How much should the world of EQ Next change based on time of day?

The world should be significantly more dangerous at night, for the night is dark and full of terrors.

This would really set EQ Next apart from all the other run of the mill MMORPGs. Imagine only having a set time to complete a dungeon, because you could only do that dungeon during the night or taking down an important world boss using a raid at night. Imagine fortifying your home during the day and preparing it for potential threats that only come out at night, then waiting inside, peeping through the windows to see if your traps are successful. Certain building resources should only be available at night and require a team to delve into the the dark unknown to retrieve. These resources would be highly sought after and be worth more than material you can acquire during the day. EQ has lore based around Vampires, they would feature more prominently during the night. Villagers would not wander about the open world, instead they'd bunker down - set up night watches and welcome a friendly face who might assist them when they're under attack. You could really do something special with the night if you play your cards right.

How about you have a large cave in a mid level zone, that is home to a nocturnal cyclops that roams at night only, big bulbous eye and pale skin. Have him be a beast in his cave, but if a group lures him into daylight (or better yet destroys his cave so he must escape the collapse - into the daylight) he will become near blind from having to squint after being used to darkness so long. Hits lose accuracy/damage, or make it comical almost - the sheer weight of his swings throws him off balance and makes him fall over half the time.

Make visual elements a tactic too, rather than simply having a "blind" spell for priests, make it mechanically work how it should. You cast blind, and a burst of light will go off infront of the mobs face. Everyone looking in that direction, as opposed to looking down or away, will then have a whitened screen for a short duration.

It's a no-brainer to want more variety so a day-night cycle that alters the AI and the denizens sounds great.

It is also a no-brainer that if that means you turn up to a city and everything is shut that that would be just annoying, however immersive it was...

Weather
Definitely Roundtable material. I've always been in favor of an environment that provides challenges, especially weather. I want fog like I've experienced in real life - so thick that I can almost walk into a wall, much less a zombie or an Orc scout - before realizing I've hit it; Snow and Ice that can be we can skate and ski on and which messes with movement; Mud and snow and water that slows me down and provides slippage - and slows down enemies giving an advantage to ranged fighters; Rain and snow and darkness and fog that messes with my vision and my equipment, giving a melee fighter an advantage closing against my bowman. Environmental effects that make me think and adapt strategies.

Lots of folks disagree. Roundtable!

"The world should be significantly more dangerous at night, for the night is dark and full of terrors." Was my first choice and if given the option of choosing a second vote option i would have said. "I’d like to see the AI factor time of day into its behavior"

The reason I chose these options is because, a place like Nektalous forest should be absolutely terrifying and dangerous, at night!
I'd also say, at night time, depending on the area and the lore behind the land itself. I might offer a suggestion to add more abstract and outlandish looking creatures.
I'm a DnD (Pen and paper Edition) player, and to any other DnD'ers out there, we know that night time = bad mojo depending on your area.
AS IT SHOULD BE In my opinion.
Walking through a forest at night traveling with a caravan, Typically you'd be wary of bandits, wild animals Wolves, dire wolves possibly even werewolves, Bears, Mountain lions, and of course Orcs! honestly....not all that bone chilling or scary. For once i want a game where i see the sun go down and start seeing players stop what they are doing and travel to safer paths and areas.
You should hear the sounds of the nightlife waking and rising from its slumber, only to find it hungers for the soft supple flesh of a crazy ranger whom dare try to track the forest and survive the night with naught but a torch and dagger and 20 arrows.
ther night life should not only be tougher, but visually more Ghastly and horrible. My suggestion take a DnD Monster manual look at the weird abstract and outlandish creatures and then formulate your own creatures to toss into the world for some spiced up scary Mobs.

"Its not the dark we fear...its whats in the dark, that is what scares us!"
Also I'd like to add that the towns/cities/villages should be equally as affected. There shouldn't be merchants out after night fall, its not done. Even Npc's should sleep. For sake of explanation Sort of like in Skyrim and the Elderscrolls Genre, at a certain time they close shop and go to sleep. However if you go to the lengths of knocking on their door, asking to buy goods they sometimes still sell to you. However at night you shouldn't see much in a City/towns streets, maybe the occasional street rat or "hobo" so to speak, The taverns and inns should be brimming with people and tales of adventure. Id even suggest that you could only find certain quests at certain times from certain people, just like in EQ 1.
Again however depending on the Lore of the Town/City and surrounding area, the A.I would react accordingly to nightfall.

