Normal, Low-Light, and Darkvision

arontimes

Some of the dungeons in this game are really dark, even if you turned shadows off. In the PnP game, you can carry a light source to banish the darkness. For nonhuman characters, there is either low-light vision or darkvision. The former allows elves and dwarves and orcs to see twice as far as humans with the same amount of light, while darkvision allows drow to see in total darkness.

Now, before you say that dwarves and orcs have darkvision, I'm talking about D&D 4e, where darkvision has none of the drawbacks from D&D 3e and 3.5 (limited range, only black and white) and is thus more powerful. Most surface or near-surface races were changed to low-light vision, and only those who dwelt deep underground (sexy dark elves) to retained the now more powerful darkvision. But I digress.

May I suggest that races with better than human vision see brighter dungeons than those short-lived oafs, and that one can buy torches or sunroof or whatever to banish the darkness? Or if you'd rather not implement the main weakness of being human, then make the dungeons brighter for everyone?

What do you think?

ambisinisterr

Low Light Vision and Darkvision was not ported into the game on purpose for balancing reasons.

Not a fan of that myself. I much prefer the PnP lighting rules but balancing in MMO's is paramount. Even other MMO series which originally had such systems have not incorporated it into new versions.

The lighting is intended, however you might want to adjust your brightness. I actually find a lot of areas I expect to be dark too bright so it sounds like you might have a low brightness setting.

kap273

When I played SWTOR one of the first instances that they added after launch was one in which many parts of it were dark. You were able to pick up a light source which functioned like a flashlight for those sections. Mobs would come out from the darkness, you would hear them before seeing them and you had to move around a bit to shine your light when they attacked. It was one of the most fun instances I've every played in MMOs. I would love to see something like that in Neverwinter, but not everywhere. Few and far between would enhance the dungeon experience here, especially with the way the combat system works. I think it would be incredible in this game.

ambisinisterr

I agree.

Limited vision is one of the most entertaining and heartpounding experiences games can give.
IGN did a video where they censored people playing Outlast. Normal Let's Plays of that game actually hysterical to watch but people are expectedly way to vulgar for me to link.

Limiting the reaction time and utilizing the element of surprise is not something a game should do all the time unless it intends to be a horror game but it is good for any game to do at least on occasion.

bioshrike

Humans would basically suck in all these dark instances; elves, dwarves, and pretty much all the non-human races would have a distinct advantage here. I agree with the sentiment that these aspects weren't ported into the game, for playability's sake.

That being said, I wouldn't be against some more environmental effects - like how the madness instance in CO's Demonflame adventure pack messes with you and such.

sockmunkey

STO had a featured episode that made good use of this as well. It was released in time for their first Halloween. You needed to pick up a flashlight and could really only see the areas it illuminated. It had a very creepy feeling to it.

Its a shame Cryptic never really expanded on it. It was done really well. Sad it just became a one off deal.

vortix44

Some races can see better in dark places but it cannot be implemented because it would harm the balance? Hey, do all the bosses have to live in dungeons? Remove one half of the existing dungeons, create 45-min outdoors skirmishes, and let the non-humans have their darkvision.

angrysprite

sockmunkey wrote: »

STO had a featured episode that made good use of this as well. It was released in time for their first Halloween. You needed to pick up a flashlight and could really only see the areas it illuminated. It had a very creepy feeling to it.

Its a shame Cryptic never really expanded on it. It was done really well. Sad it just became a one off deal.

Ditto this. That STO episode gave me the freaking shivers for an hour the first time I played it. I'd really like to see something like this in Neverwinter (as a once or twice-off quest or something). I know the question of dark lighting in Foundry Quests came-up a long time ago and the answer to it was as stated above: not allowed for balancing and playability reasons.

But I'd love to see a creepy, scary Cryptic-created quest along the lines of the third Devidian mission in STO. THAT was creepy.

As for the OP: I would't mind these abilities as long as those who don;t have this ability had an easy-to-obtain source of light that gave a similar experience to those with the inborn ability.

burkaanc

mass production of cats eye amulets ?

kattefjaes

kap273 wrote: »

When I played SWTOR one of the first instances that they added after launch was one in which many parts of it were dark. You were able to pick up a light source which functioned like a flashlight for those sections. Mobs would come out from the darkness, you would hear them before seeing them and you had to move around a bit to shine your light when they attacked. It was one of the most fun instances I've every played in MMOs.

I forget the name, but it was loads of fun.. I used to particularly love tanking that one, zombie waves+AoE tanking=win. Darnit, now you're making me want to respec my GWF senti..

radiick507

I like this idea but you can say that TR disarming traps with absolutely no compensation or rime and reason to advance without facing any penalties is another aspect I would have loved to see incorporated in the game.

sockmunkey

angrysprite wrote: »

Ditto this. That STO episode gave me the freaking shivers for an hour the first time I played it. I'd really like to see something like this in Neverwinter (as a once or twice-off quest or something). I know the question of dark lighting in Foundry Quests came-up a long time ago and the answer to it was as stated above: not allowed for balancing and playability reasons.

But I'd love to see a creepy, scary Cryptic-created quest along the lines of the third Devidian mission in STO. THAT was creepy.

As for the OP: I would't mind these abilities as long as those who don;t have this ability had an easy-to-obtain source of light that gave a similar experience to those with the inborn ability.

Tell me about it. The whole creepy bonny-kin sing songy taunting STILL creeps me the F out.

Its for reasons like this, that I both love and am deeply frustrated with Cryptic. They can, at times, do some truly amazing settings and stories. Even CO with all its over the top schlock had incredible moments, with some of their episodic content. Aftershock and whiteout were both amazing, creepy, emotional, and well crafted.

But for every epic story. You either get dozens of mindless schlock missions. Or the good ideas never get used again and get forgotten. Like the flashlights and the creepy darkness.