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Night time darkness levels and lighting
PherPhur
Member
I really want to hear if anyone has any great reasons why night time shouldn't be so dark sometimes that lighting is important.
It's not incredibly relevant to gameplay, though it would add some very interesting dynamics. I just think it's one of the coolest things you can do in a game, a very immersive feature. It works out fantastically in minecraft and terraria, though they are very different games I could imagine it working just fine in AoC.
It's not incredibly relevant to gameplay, though it would add some very interesting dynamics. I just think it's one of the coolest things you can do in a game, a very immersive feature. It works out fantastically in minecraft and terraria, though they are very different games I could imagine it working just fine in AoC.
7
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Well, it certainly is nice to see I'm not alone.
Sure, you're probably going to want to black out your game room windows and turn off the lights when it's night time, and it'll be a little bit of a pain in the butt trying to see when it's difficult to, but like I said it works out in Terraria and Minecraft. The benefit really does seem to heavily outweigh the cost. At least from my perspective.
THIS is a fun idea.
I think having *every* night be so dark it's hard to see would be enjoyable but it's a pretty niche enjoyment that we have lol. BUT having the moon cycle allowing for one "dark" night an in-game month would be so freaking fun.
Hopefully Vek have special dark seeing capabilities
It is extremely relevant to gameplay, and is absolutely a core balance/design consideration.
As a Bard, if I see you from 20 seconds away, I start the fight buffed and we have a fair fight when you attack me. If I see you from 5 seconds away, I just die.
I'm all for a real, good cosmetic day/night cycle, with lighting effects, but I need night to not nerf my class specifically. Sure it'll hurt everyone a bit, but Bard by nature has to spend time buffing in advance in order to match the other classes power. Stopping me from doing that is a major nerf.
Would look like an angry mob from a Frankenstein movie.
But lets say there is storm and dark clouds, it would be cool to see significant change in visibility. And when lighting strikes it would illuminate whole sky and ground.
If there is already weather and season tech, it would be cool to have moon phases and those with clouds would influence how dark nights are and it would cast big shadows that would move on the ground, slightly changing visibility.
I guess I am not fan of pitch black outside areas. But dark enough to have some torch or light magic gameplay would be cool.
Having pitch black parts of dungeons, even elite or raid fights, I am fan of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=36&v=5YFb-S9ublQ&feature=emb_title
I think this is a great idea and I hope they continued to refine and expand on it.
The devs could create special events which players may cause of try to prevent, once in a while.
Are they even going to have night and day cycles in the game? If night is too dark everyone normally just turns up their brightness settings.
Now, if you're in a forest, short of having a lamp attached to your backpack (like in the game Outward) it should be quite dark.
Different mobs and gatherables should appear based on time of day IMO. Would also incentivise exploration for sight-seeing. In FFXIV you have sightseeing logs you can achieve by being at certain locations at certain times of day and with certain whether conditions. When you do, you get the Log for it, providing extra bits of lore about the world.
This could be a very cool way to promote travelling across the world at least once, before or after settling down in a specific node.
It makes the adventure game feel like an actual adventure.
More dangerous.
It also makes for a better atmosphere and cool-looking night fights.
A casual player jumping on for their only time in a week and finding that they can barely make out anything and struggle to play the game doesn't sound like a fun time. As others have said, it also messes with the balance of some things.
I do expect some darker times though. Nighttime with a thunderstorm would be absolutely amazing (though would need seizure safe settings).
It depends on how long the night cycle is really.
I remember with Ark Survival, some nights with rain it was almost pitch black and I'd just camp out and wait until day because it wasn't too long a time. The longer the night the more impactful it will be.
I think you can add gameplay options that blend with dark darkness and still be fun. This is where Ashes can leverage the lightning engine / tools in UE5. Introduce basic to advanced lighting for PCs - from handheld torches to floating magical orbs. Add squibs and flash bangs for night time raids. Provide some racial augments for low-light vision. Increase the damage and stealthiness of mobs at night (such as wolves and undead). Provide weapon augments that have a day/night buffs or debuffs (similar to Skyrim). All of this adds options for gameplay while increasing the overall risk / tension in the world. Hell, even settled metros can become dangerous with nighttime incursions of guild rogues to wreak havoc.
I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to add some interesting gameplay here.
Even if others can't use the monitor or game's gamma setting to get a leg-up on the competition, the world they are building is beautiful and immersive, it would suck if when the game went into night, you couldn't see that beautiful world.
Night wouldn’t hide that beauty. Maybe it could expose a whole other type of beauty.
I mean, have you ever seen the amber blend of torchlight and the moon reflected in the 8 eyes of an Umberhulk?
It’s utterly enchanting.
Why, though? I think darkness is one of the key elements that can enhance gameplay in a game like this.
Cos it's fricking boring not being able to see anything. And, if you happen to only be able to log in during those hours, you'll be playing in constant darkness. Turns out that in order to play a game, you actually need to be able to see the game!
Some nights can be bright with full moons; otherwise light sources should be required for full vision.
Adjusting to lower light levels should be a thing though; use a bright torch and dark adjustment starts to fade or doesn't develop nearly as much. 8 minutes in the dark and night vision should improve quite a bit.
Thus light sources are particularly necessary when moving between light and dark areas or when an enemy can "cut the lights".
I'd like a stat benefiting night vision, class and racial modifier affecting night vision as well.
Certain potions and foods can increase night vision.
I don't like higher performance requirements though. Simplified lighting would need to exist while not conferring additional advantage or disadvantage.
Just use light sources and roll a race with better night vision.