Day/Night Cycle

[DAS1337 20]

I've been playing DayZ for a while, off and on.  Not the standalone mind you, the mod.  The day/night cycle has always been a problem that the developers seem unwilling to mess with.  I can't understand the mindset behind not attempting to rectify this issue.  Here's what I am talking about.

 

My personal experience in DayZ goes like this.

 

- Finds server, it ends up being night time

- Leaves server

- Finds server, it ends up being night time

- Leaves server

- Finds server, it ends up being night time

- Leaves server

- Finds server, it ends up being day time

- Stays on server to play

 

Now I thought, maybe this is just me.  Well no, most people that I talk to dislike night time servers.  And then I thought that maybe it was just me and the people that I talk to.  Then I start watching Youtube videos of people finding night time servers, then leaving them immediately because, guess what, it's night time.  This is a serious problem for the developers and they just can't recognize it.  

 

Now I'm not like one of those, who think black and white.  I am someone who will give an alternative.  I am not interested in removing night time.  However, I believe it should have the chance to do what it is meant to do.  Which is instill fear in the player.  To make them nervous about what is around them.  What it shouldn't do is make players not want to play.  I don't know what the technical limitations are, but I know that what is currently in the game is unacceptable to the players, and should be equally unacceptable to the developers as well.  As it is a problem that turns people away from the game.  Just look at the server capacity as proof.  How many empty servers, or nearly empty servers do you see?  Go in them and count how many are night, compared to day.  The vast majority of your derelict servers are night time.  That's a fact jack.

 

Then you have people like me who can't actually play servers where I get the highest ping from.  Why is that?  My playtime falls  between 1am and 5am eastern time.  I work second shift, and don't often get a chance to get up early enough to get any significant amount of gaming in.  Thus, it is ALWAYS night time, unless a server has reversed their cycles or I pick a server where I'll get much higher latency from.

 

The day night cycle needs to change.  It would be as easy as making the day cycle last four hours and making the night cycle last 30 minutes.  You wouldn't eliminate either cycle, and people would be more willing to wait out night time on servers because it wouldn't be an overwhelming drain on them physically or mentally.  Currently, most people aren't even experiencing it because they are refusing to even try.  That is a failure on the developers part, plain and simple.  Not accepting that fact is an absolute travesty, especially because it's been this way as long as I can remember.  Again, I'm not sure of the technical limitations, but you could make it so that night time isn't nearly as dark, however, making the indoors and forests darker.  This would make it easier to navigate the open terrain, which is what is killing server capacity.  I can't stress this enough, go look at server capacity in night servers.  Why would a developer want empty servers?  Why?  Dean, can you honestly answer that question without coming up with a BS response?  I know I couldn't.  Not even if I tried.  I couldn't possibly accept my own answer.

 

Please attempt a solution guys.  I understand there is a long list of fixes in front of you, but please recognize that it is an issue.  Change ultimately ends with you.

Edited December 19, 2013 by DAS1337

[PracticalTactical 164]

Nighttime is too dark. I always end up getting killed by a door or breaking my legs on steps in the night, just like real life. LOL

[McDoogle9505 2]

Personally, i think if it looked like it does in this thread here http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/155162-color-to-the-night/ we would be good. Your eyes adapt in real life to the dark, you can see better, so providing there's stars and the occasional street lamp to give light, you should be able to see, and of course, in colour.

[Twosheds 22]

I think there are probably just as many people that enjoy the 'night-time' experience and shy away from day-times servers, so i kind disagree with the OP there.  I do think that the day/night cycle needs addressing, as people who can only play at night get little choice on servers that have a decent ping.  I'd like to see the night/day cycle either spend up, or probaly better have a split between day/night servers, so 50% of the UK servers are on the same time as real life and the other 50% are -12 hours? 

 

Just to add, i'm loving the game, and only get more excited as i play regardless of the bugs etc, feels like we're once agin on the ground floor of something big!

[munkie 40]

It all depends on needs and ability.

 

If my needs are to loot up and i need to find something to eat or drink and i have the ability to see at night (nv) then i always join a night server.

 

Yes its perfect to be on a low pop server, but every so often i will bump into another player and there has never been KOS in these situations, its almost as if these players are doing the self same thing, trying to survive.

 

Night is great to loot, Day is great to fight.

 

If you have the need to live, and the ability to make use of night, then you have secured another day.

 

Our server (UK410) in the UK is -5 hours, i selfishly set it up so that it would be daylight when i got home from work, but on a Sat i get to loot while the children are eating their breakfast!

 

Swings and Roundabouts.

 

dM

Edited December 20, 2013 by Drunkie

[Subject42 20]

The day night cycle needs to change.  It would be as easy as making the day cycle last four hours and making the night cycle last 30 minutes. 

