Poll about the day/night issues.

[Unforgiven]

it only seems right for a complete day/night cycle to be about the length of an average play session, which i believe is going to be somthing like 3 to 4 hours.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

It's the same problem as having a number that divides into 24 real life hours. Players who only play one day a week (like on the weekend) would potentially be stuck playing in the same time of day all of the time.

Better to have it rotating for everyone, around the day and around the week. There are reasons why it would be fun to have it synced with weeks or even days, but the bad probably outweighs the good in this case.

I can't even imagine how small a percentage of the userbase consists of people who not only play one day a week, but then play at the right time for as short a time as to only see one time of day. It seems fair enough to avoid a daily cycle to accommodate people who play at the same time every day, but does the accommodation of variety for people who play two or less hours a week outweigh the convenience of a weekly cycle for all? Not to mention, if all the continents have their own timezone, it's even less of an issue.

[capiqu]

Just bare in mind that if its Sunday and you want to schedule a night ops operation for your outfit on Saturday, the shorter the cycle the more calculations you have to do. Add to this that your outfit may consist of players from the US, Europe, Australia and different time zones throughout the world and you will see it could become quite messy. So a 7 hour cycle or any other cycle that would repeat itself every week would be easy since you could work out a weekly table that will never change. This in my opinion would be better for planing such operations along with the outfit selecting a real world time zone from which all could sync their watches to avoid as much confusion as possible.

[Dagron]

Originally Posted by capiqu

Just bare in mind that if its Sunday and you want to schedule a night ops operation for your outfit on Saturday, the shorter the cycle the more calculations you have to do. Add to this that your outfit may consist of players from the US, Europe, Australia and different time zones throughout the world and you will see it could become quite messy. So a 7 hour cycle or any other cycle that would repeat itself every week would be easy since you could work out a weekly table that will never change. This in my opinion would be better for planing such operations along with the outfit selecting a real world time zone from which all could sync their watches to avoid as much confusion as possible.

I think you hit the spot right there.
I'd even gladly accept shorter nights (2h or 2.5h nights) to see this 7h cycle implemented.

Alternatively a 14h cycle could work (maybe 10h day / 4h night). Nights would be long for those who want them to be, but they'd be more rare and hopefully not bother some people so much. Just a suggestion, let me know what you guys think about it.



As for:

Originally Posted by Xyntech

Players who only play one day a week (like on the weekend) would potentially be stuck playing in the same time of day all of the time.

This:

Originally Posted by Vancha

... if all the continents have their own timezone, it's even less of an issue.

Because you are most likely going to fight on different continents every now and then... unless you only play let's say on saturday 3pm AND only at Indar.
Although i think that would make you farily unique and sadly "the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few... or the one".
Now see what you did? Making me quote that was inhumane.

[Raka Maru]

Come on people, this is sci-fi. Go ahead and make a planetary system with real sun and moon cycles. Add asteroid impacts while you're at it.

This will make day/night cycles seem random to earthlings. We will eventually figure it out as players.

Check out real physic models for solar systems. How hard can it be?

[Fable]

I've been thinking about this and I think 3,5 hour or 4,5 hour day (which means 7 hour or 9 hour day cycle) would be the best.

It's long enough to enjoy the part of the day it is, but it's not too much.
One big fight would propably last for the whole night/day.
For those people who play at the exactly same hour every day, it will change the part of the day.

This is 3,5 hour cycle with 3 hour game session

This is 4,5 hour cycle with 3 hour game session

(Black is night, white is day obviously)

Anything less that 3,5 would be weird, wouldn't it? I know it's a game, but night that lasts for, let's say 1,5 hour would be really short.

[Dagron]

About that, this:

Originally Posted by capiqu

Just bare in mind that if its Sunday and you want to schedule a night ops operation for your outfit on Saturday, the shorter the cycle the more calculations you have to do.
... a 7 hour cycle or any other cycle that would repeat itself every week would be easy since you could work out a weekly table that will never change.

So, yes: any cycle based on a number that is a multiple of 7 would be nice, but 9 would make a messy cycle imo.


With this i agree:

Originally Posted by Fable

I know it's a game, but night that lasts for, let's say 1,5 hour would be really short.

[Dagron]

Since Goku kamehameha'd the other threads about this subject, i think he wants us to keep to this one instead?
I still don't like the poll options here either though, but some interesting things have been pointed out.

[WaryWizard]

I'm just going to copy paste my comments from the other topic to this one.

7 hours is the length it should be. 3 hour nights and 4 hour days. The cycle would reset every 7 days. If you were to log on at the same time every day and play for 1 hour, you would experience a total day in one week.

Each Continent should be in their own time zones as well. So if it is 5 AM on Indar it could be 7 PM on another continent.

The shortest I would want it would be a 5 hour cycle with 2 hour night and 3 hour days. I will also accept a 9 11 13 and 24 hour cycle.

I have thought about this quite a bit, and I believe these will work. The night doesn't look so bad that it is unplayable, and with each continent in different timezones, you could easily swap over. They just need to make sure to leave room for other continents in the time zones, but they always just say it is farther south or such.

Also I think day should last longer than night. Either that or have seasons. That way during Auraxian winter, nights are longer than days, and in summer, days are longer than nights, with spring and fall equals.

