Make night time dark.

[Gandhi]

As long as night time doesn't turn into mandatory green-vision I'm happy.

[moosepoop]

ps2 has dynamic lighting. turning up gamma wont work because you wil be blinded.

[Saintlycow]

Dark but not too dark. Kinda like some pictures posted in this thread

[ringring]

Originally Posted by Seagoon

you got killed by a guy you cant see?

Why the hell could he see you then? Oh wait, its because you cant adapt to a new play style to litterally save your own life, and he managed it to end yours. Props to him for turning what appears to be a disadvantage to his own advantage.

You get killed all the time by people you either did not see or were not focusing on in large scale battles, this will be no different at night.

To counter your lack of ability to watch all directions at once, try this wierd idea: MOVE IN A SQUAD NOT ON YOUR OWN.
More eyes = more directions covered = less chance for you to get jumped by one guy. Not only that but if you do then they can react and kill the jumper and revive you.
Holy Crud, its like this game was designed with teamwork in mind rather than running and gunning solo!

in PS1 people turned off particle effects because they had an advantage over those who left it on and to level the playing field against others who turned it off. You cant just turn off night. And on top of that the devs are going to stop you from turning off effects and things that can effect gameplay in this sort of way.



Yep this is a problem, however, night time like I keep saying wont be just darkness. The guy with the gamma turned up will be constantly having his screen washed out by the lights from the bases, from the flares, from the torches, from the headlights and all the other lightsources that will be out there.
Not only that but there is no reason why night has to be just one level of darkness, it could very easily vary depending on cloud cover and so on.

Oh, it's a team based game. Why did nobody tell me. I've been playing it wrong since 2004 to date.

Please, no drama. Leave forumcide at the other place.

[Vancha]

I think dark nights just have yet to be accommodated well in a game like this, and Planetside seems like the ideal game to do it. Between the dynamic lighting, the sheer number of lights that could be found on structures, on guns, on armour, on glowing fauna? Then add in the groundbreaking implementation of a night vision, dark light, thermal vision etc. that don't look terrible (since this is a futuristic game and thus they're allowed to be imaginative).

That said, I don't expect things to get any darker than we've seen in screenshots, but you never know.

Originally Posted by Figment

Cycles should be pretty long, but not so long you don't notice the shift in light. So either 7 or 9 hours would in my opinion be the most suitable.

Oops, it happened again. We agreed on a part, of something in-game. Oh Figgy Figgy...

[SniperSteve]

I think having an occasional, predictable VERY dark night would be the best of both worlds.

It may get annoying to always need night vision or not be able to see the enemy for a few hours out of every day. But if it happened every 5 real-time earth days, that would be really awesome. Something to look forward to and plan operations for.

[Lord Cosine]

Originally Posted by Vancha

I think dark nights just have yet to be accommodated well in a game like this, and Planetside seems like the ideal game to do it. Between the dynamic lighting, the sheer number of lights that could be found on structures, on guns, on armour, on glowing fauna? Then add in the groundbreaking implementation of a night vision, dark light, thermal vision etc. that don't look terrible (since this is a futuristic game and thus they're allowed to be imaginative)..

Yep I agree, it doesn't matter how dark they make the night sky as long as the countermeasures are excellent and readily available.

If a soldier notices that the sun is setting then on his next life he simply changes his loadout to have a flashlight on his gun or a non-eye-raping night/thermal vision, and then continues on his merry way.

I would not restrict the essential night vision items to recons, perhaps they could have an additional one, but every player even the noobs who just started playing should have access to all the night vision options that are essential to seeing good enough at night time.

[Lord Cosine]

Originally Posted by SniperSteve

I think having an occasional, predictable VERY dark night would be the best of both worlds.

It may get annoying to always need night vision or not be able to see the enemy for a few hours out of every day. But if it happened every 5 real-time earth days, that would be really awesome. Something to look forward to and plan operations for.

True that could be nice, additionally they could have different day night cycles per world/continent. some could be 1:1 Day to Night, some could be skewed with multiple suns so that night time only happens once in a while.

[VioletZero]

Originally Posted by SniperSteve

I think having an occasional, predictable VERY dark night would be the best of both worlds.

It may get annoying to always need night vision or not be able to see the enemy for a few hours out of every day. But if it happened every 5 real-time earth days, that would be really awesome. Something to look forward to and plan operations for.

You know, that's not a bad idea.

How dark the night time is could depend on what phase the moon is on.

