MERGED: Night time, darkness, gamma

[mattressi 3]

Having lived in the middle of no where for many years I have only ever encountered darkness like this in one place that was a large hall with no lighting and heavy blackout shades over the very few windows' date=' we opened the shades to let the light in (it was late winter 2am and quite overcast).

This blackness Is unplayable I enjoy the new more numerous zombies and even can live with the insta spawns (as loot also re-spawns as fast), but that night I can safely if it stays I will be modding stuff. On the other hand the over cast nights with some moon where you can just see the grass as a light grey dusting is great and another great thing about arma.

[/quote']

Yeah, I've got to say, when the game is dark, it's WAY too dark. I've hiked a lot of trails far from towns and it has never been that dark (in fact, it has almost always felt far lighter than in suburbs with street lighting). To get as dark as the game, I reckon you'd have to be in a dense forest on a heavily overcast night with no moon. Even on moonless nights, the stars provide quite a lot of light and even on heavily overcast nights, the moon penetrates the cloud quite a bit. I just stopped playing on Australian servers where I could see all the stars very clearly (no cloud cover) and couldn't see my hand in front of my face. That's horribly unrealistic.

It is kind of fun for a little bit to be playing in such extreme darkness, but it really becomes boring and unplayable after a while. Unless you've got NV goggles, most people seem to just camp around main structures using flares until they run out of flares and kill themselves. I could definitely see this darkness being good if either the nights only lasted an hour or two or if the nights were realistically light (hell, even darker than that - just not pitch black) and the pitch black darkness lasted for a small portion of the night. Then people would camp while others try to ambush. As it is, people camp and die and play stupidly because everyone knows that playing properly (carefully looking for supplies) is pointless since you'll quickly run out of flares and attract every zombie close by - you might as well just camp or run around for a bit, shoot some people and zombies, then log off.

Also, is there any solution for the more nocturnal players? I'm awake most of the night and some of the day and I work during the part of the day that I'm awake. Is there any way for me to enjoy daytime in Day Z without playing on a foreign server with 200+ ping? I'm worried that I'll be only able to enjoy playing the game one night every 10 or so when the darkness is finally less dark.

[Starayo 0]

The total darkness is insane with how regular it is, it's in no way realistic.

Yes, on an overcast day it will be bloody dark. But with a clear sky I can definitely see by the light of the moon - quite clearly - and hell, even by the light of the stars by themselves. Not perfectly by any stretch but a hell of a lot better than a screen of solid black.

Makes the game absolute hell for new players that can only get on to play at night.

[Stinglock 1]

Makes the game absolute hell for new players that can only get on to play at night.

I was tempted not to comment on this but if it's going to keep dragging along here goes.

This is Day Z' date=' not Disney.[/b']

This game is meant to be hell, it's meant to be harsh, and it's meant to be unforgiving. If you have a problem seeing at night without flares/flashlights/nvgs or a clear sky and a full moon then logoff and come back during the daytime or move to another server.

I'm a new player, to ARMA also and jumped on last night for the first time, one hour tops until night hit and it was absolute hell and that's what I was expecting and I enjoyed every minute of it.

[WirlWind 0]

So many sith in this thread.

It's not like people are asking for night time to be a slightly blue tinted day time...

There's a difference between ridiculous (what we have now) and what they're asking for (closer reality).

Regardless of how hard the game is supposed to be, it's still a game and staring at a black screen is not any kind of fun. There needs to be even just a small amount of ambient light, so you can atleast make out there's a tree infront of you, instead of running for 10 minutes, not getting anywhere and not noticing until you pop a flare.

[simasz 15]

I think the best would be the setting with full moon. The first time I tried the game it was that setting. You can see enough to have a sense of direction and most of the time to see the zombies that are chasing, but corners of buildings etc remain dark. Perfect setting to start dropping bricks :D

[Sidion 0]

I'll be honest as a new player the pitch black night (Which I discovered on my 3rd or 4th night) was pretty rough. Then again that is also part of the allure of it.

I also think the idea of flares and flashlights being viable options are only DUE to the night being so harsh.

If you made it where all the nights were the lighter more user-friendly versions, no one would ever use flares or risk turning on that flashlight. There'd be no reason to do so, and that is a big mistake imo.

