Alright, this is my favorite mod and I've done a lot of messing around with it so maybe I can help some.
Tornado spawn chances:
Two things are factored in when it comes to the game figuring out if and when a tornado will spawn. The spawn chance (D:Storm_Tornado_oddsOfTornadoTo1=[number here]) and the storm intensity. If the storm intensity is not right then, no matter what the odds of a tornado are, you are much less likely to get one. You can generally guess the storm intensity by how frequent the lightning strikes are. I have noticed that the lightning strikes near back to back right before a tornado so if your storm isn't doing that it isn't highly likely you'll get a tornado.
I have also noticed tornadoes are a lot more likely to form at night or early morning for some reason. My best guess is that the mod maker did that so they mimic real world tornadoes which, you guessed it, have a bit of a high chance of forming at night or in the early morning. (This is due to the heat from the ground rising up towards the cooler nighttime/morning air making the conditions more favorable for meso cyclones to form. Meso cyclones are known as the "mother of tornadoes" since twisters form from meso cyclones. Just in case any of you were wondering why they are more llikely to form at night in real life >_> ) Or it could have just happened that they spawn more at night randomly, but either way it still fits.
In the config file you can mess around with the line "I:Storm_rarityOfIncrease=[number here]" to make storms increasing in intensity more or less likely. Now, I'm not sure which direction makes storm intensity increase or decrease as I've never really had much issue with the storms increasing enough thus I've never really had to mess with that number. But, well, if making the number higher doesn't work then there's only one other direction to go.
I have my settings for those lines at 10.0 and 4000 respectively and, taking into account both spawn chance and storm increase rarity, I get a tornado about every 5th-6th storm.
Firenado:
The line, as you can likely guess, is "I:Storm_Tornado_rarityOfFirenado=[number here]" and is set to -1 by default. If you set it to 1 you will get a firenado every time from what I've seen. Making the number higher actually seems to lessen the chances. At -1 they don't happen at all. Granted this is just from what I've seen.
Heads up with the firenado as well! The rain will not put out the fire blocks dropped directly from the tornado. Also, for some odd reason they can land right in the middle of a bunch of water blocks and not get put out. The fire blocks just sorta chill there with water touching them. Bit odd but that's minecraft logic for ya!
Storms just not happening?:
OK, by that do you mean it isn't raining at all? If so then that's a minecraft coding thing, not the mod. Some worlds just get rain more often than others. To my knowledge there is nothing to be done about that unless there's something in the world save data that can be edited to change the chance of rain for that world. If there is someone else would need to weigh in when it comes to how to do that since I've never messed with the save files.
If it is raining and you just aren't getting storms, as in the thunder and lightning, then try editing the "I:Storm_rarityOfIncrease=[number here]" line. That should help you get storms.
Time:
Odds are a funny thing, though all the chances are there sometimes, for some odd reason or another, it just doesn't happen. Then it can suddenly happen left and right! It's all a roll of the dice and, sometimes, you get snake eyes a few times in a row before you roll that twelve. So, if all the changes to the configuration don't seem to help right off the bat, you may just have to wait until the odds decide "Oh hey! Time for a tornado outbreak!"
Too long between tornadoes?:
Find the line "D:Storm_Tornado_minDaysBetweenTornado=[number here]" and edit said number. Just put the number lower and that should do the trick assuming the odds want to play nice with you. I personally set that number to 1.0 because, while I like having the tornadoes spawn, I would rather if they spawned one at a time to spare my system any lag. My system can take a lot but some tornadoes go on for quite a while (had a three day one once) and I do like my FPS as well so I try not to have too many tornadoes going at once. Just my personal preference.
Hope this helps some of you! I'm just a big fan of the mod being the weather (and general science) geek I am and I hope some of my tinkering with the settings and observations I've made about how it works helps some of ya'll.
