Day/Night Cycle

[Chameleon]

I'm assuming there will be one like TQ, only better.;)

Additional to this, will it affect monster spawn? As in will some monsters only come out at night, aka vampires.

Also will vampires catch fire if we keep them fighting till dawn? :D

[Malpheas]

Personally I think that's a fantastic idea. That's a good method to introduce some rare monsters.

[Darktruth77]

That plus weather effects would be nice.

[Malpheas]

While keeping in mind some of the system limitations. Or a simple display for this.

[OblivioN]

I'm all for a day/night cycle if there is a reason it's being implemented. I feel like 90% of the games out with day night cycles don't use them for anything meaningful.

I'd rather not have it than have it and it do nothing of importance.

[medierra]

We will have day / night cycle. We've also fixed the performance issue some players experienced with it in TQ. Apparently the player light was set to cast shadows, which is fairly performance intensive for such a large light radius. We've turned that off.

Whether or not it will effect spawns is yet to be determined. It is something we've considered and would like to do but I don't know if we will get to it.

Something meaningful does happen though - it gets dark and looks cool. ;)

[ASYLUM101]

Something meaningful does happen though - it gets dark and looks cool. ;)



I hope it's comparable to the darkness of Styx! :D (all time coolest scene transition in any rpg, from epirus to styx...)

[alexei]

yep i like it like TQ. with reason or not. day or night have it own special feel. and SURE is i like the idea of having something special between day and night. like some night only monster spawn out from the darkness. creepy.

[Iceciro]

Actually, I would absolutly love it if night was more dangerous than day - bigger monsters in larger groups out to eat you, along with a reduced vision range - something to make the transition have a serious affect on players, nd make them go "Oh nuts, night is falling. Better get ready?" Or for people like me to go "Oh boy, nightfall! That means I get to MURDER MORE GUYS."

Of course, then you have to synch night-and-day on multiplayer games but I think that really should've been done anyways.

[myrmidon]

lol thated be pritty cool. if you had it so vampires died at morning. but what if your fighting a realy strong vampire boss. and you kill him by waiting for the sun to come up.:p

[Roros]

I really like it when you can revisit an area and it looks and feels different than before, but whether this is due to a realtime cycle, an event in the story, or even manually triggered (by a rest function or even a player skill, for example) is honestly not that important to me.

[TECHNOmancer]

I like the day/night cycle, whether it's done purely for aesthetic reasons or drives particular mechanics within a game. I enjoyed the effect in TQ, if for no other reason than it did occasionally help monsters to surprise me since they were harder to see at night than during the day. Similarly, adding weather effects would be a nice touch that would increase the believeability of the game world, as well as possibly obscuring a character's vision of dangerous foes.

TECHNOmancer

[alexei]

Having special weather effect could be very beautiful but I afraid many effect could once again trigger the rubber-banding effect bug but the dev already discuss this in the game engine thread so i trust it will never happen.

[k4llu5]

I always missed having rain and snow in TQ. I wonder if these will be considered for GD? As far as gettin rid of the player light radius, hip-hip-hooray! Hopefully the wind sfx will be kept in.

[paulusx]

We've also fixed the performance issue some players experienced with it in TQ. Apparently the player light was set to cast shadows, ;)

Loved that in TQ, played for months before i noticed the shadows were cast longer at sunset etc. Would make the Grim Dawn even gloomier especially around wooded areas...with light flickering from open flame. Damn, how soon this game away!!?? LOL

[Haaznahnuf]

Whether or not it will effect spawns is yet to be determined.
Not only night and day, but the very moment of the day (he who can do more...).
I figure TQ with a mountain pass or a marsh utterly unpassable by night in Normal mode... Allthough dusk and dawn might be difficult to implement for that purpose ?

There could be a lot to play with one or more environmental variables :

1°) Direct effects :
-night and indoor darkness benefiting to undeads-like (attack, defense, resistance, regeneration);
-rain and heavy myst benefiting to the Other race;
-rain nerfing fire-based skills a bit (e.g. a -1 penality on skills). What about electricity and gunpowder ?
-light generating skills could lower/cancel the nightly bonus for undeads;
-rain lowering energy regeneration for humans (meaning faster fatigue);


2°) Weather- and time-related AI :
-patrolling;
-change in behaviour (ranges, alert, aggro);
-seeking for shelter.


3°) New environment-related skills :

- weather change (progressive or sudden);
- weather lore (forecasting, immunity to effects);
- time shift (in solo game);


4°) Interaction between statics and weather : (adding new graphics/animations)
-rain generating smoke on fires, and steam on lava;
-rain/sand/ashes filling open conteners and wetting things;
-weather changing footprints;


5°) More... (programmer's nightmare ?) (as per environmental spells)
-movement hindering: wet surfaces, mud, water streams, sand storms, gust of wind,...
-range/accuracy hindering.
Of course, at this level of modelisation, there would be not only variables (wich affect all the map) but environmental objects (or spells with defined areas of effect).

[medierra]

I'm assuming there will be one like TQ, only better.;)

Additional to this, will it affect monster spawn? As in will some monsters only come out at night, aka vampires.

Also will vampires catch fire if we keep them fighting till dawn? :D

We actually have a day/night spawn cycle feature... we just don't have anything to use with it yet. So, more money would allow us to get vampires or whatever made to use with this feature. Sadly, we have a lot features like this that exist but which aren't being properly utilized yet.

[varsovie]

As I understand, even if you don implement these kind of thing, the possibility is there and modders could possibly use them. I'm I right?

[i.n.s.a.n.e]

I remember a thread where we talked with medierra about monster stats being dependant on day/night (aka vampires being stronger at night, weaker during the day, etc.). Can't find it now though..

I would still love to see that. =)

[eisprinzessin]

@i.n.s.a.n.e - here you go (http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33518&highlight=night+boost+monsters#post33518)

[i.n.s.a.n.e]

@i.n.s.a.n.e - here you go (http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33518&highlight=night+boost+monsters#post33518)

You will find anything, anywhere! What would we do without you? Thanks! =)

(I was hoping you would show up, haha)

[Devastor]

We actually have a day/night spawn cycle feature... we just don't have anything to use with it yet. So, more money would allow us to get vampires or whatever made to use with this feature. Sadly, we have a lot features like this that exist but which aren't being properly utilized yet.
Being interested in modding GD, I'd like to know if it will be possible to force specific times of the day in ones mod.
I'd also like to know, if it will be possible to prevent the time from passing (i.e. that it's always night or day or - let's say 15:57:) )

[GlurakTheGreat]

I love the idea in a flavor sense, but in a playing sense, that means I either have to wait or have some sort of way to change times (like in zelda or something). I don't want that, I just want to go in and kill things. Now if it is just more spawns at night I think that is cool, but putting in rare things just to make people wait or w/e seems annoying from a gameplay perspective.