If you can't make it at night, it isn't that it's impossible, it's that you've not figured out a solid strategy to contend with it.

Hell I pop a flare, toss it, watch the distance for movement. If I feel it's clear I run to it, pick it up and run with it a ways before putting it out and repeating. It's a very very slow method of travel...

But in a zombie apocalypse who's really going to be sprinting around at midnight?

[Fionny 7]

My gripe with the night time is the fact that if I want to play on a low ping european server after work im basically doomed to eternal night time, so instead i am forced to play on a 150--180 ping american server so I can get some day time.

I think the servers should have a different daytime night time rotation, maybe leave the HC servers as is but let the other servers have maybe 2 hour cycles.

[Stinglock 1]

Regardless of how hard the game is supposed to be' date=' it's still a game and staring at a black screen is not any kind of fun.

[/quote']

Strange, I find it many kinds of fun, all the articles I read prior to playing suggested this was how it was going to be at night and one of the main reasons I threw money at the games required for this mod. Heck the first page of google had me hook line and sinker based on the title alone.

"I wanted it to be an anti-game": Day Z Creator Dean Hall Speaks to games.on.net.

I guess if it's truly 'ridiculous' it will be 'patched'. Here's hoping that doesn't happen though.

[mattressi 3]

But in a zombie apocalypse who's really going to be sprinting around at midnight?

In a zombie apocalypse, who's really going to have to go to work during the day?

While I think that pitch black nights could be fun for a little bit, the fact is that most people work during the day and only have time to play at night. Playing at night isn't fun when you can't see your hand in front of your face and need to throw/carry your limited supply of flares to move a short distance and then be stuck in the darkness.

If the desire is to make the game unappealing to players, why not make it eternally night with no weapons but a Makarov and require you to eat and drink every minute?

If the goal is realism, make it so that on the dark nights with no cloud cover, it's realistically dark (i.e. you can see a few metres in front of you, rather than you literally cannot see anything).

No one here is asking for blue-tinged day-lighting for nights. Those who are saying the game should remain unplayable on dark nights clearly have no desire for realism and simply want the game to be frustrating and unplayable for the sake of it.

[Grey508 17]

Just for clarity, be aware that the night in DayZ is no darker than the night in vanilla Arma 2.

[Time Glitch 453]

3 things.

1. If night stays like it is, we need to start with another set of flares.

2. Your eyes will adjust to starlight, even on a pitch black night. I've had this happen to me before camping. It's pretty incredible how human "night vision" can kick in. We're not asking for moonlight, but I agree it shouldn't be pitch black.

3. Any tips for surviving as a total newb at night? 10 flares ain't that much to go on!

[WirlWind 0]

Strange' date=' I find it many kinds of fun, all the articles I read prior to playing suggested this was how it was going to be at night and one of the main reasons I threw money at the games required for this mod. Heck the first page of google had me hook line and sinker based on the title alone.[/quote']

To each their own, I guess. I suppose you spent time locked in cupboards as a child or something?

For the rest of us normal people, having an entirely pitch black screen isn't fun. And on Aussie servers, the moon doesn't even come up until 2am some nights.

Not being able to see a tree literally right in front of you is unrealistic and lame.

Everything else, sure. I can deal with that. But if you can only play this game at night, it might as well be a fucking text-based adventure game where the text is black and the background is too, but occasionally you can see a few words at the expense of everyone being able to see you from a mile away.

Humans aren't blind at night.

Flares and the like can still be viable for searching inside houses and such. Makes far more sense, since the ambient light outside would be mostly blocked by walls.

[MidnightReverie 0]

Strange' date=' I find it many kinds of fun, all the articles I read prior to playing suggested this was how it was going to be at night and one of the main reasons I threw money at the games required for this mod. Heck the first page of google had me hook line and sinker based on the title alone.[/quote']

To each their own, I guess. I suppose you spent time locked in cupboards as a child or something?

For the rest of us normal people, having an entirely pitch black screen isn't fun. And on Aussie servers, the moon doesn't even come up until 2am some nights.

Not being able to see a tree literally right in front of you is unrealistic and lame.

