Often, weather can change the way we perceive our environment. It affects mood and focus. Trees and other objects take on different colors. Shadows from clouds can make a patch of forest dark and ominous, or make a stream of water cool and inviting. When a road is marked with shadows and not just one unbroken color, it can make the journey seem faster and more interesting (for the same reason rollercoaster designers place trees and other objects beside the tracks).
Fog, in particular, has a magical quality. Things often don't seem as real in a fog. People and animals become like ghosts. A boat on the water seems to glide on air. The world is full of sounds that the listener can't place and identify, inspiring the imagination to conjure fanciful explanations.
Bring back the fog.
Qeynos to Freeport. At night. In the rain. No game since has been able to capture that "Where am I going and what is out there in the dark?" feeling, and it is largely because games don't let it get dark, they don't limit your viewing distance with rain, and they don't give different races different types of sight.
ReplyDeleteArathi Basin still gets a solid fog - you can see maybe half the valley. Hard to spot which way the zerg is running.
ReplyDeleteCould stand to be foggier though.
I like this thought, Jason:
ReplyDelete"No game since has been able to capture that 'Where am I going and what is out there in the dark?' feeling, and it is largely because games don't let it get dark, they don't limit your viewing distance with rain, and they don't give different races different types of sight."
I'd like to make a game that feels like this, but at the bottom of the ocean where the waters are dark and murky. Now that would be interesting... :)