Day Night time [Archive] - PlanetSide Universe

RSphil

2012-05-18, 09:01 AM

hi planetside nuts

not sure if this has been answered before and i just havent seen it but do we know what the day/night cycle time is gona be? are we looking a few hours of day then a few hours of transition followed by a few hours of night or will it be real time?

MacXXcaM

2012-05-18, 09:07 AM

RSphil

2012-05-18, 09:15 AM

the vid isnt that great though as its a alpha and he speeds it up to daylight. i dont think we have seen a vid yet where the timer is normal lol. they are always speeding it up of setting it to a time.

would be nice to know though. id say a 24 hour cycle would take maybe 8 hours maybe. 3 hours of day, 3 hours of night then the other 2 for transition

ringring

2012-05-18, 10:21 AM

We don't know for sure, at least I don't.

Most likely it's not realtime. That would be ridiculous.
If you watch the TB video, it starts with a sunsetty point of time and at the end you see the dawn.

The video is 20 minutes but it's obviously been cut. He said he had 90 minutes of footage. Maybe that's a night time...

No, TB manually advanced the day/night cycle to demonstrate the look.

On the question, we don't know but I recall Matt saying that they hadn't decided on the hours but that night would likely be shorter than the day.

MyMeatStick

2012-05-18, 10:32 AM

Go to one of the videos where he changes the day and night cycle to x100

Count how long it takes to go across the sky and do the math?

SteinB

2012-05-18, 05:22 PM

Go to one of the videos where he changes the day and night cycle to x100

Count how long it takes to go across the sky and do the math?

That would only show the base timecycle for the design not what they will eventually use in game.

Vancha

2012-05-18, 06:36 PM

I still think 7 hours would be perfect. It just works out too well.

Gonefshn

2012-05-18, 06:42 PM

the longer the better but it cant be real time because if it was certain people would either only ever see day or night because of their schedule and when they can log on during the day.

Crazyduckling

2012-05-18, 06:58 PM

I think 5 hours seems reasonable.

If you have a long gaming session, you'll be able to experience 'multiple days' fighting on Auraxis. Also, having an odd number is key. Many people will be confined to playing at a certain time, so this would keep the game constantly changing each time they log in.

MyMeatStick

2012-05-18, 07:20 PM

People are talking about 5 or 7 hours here? No thanks, I'd rather have 24 hours in game last about 2 hours.

SuperMorto

2012-05-18, 07:22 PM

Hmmm, average gaming time is 3/4 hours. I say 1/2 hours night 2/3 hours day. Job is done we can move on now......

Gonefshn

2012-05-18, 07:22 PM

People are talking about 5 or 7 hours here? No thanks, I'd rather have 24 hours in game last about 2 hours.

I think 3 is perfect. so im close to you on that. You can't have people really frustrated cause they can only play for short periods every day and they constantly get stuck with one time of day

Xyntech

2012-05-18, 07:38 PM

Well it would have to be 3 hours 30 minutes to properly cycle around the clock. It can't be a number that evenly goes into 24.

2.5 hours is the shortest I would want to see a day and 9 hours would be the longest.

5 seems good to me though. There will be multiple continents, so presumably if you are really sick of always fighting at a certain time of day, you can go to another continent and it will be different.

Vancha

2012-05-18, 07:40 PM

I think 3 is perfect. so im close to you on that. You can't have people really frustrated cause they can only play for short periods every day and they constantly get stuck with one time of day
That's only a problem for 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 and to a lesser extent 9 hour days.

2 hour days would mean less than an hour of night. Tactically that's barely worth planning for.

Keep in mind, if you want 1 - 1.5 hour nights, that also means you'll probably get 1.5 - 2 hour days. If you're someone who for whatever reason refuses to play nights, wouldn't it suck to have such a time limit on where you fight?

Long nights (and thus, longer daytime) only seem like a potentially bad idea if each continent doesn't have it's own timezone.

Edit: 5 hours means that you'll only complete a cycle every 5 weeks (smallest multiple of 5 and 12/24 is 60, with 168 hours in a week, 840 in 5 weeks). 7 hours means the cycle resets exactly every 7 days, so while sunrise is at different times throughout the week, it's the same from week to week and thus you can learn the schedule.

