It's kidna complicated how this works..well no not really.
Okay when you land on a planet it's a certain time of day. Lets say the sun is high in the sky and it looks like it's say high noon.
Bright as daisy. Now while your on this planet the sun doesn't move. But then your told to go to a certain spot and wait for a person. Upon arriving at this spot a short cinematic plays showing your character pacing around. Once the cinematic finishes the person arrives and tells you what you need to do and says that you must finish the task before the sun rises again. Now your playing in the dark.
This could be a phased thing where you see other playing, but they are in the light and your in the dark or it could be that it's merely instanced which is akin to how AoC did tortage.
The only thing you don't see is the sun/moon actually moving around the sky and it getting gradually darker. While i would have rathered those in there. I'd much rather days and nights to actually have a purpose beyond how light or dark an area is. Which sadly is how most MMOs are.
Have you ever tried to take a steady video in a rainstorm?
Seriously it's hard
In general environmental effects get done towards the end of a project, so the videos don't have the latest and greatest in that regard. You'll see some serious weather at PAX East though I think.
I was really looking forward to seeing Coruscant at night. All the lights on the skyscrapers, all the little speeders flying about... But now that not happening because theres no day/night cycles! WHYYYYYYYY BIOWARE!!
Interestingly enough, it is possible to have night areas on Coruscant without having day/night cycles. In fact, it helps with the visual variety of our planets to be able to have different zones have different lighting.
There is areas of Coruscant, such as the Justicar District, which are at perpetual night time (although on Coruscant, getting deep down near the ground of the planet means there isn't much daylight coming down there anyway due to the buildings).
The area around the Senate Tower is at sunset, and so on.
theres probably more, but this is what i found real quick
Yeah but we don't need immersive stuff like that in SWTOR because it's Star Wars, it will sell itself. It worked well for Star Trek Online so no worries. The lack of immersive elements will be dwarfed by the incredible amount of cinematic cut scenes and movie sequences.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Not sure about SWTOR, but GW2 will have both a day/night cycle and a dynamic weather system that will influence events, mobs etc.
Yeah but we don't need immersive stuff like that in SWTOR because it's Star Wars, it will sell itself. It worked well for Star Trek Online so no worries. The lack of immersive elements will be dwarfed by the incredible amount of cinematic cut scenes and movie sequences.
How about you guys wait before you praise GW2 and its features.................WAR did have some amazing features too one year before release............
Not that GW2 will be bad, but features get cut or just don't turn out that great so often.
I'm disappointed for not having day/night cycle implemented, its not a deal breaker, but it would be nice for immersion.
Its like, every time they announce something positive, then immediately announce something negative, to even it out.
I'm getting more and more frustrated, the hype for this game(for me) is continuously dropping. A year a go, this was my most anticipated MMO(huge SW fan), but now its already behind GW2 and AA, even with TERA.
Played: SWG-FFXI-EQ2-Aion
Anticipated in order of Hype: ArcheAge GW2 TERA SWTOR
Not enough info, but looks promising: Blade & Soul
TBH I've never payed attention to night and day on MMOs. The only time I really care about night and day is when I play single player RPGs like the Elder Scrolls series. In MMOs you don't really notice time, because it doesn't make a difference in the game. lol As for the weather, at the PAX east Daniel Erickson stated there would be things like snow storms on Hoth and sand storms on Tatoonie. So there will be weather.
The entire topic ANGERS me. It just makes me angry.
When I read - "I don't even notice it", I just feel like "Matthew 7:6". I mean, many MMO world have so many interesting details, and people just RUSH through. I bet a lot of funny, cool and stunning details are never ever seen by people. I am that kind of person who turns around every rock. I just said in my guild that I found the Rift quests and lore so fascinating, and then I found out most people don't read it anyway. I mean... WTH? There is so much fascinating stuff, so much love went into these worlds and people just RUN through them like tomorrow was Armageddon! I don't get it.
Yes the lack of day/night cycle is a big disappointment. It just is another point where Bioware doesn't make a world to live in but a mere theatre stage for their plays.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
The entire topic ANGERS me. It just makes me angry.
When I read - "I don't even notice it", I just feel like "Matthew 7:6". I mean, many MMO world have so many interesting details, and people just RUSH through. I bet a lot of funny, cool and stunning details are never ever seen by people. I am that kind of person who turns around every rock. I just said in my guild that I found the Rift quests and lore so fascinating, and then I found out most people don't read it anyway. I mean... WTH? There is so much fascinating stuff, so much love went into these worlds and people just RUN through them like tomorrow was Armageddon! I don't get it.
