Time Settings (Day vs. Night) -- Legions: Overdrive maps

[Epiclight858]

In my oppinion, Legions: Overdrive should have maps that have a "daytime" and a "nightime". This will give players a better insight of the maps and a cooler view/ perspective to the designs. Picture a battlefield that is eluminated by explosions, and the laster rifle's laser across the map. Some sort of light from the sky like the moon, or a twilight glow (Not completely completely night). If there are not many maps available, the least that Legions: Overdrive can do, is create a time setting of day vs. night. Overall, it would look quite cool if you had a perspective of both night and day in a map.

Any ideas how this could be improved? Do you support it?

 

[BeefThief]

While I agree that jet trails, laser rifle beams, and explosions would look cool at night, I think "pure" night would make it to difficult to see other players. Perhaps evening would work better, that way there is sunlight to provide illumination, but it is still darker than daytime.

 

[NightHawk043]

Perhaps we could go for something less common, like a Solar eclipse? (mind you, what's rare to see here on Earth, may not be rare elsewhere, due to particular planets orbital Alignment.)
That way there's a super cool skybox too.


I also would have to agree that while night time maps would look cool, illuminated only by vague moon glow, and then by explosions and jet streams, they are quite hard to play on.
I remember some map makers in T2 experimenting with things like that.

 

[Epiclight858]

Yeah, definitely. Thanks for clearing that up . Some kind of twilight or eclipse would look great. Any other suggestions for someone who would like to provide extra ideas to Legions: Overdrive that is related to the topic?

 

[Fissurez]

you used to be able to turn off the sky by editing the prefs file.

this turned the sky black. could this be what you want?

 

[T[h]E Dis[as]teR]

maybe you can switch the weather like in earths real time
if it's winter and snowy the weather in Legions can be snowy and sunny in summer
it can be a nice Idea

 

[Daphinicus]

Visibility concerns would definitely become apparent, but those could be assuaged with HUD overlays on other players that help call them out from the background. Depth perception would still be an issue, though.

Still, there's more to level design and balancing than just terrain and buildings; making a given map a nighttime map could have the same effect as a fog-filled map: it closes up otherwise open spaces, makes visibility a factor in route choice, and can dramatically tighten up duels. It can also rub some folks the wrong way -- I knew a lot of players than couldn't stand T2's Quagmire.

 

[Daphinicus]

maybe you can switch the weather like in earths real time
if it's winter and snowy the weather in Legions can be snowy and sunny in summer
it can be a nice Idea

Cool idea, but that sort of thing works better in more open-world, MMO-style environments. If you have dynamically changing weather in an open world, it's engrossing; if you've got it in a single map, it's just a map variant that'll make half of the player base turn away from that map for a night, a week, or a season.

 

[Epiclight858]

True, the weather would have a nice effect. But to have the weather in real-time? That might be just too complicated. However, I would LOVE to see it snowing, or raining..

Perhaps the day/night time doesn't have to be deperate maps. Like in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Battlefield stage changes day and night in the same map. About 5 minutes to complete the full daylight cycle and then 5 minutes to complete the full night time cycle, displaying dusk and twlight, as well. Basically, just like a map with a very fast orbit

you used to be able to turn off the sky by editing the prefs file.

this turned the sky black. could this be what you want?

Not quite, because it wouldn't necessarily have the detail in which it would look like it's night, or dark twilight, for example. More detail is what I am asking for. Not something that one can change settings to have what they want. I can tell you that I wouldn't want to play on a map I didn't like I were to duel someone. I couldn't change the basic terrain, although I could change the lighting, which wouldn't be much help.

Day/ Night time settings would just add a beautiful array to the Legions: Overdrive world.

 

[Daphinicus]

True, the weather would have a nice effect. But to have the weather in real-time? That might be just too complicated. However, I would LOVE to see it snowing, or raining..

Perhaps the day/night time doesn't have to be deperate maps. Like in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Battlefield stage changes day and night in the same map. About 5 minutes to complete the full daylight cycle and then 5 minutes to complete the full night time cycle, displaying dusk and twlight, as well. Basically, just like a map with a very fast orbit

I doubt Torque could handle that, though I'd love to be proved wrong. At the very least, you're talking about two lightmaps the engine's switching between at set intervals, and it would likely be a lot more, to show gradual change and shifting shadows with the skybox. You'd probably need two sets of lightmaps -- one that's merely increasing and decreasing the amount of ambient light in the map (ambient light being whatever is visible in areas not DIRECTLY affected by sunlight), and the other that's a a shifting, infinite light source that's casting shadows and highlighting lit areas.

