Those Leaden Skies over the Rogue Isles

[Logan Darklighter]

Just had a thought a few minutes ago. Ever wonder why the Rogue Isles never EVER have clear skies?

I just figured out a possibility.

Weather generators. Centered in Grandville. Not for any grand world takeover scheme, but just to continuously produce a low level effect that keeps the skies
overcast. Why?

To interfere with Spy Satellites.

If the isles are always cloudy, no optical views of the Isles can be had from space. Mind you, just having cloud cover doesn't mean spy satellites
can't see anything at all. There's always infrared. But there can be other measures in place to deal with that.

It's one of Arachnos better, more subtle toys. True - it's not invisibility or anything grand like that. But it's effective for what it's
intended to do.

So why is this thread in the Mission Design sub-forum? Because I was thinking the subject of weather generators and the disabling of same (or protecting them,
from the Villain POV) might make for a decent mission premise.

Which also makes me wonder - might it be possible in the mission generator to make instanced outdoor areas that duplicate outdoor sections of existing areas?
Like how the Mayhem and Safeguard areas work? And if so - can you change things about those areas? Like, say, the overall texture scheme?

I remember on Test Server, I've seen times when overall lighting and color schemes for entire zones were switched or altered. Bright sunny day in Martial
Island for example. I've got a couple of screenshots of the Golden Giza looking incredible against a bright blue sky!

Wondering if an instanced zone area can be altered. Be nice if it could be. Not expecting that to happen on the first edition of the mission editor though.

[Matrix Dragon]

Hmm, it's possible, probably not in the first edition of the editor but... well, they'd likely use a similar system for a zombie and Rikti attack with
the sky changing color.

But I also remember that Nemesis had a weather machine. He was stopped before it could be used for evil, but what if he'd already started using it on the
Rogue Isles? Not to interfere with spy satellites, but just for the rather frustrating effects that come with a permanent cloud layer, including forcing the
Isles to rely on outside nations for food... Which Aeon prevented with his food pastes, which in turn ended up giving Arachnos yet another layer of control
over the population. And now that the generators gone, thanks to the heroes... well, why should Arachnos give up a way to maintain a hold on its slaves? So,
they send in some villains to steal the toys from Nemmy, or wherever Longbow locked it up.