Night Time is Unplayable

[Areos (DayZ) 106]

There's nothing inherently wrong with the night time and how dark it gets. There's everything wrong with the very limited number of tools that make night-based gameplay viable, and the ones that do exist are either clunky or very buggy in their current iteration.

 

Flashlights are decent, but leave you dangerously vulnerable to infected and especially other survivors. The headtorch is virtually useless when a weapon is aimed forward/when crouched/when prone because the player's head looks downward during these times, making the headtorch look down towards the ground instead of forward. The portable gas lamp is extremely illuminating, but this also makes you an extremely obvious target to other survivors and zombies aggro onto you from everywhere around you. Not to mention that light from these sources is unrealistic in how they disperse throughout a room--a flashlight turned on in a dark room is going to illuminate the entire room due to rays of light bouncing off every available surface, yet light seems to only illuminate the surface it's pointed at, and nothing else.

 

In reality, the only truly viable means of playing on a night server at this time is by using a weapon flashlight.

 

Once these issues are fixed, I guarantee night servers will become a lot more popular than they are now. At this time, however, the tools simply aren't functional enough to work. In due time.

[Judopunch 523]

There's nothing inherently wrong with the night time and how dark it gets. There's everything wrong with the very limited number of tools that make night-based gameplay viable, and the ones that do exist are either clunky or very buggy in their current iteration.

 

Flashlights are decent, but leave you dangerously vulnerable to infected and especially other survivors. The headtorch is virtually useless when a weapon is aimed forward/when crouched/when prone because the player's head looks downward during these times, making the headtorch look down towards the ground instead of forward. The portable gas lamp is extremely illuminating, but this also makes you an extremely obvious target to other survivors and zombies aggro onto you from everywhere around you. Not to mention that light from these sources is unrealistic in how they disperse throughout a room--a flashlight turned on in a dark room is going to illuminate the entire room due to rays of light bouncing off every available surface, yet light seems to only illuminate the surface it's pointed at, and nothing else.

 

In reality, the only truly viable means of playing on a night server at this time is by using a weapon flashlight.

 

Once these issues are fixed, I guarantee night servers will become a lot more popular than they are now. At this time, however, the tools simply aren't functional enough to work. In due time.

Ya it will be better. The major issues in front of it now are, flashlights shine through walls giving away your position, many people are just adjusting their video settings and have an advantage, and you can not melee with a flashlight in your hands. Im sure all of this will change as the game develops.

[Irenicus (DayZ) 289]

Ya it will be better. The major issues in front of it now are, flashlights shine through walls giving away your position, many people are just adjusting their video settings and have an advantage, and you can not melee with a flashlight in your hands. Im sure all of this will change as the game develops.

This will never be fixed. They'd have to redo the whole engine. Hell, BI haven't fixed it in Arma III, even lighthouses shine light through entire humps of terrain. I would love them to fix it but i really doubt they actually CAN fix it.

[Amitymelon 0]

One interesting thing I noticed today. There are more and longer nights in the game. I went on in the morning, late morning, early afternoon, and early evening and later night.  4 out of 5 were nights. I remember just a few days ago maybe 1 out of 5 would be dark. Interesting or am I going crazy!

[Scootch 19]

This will never be fixed. They'd have to redo the whole engine. Hell, BI haven't fixed it in Arma III, even lighthouses shine light through entire humps of terrain. I would love them to fix it but i really doubt they actually CAN fix it.

I was hoping they would have fixed it already.  I think houses during the day should be kinda creepy.  There would be dark spaces in them where you'd have to use your flashlight.  But like night time and your flashlight shining through walls I think the sun shines through during the day and lights up the interior.  Could have added a lot of atmosphere to searching for loot.  Picture that orange building with 3 exits & no windows on the ground floor.  You'd open the door and the area lit would be small and fade to blackness as you went further in...  and BAM! a fuckin' zombie or another player out of the darkness. You're vulnerable because you just pulled your flashlight to get a better look.

 

I got lost in my thoughts. excuse me. :|

[Judopunch 523]

This will never be fixed. They'd have to redo the whole engine. Hell, BI haven't fixed it in Arma III, even lighthouses shine light through entire humps of terrain. I would love them to fix it but i really doubt they actually CAN fix it.

They can. For DayZ they are ripping out some of the hard-coded graphics handling and rebuilding it.