Darker nights

[Mataresa]

Well, I love them, but also remember those nights were with bad weather. Moonlight and start makes you see a bit more. But I agree.
And to the Skyrim Darker nights mod: The night is lovely (though you can see a few too many stars, I believe), but the building looks hideous compared. ^^ (But in general I feel Elder Scrolls is missing a believable architecture, besides the other parts of the artstyle like races (cat people?), or assets (weapons, armour...))

 

[DragomirG]

This is how night look in real life, you can't see shit without cat potion and hunting at night would be really intense

I would love to see that done for the Witcher 3!

 

[Shelledfade]

I don't think it needs to be darker. The screenshots during night with the burning village look good to me.

The only thing we should be asking about that screenshot is why can you see stars when the sun is still out.

 

[apollozen]

I don't think it needs to be darker. The screenshots during night with the burning village look good to me.

The only thing we should be asking about that screenshot is why can you see stars when the sun is still out.

Likely because their weather system isn't 100% finished, on account of the game still being polished.

 

[Twardyk]

Witcher's nights

I've read in one of the interviews that the nights in the Witcher 3 would not be as dark as in the Witcher. What do you think about it?
What's the torch for, then? You can even see on the picture that he can easily do without a torch.

 

[randyrhoads]

I've read in one of the interviews that the nights in the Witcher 3 would not be as dark as in the Witcher. What do you think about it?
What's the torch for, then? You can even see on the picture that he can easily do without a torch.

Hope It's moddable

 

[hardom]

I've read in one of the interviews that the nights in the Witcher 3 would not be as dark as in the Witcher. What do you think about it?
What's the torch for, then? You can even see on the picture that he can easily do without a torch.

Gameplay video about 27:30 just to see how hell is clear that night
I know is moddable bla bla bla but what about like 70% to 80% gamers that play on console and can't mod

 

[moonknightgog]

I've read in one of the interviews that the nights in the Witcher 3 would not be as dark as in the Witcher. What do you think about it?
What's the torch for, then? You can even see on the picture that he can easily do without a torch.

Night should be darker, just to make a sense to "cat potion".

 

[Ljesnjanin]

Nights should be bright...Geralt does not need cat potion or torch, noon or midnight-it is all same for trained witcher...

 

[Vigilance.492]

but what about like 70% to 80% gamers that play on console and can't mod

They'll either like or dislike it? (Also I find the notion that 70-80% of people playing TW3 will either be on consoles or won't be able to install a simple mod, kind of ridiculous)

Most open world games end up having relatively bright nights... Red Dead Redemption, TES Series, inFAMOUS, Arkham City/Origins etc, and I don't think it necessarily ruins atmosphere, it just doesn't add it.
Nights like in Dragon's Dogma or STALKER add atmosphere and immersion, but a "bright" night still can be extremely atmospheric regardless. You might miss out on possible atmosphere, but the game can still be very atmospheric anyway.

In this case, it makes even more sense than ever before, being that Geralt has that ability to see better in general darkness. Cat is only needed when something is REALLY dark, like a Cave or Crypt. Now admittedly it looks like they've also made interiors like caves too bright, and if so then I think that's a bit of a flub on their behalf, but I'm holding out hope that there's some scenarios (Like Crypts or Vergen Mines) where you heavily consider the use of Cat.

I've also said this before, but people forget the fact that nights weren't really dark in either 1 or 2. TW1 had darker nights than 2, but it certainly wasn't Dragon's Dogma dark, you could see absolutely fine no matter where you went and never really needed Cat or a Torch. Nights being the same darkness level as W2 doesn't really seem like a big issue, and the people wanting DD or STALKER levels of darkness seems a little unreasonable considering the series has never had darkness like that.

 

[Doctalen]

Speaking as someone with a glossy monitor, dark nights suck unless I turn off every light in my room. That's not good for your eyes. I love a really dark night in a game though if you have a way to light an area around you. Dragons dogma, fallout, Stalker, etc have it
I think Geralt's eyes kind of lend themselves to brighter nights though.

 

[moonknightgog]

Nights should be bright...Geralt does not need cat potion or torch, noon or midnight-it is all same for trained witcher...

But this is not a book, it's an RPG. Do you remember how dark was the night in The Witcher 1?

 

[Ljesnjanin]

But this is not a book, it's an RPG. Do you remember how dark was the night in The Witcher 1?

I remember they were darker than in W2, but not that much...Only places when Geralt really needed cat or torch were crypts and caves. And I didn't like spending vodka and ingredients to brew cat potions, when Grealt can perfectly sees in dark...It is one of his main mutant abilities

 

[B_l_a_d_y]

I remember they were darker than in W2, but not that much...Only places when Geralt really needed cat or torch were crypts and caves. And I didn't like spending vodka and ingredients to brew cat potions, when Grealt can perfectly sees in dark...It is one of his main mutant abilities

 

[Ljesnjanin]

IIRC, FCR has a cat vision as a default ability...And playing FCR is far from casual

 

[B_l_a_d_y]

I just hope night won't look like that, (it is photoshoped, simple blue filter and moon )

 

[paulthu]

How are we going to play if the night is really dark ?
It gets annoying to have to down a cat potion every night, and holding torches also becomes annoying since it effects the sword fighting. I agree that caves and so on should be dark though.
It becomes an unwanted way of forcing the players to meditate until sunrise, because I for sure am not going to play at night if I can't see shit.
Plus as mentioned before Geralt's pupils dilate more than humans thus allowing more light to enter his eyes, so the nights seem brighter to him. It's part of his mutations and job, since witchers have to hunt creatures of the night also.

It doesn't have to be pitch-dark where it would be unplayable without cat/torch. Just dark enough that it has some effect on visibility so it actually looks like night.

 

[shawn_kh]

It doesn't have to be pitch-dark where it would be unplayable without cat/torch. Just dark enough that it has some effect on visibility so it actually looks like night.

Why would you play at night if it effects the visibility, when you can just meditate until sunrise.
If players are forced to play during the night with lower visibility, then it just becomes annoying. Plus the team are really emphasizing on exploration and they said that they want players to see something interesting in the distance and then go and investigate it, but if the visibility is lowered during the night then players are not able to detect points of interest during the night.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

But Witcher sense is the exact same thing as it is in Witcher 2 when you press "Z" only with more duration and bigger highlights.

But yeah cat potion like TW1 or anything else that doesn't completely ruin your vision. After a while I got so annoyed with it that I just went head without taking cat and slowly walking, listening to sounds of rotfiends around and relying on the target lock icon to appear. It was actually kinda fun and challenging in its own way >_>

HaHa... Word.
On my xbox360 I did about the same, but I went into the options and just turned up gamma a lot
That Black and White shit hurts the eyes man, not to mention that annoying heartbeat sound.

 

[paulthu]

Why would you play at night if it effects the visibility, when you can just meditate until sunrise.
If players are forced to play during the night with lower visibility, then it just becomes annoying. Plus the team are really emphasizing on exploration and they said that they want players to see something interesting in the distance and then go and investigate it, but if the visibility is lowered during the night then players are not able to detect points of interest during the night.

Maybe some monsters are nocturnal, and there could be other activities that happen only at night. I do expect some points of interests to be harder to detect during the night, but on the other hand some can be easier to spot if there is for example a campfire.

It's about the immersion, darkness is like the most basic thing about night. Without it doesn't feel like a night. Making the light blue doesn't do the job.