Night and Day, Why?

[jbrodjeski@yahoo.com 16]

Why is the day and night cycle on real life time?  If it was on a 1 hour cycle it would be much better for a survival game. 

 

If I log into a day server I know I can ditch all my light sources right off the start.  Why do I need a flash light if I know its going to be daytime EVERYTIME I play? 

A 1 hour cycle could add so much to the game.  Nights get colder, you could get sick, more zombies could come out, you need a fire to keep warm, or a rain coat if it is raiining.  The potential is endless.  Yet we are stuck with either day or night always with no change.

 

 

[Geckofrog7 1168]

Maybe a little shorter, but certainly not an hour. That's even shorter than Skyrim or Fallout.

And until the option is added to edit this, you could always switch to  a server with the desired time of day.

Edited April 15, 2014 by Geckofrog7

[odin_lowe 3686]

Well, right now the cycle is broken. This is decided server side. When it's fixed, you'll see servers with Day only or Night only, but also some with 4 hours restart with 2 hours sunlight and 2 hours night time and such. On the experimental branch, they "tested" accelerated time cycles, but it didn't work out that well. Maybe we'll see something similar to what you ask in the future.

[Irish. 4886]

See, and here you got me excited that they brought night cycle back in.. :(

[Karmaterror 982]

im from the full 24hr cycle camp......I want the server im on to reflect what I see out of my window. I know that's just me and a lot would prefer a short one. But this is dayz!....the anti game! if its night it should be so for 12 hours....not less just because people want to experience it all in a couple of hours ;)

 

A one hour night gives no time to actually enjoy the darkness. A planned mission from my campsite to NWA can be a 2-3 hour affair, Id find it immersion breaking to have that one mish account for 3 in game dayz. Not to mention prep for the night. Finding a nice server in the mod that went from day to night during my play session wasn't to hard. But if night only lasts one hour (or 30mins for a 1 hour cycle) then the added features wouldn't really have much time to take effect.

 

Im not against them adding the faster time though.....each to his own. But I hope it dosent kill off all the true 24hr cycle servers. 64x just feels so gamey....id have thought it would be adjustable.....but not that much lol. That's gonna be like someone turning off the lights every 30mins or so :)

Edited April 15, 2014 by Karmaterror

[Electi 149]

On the experimental branch, they "tested" accelerated time cycles, but it didn't work out that well.

Who they? And why nobody telling here on forums about help in testing etc. Is that so hard to make a thread and some business(organisation etc) process of testing? it is so deep, that's i can't even find it.It should be wrote everywhere.. sometimes i think that's all those tons of ppl who bought that game are useless(me too) only a those "lucky" who squeeze into a test servers are doing some thing good

Edited April 15, 2014 by Electi

[Recklezz84 10]

Well an hour is way to short.. Then it goes so fast it will give me a damn headache.. but 24 hours is way to slow.. Most of the time I can only play late at night, so I will always HAVE to play in the middle of the frigging night in the uber darkness.. No thanks xD I will deffo drop the game uber fast then.

 

Playing in the night sometimes might be fun, but not ever single time.

[Katana67 2907]

As with many issues in DayZ, this has multiple strings tugging at it.

 

Would the problems of not needing to mind flashlights and night-time gear be lessened if we were on a more unified server architecture rather than a massive swath of "traditional FPS-type" servers? Maybe.

 

Part of the problem is negotiating folks with different timezones, and to that I recognize that people may not want dead accurate time in DayZ.

 

And no, it's not enough to say "Well some servers can have 24-hour cycles and others can have X-hour cycles." One of them isn't DayZ by that measure. It pains me to say it, but efforts need to be taken to bring everyone under the same envelope in DayZ. This is not to suggest that I want people to play the same way, this is a sandbox which thrives on emergent gameplay.

 

But there's a difference between playing a certain way and playing in the same set of circumstances. I support modding and flexibility, it's what made DayZ great. But now that it's a singular entity, it needs to be standardized (in terms of fundamental and basic premises, like day/night cycles).

 

Specifically with regard to this, I think a potent middle ground can be found. I don't want 24/7 day servers to be prevalent or even possible. But I also recognize that night is unplayable, even by my own consideration.

 

Perhaps a 12-hour cycle would be better. Or even a 3-hour cycle. I think a discussion needs to happen based upon a balance, not an "either/or" scenario. Likewise, the nights themselves need to be improved before the day/night cycle is finalized.

