Jump to content

Heporlathic

Recommended Posts

I would like to point out that there is no place on the whole map where one NEEDS to hold a flashlight to

see something.

 

Cool effect: If you're spending time in a well lit room, and are then transitioning into

a darker area, the eyes take a lot of time to adapt.

 

Cool idea indeed. I think it should be way darker outside. In some houses after the power goes out, it's pitch black. It should be almost pitch black on certain days in the month, and always really dark in forests, although I'm not sure how you can make that look good in an isometric world. 

 

People stress that going out at night is really dangerous because of limited visibility, and, theoretically, zombies are more active at night, but that's never been the case for me. I've never had problems looting, clearing, farming, or doing any other daily apocalypse activities at night. I'm not sure how hard it would be to code the game to be darker at night (think indoors after the electricity goes out) but I think a darker night would be more immersive. It would make you stick to the visibility from lights on the sides of houses, or streetlights, or encourage you to bring your own flashlight or light up the outdoor areas of your base.

 

Imagine the true danger of a pitch black night. When looting, you would attempt to enter houses from windows close to house lights because you know that if you wander from that cone of vision, a stray zombie wandering around a corner can catch you off-guard and kill your little friend. Imagine the once idle zombies wandering around almost as much as the zombies from the alpha versions. Imagine the developers adding light to the list of things that attract zombies. Close those curtains or barricade those windows completely, because just like the first episode of The Walking Dead, your lights will bring them right to your door. Imagine them howling or moaning more often, or having custom noises for night time as the moon affects the blood in their body and whatever water is left in their decaying cells. They could do a lot more to make night time a totally different experience while keeping traditional zombie lore.

 

TL;DR : I think darker nights would be awesome! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At one point the game had pitch black nights and we had an endless torrent of people complaining about it. The problem is further exasperated by the fact that no monitors are the same, making it very hard to control exactly how dark things are, and the fact that shaders influence the light and color (which some people will have enabled and others won't) and you have a pretty tricky situation. Some of it could possibly be mitigated by having a gamma slider but that's not currently in the works so it's hard to say if that will ever be an option. Just a heads up that we've been down that path before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

+1

Cool idea is to make nigths either darker or make "fog of war" thing, so you will see less during night than during the day.

Night in zombie apocalypse should be something you should really be scared of and you wouldn't even dear coming out without a flashlight.

Even if flashlight will make you really visible....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

At one point the game had pitch black nights and we had an endless torrent of people complaining about it.

 

Its like in real life, as soon as the lights go off, everybody moans :D

Do you have a screenshot by any chance of when the nights were pitch black?

 

It is indeed a bit complicated simulating night time, but if a compromise leads

to playing the game for days without ever thinking about light, the whole horror atmosphere is ... not there?

 

I'm all for a "fog of war" type of overlay - something that makes the most experienced player lose his urban navigation skills

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At one point the game had pitch black nights and we had an endless torrent of people complaining about it. The problem is further exasperated by the fact that no monitors are the same, making it very hard to control exactly how dark things are, and the fact that shaders influence the light and color (which some people will have enabled and others won't) and you have a pretty tricky situation. Some of it could possibly be mitigated by having a gamma slider but that's not currently in the works so it's hard to say if that will ever be an option. Just a heads up that we've been down that path before.

So in general you're saying it's better to not have pitch black nights because?

Because it's so hard to make gamma etc. options in the game or even make darker nigths a option (either in sandbox options or in regular options or both).

This isn't really a good point. "People complained about it, because i wasn't well made, so we needed to remove it completely".

It's mostly what you're saying. And i understand what you're saying but really - it's not so hard to both have darker nigths for hardcore players and have options to disable them/gamma options for not-hardcore players.

People probably wouldn't complain about that if that one simple option would be created.

But neither way, from my experience devs won't really change their point of view because some random dude made a post around it (tldr i think it's always better to create options for some things to make both sides of players happy than remove something and make only one side happy, Starbound devs do that thing really often and they have many haters because of that....). So i think having like limited range of view during night would be better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So in general you're saying it's better to not have pitch black nights because?

Because it's so hard to make gamma etc. options in the game or even make darker nigths a option (either in sandbox options or in regular options or both).

This isn't really a good point. "People complained about it, because i wasn't well made, so we needed to remove it completely".

It's mostly what you're saying. And i understand what you're saying but really - it's not so hard to both have darker nigths for hardcore players and have options to disable them/gamma options for not-hardcore players.

People probably wouldn't complain about that if that one simple option would be created.

But neither way, from my experience devs won't really change their point of view because some random dude made a post around it (tldr i think it's always better to create options for some things to make both sides of players happy than remove something and make only one side happy, Starbound devs do that thing really often and they have many haters because of that....). So i think having like limited range of view during night would be better.

