I find this new trend annoying and as much as it may not be as important as some gameplay features, it is a huge immersion breaker for me.
Several of the new MMOs I have played implemented neither of these systems. SW:TOR didn't have it, the reasons given on the forums were because "it might confuse people".
We seem to do fine with the concept of day and night here on earth, and similarly with weather, so I don't really see who it stands to confuse except possibly people who come from planets with no weather or day/night cycles.
After all, so much is made of Tatooine's sunsets and the danger of Hoth's night but in TOR, both planets feel consequence free. Hoth feels more like a ski resort than the cold and dangerous place it supposedly is
Moving on to TERA, I was really looking forward to this game but within about 20 minutes of playing it, I realised that it to, had no weather or day/night cycle. As with TOR, there are a few zones where it is clouded over and raining but it stays that way constantly and is restricted to those few small zones.
EnMasse's excuse, the game is a God's dream and he doesn't dream about weather or night/day cycles. This sounds to me like "we can't be bothered". I quite like TERA but I am sick of every zone I enter being sunny and bright.
Where are the "Kithicor's" and "Feerot's" of old where a change in the time of day changed the level of danger in the zone and when wandering through a Stormy Nektulos at night or visiting Pre-CU Dath in SWG actually felt foreboding?
It seems we are going backwards in terms of design. Why bother with dynamic weather or a day/night cycle when it is far easier to have a perpetual sunny summer day at around noon.
After all, we wouldn't want to confuse anyone :rolleyes:
I have to admit, I agree with you here. I am a big fan of the day/night cycles and weather. It adds a lot to the game in my opinion, and while, I have read why they don't use them, I still don't agree. I for one, want day and night and I don't care what they have to do to make it happen.
I not only miss weather and day/night cycles...I miss it when night MEANT SOMETHING.
WoW has night. It means everything is slightly less bright, and has a blueish tint. Yay. Some windows have lights in em. Yay.
Remember in EQ when you farmed will-o-wisps for a greater lightstone because wihtout a light source you were a dead man? I'd like that again.
Back when EQ2 first launched, I remember having to buy a torch because it was so dark at night. As someone else already said, in SWG (pre-CU), at night it was very dark on some worlds. I would usually activate a light, but even that only illuminated the area in direct proximity to your character. You still had to navigate through some very poorly illuminated locales.
The sound effects with EQ2's weather system were pretty spectacular. (I only mention this because some games I've played really have not managed to simulate the sound effects as well as that game did.) Once, when I was wearing headphones and it started to rain in game, I glanced outside my window to ensure it wasn't raining outside also because the sound effects were that realistic. I also recall that FFXI had a weather system that actually impacted gameplay depending on certain factors.
I'm currently still playing TOR, and while I enjoy the story, I'm really craving an environment that at least experiences some physical variations from time to time, with a day/night cycle and a wide range of weather and related sound effects. I didn't play much of Rift, admittedly, and I won't be buying TERA regardless, but as someone who got my start with SWG years ago, I suppose I feel very disconnected from game environments that experience little in the way of shifting weather patterns or even just offering a day/night transition.
To sate my craving, I've just been playing Skyrim lately. Mabinogi has a very interesting weather system, but the extremely cartoonish graphics are off-putting for me, so I don't play that game much. GW2 *sounds* promising, but I've been disappointed enough times now (I registered for TOR's forums on 10/21/2008, to show you how long I naively waited for that game with my unrealistic expectations for it) so that I'm not jumping on the hype train anymore, period.
EDIT:
I should add it's not a game breaker for me if a day/night cycle doesn't exist (PSO is still one of my favorite online RPGs of all time, and it didn't have a weather or diurnial cycle), but it's something I really do wish we had in TOR. It would be amazing to see the twin suns setting on Tatooine, or to see Alderaan at night. I was amazed at just how different Taris looked in the evening (Republic characters see Taris during the day while Imperials see it at night). When I went there with my Imperial character, I was again reminded at how much I missed having a day/night cycle.
This is so true about Eq2... parts of me still crave that game and other parts... not so much.
