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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daveywavey

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.

JC31

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.

tautau

Verra has several moons which light the night sky as well as constellations which will impact game play: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Constellations

Enigmatic Sage

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.

Dryadez

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

Sweatycup

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.

JC31

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.

JC31

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.

Dryadez

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.

JC31

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*

Dryadez

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.

Enigmatic Sage

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.

JC31

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.

Enigmatic Sage

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.

JC31

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.

Enigmatic Sage

the pre-alpha footage from when they scrapped Apocalypse and decided to turn it into the mmorpg AoC?

Noaani

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHTWhIF5cqI

Enigmatic Sage

@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.

JC31

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.

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