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Night-dark and Day-light

Are the night stars that much brighter than Earth's Milky Way? I recently saw a video of AoC's day/night cycle with the undead and it reminded me of EQ. This is great except the night seems a little too bright! Am I the only one that is thinking this? If the night were darker it would open the door for light shows at night to be that much more beautiful such as FIRE WORKS!(Gandalf's favorite) and spells going off being that much prettier at night.. Just a mechanic that I think a lot of players could enjoy bringing back from the old EQ days. Also some items in EQ would have a glow to them such as the glowing velium axe and would function not only as a weapon but as a light source. Something the devs could probably have some fun with and build upon.
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Comments

  • daveywaveydaveywavey Member, Alpha Two
    Dark dark is just crap though, and totally unenjoyable. I want to be able to see what I'm doing and what I'm running into/off.
    This link may help you: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/


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  • JC31JC31 Member
    edited November 2023
    The super dark is unrealistic because the human eye adjusts to the moonlight and other ambient light sources after a while IRL. I am saying it would be great if they could implement a little more practicality to various light sources in the game. Steven was saying that the light posts are from 2017 or something and it's 2023. They could probably justify a little more polish to their lighting systems starting with night time and light posts as their starting point. Then they could add torches, lanterns, spells, and magic items such as the light source that Galadriel gave the halflings in LOTR that give you light source so that you can see much better at night. You could even hang these items from your backpack or your belt and have a mini lantern etc.
  • tautautautau Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Verra has several moons which light the night sky as well as constellations which will impact game play: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Constellations
  • edited November 2023
    The "night-dark" isn't dark. I will definitely agree. It doesn't even have silhouettes it's so bright.

    Day and night cycles occur over a few hours., seasons over a week... seasonal biome changes with day cycles will be occurring quite frequently.
  • I want it dark enough to have torches and campfires actual be useful. But not so dark that it's unrealistic, except for cave systems
  • SweatycupSweatycup Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited November 2023
    While i personally like almost complete dark in games i know most will complain and understandably so at such dark. However i would like to see really dark spots where its hard to make things out for possible ambush locations. It’s like walking up on someone you cant see till your almost right on them. But not a large enough area that if you travel 10-20 feet in any direction its back to being more illuminated by night. Maybe in small areas of thick overgrowth in certain parts? I doubt they will do this for pvp but i will keep my fingers crossed. On the other side of the equation most people just turn the brightness up in-game and or on their monitor so it may be kinda pointless.
  • I agree with the cave systems comment. Once you get deep enough into a cave it would be weird if you could still see without some type of light or spell available to help you see anything at all.
  • Sweatycup wrote: »
    While i personally like almost complete dark in games i know most will complain and understandably so at such dark. However i would like to see really dark spots where its hard to make things out for possible ambush locations. It’s like walking up on someone you cant see till your almost right on them. But not a large enough area that if you travel 10-20 feet in any direction its back to being more illuminated by night. Maybe in small areas of thick overgrowth in certain parts? I doubt they will do this for pvp but i will keep my fingers crossed.

    I do not enjoy PvP as much as I used to and prefer PvE nowadays. Although PvP could be affected if they put a cave in the middle of a battle ground or put a blindness spell on someone so they can't see as well. A cleric could have a light so bright that it blinds their target, but it would be more of a haloing effect than pure darkness.
  • DryadezDryadez Member
    edited November 2023
    JC31 wrote: »
    I agree with the cave systems comment. Once you get deep enough into a cave it would be weird if you could still see without some type of light or spell available to help you see anything at all.

    this is also where racial abilities could come in handy.

    I.E

    Tulnar ability (passive)- Night vision (100% visibility in the dark) : A life in the underealm with only dimly lit luminescent flora within the darkest reaches of the world below where the Tulnar made their home has given the generations of Tulnar improved vision in the dark, making most cave systems relatively easy for them to traverse, picking up on the smallest hints of light in the dark.

    Dunir- ability (passive)- Mountain Dweller (50% visibility increase in the dark): Some dwarves never see the light of day, calling the mountain home, their eyes have adapted to the dark. Digging ever deeper into the darkest reaches of the mountain with only torches to light their way has helped sharpen their sense of sight where there is little light.

    Tulnar get 100% visibility, being literal creatures of the underrealm it was adapt or die. Dwarves are more of a hybrid and only receive a partial buff to their night vision, adapting to both underground and the surface.

    Perks Tulnar never have to worry about bringing torches into cave systems, a group of tulnar exploring a cave or running a dungeon can save inventory space for more important items and save on money and resources. PVP taking place in these areas would give the Tulnar a direct advantage. Dwarves would share the same benefits to a lesser extent.
  • Now that you mention that about the night vision. Steven may have been playing a Tulnir cleric in that video and that "could" have been why he was seeing so well in the dark. *smirk*
  • DryadezDryadez Member
    edited November 2023
    JC31 wrote: »
    Now that you mention that about the night vision. Steven may have been playing a Tulnir cleric in that video and that "could" have been why he was seeing so well in the dark. *smirk*

    i hope so, little things like this that add flavor to races is so so important. players love to see these things and are rather simple to add as a blanket ability or buff.
  • As interesting as it would be, most of the underground and/or indoor things we've seen are filled with ambient braziers, lamps, glowing minerals and bioluminescent RGB flora. They're definitely going for a "brighter" more mainstream friendly visual ambiance.
  • Could be that some zones are more or less visible than others. I would expect a large forest to not be very well lit at night because the moon and stars will not shine through when you're deep in the forest. At this point I suppose is where the bio luminescent environments kick in to a degree.
  • maybe?
    Based on the constellation stream 11 months ago in the Riverland's, Steven ran through the tree shadows during the night time and it barely affected the lighting on his character. You can see some darkened shadow parts within the forest there. They've claimed they didn't want to "inhibit" the ability to play the game as to why it's so bright at night time.

