Condor 3 dynamic weather question

[Lord_Archon]

During Mr. Chris' interview on C3 during the FAI Virtual GP, the new dynamic weather features were brought up. As I understand it, you'll have your "global" weather settings (just like in C2) but you'll also get 3 "weather zones" with their own settings that can move around in various speeds, allowing you to have varying weather in different locations during the task. Which is GREAT ! The biggest problem with C2 (in my opinion as a casual) is that the weather feels very stale during a task.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'd be happy with any amount of dynamic weather. But! Why only 3 weather zones ? Is that limitation there for performance reasons ? Realism ? Simplicity ? Clarity for the competitors ? Perhaps this feature was envisioned as something that would allow you to rock the map with sweeping changes across huge areas. But if task setters were given more leeway with the amount of dynamic weather they can add, then some really interesting situations can be engineered. With more available weather zones, you could

• Model multiple "blue" areas in a long task (that alone could be dozens of areas)
• (If wind is part of the zone settings) Model certain valley winds by drawing a bunch of stationary zones
• Make custom-shaped cloud streets by creating long areas with good thermal activity
• Make areas with tricky thermals that are narrow and/or turbulent rewarding those who can navigate them with a faster route
• Play with sequences of differing cloud bases (or any other parameter)
• "Patch" the landscape's thermal map with areas known to generate good thermals
• Mix of above

Of course, I have no idea how the software is coded and I'm talking nonsense for all I know. But I still think that it would be a missed opportunity to severely limit the amount of dynamic weather to 3 zones if there's no good reason. Anyway I guess I was rambling because of the excitement for this feature. Thanks for reading! Looking forward to weather shenanigans in C3! Thank you dev team!

[OXO]

It’s about complexity. We don’t want to bring a new feature to Condor which is difficult to understand and use.

Beta team are happy with what we have done, so I don’t think this will be a problem.

Of course we can certainly improve it in future updates if it’s justified

[Lord_Archon]

It’s about complexity. We don’t want to bring a new feature to Condor which is difficult to understand and use.

Beta team are happy with what we have done, so I don’t think this will be a problem.

Of course we can certainly improve it in future updates if it’s justified

I understand ! On the other hand I'm sure there's a sizeable portion of the community that would appreciate finer control over this feature however I can see how "abusing" this could turn many tasks into an indecipherable mess.

[notl33tbyfar]

Convergence was brought up in the interview, and I think it hadn't been thought about at the time, is that something that the beta team is looking at now that it was asked. My imagination tells me we will be able to create it using 3 weather zones. Convergence is one of the main ways we fly out here in Williams California. Anyway thanks for all the great work you and your team does. Getting excited for Condor 3. 1 more thing, I have been a glider pilot now for 10 years with 2500 hours and 6300 landings teaching for 6 years and 200 of those hour are teaching. Between condor 1 and two ive personally bought 2 copies of 1 and 3 copies of 2. I have referred more then 10 students to buy your product. Maybe we can be a point of sale here at Williams Soaring. Have a good day. -Pablo Birdbrain

[OXO]

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[notl33tbyfar]

I made a major typo in my last post 2000 hours teaching not 200.