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About this mod
Stormy Skies is a simple weather mod that fixes the cloudless rainstorms in KCD. No more immersion-shattering "sun showers." It is lightweight, doesn't affect performance at all, and is a 100% game changer (literally) when it comes to atmosphere and mood. You will never see 15th century Bohemian rainfall without clouds ever again!
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Stormy Skies was inspired by Haekb's "Cloudy Showers" mod. Tbh, I don't 100% understand everything I did to get Stormy Skies functioning the way it currently is, but it is an improvement in multiple areas over Cloudy Showers, especially with regards to functionality; it has overall better-looking storm clouds and overcomes the nighttime limitations of Cloudy Showers, wherein nighttime rainstorms still didn't generate clouds.
Also, Haekb didn't seem to realize he incorrectly packed his mod. His idea works, but he made a mistake with his .pak files, so the mod as-published doesn't actually do what it's supposed to do. If you install Cloudy Showers as-is, it won't work at all, but the game never gives you a warning that this is so. Many thanks to Haekb for inspiring me to pursue a functional storm cloud mod for this otherwise wonderful game! I don't know why Warhorse never fixed this, because I'm sure they could have done so in less than an hour, versus the many days and weeks I spent messing with code and running around Bohemia to test how the weather worked, emergently, as you naturally play.
Stormy Skies doesn't mess with the vanilla rainstorm probabilities at all. Weather statistics are left unchanged, and along with my tweaks to create clouds, seems to organically generate three levels of stormy skies:
1. Broken/Scattered Clouds: These clouds have breaks in them and only drizzle or produce an on-and-off light rain shower. During sunrise or sunset, you get very pretty pink, purple, orange, and gold coloration in the broken clouds as it rains. Sometimes this is as far as the storm goes, the rain fizzles out, and the scattered clouds blow out to reveal clear sky.
2. Gray Storm Clouds: More clouds can roll in once it begins to drizzle, and the sky will darken with thicker layers of gray storm clouds. The rain will pick up in intensity, along with the wind, and occasional distant thunder. Sometimes, again, this is as far as the storm develops, and it will break back down to Broken/Scattered Clouds before dissipating entirely, or sometimes the gray clouds themselves will blow through and the storm will stop right there.
3. Skalitz Storm Clouds: This is my main contribution to this mod, in terms of innovating beyond Haekb's method. Once the gray storm clouds have rolled in, the storm can pick up and reach maximum intensity. If it does, the game will produce what I call "Skalitz" Storm Clouds, because I used the code that produces the fantastically ferocious, atmospheric rain storm that occurs in the early quest "Homecoming," after you escape from Talmberg and return to Skalitz. The clouds are darker, more layered, with more movement, and overall much more oppressive, with maximum rainfall and forks of lightning that rip through the sky.
The amount of immersion this mod adds cannot be overstated. I've had some really memorable battles or Farkle games or archery contests on hilltops where I could look out over Bohemia and see the lightning flashing during a torrential downpour, illuminating the rolling thunderclouds at night. And during the day you can still see a faint glow where the sun is during the Gray Storm Clouds phase, but it tends to vanish once the Skalitz Storm Clouds develop, even at noontime. It gets really dark and foreboding. Ultra moody. I hope everyone's KCD experience benefits from this mod!
Also, Haekb didn't seem to realize he incorrectly packed his mod. His idea works, but he made a mistake with his .pak files, so the mod as-published doesn't actually do what it's supposed to do. If you install Cloudy Showers as-is, it won't work at all, but the game never gives you a warning that this is so. Many thanks to Haekb for inspiring me to pursue a functional storm cloud mod for this otherwise wonderful game! I don't know why Warhorse never fixed this, because I'm sure they could have done so in less than an hour, versus the many days and weeks I spent messing with code and running around Bohemia to test how the weather worked, emergently, as you naturally play.
Stormy Skies doesn't mess with the vanilla rainstorm probabilities at all. Weather statistics are left unchanged, and along with my tweaks to create clouds, seems to organically generate three levels of stormy skies:
1. Broken/Scattered Clouds: These clouds have breaks in them and only drizzle or produce an on-and-off light rain shower. During sunrise or sunset, you get very pretty pink, purple, orange, and gold coloration in the broken clouds as it rains. Sometimes this is as far as the storm goes, the rain fizzles out, and the scattered clouds blow out to reveal clear sky.
2. Gray Storm Clouds: More clouds can roll in once it begins to drizzle, and the sky will darken with thicker layers of gray storm clouds. The rain will pick up in intensity, along with the wind, and occasional distant thunder. Sometimes, again, this is as far as the storm develops, and it will break back down to Broken/Scattered Clouds before dissipating entirely, or sometimes the gray clouds themselves will blow through and the storm will stop right there.
3. Skalitz Storm Clouds: This is my main contribution to this mod, in terms of innovating beyond Haekb's method. Once the gray storm clouds have rolled in, the storm can pick up and reach maximum intensity. If it does, the game will produce what I call "Skalitz" Storm Clouds, because I used the code that produces the fantastically ferocious, atmospheric rain storm that occurs in the early quest "Homecoming," after you escape from Talmberg and return to Skalitz. The clouds are darker, more layered, with more movement, and overall much more oppressive, with maximum rainfall and forks of lightning that rip through the sky.
The amount of immersion this mod adds cannot be overstated. I've had some really memorable battles or Farkle games or archery contests on hilltops where I could look out over Bohemia and see the lightning flashing during a torrential downpour, illuminating the rolling thunderclouds at night. And during the day you can still see a faint glow where the sun is during the Gray Storm Clouds phase, but it tends to vanish once the Skalitz Storm Clouds develop, even at noontime. It gets really dark and foreboding. Ultra moody. I hope everyone's KCD experience benefits from this mod!