 

Oh you can't be serious  that would DESTROY the entire game. First thing is that the overall day/night-Cycle is shorter than 16 Hours (less than 2/3 of normal value) this can by no means be called realistic anymore. Second thing is.. 4 hours day and only 30 Minutes Night? Really? How do you calculate that out?

 

But i'm on your side about addressing server hoppers and i think the best way to do that is to unify the time on every public server. (no different timezones)

 

And i'm on your side when you say that it's unfair when some people always can play at night and some always can play at day, i think the best way to solve this problem is just to reduce the overall day/night-cycle only by 2-5 hours, so the effective border between day and night is related to real time alternating every real day, so the day/night-cycle is still realistic enough and every player world-wide has a fair chance to be able to play on day and on night.

 

I think that's the best trade-off, what do you think about that?

Edited December 20, 2013 by Subject42

[AP_Norris 1018]

Meh, I think people going out of their way to find a daytime server are soft.

This is dayZ, if you wanted an easy game this isn't meant to be it.

[AP_Norris 1018]

The day/ night cycle needs to be realistically scaled, but a good few hours shorter than a full day.

This causes the time to move, so prime time will not always be dark, but rather different every couple of days or so.

[munkie 40]

On the flip side.....

 

For our Epoch Server it was suggested to restart it every 4hrs....upon restart it was setup to startup @ 8am!

We never made it to 1pm! lol.

 

But yes, with night brings a whole different DayZ experience, something i think a lot of players are missing out on, maybe even avoiding for the wrong reasons.

 

dM

[DAS1337 20]

Oh you can't be serious  that would DESTROY the entire game. First thing is that the overall day/night-Cycle is shorter than 16 Hours (less than 2/3 of normal value) this can by no means be called realistic anymore. Second thing is.. 4 hours day and only 30 Minutes Night? Really? How do you calculate that out?

 

But i'm on your side about addressing server hoppers and i think the best way to do that is to unify the time on every public server. (no different timezones)

 

And i'm on your side when you say that it's unfair when some people always can play at night and some always can play at day, i think the best way to solve this problem is just to reduce the overall day/night-cycle only by 2-5 hours, so the effective border between day and night is related to real time alternating every real day, so the day/night-cycle is still realistic enough and every player world-wide has a fair chance to be able to play on day and on night.

 

I think that's the best trade-off, what do you think about that?

 

My example was just that.  I ddin't put any thought into how that would calculate out into a 24 hour period.  It could have been any set of numbers.  Feel free to do the calculations for me.  

 

It's easy to say that it would destroy the game, but much harder to actually give any amount of reason into your thought process.  Currently, the only people playing night time in most cases are people who are geared up, or have access to night vision goggles.  Most people do not have this advantage.  

 

I just wanted to point out your reference to realism, considering this is a PvP zombie survival video game.  You know, not real life.  Go do the research.  Go see how many near empty servers there are and how many of them are night time.  People in general, do not want to play night time servers unless they are already geared.  In a game that strips you of everything at death, that's the situation that will remain.  Unless something is changed, night time will not be played very often by most of the player base.  

 

Reducing the overall length of each cycle would be a start.  I'm still not sure people wouldn't purposely leave servers due to night time even if it were a 3 hour cycle.  Which is why I suggested a significantly reduced night time, compared to day.  Really, you're saying that geared up folks are hiding in night servers to stock up.  Why should they get that opportunity?  Just make it day time 80% of the time and then I believe that most people won't run at the sight of a night time server.  

Edited December 20, 2013 by DAS1337

[DAS1337 20]

Personally, i think if it looked like it does in this thread here http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/155162-color-to-the-night/ we would be good. Your eyes adapt in real life to the dark, you can see better, so providing there's stars and the occasional street lamp to give light, you should be able to see, and of course, in colour.

I like this a lot.  

 

It would make it much easier to navigate.  However, will we ever see any form of electricity in DayZ?  I've suggested being able to repair generators and bring entire towns to life.  Static lighting would be a wonderful help to players who don't want to be sitting ducks with their flashlights.  It would help make night more playable.

 

There have been thousands of great suggestions on these topics here on the forums.  I just don't see them happening.

[Subject42 20]

Well it doesn't matter if people actually "want" to play at night time it's just there and it's simply fact that night-time is one major part of the game, you can't simply go and say lets reduce nighttime to 20% that's just bullshit and to prevent people continously hopping to "day server" (wich is the actual problem) easiest approach would be to unify timezones of all servers or install some other system to prevent "server hopping".

Edited December 21, 2013 by Subject42

[guido-from-ny 3]

I think they should make it so you can only turn brightness and gamma up to certain point When too high its like night vision you should force players to deal with the realism it adds to the excitement...and makes use the flashlights.

[methr1k2dop3 323]

i vote for a 2 hour day and 1 hour night.

Ithink its fits with the need to eat and drink every 30 something minutes.

One sitting you get the best of both worlds.