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

No I remember that one, but I also remember the other discussion he was refering to. Though they didn't use the term discover. It was basically a situation describing how the AI controling each orc would react differently between approaching a town or village by itself vs how it would react if it was in a large group.

On the subject of night mobs vs day mobsI would hope that the AI is good enough that they are both in the world all the time just in a different place based on the time of day. like undead are in deep caves during the day while the orcs are out and about. Then when the sun sets the orcs go to thier camps and the undead emerge to hunt. There are many examples that can be used. Like wolves and other natural predators behave appropriately for the time of day, like wolves are hunting mostly during thr dsy while some predatory cats, like panthers would be out at night.

I'm going to pull another one from FF XI (I can't help it, it was my first real MMO):

They had a system where the hour of the day, the day of the week, the phase of the moon all affected everything your character did. Spells were more or less effective on certain days. Crafting was more or less effective on certain days (and even hours and the direction you were facing). Fishing was affected heavily by the moon, and somewhat by the days and hours.

To make that work you have to have the time on an 'off'' cycle, so everybody eventually gets all the time combinations. I know they made a Vana'diel clock, but it didn't have the one feature it needed to have: you couldn't set your alarm directly in game time. And yes, people would wake up odd hours of the night to go fishing or fight that tough genkai whenever things "converged".

That's the kind of system I'd like to see. Don't make it a carbon copy obviously, but if the moon isn't going to matter, don't put one in (Chekhov's Moon?). If Day and Night don't change anything, just leave it bright all the time, my eyes are bad enough as it is.

Hi guys my 2 cents on the matter…
The day in EQ2 was too short. Add a little longer time between day and night. With the ability to change shadows and lighting as you have shone in the new game allow us to immerse into the game longer at night, dawn, twilight etc.
Add a moon cycle, Full to New moon. Make it darker or lighter based on the phases of the moon. Infra vision, ultra vision and other class abilities where never used in EQ2 people did not like to see their screen turn purple. I never used this ability in EQ2 maybe you could allow some of the classes to see a little better at night then humans etc. AI would be nice to see a mix or different variety of monster and creatures a night verses the day. This is something I have not seen done very often in MMOs. Also as you go through the map and find a cave you might run into day time creatures sleeping or hiding in them at night and visas versa. Change the sky map a few times. Adding a storm or something would change it up a bit not that people look up all the time in the game but it is nice to have verity. I understand adding more eye candy can slow performance down but it adds more emersion. Lighting storms and rain, and dust and snow blizzards that cut visibility down add a unique environmental variable that change a map without really changing it. Nothing is spookier than having your viewable distance cut to nothing then having lighting going off and running into a horde of undead that you would have seen 2 miles away in the noon day sun.
Skirge

I agree with pretty much everything you said, with one caveat:

Gamma overcomes most 'darkness' problems which makes trying to use it as a game mechanic an exercise in futility. Unless things beyond a certain range simply are not rendered at all, but then you're adding a new server load.

Atmosphere is everything when it comes to immersion. I want to be so fully immersed in my games that I forget I'm merely playing a video game. In real life, there is some what of a danger, or threat of night. Your awareness is lessened by the dark, and you start to hone in and take captive every sound you hear, and every movement you catch a glimpse of.

Having night become more dangerous would do wonders for recreating that reality. I also agree with some of the posters on here who have gone into great detail about how recreating a night similar to real life would be so interesting. I believe it was Skire who mentioned moon cycles, and sleeping creatures.

Immersion is so very important to me as a gamer who's been playing mmo's for over 15 years because when a games mechanics become stale (due to using them every day for years on end), or when I merely become familliar with a game over time... the immersion is what protects me from becoming bored or having things become more run of the mill. If I'm captivated by the world I'm playing in, even some of the most mundane or tedious mechanics will feel exciting to me because I'll be excited about where I am - in an exciting world.

As a final note, I'd add that there are two things that really sell a game's experience for me. Who I am, and where I am are very important to me. The ability to be who I want to be (a hero, a thief, a murderer, a mage, a whatever) and to be in some magically amazing place (Norrath, Middle Earth, etc) is a priceless feeling. If you have that down, then adding in the ability to be doing amazing things (Fighting a balrog, Crippling an evil empire, saving the world) becomes oh so much more... well, outstanding.

But if I am unimpressed with who I am as a playable character or if I couldn't care less about the run of the mill game world I'm in... then I won't really care about fighting a balrog, or saving the world because I won't care about the world because it has bored me.

Please don't mind me for not reading the previous 62 pages on this topic but ...

I'm in for as much as a natural and realistic response to anything happening in the RPG setting. Therefore I want to see the seedy/dark characters coming out after dark and after midnight unless I'm in a good neighborhood. Let's be a little realistic when it comes to the bad elements and any given city/town. Clearly there are places to live where you don't need to worry about locking your doors but in other parts of town or even the world, if you don't lock it up it will go missing shortly. Let's keep the options realistic.

