in games, whats good about it?
furthermore, during either one, should anything special happen other then it getting harder to see (night)?
ID:265840
 May 12 2008, 1:42 pm
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May 12 2008, 1:57 pm
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Zaltron
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Makes the game more interesting. During day you could have different creatures out than you would at night.
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I think that's just more obnoxious than anything. What's better would be to make a game that revolves around the idea of changing from day to night. IE, taking a page from The Last Stand, you could have a zombie game where the zombies mostly come out at night.
Mostly. And so you spend the day gathering supplies and the night fighting off zombies. Just throwing in day and night without a good, solid reason for it is silly, though. | |
Garthor wrote:
I think that's just more obnoxious than anything. What's wrong with representing nocturnal and diurnal behavior? A lot of games do it--- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time did it to have the creepier things come out at night, some Pokémon games did it (though they based it on the actual real-world clock, which sucked since if you only had time to play at night, you only had owls and stuff---if you do day/night, make it based on an internal time!). A few other things that could be done in day/night systems: - Different NPC behavior (perhaps castle guards are in higher quantity at night, but with less capability, and you at some point need to find a security breach). - Different worldly behavior (maybe some secret path becomes invisible during day, or perhaps people simply lock their doors at night, and the bars open theirs). - Strategic trade-offs (mayhaps visibility is impaired during night, but using torches and other luminescent objects attract more enemy attention). Hiead | |
In Interplay's Lord of the Rings (1990), I believe day/night cycles did have some minor effect on which enemies would attack, but I could be mistaken. What I do know is that aside from looking cool (in a game that expansive it helps to feel time is passing), it served to set a limit on your food items. Food was used for healing, but you could only get the healing effect once per person per day. This helped quash insta-heals and force players to use more strategy.
But if it's not going to have any impact on your game besides a visual one, I'd ditch it. It probably won't be missed if it doesn't serve any purpose. Lummox JR | |
The problem arises when a player says, "I want to do something, but I can't, because it's not nighttime/daytime," and then they spend time sitting around doing nothing, waiting for the game to tick from day to night, or night to day. Having players sitting around waiting for something is a Bad Thing.
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This. Though it might seem cool to add day and night and make certain things happen only at certain times it is annoying waiting half of the time for something to happen. This is really annoying if a day is fairly long too.
Though I think it is pretty cool if it is used in ways which provide advantages at certain times. Making it easier to avoid enemies in the dark, or to commit crimes in the night and so on. | |
I have fond memories (read: not-fond memories) of camping on top of the drawbridge at Hyrule Castle waiting for the dawn, since killing the skelkids was just mind-numbing gruntwork that usually caused you more harm than their paltry loot awarded.
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If its a key concept to the game (see: The Omega Man based game/I Am Legend based game idea) then it's pretty much required. The zombie-like creatures only come out at night (UV kills them!) so you can prepare and supply yourself at day, and resist seige at night.
However, if its not REQUIRED, then chances are its using up way more processing power (see: ANY =P) than its worth. | |
In some games its actually good to discourage players from wandering around too much at night because it encourages everyone to gather together and socialize, exchanging things they've done and discoveries they've made. Some games are better suited for this than others, though.
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Carrot, not the stick. Rather than punishing players for going out at night, reward them for hanging out with other players.
It's kind of funny, though, how you have to pretty much force players to do things that are fun, because otherwise they'll end up doing what gives them the greatest reward, even if it's boring as hell. | |