Flashlights and why you should start with them

[TheHappyPeanut 10]

I know there are threads that critique the lighting at night, so please refrain from telling me to use the search function. I'm not here to argue about the lighting, because it's realistic; when the lights go out, it gets dark and that is perfectly understandable. What I am confused about is this:

Why would you begin survival on an island with flares as opposed to a flashlight? Both are basic survival items and both serve different purposes; flares shine brighter and also serve as a beacon whereas a flashlight has a small beam of light but requires you to holster your firearm. But a flare isn't going to help you at night when it comes to traveling. You obviously can't drop a flare every 100ft because there aren't that many and you would look ridiculous. I find it really weird that new survivors do not start with a flashlight, which is what most people would include in a basic survival bag. At this point my friends and I don't even enjoy playing at night. Who would want to play when 1) they couldn't see 5ft in front of them and 2) had absolutely no way of constant light?

When it comes down to it, you have to look at this:

When you are starting out, you have no map and no compass, so you have absolutely no idea where you are. Then you add in the factor of no light and you have absolute chaos; you don't know where you are and you don't know where you are going, so essentially it is best to wait for daylight to come, which means you can technically only play during certain hours of the actual day. And before you say "well, that's realistic." Well, when I'm trying to find my friends and I continuously die because I cannot see my own hands, it's gone a bit too far.

You can flame me all you want for my opinion, but that's realistically how things go.

[salty (DayZ) 39]

A flashlight takes up the secondary slot in your inventory, and switching between your pistol and a flashlight would be extremely clunky/buggy.

[Virfortis 111]

Still, we are supposedly part of a PMC, so not having a flashlight but having a can of beans and a Makarov pistol, plus ammo, seems rather unrealistic at best.

[Legacy (DayZ) 1091]

I don't mind either way, I see us as a survivor of an outbreak and are limited to supplies. The idea of supplies and running around is nice and all but I prefer the good ol fashioned flare. So easy to spot people!

[salty (DayZ) 39]

Still' date=' we are supposedly part of a PMC, so not having a flashlight but having a can of beans and a Makarov pistol, plus ammo, seems rather unrealistic at best.

[/quote']

As far as I know, we're just ordinary citizens. 2% of the population immune to a prion disease.

[cesar10022@hotmail.com 3]

Make flashlights more common to find. Not sure why it's easier to find an assault rifle than it is to find flashlights.

[saf119900@gmail.com 0]

Maybe it could be changed so we start with the G17, it has a flashlight built into the weapon.

[Virfortis 111]

Still' date=' we are supposedly part of a PMC, so not having a flashlight but having a can of beans and a Makarov pistol, plus ammo, seems rather unrealistic at best.

[/quote']

As far as I know, we're just ordinary citizens. 2% of the population immune to a prion disease.

I read somewhere that we were supposedly part of a PMC that had a mission go south...hang on while I look, I could be wrong.

[dallas 5195]

Flashlights are pretty common, if you know where to look.

[AmPm 0]

More importantly, why can I not just use duct tape to strap flashlight to rifle or use it with pistol. I can use scrap metal from a barn floor to repair a helicopter after all.

[bondono 1]

You absolutely should not start with flashlights. I love relying on flares in the dark. They're terrible. I know I'm just a giant glowing beacon for bandit bullets. Everything is red and creepy. It's intense and spooky.

Finding a flashlight is such a relief. However, this whole second item slot thing with flashlights is absurd and needs to be fixed. It doesn't make even the slightest bit of sense that a flashlight and a pistol can't both be carried, and it means new players are screwed if they find a flashlight.

I don't know if that can be fixed or not, but if it can, it needs to be.

[TheHappyPeanut 10]

You absolutely should not start with flashlights. I love relying on flares in the dark. They're terrible. I know I'm just a giant glowing beacon for bandit bullets. Everything is red and creepy. It's intense and spooky.

Finding a flashlight is such a relief. However' date=' this whole second item slot thing with flashlights is absurd and needs to be fixed. It doesn't make even the slightest bit of sense that a flashlight and a pistol can't both be carried, and it means new players are screwed if they find a flashlight.

I don't know if that can be fixed or not, but if it can, it needs to be.

[/quote']

Flares do not help you travel the least bit or give you any sense of direction. Flares pose more of a danger when used than a benefit. And I've yet to find a flashlight. Why would I have all these supplies on me when I started, but no flashlight? Has no one ever seen a basic survival kit?

[bondono 1]

Flares do suck. That's why it's fun that you're forced to start with them.

You don't have a basic survival kit. You clearly have whatever you could quickly grab.

Now, I do agree that night needs to be brighter. It's ridiculous that the servers generally follow the day/night cycle of their location. Many of us play at night, and it's ludicrous to expect us to stumble around in the darkness every time we load the game.

[masek 0]

I think it would present a new challenge if we started with a flashlight in our pack. It would be awkward trying to switch between pistol and flashlight though(in the current setup). Might be better to just use flares as it stands.

[TheHappyPeanut 10]

Flares do suck. That's why it's fun that you're forced to start with them.

You don't have a basic survival kit. You clearly have whatever you could quickly grab.

Now' date=' I do agree that night needs to be brighter. It's ridiculous that the servers generally follow the day/night cycle of their location. Many of us play at night, and it's ludicrous to expect us to stumble around in the darkness every time we load the game.

[/quote']

There has to be a compromise. If I can't see at night, I'm not going to play on servers at night time and that's how a lot of people feel. There is very little fun in a game when you can't see anything. If I wanted that, I'd go outside my own house at night and stumble around. I understand that it is dark when there are no lights, but I think it's probably darker than it would be in real life. In real life your eyes adapt and the dark becomes lighter as your eyes adjust. In this game, it's just straight up dark. I've even tried turning my brightness all the way up and it did nothing.

