Too dark at night, ruins the game?

[EU5迷]

When its too dark at night you are just sitting there doing nothing most of the time... well you can fix this by raising your gamma in game... but some people think its cheating.
Give me your opinions on this :D

[Crimson King]

Build a torch? Lol

[󠀡󠀡]

Not really it is like changing your brightness level is an option on every game.

[Zim]

or play on a server that has short nights like mine, imo the darker the night the better so long as we have relatively cheap ways of creating light, personally I would say just make the lights sources throw light further

[Refilo]

I play on standart gamma and for me it's no problem to go out at night. I can see everything.

[Mina]

You could press Tab to bring up the console and then type 'gamma 4' (without quotes), default is 2.

Non-cheaty alternative: Make a flare gun, they don't give light for long, and everyone will know your position, but hey, they give a crap-load of light.

[Hinsonator]

Ummmm, aren't nights meant to be dark? Making light sources actually useful?

[Legion]

Adjusting your game to avoid a purposefully designed situation is cheating, there is no way about it. That is the reason why devs removed that option on PvP/hardcore servers.

It's supposed to be dark (have you ever been in a forest away from a city/town on an overcast night? It's pitch black and you can barely see in front of you unless there's a light source nearby.

If you can't see, try
1) moving into the open and away from trees
2) making a campfire/torch
3) planning better next time you see the sun going down (have stuff prepared for fires or know where you are to head back to your house)

This is a survival game and part of that is dealing with difficulties and adapting.

[Hinsonator]

Off topic for a sec, i'm suprised americans call battery torches flashlight but not wood torches.

[Mina]

Originally posted by Legion:

(have you ever been in a forest away from a city/town on an overcast night? It's pitch black and you can barely see in front of you unless there's a light source nearby.)

Have here, couldn't see a thing, it's a different story with a full moon though, you can suddenly see pretty well when that is the case. :)

Speaking of which, the moon in this game is always full, isn't it?

[Tirthak]

Torch is really the only answer.
Before you get combat dino (raptor and up), you can run with torch and farm fiber/rocks at 100% effectiveness at night, or chop down trees (at about 90% effectiveness..it's a little bit harder to navigate + you need to swap to torch in between trees to aim for the next one)
After you get combat dino: farm those beaches - you can hold torch mounted and attack as well, get that keratin flowing.

You can also build with torch, in some cases this is easier than in sunlight (those damn fence foundations in high grass).
You can do pretty much anything you'd do at daytime...grind, baby grind.

[sf]

stay in your hut, go afk to attend to real world needs, like food/water/leak. rest your eyes and relax :) it's what i really do.

On the other hand, harvesting at night (after aiming with a torch lit) "removes" the problem of nausea-inducing screen shakes (which seems like it will never get improved, to those who are motion sickness prone)

[SunflowerTwix]

Originally posted by Mina:

Originally posted by Legion:

(have you ever been in a forest away from a city/town on an overcast night? It's pitch black and you can barely see in front of you unless there's a light source nearby.)

Have here, couldn't see a thing, it's a different story with a full moon though, you can suddenly see pretty well when that is the case. :)

Speaking of which, the moon in this game is always full, isn't it?

This is true, I'm pretty sure that the moon is 90% a full moon during the nights. (exception being rain and clouds, I think).

The nights are a bit too dark, which can be quite frustrating, I am reduced to literally squinting at my computer monitor just to see that there's a rock in front of me.

Yeah, darkness is part of survival, and without a source of light, things ARE pitch black...but they shouldn't be in most cases here. Now keeping in mind that the game is only in Early-Access the lighting is something that should be addressed soon, as well as the rest of their million changes that I'm sure they're working on.

Full moons should give around the same light as some of the dusks in the game. Full moons give a tonne of light and the game should resemble that. I don't like looking at black grass, then up to see a brightly lit sky. *shrugs* it's inconsistant and makes no sense.

The survival aspect NEEDS to be balanced with the rest of the in-game mechanics. Sure, have dark nights...but have them dark when they should be or get rid of the constant full moon.

10/10 effort from the devs though, loving the updates, this is an irritating thing, but it's only early access and forgetting that just makes ya' angry. <3 devs for Ark.

[Hades]

The dark nights... and the moonlit nights... dark house interiors... this is what you paid money for.... for an immersive, atmosphereic experience.

Personally I'd suggest you enjoy the game the way the developers made it for you... use torches... use several standing torches. Enjoy the experience.

Gamma = not the way the devs wanted you to enjoy Ark.

[Mina]

Would be interesting to see moon phases at some point, and have lighting be adjusted accordingly, pitch black with low ambient light when there's a New Moon, good visibility out of the shade and slightly better ambient light when there's a Full Moon.

Lastly, but this is personal and I guess a very low priority thing... But cool nonetheless! Have player's eyes slowly adjust to darkness and brightness. (Already digging the transition when you come out of a forest during the day. Perhaps a bit bright for some but I think it looks cool.)

[Legion]

Moon phases should definitely have an effect unless you're under a thick jungle canopy and it isn't a full moon then it should be pretty dark always.
I find that I can see quite well along the beach areas without a torch but I can't see a thing deeper in the jungle (seems pretty balanced to me, except for the moon phases that definitely need to be included at some point)

It's also a great gameplay mechanic in that you need to plan but also it give a reason to return to base at night unless you want to be a target waking around the a shining target stapled to your hand.
I love that I get the feeling "o oh sun is going down, better prepare or get back home quickly, really immersive in my opinion and not just a minor annoyance like in many other games.