When I sit down to play a game, I'll be there for a while. I don't want the day and night swapping every half hour. It would be more annoying than anything, if it's too fast. It makes the night feels like a novelty instead of awesomeness. It has to be something that you think about, and take into account when playing. Not something that you notice when it's almost gone. They want to make night something you have to plan for, but if it lasts for almost nothing, then there is no reason to think about it.

Then they just need to decide how long an Auraxian year is.

TLDR: 5 7 9 11 13 or 24 hour cycle. In-game Timezones, and seasonal changes such as shorter days in winter.

[Dagron]

Originally Posted by WaryWizard

7 hours is the length it should be. 3 hour nights and 4 hour days. The cycle would reset every 7 days. If you were to log on at the same time every day and play for 1 hour, you would experience a total day in one week.

Each Continent should be in their own time zones as well. So if it is 5 AM on Indar it could be 7 PM on another continent.

I completely agree with this part.
What i like about a 7 hour cycle is that it makes it easier to create a weekly day/night cycle schedule.

Originally Posted by Dagron

See my post near the top of this page where i quote the guy who pointed that out.

Originally Posted by WaryWizard

Also I think day should last longer than night. Either that or have seasons. That way during Auraxian winter, nights are longer than days, and in summer, days are longer than nights, with spring and fall equals.

Previously i didn't care for days and nights having different durations, but the seasons thing does sound interesting. It'd be great to have a time of the year when nights were longer than days.

Originally Posted by WaryWizard

When I sit down to play a game, I'll be there for a while. I don't want the day and night swapping every half hour. It would be more annoying than anything, if it's too fast. It makes the night feels like a novelty instead of awesomeness. It has to be something that you think about, and take into account when playing. Not something that you notice when it's almost gone. They want to make night something you have to plan for, but if it lasts for almost nothing, then there is no reason to think about it.

100% with you in this too.

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by WaryWizard

I'm just going to copy paste my comments from the other topic to this one.

7 hours is the length it should be. 3 hour nights and 4 hour days. The cycle would reset every 7 days. If you were to log on at the same time every day and play for 1 hour, you would experience a total day in one week.

Each Continent should be in their own time zones as well. So if it is 5 AM on Indar it could be 7 PM on another continent.

The shortest I would want it would be a 5 hour cycle with 2 hour night and 3 hour days. I will also accept a 9 11 13 and 24 hour cycle.

I have thought about this quite a bit, and I believe these will work. The night doesn't look so bad that it is unplayable, and with each continent in different timezones, you could easily swap over. They just need to make sure to leave room for other continents in the time zones, but they always just say it is farther south or such.

Also I think day should last longer than night. Either that or have seasons. That way during Auraxian winter, nights are longer than days, and in summer, days are longer than nights, with spring and fall equals.

When I sit down to play a game, I'll be there for a while. I don't want the day and night swapping every half hour. It would be more annoying than anything, if it's too fast. It makes the night feels like a novelty instead of awesomeness. It has to be something that you think about, and take into account when playing. Not something that you notice when it's almost gone. They want to make night something you have to plan for, but if it lasts for almost nothing, then there is no reason to think about it.

Then they just need to decide how long an Auraxian year is.

TLDR: 5 7 9 11 13 or 24 hour cycle. In-game Timezones, and seasonal changes such as shorter days in winter.

9 is weird simply because it loops faster than others, - 9/24=3/8. You have to take x/24 fraction that you can't cancel down.

[Boltzmann]

I feel like the day/night cycle should depend on continents, just like in our planet and also so that players who for example prefer longer nights can go to one continent and players who prefer short nights can go to a different one.

Over all I think a day's length should be 6 hours, so that in a day, we'd have 4 game days, which means people from different timezones get to play during both ingame daylight and ingame night time.

-On the more icy continent the nights should be longer, so imagine 4 hours night and 2 hours day
-On the more desert-like continent it would be reversed, maybe even 5h daylight and 1h night
-On the more tropical continent the day and night times should be balanced, as in 3h/3h.

Something similar to this would be cool.

EDIT: Also:
-An addicted player would play all day, meaning 8-10 hours of gameplay, which means he would play through 2 days and 2 nights at most.
-A casual player can play from 1 to 3 hours, so he could play through a day, through a night or at most through a day and a night. If he finds that he only has 1 hour to play and its night and he hates night, he could always play on a continent where the night is 1 hour and he might end up seeing the sun for half of his play time.
-A balanced player would play from 4 to 6 hours and play through a day and a night, or maybe two days and a night, or two nights and a day, depending on the time he starts playing.

This means everyone gets to see the day/night cycle change whenever they play and at most they'll see that change two or three times which is not annoying, lower rates would mean that casual players would be forced to play through day or night, and not experience the change so often.

[berzerkerking]

moar epic night battles

[Lord Paladin]

I really prefer the 7 hour cycle.

1) because it would vary day by day (I'm a player who would play when I get home from work, so say 7-11 on a good night).

2) I can schedule it week to week. (This week, my outfit is doing a night raid on Indar's tech plant!)

IMHO it's the best option across the board to please as many people as possible. Plus, you get 2 days a week we're you're in that transition, 2 days where you're full day, and 2 days where you're full night.

+1 internets for the guy who made that awesome graphic showing the cycles and play time.

[Rat]

I also think the day cycle should be longer than the night, while the night fighting is going to pertty cool at first, I feel that it isnt going to take long for that novelty to wear off, and the night fighting is going to end up being a pain in the ass.