Let there be light , I mean dark!

Mozsta69 · January 2018

Hi Tamrielians;
This thought applies not only to ESO only but to RPG games in general.
I remember in Oblivion one of the racial passives for my Khajit was that the keen-eye cats could see in the dark, which was awesome I didn't need to worry about torches etc.
I personally miss the lack of dark spaces in modern RPG's. Having light as a resource to manage either through magic, torches/lanterns candles or heck bringing a khajit along, for me would be interesting and challenging and would create a deeper sense of discovery, with maybe big braziers you could light in areas you fight bosses.

I totally understand creating a MMO with light as a resource is nearly impossible to create in such a way so that players do not get annoyed, but as Im growing older Im yearning for more hard core old school survival/exploration mechanics like no quest markers, no fast travel and ......darkness
Just a thought...peace and happy new year for 2018!!!

coop500 · January 2018

Most games are going easy mode TBH and I say that as a casual myself.

Milvan · January 2018

Mozsta69 wrote: »

Im yearning for more hard core old school survival/exploration mechanics like no quest markers, no fast travel and ......darkness

Is that a Dark Soul reference? Because it sounds like a Dark Souls reference. XD

But ESO has a very casual appeal. Tho I learned to like it (Especially now that I have two kids and one of them is a survivor with a lot of specific needs).
MMORPG are very expensive to create and sustain so they need to dumb things down to appeal to a much wide audience. I like that ESO appeal to both audiences quite well.

Mozsta69 · January 2018

coop500 wrote: »

Most games are going easy mode TBH and I say that as a casual myself.

They sure are you are absolutely correct !
Indie games are not though, and Divinity Original Sin 2 is certainly keeping its hard core traits!

But yes MMO's are not, Im still pretty optimisitc that if a 'hardcore mechanic 'MMO comes out and is done well , it would be amazingly popular.

Mozsta69 · January 2018

Milvan wrote: »

Mozsta69 wrote: »

Im yearning for more hard core old school survival/exploration mechanics like no quest markers, no fast travel and ......darkness

Is that a Dark Soul reference? Because it sounds like a Dark Souls reference. XD

But ESO has a very casual appeal. Tho I learned to like it (Especially now that I have two kids and one of them is a survivor with a lot of specific needs).
MMORPG are very expensive to create and sustain so they need to dumb things down to appeal to a much wide audience. I like that ESO appeal to both audiences quite well.

haha you read it right buddy!!!

Bevik · January 2018

Use Votan's Darker Nights add-on if you are on PC. You will be surprised how dark it is at night. And some towns look amazing, even better at night.

Mozsta69 · January 2018

Bevik wrote: »

Use Votan's Darker Nights add-on if you are on PC. You will be surprised how dark it is at night. And some towns look amazing, even better at night.

Thanks, im unfortunately on PS4, but im going to research this Mod out of interest, thanks again.

Ermiq · January 2018

Try out the Gamma adjustment in Video settings.

Mozsta69 · January 2018

Eremith wrote: »

Try out the Gamma adjustment in Video settings.

lol thank you , mixed with my Shades I think we have a solution right there!

emilyhyoyeon · January 2018

I would disagree that not having a lot of dark perpetuates a more casual playing experience lmao (artificial difficulty) but anyway, I could see dark working in certain cases like dungeons. The need of a torch/bright abilities could be cool if a dungeon with a specific "dark mechanic" were made for that specific dungeon(s).
For the record, IIRC a big complaint about TES4 and 5 was the fact that the games were not dark enough (night/caves). I always played the games at the lowest brightness settings or used mods for more realistic lighting, but it's not like torches or nighteye were needed in vanilla Oblivion at the very least.

