Guild Wars 2

Hi Viktor =) About the night being darker, I guess it would be kind of neat. I agree that I actually never noticed the day-time changing at all. Night and Morning is quite similar in my perspective, so I do think it would be a good update. I had also read somewhere stating that it was “darker” in the game’s earlier stage but was changed due to people having hard time seeing things. Maybe they could give us the power to change it in Option. =) Like the Auto loot and Auto targeting.

If you were sylvari you could tell<.<, but ive never really seen a prob with it:/

I think he’s just suggesting it for the sake of scenery.

Simon.3106:

I think he’s just suggesting it for the sake of scenery.

Oh, I thought he meant in terms of player benefits, ie his sigil of night, my bad :/

Maybe a setting to change the darkness of night – for making screenshots and machinema. But if you just made it too dark playability would suffer.

What kind of dark? Don’t Starve Dark or Snowblind Fractal dark? Imagine lighting effects at nighttime, scarey beasts as well would make for a nice addition.

I’d like it to be darker. LOTRO had the best night times in an mmo and it was very dark there.

However, I’d first like to see the day/night synchronized between all of the zones.

Exactly! LOTRO has great night time effects. I don’t recall Divinity having night times… o_o that would be very nice. The Brazier and torches on the walls will pierce the darkness with its flickering light 0_0

@Lotro fans, agreed, I loved the scenery in lotro, simply amazing, even rivals gw2 in a way. Dam shame character models were painful to look at. *Edit, they’re looking into New character models.

I vote for snowblind fractal dark!
I don’t think that this game requires unbelievable darkness, but in some zones I barely notice whether it’s day or night.

Here’s a lotro screenshot, love the stars.

Just looked up LOTRO at night and all I can say is wow! Gotta be the most beautiful night time effect in any game. Doesn’t seem all too hard to make though, just have a mild spotlight on the ground and trees etc to replicate the moon/stars and darken everything else. Obviously is a lot harder to actually do than say, but can’t be much harder than what they’ve already done and I would definitely like a nicer “night time feel”.

At the moment I just can’t wait for it to be day again because night times just look fairly dull, and for no reason. Isn’t really a fault of ANet as such, it’s mainly because the ground doesn’t light up as much but then it’s just realistic. Personally though, I love “fantasy night times” where everything lights up and sparkles, and really brings it to life!

Nightarch.2943:

Here’s a lotro screenshot, love the stars.

Agreed!
Night time should be dimmer. More dimmer so even at max brightness its still dimmer than it is now.

If anyone had played Fable 1 before, the night is so beautiful.
Like some parts are dim and some are really dark that you should carry torch to walk throught it.

Skies in the open fields should look way darker.

For now, i cant even tell if its day or night at times lol! seriously.

Thinking about it, that’s pretty much it. The sky is almost the same colour as the ground in most cases with GW2, whereas if you look at LOTRO, the sky is pitch black besides the stars and purple tint on the horizon. If they just made the sky background black instead of grey I think it would work great.

@Jabronee, aww man, you have it see when it’s stormy at night, it’s extraordinary! Rain bouncing off your character, the beautiful sound effects, the heart stopping flashes, it’s just so great!

*Agreed, definitely dimmer and darker, would be neat if light sources did more along the lines of lightening up the area, not bright or anything just less dim and more colourful. Lazy sparkflies not contributing any luminescence…

I can see people complain about this, so the only thing I can think about is a slider that increase your darkness at night or something…

I want it darker though.

Personally (and i know im prob a minority on this one) I would love to see almost pitch black nights and very starry ones aswell.

Id implement it like this;

1. Synchronise all zone day/night cycles.
2. Add random rotations for different night effects, have some VERY dark and cloudy (moody) contrast with bright and starry – and some specific zones ones aswell (northern lights in the shiverpeaks anyone?), this will add character to each map.
3. Add torchs and lights designed for the darker parts of the world, to be equipped as either a bundle or as a back slot. Make it an extension to exploring with lights revealing hidden pathways and lore content.
4. Improve all items that use the night for special effects and add new ones
5. Live up to the promise of nighttime specific content all across the world (currently have only found a few examples myself).

