96 replies to this topic

[Juodas Varnas]

Well, as the title says, i'm not a big fan of the dynamic day cycle we have in the newly renewed maps like the River City and Forest Colony. Actually, I think that the word "hate" would fit better than "not a fan".
I do think that it was a nice experiment, it shows that PGI wants to try new things and it's commendable, however, the current implementation has it's share of problems.

First and foremost, the highly accelerated speed at which the time moves is quite immersion braking. Not only that, seeing the shadows move so quickly is rather distracting and can make it (for me, personally) more difficult to spot mechs at a distance (when they're under ECM, so no Red Doritos for me), because noticing movement is the easiest way to spot them, which is made much harder by the shadows moving as quickly as they do.
I do realize that not everyone (probably nobody else) has this problem, but to me, it just becomes a nuisance and makes me dislike the new maps (even though, i WANT to like them. They're large, have loads of cover, they LOOK good, but the accelerated time is just... Too distracting and annoying for me)

Secondly, (again, i'm not sure if others have this problem, maybe they do, maybe they don't, but...) the Transition between different times of day (dawn to day, day to dusk, dusk to night, night to dawn) is extremely jarring and unnaturally quick (yes, i do realize it could be explained by different planets having different amount of hours in a day or whatever), but it comes to me not only from a aesthetic point of view. I'm not sure if it's just my PC being trashtier wooden potato, but during those said transitions my game freezes for (up to) a second and the FPS drops from (more or less) stable 50-60 to sometimes single digits for a few moments, which has led me to losing many brawls (or even entire matches, because of it.)
I don't know if others have this problem (so if anyone also suffers from these stutters, or FPS drops, or freezes during the transition, please comment below, so i'd know that i'm not alone in this).

Don't get me wrong though, i like the IDEA, but the implementation is definitely less than stellar. Sooo, i would suggest a slightly different approach to this dynamic day cycle.
Alright, so, i think it should be this way, on launching on one of these maps the time would be randomly set (dawn, day, dusk, night) and while in-game, the time wouldn't move at all (i mean the matches are only 15 minutes long), because currently with the 6 hours per 15 minutes time-scale, the different starting times of the matches start to feel very samey and repetitive, (for example, dawn into day, day into dusk, feel basically the same) however if the time was set and wouldn't move, all of the different time-intervals would feel more unique.

Well. I ranted off long enough.

Edit: added a poll-thread: http://mwomercs.com/...day-cycle-poll/

Edited by Juodas Varnas, 24 August 2015 - 01:18 AM.

[zagibu]

I agree that the cycles are too fast. Should be slowed down by a factor of 4 at least. Or like you said, not move during a match at all.

[Moldur]

I wouldn't mind it as much if the 30th century night vision actually worked. If PGI so badly wants to showcase their Nightvision by incorporating night time (or river city night before,) they should make the Night vision actually useful. The visibility drop-off makes absolutely no sense. No, night vision is a flat increase to vision during night (as the name might imply.) Nobody goes "Wellll, here are the pros and cons of using night vision vs. unaided eye sight DURING THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT." It makes no sense that night vision should make my vision worse. Especially futuristic night vision that doesn't detract from our field of view.

[Sarlic]

The cycle is too fast idd.

Would rather 20% night 40% day 20% dusk/dawn etc and then slower cycles.

And my FPS is down the drain too when it the cycle kicks in. But got old GFX cards, 460 SLI.

Edited by Sarlic, 23 August 2015 - 01:56 AM.

[Vlad Ward]

Good night vision is lostech.

I like dynamic lighting. Dynamic weather will be nice when that's working, too.

Immersion? Eh. Alien planets. It's a lot easier to explain how a given planet may have a very short rotational period than it is to explain how mechs using conductive heat sinks are able to dissipate heat so effectively in a near-vacuum (sup HPG Manifold).

Also the O type star in Vitric Forge should be emitting more than enough high energy photons to give the entire CW population cancer of the everything.

[Y E O N N E]

I don't mind the dynamic lighting; I mind the vision modes being garbage and people cheating by jacking the gamma all the way up to compensate.