Edited April 15, 2014 by Katana67

[cuwe 66]

im from the full 24hr cycle camp......I want the server im on to reflect what I see out of my window. I know that's just me and a lot would prefer a short one. But this is dayz!....the anti game! if its night it should be so for 12 hours....not less just because people want to experience it all in a couple of hours ;)

 

A one hour night gives no time to actually enjoy the darkness. A planned mission from my campsite to NWA can be a 2-3 hour affair, Id find it immersion breaking to have that one mish account for 3 in game dayz. Not to mention prep for the night. Finding a nice server in the mod that went from day to night during my play session wasn't to hard. But if night only lasts one hour (or 30mins for a 1 hour cycle) then the added features wouldn't really have much time to take effect.

 

Im not against them adding the faster time though.....each to his own. But I hope it dosent kill off all the true 24hr cycle servers. 64x just feels so gamey....id have thought it would be adjustable.....but not that much lol. That's gonna be like someone turning off the lights every 30mins or so :)

 

Beans to you sir!!

 

Too many people just seem to be against long periods of night.  having variable adjustments for people who choose to play 24/7 day or 6 hour day 6 hours night etc is ok, but do not remove the option of a 24 hour day in there.  I love having a long 2-3 hour session in the night, people who do not go for a tour in the night are completely missing out on the best part of the game (well depending on if you are a pVp or if you are a survivalist I guess) as it truly adds a whole new dynamic to the game to be out in the night, rain falling with a shovel and a flashlight as your only means of survival!

[dallas 5195]

Because it's built on the foundation of the Real Virtuality engine, which has a day/night cycle, seconds, minutes and hours, a calendar, a lunar calendar, a rotating star map, a sun and a moon that rise and set according to the calendar and clock.

 

Because Real Virtuality provides a world, where not only time is a factor, but also distance. RV provides a vast landscape that takes time to navigate, but also can be navigated by the use of time. By combining time of day with the sun's location on the sky or combining the arms of your watch with the shadows on the ground, you can figure out what's north and south, just like by the use of Polaris, you can find north at night.

Edited April 15, 2014 by Dallas

[xX_fr0st-w0lf_Xx (DayZ) 343]

4 hours would be best 

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

Beans to you sir!!

 

Too many people just seem to be against long periods of night.  having variable adjustments for people who choose to play 24/7 day or 6 hour day 6 hours night etc is ok, but do not remove the option of a 24 hour day in there.  I love having a long 2-3 hour session in the night, people who do not go for a tour in the night are completely missing out on the best part of the game (well depending on if you are a pVp or if you are a survivalist I guess) as it truly adds a whole new dynamic to the game to be out in the night, rain falling with a shovel and a flashlight as your only means of survival!

Think about this tho, how many triple A shooters are out there that even have a night time?  And ones that do(?), don't even have real night so all the folks coming from those games to try and get a taste of a real mans game(sarcasm) can't handle it.  How many 24/7 day servers was there in comparison to night time servers or servers that actually had a rotation?  I love night time but for some reason the moment it gets a little dark the kids get scared and come ranting and raving, that's the part I don't get.  It's night time, it's gonna get dark  :rolleyes:

Edited April 16, 2014 by Caboose187

[dallas 5195]

We really need road flares and chem-lights back in the loot tables.

[ld-airgrafix 403]

im from the full 24hr cycle camp......I want the server im on to reflect what I see out of my window. I know that's just me and a lot would prefer a short one. But this is dayz!....the anti game! if its night it should be so for 12 hours....not less just because people want to experience it all in a couple of hours ;)

A one hour night gives no time to actually enjoy the darkness. A planned mission from my campsite to NWA can be a 2-3 hour affair, Id find it immersion breaking to have that one mish account for 3 in game dayz. Not to mention prep for the night. Finding a nice server in the mod that went from day to night during my play session wasn't to hard. But if night only lasts one hour (or 30mins for a 1 hour cycle) then the added features wouldn't really have much time to take effect.

Im not against them adding the faster time though.....each to his own. But I hope it dosent kill off all the true 24hr cycle servers. 64x just feels so gamey....id have thought it would be adjustable.....but not that much lol. That's gonna be like someone turning off the lights every 30mins or so :)

Agree, i too want 24 hour server, but they need to adjust the hunger/thirst accordingly as well. I play on an average 1-2 hours and in that time i have to drink and eat at least couple of times.

