Night time In Dayz SA and your thoughts?

[DeceasedPath 21]

I think once NVGs are added I will be more willing to play on a night time server.

[Morrighan 15]

It would seem to me that if servers empty out after nightfall, which they do, then the answer is to figure out how to make nighttime more appealing, not shrug it off and say, "separates the men from the boys" and accept that your server population is going to plunge every time it goes dark, or worse, attempt to force people to play in the dark with server restrictions, because that'll just make people turn the game off altogether. 

 

Maybe have glitchy power grids rather than downed ones so that cities will have street lights flickering on and off. That would enhance the atmosphere and make it easier to loot at night.

[illuminist 4]

Hey people,

I think you should make certain loot only spawn at night, encouraging people to venture in the dark for these rarer items. I love the dark anyway but that would also make me play nightime more, for some rare clothes or pack e.t.c

[Apple Monster 6]

I've done some level design and environment art for some games, and I feel their lighting at night could be handled a lot better.  To me, it's much too black and not enough color from the moon on cloudless night skies.  When the clouds come in, it seems fine, but even then the game doesn't emulate night vision very well.  (not goggles, human eyes)

 

An overhaul on their lighting system should be done in the future, depending on the success of DayZ, to match other games that have dynamic ambient lighting etc...like UE4 and CryEngine.  And ya I know that this is a multiplayer online game, but they could still have kick ass lighting and perform well while online.

[ryzoh 44]

if its night time on dayz its because the sun is in the other side of chernarus 

 

 

 

oh wait.

 

it only has one side

Edited December 29, 2013 by ryzoh

[captainvette2112 84]

Night is a little too dark IMO.   I live in Boise Idaho and you can go 20 mins outside of the city into the mountains and be able to see pretty good in the woods with just the light from the moon and stars. 

 

DayZ is like pitch black darkness 

[Erik (DayZ) 61]

Night time should be darker and gamma/brightness should be done server sided. Or maybe a way to block players with gamma/brightness above a certain amount.

[DevilDog (DayZ) 455]

The darkness is pretty cool, I have not found a server that is not all night or all day though, then again I have been playing the same three servers for the last week and a half.

 

 

I certainly gets this dark and darker in real life though. I live in a small valley and between the trees and mountains I can't walk to the end of my driveway without a flash light at night. It is partly because of the bears in the area too though haha. These are not huge mountains either, only 100 or so feet up.

[Apple Monster 6]

I still think there should be some kind of electricity somewhere...even in this post -ap world, there has got to be some legitimate reason for lights being on, but I'm sure there's an idea out there.

[Leto (DayZ) 72]

Night time sucks because flashlights suck. The stand alone has the same issues as the mod; flashlights produce cones of light outside of which everything is black. The light is not reflected or diffused which is simply wrong. Especially indoor. It's like walking with a box on your head and looking through a hole.

 

[Bakercompany86 347]

Night is a little too dark IMO.   I live in Boise Idaho and you can go 20 mins outside of the city into the mountains and be able to see pretty good in the woods with just the light from the moon and stars. 

 

DayZ is like pitch black darkness 

 

My thinking exactly.  Here in Arkansas you can stand in an open field with no unnatural lighting around you at all, and it's pretty damn bright if the moon isn't obstructed by clouds.  If they change the lighting to reflect this, people wouldn't have to jack up their gamma.  Complete utter darkness would only be in buildings or forests.  Even then you'd get SOME light.

[Mutonizer 78]

Night time sucks because flashlights suck. The stand alone has the same issues as the mod; flashlights produce cones of light outside of which everything is black. The light is not reflected or diffused which is simply wrong. Especially indoor. It's like walking with a box on your head and looking through a hole.

 

Love the night themselves, really can't see anything sometimes, just as it should be.

That said, flashlight cone indeed needs to be wider and diffuse on the side, the more focused as you reach the middle of the aim. Not sure if it's possible in the engine though.

But anyone can just remove clouds and see clear as day, so...

[Hetstaine 10852]

I love the night. The feel of it totally changes the game. 

[Snoopie (DayZ) 30]

To those people asking for pitch-black-night-survival and saying that this is closer to reality and therefore providing them a deeper immersion:

 

Would you go out at night in an environement scattered with zombies and people who might want to kill you? Would this really be the time of the day to go out and scavenge for nutrition/medication/guns... Or wouldn't you rather wait until dawn so you're actually able to properly use your sense of vision.

Going out at night in a hostile environment without proper equipment IMO would be suicidal - I'm not talking about some romantic night walks - so it would probably be a wise decision to use nighttime for regeneration instead.

 

Ok, it's a video game and therefore you don't have to care that much about dying, but does it have to be this dark? I mean even when outside on the streets you can't really see a damn thing. Wouldn't your eyes adapt a little to the darkness? Complete darkness indoors is totally fine and it makes sense to use a flashlight for this, but when outside during a clear night with shining stars you should be able to see better than what the default settings of this game provide.

 

This is why I understand people who don't like playing this game during night time and/or change there gamma settings.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Snoopie

[floj 393]

I'd recommend shifting Chernarus a bit further towards the Arctic circle and basing the game in summertime, so it's *almost* 24/7 daylight, but with the light levels similar to dawn/dusk for longer periods.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_sun

[henker899 0]

It's too long.

 

I think it was a cool idea to use real world time, but nighttime turned out to be more of a server cleaner then anything, people in a great majority don't want to play in the dark.

 

The Day / Night cycle needs to be shorter, and a lot shorter. I'd make a day in dayz 4 hours, with about 1,5 hours of real darkness, 0,5 hours twighlight. and 2 hours daytime. As soon as gameplay mechanics that will tie players to a server have been introduced (anything from vehicles, tents, bases, to private hives) people will have to deal with the darkness. If this will happen with the current 8+ hours of darkness, people will just make their home base on servers where there's light during their normal play hours.

