Make night time dark. - Page 4

Warborn · 2012-02-02, 02:25 PM

Look at all them words folks made at me. Hooey. Anyway, this is how night looks, and it's perfect. Ambiance of night but you'll still be able to see basically fine, maybe slightly impaired but nothing serious. It's the perfect mix of good visuals while not going over-the-top with the annoying realism crap that people would have thwarted via cranking their gamma anyway.

VioletZero · 2012-02-02, 03:45 PM

I find it extremely surprising how you don't see the possibilities with night time.

Sure, it might be annoying to your common, unorganized outfit. But to a properly managed outfit, as they should be, it could be a way to get an advantage on your enemy.

It's another possibility to increase the depth of the game.

Warborn · 2012-02-02, 04:09 PM

This isn't my first rodeo. I've played World War 2 Online enough to know that this kind of thing gets very old, very fast. It doesn't add depth, it doesn't give some fancy new layer of strategy, it's just frustrating and annoying and something that ultimately is done because of someone liking the idea of it more than wanting to improve gameplay. You see there what night looks like in Planetside 2. That's just fine. Dark, but still easy to see. Looks cool, tracers and explosions and stuff lighting up the night. No problem. That's what night should be in a game like this. Leave the alternative to the games made for the weirdos who want the game to be as close to realism as possible.

VioletZero · 2012-02-02, 04:21 PM

It shouldn't be easy to see. If it is, there's no point in having a night time at all.

Warborn · 2012-02-02, 06:13 PM

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.

Seagoon · 2012-02-02, 06:34 PM

Or, You know, Planetside 2 could make use of night in a way that makes it into an interesting tactical/strategic situation to take advantage of unlike all those other games?

But that would be innovation, and we dont want that right ?

Basically your arguement is that "I dont like night, I dont see the point in having it thus it should not be in".

Well I do see the point in night time and I think that to be honest you dont know what the hell you are talking about.

Firstly night for starters does not have to be just dark or just light, using the volumetric cloud system and providing different levels of lighting depending on somthing like the phases of the moon would alow for many different levels of lighting at night and even have it vary over a short space of time as the clouds might clear or have gaps in their coverage.

Secondly night is not just going to be pitch black and thats it, they have already said they would be looking into providing flares and other methods of lighting the area as is required and on top of that all vehicles have headlights that can be turned off or on as well as all the lighting provided by the buildings and bases.

Thirdly, saying that a pitch black night situation does not change gameplay in any meaningful way just shows that you are talking out of your ass. I mean I dont even need to explain this one...
The fact that you cant make out targets 15m away effectivly and that if you fire you will give away your position and having to consider doing so to light up the area with flares or healights, or that combat will take place at shorter distances because of the low light situaition.... (i can keep going...)

None of that makes any difference to the gameplay right ? yep night sure is pointless and is just about mood.

Sigh.

Warborn · 2012-02-02, 07:09 PM

The reason it's not generally the case that night is very dark in games is because people don't like playing games that they can't see what's going on in with a few aforementioned exceptions. It isn't an accident that very few games make night time a serious obstacle to players. What, you imagine maybe developers didn't realize that it's hard to see at night? No, it's that people learned pretty quickly "realism" and fancy tactical whatever-bullshit goes out the window if it's just not fun to play. Night time in Planetside 2 being really dark and hard to see what's going on during isn't innovative, it's just a bad idea.

Seagoon · 2012-02-02, 07:12 PM

Sorry, but its just a bad idea for players who are unwilling to adapt to new situations and take advantage of them.

How can you be so qualified to be able to say what is definitively a bad idea for games in general?

I have already explained that night is not going to just be pitch black nothingness, but you dont seem to want to listen to that do you ?

Warborn · 2012-02-02, 07:18 PM

Originally Posted by Seagoon

How can you be so qualified to be able to say what is definitively a bad idea for games in general?

I play lots of video games.

And I've emphasized repeatedly that prohibitive darkness is fine for certain types of games. It's just not fine for an FPS that is about arcade-y, Battlefield-style action and attracting broad appeal as an MMO title. It doesn't matter if muzzle flashes make it possible to tell where someone is or not.

Seagoon · 2012-02-02, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by Warborn

I play lots of video games.

Who here does not?

I play lots of video games but I also spend lots of time studying them and designing them, its my job one might say.

The main counter arguement which I will give to you is that it might slow down the pace of the game, which would as you say detract from the gameplay they are aiming for.

However I dont belive it would. You still die as quickly, you move just as quickly, fights are taking place in just as large numbers, fights are taking place just as frequently and just as far apart from each other. The only difference is that you have different tactical/strategic options avalible to you, and if you say that the average BF3 or COD player cant handle such extra options then I belive that you are selling them short by a long shot.

One thing to remember is this: People understand what night time means. What I mean by this is that unlike some random extra gameplay element or feature that has no connection to reality, night time being dark is somthing everyone can understand the implications of imediatly, this greatly improves peoples ability to cope and react to it.

NewSith · 2012-02-02, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by Warborn

I play lots of video games.

And I've emphasized repeatedly that prohibitive darkness is fine for certain types of games. It's just not fine for an FPS that is about arcade-y, Battlefield-style action and attracting broad appeal as an MMO title. It doesn't matter if muzzle flashes make it possible to tell where someone is or not.

And people play it...

Warborn · 2012-02-02, 07:33 PM

This is getting repetitive.

NewSith · 2012-02-02, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by Warborn

This is getting repetitive.

What do they say? "Let's agree to differ", is that it?

Warborn · 2012-02-02, 07:38 PM

Yeah lets agree to whatever who cares.

Originally Posted by Warborn

this is how night looks

VioletZero · 2012-02-02, 07:43 PM

The more I am on this forum, the more I realize that the MMO aspect turns the game into a FPS vs RTS.

I think it should be more RTS, people like Warborn think it should be more FPS.