Guild Wars 2

Hello
Day/Night cycle as the title says,needs serious improvements.
Not only the cycle it self is way too fast(I’ve seen transitions from day/night/day,in less than 2 hours),and the transition period is 1 millisecond,but there are different cycles for each map instance.I’m not talking about the difference between overflow and the main instances{this is bad also,but understandable(?)}.Even between the main instances, there are different cycles.
I just went from Blazeridge Steppes and daytime to the Iron Marches and night time,and just to check(since the transition time is so fast that day can turn to night by the time it takes a loading screen to put you in a map) ,I went back to Blazeridge Steppes and it was still daytime.
This is just one of many examples.
And again this is not the case of overflow and main instance.
So you have a day/night cycle that not only adds nothing to the immersion and beauty of the game,as it should,but has the exact opposite effect,making it insignificant and annoying.
When your Day/Night cycle is too fast,when there is no transition time,and when it is not synced all over the world of the game,then you don’t really have a proper world day/night cycle,but rather a instanced bowl of “<I don’t want to get banned>”,like SWTOR.
GW2 is way too good of a game,artistically and aesthetically,to have such a “<……….>”
excuse of a day/night system.

TBH It doesn’t bother me much because day and night mean very little in this game in terms of visibility or mechanics. Zones just look different from time to time. If night was actually dark, or certain things triggered or took place based on time of day it would be a valid concern but as is there are a lot more important immersion issues with the event system never failing to bother noticing how fast it got dark.

The event system failing and the day/night cycle are two different issues.

The point I’m making is that day/night has an extremely minor impact on immersion and works fine the way it is for what it is doing, which is purely visual fluff.

I agree with pretty much everything, although I believe there are some events that are only accessible at night, so I can at least understand the reasoning behind having a fast cycle. I’d prefer 2 hours of day followed by 2 hours of night, though, uniform across the entire game world, with at least 15 minutes or so of noticeable dawn/dusk lighting. Sunrise and sunset are some of the most common times that players will just stop and enjoy the visuals, and they don’t exist in this game.

I’d go one step further and suggest a difference in the amount of NPCs out at night and an increase in the number of events that start at a certain time of day, but the more I play, the less I think of Guild Wars 2 as the kind of MMO that will make players feel as if they’re actually part of a fantasy world.

@ PopeUrban
Day/night cycle has extremely minor impact to immersion???
In what game?
Tetris?
And no it is not working right.
It’s messed up in every possible way.
The fact that you don’t care about it is obvious.
From what you say you wouldn’t even care if there was no cycle at all.
Day/night cycle is a major contributor to the immersion in a game.
It is not “visual fluff”.And a lot of GW2 has to do with “visual fluff” as you call ’em.
There is even a book out about the “visual fluff” of GW2.
Your point is wrong.

I agree completely. The cycle should definitely be a little longer (also, I don’t like the fact that the day is more than half again as long as the night, it should be even in my opinion … maybe 2-3 hours for either).

What I also think should be changed: The night should actually look like night, not like a somewhat lowered screentone and a darker blue for the sky.
As it is not, when you’re just playing the game and not specifically looking at the sky, you can hardly tell the difference between night and day, because apparently tyrian nights are nearly as bright as tyrian days, and people apparently are working 24/7 anyway.

What I think should be done to make the night actually appear … “nightly” (and I know this is more work than simply changing screentones and sky graphics a bit, but it would go a LONG way towards more immersion) is this:
- Make the night significantly darker. Not as dark as, say, in Dragon’s Dogma (this is one example of a realistic night-time done very very well, by the way), where you can’t see a thing without a lamp, but definitely darker than it is now.
You could also, as a related suggestion, reduce view range a bit (how about a foggy night effect?)
- Have NPCs that work on fields, children, etc. go into their houses at night. Don’t they ever get any sleep??
- Make the sky black. Not a darker, vibrant evening blue, but black, or very nearly black-blue. And more stars, way more stars. I actually like the night sky in Rata Sum a lot, why do you only use it there??
- Have some monsters only appear/spawn at night, maybe even some stronger versions of normal monsters, and have more events, maybe whole event chains go on only at night.
Imagine, for example, an assault of undead on Ascalon Settlement at night, with the night being like I described it: The torches on the walls glowing brightly, and suddenly droves of undead horrors that appear from the darkness, seemingly out of nothing. This would be incredibly awesome, and it’s something that just wouldn’t have any impact the way the day/night system is right now.

Here are my thoughts on the weather / day / night before it got locked down.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Let-s-talk-about-the-weather/first#post77216

You should really calm down. You’re trying to turn this in to a right and wrong argument and to be honest I’m not interested in arguing over the internet.

My point is, quite simply, that the day/night cycle does exactly what its supposed to. Make zones look different. It does a beautiful job of that. Currently day/night affects nothing mechanically in the game, and thus its timing or consistency between zones doesn’t bother me (personally, as in this person here, typing this, not the grand arbiter of all truths ever told) Yes, it drives immersion in terms of it being noticeable that it is either dark or light outside.

In that respect its working just fine. It is literally either day or night in any given zone.

If the cycle were more important in terms of NPC behavior, event triggers, mob spawns, or anything that would actually make it feel like day or night then it would make a lot more sense to be concerned with whether it had zone continuity, was predictable, etc.

None of the things you listed really bother me. (As in me, the only person I’ve ever spoken for in this thread.) I’m just happy that sometimes its night and sometimes it’s day. I don’t notice or care much because day and night are not very important in this game compared to other games I have played. Therefore I can’t summon up strong feelings about how accurate it is.

@PopeUrban:
The Day/Night cycle does affect things mechanically in the game. Not only has this been stated by the devs from the very beginning, but it’s also easily noticeable if you pay attention.
There are events that only trigger at night. Not an awful lot of them, but they’re there. For example, the white lady event at the cemetery in Queensdale triggers only at night.
Many times people won’t even notice that it’s a night-only event, because in all seriousness … the day/night difference is marginal unless you look up at the sky, as I said.

So, the thing is … it isn’t really all that noticeable if it’s dark or light outside. And the tie-in to other game mechanics like events certainly is there. I just think that it’s just not being taken far enough, it seems half-hearted right now.