Night fighting, Thermal imaging sight a must?

[Chiron]

After watching the entire E3 planetside 2 series on youtube I noticed a few instances during night fighting that a player used a Thermal imaging sight. Depending on range this could be a "must" cert. Those night fights were dark. This also brings up the specter of snipers with this cert. You think you are all nice and bundled up in a deep dark corner and someone with a long range gun and the thermal imaging cert has your brain exit your noggin at a high rate of speed...

[Otleaz]

It was only that dark because we were watching a stream.

Short range it would be pointless, medium range it might help tell who your allies are, and long long range it might reveal an enemy you wouldn't have seen otherwise.

That is how I think it will be at least.

[Sabot]

Not pointless.. from what I could see, the grenades left quite a bit of smoke after them, and judging how PS1s base battles went, I predict a lot of nades being thrown around. The thermal scope lets you see through the smoke.

[Meriv]

Originally Posted by Otleaz

It was only that dark because we were watching a stream.

how does being in stream influence it? I mean TB one were done with fraps soo we had the exactly look of the game (in pre beta) and it looked liked sometimes too be quite a pitch black.

what night brings I think will be a change of gaming, the thermal is the first thing I am going after, because if in day I can fight in urban zones/covered etc..etc.. During the night it will be easier to advance without being spoted by the enemy in open ground soo I will be using the night as med-long range battle and the thermal scope will be a key tool

[Otleaz]

Originally Posted by Meriv

how does being in stream influence it? I mean TB one were done with fraps soo we had the exactly look of the game (in pre beta) and it looked liked sometimes too be quite a pitch black.

what night brings I think will be a change of gaming, the thermal is the first thing I am going after, because if in day I can fight in urban zones/covered etc..etc.. During the night it will be easier to advance without being spoted by the enemy in open ground soo I will be using the night as med-long range battle and the thermal scope will be a key tool

That is where I was coming from. The TB night preview was much brighter than the E3 stream.

I don't see myself using thermal sights if it only gets as dark as it did when he showed it off.

[Vanu Techpriest]

It will also depend on whether or not we can adjust the gamma and brightness settings to some extent.

[Toppopia]

Originally Posted by Vanu Techpriest

It will also depend on whether or not we can adjust the gamma and brightness settings to some extent.

I hope if we choose to do that, all it does is make it look grey instead of black, like in some Splinter Cell games, when i turn up the brightness, it just looks like complete greyness instead of complete blackness and i still can't see. I hope the devs make sure that there is no way to enhance our night time besides using night vision gear, or else night fighting will be useless.

[Knightwyvern]

Originally Posted by Toppopia

I hope if we choose to do that, all it does is make it look grey instead of black, like in some Splinter Cell games, when i turn up the brightness, it just looks like complete greyness instead of complete blackness and i still can't see. I hope the devs make sure that there is no way to enhance our night time besides using night vision gear, or else night fighting will be useless.

Amen to that. Gamma "hack" is really, really annoying. Let's hope you can't magically see cloakers by turning it up either.

[Rago]

Its Okay to have it Dark, i will not need infra-Sights since im a "Ironsight" Player.
I like it Dark, the only light i need is the one on the Flash.

[Fek]

Personally I would like thermal imaging to be weak, so night fighting offers a very different dynamic to day fighting and the darkness offers reliable cover. Powerful flashlights/headlights would be good though, requiring skill and thought to use rather than just highlighting the enemy a bright colour on a dark background.

Anyone that was unfortunate enough to play BF3 will remember the noob vision fiasco that occurred there.

Image intensification would also be a better alternative to thermal imaging.

[Stew]

I dont want the thermal vision to be strong at all !

i want it to have a very limited range so nigth figth will be more tactical and the environement will allow us to use some tactics within the dark area

if the thermal is OP everyones will run with a thermal vision all the time and nigth time will be more a gimmick than a gameplay elements

[Knotz]

I want night vision, thermal vision, flares and headlights to actually be useful. I hope turning up your gamma does sod all, its basically cheating imo... also, maybe the night vision is colour coded for the empires too. Maybe TR has a red tinge on their night vision, NC have a blue tinge and VS have rainbows and stuff...

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by Knotz

I hope turning up your gamma does sod all, its basically cheating imo

Yet it will, because the game has to be playable. LCDs have crap for contrast ratios, so playing in any sort of brightly lit environment requires pumping the gamma. Since people won't want to play in a dark room, and they'll also want to see, gamma.

But those contrast ratios work both ways, and a gamma set for good viewing in a bright room will make everything ridiculously obvious in a dark room. And thus the whole night experiment is rendered moot, turning night into a period of time where the game just looks like crap.

This isn't dayz. They cannot just make the game punishing and laugh at the whiners, they have to worry about retention.

Honestly a punishing darkness in a game is just one of those impossibilities, just like you can't have time dilation in a multiplayer game or distance restricted coms between teammates(because teamspeak).

And speaking personally, I don't want night because its just pointless. Night vision would be a cereal box prize by then. Its ridiculous that it wouldn't be in every soldiers helmet and every vehicle. And since I don't want some funky night vision colors for 1/3 of the time, why even bother with night in the first place?

Originally Posted by Otleaz

That is where I was coming from. The TB night preview was much brighter than the E3 stream.

I don't see myself using thermal sights if it only gets as dark as it did when he showed it off.

Moons. There are two moons, and depending one which are up, the nights will be different levels of darkness.

2 moons = very bright
large moon = bright
small moon = dim
no moons = dark

Or something to that effect.

[Noivad]

War Inc. Battlezone - Its still in Beta - has a dark so dark you can't see clearly unless you get Thermal imageing, or shut the room lights behind you in real life and let your eyes adjust to it. The Realism is great and a lot of fun to play even with the goggles. Its purely a twitch shooter. It also has lights on buildings, on lamp posts, inside rooms that allow those with out thermal helmets to see. You can shoot the lights out to make an area darker as well. But there are enough flares, and indirect lights that allow you to see in most areas.

Would like to see PS2 Interior base areas have some dark areas, and or lights to be shot out. It would add to the emersion of the game inside of buildings, just as night time will add to the outside areas.

[Blackwolf]

I'm hoping that thermal vision is useful too.

I love the idea of night fighting, and I love the idea of thermal vision enhancing night fighting. Who cares if everyone will pick it up? Seems like certs aren't based on BR level at all so chances are everyone will pick it up anyway.

And it sounds like thermal vision will be restricted to scopes, not built into helmets. So during the day you might want a scope more suited for day combat then night combat. You give up a sidegrade slot for that thermal scope too.