Everything else, sure. I can deal with that. But if you can only play this game at night, it might as well be a fucking text-based adventure game where the text is black and the background is too, but occasionally you can see a few words at the expense of everyone being able to see you from a mile away.

Humans aren't blind at night.

Flares and the like can still be viable for searching inside houses and such. Makes far more sense, since the ambient light outside would be mostly blocked by walls.

Agreed. Not being able to see even a meter in front of you out in the open on a clear night sky is utterly unrealistic.

[SteamTrout 18]

Just for clarity' date=' be aware that the night in DayZ is no darker than the night in vanilla Arma 2.

[/quote']

Go to Editor. Set time to night and weather to cloudy, fog maximum. Observe. Default ArmA2 night at worst weather conditions possible is significantly brighter than in DayZ.

[liquidje 38]

Why are people still complaining about certain aspects which are just set design aspects. And yeah, if they think this is really to dark, they will change it in a patch. But please know, it is the project of the modmakers, not yours. Also, some people love it, some hate it. People who hate it should move to other servers.

Why are people demanding changes from a free-to-play mod which is still in Alpha? And please, don't start insulting people because they don't see eye to eye with your vision!!!

[dromagewok@hotmail.com 164]

Just for clarity' date=' be aware that the night in DayZ is no darker than the night in vanilla Arma 2.

[/quote']

Go to Editor. Set time to night and weather to cloudy, fog maximum. Observe. Default ArmA2 night at worst weather conditions possible is significantly brighter than in DayZ.

This is without taking moon phases into effect.

Make sure you set it to the right day otherwise it will be bright under a full moon.

Set instead of oct 11th to oct 19th at 0:20 hours.

Yeah thats pitch black on vanilla.

[Solid.nl 2]

Day time gives you good view of everything and its awesome in its own right.

Now night time really turns the game into a whole new game and its awesome but it can be frustrating at times especially when you have started a new character and your out of flares. Hell if you run out of flares and have no other means of lighting the area you might aswell kill yourself because your not going anywhere.

And waiting for the sun to come up and move on aint a option either..

Which makes we ask the question, why cant there be multiple day and night cycles i personally would enjoy seeing the game have 1 hour day and 1 hour night and the transition between them also takes a hour.

Now i know this aint realistic but it would make people run for cover during the night and take shelter and crawl out once it becomes lighter. Now offcourse there will always be those that will move no matter its day or night but this way we don't get to face 12 hours of darkness. Now i think i read somewhere that this aint going to happen so me pointing it out probably is senseless.

However like i mentioned before in a previous post i would settle for a flare that does not sit in my line of sight and i can just pickup and light up my surrounding area.

Greetz Solid

[mattressi 3]

Why are people still complaining about certain aspects which are just set design aspects. And yeah' date=' if they think this is really to dark, they will change it in a patch. But please know, it is the project of the modmakers, not yours. Also, some people love it, some hate it. People who hate it should move to other servers.

Why are people demanding changes from a free-to-play mod which is still in Alpha? And please, don't start insulting people because they don't see eye to eye with your vision!!!

[/quote']

People are complaining, yes, but if someone has demanded something, I've missed it. I've also not seen anyone insult someone, unless you're one of those people who seems to think that debating=insulting.

People are complaining and questioning the design decision, because they're hoping that they might be able to make a change. No one here (at least that I've seen) has been abusive or threatening. People just want to be able to play this great mod. And it's great that some people enjoy the nights, but presumably those people ALSO enjoy the day (that is; those people don't exclusively play at night). However, those of us who only ever get the chance to play at night are requesting a solution for us. I played for an hour during daylight and it was absolutely amazing. Then it became dark and it went back to boring, where everyone on the server is camping and doing nothing. Most people just chat in global, it seems. I stayed around for a little bit, threw some flares, ran out of flares, was still in the middle of nowhere. My two options were to die (either by respawning or by moving around blindly) and lose all my gear that I'd finally obtained (the first time I found some loot was during that 1 hour in daylight) or to just exit and come back whenever I next get a chance to come on during the day.

I'm really interested to see if server populations drop dramatically at night when global chat is removed - there will be literally nothing to do unless you've got a flashlight or NV goggles. I've yet to see someone who was taking advantage of the night (using it as cover to attack other players) - it's just been all the people with low level gear who have nothing to lose, running around being stupid (that's not meant to be an insult, I mean that they're purposely playing in a way that isn't conducive to their survival, for something to do).

