Well, I got bored over Thanksgiving break (a.k.a. fall break) and did some RPG playing. One thing I came across though, is arethere any examples of RPGs in which the environment affects the battle system? The question here is with examples of wind, temperature, or rain, wouldn't it affect how well some skills work, such as fire, or thrown weapons such as spears or arrows. (I think this may have been done in the "Total War" games, but I'm not sure about that)

Interesting thaught. I can't think of any RPG's that do this. Total War is a simulation so it doesn't realy count, but; rain / fog affects visability, wind reduces projectile accuracy. All weather conditions affect moralle, which impacts all combat abilities. There may be more subtle affects but i'm not sure.

That'd be pretty crazy actually... low level fire spells that fizzle out in the rain, or magic users who pin down weaker opponents with gale force winds... cool

Technically it had an effect in FF Tactics. If raining, lightning did like 50% more damage, snowing, ice damage, and I think more fire damage in the desert. Nothing real complicated though, it'd be nice to see.

Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter had magic traps. You left on on the field to block the enemies from entering certain areas. Though, I remember the AI wasn't that smart, it'd too often just plow through a trap and take the damage.

I'm not aware of any commercial games which come with this functionality built-in, however when I played Morrowind a few years ago I used a mod which incorporated weather-conditions into skills and combat (mainly by imposing temporary skill detriments), which made the game rather strategic at times. I still think it's a cool idea.

The closest games that came to mind were -- oddly -- Pokemon. Battle condition changes were introduced in Ruby and Sapphire, and have been in since. I wouldn't really call them enviromental, though, since it was based on events or special abilities. I really don't know why it isn't done, and the thought of dong so crossed my mind years ago.

The problem though is going to be with balancing the system, and not overcomplicating it for the player (some USPs have done this, making it rather an undesireable selling point that just happens to be unique). The reason I'm thinking about it is that it doesn't seem like RPGs have added much to battle systems lately, and much magic revolves around a single MP type, which somehow is used for every skill in the game. I'm going to try a tier test for it while keeping it simple and understandable, and then post an example maybe late december once final exams are done.

Thanks for the input, initial response to this idea had not been good, but now I'll at least try it out.