Time Cycle? 24 hour or shorter?

SuperMorto · 2011-10-23, 09:55 AM

I did a search for this but couldnt find a thread, what do you folks think about the time cycle? Will it be 24 hours or will it be cut shorter? Not sure if this has been confirmed or not, but I did a search.

My reason for asking is, I will only be playing late on during the week and can imagine it will be night, but I do know some games cut the cycle down to about 8 or 4 hours so players get night and day during one game session.

And this picture is not related to the post but look how nice the world was before they split it!!!

DviddLeff · 2011-10-23, 10:14 AM

It cant be 24 hours or 12, 6, or 4 as then for example if someone can only play between 7-8 every night they will only ever see the same time on that continent.

It should be an odd number to keep it cycling.

Lonehunter · 2011-10-23, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

It cant be 24 hours or 12, 6, or 4 as then for example if someone can only play between 7-8 every night they will only ever see the same time on that continent.

It should be an odd number to keep it cycling.

Perfect
Edit: But, I don't want to see it any less then 4 hours. Keep in mind it should be different times on different continents. I'd like to see a global map that shows weather like the one Super posted, but also a slight shade creeping across the map indicating the sunrise/sunset line. Similar to...

SuperMorto · 2011-10-23, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

It cant be 24 hours or 12, 6, or 4 as then for example if someone can only play between 7-8 every night they will only ever see the same time on that continent.

It should be an odd number to keep it cycling.

Good point, and like the rest say good idea. I think they will do research on how long the everage gamer is online and base it of that, but yea like you say odd number to make it rotate out of sync. Good plan sir!

I would say about 3 hours, although my average gaming time is about 5/6/7/8+

But this also bring up many more questions....

Night vision etc? (ill put that in the ideas forum if its not there already!)

Lonehunter · 2011-10-23, 10:36 AM

I think some form of night vision will exist. When commenting on the level of darkness Higby mentioned someone could be working a spot light on a base wall trying to find people, like an acme cartoon. Personally I'd like to see a form of heat vision. It's not very high tech futuristic, but it could still involve things like cloaker detection, some kind of deployable heat field, vehicles could give off huge amounts.

Xyntech · 2011-10-23, 10:26 AM

I think 5 hour days is about perfect. You don't want it to drag out too long, where you never get to see the transitions, so at least four hours makes sense, but you also want it to cycle around the real world clock, so an odd number is better.

7 hours just seems like it would be a little too long and I don't think 3 hours would be long enough to enjoy the daylight or nighttime properly.

5 hours? Any objections?

SuperMorto · 2011-10-23, 10:31 AM

What they could do is have a 3 hour day and a 2 hour night. That sounds about right.

Sirisian · 2011-10-23, 08:49 PM

We should get a planet with 15 minute day night cycles. That would be epic.

Xaine · 2011-10-23, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by Sirisian

We should get a planet with 15 minute day night cycles. That would be epic.

That would make me dizzy.

However,

Epic.

EASyEightyEight · 2011-10-23, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by Xaine

That would make me dizzy.

However,

Epic.

Exactly how would we land on something like that? That might work during an event where some nutjob trips a Vanu thing-a-majig and for a whole week the world is going berserk. Though I think we can do without a second bending, and just use foreign planets as a means to introduce new game mechanics, while keeping the lands of Auraxis the classic Planetside warfare we all know and love.

I for one would love to collect modules from run down facilities filled with aliens/zombies while racing the other empires to them, but going into it any more than that is for another discussion.

Hamma · 2011-10-24, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by Sirisian

We should get a planet with 15 minute day night cycles. That would be epic.

You jump in the air and the planet moves under you

Infektion · 2011-10-26, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by Sirisian

We should get a planet with 15 minute day night cycles. That would be epic.

and one with 24 hour cycle =D like some icy planet, we can call it "Melaska"

and it's past inhabitants are all dead due to suicide caused by depression from living in such a cold, gloomy, dark place.

NapalmEnima · 2011-10-26, 12:11 PM

Actually, if they did scatter the continents around their time zones relatively evenly, then folks who wanted to fight in a particular section of the day/night cycle could just follow it around from continent to continent.

Pop locks might put a crimp in that though. Hard to go from continent A to continent B with your 20 mates when there's no room for you.

Even so, we might see night-specialist outfits that were particularly good a being all sneaky-like in the dark.

Xyntech · 2011-10-26, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by NapalmEnima

Actually, if they did scatter the continents around their time zones relatively evenly, then folks who wanted to fight in a particular section of the day/night cycle could just follow it around from continent to continent.

Pop locks might put a crimp in that though. Hard to go from continent A to continent B with your 20 mates when there's no room for you.

Even so, we might see night-specialist outfits that were particularly good a being all sneaky-like in the dark.

If they were evenly distributed, you could just go somewhere else. At least half of the continents would have some level of daylight to work with.

I guess that also depends on how many continents we have at launch.

Traak · 2011-10-24, 04:27 AM

One planet, please. A "year" lasts a month, and a "day" lasts 5 hours, at the equator during equinox.

During night seasons at the poles, we have continuous night, as the sun is below the horizon, and the opposite pole has continuous day as the sun stays in the sky, though it may swoop low to the horizon.

In other words, make it like Earth, but faster. How long a day or night you wanted would determine where on the planet you traveled. If you like night fighting, you can stay near the poles for the duration of the one-week winter, if you like daylight only, you can stay near the other pole while it has its one-week summer.

If you like both, where you are on a continent will determine how long the days or nights are in any given season, just like on Earth.

Gives a variety, and you can fight in whatever environment you prefer.