The reason why people are so divided on the issue of night time darkness on DayZ...

[katulobotomia 26]

USA light pollution map

Everywhere where it isn't the darkest shade of black, is light polluted. Yellow and green is where it is at least twice brighter than natural light at night. Most of the entire area of USA is light polluted as well as noise polluted. There remains only few places in the entire country where there isn't any light pollution.

Did you know? Even NVG's can become useless and blind on the darkest nights. That is how dark it can get in real life. On those ungodly dark nights, you use infrared with infrared lights or the expensive thermal vision.

TL;DR: It gets even darker than in DayZ.

I had the fortunate (or the unfortunate, depending on how I want to remember that time) chance of camping in the army in the middle of nowhere for three weeks. Nights got so dark you couldn't see the ground you were standing on nor where the sky started and ended. The human eye is completely blind on moonless, cloud covered nights. If there is light that you see in the night and the moon isn't up, that is light pollution. A full moon in none light polluted areas is 76 times less bright than a full lit candle.

So in other words: DayZ nights are incredibly bright compared to the real thing...

Edited July 20, 2012 by Katulobotomia

[jukaga 271]

+1

Anyone who has been backcountry camping can confim this. I love the dark nights, I'm glad they aren't totally realistic then it would be literally impossible to play.

[Tsyn 215]

*claps*

Nantahala rapids in North Carolina. Nothing better than falling into the river looking for the liquor bottle.

Edited July 20, 2012 by Tsyn

[con7act 29]

+1

Anyone who has been backcountry camping can confim this. I love the dark nights, I'm glad they aren't totally realistic then it would be literally impossible to play.

impossible to play...

you start with a flashlight...

did i miss something?

[KarinjaNinja 80]

Isn't it true that places where it isn't light polluted can see the stars a lot better? I live in NJ and we are light polluted. We definately don't see every star in the sky and on most night barely any.

[entelin 13]

+1, many people don't understand this. I love nighttime play in DayZ actually its got a really good atmosphere that fits the whole zombie thing well.

[jukaga 271]

impossible to play...

you start with a flashlight...

did i miss something?

Who uses it though? It's like sparking a flare and standing in the middle of it waiting for someone to kill you. About the only time I use a flashlight is to briefly light up a room with loot in it. Besides, the flashlight really sucks, it only lights up that little circle and puts out no ambient light, but it can be seen by others from the max view distance.

[katulobotomia 26]

+1

Anyone who has been backcountry camping can confim this. I love the dark nights, I'm glad they aren't totally realistic then it would be literally impossible to play.

Exactly. The first time I saw my night vision goggles show only static at night instead of illuminating the night, I couldn't believe it. It was so dark we had to start using infrared lights and thermal to navigate around. We were told that even the nocturnal predators don't usually roam around much in those dark times. :S

[katulobotomia 26]

Isn't it true that places where it isn't light polluted can see the stars a lot better? I live in NJ and we are light polluted. We definately don't see every star in the sky and on most night barely any.

Yes! I could see the galaxy we are in perfectly on those nights that didn't have clouds. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen since or before that. I never believed the galaxy was so visible to the naked human eye. I could even see passing satellites in the sky flickering in reflected sunlight. I literally spent hours staring right up in the sky admiring our galaxy, all the stars and occasional meteoroids that burned up in the atmosphere. The galaxy looks like a fine mist with millions of stars dotted around it, with groups of stars somewhere and it reaches the other end of the sky to the other. You would never imagine how amazing the night sky is with absolutely zero pollution and a perfectly clear sky. It is phenomenal.

I'm just glad I didn't get caught staring up in the sky instead of guarding the fox holes :)

Edited July 20, 2012 by Katulobotomia

[daze23 549]

the thing is if this were "real life", I probably wouldn't be taking chances in the dark. I'd be hanging out at my 'camp' and evetually trying to get some sleep

I understand the concept of this being a 'simulation' and all, but at some point that's just gonna make people not wanna play. I do most of my playing at night, and if I was forced to only play on night time servers, I honestly wouldn't play much. I appreciate the realism, but I think at some point you have to ask if it's worth it

Edited July 20, 2012 by daze23

[orb917@hotmail.com 117]

yup, gets real damn dark up here at night. great for stargazing, especially in the winter.

to those who say there's no incentive to playing at night - with zeds being more visually oriented now, it's SO much easier to sneak around them at night and maintain stealth. you can pretty much crouch-run within 10 meters of them the whole time (depending on the surface). if it's too dark, pop a flare and throw it nearby, you distract zombies, get some ambient light to help you see, you just gotta be cautious about bandits and quick to leave. you also get the benefit of the north star for navigation. i almost prefer to play at night at this point.