Yes the lack of day/night cycle is a big disappointment. It just is another point where Bioware doesn't make a world to live in but a mere theatre stage for their plays.
even a theather have day anight scenes... if they dont have night time it might even be a deal breaker for me.... i remember countless in game nights staring at the stars just chatting with my wife tru the game because we were station diferent army post and this was the cheapest way to communicate
The entire topic ANGERS me. It just makes me angry.
When I read - "I don't even notice it", I just feel like "Matthew 7:6". I mean, many MMO world have so many interesting details, and people just RUSH through. I bet a lot of funny, cool and stunning details are never ever seen by people. I am that kind of person who turns around every rock. I just said in my guild that I found the Rift quests and lore so fascinating, and then I found out most people don't read it anyway. I mean... WTH? There is so much fascinating stuff, so much love went into these worlds and people just RUN through them like tomorrow was Armageddon! I don't get it.
Yes the lack of day/night cycle is a big disappointment. It just is another point where Bioware doesn't make a world to live in but a mere theatre stage for their plays.
even a theather have day anight scenes... if they dont have night time it might even be a deal breaker for me.... i remember countless in game nights staring at the stars just chatting with my wife tru the game because we were station diferent army post and this was the cheapest way to communicate
and yeah that is one big detail to miss out
There are night scenes, some planets are in total day while others are in twilight while still others like Nar shadaa are completely night time. They just don't cycle unless you enter a specific area where this happens.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
The entire topic ANGERS me. It just makes me angry.
When I read - "I don't even notice it", I just feel like "Matthew 7:6". I mean, many MMO world have so many interesting details, and people just RUSH through. I bet a lot of funny, cool and stunning details are never ever seen by people. I am that kind of person who turns around every rock. I just said in my guild that I found the Rift quests and lore so fascinating, and then I found out most people don't read it anyway. I mean... WTH? There is so much fascinating stuff, so much love went into these worlds and people just RUN through them like tomorrow was Armageddon! I don't get it.
Yes the lack of day/night cycle is a big disappointment. It just is another point where Bioware doesn't make a world to live in but a mere theatre stage for their plays.
I'm one of those people that actually reads the quest text in most games and I have to disagree with you on Rift. I was actually amazed at the amounts of spelling errors, punctuation errors, and gramatical errors. I tend to be very forgiving on these types of things concidering these games are generally made for several different languages, but Rift looked like it was written by a 5th grader that is failing english.
Let's face it, most MMO's don't even change anything other than lighting and that is the barest part of the difference between day and night. In order for the day / night cycle to mean anything you would need to changed the spawn rates of enemies as well as create diurnal and nocturnal life that only spawned at the appropriate times. Then at least there would be a real difference.
[Mod Edit]
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
The entire topic ANGERS me. It just makes me angry.
When I read - "I don't even notice it", I just feel like "Matthew 7:6". I mean, many MMO world have so many interesting details, and people just RUSH through. I bet a lot of funny, cool and stunning details are never ever seen by people. I am that kind of person who turns around every rock. I just said in my guild that I found the Rift quests and lore so fascinating, and then I found out most people don't read it anyway. I mean... WTH? There is so much fascinating stuff, so much love went into these worlds and people just RUN through them like tomorrow was Armageddon! I don't get it.
Yes the lack of day/night cycle is a big disappointment. It just is another point where Bioware doesn't make a world to live in but a mere theatre stage for their plays.
even a theather have day anight scenes... if they dont have night time it might even be a deal breaker for me.... i remember countless in game nights staring at the stars just chatting with my wife tru the game because we were station diferent army post and this was the cheapest way to communicate
and yeah that is one big detail to miss out
There are night scenes, some planets are in total day while others are in twilight while still others like Nar shadaa are completely night time. They just don't cycle unless you enter a specific area where this happens.
That is the dumbest gameplay thing I've ever heard... I mean, even Pokemon had day and night cycles... good lord. Might as well just call this a singleplayer game if they're going to let the "storyline" impact the virtual world that much.
The entire topic ANGERS me. It just makes me angry.
When I read - "I don't even notice it", I just feel like "Matthew 7:6". I mean, many MMO world have so many interesting details, and people just RUSH through. I bet a lot of funny, cool and stunning details are never ever seen by people. I am that kind of person who turns around every rock. I just said in my guild that I found the Rift quests and lore so fascinating, and then I found out most people don't read it anyway. I mean... WTH? There is so much fascinating stuff, so much love went into these worlds and people just RUN through them like tomorrow was Armageddon! I don't get it.