 

 

No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's an issue that needs to be approached carefully, and not as easy as you seem to think it is. I'm saying we tried darker nights and with the current system it can't work without ruining people's experiences. I'm saying you don't add a "simple" option in programming, and it might behoove you not to call things simple if you don't understand the complexity. Please don't put words in my mouth, especially since I said a lot of the issues could be resolved by adding a gamma slider at some point. Next time please read my post a bit more carefully.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Imagine the true danger of a pitch black night.

Yes, this is the stuff that HORROR is made of.

A dark house, a zombie hiding in a closet, 2% battery life in flashlight,

 

Also I think the game is not scary enough because of missing "pitch black darkness"

 

In reverse I was also thinking about sunnier days. Like really sunny and hot. Heat waves from the rooftops hot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had an Idea how to realize complete darkness without throwing the players off:

 

Give every player a pseudo light radius of a few meters that only he/she can see.

 

What I mean is a very weak light radius, imagine how darkness is managed in the current versions -

that will be how your light radius will look - what is outside of the radius will be dark, depending on the night

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's an issue that needs to be approached carefully, and not as easy as you seem to think it is. I'm saying we tried darker nights and with the current system it can't work without ruining people's experiences. I'm saying you don't add a "simple" option in programming, and it might behoove you not to call things simple if you don't understand the complexity. Please don't put words in my mouth, especially since I said a lot of the issues could be resolved by adding a gamma slider at some point. Next time please read my post a bit more carefully.

I agree with you. I'm sorry, i didn't read what you said really carefully.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had an Idea how to realize complete darkness without throwing the players off:

 

Give every player a pseudo light radius of a few meters that only he/she can see.

 

What I mean is a very weak light radius, imagine how darkness is managed in the current versions -

that will be how your light radius will look - what is outside of the radius will be dark, depending on the night

 

BEAUTIFUL IDEA!!! It reminds me of Console Terraria's tiny radius of faint light when entering caves without a light source.

 

 

 

So in general you're saying it's better to not have pitch black nights because?

Because it's so hard to make gamma etc. options in the game or even make darker nigths a option (either in sandbox options or in regular options or both).

This isn't really a good point. "People complained about it, because i wasn't well made, so we needed to remove it completely".

It's mostly what you're saying. And i understand what you're saying but really - it's not so hard to both have darker nigths for hardcore players and have options to disable them/gamma options for not-hardcore players.

People probably wouldn't complain about that if that one simple option would be created.

But neither way, from my experience devs won't really change their point of view because some random dude made a post around it (tldr i think it's always better to create options for some things to make both sides of players happy than remove something and make only one side happy, Starbound devs do that thing really often and they have many haters because of that....). So i think having like limited range of view during night would be better.

 

 

No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's an issue that needs to be approached carefully, and not as easy as you seem to think it is. I'm saying we tried darker nights and with the current system it can't work without ruining people's experiences. I'm saying you don't add a "simple" option in programming, and it might behoove you not to call things simple if you don't understand the complexity. Please don't put words in my mouth, especially since I said a lot of the issues could be resolved by adding a gamma slider at some point. Next time please read my post a bit more carefully.

 

 

Also if you don't mind, Rathlord, can you elaborate a little bit? Because Minecraft and Terraria are almost pitch black at night on normal settings, even at max gamma for Minecraft. I REALLY want this feature because nights feel exactly the same as day except the cool ambient music of B33. It's the only scary part of the night; the only atmospheric piece. Dying Light goes almost completely dark at night (if not completely), and it's not nearly as hardcore as PZ, and you hardly see anyone complaining about pitch black night in these games, so why worry about it with PZ? I agree with Domoro on one piece. It might have been complained about because it wasn't properly executed?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really hope the developer team takes this into consideration.

Because what's a horror game without proper darkness and need for light sources.

 

What comes to my mind is the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

The underground facilities were so dark and scary. *shits his pants*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope they will make darker nights. Flashlight will be usefull again, generator at base + custom lighting thanks to b33. and that feel when you are half way to your base from loot run, at night and then the battery runs out :-D. and you can only hear those awesome fmod sounds :-D.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've played the ancient version where nights were pitch black and I honestly prefer those to the ones we have now which I see as being forever full moon/early morning nights, really makes flashlights, candles and all light in general completely useless where light could and in my humble opinion, should be something a bit more required, if not for survival, the for comfort.

Maybe have a Sandbox setting of "Ambient Light Level at Night" how about that? Make the default as it is and let those who want to make it a bit harder for themselves live in darkness eternal.

Hell, you add a challenge called "Eternal Night" where once night comes it never ends and have it be pitch black. Imagine how fun that would be :D Hunting for a flashlight all day and then scouring the earth for batteries and generator fuel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Baycon the thing to consider is that with Minecraft and Terraria, they are not hardcore games. Creeper sneaks up on you at night, or a zombie in Terraria and murders you? Oh well, respawn. Zombie sneaks up on you in PZ? Too bad, you just lost your whole world and your character. Can you imagine if that were the case in those two games? There would be rage.