[opticalshadow 27]

i love night servers, and play on them as often as possible. its like a diffrent community in game. i find alot less dicks play, people are trying to survive, its jus tmore fun for me.

[jukaga 271]

Yes! I could see the galaxy we are in perfectly on those nights that didn't have clouds. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen since or before that. I never believed the galaxy was so visible to the naked human eye. I could even see passing satellites in the sky flickering in reflected sunlight. I literally spent hours staring right up in the sky admiring our galaxy, all the stars and occasional meteoroids that burned up in the atmosphere. The galaxy looks like a fine mist with millions of stars dotted around it, with groups of stars somewhere and it reaches the other end of the sky to the other. You would never imagine how amazing the night sky is with absolutely zero pollution and a perfectly clear sky. It is phenomenal.

I'm just glad I didn't get caught staring up in the sky instead of guarding the fox holes :)

It truly is amazing. Once you see it you understand why it's called the Milky Way.

[-S13- 0]

Angry zombie mob in the dark is scary and at least you dont have to crawl everywhere,

And yes real life is darker

[sunnz 24]

It gets even darker in dayz?

How can it get darker than a pitch black picture?

[Psychobob 155]

The nights better not ever change. I hate games where the nighttime is so bright that it's just daytime with sunglasses on.

[Mooseocalypse 59]

TL;DR the majority of gamers are stupid children who have never been anywhere without street lights.

[ruecanonrails 24]

The true darkness in this game is amazing. I can't wait to see all the people start crying when the flashlights require batteries hehe

Although because of all the people complaining and the game to find balanced middle ground what I think should be added to the game is the ability to repair power stations/generators and get the street lights in large towns to turn on allow the town streets to be visible.

Of course keep the lights in houses off only allow the streetlights so the town only gives the illusion of light.

All of this I would suggest keep only in a couple of the large towns in the games.

[orb917@hotmail.com 117]

the ability to repair power stations/generators

i've seen rocket talk about generator functionality being added in the future, and also(i think, don't quote me) those portable light stands they use in night time highway construction. dunno if that's still planned though.

[lastninja9 2]

It also depends on the latitude and season. In northern europe it never gets darker than "early morning" on summer nights (even if it's cloudy and without a full moon). It only gets pitch black in the darkest of winter (and even then only if it's cloudy and no snow) - the rest of the year YOU CAN SEE at night.

But the darkness suits this game, and really they can't make it any brighter cos then people will make it brighter than daytime using the gain slider. I only wish they made flashlights much better and more useful.

Edited July 20, 2012 by Fish

[katulobotomia 26]

It gets even darker in dayz?

How can it get darker than a pitch black picture?

Because you have human eyes which don't have very good night vision...even if you still see the same pitch black it can be twice as dark than it was when you first saw just pitch black. I'm not sure why I need to explain this though...

In fact, it can be so dark that even wearing night vision goggles can't help you see....yet you still see the same black picture when you take them off.

Edited July 20, 2012 by Katulobotomia

[Ssgt_Perez 35]

If you can handle playing at night zombies are no threat at all. If I stay off the roads I can full on sprint through a city for an amazingly quick loot run.

If I do attract a zed I can literally just crouch run in some grass and it will forget I even existed.

Edited July 21, 2012 by Ssgt_Perez

[orb917@hotmail.com 117]

It gets even darker in dayz?

How can it get darker than a pitch black picture?

abundance and wavelength of photons.

[katulobotomia 26]

... If I stay off the roads I can't full on sprint through a city for an amazingly quick loot run....

If I do attract a zed I can literally just crouch run in some grass and it will forget I even existed.

Can't or can run through a city? ;)

Yea zombies are extremely easy to handle at night. This is why I love looting towns at night. It is so much more rewarding sneaking into the night than running in broad daylight. Plus the players wearing night vision can be blinded with flares or chemlights if you are lucky.

[dallas 5195]

The night sky is mindblowingly beautiful in these black holes on the countryside, like a hypnotizing carpet of stars. However when you tilt your head back down, you can only rely on the sound of your feet on the ground and your memory to navigate with.