Weather generation

[Dazza]

Hi could someone explain how the weather works on a manned scenario, if the forcast bar is set to full i assume it means the weather gets more serious over time, does it settle back down at all or once it reaches full on the current bar does it stay at full?

[jurad]

The sun has more a significant effect on the wind on mars especially at dawn and dusk. The region you are in and time of year would also play a role in the wind factors. Infact, the polar regions during the Martian spring causes the CO2 layers to "thaw" and winds can reach up to 600 Km/hr! But average wind speeds are generally around 30/m/sec (67.5 miles per/ hr) recorded by the Viking landers. I'm not sure if the Polar scenarios in the MP would actually be feasible in real life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Mars

From a game perspective, the Notification alarm will tell you the peak projected strength of the incoming storm. It will build up in strength and will settle down. It isn't a set time either. I generally play on 1:1 and I have seen dust storms last between 1-2 hours, and other times over 24 hour Real Time period. For the most part, Night time it dies down, just like it does on the real mars. So, there is actually two benefits of building at night, No solar or wind storms.

[Vaulcan]

Ive never seen the wind effet anything though. ive had weather warnings come and go yet the worst ive seen is it get a bit misty. does the weather build up to a proper wind storm or is that not scripted?

[Dram]

Hi the effect of the wind on objects depends on the surface area exposed to the wind, its mass and so on. More importantly, Mars' thin atmosphere means it'll push around only very light objects, make landing harder, decrease visibility.

Initial implementation of wind in 2014 had very strong winds, too unrealistic and the community requested such to be realistic, hence we obliged.

[Dram]

Originally posted by Dazza:

Hi could someone explain how the weather works on a manned scenario, if the forcast bar is set to full i assume it means the weather gets more serious over time, does it settle back down at all or once it reaches full on the current bar does it stay at full?

No, it will change. The generated forecast is for a whole week. It generates additional forecast as the time in the week progresses. These values are based on the previous forecast, and vary relatively randomly.

But yes, long term the weather will vary a lot.