Kalypso's answer - Storms/Disasters, OPTIONAL

[Coconut Kid]

T1 dealt with the weather with a constant direction & rate of wind and a variable rate of rainfall.

Scriptors took up the issue of Hurricanes (and by implication the category of "Tropical Storms") and the destruction they cause. The PI expansion added a variable "Random Events" which included storms of variable intensity.

Many players are so intent on building that they don't care to deal with a realistic simulation of the Caribbean weather.

In the basic premise of the game, the period from 1950 to ~80 years later would certainly involve at least one serious storm. For those players who wish to play for hundreds of years (typically at top speed), they should encounter dozens of serious storms -- not to mention the problems with animating the dead from age corpse of El Presidente.

Since Haemimont is developing T3 as a 'city builder' with interesting people --- one wonders how they will deal with storms in the Caribbean.

Are you interested in a simulation of Caribbean weather which includes at least one or two destructive storms in a fifty year period as reasonable verisimilitude? Or what then in the way of weather?

Ordinary wind and rain should recognize prevailing conditions, don't you think.

Given the game's time scale, is it reasonable to be concerned about rare deviations in the prevailing wind? If so, perhaps the most common deviation would be a period of dead calm.

I need more information to be sure, but I think rainfall has to be connected with the island's terrain. Low level islands have to be arid and islands with hills will be wetter because the hills pull the rain from the clouds.

[Thurjack]

I think that the option to have hurricanes - such as with the random events currently - is a good thing.

Things that would be good:

1.  Some kind of more appealling storm graphicial interface.  Tropcial storms are actually very beautiful things and it would be nice to capture some of that imagry as the destructive power of nature crushes the island that you've been working on for the last ten hours.

2.  Is there anything El Presidente can do against the power of nature?   I realize that in real life there isn't much one can do but perhaps there is some kind of weather observatory that can be built that can give the player the ability to issue an edict "Dig In For The Storm" or something that reduces hurricane damage?

3.  I really like the way that currently the storm can change the soil conditions afterwards.

[Coconut Kid]

I think that the option to have hurricanes - such as with the random events currently - is a good thing.
...

So you do not think there should be any destructive storms unless the player chooses to have them.

... Some kind of more appealling storm graphicial interface. ...

I'm sure 'Haemimont' is up for that.

... Is there anything El Presidente can do against the power of nature? ...

Predicting the track of a storm was not well developed until late in 20th century. Perhaps upon receiving warning of a potential hit, El Presidente could issue an Evacuate the Civilians Edict which would remove all women, children & babies and 2/3 of the men not employed as Generals, Soldiers, Policemen, Doctors, Priests and Bishops who would stay also. After the storm was over, a random selection of half of those evacuated would return on freighters.

... I really like the way that currently the storm can change the soil conditions afterwards.

I have never seen that described specifically. Could/would you tell us more?

 

[el tropicano]

hurricanes can be a good idea, still hurricanes can be one of the most devastating natural disaster ever, i mean its not usually just the rain, for mountains mud slides, also the water that stays in the town creating disease...i think that would be the end of my regime if it happens. If they add things like that to the game, they should add things like foreign aid from the top powers, also a building thats made to save resources in case something like that happens...but also the graphical effects of creating a hurricane might kill an outdated pc

[Coconut Kid]

hurricanes can be a good idea, still hurricanes can be one of the most devastating natural disaster ever, i mean its not usually just the rain, for mountains mud slides, also the water that stays in the town creating disease.

I like those! Let's add mud slides then and increased disease two months later.

i think that would be the end of my regime if it happens. If they add things like that to the game, they should add things like foreign aid from the top powers, also a building thats made to save resources in case something like that happens.

In T1, every hurricane and tropical storm includes "international aid" for rebuilding ; and a tinker with the food supply & happiness for a period to get the supply back in order.

but also the graphical effects of creating a hurricane might kill an outdated pc.

The new graphics in T3 will kill an "outdated PC" without even thinking of a hurricane.

 

[Coconut Kid]

... Ordinary wind and rain should recognize prevailing conditions, don't you think.

Given the game's time scale, is it reasonable to be concerned about rare deviations in the prevailing wind? If so, perhaps the most common deviation would be a period of dead calm.

I need more information to be sure, but I think rainfall has to be connected with the island's terrain. Low level islands have to be arid and islands with hills will be wetter because the hills pull the rain from the clouds.

Just to bump this up for discussion and perhaps a comment from Haemimont.

[Coconut Kid]

http://www.st-barths.com/weather/weather.html

There are two varieties of weather that result from St. Barts' location on the surface of the planet: the usual stuff and hurricanes.

    Most of the year, puffy white clouds parade through a clear blue sky, and warm balmy breezes gently ruffle hair and sway palm fronds. It's a T-shirt, shorts and sandals kind of weather, interrupted now and then by a brief tropical shower.

    From July to November, however, this halcyon state of affairs may be interrupted by a revolving tropical storm, which, in its mature form, is known as a hurricane.

   It's as if all the bad weather we've been spared during the rest of the year has been packed together into one package, to be savored all at once.

[Coconut Kid]

First choice would be for a seaplane landing area near the Port/dock.

Then would be a land airport rotatable only to two positions: >1< with the map grid ; >2< at 45 degrees to the map grid.

Perhaps the easy way to build the land airport is to start with just the runway/"landing strip" ; then do upgrades at various, selectable positions along it for the passenger terminal and separate control tower.

