Daytime servers are always overloaded.

[DaPessimist 1]

During the US daytime, the US servers are always overloaded, because the majority of Europe/Russia players prefer to playing during the daytime.

During the Europe/Russia daytime, the Europe/Russia servers are always overloaded, because the majority of US players prefer playing during the daytime.

I'm no different. I personally can't stand playing in the pitch black, and during US nights, I play on Europe/Russia servers.

The point? As long as day/night cycles are left as "realistic", and there are little or no regional constraints, all daytime servers will always be under heavy load. I understand the game is meant to be a simulation, but lately, it's more a "waiting for server response" simulator than an actual game.

Have the devs considered changing the day/night cycle? Perhaps making it a 12 hour day/night cycle, as opposed to a 24 hour day/night cycle?

[naizarak 41]

not to mention that people cheat their way through night time anyways.

[TheHappyPeanut 10]

Everyone plays on daytime servers because no one wants to play in a server that's pitch black with absolutely no way of seeing other than stationary flares. It's pretty pathetic that I have to go to a Russian server at night just to play on something I can actually see.

[Unkn0wn (DayZ) 2]

I like playing nighttime, occasionally, just not for the entire day. So yea, a shorter day-night cycle would probably be better but AFAIK rocket already said he didn't want to change this. (I don't see why though, what's the point of forcing realtime cycle on servers when people will just swap servers to avoid it anyway)

Another upside of having a shorter day/night cycle is that players can actually experience an entire day and night, in a single playthrough, which adds to the immersion. (Actually experiencing dawn, nightfall, rather than just hitting a time of day when you log in)

I also think players will tend to stick around for nighttime a lot more if the cycle was made shorter.

Hope rocket reconsiders his stance.

[darkseed79 0]

Indeed. I can understand rockets reasons for wanting a 24 hour cycle but since nobody actually plays 24 hours a day a compressed cycle would be more realistic and would lessen the server migration. I don't want to switch to day servers, I want to play during the night as well, but always playing at night when they're as dark and long as they are is pretty much impossible.

[sunnz 24]

I think at the end of the day, the majority would prefer to be 12 hour days but sadly i can't see rocket changing something he wants, its his mod after all :(

Hope he allows some servers to offer it though.

[daedrick 90]

I have to agree unfortunatly. Rocket is wrong about this one, in my opinion.

[corsair831 0]

yeah, IMO the day / night cycle should be about 2 or 3 hours ... when i play this game i generally play it for 4 or 5 hours in a row ... not 24 ... having a 2 or 3 hour day/night cycle (or something similar) would be so much better to allow people to experience both day and night

[JackNapier 1]

Couldn't you just make a server and artificially adjust the system time? Give or take 6 hours, for example?

[Jamesbiff 4]

The main problem with night time is that its easy to avoid by simply ramping up the contrast/gamma/brightness either on the pause menu or through nvidia/ati interfaces. It may be an immersion breaker, but if you arent doing that, youre playing at a disadvantage, because whilst youre fumbling in the dark with flares, trying to maintain the experience, there is a bandit sat on a hill 500 yards away who can see you clear as day, without giving his position away. And it CANT be patched or fixed.

[drewmaw 56]

Everyone plays on daytime servers because no one wants to play in a server that's pitch black with absolutely no way of seeing other than stationary flares. It's pretty pathetic that I have to go to a Russian server at night just to play on something I can actually see.

That's not true. Some people love playing at night, but they're in the minority.

I personally don't like playing at night.

For night to work, I think that the moon should always be full, and Rocket need to LOCK BRIGHTNESS AND GAMMA.

[rocket 16567]

Its a technical issue, time needs to be sync'd to the database. There may be a way to code out of it but it's alot of work.

[DaPessimist 1]

Thanks for the response Rocket. I know your time is precious at the moment.

Is there a way to stop people from joining servers outside their regions? Or is that simply up to the people running each server?

Also, I've considered renting my own server to host the game, does that require some type of approval from you and the Day Z team?

Thanks again for your time.