Hi i am currently trying to figure out how change the config to allow more then just the grass and leaves and such to be picked up i would like to make it to allow all blocks but dont know exactly how to go about doing that. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Tornado spawn chances:
Two things are factored in when it comes to the game figuring out if and when a tornado will spawn. The spawn chance (D:Storm_Tornado_oddsOfTornadoTo1=[number here]) and the storm intensity. If the storm intensity is not right then, no matter what the odds of a tornado are, you are much less likely to get one. You can generally guess the storm intensity by how frequent the lightning strikes are. I have noticed that the lightning strikes near back to back right before a tornado so if your storm isn't doing that it isn't highly likely you'll get a tornado.
I have also noticed tornadoes are a lot more likely to form at night or early morning for some reason. My best guess is that the mod maker did that so they mimic real world tornadoes which, you guessed it, have a bit of a high chance of forming at night or in the early morning. (This is due to the heat from the ground rising up towards the cooler nighttime/morning air making the conditions more favorable for meso cyclones to form. Meso cyclones are known as the "mother of tornadoes" since twisters form from meso cyclones. Just in case any of you were wondering why they are more llikely to form at night in real life >_> ) Or it could have just happened that they spawn more at night randomly, but either way it still fits.
In the config file you can mess around with the line "I:Storm_rarityOfIncrease=[number here]" to make storms increasing in intensity more or less likely. Now, I'm not sure which direction makes storm intensity increase or decrease as I've never really had much issue with the storms increasing enough thus I've never really had to mess with that number. But, well, if making the number higher doesn't work then there's only one other direction to go.
I have my settings for those lines at 10.0 and 4000 respectively and, taking into account both spawn chance and storm increase rarity, I get a tornado about every 5th-6th storm.
Firenado:
The line, as you can likely guess, is "I:Storm_Tornado_rarityOfFirenado=[number here]" and is set to -1 by default. If you set it to 1 you will get a firenado every time from what I've seen. Making the number higher actually seems to lessen the chances. At -1 they don't happen at all. Granted this is just from what I've seen.
Heads up with the firenado as well! The rain will not put out the fire blocks dropped directly from the tornado. Also, for some odd reason they can land right in the middle of a bunch of water blocks and not get put out. The fire blocks just sorta chill there with water touching them. Bit odd but that's minecraft logic for ya!
Storms just not happening?:
OK, by that do you mean it isn't raining at all? If so then that's a minecraft coding thing, not the mod. Some worlds just get rain more often than others. To my knowledge there is nothing to be done about that unless there's something in the world save data that can be edited to change the chance of rain for that world. If there is someone else would need to weigh in when it comes to how to do that since I've never messed with the save files.
If it is raining and you just aren't getting storms, as in the thunder and lightning, then try editing the "I:Storm_rarityOfIncrease=[number here]" line. That should help you get storms.
Time:
Odds are a funny thing, though all the chances are there sometimes, for some odd reason or another, it just doesn't happen. Then it can suddenly happen left and right! It's all a roll of the dice and, sometimes, you get snake eyes a few times in a row before you roll that twelve. So, if all the changes to the configuration don't seem to help right off the bat, you may just have to wait until the odds decide "Oh hey! Time for a tornado outbreak!"
Too long between tornadoes?:
Find the line "D:Storm_Tornado_minDaysBetweenTornado=[number here]" and edit said number. Just put the number lower and that should do the trick assuming the odds want to play nice with you. I personally set that number to 1.0 because, while I like having the tornadoes spawn, I would rather if they spawned one at a time to spare my system any lag. My system can take a lot but some tornadoes go on for quite a while (had a three day one once) and I do like my FPS as well so I try not to have too many tornadoes going at once. Just my personal preference.
Hope this helps some of you! I'm just a big fan of the mod being the weather (and general science) geek I am and I hope some of my tinkering with the settings and observations I've made about how it works helps some of ya'll.
you have to change the -1 to 5, Then when tornadoes spawn, it's usually a firenado.