My experience so far has not been good

Its been a long time since I've done the starter scenes; the Isle of Wonders and Solace Bridge/Bloodriver/Highvale... I was just thinking because those are solo would be fair to disconnect those (I'm not counting the outskirts) from server time and have them start out as daylight before players get introduced to nighttime and related game mechanics.

 

guys, you can stop now, i think you scared him/her off

 

Sadly I have to agree. This community is overprotective which in itself has a negative impact on how others view this community and the game. If next to every criticism is being marked as troll posts then others might ask themselves what this community has to hide. Also if criticism is choked off how can this game get any better? If it doesn't get better then in the end we will get a release that will be ripped apart by magazines and communities outside of this small pocket of optimism here.

 

Its a two edged sword imho.
On the one side Moderation and beeing positive is very much more constructive, but otherhand critic is needed to see the whole.
I think we are "educated" by Moderation to formulate our critics in a constructive and more positive way.
I think this is a good thing and "the Internet" is often a place of rudeness, exyageration and unfiltered emotions.
This Forum and it's Moderation feels for me like to try to overcome that.
The price is what i quoted and what others accuse us for. To not have the freedom of speech.
But that's not true.
We are just required to stay more objective, kind and constructive.
Whats usually not allways or often the case and hard to control, if ever possible.
Once a new User joins he will adapt or leave. Necessarily nit the game and the forum, but maybe the forums.
There was this split from some players who setup a independet forum where they feel they can adress their concerns more free.
I forward this @Dreadnought.
He seems to adapt to not call people blue pandas anymore and made some very usefull and constructive posts after moderation and overcomes it instead of leaving and be p....d

 

Oh, im here and going to stay just hope the game will become a bit more hardcore for PVPrs and way more active at launch, we need more blood on these streets!!! Takes alot more than a moderator deleting my post for saying the magical banned word around here, lol. I may be a jackass at some points to people that don't agree with my logic but let me say this. I have been gaming for 20+ yrs in the MMO community and 100% of that time it's been PVP games and PVP servers, so my views may be biased towards that logic. I still enjoy all types of different people and i don't mean to be offensive I suppose i have very thick skin. The moderators want to make sure all types of people won't get offended for the slightest comment on a play style, i understand. This game needs all types of people blue and red players, just needs to find that balance. Right now it seems a lot more blue than red.

I will always have constructive post due to my gaming experience and my over analyzing mind . This doesn't mean it won't piss people off, but i always present my goal and reason why I say it. I think to present a problem without a solution is just being a troll. I don't troll (maybe a little) I welcome the feedback, love to see other view points that I may have missed.

 

on what planet do you all reside in which it's pitch black outside at night?

from the rolling hills in the country to the urban city the moon provides plenty of light most days of the month and the world of Sota has something like 7 moons / planets orbiting the game world

 

Never said it was pitch black? Said its very dim ?

 

To say this you must either live in a city or highly populated suburb where there are always light sources. If you live in the country, yes it's pitch dark with little ambient light unless the moon is full or half full. You also appear to have never been in a room or building with no windows, or a cave...

I'm not trying to be snarky or troll-like at all. This is a realistic light for people dwelling in a world where large cities are lit by candle and torchlight and surrounded by deep forest and countryside. It's not a modern environment with streetlights, halogen and led bulbs and such brightness it blots out the stars at night.

 

Nope, not true but nice set of assumptions. I've actually posted a study conducted by the US military and published publicly on night time activity and no light to low light operation. Search my post history here to find it posted several times. Where they scientifically measure the distances which we can see and operate effectively with little to no light.

Humans have something called night vision. You may not have experienced it and most cameras, like the one used in the picture above do not have it.

Also I've been to Cherry Springs, PA which is known to have the highest level of dark night sky in the world and you can actually, in my real life experience, see better there than you can in areas with excessive light pollution.

Also, I have been in caves and buildings without windows. Please stop making so many assumptions especially when they're all wrong.

 

I prefer to walk around at night without light in the Outland. Only on the darkest of nights, 1/6th of the time or less, is it hard to see.

It is my experience that people in the Outland are often terrified of the dark. They will use a flashlight even if the moon is full and I can see great distances.