Edit II: Also keep in mind that you need to include time for dawn and dusk, too. A 3 hour day isn't 1.5 hours of day and 1.5 hours of night.

Gonefshn

2012-05-18, 07:44 PM

That's only a problem for 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 and to a lesser extent 9 hour days.

2 hour days would mean less than an hour of night. Tactically that's barely worth planning for.

Keep in mind, if you want 1 - 1.5 hour nights, that also means you'll probably get 1.5 - 2 hour days. If you're someone who for whatever reason refuses to play nights, wouldn't it suck to have such a time limit on where you fight?

Long nights (and thus, longer daytime) only seem like a potentially bad idea if each continent doesn't have it's own timezone.

what sort of person would refuse to play nights they look amazing! :eek:

But yea I see your point I mean 5 hours is good too if I had to say another time. See I'll probably have really long play times so id personally like it really long when I said 3 I was thinking more realistically about what makes sense for other people who might not play as long

Toppopia

2012-05-18, 07:45 PM

Nights/days would have to be longer than 3 hours to beable to effectively plan a night assault or else its almost a waste of time. Maybe go up to 5 since thats an odd number ofr 24 so then each real life day the game day shifts by 1 hour.

Vancha

2012-05-18, 07:50 PM

what sort of person would refuse to play nights they look amazing! :eek:

But yea I see your point I mean 5 hours is good too if I had to say another time. See I'll probably have really long play times so id personally like it really long when I said 3 I was thinking more realistically about what makes sense for other people who might not play as long

Nights/days would have to be longer than 3 hours to beable to effectively plan a night assault or else its almost a waste of time. Maybe go up to 5 since thats an odd number ofr 24 so then each real life day the game day shifts by 1 hour.

Read my last post's edit. 5 hours works well day to day, but week to week it's a logistical nightmare.

Xyntech

2012-05-18, 07:52 PM

I'm actually thinking that night combat looks good enough that there won't be a lot of complaints if someone randomly ends up playing all daytime or all nightime for a few short play sessions in a row.

And as I said, if they set it up right, just go to another continent that is in your preferred time of day.There will probably be at least one decent night battle and one decent day battle most of the time.

Edit: While predictability has it's own downsides, having a consistent week cycle would probably have a lot more good than bad going for it. Good call Vancha, I now support 7 hour days. Especially since that would mean players who prefer one time of day wouldn't constantly be getting chased away from fights because of their preference.

They could set up moon cycles to be predictable that way too. Turn a week into Planetsides version of a lunar month.

Or since there are multiple moons, have the largest moon go through a complete cycle once every week, and have some of the smaller moons go through their cycles in something like 2 or 4 weeks.

Gonefshn

2012-05-18, 07:55 PM

I'd say different time zones and possibly even different lengths of day/night on different continents will totally make this a non issue.

Vancha

2012-05-18, 08:07 PM

I'd say different time zones and possibly even different lengths of day/night on different continents will totally make this a non issue.
Aw come on, join the 7-hour club. You know you want to.

WaryWizard

2012-05-18, 08:48 PM

As I stated some time back in the darker nights thread, 7 hour days (sunrise to sunrise) is probably the best. A 4 hour length from sunrise to sunset with a 3 hour length from sunset to sunrise. Any shorter and the night becomes just a nice little annoying feature. If it were to be a 9 hour day cycle it would probably be a little too long, but I could see it working. However, having it reset every 9 days instead of every week would be a little awkward. If you were to get on every day at the same time for a full week, the in-game time would be different every time you get on.It would take a full week for the time cycle to reset.

This would be beneficial to those that can only play fro a few hours now and then. They wouldn't be stuck playing only at sunset every time they log on.

Since it would take 7 days for the day night cycle to reset, you could consider 1 Auraxian month be equal to one real week.

TLDR: In my opinion 7 hour to 9 hour day lengths(sunrise to sunrise) is what I consider acceptable. It should be a prime whole number to allow a nice schedule.

capiqu

2012-05-18, 11:32 PM

I'm for 4 six hour cycles. with at least 2 hours of evening, night and dawn . Point I want to see all that pretty tracer fire.

