[Suggestion] Dim the lights...

Does anyone else think certain parts of the game could be darker?
I know, I know.. i could turn down the brightness on my display... but that's not what I want... I like the brightness of the day... outside in Thanalan Desert under the scorching mid-day Sun...
Excitement and immersion are built out of Dynamics and Contrast...

The day is extremely bright... the night should be rather dark.... not so black you can't see... but night time in Eorzea seems a little to calm and serene... and the lighting is unnatural because of it...
The night should be dark.... a lot darker than it is now...

Caves are even more unnatural...
Go inside any of the little caves in The Black Shroud? There is a light emanating from the ceiling right in the middle of the room... but when you look up... all you see is solid rock... a little contrast goes a long way... Tam-Tara is way too bright.... both mines could be darker.... imagine the Cassiopeia Hollows as dark... and all the light originated from the little colored coral and stalactites all over the place?

Just turning down the brightness in areas that are supposed to be darker isn't tough at all... in fact, its an easy change, that would also cause less stress on the GPU client-side

Now for a big (and very unlikely) twist that would be much harder to actually achieve:

Make the dark areas REALLY DARK (with very low visibility)... and give certain classes "R10 Light spells" that have zero action cost so there is no penalty for equipping it on your bar and use very little MP... And these light spells illuminate the area around the party... increasing visibility
You could even go a step further and let each class have a different "type" of light...

Conjurer has the White light that envelops the party, emanating from the Sky above the party....
Thaumaturge has an ultraviolet light emanating from the ground all around the party
The Gladiators Yellow glow emanates from his sword...
Marauder has a red light that emanates from his eyes....

those are just arbitrary, but you get the idea...

I wish Night was "brighter"

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Originally Posted by Rau

I wish Night was "brighter"

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Really? Why?

I think suicidal exploding Cactuars should come out at night.

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Originally Posted by Kibo

I think suicidal exploding Cactuars should come out at night.

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lol they do look like creepers

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Originally Posted by Kibo

I think suicidal exploding Cactuars should come out at night.

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Wolves should be more ferocious at nite...

Nightblade assassin's should be damn near unbeatable at night

Mi'qote should be completely covered in fur at night!!!

I agree with the general spirit of this post.

For a place called the Black Shroud, it isn't really that dark and/or menacing.

Seeing fireflies fluttering around would be sorta cool as well.

And yeah, a sort of "brightness" spell would be pretty interesting. I'm not envisioning anything like self-shadowing or totally dynamic lighting(although cool things could happen with ambient occlusion on), but it'd at least be something interesting to add to the mix perhaps.

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Originally Posted by Rau

I wish Night was "brighter"

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I agree. I find visibility to be fairly low at night time in the Black Shroud and La Noscea to the point that I sometimes stand around and wait for day time before starting leves when solo. Night time in Thanalan seems to be just about right by visibility standards.

Perhaps I need to increase the brightness of my game.


Edit: I do like the idea of the light abilities as a concept for a future instance.

I think its amazing how much light is in caves lol every cave is lit up like theirs 60watt bulbs planted everywhere. Looks so silly but it will never ever be changed. a New area might improve but at the end of the day the art director has a vision and he is way to up his own poopa to care what others want.

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Originally Posted by Rydin

Mi'qote should be completely covered in fur at night!!!

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I hope you aren't meaning Seekers of the Sun as well. I really don't want to be covered in fur, at night or otherwise. If I did, I would just be a Worgen or Tauren on WoW lol.

I wouldn't mind seeing some ULTRA DARK CAVES later in the game, where all you can see is whatever light is shed by the lantern/lightspell you carry. But I don't really see them changing existing areas, nor feel it is necessary.

a point for lanternshield!!

I read about the light spells and my train of thought went straight to the move Flash in Pokemon lol! It could just be the brightness on my screen but I find that at night the Black Shroud to be pretty dark, at least compared to Limsa, so atm I'm kinda against making things darker :/

i agree, the dark areas like caves, mines, & jungle should be slightly darker with slightly more light maybe added to other areas of the environment. i also like your "Light" spell idea.

