6 Weather

“ Long as I remember the rain been comin' down. Clouds of mystery pourin' confusion on the ground. Good men through the ages tryin' to find the sun. And I wonder, still I wonder, who'll stop the rain. ” - CCR

The weather in Battle Mines is of major concern as it affects many areas of game play. It changes every eight hours on average, at randomly spaced intervals. A given bout of weather will last at least one hour before it changes again.

There are five different types of weather, listed here. Weather will impact other things such as random events, this list covers only the main effects.

Weather	Effects
Sunny	+10 growth modifier +5 production modifier Solar panels active
Windy	-10% combat accuracy Solar panels active Windmills active* Sand blows away for sand miners*
Cloudy	No effects
Rainy	-10% combat accuracy +10 growth modifier* Cancels aridity for sand miners Overflow happens
Stormy	-20% combat accuracy -5 production modifier* Trees stop adding space* Windmills active* No lighthouse GM bonus Cancels aridity for sand miners Overflow happens

* The presence of a dome in the city prevents these weather effects.

The algorithm for determining new weather is straightforward. First, the existing weather has a 50% chance of persisting, unless it is stormy. If the weather does not persist then another type of weather is randomly chosen, with all types being equal except for rain which is twice as likely. The selection process can be seen as rolling a six-sided die, where rain appears on two faces.

Die Roll	Weather	Next Weather
1	Sun	50% sun, 50% re-roll
2	Wind	50% wind, 50% re-roll
3	Cloud	50% cloud, 50% re-roll
4	Rain	50% rain, 50% re-roll
5	Rain	50% rain, 50% re-roll
6	Storm	100% re-roll

6.1 Forecast

Forecasting is the ability to anticipate weather before it arrives. The forecast can be seen above the map, and on the news screen events tab.

You always have at least one level of forecasting available to you, that being the type of weather which will immediately follow the one currently in effect. Other game factors, such as tech level, may permit you to see even further into the future and determine successive weather cycles before they hit. The primary benefit of forecasting weather is anticipating when overflow will happen.

6.2 Overflow

Overflow is the loss of objects which you have no place to store. It happens during rainy or stormy weather, when an untended inventory will be decimated by water damage. Overflow is not to be confused with spillover, the spread of heavily concentrated pollution into neighbouring lands.

To find out how many objects you are at risk of losing to overflow, check the space value in the upper hud. If it is positive, you have room to store that many more objects. If it is negative, you are going to lose that many objects during the next overflow. See the Space section to find out how space is determined.

Overflow begins shortly after bad weather hits. Objects will be taken from your inventory until negative space becomes zero. Objects are selected randomly, starting with objects in lower categories than higher categories. This means you will first lose base materials in random order, once those are all gone you will lose refined materials, and if space needs are still not met, items. Firepower can protect coal from overflow, but other objects will be lost in its place.

Remember that some objects may take up half space, like coal in the cellar. This means that given positive space, you have room to store twice that amount (of the half-spaced object), and given negative space, you are vulnerable to lose twice that amount.

Overflow will only be checked once at the start of each wet weather, after it has hit you are safe until the weather changes again. Every object that is lost to overflow becomes a unit of pollution, see Pollution for more details. Brand new players are temporarily protected against overflow.

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