Rework night activities

[Stranger]

At the time of release, the nights were "the floor is lava" and all night activities (missions, dark zones, etc.) were programmed accordingly.
Now that the roofs are no longer safe, this no longer works and if you want to go into Dark Zones you have little choice but to go there during the day and then wait there.

Late in the endgame, when you have weapons that can kill the Volatiles before they can start a hunt, this obviously works better, but you can't design the early/midgame areas so that you can only traverse them with endgame weapons.

This urgently needs to be balanced.

Many people will probably say “the nights are now like they were in DL1 again”. Okay, then most of the night activities have to be removed (in DL1 the aim was to reach a base before night falls. There was simply hardly any reason to leave the bases at night).

Alternatively, they could create a "destroy nests" mission in each area, which would reward you with a few nights of rest.

There are certainly more options, but it is clear that something needs to be done.

[akaLuckyEye]

Nights should be more dangerous with roaming Volatiles, I think the issue is that they trigger a hunt. I play on NG+ Hard , legend rank 100. I two hit volatiles, they’re no threat to me whatsoever. They are just annoying, like a mosquito. Having a hunt every second is just boring gameplay. If a volatile starts a hunt during my night activities the best action is to run to a safe zone and wait it out. If Volatiles did not start a hunt I have more reasons to stay and fight because even if I run away it can still interrupt my night activity when I go back. It would be better if their roar spawned virals and made the infected move towards the sound. Also stop spawning a new Volatile the second you kill one. Right now If I silently kill a Volatile, a new one takes its place almost immediately, making it meaningless to kill them.

Howlers should start a hunt and place them on roofs as well, not in great numbers just a few. It gives the player the opportunity to neutralise them so a hunt won’t start. If a hunt starts it’s then the player's own mistake.

If Techland keeps implementing night activities they need to design nights so they are enjoyable to play. Not a constant game of tag.

[Stranger]

I'm not saying they should put everything back like that (except maybe in the starting areas), but if they change one aspect of the game so drastically (from 100% safety on rooftops to "hunting after 3 seconds outside of a safe zone") they have to EVERYTHING that even remotely has to do with it needs to be adjusted.

Originally posted by akaLuckyEye:

Also stop spawning a new Volatile the second you kill one. Right now If I silently kill a Volatile, a new one takes its place almost immediately, making it meaningless to kill them.

Same night respawning should really be disabled.
This is by far the biggest rubbish thing about the change. To farm Volatiles, I stood BEHIND the light barrier at the subway entrance (3 Volatile spawn points in the immediate area), provoked a hunt with a crossbow and immediately 3 Volatiles jumped into the light barrier. I strike, immediately go back and start the whole game over again (since I wasn't standing in the UV Light, the hunt didn't stop and the Volatiles spawned endlessly). In the morning the entrance was blocked with corpses.

[akaLuckyEye]

Originally posted by Stranger:

I'm not saying they should put everything back like that (except maybe in the starting areas), but if they change one aspect of the game so drastically (from 100% safety on rooftops to "hunting after 3 seconds outside of a safe zone") they have to EVERYTHING that even remotely has to do with it needs to be adjusted.

100% agree.

Originally posted by Stranger:

Same night respawning should really be disabled.
This is by far the biggest rubbish thing about the change. To farm Volatiles, I stood BEHIND the light barrier at the subway entrance (3 Volatile spawn points in the immediate area), provoked a hunt with a crossbow and immediately 3 Volatiles jumped into the light barrier. I strike, immediately go back and start the whole game over again (since I wasn't standing in the UV Light, the hunt didn't stop and the Volatiles spawned endlessly). In the morning the entrance was blocked with corpses.

Monster should re-spawn but not when you are close, unless it's a hunt or another event spawn. You need to be able farm trophies during hunts otherwise the game would be horrible to grind if you want to upgrade everything.