Game Engine: Bring Back Beta Night

[ArmchairWarrior]

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/i...-night.109783/ Just gonna leave this here...

[Artimus]

I just thought I would share this.. The night shots were recoreded during beta. Take note of the headlights/VS tracer fire. God why was this taken out.

[VaderShake]

I must agree, or at least make a portion of the night this dark, like 20 minutes or something....

[OctavianAXFive]

I feel like I've seen this many times before.

I believe the reason they changed it was because people would just crank their brightness.

I bet they probably want their beautiful night time combat back too, but they have to figure out a way (if possible) to do it without brightness settings giving some players an unfair advantage.

[Micro]

YES! I loved the awesome battles at night! It was so dark... And AWESOME!

[MrMak]

Originally Posted by OctavianAXFive

I feel like I've seen this many times before.

I believe the reason they changed it was because people would just crank their brightness.

I bet they probably want their beautiful night time combat back too, but they have to figure out a way (if possible) to do it without brightness settings giving some players an unfair advantage.

Theonly way i could see it fixed is forcing the player's brightnes settings to a certain (automaticaly adjusted to the monitor if possible) level when night falls.

[joedacro]

i just turn gamma down and it looks as dark as in beta. Although if i can turn it down im sure people will turn it up if nights are too dark.

[Baneblade]

There are ways to beat the gamma work around.

[Hyncharas]

I suspect tracers were removed mainly because they gave away your position; it's pointless if you're an Infiltrator or HA ambushing the enemy, and everyone can see where you are! Another issue is the latency is bad enough when there's 100+ in the local area fighting, which can slow performance for many older machines - now imagine it if you had all those tracers in... it would make the game unplayable.

However, a bi-weekly videocast on the Test Server that covers new improvements and lessons learned would be great.

[Artimus]

There is still tracer fire in the game. I am not a progamming whiz so I don't see how that would be an issue. During beta they were constantly tweaking with the night-time settings. I don't see what is really stopping them from going back to it. Except maybe the fact that it might push new comers to the game away because of.not having proper night gear. Also, the VS were incredibly hard to see when it was that dark. There was even a saying that, "The VS only come out at night." During load screens.

[DovahTerran]

Actually, the nights seem a bit darker as of late... Nowhere near the quality and enjoyment level of Beta, but they DO seem a bit darker. Anyone with me?

@Artimus: Yep, still true. But a TR cloaker with the Loyal Soldier camo is also pretty difficult to see...

[Hyncharas]

@DovahTerran: on Amerish the night settings are just right, though I can't say the same for Indar.

[MrMak]

If people adjusting their gamma is the issue why not make all light sources very bright at night.

If your gamma is set to proper levels for your monitor, explosions, fires and other light sources would help you. If you set it too high, every explosion or even the muzzle flash of your own gun would blind you.

Of course it would have to come with better night gear. Flashlights and vehicle headlights should have greater range, bases would have to be better lit, turrets and perhaps certain vehicle weapons such as the shreder or the side guns on a Galaxy would get built in searchlights.

Other stuff could include ninghtvision googles for infiltrators, built in flashlights for MAXes and perhaps tweaking the vehicle infra red optics so they are night vision rather than cheaper thermal optics.

[DovahTerran]

@MrMak, my thoughts exactly. I'd like persistent night vision, though. Not like the BF2 Special Forces night vision that lasted for 10 seconds. :P

[Hyncharas]

@MrMak: I don't think we'll be seeing any major structural changes to the lighting system on continents; Esamir is bad enough when it comes to brightness.