What lurks in the night

GrimCreep · January 2006

Ok besides making cities look cool from a distance with the lights turned on/lanterns ablaze, will we be seeing any kind of combat modifiers for night fighting? If combat is being focused around both twitch and traditional turnbased combat I sure hope there isn't an autotarget at night. Maybe some kind of weak flashlight to help ya out a bit. Nocturnal creatures with night vision would be a scary thing to bump into out in the open desert with your flashlight and bat at 0 dark thirty in the morn. I just think it would be nice to be affraid to go out at night and would make for prime time to meet in cities for trade and safety.

Any thoughts on that?

sinoth · January 2006

I think it would be great for the night to be a vital part of gameplay. Movement at night is much less likely to be seen... combat at night would be more difficult unless you had modifications that gave you some form of night vision.

I don't think that night should be entirely crippling... I always hated in some MMOs when it would be too dark for much too long. Always just turned up the gamma

Falendor · January 2006

lighting really should have an effect on atotarget, maby making it so you have to get the crosshares closer to your target before they "latch on."

And the idea of using night as a time to get together in towns for safty sonds really cool, it wouldent frustrate me a bit.

Rabiator · January 2006

I like the idea, but I think it needs some "reinforcing" on the coding side.
Otherwise some people will just (as said above) push their gamma to the max. Or even hack the client. I think the game would need some server side filtering, so mobs that are not supposed to be seen are not transferred to the client in the first place.
I don't know if Icarus Studios has made preparations for this, so don't hold your breath waiting for reduced night visibility ::::39::

Xilanxiv · January 2006

I believe they are planning on making the environment as realistic as possible, I know for a fact there will be both night/day cycles as well as seasons, and I think they're going to try to push the envelope as much as they can on the topic.

Rabiator, I agree on the server-side filtering. There are too many games where exactly what you said happens.

Falendor · January 2006

Seasons? that sounds really cool. I wonder how long a day will be in game?

Cthulhuvong · January 2006

If I remember correctly, in SWG it was about 6 hours IRL = 1 day in game. You had sunrise, daytime, sunset, nighttime.

Falendor · January 2006

I was thinking 12 hours would be good, 6 hours of night and 6 hours of day, give or take from seasons, that way if you log on in the PM or AM you ccan still get a little of both and the "day" is as close to a real day as you could get.

darkaster · January 2006

This is just an idea I had, not something I expect of Icarus, but has anyone ever thought of a 10 hour day cycle? That way it dosen't perfectly fit into real days, so those who work during certain times of the day everyday, can experience different times of day when they get home and play. Not always the same night or day time.

Cthulhuvong · January 2006

Oh wait, I remember it now! It was 4 hours IRL = 1 day in game for SWG, making it 6 days in game for every 1 day IRL.

I do like that idea Darkaster. It would be interesting to see. In 10 days you'd have almost a month in game.

Falendor · January 2006

The thing with the days not lining up is neet, but i like the idea of knowing what time it is in game by looking at a normal clock and not having to do lots of math.

sinoth · January 2006

You can't have one real day equal one game day... if you do that, people will play at relatively the same time every day and not get to experience the whole cycle (well, people who stay up for more than a day will, but thats not the point).

Also, I think you should NOT be able to easily tell the game time. In a post-apoc world, you'd have to learn to tell time using the position of the sun, or shadows, or be lucky enough to have an electric watch that still runs. In this case, giving us less information is good.. it adds to the immersion

Falendor · January 2006

I was not saying that they should have 24 hour days only that they should have days in factors of 24, like: 2, 12, 6, 4, 8, 3. That way the days dont get out of sink and make it so i dont know what time it is IG when i log on.

But now that i think about it your right if we have a non factor of 24 for the hours of the day then i could log on 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM every day and experince slightly diferent hours of the day each time.

Edgtho · January 2006

Morrowind's 48-minute day/night cycle worked well, though I'd imagine you'd need a longer cycle for an MMO. Maybe 1/6 (every 4 hours)?

Oh, and to answer the title: I do.

drycat · January 2006

I like that idea of watching the sun as it sinks on the horizon. Would be novel to watch the first sunset in game as darkness slowly rolls in. As well as the first sunrise..

I hope they also have natural phenomena like fog banks in the early evening and nights in random areas. Might also be a some of them clearing up on the early mornings just around sunrise.

Perhaps sandstorms and such in the deeper wastes to add a bit more hazard to your travels. Or maybe in settled regions as well. It would add more thrill to exploring if you could barely see a few feet or yards in front of you. All because you threw caution to the wind, and ventured forth before or during the onset of a storm. It would make encourging players to seek shelter at the local tavern/bar/inn more of a neceesity for support, comfort and safety. Of course, this is all wishful thinking

Might also be a good time for a roving band of outlanders to plot a strike on a town or settlement ( would be an excellent time for them to approach without alerting town sentries/lookouts, if there are going to be any, or are any ) A sandstorm or some other storms, as well as fog could add some strategic elements to planning raids or planning defenses.

GrimCreep · January 2006

I really like the ideas for sandstorms and the like. Would make an insane scenario to be riding out the years hardest storm to come out and see the entire enemy warband tippytoeing their way into your town.

Hopefully Icarus throws in some kind of tracer fire for the weapons. Would make a helluva show for those nighttime ambushes. Other than the night and other weather situations causing problems or helping players, I hope What sort of camouflage could we expect? Even with no camouflage I would still like to be able to blend in with certain backgrounds, maybe a shadow perhaps or some thick brush so's I don't get jumped when Im out soloing

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What lurks in the night

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