As i said, i know alot of people will be turned off by the idea, yet i think if it was implemented right, as a boost to actual gameplay and longetivity – it could prove as a really good adjustment.
Ie – If you implement an easy way for players to work around the problem (person light system), give them choices (bundle or back slot) and risk/benefits for each choice (back slot for ease + combat yet bundles for travel and keeping characters in best gear and then tell them that if they manage to work around the problem they will be rewarded with content, i cant see anyone complaining.

The only reason I notice it is night sometimes, is that I play sylvari. Nighttime is one of the very very few things that disapointed me in this otherwise stunning game.
I think it is correct that it was darker earlier on, remember noticing some truly lovely nightskies… sadly that was way back in the 3rd beta though

I’ve been mentioning this to people in game quite a few times.

So yes, yes yes yes yes. Please make the night actually look like night.

Just so people can see it… night in Rata Sum during the 3rd beta weekend.

Is night time darker for Syvlaris or something?

Curo.2483:

Is night time darker for Syvlaris or something?

No, but Sylvari “glow” at night.

Curo.2483:

Is night time darker for Syvlaris or something?

Sylvari have a glow in the dark effect.

I think they could easily make this game’s night a little darker. Like everyone else (who plays one) I only notice on my sylvari.

And this is from DDO. Turbine does night time pretty well. Its not too dark and looks nice.

Yes. For the first few months of playing this game I didn’t even KNOW there was day/night changes at all lol. The main problem is that unless you are specifically looking up at the sky you don’t see it because of the camera angle.

Regarding that pic from LOTR I would say that would be the ideal night time for GW2 in my opinion.

Yes. I like to know it’s night not just by seeing stars in the sky. Fractal dark would be great

+1 to this – it took me 4 months of playing before I noticed a day to night cycle shift, and that was from someone’s legendary changing colour. Is Tyria set in a binary star system where you get a bright star and a dim one? That’s how “night” feels to me in this game.

You can take it another step by making the mobs change at night, like the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. horror survival game series and the Fallout games.
EDIT: I wouldn’t mind a horror-survival either where it’s SO dark you get melee’d out of nowhere if you don’t have a light source.

Hopefully this isn’t just because of people with horrible contrast and gamma settings on their monitors – if it is, I suggest a tool-tip on the first night or dungeon they see:
“Are things too dark? Tune your brightness and contrast until you can see the difference between these two graphics.”

Back in the origional Everquest, nighttime was DARK! If you were a race that could not see in the dark (aka humans), you had to carry a light source to be able to go anywhere outside of a city. I remember killing wisp to get their greater light stones.

Nightarch.2943:

Here’s a lotro screenshot, love the stars.

https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/70020/ScreenShot00031.jpg

This looks about right. It’s dark enough that you know it’s night but not so dark that it causes a problem getting around. If they are going to have day/night cycles then you should be able to tell the difference. Right now you can’t easily tell.

TL:DR: Darker at night please.

I think night time could do with being somewhat darker. Half the time the only way I notice is my ascalonian weapons.

I do not even notice it now. So a bit darker would be very much ok.

@all nighttime LOTRO lovers: and don’t forget the hoot of the owl! I could sit outside the Old Forest in Bree by the fire for an hour and listen tot the night sounds. Lotro is master of atmosphere.

+1 vote for darker, it would add so much to the atmosphere.

yea make it darker. makes the atmosphere much better.

perhaps the rodgort will rise in price since torches will be in demand too.

YES make it darker! Let our legendaries shine at night!

I would appreciate darker nights aswell

It sounds nice in theory but I remember getting a darker nights mod for Skyrim and Fallout 3. What a nightmare. I walked off so many cliffs in Skyrim thanks to that. It was more realistic I guess but the Fallout 3 one was horrible, all I could see was the black silhouette of the ground/hills etc. and made me strain my eyes squinting to try and see things.

I suppose if it was in GW2 we could always turn on the show enemy/fauna names for a guide. Everyone would start using torches too

I’d much prefer the blue fog/mist removed instead. In certain areas it looks a bit too weird, almost cyan in colour.

I would love if it was a bit darker as well. Right now I can’t tell if it’s night or a really overcast day, or maybe there’s a solar eclipse every “night” that causes the light to fade.

