The problem that is the current daylight cycle

[Garm (DayZ) 0]

Now the idea of having a cycle that corresponds to real time is a very interesting concept, but it’s time we re-evaluate how it works.

We need to face the problems with this cycle, which is not the fact that it exists since playing during the night is at times a lot of fun and people want to do that too, but rather how it works. We simply can’t get around the fact that currently in the game it turns pitch black around 20:00 and stays dark until the moon rises past midnight. This is a tremendous problem.

If we are to think about realism, the players should be most active during the hours of the day when the sun is up, meaning that the characters SHOULD be up at dawn and be busy before the night where they will be dormant. But right now the player and the game work in almost opposite circadian rhythms. If it would for example get dark around midnight it would be more in sync with how people actually play the game.

The problem we face is that the majority of the players will have a job, study or otherwise spend most of their day doing something other than playing video games. Which means that the prime time for playing games; after you are done with the chores for the day and can finally sit down to relax and enjoy some quality video game time. Well, then it’s pitch black on the server.

Of course you CAN play during this darkness. You can navigate with a compass between locations, you can max out your gamma and HDR and enjoy the grey mush but still be able to see somewhat ok. But none of those options are enjoyable or satisfying. The problem is, and will at this rate continue to be, that when people are free to play the game are the specific hours when DayZ is at the very least extremely boring to play. The result of this is obvious, when the darkness hits people will simply stop playing and wait until the next day when they can actually play the game again. If they even can during those hours.

Removing the hours where most people can play *WILL* kill DayZ. I’m a student so I have enjoyed a large degree of freedom to choose which hours I want to study and which I want to play DayZ, and therefore I have been able to play the game during daylight a lot. But soon I will just like most other people start a job with regular working hours, which means I’ll get home after work and won’t be able to start playing until maybe 19-20, by that time it will be dark and I simply won’t play the game even though I really want to, since I don’t consider it enjoyable constantly playing in the darkness. It is a great game, but people will be deprived of the experience due to the current daytime cycle.

I hope something will be done about the current cycle of the game, because the night is for many people the only time they CAN play games.

I’m not saying there is one true solution to this, there are many. But what I want to do is to address the problem so we can discuss what would be a good solution. The game should be adapted to sync with the players, the players can’t be forced to adapt their lives to the game. It’s simply not reasonable.

P.S. I know this topic has been discussed before, but if this mod is to survive to be more than just the flavour of the month we need a more serious debate on how to change this.

[unsobill 0]

This was discussed in FAQ, answer is no - time cycle will not be changed.

[Garm (DayZ) 0]

This is why i bring it up.

I believe this issue is serious enough to threaten the long term existence of the game unless something changes.

[eegore 23]

Since we can log into daylight servers I dont think the game will suffer long-term consequences.

[Garm (DayZ) 0]

It's not sane to force people to play on servers with 200 ping rather than 30 just because they want to change the daylight. How does that benefit anyone?

I just read a very good post on 4chan about this logic

"so you're saying its okay to change servers to a location not near you, but it goes against realism to change the night cycle?"

If it's not a question of realism, then time shifting the existing servers to better suit the players shouldn't be a problem either.

[Aryaa 5]

Its not that its night 12h and day 12h, its that nights are PITCHBLACK meaning you see shit.

DayZ somehow managed to not keep the Eye adaption that Arma 2 has (or pretty much every other game has on the market) where the longer you stay in the dark, the better you see. Like real life.