys a lot of people), as well as do some fun stuff with cloud coverage, cloud color, and fog.
Humidity and Rain
TL;DR: More types of rain and snow, rain isn't quite as common (usually won't appear two days in a row), heavy rain like storms is more challenging but much less common.
For those who don't know, humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air. This helps determine if it will rain or snow. Now it would be impossible to replicate fully in Minecraft, but my system would imitate it in a way that is friendly to the user.
NOTE: Unless specifically stated otherwise, when I say rain I mean rain or snow, depending on the biome.
The first day of a new Minecraft world, Humidity would be set at 0% for the entire day, preventing rainfall. Then, starting at dawn on the second day, the humidity would raise slowly over the course of the day. This would be no less than 5% each day, but no more than 15%. When it gets to 100%, it will rain. This means it will take anywhere from around 6 days to 20 days for it to guarantee rain.
Well, not exactly. In addition to the humidity, there would also be a variable rain system. This would include 4 types of rain, which occur based on how humid the world is. Here is some information on those:
Sun Shower: 20-39% Humidity
This would be a light shower, with not a lot of rain particles or sound. The sunlight level would be reduced by 1. All in all this would be more pleasant than the regular rain we have now.
Shower: 40-59% Humidity
The current regular rain we have, except slightly more quiet. Sunlight level reduced by 3. Pretty close to the rain we have.
Heavy Snow / Rain: 60-79% Humidity
Rain: This would be a gap between the current rain we have and the thunderstorm we have. Light level would be reduced by 5. Lightning would be rare, but it would happen.
Snow: The snow particles would fall faster and there would be more of them. Lightning would not occur in snow biomes, but you can hear it from other biomes.
Snowstorm / Thunderstorm: 80-100% Humidity
Rain: This would be the equivalent of the current Thunderstorm, except instead of light level going down to 10 and mobs spawning just because, the light level goes down to 7 and mobs spawn because they can at those levels.
Snow: Snow would come down quite a bit here, restricting vision. Lightning would be rare. Light level 7.
Starting and Stopping Rain
Rain would be checked at semi-random times throughout the day. Once between midnight and dawn, once between dawn and noon, once between noon and sunset, and once between sunset and midnight. The actual time it checks in those windows would be randomized, so rain doesn't start at seemingly set times through the day like it currently does. Also, rain (and lightning) would no longer fall from the sky. It would fall from cloud level, so you could live above the clouds and never have to deal with a storm again.
While any of these weather effects occur, the humidity would lower over time. All weather would take exactly one full game day (20 minutes) to disperse. So how this would work is when the weather starts, the game takes the Humidity and divides it by 20. It would then subtract that amount from the Humidity every minute. Also, during the last two minutes of the weather, it would transition backwards through the different stages of rain to simulate it letting up over time.
If you sleep during rain, it automatically ends it and sets the Humidity to 0%. Also the /weather command would be changed to accommodate the new weather. If you use that command to force weather the Humidity will not change. Also, instead of a text string for each weather type, there would be a number for each weather type:
0 - Clear
1 - Sun Shower
2 - Shower
3 - Heavy
4 - Storm
So making a Heavy Rain appear for 10 minutes would be /weather 3 600
Cloud Coverage/Color
TL;DR: A whole new cloud system that would be 100% compatible with current clouds, clouds have more variety and more options.
Next up, Humidity would affect cloud coverage and color. Basically, more Humidity means more Clouds. This will result in an overhaul of the cloud system, while remaining compatible with the current cloud texture system.
Current System
Currently, there is one texture file for all clouds. Whatever patterns or shapes the user makes in that file will repeat across the sky at regular intervals. You can currently color the clouds whatever color you want and make them appear however you want. My new system would supplement this and not replace it.
New System
My system would have each cloud be their own texture file, and you can have as many as you want by adding any PNG image into a special clouds folder. The game will choose these at random, rotate them a random amount of degrees (only multiples of 90 to keep it looking blocky), and generate them randomly in the world (as long as it would not collide with a cloud already in the world. This would make so the clouds would be semi-randomly generated.
All the old functions of clouds such as coloring them or making them whatever size you want would still exist, but both this and the old system would get one small improvement: Variable cloud opacity. As anyone who uses .PNG files knows, you can have some parts of the image opaque (solid) and other parts can be partially or fully transparent. Currently, Minecraft either renders clouds as solid (Fast Graphics) or transparent (Fancy Graphics). This would allow some clouds to be more transparent than others, and even allow some clouds to be transparent in some places and opaque in others. For obvious reasons, this would be limited to Fancy Graphics.