[Shanesan]

Originally Posted by Warborn

"Don't attack at all" is not a realistic answer to the issue of fighting at night where you can't really see being a frustrating experience. Nobody is going to accept having to stop playing until sunrise, otherwise deal with getting shot by people wearing dark red/black armor hiding in the shadows somewhere. It just isn't acceptable to expect players to appreciate those options.

I thought this way too for weather effects in Battlefield Bad Company 2. I was pleasantly surprised after I was re-experienced to the game by a friend.

Nighttime turns into a game of survival - not a game of attack. Very few people want to put themselves in a situation where they're engaging an enemy when it's harder to find them - example: Jungles.

When it turns night, people have to indulge this idea that running and gunning will most likely get you killed, because at all times you likely have people around you wanting you to make a stupid move. Instead, it's time to move into brush or buildings - sneak from location to location. It turns more into a melee game within brush, rather than a shooting game in the open. Move quickly and quietly and you will survive the night.

[wasdie]

Originally Posted by Warborn

You're wrong there, pard. Night time is about mood and having a bigger variety of cool visuals. That's really the entire point of darkness in video games. It's really never about making it hard to see, barring certain specific types of games, like the "realistic" shooters (WW2OL, ArmA, etc) or the shooter-horror games like STALKER or Metro. In the vast majority of games which bother to include night time stuff, it's done so that it's still pretty easy to see, but that the ambiance, the mood, the feeling of darkness is there.

Actually in WWII Online it used to be extremely dark at night until people complained and they made it as light as day.

Darkness, especially with a modern graphics engine like Planetside 2 will have, can be used as a gameplay element as much as something that sets the mood.

Moving under the cover of dark is a highly used technique for armies and has been since we've been hurling stones at each other.

With modern engines you can have dynamic lights, flashlights by other players, working night vision, FLIR, and other sorts of equipment that would all you to see but really expand upon the gameplay opportunities.

The best thing they could do with Planetside 2 is have a shortened day of 2-4 hours of day followed by 1-2 hours of really dark night. This way everybody will be able to play the night and day cycles and the night/day cycles will keep up with the pace of the game.

Playing ArmA 2 in the pitch black can be both annoying and incredibly rewarding and fun. If they have the right equipment, night time fights could be really strategic and offer a whole different set of gameplay possibilities than during the day.

[Warborn]

Originally Posted by ringring

In PS1 it had particle effects and sandstorms on the desert worlds - nearly everyone had it turned off.

Yeah, people turned off foliage too. It's just a fact that not being able to see what the hell is going on is not enjoyable for players in general in a game like what Planetside is. The challenge should not be in trying to figure out where you are, where your allies are, where the enemy is, and what is even happening because it's too dark to see clearly.

Originally Posted by wasdie

Actually in WWII Online it used to be extremely dark at night until people complained and they made it as light as day.

Good news. I haven't played it in years but I'm not surprised they eventually changed it. The game was unforgiving enough, making half of the time be a complete fucking nightmare for everyone on the ground really wasn't fun.

[VioletZero]

Random suggestion: If we had Artillery in the game, we could allow them to shoot flares that explode over a target area and last like 10 seconds during the night time.

Originally Posted by Warborn

Yeah, people turned off foliage too. It's just a fact that not being able to see what the hell is going on is not enjoyable for players in general in a game like what Planetside is. The challenge should not be in trying to figure out where you are, where your allies are, where the enemy is, and what is even happening because it's too dark to see clearly.

Intelligence should definitely be a key factor in how to defeat your enemy.

That's the entire point behind this. It would test your team(Whether that be faction, outfit or squad) on your intelligence gathering abilities. And after that, it would test your ability to utilize intelligence effectively. Meanwhile, being able to effectively hide own positions to get a clear advantage.

If everyone knew where everyone was, it'd be a very uninteresting game. Especially with how they designed the shooting this game.

[Warborn]

You really ought to play EVE Online if you don't already. It has horrible, unforgiving, terrible gameplay that nobody enjoys but puts a very strong emphasis on stuff like gathering intelligence and strategic planning. Players working together is the only way to get anything significant done.

[polywomple]

Originally Posted by Warborn

You really ought to play EVE Online if you don't already. It has horrible, unforgiving, terrible gameplay that nobody enjoys but puts a very strong emphasis on stuff like gathering intelligence and strategic planning. Players working together is the only way to get anything significant done.

This is how it should be in planetside:

You can choose to lonewolf it if you want, and have a pretty good time fragging for your empire and making a decent effect

or

You could have a pretty fucking awesome time coordinating with your team-mates/outfit doing missions or special-operations

For me personally, gen dropping behind lines and strategic gal drops with team mates was the most fun I had in PS, but it wasn't mandatory for every player