Perfectly doable with a lot of modern engines... I'm just not sure if Torque is among them.

 

[Epiclight858]

Perfectly doable with a lot of modern engines... I'm just not sure if Torque is among them.

Bah. Who knows? Torque will become very popular once this thing releases. Maybe they have been working a little extra by putting down some of their previous products and been making technology progress for Legions. IMO, it wouldn't be that hard. The day/night maps wouldn't just be a regular map that had it's lights changed. It would be just almost like a different map, but the same buildings, structure, etc.

 

[Xtreme]

Rain in Legions would triple the adrenaline-rush effect. I'm definitely in favor of this, just not so sure how it could be implemented :S

 

[Epiclight858]

Well we just have to let the developers see this page and get the word out so that it may happen

 

[NightHawk043]

There's already Snow and dust particles, so rain would probably be possible.
Personally I'd just turn it off if it was included, as I'd rather not have the drop in FPS.

Of course, If people have the ability to turn it off, and it is diminishing the visibility for those who have it on, this could cause an Unfair advantage.
Still, no more unfair than the extra fps boost Legions Lite gives, for example.

 

[WildFire]

, so rain would probably be possible.

Its already been done! Blade run had a somewhat drizzle effect on it if I remember correctly

 

[Epiclight858]

Yeah you're right, I just never noticed it, hahaha. So maybe we won't notice the slight effects on the weather, huh? It most certainly would be a disadvantage, but then the maps will have more unique textures. You could just simply not play on the maps, anyways. Not sure how things are going to be worked out, but Legions will impress me either way

 

[stefygraff]

It might work, but i think that it will kill my eyes trying to aim on a dark map

 

[mausgang]

Okay, while Quarry works well at night, since it is at night, and would work well during the day, that is the only map that can do both because it is basically a massive mining operation, so there are lights all over the place. For a map like Blade Run, where there isn't any artificial lighting, skiing would be done in low, flat light, and that would suck. Also, running into ruins and stuff would be a large risk. While it would be visually impressive, there would have to be major overhauls to the system to get the maps to work in the dark.

 

[Mahidhar]

Yeah you're right, I just never noticed it, hahaha. So maybe we won't notice the slight effects on the weather, huh? It most certainly would be a disadvantage, but then the maps will have more unique textures. You could just simply not play on the maps, anyways. Not sure how things are going to be worked out, but Legions will impress me either way

In Blade Run, if you were going at a good speed, you'd probably wouldn't have noticed it. If you stand or run, you would have. I'd like the 'day and night' effect to be added in Legions, although, it should be more of an option. Because, by what you said, the 24 hour cycle will be done in 10 minutes(assuming day time/night time = 5 minutes), hence may prove to be an obstruction to view in some places/angles, for players. This process will also decrease the number of frames per second. Hence, in a competitive match, I'd turn it off.

As for player disadvantage, I don't think this should count, setting-wise. It is a player's choice, whether or not he'll use it, and if he lags, he definitely shouldn't use it, so that's his problem. On the other hand, as I said, the setting shouldn't be an obstruction to a player's view, when he's using a high end PC. If it is, even though he's not lagging, he's unknowingly at a disadvantage, when the other player is not using the graphics setting.

 

[Epiclight858]

the 24 hour cycle will be done in 10 minutes(assuming day time/night time = 5 minutes), hence may prove to be an obstruction to view in some places/angles, for players. This process will also decrease the number of frames per second. Hence, in a competitive match, I'd turn it off.

As for player disadvantage, I don't think this should count, setting-wise. It is a player's choice, whether or not he'll use it, and if he lags, he definitely shouldn't use it, so that's his problem. On the other hand, as I said, the setting shouldn't be an obstruction to a player's view, when he's using a high end PC. If it is, even though he's not lagging, he's unknowingly at a disadvantage, when the other player is not using the graphics setting.

1. Yeah, the 24 cycle in 10 minutes I couldn't see working that well. --Just an idea.

2. On the other hand, the weather effects shouldn't have that big of a lagging problem. This will be a downloadable game, so it will most likely be more smoother, unlike a laggy browser based game for some people. In case lag does happen, there could be an option in which you could turn the graphics down as to where it doesn't have that effect.

3. Good points, guys