The weather.

[Gregoshi]

Regarding weather and the seasons, I think we will be getting our wish. Here is the part of the IGN.com preview that talked about seasons and the weather (the bolding is mine for emphasis):

The art team has been inspired by all of the conventional icons of the land and the wide range of seasons and weather will help add variety to the battles. You may, for instance, find yourself fighting in the same province during the spring as cherry blossoms drift by, and then come back for a battle as layers of snow sit on the land in winter. The team is reintroducing nighttime battles to the game, and we saw a spectacular example of a castle assault during a thunderstorm at night. The way the lightning cracked in the distance and lit up the trees and soldiers as rain collected in puddles around them was phenomenal.

The only small leap of faith (i.e., assumption) is that weather/season will actually influence combat instead of just being eye candy. You may commence celebrating this in your own personal way.

[al Roumi]

The only small leap of faith (i.e., assumption) is that weather/season will actually influence combat instead of just being eye candy. You may commence celebrating this in your own personal way.

For me that might mean complaining. I like to compain. Especially on the internet.

Personaly, that IGN line is unfortunately not enough at all to indicate the battle effects we remember from STW.

/anticipatory winge

[A Nerd]

For me that might mean complaining. I like to compain. Especially on the internet.

Everyone does, it provides for passion and confidence in opinion. Structured, realistic, affecting (on troops) weather patterns would give the game a more 'alive' (life-like) feel that would cause the game to breath and behave very involuntarially. Couple this with a 'thinking' AI on the battle field (if possible) and this provides the player with alot of pleasure as he has to out maneuver both the weather and the AI. Gone would be the days of a visually stunning game where it's crappy mechanics are made more obvious due to the polar differences between the visuals and the game play.

[ReluctantSamurai]

The effect of weather is what got me hooked on STW in the first place. Playing my first battle as Oda in the 'historical' battle of Okehazama in a blinding rainstorm........the flashes of lightning illuminating my Nodachi as they rushed down through the woods....the crashing peals of thunder to match those of my heavy cavalry rolling down off the hilltop.......it was quite the rush. One of the many things about STW that made it immersive........

[Sp00n]

The weather was great in the first game, I'm also glad they are adding night time battles. Bring Back the fog.

PS can we have the battlefield birds back.

[Peasant Phill]

Battle field birds?

Do you mean seeing birds scatter which meant that an unseen unit was marching there like in MTW?

[Gregoshi]

Battle field birds?

Do you mean seeing birds scatter which meant that an unseen unit was marching there like in MTW?

STW had them first. One of Sun Tzu's nuggets: basically, looking for a group of birds over a woods indicates an ambush (something is disturbing them).