Let’s talk about the night-time, shall we?

[DannyDog 532]

11 hours ago, Mantasisg said:

Another worst thing is that people will always migrate to sunny dry and warm servers, unless proper game design actions will be applied.

That's true, but if its a private hive then they cant. But yea...

2 hours ago, Kirov (DayZ) said:

I hear your question, guys – no, you can’t. You can’t pour gasoline on the fireplace.

This is a missed opportunity xD

[Mantasisg 172]

Great study right there :) But yeah, I think that there is quite some randomness about burn times. DayZ is such a science to play.

Very interesting stuff about furnaces, it is really amazing if they can burn so long. TBH I didn't know they were in game, never even seen one. Looks quite awesome in quick google search.

Last time I was crafting fire was in household hearth, I ignited fire and added one firewood, got next to fire for about 30s didn't got warmer at all, then rushed for few more pieces of wood, which took me about another 30s, when came back to house fire was already out, and DayZ bug got me there, and I couldn't do anything. 

Just, by the way, logged again few hours later, it was night, ran out of house sprinting to get warmer, and been shot imediately lol 

Thats night in DayZ.

 

[GaryWalnuts 1680]

15 hours ago, Kirov (DayZ) said:

You can’t pour gasoline on the fireplace.

Pyromania and Dayz, what could possibly go wrong?  :D

[Guy Smiley 534]

Let's talk about night baby.  Let's talk about you and me.  Let's talk about all the good things and the bad things that could happen to me......

[gorvi 189]

On 1/26/2018 at 9:23 AM, GaryWalnuts said:

Pyromania and Dayz, what could possibly go wrong?  :D

Which is why this needs to be a feature.

[Solopopo 330]

On 1/25/2018 at 1:31 AM, DannyDog said:

Yea that's true especially if people will just gamma abuse to avoid using light sources at night. This is why i'm leaning so much on a simple sanity meter that would require players to stay in the light during night time to avoid going insane.

I think a sanity meter might be a little out of place in DayZ. It might make for a cool mod though. 

I've always liked night in survival games. It's a bummer that so many people just crank gamma up. I hope they address it somehow. They did away with foliage disappearing on low settings, so I still have hope they'll fix this. 

[DannyDog 532]

5 hours ago, Solopopo said:

I think a sanity meter might be a little out of place in DayZ. It might make for a cool mod though. 

I've always liked night in survival games. It's a bummer that so many people just crank gamma up. I hope they address it somehow. They did away with foliage disappearing on low settings, so I still have hope they'll fix this. 

Would you like to go into further detail as to why? I'm genuinely curious and want some good discussion about it.

[Sqeezorz 839]

1 hour ago, DannyDog said:

Would you like to go into further detail as to why? I'm genuinely curious and want some good discussion about it.

let us hear. you certainly have some good reason to start.

[DannyDog 532]

11 hours ago, Sqeezorz said:

let us hear. you certainly have some good reason to start.

Well for one the horror aspect of the game has completely vanished for me. I use to actually avoid night servers because I was absolutely afraid of playing in them in the mod and early SA, unless I was playing with friends. Now with the brightened up night time (full moon) and the knowledge of almost everything that can happen in the game it's a cake walk. Night time is usually associated with danger in a lot of survival games as well as irl and dayz doesn't bring any gameplay factors in that to make it so. In actuality you're SAFER at night as players will be harder to spot you and gamma abuse. Games like Don't Starve bring in their own mechanics to make night time terrifying. Pitch blackness, sanity drain, loud paranormal sounds and eventual death by Charlie. That example is exaggerated for DayZ, but something similar can still fit in the game. Even if it's just temperature drops at night, low visibility, aggro zombies, predators out hunting or a simple sanity meter. I don't know, I've just not had much reassurance of the direction of the game and the plans by devs on how these things will be done.

[Sqeezorz 839]

I also do not know how and if the devs have something in planning to make the night more attractive. In my opinion, the day and the night should bring advantages & disadvantages. And this should not be (even at night, if they can not solve it) synonymous with high-gamma work around. Your example with the temperature, you will freeze very fast without torch, or you really need very warm equipment, which brings you to the BBQ in the sun over day. But despite all this, other important benefits should come in the night like: Very strong aggressive infects in military facilities are sluggish and less clairvoyant or no possibility of hordes, while during the day you have almost no chance to leave a Milbase alive (alone). Or hunting for wildlife can be easier at night / day, depending on the species and nature. Or even an influence on the loot system ... Items that are only found by day or night, this is indeed a very artificial idea, the CLE is also an artificial idea.

Creating a balanced balance of day / night is certainly a technical challenge and will not just make friends with it.

Edited February 12, 2018 by Sqeezorz
typo . --> , -->

[benedictus 160]

On 23.1.2018 at 10:03 PM, GaryWalnuts said:

I know it's at odds with the "realism" argument but imo it's a worthy compromise for gameplay.  Just my 2c

The word realism is being thrown around too much here. In the end it's a game and before we are able to be fully connected with a machine allowing us to share the emotions,  feelings and such you really can't talk about realism.