I suppose areoplane service infrastructure is to be "assumed" (no hangers  )

[Jabberdau]

The one thing that always keept me from choosing the "random events" was the all destroying storms. I dont mind price changes and the other stuff, but the storms...

[Coconut Kid]

Although T3 is to be a game and not a strict simulation, the links with the real world should include some hazards -- except for the "sandbox" mode.

>> The islands all lie in a zone where "hurricanes/tropical storms" are possible. Rather than including storms as "random events", they should be included as a natural feature of of the island with settings of:

• RARE = one per 50 years
• NORMAL = one per 20 years (default)
• UNLUCKY = one per 10 years

The other treatment of T1 should be used, this suggestion would space only the time of occurance. The player would not experience the actual event such as Haiti's having three in one season.

>> Stylisticly the islands are either very flat (limestone based) or very mountainous (volcanic based). The player should not be able to have the best conditions of both.

The flat island should have only the hazard of the storms, but would not have mineral resources other than 'Oil'. It would also have limited fertile soil suitable for cultivation. Actually, it ought also to have a problem with a fresh water supply for a large population.

The mountainous island would have the hazard of the storms AND the potential of either an active volcano or an earthquake based on a 10% chance in the generation of the island. If the generated island hit the 10% chance, there would be either an eruption or a major earthquake every 50 years.

Mountainous means that there is little to no LEVEL land for quick construction.

However, the mountainous island would be well compensated with metal mineral resources, lots of rich soil suitable for cultivation, and no problem with supply of fresh water.

T1 mixed natural hazards with social and political hazards. T3 should include the natural hazards in the generation of the random islands.

[Coconut Kid]

The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year. The tropical rain belt lies in the southern hemisphere roughly from October to March, and during this time the northern tropics experience a dry season in which precipitation is more rare, and days are typically sunny throughout. From April to September, the rain belt lies in the northern hemisphere, and the southern tropics experience their dry season.

The rain belt reaches roughly as far north as the Tropic of Cancer and as far south as the Tropic of Capricorn. Near these latitudes, there is one wet season and one dry season annually. On the equator, there are two wet and two dry seasons as the rain belt passes over twice a year, once moving north and once moving south. Between the tropics and the equator, locations may experience a short wet and a long wet season. Local geography may substantially modify these climate patterns, however.

The wet, or rainy, season covers one or more months when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. The term green season is also sometimes used by those in tourism. In areas where the heavy rainfall is associated with a wind shift, the wet season becomes known as the monsoon.

The climate of the Caribbean region is tropical but rainfall varies with elevation, size and water currents (cool upwellings keep the ABC islands arid). Warm, moist tradewinds blow consistently from the east creating rainforest/semidesert divisions on mountainous islands. Occasional northwesterlies affect the northern islands in the winter. Winters are warm, but drier.
Example:
Grenada's climate is tropical: hot and humid in the rainy season and cooled by the trade winds in the dry season. Grenada, being on the Southern edge of the hurricane belt, has suffered only three hurricanes in fifty years. Grenada, in the Grenadine Islands chain, is the largest at 310 square kilometers, or about the size of Detroit.

Yearly precipitation, largely generated by the warm and moisture-laden northeasterly trade winds, varies from more than 350 centimeters on the windward mountainsides to less than 150 centimeters in the lowlands. The greatest monthly totals are recorded throughout Grenada from June through November, the months when tropical storms and hurricanes are most likely to occur. Rainfall is less pronounced from December through May, when the equatorial low-pressure system moves south. Similarly, the highest humidities, usually close to 80 percent, are recorded during the rainy months, and values from 68 to 78 percent are registered during the drier period. Temperatures averaging 29°C are constant throughout the year, however, with slightly higher readings in the lowlands.

(Wikipedia)

[Coconut Kid]

Grenada lies toward the southern fringe of the West Indies, so here is an example from the northern West Indies:

The climate of the Bahamas is semitropical and has two seasons, summer and winter. During the summer, which extends from May through November, the climate is dominated by warm, moist tropical air masses moving north through the Caribbean. Midsummer temperatures range from 21 °C to 34 °C with a relative humidity of 60 to 100%. In winter months, extending from December through April, the climate is affected by the movement of cold polar masses from North America. Temperatures during the winter months range from 15 °C to 24 °C.

While there has never been a freeze reported in the Bahamas, the temperature can fall 3°C during Arctic outbreaks that affect nearby Florida. Snow has been reported to have mixed with rain in Freeport in January 1977, the same time that it snowed in the Miami area. The temperature was about 5°C at the time.

Yearly rainfall averages 1,320 millimetres (52 in) and is usually concentrated in the May-June and September-October periods. Rainfall often occurs in short-lived, fairly intense showers accompanied by strong gusty winds, which are then followed by clear skies.

Winds are predominantly easterly throughout the year but tend to become northeasterly from October to April and southeasterly from May to September. These winds seldom exceed twenty-four kilometers per hour except during hurricane season. Although the hurricane season officially lasts from June to November, most hurricanes in the Bahamas occur between July and October.

Hurricanes and tropical storms are frequent on average; one passes through every two and one-half years.

[Coconut Kid]

Kalypso Media Forum.

Developer Interview Part I, Question #8:

snip - Players will be able to play and [to] create both scenarios without any disasters and disaster-themed scenarios.

http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=1350