Vancha

2012-05-18, 11:59 PM

I'm for 4 six hour cycles. with at least 2 hours of evening, night and dusk. Point I want to see all that pretty tracer fire.
So people who played from say, 9:30pm - 11:30pm every day would only ever experience darkness and dawn? Did you read the thread?

SixShooter

2012-05-19, 12:42 AM

With my work schedule I will pretty much be playing the same time each day. I like a 5 hour cycle for the randomness (I know not actually random but over 5 weeks it would feel that way more than a 7 day would). I think anything less than 5 hours would be too short.

Ohaunlaim

2012-05-19, 12:54 AM

If a seven hour day/night is in effect. Then those of us only able to play once a week at a set time will be experiencing the same in-game time every time we play.

WaryWizard

2012-05-19, 10:20 AM

If a seven hour day/night is in effect. Then those of us only able to play once a week at a set time will be experiencing the same in-game time every time we play.

well if you want to be like that, make it 9 hour cycle then. It would reset every 9 days, and would be a little more random than a 7 hour. I was wanting 7 hour because it is easy to keep track of. ex: I know that if I get on at X every Monday it will be at sunrise. Where as a 9 hour one would feel more random. If it starts on a Monday it will reset on the next Tuesday, then the Wednesday after that etc. If it were a 5 hour cycle that started on a Monday, it would reset on that Friday, then the upcoming Wednesday, then Monday etc.

That's when it would reset, but then you need to look at it at the day's length. In a 9 hour cycle day would last 5 hours and night would be 4 hours. That would be the longest I'd want it. A 5 hour cycle would be 3 hour day and 2 hour night. That seems to short to me. A 7 hour cycle would be 4 hour days and 3 hour night. That is a good number to me. It isn't short to the point of not even bothering, and it isn't too long that it doesn't feel like time isn't passing.

IMMentat

2012-05-19, 10:53 AM

As long as the in-game time is different every time I log in for a quick fight each monday dinnerbreak (if only), I will be content.
If its on a regular schedule it will get predictably boring, if night doesn't last long enough, it will be pointless. If TB takes his time and releases the 90 minutes of footage in chunks in the usual honest (if sometimes inaccurate) voice-over I will squee.

Gonefshn

2012-05-19, 11:33 AM

Aw come on, join the 7-hour club. You know you want to.

I didn't think I was cool enough. :(

Wanderer

2012-05-19, 11:51 AM

From memory, many MMOs with a Day/Night cycle take a "short Night" design, but in the case of PS2 I would prefer it to be even, simply because there is equal fun in both Day and Night play.

Mechzz

2012-05-19, 12:03 PM

The longer they make the nights the more we'll be inclined to spend on night-sights, goggles, shaded headlamps and anti-cloaker bits 'n' bobs in the store.

Will be interesting to see where they pitch it, but I'm in the 7 hour club as it probably supports regular outfit session times (will check that)

Edit: OK, with a 7-hour day and 7 hour night the cycle repeats every 7 days. If you assume the prime time for playing is 18:00 - 22:59 (5 hours) each day then you will get:
Day1: 3 Daylight + 2 Night (2 of which will be evening twilight)
Day2: 5 Daylight
Day3: 1 Daylight + 4 night (2 of which will be sunrise)
Day4: 1 Daylight + 4 night (2 of which will be evening twilight)
Day5: 5 Daylight
Day6: 3 Daylight + 2 Night (2 of which will be sunrise)
Day7: 5 Night.

Looks good to me! Good call Vancha!

capiqu

2012-05-19, 12:20 PM

I say we need a poll. :)

Khrusky

2012-05-19, 12:32 PM

iSpectre

2012-05-19, 12:43 PM

Am I really the only person who wants properly synchronised day/night cycles?

Personally I feel quite differently during the day and the night, and if the game isn't in tune with that then it is severely detrimental to how engaged I am with the world I am supposed to be venturing into.

I would be very interested to hear why people are more interested in variety than coherency. Do people not have any particularly strong internal sense of what time of the day it is, or is engagement in what you're doing not as high a priority as the gameplay aspects of night/day? Or is it something else entirely?