Combining Systems
The two systems would work in conjunction with each other. The old system would keep the one static layer of clouds floating at layer 127, but the new system would operate at layers 120-126. In addition to the new clouds appearing in random formations, they can also appear at random heights between those layers. This would add depth to clouds, which would look a lot nicer.
If you want to disable either system, it is easy. If you don't like the old system you open the texture and erase everything, and if you don't like the new system you just delete any files in that special clouds folder I mentioned earlier. This would allow for a bunch of really cool effects like:
Rainbow Clouds
Having the new system of clouds be one color and the old system be another for cool contrasting color effects
Have the old system be one solid white cloud, with the new system being transparent colored clouds to tint different parts of the sky
Many more
Clouds and Humidity
All clouds would be affected by Humidity but in slightly different ways. Here is a quick rundown:
Both Systems: Cloud Opacity and Luminance (how much white there is) would be affected by Humidity. The more humid it is, the less transparent the clouds are and they appear slightly darker than normal. The amount would be tiny, probably only about 20% for both. Fast Graphics does not have transparent clouds so only the color would change. This would indicate to the player when rain is likely to come (the darker and thicker the clouds, the more likely rain is coming).
New System: The more humid it is, the more of the new clouds generate. So if it is not humid, you will get a few clouds here or there. If it is more humid, you are not going to see as much of the sun. Also used to indicate when rain is coming (more clouds = higher chance of rain)
Fog
TL;DR: Occurs around sea level, more common at night and early morning. Can also be colored by Resource Packs or by biome. Restricts vision for players and makes mobs less responsive to balance for difficulty.
Finally, we have Fog. Fog has been discussed before, but not like this. It would ONLY be a visual effect (meaning it would be no more laggy than a Potion of Night Vision or swimming underwater) and will only restrict vision up to a certain amount. People on Tiny View Distance will never be affected by Fog. Fog only occurs 7 blocks above or below level 64. Fog is more likely to occur at night or early morning and it only lasts about 10-15 minutes.
The chance of fog and the amount of fog would be based on Humidity and the biome. The more humid it is then the better chance of fog. Extremely hot biomes like Jungles or Swamps would have more fog, temperate biomes like Plains would have less fog, and cold biomes would have more fog again (strangely enough it does seem to work like that). Deserts would have no fog.
Fog can be colored like clouds by editing the textures and each biome would get a different texture file for different colored fog in different biomes if people so wish. The only thing you cannot do is disable fog by erasing files or color data. If the game cannot find the proper file or color it defaults to white to prevent people from erasing files to cheat in foggy PvP matches. However, fog can be disabled on a world with /gamerule doFog <true/false>.
This all allows for some interesting new PvP mechanics like sneaking through fog to avoid an archer stationed in the trees above, or choosing between low visibility to flee or fighting in high visibility to hit your target better. Also, mobs would also have reduced vision when you or they are in fog. Mob vision would be restricted to about 6 blocks, Creepers would have an additional delay before exploding (because you can get closer to them on accident), and Skeletons would be less accurate and have slower firing speeds (due to decreased visibility). This makes fog a strategic choice for both PvP and PvE.
With all of this together I think it would make Minecraft look a lot more varied and pretty, allow a whole bunch of options for texture artists, map makers, PvPers and regular players.
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Added some information for the /weather command and a bit more details.
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I agree and support! The weather systems really needs an overhaul. *Supports Thread*
EDIT: Perhaps the fog colour files should be all in one file, but the colour is grey, so it is biome colouring.
But a great idea!
I thought about that but decided on the alternative. I will add a poll.
Thanks for the support guys.
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Thanks for the support. Remember to vote on how you want your fog colored people! I suppose I should vote too.
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Yep, I agree- I support! But yes, put a bit more detail in. Good idea!
I'm still thinking of ways to improve the idea. Anyone have anything they would like to change?
Thanks for the support so far.
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Any particular reason you don't like the other ideas?
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I never said they were bad or I don't like them. Will there be humidity in the taiga biome because doesn't humidity also make it warmer? I am no weather expert, so I am not sure. The cloud humidity is nice, though, because I live in a part with a lot of humidity, and there is always storms afterwards. It would make minecraft more realistic.
I never said they were bad or I don't like them. Will there be humidity in the taiga biome because doesn't humidity also make it warmer? I am no weather expert, so I am not sure. The cloud humidity is nice, though, because I live in a part with a lot of humidity, and there is always storms afterwards. It would make minecraft more realistic.
