Weather

Weather Function

A significant and antagonistic element of survival in Beasts of Bermuda is enduring the effects of storms. A development blog post was written on how storms are generated here. The weather generator in Beasts of Bermuda is capable of generating many different types of storms, with many different intensities and durations. The intensity of the storm along with its shape over time will dictate several different elements such as rain, storm surges, wind, and lightning. Due to the way in which it is programmed, almost any storm is possible, but some variants are significantly less probable than others. Many weather events will not be intense enough to cause significant threat to survival, often generating gentle or moderate amounts of rain with little to no storm surge. Occasionally, however, a full-force hurricane will hit, presenting a very significant threat to survival.

The storm generator works essentially by throwing weighted dice every 36 seconds while the storm event is occurring. These dice dictate the storm's intensity profile, passing through four intervals of randomly determined duration. The tuning of the storm generator for creation in the UE4 engine was actually done using a MATLAB script with a wide array of parameters that determine many elements of the storm. A profile of a severe storm is shown on this wiki page, in which one can see all the different storm elements. Some of these elements are purely aesthetic, whereas others have gameplay repercussions.

MATLAB Generated Storm Simulation for Beasts of Bermuda

The first stage of any generated storm is set up with a set of dice rolls that unanimously will increase the storm intensity. The amount of rolls is randomly determined. This ensures that no storm will peter out after only a few ticks of the storm clock, granting every storm a minimum threshold. Some storms will die immediately after this interval, causing weather events as short as 3 minutes.

An unlucky Apatosaurus is surrounded on all sides by water, staying on what little dry ground is left.

In the second stage of the storm, the dice are biased towards increases in intensity but decreases are possible, thus allowing the moderately rare, super short storm to die here. As biased rolls of these dice accumulate, it is likely (but not guaranteed) that the storm will increase in intensity profile.

The third stage of the storm grants fair chance to the storm generator to increase or decrease in severity. In some instances, this may lead to continued increases in storm severity to ridiculous levels, often following suit with extreme storm surges that can flood significant sections of the game world. In other instances, the storm will die here, never making it to stage four. On average, the storm will stay relatively even in intensity profile. This stage of storm generation can vary in time duration from very brief, to rather long periods of time.

The fourth stage of the storm is marked by inevitable death. The storm will die, as in this stage with each cast of the dice that dictate the storm intensity profile, the likelihood of the roll coming out positive is lower and lower. A storm can occasionally resist stage four storm killing for a while, but eventually will be brought down.

It is also noteworthy to explain that the time duration between storms is randomly dictated. Storms can strike nearly back to back, or a significant amount of time can pass between two storms.

During storms, players must seek shelter in order to prevent comfort loss or damage from lightning and tornadoes. The Weather Resistance talent can help players mitigate comfort loss during storms, and at 3/3 points invested prevents death by lightning strike. Some types of creatures are, by default, more resistant to weather-induced comfort loss than others.

There are some beneficial effects of inclement weather. Storms grant all players the Enhanced Growth status effect, temporarily increasing the rate at which creatures grow and reducing the amount of stress that enemy creatures cause them. Storms also reduce the food and water drain increases that players experience from being larger growth. Rain can also quickly restore dirty and depleted freshwater resources.

See also: Natural Disasters

Wind

Wind is one of the primary factors that dictates the loss of comfort during a storm. The game keeps track of and updates a wind direction vector, which dictates the direction that rain drops and fog effects travel during a storm. Vegetation will also sway with the wind, sometimes violently during the most intense wind gusts. The size of ocean waves also increases with wind severity.

Rain

A Pteranodon weathering an intense thunderstorm.

Rain is another primary factor that dictates comfort loss during storms. Rain is also the primary influence on storm surge intensity. Stronger rainstorms will bring larger surges. Rain significantly increases the rate at which sources of freshwater replenish, so a rainstorm may be beneficial during times when freshwater is scarce.

Storm Surges

An Apatosaurus trying to stay comfortable during a storm with two tornadoes in the background.

One of the most frightening elements of stormy weather in Beasts of Bermuda is the storm surge. The ocean can creep up the beach, over hills, and even up mountains as it comes looking for victims during a particularly intense storm. The rising water level poses significant threat to players in many different ways. First, being inundated by sea water will sharply drop the comfort level of any terrestrial creature. Rising water levels can also flush players out of caves and dens they may have taken refuge in, forcing them back out into the rain and further increasing risk of death from stress. Storm surges also set the stage for predatory aquatic creatures such as the Mosasaurus to take full advantage of the situation.

It takes a severe storm for a noticeable storm surge to take place. Surges accumulate as the integration of the square of the rain intensity over time, so the more intense and longer the storm, the higher the surge will climb. Very intense storms can cause frighteningly high surges to occur. Surges decay over time as well. The surge usually recedes along with the lightning of the storm, but some particularly extreme storm surges can outlast the storms that brought them.

Storm surges will sometimes flood significant fractions of the map. Due to the method in which the weather generator was coded, any surge is theoretically possible, and surges beyond 30 meters have been seen in-game on very rare occasions.

Lightning

Another risk associated with storms is death due to lightning strike. When the storm exceeds a certain threshold of intensity, lightning bolts will begin to periodically spawn around the map. The more intense the storm, the more frequent the lightning will occur. Lightning has a chance to target and deliberately strike an unsheltered player, so odds are if one decides to brave a particularly harsh storm, if stress doesn't kill you first, the lightning will. Creatures with weather resistance are less likely to be struck by lightning. The Apatosaurus is the only creature in-game that is capable of surviving a lightning strike. Lightning does not target aquatic creatures, regardless of whether they're sheltered, unless they are beached.

Lightning can also trigger wildfires, which are discussed below.

Fire

Wildfires are an extremely dangerous weather event within the game. They spread quickly and can apply deadly debuffs to nearby creatures. Even just being right next to a fire can significantly injure the player, so fires should be avoided!

Fires are started in one of three ways:

• Dry lightning. This weather event can spawn very aggressive forest fires, but due to the rarity of dry lightning itself, this is fairly uncommon.
• Thunderstorms frequently spawn smaller, localized forest fires. However, rain dampens the speed and spread of the fires significantly.
• Long periods of time without rain will grant the chance for drought fires to spawn, which are very dangerous and spread rapidly.

A Tropeognathus noticing an active fire from Dry Lightning.

A Tropeognathus watches as the fire scorches the area.

When a fire spawns, its dangers do not immediately kick into effect. Rather, there is a 10-second grace period between spawn and activation, allowing players a window to escape should fire spawn in extremely close proximity to them.

Fires produce columns of smoke, which - in most cases - can be seen across whatever map they may be present on. This allows players to locate and avoid fires from a considerable distance.

Spawn points within or in close proximity to forest fires will not be usable, and when spawning as a creature, the user will be warned of fires in close proximity to the specific creature's spawn location.

Tornadoes

Tornadoes are sometimes generated during storms. They can pick up every type of creatures, with the exception of adult Apatosaurus, and chuck them across the map. Tornadoes will track and follow the nearest terrestrial creature. If the tracked creature dies, swims underwater, flies away, or rests under 100% shelter, the tornado will abandon the target and seek the next closest terrestrial creature. Tornadoes tend to track the largest concentration of unsheltered players on the map.

A Tyrannosaurus rex walking through a foggy forest at night.

Droughts

Droughts are a future weather event the developers plan to add to the game. They will involve water levels going down substantially, forcing players to find dwindling pools of water to drink from.