[P0rkchop 31]

They talked about speeding time up. I think the server admin will be able to control it if I understood right

[odin_lowe 3686]

Who they? And why nobody telling here on forums about help in testing etc. Is that so hard to make a thread and some business(organisation etc) process of testing? it is so deep, that's i can't even find it.It should be wrote everywhere.. sometimes i think that's all those tons of ppl who bought that game are useless(me too) only a those "lucky" who squeeze into a test servers are doing some thing good

"They" is we. And the devs got the data. But that's just technically because it wasn't working. Everyone has access to the experimental branch. The only servers that were up a while ago were the DE servers with "accelerated timecycles" but like I said, when I played I didn't see any accelerated time. In fact, for me the time was mostly stuck around 11HAM. Maybe that's why it was "announced" officially. I know I follow the experimental branch patch thread which is open and ongoing which means the same thread gets updated instead of creating a new thread with the patch notes, and I never saw any announcements for "accelerated timecycles".

 

But anyway it will eventually be an option server side for the admin to play with. Right now, the ones creating the games are playing/messing with this feature.

 

For me, I just hope we get night time servers back anytime soon.

 

[cuwe 66]

I love night time but for some reason the moment it gets a little dark the kids get scared and come ranting and raving

 

Lets hope it gets all the COD kiddies leaving the community.  I have nothing against COD or BF (as I own and play both) but this is a completely different realm of gaming, and one that typical FPS/DM/Spray and Pray gamers seem to not grasp (or care about)  The potential this game has is exponential, if we can get it to a place where you don't have to fear a motorcycle wearing guy in his undies and you can open a dialogue without fear of being gang raped for saying "Hello" there is so much potential for good interactive gaming.

[yorkmorgan 191]

on the new experimental servers there is a VERY fast day night cycle among other things.

[DMack 60]

If day and night are accelerated then it would seem to me that anything else involving elapsed time would would have to be tweaked to reflect this change. Well if time is passing by 10x or 20x faster then I could see in issue with starving or bleeding to death with little to no warning. Just a thought.

[LimeMobber 47]

Day night cycle, especially one that last longer than 15 minutes for the night cycle is stupid.

 

Only a starving moron would go out at night in a world where hungry zombies have bad vision but excellent sense of smell and hearing.

[Aubinator 17]

My $0.05 (Canada got rid of their penny, so I can't give my 2 cents)

 

I am not a fan of increasing the passing of time at all. However, there is a good point being made about people logging in at the same time of day, everyday. If you were unfortunate enough to be in a time zone that only permits night hours, this would kill your fun level.

 

Might I suggest a 20-23 hour cycle, this way each day you log in, if it's the same time, you'd be playing in an in game time later than the previous day. You'll eventually see both cycles, but still have a feeling of full days (as most people normally wouldn't play 24hrs straight).

 

The issue I can see is that during the night cycle hours, you might get a significant drop in players logging in. This could be advantageous, or it could be a detriment to the game. This we'd have to test and observe to see if people start playing at night.

 

I am actually disappointed that most (if not all?) the servers don't have a night cycle. Night brings out an additional level of fear and unknown. In this sort of game, where you are incredibly nervous about losing your character, night would bring about another layer of fear that I think is absolutely necessary :)

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

I am actually disappointed that most (if not all?) the servers don't have a night cycle. Night brings out an additional level of fear and unknown. In this sort of game, where you are incredibly nervous about losing your character, night would bring about another layer of fear that I think is absolutely necessary :)

Well it's a little difficult to have a night cycle at the moment due to no gear respawns when most servers are on a four hour reset cycle.  Plus they somehow broke night time and still haven't acknowledged it.

[Jex 1104]

I'm hoping for 7 hour day cycles, 4.5 hours day, 15 minutes twilight, 2 hours of darkness - this way you play the same server every day at the same time you get to experience all the times of day

[Windex 13]

Why is the day and night cycle on real life time?  If it was on a 1 hour cycle it would be much better for a survival game. 

 

 

You do realize that it generally takes much longer than 1 hour for dawn and dusk to resolve, right?    How the hell are you supposed to have a 1 hour cycle?

 

Do you live in a cave?   Do you even go outside?

 

This would also remove a lot of elements in regards to navigating by the sun/stars.   Deal with it.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Anything between 18-23,5h is OK. Anything lower takes away the immersion. Just bit less 24h is good because it will be different everyday. Something like 6h sounds very ridiculous. We need to experience long nights and days.