Ah I misunderstood. Anyways Humidity doesn't actually make it warmer, it just means there is a lot of water in the air. the reason it feels hotter is because Humidity in the heat makes it muggy. So it gets humid in cold places too, it just isn't as obvious.
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Ah I misunderstood. Anyways Humidity doesn't actually make it warmer, it just means there is a lot of water in the air. the reason it feels hotter is because Humidity in the heat makes it muggy. So it gets humid in cold places too, it just isn't as obvious.
Ok, I didn't know if humidity makes it hotter or not. I do 100% support
Ok, I didn't know if humidity makes it drier or not. I do 100% support
Thanks for the support!
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Added some more information, such as the TL;DR sections for people who don't want to get into the details too much.
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I really like this idea, and it seems to me like it would add more than a bit of atmosphere. However, might I suggest changing the length of weather effects? I would prefer it if it did not last exactly one day and if the time varied, say, between 15 and 25 minutes. I just think it would add more variation (and thus possibly more interest) to your system.
Yeh, the idea is nice but particular aspects need tweaking such as the rain time. Light showers generally are shorter than thunderstorms and generally only during the day.
How about this for a tweak to rain time? When rain starts, the humidity decreases at a constant rate instead of at a rate that will make rain last a full day. This means that the worse the storm is, the longer it lasts. I'm thinking something like 5% per minute, which would give each level of rain a different length of time, noted below:
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Humidity and Rain
TL;DR: More types of rain and snow, rain isn't quite as common (usually won't appear two days in a row), heavy rain like storms is more challenging but much less common.
For those who don't know, humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air. This helps determine if it will rain or snow. Now it would be impossible to replicate fully in Minecraft, but my system would imitate it in a way that is friendly to the user.
NOTE: Unless specifically stated otherwise, when I say rain I mean rain or snow, depending on the biome.
The first day of a new Minecraft world, Humidity would be set at 0% for the entire day, preventing rainfall. Then, starting at dawn on the second day, the humidity would raise slowly over the course of the day. This would be no less than 5% each day, but no more than 15%. When it gets to 100%, it will rain. This means it will take anywhere from around 6 days to 20 days for it to guarantee rain.
Well, not exactly. In addition to the humidity, there would also be a variable rain system. This would include 4 types of rain, which occur based on how humid the world is. Here is some information on those:
Snow: The snow particles would fall faster and there would be more of them. Lightning would not occur in snow biomes, but you can hear it from other biomes.
Snow: Snow would come down quite a bit here, restricting vision. Lightning would be rare. Light level 7.
Rain would be checked at semi-random times throughout the day. Once between midnight and dawn, once between dawn and noon, once between noon and sunset, and once between sunset and midnight. The actual time it checks in those windows would be randomized, so rain doesn't start at seemingly set times through the day like it currently does. Also, rain (and lightning) would no longer fall from the sky. It would fall from cloud level, so you could live above the clouds and never have to deal with a storm again.
While any of these weather effects occur, the humidity would lower over time. All weather would take exactly one full game day (20 minutes) to disperse. So how this would work is when the weather starts, the game takes the Humidity and divides it by 20. It would then subtract that amount from the Humidity every minute. Also, during the last two minutes of the weather, it would transition backwards through the different stages of rain to simulate it letting up over time.
If you sleep during rain, it automatically ends it and sets the Humidity to 0%. Also the /weather command would be changed to accommodate the new weather. If you use that command to force weather the Humidity will not change. Also, instead of a text string for each weather type, there would be a number for each weather type:
Cloud Coverage/Color
TL;DR: A whole new cloud system that would be 100% compatible with current clouds, clouds have more variety and more options.
Next up, Humidity would affect cloud coverage and color. Basically, more Humidity means more Clouds. This will result in an overhaul of the cloud system, while remaining compatible with the current cloud texture system.
Current System
Currently, there is one texture file for all clouds. Whatever patterns or shapes the user makes in that file will repeat across the sky at regular intervals. You can currently color the clouds whatever color you want and make them appear however you want. My new system would supplement this and not replace it.
New System
My system would have each cloud be their own texture file, and you can have as many as you want by adding any PNG image into a special clouds folder. The game will choose these at random, rotate them a random amount of degrees (only multiples of 90 to keep it looking blocky), and generate them randomly in the world (as long as it would not collide with a cloud already in the world. This would make so the clouds would be semi-randomly generated.