[Squirg]

Sarlic, on 23 August 2015 - 01:55 AM, said:

And my FPS is down the drain too when it the cycle kicks in. But got old GFX cards, 460 SLI.

My FPS also stutters really badly when the cycle changes but resumes to normal quickly after. It's kind of annoying.

Edited by Squirg, 23 August 2015 - 02:03 AM.

[MERC Mournblade]

I'm not a fan of it either. My main issue is the dawn/dusk periods where it's too dark to see cover and enemy mechs, yet too light to use thermal or night vision. Granted, everyone in the game is equally afflicted by the poor visibility, but I'm sure people would rather see clearly, compared to not.

It's kind of like racing games like Forza, where they overuse late afternoon sun glare. Sure it looks pretty and immersive, but most players would be willing to ebay a testicle to remove the sun glare and see clearly.

[Alistair Winter]

Yeah. I was on Forest Colony the other day just as the night was about to give way to day, switched to heat vision for a moment, switched back to normal vision and... hey, it looked like 6 hours had passed. Suddenly the sun was up, birds were chirping, etc. It was almost disorientating, really made me stop and go "wtf happened?"

I also don't understand why there's no night cycle on Forest Colony. "Well, you see, the nights are too dark in the forest, so we go straight from evening to morning." What the hell? They're supposed to be dark. That's why we have night vision and heat vision. Variation.

[Sarlic]

Alistair Winter, on 23 August 2015 - 03:00 AM, said:

Yeah. I was on Forest Colony the other day just as the night was about to give way to day, switched to heat vision for a moment, switched back to normal vision and... hey, it looked like 6 hours had passed. Suddenly the sun was up, birds were chirping, etc. It was almost disorientating, really made me stop and go "wtf happened?"

I also don't understand why there's no night cycle on Forest Colony. "Well, you see, the nights are too dark in the forest, so we go straight from evening to morning." What the hell? They're supposed to be dark. That's why we have night vision and heat vision. Variation.

Dennis explained why they didnt made it too dark in the latest Devlog.

[Alistair Winter]

Sarlic, on 23 August 2015 - 03:05 AM, said:

Dennis explained why they didnt made it too dark in the latest Devlog.

That is precisely what I'm referring to.

[kapusta11]

Same here. Why not just make it 25/25/25/25% permanent Night/Dawn/Day/Dusk?

[Baldur Keitel]

the freezes during the cycle are pretty annoying.

[Sjorpha]

I agree the dynamic time is too fast, but I like it as a concept.

Slow it down by a factor of 4 and see how it feels.

[xengk]

Alistair Winter, on 23 August 2015 - 03:00 AM, said:

Yeah. I was on Forest Colony the other day just as the night was about to give way to day, switched to heat vision for a moment, switched back to normal vision and... hey, it looked like 6 hours had passed. Suddenly the sun was up, birds were chirping, etc. It was almost disorientating, really made me stop and go "wtf happened?"

Did you say you have experienced lost time on Forest Colony?

[Juodas Varnas]

xengk, on 23 August 2015 - 03:44 AM, said:

Did you say you have experienced lost time on Forest Colony?

[Yellonet]

I don't like it either. It's just too fast.
That sort of mechanic doesn't fit into a 10 minute game.

If we had big maps and proper battles that would maybe take 40-60 minutes and the sunrise/sunset would be slower, then I could very well see this working and being a fun mechanic.

As matches are now, please disable dynamic day cycle.

[totgeboren]

Yeah, I would prefer if the day rotation didn't move. Or, well, it boils down to night vision not being better than normal vision, even during the middle of the night.

A problem with night/dawn/dusk and the new maps is that your vision is so severely impaired its heat vision or jacking up gamma on the screen to max to be able to do anything.
And whatever you do, you wont get to see the nice new maps, because everything is just black and grey anyway (and some white if you use heat vision).

[Appogee]

I like the dynamic time of day. I don't like the accelerated cycling through the time zones.

Just because you can show all the different times of day in one match, doesn't mean you should...

[CDLord HHGD]

I LOVE the cycle, forces you to "switch it up" during a match. Sometimes no vision mode works well. Fog of war. Brings a tear to my eye every time it happens. Beautiful.