Weather
The sky over the outdoor world is not decoration that runs at random. Twice per in-game day the server looks at every exterior area and decides whether its weather should change, and what it may change to depends on two things: what kind of place the area is, and what time of year it is in the real world.
The seasons are the four real ones, read off Central European dates. Each has its own table of chances per tileset, so a European summer makes a clear sky likely on Nordock too, and a European winter brings rain and snow. The ground follows the same calendar: grass size, density, height and colour are all re-set per season, so an area genuinely looks different in January and in July.
Weather that hurts
A few areas carry a second layer on top of the ordinary weather, and there the conditions are bad enough to be a threat rather than a backdrop.
- They can damage anyone standing in them every round - cold, fire, acid or poison, depending on the place - and the way to stand there safely is to carry enough damage resistance of the right kind.
- Some of them also throw localised extreme events from time to time, which are far worse than the steady drain and do not last.