[Apple Monster 6]

A little tip for some players...if you want to see better at night, not only turning your gamma and brightness up, but also disabling ambient occlusion will help spot things on the ground a lot better.  At least for me anyway...I'll post a screen when I'm home from work.

[serenityrick 218]

A little tip for some players...if you want to see better at night, not only turning your gamma and brightness up, but also disabling ambient occlusion will help spot things on the ground a lot better.  At least for me anyway...I'll post a screen when I'm home from work.

 

Cranking gamma is considered cheating if you play at night.

 

well.. perhaps cheating isn't the right word..but it is frowned upon. If you can't see, you're supposed to use a flashlight or headlamp. I know people don't want to expose themselves but that should be the trade off and hopefully Rocket finds a way to code the game in such a way that cranking the gamma at night doesn't give you an advantage (not even sure if this is possible to be honest)

[Ken Bean 174]

Greetinsg folks, been awhile since I have posted here,, I do a lot more reading than posting...

Anyways, even In this early state having a ball and love the feeling in whichn the standalone takes, feels like the old dayz....

Here is a thing I have noticed though, and it is nothing new of course, But server numbers go from 40 to 1or 2 when its night time?!

The fact that you start with means to somewhat counter this, with a torch and battery, and with headsets as common as hell, I have found that night time play makes up a HUGE part of the dayz experience for me.

I never played on private servers which would not allow night time and find it seems to be a real downtime in the player numbers. I am far from complaining of course.

I Logged on to the server I have been playing on and it was pitch black and LOVED the fact there was only me and one other guy named wolfy :) . Anyways, I simply reached into my pack, grabbed my headtorch and a battery, locked it in Eddie and was good to go.

I picked up 7 full magazines and a cool red dot scope from the hangers at the North-weat airfield and never once had to look over my shoulder, due to the fact I thought I would be rather safe from the only other player on the server. I had to take out a few zombies which ran out of the edge of the torch light, which not only looked bloody cool, but made for a little bit of excitement while I gathered a huge amount of ammo and supplies, with no fear of being shot in the back.

Anyways, just wanted to get others thoughts on night time play, and why folks DO or DONT :) . I love it and now look forward to the night "scaring" away all the KOS kiddies :)

Cheers

I loved the night time in the mod, the darker the better. It creates a very nice tension if it is pitch black and if there are 2 or 3 other peeps on the server.

So you have to use light sources which not only looks beautiful but also puts you at risk. Sometimes I sneaked around a town like Vybor and made it shine by throwing lots of flares around. Then staying in in the shadows.

Once we had a group and tried to fuel a Mi almost in the middle of Vybor. It was pitch black and only a few had NVGs. So we used chemlights to mark a trail from the fuel tank to the heli. They run back and forth the trail without seeing anything to the left and right. Two of us which had NVGs and silenced M4s guided the man which were refueling by taking loads of Zeds down. Good times.^^

Im also pretty exited of how the SA will be. Bought it yesterday but can't play it atm, due to not having my gaming rig atm. So I have to wait to next year, almost two way too long days.

I also loved to fly at night. Then I sometimes flew over bigger towns like Cherno or Electro, very high of cause. Enjoyed to find a survivor because he/she throw around some flares. Not intending to be a threat, but to scare them a bit and to feel super pro.^^ NVGs are needed though. Flying a heli at night while only having a torch won't work too well, I suppose.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Ken Bean

[jubeidok 495]

Gotta love the stories people come up with.

 

It's a shame that most players have no sense of adventure though, and it will only get worse once there are a crap load of zombies in the environment. Some of my most memorable sessions from the mod were during pitch black nights, flares and glow sticks being used quite frequently. Tacking and observing players, staying at the edge of darkness. Guys running around madly with their flares, a congo line of zeds on their tail. It was intense. It's too bad, these people who refuse to play in the night really are robbing themselves of some great experiences. 

 

You really like the headlamp, eh. I'm guessing it's bugged right now, but I didn't like that it points at the ground when you use your sights. Flashlight weapon attachment FTW!

[DMentMan 707]

when its night time for me, all the buildings starts to flash

[Professional N00b 347]

Realistically the nights are way too dark for the given environment.  With no city lights and few clouds, the moon and even stars generally cast enough light to see even in lightly wooded areas.  Sure indoors and heavy woods will be pretty dark, but eyes adjust.  As it stands in DayZ though, everything is pitch black even with a full moon.

Gameplay-wise, it is fun to be forced to use light sources.  Having to balance seeing with being seen is an interesting dynamic to the game and I will admit that it can add a layer of tension that can be quite fun.  Problem is you can't really stop people from adjusting their displays to work around this system in order to gain advantage over the people stuck using flashlights.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing them brighten most nights but making cloudy conditions or new moon phases (I don't even know if the game has moon phases) be darker, that way maybe people will be less likely to just completely alter their graphics settings every time while still keeping situations with darkness relatively interesting.

[enforcer1975 1111]

Night is a little too dark IMO.   I live in Boise Idaho and you can go 20 mins outside of the city into the mountains and be able to see pretty good in the woods with just the light from the moon and stars. 

 

DayZ is like pitch black darkness 

 

Light pollution can reach very far but it would make it difficult to see the stars in a city compared to the outskirts or even the "wilderness", the DayZ conditions can't be more perfect to do just that but in return you have a world that is either pitch black or quite bright if you have a light source as the moon, starts don't give enough light. And i think the night is still very bright because you have grey scale colors instead of pure black like it is IRL.