Talk:Weather Station

Weather Station implementation and rollout — 6 November 2026

The Weather Station implementation is built and tested locally. Its database migration and the initial installations are complete; the matching server build has not yet been deployed or restarted. Keep this draft on the discussion page until rollout and an in-game purchase/installation check are complete. Do not advertise the new behavior as currently available in the player manual.

Jason approved 500,000 CR, 500 lb packaged weight, and the existing RVR reliability/maintenance model applied independently to seven sensors. RVR stays separate. Database readback confirmed 18 fully working stations at the powered, non-shuttered tower sites eligible at migration time. VEDO lacked fuel and was excluded; VNSA lacked a completed tower. This was a one-time grant, not automatic installation for future towers.

Menu: Lockheed Martin, MenuId 63, option/RowId 5. The English row already reads 5] Weather Station (500000 CR).

Verification: Release server/Library build passed; native x64 Release passed and was synchronized to the root Rise.exe. All 82 focused tests passed: 40 Weather Station, 12 Doppler eligibility, 30 ATC windshear regressions. Live player purchase/installation and server rollout remain unverified. Server engineering record: docs/weather-stations.md.

Player reference draft

A Weather Station supplies the airport's local weather observations. Purchase it from Lockheed Martin using option 5, Weather Station (500000 CR). The packaged station weighs 500 lb. Carry it in vehicle cargo to the airfield and use the cargo installation action at a completed control tower. A new kit installs a complete working station or replaces a damaged station; an already fully working station does not accept another kit.

Components and reporting

Each component can fail independently. Prevailing visibility and runway visual range are separate systems; installing a Weather Station does not install or repair RVR.

Component	Observation	Effect of failure
Anemometer	Wind direction, speed and gusts	Wind unavailable
Ceilometer	Cloud ceiling	Ceiling unavailable
Visibility sensor	Prevailing visibility and obscuration	Visibility unavailable; independent working RVR may remain available
Precipitation detector	Precipitation type and intensity	Precipitation information unavailable
Thermo-hygrometer	Temperature and dewpoint	Temperature and dewpoint unavailable
Lightning sensor	Thunderstorm detection	Thunderstorm information unavailable
Barometer	Pressure / altimeter	Altimeter unavailable

A local METAR needs a tower, an installed station, fuel, a working uplink, and a colony that is not shuttered. Failed components produce missing-data groups, not calm wind or clear weather. Missing wind is /////MPS, visibility ////, ceiling //////, temperature/dewpoint /////, and pressure Q////. Precipitation failure adds // and PWINO; lightning failure adds TSNO. The $ remark indicates station maintenance is needed. A station that is not installed produces a NIL observation. Existing RISE metric reporting units apply.

ATIS and controller wind checks identify unavailable local information. If Parks Bi-State's VCPS METAR is available, they may provide a working VCPS sensor's observation as a reference, naming VCPS and its UTC observation time. Reference observations must be no more than 15 minutes old. Digital ATIS groups them under VCPS HHmmZ REFERENCE. They describe VCPS, not conditions at the destination: local METAR and RVR are never filled with another airport's observations. When VCPS also lacks the needed sensor, that information remains unavailable.

Maintenance

The station uses the existing RVR maintenance model independently for each working sensor. Equipment failure checks occur while the colony has fuel and is not shuttered. Active operations with goods, adequate working population and better territory morale improve reliability. Replacing the station restores all seven components. Failure does not change the actual weather.

Implementation notes

Inventory general type 1, subtype 19. Persistent station status: -1 absent, 0 all failed, flags 1 wind, 2 ceiling, 4 visibility, 8 precipitation, 16 temperature/dewpoint, 32 lightning, 64 pressure; 127 all working. RVR retains its separate status. The native plot packet layout is unchanged.

Missing-data notation and remarks were checked against Aviation Weather Center guidance and ICAO automated-observation examples. This change models availability of observations from the existing Vieneo weather simulation; it does not retune atmospheric physics or introduce Earth-calibrated sensor behavior.