All the old functions of clouds such as coloring them or making them whatever size you want would still exist, but both this and the old system would get one small improvement: Variable cloud opacity. As anyone who uses .PNG files knows, you can have some parts of the image opaque (solid) and other parts can be partially or fully transparent. Currently, Minecraft either renders clouds as solid (Fast Graphics) or transparent (Fancy Graphics). This would allow some clouds to be more transparent than others, and even allow some clouds to be transparent in some places and opaque in others. For obvious reasons, this would be limited to Fancy Graphics.
Combining Systems
The two systems would work in conjunction with each other. The old system would keep the one static layer of clouds floating at layer 127, but the new system would operate at layers 120-126. In addition to the new clouds appearing in random formations, they can also appear at random heights between those layers. This would add depth to clouds, which would look a lot nicer.
If you want to disable either system, it is easy. If you don't like the old system you open the texture and erase everything, and if you don't like the new system you just delete any files in that special clouds folder I mentioned earlier. This would allow for a bunch of really cool effects like:
All clouds would be affected by Humidity but in slightly different ways. Here is a quick rundown:
Both Systems: Cloud Opacity and Luminance (how much white there is) would be affected by Humidity. The more humid it is, the less transparent the clouds are and they appear slightly darker than normal. The amount would be tiny, probably only about 20% for both. Fast Graphics does not have transparent clouds so only the color would change. This would indicate to the player when rain is likely to come (the darker and thicker the clouds, the more likely rain is coming).
New System: The more humid it is, the more of the new clouds generate. So if it is not humid, you will get a few clouds here or there. If it is more humid, you are not going to see as much of the sun. Also used to indicate when rain is coming (more clouds = higher chance of rain)
Fog
TL;DR: Occurs around sea level, more common at night and early morning. Can also be colored by Resource Packs or by biome. Restricts vision for players and makes mobs less responsive to balance for difficulty.
Finally, we have Fog. Fog has been discussed before, but not like this. It would ONLY be a visual effect (meaning it would be no more laggy than a Potion of Night Vision or swimming underwater) and will only restrict vision up to a certain amount. People on Tiny View Distance will never be affected by Fog. Fog only occurs 7 blocks above or below level 64. Fog is more likely to occur at night or early morning and it only lasts about 10-15 minutes.
The chance of fog and the amount of fog would be based on Humidity and the biome. The more humid it is then the better chance of fog. Extremely hot biomes like Jungles or Swamps would have more fog, temperate biomes like Plains would have less fog, and cold biomes would have more fog again (strangely enough it does seem to work like that). Deserts would have no fog.
Fog can be colored like clouds by editing the textures and each biome would get a different texture file for different colored fog in different biomes if people so wish. The only thing you cannot do is disable fog by erasing files or color data. If the game cannot find the proper file or color it defaults to white to prevent people from erasing files to cheat in foggy PvP matches. However, fog can be disabled on a world with /gamerule doFog <true/false>.
This all allows for some interesting new PvP mechanics like sneaking through fog to avoid an archer stationed in the trees above, or choosing between low visibility to flee or fighting in high visibility to hit your target better. Also, mobs would also have reduced vision when you or they are in fog. Mob vision would be restricted to about 6 blocks, Creepers would have an additional delay before exploding (because you can get closer to them on accident), and Skeletons would be less accurate and have slower firing speeds (due to decreased visibility). This makes fog a strategic choice for both PvP and PvE.
With all of this together I think it would make Minecraft look a lot more varied and pretty, allow a whole bunch of options for texture artists, map makers, PvPers and regular players.
Want some advice on how to thrive in the Suggestions section? Check this handy list of guidelines and tips for posting your ideas and responding to the ideas of others!
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/suggestions/2775557-guidelines-for-the-suggestions-forum
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I thought about that but decided on the alternative. I will add a poll.
Thanks for the support guys.
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Thanks for the support. Remember to vote on how you want your fog colored people! I suppose I should vote too.
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I'm still thinking of ways to improve the idea. Anyone have anything they would like to change?
Thanks for the support so far.
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Any particular reason you don't like the other ideas?
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Ah I misunderstood. Anyways Humidity doesn't actually make it warmer, it just means there is a lot of water in the air. the reason it feels hotter is because Humidity in the heat makes it muggy. So it gets humid in cold places too, it just isn't as obvious.
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Ok, I didn't know if humidity makes it hotter or not. I do 100% support
Thanks for the support!
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Light Shower: 4-8 Minutes
Shower: 8-12 Minutes
Heavy Shower: 12-16 Minutes
Storm: 16-20 Minutes
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