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Disapointed in how bright night is now

Discussion in 'Release 27 Feedback Forum' started by fireflygirl, Feb 25, 2016.

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  1. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    I'm with you that I'd like lights and night spells to be necessary and not obsolete, but I also think it is overall improved over the last version. If most people are able to see with light spells and what not now, to a reasonable degree, then they can tone down the ambient lighting in areas where it makes sense later to add meaning to the spells. I think for now, it's just been a struggle to find a base to work from. I think finally we're able to see what level of lighting is enough for everyone, where as before, it seems some people felt no level of lights was helping them to feel comfortable getting around.

    (I'm of the 'can get around fine in the dark with my eyes closed, so please keep lights moody and artistic and necessary, camp personally. But I can adjust my brightness to attain that effect in the game's video settings.)
     
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  2. Fox Cunning

    Fox Cunning Localization Team

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    I guess it depends a lot on your monitor/video card. In my main gaming system it was already too bright before, and now it's ridiculously bright.
    I have to use Reshade/SweetFX to make the shadows darker and lower the gamma further, otherwise nights look like days, and days look like a white sheet is covering my view.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2016
  3. Razimus

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    Dang... I liked the fact that I pledged to get light stuff. Light sword. Light cape. Light shield. I liked the dark. But the more I like something, the more they go the other way, so maybe I should lie and say I hate the dark.
     
  4. Halvard

    Halvard Avatar

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    Haven't logged in to 27 yet but on my systems days were almost unplayable on my default settings. Like a constant flashbang in the middle of screen so I sure hope the slider will go to extremely dark.

    On a side note dragging that slider all the way down so I can get some use of light spell/night vision works from a RP standpoint but seems silly, to put it mildly from a pvp standpoint.
     
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  5. HoustonDragon

    HoustonDragon Avatar

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    We control your game. Do not adjust your development team. You have entered... the Goldilocks Zone :p
     
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  6. Smalls

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    I cant approve + this enough. before it was dark in some areas at some points, but never once unplayable. It is all about your personal setup. Because some systems lack, and others are overkill, don't change the game to make it nm.....all I can is there are required system specs and RECOMMENDED Specs for a reason.. sickening...
     
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  7. Wodin Folkvardr

    Wodin Folkvardr Avatar

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    I would like to chime in to all the people who say it was great before with the nights being so dark. I understand the want to make spells worthwhile and not make them completely useless, I really do. The thing with darkness is (as others have stated) this is completely different from machine to machine. You and I might have the same idea for how dark it is. To give a tangible example lets say for example we both feel that a darkness of 50 is the perfect amount. It's pretty dark, you can still navigate 5 feet in front of you, and light/night vision still are highly helpful. Playing in darkness is still less easy and dangerous.

    The problem comes when the developers set the Darkness to 50, that perfect spot. Now on my screen what I actually see is a darkness of 90, I'm completely unable to see, everything is black, even with light I still cannot see anything beyond my toes. However on your screen you see everything as a darkness of 30, it still seems too bright for you, to reach that perfect place you want the devs to make it darker by a factor of 20 (effectively putting me at 110 darkness).

    This is an unwinnable battle the devs are faced with. The only option is to expand our personal configurable options. As far gaining advantage in PVP.. This is going to happen, like it or not. This has been a trend in gaming since... forever.. It is very common in FPS games for professional/try hards to turn down their graphic settings to very low standards for better frames and to remove extra flares. For instance in Battlefield I believe it was they would turn down settings so they wouldn't have to load the tall wavy lifelike grass that people could hide in.

    Also to touch on the people saying torches, spells, equipment ect are the answer to darkness. What if you're dead. Last release if I died I was out of luck. Death alone makes everything Grayscale, topped with darkness, the only thing I could do was wander aimlessly (trying to use the compass to direct myself towards an ankh. It was so dark though I could not tell if I was pinned by a tree, stuck in a rock, tripped up by a branch, hell I couldn't even tell if I was moving or not. And this was with not only my game settings cranked on full brightness, but also my monitor turned full brightness and whitewashed.

    Just my 2cents (maybe 3) of rambling on the subject.

    -Wodin
     
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  8. Ravenclaw [BEAR]

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    I agree with you about enjoying a really dark night. Unfortunately I feel this is one of those situations where the devs are going to end up stepping in it no mater what. When it's dark, people complain that it is too dark. When it is light, same reaction about it being to bright. No matter which way they adjust it is seems that people are never happy.

    Short of coming up with some way to tune the levels for each player before they start the game so that everyone has the same setting as intended by the devs and leave it at that, I don't think a solution will be coming to soon on this one.
     
