The logical fallacy of keeping the day/night cycle

[Lingwo 0]

Night time is great i think and really adds to the game. My only real problem is it goes on for too long. I've always thought it would be better having a shorter night cycle say 4-5 hours. At the moment when i play on UK servers. it is usually in the evening because i work (yes i know that is my problem). So when i'm in game i only get an hour or two light before it gets dark. If when it gets dark i knew it was only X hours i could find somewhere and "make camp". At the moment when it gets dark, i know it is going to another 10 odd hours before it starts getting light. So i only usually last a couple hours before i quit.

If they don't want to make the night cycles shorter or some other solution. Then why not give us a flash light that we can hold or wear like a head lamp. I know torches and NV is in the game but when you have a torch you can't hold a handgun.

Having all the servers at the same time i don't think will work because when it gets dark the majority will just stop playing. Which isn't really a solution to the problem. You're just doing what they are doing now but at the same time.

[Tehdark 3]

I'm not sure you know what a logical fallacy is...

Anyway, the most simple solution does seem to be Lev's suggestion, it certainly seems the most apt and fair. Shorter nights also seem to make sense.

Though if I'm honest, I've never really seen the current system as a real issue, personally. I also doubt the actual impact it has on the server load, you would really need to analyse traffic statistics to get a real answer who's connecting where and when. Anything else is just conjecture.

[Skint (DayZ) 138]

If you want all players to be on a level playing field' date=' then the solution that will work is having a global DayZ time that is enforced via the hive pushing time updates to servers. Then slowly shifting the DayZ time (perhaps +3 hours every day or something so a full cycle in 8 days) in such a way that a player who lives at x and plays only during y to z will experience the full day and night cycle if they continue living at x and playing from y to z.

[/quote']

This is an excellent solution, I hope it at least gets trialled at some point by the Devteam to see if it works.

[Cavan 0]

I think the easiest solution is to just alter the cycle so that both day and night are significantly shorter.

Probably about 3:1 ratio of in game time to real time would be ideal (maybe with a half hour gain per day or so to make it a little less predictable), that way you have to deal with darkness coming in on you quickly if you're a day person and there's still enough time to scurry around being sneaky during the night without it being a "well I have to wait 12 hours until the next day so I might aswell log off/switch server" problem for a lot of people.

Then you could also make all server times identical without actually affecting anybody regardless of location or limited play time. Once they're all identical there's no reason to all flock to certain servers at certain times.

[Lechuza 0]

Apart from technical issues, wouldn't it add to the gameplay if you could see a sunrise/sunset ingame, in a server near you or server of preference, without having to stay awake and play for 12 hours or more? or without having to server hop around to change from daytime to nighttime?

By making nights/days shorter, people would actually have to plan when travelling, even more now with the temperature mechanic. Wouldn't that add to gameplay? I like playing both during nightime and daytime, as it adds variety.

By shifting the daytime every day, for an hour or so, that way after 8 days or a week, the ingame time would be reversed in respect to the previous week. That way you could play in the same server, at the same RL time you generally do (when job/classes give you enough free time).

Right now I find myself changing between 2 or 3 servers, I try to play one day during daytime, and the next one during nightime by switching servers. But right now I cannot do that in the same server with the current system (I only have time to play from x to y pm every day). I haven't seen a sunrise ingame yet, only sunset in those servers that give you an hour of daylight when it is actually nightime.

Would this add to gameplay? I would like to hear your opinions.

Edit: to the guy (lolpankakes) that suggested restricting ping to 75ms, with the system that it is in place now I could only play during nighttime. Not only that, but I could never play with my friends, who live on the other side of the world. That is a very shortsighted solution. Yes, If you have a modem you probably have high pings, however, concluding the converse, that everyone that has high ping has a modem connection, is not equivalent and indeed a logical fallacy. Not much of a logical response if you ask me :)

[Ub3rS0ldat 0]

"Logical" thread is not Logical.

You know what they say about assuming.

[Ironman UK 1]

making all servers the same time is unfair on people that can ONLY play at certain times because of work etc. I however, think the night cycle should be a 12 hour cycle. I think this will add more emersion because people will actually be able to see the sun rise and lower often.

[worbat 13]

So I read through this entire thread.

Maybe I missed something or it wasn't explained in a way I could understand clearly.

Can some one SPELLOUT why the current system needs to be changed?

