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Lighting changes


Dakanmer

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I'm sure it's been beat to death with a herring, but lighting. NQ's intentions were good with trying to make things less stressful flying at night and dark places, but they made it pointless to have lights regardless of environment. So here's my idea:

Scale back the ambient lighting, or remove it entirely and give us a "night vision" mode on our super-advanced suits (that also apparently keep us fed, breathing, sane from lack of sleep, etc), and then improve the ability of lights to actually produce light over a longer range (without bleaching through walls or the ground).

 

Explanation:

As described above, lights are pointless regardless of environment. You don't need a flashlight when mining anymore; the pitch indicator is great, but you can't see it so easy with the flashlight on, especially in brighter soils. You don't need light elements on your constructs anymore. Lights can help better pinpoint your construct in space or dark soils, but we now have luminescent white (but no other color. Much sad face) voxels for that, so they are completely unnecessary. Whether you are underground, on the surface, hiding deep in a labyrinth of corridors and rooms in your construct, in a panic room in your super destroyer in space, or anywhere else, the sun bleaches through and lights your surroundings enough to see everything as though it was at least an overcast/rainy day, even giving a sun "reflection" on any surface that is ~orthogonal to it (this is especially annoying in space, when I'm pointing directly away from the sun and getting glare in my piloting cabin that makes my transparent screen unreadable...and yeah, I could make it a normal screen, but stop making excuses for problems. That translucent screen is in front of the forward window so that I can see where I'm going and watch important stats, and smaller screens out of my direct field of view get blocked by the default UI). Added to that, you see the reflection of the nebula wherever you are, whether above ground, km below with no sky access, or in your labyrinthine constructs with no outside visibility, which completely throws off aesthetics. (Want a mirror in your bathroom? Too bad, it's a viewing portal to space!)

The overall effect is that there might as well be no night or day, but a constant bleh of medium-to-high lighting differences. There might as well be no lights, as well, no matter how deeply you dig or how thick and dark your walls.

 

Justification and response:

Some people have said they love the change because of night flying and trying to find space stations in the dark. I hate to be "that guy," but get over it. Night time and space are dark. That's why we invented lights, and that's why we invented night vision systems (like "thermal" and "infrared" goggles/cameras). The nebula is great and adds lots of flavor to the place, but it shouldn't be so pervasive that you can see it reflected anywhere at any time on most semi-reflective+ surfaces, nor should it light up the solar system. At most, it should provide aesthetic value and contrast (like in space, contrasting your ship against the void). Similar with the sun, it shouldn't be reflecting off anything on the other side of a planet and inside a fully enclosed room. Improving the ability of lights to perform their intended function, and giving a toggled night vision system, would make night and space flying doable without detracting from the game's realism or aesthetics, and complaints about such a change would become void; best of both worlds.

 

Others have suggested similar ideas, but it can't be overstated how much the new lighting has adversely impacted gameplay. Some people are happy because they can see at night and in space, but they should have been asking for improvements to physical lights and a night vision toggle system for your suit (and learning important lessons about the dangers of night time/space navigation, and the need for quality lighting/detection elements/systems, like telemeters that have longer ranges to allow for coders to create LiDAR programs), not cheering for something that is a massive eyesore and big inconvenience for those of us who respect the psychological, aesthetic, and logistical impacts/aspects of darkness. (Want to build an escape scenario that is spooky? Hard to do when you can see EVERYTHING with only weaksauce shadows.)

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I like how when you dig your first hole in the ground, and a Tip pops up about navigating the dark places and how to turn on your suit light.

 

Haha.

 

When underground, during the night time of the moon, was so bright I didn't need a suit light, let alone any construct lighting.

 

I agree it's really washed out and "too bright for the kids" right now. Would love to see some of that deepened (especially when digging caves and tunnels where no light should exist).

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