If it follows a more real-time alternating light setting. If you're a working person who only gets to play for an hour or two at night, you'll be stick always having to play at night/day. you will miss out entirely on the other side.
Use Vancha's 7 hour™ then you get a decent mix of both time-settings, and not just a brief 1 hour night time, which would render a lot of the planning for nighttime pointless, who wants to set up a 30-60 group base raiding squad for night, to then have it get all nice and bright half way through the operation?

Sledgecrushr

2012-05-19, 12:55 PM

Gonefshn

2012-05-19, 01:09 PM

Day night time n my opinion should cycle about every three hours. Hour of night and an hour of day with about thirty minutes of dusk and dawn. Allows for long fights to cross from night into daytime. Just my 2 cents.

That's probably too short I've concluded. The glory of PS1 is that 3 hours is in no way a long fight.

capiqu

2012-05-19, 01:24 PM

I could see your 7 hour cycle. If I play 3 hours everyday after work lets say from 6 pm to 9 pm, on Monday I will start play around 6 am in game time. By Saturday I will start play around 10 pm in game time. This would give a person like me, a 3 hour player the experience of all 4 in game cycles, morning, day, evening and night on a regular bases. I like your idea and I hope they give it a shot. However there are too many people with preferences and a whining 30% can spoil it for the other 70%. That's why I say that the night cycle should not be longer then 2 in game hours. So in your 7 hour cycle maybe 2 hours of night and 5 hours of day. Perhaps maybe some conts with extended night hours for those who like it.

SniperSteve

2012-05-19, 01:54 PM

2 hours night + 5 hours day ==> 7 hour cycles. (24 cycles a week)

Khrusky

2012-05-19, 06:04 PM

If it follows a more real-time alternating light setting. If you're a working person who only gets to play for an hour or two at night, you'll be stick always having to play at night/day. you will miss out entirely on the other side.

What I was saying in my post was that I'd rather always see the same time of day than have the time of day be out of sync with the real world.

I'll probably always be playing after dark, but I'd rather always see night or simply not play than have to play when the game is in day time.

This is where my question came from; am I really alone in wanting coherency over variation?

Red Beard

2012-05-19, 06:10 PM

Do people not have any particularly strong internal sense of what time of the day it is

You're asking guys on the PS2 forum? :rofl:

I don't really care how the cycle works myself, just as long as it isn't too short, and on cloudy nights it gets really dark :)

Vancha

2012-05-19, 06:22 PM

What I was saying in my post was that I'd rather always see the same time of day than have the time of day be out of sync with the real world.

I'll probably always be playing after dark, but I'd rather always see night or simply not play than have to play when the game is in day time.

This is where my question came from; am I really alone in wanting coherency over variation?
I've never heard of anyone being so incapable of immersing themselves in a game/film that they needed the sky to match reality to do so, so I imagine you're part of a rather small group, if not entirely solitary.

Toppopia

2012-05-19, 06:26 PM

Should i make a poll about the different day/night lengths? Or i will let someone else do that. But hurry up, i want to vote on something.

Vancha

2012-05-19, 06:46 PM

Should i make a poll about the different day/night lengths? Or i will let someone else do that. But hurry up, i want to vote on something.
I'm not sure how useful that'd be. Maybe a poll between whether people want night for variety against those who want it to be tactically relevant. That's really the only difference between short and long nights.

Xyntech

2012-05-19, 08:01 PM

How short is good for variety, and how long is good for tactics? The answer will vary from person to person.

Personally, I think that something between 3.5 to 7 hours would have a good mix of variety and tactical relevance.

A poll would probably be good. Maybe make it multiple choice, for those of us who would be happy with several numbers. I think I would vote for 3.5, 5 and 7 myself.

1 hour
2 hours
3.5 hours
5 hours
7 hours
9 hours
13 hours
23 hours

As possible poll options maybe?

capiqu

2012-05-19, 08:30 PM

You guys have convinced me on the following.

1. A seven hour cycle.
2. Different local continental time zones.
3. Shorter nights than days.

Now there SOE we figured it out for you.

Now if only you where able to get these 3 issues on one poll.