You'd see guards patrolling, street rats picking pockets and digging for coins. you'd see the gates closing and the last of the travelers looking for a place to rest. A few bandits pop out and mug the unsuspecting traveler. Or even possibly seeing Assassins and wetboys going after targets and deaders in the night. All of which is dependent on the lore of the Area. For example Freeport might have assassins leaping stealthily from roof top to roof top, hunting down some noble who has been targeted and marked for death by some other noble involved in an under ground ring, whom simply wanted the leg up in the political standings.
The night time in this game if done right (in my opinion) should practically be an entirely new and separate game unto its own. Look at our own Daily lives, during the day...then at night, some of us wear business suits and uniforms by day and then dress like party animals by night, every city everywhere in the world is completely different at night. There fore the same should reflect in the game.

One very last thing I promise, If EQN goes with the decision that the nightlife should be a bigger part of the MMO itself
Add some story behind the nighttime issues and adventures, even like a basic DnD adventure. "there are some merchants who are passing through and need to leave town asap because they have a only a certain amount of time to get to the city beyond the forest but its a 3 day journey. Along the way 2nd night travelling the group gets attacked, merchants are killed and your group was attacked by some unknown monstrosity of a creature, but it fled and it could have only been the monster the townsfolk mentioned but you shrugged off as ignorance and fear of the woods and night time. Now either completely compelled through whatever motives you have, Vengeance, justice, arcane curiosity, gold, fame, or simply adventure you return to town rest up and find information on the beast, and track it down, Etc trace its where abouts to a castle thats owned by a crazy old wizard who has been summoning magical beings from other realms "add reason for outlandish looking creature here" and this one got away, you now must clear the castle get to the wizard either defeat him or help him call off the beast whatever it may be. You get the gist of it. Just some lore and after math for the woods. Obviously it would need to be a story that could work better with permanent change or truly is that simple and its a one time thing. Maybe the wizard made a tear in the fabric between realms and forgien magics come swelling through and new creatures etc people too, soon this becomes a frontier between different universes fighting for territory and protection of their own universe. Who knows. but that kind of lore. It's simple easily expanded on or closed down, and it makes the player feel important and they can visibly see a difference. Thanks for reading, I hope this helps other players and the EQN team see how important night time could be in there game. Regardless I appreciate everyone (who read this) for taking the time to read through, maybe this helps you see a different opinion or expands on your own. Hope to see you in game Cheers!

You pretty much said exactly what I would love to see.

Having creatures change their behavior based on the time of day would help EQN be 'the' next gen mmo. Intelligent mobs are the way to go. Stationary, "dumb" mobs are so 20 years ago. Not much has changed since Meridian 59, and it's about time for some change. Sure, mobs get more "complicated" abilities or their artwork gets better, but they're still the same stupid, stationary mobs that have been getting killed day in and day out for the past 20 years, and still haven't grasped the concept that healers are a bigger threat to their survivability than the tank they're attacking.

A long time ago I remember seeing a cartoon of Cazic-Thule, Rallos Zek, and Innothule sitting at a poker table. And it was Cazic-Thule's turn to spawn, and he didn't feel like going down there to die again. I think the comic strip came out during PoP. Maybe someone remembers it and has a link for it.

I do not mind seeing night become more dangerous than day; however, this will require the day night cycle to fit a time span that allows players to play over both courses of time without having to sit ingame hours on end.

More or less, a day night cycle that would fit over a span between 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. Any longer, and i believe players may get stuck on a certain time depending on when they generally log in. Also the fact that many players will not play over 2 hours on a consistent basis or play session must be noted.

I'd recommend y'all to go play this game (yes it is from 1998) but it implemented a day/night cycle beautifully
Somehow different events during day/night made each place also more memorable
Nights had a sense of danger,but also a sense of tingling beauty


http://www.gog.com/game/quest_for_glory

I'd like to see different content available, different monsters, different quests, etc. I don't know about MORE difficult but just different would be nice. Crafting certain items at night or under a certain phase of the moon would be really cool as well.

I wish there was some info out about how long they are looking to make the day/night cycles. I think if its a shorter cycle then maybe you can away with some of the more "hardcore" things people have in mind.

combo of 1 & 2 for me , they both go well with each other... Shop NPC's , and townsfolk shouldn't be out and about as much, maybe they're at the Inn enjoying a frothy beverage? Or maybe they're at home enjoying a book by the fireplace?