[aLmAnZo (DayZ) 21]

I agree with the thought behind, but day and night should be equally long.

Shouldn't really be that big of a deal if days and nights where 7-9 hours rather than 12. Then people who play at basicly the same time everyday, get to play both during night time and day time.

And forcing global DayZ time is a good idea.

[Tehdark 3]

So I read through this entire thread.

Maybe I missed something or it wasn't explained in a way I could understand clearly.

Can some one SPELLOUT why the current system needs to be changed?

Well, the thread was working under the assumption that the day night cycle causes so many people to ignore night servers, and crowd onto day servers, that it causes performance issues. That's how I understood it anyway.

[rocket 16567]

For the billionth time.

The current day night cycle is the way it is for technical reasons. Please search for my previous myriad of replies on the matter.

[SDE Bellisarius 1]

I see absolutely no problem with the way it is now' date=' it's just a bunch of butthurt players who don't want to struggle in the game at night because it's "too hard". People in games these days have no integrity and a learning curve is something they just try to avoid instead of enduring through it and rising above it.

There is nothing wrong with it as it is, it's the people that are the problem, not the current system.

[/quote']

i have to agree +1

[Fishie 0]

Night time wouldn't be such a big deal if it was realistic in that you could at least see something.

Most of the time, the stars are out. Sometimes even the moon. Yet it's still absolutely pitch black.

[TeaLeaf 5]

Force every server to use "DayZ Time". Each DayZ hour takes 45 minutes in real time, meaning the cycle repeats every 18 hours real time. This means no matter what your schedule/location you will get a variety of day and night play over the weeks or months.

Just an example (assume the time was synced at midnight on monday.

Day      | In game time at 6pm GMT
-----------------------------------
Monday    | Midnight on Tuesday
Tuesday   | 8am Wednesday
Wednesday | 4pm Thursday
Thursday  | Midnight on Saturday
Friday    | 8am Sunday
Saturday  | 4pm Monday
Sunday    | Midnight on Wednesday

That way people can't really "puss out" of playing at night like they can now, but for those of us that have to mostly play in the evenings we still get a variety of different in game times to play with.

I'd also like it if weather was synced across all servers too, to stop people hopping away from rain.

[dallas 5195]

I wanted to post a lenghty explanation for why I enjoy the current day/night cycle, but I'll just quote this:

For the billionth time.

The current day night cycle is the way it is for technical reasons. Please search for my previous myriad of replies on the matter.

[lherron 0]

Rocket: Sorry - I searched specifically for your posts on the issue but didn't find them. Thanks for the clarification.

We can now consider this discussion theoretical or for a much later release, and not something that will realistically be implemented in the short term. I'll make an edit to the OP.

Worbat: Yes, as a poster said above, that is the issue: People like playing during the daylight, because they can see better. This is responsible for a large portion of the "server hopping" - maybe 20-40%? This server hopping/extra traffic is one of the large factors contributing to the connection issues many players encounter. Therefore, make a better (yet still brutal and realistic) day/night system, reduce the server hopping, make the entire game more stable and user friendly from a connectivity stand point. Sorry that wasn't clear.

Tea leaf: I love that suggestion. It alters reality slightly which some people will be always be opposed to, but it's close enough for me.

To the people who don't know what a fallacy is... it's an idea based in incorrect logic. The fallacy at hand, that many in the community believe, is:

"Having server Day/night cycles tethered to their time zone makes Dayz more realistic".

***The key is that we are striving for realism.*** It's a fallacy because what actually makes Dayz more realistic is the fact that at some point, darkness falls, and we are then playing in darkness - not the fact that servers are tethered to their geographical location. There are ways to retain realism while alleviating server hopping. Please, if you still don't understand this, post why you don't understand it, and someone will explain further. Please refrain from trolling or empty comments.

To those non-contributors who drop useless one liners in: why not post an actual, coherent argument, then everyone wins. Thanks.

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I wanted to post a lenghty explanation for why I enjoy the current day/night cycle' date=' but I'll just quote this:

For the billionth time.

The current day night cycle is the way it is for technical reasons. Please search for my previous myriad of replies on the matter.

But please do post it. I want to hear why people like the current setup (having servers tethered to their timezones).

We can move on from this being a thread with "suggestions", as Rocket has made it clear it won't be changed any time soon, and make it theoretical game design thread. That's more than OK.