Magdalina · January 2018

Not fully related to the topic but there is a very cool mechanic in one of the quests in Coldharbour - you navigate a dark(like DARK dark) place with a light to accompany you, however there are some spirits(?) in there running into which will extinguish your light or something along these lines...been a while since I've done it but I remember thinking it's a really cool mechanic that I wish they'd implement in some harder content(in that quest it's pretty much meaningless because you can do it flatout ignoring it and just running to questmarker in the dark spamming aoes or something). There's also a couple cool mechanics featuring proper darkness in School of Warriors(whatever its proper name is) in Crag iirc. CoS dungeon also has some but it's not really dark there so it doesn't count.

It's different from what you're talking about, just a memory that came to mind. I don't personally feel a particular attraction to needing light sources for exploration, but mechanics featuring total darkness can be very cool.

tinythinker · January 2018

Mozsta69 wrote: »

Hi Tamrielians;
This thought applies not only to ESO only but to RPG games in general.
I remember in Oblivion one of the racial passives for my Khajit was that the keen-eye cats could see in the dark, which was awesome I didn't need to worry about torches etc.
I personally miss the lack of dark spaces in modern RPG's. Having light as a resource to manage either through magic, torches/lanterns candles or heck bringing a khajit along, for me would be interesting and challenging and would create a deeper sense of discovery, with maybe big braziers you could light in areas you fight bosses.

I totally understand creating a MMO with light as a resource is nearly impossible to create in such a way so that players do not get annoyed, but as Im growing older Im yearning for more hard core old school survival/exploration mechanics like no quest markers, no fast travel and ......darkness
Just a thought...peace and happy new year for 2018!!!

Well, that is a request that is ongoing:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/257138/new-expanded-environments-for-content-design
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/170536/immersive-darkness-concept/p1

Among a few other things:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2403049#Comment_2403049
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/171334/gidoricks-concept-repository/p1

So you have support out there. Or we do from you. Or, well, something! Go darkness, go!

LordSemaj · January 2018

Game devs don't count on light anymore because there are numerous ways to exploit it. Gamma is just one example, turning your gamma up in many games that rely on darkness will result in very visible rooms. Manipulating your graphics settings can render all that effort meaningless and players will complain when someone has an advantage because they choose to play in whitewashed mode with horrible graphics.

As we get older, it's more difficult to see and your eyes begin to darken, so the level of darkness isn't even equal across all players. Young teens basically have nightvision while old people can barely see even with soft lights on.

Singleplayer games still use it because they don't care if you cheat at your own game.

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO · January 2018

Mozsta69 wrote: »

Hi Tamrielians;
This thought applies not only to ESO only but to RPG games in general.
I remember in Oblivion one of the racial passives for my Khajit was that the keen-eye cats could see in the dark, which was awesome I didn't need to worry about torches etc.
I personally miss the lack of dark spaces in modern RPG's. Having light as a resource to manage either through magic, torches/lanterns candles or heck bringing a khajit along, for me would be interesting and challenging and would create a deeper sense of discovery, with maybe big braziers you could light in areas you fight bosses.

I totally understand creating a MMO with light as a resource is nearly impossible to create in such a way so that players do not get annoyed, but as Im growing older Im yearning for more hard core old school survival/exploration mechanics like no quest markers, no fast travel and ......darkness
Just a thought...peace and happy new year for 2018!!!

I grew up in Mordor and 1 day I woke up here.

Mozsta69 · January 2018

Magdalina wrote: »

Not fully related to the topic but there is a very cool mechanic in one of the quests in Coldharbour - you navigate a dark(like DARK dark) place with a light to accompany you, however there are some spirits(?) in there running into which will extinguish your light or something along these lines...been a while since I've done it but I remember thinking it's a really cool mechanic that I wish they'd implement in some harder content(in that quest it's pretty much meaningless because you can do it flatout ignoring it and just running to questmarker in the dark spamming aoes or something). There's also a couple cool mechanics featuring proper darkness in School of Warriors(whatever its proper name is) in Crag iirc. CoS dungeon also has some but it's not really dark there so it doesn't count.

It's different from what you're talking about, just a memory that came to mind. I don't personally feel a particular attraction to needing light sources for exploration, but mechanics featuring total darkness can be very cool.

Yes I remember this !!!