Please lower the Contrast - it's TOO Dark!

Maybe this will be fixed in the Unity 5 engine update, maybe it's intended to force the sale of torches, I don't know. But it is way too dark in this world, and the contrast is set way too high. I like dark, I routinely set my desktop gamma, brightness and contrast down nice and low and view everything in a more pleasing, less neon light. But SotA is mind bogglingly dark. When I portal to Solace Bridge at night, I have to wait at the rift until daybreak because I literally cannot see anything in the dark.

Sure, a torch is available and would help except that I'm a duel wielding fighter who would have to switch out and fight in the dark if attacked, torches are not a practical solution. And I know there is a light spell, but my precious skill points are already wasted on many skills I don't want or need because of the hierarchical design of the skill tree and I have none to spare for a light spell.

Please consider brightening things up just a bit. Or adding gamma, brightness and contrast sliders.

Thanks!

 

Light spell is just 1 skill point, is so cheap everybody is worried that its availability will reduce the torch use to zero , plus it allows you to keep your hands free, so it's perfect for fighters. After all, what's a skill point? As you raise levels you'll have points to spare.

I love the way the game looks in the darkness. Caves and night are supposed to be threatening because of vision impairment, and i think they accomplished that pretty well (maybe it's too cheap to avoid it... just a skill point and nothing else!).

Since that's a factor in the game i wouldn't like sliders so people could configure it to see in the dark without the need of any light source, in the same way i wouldn't like a slider to configure the difficulty of monsters or puzzles. Regarding darkness, I prefer if they just include a progressive darkness adaptation, so our vision improves if we stay in low light zones (in the same way Penumbra did it).

 

Unity 5 physically based shaders and global illumination will give SotA a great lightning quality improvement....

https://unity3d.com/es/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/5-pre-order-beta/unity5-lighting-overview

 

I like the contrast as is. I find it to be fun to explore when you could get attacked in the dark by anything at any time...

 

Nooooo i need the dark for comedy! I hide in stuff for hours waiting to confuse people.

 

So, you are saying that while dual wielding dark areas are dark? Isn't that part of the price to pay? I mean people fighting with sword and shield can't have both either...

 

What I'm hearing in response seems to be a variant of "this is more realistic". But every good game designer knows that when there is a tradeoff between realism and fun, fun should almost always win. This is not to say that the world should be always lit, I am NOT opposed to darkness. What I am opposed to is such overbearing darkness that leads to tedium and frustration. One man's joy of discovery in the dark will be another's frustration at having to play blind.

Seriously, if the game looks at release as dark as it does today, I think it will be trashed by what I believe is the majority of players who like to be aware of their surroundings. It can be done in darkness. The "Thief" games proved that. My point is not just about darkness per se, it's about contrast and total elimination of the visual cues that occur even in darkness that help us adjust and operate. When that is replaced by pure blackness, we all lose.

 

We each have an opinion, mine is to leave the dark areas dark. With torches, a light spell, dark vision (lunar tree when developed) and who knows what other craftable elements that are being developed that can cast light, darkness really isn't a factor for a player unless they are trying to hide in it. In that case, the darker the better.

Perhaps a small 'bubble' in the immediate area around the player (2 or 3 steps worth) that has a lightened contrast but definitely no lightened contrast on distanced items, objects or creatures. And not at all if there is no light source available anywhere at all.

 

Aye, we each have our opinions, amen to that. I really do appreciate the community here and the qualitatively different players one meets here compared to other MMOs. I'm not asking to dumb down the game or to make it look like Wildstar.

But for the love of God, when I am walking through town in the middle of the day and I can't see the people in front of me unless I see their name tags over their heads, and I can't make out any of the detail in houses that I pass, just an occasional flame here, a torch there, and everything else just bland blackness. And this is in the afternoon! This is not "darkness" for immersion or even to promote realism. It is pathologically high contrast settings that make a simple walk through town off-putting and tedious, without any corresponding benefit. Keep the darkness in the caves, keep it in the evenings if you must, but in mid afternoon in town?

 

@Borg: thanks for the info on Unity 5. I look forward to seeing how that affects the issue I'm describing.

 

that's not my experience at all; it sounds like a bug. i have a stupid question: you say you routinely set your desktop gamma, brightness and contrast down low. are you temporarily undoing that when you play SotA? i do the same thing, and sometimes wander around wondering why the game is so dark before remembering i didn't reset it.

 

I'd like to see a screenshot of that situation. I do not seem to have that issue myself but I use the Spyder 3 Pro device to set my levels and colour. I have noticed that the game seems darker in 'fantastic' mode vs 'fastest' mode though but I assumed that this was because of the shadow details that get enabled with 'fantastic' mode settings.

 

I'm hoping for a candle on my head like in Hobbit movie where they find the arkenstone

 

I like the suspense that dark areas give, and I want to be able to cast spells like TES' Night Eye. I don't mean anything like modern night vision goggles give, just a subtle enhancement of your vision within a certain radius so you can spot enemies better.

 

#1 complaint I hear from people watching me demo the game or friends that I get to back: it's too dark
#1 visual complaint I've had since they updated the shaders/shadows/whatever in ?release 6/7?: it's too dark

I agree 100% that the game needs to get lighter... no fun to play a game that you can't see... mind as well be a text-based mud (okay, I know that's pushing it but... yeah... give me brightness/gamma/whatever you call it slider plz!)

 

Brightness/gamma sliders could allow an unbalanced advantage on dark/nighttime pvp type areas. Everyone would have to set the brightness all the way up at night and lower it again in the day to level the playing field.

I have to disagree with the sliders ideas. If it is lightened then it should be by the same amount for everyone. People can adjust their monitors from that point on if they need to.

 

adjusting the monitor is the same as a slider but then it's unique to the game so it doesn't screw everything else up... EVERYTHING else on my PC is fine with my current monitor settings... I should be able to uniquely do that change without using my monitor as it is a specific issue with this application...

I understand what you're saying but I think the slider bars are not an advantage... they're an industry standard feature in every other game I own (I have about 15 installed on my PC right now) including minecraft... we need to at least put minecraft to shame here...

 

Not so sure that the, "everyone else does it so we should too" argument is the best one around but I do see your point about adjusting the game settings on a software by software basis. That makes perfect sense to me.

I still feel that people will abuse the lighting issue to give themselves an advantage but whether it's by adjusting software sliders or monitor settings it doesn't make much difference so, might as well opt for software sliders.

 

Maybe we should wait till the moon magic comes out and see what night vision holds? It gives meaning to the spell to have things dark.

 

"In Lor"

Wait, what? Wrong client.