I'd also entertain more dangerous and different creatures at night... Creatures that *only* come out at night would be great as well

This is pretty much exactly how I feel about it.

Certain places should be more dangerous at night. Other places may not. Creatures should behave more like real creatures would. I don't want to see bats all over the place in the day nor do I want to see squirrels all over at night.

Obviously some places should be considerably more dangerous at night. A haunted forest (like Kithcor!) for example, one would expect nastier creatures to come out at night and other ones you'd see during the day would increase in power and aggressiveness.

Other places might really not see a large difference in danger, say a coastal grove where some pixie type creatures live with normal wildlife (deer, wolves, etc).

Other places might become less dangerous at least temporarily. Maybe attacking an orc camp at night would be easier since orcs seem to be mostly diurnal. At least some of them would be asleep and easier to attack.

Would be very cool to see use of light/glow effects and equipment to explore the world. For example a human walking through Nektulos at night, cant see anything, unless he has a candle (could add wind to programming to apply force and resistance to see if candle holds light), or a simple lamp, or globe of radiant light to increase vision in certain environments. Original EverQuest gave players that realistic problem solving environment when certain races could not see in the dark. What do you do??? get a torch, done.

To further elaborate on this, maybe in certain territories (like an orc fortress) if you have your torch lit it attracts patrolling guards. Or if you are minding your business by a campfire in the desserts of Ro, a traveling thief could be lured to that direction. Having an environmental problem solving system with night and day could literally mold different characteristics on certain servers by the populations chosen method of approaching each specific problem.

So as you walk in Nektulos at night and see shadows following you in the darkness, waiting for your radiant armor to fail, you see your orb fading, oil running low and candle, blown out by un unlucky draft. Only then do you realize how the night is indeed dark and full of terrors.

LOADING, PLEASE WAIT...

Many Halflings were the victims of unfortunate deaths when trying to travel during the night to the bandit camps in West Commonlands. If the undead of Kithicor didn't get you, the werewolves in western WC did.

I would say not everything is shut down at night. And I don't think the original commenter suggested that either. Just like anything else, the day crew goes to sleep, or even better show more activity elsewhere (taverns? arena spectators/participants? the herbalist shopkeeper goes out at night to gather more herb supplies? The potionmaker offers payment for you to help him catch a goblin at night since he is in desperate need for goblin toes for a potion)

Like I was saying, the night crew comes out too, the more dubious merchants who will deal with anyone, the less favored races or players due to faction issues. Black market options would be available too. Maybe you'd find that the herbalist apprentice sells things secretly - and cheaper - at night when the boss is asleep. A demand finds a supply, if people are trying to vendor etc at night, then obviously there would be someone filling that demand by being open, so it would make sense - more sense than npc people being awake 24/7.

Some nights should be darker than others. Full moons should light up the environment once a month.

I agree with most that the first two options should be incorporated into the game. The night should have an impact both with visibility, danger, and NPCs actions changing with the coming of the dark. During the day you might be the hunter, but at night you might be the hunted.

Vampires would be weaker during the day and confined to crypts or caves, but at night be more powerful and free to roam. However, since many vampires may share the same crypt even though they are weaker you run the risk of having to deal with multiple vampires if you go after them during the day. Where if you wait til nightfall you might catch a more powerful version solo. But don't be caught in the crypt when night falls, because then you're screwed as you suddenly surrounded by a large number of the "night" versions before they disperse to hunt.

Other quests may require sacrifices at night, that won't work during the day. Or as in Tolkien, some clues to quests can only be read or deciphered by moonlight.

Exactly!

Just because you have NPCs going to bed doesn't mean everything shuts down. Just a different set of NPCs become active. So the bent mace you liberated from a hapless sun blinded troll could still be sold at night when you get back to town. Just not to the local shop keeper who has better things to do than service you needs and wants when the moon is up. You would just go to the shadier end of the town, find a tavern and sell it to the in house brewer who is having troubles with some of the rowdier drunken town yokels.

Night and day cycles mean more scope, not less.

Only one thing to say here.. Kithcore Forest. Make the world dangerous, maybe not every where, but make places where you don't want to get caught late at night. I also don't mind the idea of bringing back light sources either, just make it so its more convenient to have them and not a necessity.