mrpotty

Just for the record, it was always possible in Arma to play as an animal. Just go to the editor to try for yourself. :D Also, Hunter vs. Rabbit MP-Match:

Yep, I once tried to loot my old body but it disappeared right in front of me but flies stayed.

Oh my... 1m x 1m=1m² 15km x 15km = 225km²

I can't play Arma without the ACE mod anymore! :D Highly recommended, even if it may take a while to understand all the new features. The popular "Domination!" mission is a good way to do so and is even fun to play alone if no one else is currently available. I further use the JSRS sound mod and Blastcore_Visuals for some eye candy. Just check some of the videos of Dslyecxi (the "pFNG Strike at Aliabad" is quite epic) http://www.youtube.com/user/Dslyecxi or CHKilroy, whom many of you should know for the "Days ahead" series, http://www.youtube.com/user/CHKilroy to see the possibilities of this game. Oh and the easy to use editor was always since good ol' Flashpoint a great time sink for me!

The lighting in Arma 2 is dependend on the date and time of the particular mission. I just checked a night server and it was almost pitch black only the bright sand on the shoreline and the sea itself was illuminated and just as I thought there was no moon to be seen, hence the extreme darkness. So I wanted to know if there maybe just happened to be a full/half moon when you were playing prior to the patch, because these dark nights are definitely common in Arma 2. The mission date is crucial here. I just placed myself in the editor, set the mission time to 19:00hrs and checked how dark it was ingame. It was very dark and this had two reasons: First, there was no moon visible. Second, I left the mission date on Oktober 11th, 2008 which is the standard mission date. Then I just changed the month to December and left the time at 19:00hrs and voilà it was pitchblack. So I changed the month to July and now there was still daylight, with the sun slowly getting ready to set.^^ That means that if the servers have a real day/night cycle and a date progression it could be that we are currently in a new moon lunar phase where just no moon is visible. So the real question is if a server restart or an update resets the mission date or not. If not you could just check the different lunar phases of 2008 to check if you could play on a nighttime server without the need of NVGs. :D

Is this issue really a problem of a patch? I remember pitchblack nights in Arma II too, it all depends on the mission date. To demonstrate this you just have to go to the editor and change the mission date and time. Date: Oktober 12th, 2008; Time: 0:20 AM And in the game: That's how it looks with a full moon. Now let's start changing the date! Date: Oktober 16th, 2008; Time: 0:20 AM And in the game: It's a half moon now. Date: Oktober 18th, 2008; Time: 0:20 AM And in the game: Now there is no moon. So just go to the editor and play with the dates/times and see how it changes the visibility. My guess is that the servers are now on a mission date/time where no moon is visible. The question now is if this was intended or if there just is a progression in the date, so we experience different moon phases.