A darker night would be wonderful. I honestly forgotten that their was even a day and night cycle in the game. This might be too complicated, but I do like the suggestion of nocturnal monsters and animals along with different events appearing at night in some zones too. Possibly with a change in ambient noise to make the night really stand out. Eg. Owls and crickets, quieter/gentler/scarier music, etc. It would make the world seem a bit more realistic and alive in a way imo. :3

I suppose it could even be taken a step further if wanted, with some ranger pets, cave entrances, materials only being seen out at night or during the day time.

I’m all in for darker nights.
I believe the reason there is not much difference between the daytime and nighttime
lighting,is that each zone has it’s own day/night cycle clock.
The snow blind fractal proves that they can very much create beautiful dark environments.
But if night was significantly darker than day,and to take it even further,if there were
sunrises and sunsets,that would make the current time differences between the map
zones even more apparent and annoying.

Darker nights all the way!
I hardly notice whether it’s day or night…
It looks almost like some miserable, cloudy day…rather than proper night-time…
Please consider this ANet, darker nights would add more depth and better atmosphere to the game! So many weapons that glow, Sylvari glow, town lights, lanterns, fire-flies! Just imagine Caledon Forest at night…or Divinity’s Reach! It would be sooooo great and atmospheric!
At least an option in graphics to tick it on/off.

@Blur, I like cloudy dark days : (, to me a rainy day is a good day compared to a sunny day being an awful day. I like the lanterns idea though! That reminds me of the weather, it is far too static for a living breathing world, an example of this would be to go over to Beetletun where it’s sunny and then head south to the Taminn Foothills where it’s raining with a dark overcast. Hence another reason why I love lotro’s environment!

On a side note, I love this thread, no one is trying to kill each other with pointless walls of text.

For the sake of the scenery? Definately! Darker nights would be awesome! I’ve been discussing this with few of my friends lately and they do agree with this. This could make the world feel a little bit more “Alive”. Please, do it Anet!

Snow fractal dark nights? Definitely. You’ve done an amazing job making Orr depressing, but I think making the nights even darker would be the icing on the cake.

2:50… tell me this is not EPIC!!! those trebs at night…

Fear not this night? How can I if I can still see just as far as during the day?

I would have liked to see night time having an effect on rendering distance of enemies in WvW, so it would be possible to “hide in the shadows” and use that window of time to do some risky stuff.

I don’t think they will change it because some players might get annoyed with not being able to see as well as during the day. Not for PvE and certainly not for WvW.

Nightarch.2943:

@Blur, I like cloudy dark days : (, to me a rainy day is a good day compared to a sunny day being an awful day. I like the lanterns idea though! That reminds me of the weather, it is far too static for a living breathing world, an example of this would be to go over to Beetletun where it’s sunny and then head south to the Taminn Foothills where it’s raining with a dark overcast. Hence another reason why I love lotro’s environment!

Oh I didn’t say I don’t like cloudy days! In fact, this is the only type of weather when I am in normal and creative mood! Rainy, cloudy, cold and dark= <3
I just wanted to compare the current night we have in GW2…it looks more like a miserable (cloudy) day than proper night… :/
I also wish we had better weather in game…where entire area would become cloudy with rain etc…made a thread about that some time ago…
But darker nights would certainly give a better, more mysterious atmosphere. Let’s hope ANet consider this!

If I can turn it off, go for it. The idea that someone mentioned to make it so dark that even turning your brightness all the way up would still be darker than currently makes me want to scream. My eyes simply cannot handle dark games. I get headaches and cannot see anything at all. I have to turn brightness/gamma up on every game I play, ignoring their little ‘test screens’ that try to help you adjust the levels.

Yes. Why else add it to the game if you can’t even notice it?

Night time should be Universal and have more effort put into it. Also it should be longer.

They should also add Foggy Rain to the game, and more environmental effects.

Weird! I notice the day/night change all the time. I must be special

PetricaKerempuh.7958:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPZHsfa6gEs

2:50… tell me this is not EPIC!!! those trebs at night…

omg that is aweome! how good would it be to even use it as a strategy – “We attack at night!”

I think someone mentioned the possibly a toggle switch in the options settings to make it darker would be nice. personally I would love to have it darker but I could see others not sharing my opinion.