Regards,

Menglong

Oh - another thing final fantasy did right:

All shops were only open certain hours of the day and they were all closed at least one day a week.

The hours and days would vary from shop to shop (generally all of the same type of shop would be the same).

Indeed. I don't see that happening with this game since They have a very "lets please everyone and not hinder gameplay" attitude. Sure its disappointing when a store closes... but you know, its something I can appreciate.

I'm most definitely interested in a changing environment depending on the time of day, especially if they have nocturnal mobs and mobs who sleep/camp at night. A place that's not dangerous at all by day may be hazardous at night and vice versa. You could also get buffs or debuffs based on what time of day it is which are related to your personal specs. Very excited for the possibilities!

I want the night to be dangerous, dark and gloomy and having the AI reacting upon that too would make it better.

Making it more dangerous at night. I remember EQ2 had torches available to use, but in the end, they were pointless. Please bring some danger factor at night, devs!

I think the world should be very different at night. The sense of adventure that you get by not being able to see very well and knowing that the more dangerous creatures come out at night is a very powerful and memorable feeling. With great challenge comes great excitement (and great reward.) I'd say that pretty much every zone should be affected somehow, but not equally. They should be affected in different ways and to different degrees.

However, I think it's pretty important that our objectives not be too interrupted simply because it's the wrong time of day. This sort of ties in with the other question about how long the day/night cycle should be. If we log on at a certain time and an NPC that we need to talk to for a quest is nowhere to be found because it's the middle of the night in-game and therefore we have to wait a long time (maybe longer than our out-of-game schedule will permit) for him to wake back up, that would not be a very pleasant experience. It's important to note that making something annoying does not make it more difficult. But I'm not saying the game should be so trivial. Perhaps a way to find balance in this would be that the NPC is just in a different location at night. Like in his house as opposed to outside working in his garden during the day, for example. Same idea goes for mobs that need to be killed for an objective.

So I guess that along with most people, I would advocate a combination of #1 and #2. In fact, they seem to go hand-in-hand quite naturally.

I was out the other night hunting werewolves.. and one bit me.. I had a fever but it went away.. but when the full moon came out..
I turned into a werewolf! Kinda strange.. my dog just started howling in his sleep.. is that normal? Maybe it's a sign? Developers?
Seriously it freaks me out when he starts howling! He hasn't done it for months.. and just did it again as I post this! Auuuuuuuuu!

I'm hoping for several types of lunacy observant in mons and NPCs based on the fullness of Luclin or Drinal or both.

This is a FANTASTIC question.

One of my favorite games was Lineage II. Although I didn't fear the night what I did fear was mobs. I could go into a building and be jumped by say 5 skeletons. Now as a solo player in this scenario that is VERY scary. It's not like WoW or Tera or any of these game where you just turn your tail and run. These mobs will follow you for a mile. I want that kind of feeling in a game again. I want to be SCUUUURED! So make night very challenging and dangerous. It's like in the book the Sword of Shannara when it's night time and the Skull Bearers come out to play. Oh they will ka ka ka kill you! The night should be full of terrors!

I'd like to see some zones be more dangerous during the day then during the night as well. Rogue human-type armies that see better during the day and are best avoided at night. Deserts that are better to travel during the time periods around dawn and twilight would be interesting to. Could heat, cold, and humidity alter how the game plays? Will resting some time during the day/night cycle alter how the game works?

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

Like many I would like a good balance between 1 and 2.

Kithicor Forest after 6PM anyone?

Day/Night cycle is a great idea for a game. While there should be more threats during nighttime, it would need a good deal of balancing. I would hate to see some new players, with lower-end gears (or starting gears) stuck at a specific spot because those nightly threats are simply too hard for them to handle. If night lasts a long while, it wouldn't be fun for them to wait all that time for nothing if they wanted to go out, kill some things and make some exp. This, coupled with a big death penalty would be very frustrating to some.

Some high level zones could become hell at night though, it would be challenging for stronger characters who want to test their might... or run speed

Immensely! I really like the answers all of the devs had for once. Not only should the world itself change dramatically due to diurnal/nocturnal effects, but just being out of city should be cause for heightened awareness, I want things to be more dangerous, I want lighting spells and torches to MATTER, I want to have my field of vision reduced, the whole nine yards!

One thing that nobody has mentioned here is in game music when it comes to immersion. I spent yesterday night in EverQuest and then EverQuest 2, traveling the world listening to the in game music. When night time comes.. the music needs to match it. It's fine if your in the city, maybe they got a band in the castle? I do not want a band following me through the forest. It should be eerie music. In most games.. I just turn off the game music and crank up the environment sound.. but I should not have to do that if its done right in the first place. Night time needs to be spooky.. it needs the right type of music for that effect.. fighting is different.