Yes the lack of day/night cycle is a big disappointment. It just is another point where Bioware doesn't make a world to live in but a mere theatre stage for their plays.
Wow Elikal, when you start quoting scripture in a gaming forum, you might want to REALLY re-evalutate the importance of a GAME in your life. Just a thought.
I'm one of those people that actually reads the quest text in most games and I have to disagree with you on Rift. I was actually amazed at the amounts of spelling errors, punctuation errors, and gramatical errors. I tend to be very forgiving on these types of things concidering these games are generally made for several different languages, but Rift looked like it was written by a 5th grader that is failing english.
As for the lack of day / night cycles, something tells me you are making a bigger deal of this than you would after playing the game. I would be willing to bet that you wouldn't even have realised it wasn't there if the Devs hadn't specifically mentioned it. Let's face it, most MMO's don't even change anything other than lighting and that is the barest part of the difference between day and night. In order for the day / night cycle to mean anything you would need to changed the spawn rates of enemies as well as create diurnal and nocturnal life that only spawned at the appropriate times. Then at least there would be a real difference.
lol That's why I stated day and night will have no function on this game; because, it's not going to effect the environment at all. IE, different spawns at certain times. Though that would be kind of interesting on maybe a certain planet or two, where you had to get things done before the sun goes down or you'll get swarmed by a massive wave of spawns. Ha ha... Like that mission on SC2, with the Zerg. At night time they swarm your base form all directions and you have to defend it; during the day you run out and destroy targets. Oh there goes my brain, wondering off. lol
Day/Night cycles is something neat to have but I rarely take notice of it. I haven't noticed many games...or any MMOs that it actually has an impact. In a game like WoW it's just a change in color, in a game like Minecraft it changes everything.
Its absence will have no impact on my experience, same if it were to be added. Day/Night Cycle will only be a game breaker if BioWare feels the need to tell me when day and night has began and ended. Simons Quest tortured my childhood.
Aw, my favorite thing about games taking place on alien planets is looking up into the night sky and seeing all sorts of pretty moons and nebulae. That's when you realize you're not in Kansas anymore.
*geek mode activate* Some interesting trivia, The home planet of the Twi'leks, Ryloth, is actually tidally locked with their sun like OP said. It produces some interesting effects on the weather. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ryloth
Aw, my favorite thing about games taking place on alien planets is looking up into the night sky and seeing all sorts of pretty moons and nebulae. That's when you realize you're not in Kansas anymore.
*geek mode activate*
Some interesting trivia, The home planet of the Twi'leks, Ryloth, is actually tidally locked with their sun like OP said. It produces some interesting effects on the weather.
I have to agree with the dissenters on this point. Day/Night cycles are nice to have in game. SWG used them really well. I'd be hanging out by a BH terminal during day time and all of a sudden the rain would hit and it got darker. Even the background music would change with the cycles and that helped add imersion to gaming world. It's a really nice feature to have in game and it's too bad that it won't be included in TOR.
Unless night time gives a buff or debuff to certain people then it is pointless except for rp purposes. Considering that SW lore has very little issues concerning day and night time differences then I would prefer them to focus on other gameplay issues. If it is desired later they can always code it for specific planets in patches similar to how other games have done weather.
An example is how WoW introduced weather effects like rain to specific regions slowly until they covered all areas. They did this about 3 years into game, there was no effect on gameplay at the time, just visual treats.
Note: WoW also shows how they removed their moon cycles (2 moons) on seperate cycles, this was not noticed by the majority of the population. When I mentioned the change most of my guild thought I had been imagining things. This is an example of how it is a minor issue to the majority of people. I don't know if they ever brought the moons back.
I like weather changes, but to be honest, I never liked or even noticed day/night. In most single-player games it was "bollocks, dark again, I don't like it, sleep till morning...".
But you can't skip to daylight in mmorpg, and I really dislike darkness on the monitor, so I would actually prefer no night/day cycles.
Intentionally being corny and adding to what others have said
it seems strange not to have stars in star wars
" " (but we do have stars in star wars)
yeah but they're not relevant
so every planet just has some fixed sun of its own in the sky
this is a joke, 3rd rate mmos have had weather.. this is bioware and star wars here
guess im the punchline? (if i purchase.)
They do have weather effects, but they've crafted each of the worlds for a specific atmosphere.