    Considering Riverlands flora density, probably a good idea for the rest of the biomes. There may be some dark spots but we wont be disappearing into the shadows or needing torches unfortunately.
  • The game has come a really long way. I watched a video a minute ago that was uploaded 6 years ago and it had a mage summon a globe of light in a dark cave. Makes me wonder if they scrapped those ideas or if they are still there some where. Probably won't know until alpha 2 or even beta. I suppose it's too early to speculate but I can't help but be excited from all the sneak peeks and the info that has been compiled on the wiki. over the years.
  • the pre-alpha footage from when they scrapped Apocalypse and decided to turn it into the mmorpg AoC?
  • NoaaniNoaani Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
    I wouldn't look too much in to what is out there in order to get an idea of how dark the game will be at night - I doubt it is something they have put any time in to as yet.

    In terms of how dark it should be at night, I don't think Ashes is the right kind of game to have EQ Nek Forrest levels of dark.

    While it worked great in that game, EQ was more about building your own story, where others couldn't really get in your way. In a more competitive game like Ashes, actual dark night would just he a hindrance.
  • @JC31 yeah, that's the pre-alpha thing. Not much really translates 1 to 1 from that to current design.

    @Noaani competitive? I guess playing the game to contribute to a node automatically developing could be seen as some low form of competition, pretty soft though. I imagine they have put a lot of thought into it especially by Steven comments and the opinions on the forums over the years.

    Again, I don't see darkness in the game requiring torches due to design goals currently.
  • Steven said in the video that
    Noaani wrote: »
    I wouldn't look too much in to what is out there in order to get an idea of how dark the game will be at night - I doubt it is something they have put any time in to as yet.

    In terms of how dark it should be at night, I don't think Ashes is the right kind of game to have EQ Nek Forrest levels of dark.

    While it worked great in that game, EQ was more about building your own story, where others couldn't really get in your way. In a more competitive game like Ashes, actual dark night would just he a hindrance.

    Dark night would be as much of a hindrance as a blinding sun would be during the day time. That's why many adventurer's would prefer to fight during the day. Night brings the idea of clandestine-like battles or maybe a specific assassination attempt when your enemy is weakest. If only there were a system in the game, or a game mechanic to make combat behave differently depending on the season or time of night... it is a role playing game after all.
  • edited November 2023
    @JC31 There is mention of certain magic types perhaps getting bonus effects based on biome, weather, season in relation to the environment.
    https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Mage
  • JC31JC31 Member
    edited November 2023
    Could experiment with a night time de-buff on all characters. -1% movement speed at night and +1% damage taken. It is colder at night because of the lack of sun light and everything is a tad less flexible and more brittle at night...
  • edited November 2023
    @JC31 considering how short the day and night cycle is, it would be a weird frequency cycle

    but this is on the mage page

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  • SpifSpif Member, Alpha Two
    There's very little point in making a global night that is very dark in an MMO. At the higher end of play, people will adjust gamma (making the graphics look like garbage) or jump through the hoops necessary to have a "light" spell going continuously. At the lower end it is very dissatisfying to be limited to certain areas when your play time happens to coincide with night and you can't do certain things.

    That said, having a truly dark night for certain dungeons, certain night-only POI events or story quest chain areas would be interesting.

    I'm not sure where I stand on global combat modifiers for day/night. If there are weather/season modifiers for combat (IE, lightning spells deal +10% during a storm) then there's no reason not to have a darkness modifier. Geographic modifiers for climate are time-static (IE: frost wolves in the high mountains take -20% cold damage), so that's not quite the same.
  • I feel like my racial night vision comment deserves more likes. Does anyone wanna be a sport and scroll up and go give it some? I tried but "you can't react to your own posts" smh
  • BraydenSBraydenS Member, Alpha Two
    When it comes to darkness in games I am almost always against it. My current laptop makes darks super dark and it makes certain games unplayable. When it becomes night time in 99% of survival games, Sea of Thieves, or Black Desert Online, I just have to stop playing. I may as well be playing the game blind at that point and that's utterly unenjoyable.
  • That's the problem with design and gamers these days.

    Take Escape From Tarkov as an example.

    The game is ideally supposed to be played a specific way visually and auditorily but now people are just tweaking the settings to make the game super vibrant and colourful so they can see easier, boost the contrast and brightness on the monitors settings, adding a cross hair to their screen that's not supposed to be there, turn the volume to 11 so they can hear the foot steps better at the risk of deafening yourself.

    Gamers are sad and lack integrity for immersive gameplay.

    Dont even get me started at games catering to aim assist passively coded into the game, macros and scripts, addons, abusing disability features for every day use until it becomes the norm. What an era...
  • The game is ideally supposed to be played a specific way visually and auditorily but now people are just tweaking the settings
    ...
    In future we will be placed in chambers with sensors attached to our bodies and cheating will not be possible anymore.
  • Raven016 wrote: »
    The game is ideally supposed to be played a specific way visually and auditorily but now people are just tweaking the settings
    ...
    In future we will be placed in chambers with sensors attached to our bodies and cheating will not be possible anymore.

    lol one day.... :smile:
  • gamers be like
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