Very few people I have spoken to have fun playing on nighttime servers. What I've been doing is playing US servers in the day and Russian servers at nighttime (my nighttime) so I don't have to deal with night in game. When it gets to that point, there is clearly something wrong with the lighting.

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I think it would present a new challenge if we started with a flashlight in our pack. It would be awkward trying to switch between pistol and flashlight though(in the current setup). Might be better to just use flares as it stands.

That's no different than the current challenge, which is not being able to see your own hands.

[Banano (DayZ) 0]

It would be great if all the survivors started with flashlights. It would make it so much easier for me to find and kill them at night.

[masek 0]

Flares do suck. That's why it's fun that you're forced to start with them.

You don't have a basic survival kit. You clearly have whatever you could quickly grab.

Now' date=' I do agree that night needs to be brighter. It's ridiculous that the servers generally follow the day/night cycle of their location. Many of us play at night, and it's ludicrous to expect us to stumble around in the darkness every time we load the game.

[/quote']

There has to be a compromise. If I can't see at night, I'm not going to play on servers at night time and that's how a lot of people feel. There is very little fun in a game when you can't see anything. If I wanted that, I'd go outside my own house at night and stumble around. I understand that it is dark when there are no lights, but I think it's probably darker than it would be in real life. In real life your eyes adapt and the dark becomes lighter as your eyes adjust. In this game, it's just straight up dark. I've even tried turning my brightness all the way up and it did nothing.

Very few people I have spoken to have fun playing on nighttime servers. What I've been doing is playing US servers in the day and Russian servers at nighttime (my nighttime) so I don't have to deal with night in game. When it gets to that point, there is clearly something wrong with the lighting.

---

I think it would present a new challenge if we started with a flashlight in our pack. It would be awkward trying to switch between pistol and flashlight though(in the current setup). Might be better to just use flares as it stands.

That's no different than the current challenge' date=' which is not being able to see your own hands.

[/quote']

Personally, I have no problem playing on the night time servers. That's just the way it is I guess... there are no lights anywhere, and it's pitch black. Me and my friend normally use chemlights to follow each other. When the moon is out we can see fine it seems.

I have no problem with starting with a flash light; but with the way a flashlight works currently, it's easier to just toss a flare and move on unless you have a teammate backing with the light.

[Katana67 2907]

I just think night time is too dark. It's too dark, so that one cannot see landforms and buildings even on moonlit nights.

If night time were a bit brighter, or if there was at least some ambient light, then I think the necessity for a flashlight wouldn't be as significant.

Obviously, I want the flashlight to have a purpose, but I think this purpose should be seeing details and clearing buildings. Not large scale land nav.

[Goldstein (DayZ) 46]

I'm not a fan of infinite flashlights/NV.

They definitely should require batteries. So going by that logic, I consider the rarity of flashlights being the fact that batteries are in short supply.

[zanarias 3]

I think the OP has a good point. Newcomers already start out at a significant disadvantage compared to others, and while I'm mostly against making things more "casual," this isn't going to break anything and will alleviate some frustration. Flares have their own separate uses anyway.

I vote do it.

[oxysplatter 0]

I'm not a fan of infinite flashlights/NV.

They definitely should require batteries. So going by that logic' date=' I consider the rarity of flashlights being the fact that batteries are in short supply.

[/quote']

I agree here.If we can start with flashlights then give us a battery meter and replace flashlight spawns with battery spawns.the batteries could also be used in NVGs.

Even if possible make the flashlight take up only 1 inventory slot(I dont know if this is an engine limitation) and spare batteries take a slot each.

Having said that though...the flares do make for some interesting gameplay

[Blaaaaaaag 75]

I feel like I'm the only person that likes playing in the dark. I play on veteran, preferably in the evenings, and I'm damn near invisible.

[7ofswords 0]

First of all, you can pick up a flare. Hell, you can even shoot with a flare in your hands. However, you are an instant target from miles away when you use a flare, so nobody does that.

I feel that starting players with a green chem light would be a good solution. Chem lights don't provide much light, but they do give new players enough illumination to scavenge for loot without letting everyone in the world know where they are. Chemlights only last an hour, so a new player on a night server would feel the pressure to acquire another light source quickly.

For our professional bean-stealing friends a chem light can still be easily spotted in a darkened area, it just doesn't make your job as braindead simple as it is now.

[Wyxz 0]

Well about dark nights i don't know is that some kind of glitch but sometimes i can see quite well at night and sometimes its so dark that i cant see anything even my character in 3D mode. At first i thought that how dark night will be is defined by clouds. If sky is clear then you can see better and if there is lots of clouds light drops.

But after few days of play i noticed that there isn't any difference between clear and cloudy sky.

Well i would like that flashlight would go to utility belt not i secondary weapon slot.

[masek 0]

Well about dark nights i don't know is that some kind of glitch but sometimes i can see quite well at night and sometimes its so dark that i cant see anything even my character in 3D mode. At first i thought that how dark night will be is defined by clouds. If sky is clear then you can see better and if there is lots of clouds light drops.

But after few days of play i noticed that there isn't any difference between clear and cloudy sky.

Well i would like that flashlight would go to utility belt not i secondary weapon slot.

I've only noticed it being brighter when there is a moon. But I think I've noticed it being brighter when there is cloud cover or fog instead of clear sky. The fog/clouds show up greyish and give an outline to almost anything it seems.