The *LONG* Dark - Day/night cycles

[jolynsbass]

Right now, the game doesn't live up to its name - it's more "The Long Cold"... unless we're speaking metaphorically, as in the "long dark spiral to eventual death." Well, that works, I suppose.

My point - there's more light than dark in this game. Here's an interesting idea that may help the game to reclaim its namesake: Whatever bizarre calamity caused the current "geomagnetic" (or whatever) disaster also caused a minute, yet progressive shift in the earth's angle, resulting in (for our location), a slowly increasing length of night, and correspondingly shorter days. Eventually, the days would become *much* shorter, and the nights would indeed be a "long dark".

Possible application of idea: every 7 days, the overall length of night is increased by 1 hour. So during the first week of gameplay, the ratio is Day-13h/Night-11h (at least that is what I think the current model is). It follows that during week 2 the ratio becomes : Day-12h/Night-12h. Week 3 = Day-11h/Night-13h; week 4 = Day-10h/night-14h, and so on. This pattern could either continue until the nights do not ever end (the truly *LONG* dark), or there is reached a maximum daylight length (such as max. of 3 hours of day light - at the above mentioned rate, reached on week 11, or ~77 days in).

Another variation on this would be to have the rate of increasing darkness, and the maximum hours of daylight be capped at differing levels according to the difficulty mode:

Pilgrim: Daylight decays at -1 hour every 10 days, reaches a maximum length of 7 hours daylight/17 hours night (reached around day 60 or 70).

Voyageur: Daylight decays at -1 hour every 7 days, reaches a maximum length of 4 hours of daylight/20 hours night (also reached around day 60 or 70).

Survivor: Daylight decays at -1 hour every 5 days, reaches a maximum length of 1 hour daylight, or perhaps none(!), 23/24 hours of night (also reached around day 60-70).

With those rates, the game will reach its "longest dark" after about 2 months in-game time has passed.

With the lower levels of light - it increases the difficulty of hunting/avoiding threats, and with increased cold from the lower levels of sunlight, it provides a ramping up of the challenge of keeping warm. But, most important, it helps to make the title of the game especially applicable!

(Just an idea - I absolutely love the game as is, but I think this could potentially add some progressive challenge that would really appeal to many players. Take it or leave it.)

[Bill Tarling]

As has been covered multiple times over the past year and a half -- the earliest version did have much more realistic day/night cycles, but it meant most of the game and travel was done at night. The change in the cycle was for gameplay purposes after trying and testing numerous cycle variations.

The longer early night cycle meant players ended up being relegated to more of a hibernation style of play rather than exploring or venturing out as much. Without more light, there simply wasn't as much time as needed to accomplish daily survival tasks.

As well, with story mode approaching, I expect it would have been rather limiting if almost all the quests/tasks/activities had to be done within just the few available daylight hours.

NOTE: There was a short lived bug at one time which made the world permanent night, and some people enjoyed it as a brief challenge -- but it wouldn't have served well as a permanent option.

[exeexe]

After the game is released with a story mode, the developers can make a 3rd way to play the game: Sandbox, story mode and the long dark mode.

In the long dark mode you survive the first 30 days with less and less daylight until u reach 24 hours of darkness. Then you win the game if you survive the next 50 days with complete darkness until the next sunlight creeps over the horizon and warm up your body.

Edit: There could even pop up a destination when 10 days remain for surviving the long dark, that you have to reach to win the game. Perhaps this destination can be revealed to the player in a message over the radio.

[exeexe]

After the game is released with a story mode, the developers can make a 3rd way to play the game: Sandbox, story mode and the long dark mode.

In the long dark mode you survive the first 30 days with less and less daylight until u reach 24 hours of darkness. Then you win the game if you survive the next 50 days with complete darkness until the next sunlight creeps over the horizon and warm up your body.

Edit: There could even pop up a destination when 10 days remain for surviving the long dark, that you have to reach to win the game. Perhaps this destination can be revealed to the player in a message over the radio.

I would like to bump this idea since it was written while the crew was on holiday ^^