First off, i know this topic has been brought up before but it seems did not get much attention or no definitive answer on what are the devs plans regarding this aspect of the game. So bare with me as this is a constructive topic in hopes to find a solution that would please the majority of our player base. With the next patch nearing we already know that it will now be possible to light fires so i find this a good opportunity to debate this subject. After a quick look thru the server browser we can see that there are only a handful of servers that are NOT 24/7 daylight. Also the few servers with day/night cycles currently available are mostly empty. Now, we also know that a good amount of players actually LIKES to play at night, so why is that its not popular at this moment? The answer is: the gamma and brightness slider. A lot of players actually would like to play at night BUT at this moment its rather pointless. All one has to do its up the gamma and brightness sliders to get an unfair advantage over players that do not (players who like to experience the game as it is suppose to be). So, for those that do not know what i am talking about ill break it down real quick. Heres how the game looks with the gamma and brightness sliders set as default: Heres how it looks with the gamma and brightness maxed out: There also seems that some players get a better view at night without clouds. As for me i did not notice any differences. Clouds off: Clouds on: And finally i have heard that some players can actually turn their MONITORS and DESKTOP gamma up thus giving them the same advantage. As for me again it did not work, setting my graphics card gamma up did not interfere with Dayz whatsoever and turning up my monitor gamma made my screen really bright but with the game still pitch black night in the background. (if any of you are able to actually get any advantage feel free to post a screenshot). So, as you can see with sliders on default you cannot see much of anything without a light source. That is realistic and i'm sure working as intended. Now on the second screen with the sliders maxed out you do not get a perfect clear view BUT it is a lot better, to the point where you can easily identify buildings and the terrain surrounding you. Easy to picture a situation where 2 players meet, one using default sliders and one with maxed out, whoever is using the gamma advantage could easily take out the other player who would never even have any idea of what just happened. And thats the point. I know players that would love to play at night but do not since they know that having the sliders set on max is the only way to not be at a disadvantage and when doing so it ruins the experience. So might as well log into a day time server. So now we can talk possible solutions, the most obvious to me would be reworking the gamma and brightness sliders. Either locking it by default or decreasing its range. Think of them as a scale from 1 to 100. Possibly only allowing a range from 30 to 70%. Here's how it looks with the sliders only up to around 70, 75%: At 70,75% range a little improvement its noticeable, but at the same time does not turn the game into the black and white night that ruins its experience. Also since a lot of players seem to hate the pitch black night (realistic sliders set as default) it could maybe easy in some and have them try it out. Now on locking the sliders as default, (no adjustments allowed) im not sure if it would have any impact on players with vision issues, and by that i mean real life medical conditions. So any feedback on this is appreciated since im sure we would not want to ruin Dayz for people that actually need them in order to enjoy the game. Now on the second part to wrap it up: Night time cycle. Currently we have long day cycles and i believe same amount of time for night cycles. (not sure on the actual numbers of hours/minutes, feel free to post them if you know). If i'm not mistaken the whole concept was to tie them up to actual real life day/night cycles but atm it seems that this is not working. At least i have not found a server that works this way but i do remember it being like that in the mod back in 2012. This concept also seemed to upset a lot of players due to the fact if someone needs to work during the day and when they get to playtime at night they would always be stuck at night time gameplay. Sure you could try and find a server in a different time zone to bypass that issue but then again it brings another problem with having a bad/worse ping. Well, maybe we could have a shorter day/night cycle? For example like in Rust. Maybe a 1 hour day and 30 minute night? 3 hours day, 1/30 hours night? The numbers would be up for discussion of course. So feel free to add your CONSTRUCTIVE IDEAS and OPINIONS. Also we all know "OMG ITS ALPHA" so no need to post it again. And for those who absolutely hate night time gameplay in Dayz don't worry. There will still be plenty of 24/7 daylight servers so no need to hate. Cheers,