But I do remember when the game launched that I had to buy a torch due to the night cycle. Also, I was on a pvp server... so the plus was, I could see where I was going.. .the minus was... everyone could see you and kill you...lol. It was great!
Modern particle effects are taxing on a rendering system. I don't have the data, but I feel confident that the number of systems that can truly handle Weather and Day/Night are in less than 10% of the player base. The percentage may be as high as 30%, but even that feels like we are pushing it.
We had day/night cycles and weather patterns back in 1999 with EQ1, systems have come a pretty long way since then. It's as taxing as the programmers want to make it. Having a single light source (the sun) move across a landscape is the most basic of lighting tricks, most games have multiple light sources from various angles. Weather is the more difficult to do, but even then, it doesn't have to render every raindrop or water puddle, it entirely depends on the engine being used and the complexity that the programmers want to put into the little details.
Agreed.. also, every game I have played that had the weather particle effects had an option to turn them off if your system wasn't running well. I remember I game called Horizons way back in the day that had a spectacular day and night/ weather system.
Well, what I got out of this thread is that the general gaming community needs to hurry up and upgrade so that weather systems and dynamic day/night can be implemented.
Also, night needs to be coded so that you can not simply turn up the brightness. Make it so it renders the world differently, making it impossible to see things at max brightness/gamma.
My blog is a continuing story of what MMO's should be like.
Also, night needs to be coded so that you can not simply turn up the brightness. Make it so it renders the world differently, making it impossible to see things at max brightness/gamma.
You mean all those terrible darkity-dark-omgdark-wereallymeanitdark FPS' from the 90s would literally catch us without gamma?
Nothing would make me leave a game faster than becoming a victim to a game dev's new art fad. Like being trapped in a Bloomworld and unable to turn it off.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Also, night needs to be coded so that you can not simply turn up the brightness. Make it so it renders the world differently, making it impossible to see things at max brightness/gamma.
You mean all those terrible darkity-dark-omgdark-wereallymeanitdark FPS' from the 90s would literally catch us without gamma?
Nothing would make me leave a game faster than becoming a victim to a game dev's new art fad. Like being trapped in a Bloomworld and unable to turn it off.
But it is not falling victim, it is having to play by the game's rules. We cancel out darkness in the real world through artificial or natural light, it should be no different in a game world. I personally want to have true darkness, and deal with severe disability in it. It should play along with the game though, not act as some penalty or annoyance.
My blog is a continuing story of what MMO's should be like.
Comments
I have to admit, I agree with you here. I am a big fan of the day/night cycles and weather. It adds a lot to the game in my opinion, and while, I have read why they don't use them, I still don't agree. I for one, want day and night and I don't care what they have to do to make it happen.
This is so true about Eq2... parts of me still crave that game and other parts... not so much.
But I do remember when the game launched that I had to buy a torch due to the night cycle. Also, I was on a pvp server... so the plus was, I could see where I was going.. .the minus was... everyone could see you and kill you...lol. It was great!
Agreed.. also, every game I have played that had the weather particle effects had an option to turn them off if your system wasn't running well. I remember I game called Horizons way back in the day that had a spectacular day and night/ weather system.
Well, what I got out of this thread is that the general gaming community needs to hurry up and upgrade so that weather systems and dynamic day/night can be implemented.
Also, night needs to be coded so that you can not simply turn up the brightness. Make it so it renders the world differently, making it impossible to see things at max brightness/gamma.
My blog is a continuing story of what MMO's should be like.
You mean all those terrible darkity-dark-omgdark-wereallymeanitdark FPS' from the 90s would literally catch us without gamma?
Nothing would make me leave a game faster than becoming a victim to a game dev's new art fad. Like being trapped in a Bloomworld and unable to turn it off.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
But it is not falling victim, it is having to play by the game's rules. We cancel out darkness in the real world through artificial or natural light, it should be no different in a game world. I personally want to have true darkness, and deal with severe disability in it. It should play along with the game though, not act as some penalty or annoyance.
My blog is a continuing story of what MMO's should be like.