I actually think night on Ul'dah is waaaay too bright :S
It doesn't even look like night.

It should be very hard to see in places where there's no light with only a slight moonlight :D

I like the potential of this idea, but if you think about it, it would put too much emphasis on night vs day. Groups, events and such would focus too much on whether it's night or day. Time of the day would define the game, just like the rifts in Rift defines that game.

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Originally Posted by Elaguila

I like the potential of this idea, but if you think about it, it would put too much emphasis on night vs day. Groups, events and such would focus too much on whether it's night or day. Time of the day would define the game, just like the rifts in Rift defines that game.

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But the thing is, there should really be nocturnal creatures and diurnal creatures, or at least some difference lol The day night cycle by itself is a good feature, but it should affect the game in some way.
I'd like to see the bats come out from the caves at night. Packs of wolves hunting. Ahrimen too :D Those kind of things.

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Originally Posted by Kibo

I think suicidal exploding Cactuars should come out at night.

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Originally Posted by Xeno

lol they do look like creepers

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+1 :D

The overall brightness of the game looks fine to me.

Except at night, when everything is painted gray. FFXI looked the same..

I have poor eye-sight. When the game first launched, night time would hurt my eyes. I don't know for sure if the brightness was ajusted, but I have had less problems lately.

So, I appologize, but no, I wouldn't want it made darker. Personal lighting ajustments in the menu would be preferable.

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Originally Posted by Chezen

Personal lighting ajustments in the menu would be preferable.

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Agreed, obviously :)

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Originally Posted by SirEdeonX

Agreed, obviously :)

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lol your name reads SEX

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Originally Posted by Kibo

I think suicidal exploding Cactuars should come out at night.

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With glowing red eyes and needles oozing with blood!

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Originally Posted by Elaguila

lol your name reads SEX

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LOOOOL it does ;P
I've noticed that myself long after I got it lol

It's lighter in Thanalan at night because there's always a twilight over Thanalan, as the song title says...

http://store.ffdistantworlds.com/tra...oodied-banners

I'm for darker nights. Would be even cooler if the night darkness was reflected by the moon phase. Where a no moon would be near pitch black!

Even different NPC's may come out at this time that may be more sinister and deadly than your normal night time mobs. Wights are always a fright when they come out at night! (oh crap did I just rhyme? lol)

but if they make things darker we need items like lanterns, candles, torches and mystical orbs to light our way!

I would love to go splunking in caves that I couldn't see much further than 10ft in front of me. I wouldn't want them to be ALL caves because it would be annoying. But make a few caves like this, and make them worth exploring to find treasure or good loot to be worth the effort to buy these lanterns and torches :D

I like the worgans sorry i waited to play one in cata ; ; even ,more cuz of the "poker face" dance. but they look awesome :) I like miqo'te the best I hope a dancer class gets hadded with motion captured dance moves and less jumping. Sorry but dancing isn't all jumps.

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Originally Posted by Chezen

I have poor eye-sight. When the game first launched, night time would hurt my eyes. I don't know for sure if the brightness was ajusted, but I have had less problems lately.

So, I appologize, but no, I wouldn't want it made darker. Personal lighting ajustments in the menu would be preferable.

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I'll admit, I actually never thought about visual deficiencies or impairments.... Perhaps a brightness control in the game. I just don't want to change the overall brightness... just the difference between night and day

personally I wish nighttime was brighter. I can't see very well in the game at nighttime. My monitor settings are perfect as far as I'm concerned, except when it comes to ffxiv's nighttime. I can't see ANYthing

Turn off the lights, and light a candle....

No but seriously, I'd enjoy some dark dungeons and limited light exploration, would add quite a bit of suspense to the game. :P

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Originally Posted by Rydin

I'll admit, I actually never thought about visual deficiencies or impairments.... Perhaps a brightness control in the game. I just don't want to change the overall brightness... just the difference between night and day

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That all depends on the persons vision problem, I for example and legally blind so I have kiss my 24 in monitor and can't play on maximum resolution because text would be unreadable.

However I have 0 issues with game brightness on default brightness. I agree though a brightness control would be nice but not as effective.