First off the background: Design includes "Night Creatures" Vampires, Werewolves, etc. Futuristic city setting. I want Day and Night to play important parts in gameplay. Vampires will find their options somewhat limited in the Day because of the sun being out. Werewolves will revert to human form from mid-Dawn through mid-Dusk. At night Vampires will being at their full potential and can roam freely without penalty. Werewolves will be at full potential at night also. Average Humans may find things like Vision limited at Night (naturally). The cycle will be: Dawn/Day/Dusk/Night in that order. The city will include areas in perpetual shadow and underground areas that will always to accessable to night creature without fear of sun exposure. I can't make this a literal 24 hour period cause that would exclude some from enjoying all aspects of the game. The question is, Should each cycle last 8 hours or 16 hours? That would make it either Dawn = 2 Hours, Day = 2 hours, etc or Dawn = 4 hours, Day = 4 hours etc. Keep in mind the there may be time sensitive quests. I'll provide more information if needed. So, 8 hours per cycle or 16? [edited by - TechnoHydra on September 20, 2002 2:15:50 PM]

The problem with time in an ORPG setting is how much you''re limiting the player''s potential to play. Forcing them to play at certain times during the day (at full potential) will not only concentrate server usage but also alienate players who can''t play at those times. On the 8 hours plan, you''re looking at dusk being at (for example) midnight, 8am, 4pm. With 16 hour cycles, having dusk being at midnight(day 1), 4pm(day 1), 8am(day 2), midnight(day 3) is even weirder, because then you''re getting into some players only being able to play every other day...

So, to actually answer your question, 8 more than 16, but even better would be 4 or 6, and have lots to do in the hour/hour-and-a-half "downtime" for users.

Cheers,
-scott

I agree... I''d almost say go with 3 hour cycles.

1 1/4 hours day
1/4 hour dusk
1 1/4 hours night
1/4 hour dawn

During dusk and dawn everyone''s equal.

I don''t like games where I can only play during day or night though. Too much downtime and downtime = boring if it''s scheduled. I can see it if I took on too many critters and I need to rest and recover, but not because 75 or 90 minutes passed. Heck, at that rate I''d just log out of that character and play my other one... until I got so annoyed that I just quit your game. But that''s just me.

Thats one of the reasons that I planned on having areas shrouded in shadow around the clock, in these areas Vampires and others with similar tendencies would suffer no penalties. And if I had artifacts (i.e. Full Moon Pendant) that allowed for the effects of night, things like Werewolves could stay in a more powerful wolf form all the time. I was going to go with a 6 hour setting but for time sensitive quests this means I''d likely need to extend the deadline for them all by several days at least. And its not like they cant play at all at full strength its just that they need to change their patterns or be more careful at certain times.

The way it looks it would add gameplay elements. Playing as both a human or a changling would make for quite a bit of variety.

The passing of time would add some different styles of gameplay which would be refreshing if certain types of characters were affected by it. I would personally like to see this in more RPGs.

You would have to set up servers with different time flows so that a person can join a server that is most convenient for them.

Another interesting aspect.. you mentioned a futuristic city in the first post. I imagine you have different types of medicin and technology to allow vampires prowl during the day... at a cost of course.

In a futuristic city (I see bladerunner in front of me) there should be several areas that the sun doesn''t reach... I would assume vampires could run around there freely.

::aggression is the result of fear::

Hehe...

Just chiming in: Fallout used to have a nice Day/Night rythem.

Fallout 1 that is. In that game, you could become a Creature of the Night. Basicly means that during the night, your vision sharpens, and you become more intelligent, and during the day, you are duller...

So for the really important quests, you just *had* to wait for the dark, because of the bonusses

Same for sneakings. Nightime rules :D

I would love to see a game where your character affected directly by time cycles. While I do agree that it would deter a number of player who felt their character would be limited (i.e. a vamp character only able to play effectively during night cycles), the challenge for you as a designer is to provide strong incentives for these players to play regardless of the time cycle and their negative modifiers - give them something worth their extra risk and effort.

Glad to see the feedback. Grimjack: Yeah I was thinking about ways they could move around the lighter areas. It took me back to the first Blade movie where simple sunblock protected the skin from UV radiation. This could be possible in my design, as well as dermal implants, some for natural armor and some for sun protection. Of course seeing how they cant block out all the UV they will find that they don''t regenerate nearly as fast as normal and at the least, decreased attribute bonuses, if not light penalties. This is a better option then not being able to walk out into the sun or dying.

Fallout is in fact inspiring some aspects of the way I approach the future and perhaps even bonus tradeoffs.

As for incentives I could have puests or creatures that only appear at certain times of day (or night). For instance a Vampire quest might take place right before dawn, now the reward is good and the Vampire must race against time to complete the quest quickly or be ready for a tougher fight. Even clan or gang wars would be made more challenging by players choosing the time and place to fight. Strategy could be developed a little better under these circumstances.

Alright, I know this is an old thread but I had some ideas I wanted to bounce off of ya''ll. Now the main problem many of you had was that during the day people with Vamp characters wouldn''t want to play and would be excluded. So how about a tradeoff. During the Day Vampires would be weaker and if out in the sun without protection then they would lose health. As a tradeoff though they would earn a percentage more exp then normal.

Werewolves would be transformed back into humans during the day so they would lose some of the advantages of being a wolf. However, they would be able to use their skills more effectively because they aren''t driven by the Bloodlust of being a wolf, able to cencentrate. (In wolf form they can still use weapons and armor but with only a third or half the skill.)

Thats basicly it, I''d write more but I have to go back to work. Any comments?