Light sources, time of day, & activities

[brenton_nichol]

I've been thinking about this off and on over the past few months of playthrough. Anyone else sorta feel like the game lets you cheat a bit when you harvest, repair, or craft late at night when it's pitch black? I go back and forth on whether the game should make you light up a kerosene lantern if you're going to be stitching deerskin boots at 1AM. Thoughts?

[Maikleeps]

I also craft stuff at times when it is too unpleasant to go out which is mainly at night. I have been asking me too if it makes sense to craft stuff in the dark. But being forced to switch on the lantern for about 5 hours of crafting will result in the lack of lantern oil. But good idea though. I think this just needs balancing.

[TLDFAN]

We need a secondary light source. You could use the lantern which would be bad because the fuel is non-renewable at present. Or you could build a fire if your location has a fire which would provide enough light to work or you could do what everybody who wanted to write or work at night did before electricity, they used candles.

We do need a lightable and placeable candle. Would make sense to have one too. could be another low weight item to drag around too.

[StringEpsilon]

Someone else suggested bear fat as a resource. If you melt the fat, you could use it as lantern fuel.

But, I would not make it impossible to craft without light. Rough idea:

Noon: 100% speed

Dusk: 75%

Midnight: 25%

With a lantern: 90% (midnight)

With an open flame 70-80% (midnight)

Why not 100%? With the kind of light sources in the game, you have to deal with shadows and placement of yourself, the light and your work. The color of the light might also make some things different. And with an open flame, you have to deal with flickering. You also have to be careful not to set anything on fire, etc.

That should be encourage you to do stuff at day or while you already have a fire going, without making it impossible to do stuff without light. It's not pitch black and you still have your sense of touch to do stuff. Though, repairing complex items could be impossible

[Maikleeps]

I like the idea of candles though and thought about it the other day when I was unpacking stuff from my backpack and putting it into containers.