Valvar
Member
I just wanted to speak my mind on the topic of darkness. Most games fail to do darkness properly. They always provide the player with ample light-sources, and during the night there is either the moon and/or a "backlit" starry sky illuminating the world. Even if there is no moon or stars, it is usually fully possible to see your environments and the darkness is represented by a blue hue.
This is not okay!
When it is night and the sky is covered in clouds, or when you are in a cave without any light source, or in a dark forest, you shouldn't see anything! In the cave, it should be pitch black.
When you then light a torch, it should be your lifeline. When walking down the dank corridors of a dungeon, you will want to be carrying a sword in one hand and a torch in the other. And when you get in a fight, you can burn faces
There are very few games that have done it right, but among them was Mortal Online. It was one of the most immersive games that I ever played (sadly lacking in many other aspects), and a large part of that was the pitch black nights. You'd get lost outside cities in the night, even if the moon was out. You could see the things close to you, but landmarks were near impossible to spot in the darkness. Not to mention how amazing(ly scary) it was if a player, giant spider or orc popped out of the darkness at an armlengths distance. Unfortunately they greatly nerfed this due to gammahackers.
Lightsources - if there are only undead in the dungeon, it makes no sense to leave magically lit torches along the corridor walls. Maybe goblins and bandits do that and that's fine, but please think carefully about how you provide light sources.
I can see the counter-arguments here. "But it's a game! Games are made to be fun, not realistic!". True darkness, in my opinion, adds a lot of immersion and makes the game even more fun. If players really don't like the darkness they should just be able to up the gamma (or find somewhere to rest until dawn).
This is not okay!
When it is night and the sky is covered in clouds, or when you are in a cave without any light source, or in a dark forest, you shouldn't see anything! In the cave, it should be pitch black.
When you then light a torch, it should be your lifeline. When walking down the dank corridors of a dungeon, you will want to be carrying a sword in one hand and a torch in the other. And when you get in a fight, you can burn faces
There are very few games that have done it right, but among them was Mortal Online. It was one of the most immersive games that I ever played (sadly lacking in many other aspects), and a large part of that was the pitch black nights. You'd get lost outside cities in the night, even if the moon was out. You could see the things close to you, but landmarks were near impossible to spot in the darkness. Not to mention how amazing(ly scary) it was if a player, giant spider or orc popped out of the darkness at an armlengths distance. Unfortunately they greatly nerfed this due to gammahackers.
Lightsources - if there are only undead in the dungeon, it makes no sense to leave magically lit torches along the corridor walls. Maybe goblins and bandits do that and that's fine, but please think carefully about how you provide light sources.
I can see the counter-arguments here. "But it's a game! Games are made to be fun, not realistic!". True darkness, in my opinion, adds a lot of immersion and makes the game even more fun. If players really don't like the darkness they should just be able to up the gamma (or find somewhere to rest until dawn).