Easy nighttime fix I discovered

[jubag 0]

the moon is rising, but its not rising until about 3am

[Drblodski 53]

I disagree. Leave it like it is it's meant to be like that.

[bgivenb 5]

Now, when you first look up at the ARMA 2 night sky, you probably thought it was just some simple skybox. This, however is just not the case: the ARMA 2 engine takes into account date and time, and calculates the lunar cycle, sunrise, sunset, and all manner of realistic phenomenon. Have you noticed the nights getting progressively darker over the last week or so? That is because, right now, the moon doesn't rise all night during this time of the month. However, if you remember back to around the first of the month, the nights were nice and bright, with a full zombie moon. It made playing DayZ at night not only possible, but since there were so many players at night, it made the night game into something more than just a frantic loot grab in the pitch black.

I have a few of screens to show my point:

The first two are taken from June 5th at midnight. You can see that even though the moonlight makes navigation possible, players with nvgs can still find plenty of shadows to hide in.

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The second two are from tonight at midnight.

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as you can see, players with nvgs have a HUGE advantage over regular players, and it makes the game unplayable for most people.

TL;DR have a static date that is a good date where the moon is up all night. This would fix the whole 'night is too ****ing dark" bull****

[srvrsyde 9]

whoa! that's amazing! i posted a suggestion about adding a moon, i had no idea that one existed. they should totally make a static date or at least make the moon rise every night

[thales2010@live.com.au 6]

Leave it the way it is. NVGs are OP in real life too (also incredibly hard to find for those of us who play without server jumping like a scumbag). I personally enjoy how it is now as it gives a purpose to flares, chemlights (green is best) and flashlights. the moon does rise and does improve visibility. The problem people are having is that they dont think they should have to give away where they are to other players just so they can see, alas this is the case IRL and therefore is the case in DayZ.

[leo235 2]

Thats awesome. The night needs to stay.

The night in my flashlight is really bright.

At most give people some flares and chemlights on start. Then we could SLIGHTLY reduce their prevalence in lootpiles as well.

Or just CHANGE NOTHING about the night

[xBlackCat 1]

TL;DR have a static date that is a good date where the moon is up all night. This would fix the whole 'night is too ****ing dark" bull****

If everything you said is true, does that mean the game will also allow the moon to rise before the sun sets, as it sometimes does in real life?

[thales2010@live.com.au 6]

TL;DR have a static date that is a good date where the moon is up all night. This would fix the whole 'night is too ****ing dark" bull****

If everything you said is true' date=' does that mean the game will also allow the moon to rise before the sun sets, as it sometimes does in real life?

[/quote']

I'm not the guy your after but i'm just going to confirm that arma does go off lunar cycles so it should be that the moon will rise while the sun is still out if the lunar chart permits it.

[DeanBandit2450 0]

anyone saying night doesn't need to be fixed needs to stop trying to sound hardcore.. i grew up in the country away from light pollution etc. even on a cloudy, moonless night with all the lights off in the house, your eyes still adjust to an acceptable level of visibility. not funkin pitch black

[vots 0]

anyone saying they can see better in night IRL needs to stop trying to sound hardcore. I grew up in a big city and even with all the night pollution, you can at most make out a rough outline of your environment when you're somewhere without light.

How about that?

TBH, light pollution does make it harder to see, though. Being in an unlit area with light pollution creates a contrast that makes it hard for eyes to adjust.

Also, according to the recent statistics, only about 2.5% of all players have NVG. Makes it hard to take it seriously when someone says "players with NVG ruining it for everyone". Sounds more like you're a desperate carebear.

[seannybgoode 10]

anyone saying night doesn't need to be fixed needs to stop trying to sound hardcore.. i grew up in the country away from light pollution etc. even on a cloudy' date=' moonless night with all the lights off in the house, your eyes still adjust to an acceptable level of visibility. not funkin pitch black

[/quote']

+1

Even in northern BC back country, there's more light than a complete screen of #000000 black.. It's stupid. In real life you can use your senses as well as the limited visibility that your human eyes give you, in arma all you have is sound and black fuckin screen. People who say it's "realistic" seriously don't have any idea what they're talking about.

In real life there's light from auroras, light from the stars and planets. And, WHERES THE FUCKING MOON? DID THE ZOMBIES BLOW IT UP?

[Kain Phalanx 9]

You really don't need to invoke realism for your position. Fixing nighttiime is utterly superior gameplay wise as well, as long as it isn't so bright that you don't need lights in buildings or at a distance. Which should be easy now that gamma is fixed.

[smithy0815 6]

Arma has a realistic star and moon cycle per anno.

Its not unrealistic, there are bright nights possible where you can see a bit instead of nothing, without change the code or anything, just by changing time and date to a clear night with full or almost full moon (if full moon is to bright).

If you start creating a mission in the editor you have always the same start date, and thats a pitch black night without much moonlight.

Maybe rocket should make a few presets for server startups maybe with:

- dark night

- bright night

- dusk

- dawn

- day

Or a set date function for serveradmins.

my 2 cents

[bgivenb 5]

For all the people who are saying 'its like irl, you can see at night anyway' well, then I would invite you to take a trip out into the country, far, far away from city lights. Without light pollution, you can see for miles even on dark night. If there was a zombie apocalypse the power grid would be down, thus NO LIGHT POLLUTION. As it is now, the nights are way too dark. To any doubters, you should try to go out into a very remote place, with no cities or towns for miles, and just see what I am talking about.

[smithy0815 6]

It depends on the current moon and weather, like irl. Take your text and replace the dark night with a clear full moon night.

Its both realistic, depends on the date and time.

Open the editor and look through diffrent nights at same time but with a other date, you see the diffrence (change to summer and winter full moon too, or half moon or whatever)

Arma simulates the correct star and moon cycles over a year, try play around with the editor...

[heretic (DayZ) 76]

If we really want to talk realism, your night vision should improve over the course of 15-30 minutes anyway. Of course if someone then shines a torch in your eyes or you look towards a light source you have to wait another 15-30 minutes before you fully regain your night vision.

I don't know if a similar mechanic could be incorporated into dayz? i.e. you have to spend some time in the dark before your night vision improves...

[pazuzu 9]

If we really want to talk realism' date=' your night vision should improve over the course of 15-30 minutes anyway. Of course if someone then shines a torch in your eyes or you look towards a light source you have to wait another 15-30 minutes before you fully regain your night vision.

I don't know if a similar mechanic could be incorporated into dayz? i.e. you have to spend some time in the dark before your night vision improves...

[/quote']

I think it's already built in.

If you play arma 2 as an infantry soldier on a night mission with NV goggles and you turn them off, it will take some time to be able to see anything at all until your eyes adjust.

[bgivenb 5]

@Forum mods: any reason why my post was merged with one that is almost completely unrelated? I did a search and I am the first to post a suggestion like this. Can I be made the OP again?