The game is packed with unrealistic stuff and to be honest the game would suck ***** if it was trying to be exactly like real life. With that in mind keep your head while wishing for realism.

[Lexman61 78]

49 minutes ago, benedictus said:

The word realism is being thrown around too much here. In the end it's a game and before we are able to be fully connected with a machine allowing us to share the emotions,  feelings and such you really can't talk about realism.

The game is packed with unrealistic stuff and to be honest the game would suck ***** if it was trying to be exactly like real life. With that in mind keep your head while wishing for realism.

You are absolutely right, after all it's just common sense.

Unfortunately some people want to turn DayZ into the equivalent of a professional flight simulator and get totally carried away in requesting the most specific details and "realistic" features to be included in the game.

As I have stated in earlier occasions, the quest for "realism" is a never ending loop which would ultimately make DayZ an un-perfect simulator and a very boring game (there can never be enough of realism, right?).

It's a video game, not a software program for Navy Seal training.

Edited February 13, 2018 by Lexman61

[bfisher 561]

Yeah, I don't know.  The problem IMHO is that since the day / night cycle is more or less "real time", no one is going to fumble around in pitch black darkness for 12 hours.  They'll just switch to a daytime server.  And if you make night time into a bright "TV night time" where you it's just daytime with a blue filter, sort of defeats the purpose of it being "night".

A short day/night cycle forces the player to find a light source or hunger down for a time period so they aren't stumbling into zombies or players.  You can create a sort of Minecraft / I Am Legend / Dying Light dynamic where you hide / fortify at night and go out during the day.  Or maybe a reverse of that where the night offers greater reward and safety at the expense of not being able to see so good.

 

I haven't quite worked out what the ideal day/night dynamic should look like on a largely open map where you only occasionally encounter people.

 

Chazz Michael Michaels: "The night is a very dark time for me."

Jimmie MacElroy: "It's dark for everyone, moron."

 

 

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

21 hours ago, bfisher said:

A short day/night cycle forces the player to find a light source or hunger down for a time period so they aren't stumbling into zombies or players.  You can create a sort of Minecraft / I Am Legend / Dying Light dynamic where you hide / fortify at night and go out during the day.  Or maybe a reverse of that where the night offers greater reward and safety at the expense of not being able to see so good.

I haven't quite worked out what the ideal day/night dynamic should look like on a largely open map where you only occasionally encounter people.

Just on a personal note, as someone who tends to play games in 4-10 hour sessions, a 4-hour cycle would probably be perfect for me, because an hour in the dark is totally doable and the "peak darkness" only lasts for a while even if I don't manage to find a light source. I might even see two nights in one go.

[cirkular 178]

On 2/12/2018 at 3:42 AM, DannyDog said:

-snip-

On 1/23/2018 at 1:53 PM, Kirov (DayZ) said:

-snip-

Yeah, I dunno about the night sky right now, but I agree with OP's first point all together. I've been playing lately with the gamma and brightness setup to default, in the middle. Didn't really tweak the monitor or video card settings too. The eyesight with light sources and light sources in generalneed some fixing and balancing first and I guess they're aware of it and long time ago at that. On another note, I find the nights itself pretty dark and just fine as I would expect them, both with and without moonlight. If the gamma abuse can be fixed somehow, then we can talk about this.

I also agree that there should be some more elements brought to the game at night. For starters, the most obvious that comes to mind is that the temperatures should drop, more or less, depending on the season. That means you'd need a shelter and a fireplace. Or if you're out looting, maybe some warmer clothing than during day or heatpacks might come in handy there. Next, the infected should have increased senses compared to human players during night. That would in fact mean that they should have the same ability to aggro on players as during day. I don't know why was it reduced in the first place. Maybe their eyes should glow in dark... a bit =) Make it a horror game goddamit! Also I'd really love to use the torch as a weapon. With a consequence. Meaning some worn clothing should catch fire really easily and there you go with pyromania hunger satisfied to an extent :D

Now, during night it's only natural that you want to keep the carried light source away from your eyesight, above or behind so you can concentrate on the surroundings. That means maybe new animations and poses for the player character so it kind of acts naturally when looting through really dark places. The general balance between looking around with and without a light source seems off. Also, light sources should be seen from a bigger distance flickering at least and fixed for everyone, no matter the level of details they are using for their hardware. 

Also, I see a problem in when you light up a fire in broad daylight, the whole surroundings become a  bit darker for you when near that fire. Being out in the open, sunlight should be the strongest light source and a small fire or a light flare should not override it. Just a quick side-note on firewood: I really think that firewood should not only be available through searching ground or chopping for sticks or chopping down a live tree. There's clearly plenty of fallen tree trunks in the environment and you can make a big bonfire easily from that. You could make a quick fire to cook the steaks even without an axe. Piles of logs we find around could be used too, but only with a chainsaw I guess.