I don't intend nor want to pressure the devs into moving the game in a different direction to what they envisioned - I just want to show them other perspectives. While the Day Z articles and LPs are great, they're usually done by people who don't work during the day (hence most of the gameplay being done in the day). I'm not a professional gamer nor in school, so I don't have this luxury of being able to just play during the day.

As I said before, I'd love to see some servers where the day cycle is faster than real life. Right now, for me and most Australians, night time means either you log off (if you've got good gear that you don't want to lose) or you stay on for a bit kamikaze-ing around the map because you've got nothing of value. If the day/night cycle was faster, people with good gear might stay on for a bit and wait the night out.

I don't know what the solution is to this - some people claim to really love the nights and some, clearly, hate them. One thing that I'd really like to know, though: everyone who says they like the pitch black nights; do you ALSO play during the day? Is there anyone that loves the pitch black nights who is only able to play at night?

[Grey508 17]

Just for clarity' date=' be aware that the night in DayZ is no darker than the night in vanilla Arma 2.

[/quote']

Go to Editor. Set time to night and weather to cloudy, fog maximum. Observe. Default ArmA2 night at worst weather conditions possible is significantly brighter than in DayZ.

I have spent several hundred hours in Arma 2, so I'm pretty familiar with what night looks like in-game. However -

DayZ NZ server (@0015 hours), Komorova coast:

vArma2, same time, date, location, weather:

I can see better in DayZ.

[Fionny 7]

That is super unrealistic though, I mean for god sake on an over cast night I can see more in front of me then that. Something needs to change as people are just playing on high ping servers on different continents to avoid night.

[ATwig 0]

I've played a couple day/night cycles and yes each night has been a different shade of dark and on my most recent one it was raining so I just camped outside of a town. I ended up watching someone sprint through it holding a flare and trailing about 40+ zombies. It was hilarious.

As for a suggestion with the day/night thing: The physical in-game time is server based so if you pay for your own server hardware (Or pool together) you can just set up a server physically near you but set the time offset to be a couple or more hours behind you (Eg: If you are East Coast North America set the server time to reflect Hawaii or Russia so that sunset falls at like 0200 local time or something like that). I usually end up playing on California servers right when I get off work then switching to RU if the night gets too dark or poor weather sets in.

Also if you do own your own server I do believe you have the option to have the in-game time pass more quickly than regular time however I believe that having a compressed 24 hour into 2 hour server would be no where near as fun. I personally enjoy the 1:1 ratio.

Just my 0.02 (of whatever your local currency is :P )

[nexerius 0]

The nights on most servers are idiotic. There are nothing as a 100% dark night. Everyone can see alittle if it gets very dark, but here its like you just left a very bright room and ran into the night.

[Scharham 0]

I'm not sure if it's already been mentioned, but turning up your HDR from 'Normal' to at least 'High' improves the way nights look, at least on my system.

Things went from being a pitch black blob, to being able to see tiny details on grass and light parts on buildings.

[viral187 2]

I'm not sure if it's already been mentioned' date=' but turning up your HDR from 'Normal' to at least 'High' improves the way nights look, at least on my system.

Things went from being a pitch black blob, to being able to see tiny details on grass and light parts on buildings.

[/quote']

I can't believe I had to go all the way to the bottom of the thread to find this.

Put it on VERY HIGH and watch the night light up. You can see the ground, buildings, etc, albeit very faintly. If you have a moon, everything is lit up like daytime.

[mattressi 3]

I'm not sure if it's already been mentioned' date=' but turning up your HDR from 'Normal' to at least 'High' improves the way nights look, at least on my system.

Things went from being a pitch black blob, to being able to see tiny details on grass and light parts on buildings.

[/quote']

Awesome, I'll give it a try. I don't like any post-processing setting above very low, because the motion blur hurts my head, but if it means I can see better at night, I'll try it. I'm not very hopeful though: last night I turned the brightness and gamma up to full and still couldn't see the ground. There was no moon, but I could clearly see the stars. Nevertheless, I'll try it. Thanks :)