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Why are developers so afraid of making night actually *dark*?

Taluntain

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You know how it is, you make shit too dark and everyone wants to attach the torch to their sword.
 

Quillon

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I didn't think about this thoroughly :P but maybe they could do the realistic night in a game where characters' stats determines who/what object is visible instead of our eyes... tho this prolly rules out fpp/tpp games...therefore fpp/tpp exploration switching to top down combat FTW!
 

Athos

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In Elder Scrolls games the two moons should provide enough light in the night, at least when both are up in the sky, so that Skyrim screenshot isn't totally implausible.
 

LizardWizard

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f6ZY5Mo.gif
 
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Barnabas

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Fallout 4 was very bright don't understand it, takes away from the atmosphere. Also when you had your flashlight on it created no shadows. Dragons Dogma is very dark at night it's the closest thing to a fantasy horror game. Witcher 3 is also pretty bright during the night. Sometimes I think they keep it bright because they want you to look at their beautiful creation at all times.
I think Stalker was pretty dark.
 

flabbyjack

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I literally could not see the switch in the fireplace in Myst 1 in order to finish the game because my CRT screen was so dark. I read online and then started randomly clicking and finally found the button.

In other games, night is so 'dark' as to make you basically strain your eyes looking at a nearly totally black screen. Ugh!
 

Metro

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Outdoors is rarely pitch black or even significantly dark at night assuming the moon is out and you're in an area where most of the stars in the sky are visible.
 

garren

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Many people have shitty or badly configured screens so devs like to err on the side of caution when making dark scenes. I have this old crappy screen so I have to set the gamma pretty high when playing thief so I can see anything. Also I think many modern flat screens don't do dark as well as old CRT monitors for example, never had these problems with the big ol' cube back in the day.
 

Forest Dweller

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In Elder Scrolls games the two moons should provide enough light in the night, at least when both are up in the sky, so that Skyrim screenshot isn't totally implausible.
I was about to point out that Tamriel has two moons.

When you people are talking about "realistic nights," what you actually mean are "Earth-like" nights (i.e. nights that look like our Earth does, with our moon, and our constellations). That type of criticism is only valid for a game set on Earth. If it's set on a different world, with more moons, brighter stars, etc. that criticism doesn't apply.

I suppose they could do the opposite, and set a game in a world where there is NO moon. Then the case could be made that it should be darker (than our world). I don't know if any games have done this.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

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In 1987, The Faery Tale Adventure had a day/night cycle that altered the lighting at certain points of the day and made the outdoors realistically dark at night.

In 1987, Dungeon Master required using torches or magic spells to provide light in dungeons that were otherwise realistically dark.

In 2017, developers rarely provide realistic darkness in RPGs, whether outdoors or inside.

Sad! :rpgcodex:
:mob:
 

Severian Silk

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Monitors have too poor dynamic range to accurately model true lights and darks.
 
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just afraid that the casuals will complain about not being able to see

But I agree; how much more atmospheric games would be with proper darkness, moonlight, pitch dark dungeons etc.

I don't even know what that means.

There are some games that benefit from total darkness (survival horror), but it isn't viable in most action RPGs because there is nothing enjoyable about it. In Witcher 3 for example, the only point of it is to make it go away as fast as possible with a Cat potion because otherwise playing through caves is impossible.
 
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Falksi

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Why some of you want more hassle in your games I've no idea. It's the same as encumbrance & ammo. It's a game, it should be fun. If you want hassle and work-like aspects put a few more hours in at work and have kids.
 
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Well, it's not as though encumbrance and ammo restrictions are inherently bad game design. Neither is total darkness, although the argument is tougher there because the effect is the same as turning off your monitor and the solution is always to try to make the total darkness less total so you can actually perform movesets and strategize.

In any sort of survival simulation, encumbrance and ammo are important because they encourage clever scavenging and wise use of resources.
 

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