Day Night cycle

[Devenox]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a day and night cycle. The night gives attackers an advantage, whereas the day gives the defenders an advantage.

I always wondered why this was not in the original AoE3 games, given the official microsoft screenshot before release:

PE

nightscenario: all military units have some sort of torch. When you get attacked you will be able to see the torches, so you get an idea of the scale of the army,

but the exact type of unit can only be seen when the are close to your walls/village.

dayscenario: same like we all know it today

I think the night will be a rather unique setting in RTS games, but I like it because it gives the game an unique atmosphere!

Maybe this day-night cycle should not be default, but just an option, maybe just a mode.

Please watch my other thread here (clickable) about different game modes (Rigicide, Wonders, Relics and Hardcore) and vote!

[historic_bruno]

This has been discussed at various times in the past, personally I think it would make nice screenshots and videos but would generally interfere with gameplay, or at least not add very useful aspects to gameplay compared with other things we're missing. I kinda feel the same way about seasons and weather.

[dinosoep]

well, we could make this optional. There will always be players who are in it for the fun and want eye-candy. They'll enjoy this a lot. The more competetive players will have an option to turn it of.

Would it really interfere with the gameplay that much? units will indeed be harded to spot but you have still your minimap/hotkeys where I am relying on anyway.

[Mythos_Ruler]

We'll definitely have lighting and ambient changes possible with triggers, but not as a "standard" part of the game (a cycle or anything like that).

[idanwin]

Yesterday I was thinking that maybe we could add an option 'Day', 'Night' and 'Cycle'.

During the night LOS would become smaller, giving the attacker an advantage to come closer to the enemy before he gets noticed.

Not everyone may like this kind of night/day cycle, so it should be disabled by default, but when playing a map you could choose to change this to night, or cycle. It would also be really nice for scenarios and campaigns.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Yesterday I was thinking that maybe we could add an option 'Day', 'Night' and 'Cycle'.

During the night LOS would become smaller, giving the attacker an advantage to come closer to the enemy before he gets noticed.

Not everyone may like this kind of night/day cycle, so it should be disabled by default, but when playing a map you could choose to change this to night, or cycle. It would also be really nice for scenarios and campaigns.

I could see doing this, but a low priority feature.

[quantumstate]

This is low priority but shouldn't be too difficult technically since Ben already did the work to allow changing LoS for techs. It would be a nice little feature.

[memmaker650]

I would love to see day & night cycle, for a game option if you prefer.

Attack during the night could modify defenders numbers if they haven't got torches or something to light the darkness. Attackers would have some advantage when they stated an attack in the battlecamp coming from a hill or something similar.

[idanwin]

Night would definitely add more tactics to the game, and I would love to see some 'raid' based scenarios, where you build your defences during the day and each night enemies come to raid your village. Or even a civilisation ... there must have been some civs that were known to do nightly raids, these could have cavalry that get an atk bonus during night-time or something.

But as said before: nice feature, but low priority... still: it should definitely be in the game some day!

[memmaker650]

Please take care to this great effect that could do the game go to a next level in strategy. It's not only a visual effect even an strategy advantage for attackers.

[idanwin]

Look at Wesnoth, a great deal of the tactics in that game lies within knowing when to push and when to fall back (because of the night/day cycle), a bit too much even xD but hey, it's still one of my favorite games

[Gallaecio]

Look at Wesnoth, a great deal of the tactics in that game lies within knowing when to push and when to fall back (because of the night/day cycle), a bit too much even xD but hey, it's still one of my favorite games

In Wesnoth the different species fight better or worse depending on the time of the day. In 0 A.D., not much would change. I can see it implemented, but there are far more important things that should be implemented before.

[idanwin]

"Not much would change" - that depends on what is 'much'.

If day/night cycles get implemented we would need to make sure that it does make a difference by giving certain units bonuses.

Instead of different species fighting better, the attackers would have the advantage of surprise (LoS being smaller, they can set up their siege weapons close enough to the enemy base) and I guess that ranged attacks would lose accuracy, making the enemy towers/forts less effective.