Guild Wars 2

I saw this feature mentioned in the post about bugged events, by Rubi. But I played most of the weekend and didn’t even notice their was a day / night cycle really. I did see the words on the screen, but the lighting never really changed. It never seemed liked night time or day time, just a sort of gloom (which was great – very atmospheric).

Maybe they could put some sort of on screen symbol or something. I dunno. Or nights need to be way darker. I always liked the suggestion I heard where at night you couldn’t see at all, beyond a certain range, like only within range of light sources. But I guess that would annoy way to many people (and might not be possible on the games engine). It doesn’t seem right that at night you can see miles away still.

Currently, the night time is an “early iteration” of the final product for what the night scenario will be.

It is likely that when we play the full iteration of night time, it will be darker, more flushed and polished.

Here is Rubi’s quote:

“That’s true. Colin talked about that on Friday’s PoI. This isn’t a fully functional version of night–it’s an early iteration.”

Source

I like the idea of a much darker night, one where distances are too dark to see.

Rubi said she wanted feedback on whether it felt like night/day were different enough and that had they hit their target of creating the feel of 2 separate maps.

The answer from me is no. In fact I’m struggling to see where those distinctions are beyond different events and mobs. To make them feel like separate maps, I would expect the following;

- Completely different lighting. A slightly gloomier map doesn’t equate night vs day. It needs to be full on night. Ever been in a jungle at night? Visibility is non existent. Gameplay would dictate it would have to have some visibility, but not the same as daytime.

- ambient sounds. I’d cut the music and concentrate on the “sounds of the jungle”. screams, shrieks, natural calls and roars, the wind, the fires, the creaking ships etc

- access to areas only at night or day. Perhaps vines move and open new paths or updrafts only available at night

- constant attacks from Mordrem – this is already in place, so we can tick that one off

These may be in updated iterations, but we can only feedback on current beta, and these would fulfill the criteria for me for what they are trying to achieve.

Personally I’m expecting the change in light to remain about the same as in vanilla maps, barely perceptible. You’ll probably need to look for UI announcements about coming of night or maybe a change in mob behavior or numbers. The only true way to tell is to play a Sylvari and look for the glow.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

The only true way to tell is to play a Sylvari and look for the glow.

Or use a Royal Ascalonian weapon skin. That’s mostly how I tell when it’s actually night if I’m not paying attention to events.

But on topic, I for one would love darker nights in Maguuma. It would especially fit in the more heavily forested areas. Even during the daytime, not all that much light would get to the ground, so it should be reasonably dark at night. Obviously not so dark that you can’t see anything, but enough to create the desired effect of fear, panic, and intensity.

Randulf.7614:

- Completely different lighting. A slightly gloomier map doesn’t equate night vs day. It needs to be full on night. Ever been in a jungle at night? Visibility is non existent. Gameplay would dictate it would have to have some visibility, but not the same as daytime.

- ambient sounds. I’d cut the music and concentrate on the “sounds of the jungle”. screams, shrieks, natural calls and roars, the wind, the fires, the creaking ships etc

- access to areas only at night or day. Perhaps vines move and open new paths or updrafts only available at night

- constant attacks from Mordrem – this is already in place, so we can tick that one off

I would be very happy if they made these changes. From the few minutes I had of travelling around during the night mode, it just didn’t feel threatening.

If they made it darker, cut or lowered the music and heightened the ambience, it might just invoke fear and provide that desire to survive.

Yes, that fear factor is what night should be about. You want daytime to come. Its a primal environment, let it play on primal fears