Day/night cycle in game: good or bad idea?

[Salius]

I read somewhere on forum that you plan add day/night cycle to the game in future.
People play this game worldwide, which timezone you plan to use in the game? If someone (for example me ) always play when the night in the game world? I don't want always play at night. Day/night cycle may be good, but many questions when you add it to worldwide online game. I prefer to play at day time . IMO we need more carefully discuss about day/night cycle: is it really need in the game world?

[WildX]

Last time we discussed it we were thinking of doing something like in Minecraft, where days and nights last about 20 minutes, so that everyone gets to experience both. But in our case it would be closer to 4 to 6 hours.

[Salius]

Last time we discussed it we were thinking of doing something like in Minecraft, where days and nights last about 20 minutes, so that everyone gets to experience both. But in our case it would be closer to 4 to 6 hours.

I don't play Minecraft .
If night time 6 hours, may be this hours is time when I play. It's my own opinion, but I don't like in games something like night or weather (for example rain or snow).
For example "Sacred gold" (one of the best RPG ever): I like this game but when the night in game or raining weather I really don't like it. Sometime I wait for end of night time to continue playing.
Second example: "Might and magic". It is really bad play at night time, but in MM I can "sleep" to fast end the night.
But this two examples offline games. In online game I can't "sleep", like in MM.
May be, as alternative, make longer day time and shorter night time? IMO 20 min. for day time is too short, but 4-6 hours for night is too long. May be 4-6 hours for day and about 2 hours for night is more acceptable.

[Reid]

The fact is not just to have a visual experience but to have a gameplay experience which follow the day/night cycle.

A divisor of 24 for the cycle time is bad, as it will always be night and day at x time of IRL day.
But cycle will help us to introduce era and daily/nightly quests, nightly mob, closed areas, special vendors, secret areas, etc...

IMO, just for the gameplay side it's a good thing to add.
Weather might be added, we will add clouds on the next release to introduce it, but rain and such will continue. For players like you or for those who may not want to play constantly with weather or with a night layer, it's already possible to hide the graphical effect through a parameter on the client, more explanation will come once we will start to work on it.

[Speiros01]

I would enjoy seeing this too. Day and night at least. It would be a good effect also for having quests specific to those time areas (such as night time in grave yard, or day time on the beach in Manaworld). Also it can allow for specific monsters (such as werewolves and vampires) or even gremlins as such.

With a six hour day, does that mean a 6 hour cyle, or a 12 hour cycle? In other words how long would "day" last? This is something that might be necessary to keep in mind if any quests are made with specific creatures which arise only in that part of the day, or the location is only able to be accessed in that time...maybe the quest could be "saved" if the time period prevents the quest from being started or continued.

As for weather, the same dynamics can be added in as such...having things grow in the rain, choppy seas, etc.

[WildX]

It could be possible to give the players an option to turn the cycle off and replace it with just a small symbol/word that tells you wether it's night or day (for quests and other things that may use the cycle), it would look like it's always day in that case.

[Nard]

Ryzom has a day cycle of 72 mn and it fits rather good to the game. They also have weeks, months, seasons (wich are especially important), an own cycle and years. The choice of a non multiple of an hour is deliberate: All cycle periods must be accessible by every real world time.
See: http://en.ryzomnomnom.com/wiki/Time

I think that introducing day/night may introduce an interesting dimension both for players and developers. Certain quests or monster spawns can occur only in certain time periods. Along with seasons, it introduces some visual diversity, which is always a good way to keep player's attention. Something between 1 and 3 hours seems good for me.

[ozthokk]

I play Mine Craft much, this would be an interesting thing to add to this game, but other than a visual Experience, would there be a way to have " Night Time only monsters as well, or maybe make monsters more aggressive at night" for instance,Squirrels are peaceful during the day, but during the night they attack, or like in Mine Craft, make new monsters, that only come out at night and are very aggressive.


Bellow is a link to a silly video about night time zombie attacks on Minecarft O.O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08EBLC1hJE