 

I do a lot of spelunking in real life. I am also certified scientific cave diver. One of the things we do is look for life in caves. I have yet to ever observe an organism adapted to life that uses some form luminenece unlike some closely related species found aphotic 1000 M + oceanic waters. In fact, eyesight on most vertebrate species found there has degenerated and pigmentation is lost.

Caverns are those parts of a cave system where natural light can enter, but when no natural light can be detected, you are considered to be in a cave.

One of the biggest fears is if our light source go out, cuz you aint seeing anything. We practice blackout drills to make certain we don't panic and know how to get out safely should the lights go out. We have to rely on guidelines and hope they don't snap to be able to get out of a cave when diving. At least in water you don't have to worry about tripping, just follow the line back out and hope you don't lose it. You really cant do that in a dry cave, unless it didn't require to much climbing to move through.

Even with light sources, your really cant see to far, depending what you shine the light on. Visibility is only in the direction the light shines in a narrow range. If anything, the lighting provided in the dungeons are pretty generous. They also introduce organism that still utilize light (the assumption would be these organism would have more in common with organisms from an aphotic zone that can periodically enter a photic zone). Also when you shine at other individuals you can actually blind them momentarily.

Granted, with the advent of LED lights, things have changed a bit (range has increased as well as width) for spelunking. One of the most incredible thing I have seen was when we lit up a chamber to the equivalent of a sunny day. The water was so crystal clear you might have believe you were floating in the open air, and if not for the walls of the chamber, could have seen the objects on a horizon.

 

Great information here, adds more support to making the game darker in general.. Especially caves/dungeons, honestly we should have to use a torch or campfires something of that sort. Coming from my most recent game mortal online the night time here is like daytime, I don't even use light spells lol. Only use I've had for them is being around rocks to see ore.

 

We're really not talking about caves in most of this discussion. On caves, which should be pitch dark torches shouldn't have such a limited light radius. I've never done it in a cave, but if I'm in a large, dark, pitch-black room and I light a lighter the light carries accross the length of the room not in a circle around me and my eyes adapt allowing me to see mostly everything in the room around me.

Caves being dark is cool, however it only works if the light sources function more properly. Since they can't and probably won't some amount of ambient light is going-to be needed. I found this issue when modding in Morrowind, for example. If you make the ambient light zero the light sources don't work because they really just create a globe of light in a small radius around them. The light, for instance, doesn't carry to the adjacent wall which would be pitch black because of the zero ambient light despite a torch being on the wall directly across from it. This isn't realistic, so a compromise has to be made.

 

In caves in real life, are there pockets of gases and unbreathable air also? I was just thinking if a torch would be a wise choice in some cave environments, as possible lack of oxygen or even an explosion might occur.

 

Page 3? Totally.

 

Just pointing out something that happens naturally. The one great thing about fantasy games is the laws of physics don't have to be quite like our world.

Heck, as far as I know the light from the sun and the moons have magic properties that penetrate the ground flooding it with a "special light spectrum" (which must exist to explain some of the biotic life and luminence organisms that does exist in some of these mines/caves). Those crystal shards are also pretty common and exhibit radiance, perhaps that is also the reason organisms down there still rely on sight.

Besides, we always see something impossible happens in a movie. When someone comments to me how that can happen, I respond "sure it can because its in the script". In the end, these are questions the developers have to make. Do they want to make it "feel as real as possible" or adjust the physics of this world based on "magical properties of the realm" to make game play more enjoyable. This, of course leads to passionate pleas on both sides.

With that said, I kind of enjoy the current state of lighting when I go underground. When I am hunting above ground, and night begins to fall, I actually try to take a break, cuz it really too dark to see whats out there and I don't wanna get ambushed. Besides, I probably getting close to being encumbered and need to drop off my booty.

 

I may owe you an apology. I was very skeptical about your sincerity as the many times I played a new user, the light spell was always on the starting bar. However, recently I tried another new avatar and noticed that there were only two spells on the bar, one attack and one healing spell. And even though I have been playing long enough to know the ropes, I just "expected" the bar bar to be filled with what I have to use. I did not even bother to look, just as I would not have looked as a new player. So I also filed feedback on this.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/no-light-for-new-archers.99645/

I will send this message over PM as well as you probably are not even arround here.

 

You used to start with the light spell on your utility hot-bar. If this was changed then, for the life of me, I don't know why and I really believe that the dev team should rethink it.

 

You don't start with your utility hotbar at all.