In truth though weather effects and day and night cycles are ABSOLUTELY meaningless in just about every MMO to date. In the best of times, a night cycle just makes it tougher to see, and in the worst of times it makes it exactly the same as daytime. Weather effects don't actually do anything either, you don't see rain storms flood anything, or receive massive penalties when under dressed in cold weather. Xsyon is trying to do that, but even still they're way off, and that game is a simulation more then a game.
Good world design trumps meaningless cycles any day.
Comments
I think it would be cool to have Day/night in the game, but it is no 'must have' for me.
I think this game will be fun to play and that's the most important thing.
over and out
When the war of the beasts brings about the worlds end,
the goddess descends from the sky, wings of light and dark spread afar.
This totally sucks.
An honest review of SW:TOR 6/10 (Danny Wojcicki)
here are things i have found regarding day/night and weather:
http://darthhater.com/2011/03/13/sunday-developer-qa-with-bioware/
Reid: Explain day/night cycle more?
JO: Position of sun is fixed. We wanted a whole bunch of distinct looking worlds. Would require too many programmers.
DE: Having day/night would make things look significantly worse.
Reid: Will instances have day/night?
DE: Instances and phasing have variety, you'll go places that are at different times.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5586291#edit5586291
GeorgZoeller
Joined: May 2010
03.02.2011 , 09:23 PM
Have you ever tried to take a steady video in a rainstorm?
Seriously it's hard
In general environmental effects get done towards the end of a project, so the videos don't have the latest and greatest in that regard. You'll see some serious weather at PAX East though I think.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5682208#edit5682208
GeorgZoeller
Joined: May 2010
03.12.2011 , 08:16 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by soupe
I was really looking forward to seeing Coruscant at night. All the lights on the skyscrapers, all the little speeders flying about... But now that not happening because theres no day/night cycles! WHYYYYYYYY BIOWARE!!
Interestingly enough, it is possible to have night areas on Coruscant without having day/night cycles. In fact, it helps with the visual variety of our planets to be able to have different zones have different lighting.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5696135#edit5696135
GeorgZoeller
Joined: May 2010
03.13.2011 , 05:10 PM
Time to clarify:
There is areas of Coruscant, such as the Justicar District, which are at perpetual night time (although on Coruscant, getting deep down near the ground of the planet means there isn't much daylight coming down there anyway due to the buildings).
The area around the Senate Tower is at sunset, and so on.
theres probably more, but this is what i found real quick
Yeah but we don't need immersive stuff like that in SWTOR because it's Star Wars, it will sell itself. It worked well for Star Trek Online so no worries. The lack of immersive elements will be dwarfed by the incredible amount of cinematic cut scenes and movie sequences.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
How about you guys wait before you praise GW2 and its features.................WAR did have some amazing features too one year before release............
Not that GW2 will be bad, but features get cut or just don't turn out that great so often.
Let's not take the thread off on a GW2 tangent.
To give feedback on moderation, contact mikeb@mmorpg.com
I'm disappointed for not having day/night cycle implemented, its not a deal breaker, but it would be nice for immersion.
Its like, every time they announce something positive, then immediately announce something negative, to even it out.
I'm getting more and more frustrated, the hype for this game(for me) is continuously dropping. A year a go, this was my most anticipated MMO(huge SW fan), but now its already behind GW2 and AA, even with TERA.
Played: SWG-FFXI-EQ2-Aion
Anticipated in order of Hype:
ArcheAge
GW2
TERA
SWTOR
Not enough info, but looks promising:
Blade & Soul
TBH I've never payed attention to night and day on MMOs. The only time I really care about night and day is when I play single player RPGs like the Elder Scrolls series. In MMOs you don't really notice time, because it doesn't make a difference in the game. lol As for the weather, at the PAX east Daniel Erickson stated there would be things like snow storms on Hoth and sand storms on Tatoonie. So there will be weather.
The entire topic ANGERS me. It just makes me angry.
When I read - "I don't even notice it", I just feel like "Matthew 7:6". I mean, many MMO world have so many interesting details, and people just RUSH through. I bet a lot of funny, cool and stunning details are never ever seen by people. I am that kind of person who turns around every rock. I just said in my guild that I found the Rift quests and lore so fascinating, and then I found out most people don't read it anyway. I mean... WTH? There is so much fascinating stuff, so much love went into these worlds and people just RUN through them like tomorrow was Armageddon! I don't get it.
