Realistic night time?

CluckingChicken

I was just thinking about the realistic day/night cycles Mark spoke of, and thought about the possibility of taking it a step further...

what about noticable darkness? To further explain, instead of the slight amount of darkness that you would see in WoW or similar MMOs, make it atually hard to see at night. Not to the extent that DayZ has, but dark enough that a skilled player could take advantage of to avoid detection if theyre careful enough. To suppliment, players can carry torches to give them a sort of 'light radius' to help them see stuff around them, but also makes them stand out. 

 

I dunno, just a random lunch-break thought. 

Leethe

Night time in firefall is dark. Dark as in you see nothing at all without a light in the forest and reasonably realistic moonlight otherwise. There is a general ambient source near the melding but the game has the most night looking night I've ever seen.

Some players have complained that it's too restrictive and have called for it to be lessened or the day/night cycle to be altered. I hope they leave it as it is.

rojoArcueid

i think by now mmos should have night times dark enough that the players need some sort of light. Also open world mobs and bosses are different (perhaps stronger too) during the night time.

The single player game Dragons Dogma nailed that mechanic and it would do miracles to any mmorpg with open world.

Satarious

I agree wholeheartedly with this idea.  The original Everquest had this.  The fact that you couldn't see two feet in front of you added quite a bit of suspense and got your adrenaline pumping.  It was expecially exciting wandering around in a pvp zone in complete darkness.

erkzul

I really like this idea.

Most MMOs night time is basically day brightness with a blue hue.

This would add to immersion big time.

I'm not sure about having it pitch black but if there was a good reason for it I would be willing to accept it.

 

Tumblebutz

I like the idea, too.  Nothing TOO restrictive, but shortened Line of Sight, increased Stealth abilities(?), etc.

This begs the question, however: Do certain races have better night vision?

meddyck

I'm not a fan of very dark nights in MMOs. If I have to turn up the gamma to see without eyestrain during in game night, then it's too dark.

erkzul

Originally posted by meddyck
I'm not a fan of very dark nights in MMOs. If I have to turn up the gamma to see without eyestrain during in game night, then it's too dark.

What about with a torch mechanic like in DAoC?

jinxxed0

Originally posted by rojo6934

i think by now mmos should have night times dark enough that the players need some sort of light. Also open world mobs and bosses are different (perhaps stronger too) during the night time.

The single player game Dragons Dogma nailed that mechanic and it would do miracles to any mmorpg with open world.

You think a genre that has been watered down/dumbed down to death and have had a new generation of MMO gamers grow up on that think it's okay to be extremely easy and forgiving is ready for something like that?

 

Maybe.

Sideras

Personally I hate night time in games, hurts my eyes. Got really turned off by it in DayZ aswell, way too extreme, can't be too good if it basically forces the player to quit the game.

Rednecksith

I don't think it should be taken to quite the same levels as DayZ, but I do wish nighttime in MMOs were something to be taken more seriously.

Someone mentioned Dragon's Dogma, and that's a perfect example of a fantastic night time mechanic. You can still kind of see, but you really do need a light source to see well. Furthermore it's much more dangerous to travel at night, as the monsters are tougher & more plentiful. In fact, traveling at night is inadvisable until you're of a significantly high level.

An MMO with a night cycle like the above would be awesome. Sadly, players nowadays are a bunch of city kids with no idea just how dark things can get when the sun goes down, hence the complaining. Not to mention the general attitude of, "But I don't wanna wait until day! I wanna do things NOOOOWWWWWW!!! WAAAAAHHHHH!!!".

Probably the same kind of people who complained about the zombie infection event in WoW (seriously, screw you people).

alexisevic

Planetside 2 has at least in the past, had some pretty dark nights that I think CU should try to emulate.  They are always tweaking how 'dark' it is so its hard to say where it is now, but I know in the past it has been difficult to spot enemy players at night.  Especially those slippery VS scientologists...

time007

I'm game for it.  Anything that adds more of a roleplaying or lore feel to it that is fine. 

Caldrin

Everquest got pretty dark at night from what i remember I am sure if you where a race that did not have night vision you needed a torch.

 

I think it would be a good idea if it did get really dark.. not Mortal Online dark but close.

tom_gore

Originally posted by jinxxed0

Originally posted by rojo6934

i think by now mmos should have night times dark enough that the players need some sort of light. Also open world mobs and bosses are different (perhaps stronger too) during the night time.

The single player game Dragons Dogma nailed that mechanic and it would do miracles to any mmorpg with open world.

You think a genre that has been watered down/dumbed down to death and have had a new generation of MMO gamers grow up on that think it's okay to be extremely easy and forgiving is ready for something like that?

 

Maybe.

You might have a point if CU was aimed at the new generation of MMO gamers. It's not.

 

meddyck

Originally posted by erkzul

Originally posted by meddyck
I'm not a fan of very dark nights in MMOs. If I have to turn up the gamma to see without eyestrain during in game night, then it's too dark.

What about with a torch mechanic like in DAoC?

Actually DAOC's night was one of those that was a problem for me which I had forgotten until this thread (I haven't played it in 2 years). It always annoyed me that there was no in game gamma setting in DAOC and I had to turn up gamma in my video card drivers when playing that game.