Now, that's not to say that there's not a place for darkness in PZ- I, at least, feel that there certainly is. It's just important that deaths feel fair, and that it's something tweakable. I honestly feel the old darkness was great, except for the fact that it varies immensely based on each persons computer. Those are issue that need to be resolved before the darkness comes back. That's not to say that it won't come back- I very much hope it does.

Also, something you might not know, the light level varies based on moon cycle in PZ and I believe it starts with a full moon. So those of you with shorter average life spans may not see how dark it can actually get.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm coming back from making a "Darker Nights" mod and while I succeeded to a degree (The nights sure are darker) I now know a few things more and I kind of understand why they are so bright atm. Idk if I just dug in the wrong part of code (Only nights were darker so I don't think so) but there is plenty of things that would need a rewrite. And that's all I'll say.
 

 

Also, something you might not know, the light level varies based on moon cycle in PZ and I believe it starts with a full moon. So those of you with shorter average life spans may not see how dark it can actually get.

Also, it doesn't ever get THAT dark. My survival record is 11 months and it was never really dark.

Also 2, it's a detail but it actually starts before full moon so even those who survive a bit might get the impression it only get's brighter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to try playing using the torch. Might change the settings so I really can't see anything in the dark. It will be interesting to see how it changes the night.

Not all that much because of the way Torch actually works. It might sound weird but Torch isn't an actual light source as far as the game is concerned. Then again, you'll probably get better results lowering your monitors gamma then I did trying to mod the thing to be dark.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried to change my screen settings to make the night darker but failed...... i was considering wearing sunglasses while playing.......

 

The best thing i could come up  with was to simply zoom all the way in at night time. when i used a torch i zoomed out a bit. this worked rather well, although i did have to resist the temptation to zoom out :P

while zoomed in you can still see a lot around you but you can't see very far! (well i couldn't on my laptop screen) it was harder to navigate. zombies could see me before i could see them. It felt quite claustrophobic and i found my self listening to the sound effects more than normal.

 

It made things harder but didn't make things feel impossible like i think pitch black nights would. I have not had much time to test it yet but what i did play was a lot of fun and made the night feel dangerous.  

 

(i must admit i was playing with zombie count set to low and some other changed sandbox settings + mods etc)      

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I played a demo before that was rather dark at night. When I was a security guard IRL I would turn off all the lights in the building to help me see light sources in the distance. After a while I could see fairly well at night. To this day, when I go camping and put a fire one, I always keep one Eye closed so I'm not blinded by a fire if a bear pops up (had it happen before. Had my machete drawn, but couldn't see shit because i blinded myself with the fire still managed to scare it away though). Anyway, when I got the game instead of the demo, I was excited to try a security guard with cat eyes, and I was like "wow this is a vastly different" little did i know the whole build was different, and i was pretty much seeing what everyone else was seeing.

 

All that nonsense being said, Perhaps the devs overcompensated with this one. And near sight. They are not a limiting as they should be.  Even if its a zoom out limit that would help (this is what i though near sighted did, but I still see forever out). I would still appreciate more darkness though, so I actually consider using a flashlight. Moon cycles would be awesome to, like if cats eyes lets your see in the waxing and waning cresent, but others could only see in first and second quarter. That would be cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think part of the reason why this would be offputting is that in multiplayer you don't sleep. That means if you have no light source, you're literally sitting in the house doing nothing for hours. Of course then people could change the setting to have shorter nights, but personally I like the tradeoff of no sleep for less dark. In SP it may be nice though. (though I do remember when it was pitch black on my server once and I ran around for 20 minutes trying not to die but not being able to find a house because you can't FEEL anything like a doorknob or window because you're playing a game and not actually feeling around (sorry for the run on sentence))

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I'm going to try playing using the torch. Might change the settings so I really can't see anything in the dark. It will be interesting to see how it changes the night.

Not all that much because of the way Torch actually works. It might sound weird but Torch isn't an actual light source as far as the game is concerned. Then again, you'll probably get better results lowering your monitors gamma then I did trying to mod the thing to be dark.

 

 

A lot of horror games have a little brightness/gamma bar image that you have to adjust til you don't see certain things. I think this would be a great alternative

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think part of the reason why this would be offputting is that in multiplayer you don't sleep. That means if you have no light source, you're literally sitting in the house doing nothing for hours. Of course then people could change the setting to have shorter nights, but personally I like the tradeoff of no sleep for less dark. In SP it may be nice though. (though I do remember when it was pitch black on my server once and I ran around for 20 minutes trying not to die but not being able to find a house because you can't FEEL anything like a doorknob or window because you're playing a game and not actually feeling around (sorry for the run on sentence))

 

I know that there are only candles and flashlights in the game until now, but if there were  torches (home made, made with some gasoline drenched rags), lanterns, and with the lighting update a portable battery connector for bulbs, then it would be different.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...