Yes the lack of day/night cycle is a big disappointment. It just is another point where Bioware doesn't make a world to live in but a mere theatre stage for their plays.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
even a theather have day anight scenes... if they dont have night time it might even be a deal breaker for me.... i remember countless in game nights staring at the stars just chatting with my wife tru the game because we were station diferent army post and this was the cheapest way to communicate
and yeah that is one big detail to miss out
There are night scenes, some planets are in total day while others are in twilight while still others like Nar shadaa are completely night time. They just don't cycle unless you enter a specific area where this happens.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
I'm one of those people that actually reads the quest text in most games and I have to disagree with you on Rift. I was actually amazed at the amounts of spelling errors, punctuation errors, and gramatical errors. I tend to be very forgiving on these types of things concidering these games are generally made for several different languages, but Rift looked like it was written by a 5th grader that is failing english.
Let's face it, most MMO's don't even change anything other than lighting and that is the barest part of the difference between day and night. In order for the day / night cycle to mean anything you would need to changed the spawn rates of enemies as well as create diurnal and nocturnal life that only spawned at the appropriate times. Then at least there would be a real difference.
[Mod Edit]
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
That is the dumbest gameplay thing I've ever heard... I mean, even Pokemon had day and night cycles... good lord. Might as well just call this a singleplayer game if they're going to let the "storyline" impact the virtual world that much.
Darkfall Travelogues!
Day/Night cycles is something neat to have but I rarely take notice of it. I haven't noticed many games...or any MMOs that it actually has an impact. In a game like WoW it's just a change in color, in a game like Minecraft it changes everything.
Its absence will have no impact on my experience, same if it were to be added. Day/Night Cycle will only be a game breaker if BioWare feels the need to tell me when day and night has began and ended. Simons Quest tortured my childhood.
I agree. I really enjoyed Weather, and Day/Night effects. They really help (me) get into a game.
While I was hoping to chill out at Tatooine as the sun set while waiting for my companion to come back from their crafting chores
. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SW_binary_sunset.png
Pardon my English as it is not my 1st language
Sorry, gonna need a time machine to go back to when MMORPGs were more concerned with virtual worlds than singleplayer instanced stories.
Darkfall Travelogues!
No night skies?
Aw, my favorite thing about games taking place on alien planets is looking up into the night sky and seeing all sorts of pretty moons and nebulae. That's when you realize you're not in Kansas anymore.
*geek mode activate*
Some interesting trivia, The home planet of the Twi'leks, Ryloth, is actually tidally locked with their sun like OP said. It produces some interesting effects on the weather.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ryloth
<--- Lives in Kansas.
I have to agree with the dissenters on this point. Day/Night cycles are nice to have in game. SWG used them really well. I'd be hanging out by a BH terminal during day time and all of a sudden the rain would hit and it got darker. Even the background music would change with the cycles and that helped add imersion to gaming world. It's a really nice feature to have in game and it's too bad that it won't be included in TOR.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Unless night time gives a buff or debuff to certain people then it is pointless except for rp purposes. Considering that SW lore has very little issues concerning day and night time differences then I would prefer them to focus on other gameplay issues. If it is desired later they can always code it for specific planets in patches similar to how other games have done weather.
An example is how WoW introduced weather effects like rain to specific regions slowly until they covered all areas. They did this about 3 years into game, there was no effect on gameplay at the time, just visual treats.
Note: WoW also shows how they removed their moon cycles (2 moons) on seperate cycles, this was not noticed by the majority of the population. When I mentioned the change most of my guild thought I had been imagining things. This is an example of how it is a minor issue to the majority of people. I don't know if they ever brought the moons back.
I like weather changes, but to be honest, I never liked or even noticed day/night. In most single-player games it was "bollocks, dark again, I don't like it, sleep till morning...".
But you can't skip to daylight in mmorpg, and I really dislike darkness on the monitor, so I would actually prefer no night/day cycles.
Weather is good, though.
Intentionally being corny and adding to what others have said
it seems strange not to have stars in star wars
" " (but we do have stars in star wars)
yeah but they're not relevant
so every planet just has some fixed sun of its own in the sky
this is a joke, 3rd rate mmos have had weather.. this is bioware and star wars here
guess im the punchline? (if i purchase.)
I want to own property too
They do have weather effects, but they've crafted each of the worlds for a specific atmosphere.
In truth though weather effects and day and night cycles are ABSOLUTELY meaningless in just about every MMO to date. In the best of times, a night cycle just makes it tougher to see, and in the worst of times it makes it exactly the same as daytime. Weather effects don't actually do anything either, you don't see rain storms flood anything, or receive massive penalties when under dressed in cold weather. Xsyon is trying to do that, but even still they're way off, and that game is a simulation more then a game.
Good world design trumps meaningless cycles any day.