[Marcuss95 0]

i actually like the dark. it makes use of chemlight and flairs. i would be disappointed if they make it visible at night. maybe a tad more lighter but not too much

[Sodom 0]

the only problem what i have with dark servers are bandits

u cant use flares or a flashlight

if u do that bang

after 5 mins a bandit kills u ^^

but hey thats life ^^

[CoolNitro 0]

I don't mind night time when the moon is out and it's not raining because at least then you can see just enough to get by but on moonless nights it's way too dark.

It would be nice if it was possible to just make it slightly brighter maybe adjust the light levels via your characters eyes so if you are in complete darkness your eyes adjust so you can see a little better then it is at the moment.

[bondono 1]

Regional constraints are not the solution. I would stop playing before I logged into a dark server.

Basically when nighttime hits that's it. I'm either not playing any more or I'm going to some Russian server with a terrible connection. It's really a shame. Night in this game is unforgiveable.

[FlowerChild 1]

I realize that this probably doesn't fit the long-term design of the mod, and that you guys are probably experiencing a huge influx of new players due to recent publicity, which is causing unanticipated problems.

But honestly, in your shoes I'd probably just fix the time of day to daylight hours until a more reasonable solution can be found.

The server problems going on right now are making the mod next to unplayable unless you are willing to play exclusively during nightime hours. It's really a shame, because the daytime servers are pretty much all overloaded, while the nighttime ones are virtual ghost-towns.

I purchased Arma 2 specifically to play this mod yesterday, which is probably the first time I've ever bought a game just for a mod, so I REALLY love what you guys are doing here. I managed to get a bit of play in last night on a night-time server, and was looking forward to playing during the day today, only to find out that it's really not a feasible option.

I really hope you'll consider cutting your losses and make a temporary sacrifice to the design to restore playability.

[Malaclypse 3]

Love the night-time, personally. I'm the opposite. If it's day, I'm moving to a server where it's night 9 times out of 10. Chemlights work fine, and if the moon is out those aren't even needed usually, no gamma/brightness adjustments required.

[splat! 0]

Server load is an issue but personally I think the day/night cycle's are fine.

If it's dark, as in real dark before the moon's out and even maxed gamma won't let you see your feet, you need to find yourself a chemlight. After that you can bugger off to the woods and do whatever. I've raided many an inland village just sneaking around with a chemlight.

I actually prefer the night as I'm harder to spot, both by zombies and by snipers.

[nicraM 137]

I honestly think the few options that are laid out for night time play in this thread, are all viable. Worse comes to worse go play on a EU server if you are US, during the night. As for them changing the cycles, didn't Rocket already say it would take lots and lots of work, as it is coded deep into the engine?

I could be wrong, but I think that is what he said.

This is a survival modification, with emphasis on heavy realism. In 11 days when the moon is bright, most of you will flock to play in the dark for the scenery alone.

[AlarmedBread (DayZ) 3]

I for one LOVE the way the day/night/weather cycle is currently along with the awesome sync of weather features. These are things that have been in ARMA forever, but you rarely get a chance to see them because most the time we played in fair weather during the day because people whined about it. The atmosphere of the dynamic day and weather cycles adds so much to this game I hope that individual servers are never given control over it or we'd lose it forever.

[simasz 15]

I wonder if the weather effects will create such sights as weaker zombies being knocked over or blown away by storm winds :) Would be hilarious (and awesome) :D

[fecesreturns 6]

Dont change a thing. I actually prefer to play in the night. I just turn up my gamma and brightness and bam!! I might as well be wearing NVG's. Do I use it to kill survivors? No. Do I use it to kill bandits? of course. Do I use it for looting? hell yes.

Its not that bad. If I ever need to clear a dark building I just pop a chemlight and search very quickly and extinguish the chem on my way out.

[Unknown Killa 2]

Dont change a thing. I actually prefer to play in the night. I just turn up my gamma and brightness and bam!! I might as well be wearing NVG's. Do I use it to kill survivors? No. Do I use it to kill bandits? of course. Do I use it for looting? hell yes.

Its not that bad. If I ever need to clear a dark building I just pop a chemlight and search very quickly and extinguish the chem on my way out.

Maybe it isn't that bad for you, but for 75% of players it's awful.