More sudden temporal storms, more immersive storm warning

[Ven]

I love temporal storms! That is what makes Vintage Story itself. But warnings about the upcoming storm in the chat messages look a bit off...

1) It would be great if instead of chat messages player could detect the upcoming storm by being attentive to his surroundings. Small seamless changes in the enviroment around him, barely noticeable lags or crackling sounds, brief shifts in normal colors that are hard to notice without being attentive, changes in animal behaviors etc. Some tech classes like clockmaker could be more prone to its changes and notice them better, for example some weak ticking sounds in the head. Clockmakers do hear them actually, according to the class lore

2) The storm duration and occurence perioud could be much more random and harder to predict. "Oh the last storm was 5 days ago I have plenty of time for the expedition to the nearby forest", everyone would think. But uh oh! Wasn't vigilant enough, gotta think fast because it's gonna strike right now!
The common rule could be like this: The more time had passed since the last storm(randomly) the heavier and longer it would become. And it could last for a couple of days (with some adjustments to the farming drifters to that occasion of course) when the occurence could go beyong once per several ingame months

3) A new temporal device made from Jonas parts that would resemble a modified weathervane, something similar to the rift ward. Fueled by temporal gears (1 per month or so) that will directly alarm if the storm is about to rage on, repeating the role of current chat notifications. Also, a great start to make it suitable for automatization (primitivly pushing the axle or connected to the resonator). Also, can be a unique recipe for clockmaker class! (I still think that most of jonas devices should be available to the clockmaker only)

Edited September 18 by Ven

[Deaderpan]

i think it would be best if there was lots of different ways to detect an incoming storm but everyone has a positive and a flaw. a few ideas for example
-a wind vain: only works outside and you have to see it spinning or stop spinning to know if its working.
-a horn that blows when a storm is about to happen, can be heard almost anywhere in a large area (it could be multiblock with the more horn pieces you put on it the louder and deeper -it gets) but it only sounds a few seconds before a storm begins.
-temporal compass, portable storm warning device but takes up a bag slot or needs charging.

i do agree that a device should be made to detect storms but there should be multiple different ways of doing so with none of them being a 100% chance at detecting it. personally i like the idea of the storms being easily detectable with many ways to detect them, but lore wise they are so common and deadly it doesnt matter if you can detect them every time, eventually it will out attrition you

[LadyWYT]

On 9/18/2024 at 6:34 AM, Ven said:

1) It would be great if instead of chat messages player could detect the upcoming storm by being attentive to his surroundings. Small seamless changes in the enviroment around him, barely noticeable lags or crackling sounds, brief shifts in normal colors that are hard to notice without being attentive, changes in animal behaviors etc. Some tech classes like clockmaker could be more prone to its changes and notice them better, for example some weak ticking sounds in the head. Clockmakers do hear them actually, according to the class lore

Really, for this one, I think all you'd have to do is cut any music that's currently playing and start playing the faint Rust ambience instead, for the initial warning. That effect is already in the game once enough of your stability has drained, and will remain in effect as long as stability remains below the required threshold. In this case though, your stability value wouldn't matter, and the ambience condition would continue until the storm actually arrives. Once the storm passes, everything goes back to business as usual.

On 9/18/2024 at 6:34 AM, Ven said:

2) The storm duration and occurence perioud could be much more random and harder to predict. "Oh the last storm was 5 days ago I have plenty of time for the expedition to the nearby forest", everyone would think. But uh oh! Wasn't vigilant enough, gotta think fast because it's gonna strike right now!
The common rule could be like this: The more time had passed since the last storm(randomly) the heavier and longer it would become. And it could last for a couple of days (with some adjustments to the farming drifters to that occasion of course) when the occurence could go beyong once per several ingame months

I think this could make a great game setting option, although I'm not really sure about the lore ramifications. You'd think the storms would be more random than they are, but I've also wondered if there's not a specific lore reason on why they seem to follow such a regular schedule.

On 9/18/2024 at 6:34 AM, Ven said:

3) A new temporal device made from Jonas parts that would resemble a modified weathervane, something similar to the rift ward. Fueled by temporal gears (1 per month or so) that will directly alarm if the storm is about to rage on, repeating the role of current chat notifications. Also, a great start to make it suitable for automatization (primitivly pushing the axle or connected to the resonator). Also, can be a unique recipe for clockmaker class! (I still think that most of jonas devices should be available to the clockmaker only)

Definitely agree with this, save for the Jonas tech being a clockmaker-exclusive. Some sort of device to track when the next storm will be would be awesome, especially if you've taken a break from a particular world for a while and forgotten when the last temporal storm was. As for Jonas tech and clockmakers...I'd rather keep Jonas tech as end-tier tech for all classes, and give clockmakers either the ability to craft Jonas parts, or some more unique toys for accomplishing tasks/interacting with the world.