  9. Irongron

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    The game has a brightness setting, I can't see why they dont just set it to the middle which is normal brightness and then let folks adjust from there. if you want your experience to be dark and moody, set it left. if you're blind as a bat like me set it to the right. The brightness should be irregardless of external lighting sources. If I have to play where everything looks washed out because its bright BUT I can actually see to play the game well that's my issue.
     
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  10. Razimus

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    I really was liking the pre-patch darkness in SotA, when a game has such darkness it really adds to the atmosphere of a town, all they needed was sewer rats and it would've completed the night life setting. Really hope they reconsider and add that darkness back. Even if it's not 50/50 but the same darkness, 30/70 whatever, I just really was liking the NPC that lit the lights at night and the very cool mood the scene set with that lighting contrast with the darkness.

    There was this MMO that was in beta testing stages in 1997, it was pre-UO's beta, post-Diablo-1, so I had some time to test it. It was the most pitch black game I've ever played. It reminded me of Ultima Underworld, but was online, dark 24/7, was really cool. It reminded me of how SotA was pre-patch, please bring the darkness back!
     
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  11. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    I'd love it if the darkness would change based on the phase of the moon. bring it back to pre-patch levels during the new moon, and this level is okay for a full-moon night. let it range between the two otherwise gradually. ;)
     
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  12. Halvard

    Halvard Avatar

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    have tested the slider thingy out now, I have it set to the darkest possible and its not even close to dark... its daytime and blind by the sun time.

    Of course i could adjust my screen aswell but I do play other games like CS:GO and don't really want it to be dark there :/ (which is "normal" to me)

    Edit: In towns it actually seems to get dark but in adventure scenes it's day bright so might be a bug
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2016
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  13. Fox Cunning

    Fox Cunning Localization Team

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    Just to give a better idea of what I was talking about, here's a couple screenshots I took in Ardoris.
    Note that my "Brightness" slider is all the way to the left, and I have set Saturation to about 25%.
    [​IMG]
    That is how I normally play: with Reshade/SweetFX enabled to lower the gamma and make shadows darker. Even with that, as you can see it's unacceptably bright (no need for any kind of light source).
    I was testing the localisation, so sorry about the non-English text, but the compass says it's "late night" and "waning moon".

    If I disable Reshade, as expected it gets even worse:
    [​IMG]
    Of course you will be seeing this through your monitors, but on my main one the "night sky" is just plain white. I've tried a different monitor and it assumes a disturbing shade of light pink on that one, but still unacceptably bright.
     
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  14. Baratan

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    You go outside at night and need a light spell to see in real life? How about even with a half a dozen 'moons'?

    Light spells and torches are great for caves and dungeons, but to need one to see in an open field or valley throughout a night with 6 or 7 moons in the sky? That's only roleplaying if you're roleplaying a character with an ocular disability. Which is fine, if you want to do that, do it. Roleplay it, you don't need to blind the entire playerbase to accomplish that.

    Dragon's Dogma is an example of a game that has a very good eye adaptation. Lanterns are wonderful tools, but so it the human eye even in low-light conditions. Unless there's almost no light due to a new moon (or 10 new moons at once in this game's case) or overhead cloud coverage in combination with foliage you should be able to see and function pretty well.

    You need to calibrate your monitor. http://glennmessersmith.com/images/adjust.htm
     
  15. Ravenclaw [BEAR]

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    Yup.. Streetlights, headlights, flashlights in the country, lights in the house, etc.. These replace the torch and light spell in real life.
     
  16. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    well, In Sota we only have one moon, the 2nd one smashed into the first causing the problems we're facing now. All those other 'moons' are planets, which I don't expect to affect the lighting conditions on New Britannia. They were nice enough to make these planets visible to the naked eye, but they aren't supposed to be moons. ;-D
     
  17. Baratan

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    No, not really. Those are for seeing colors and details that require larger amounts of light to see, not to see shapes which can't be seen in pitch-black video games without eye adaptation. Realistic low-light darkness is almost black and white with loss of detail, unless you're viewing the world through a camera lens.

    I know they're not "moons" that's why I use quotations, but they're close and large enough to have moon-sized appearances therefor would provide moon-like reflection of the sun, even if you don't call it sun or moon.
     
  18. Xi_

    Xi_ Avatar

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    planetoids and satellites all pick up light and refract it to some extent however, if earth had more than one satellite displayed at night things would be brighter.
     
  19. CatherineRose

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    Wow, I wish mine were brighter....I can not see even with a torch!
     
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  20. Beaumaris

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    I'm liking the new nights better. Before I had to jack to video settings to feel I was enjoying the game at night. Now it seems more middle of the road settings work. I use a GeForce 980 and Apple Cinema Display.
     
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