First, I think air resistance should scale wind effects primarily, and resistance to motion should be cut down. I think dangerous wind and weather is more interesting, dangerous, and fun than just having to pilot a slow drone or slap more thrusters on.
Weather is something you can fight, be buffeted and destroyed by, or even ride to your advantage. Dealing with it can be both a design game and a skill game.
My suggestion is to divide the world into nine parts. The inner circle, effectively underground, would be one part. The ground layer might run from -5 to 25 altitude, a drone's general area of operation, and would be divided into four segments. The upper atmosphere, maybe 25-75 would have a different four segments, call it the jetstream. These regions would move, rotate at different rates, to keep their borders from becoming predictable.
Any of these segments could have wind blowing left or right - the likelihood of one direction or the other determined by the planet. Where winds meet, you get an updraft at the ground layer, downdraft in the jetstream.
Between opposing winds would also be interesting between higher and lower layers - they would try to twist and tumble you.
Tornados could form if opposing winds are strong enough. I would have them exert a force on any drone part nearby. Pull it one direction until the highest ranking attached parent crosses the tornado - then reverse the force, so the back-and forth simulates circling the funnel.
Very large drones would be under particular strain, because part of their mass is outside the tornado's reach, and anchors it while other parts are pushed and pulled - creating a gradient of force more severe than in small craft.
Storms could form, too. Maybe use updrafts to generate stormclouds that follow the wind, increase the wind, drop lightning, make the rain heat or cool your drone, depending on the planet. Use the electricity to temporarily disable drone parts. (25% chance to disable each individual connected part per strike? )
Hurricanes could be a random event that ramps up all winds and synchronizes their direction.
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Lurkily
First, I think air resistance should scale wind effects primarily, and resistance to motion should be cut down. I think dangerous wind and weather is more interesting, dangerous, and fun than just having to pilot a slow drone or slap more thrusters on.
Weather is something you can fight, be buffeted and destroyed by, or even ride to your advantage. Dealing with it can be both a design game and a skill game.
My suggestion is to divide the world into nine parts. The inner circle, effectively underground, would be one part. The ground layer might run from -5 to 25 altitude, a drone's general area of operation, and would be divided into four segments. The upper atmosphere, maybe 25-75 would have a different four segments, call it the jetstream. These regions would move, rotate at different rates, to keep their borders from becoming predictable.
Any of these segments could have wind blowing left or right - the likelihood of one direction or the other determined by the planet. Where winds meet, you get an updraft at the ground layer, downdraft in the jetstream.
Between opposing winds would also be interesting between higher and lower layers - they would try to twist and tumble you.
Tornados could form if opposing winds are strong enough. I would have them exert a force on any drone part nearby. Pull it one direction until the highest ranking attached parent crosses the tornado - then reverse the force, so the back-and forth simulates circling the funnel.
Very large drones would be under particular strain, because part of their mass is outside the tornado's reach, and anchors it while other parts are pushed and pulled - creating a gradient of force more severe than in small craft.
Storms could form, too. Maybe use updrafts to generate stormclouds that follow the wind, increase the wind, drop lightning, make the rain heat or cool your drone, depending on the planet. Use the electricity to temporarily disable drone parts. (25% chance to disable each individual connected part per strike? )
Hurricanes could be a random event that ramps up all winds and synchronizes their direction.
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