Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
As for me, I would like to see the ambience and atmosphere have a nice balance around beauty and chaos! Some nights with clear skies accompanied by a beautiful moonlight. And other days or nights covered in clouds, with gloom, or fog. And please, when it is time for the pouring rain to come down .. give me thunder and lightning too!!!
If some folks want to tweak their visuals to have better visibility, let them .. but also let the folks who want the immersion to sink in! I am not advocating for pitch black nights all the time. not even most of the time.
I would just love to see some nice variation within the context that the Devs are already showcasing (Seasonal Tech Demo).
Oh, and Devs, dont forget those red, bright eyes for predators and wildlife at night! Epic scene!
Take care folks!
Did you get a chance to play Red Dead Redemption 2? How did you like the nights in that game?
That being said, I believe in making it a mechanic rather than just an environmental change. I don’t think dimming the ambient brightness will be effective because as mentioned before, players can adjust gamma to effectively give themselves night vision. But if you transform objects into true silhouettes, and make other things completely invisible, then gamma settings will not help. You will still lose detail and just not see certain things (like hazards or enemies).
Make stealth work better (or at all) in darkness. Have darkness be an ability just as light is. Imagine a mage that can cloak a battlefield for an allied rogue. Darkness doesn’t have to always be a bad thing for players. Have darkness be a puzzle or obstacle in dungeons and events. Make it an extra danger in dungeons.
I don’t like the idea of night just being dark. That’s neither fun nor realistic. Most of the time the stars and moon provide enough light for a person to generally see where they are. Even a new moon makes things darker but not pitch black. Heavy cloud cover or thick foliage might make things dark enough you need a light source to see anything, but you’re effectively adding a “ceiling” of sorts just like being underground.
Anyway, darkness can be great for both fun and immersion if you do it properly.
So, anyone who wants to actually see what they're playing has to roll one specific race, assuming that there's even one that has better night vision? That sounds like a pretty sucky "solution" to the problem. It's an MMO, not a Horror Survival. We're allowed to see what we're doing!
The idea is great, but unfortunately the first thing I thought was the same as in the comment above. So there is no way to implement something like this.
1) who in their right mind would adjust the gamma settings on their monitor every time they started a game
2) U5 , not so difficult to change the lighting settings to have dark to pitch black. and negligible contrast. (harder to make great light settings than bad ones!)
I will literally have to. Bards are balanced around having their buffs active. If I have time to see an attacker coming and buff myself, I am significantly stronger (i.e. actually equal to that attacker). If I don't, I have to fight without the significant buffs my class is balanced around having.
A lot of people may not realize how significant that is, so I'll translate:
Based on the "fair balance" level of power for Bard buffs in a "party of 8" game, that is the equivalent of a Fighter starting the fight with a permanent -15% to -20% attack and defense debuff, but with the option to take a 10-15 second hard CC (casting time) to remove it. For perspective, at level 50 (assuming linear stat scaling), low visibility de-levels Bards from level 50 to level 40-42 in PvP.
It sucks for anyone, but a Fighter gets to be level 50 the moment they're attacked. Bards get to be lv50 half a TTK later. So yeah. I'll set the Gamma. I don't exactly get a choice.
i mostly play at home and during the afternoon the sun may shine inside which does darken the visual on the screen allredy a lot. also needs to be countered that some peoples may not or nolonger have a good sigth soe they should ne be forced to close the game and wait until its bright enouth again to see something on their screen.
in caves i could definetly see that it has parts that are covered in darkness where you dont see a thing.
whatever it will be in the end AoC will be a Fantasy MMO-RPG, with a nice looking environment. and not be as like witcher or skyrim, dark maybe creepy
i think it would be best if every player can ste the brigthness at in the settings as it often is asked by other games. so those who wishes to play in the dark can do, those that wanna have it brither can do. if you loose in pvp because you did set the brightness level wrong its your problem.
Edit:
In alpha 1 we had a bugged spot where the light failed in a area where it would be brigth as during the day in the deathvalley but it was pitch black and sadly there was a quest item to be picked up which was hidden behind a structure but since you didnt see a thing finding it was something that took you more than a few minutes even do the area was tiny.
I remember that and ran into that a few times. It was pretty jarring.
Everyone is 'allowed' or 'forbidden' from doing anything.
I had in mind that each race had different levels of night vision. Mountain Dwarves should see a bit better at night, for instance.
And as I said:
"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."
as @Atama said, you can simply send silhouettes and not send data of certain objects based on light level and a character's night vision level.
Except they nerfed Nights in BDO because people stopped going out at night & other reasons E.g. you equip a light & done you can see.
Can't wait to see what the Devs come up with (with UE5). Time will tell! Keep up the good work, Devs!
Have a good one all. Be well!